Brewing Empowerment: My Journey as a Queer Business Owner in the Coffee Industry
Recently someone asked me what the challenges of being a queer business owner are – my response, being a queer business owner has gifted me more support and relief than being employed ever has. So here I am to tell you about some of the positive aspects of being a queer business owner and why it was the right step for me.
In the early days of my coffee life I was captured by the enigma of latte art and it wasn’t long before I was hell bent on refining my skills enough to bag myself a job as a barista trainer. This seemed like the absolute dream job to me – time on my own out on the road travelling to cafes, meeting budding baristas and talking about my new special interest, coffee! My first foray into the world of barista training was with a corporate coffee company specialising in the supply of Fairtrade products and working with customers all over the UK. As a naive twenty something desperate to impress my new bosses I went along with all of their expectations to dress in a feminine way, wear makeup and get dolled up for black tie dinners and perform as their oh so lovely and skilled barista during business pitches. I knew this all felt wrong but at the time I hadn’t quite figured out myself enough to express my true self. The straight cis-gendered work environment I was stuck in gave me no space to explore who I would eventually become.
The exhausting task of masking my way through jobs continued into my late twenties until I found myself working with a slightly more diverse organisation and caught the bug for hosting my own events. Finding the confidence and belief in myself to listen to my entrepreneurial imaginings and take the leap into developing my own business has come to me in the last few years and there’s no looking back. Creating an environment that not only allowed me to survive but a space I could thrive was top of the list when it came to me employing people. And after my former experiences, I’m determined to provide working conditions that allow all of us to flourish and have fun together.
Cup North Team Members Grace Talbot & Hannah Davies
Being a visible member of the LGBTQIA+ community means that I’m actively showing the coffee community that you can be a queer successful business owner – something I wish I’d witnessed in my formative coffee years. And at Cup North, we make it a priority to be an ally and to uphold and support other queer coffee business owners so that there's a better chance of our LGBTQIA+ friends feeling seen, heard and represented which is what we all deserve.
Drag Queen Story Hour at Birmingham Coffee Festival 2023
I’m bursting with joy at the news that Manchester Coffee Festival will partner with The Proud Trust this year to support them in their mission to empower young people to be proud of who they are. Keep an eye out for news of queer friendly activities taking place at this year's MCF and come and be proud with us!
Some other queer owned coffee businesses we love:
I’ve purposefully kept this short (aka accessible) but if you’d like to chat more about anything I’ve mentioned in this piece then I’m all ears. You can get me here.