<aside> đź’ˇ Tip: Click any section in the Wiki Headers underneath this notice, it will take you right to the corresponding section!
</aside>
In this growing playground of grounded-up roasted seed soup, you are one of my very first influences that had exposed me to how much effort and passion can go into such a thing as coffee. Peep a really bad phone photo of my first time encountering you brewing and presenting with Greater Goods.
The Barista Friend herself @ Greater Goods, not knowing where her Barista Friend adventures would eventually take her.
At the time of my attending the 2023 Coffee Fest, I was in an extremely transformational stage of my life. I had just made my fortunate escape from an extremely abusive relationship, and me being quite lost in personal identity and direction of life, I returned to my cultural roots of coffee as a starting point and attempted to build from there. Joining the Fest without any further expectations, I realized that there was so much more to coffee that I have yet to explore beyond my previous experience of being a barback/barista. Seeing you and your conviction and confidence in presenting brews for the festival-goers, and how you were leading them to have a more guided and more informed sensory experience to better appreciate the cup, was honestly… genuinely inspiring. I was impressed by the passion I saw from you of your dedication to just… give to coffee. And after many sit-downs talking with you, and how you never seem to want to stop giving to coffee, and never run out of things to give to coffee, and no matter how much life changes and how rocky everything else around your life gets, you always end up returning to coffee. Individuals like you in this tiny space I’m calling home (at least for a while) are what keeps me excited and motivated about coffee, and about bringing the most of what I have to offer to this field. From the relentlessness I see in you, I was encouraged to depict the interconnectedness of the Austin community and the pure love and effort people seem to bring to the community. Sure, the more I proceed the more negatives come up that had reminded me of why I took a step back from continuing to work in the industry three years ago, but for me to love coffee is to learn to love its flaws. Your inspiration was a gateway for me to return to the industry with a fresh perspective, with a different angle of approach.
As an individual working both physically and creatively, it seems like you can never fully rest and catch a breath. Unfortunately, you’ve been recently put on a pause after discovering your allergy to penicillin… so I’m hoping you would be incentivized to take more opportunities to take more breathers. My hope is for you to slow down and realize that you are making a beautiful impact, to every corner of this community that you’ve been helping foster and expand, and to also realize that everyone involved in those corners genuinely do admire your work.
Miranda, I’m standing on to build off of the shoulders of an incredibly talented individual and following her footsteps as I expand my realm in this field. At least in creating indirect derivative work from all of your past and current work in barista training and education. So leave your self-doubt behind, and be confident in knowing the fact that your voice and your work in this small world of Austin coffee, and in the bigger world of specialty coffee, hold immeasurable value. You’re not in competition with other educators, trainers, and figures, because you pave your own lane. Believe me when I say that every single individual that I’ve talked to about you, that you’ve either worked with or helped train, have had nothing but the sweetest and warmest sentiments about you. You’re Miranda Haney, the Barista Friend, the adaptable personable mobile trainer, educator, competitor, emcee, singer (and much much more), and I don’t think any amount of expansion and competition in the field will ever be able to take that away from you. Ever.
Anyways, I digress. Let me tell you about the drink I made for you.