Orientation Roundtable: Journeys Into Coffee and the Path Ahead

NKG Group CEO David M. Neumann, CCRE Founder Phyllis Johnson and The Chocolate Barista Founder Michelle R. Johnson joined a roundtable discussion May 5, welcoming the incoming NKG PACE Partners.

Orientation week for the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe Partnership to Advance Coffee Equity (NKG PACE) was packed with lectures, hands-on lab events, group cuppings and discussions. The week highlight, though, was a roundtable discussion for which in-office Hoboken colleagues, online U.S. colleagues and many global team members gathered around.

The conversation brought together NKG Group CEO David M. Neumann and Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity (CCRE) Founder Phyllis Johnson, co-Chairs of the NKG PACE Steering Committee; Steering Committee members Tom Minogue, Michelle Maisto and Michelle R. Johnson; and the inaugural NKG PACE Partners, Charles Umeano, Jayy Terrell and Porttia Portis.

What follows are excerpts from their May 5 conversation.

David M. Neumann (left), Phyllis Johnson (right) and Michelle R. Johnson (wearing a hat), with NKG PACE Partners (from left to right) Porttia Portis, Charles Umeano and Jayy Terrell.

Michelle Maisto, NKG PACE Steering Committee Member and Program Coordinator; Neumann Gruppe USA Head of Marketing:

The story of how this program came to be is pretty well-established by now, but I’ll say in summary that in the summer of 2020, many of us felt desperate to take some sort of action, and that was brought to David’s attention. And to be very honest, if he had responded with a check to the ACLU or the NAACP, I could have been content. But he came back with a much more meaningful response — he did a thing he didn’t need to do — which led to everything that has brought us together here today. And I sincerely applaud him for that.  

Part of his response came from reaching out to Phyllis, who had written an open letter to the coffee industry about racism and accountability. And likewise, she didn’t need to do that. She could have, like so many of us, just complained to her friends and posted to social media and made a donation, and then another donation — and then in her case continue on being a successful CEO, which is plenty on any one person’s plate. But in doing the thing she didn’t need to do, she found the partnership of NKG, which has led to this moment, and she found a community outpouring that led to the creation of the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity — and the coffee industry and beyond is infinitely better for it. 

So, my take-away from having been lucky enough to observe these two leaders over the last nearly two years is the importance of pushing yourself past the status quo and doing the thing you don’t need to do, and that — and this is important, too — only you can do. It takes commitment and courage, and probably always more energy than anyone wants to give, but it’s the thing that makes all the difference.  

NKG Group CEO David M. Neumann and NKG PACE Partner Porttia Portis.

David M. Neumann, NKG PACE Steering Committee Co-Chair; NKG Group CEO

One of the fascinating things for me has always been how you get from what’s produced on very small farms, often under not-very-good conditions, from a belt around the equator, and it bundles itself into a flow of commodity. If you trade corn, wheat, oil, it’s generally big producers meeting big buyers. But with coffee, it starts with a trickle and turns into quite a river.

… In German there’s a word, Genussmittel, that means “a means of enjoyment.” We’ve also always said that coffee is an affordable luxury. Everyone can afford a cup of coffee. Well, maybe not in a Manhattan coffee shop… But it’s an affordable luxury because you don’t need it, but thank goodness enough people want it. … The way we’re going now, with the big industry and not-so-big industry players concentrating on two, three, four, five origins, it’s like walking into a wine shop and being told there’s one red and one white and there’s no choosing varietals. So, we try to stand for variety. You will see, in all four offices, all kinds of coffee. We’ve been insistent that NKG PACE is not just a Specialty program. Specialty is sexier, of course, but 85 percent of the world’s coffee is mainstream, and that’s where the big business is. So, our aim with this program is to give you access to everything.

Phyllis Johnson (right), with Neumann Kaffee Gruppe colleagues listening on.

Phyllis Johnson, NKG PACE Steering Committee Co-Chair; CEO and Founder Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity; Co-Founder BD Imports

Coffee is one of those things where you start to scratch the surface and suddenly say, where am I? What am I doing here? It’s one of those things where I said I wanted to work in coffee, and I find myself at a genocide memorial in Rwanda, or I find myself speaking at the United Nations on the need to empower the women who work in coffee. ... Coffee is such a magical thing. It gives us something. It gives us an opportunity to talk to almost everybody in the world, endlessly. There’s always a connector. Over 76 percent of Americans drink coffee, so, you’ve got a conversation right there.  

… I am a Black woman who has spent 23 years in coffee. And there were times I will say, when I walked into board rooms, as the only person of color in that room, and I was often thought to be the secretary of the organization head, more times than not. But that was my fuel. That was my fuel. I did not let that stop me. I didn't cause the big ruckus and flip over tables and, you know, just stop the show and say I can't go on. And you know, some might have said: “Well, you know you're just a token.” Well, you know what? Today I'm cashing in my tokens. I'm cashing them in.

I want to thank [these Partners]. I really want to thank you. Because this is kind of a crazy idea. I get it. This is a crazy idea. This is asking a lot. But I saw the NKG team come to the table time and time again. And there were hard conversations, where we didn't understand each other. So, when things don't sound like you understand each other, create enough empathy, create enough passion, create enough concern and curiosity to just ask and give grace to each other. That’s what has allowed us to be here in this space.

If you ever feel concerned or discouraged, call me directly. Because this work is important to me. It's important to me because for 23 years, I've not seen enough diversity. And I don't say that in a way that is demeaning or demoralized it to anyone, but I haven't seen enough diversity in thoughts and ideas. In how do we solve the problems we face as an industry? And you all will see different gaps, because you come from different places. You've had different experiences. And if a redhead young girl who grew up chopping cotton in Arkansas can end up at the same table with [the head of NKG], talking about these issues, you can go a lot further than where I've been.

Michelle R. Johnson (center) is founder of The Chocolate Barista and co-founder of Ghost Town Oats.

 Michelle R. Johnson, NKG PACE Steering Committee Member; Co-Founder Ghost Town Oats

Well, I've been in [coffee] for 11 years. And like Phyllis said, with coffee, you just scratch the surface and you end up in places. Now I'm in oat milk!

But throughout my journey, I've done everything underneath the sun except green coffee and roasting. I've done marketing, I've done competition, a bit of barista manager training. I flew to Australia, worked there for a little while to mess with them down there. And it has been quite the 11-year journey. And the last, I guess, six years have been the Chocolate Barista era.

It felt like I spent years being the only one, and then all of a sudden, there was this boom of, here I come on the market, calling everybody out. And I didn't even know what I was doing when I was calling everybody out. It was completely unintentional. It was me speaking my truth, on my online space, doing what I do — talking too much. And all of a sudden it spurred this movement that has built the, sort of the mess to create space for this.

Porttia Portis, NKG PACE Partner (Seattle)

My coffee story started almost 10 years ago. I went to school for journalism and sociology … and it was right during the switch from print to digital, so there were absolutely no jobs when I graduated. So, I applied for a coffee job, at a place called Boston Stoker in Dayton, Ohio, and I thought I was going to work there for six months until I got my first big-girl writing job.

… For years I tried to go back and forth between coffee and journalism, because I thought I had to make it work as a journalist. Somehow that gave me a voice and a platform to write about coffee shops in Dallas … I started going through the entire Dallas Fort Worth metroplex and talking to different coffee shop owners and people who were just in different aspects of the coffee industry. And it came from a place of sincerity and vulnerability, because they were so used to journalists coming in just to get their story and, you know, position it however they wanted to position it. I was like, no, I want to know what this means to you. I want to share your story with the world because this is your heart. This is your livelihood. This is a reflection of all the hardworking hands that make coffee possible.

But even through all of that, I never expected to make it a career. I think it really sank in about two years ago, at the start of the pandemic, where I was genuinely ready to just quit. I was tired of scratching my way in coffee. I was tired of being looked at sideways, anytime I came up with an answer that proved that I knew more than the people above me. I got tired of customers trying to get me fired for being who I was. And around that time is when I first stumbled upon The Chocolate Barista, and upon Phyllis Johnson's work and upon NKG PACE. And I thought, there's something about this. Like, this must be for me, this must be why I'm doing it.  

And somehow along the way of trying to get to this place, more young people of color came to me, seeing what I was doing. Like, “I want to do coffee. You've made it this far. You made it a thing.” And it made me realize, this is what I was meant to do, after all this time. So, it's almost like coffee saved me, in a way.

I'm genuinely grateful for this opportunity, and I'm mostly looking forward to the ways that I can pay it forward to the next generation, so that they can feel like they do this work.

NKG PACE Partners Porttia Portis and Charles Umeano.

Charles Umeano, NKG PACE Partner (Hoboken)

I came to coffee back when I was trying to be an actor. I walked into Dancing Goats, at Ponce City Market [in Atlanta], and the manager liked me. Said, “You seem like a nice person, and we have a training program so you can get up to scratch.” … At first it was just a place I went to get a paycheck. But I really loved talking to people, liked the cafe community. It was such a great place to meet different people, get different ideas. [Eventually] I went through barista training, and learned the whole concept of seed to cup, and where coffee came from. I'm also Nigerian, so, I kinda was like, “Oh, this is my heritage.” Then I found out that, no, it's actually from East Africa. So I was like, “Oh, it’s kind of my heritage!”

I just loved learning about it, and the more I learned about how coffee's produced, the hands it goes through, the technical aspects of being a barista, I just found all this information so much more interesting than what I was doing at night. … When I met the green buyer, they told me what they did for a job, how they went to different countries, how they negotiated with the farmers, and I was just like, I’m going to do that one day. That's what I'm going to do. …

I didn't know how to get there, though. … So I become a lead barista, become the system manager, become a manager, become a trainer. “And then what” just kept on being my experience, every time I went to a different job, in new cities, it was just like, I don't really know how to get to where I want to be.

… Then [a friend] gave me some good advice. He was like, I think you want to work in green, why don’t you try for this program? And I really liked actually the whole interview process, because the more questions I got, the more it solidified what I want to do. The more I realized how this program would work for what I was trying to do and what I've been missing.  

So, I’m really excited to be here. This first week I’m seeing the cup journey more from the production side, and that’s been really, really interesting. And I see there's a lot of steps. The world of coffee that I knew was this small, but now I can see that it's so much wider, and I'm just looking forward to spending a year trying to see what I can learn from this program and where it can place me within this larger scope. It’s nice to know that the target isn’t this small, it's actually this big.

NKG PACE Partner Jayy Terrell (far right), has joined the InterAmerican team in San Diego.

Jayy Terrell, NKG PACE Partner (San Diego)

It’s really been validating to hear Porttia and Charles' stories because that has been my experience as well. It has been a cycle of going into a shop and learning the environment and kind of working my way up through the bar system, being bar manager, being the GM, making schedules, doing all these things and then hitting the ceiling and feeling the burnout. And feeling so unseen. … My experience has been a constant confrontation of my place in the industry.

Like Porttia, I was just ready to be done. … But luckily, COVID gave me a chance to sit down and really consider what I wanted, and to reevaluate the passion that I have for coffee. I'm constantly crediting the universe for everything that I have. I was aligned with a Black-owned roastery in Houston, Texas. The first one in the city literally showed up at my doorstep, at the shop I was working at and, and I got involved with them. And I honestly can't tell you what a change that was, to feel your employers pour into you and to actually recognize the value that you bring. It's phenomenal.

… So to be here and to feel at once so rooted by everyone's experiences and to be in such amazing company is just — it's a lot. It's honestly extremely overwhelming. I'm trying to soak it all up, really trying to, like, sit with it and believe in my right to be here. I'm ready to see where the stars take me.

Phyllis Johnson

It's funny because, as a Black American woman, even when I travel to Africa, I'm always thought to not be the coffee buyer. I’ve actually been told: “You're not the buyer. You know, those guys are buyers, you’re not the buyer.”

So, by not having representation, they don't see you in those spaces and you don't see you in spaces, and that's what makes it almost impossible to ever change that reality. So, I felt like we could change that reality. I’ve just always believed that by working together, you can do the hard stuff. I'm the youngest child of eight children. My mother had a fifth-grade education. She had eight children. I ended up graduating from Harvard, Harvard Kennedy School. And it's because she really pushed me to understand that hard work is critical, and coalitions are critical — putting people together.

I've been in rooms where I was the only Black woman in the room. And I've been in rooms where there's only been Black women. And in both of those settings, I do know that there's a challenge. There's a lock. There's information that's not available. So when I decided to build the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity, it's because I had spent six years on the board of directors of the National Coffee Association. I had spent four years on the board of directors for the International Women's Coffee Alliance. And all these other things that I had done —I’ve served on boards from the time I was 25 years old. So I knew from my own upbringing, I saw my mother go out and work with all sorts of people.

You know, my mother died a few years ago and she had land — an asset worth well over a million dollars in Arkansas. But I had receipts from when she was borrowing $7 on that land to feed her family. How did she get from that receipt to where we are today? It was through alliances and coalitions. She did not envelop herself in just her own community and her own people, because it takes all of us.

So, what has it been like to be in the industry as a Black woman? It's been lonely, but it has been an incredible ride. People have invited me to their cupping tables that you cannot imagine. Coffee is friendly. It can be welcoming. And if you take that part of it and you do what is within you, you can really get some good stuff done. For me, it's given me life.

Michelle R. Johnson

 My experience as a Black woman in coffee… Well, the first three, four years I was a barista ... I'm from the DC area, so I acknowledge that I had a very different experience than a lot of people, especially on the retail side. Because Chocolate City, having Black managers, Black baristas, even my white managers and co-owners, they always were happy to give me a chance. I was eager. I was hungry. And they didn't see that as a problem. They were like, “Oh, great, awesome — a barista who actually wants to do their job!” And that allotted me the confidence. And growing up in DC, even as someone who grew in poverty, I still had confidence to do anything that I wanted. And feel like, I can be in any room, no one can tell me differently.

It wasn't until I moved to Arizona that I first experienced being really the only one. The only one in a company of six cafes, the only one in an entire community. But still the only one that people looked to, to build community, to bring people together. Because I walked out there, like, “There ain't nothing going on here, so let me do something.” And people were like, “Oh, you want to do something? Great!”

From there, moving from the retail side and then going into marketing and writing and, you know, being on a platform and having the entire industry have their eyes on me at that point — and especially being, like, the whistleblower for race. That's when a lot of the issues that come with being a Black woman in coffee really started to come for me, and not in the coolest of ways.

… What I'm doing with The Chocolate Barista now is I'm finally going to put it to rest, so that I can go on and focused on Ghost Town and do what I need to do. That’s something I've wanted to do for a long time. I also just want to live and be Black. Live and be Black and be in coffee and just do my thing.

Being a Black woman in coffee … it's been great. Honestly, I've gotten to travel the world. I've met amazing people. I've gotten so many opportunities that I would not have gotten otherwise. And now my main focus is just making sure that everybody eats. That I'm not the only one who’s eating and that someone else isn't the only one that's eating. Help make it so that there’s always going to be room for everyone to be able to come in and do whatever it is that they want to do, and know that they belong here.

David M. Neumann 

Coffee is a small business, on the scale of things in the world. But I have never seen an event somewhere in the world that didn't impact what we do in some way, and that is so interesting to me. Coffee has to do with north and south and east and west, and it has to do with climate. It has to do with anything that happens in the world. You know, two months ago, in Germany, we woke up an hour-and-a-half flight from a war in Europe. And you start wondering how that will affect the flow of coffee.

... You look at the newspapers of any country in the world, and — not every article, of course — but how is employment going? Ports? Roads? How is infrastructure going, how are other commodities going? How are currencies going? What the hell is going on in politics? You know, it's not just about producing countries, it's really everything. What is going on in tax policies? And not all of it is interesting — some of it is unbelievably boring! But it is really the only business I know where kind of everything that happens — sustainability, climate change, all the things — really influences it almost immediately. I cannot read a newspaper anymore without seeing how the things going on will somehow affect coffee.

Tom Minogue (center) is CEO of Neumann Gruppe USA and a member of the NKG PACE Steering Committee.

Tom Minogue, NKG PACE Steering Committee; CEO Neumann Gruppe USA

Right now in coffee, you've got logistics issues, you've got finance issues, frost, drought. You've got this that and the other thing. But we've never seen it all at the same time, like we are in this moment. You’re stepping into a moment exactly where you’ll be able to see not just the cups on this table, but exactly how does it get here? How are we going to be able to navigate the fact that the coffee is great, but at the end of the day it still has to get on a boat, has to get here? There's a lot to it that you are going to be stepping into — along with your other colleagues here.

We actually have a lot of new people joining us here. You’re all going to be learning all the time. So, there are going to be times when you come in, if it's a little quiet, we might say, “Hey you want to see Logistics? This is what it's like.” … You’ll learn from people who've been here for a very long time. And the things that you're going to see are things that even we haven't seen before. So, it’s going to be challenging, and fun, and it’s going to be very, very busy, that's for sure.

David M. Neumann and Phyllis Johnson discussed how they arrived at this moment, and to coffee, on vastly different paths. They are co-creators of NKG PACE and co-chairs of the program’s Steering Committee.

David M. Neumann

Something that I very much admired, as a practical matter, in with talking with Phyllis, is that this program is not about changing the world. It's about doing something and seeing what can come out of it. And, we won't be successful if in 10 years we have 50 people in this program each year. But we will be successful if each of you take away, to wherever life takes you, something that enriches you.

We don't want to put pressure on your shoulders for you to represent something here. You don't need to represent anything. What you need to do is learn and to ask questions — and there are no stupid questions. Because what holds us together is that we're really passionate. We like coffee and everything it brings with it. … So, challenge us, but also have some fun with us. That really is the invitation. See what’s goes on here. We want you to succeed.

… And, succeed means that when you are finished with this, you feel that this program brought you forward. And success for me personally will be if you walk out of here and say, “I got in there because I love coffee, and now I understand why so many other people do, too.” •