Fumbling To Your Truth
~A reconnection to yourself and life~
– DRINKS -
Imposter Tiramisu
Cortado with mokha syrup, a layer of micro-textured milk, a layer of mascarpone, topped with cocoa powder
A rich and delectable representation of the layered reality behind imposter syndrome.
Not Your Traditional Mexican Daughter
by Luna Contreras
A latte with a cafe de olla syrup spiced with cayenne & black pepper, charcoal for color, topped with cempasúchil (marigold) petals.
When being a daughter in a Mexican household there are traditions rooted in us such as religion and the words of our ancestors. When you're a woman you need to be a respectful daughter where the only wrong doing should be talking back to your parents. Unfortunately, my presence in a room full of my family is full of disgrace and discomfort because I'm a queer daughter, a topic that should never be in my mouth or even a thought. Not Your Traditional Mexican Daughter is where that name comes from. Being queer is such a disgrace, especially when your family is such a “perfect traditional family.” My drink includes how it feels to be hidden in all my traditions. This drink has Cafe De Olla which signifies a traditional drink. There will be spices such as pepper and anise inside the latte which represents the suddenness of spice and sparks the theme of confusion. When thinking of Cafe De Olla I don't think of a spicy drink but rather a soothing sweet drink. The milk will be steamed with charcoal and when pouring it into the cup the color of silver signifies the discomfort. The charcoal is a big part of the drink because you wouldn't necessarily want your latte to have any weird color and it makes you somewhat uncomfortable knowing that it's such a different color. The discomfort is the part that is representing me in a room full of my family members. On top of the drink we put marigold petals which signifies the usual traditional flower being on top and always lingering around. - Luna Contreras
Rwaaq
by Zain Alsaify
A date latte with cardamom, cinnamon & roasted pecans topped with crushed cinnamon-dusted pecans.
(Rwaaq means calm in Arabic. This latte blends the natural sweetness of dates with cardamom, cinnamon, and roasted nuts, no added sugar, just clean, wholesome flavor. Combined with espresso and served hot or iced, this drink brings together tradition and modern coffee culture in a balanced and energizing way. )
This drink is more than just dates and pecans - it’s a part of me. Inspired by the flavors of my childhood in Jordan, where cinnamon and cardamom bring warmth, and dates represent generosity. My feelings about my country are mixed - sometimes accepting, sometimes uncertain - but the longing and warmth are always there. This drink expresses that feeling.
Each ingredient tells a story:
Dates for memories, pecans are the fresh twist that reflects who I am today, cinnamon and cardamom for the smell of home, and a touch of calm for comfort. -Zain Alsaify
No Tiene Título/ El Abrazo de la Abuelita
by Katherin Rodriguez De Leon
Hot dark chocolate with cinnamon, orange peel and clove spices topped with crushed Maria’s cookies.
This drink represents comfort away from home. For me the meaning of this drink comes from the memories of my childhood, remembering those rainy afternoons with my grandmother where I could talk to her and literally all my problems disappeared, it also represents that when one emigrates to another country it is difficult to find the same community and find our own essence without being judged and without being seen as strangers or suffering from interracial harassment in a country that is not ours, a country that despite having many opportunities, both work and improvement, does not feel like our home, and this drink represents each of the experiences that I went through as a Latina girl who day after day faced difficulties around her, the simple fact of thinking that for being an immigrant I was never going to be able to improve myself, all those were the things that went through the mind of a girl, a girl of only 14 years old, being an immigrant in an unknown country, but sometimes all those thoughts disappeared, they had a side, well, sometimes on those cold winter afternoons, when I left school, I felt that beautiful conformity, knowing that at home I had served a cup of hot chocolate, in the same way that I am showing you how this chocolate was prepared with some delicious Marias cookies, this made me have a warm embrace from those afternoons where nothing was bad, nothing was to worry about where I had the warm embrace of my home. - Katherin Rodriguez De Leon
The Luck in our Infinite Failures
by Michelle Durango-Lopez
A gently sweet yet tart kumquat & lemon tea poured over a bed of passionfruit concentrate, served hot or iced.
Traditionally, kumquats represent prosperity and luck. While they also have had various slang meanings throughout time, my favorite defines kumquat as a young individual who goes through life constantly disappointing people with their infinite failures.*relatable* -Michelle Durango-Lopez
Cocoa Cinnamon Flavor Lead
Melissa Ibarra
Menu Concept
Areli Barrerra Grodski
Team Contributors
Luna Contreras, Zain Alsaify, Katherin Rodriguez De Leon, Michelle Durango-Lopez
Behind the concept:
Fumbling To Your Truth is about fumbling your way back to your essence. It's something I wish there was more room and space for in public. Instead, I find that we have set ourselves up to live in stress and fear of judgment of each other for failing to do things in “properly,” cleanly, educated and abandoning our true essence. Building walls and isolating ourselves to fit in a box. There is no room for forming a thought in front of each other and to say something one day and completely contradict yourself the next day. Perfection and the right amount of it, is what we look for in each other; we want to see the finished product. There’s no desire for the work-in-process, only space for the polished and refined result.
Therapy for me has been a journey to find my way back to myself, my true essence, covered by the clutter of generational trauma and all the -isms. The stars, the moon, and the time you were born, may play a role in how your personality is charted or how different emotions are processed or the way your brain is wired, but I believe we come equipped with all we need into this earth as newborns and we slowly become disconnected from ourselves and nature in order to survive an unnatural system.
Therapy has been such a godsend for me and this particular therapist has been great because she understands me culturally and she taps in my ancestors in our sessions whenever they show up, revealing the lineage healing that needs to be done and the lineage affirmations that need to be heard. It's been a truly healing journey - the way I am able to access memories and form thoughts in a space where I know judgement is not the goal. Rather, I am in a space where I am given the space to unearth truth, gaining information and figuring out how to move forward. It makes me wonder, why can’t we exist this way in public? We have been trained to tune out our infinite possibilties and vibrate on a very low frequency to uphold systems that keep us one-dimensional. We have been disconnected from nature and the current of life.
Fumbling To Your Truth is about lifting the veil. All of our journeys look different but there is a reason why this title resonates with many, especially women-identifying folks and even more so, those who walk in the margins of our society.
When i think about fumbling to your truth, it truly is everything everywhere, all at once. It’s interconnected with lacking the vocabulary to put words to what your intuition is telling you and feeling the pressure to HAVE to voice it. It’s being taught what the authority on any particular subject sounds like and looks like. It’s patriarchal systems that keep non-males in a pretty little corner, playing subservient roles. It’s systems created to extract and it’s systems keeping us numb and disassociated.
Fumbling to your truth is being given the space, and the tools to pinpoint the forces behind those walls keeping you from your strengths and your power, your voice, your purpose. I find that those who do not suffer from fumbling to your truth is because they have either found their way back or were never disconnected. There are others that do not even think about fumbling to your truth and walk in this world overconfidently, blissfully unaware of the imbalance and the system they are perpetuating or are willingly, knowingly, and pridefully perpetuating it.
I think about how, as an industry, we often value coffee research coming from Western scientists over indigenous women - the ones actually farming, unless that farmer looks and feels like the scientist. I think about our team that is made up of predominantly women of color and most of them with an immigrant background and how imposter syndrome is not a foreign concept. I think about the cultural, religious, patriarchal, societal conditioning that layers the silly little syndrome and yet, it plagues us all. I think about the experiences that hack away at our confidence- being shut down, being overlooked, being told calladita te ves más bonita- it all discourages our existence and the confidence in our worthiness. And that’s only one layer peeled back.
Some of us can’t choose to ignore it. It’s exhausting to walk around as a shell of yourself. The body is a powerful and beautiful thing, warning you when it’s disconnected from the rest of you, shown through your health or your physical pain or your energy.
I was ready for therapy because I knew I had gotten myself as far as I could on my own and I needed help from someone with more answers for elements that I didn’t know were at play, the engrained conditioning that prohibited me from unearthing truths. The truths I needed to discover my own true essence. The journey is not easy, it can be painful and ugly, but the journey is your own and that is special and sacred.
We all have a journey, but do you have the space to explore it? Do you have the missing pieces to reintroduce yourself… to yourself? If you’re afraid to explore those unknown parts, that’s okay, but know that there’s two different types of fear: the fear that keeps us safe and the fear used against us. This menu is an incarnation of fumbling to your truth…our team members connected with the idea and expressed it in ways that were deep and true to them. We hope you’ll fumble and sip along with us…back to your essential truth.
-Areli Barrera Grodski
Huge editing and contribution from: Esme Garcia
Select Upcoming 2025/26 Little Waves Coffees
We will soon be receiving all the fresh crop East African coffees our hearts desire and more!
Rwanda - Fugi Ikizere Women Washed and Humure Low Oxygen Natural .
These are coffees that we have been sourcing since 2019 from Emmanuelle Rusatira, owner and operator of Baho Coffee. Emma is a man of his word and has a grand vision for how coffee can create sustainable livelihoods for producers. He’s also interested in putting Rwandan coffees on consumer’s minds as premium coffee. Working with Emma is a dream partnership, one where there is transparency about every person who has delivered cherries to the washing stations, where we know how much everyone got paid for their first and second payment and the details of the processing for each lot. Emma’s actions speak louder than words and the coffees are year after year knock-outs. If you haven’t yet, make sure to catch us on Apple TV +’s Docuseries, Omnivore, Episode 7 on Coffee. It goes into the history of Rwandan coffee cultivation and how far it has come through the other end of much hardship.
Rama Women’s Association Natural Burundi
We are excited to have this coffee on our menu for the first time. This coffee came into our lives because our pal, Al Liu, who works for Sustainable Harvest thought of us as a perfect home for this coffee. This stellar Natural Bourbon from the pioneering women’s empowerment group, Rama Dufatanemunda, is the product of many years hard work and advocacy for women's right to own land by the women in the group. Establishing their credentials and gaining autonomy over their own land was a long, hard slog, but now that they’re up and running, we’re proud to support their incredible work in Burundi. We are excited to receive this coffee and dial it in. On the cupping table we were tasting so much guava and sweetness, it blew us away.
Kenyan Coffees sourced through Mbula of Utake Coffee via BD Imports & Cup to Crop Importers
Whenever I can work with more women along the supply stream, I do. This year, we are sourcing two beautiful coffees from Mbula again. Mbula is a force in our industry when it comes to quality control, roasting, and exporting excellent Kenyan coffees by small farmholders. Phyllis Johnson of BD Imports, who helped us get these coffees to us, said "One important highlight of these coffees is not only the coffee itself but the incredible value that Mbula at Utake adds in the supply chain. Most coffee supply chains for Kenyan coffee are through foreign-owned exporting and multinational channels." We will be receiving a washed and a natural lot.
Select Peak Coffees:
We have been working on cultivating a small, rotational offering of some of the higher scoring coffees out there, whether it’s from an auction or coffees from relationships with producers whose coffees are winning coffee competitions. This is a developing program in that as we are scratching the surface we are seeking through a lens of gender and racial equity just as much as top quality.
Daniella Boza - Maragogipe Natural Extended Fermentation
Daniella is one of the sisters supporting her family’s coffee business. I met her and Karla back in 2020 and have been purchasing coffee from her family whenever possible. Karla moved on from the farm to open up her own café, Jacinta, and we collaborated with her on our warm weather menu, Curious. Daniella is focusing on expermmenting with fermentation in small batches and when I saw her at this year’s Specialty Coffee Expo she told me she had some samples for me to give her feedback. She’s doing some experiments with extended fermentations and some where she is adding lactic acid bacteria.
Edwin Enrique Noreña - Competition Series Box Set - Black Honey Sidra, Black Honey Mossto Lactic Gesha, Black Honey Mossto Lactic Sudan Rume co-fermented with Enigma Hops
Edwin Noreña needs no introduction on our roster any more. He’s nicknamed the alchemist because what he does with coffee fermentation, carbonic maceration, co-fermentation, is science, art, skill and meticulous dedication. Edwin has really carved a path for himself. His coffees sing and these coffees stood out to us on the cupping table when we visited him last August. This Competition Series Box Set has 3 coffees that he has prepared for the competition stage. The Sudan Rume with Enigma Hops won the Australian brewer’s cup. We’re excited to share these coffees and more from him this fall!
