Chris Mcauley (he/they) on wacky animals, the new Double Bubble, and Getchu Some Gear is now available on:
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Transcription
Arielle: Bok bok.
Who’s there?
Chris Mcauley.
Chris Mcauley who?
Did you know that Chris Mcauley has chickens? It’s definitely not the coolest thing about him, but it’s up there.
Chris Mcauley is the founder of Getchu Some Gear, which he launched a little under two years ago alongside his partner, Chelsea. Getchu set out to hook up marginalized coffee workers with free coffee stuff, but they’ve since expanded the scope of their work tremendously: first with Getchu a Job, which provides free resume assistance and resources for baristas… then Getchu a Grant, which earlier this year helped distribute $60,000.00 to historically marginalized coffee business owners. They also provide free coffee education, and recently roasted their own “Getchu” coffee for the very first time.
Getchu Some Gear is Chris’ “love letter to the coffee family” and this shows in everything that they do.
You might be wondering, what’s next for Chris? And the truth is, I don’t really know. Getchu Some Soap, maybe? Getchu Some Eggs? What I do know is that, whatever it is, it’s going to make the world a better place — because, like Chris says, “we’ve got us.”
This episode mentions the white, cis hetero, ableist patiarchy of the coffee industry and beyond.
This is Chris Mcauley on wacky animals, the new Double Bubble, and Getchu Some Gear
Hi there! Today, I’m chatting with Chris Mcauley, who uses he or they pronouns. Chris is the founder of the amazing organization Getchu some gear, which—in their words—hooks up marginalized coffee workers with free coffee stuff. I am so excited to be here chatting with you, Chris. Uh, why don’t you kick us off by sharing a little bit about yourself?
Chris: Hi. Um, a little bit. I’m Chris. Um, and, I… I don’t know. I like different kinds of chewing gum. I really enjoy Fun Dip. Um, I have several chickens that I love very much, and I do coffee stuff sometimes.
Arielle: Okay, can we talk about your chickens for a second?
Chris: Yes, let’s do it.
Arielle: So, basically, it’s a must at this point—I have to start something, like a Pets and Caffeinated spinoff where I talk about people’s pets more in depth. But, like, chickens…tell me about them, please.
Chris: So, I definitely have…
Arielle: Eggs!
Chris: I definitely had two chickens, like, as a little Chris. Um, and they were super fun, but it’s really hard to sex chickens. And so, the person we bought them from was like, “yeah, reckon these are…it’s a rooster and a hen,” and I got two roosters. Um, it turns out they’re like… they’re like, the more aggressive… like, the roosters that people would use to, like, fight chickens, you know, like, the cockfighting. They were Bantam Roosters, and they had, like, extra long spurs, um, and I definitely got attacked by them and chased by them multiple times when they were, like, adult chickens.
Uh, so I was, like, definitely a little hesitant when Chelsea, my partner, was like, “let’s get some chickens!,” and I was just like, “Okay! Haha, let’s get them!” Um, so yeah, we have three chickens now. I can’t remember their breeds, but… except for one of them, Fettuccine is a White, um, Australorpe, or something…
Arielle: Are they all pasta names?
Chris: Yeah, they all have pasta names—so, Fettuccine, Rigatoni, and uh… Radicchio. No, Radicchio is like an Italian, like, lettuce name…
Arielle: Yeah yeah yeah.
Chris: But, yeah, umm. Fettuccine is… she’s like the foghorn cartoon chicken, like, that’s the breed that she is.
Arielle: I know what you’re saying.
Chris: She’s my favorite… I’ll say. But yeah, they’re… they all have different likes, and different personalities, and… Fettuccine is the most friendly. Um, Rigatoni was my favorite for a long time, and then she just started picking on the other chickens a little bit, and so she’s not my favorite. Um, and then Radicchio is just a little adventurer. Like, she’s the one that likes to, like, perch really high, and explore things.
Like, she got…she jumped in the hammock one time in our backyard, it was really funny.
Arielle: Oh my god, yes.
Chris: And their eggs are all different. They’re like different sizes, and shapes—
Arielle: Oh yeah, tell me…. So I just found that out from a friend in Vermont, can you tell me more about that?
Chris: I don’t… I mean, basically, beyond telling you that Fettuccine lays bigger, white eggs, and then Rigatoni’s eggs are, like, a similar, like, shape and size to Fettuccine’s, but they’re like a lighter brown. And then Raddichio’s eggs are, like, little and round and just very cute. They’re more like a, spear-shaped, but not quite.
Arielle: So, important question—are your chickens a part of Getchu Some Gear?
Chris: Um, I don’t know. Their attention spans are just not…they’re not that great, so…they’re usually not too helpful. They are really good, um, they’re really good at posing for photos. That’s about it. But they don’t pay rent, they don’t do anything but eat… and give us… well, they do pay rent when it’s warmer outside, they give us eggs.
Arielle: Yes. Oooh, I would kill for some chicken eggs straight out of… straight from the source.
Chris: Straight out of the chicken!
Arielle: Straight out of the chicken. Um, cool, thank you for entertaining that interlude, umm…
Chris: I’m always down to talk about chickens.
Arielle: I know, well that was the, umm… I always love to see what people put on their, umm, their interest form when I send it out to people that are gonna be in the show, umm. Cause sometimes people, like, strictly focus around trans issues, and sometimes people strictly focus… like, just are like, things like that, like, “I have chickens.” And it’s always so interesting to me… and, like, I intentionally set it up that way, so, like, people can talk about trans stuff if they want to, or they can, you know, just be a trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary person who talks about whatever the fuck they wanna talk about.
Umm, but it’s always so interesting to see what people put when I leave it open-ended like that. Umm, it’s been cool, and I loved hearing about your chickens, so thank you.
Chris: You’re welcome.
Arielle: So, I’d love to hear more about the journey of Getchu some gear. Umm, cause this just, like, grew from your home and is now this… this big thing that, you know, a lot of coffee folks have had the opportunity to engage with. So, first off, what is your background in coffee?
Chris: Um, so I’ve, like, kind of got this, like, maybe love-hate relationship with coffee. Umm, I started as a barista, uhh, 2005 when I was, like, transitioning into college. Umm, so that’s like, that’s where it started. I was in and out of coffee and, like, other speciality industries, like, fancy pants grocery stores, like, uhh, seafood markets. But I’ve always, like, ended up coming back to coffee… umm, yeah, so, mostly like barista stuff. Umm, stuff in my café, café management, umm, definitely have always been interested in, like, another path in coffee, or even, like, exploring, like, different careers in coffee. It’s just never… I haven’t gotten there just yet.
Umm, but I mean I… I love working in a café. I’m not working right now, but, umm… you know, having—
Arielle: Funemployed
Chris:—yeah, yeah, super funemployed. Umm. It’s really not that fun. Umm, but, you know, I love the café environment. I love, like, you know, engaging with customers, umm, when you don’t have to keep them in check, too.
Um, and so, like, I’ve always been torn, like—should I, you know, pursue this other thing, or like, think about other things I wanna do in coffee, or do I wanna, like, stick with what I like doing, and what I feel like I’m good at, and what I love? Umm, so that’s that.
But I was, umm, I was managing a café when Getchu some gear started. Umm, it was just…you know, I had, like, the dream team staff. Cause I was…I was like a barista there, umm, and I felt like we… we all talked about it, umm, when the current manager left and we were like, oh no, who is gonna come in, umm, to take this position from outside that we… we might not know, or whatever. Umm, so, it was just, like, “okay, I’ll go for it. Umm, and I had such a, like, supportive staff, umm, but, you know, there was lots of curiosity about coffee, wanting to learn more, but not necessarily…we didn’t necessarily have access to those other resources, even if we asked for them.
Um, and so, like…I put out a call on Instagram, like, my personal Instagram, and then Chelsea, like, shared it, and Chelsea was, you know, Chelsea is also a coffee person, umm, and she was working for a pretty big company. Umm, and so it got to all of her coffee friends at the time, and like, that’s kind of what happened. It’s really…I don’t know, it’s really really strange how everything has, like, fallen into place, and the people that are involved with the project…and, you know, leading the different departments that we have, like, it all happened so magically. And it’s really sweet.
Arielle: Can you talk more about that, like, you know, the different departments that you have, the…the, all the different, like, arms and legs of Getchu some gear. Cause, like, you started as, like, you were getting gear from people, and then sending it out to other people… marginalized people, specifically. Like, how did it develop into all these different arms and legs, and what are they? What do you do?
Chris: Umm, so, we have the education department. And now that we all have good technology to work with, umm, our goal with that was to create resources of our own that were created by marginalized folks, umm, to go with the gear that we send out. So, you know, we’re not just giving you the gear, we’re like, helping you start figuring out what you wanna do with it. Umm, so that’s Erica Jackson and Cydni Patterson, my, like, two of my favorite coffee people.
Umm, and we’ve got Getchu a job that, you know, Sally is heading up. And she was a café manager, too, umm, but also a writer, a very, very talented writer. Umm, and so, she’s using both, umm, two pieces of her background, cause there’s more, umm, to kind of help along with the team and, you know, it started off and she was like, “hey, like, do you think this could be cool, umm, if I did it?”
And we were like, just, you know, if you want to be a part of… of Getchu, we can use our platform for that, too, and that was a match made in heaven.
Umm, we’ve got, oh lord…we’ve got the, you know, the regular, you know, coffee worker gear box. We started the commercial gear program because of our partnership with Malköehnig. Umm, they just hit us up one day, and they were like, “hey, we have, we have, uhh… equipment that, you know, is used, but it’s just here, and we feel like, you know, we support the coffee community, but we want to do more.” Umm, and we were completely blown away by that, and so, I think it’s at five…I think they’re donated five, uhh, grinders to…
Arielle: That’s awesome.
Chris: You know, commercial grinders. Yeah.
Arielle: For those who don’t know, who are listening, like, those things are expensive and very exceptionally well made, and like, cafés all over use them.
Chris: Yeah, like, high-volume café coffee grinders… yeah, and it’s, like… they were just, like, “tell us where to send them,” like, connect us with the folks that, like, need a grinder and, I mean, they’ve walked…they’ve walked recipients through the entire process, umm, they’re there for questions. Umm, it’s been cool cause some of the folks are local to the Durham… their Durham warehouse… so they’ve gotten to meet some folks from Malköehnig, umm, and pick up their grinders. Umm, but yeah, they’ve shipped them as far as California for us, and that’s…I don’t know, wow, umm. And then, so, Seattle Coffee Gear heard about the commercial gear program, and they were like, “oh, we want to do this thing,” and so that’s where Getchu a Grant came from… another thing that just, like, kind of appeared out of nowhere. Umm, and then other folks got involved, too, and, so, Royal Coffee, Oatly, uhh, Good Food Foundation pitched in, and I think it was… it was over $60,000.00 of grants that we redistributed, umm, and that money went directly from those companies and entities to, umm, the recipients.
Arielle: Something that I find really striking about Getchu Some Gear, umm, that sort of, like, mentally sets y’all apart, umm… a lot of times, when folks, like, scale, particularly if they have a brand name that’s not necessarily the person’s name who’s running it, umm, it sort of loses that personal feel. Umm, and something that I find really striking about Getchu is that it always has that personal feel. Like you said, when they can, Malköehnig was giving grinders to people directly, meeting the people that are getting these.
Umm, and I’m wondering, like, to what level, like, that’s been intentional…you know, keeping the personal touch, keeping those interpersonal relationships alive, like, not having it be this sort of robotic, mechanical thing, but rather, cultivating relationships with the people in your community.
Chris: Uh, yeah. I don’t… I feel like that’s hard, there’s many answers to that question, maybe.
Arielle: Yeah.
Chris: Um, I… I think it’s, it’s, it’s always better when, like, you know, instead of getting a one-off thing, that you can, like, build a relationship with someone, you can build community with more people that way. Umm, it’s definitely intentional, umm, because… I don’t know, I feel like if we just, like, threw some gear at people, or, you know, if we got money for them, that’s very helpful, yes—
But what’s even more helpful is to, like, be connected to, like, resources for the future, you know.
And then, in a different way to answer the question: umm, I want things… like, we want things to be personal, umm, cause I… I wanna be a part of something that I wanna be, like, if I were on the other side of it, I would wanna be engaged, umm. And so, if you feel like you can connect with that, umm, I just feel like it works better that way, umm, and I think that, like all the things that have happened with Gethchu and the team, is kind of like a testament to that.
Arielle: Yeah. And, why is Getchu so necessary? Like, why is this work that you’re doing so important, so valuable to the coffee community?
Chris: Mmm. Well, I think, like, with the gear, umm, it’s really expensive. And, you know, I’ve said this before, but it’s still true: marginalized folks, you know, face financial hardships at a higher rate, and like, I don’t know. I…I…I wanna be able to explore my craft, like, to choose to do that in my home. Umm, but I don’t wanna choose that over paying a bill, or like, taking care of some other need that’s necessary to survive.
Umm, I don’t know… I… my first pour-over kit was a gift, I think four years ago. And, at that time in my life, like, I wouldn’t have been able to afford, like, over $100.00 worth of coffee gear, you know, umm. And I know that, now, especially, we know that, like, I’m… we’re not alone.
Arielle: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah.
Arielle: And I think that’s a really important point is like, there are people out there that wouldn’t otherwise have access to this gear, that are disproportionately marginalized people. And, like many industries, the upper echelons of coffee are often… are often dominated by cishet, white men with beards, who wear flannels. Umm…
Chris: And they don’t… they don’t use a spit cup, they just drink the coffee.
Arielle: They just drink the coffee, cause they’re “men!”
Chris: They’re “men, ahh!”
Arielle: and they can handle this caffeine! Yeah. Umm, “real men drink their coffee!” And, I don’t know, there’s so many cool people in coffee, so many amazing, like, marginalized voices that don’t have access to the gear that they need to experiment. And I think sort of the combination of, you know, the emergence of Getchu, the emergence of Glitter Cat Barista, is giving folks access to spaces in this industry that a lot of folks just didn’t have years ago. I mean, it just wasn’t feasible, because marginalized folks are often more impacted by, umm, things like poverty, and homelessness, and, you know, living paycheck to paycheck.
And, umm, for a long time, the…even the competition scene has, you know, a lot of the people that have won are people who don’t even necessarily, like, currently work in a coffee role, cause it’s so freaking expensive to compete and get all the gear that you need to get good, that they don’t even work in coffee by the time they win.
Chris: Yeah, it’s…I definitely think about competitions, umm, when I think about access to things. Did you just hear that?
Arielle: What? What was it?
Chris: Did you just hear a beep?
Arielle: No… what was…
Chris: Okay, great. I got a text message. You can probably cut that out, okay.
Arielle: Honestly, sometimes that grounds people in the fact that we are two people who are currently sitting in rooms that are making noise, like, I am sitting in a closet right now, and I have roommates, and I am drinking my water intermittently and keep knocking into the bottle, and…we’re just people sitting in rooms right now, on computers
Chris: Just sitting in rooms, on computers, getting texts. Drinking water. What were…?
Arielle: Honestly, I find something super poetic about the fact that I record my trans podcast while in a closet, physically.
Chris: That is just… chef’s kiss. Chef’s kiss.
Arielle: Chef’s kids. Um, what was I what?
Chris: Yeah. I can’t…the text happened and I lost all of what we were talking about
Arielle: Yeah! We were talking about this idea that Getchu… the work that Getchu is doing, in conjunction with the work that Glitter Cat is doing…is kind of… you know, and other orgs, as well, just naming two that I’ve recently talked about on here, is that marginalized folks are getting access to whole areas of this industry that were just fundamentally inaccessible on every level to a lot of folks for a really long time. Umm, and so that sort of begs the question—like, what do you envision for… not just the future of Getchu some gear, but what do you envision for the future of this industry, with all this work that’s going on between Getchu, and Glitter Cat, and Go Fund Bean, and I’m not gonna try to name everyone, because I will definitely miss a million, cause there’s so many folks doing awesome work…
Chris: There’s a long list.
Arielle: …Coffee People Zine, and everyone..
Chris: Yeah, love it.
Arielle: What does the future look like?
Chris: You know, I, like, I feel like I’ve talked with Cydni and Sally about this before, but I think if Getchu and Glitter Cat didn’t have to exist, that’s the… that would be a great future, you know? Because, like, until the folks that are in positions of power to, you know, to change things, these great big entities that, you know, seemingly make the rules and deem who has access to things. Like, that… that has to shift, that power, like, at the top—wherever that is—has to shift, umm, and those folks have to give it up, umm, in order for the change to be, like, I don’t know, more permanent. I don’t know if that makes sense.
Arielle: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: But, yeah. Like, every company doesn’t need to be fucking led by, like, a cis straight non-disabled white dude, umm…
Arielle: Yeah.
Chris: So, yeah. Like, I’m hoping that Glitter Cat and Getchu is doing the work to empower people to take those positions, or… to either, like, create entities outside of that, you know. Cause it’s just not working anymore…
Arielle: Yeah.
Chris: …the way we’re doing things.
Arielle: It’s setting people up with the tools to get to those positions, for sure. And it’s sort of creating this paradigm shift where, like, folks that wouldn’t necessarily have had the…the resources to get to those points in the industry are able to. And I find… there’s something so beautiful about, you know, non-profits and orgs that sort of, their goal is to be obsolete…their goal is to be not needed, because they hope that the problem that they address will no longer need to be addressed. Umm, I mean, I kind of feel that way about this podcast, so like, hopefully, one day, trans education will be something that people actively seek out and there’s enough content out there that people can just… that people can and do just pursue it.
Chris: And then we can rest.
Arielle: And then we can rest. And then marginalized folks can stop doing all this gosh darn emotional labor to fix problems that actively affect us—
Chris: —that we did not create
Arielle: Yeah, that we did not create. Like… Yeah, it’s wild, and it’s like, it’s marginalized folks on the front lines of doing this work, umm, which is, you know, it’s important that our, you know, marginalized voices are centered in the fights for umm… marginalized… not rights, but, like, you know, the fight for, umm, equity, and the fight for just like, what’s right. But that doesn’t mean that marginalized folks should always be the ones bearing the brunt of that labor…but, more often than not, that is the case.
Chris: Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, it’s… yeah, yeah.
Arielle: So, we spent a lot of time… and I know you spend a lot of time talking about Chris Mcauley of Getchu some gear. But who’s Chris Mcauley the person? What do you do? What are you interested in?
Chris: I’m a regular-ass boring dude.
Arielle: You have chickens! You make soap!
Chris: I make soap! I really enjoy sitting in the dark at home, with all the lights off, on the floor. I like… oh yeah, super big introvert energy. Umm, I’m quite fond of my space heater, I mentioned that before. Yeah, I play guitar and stuff sometimes. I just… yeah. At home, quite a bit, making soap.
Arielle: Can you talk about your soap-making?
Chris: Yeah, umm.
Arielle: Because I’ve… I’ve thought about it before, I’m interested.
Chris: You.. you should make soap. Everybody should do it. It’s super fun. Umm, I should do a soap tutorial. I started making soap…
Arielle: Getchusomesoap.
Chris: Getchusomesoap! Oh my god, it works for everything.
Arielle: It really does. You really made a brand that you can just adapt for any sort of project you’re doing.
Chris: Oh, man. So, I…it’s very petty. I have… my soap-making beginnings are very petty. So, I was dating this woman, and she was making soap, and she would never fucking let me help her ever, like, she would make it and sell it at, like, a little farmers’ market that was, like, up the street from, you know, the apartment that we lived in… and everybody loved it, and it was so great, but I could never help. Umm, so when we broke up, I was like, “I’m making soap,” and that’s what happened. And then I started selling it shortly after, umm, yeah.
I think people get intimidated by it because you have to mix lye and it’s super caustic, but, not gonna lie…
Arielle: That is exactly why I got terrified.
Chris: I have never… and I’m probably, like, I make soap in a very unsafe way, and I probably shouldn’t say that, umm, but I still, like, knock on wood, I still haven’t had an accident.
Arielle: What is the not safe way? What is the way you’re quote unquote “supposed to” do it?
Chris: Oh, I like… okay, so, you mix, umm, you pour the lye into the water, and you stir it with, like, a ceramic or a wooden spoon, and I… I think people usually wear gloves for that, but I don’t really wear, like, gloves for the lye part, or goggles… I just kind of, like, take the lid of the crockpot, so you put all the soap ingredients in the crockpot, and then you use a stick blender after you pour the lye in to, like, start the process. And I kind of just use the lid from the crockpot to shield my face from the hot oils and lye, so that’s… that’s not safe.
Arielle: Are you supposed to wear goggles?
Chris: I feel like Chelsea’s, like, shaking her head outside the door right now… if she can hear me.
Arielle: That’s so funny…
Chris: But, I mean, like, if you make your own soap, like, if you have the, like, resources and the crockpot to do it, like, it ends up being a lot cheaper. I can wash my hair with it. Umm, I can make it for my friends. My dad swears by it, he loves to shave his man beard with it.
Arielle: Ha! Man beard.
Chris: One of the few beards that I like. But yeah, it’s fun, it’s very, like, very calming. I like picking out different scents.
Arielle: I love that. I’m a very, like, I don’t know, in many ways a DIY kind of person. Like, I love baking things from scratch, I love cooking from scratch, like, I use Dr. Bronners. Yeah, so soap-making just kind of feels like the natural next step for me in my, uhh, DIY, make-my-own cleaning products kind of emotional process. I also just love the idea of making my own soap. I’m going to do it, so I stop having to buy soaps.
Chris: You should do it.
Arielle: And I wanna make whatever scents I fucking want!
Chris: Yes! So it costs like… I probably shouldn’t say this, either, cause I sell my soap on Chelsea’s website. But it costs about, like, $1 per bar, or less depending on, umm, the quantities you buy your, like, ingredients in. So, it’s way cheaper, and you can use it as a base for laundry detergent.
Arielle: Oh my god.
Chris: And then you can make liquid soap, which I haven’t gotten to yet.
Arielle: Oh my god, the possibilities are literally endless.
Chris: Yes.
Arielle: What else are you passionate about, Chris?
Chris: Yes. Umm, I really like cooking, I like… I don’t know, I like… I like it when the people that I love and care about… I like it when they know. Umm, so I like to feed them. And, I don’t know, I’m really passionate about, umm, the original version of Double Bubble chewing gum, which is really hard to find. Umm…
Arielle: Is there some, like, new perversion of it?
Chris: Yes, it’s terrible. It’s…I bought some Double Bubble the other day, as a treat, and it’s just this giant bag of bubble gum, and it doesn’t taste the way it’s supposed to…
Arielle: That’s deeply upsetting.
Chris: It is upsetting. So, there’s two versions of Double Bubble, and you have to be careful about which one you buy.
Arielle: Good to know.
Chris: I don’t know, I just like chilling at home, too. I’m very passionate about just having a peaceful, chill time… which doesn’t always happen, but I’m a big advocate for that.
Arielle: Yeah. And I’m curious to hear, like, how the things you’re passionate about… to bring it full circle… how Chris Mcauley the person informs the work you do at Getchu some gear? Like, what parts of your identity, what parts of your personal being do you bring into the work that you do for folks in coffee?
Chris: Um, like, definitely the part about making sure, like, the people that I care about have the things that they need… like, my… I feel like my… the thing I got from my parents and my grandparents was to, like, you know, like, if you can find a way to make extra to, like, take care of the people around you with it, umm, I think that’s, like, the main Chris Mcauley… uhh, I don’t know what to call it… the thing that guides me, with my work with Getchu some gear.
Arielle: Mantra, perhaps?
Chris: Yeah, maybe. Slogan. Ehh…
Arielle: Slogan. Very. That’s Chris Mcauley the brand.
Chris: Oh no!
Arielle: Sorry, have I been saying your name wrong.
Chris: I don’t know, so, there’s a debate in my family with the way that you’re supposed to pronounce my name.
Arielle: How do you say it?
Chris: I pronounce it M-A-C. But my grandpa pronounced it like you do, and… like, I think my uncle James pronounces it like you do. And then my dad says… I say what I say because my dad says it, and I think my dad is “the man.”
Arielle: I think I’ve just, like, seen your name for so long and… a lot of times, I’ll ask people how to say their name before I record, but I just very much had this headcanon idea of how your name was said that I assumed was correct for some reason.
Chris: Oh. I think, like, both of those are correct. Cause we don’t know. There’s no telling.
Arielle: I love that you have, like, that personal mantra that’s kind of from your family that informs the work that you do. I feel like, it, like… I don’t know, it makes it personal to you, it makes it personal to people, and like, people feel that, umm, when they’re working with someone, when they’re getting to know folks that are doing things in coffee, out of coffee, like, you can tell when it comes from a really personal place, and it brings it back to what we were talking about earlier is, like, Getchu some gear is so personal. Like, you are people interacting with people, helping to give them access to a whole number of things, like Getchu a Job, job access, and gear access, and education access.
Chris: Oh, and now coffee.
Arielle: And now coffee! Getchu. Oh my god, yes. I am so excited that y’all have coffee now. Wait, can you talk about that?
Chris: Yeah! Like, yeah, if you want. Another thing…
Arielle: I want.
Chris: Okay. It’s just like another thing that kind of magically happened. So, we connected with some folks…my partner, Chelsea, connected with some folks at Caravella. They were like, “hey, we have this 30 pound bag of cup of excellence coffee, uh, for you if you want it. And like, we didn’t know what the hell we were gonna do with it, but we were like, “cool, this could be cool for something.” So, we got it, it sat in my house for a while with all the other gear that was slowly crowding us out.
And then, when we, you know, started to keep some of our, like, gear and things at Black and White, they say it and they were like, “oh, yeah, let’s roast it.” So, we sample roasted it on the Ikawa, and cupped it, and we were like, “oh, this is really good.” Umm, and so, Kyle roasted it, and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to be to a roaster, which was also, like, an incredible experience that I hope that we can recreate, umm, in a safe way, when we can.
Umm, and then, the kicker is: we… I took a picture of the label, because it was coming off, and I think it, like, the coffee bag label with all the farm information, umm, and I went back through my phone after we roasted it to have all the info correct. And we found out that the coffee was from 2018.
Like, it was a very sweet cup, like, still very fruity, with like, no signs of fade, which was kind of incredible because the seal on the bag…the bag seal had been broken. Um, and so, who knows how long that bag had been open before it got to us. So, it sat at our house for maybe 3 months, I think, before it was roasted, umm, yeah, and it’s just really exciting and I think that we’re gonna be able to work with some more importers, and different roasters very soon to, like, have another iteration. We were thinking, like, maybe once every 3 months we figure out how to do that.
Umm, but then, also adding a layer to it where we can get green coffee donated, we can roast, you know, this coffee, umm, and then we can redistribute it, uhh, to, like, community fridges, and, you know, little neighborhood pantries, and things like that. So, any way that we can, like, figure out how to, like, I don’t know, be a part of the, like, local food movements like that, like we feel like that’s a part of our duty, too, you know.
Arielle: Yeah, yeah. That’s really cool. Umm, is the idea to eventually have it in gear boxes, or?
Chris: Yeah, so, umm… we had, umm, we got 37 bags. And 27… thirty seven 12 ounce bags, umm, 27 bags went directly to gear box recipients, umm, and then 10 of those bags went to, you know, a couple of the Getchu a Grant recipients, umm, and then to some of our, like, hardcore partners as a thank you.
Arielle: That’s awesome
Chris: So yeah, the goal would be to, you know, get those to gear box recipients and figure out how to do that in a way so we can figure it out, once a quarter, I guess.
Arielle: Awesome, that’s really cool. Umm, so, thank you so much for making the time to chat with me today, Chris. Uhh, do you have any words of wisdom before we wrap up?
Chris: Umm, I don’t know.
Arielle: Don’t eat yellow snow. I don’t know.
Chris: Don’t eat yellow snow. Uh, there’s a difference between the two kinds of Double Bubble bubble gum.
Arielle: Yeah.
Chris: They’re not the same. And you should read the label before you make your purchase.
Arielle: Also, different chickens lay different eggs.
Chris: Yes. And they all have personalities, and they all love you differently, but they love you.
Arielle: And Rigatoni is kind of a bully, I guess.
Chris: She is. I’ll have to send you some, like, vid… she looks like a football player. She’s like, ripped. And very intimidating. She’s bigger than Fruit, our littlest creature, so.
Arielle: Wait, what creature is Fruit?
Chris: Fruit! Oh, she’s a monster. Umm, we… so we…you… do you know, we have Juni? The, like, cattle dog? Little cute cattle dog?
Arielle: Yeah, yeah.
Chris: So, I think she’s about 10 or 11, and so, you know, she was a working dog. She was a therapy dog that had a job, and so, pandemic time, she hasn’t been able to be around people as much. Umm, so she’s been kind of depressed. So we were like, “let’s get her a dog.” And this dog is a monster, she’s super cute but she’s… one second, she’s, like, sitting on my lap, and then, if I rub my leg, she just, likes, loses it. So, like, a lot of trauma and things that we have to be… we have to work with her to build her trust, but…have mercy, she is a scary little dog sometimes. I will send you lots of pictures.
Arielle: Oh my goodness. I would love to see that. Also, some great content for Pets and Caffeinated.
Chris: Stay tuned.
Arielle: Stay tuned for Pets and Caffeinated. I’ve said this so many times in the podcast now that now it literally has to happen, like, I don’t have an out anymore. This is at least the third episode I’ve mentioned on, and then I’ve also plugged it on social media, like, it’s happening, it has to.
Chris: Well, there’s all kinds of pets, too. And there’s different…I don’t know, it’s great, that’s great. So many layers.
Arielle: And there’s something about trans people and pets, cause pets don’t think anything about our gender. Like, they don’t give a fuck.
Chris: Yes! They don’t care. They just want to eat, and go to sleep.
Arielle: They just want to eat.
Chris: And to get some snuggles.
Arielle: And to get some snuggles, on their terms…especially cats. They just want it on their terms.
Chris: Yes.
Arielle: And there’s something very human about that. Umm.
Chris: I respect it.
Arielle: Me, too. Cool, umm, so where can people… first of all, where can people access all of the programs that Getchu runs? Where can people find you, follow you, follow Getchu? How can people donate money, or resources slash whatever to you?
Chris: Oh, so, one stop shop: if you go to Getchu Some Gear on Instagram, or Twitter, website coming soon, just clink… clink, click the link…
Arielle: Clink.
Chris: Hey, it’s like two words put together.
Arielle: Click the link.
Chris: Click the link in our bio. Clink our bio. And there’s a little Linktree with all kinds of things that you can choose from. One of those is a way to donate coffee gear, which we’re definitely in need of, especially since we have the West Coast Ware Home going on. Umm, yeah. That’s it.
Arielle: Can you just say what your Instagram handle is?
Chris: okay, G-E-T-C-H-U-S-O-M-E-G-E-A-R.
