Medium Latte

Jitters Cafe in North Chili, New York, was bustling this Sunday morning with many customers, from young to old. However, the youngest person in the shop was Clara, at only 6 months old.

Clara is the daughter to Meghan Schubmehl of Irondequoit, who was at Jitters because she needed some caffeine to make up for the loss of sleep from the night before.

Schubmehl explained to me how she began her journey as a mother with her daughter Clara, and she could not be loving it more.

“I have a full time job so it’s hard to be working mom, but being a mom is a lot more fun than I ever knew it would be,” Schubmehl said.

Schubmehl is an attorney and explained how since she became a mother she has to cram 8-9 hours of work into a 6-7 hour work day in order to care for Clara.

Besides being a mother and an attorney, Schubmehl said she would like to be defined as a person who is kind, funny, and does the right thing.

“I want to be a good role model for, not just Clara, but for especially younger women and children,” Schubmehl said.

Schubmehl said other than having Clara, the most significant turning point in her life was when she met her husband ten years ago. They met just before Schubmehl left for New York City to go to law school, and once she finished school she moved back to Rochester to be with him.

Schubmehl says “it was a fork in the road,” but now they are married and have the newest addition to their family, baby Clara, marking the beginning of their newest journey.

Jamaican Iced Coffee

“Everybody’s got an interesting story if you go deep enough,” said Barista Tyra Sorrells, who works at Grinds 122 Cafe in Brockport, New York.

Grinds is not just another Starbucks or Tim Hortons where everyone is running in and out to get their daily caffeine fix. It is a place with a sense of community and a warm environment.

“It’s a great place to bring in a different mix of people from all over, coffee does that, it's just something that most of the world has in common,” Sorrells said.

Grinds has a wide variety of customers who come through including its usual customers, travellers, bike riders, college students, and families of loved ones who are in the hospital down the road.

“You get people who are struggling with an illness or a death… and they’re ordering food for their whole family and taking coffee to everybody so you get into learning about them and their family and where they’re from,” Sorrells said.

He explained that when this happens, they will often stick a handful of cookies or brownies in the bag to give them some comfort food, a small gesture which could help them cope through a very difficult time.

“Food is comforting, coffee is comforting, so it’s nice to be able to give that,” Sorrells said.

Sorrells opens the shop almost every day and so he gets to know people, especially the regulars, really well.

“Coffee creates that kind of environment where you sit and talk, naturally it starts a conversation and so you get to meet people all day long,” Sorrells said. “Here, you’re going to come in, I’m probably going to know your name, and I’m probably going to have your drink started before you come in the door.”

With Grinds’ inviting atmosphere and cozy decor, I have a feeling that it is easy to become a regular and a familiar face among the Grinds staff.

Tyra Sorrells reminds us that coffee is more than just a drink, it attracts people of all ages and starts conversations which you may never had gotten the opportunity to have, especially at a place like Grinds.

Panamanian Coffee today, but prefers Guatemalan

When you see James Knight, you may walk past him playing his penny whistle flute and wonder about his story. 

Just by looking at Knight, you would never guess that he was hit by a car at the age of three, and is lucky to be alive. You would never guess he met the love of his life while working as a Health Inspector for the Orleans County Health Department. You would never guess he is a retired rural letter carrier and is enjoying retirement through music and his family. 

Knight went to Cornell University, but dropped out to serve in the Vietnam War. After the war, he was then a Health Inspector for Monroe County and eventually went back to college at SUNY Brockport for Community Health with a minor in Fine Arts. 

He planned to get a degree to become a health educator but he realized that was not his calling. As the Graphics Editor for the Stylus, Knight realized that art and music was his true passion. 

Knight is a resident of Spencerport, NY who enjoys going down the road to Brockport to grab coffee from Java Junction and jam every Sunday between one and three with other musicians at A Different Path Gallery on Market Street. 

A Different Path Gallery 

He mainly plays the penny whistle flute, which is typically used play Celtic music, but Knight likes to play blues and rock & roll with it too. He also plays the saxophone and the keyboard, but likes how durable and transportable the penny whistle flute is. 

Knight uses his passion for music to entertain people passing by, volunteer at the biker nursing home, and give lessons to kids. 

"I ride a motorcycle, and to this day I'm 69 years old and knock on wood I'm not taking any meds," Knight said. "My life is very good, I'm happy, I camp out in the summers, I go down to Chautauqua County and I stay at a campsite called Brushwood Folklore Center."

After talking to Knight, you can tell he is a very happy person who is enjoying life, taking what he loves and sharing with everyone around him. 

Java Junction

Welcome to Coffeehouse Culture, where we spill the beans about the face behind the mug.

Hello everyone! And welcome to my blog, Coffeehouse Culture.

You may be thinking to yourself, what does coffeehouse culture mean? What beans are being spilled?

Well, if you have ever been to a coffee shop, cafe, diner, etc., I'm sure you have noticed all the unique and interesting people. My goal is to talk to these people, hear their story, share it with you, and "spill the beans" about their life.

I hope to find people whom I never thought I'd talk to or encounter in my life, and learn something new. I hope that by sharing people's stories we will all be able to be more aware about others cultures which we are not familiar with, and realize what we can learn from them.

"Why coffee?" you may ask. First off, coffee itself is so rich and full of culture. It has roots in Ethiopia, then moved east to Arabia and spread throughout the Middle East, then to Europe and lastly to the Americas.

Each region has its own sort of coffee. Kona coffee from Hawaii, Mexican coffee, Arabica coffee from the Caribbean, Robusta coffee from West Africa, Yemeni coffee from Yemen, Indonesian coffee, Vietnamese coffee, and the list goes on.

You can also go into roasts: light roasts, medium roasts (American and Breakfast blends), dark roasts (European, Espresso, Viennese, Italian, French), and all the roasts in between.

I could also go into the different ways to brew coffee, and the difference between espresso and regular coffee. However, I do not want to bore you to death.

I think you get the point that all coffee is different and unique. Much like people, coffee has its own story: its origin, how it got to where it is, how it became its final product, and the meaning it has carried with it on the way to where it ended up.

Every person has roots around the world, their own interesting culture and traditions. I am determined to get to the root of people's lives, to spread awareness on how important each individual is, and prove that we can learn from every person we walk past.
Coffee shops draw in a diverse set of people and is a perfect atmosphere to strike up a conversation with someone you have never met before, so that's why I chose coffee. 

I am so excited to see what I find on this journey, from coffee to culture, and I hope you are excited to follow me as I go.