Issue #1

From the Editor

The only job I ever loved was as a campus barista at Utah State University. I learned a fascination with beverage, with the tender road a cup would travel from my hands to someone’s lips. Steaming a latte or brewing a tea bag was a simple sort of art, but I reveled in the act of creation.

I quit shortly after the cafe’s manual espresso machine was replaced with an automated version that management claimed would yield more consistent drinks. What they couldn’t understand was that robotic consistency can never replace the delicate touch of human hands.

Here, I present an issue made up of work that speaks to the gentle intimacy of beverage, and to the things that keep us human. I hope it feels like a warm cup from my hands to yours.

To the love of drink.

Ashlyn Sharp

Editor-in-Chief