Tess Dodd

About Tess Dodd

I\'m a little different from your typical barista. While many of my counterparts are extremely cool Gen-Zers who dress how I dressed in I made my way into this world right in the thick of the Millennial years. For a long time I didn\'t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. It seemed so unfair to have to commit to ONE THING for the rest of forever.A year and a half into the pandemic, I left my comfy administrative work behind to turn printmaking, my covid hobby, into a business. To supplement that, I landed a barista role at a beautiful cafe in town serving up specialty coffee. It felt like a dream. I was madly in love with my jobs- something I\'d never experienced before. At the start of 2023, I chose to take a step back from the position due to the financial instability of barista-ing being too unreliable for my family life. I went back to an administrative position and while there, I missed the coffee industry every single day. It was only then that I realized coffee is where I want to be long term. I couldn’t believe it took me so long to figure that out.Towards the end of the year, I began working a couple days a month at a local roastery. While primarily a wholesaler, the owner opens the space up every Saturday and invites the public in to drink and learn about coffee. I was thrilled to be back in a space with people who were as passionate about coffee as I am. At the start of 2024, I accepted a full-time barista position at a local cafe and restaurant. Within three months, I was promoted to Lead Barista.I really love being a barista, but I know it’s not a forever job. My interests in the field lean heavily towards inequity amongst those in the industry as well as the impacts of climate change on coffee farming. While I figure out how those interests translate into a profession, I spend a lot of my free time reading books and articles relevant to the industry, as well as networking with other coffee professionals locally and online.Wanna talk coffee with me? Please reach out! You can also find me pouring lattes and dropping coffee knowledge on instagram at @highlycaffeina_ted.

Experience

1. Saturday Specialist

   Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters

   Oct 2023 — Present · Grand Rapids, MI, US

   Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters is home of The Saturday Experience, a no-pressure atmosphere to taste, discuss, and learn about coffee. As a Saturday Specialist, I assist the owner of GRCR in answering questions about everything relating to coffee, including: geography, planting, harvesting, processing, drying, milling, grading, exporting, sourcing, roasting, packaging, grinding, brewing, and tasting.

Education

• Ferris State University

  Bachelor's degree

• Grand Rapids Community College

  Associate of Arts - AA