This past fall, coffee nonprofit Raise the Bar hosted Level Up: a three-day event in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with educational workshops, community-building, guest speakers, and much more.
BY RACHEL APPLE
FOR BARISTA MAGAZINE
Featured photo courtesy of Level Up + Raise the Bar
Editor’s note: Coffee companies like Mill City Roasters are standing in solidarity with the Minneapolis community in a ‘no work, no school, no shopping’ stance against the ICE invasion in their city. We thought this would be a great opportunity to shine a light on the positivity happening in the coffee—and greater—Minneapolis community by sharing our report from Raise the Bar‘s Level Up event at Mill City Roasters’ headquarters in September. Level Up brought together more than 80 baristas from the national and local coffee community, and also invited the community to visit a public maker’s market featuring local artists and a pop-up café—and we were honored to be able to attend.
Over three days, 80 attendees, 25 instructors, and 15 volunteers came together to learn, build community, and celebrate the craft of barista work at nonprofit Raise the Bar’s Level Up event. Thirteen scholarship recipients joined from across the U.S., Mexico, and Ghana, each representing the future of coffee. This jam-packed event featured educational workshops, exciting guest speakers, and plenty of chances to connect over a shared love of coffee. Here’s a recap of everything we saw.
Connecting People Across the Industry
Between classes, attendees shared lunch outside Mill City Roasters and enjoyed perfect early fall weather. Meal and break times were designed as intentional pauses: chances to breathe, laugh, and connect amid intensive workshops and lectures.
A Pop-Up Café Service
Attendees poured, served, and practiced workflow during the Level Up Pop-Up Café, a two-day public coffee service staffed entirely by Level Up participants and mentors. Guided by leaders Shaa’ista Bennae (pictured right), Joshua Edens, and Bud Taliaferro, baristas showcased their new skills in real time, supported by equipment sponsors and to the delight of enthusiastic locals. In this photo, Ori Kloud happily pours a filter coffee for a guest.
Certificates for Attendees
Raise the Bar co-founders Rachel Apple (slightly obscured, third from left), Ivana Chan (far left), and Sandra Loofbourow (right) handed out certificates to attendees during closing ceremonies, with help from Pedro Mendez-England, Level Up’s social media specialist. Certificates were meant to recognize attendees’ efforts to show up, plug in, and leave with more.
Cupping 101
Attendees practiced sensory calibration in a Cupping 101 class led by Carly Green of Cherry Love Coffee, featuring coffees sponsored by Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Tasting is a skill, and the process gets better with practice. This session focused on building an approachable, shared sensory vocabulary using tools like the flavor wheel, and expanding aroma memory for more confident, connected tasting.
Heartfelt Moments With the Level Up Team
The Level Up founders and advisory board—from left: Rachel Apple, Lauren Lathrop, Kat Melheim, Alexandra Li ttlejohn, Sandra Loofbourow, and Ivana Chan—shared a tearful hug at the close of Level Up 2025. The idea for the event was born during a casual dinner conversation about bringing back the best parts of old barista camps. It ended with proof that community education could, in fact, be collaborative, inclusive, accessible, and deeply kind.
Crafting + Sensory Skill Development Between Sessions
Pictured above, Hana Kaneshige works on her yearbook page in the craft room, one of several breakout spaces available at Level Up. Alongside the main workshops, attendees could visit the sensory salon for one-on-one skill practice, or the quiet room for a reset between sessions.
Open-Dialogue Panel Sessions
A panel session brought producers, educators, and baristas together for honest dialogue about how to connect to origin without extraction or savior narratives. Hosted by Zakiya Mason (right), the panel featured, from left, Ezri Herrera, Nico Herr, Seidy Selivanow, and Bartholomew Jones. The discussion centered on shared realities: baristas and producers existing at opposite ends of the supply stream, one both underpaid and overlooked, yet holding the most direct relationships to coffee itself.
This article originally appeared in the December 2025 + January 2026 issue of Barista Magazine. Read more of the issue online here for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Apple (she/her) is an esteemed figure in the specialty-coffee industry, with over 19 years of comprehensive experience. Her resume includes pivotal roles as quality control manager for George Howell Coffee, coffee buyer, global supply chain manager, roaster, educator, and barista, in addition to being a legacy Q Grader. She is also the only woman Cup of Excellence Head Judge and SET Course Instructor. Rachel also serves as a U.S. Barista Championship Head Judge, Sensory Lead, and Committee Member, and has invested years in volunteer work and leadership in the specialty-coffee community, which has recently manifested in co-founding an education-focused 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Raise the Bar.
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