The Pour is a media platform telling stories about the coffee community—from Becca Woodard’s Brewers Cup win to highlighting local coffee organizations and cafés like the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective and Deadstock Coffee in Portland, Ore.
BY ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of The Pour
It’s not often you stumble across a story as it’s unfolding. This past April, at the 2018 United States Coffee Championships in Seattle, Nils Clauson, founder of The Pour, found himself in just that situation. “The Pour was at SCA Expo to network and meet some of the figures in the coffee industry,” he says. “We knew Becca [Woodard] from the Boston coffee community, but had no idea she’d be competing in the Brewers Cup. She filled us in on the competition thus far (there were still 15 or so competitors at that point) and her larger goals of putting her voice and message on a platform where it could be heard by the coffee community at large. It was pretty clear to us that what she was doing aligned closely with our focus … so we just started filming.”
The Pour began documenting Becca’s journey through the Brewers Cup competition, and they had no idea what to expect—let alone any inkling that they’d be filming the rise of the next United States Brewers Cup champion. “Fast forward 36 hours and Becca ends up winning first place. We couldn’t believe it,” Nils says.
The Pour is a media platform that aims to highlight the unique stories and viewpoints of the coffee industry. “What we’ve found over the last year and a half is that cafés, coffee professionals, and customers are really motivated by so much more than just enjoying a good cup of coffee,” Nils shares. “Coffee shops have become an integral part of the fabric for a diverse range of communities and people with compelling stories to tell.” The Pour goes beyond what most people typically see when they look at a coffee shop, and presents personal and compelling video stories about the communities that surround them.
It was natural that The Pour would be attracted to Becca’s story because her routine focused on inclusion and a push for diversity in the coffee community, which are the goals The Pour hopes to pursue using its media platform. “One of Becca’s main goals at SCA was to use her platform as a competitor to give voice to the issues she sees around representation of marginalized individuals in the coffee industry,” Nils shares.
The Pour has followed and chronicled community gatherings and events hosted by the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective, and is planning a series of portraits of coffee shops with strong community presences. “Coffee is the thread that can link person to person, group to group, and turn ideas into actions. That’s a powerful dynamic. We’re diving head-first into telling and sharing those human-centric, passionate, and relationship-driven stories that are all around us, and The Pour is a platform where we can share those stories with everyone.”
Right now, The Pour is focusing on its Portraits (or “Pourtraits,” for those who like a fun pun) that highlight a specific leader or café making an impact on their community. “The aim of each Pourtrait is to tell the story of a café, a roaster, or someone connected to coffee in a way that serves their business interest and also expresses their experience as an individual involved in a community. It’s a unique intersection between commercial focus, marketing-driven content, and short form, story-driven filmmaking,” Nils shares. The Pour just released a Pourtrait of Ian Williams and Deadstock Coffee in Portland, Ore. “Our favorite aspect of Deadstock is that ultimately, it’s a space for craft-driven, passionate people to gather. Whether that passion is sneakers, coffee, music, photography, it doesn’t matter. It’s simply a space that appreciates and celebrates passion, welcomes expression, and fosters creativity,” says Nils.
You can learn more about The Pour at their website, and be sure to check out their Pourtraits, which will continue to feature folks doing amazing work in the coffee community.
