1000faces Coffee owner Ben Myers is on a mission to make coffee transparent by forming global relationships fostered out of understanding, compassion and, most of all, coffee.

“Obviously, the coffee itself cannot be transparent because it is brown,” he said, jokingly while sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor of his modest and barren work room. “But, the process behind the coffee like who grew it, where it comes from and how much we bought it for, can be and these are very important commodities to know in the business world because they can be used to empower people or to exert power over them.”

In Myers’ business world, that information is used to empower people; but, the empowerment is not just intended for the developing world coffee farmers he personally works with and can identify by name.

Through his weekly coffee education group, that empowerment also is extended to the baristas that brew and prepare drinks with his coffee and the consumers who buy and enjoy it.

“A big part of transparency is educating the baristas about the coffee they are brewing so they can tell the people they serve it to about the farm it came from and all of the subtle flavors of that variety,” he said.

“Being a barista is a craft so if you are invested in what you are doing you enjoy your work more, and are better trained which leads to being more employable and a better quality of life.”

According to Myers, giving people the opportunity for a better quality of life and community understanding is the central theme of the coffee education group, not just lessons on how to froth milk correctly or mix a fancy drink.

“I mean, we will always show people the roasters and what the coffee looks like when we bring it into the country because a lot of people have never seen those things,” he said. “But, my education theory is based on emergence as opposed to a more didactic way.”

He explains that this theory is better for the kind of relaxed and inclusive environment for every person, regardless of previous coffee education or expertise.

“We may have someone come in who is like a nine on a 10-scale based on experience with quality coffee and another person come in right after them who is like a two and doesn’t really have any knowledge of coffee past Folgers,” he said. “Obviously, these people will want to know different things and I want to meet each of them at their own level and work from that because they are different but they are both welcome to come and learn something new.”