Coffee People: Jakub Krystek

Coffee people.
The Better Coffee Standard defines it precisely: everyone whose life and work are bound to coffee, at every stage of the coffee circle — including those working under coercion, economic dependency, or without pay. Their families. Those who keep them standing.

The industry never stops talking about coffee. It rarely stops to talk about the people behind it. Red Ink Coffee exists, in part, to change that.

Coffee People is a series of portraits. Four questions — their voices.

Who are you and what do you do in coffee?

I'm Jakub, based in Prague, Czechia. I work at the intersection of specialty coffee, events, and spaces — co-organizing Roast Different Festival, consulting on café and bar operations, and curating hybrid gallery/retail spaces. Coffee is rarely just one thing for me; it's usually the reason a room full of interesting people ends up in the same place.

Tell us about a moment in your work with coffee that you're genuinely proud of.

Probably the moments when a space I helped shape — a festival, a pop-up, a room with the right people in it — started doing things I didn't plan for. I've been part of enough of those to know the proud moments are rarely the ones you expect. A producer meeting an importer, a barista hearing something that changes how they think about their work. I'm proud of having built environments where those things happen regularly. Coffee has a way of making conversations go places and the best thing I can do is create the conditions for that.

What's one problem you see in your part of the coffee world — and why does it matter to you personally?

The gap between what specialty coffee knows and what it communicates. We've built a world of extraordinary quality and almost no one outside it can feel why it matters. Not because people don't care — but because we're often talking to ourselves. That bothers me.

What would you change if you could — and what would better look like for you?

I'd make the industry less precious about who gets to be part of the conversation. The best moments I've had in coffee were with people who came from somewhere else entirely — gastronomy, music, design — and brought a completely different frame. That friction is where things get interesting.

You are coffee people. Tell us.

Four questions. Any language. Any format.

1. Who are you and what do you do in coffee?
2. A moment you're genuinely proud of.
3. One problem in your part of the coffee world — and why it matters to you.
4. What would you change — and what would better look like?

Include a short bio and a photo from your work environment. Send your answers to redinkcoffee@thebettercoffee.org