H7 Story: Catalyst - "From the Ground Up"
Catalyst: From the Ground Up
By Wendi Kitsteiner
I’ve kept this fact hidden for a long time, but I’ve decided I’m ready to share it with the world. I, Wendi Kitsteiner, do not drink coffee. In fact, the truth goes even deeper. I also don’t like tea. (Don’t even try me. I don’t like any tea. Not even the kind you tell me doesn’t really “taste like tea that much.)
While this may seem unusual in America, you cannot even begin to imagine how unusual it was for the Turkish people I lived with during my husband’s two-year Air Force assignment on Incirlik Air Force Base near Adana, Turkey* In fact, while learning the language, I made it a point to know how to tell the Turks who offered me çay (pronounced Chai) to please not take it personally. It was nothing against them. I just, seriously, didn’t like it. (The Turks offer you çay in any store, on any street corner, at any hour of the day wherever you go. Seriously.)
It still became so uncomfortable to explain why I didn’t want to drink their çay that my husband and I developed a system where I would accept the çay, and then when he finished his glass, he’d covertly swap it with mine and drink mine too. Not kidding.
Okay, so big digression. I’m sorry. I was going to tell you about this to admit something else to you. Despite the fact that I don’t like tea or coffee, I love going into Catalyst Coffee Company anytime I am downtown. I try to find any excuse. They’ll serve me a huge ice-cold water (for free!) and then I can buy some sort of dessert (or more than one dessert!) I also love their ham and cheese on a croissant. Yum!
Digression, again. Here’s the point of this article. Catalyst is a BIG DEAL in our community. Even if you don’t drink the very thing that they are most known for, it is quite obvious that the coffee really isn’t the point. It’s not just about serving amazing coffee. It’s about a place for people to meet and connect, enjoy great coffee and be a “catalyst” to the revitalization of downtown Greeneville, TN.
I always feel good when I buy something from Catalyst. I know that this is a non-profit business. While they do have paid employees, excess money goes back into the community. You can read about the types of places they pour into on their website or even on placards around the coffee shop, but I wanted to highlight one incredibly cool thing that you probably weren’t aware of.
One of their employees, Hanna Bowlin, recently shared with me that the coffee grounds from Catalyst actually benefit Greeneville as well. A community member/gardener Sophia and her equally stealth-like husband, slip into Catalyst on a regular basis. They haul out the used grounds and filters to be repurposed for soil and compost in various gardens and composts around our community. How cool is that? In addition, they’ve given Catalyst hypoallergenic plants to keep in their big room, upstairs, and have offered to help the employees not let them die!
On a recent pickup, Sophia explained to Hanna that they often share they’re surplus of grounds that Catalyst provides with neighbors and fellow gardening friends they have in the community while simultaneously sharing about Catalyst’s mission as well.
This means that 100% of the grounds that Catalyst produces which are sourced directly from coffee farmers at “the farm gates” makes it way back into the soil of Green County. (Farm Gate coffees are guaranteed to benefit the coffee farmers 50-100% of the prices paid for “Fair Trade” coffees giving the hard-working farmers more reward for their work! While the concept of turning these coffee grounds into compost is a bit beyond my (or Hannah’s) brains, basically, Sophia and her husband cultivate/blend/combine this amazing goodness with other proteins and strengtheners to make the biggest impact possible on the surrounding plants.
As Hanna explained:
While this may seem unusual in America, you cannot even begin to imagine how unusual it was for the Turkish people I lived with during my husband’s two-year Air Force assignment on Incirlik Air Force Base near Adana, Turkey* In fact, while learning the language, I made it a point to know how to tell the Turks who offered me çay (pronounced Chai) to please not take it personally. It was nothing against them. I just, seriously, didn’t like it. (The Turks offer you çay in any store, on any street corner, at any hour of the day wherever you go. Seriously.)
It still became so uncomfortable to explain why I didn’t want to drink their çay that my husband and I developed a system where I would accept the çay, and then when he finished his glass, he’d covertly swap it with mine and drink mine too. Not kidding.
Okay, so big digression. I’m sorry. I was going to tell you about this to admit something else to you. Despite the fact that I don’t like tea or coffee, I love going into Catalyst Coffee Company anytime I am downtown. I try to find any excuse. They’ll serve me a huge ice-cold water (for free!) and then I can buy some sort of dessert (or more than one dessert!) I also love their ham and cheese on a croissant. Yum!
Digression, again. Here’s the point of this article. Catalyst is a BIG DEAL in our community. Even if you don’t drink the very thing that they are most known for, it is quite obvious that the coffee really isn’t the point. It’s not just about serving amazing coffee. It’s about a place for people to meet and connect, enjoy great coffee and be a “catalyst” to the revitalization of downtown Greeneville, TN.
I always feel good when I buy something from Catalyst. I know that this is a non-profit business. While they do have paid employees, excess money goes back into the community. You can read about the types of places they pour into on their website or even on placards around the coffee shop, but I wanted to highlight one incredibly cool thing that you probably weren’t aware of.
One of their employees, Hanna Bowlin, recently shared with me that the coffee grounds from Catalyst actually benefit Greeneville as well. A community member/gardener Sophia and her equally stealth-like husband, slip into Catalyst on a regular basis. They haul out the used grounds and filters to be repurposed for soil and compost in various gardens and composts around our community. How cool is that? In addition, they’ve given Catalyst hypoallergenic plants to keep in their big room, upstairs, and have offered to help the employees not let them die!
On a recent pickup, Sophia explained to Hanna that they often share they’re surplus of grounds that Catalyst provides with neighbors and fellow gardening friends they have in the community while simultaneously sharing about Catalyst’s mission as well.
This means that 100% of the grounds that Catalyst produces which are sourced directly from coffee farmers at “the farm gates” makes it way back into the soil of Green County. (Farm Gate coffees are guaranteed to benefit the coffee farmers 50-100% of the prices paid for “Fair Trade” coffees giving the hard-working farmers more reward for their work! While the concept of turning these coffee grounds into compost is a bit beyond my (or Hannah’s) brains, basically, Sophia and her husband cultivate/blend/combine this amazing goodness with other proteins and strengtheners to make the biggest impact possible on the surrounding plants.
As Hanna explained:
“This is the very mission of Catalyst! For our coffee to cultivate a healthy environment for people to grow. Producing goodness and promoting others, right?!”
Hopefully, this is just one more reason to encourage you to stop in and support this downtown business – even if, like me, you don’t drink the çay.
*Did you know: Turkey has the highest per capita tea consumption in the world with an annual total consumption of close to 7 pounds per person!
Posted in Tell the Story