Gratitude
Over the past few weeks, Wander Cat Cola had the privilege of vending at both the Apple Peach Festival in Acushnet and the Fluff Festival in Somerville. These two cities and festivals are seemingly quite different on the surface. The Apple Peach festival celebrates the historical harvest of apples and peaches in the local farms whereas the Fluff Festival celebrates the local invention of the manufactured sticky sweet concoction that is marshmallow fluff. Natural bounties and human-made creations. But at both festivals I felt incredibly welcomed and left feeling a great appreciation to serve craft cola at these events.
Massachusetts is a state filled with these kinds of dichotomies. Agricultural towns leading into factory towns leading into tech hubs. But within each town I’ve vended at I found many people open minded and curious to try craft cola. People have been kind and interested in trying something new, even something that could be considered a reinvention of a known commodity and not what they were expecting.
Sometimes there were so many people curious that it formed a line. Fluff Festival had maybe tens of thousands of attendees. If you had to wait in line for my craft cola, I apologize! I did not anticipate the foot traffic of the event and I am brand new to this all. My goal is not to scale to infinite production, but I hope to serve people in a way that leaves them satisfied. If it were up to me, you would only have to wait while I personally serve and mix your drink and ideally we’d have time to talk about what craft cola is and why I’m so excited about it. I don’t always have the time to do that when things are busy, but I hope you stick around to hear more.
Craft cola is sort of a combination of different loves and respects for the types of things we can consume. I focus on its natural ingredients, real spices and fruits, but combine them in a way that I believe is fun, sweet, and a simple treat that ideally puts a smile on your face. And even if it’s not your “cup of tea” (because it’s cola!), then hopefully you at least appreciated trying something new and learning about the spices, fruits, and heart that go into it. Maybe you’re even inspired to make your own recipe! Mix and match ingredients to find a combination that speaks to you.
At each festival I modified the presentation and recipe to cater to the local celebration. I mixed apple and peach juices with an apple garnish at the Apple Peach Festival, and lined the cups with fluff and offered a cherry apple juice mix at Fluff Festival. Personally, I’m a big fan of the peach combination!
This joy of experimentation and drive for customer satisfaction are at the core of everything I do. I know that I can’t please everyone but I feel that if I stay true to two beliefs, then I can at least be proud of what I’m doing and who I’m doing it for. Those beliefs are:
- Create a product that I enjoy
- Provide a service that I would want to be on the receiving end of
In fact, these are modified from beliefs I held while working as a software engineer. Those were: 1) Build software I would want to use and 2) Build software that I would want to be on the receiving end of. These core tenets allowed me to have fun and feel good about working with a team of wonderful people solving problems that I could actively see make people happy.
There was a shift in how I want to continue with my career that occurred during the pandemic. I was in my 20s at that time and isolated heavily to protect myself and others. However, I saw how people in the community still needed to be served. Homeless shelters needed help serving food, schools serving lower income communities still needed school lunches handed out. I thought to myself: “why should it be someone else who volunteers doing these things?”. I was young and healthy and had the privilege of working a job that is flexible and remote. So I volunteered what extra time I had while working full time.
During that time, I reaffirmed something that I had already known to be true and that many know and feel to be true: that despite all the “innovation” and money generated by the booming tech industry, entire communities of people are not feeling the benefits of that newfound wealth and instead their material conditions have worsened. On top of that, in recent years we have seen the emergence of technology that I personally feel is so devoid of joy and spirit, despite myself being a lover of technology and tinkering my whole life. I see this new technology as one that attempts to save time by stealing it from someone else. I have felt that it has become increasingly difficult to work in software in a way that helps contribute to a world that is enjoyable to live in.
I understand this is not true across the board, but I still have many peers in tech and these are sentiments I hear from people working across all kinds of companies. I’m sure we all have a different threshold for or a moment when we feel “That’s enough! I won’t be a part of this!” In tech, it’s easy for engineers to feel powerful because the things you build can scale and be used at all ends of the planet. But that goes for all the negative, anti-consumer things that can be built and deployed at scale as well. I tried to be an advocate for building better software as much as I could, but as the industry moves in one direction, it’s hard to make the case for better consumer experiences.
Can handing out a few school lunches to communities that need it change the world? No, because a single person isn’t scalable. But what if we all felt inspired and compelled to make changes in our local communities, somehow, some way? And our communities need more than just money - they need labor. Of course some organizations do indeed need money, but many need us to show up and physically be there. The people who need us are our neighbors. If you have the ability to contribute time and labor, even a little bit, is it possible to work up the courage to do so?
My family came from a rural, more agricultural background in the Azores and moved to the US to work factory jobs and find new ways to feed themselves in a totally new world. Then, I entered the world of tech and now am abandoning that career I built. This change in life trajectory is significantly challenging but I want to be working within my community, creating something tangible, serving it to you directly, and hearing your feedback and stories. How is the rural community of Acushnet and the urban, former industrial town of Somerville connected, despite being so different? In part, through the people who actively choose to make those connections and are out there working in our communities day in and day out.
Now, do I think I’m changing the world by selling craft cola at local markets and festivals? No, but I’m not exactly trying to! I want the spirit of what I’m doing to scale to all ends of the planet, not myself or my product.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your story and let’s keep forming connections together!
I’ll see you at the Manjiro Festival on October 4 and the Craft Cola Lab at Curio Spice Co October 11. Until next time!
- Wander Cat Cola