The baristas working in Barefoots Joe have become familiar members of the Union community, supplying morning doses of caffeine and afternoon pick me ups.
Each barista brings their own personality to the bar when they serve each cup of coffee or specialty drink.
Sarah Hartsfield, junior business management major, has been working with Barefoots Joe as both a barista and doing administrative duties since the summer of 2014. She is married to fellow barista and coffee roaster, Levi Hartsfield, junior mechanical engineering major.
“I learned this past summer that when we are behind the bar working together that our communication is really effective,” Hartsfield said. “The way he can teach me is more effective, and it is easy to learn from him.”
Hartsfield has been familiar with coffee from a young age.
“As a young child my best friend’s mom would make us a drink we called coffee milk,” Hartsfield said. “I would love to know the ratio of coffee to milk, I never saw her make it but I was really young and I thought it was great.”
Now, Hartsfield enjoys drinking Mexican coffees and lattes.
“I really enjoy the espresso,” Hartsfield said, “probably because my husband roasts the coffee so I hear about it a lot. I enjoy tasting the different flavors of the drink.”
Aside from washing countless dishes throughout her shift, the most challenging thing about being a barista is steaming the perfect cup of milk to create latte art.
“It is nice to have a job where you work with your hands,” Hartsfield said. “It is a craft, muscle memory.”
When she is not behind the bar, Hartsfield enjoys, “putting a lot of time into my marriage and being a wife – cooking, keeping house in order, sewing and embroidering.”
She and her husband also hunt.
“It entails being outside all the time,” Hartsfield said. “We get to hang out with friends and learn about wildlife.”
While deer are usually the game of choice, Hartsfield has hunted others, such as a 130-pound wild hog.
“I ran through the south Texas rush at midnight and stabbed a hog to death. The dogs chased it, Levi tackled it and then I stabbed it. It is my most exhilarating hunting story, but I don’t do it regularly.”
The Hartsfields’ apartment is a monument to their hobby. They have mounted deer, a badger skin rug, a black buck hide and a javelina, among others.
“I killed [a javelina] once and they’re so mean,” Hartsfield said. “I didn’t stab that one, I shot it.”
In the future, Hartsfield and her husband plan to open a coffee shop where they can roast their own coffee and have personal relationships with farmers who grow the coffee beans.
For now, Hartsfield is content working at Barefoots and plans to continue until she graduates.
“The community is very welcoming,” Hartsfield said. “The community of baristas, we are all really close and it is really fun. We love all the people who come get coffee from us. You get to see a lot of faces of people throughout the day”
