#AlmightyPeople - Natalie Guest

Hi Nat, are you able to tell us a bit about yourself? What is your role at Coffee Supreme? Hi! I'm Nat, I live in Tāmaki Makaurau. I'm Mum to 15-year-old Iris and partner to the wonderful Bridget. For work, I’m the NZ wholesale manager at Coffee Supreme. I’ve worn a few hat’s over the past 10 years with Supreme. In this role I assist our wholesale-facing teams with supporting our customers and to help you drink amazing coffee at all Coffee Supreme-supplied cafes.

What’s a highlight about working in the industry that you do? For me, the people in our industry are the true highlight. By nature, the people we work with, customers and staff alike, are hospitable, caring, creative and interesting. It's pretty special when you make genuine friendships all while doing your day job. I count my lucky stars!

How do you find empowerment in your role? Do you have any advice for younger women looking to enter this field? I've been very fortunate at Coffee Supreme to have leaders and mentors who encouraged me to think outside the box, encouraged new ideas and backed me, even when I got it wrong. Someone told me years ago the old saying "Ask for forgiveness rather than permission" and I kind of just started rolling with that. For me, this is all about trusting my experience and intuition to make the right calls and build my confidence. If you have confidence in yourself, naturally others will too. My advice for others looking to work for a coffee roaster would be to chat to either your coffee rep or email the roasters you admire and ask to meet for a coffee - we love that kind of thing.

How long have you been a friend of Almighty and what was your first Almighty experience? I kind of knew Ben from when I lived in Wellington. I worked at Customs as a barista when I started at Supreme and Ben's cafe Milk Crate was next door. We then met again when the Almighty team moved in with Supreme in 2017 at our Auckland office. Our office refreshment game went through the roof from that day on!

We know how good you are with food, what’s your favourite dish to cook at home? What's your favourite meal out? This is a brutally difficult question. I'm super into Japanese cuisine, both cooking it at home and when dining out. On a weeknight, my favourite thing to throw together is some kind of donburi/rice bowl. Think sake grilled salmon or teriyaki tofu, cucumber, avocado, cabbage, pickled vegetables on hot rice. YUM! Heading out, anyone who hasn't been to Sake Bar Icco for their bento lunch boxes is truly missing out. My brother is the chef at Orphans Kitchen and I find myself going there for breakfast a lot. I love the fried eggs on tortilla with avo and sauerkraut. The coffee is excellent too!

Wanted to say congratulations on being sober for a few years now. Can you share a bit about your journey? Thank you! Yeah, it's just a little over two years now since I decided I wanted to know what my life would be like if I stopped drinking alcohol.

I came to the realisation that drinking wasn't doing any of the things for me that we typically think drinking does. It wasn't helping me to destress, it wasn't calming anxiety, it didn't make me feel more confident when socialising, and it didn't make me happy and giddy. Unfortunately, for me, it was really doing the opposite of all of those things which was affecting me negatively. I felt very low all of the time, I was always tired, I didn't sleep well when I was drinking and I felt anxious a lot. Having observed this in myself and knowing/suspecting drinking was the root cause, it then became important to me to be mindful and intentional with how I was managing my stress, anxiety and my over all well-being. I knew I could do better!

Initially, I wanted to give myself a year off the booze to see what it would be like and would the way I felt change. Being here two years on I'm so incredibly grateful I did. The difference in how I feel is night and day - like, a million percent better! I'm super privileged that I was able to come to this realisation and conclusion by myself and go through this process with relative ease, I recognise that this is not the case for many people. Those who know me well know I'm very comfortable being the odd one out, I'm fortunate I don't feel the need to conform to other's standards -props to my Mum- though it seems to me that it's more and more common not to drink while socialising, or drink very mindfully. In saying all of this, having a very supportive partner who drinks very little really did set me up for success; that, and having lots of Almighty on hand!

Has your sobriety influenced your family in any way? Yes absolutely. We have more energy and more time, you have a lot of time on your hands when you stop drinking, it's amazing. Weekends are so productive! I like to think I'm setting a good example for my daughter, she loves that I can pick her up at all hours. We're interested in doing more activities. Holidays have become so restful and rejuvenating. I highly recommend a sober holiday to anyone.

Do you have any advice for someone who is sober-curious? I really loved reading the Annie Grace books when I was thinking about doing this lifestyle change. Her book The 30-Day Alcohol Experiment was excellent and kind of changed the game for me. It's corny as hell, but everyone's journey is different. Educate yourself, know what your own experience is, talk to people you trust, take care of yourself and keep plenty of delicious non-alc drinks in the fridge.

Almighty is all about a balanced lifestyle, how do you keep balance in your life? I feel like I'm still learning how to balance life, listen to myself to try and figure out what I need day to day. I love to catch up with friends for walks, I've recently started doing reformer pilates at Sala with my partner and another friend. I love to cook for people, and this brings me a lot of joy, for me there's nothing better than sitting around a table with people you love, enjoying great food.

Top 3 local food & bevy spots? I love love love Ockhee on Ponsonby Rd. Pici on K'rd for plates of pasta - extra point for having NON by the glass. Duo in Birkenhead is delicious. And I low-key just love Ponsonby Food Court aye.

Top 3 places around the globe? Alas, it's been a while since I've been overseas, I'm loving everyone's European summer holiday content at the moment.

I loved Japan - I've only been to Tokyo, but I visited for 12 days when we opened our cafe over there. I can't wait to go back and, hopefully, will be back there late next year. I've got a trip to Melbourne coming up, I'm hoping to get to Cibi and Gimlet while I'm there. Keen for good recs too, please.

And of course what is your favourite Almighty flavour? Passionfruit sparkles and Yuzu & Lime sparkles forever.

F##K, Marry, Kill F##k - Guava and lime juice Marry - Almighty Passionfruit Sparkling water Kill - Almighty Blood Orange Sparkling water.