The daily grind Winnipeg woman translates love of java into a percolating podcast By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2021 (1872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you live on Strathcona Street and have ever been roused from a pleasant slumber by what sounds like a coffee grinder operating at full tilt, no worries, that’s just your neighbour, Genny Sacco-Bak.

Sacco-Bak is the host of Coffee With Genny B, a new podcast that, on a weekly basis, spills the beans on a wide range of caffeine-related topics. Want to know where to go when you’re jonesing for the perfect espresso? Good news, the mother of two and grandmother of one has you covered. Interested in learning more about small-batch roasters based in Manitoba? Ditto.

 

Now, because Sacco-Bak would never dream of greeting the day without a cuppa joe in her hand, it creates a bit of a conundrum on mornings when her husband Frank rolls over in bed, hoping to catch an extra 40 winks.

“Nothing beats a good cup of coffee made with freshly ground beans, not just the taste but the aroma, too. But I don’t always remember to grind my beans the night before,” says Sacco-Bak, seated inside Harrison’s Coffee Co. at The Forks’ Johnson Terminal, where she’s enjoying a size medium house blend with a dash of cream.

“I have a Cuisinart grinder that works great except it’s a little noisy. There have definitely been times when I’ve snuck outside at six in the morning and plugged it in, praying I don’t wake up Frank — or anybody else on the street for that matter. That might sound a bit extreme but sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do.”

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Sacco-Bak, an instructor with the University of Winnipeg’s Professional, Applied and Continuing Education (PACE) program who also teaches a Zumba class, figures it was around Thanksgiving 2019 when Frank asked how she’d like to toast her 60th birthday, due to fall on New Year’s Eve of that same year. Did she want to celebrate with loved ones? Go on a trip? No and no, she told him, stressing 60 is “just another number,” and there was no reason to make a big fuss.

She revisited the subject about a week later. It’s true what they say, she’d decided: you only turn 60 once, so she should probably mark that milestone in some fashion.

That’s when her thoughts drifted to coffee, a beverage that’s been part of her daily routine since her time at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate, back when she and a few high school pals habitually headed to A&W on their lunch break, where they washed down teen burgers and fries with a mug of stale black coffee.

Her taste improved “somewhat” through the years, she says with a chuckle, referring to herself as a “Starbucks gal” whose typical order presently is a tall dark roast or, if she’s feeling “special,” a non-fat, extra-foam, caramel macchiato, light drizzle, please and thanks. What failed to change, however, was her belief that coffee was always more about hooking up with friends to share a laugh, tear or both, than about jump-starting one’s day. Though that helps, too, she admits, taking a sip of her brew.

For the longest time, one of her favourite things to do was visit a neighbourhood coffee shop she’d never been to before, or patronize a place that had just recently opened. What if she took things a step further for her 60th by hitting a different spot every single morning in the 60 days leading up to her birthday?

Perfect, her husband remarked, when she let him on her plan. But were there even 60 places to go, they wondered? Sure, there are probably 60 Tim Hortons locations in Winnipeg alone, but if she was going to do this correctly, it would be cheating to include multiple locations of the same chain, she felt.

She needn’t have worried.

Not only did she have little trouble unearthing 60 separate spots (O Station Café on Osborne Street, Make Coffee + Stuff on Corydon Avenue and Garry Street Coffee on Garry Street all get top marks), by the time she completed her java journey on Dec. 31, 2019, at Little Sister on River Avenue, having saved one of the best for last, she was thirsting to do it all over again. (The second Sacco-Bak began chronicling her coffee odyssey on Instagram in November 2019, she was inundated with suggestions to head here, there and everywhere.)

We don’t have to tell you what happened next. After the initial cases of COVID-19 were reported in North America in January 2020, Sacco-Bak parked her project, certain the last thing the world needed during a pandemic was an Instagram account devoted to one’s coffee exploits.

“Further down the road I’d love to create a monthly ‘coffee club,’ where we would meet at a predetermined coffee shop to enjoy drinks and snacks, plus glean information from the owner about that particular locale: where their coffee comes from, house specialties, all that sort of thing,” – Genny Sacco-Bak

Skip ahead to the spring of 2021: freshly retired from a third job as a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society, Sacco-Bak, who’d been interested in radio ever since she graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications course in 1981, got in touch with S & S Creative, a Winnipeg agency that offers training in a variety of fields, including podcasting. Speaking to owners Shalinda Kirby and Natalie Suppes, she shared an idea that had been percolating for a while, that of a podcast revolving entirely around coffee. Their response: “Sounds great, let’s make it happen.”

The first episode of Coffee With Genny B dropped on Spotify on May 3. During the 25-minute segment she spoke at length about her 60-day coffee pilgrimage and how, through it, she was able to learn more about our fair burg, one cup at a time.

Subsequent episodes touched on the importance of a well-trained barista (did we mention Sacco-Bak worked part-time at Starbucks for four years, and still misses the inherent staff discount, a liquid asset if ever there was one?), travelling the world with coffee (Ethiopian blends are her No. 1) and her sizable collection of coffee mugs.

“Before I even started my podcast, Shalinda and Natalie, who taught me everything I needed to know about the recording process, as well as what the best microphone to get is, etc. etc., told me I should always have at least 40 subjects lined up and ready to go, so I’m never left scrambling,” she says.

That hasn’t been a problem. Some of the topics she’ll be addressing in the weeks and months ahead include products containing coffee — body lotions, for one — plus people’s first experience with coffee, which, for those around her age, this scribe included, usually means instant coffee. You know, like that glass jar of Sanka our parents kept stored in the kitchen pantry, throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. Heck, it’s probably still there.

Also, if the playlist in her vehicle has sounded more eclectic than usual lately, that’s because she’s currently researching songs that feature coffee in the title or lyrics; tunes such as Frank Sinatra’s The Coffee Song, the Tragically Hip’s Coffee Girl and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata. (Might we suggest Black Coffee in Bed by Squeeze, or Cappuccino Bar by Jonathan Richman?)

Another of her intentions is to discuss coffee in movies and TV, she continues, citing Central Perk, the everyday meet-up spot in the sitcom Friends, as being as integral a “character” of that beloved series as Chandler Bing and Smelly Cat. (Who knew? Charleston & Harlow, a home decor store with outlets in Saskatoon and Brandon, sells a soy candle dubbed 503 Cups, so-named for the precise number of cups of coffee consumed by fictional mother-daughter duo Lorelai and Rory Gilmore during The Gilmore Girls’ seven-season run.)

“Further down the road I’d love to create a monthly ‘coffee club,’ where we would meet at a predetermined coffee shop to enjoy drinks and snacks, plus glean information from the owner about that particular locale: where their coffee comes from, house specialties, all that sort of thing,” she goes on, adding yet another dream is to back a “Coffee Week” of sorts, along the lines of uber-popular foodie events such as Le Burger Week and Poutine Week.

“I guess my ultimate goal is to make Coffee With Genny B all about connecting over coffee, while promoting the rich and diverse coffee culture in Winnipeg and Manitoba. That and sharing information about coffee with coffee lovers. You know, like me.”

For more information, go to instagram.com.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca