The Oatly Way to Take a Fika

It’s been almost two years since Oatly traveled across the pond from Sweden to New York City’s thriving third wave coffee scene. To say they’ve made a splash in the coffee community and industry would be a wild understatement. With its rich, delicious, creaminess coming much closer to resembling dairy than most alternatives and it’s restrictive-diet friendliness (it’s dairy, nut, soy, AND gluten-free!), Oatly has more or less replaced traditional soy or almond milk as the top contender in dairy alternatives.

But it’s not just Oatly’s delicious products and brilliant branding that has allowed the twenty-five year old Swedish company to rise meteorically into prominence. Oatly operates with a genuine sensibility and consciousness of their world and community that proves they’re not just another hip, millennial transplant. For Oatly, it’s not enough for a brand to just claim to be responsible; it’s critical to them to act upon their values.

Oatly brought with them from Sweden, not just a delicious and sustainable product, but also the nuances of Swedish culture. ‘Fika’ is the everyday Swedish tradition of sharing a conversation and the company of another person over a cup of coffee. Together, Oatly and Curiosity Lab have repurposed the practice of Fika into a vessel for open dialogue about topics that are important to us and the communities we live and operate in.

Team Curiosity Lab was super excited to partner with Oatly to introduce Fika Talks, a series of meet-ups geared towards building community with mindful leaders in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Portland. We brought on our friends at impact-focused design firm, Made to Matter, to collaborate on the event concept and design, with the intention of evoking a meaningful dialogue. We traveled from New York with Oatly to coffee industry hubs on the west coast, partnering with like-minded organizations that expressed a shared focus on community, nutrition, sustainability, ethical business practices, and trust and transparency.

The first event took place in April in Los Angeles at RVCC Intersect in partnership with L.A. Kitchen, a best-in-class nonprofit organization that reclaims healthy, locally sourced food “that would otherwise go to waste and uses it to nourish, empower, and engage the community.” Over Swedish-inspired drinks and small bites, our interdisciplinary group of nonprofit and social enterprise leaders across the fields of food, social justice, sustainability, media, and more, connected and shared stories in an inviting and empowering space. We workshopped how to approach — in our own lives and practices — topics surrounding sustainability, inclusivity, out-of-the-box partnerships, and more in intimate, moderated round-table group discussions.

Buzzing with excitement from the positive feedback from the Mindful Meetup event in LA, we headed north to Oakland, teaming up with Red Bay Coffee for a Fika Talk on the role of trust and transparency in building safe and inclusive workplaces and communities. Red Bay Coffee has been a socially active member of the Oakland community since 2014, providing career opportunities for often overlooked populations including formerly incarcerated members of the community and youth aging out of the foster system, while simultaneously focusing on fair trade and ethical business practices.

We invited Antoine Hicks (Red Bay Coffee), Emanne Desouky (Super Juiced), Dee Um (1951 Coffee Company), and Annaly Lavey (Full Harvest) to speak of their experiences around building safe and inclusive communities. To get conversations started among attendees before and after the panel, we set up thought-starter prompts around the room with questions on the subject matter of the evening. We came together with the community for an evening of meaningful conversation over carefully crafted Oatly beverages, Super Juiced Oatly smoothies, and Firebrand pastries.

Last month, at the most recent segment of the series, Curiosity Lab took another Fika with Oatly and the Buckman Coffee Factory in Portland, Oregon where all proceeds of the event went to benefit p:ear, a nonprofit organization supporting and building relationships with homeless and transitional youth. The talented student baristas of p:ear’s coffee education program spent the entire evening with us, crafting some incredible Oatly drinks for all the attendees.

Changing up the structure of the evening a bit, we created a deck of question cards targeting topics of trust and transparency and encouraging attendees to strike up conversation with a stranger by means of the deck.

We invited a group of Portland’s inspiring community leaders to speak on the topic of building cultures of trust and transparency, indulging in the expertise of Erica Escalante (The Arrow Coffehouse), Cassy Gleason (Buckman Coffee Factory), Stephen Green (Pitch Black and WeWork PDX), and Meredith McEntee (Tony’s Chocolonely). After the panel, attendees convened into smaller, more intimate group conversations that allowed everyone the opportunity for their voices to be heard. Everyone left buzzing with excitement from our inspiring panel of speakers, having all had the opportunity to play a meaningful role in the evening’s dialogue.

Curiosity Lab has been honored to collaborate with Oatly in creating genuine and meaningful community-building experiences around issues that really matter. We are excited to watch the brand continue to grow, paving the way for trust and transparency in our food systems and showing brands what it looks like to stand for their values!