Lemuel Butler was born in Boston, during the filming of his favorite movie of all time, The Omega Man. Moving to North Carolina as a child remains one of his favorite early memories—thus making traveling one of his favorite hobbies. In addition to traveling the east coast with his high school band, Lem toured with the hip-hop band (Sankofa); became a barista at one of the best coffee shops in North Carolina, the Daily Grind Espresso Cafe; traveled to Costa Rica to drink coffee on the Poas volcano; drank coffee in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica; French-pressed coffee in St. Lucia; and learned organic farming in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua. If not traveling; deejaying in some club in NC; mountain biking on wooded trails; watching Family Guy; having brunch with his daughter, girlfriend, random family members and/or friends; one can find Lem blending coffee or teaching Beginner or Intermediate Espresso labs at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, NC.
Lydia Troxler Iannetti was born and raised in Elon, North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from the school of Journalism and Mass Communications with a focus on news editing in 2002. Before joining the ranks of the Counter Culture crew in June 2003, Lydia worked as a nanny, law clerk, preschool teacher, and waitress. As a member of our Customer Relations team, Lydia provides coffee knowledge, council, and barista training, and also maintains the relationships between Counter Culture forms with customers. Her favorite things include magazines, fuzzy hats, men with beards, turkey sandwiches, and truffle pigs.
