Monthly Archives

June 2018

Scientists Use Coffee To Trigger Synthetic Genes To Treat Diabetes

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Coffee is good for you, a meta-study has already proven as much. But beyond its inherent healthful properties, scientists are now figuring out ways to use coffee to combat medical conditions. Still in its early stages of research, scientists have successfully treated type 2 diabetes in lab mice with coffee.

As explained by a recent Ars Technica article, a team of researchers led by Dr. Martin Fussenegger of ETH Zurich in Basel is using caffeine to trigger responses from synthetic genetic systems. To do this, the researchers needed to find a molecule that would respond to caffeine, and they found one. In camels. Using an antibody generated in camelids—camels and llamas—they now had a means of detecting caffeine molecules that would then trigger the gene response.

To treat the mice—who all had “diet-induced type 2 diabetes”—researchers inserted a permeable capsule filled with insulin-producing stem cells into the mouse’s body cavity. Thanks to the camelid antibodies, these cells were trained to recognize and respond to the presence of caffeine. So whenever the mice were given a sip of coffee, it triggered their bodies to produce insulin. The result was that the diabetic mice “had blood sugar level similar to normal, wild-type mice” and “had much higher levels of insulin in their blood compare to diabetic mice with the [insulin]-producing implant.”

And this is just the beginning. Researchers believe this methodology can be used to treat other medical conditions. It’s still a long way away from being ready for human use, but this new research may be the key to combating a multitude of illnesses. All with your morning cup of coffee.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

In Chiapas, Casa Cafeòlogo Is A Coffee Hotel For Green Buyers

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Less than an hour’s drive from San Cristobal de Las Casas, near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, is Los Altos de Chiapas. San Cristobal, a small, romantic town, is beloved by tourists to the greater Chiapas region for its food as much as the colors of its buildings, but Jesus Salazar loves it for a different reason.

Salazar, who runs coffee hotel Casa Cafeòlogo, is here for the weather, altitude, and soil.

Los Altos de Chiapas began producing coffee only 70 years ago, which, relatively speaking, makes the growing region relatively young. Consequentially, the producers here are open to experimentation, and Salazar works with 16 different producers to this end to improve their quality. He teaches picking techniques, processing methods, roasting, and cupping. Some of his projects include cherry picking instruction, process experimentation, roasting, and cupping. In San Cristobal, Salazar owns and operates a roastery and cafe called Carajillo, where he employs the sons and daughters of some of the producers he works with—when they return to their parents’ farms, they’ll be better informed about the extension of the coffee chain, and able to inform larger decisions about production.

As of 2010, Mexico was the world’s largest producer of certified organic coffee by volume in the world, and that doesn’t factor in the large amount of coffee grown by producers who lack certification due to its cost, but adhere to organic production practices nonetheless. All the producers Salazar works with grow organic coffee.

Pedro Vázquez is one such producer, with his whole family involved in the farm. Two of his daughters work with Salazar at Carajillo, one as a roaster and cupper in-training and the other as a barista. His wife oversees the Vázquez farm’s harvest, while their other three daughters live on the farm.

Ann and Pedro Vázquez

The Vázquez farm used to grow sugar cane, but 30 years ago was converted to coffee production. The Vázquez family now grows Bourbon and Typica varieties, and has survived an outbreak of Coffee Leaf Rust, when two-thirds of their crop was destroyed. The Vázquez family hopes to produce Pacamara and Marago coffees in the future, and are now laying the groundwork for increased production quality by taking care of their soil and planting shade trees.

Pedro Vázquez is sometimes more a philosopher than a farmer—he believes producing organic coffees is better not only for the soil but also for the soul. He says every time someone drinks a sip of his family’s coffee, he is sharing a drop of life with them, because well-harvested coffee is life.

Inez Vázquez pulls a shot in Cafeòlogo’s cafe

The use of chemicals, Vázquez thinks, will destroy his soil, which he simply won’t tolerate—he hopes one day to leave the farm to his family. Although the farms Salazar works with are too small to compete in the Cup of Excellence competition, a coffee from Chiapas’s Finca Los Azahares won fourth place in Mexico’s competition, winning a presidential award, and so the quality of the region is not without recognition.

To promote the development in Los Altos de Chiapas, Salazar opened Cafeòlogo in the city center of San Cristóbal explicitly for the purpose of hosting green coffee buyers. Each bedroom is kitted out with a Kalita set and specialty coffee, and guests have access to a cupping and roasting lab, a barista training center, and a beautiful cafe, which itself features a one-group Slayer and the coffees of producers Salazar is partnered with.

Thanks in part to Salazar and the producers he represents, Chiapas may be coming into its golden years as a production region. If his hotel is good enough for Tim Wendelboe, who stayed there while visiting Chiapas on behalf of Noma Mexico, it’s good enough for the coffee lover in all of us—and is all the more reason to schedule a visit.

Ximena Rubio is a coffee professional based in Mexico City. Read more Ximena Rubio on Sprudge

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee Makes You Bad At Gambling

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For anyone who has spent any amount of in an ultra-cold, windowless casino, breathing in pumped in recycled air, you know that the house wants you awake enough to keep putting money on the table. For me, an ex-full-time-ish poker deviant (and now just an occasional deviant dabbler), my go-to was always coffee; alcohol was for suckers looking to have a good time throwing money away. But I wasn’t there for fun, I was there to win, so I needed my wits about me. At least six cups of free casino coffee should do the trick, no?

But according to Extra Crispy, a study shows consuming caffeine will actually make you worse at gambling.

Published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, the study is a joint effort between researchers at Cambridge and the University of Chicago. The researchers followed 60 “problem gamblers” and tracked their caffeine consumption during their gambling sessions and found that those consuming caffeine “exhibited a five percent greater likelihood of placing a bad bet.”

This dip in play may be caused by two things. From the article:

While we think of coffee and other energy-providing beverages as the opposite of brain-fogging alcohol, caffeine does in fact impact decision-making centers in the brain. There’s also possibly a bit of a weird placebo effect: if we think a cup of coffee sharpens the mind, it’s easier to be convinced that the betting strategies you’re considering is the right one.

While a five percent dip seems nominal, gambling and poker are all about the numbers and knowing the odds. With even a one percent advantage, over a long enough period of time the house will bleed you dry. So drink coffee sparingly. When it’s 2:15am and half the table are sitting on some big stacks and are trying to bribe the server into one last round of shots, a coffee may not be a bad idea. But remember, jacked on caffeine or not, “but they were suited” is always a bad rationalization for talking yourself into a hand.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

Build-Outs Of Summer: Manzanita Roasting Company In San Diego, CA

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manzanita roasting company san diego california

Cowboy coffee. It means different things to different people. For many, it’s the sludge you make while camping over an open fire (often using a sock, worn or otherwise). But for San Diegans, cowboy coffee is coming to embody something entirely different. That’s where Manzanita Roasting Company comes in. Located on a winery, Manzanita is bring cowboy-chic to the coffee shop.

The new roastery is the work of husband and wife duo Weston and Samantha Nawrocki. Both coming from culinary backgrounds—Weston a chef and sommelier and Samantha in local wine—the two have shifted their focus to coffee. The couple has been roasting as Manzanita for three years now, but it wasn’t until earlier this month that they opened their flagship roastery/cafe. So grab your boots and get to scootin’. We’re headed to San Diego to check out the new Manzanita Roasting Company.

As told to Sprudge by Samantha Nawrocki.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

Well, we’re a husband and wife roasting team in San Diego, roasting for almost three years and sourcing the best microlots we can from small farmers who love what they do. Weston was a WSET 3 Sommelier and classically trained Chef from Vancouver, Samantha a San Diego native wine and marketing chick. We’re growing our wholesale, picking up national awards, and just landed on Thrillist’s top 21 USA roasters list. We’re passionate about people, coffee, keeping it green and environmentally friendly, and roasting sweet, happy beans. Now we’re opening our flagship coffee house, on our family’s winery where our roaster is. That’s about it.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

It’s a mixture of hipster coffee meets cowboy western movie, in a really green and airy space, adjacent to the roaster. We wanted to create a space that people are comfortable in, that’s modern and serious about the coffee but lighthearted, a bit funny, and welcoming to anyone and everyone who comes in. Definitely not white walls and succulents. I think we’ve done what we set out for. The space is happy, lighthearted, a bit edgy, and well, there’s the whole cowboy bit. But when you’re located on a 128-year-old California winery, you need to embrace what’s around you also and not be too pretentious and stuffy.

manzanita roasting company san diego california

Weston and Samantha Nawrocki.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We like to listen to the coffee. Weston roasts like he’s tasting wine. You need to let the terroir speak for itself and adjust the roast accordingly. Sweet, balanced beans with some complexity from the first sip to the last is what we are always aiming for and that also shows respect to the grower as well as the barista, who are so important in the equation, too. We can source great coffees from some pretty awesome farmers but we have to do them justice in our roasting AND then roast to where baristas are excited about the coffee too. They finish the process and hand you something truly delightful that they can stand behind too. This is what we love. Everyone is part of this.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We have a groovy La Marzocco Linea, a Mahlkönig EK43 for the pour-over bar, a Nuova Simonelli Mythos One for the espresso bar, a Baratza Sette 270 for our decaf espresso, a Wilbur Curtis Twin one gallon brewer, numerous cocktail shakers for our cold brew cocktail bar, and a broken janky oven. There’s more I’m sure.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

Week of June 1st, 2018!

manzanita roasting company san diego california

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

Craftspeople are our awesome winery maintenance staff, Weston, my brother Ross Rizzo (also talented winemaker), Najila the potter, who is making our hand-thrown limited edition mugs for our merch wall, Darlene, who is making our repurposed totes for the merch wall, Dave, Joh, and numerous unpaid laborers and friends who work for wine and coffee.

Thank you!

Manzanita Roasting Company is located at 13330 Paseo Del Verano Norte, San Diego. Visit their official website and find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee For Families: A Nationwide Fundraiser For ASAP

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We’re organizing a nationwide fundraiser this weekend—June 22nd-24th 2018—to support the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), working to connect refugee families in America to community support and legal aid. Like so many Americans, we are horrified by the Trump Administration’s attempted “zero tolerance” policy of separating families entering the United States as asylum seekers and refugees. The result—literal concentration camps for children—is offensive to all moral people.

Immigration policy is a huge, multifaceted, complex generational issue, and no previous administration has been perfect on it. At 12pm today current US President Donald Trump—in the face of overwhelming outrage from prominent members of both political parties, all 5 living First Ladies, former top federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice, and countless other Americans of every political, social and cultural background—signed a face-saving emergency decree to temporarily halt family separation at the border. But the human rights catastrophe continues, as thousands of families look for resources and accurate information for the steps post-detention. 

Fortunately there are advocacy groups stepping up to help. We’re calling on coffee companies and coffee drinkers alike nationwide to join us in raising funds for ASAP, a group fighting for refugee rights at the US border and resource distribution at the ground level. We’re calling the effort “Coffee For Families.”

ASAP’s project work includes providing resources and accurate information to detained individuals, working to reunite mothers with their children post-detainment, and filing lawsuits in federal court against ICE on behalf of individual clients. This weekend’s charitable action will go directly towards funding this meaningful work being done by the team at ASAP, just one of several laudable organizations fighting for refugee rights, including RAICES and our bi-annual Night of 1000 Pours partners at the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Coffee For Families Launch Partners:

 

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters — San Diego, CA (3 locations)

Blacksmith — Houston, TX

Blue Bottle Coffee — Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, Boston (multiple locations)

Coral Sword — Houston, TX

Cultivar Coffee — Dallas and Denton, TX (3 locations)

Dichotomy Coffee & Spirits — Waco, TX

Either / Or — Portland, OR (2 locations)

Everyman Espresso — Manhattan and Brooklyn, NYC (3 locations)

Evocation Coffee — Amarillo, TX

Four Letter Word — Chicago

Gimme! Coffee — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Upstate New York (7 locations)

Go Get Em Tiger, G&B Coffee — Los Angeles (3 locations)

Greenway Coffee — Houston, TX

Heart Coffee Roasters — Portland, OR (3 locations)

Houndstooth Coffee — Austin and Dallas, TX (6 locations)

La Colombe — Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego (multiple locations)

Marigold Coffee — Portland, OR

Metric Coffee — Chicago, IL

Morningstar — Houston, TX

Oatly

Parlor Coffee — Brooklyn, NY

Pentacle Coffee — San Francisco, CA

Port of Mokha — Oakland, CA

Ritual Coffee Roasters — San Francisco and Napa, CA (6 locations)

Stumptown Coffee Roasters — Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, NYC (multiple locations)

Sustainable Harvest — Portland, OR

Water Avenue Coffee — Portland, OR (2 locations)

If you’re a cafe owner or work with a coffee company that would like to get involved in this effort, please register your company here. We’d love to add you to the above list of brands raising money for ASAP this weekend.

CLU executive director Anthony D. Romero summed up the moment today eloquently:

“The devil is in the details. This crisis will not abate until each and every single child is reunited with his or her parent. An eleventh-hour executive order doesn’t fix the calamitous harm done to thousands of children and their parents. This executive order would replace one crisis for another. Children don’t belong in jail at all, even with their parents, under any set of circumstances. If the president thinks placing families in jail indefinitely is what people have been asking for, he is grossly mistaken.”  — Anthony D. Romero, ACLU

Can’t make it to a cafe? Donate directly to ASAP online. Your donation is tax deductible. 

SaveSave

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Source: Coffee News

Improving Vietnam’s Coffee Quality, One Variety At A Time

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catimor vietnam hung nguyen

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Although it is the world’s second-largest coffee producer, Vietnam has never had a reputation for producing high-quality Arabica. Robusta accounts for the majority of beans grown in the country, meaning that the likeliest place you’ve experienced Vietnamese coffee is in espresso blends—where it’s added for crema-improving qualities—or as instant, freeze-dried powder.

This year, three domestic producers are hoping to change that. Tran Nhat Quang from La Viet Coffee, Nguyen Dung from The Workshop, and Nguyen Canh Hung from Bosgaurus Coffee share a mutual vision of bringing Vietnamese Arabica’s overall quality up to specialty standards. By innovating growing and processing practices in Vietnam’s central highlands, they hope to develop a high-quality coffee production model that can scale. 

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Bosgaurus Coffee’s Nguyen Canh Hung

The three chose to hone in on a single varietal for improvement—Catimor. Catimor, often typecast by the specialty coffee industry for its characteristics inherited from Robusta, is nonetheless widely planted in Vietnam due to its high yield and leaf rust resistance. Its quality improvement could, as a result, have a major impact on the country’s overall coffee quality, and affect a greater number of producers than that of any other varietal. 

The First Brick In The Wall

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Broad changes to industry take time and effort. This year, the three producers focused on improving the cup quality from a single farm—owned and operated by Pham Manh Hung. They helped Pham implement harvesting and processing best practices across his five-hectare land area (about the size of seven soccer fields), which has a production capacity of 10 tons of Catimor per year.

Pham’s farm is located at 1,450 meters above sea level, in the Lam Dong region’s Cau Dat area—Lam Dong is where the majority of Arabica is cultivated in Vietnam, with varietals overwhelmingly constituted of Red and Yellow Catimor. Prior to this year, Pham had been planting commodity-grade coffee for 10 years. He decided to collaborate with La Viet, The Workshop, and Bosgaurus to raise his coffee quality to specialty standards. 

They began with the harvest.

Because strip harvesting is the norm in Vietnam, it is vital to provide producers with skills in selective picking. Wages for harvesting are typically paid by weight of picked cherry—to increase quality, that metric has to be shifted to cherry quality.

“Old habits die hard,” Bosgaurus Coffee owner Nguyen Canh Hung says of the implementation of quality-focused picking on Pham’s farm. “Although we paid pickers higher wages than the market standard, close monitoring and incentives to reward pickers were needed to improve quality. We gradually increased the percentage of ripe cherries picked, achieving 99% by the end of the harvest.”

Trust The Processing

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Bosgaurus Coffee

For the owners of Bosgaurus, La Viet, and The Workshop, acquiring ripe cherries was just the first step in a longer journey to scale specialty grade coffee to Vietnam. The next step was applying innovative processing methods. Generally, processing is overlooked by the country’s coffee industry, and in fact is regarded as a potential risk to quality rather than a tool with which to improve it. The industry’s assumption as a whole is that the longer a coffee’s processing time, the higher the risk of beans being subject to unexpected weather changes. Bosgaurus’ Nguyen believes that changing this mindset is crucial, and that processing could become a positive agent of increasing quality if he can reduce its variability.

The three producers started by experimenting with a processing method borrowed from wine production called yeast fermentation. They bought yeasts from Fermentis—a company specializing in producing yeasts for beer and wine processing. Yeasts were hydrated and injected into fermentation tanks along with coffee seeds for different durations, between 22 and 72 hours. Every two hours during the fermentation process, data on moisture content, humidity, temperature, water quality, pH, and degrees Brix were measured and recorded.

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

After, washed beans were dried on raised beds for 20 days. Typically, Vietnamese Catimor tends to have a sharp acidity, with a woody and nutty flavor. Coffee from one recent batch of 72-hour yeast-processed Catimor prepared with a Hario V60, however, dazzled with a bright and fruity acidity more akin to Kenyan coffees—the mouthfeel was juicy and the aftertaste sweet. And although this particular brew had some of the varietal’s signature woody flavor, once cooled, the cup’s overall complexity was remarkable.

“For now, the exact effect of yeasts on coffee flavor remains to be seen,” Bosgaurus’ Nguyen says. “As this is a novel approach to coffee processing, we cannot say for sure which yeast strain will contribute which flavor to the coffee.”

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

He went on to explain that through a relationship with Lucia Solis, a prominent coffee fermentation designer currently experimenting with yeast fermentation processing in countries across South America, he was developing specific processing techniques to bring sweetness to Catimor’s flavor profile. They’re also finding that longer fermentation times appear to lend more complexity and higher cupping scores to coffees.

The quality specialists in Vietnam are also experimenting with a method of juice fermentation, which entails flushing fermentation tanks with water, yeast, and fresh, concentrated pineapple juice for a period of 36 hours. The juice provides nutrition for the yeasts, accelerating their microbial activity to add fruitier flavors to coffee. The end result of one juice fermentation trial was a sample aptly named “Pineapple,” whose cups had an aroma of tropical fruit, a citrus-like acidity, a hint of orange sweetness, tea-like body, and a chocolatey finish.

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Along with the batches of yeast and juice-fermented coffees, a sample of anaerobic, naturally fermented Catimor was recently served at Bosgaurus in limited quantity. Nguyen says the goal for developing this particular method is to promote cup consistency.

Looking Forward

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Vietnam’s reigning Barista Champion, Tran Han

catimor vietnam hung nguyen

Measuring the experiments on Pham’s farm in terms of their impact on cupping scores is already taking place.

“We sent samples to Johan & Nyström in Sweden, Toby’s Estate in Australia, and partners in Germany and Japan for blind cuppings,” Nguyen says. “In the United States, with the help of Modbar‘s Will Frith, our coffee was cupped at Sustainable Harvest.”

The results of these blind cuppings were striking. All samples received cupping scores between 82 and 84. As details about each coffee was revealed, those who had taken part in the exercise were surprised.  

“The change we achieved this year was promising,” Nguyen says. “We owe this success to the hard work of farmers and baristas from La Viet, The Workshop, and Bosgaurus. Next year, we want to keep up the good work and establish a stable production model, before replicating it on other farms in the region.”

For now, new facilities, equipment, and plans are already being prepared for Pham’s next crop.

Tung Nguyen is a freelance journalist based in Vietnam. This is Tung Nguyen’s first feature for Sprudge Media Network. 

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Source: Coffee News

Crush The Rush: A Ferociously Fast Barista Battle From La Marzocco

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Are you ready to Crush the Rush? No, I’m not talking about beating your YYZ high score on Guitar Hero, I’m talking about the new fast-paced espresso drink making competition by La Marzocco. Pitting teams of three in a head-to-head, bracket-style competition, Crush the Rush is making 10 stops on a US tour, and it is rolling through Portland June 26th. Sprudge Media Network is the official media sponsor of Crush the Rush, and along with national sponsor Oatly, we’ll be there every step of the way to gush about the rush crush.

The game is simple: you and two of your efficiency beast barista friends (Beastristas? Rabeastas? You get where I’m going with this) will go head-to-head against another team of three to see who can make eight randomly generated espresso-based drinks the fastest. But it’s not just speed, it’s quality. Each drink will be judged by both a technical and a visual judge to ensure all shots falls within competition parameters and to assess drinks based on cleanliness, microfoam quality, and fills level, respectively. If both judges vote “pass”, this the drink counts. If not, well then consider yourself wrapped up in the remake-it blanket. The last team standing will be crowned the winners and receive the $300 cash prize.

Both teams will be working on La Marzocco’s Strada AV (with scale technology) and a Mazzer E grinder to create their drinks. Teams are to bring five pounds of coffee to be used in the competition, but beyond that, nothing additional is required (other than the entry fee); in fact, teams are expressly prohibited from bringing anything else.

Crush the Rush will be visiting the following cities:
Portland, OR: June 26
San Francisco, CA: July 2
Los Angeles, CA: July 6
Houston, TX: July 17
Atlanta, GA: July 24
Washington, DC: July 30
Chicago, IL: August 7
Kansas City, MO: August 10
Denver, CO: August 14

Entry fee for Crush the Rush is $30 per team. Teams can sign up for their preferred city by following the links above. For more information and the full list of rules, visit La Marzocco’s official site. So grab your friends—the good ones, not the ones texting during the lunch rush—and prove your workflow dominance.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*all media via La Marzocco

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Source: Coffee News

Build-Outs Of Summer: Pavement Coffeehouse In Boston, MA

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pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

There are few things in this world better than starting your day with really good coffee and a really good bagel. But this, inexplicably, is exceedingly rare. It’s either a good cafe with a disappointing bread round or it’s a delicious, fluffy bagel but served with a side of black char water. And then there is Pavement Coffeehouse in Boston, Massachusetts, who started out as a bagel company before expanding their horizons into the world of coffee. It’s a match made in heaven.

And now, with their seventh location, Pavement is getting into the roasting game. Having long been a Counter Culture stalwart in the greater Boston area, Pavement is moving to the other side of the roaster to produce coffee for their own cafes, including their brand new roastery/cafe in a former warehouse for Harvard University. Roasting, baking, a cafe, everything that is right and good is all under one roof at the brand new Pavement Coffeehouse in Boston.

pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

As told to Sprudge by Larry Margulies.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

We are a local Boston company with seven cafe locations. We have our roots in the bagel business, providing our customers with fresh, kettle-boiled bagels. For the last 10 years we have been continually focused on pushing our coffee program forward to accompany our bagel program. We served Counter Culture Coffee at all locations and have recently built our own roasting facility.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Our new space is the culmination of many years of planning. We’ve wanted to roast since 2011, but the company had other growth opportunities that had to come first. In time, we found ourselves with two separate bakery locations, a separate office location, and 6 cafes to manage. It took us a couple years to find the perfect location for us to bring the whole company together in a 5,000-square-foot building that could house our baking facilities, an office headquarters, a cafe, and most importantly a roasting space.

In 2016, Harvard University approached us about an old warehouse that they own. They were looking to invest in the building and “activate” it for the local community. The building needed a lot of work, but the location and size made it the perfect space for us. The partnership proved successful as we transformed a dilapidated, windowless warehouse, into a 20 seat cafe with patio, coffee roastery, bakery with a commissary kitchen, and office HQ.

pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

What’s your approach to coffee?

Our customers are coming to us for our cafe environment, our bagels, and our coffee, so we serve coffees on our batch brewer that are delicious and approachable for a broad audience. For espresso, our Rathskeller Blend is typically a 50/50 blend of two washed coffees—one from Ethiopia and one from Central or South America. For the rest of our coffees, which we offer by the cup on a Poursteady in our new cafe and offered in retail bags at all of our locations, we look for interesting, dynamic, sparkly coffees from a variety of origins.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We are roasting on a Loring S15. We are loving the consistency of the roast and repeatability of workflow that the software and design allows. We are also psyched about Boston’s first Poursteady three-cup brewing system that we had installed. This lets us roast and feature coffees that are more unique and interesting in a single-cup format, while mitigating some of the service bottlenecks that can accompany manual brewing services.

pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

We are open!

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

Shout out to Lana Kirby at Lana Kirby Design. She has designed all seven of our locations.

Thank you!

pavement coffeehouse boston massachusetts

Pavement Coffeehouse is located at 415 Western Ave, Boston. Visit their official website and find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

The post Build-Outs Of Summer: Pavement Coffeehouse In Boston, MA appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Celebrate Pride Month, Coffee, And Community At QC: Boston

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June is Pride Month, and for a rad coffee expression of all that’s good about Pride (and not just another free shipping code), look no further than Boston. That’s where QC: Queer Coffee Events has teamed up with the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective (BICC) for QC: Boston, “a panel discussion on being queer + coffee + Boston.”

Taking place Sunday, June 24th at Counter Culture’s Somerville Training Center, QC: Boston is the work of BICC founder Kristina Jackson and 2018 US Brewers Cup champion Becca Woodard. The evening is billed as “[discussion] and [celebration of] the queer coffee experience in the greater Boston area,” and for Jackson, it’s a chance to bring an event back home. “After I spoke at Queer Coffee in New York, I got some feedback and messages saying that a bunch of younger coffee workers were excited to come to something that was more for them. I wanted to bring something like that to Boston,” Jackson tells Sprudge via email. “I want it to be a celebration. But I also want it to be a reminder that there is a vibrant and diverse queer presence in this city.”

For Woodard, whose Brewers Cup win came during the most controversial times in the competition’s history (you can read all about it here), QC: Boston is a chance to celebrate the community. “We have a beautiful bunch of people coming together to make this event happen,” Woodard tells Sprudge, “to speak about being LGBTQIA in the coffee industry here in Boston, and to celebrate! There are so many different faces that make up the Boston coffee community and I’m so glad I get to celebrate with all of them.”

QC: Boston gets started at 2:30pm with some snacks, beverages, hangs, and music from DJ MATH3CA before moving into the featured event, a discussion hosted by Jackson with a panel of local coffee professionals including: Mea Johnson, Montana Gulbrand, Ciara Ventura, and Amanda Swaney. After the talk, there will be more mingling, snacks, and drinks.

QC: Boston is free to attend, but the organizers ask that those looking to join in on the celebration RSVP via Eventbrite, which can be done here. For more information, visit the QC: Boston Facebook event page. And get ready to celebrate. No promo codes needed.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via QC: Boston

The post Celebrate Pride Month, Coffee, And Community At QC: Boston appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Last Straw: Creative Strategies For Sustainable Straw Alternatives

By Coffee, News No Comments

Whether you’ve worked in coffee shops or simply patronize them, it’s not rare to witness the amount of waste created.

Not only does your favorite to-go coffee spot most likely employ single-use plastic cups and straws for iced drinks, but the packaging used to ship these items to spaces is incredibly wasteful as well. According to the LA Times“Half a billion plastic straws are used and discarded every day.”

Some lawmakers are finally taking this more seriously. So far, Malibu, Berkeley, San Luis Obispo, Seattle, Miami Beach, and Fort Myers, Florida are all cities that have banned or limited the use of plastic straws. According to The New York TimesIt’s not just happening in the United States. Scotland plans to be rid of plastic straws by 2019, and Taiwan is banning single-use plastic items, including straws, cups and shopping bags, by 2030.” Additionally, some restaurants are donning a straws-on-request-only format.

And in the coffee world, companies have emerged with creative strategies for sustainable straw alternatives.

Photo courtesy of Hay! Straws.

Some places such as Austin, Texas’ in.gredients is the country’s first zero-waste grocer, sell in bulk and requires customers to bring their own bags. Imagine if a coffee shop decided to operate under this model how much plastic we could save? Stores, such as Brooklyn’s Package Free Shop sell insulated coffee cups for under $20. Financially, it would be incredibly cheap business to run with onus on the customer but would obviously take a marketing hurdle to remind consumers to always have their reusable straws and cups on their person.

There are straws made out of cornstarch, hay, and even coffee grounds. Straws made by Oklahoma’s Hay! Straws are currently being used by Fair Fellow Coffee, in Tulsa, and are under experimentation by cocktail expert Arley Marks for a new menu item at New York’s Lalito restaurant. Hay! Straws are “a byproduct of wheat production. Once the wheat is harvested the stems are trimmed and made into hay for animal feed or, in our case, straws,” according to the company’s website. In May, Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group in New York (which has an interest in Joe Coffee Company) announced that all the group’s related restaurants would eliminate plastic straws and switch to biodegradeable options in 2018. 

While many new companies are creating biodegradables, few have focused the conversation around how they may potentially affect mouthfeel and flavor profiles in the coffee sphere.

 

Photo courtesy of Loliware.

Loliware, a company originally discovered and later funded by Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, makes edible, biodegradable products under the “biodegr(edible)” portmanteau. While the company originally started with flavored, biodegradeable cups in flavors like Matcha, Yuzu Citrus, and Vanilla Bean, they’ve moved into the straw sector, seeing a new opportunity to have their products used across the beverage space, habitually.

In an interview with Fast Company, Chelsea Briganti, one of the founders of Loliware, writes, “You can imagine drinking your cold-brewed coffee with a vanilla straw or a caramel straw…We think that will really increase this movement around plastic-free, because we’re not telling the consumer, ‘hey, you can’t have your straw.’ We’re providing them a solution to the plastic straw crisis while also giving them a fun experience on top of that. It’s not about the consumer sacrificing anymore, it’s about the consumer having fun and being sustainable at the same time.”

While coffee purists might not be the target market for caramel straws, Loliware and HAY! alike have begun to infiltrate their products into the cocktail space (Loliware just rolled out a new partnership with Pernod Ricard). I’m interested to see how this could potentially develop the coffee industry as well. Not only could these products create a more sustainable (and yes, whimsical) alternative to plastics, but they also represent a new era of the coffee shop as we know it. This goes beyond the “customer is always right” code of conduct or shifting menus subscribing to the latest coffee fad. Rather, the future of coffee shops must quench the thirst for transparency for their own good—to create a sustainable generation of engaged coffee enthusiasts.

Emma Orlow is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn, writing for Saveur, Dazed Magazine, and MOLD. This is Emma Orlow’s first feature for Sprudge. 

Top photo courtesy of Hay Straws.

The post The Last Straw: Creative Strategies For Sustainable Straw Alternatives appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News