Coffee

How often do you proudly display your empty coffee bags upon your fridge? If the answer is not often enough, you’re probably not buying coffee from Ann Arbor’s Stovetop Roasters. Each offering has its own whimsical drawing from illustrator Jared DeMeester (sea creatures, land mammals, third-place athletes, etc.) We think all coffee bags should be beautiful enough for the refrigerator, but until then folks like Stovetop Roasters are leading the way.

Tell us a bit about your company.

We are Stovetop Roasters, of Ann Arbor, MI. A bit about us and our beliefs: we care about the people who grow, serve, and drink our coffee. At Stovetop we believe great coffee builds quality relationships, and quality relationships inspire great coffee. We’re serious about design, sourcing, roasting, and brewing, but what excites us most is coffee’s great knack for bringing people together. It’s a conversational beverage, and we think that’s significant.

When did the coffee package design debut?

Our current design debuted in February of 2017. We print on a paper sleeve that hugs our stout bags, which allows each coffee to have its own personality.

Who designed the package?

Our design is all executed in-house by Jared DeMeester. Jared is an illustrator/designer, focused on art with story-worthy soul. In 2015, Jared started a website called I Tried My Best, featuring hand drawings that occasionally lack skill but make up for it with charm. This concept laid the groundwork for Stovetop’s quirky aesthetic.

Kurt Vonnegut once said, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.” As a team, we hope our design choices align with Vonnegut’s statement. Keep making, brewing, drawing, singing, dancing, or whatever it is that gives you life.

What coffee information do you share on the package?

Our packaging shares standard yet important info about origin, processing, elevation, and varietals, along with:

A sourcing note, which provides some short facts about the coffee’s origin, farmers/staff, sustainability practices, etc. It’s our opportunity and privilege to share something that gives the coffee’s producers a heartbeat.

An “ideal drinking location” and “drinking music,” gives us an opportunity to communicate our appreciation of sound and space. Most of our fondest coffee drinking memories reflect both coffee and the sensory details: where we are, who’s with us, what we’re hearing.

Our blends include an “imaginative tasting note,” a short blurb we derive from what we experience internally as we sip the coffee. For example, our summer blend talks about riding around on the back of a butterfly sipping nectar from flowers with straws. Emphasis on the “imaginative.”

The inside of our sleeve features small illustrations and recommendations for several different brewing methods/ratios.

Our last piece of information is “a note from the artist.” Each Stovetop coffee has its respective character, and the artist’s note helps us give the character voice and feeling.

What’s the motivation behind that?

Our motivation is always to give our product a sense of delight, honesty, and soul. Though we can’t sit at the table each morning with our beloved Stovetop customers, we can send them home with a bag that speaks to our favorite things: clean lines, dogs in clothing, coffee farmer shoutouts, smile-inducing haiku poems. We believe brand has the capability of bridging the gap between craft and non-craft drinkers.

What are some of the improvements made in the packaging?

The resealable zipper keeps coffee fresh and easily accessible for half-open morning eyes. We also love having the ability to design and print on all four sides of the sleeve. This gives us plenty of real estate for communicating who we are and what we do.

Why are aesthetics in coffee packaging so important?

It’s an invitation to the party! Our team at Stovetop has always aimed to grow the pie of specialty coffee rather than stealing someone else’s slice, so we constantly evaluate how we are branding these bags of beans. Jared says that if a coffee professional and his 88-year-old Grandma Alice can both pick up the back and feel delighted and engaged, his job is fulfilled.

Where is the bag manufactured?

Pacific Bag, located in Seattle, WA.

For package nerds, what type of package is it?

It is a 12 oz, side gusseted, aluminum foil bag.

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

Our paper sleeve is recyclable, though we notice many folks making use of it as refrigerator art. As we grow, we are exploring compostable options.

Where is it currently available?

You can find our coffee in shops across the Midwest. However, if you do not reside here, our website keeps tabs on all of our goodies. Stop in at our new cafe in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a hug. Thank you!

Thank you!

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

As it stands right now in California, all sales of roasted coffee are meant to come with a carcinogen warning because it contains acrylamide, a chemical that is a natural byproduct of the roasting process. For shops, this means posting some sort of signage stating coffee to contain carcinogens, and for roasters it means putting a cancer warning on their retail bags. This is due to a court ruling back in March where a judge ultimately decided that the coffee industry didn’t do enough to prove that the trace amounts of naturally occurring acrylamide aren’t toxic. It’s like innocent until proven guilty, but y’know, the exact opposite. As you might expect, this didn’t sit well with coffee companies in the Golden State, nor did it jibe with current research on the presence of the carcinogen in coffee.

But now, according to the New York Times, the State of California is intervening on the behalf of coffee (and general sanity). In a public hearing taking place today, August 16th in Sacramento, a government agency is proposing a new rule declaring that “not only does coffee pose no significant risk of cancer, it may actually have health benefits.”

The reason for the new rule is two-fold. One, there is a preponderance of evidence showing coffee to actually be healthful, which the Times politely refers to as “more comprehensive scientific research.” And two, the State is worried that a growing number of cancer warnings—some like the less-than-rock-solid ones aimed at coffee—will desensitize consumers to actual, serious health risks.

“There’s a danger to overwarning — it’s important to warn about real health risks,” said Sam Delson, the deputy director for external and legislative affairs of California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. This is the same office put out a statement recently stating that the carcinogens “inherent in the processes of roasting coffee beans and brewing coffee pose no significant risk of cancer.”

For now, the public hearing is the first step. As the article notes, California coffee companies are in a holding pattern to see how everything shakes out, but the new proposal is expected to be approved by the end of November, when finally and but for a brief moment, sanity will win out.

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

The post Maybe Coffee Won’t Have To Have A Cancer Warning After All appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

We love having repeat visiting to ye ole Build-Outs of Summer and that’s what we have going on today. Kind of. Spokane, Washington’s First Avenue Coffee is a sister company to Roast House, whose coffee kiosk inside My Fresh Basket we profiled a year ago almost exactly to the day. So let’s skip the rigamarole and jump straight to the good stuff, the lovely new First Avenue Coffee in Spokane, Washington.

As told to Sprudge by Aaron Jordan.

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

First Avenue Coffee is a sister company to Roast House. Roast House values and sources only organic and ethically traded coffees from reputable and sustainable sources. Both locations are in the process of becoming Zero Waste and Green Certified.

Owner Deb Di Bernardo’s coffee education began while working for a local Spokane roaster. It was during this time that she started dreaming of a more sustainable and ethical model of coffee production and retail—one that she believed was vital to our health, our environment and our coffee community. Within a few years of Roast House’s inception, Aaron Jordan came on as an apprentice roaster. This is where life truly became transformational. Deb insisted on Fair Trade, shade grown, certified organic coffees, and Aaron met those criteria, coming back with higher quality green coffees along with much more expensive, crazy delicious coffees from the Cup of Excellence and single cultivar separations. The Roast House tasting room was born of a need to guide and educate consumers through the value of these exquisite coffees. Visitors now find their way to the industrial area that houses the roastery to take advantage of tasting the wide array of seasonal and core offerings.

First Avenue Coffee is an opportunity to take the Roast House experience to the broader public, and create a new coffee experience for the people of Spokane. We hope that by modeling a cafe focused on sustainable coffees and business practices, other local businesses will be encouraged to do the same.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

First Avenue Coffee opened this past July in the historical 1912 Music City Building. Music City Pianos, who occupied our space and for which the building is named, has given us a player piano on “permanent loan.”

Our suite is long and narrow, 3,000 square feet with north facing windows and a 450-square-foot mezzanine. With respect for the age and historical value of the building, our design incorporates the rough cut 100-year-old beams, ceiling joists, original maple wood floors, capitalizing on the drama of 20-foot ceilings.

Our goal in opening this retail location is simple—move more of these small lot coffees, assuring them/our world their long term viability. Our commitment to these producers transcends from roasting through the exacting brew recipes employed for the best representation of their beans. It’s our job to make people fall in love with these coffees. We believe that each time we put a cup in someone’s hands it’s an opportunity to change that producers world.

Starting with the concept of a soft curving bar at the front of the house (developed by roasters Aaron Jordan and Kyle Siegel), we built a 40-foot-long C-shape bar, three support islands, and a 30-foot-long back bar. We chose to play off the heavy wood and beam structure with the very clean and classic neutral palette of stainless steel and white solid surfaces—creating a very streamlined look.

Pour-Over Station: The “top” of our C-shape counter—the first visual looking in from the street features four chrome, Modbar pour-over systems with countersunk drip trays spaced evenly across this first eight feet of stainless steel. Immediately behind the pour-over modules on the first “island” are four Baratza Forte BG grinders, featuring seasonal single origins, and one darker roast option. Behind those grinders and mirrored on the island at the end is a 4-Faucet Kegerator system where we serve our F-Bomb nitro, a rotating single origin nitro, chai nitro, and a carbonated tea option which is currently a Cascara Soda from Las Lajas, Costa Rica.

Retail Station: We dropped the height of this station for easy customer access to the POS system, retail items, and pastries. These locally sourced pastries (vegan, grain free to fully leaded gluten) are featured in this first curve of the C, immediately across from the entrance door. Behind this station on the first of three support islands we stage brewed coffee, with a BUNN H5X water tower, ICB brewer, and G3 retail grinder set up on the back bar.

Espresso Station: Moving into the long curve of the C, we’ve layered white solid surface over the stainless for a visual change to showcase the following nine feet of Modbar AV espresso taps, steam wands, a countersunk refrigerated well, and pitcher rinsing sinks. Modbar AV is the newest release from Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Modbar, makers of modular undercounter brewing equipment. Modbar AV was developed in partnership with La Marzocco over the course of more than two years of collaborative R&D and manufacturing.

We configured our bar into two work stations, each with two Modbar AV’s and one steam wand to facilitate volume and efficient barflow. The two systems are separated by the countersunk refrigerated well to allow two baristas to work seamlessly during events and rushes. We chose Modbar systems for their unique design which encourages engagement, interaction, and education between our crew and our guests. Modbar’s support and help throughout this buildout has been incredible. Thank you to Will, Chanelle, Nancy, and Lena for all that you do. This project came together because of your sage wisdom. Immediately behind this station is the center island, where we placed three Nuova Simonelli Mythos Clima Pro grinders, knock boxes, undercounter freezer, and double refrigerator. We chose the Mythos for its consistent particle size, dose, and extraction, providing our customers the same anticipated experience day after day.

Slow Bar Station: After the last Modbar espresso tap we’ve set up a station similar to that of a cocktail bar. A small selection of bar seating allows for guests to sit down one-on-one with a barista and enjoy a selection of seasonal drinks from our slow bar fresh sheet. Over the last several years, we’ve gleaned inspiration from the rich history of the cocktail world. While coffee will never be an exact representation of the spirits in cocktails, taking the versatility of single origin coffees and pairing them with a variety of ingredients in mixed drinks keeps things fresh. Ultimately, we wanted to create a piece of our menu that allowed us to experiment and create a unique coffee experience for our local area. The menu currently features a Nitro Fashioned using our F-Bomb nitro, orange and aromatic bitters, and simple syrup garnished with a Luxardo cherry and orange peel like any good Old Fashioned. The Cold Brew Sour combines our single origin nitro from Ethiopia with lemon juice and house-made chamomile grapefruit syrup—perfectly refreshing on a hot summer day. If sweet is more the guest’s speed, our Cherry Bomb combines cold brew concentrate with Luxardo cherry syrup, shaken and served frothy and neat in a coupe glass. As the seasons change so will the menu. We plan to roll out a lot of fun drinks in the coming months.

Our occupancy is approximately 140, covered with a variety of seating options. We offer a 13-foot live edge walnut slab community table, live edge 12-foot wide wall mounted walnut “buddy bars”—to accommodate those wanting to throw back a quick espresso, check their messages, and run. For people watching, the window bar overlooking the street and two balcony bars overlook the cafe from the back of the space. The mezzanine also features comfy soft furniture. We plan on utilizing all this space, hosting special private events as well as coffee industry specific events.

Cupping Kiosk: The final element in the very back of the space is a beautiful 2.5 kilo matte white Diedrich Roaster surrounded by a curved cupping bar with a 5’ x 5’ SCA Flavor Wheel next to it. This space will be used to sample roast for green coffee purchasing, and to host classes and public cuppings.

Okay, that’s it. That’s the whole space…we promise. No more.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Roast House was founded on a firm commitment to only sourcing and supporting producers growing sustainably certified farms. We’ve worked with Rainforest Alliance, USDA Organic, and UTZ since the beginning. As we roll out a new chapter, opening a retail cafe, those values will not change.

Roasters Aaron Jordan and Kyle Siegel spend a lot of time evaluating and working with our sourcing partners to find the most delicious offerings available. Green quality is paramount to the success of a guest’s experience with the finish product. We roast on a 12-kilo Diedrich Roaster approaching each coffee to showcase the qualities we found on the cupping table. A house blend is featured on espresso and batch brew alongside a more developed blend option for our dark roast fans on pour-over. The remaining offerings are single origin, roasted to highlight their terroir. Highlighting those qualities means we roast on the lighter end of the spectrum. Although structure and sweetness are a big deal to us when it comes to roasting lighter, so we preserve flavor clarity and acidity while still providing a chuggable cup of coffee.

From there, the coffee is sent to our amazing team of coffee magicians. Using the Modbar AV’s and automating flow on the Modbar pour-over systems allows dialing in to be approachable and efficient. Leveraging integrated scales in the drip trays and a simple interface to adjust espresso yield has been a lot of fun to work with. Our pour-overs are brewed via Kalita 185‘s, with Modbar’s spray tip and extraction adjusted for the Forte BG grinders. The replicability of this system is really important, especially because specialty coffee is not an inexpensive commodity. We want to ensure that when our guests pay a premium for a quality product it is the best it can possibly be.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

4 Modbar Pour-Over Systems
4 Modbar AV Espresso Systems
2 Modbar Steam Systems
1 BUNN ICB Batch Brewer
2 BUNN H5X Hot Water Towers
1 BUNN G3 Grinder
4 Baratza Forte Brew Grinders
1 Baratza Sette 30 Grinder
3 Nuova Simonelli Mythos Clima-Pro Grinders
1 Diedrich IR-2.5 Roaster

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

July 13th, 2018

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

Design: Uptic Studios
Branding: Hampton Visuals
Construction: Mauer Inc.
Wisdom and all things involving flow: Will Frith, Modbar

Thank you!

Thank you for the opportunity to share our space.

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.

Photos by Doyle Wheeler.

The post Build-Outs Of Summer: First Avenue Coffee In Spokane, WA appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Time now for the Build-Outs of Summer to once again hop the pond and head over to merry old England and check back in with Origin Coffee Roasters in Cornwall. If you’re having a bit of déjà vu, it’s because we’ve been here before, a little over three years ago, when Origin opened one of their two previous Cornwall cafes. In those three years, Origin has continued to rack up wins at UK Barista Championships, remaining one of the heavy favorites year in and year out.

For their new cafe, Origin will be setting up inside a Network Rail archway and serving breakfast, lunch, and all day brunch. In short, you can expect nothing but continued excellence from one of England’s premier coffee roasters. So let’s go check it out, shall we?

As told to Sprudge by Luke Caddel.

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

We’re a coffee roaster based in Cornwall, in South West England. We’ve been roasting for about 10 years and are proud to work with some of the UK’s leading baristas. Joshua Tarlo, our Head of Coffee, came 1st in the UK Barista Championship earlier this year. Dan Fellows, our Head of Wholesale also came 1st in the Coffee in Good Sprits Championship this year, and will go on to compete in the World Championship in Brazil this November.

We work with some of the finest independent coffee shops, restaurants, and hotels in the country. We also run our own coffee shops at two locations in Cornwall, and three in London; Southwark will be the fourth.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

It’s built inside a Network Rail archway, a stone’s throw from Southwark Underground Station and forms part of Bankside’s “low line” redevelopment. It will house a cafe serving breakfast, lunch, and evening refreshments during the week and all day brunch at the weekend. It will also house our SCA and wholesale training rooms and our London technical department.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We’re fortunate that being a roaster, we’re able to source exclusive lots for our coffee shops and keep our single-origin coffees frequently rotating. To let our customers experience amazing coffees from different countries, different processes and different brew methods. The coffee needs to be incredible but it’s testament to our baristas who are knowledgeable, approachable and passionate about their work.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

Yes, we’re excited to feature the new Modbar Espresso AV with built-in scales.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

September

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

Hart Miller Design—we’re advocates for their brilliant work, and they’ve designed the interiors for all of our coffee shops in Cornwall and London.

Thank you!

Thank you too!

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: Origin Coffee Roasters In Cornwall, England appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Slingshot Coffee is growing up. The Raleigh-based ready-to-drink cold brew and cascara maker founded by Brewers Cup-winning duo Jenny and Jonathan Bonchak have just moved into a brand new 13,000-square-foot facility. And to celebrate, Slingshot has announced the release of their new coffee soda.

Per the press release, the new coffee sodas will come in two flavors—Black Cherry Cola and Citrus Vanilla Cream Soda—and were “inspired by Jenny & Jonathan’s favorite fountain sodas.” Jenny Bonchak had this to say:

Each soda is sweetened only with real fruit juice and natural cane sugar, with an eight-ounce can only having 60 calories and 1/3 the sugar of a traditional soda. Cans of Slingshot’s new coffee sodas have an MSRP of $2.99 and will be rolling out through retail outlets in the Southwest throughout the month as well as debuting on the West coast.

Summer’s not over yet. There’s still time to slam a few coldies while soaking in some vitamin D. And with Slingshot’s new coffee sodas, might as well make them some coffee coldies. For more information, visit Slingshot Coffee’s official website.

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

The post Slingshot Coffee Announces Two Flavors Of Their Brand New Coffee Soda appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Did you know that coffee was first harvested sometime in the second century BCE? Did you also know that the first written instance of the word “barista” comes from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice? Or what about the fact that “spres,” the root of espresso literally translates in Italian to “spray?” If you were privy to all those factoids or knew from the jump that they were completely fabricated by my dumb brain (and best I can tell, most likely incorrect), then you may be just the sort of person that would kill it at Royal Coffee’s Coffee Trivia Night. Taking place at Oakland’s Awaken Coffee on Thursday, August 30th, it will be a night of coffee and coffee facts, and it’s all for a good cause.

Hosted by Royal Coffee’s Chris Kornman and Sandra Elisa-Loofbourow, Coffee Trivia Night will be a competition like no other. Sure, you can pour a 98-tier tulip in a thimble and maybe that would help you win a throwdown, but can you explain the fluid dynamics that make that pour possible? Because that’s what it’s going to take to win Coffee Trivia (well probably not that, because that’s really, really impossibly hard, but you see where I’m going here). Teams of up to five will battle it out over a variety of coffee-related facts, none of which can be spoken of before the event lest there be foul play afoot.

Winners will receive prizes donated by sponsors Grounds for Health, Equator Coffees & Teas, Ritual Coffee, the Created Co, the Crown, and more.

And the best part is, it’s all for charity. The entirety of the proceeds go to Ground for Health, an organization working to prevent cervical cancer in women in coffee growing regions.

Tickets for Coffee Trivia Night are $10 person and can be purchased here (and if you feel so inclined to donate a little extra, that will go to Grounds for Health as well). If you don’t have a team, fret not, for the event organizers can help join you up with other loosies, should you and they be so inclined to share in the plunder. For more information, visit Coffee Trivia Night’s Eventbrite page.

And remember all those rock solid facts I told you earlier. They will surely be indispensable in the final round when it’s all on the line.

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 Royal Coffee

Disclosure: Royal Coffee and Equator Coffees & Teas are advertising partners on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Oakland: Get Your Facts On At Coffee Trivia Night At Awaken Coffee appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

You may know Bentonville, Arkansas as the home of Wal-Mart, America’s real life Mega Lo Mart. Or if you are coffee-minded—which presumably you are—you may know B-ville as the home of Onyx Coffee Lab, the roaster/cafe that has taken the coffee competition world by storm the past few years. But Bentonville’s coffee conversation doesn’t start and stop with Onyx. And Airship Coffee would like to have a word.

Roasting on a 50-year-old Probat, Airship Coffee is looking to carve out their own corner of Northwest Arkansas by focusing on coffee and relationships. Having beer on tap certainly won’t hurt either. So let’s check in with the new kid on the block, Airship Coffee in Bentonville, Arkansas.

As told to Sprudge by Dakota Graff.

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

Airship Coffee started under a lime tree in Honduras, as farmers looked for a better way to sell coffee in order to make a living. Since our beginning, we’ve been committed to going above and beyond in all aspects of our business. This commitment is about creating the perfect cup of coffee, and it’s about doing right by the people that we encounter along that journey for the perfect cup.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

This is a roastery cafe. The space is built into the front of our roastery, in full view of our 1964 Probat GG 90 and our packaging line. This will be a industrial modern space, with all white equipment and a warm wood and galvanized steel bar. Lots of natural light coming through two garage doors, with a big patio and 10 beers on tap.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We aren’t reinventing the wheel too much on this buildout. We’ll have a La Marzocco Linea PB with Mahlkönig grinders, a hidden Curtis G4 brewer, with a powder-coated white Curtis Gold Cup brewer on back bar. This is the bar I always wanted to work as a barista. Clean, simple, and powerful.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

We are gunning for July 4th of this summer.

Thank you!

<3

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: Airship Coffee In Bentonville, AR appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A new coffee brewing device is about to hit the market and it comes with a hefty price tag. From Salt Lake City’s Saint Anthony Industries—makers of coffee brewing tools like the Phoenix brewer and Filibuster dual wall glass decanter—comes the brand new Automatica. The cost? A cool $1,000.

Announced late last week via the company’s Instagram, the Automatica takes a decidedly manual approach to automatic brewing. It consists of a kettle sitting atop a pedestal that, once it has brought the water to temp, tips over gently toward a pour-over brewer and mug that is spinning slowly, mimicking a circular pouring pattern. From the Saint Anthony website:

While not yet in production, the Automatica is available for pre-order on the Saint Anthony Industries website for $1,000, though only a $200 fully refundable deposit is due up front; the remaining $800 is due at order fulfillment.

But for those not looking to drop capital letter K-type money on a brewing device, according to a second post on Instagram, the Automatica will be coming to Kickstarter some time later this week, which perhaps may contain some early bird backer specials that keep the price below four digits. This is all unsubstantiated conjecture based upon the general arc of crowdfunding, but you never know. All interested parties should keep an eye on Saint Anthony’s Instagram account for more details on the go-live date.

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 Saint Anthony Industries

The post This New Pour-Over Brewer Costs $1,000 appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Now that all the Rushes have been Crushed (well, almost. Denver still has a Rush to Crush August 14^th), what’s there left to do but to listlessly run out the clock on the summer doldrums, right? WRONG! Europe’s raucous good time The Barista League is coming to America at the end of August! For the first time ever, the Scandi-lous coffee competition is crossing the Atlantic and will be making landfall in Portland on its way through a four-stop coast-to-coast tour.

Taking place over two weeks, The Barista League is a face-paced contest where teams of two baristas compete in three different skills challenges—barista skills, sensory skills, and a mystery round—for coffee dominance. To decide the winners and losers, VIP judges will be on hand at each event, and these VIPs know competition. We’re talking multiple USBC Champions (Laila Ghambari, Cole McBride, Kyle Ramage, Lem Butler), a multi-time Chinese Barista Champion (Jeremy Zhang), a Coffee Masters New York Champion (Erika Vonie), and a World Barista Champion (Pete Licata).

The murderer’s row of judges is intimidating enough, nevermind the multiple US Barista and Brewers Cup Champions (Andrea Allen, Dylan Siemens, Jenna Gotthelf) and a 2018 USBC finalist (Sam Neely) competing. Sorry about your luck, pretty much every competitor at the Kansas City event.

But the results are far from decided, especially when everyone will be competing for such an incredible prize; the winners of each event will win an origin trip courtesy of sponsors Ally Coffee!

The Barista League 2018 US Tour hits the road on the following dates:

August 30 — Portland, OR — Black Rabbit Service Co.
September 1 — Kansas City, MO — Workbench Coffee Labs
September 6 — Greenville, SC — Ally Coffee
September 8 — Philadelphia, PA — Ultimo Coffee

Spectator tickets for each of the events are $5 and can be purchased via The Barista League website. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project (ASAP), an organization that “works to prevent wrongful deportations by connecting refugee families to community support and emergency legal aid,” per their website. The Barista League is also asking those able to match their $5 donation, which can be done at the time of purchase. For more information, visit The Barista League’s official website.

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 The Barista League

The post The Barista League Is Coming To America appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Tucked away in the small mountain town of Pinedale, Wyoming you’ll find Pine Coffee Supply, a little coffee bar with a growing reputation. Open since summer 2017, the shop has already garnered national attention—Food & Wine Magazine called it the best coffee in Wyoming in March of 2018. Roasting happens in-house, and a lot more besides—this place is a fascinating and beautiful expression of coffee culture set at the foot of the Wind River Mountains. 

Sat on a corner lot on the city’s main street, Pine Coffee occupies a former mechanic shop. An extensive remodel was undertaken by shop founders Jim and Cody Hamilton, a father and son duo with deep Wyoming roots, which included hand-built pine furniture, benches, and accents. They kept the original garage door and leave it open on warm summer days opening up their bar to a patio. Their front room wall is adorned with a hand-stenciled mural of all things coffee, while further back in the shop, you’ll find a cozy couch in front of a fireplace and around the corner a huge pine community table and space perfect for public events.

Jim and Cody Hamilton.

Their coffee bar is equipped with a Mavam espresso machine, PuqPress, KafaTek Monolith grinder for espresso, Technivorm Grand Brewer, and Mahlkönig batch grinder. They also just recently started roasting their own coffee on a one kilogram Aillio Bullet roaster, but have used Middle State Coffee out of Denver as their resident roaster since opening while rotating different roasters monthly.

That’s a lot of gear and quality for a little town in Wyoming, and Jim Hamilton—the elder—admits to having some nerves about opening up here. “My biggest fear coming into Pinedale was, can any coffee shop really survive in a small town?” Further doubt clouded their vision after seeking advice from longtime friend and previous business partner, Tom Billions of The Coffee Ethic in Springfield, MO, who simply said, “don’t do it.”

Everything changed a month later when Billions unexpectedly passed away. His life and his passing affected a lot of people back in Springfield and shed light on the positive impact a coffee shop can have in a community. Jim and Cody had a change of heart and knew it was time to open Pine Coffee Supply.  “We knew how behind the times coffee was in the whole state and we wanted to bring third wave in,” Cody Hamilton tells me. “We said no at first, this won’t work, but then came back to it.”

Truly it’s a family affair at Pine Coffee Supply. Today Cody is the director of tech, coffee, and roasting, while Jim works as the CFO and numbers guy. Tina Hamilton—Jim’s wife, Cody’s mom—manages books and details, while Maddie Hamilton—Cody’s wife—is the director of purchasing and supplies as well as the master of scheduling. And last but not least their daughter, Wren (age 10), is the barista in training.

If it all sounds like something out of a frontier novel—Little Coffee Shop In The Mountains—well, that’s just fine with the Hamiltons. “People are moving back to small towns,” Maddie Hamilton tells me, and Cody agrees. “We wanted to change the pace of life.” Mission accomplished here in this tiny town of just 2,000, of whom the Hamiltons are now a community fixture.

The Hamilton family of Pine Coffee Supply.

Up next, Cody has big plans for their in-house roasting program as well as future coffee subscriptions. In the meantime, should you ever find yourself in Pinedale, Wyoming, I’d say Pine Coffee Supply counts as a must-visit. There may not be many other specialty shops around to compete with, but you can’t hold that against the Hamilton family. Coffee doesn’t have to come from the big city in order to be delicious. In fact, one might argue that small town coffee offers something special you can’t find anywhere else. 

Tarra Culbertson is a contributor based in Salt Lake City. Read more Tarra Culbertson on Sprudge.

The post Pine Coffee Supply Brings Good Coffee To Smalltown Wyoming appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News