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A Few Of Our Favorite Moments From The 2019 New York Coffee Festival

By Elixr Coffee, equator coffees, events, KeepCup, La Marzocco Linea Mini, new york, New York City, New York Coffee Festival, North America, NYC, Oatly, Rec Coffee, rishi tea, Spirit Tea, Staff Picks, Stumptown Coffee, USA

new york coffee festival

We came. We saw. We slurped, spro’d and shotted. The 2019 edition of the New York Coffee Festival was perhaps the event’s biggest, best running yet here on American shores. Long a staple of the London specialty coffee culture thanks to the wildly successful London Coffee Festival, the New York edition of the event—like its sibling show, the Los Angeles Coffee Festival (November 8-10th)—brings a global energy to one of the world’s great coffee scenes. The booths, the competitions, the art, the films, all of it buzzing with Manhattan energy.

Whether you trekk’d in by subway from 15 stops deep in Brooklyn, or had your chauffeur waiting in the private subterranean carport of that quiet little Tribeca loft you call home, there was something for everyone at the NYCF. Here’s a few of our favorite moments from the 2019 edition of the New York Coffee Festival.

new york coffee festival

The Coffee Art Project

Art! Yes, art. There was a lot to see and try at the festival, but everyone here on Team Sprudge were truly impressed by this year’s exhibition of the annual Coffee Art Project. The brief is simple: “Artists that apply will need to submit a piece of artwork that represents a creative, unique and personal connection to the concept of ‘coffee’ or ‘coffee shop experience.’ The work submitted can be any form of art, providing that it has a justifiable conceptual link to coffee or coffee shop experience.” In execution that meant evocative vistas of coffee farms at origin, playing cards reimagined in a coffee milieu, portraiture of coffee drinkers from around the world, and best—indeed, most striking—of all, a tribute to New York Yankee legends made entirely out of coffee beans. Not every coffee festival is also an art festival—it’s something we keep coming back to at these events around the world.

Learn more about the Coffee Art Project here. 

new york coffee festival

Roast Masters + MCs

Which host boasts the most roast? The Roast Masters tournament made its North American debut at the 2019 New York Coffee Festival, pitting ready roasters against each other in a browning battle royale. Expertly MC’d by NYC coffee heroes Erika Vonie and Ezra Baker, with judging overseen by Anne Lunell, Alexandria Dancy, Ben Kaminsky, and John Coyne, an incredible quorum of 25 coffee companies put their roasts to the test across three action packed days.

new york coffee festival

In the end, the team from Elixr Coffee in Philadelphia proved triumphant! A huge congratulations to Elixr Coffee, and stay tuned for our exclusive interview with the 2019 Roast Masters champs right here on Sprudge.

new york coffee festival

Oatly

Allow, if you will, for this brief personal vignette from inside the NYCF showfloor.

Scene: Opening morning of the festival. The floor is starting to fill up, and every booth is open, but before I can even really begin to comprehend all the coffee, first I need… some coffee. And then, glowing before me as if placed there by some divine being, was the Oatly booth, a wonderland of creamy oat beverage product ready to be steamed and combined with espresso in a delicious dance of plant-based pick-me-up. I just so happened to approach while Equator Coffees was the on the bar, which meant that I, yours truly, was treated to a luscious, delicious, creamy macchia-oat-o that nearly brought me to tears. It wasn’t just the best coffee of the morning; it wasn’t just the best coffee of the festival; it was my favorite coffee I drank all week long in New York. Believe it.

Wax & Gold 

Not to be outdone by the art show, NYCF was also home to a rolling film festival. We found ourselves bouncing back to the film room again and again throughout the show, to check in on the beautiful films on offer. None cooler than Stumptown Coffee‘s remarkable Wax & Gold, a film journey to the coffeelands of Ethiopia, exploring the country’s endless overlap between the twin cultures of coffee and music.

Tea

Tea, it turns out, is good! And tea was well-represented at the 2019 NY Coffee Festival. I found myself returning again and again to the charming Spirit Tea booth for kegged tea cold brew and whatever other delicious stuff co-founders Jordan Scherer and Taylor Cowan were steeping up. Just a few stalls away, the gang at Rishi Tea had their own take on delicious tea offerings, including some fresh whipped ceremonial grade matcha and truly delicious oat milk chai drinks, fresh steamed on handsome La Marzocco Linea Minis.

On a seperate but not entirely unrelated note, yes, we’re doing Tea Week again in 2019—folks keep asking, which brings us joy. Stay tuned!

Latte Art Live

New York City is home to a ferociously active semi-professional latte art scene. Players compete for cash, glory, and Instagram followers. No holds or pours are barred.

This level of action and intensity was center stage for Latte Art Live at the 2019 New York Coffee Festival, including the 2019 Latte Art East Coast Championship presented by Blue Stone Lane, to battles of Latte Art H.O.R.S.E. and a Latte Art Pro-Am presented by Rec Coffee, to demos and instructionals led by NYC coffee gliterati like Ujae Lee, Jenna Gotthelf, and Emilee Bryant.

The milk? It was put in the cups. The pours? The were textured, they were layered, they were steam dreams of milk art. It all happened, and it was everything.

KeepCup

KeepCup‘s exhibition at the 2019 New York Coffee Festival had us screaming for more. These retro colorways? Those new product drops? This is much more than just a reusable coffee cup—it’s fashion, darling, and we’re living for it. Watch for an exciting slate of new releases from KeepCup just in time for AW 19 and the 2019 holidays!

We could go on, but instead let us take a breath—we’ll be back in a few short weeks with more coverage from the from the 2019 Los Angeles Coffee Festival. Get your tickets today, and we’ll see you in LA.

Photos by Zachary Carlsen and Jeremy Hernandez for Sprudge Media Network. 

Disclosure: The 2019 New York Coffee Festival is presented by Allegra Events, and an advertising partner on the Sprudge Media Network. 

The post A Few Of Our Favorite Moments From The 2019 New York Coffee Festival appeared first on Sprudge.


Source: Coffee News

Daymoves: LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy Is Opening A Cafe In Brooklyn

By blue bottle, brooklyn, cafe integral, Christina Topsøe, Coptic Light, Daymoves, Four Horsemen, Grub Street, james murphy, Justin Chearno, L’imprimerie, LCD Soundsystem, new york, New York City, Nightmoves, Randy Moon, Sey Coffee, Wire

The LCD Soundsystem is blasting full stereo today on the Sprudge family of networks. Over on Sprudge Wine, we just published an interview with Justin Chearno of The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, which he just so happens to co-own with LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy. And panning out wide to the coffee side—though not too wide because it will literally be next door—is news of Murphy’s cafe Daymoves opening this week.

As reported by Grub Street, Murphy is opening Daymoves along with the entire Four Horsemen ownership crew: Chearno, Christina Topsøe, and Randy Moon. And Murphy’s ties to coffee go beyond simply being the leader of the band that makes up a disproportionately large amount of your barista competition routine soundtrack. His coffee love—along with his rather impressive home setup—is “well-documented in Shut Up and Play the Hits,” a documentary about LCD Soundsystem’s final show (before getting back together), and Murphy even created a signature espresso blend with Blue Bottle. (Fun fact about me: I often conflate James Murphy and Blue Bottle founder James Freeman for no particular rhyme or reason. Sometimes I even mix in a Hoffmann for good measure. A James is a James is a James, I guess.) There have even been rumors that while on tour, LCD Soundsystem would local specialty coffee shops to set up would-be pop-ups backstage.

Scheduled to open tomorrow, Thursday, September 19th, Daymoves will feature coffee from fellow Brooklynites Sey Coffee and Coptic Light as well NYC’s Café Integral. Per the article, the new coffee spot wants to stray away from the “high-volume, get-up-and-go cafe.” Nor is it meant to be a remote office for the workaday crowd. It’s a shop “made for lingering,” which will include listen to records from Murphy’s personal collection on oversized speakers of his own making while enjoying a pastry from L’imprimerie. The cafe will “start serving some dishes from Four Horsemen chef Nick Curtola” in the coming weeks as well.

The plan for the space is to be an all-day cafe of sorts, with Daymoves transitioning into Nightmoves—named for that Bob Seger song you liked ironically when you were in your early twenties only realize much later that it’s actually just a really fucking good tune—featuring a selection of natural wines from The Four Horsemen’s list as well as cocktails, mocktails, and potentially even negronis on tap.

The Nightmoves portion of the space is still very much in flux, with no official date for when it will be implemented. But Daymoves is set to kick off tomorrow, September 19th at “approximately 8am,” per their website. So if the coffee starts wearing off tomorrow and you feel like you’re losing your edge, take all your friends or maybe just someone great and head on down to Daymoves.

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

The post Daymoves: LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy Is Opening A Cafe In Brooklyn appeared first on Sprudge.


Source: Coffee News

Devoción Coffee To Open First Of Its Kind Cascara Bar In New York City

By Carolina Santo-Neves, cascara, Devoción Cascara + Coffee Bar, Devoción Coffee, new york, New York City, NOMAD, Wire

Cascara has been having quite a moment over the past few years. Originally, the fruit and skin of the coffee seed was by and large seen as a byproduct of the coffee-producing process, one that at best made it to compost to feed the trees from which they came. Then someone somewhere along the way realized that folks at origin, particularly in Bolivia, were drinking a tea made of the coffee cherry and thought, “maybe there’s a market for this.” There was. Now, the “byproduct” can sometimes fetch a higher price than the coffee seed itself. It was even banned—albeit briefly—in the UK; there was even rumo(u)r of some back alley cats peddling cascara to any coffee peeps with a spare quid.

But even with the seeming ubiquity of cascara, it hasn’t quite broken into the mainstream the way, say, a flat white has. But New York City’s Devoción Coffee is putting the cherry front and center with their brand new cafe, a cascara bar.

Opening on September 9th inside The Nomad, the Devoción Cascara + Coffee Bar is “the first concept in the world devoted to the coffee cherry,” per a press release announcing the location. The 500-square-foot, four stool cafe will be Devoción’s fourth location and there will of course be a full range of coffee beverages, but the main attraction is cascara. The cafe will have no less than four different expressions of cascara on tap: original, ginger lemon, cherry, and cassia lime. There will also be a baked goods menu that includes a “rotating option made with cascara” that was designed in collaboration with Chef Carolina Santo-Neves of the now-closed Comodo.

To celebrate the opening Devoción Cascara + Coffee Bar will also have on the menu for their first week a cascara ice cream affogato. During that same timeframe, Devoción will be donating all proceeds from beverage sales at their cascara bar to install a post-harvest processing lab at IED Escuela Normal Superior de Gachetá in Colombia, where students and teachers will be able to learn how to make specialty coffee.

For more information about the opening, make sure to follow Devoción on Facebook and Instagram.

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

Top image via Devoción

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Source: Coffee News