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Yes Plz: A New Subscription Service From Tonx & Sumi Ali Is On Kickstarter

By Coffee, News

Yes Plz, the new coffee subscription service from coffee subscription service veterans Tony “Tonx” Konecny and Sumi Ali, is now live and Kickstarting. After starting out as a vehicle to sell approachable $1 cups of coffee and Roy Choi’s LocoL, Konecny and Ali have retooled Yes Plz and are bringing it to the not-just-LA-based public at large.

According to their Kickstarter campaign, Yes Plz only serves one coffee, The Mix, “an ever-evolving no-holds-barred, no-corners-cut blend of the best sourced beans, roasted with care, and delivered fresh to your door.” As with the coffee at LocoL, the goal of Yes Plz is to “reach a broader audience beyond the exclusionary, validation-seeking culinary burlesque that characterizes a lot of today’s high-end coffee bars.”

The Mix is based on “the simultaneously heretical-sounding yet obvious-seeming idea that there’s almost no single origin coffee that couldn’t be made even better with a judicious bit of blending,” a piping hot take printed on the backs of their prototype bags sent out to “friends and beta testers” that had people sounding off on the Sprudge Instagram. This March 26th release of The Mix was a blend of Guatemala Rio Dorado, Colombia Los Rosales, and a Maragogype from Nicaragua La Montanita.

The Mix is slated to retail for $15 a bag, with Kickstarter pledges starting as low as $20, which will earn you the debut release of The Mix, expected to be on your door in July. Pledges of $30, $45, $90, and $180 or more will net you two, three, six, and 12 12oz bags of The Mix, respectively, sent at predetermined intervals.

Not even through its first day, the Yes Plz Kickstarter has already acquired over $13,000 of its $40,000 goal, so smart money is on the campaign being fully funded. For more information on Yes Plz or to donate, visit their Kickstarter page.

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 Yes Plz

The post Yes Plz: A New Subscription Service From Tonx & Sumi Ali Is On Kickstarter appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Pregnancy and Coffee: A Little Bundle Of Challenges

By Coffee, News

Being pregnant is considered, by many, to be a time of joy and a time to celebrate. But for the women on the front lines of the coffee industry, making and tasting coffee amidst that pregnancy glow can make for some brutal challenges. From changing taste buds to extra-sensitivity to smells, the work that goes into making a great brew can be not just difficult but also risky for pregnant coffee professionals.

In 2014, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released an article which cites a meta-study by the European Journal of Epidemiology suggesting that women who consumed even 100 milligrams of caffeine a day had a 14 percent higher risk of miscarriage and a 19 percent higher risk of stillbirth, while current World Health Organization guidelines suggest pregnant women restrict caffeine intake to less than 300mg per day. The implications are eye-opening, yet many coffee professionals helping to make and produce coffee throughout North America have worked through the potential risks, finding ways to keep making great tasting coffee.

Throughout pregnancy, senses kick into overdrive, with hormones dictating the way certain items taste or smell. The changes can happen, intensifying almost overnight, with certain foods or specific beverages becoming either smellier or tastier. “Changes in hormones, like estrogen, during the first trimester can cause the sudden change in sensitivity to odors and flavors. It may also be [because] your blood volume increases in pregnancy so anything moving from your blood to your brain and olfactory centers hits it harder and faster,” explains Abbey Sharp, a registered dietitian who writes on the site Abbey’s Kitchen. With smell making up half of what helps us taste, it’s no wonder that baristas, trainers, and coffee roasters may face unique challenges day-in and day-out.

Beyond a woman’s own recreational coffee consumption, professional tasks like cupping, tasting, or dialing in different coffees can all pose added challenges during pregnancy. “My sense of smell was stronger so I could pick up on tasting notes easier,” explains Breanne Kerzee, a cafe manager with Intelligentsia Coffee in New York. But sometimes the increased sensory perception can be a little too much. “I really hated the taste of espresso [while pregnant], which typically was a drink I would crave,” said Kerzee. “It became very difficult for me to be 100 percent happy with my espresso dials and I’d normally get another barista to check it.”

“Coffee became a smell that actually made me feel sick, so working became a little challenging,” shares Andrea Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas. Throughout her pregnancy, Allen had to ask others for help—from moving equipment to double-checking the quality control of her shots.

While pregnant with her second child, Jen Apodaca, Director of Roasting at Royal Coffee in Oakland, says she started to taste menthol in many of the coffees she cupped—a flavor note she had to train herself to ignore. “During my second trimester, I took the Q grader course, which proved to be challenging,” says Apodaca. “It was difficult to identify the outlying cup in triangulations when all of the cups finished with acid reflux. I was also more sensitive to flavors and I had to really concentrate to find my reliable sensory memory cues. I felt like Professor X in Cerebro.”

For many pregnant coffee professionals, finding workarounds to make their professional lives manageable is paramount. The myriad physiological and physical changes that a woman’s body undergoes during the months of pregnancy can affect everything from the subtleties of tasting and dialing in to practical occupational issues like increased bathroom breaks, more frequent meals and hydration, and a need to limit time on one’s feet.

Laila Ghambari, former Director of Coffee at Cherry Street Coffee House and now Director of Education & Training for Stumptown Coffee, found herself training and coaching folks to take part in a barista competition during her pregnancy. While she says she wasn’t very strict about the various dietary restrictions that pregnant women face, she did find that it affected how she could work. “The main concern I had throughout my pregnancy was having too much caffeine,” Ghambari says. “During competition, it was very easy to get over-caffeinated, so I had to watch myself. I would notice I was getting lightheaded due to too much caffeine and becoming dehydrated.”

Ultimately, the biggest challenges for those working in the industry come from the physical changes that can happen to one’s body during pregnancy. Changes in one’s blood chemistry can cause fluids to shift, which can trigger edema, the cause of swelling throughout pregnancy. For many baristas, working an eight- to 10-hour shift can be written off as a typical workday. But research has shown that being on your feet for long periods may reduce a baby’s growth rate and increase the chances of preterm delivery.

“Before I was pregnant, I would work until the work was done, but I had to stop doing that, I was tired,” says Allen. “To be honest, I just pushed through and rested when I needed to,” she says. Allen credits her staff (and husband) with being supportive and helpful, stepping in when Allen couldn’t complete tasks she typically felt up to and providing her the comfort and space to take care of her ever-changing body.

Apodaca experienced a variety of physical changes that impacted her daily work. “Besides feeling absolutely awful with morning sickness and acid reflux, my feet were swollen and I easily knocked things over with my belly,” she says. “Reducing how much I could lift was also a nightmare. I had to make more time to sit and rest between tasks.”

Working in coffee while pregnant is difficult but not impossible, but the post-partum period is no picnic either. As American professionals in any trade know, the United States is one of only two countries in the world—the other being Papua New Guinea—that doesn’t grant paid leave to new mothers. In the United States, The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires most companies to allow their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave time after the birth of their child. However, this time off is still not guaranteed, as the FMLA also includes specific exceptions to release a business from the obligation of allowing unpaid time off, including size of the company, the time of employment, or level of wages. For a small coffee shop, accommodating such a long period of time off, and being able to return an employee to her prior position, may be a logistical and financial hardship that dissuades the company from protecting the employee.

“We did not have a maternity leave policy so it was something we just had to figure out,” explains Ghambari of her parental time off. During her employment at Cherry Street Coffee House, the business was accommodating and encouraging providing her with two months maternity leave—but Ghambari also had the benefit of working in a company run by her family, like Onyx’s Allen. (Ali Ghambari, Laila’s father, opened the first Cherry Street in the late 90.) Though there can be a flip side to being one of the bosses as well—the combination of desire and necessity to return to work right away.

“I went back to work with River in a sling after one day of being home. I did it because I was bored and I wasn’t doing much,” says Allen. “I kept my workload light and didn’t really come back full force until she was around four months old.”

Apodaca relates, “With Borden, my first, I was off for six weeks and could not afford to be away from work. It was the holiday rush and I would work six days a week. I remember roasting on Sundays to get a head start on the week. I have wonderful memories of roasting coffee in the snow, with a babe at my breast,” she says.

But for others, the return to the working world may not be as picturesque. As well, more women are leaving the service industry to find jobs that are more flexible and accommodating to them, both before and after giving birth. So what can be done? The biggest question that owners can ask themselves is how can they and how will they support their female staff who are making the choices to become pregnant. From being flexible and supportive through pregnancy to following up with paid time off, benefits, and child care funding, women need support in more ways than one.

“Having a newborn at home was much harder than being pregnant, at least for me,” says Allen. Finding the time to sleep, pump, get a newborn out to daycare, and then head to work and do a good job can all be exhausting. More cafes should work alongside their pregnant baristas, trainers, and roasters to find solutions for the future. Those new babies are the next generation of coffee, after all.

Amanda Scriver (@amascriver) is a freelance journalist based in Toronto. Read more Amanda Scriver on Sprudge.

The post Pregnancy and Coffee: A Little Bundle Of Challenges appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Aftermath Of The Duke University Joe Van Gogh Firings

By Coffee, News

On Wednesday, Sprudge reported on the now-infamous firing of two Joe Van Gogh baristas from the cafe’s Duke University location after VP of Student Affairs Larry Moneta took umbrage with the song playing while he was waiting in line for his hot tea and vegan muffin. As we noted previously, the song in question, “Get Paid” by rapper Young Dolph, is not light on the curses and is the sort of song to have the pearl clutching crowd do what they do best. In the past five days, this story has continued to develop, so we are taking a look back at what has transpired since then.

Duke President Apologizes

Duke President Vincent Price has had a turbulent first 11 months as the university head. As the Duke Chronicle notes, Price has had to deal with multiple “racially charged incidents,” and now, he has had to apologize for the actions of one of his Vice Presidents.

In an email sent to all current Duke students, Price stated:

I am, in particular, sorry that the words of one of my senior administrators recently resulted in two individuals working for one of our on-campus vendors losing their jobs; and while I am pleased that the vendor has taken steps to reverse this action, I apologize for the precipitous and unfair treatment these employees experienced. We must do better.

Price also notes that he won’t take any quick action that “demands instant retribution absent context and deliberation” on how to handle this incident. In short, this means that despite student protests calling for his firing, Moneta still has his job. And unlike some (looking at you, Moneta), I’m not looking to get anyone fired, even when they are the VP of Student Affairs and seem to lack the capacity for empathy. But I can’t help but note that were Moneta fired over it, well that would be a pretty hot cup of tea.

Joe Van Gogh Cuts Ties With Duke

On Friday, Joe Van Gogh owner Robbie Roberts issued a statement announcing that effective immediately, the company would be severing ties with Duke University in order to “preserve Joe Van Gogh’s brand independence without conditions.” Because of the closing, JVG will be offering jobs to all the displaced staff—including Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons, the two baristas fired in the incidient—at other off-campus locations or at the production facility.

During the past several days, I have reflected on our core values and what I want to embrace and advocate as a small business owner. Joe Van Gogh has always been about bringing people together, not driving them apart. We are open to all people and we value people over our profits. We always have. For years, we have nurtured these values to the communities we serve, specifically through the strengths and talents of our staff of baristas.

The full statement can be found here.

Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons “Get Paid”

It’s not all kinda-good-but-mostly-not news though thanks to Young Dolph, who turns out is the hero of this story. When the rapper heard about the baristas who were fired for playing his music, he not only flew them out to Miami to attend the Rolling Loud music festival but also brought Brown and Simmons on stage during his performance to give them $20,000. It is a very cool gesture by Young Dolph, one that sent the thousands of music festival attendees into a frenzy.

GET PAID?❤

A post shared by ?? (@youngdolph) on May 12, 2018 at 8:09am PDT

Funny how the stand up person with a moral center in this story is the one using “inappropriate language” and not, you know, those nominally tasked with bettering the next generation through academia.

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 News & Observer

The post The Aftermath Of The Duke University Joe Van Gogh Firings appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Where To Drink Coffee In Istanbul’s Nişantaşı Neighborhood

By Coffee, News

Kensington. Beverly Hills. The Upper East Side. Every city has a neighborhood that denotes wealth, privilege, and luxury. Although Istanbul’s upper crust has left the city center in droves in recent decades, the historic Nişantaşı neighborhood, with its fashion houses and Art Deco apartment blocks, still occupies a certain place of distinction in the Istanbul landscape. But there’s more to Nişantaşı than Range Rovers driven by private chauffeurs idling outside the Louis Vuitton store (though you will see Range Rovers driven by private chauffeurs idling outside the Louis Vuitton store). The neighborhood is also home to perhaps the highest concentration of specialty coffee shops in the city.

Specialty coffee, after all, is a luxury good, a fact felt more acutely in a country like Turkey, where the going rate for a pour-over or espresso is almost identical to Western Europe or America, but the median income is considerably lower. But these cafes are not simply the haunts of the bored bourgeois. Much like any specialty coffee shop hub, Nişantaşı’s booming specialty coffee scene provides a place the city’s growing creative class can find a place to work, or take a cheeky break with a cortado and a slice of cake.

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Petra Coffee

From hair salons to coworking spaces, Petra Coffee is everywhere in Istanbul, and for good reason. The roaster/retailer was one of the early champions of quality, and has slowly created one of the strongest brands in Turkish specialty coffee. But visit their Topağacı location and you don’t need to know any of that—you’ll just find a great neighborhood cafe.

Whether it’s the wooden newspaper holders or the century-old antique bar, the interior of Petra feels timeless, perhaps more Parisian than Turkish. Marble and cast iron tables line a bench that runs the length of the shotgun-shaped space. Baristas wear Petra’s trademark striped shirts and white lab coats, and ring a bell every time an order is up, short-order-diner-style.

House-baked pastries are shuttled over daily from Petra’s Gayrettepe headquarters, along with, of course, an extensive selection of single-origin coffees, including famed estates like Finca Tamana in Colombia. Espresso, always a single origin, is prepared on a La Marzocco Strada EP and Mazzer Robur grinder. Petra is also one of the few places you’ll find doing a full size batch brew on a FETCO brewer, a luxury in an espresso-centric specialty coffee scene.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Borderline Coffee

The Istanbul specialty coffee scene is dominated by microroasters, with almost as many roasters as cafes. This makes Borderline Coffee’s international multi-roaster concept a breath of fresh air in the local community. Coffee comes from as far afield as Massachusetts’s George Howell and Oslo’s Tim Wendelboe, in addition to local roasters like Boxx, Kimma, and Probador Collectiva. Cofounder Burçin Ergünt has a background in digital marketing and design, so it’s little wonder the interior at Borderline is on the leading edge of cafe design, complete with a foliage wall emblazoned with a neon sign of Borderline’s bomb-like logo, and rearrangeable peg board that displays a selection of Moccamaster brewers and Stanley thermoses.

A Mahlkönig Peak is filled with Borderline’s house espresso: a single-origin Burundi custom roasted by Boxx, but any of the single-origin options are available as an EK shot, including Tim Wendelboe’s appropriately named “Espresso for Milk.” Six single-origin options are offered by-the-cup, prepared on two Marco SP-9s.

Although the vibes at Borderline are decidedly coffee shop, the food menu here is just as serious as the coffee selection. In Turkey, coffee is rarely consumed without something sweet on the side, and Borderline offers a wide array of cookies, cakes, and pastries, many of which are gluten-free or vegan and all of which are baked on the premises. For more substantial food options, quinoa bowls, salads, and fresh sandwiches makes Borderline coffee a popular lunch destination in its own right.  

With Turkey’s lax rules regarding pets in restaurants, don’t be surprised if a customer or even barista has brought their dog or cat into the cafe.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Gravité Coffee Bar

Rising taxes, marketing bans, and other restrictions from the ruling political party have put a serious damper on alcohol consumption in Turkey, but that hasn’t stopped the global mixology craze from reaching Istanbul. With the burgeoning cocktail and specialty coffee scenes, perhaps it was inevitable that someone in Istanbul took a stab at combining the two, and the result is Gravité Coffee Bar on Poyracık Sokak. The coffee and cocktail concept looks good on paper, but in reality it’s challenging to create a space where people enjoy both waking up with a hot cup of coffee and unwinding with something a little stronger. With a refined but inviting interior, Gravité Coffee Bar manages to thread the needle and create an intimate atmosphere where one feels comfortable bellying up to the bar with either an espresso or Old Fashioned in hand.

The coffee is supplied by a rotating cast of roasters, most recently Coffee Department, a local roaster located in Istanbul’s Balat neighborhood. Two espresso options are prepared with a Mahlkönig K30 twin and a teal La Marzocco FB80, while single-origin options are offered as a pour-over or AeroPress. The adjacent American Hospital makes this cafe a hotspot for doctors, nurses, and the neighborhood’s sizable expat community.

Gravité Coffee Bar is located at Teşvikiye, Poyracik Sk No:45, 34365 Şişli/İstanbul. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Ministry of Coffee

An Australian flag hangs in the window at Ministry of Coffee, which boasts the tagline “Australian Coffee Roasters.” An antipodean influence can be seen in coffee shops across Europe, and Istanbul is no exception. Ministry of Coffee, more often referred to as “MOC” in the local coffee community, was one of the first specialty coffee shops to open up in Nişantaşı, and has grown to three locations in the neighborhood (not to mention a roastery in nearby Bomonti.)

In contrast to the Nordic-influenced ultra-light roast you’ll get at many of the coffee shops in Nişantaşı, MOC features many of the fixtures once synonymous with the Aussie coffee scene: espresso is on the ristretto side, servers provide table service, and of course the much-maligned flat white joins the menu alongside more standard fare.

With two floors and sidewalk seating, MOC’s original location on Şakayık Sokak is one of the largest cafes in the area, and certainly among its most popular. Owner Deniz Yıldız Düzgün offers both home barista workshop and accredited SCA classes.

Ministry of Coffee is located at Teşvikiye, Şakayık Sokağı 4/A, 34365 Şişli/İstanbul. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Spada Coffee

The La Marzocco Strada EP, and Mahlkönig grinders, and tile are all matte white at Spada Coffee, accented by soft wood tones and the occasional splash of blue-gray. But the thoughtful interior doesn’t keep the sidewalk seating from filling up first before anyone ventures inside. “Spada” means “sword” in Italian—a play on owner Cumhur Kılıç’s last name—but you might be able to figure that out from their logo. A spiral staircase leads up to a surprisingly open upstairs, where guests can perch at a laptop bar, or settle into some soft seating.

Spada recently began roasting its own coffee, but also features a guest roaster, often from local companies like Old Java and Probador Collectiva, and sometimes international brands like Berlin’s The Barn. For cafe crawlers that might be hitting the upper limits of their caffeine tolerance, Spada features a selection of kombuchas—still a rarity in Istanbul.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Magado Coffee

When one walks into Magado Coffee, they are immediately confronted with a very curious cafe design. The split-level shop features a full espresso bar upstairs, almost hovering over a downstairs seating area, with the front door opening onto a landing between the spaces. A quick trip up the half flight of stairs reveals a selection of four single-origin coffees from Boxx Coffee Roasters, in addition to a blend of Brazil and Colombia in the espresso hopper.

The cafe takes its name from a village in Kenya, but during my most recent visit the coffees were from Colombia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Burundi. Per the barista’s recommendation, I settled on a V60 pour-over of the Burundi, Ruhinga, a sweet, fruit-forward coffee perhaps enhanced by a rare sunny spring day.

 

Nişantaşı instanbul turkey michael butterworth

Grandma

The centuries-old Teşvikiye Mosque, with its fading yellow Neo-Baroque exterior, is one of the most iconic landmarks of Nişantaşı, but a bright red and white cafe called Grandma might be more emblematic of the neighborhood today. A table can be hard to come by during peak hours at this popular brunch destination, but if you’re lucky enough to score a spot, you’ll soon understand why the bakery and cafe attracts a wider clientele than most specialty coffee shops in the area.

The menu here is equal parts French and Turkish breakfast classics, complemented by a decadent array of pastries, cakes, and sourdough breads. Visitors to Turkey shouldn’t pass on trying Grandma’s take on menemen, a dish of sautéed tomatoes, pepper, and egg served with a generous dollop of labne (something like cream cheese) and Grandma’s signature sourdough bread.

Grandma might be more bakery than coffee shop, but the coffee is treated with the same level of care that has earned them such a stellar reputation for food. The cappuccino here ranks among the best we’ve had in the city, with rich, chocolatey espresso and perfectly textured milk. Although the whole bean coffee is sold in private label bags, rumor has it the coffee here is also roasted by Boxx.

Michael Butterworth is the publisher of Pilgrimaged, based in Louisville, Kentucky. This is Michael Butterworth’s first feature for Sprudge.

The post Where To Drink Coffee In Istanbul’s Nişantaşı Neighborhood appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

2018 Build-Outs Of Summer Submissions Now Open!

By Coffee, News

Hark, can you hear the coo-coo-ca-chas from the summer birds? Can you feel the gentle caress of the summer breeze? Can you taste the flavors of this year’s hottest iced coffee beverage? As can we! Which also means that it is time for the Build-Outs of Summer, Series Six!

Six long (very long) years ago we stumbled upon a new feature series on Sprudge focused on the cool summer mornings and long summer nights spent creating new cafes. The first spot we featured was called Artifact Coffee, in Baltimore. Over the following half-decade, summertime on Sprudge has been spent delving deep into the global world of new cafes, documenting them far and wide, featuring dozens, no hundreds of the hottest cafes around the world in an ongoing narrative of coffee cultural growth and expansion. We yearn for the thrill of the build! We’re ready to kick the dang thing off again.

Submit your cafe now for the 2018 Build-Outs of Summer feature series. 

This is an open call to be featured in the 2018 Build-Outs of Summer series on Sprudge. Here’s what we’re looking for!

  • New cafes under construction between May and September of 2018
  • Cafe remodels that will be completed by September 2018
  • Tiny new cafes built on zero budget
  • Expansive new cafes that push coffee design concepts forward
  • Cute coffee bicycles and such
  • Southern Hemisphere cafes are welcome—we love a good Fit-Out of Winter.

 

These Build-Outs features are more than just cafe previews—they are a snapshot of where the global coffee culture, and where it’s headed next. This year’s season will kick off shortly. Are you on the list?

Contact us today and submit your cafe for the 2018 Build-Outs of Summer feature series. 

Explore every last Build-Out over the last half decade in our archives.

The post 2018 Build-Outs Of Summer Submissions Now Open! appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Bless This Mess: Syntropic Coffee Farming Takes Root In Brazil

By Coffee, News

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

When I first saw João Pedro David’s farm, it was hard to understand. For me, having grown up the daughter of a monoculture-conventional coffee farmer in Minas Gerais, Brazil, David’s land looked more like a forest than a farm, with some Yellow Catuaí coffee trees dotted here and there.

But with time, David made his case, and explained the symbiotic relationship between coffee and the various species of fruits and vegetables native to our Mantiqueira region he had chosen to carefully plant here.

David’s vision for his Sítio Travessia farm is systemic and soil-focused—the ground here is always covered with mulch and organic material. And so it makes sense that it carries the look of a forest, which, after all, is really just an organic system of constant, dynamic soil-enrichment, with each species in an ecosystem contributing to the health of the whole.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

On David’s land, coffee is seen as a plant whose growth is made possible by diligent pruning and the management of the health of the rest of its ecosystem. The coffee coexists with other plants throughout several phases of growth, thriving in the shade of fruit and timber trees.

But David’s coffee trees are not the only things that rely on an ecosystem for survival. In 2012, when he bought the piece of land in Itajubá, our hometown, that would become Sítio Travessia, he knew nothing about the Pedra Preta neighborhood in which it was located, nor had he ever considered using the land to cultivate coffee. That was, until his neighbors began reaching out to he and his wife, Claudia, about water, and specifically about a water shortage.

Apparently, there were springs located on the Davids’ land that could supply the whole of Pedra Preta. The want for water struck João as strange—how could a region with so many natural springs suffer shortages of the resource?

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

He joined RAMA (Mantiqueira Agroecological Network), in order to establish a proposal to develop Pedra Preta with the sustainable use of water at its forefront.

The Davids’ land would be a sort of model for the proposal, putting into practice conservation and water-use policies whose widespread adoption by the neighborhood would come later. As it turned out, evaluation of the Davids’ land found that the area was not only situated sensitively—its health was vital to the greater ecological health of Pedra Preta—but that it had potential for organic coffee cultivation.

So despite never having worked with coffee before, the Davids—João an architect and Claudia a former lawyer—found themselves the new owners of an experimental coffee farm.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

“Our region is blessed with good elevation, well-defined rainy seasons, and suitable sun orientation toward the soil,” João says. “We understand that the agricultural viability of the Mantiqueira area is geared towards the cultivation of premium, special products that are well regarded due to their privileged origin and quality,” he adds, explaining that Sítio Travessia is suitable for growing olives, grapes, and berries, in addition to coffee.

Until this point, Sítio Travessia sort of makes sense. But what’s really remarkable about the farm is its utilization of an agroforestry model called syntropic farming, and its location in an area where monocultural coffee farming is the norm. In fact, Sítio Travessia is one of the first of a growing number of farms in Mantiqueira growing coffee syntropically.

The term syntropic farming was coined by Ernst Gotsch, a Swiss-Brazilian biologist who developed the concept of agricultural cultivation as a means of environmental regeneration—by listening to the native biome of the land, Gotsch and syntropic farming have converted over 1,000 acres of formerly degraded land throughout Brazil into productive, healthy forest.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

João explains that soon after planting Sítio Travessia’s coffee trees, he and Claudia began experimenting with the techniques of syntropic agroforestry. The results came quickly and were so positive that it wasn’t long before Sítio Travessia was hosting events to share what they had learned with the local Mantiqueira community.

“This system enabled us to reconcile all our desires,” João says. “The regeneration of the forest takes place in a highly productive fashion, improving soil, water, and food production, while integrating we human beings into the natural system, and serving as a vehicle for community integration.”

Not far from Itajubá, in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, I met Iracema Bonomini and her husband, Braulio Garcia, at their farm, Iraflor. The couple recently planted their first Catucaí Amarelo coffee trees—also members of the RAMA group, and with prior experience in organic and agroforestry farming, they’re excited about the fruits their work will bear. They, like the Davids, utilize syntropic farming techniques.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

But Bonomini has always been a “mess farming” advocate, she laughs. “It never made sense to me, a bunch of plants of the same species, meticulously occupying a delimited area,” she says.

“One day I had a course with an agronomist that explained that the ‘mess’ systems actually work for a reason,” she adds. “One species complements the other, feeds the other, and together they are better off. In that course he also mentioned that coffee is originally a sub-shrub from forestries in Ethiopia.”

That idea stuck with her.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

In 2017, Bonomini and Garcia traveled to Brasília to complete a syntropic farming course. It was a shock to them to travel through the giant soybean and corn monoculture fields endemic throughout the Brazilian mid-west.

“We saw no birds, no insects, no nothing,” Bonomini says. “Just people dressed as astronauts applying chemicals to the crops, or small airplanes spraying insecticides. We were shocked.”

When they arrived at their course, and laid eyes on a syntropic coffee farm, it felt like a relief. Here was the sub-shrub, Bonomini thought.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

“Believing that the classic N-P-K formula is enough when planting something is, at minimum, naive,” she says. “Plants need a variety of nutrients, macro- and micronutrients. Monoculture is like feeding a human being only rice, beans, and steak for all of his meals.” The couple was already growing, eating, and selling the products of their “messy” orchards and gardens, so they decided to venture into syntropic coffee farming.

“It had to be syntropic, there was no other way,” Bonomini says. “In music, we have this horizontal and vertical reading concept, which together form the study of a song. Syntropic agriculture is the same. It’s a horizontal reading of the soil—which is done, in a very simplistic way, on conventional farms—plus a vertical reading, where we occupy the vertical spaces, the strata, and thus we have a symphony of high complexity.”

At Iraflor, coffee trees pull in a wide variety of nutrients, sourced from raspberries, manioc, corn, mambaça, numerous flowers, beans, jacarandá, cedar, lemon, palm trees, and guava, among other native plants.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

But the farm wasn’t always so replete with diversity or healthy soil. Bonomini’s land, like the Davids’, was sickly after years of monocultural farming—first it was coffee, then pasture, then eucalyptus. On her land, syntropic farming practices have brought the soil back to life.

Although her and João David’s coffee philosophies begin in the soil, it doesn’t end there.

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

“When talking about organic specialty coffee, attention should not be restricted to cultivation,” João says. “It is a common mistake to see organic or agroforestry producers neglecting the next stages. To revere the fruits of coffee that nature is offering us, we must pay the same amount of attention to the harvest, the post-harvest, the roasting, and the extraction. All these steps are critical to ensuring that the specialty coffee experience is complete.”

syntropic farming juliana ganan brazil

Photo courtesy of Iracema Bonomini.

The Davids are already producing outstanding coffee, and their successes and missteps are being constantly recorded to inform future best practices—Bonomini is observing the ongoing experiments on Sítio Travessia as she looks forward to her own farm’s future.

But as both farms experience the positive effects of syntropic farming, the hope is for other farmers in the Mantiqueira region to take notice, and ultimately adopt more sustainable production practices themselves. If and when the wholesale adoption of syntropic farming will take place here is unknowable, but judging by the coffees already produced thereby, the future of the Mantiqueira region is bright.

Juliana Ganan is a Brazilian coffee professional and journalist. Read more Juliana Ganan on Sprudge.

Photos by Fabio Quireli unless otherwise noted.

The post Bless This Mess: Syntropic Coffee Farming Takes Root In Brazil appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Two Baristas At Duke University Cafe Fired Over Rap Song

By Coffee, News

At Joe Van Gogh on the campus of Duke University, the university’s Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta stopped into the local JVG last Friday, heard a rap song playing, and according to Indy Week, did the completely reasonable thing of getting multiple people working at the coffee shop that day fired.

As per Indy Week, Moneta is said to have stopped by the cafe during the mid-day rush to get his usual order of hot tea and a vegan muffin. While suffering the indignity of waiting in line, Moneta heard the musical stylings of one Young Dolph. The song, “Get Paid,” was part of a Spotify playlist chosen that day by Britni Brown, a barista who had been with Joe Van Gogh for 18 months and was at the time of the working the register. To be clear, “Get Paid” is by no means a hymnal; there are n-words, f-bombs, and hard b’s aplenty. It’s a real pearl-clutcher for the pearl-clutching types.

Here’s the song, if you want to hear what all the hullaballoo is about. In case there are any other Duke VPs of Student Affairs out there who may find this distasteful and try to get me fired, let me be clear, there’s bad language ahead (and probably some mean jokes), so please don’t read any further.

When Moneta got to the counter, according to Indy Week, he, “a white man, told Brown, an African-American woman, that the song was inappropriate.” Brown states that she stopped the song, apologized for the offense, and offered Moneta his unflavored ice milk free of charge. Moneta insisted on paying (total power move—look at this guy, with his $4 he can throw around willy-nilly), which he did and then left.

The exchange between Moneta and Brown as described by Kevin Simmons, another Joe Van Gogh barista working the espresso machine that day, as “verbally harassing.” This is where the story probably should end: a grown-up hears grown-up words they don’t like, feels compelled to make sure everyone knows about it and then leaves. But…

Less than ten minutes later, Brown claims she received a call from Robbie Roberts, the owner of Joe Van Gogh. He said that [Robert] Coffey, the director of dining services [at Duke], which oversees this Joe Van Gogh location, had just called him. Roberts asked her about the incident. According to Brown, she explained what happened, took full responsibility, and apologized again…

On Monday morning, Brown and Simmons were called into Joe Van Gogh’s Hillsborough office and asked to resign.

Indy Week obtained an audio recording of that meeting:

“We had gotten a call from Robert Coffey of Duke saying that the VP of the university had come into the shop and that there was vulgar music playing,” Wiley said, according to the recording. “Joe Van Gogh is contracted by Duke University, so we essentially work for them. And they can shut us down at any point.”

Wiley cleared her throat. “Duke University has instructed us to terminate the employees that were working that day,” she said.

A manager at that same Joe Van Gogh location states that initially they were to just terminate Brown’s contract but later word came down to let go of Simmons—who had no say in what music was played—as well. In the audio recording from the meeting, Brown believes the firing of Simmons is to “cover it up as to make it not look discriminatory for firing a person of color.”

In an email to the Duke Chronicle, Moneta, clearly still shaken up by the curses—but not nearly as distraught about hate speech, per Indy Week—states that he was shocked to hear such language in his coffee shop, and that after expressing his displeasure with the staff he their boss Coffey to continue to express more displeasure, but “that was the end of [his] involvement.” In the same email he also stated that “How [Joe Van Gogh] responded to the employees’ behavior was solely at their discretion,” which contradicts what representatives of Joe Van Gogh stated in the audio recording and also doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you would know if your involvement actually ended after expressing your horror.

Just remember, in 2018 we live in a world where the same person who tweets this:

…will get you fired for listening to Young Dolph. 

As of publishing, Brown and Simmons—neither of whom have had any prior reports of misconduct—are still out of jobs. Mr. Moneta is believed to be making a full recovery from the rap music-induced wounds to his ears, heart, and soul; his twitter account may not be so lucky.

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

*image of Joe Van Gogh via Sam0hsong on Flickr.

The post Two Baristas At Duke University Cafe Fired Over Rap Song appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Take The Sprudge Reader Survey And Tell Us How You Really Feel

By Coffee, News

It’s that time again! It’s time for us to learn more about you, our readers, who are us, by asking you to fill out our Sprudge Reader Poll. These polls are a great alternative to us monitoring your browser cookie metadata for personal information, which is creepy; it also gives us a chance to ask you all kinds of questions that cookies can’t answer, which is helpful.

This survey will help us grow, learn, and better serve you as a Coffee Media Publication. The questions are mostly painless and won’t take longer than a minute or two to answer.

Thanks!

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The post Take The Sprudge Reader Survey And Tell Us How You Really Feel appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A New Event Series From Marco Kicks Off In London

By Coffee, News

Marco Beverage Systems—the Dublin-based makers of the MIX, SP9, and Über Boiler—are hitting the road this summer for a few special global engagements, and they have just announced the first event, taking place in merry olde London. Called Marco Meets (I would have called it the Marco MIXer, but whatever, I’m sure there was just a Marco MIX-up in Marco-ting), the event series “aims to connect local baristas and tea/coffee professionals with well-known figures from the specialty tea and coffee industries.”

For the first event, Marco has teamed up with the UK’s Has Bean Coffee to “share their advice, insights and predictions,” per the press release. Taking place May 17th at The Gentlemen Baristas, this first Marco Meets will feature a talk from Sonali Tailor, an Authorized SCA Trainer, UK coffee competition judge and competitor, and Has Bean’s field trainer who will offer her experiences and advice on how to make a successful career in coffee.

Marco Meets London will also include a panel discussion featuring Taylor, free food and drinks, brewing demonstrations, and a variety of Has Bean coffees brewed on the Marco SP9.

The event is free to attend but do require an RSVP, which can be done here. For more information, visit Marco’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 Marco

The post A New Event Series From Marco Kicks Off In London appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Roastery At Harrods: Coffee Elegance In Knightsbridge

By Coffee, News

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

In the world of Third Wave coffee shops, it often seems the case that the look of a cafe is as important to customers as the quality of the beverages on offer. In London for example, I tend to gravitate towards a certain type of coffee shop: small outlets with micro-roasters and minimalist fit-outs, tucked away in the backstreets of trendy neighbourhoods. An elegant, historic food hall inside one of the most luxurious stores in the world isn’t the kind of place I would normally associate with today’s specialty coffee trends—but Harrods, the iconic department store in Knightsbridge, is breaking the rules.

Harrods was founded in 1849 as a wholesale grocery and tea merchant and, to this day, the Harrods food halls remain a tantalizing option for fine foods in London. With a legacy spanning over 160 years, providing the best products and maintaining high-quality standards is of utmost importance to the company—and now they’ve raised the stakes in their coffee game.

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

In November of 2017, Harrods unveiled The Roastery and Bake Hall, as part of a large-scale renovation that will see a total of five new food concepts launched in store by 2020. It is the largest redevelopment of the food halls in more than 20 years, focused on bringing the theatre of food production to the public.

In true Harrods style, the Art-Deco-inspired hall is grand, timelessly glamorous, and all about making a big statement—with paneled ceiling, marble tile floor, black steel light pendants, and decorated pillars. There is an artisanal bakery serving fresh breads every 15 minutes (a brass bell is rung whenever new pastries are ready), a patisserie, gourmet grocery, and a tea counter where customers can get a tailored experience of loose leaf blends made up to their personal tastes.

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

A round coffee bar stands out in the middle of the hall: marble bar counters with elegant brass rails and leather stools surround a team of trained baristas working behind black La Marzocco FB80 machines. Shelves are lined up with coffee bags, metal tins, and coffee pods for customers looking to buy beans. They can choose between Harrods coffee blends or seasonal single origins as well as order a blend made to their personal tastes.

Inside the new hall, there is a state-of-the-art brew bar, boasting a Marco MIX Ecoboiler tap and a Modbar. And in full sight—albeit within a glass enclosure—is an 85k Probat coffee roaster. For the first time in Harrods’ history, customers can watch every step of the process—from roasting to brewing—and enjoy the coffee-making process from bean to cup.

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

As part of the project Harrods is calling “The Taste Revolution,” the company appointed a new Master Roaster, Polish-born Bartosz Ciepaj. Ciepaj, a 2017 UK Roasting Championship finalist, spent more than a year prior to the launch consulting Harrods on how to design the new roastery and coffee areas, ensuring quality control in every cafe and restaurant inside the store, as well as Roast & Bake, a new food-to-go concept shop located outside the store on Basil Street.

A few days after the grand opening, I had the opportunity to attend a cupping session with Ciepaj at the roastery. “Although Harrods is a large company, it is still very much a small-batch artisan coffee roaster,” Ciepaj insists. And yet the scale of coffee operations at Harrods is impressive: around 450-500kg of coffee roasted weekly, peaking at more than 700kg  per week during the Christmas period.

Unsurprisingly, Ciepaj’s biggest challenge is serving the approximately 15,000,000 customers that walk into Harrods every year, whilst delivering the same standard of quality service to everyone.

The house espresso, named “Knightsbridge” for the posh neighbourhood where Harrods is situated, is a blend of four different types of Arabica beans (Brazilian, Colombian, Sumatran, and Costa Rican). It’s a full-bodied, round, and nutty blend with notes of chocolate, a spicy aftertaste, and red berry sweetness. “We were looking for an ‘easy’ blend that would appeal to the wider general public,” Ciepaj says. Customers curious to taste more unique seasonal offerings can choose from a wide range of single origins.

harrods roastery london england giulia mule

Bartosz Ciepaj

“We roast several styles of coffee and regularly tweak our coffee range to offer fresh and seasonal offerings. Our ambition is to be very inclusive and accommodate the different taste preferences of our customers,” Ciepaj says.

“I am open to all sorts of roasts and coffee,” Ciepaj continues. “My idea is to serve everything for everyone, everywhere. We don’t have to narrow ourselves down for five percent of customers who are crazy about a certain style of coffee, but instead we can appeal to each individual group.” And in a venue serving as broad a customer base as Harrods, Ciepaj and his team have a unique opportunity to do just that—and in grand London style.

The Roastery and Bake Hall at Harrods is located at 87-135 Brompton Rd, Knightsbridge, London. Visit their official site and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Giulia Mule is a Sprudge.com contributor based in London. Read more Giulia Mule on Sprudge

The post The Roastery At Harrods: Coffee Elegance In Knightsbridge appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News