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As summer approaches and the temperature continues to rise, many coffee drinkers are eschewing hot coffee and instead opting fun iced coffee cocktails to keep cool. Not me. I’ll drink hot coffee while standing next to an open flame cooking burgers during 100°+ (F or C, I don’t care) Texas summers. But if keeping cool is your end game, according to Science, then you shouldn’t be switching from hot coffee.

A recent article in LAD Bible breaks down the paradox. According to University of Cambridge neuroscientist Peter McNaughton, coffee and other hot drinks cool the body in a roundabout way. Consuming hot beverages will increase your core temperature, which then cues the body’s natural response to increase perspiration. As the sweat evaporates from your skin, it “acts as a coolant.”

This cooling effect has a greater impact than just consuming a cold beverage, mind you. Professor McNaughton adds, “Cool drinks only cool you momentarily, because the volume of the cold drink is relatively small when compared to your body, so the cooling effect gets diluted quite quickly.” And you can’t just drink a ton of cold ones to have a similar effect. The article notes that drinking too many extremely cold things “can cause blood vessels to tighten, making you feel much hotter,” with Professor McNaughton adding that “there is a limit as to how much you can drink because this will overload your kidneys.”

So while beer, cocktails, cold brew, jello shots, etc are all cool—I want all those things both when it is hot and when it isn’t—if you are looking to actually cool down, then hot coffee is the way to go.

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 Hot Coffee Does A Better Job Of Cooling You Down Than Cold Drinks Do appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

In all sectors of U.S. specialty coffee, lots of the most notorious and beloved coffee professionals are white men of European descent, and that ideal often unconsciously informs people’s mental picture of what a coffee person looks or sounds like. Alternative coffee media outlets such as the Chocolate Barista and Boss Barista podcast have started to challenge those norms, but even as non-white, non-male coffee workers have begun to expand the popular notion of who can be seen as an expert in coffee, most major coffee culture forums haven’t yet started to address the linguistic and cultural barriers that coffee workers from producing countries experience when engaging with U.S. coffee culture. Looking at cafe culture, entry-level hiring bias, access to education, and the nuances of communication in commerce, six Latin American coffee experts discuss the myriad ways that language and culture affect their engagement in and with the U.S. coffee world.

Language Barriers In Cafes

Abner J. Roldán, co-owner of Café Comunión in Santurce, Puerto Rico, started working full-time as a barista in 2013. While working his first English-language barista job in Portland, Oregon, his proficiency in English was less of an issue than his accent; even though his coworkers were receptive and patient, it was challenging for him to communicate with the many customers who also had varied accents. While most of his customers were friendly and curious about his background, some were impatient, and despite the general tolerance he’s experienced in the U.S. regarding language barriers, he sees a missed opportunity in the way that English speakers tend to approach people who speak English as a second language: “People from the U.S. should see communication as a mutual effort; they can help their ESL coworkers, and have the chance to learn about their culture and work on their Spanish.”

Ximena Rubio, who works for Quentin Café in Mexico City, worked as a barista for several years before moving into wholesale and quality control. She sees many customers from the U.S. approach baristas with a presumption that everyone should speak English—even outside the U.S. “Not to generalize, but sometimes when customers from the U.S. come in, they don’t say hi and they speak right at baristas in English, assuming we speak it too.” In the case of her shop, there is usually at least one English speaker on shift at any given time, but in less high-end shops there are sometimes none at all. This not only makes it difficult for baristas to know what drinks to make, it shows a lack of mutual effort toward communicating; learning a few key phrases or even just greeting baristas in Spanish shows at least some level of care.

Another barrier for Latinx baristas who speak English as a second language in the U.S. is that business owners are sometimes reluctant to hire them for entry-level barista jobs, even when qualified or overqualified. A Bay Area coffee worker who asked to remain anonymous pointed out that sometimes managers don’t want to hire baristas with strong accents from Latin America even though they would have no problem hiring baristas with thick British or Australian accents: “It’s about their expectation of ‘the right fit.’ Good people still have unconscious biases, and because of that they often surround themselves with workers who look like them and come from similar backgrounds.” With that hiring bias at the entry level, it can be difficult for Latin-American workers in the U.S. to get barista jobs and move through the ranks into higher-level coffee jobs through the conventional career pathways many U.S.-born baristas use. So, when Latin American coffee workers do make it into the few sought-after positions in the green coffee sector, they are often highly educated with degrees and practical experience in agronomy as well as competency in multiple relevant languages; in other words, to make it to the upper tiers of the industry, they have to be many times more qualified than their white, U.S.-born peers.

Mariana Faerron-Gutierrez

Language Barriers In Education

One of the main places Rubio sees language barriers manifest is in the educational access of her barista community in Mexico City. Because so many educational resources—popular blogs and Facebook forums such as Barista Hustle, news and culture publications such as Sprudge and Barista Magazine, and valuable reference books such as The World Atlas of Coffee—are in English only, baristas in her region often aren’t able to advance their craft to the degree of baristas in other regions.

She adds that this problem applies just as much to coffee producers as baristas; as the actual people growing and processing coffee, they need to have access to industry standards in order to know how to improve their craft, or how to value it when it’s already exceptional. “I absolutely think that if we had more resources and information in Spanish, these farmers would do such great things. Knowing about cupping, knowing about brewing, just being able to know the value of their coffee; not only would prices go up, which would be great, but the quality would go up. That not only helps producing countries, but also consuming countries.”

Mayra Orellana-Powell, Honduran coffee producer and founder of producer community organization Catracha Coffee Co., points to the huge opportunity that the industry has to allow more producers to learn and improve their craft by producing more Spanish-language coffee resources. “We are the producers of coffee; we are the people who actually have the ability to make great coffee. We need to have access to education, especially on increasing sustainability. Many SCA lectures and materials are not translated, and we’re missing out.” Her goal is to encourage people to actively think about solutions. “We need to be having this conversation. If those things aren’t happening, how can we make them happen?” She’s glad to see improvement but wants people to keep pushing forward.

Ximena Rubio. Photo courtesy of Menachem Gancz.

Language Barriers In Importing And Production

Rubio says that not only can language barriers do a lot of harm to farmers, but that sometimes green buyers can exploit that gap, whether intentionally or unintentionally. For farmers in Latin America who don’t speak English, it can be tricky not only to negotiate a fair price for their product, but also to accurately assess the quality of what they’re producing. She explains how coffee buyers can claim fairness via Direct Trade while reaping the fiscal benefits of skipping the middleman; they often neglect to consider the fact that importers and exporters are usually more equipped to foster an equitable negotiation because of a shared language. “Because people negotiate with people who can’t understand them as well as the importer can, they’re benefiting twice from skipping the importer. There are so many great producers who don’t even know specialty coffee exists. They may have a Pacamara that’s 90 points, and they don’t know how expensive that should be.” At that point, buyers can offer them a deal that’s better than what they were asking, but still not even close to what they should be paying, and still characterize the purchase as a fair or even charitable act.  

Rosi Quiñones, who manages farm certifications and quality control at green coffee importer Royal Coffee, pointed out the myriad benefits and opportunities that come from employing Spanish-speakers from producing countries as coffee workers in general, and more specifically in the green coffee side of the chain. An agronomist from Lima, Peru, Quiñones loves working directly with producers and helping them improve their craft and get the best prices for their product; she says that when dealing with complex interpersonal engagements like negotiation or logistics coordination, not only does fluency in a shared language help people to do great work together, but shared culture matters as well. “When someone not only speaks Spanish but also understands the cultural values of producers, that understanding is helpful in building the relationship. For example, when producers from Peru introduce themselves, they start with their ancestors and their parents; that tells you important information about their values.”

Mayra Orellana-Powell. Photo courtesy of Jose Reynieri Hernandez.

Quiñones also points out that where many green buyers who only speak English might have to go through multiple translators to communicate with producers who only speak indigenous languages, buyers who are fluent in Spanish will have an easier time navigating translation to get crucial information about how the coffee was produced. Since (like coffee itself) Spanish is a language brought to Latin America through colonialism, the incredibly numerous and diverse indigenous languages of Latin America are often farm workers’ primary language, informing the nuances of their Spanish and adding complexity. In situations like this, Spanish is a way of meeting in the middle.

Mariana Faerron-Gutierrez, a Costa Rican agronomic economist and co-owner of Tico Coffee Roasters in Campbell, California, agrees. “In Latin America, a lot of producers speak more than one language and can communicate easily with importers and buyers they work with, but when they can speak with someone who comes from the same place, it makes the communication deeper than just the language. They open up and tell you things they otherwise wouldn’t, because through shared culture you’re able to make them feel that you value what they are sharing, rather than just focusing on technical aspects like how the coffee was produced or how long it was dried.”

Abner Roldán. Photo courtesy of Karla Quinones.

What The Industry Can Do

When asked what the industry can do to improve communication between cultures, all the coffee workers I interviewed suggested that English-speaking coffee folks take on some of the onus for bridging the language gap, from farm to cafe. As Roldán and Rubio both suggest, it’s not just the job of Spanish speakers to make communication happen—especially those in Spanish-speaking countries. Orellana-Powell is excited to see more English-speaking coffee people leaving their comfort zones and starting to learn Spanish and explore Latin coffee cultures, which are rich and diverse. “There’s a huge market of Latino consumers, cafes, and roasting companies in the U.S. and in Latin America, and we need to stop ignoring that market.” Quiñones adds that while she’s excited to see more cross-cultural engagement, these markets are taking off regardless of whether the U.S. acknowledges them or not, and in the process they are creating their own media and trends.

In addition to interpersonal communication, the coffee community needs to continue pushing for educational organizations and media groups to translate the resources they create, as World Coffee Research and Specialty Coffee Association have started to do. Beyond that, Faerron-Gutierrez wants people to think about whose stories the coffee industry is telling, and whether they really express the diversity of the U.S. coffee industry: “The industry highlights certain things or people, and then it goes back again and again; I feel like this country is so big that it just can’t be that there are no more people to recognize.”

In hiring, managers and owners should start thinking of fluency in Latin American languages and cultures as an asset, not just at the green coffee level but even at the entry level. The U.S. borders Mexico and is home to more Spanish speakers than the entire country of Spain, and there are many coffee lovers out there who communicate better in Spanish than English and would benefit from service that resonates with them.

As the coffee industry struggles with global issues such as climate change and labor shortages, it’s time to examine how certain things or people have come to be seen as more valuable than others and reassess those values. Looking to the future of coffee, white U.S.-born Americans need to start thinking of linguistic and cultural barriers faced in the industry as a group challenge requiring work on all sides, rather than just a problem for Spanish speakers in coffee.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

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Source: Coffee News

If there is an unsung hero for take-away coffee, it is the lid. This humble but ubiquitous piece of plastic is all that stands between you and a lap full of piping hot single origin washed Yirg. And let’s be honest, the disposable lid is probably going the way of the buffalo; with the current focus on sustainability and reusability, there isn’t much room for the one-time use plastic lid in the modern world. Soon, we’ll all be saying, “remember plastic lids?” To which the response will be, “no.”

But a new book by two architects immortalizes the plastic coffee to-go cup lid, forever recording it in the annals of time. And the Smithsonian Museum as well.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, “Coffee Lids: Peel, Pinch, Pucker, Puncture” is the work of Louise Harpman and Scott Specht, New York and Austin-based architects, respectively, who bonded over their love of coffee lids. No, seriously. The pair met while studying at Yale, where they discovered the other person shared their love of lid collecting.

Their combined collection of lids “was considered so crucial to understanding one part of American culture and technology, it was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution.”

Released in March, “Coffee Lids: Peel, Pinch, Pucker, Puncture” is 256 pages of photography, illustrations, patent drawings, and an entire classification system devoted to “the small bits of humble genius that surround us every day,” per the book’s website.

On the classification system, Specht tells the Statesman:

Admittedly, I never use plastic lids. They mess up the flavor of the coffee. I just take a few extra hot slugs to get the liquid levels down to something more manageable and I live with the risk of spills, which explains why there are so many coffee stains in the crotch of literally every single pair of pants I own. But nonetheless, I can’t help but admire the devotion to the humble lid. Sure, they aren’t going to be around forever, but that’s all the more reason to appreciate them while they are here, before “Coffee Lids: Peel, Pinch, Pucker, Puncture” becomes an ancient history book.

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 There’s A Book Devoted To Coffee Lids appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Olympia Coffee Roasting Company in Tacoma’s Proctor District.

Olympia Coffee Roasting Company opens its fifth location today in the historic Proctor neighborhood in the north end of Tacoma, Washington. This is the company’s first retail location in co-owner Oliver Stormshak’s hometown and their second outside of Olympia (their shop in West Seattle opened earlier this year).

Stormshak recalls visiting Tacoma cafes growing up in the 90s. “Tacoma cafes played a huge role in shaping me as a coffee professional. Temple of the Bean was my personal favorite while I was in high school,” Stormshak tells us (Temple of the Bean is now Cosmonaut). “Our Westside Olympia location is greatly inspired by that cafe.”

“I loved Cafe WA’s space which is now our friends at Bluebeard. Shakabrah’s original location was a great place to hang out with friends, couches, good music, open mics. I remember Duane Sorenson (we went to high school together and our mothers work together) who would found Stumptown making me ice mochas. I met my wife in Buzz City, a coffeehouse on the corner of I and Division at a record release party for Katie’s Dimples.”

Wide angle view of the interior. (Photo by Poppi Photography)

Poursteady brewer. (Photo by Poppi Photography)

Olympia Coffee Roasting’s new space, designed and built-out by The Artisans Group, features a La Marzocco Strada AV espresso machine, customized by Pantechnicon Designs, FETCO batch brew, and pour-over via the Poursteady automated dripper.

Roasting will be done on-site using a custom-made Diedrich IR-5 Kilo Roaster. Customers have an opportunity to sit and watch the roasting take place on barstools with a view. A blend created for the Tacoma cafe called “Little Buddy” is named after Stormshak’s sister’s 1986 Honda Civic which, according to their press release, cruised around Tacoma in the 90s.

Little Buddy blend.

The Tacoma location offers Olympia’s Left Bank Pastry. (Photo by Poppi Photography)

Hours are Monday to Friday 5am to 7pm, Saturday 6am to 7pm, and Sunday 7am to 6pm. A grand opening celebration takes place Saturday, May 12th with artisanal goods neighbor Lapis. Stormshak tells us to expect “snacks, music, libations, and free brewed coffee all day.”

The interior. (Photo by Poppi Photography)

“I always dreamed of owning a coffee roastery, growing up. I always imagined it would be in Tacoma, in Proctor,” says Stormshak. “Even though this is our fifth location this is truly a lifelong dream for me.”

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

Photos by Poppi Photography provided by Olympia Coffee Roasting Co.

The post Now Open: Olympia Coffee’s New Tacoma Cafe And Roastery appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Do you want to know how to win friends and influence people? The answer is simple: give them coffee. This may sound like just the ramblings and conjecture of a biased coffee writer—which it definitely is—but now there is science to make it less conjecture-y, though still very ramble-y.

According to PsyPost, a new study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that “drinking coffee before a discussion can help people stay focused and feel better about the people in the conversation.” So it stands to reason, if you want people to feel good about you, give them coffee before the meeting you both will be attending.

Titled “Coffee with co-workers: role of caffeine on evaluations of the self and others in group settings,” the research was authored by Vasu Unnava of the University of California, Davis, who split a total of 134 college students into groups and “had them discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement for 15 minutes.” Unnava found that participants who were instructed to ingest caffeine before the discussion were “better at focusing on the topic at hand” over the uncaffeinated—because no duh—but they also “felt better about themselves and their fellow participants.” These findings coincide with my own research on the subject, tentatively titled “Why Does Everyone Suck So Much, Just Kidding, I’ve Had My First Cup Of Coffee Now And You’re All OK In My Book.”

The research is not without its caveats (theirs, not mine. Mine is flawless). From PsyPost:

Nevertheless, the takeaway here is to always bring coffee to a meeting to curry favor. It works like gangbusters on coffee drinkers. Maybe not so much on non-coffee drinkers, but jam enough of that sweet elixir down their gullets and they’ll get hooked and then we’re back to gangbusters.

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 Coffee Makes People Like You More, Says Science appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A new chapter in the rich Italian tradition of paying it forward via coffee has been born in Los Angeles, where LA’s queer-centered coffeehouse Cuties Coffee recently launched a community tab program. The goal: to ensure that the joy and comfort of a cup of a coffee in a safe and welcoming environment is available to all who need it, regardless of whether they can afford it.

Since queer community members (especially those who are also marginalized in other ways) face higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, and poverty than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts, the community tab advances Cuties’ mission to provide a true community hub for all—even those without the disposable income for their daily brew—by ensuring that no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Virginia Bauman and Iris Bainum-Houle.

The Suspended Coffee Tradition

In launching the community tab program, Cuties’ founders Virginia Bauman and Iris Bainum-Houle aren’t creating something entirely novel, but rather refining an historic tradition to fit their local community. The concept of suspended coffee—purchasing a second coffee for an anonymous future customer in need—is a tradition that comes from Italy (supposedly Naples) and dates back at least as far as the late 19th century. Originally called caffe sospeso, the tradition experienced a revival in Italy in 2011 when Italian authorities created an official “Suspended Coffee Day” to be celebrated each December.

Two years later, Irish plumber John Sweeney became enamored with the idea and launched a Facebook page Suspended Coffees. Four years later the page has over 388,000 “Likes”; the official organization Suspended Coffees that came from it has inspired thousands of cafes across the world—including many in the US—to adopt suspended coffee programs. Although some coffee shop owners found the concept of an official program to match customers looking to pay it forward with customers who could use a coffee break controversial, the idea resonated with many and continues to spread.

The Community Tab

Within the queer community, crowdfunding and passing the hat for friends and strangers alike is also a rich and longstanding tradition; both despite and because of the fiscal marginalization the queer community experiences, its members support each other when in need, and the community tab is just another expression of that tradition. Cuties, which was founded partially off of crowdfunding, has already tapped into that custom to give back to the community and create much-needed safe space.

“Our community faces frequent financial hardship,” said Bauman, reflecting on the inspiration for the program. “We want our space to be accessible, without the stigma of not having the funds to buy a drink or attend an event. The community tab allows people who have the means to support those who don’t.” Notably, the community tab allows its recipients to access the program without having to draw attention to their lack of funds—instead of asking the barista if anyone has left an extra drink, Cuties’ bar has a bowl of tokens that function as dollars from which anyone, without conversation, can pay. Customers can also add money to the bowl by purchasing “extra love” for any dollar amount with their order.

“Ultimately, the system needs to be able to be taken advantage of without conversation and be visible at the time of purchase,” says Bauman. “There needs to be a way to use it without outing yourself to others in the shop.” 

Bauman and Bainum-Houle funded the tab via an initial investment, but even after only a few weeks, the balance is already being maintained by the community, both in the cafe and through a Patreon account where fans can support long-distance.  

Bauman hopes the community tab will encourage queer and otherwise marginalized community members to come out and socialize even if they are facing financial hardship. “Isolation is extremely prevalent in our community—there are multiple challenges to leaving your house when you are a queer individual. If we can remove one of those challenges by providing the structure for those with means to help those without, then we’ll be very happy.”

Beyond the Cup

While Cuties has been open for under a year, the community tab is only the latest in their mission to serve their community beyond the cup. Bauman and Bainum-Houle—who met while attending queer, sex-positive, and storytelling events in Los Angeles and bonded over the inclusive community they wanted but didn’t yet see—think of Cuties as much more than just a place to get a cup of coffee. “We wanted a space that anchors the community, open during the daytime so that all ages could attend,” Bauman tells me. “We wanted a space for folx who don’t find a home in the queer nightlife scene. We wanted a space that was casual. There was a gap that we saw that a coffee shop could fill.”

Their flagship event, Queers, Coffee & Donuts—a casual queer coffee and donuts hangout—started before Cutie’s official launch. Since their storefront has been open, they’ve created a host of other events, including the Friday Flirt!, in which attendees can cruise in a safer space without alcohol, screenings of queer films, and craft nights. “My long-term goal is to have an event happening every day in the shop so there’s always something for our community to do and look forward to. That can mean a lot when your right to exist is under attack,” said Bainum-Houle. In addition to those events, they also provide a weekly newsletter featuring events happening in the broader LGBTQIA+ community as well as their own, including a section called “Adventures From Your Couch,” which features queer media that can be enjoyed from home including movies, music videos, books, articles, and podcasts. “This is for folx who aren’t going out that week, whether that’s because of social anxiety, mental illness, disabilities, or chronic illness. We want those folx to know we’re thinking about them even when they can’t come to the shop.”

Pay It Forward

For some, specialty coffee has earned itself a reputation for being elitist and inaccessible, and while those claims don’t necessarily take into account the whole picture, they also aren’t without basis. A focus on paying higher prices to coffee producers and workers across the supply chain doesn’t come for free, and as cafe prices have climbed, gentrification has put a pinch on many of the communities that house cafes. Communities that are marginalized have felt this pinch the hardest, and Cuties is working to make sure that their business actively circulates wealth back into the local queer community.

To support the community tab and Cuties’ other community programs, donate to their patreon and pay it forward—after all, it’s a coffee tradition.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

Photos courtesy of V.V.

The post In Los Angeles, Cuties Coffee Serves The Queer Community appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Ahhh the great outdoors. Is there anything better than getting out in nature and just kinda shutting off for a few days? The answer, of course, is, “Yes, doing all those things you just said but with a proper cup of coffee readily available.” That’s why Mavam Espresso has outfitted a trailer with a full service espresso bar and is hitting the open road for three weeks for the aptly titled “Mavam On The Road.”

Teaming up with Adventure Ready, Teardrop NW, Gron CBD Sirap, Caffewerks, Rhino Coffee Gear, and Califia Farms, Mavam is spending the better part of May touring the West Coast, with a Teardrop trailer custom fitted with a two-group Mavam and Victoria Arduino Mythos One espresso grinder. Over the three-week period starting May 9th in Portland and ending the 26th in Pinedale, Wyoming, Mavam will be popping up and down the West Coast, hosting throwdowns, tech trainings, and giving many their first up close and personal look at the new undercounter espresso machine on the block.

Our MAVAM Espresso Teardrop is just an example of the creative installations that can be completed. Looking for a mobile solution? Email us … info@mavamespresso.com #mobilecoffee #coffeetrailer #espressocatering #teardrop #mavamespresso

A post shared by Mavamontheroad (@mavamontheroad) on Apr 25, 2018 at 9:21pm PDT

In a press release, Mavam partner Terry Ziniewicz—who, it should be disclosed, has been a longtime friend and advertising partner of this website and is related to one of its founders by marriage—had this to say:

The scheduled stops for Mavam On The Road are:

May 9: Portland, OR, Roseline Coffee
May 12: Salt Lake City, UT, Saint Anthony Industries
May 19: Flagstaff, AZ, Overland Expo West
May 22: Phoenix, AZ, Provisions Coffee
May 25: Loveland/Denver, CO, Dark Heart
May 26: Pinedale, WY, Pine Coffee Supply

You can follow Mavam on their road warrior exploits through their instagram @MavamOnTheRoad.

Is it considered glamping if you bring a trailer but it’s so full of coffee gear that you can’t fit anything else in it so you just end up sleeping outside on the ground?

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and butt nutter enthusiast.

*all media via Mavam Espresso

The post Mavam On The Road: A Three Week West Coast Road Trip appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

After four days of intense multi-skill barista action at the fourth annual London Coffee Masters during the London Coffee Festival, a new champion has been crowned: Agnieszka Rojewska, an independent competitor from Poznan, Poland.

From a field of 24 baristas—one not short on high profile competitors from across Europe and North America—Rojewska’s name quickly rose to the top of the list as the favorite to win it all, and for good reason; she is a three-time Polish Barista Champion, a four-time Polish Latte Art Champion, a two-time World Latte Art Championship finalist, a Polish Brewers Cup runner-up, and most recently a runner-up at the 2017 New York Coffee Masters. In short, she has amassed one of the most impressive and varied résumés in barista competition history.

Rojewska’s multi-faceted skillset suited her well in Coffee Masters, a competition testing a broad range of barista skills, ushering her into the top eight before she bested Romania’s Daniel Horbat in the semi-finals on the way to beating out Rob Clarijs of The Netherlands for the title (and another notch on an already well-notched belt) of 2018 London Coffee Masters Champion.

With the win, Rojewska earned a £5,000 cash prize, which she says she will use primarily to fund future barista competitions. To learn more about the big win, and what it means, Sprudge co-founder Jordan Michelman caught up with Agnieszka Rojewska.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Hi Agnieszka! Congratulations on your big win! By way of introduction, what do you do professionally in the coffee industry in Poland?

For now I call myself an unemployed freelancer. There is no specific job I do. Most of the time I train baristas in barista skills, brewing, and latte art, and sometimes I do guest shifts at coffee shops. I also help people with opening or improving their businesses. I used to co-own a coffee shop, but because of number of travels I’ve had lately, I had to give that one up. But it is still in good hands.

You’ve won £5,000 for winning the Coffee Masters. How will you be spending your prize?

Well there is still a big kid inside me, so some part of it will definitely go to useless stuff, like new video games, funny socks, or sneakers. But definitely most of it will be an investment into my next competition later this year. Competing internationally is a big investment.

Talk us through your signature drink creation for the Coffee Masters. What did you do? Did this differ from years past?

I was looking for an idea that we are all familiar with and a beverage that wouldn’t be very complicated. It just struck me at some point that most coffee people like gin and tonics. Going from gin and tonic, we get tonic espresso, so we have a common ingredient.

My biggest problem with most gin and tonics and also tonic espressos is that there is too much bitterness and then this sugar-like sweetness in tonic. So I prepared my own tonic base, which still had those botanical notes, but I added more acidity and citrus flavours. It is basically made of orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and lemongrass with pepper, cardamon, anise, allspice berries, and quinine bark. From those ingredients I created a syrup, which I added to sparkling water in a 1:1 ratio.

Because it has a lot of citrus acidity I chose a different gin and infused it with Turkish quince juice to get an apple and pear sweetness. A gin and tonic made from those ingredients is more refreshing and has more acidity than regular ones.

For the coffee, I didn’t want to use espresso because it would be to intense for that drink. That’s why I used a natural-processed Ugandan coffee (Arabica). It has an extremely big body with flavors of prune, rum, and black cherry. It fit the rest perfectly.

This was a new approach for me. Most of the time I start with the coffee and then try to find matching spirits, but this time I wanted to take something from a bartender’s world and adjust the coffee world to it.

You placed second in the New York tournament last year, squaring off against Erika Vonie in the finals. Take us back to that moment: what did you learn from it? How did your Finals appearance help you win in London?

New York was a great experience, and I went there with no expectations. I was a bit surprised with my good performance through almost the whole tournament, but I think I lost focus in final moments. Erika was at her very best in the finals, when I was already going down. Looking back, it was a compilation of mistakes at every step. I didn’t handle the pressure. I learned there that you can only relax or let go a bit when you cross that finish line, not before. I learned that even if you are very good, it doesn’t mean that someone won’t be better, so you should prepare for every discipline; I’m talking here about losing latte art battle in NY 🙂

Editor’s note: Rojewska didn’t make the same mistake twice, winning every latte art battle she was a part of at London Coffee Masters.

In London I already knew how it goes, I knew more less what to expect and how demanding every day is, so I could just prepare myself a lot better.

Is this a major moment in your career thus far?

I think so. This is the first huge international competition I managed to win. I was always near the top, but never succeeded. I started to think that I might not be able to deliver that at some point, that maybe I will always be just inches from the top. It was the moment when I felt like all those years of trainings weren’t for nothing. Might be a breaking point in my career, who knows 🙂

What’s something about competing in Coffee Masters that new competitors might not know? What have you found surprising about the tournament?

A lot of competitors think that this will be similar to other competitions like, the Brewers Cup or Barista Competition. The big difference is that for Coffee Masters, you can’t actually prepare, you know nothing that will be happening there besides your signature beverage. We enter the competition with the same preparation: we don’t know the coffees, we have no idea how to brew them. So it all goes back to how you handle pressure and stress. Are your skills and knowledge good enough the handle the unknown? At first I was telling my friends that on the CM stage you have to be a little coffee McGuyver—in a new environment, you have to make coffees taste great while knowing almost nothing about them. It challenges your skill like no other.

Rojewska’s coffees from Caravan’s The Niners Series chosen on the spot for her custom blend.

You’ve been part of the tournament now for several seasons. Does it feel to you like Coffee Masters is growing?

Oh yes. Just look, for example, at the numbers of competitors. It’s 24 now. And not just the number of competitors is growing but the level as well. Look at the results in first round, we were all very close; baristas are getting better and better and there is no place for mistakes in the competition.

What’s the one thing about Coffee Masters you’ve enjoyed the most? 

It would be hard to choose one thing… I think that the interactions we have with judges, other competitor on stage, emcees, and the crowd: talking, asking questions, joking, etc. It just makes you want to never leave that stage.

Describe the moment of victory in your own words.

The feeling is hard to describe. Of course I was pretty nervous before. I have already been in that place and lost, so the pressure I put on myself was a bit bigger. But the moment they showed my name as a winner I was just extremely happy; all that stress was gone, my mind was calm. I think I was smiling for next three days.

Is there anyone special you’d like to thank? 

Of course!!! Special thanks to my teammate Paula. She is always there for me, drinking all those good and bad versions of my beverages, taking care of the cuppings.  She is able to handle my whining, anger, depression. She is my team, none of this would happen without her help!

Thanks Agnieszka, and congratulations again on the big win!

Check out our complete coverage of the 2018 London Coffee Masters on Sprudge Live.

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

Photos by Zachary Carlsen and Zac Cadwalader for Sprudge. 

The post An Interview With Agnieszka Rojewska, 2018 London Coffee Masters Champion appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Just when I thought I was out, the butter beat spoons me back in. I was content to hang up my top hat and monocle and leave coverage of the nexus of coffee and legume-based spreads to the next generation of hungry nut butterists, but when given the opportunity to take first scoops from the chaste nut butter news of the day, how could I refuse a dip?

It was a little over a year ago when we first reported that Big Spoon Coffee Roasters teamed up with Intelligentsia Coffee for a special release an espresso nut butter made with Black Cat espresso. But now the North Carolina-based artisanal butterist is back to one up their peanut, almond, and espresso spread (espreadso?). In collaboration with the Bay Area’s Equator Coffees & Teas, Big Spoon has just announced the release of an almond hazelnut butter made with Equator’s Tigerwalk Espresso.

Like with all of Big Spoon’s edible spreadables, the new collab is light on ingredients; it’s made up of only “fresh-roasted heirloom California Mission almonds, Oregon Barcelona and Clark variety hazelnuts, [raw organic] coconut crystals, [organic Madagascar] vanilla, [Vietnamese] cinnamon, and sea salt with Equator Coffees & Teas’ flagship Tigerwalk Espresso,” per a press release.

The special release nut butter retails for $12.50 for a 10-ounce jar and can be purchased via Big Spoon’s and Equator’s respective webstores. And starting today, for the next two weeks the Proof, Miller, Larkspur, and Fort Mason Equator locations will be offering $3 off a 12-ounce bag of Tigerwalk Espresso with any purchase of a jar of the nut butter collaboration.

For more information, visit Big Spoon’s official website. Or, you know, just buy a jar. Seems like everything you need to know is under that lid. It’s good to be back on the butter beat.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and butt nutter enthusiast.

The post Big Spoon And Equator Coffees Join Forces For An Espresso Nut Butter appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Black Coffee, the new event series from creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista) premiered last week at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Oregon. Hosted by Michelle Johnson, Ian Williams (Deadstock Coffee), and Gio Fillari (Coffee Feed PDX), this event centered the voices and experiences of Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, all with unique perspectives that spanned intersectional identities and roles on the retail end of the value chain.

The guests for the first podcast included D’Onna Stubblefield (Counter Culture Coffee), Ezra Baker (Share Coffee Roasters), Zael Ogwaro (Never Coffee), Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House), and Cameron Heath (Revelator Coffee Company), with a live DJ performance by |Fritzwa|.

You can now listen to the podcast! Download it here and subscribe.

Black Coffee PDX was made possible by La Marzocco USA, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Oatly, NXT LVL, and The Ace Hotel Portland. Ticket proceeds are being donated to our charitable partners Sankofa Collective and Brown Girl Rise.

Listen to the podcast now! Video of the event will premiere in the next week. More events are on the horizon in 2018—stay tuned.

During Black Coffee PDX the @Sprudge Instagram account was taken over by Shaunté Glover—in addition to the images above, here’s a few key images live from the event evening.

It’s all family here. The conversation is about to begin. BLACK COFFEE. Who’s ready to listen? TAKEOVER: @shaunte

A post shared by Sprudge (@sprudge) on Apr 24, 2018 at 6:18pm PDT

It’s getting real Portland! Let’s go! Takeover: @shaunte

A post shared by Sprudge (@sprudge) on Apr 24, 2018 at 7:24pm PDT

H I S T O R Y. #blackcoffeepdx Takeover: @shaunte

A post shared by Sprudge (@sprudge) on Apr 24, 2018 at 8:44pm PDT

Thank you to everyone who came out and not only heard but listened to these extraordinarily important stories and perspectives! #blackcoffeepdx Takeover: @shaunte

A post shared by Sprudge (@sprudge) on Apr 24, 2018 at 9:00pm PDT

All images by Shaunté Glover.

The post Black Coffee: The Live Podcast Is Now Available appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News