News

This week we take a look at the packaging from Parlor Coffee out of Brooklyn, New York. What caught our attention wasn’t so much the box itself (which is delightful) but the packaging within: a clear, compostable bag with lovely details printed in white. When the bag is full of roasted coffee, the design really pops. We talked to Operations Manager Stephanie Dana to learn more.

Tell us a bit about Parlor Coffee

Parlor was founded in 2012 with a single-group espresso machine in the back of a barbershop and a dream to roast New York’s finest coffee. We supply coffee to cafes, restaurants, and home brewers across North America from our roastery on the edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We continue to pursue the original dream along with others we’ve hatched along the way.

When did the coffee package design debut?

We launched our new and improved retail packaging in January 2018.

Who designed the package?

We collaborated with fellow Brooklyn-based design firm Franklyn. We’ve entrusted many of our design projects to their incredible team, including our recent publication—Parchment—as well as the packaging for Parlor Instant.

We’re especially fond of the details on the clear bag! Tell us about this!

That’s definitely one of my favorite elements as well! The idea for that design began with the type of packaging we knew we wanted to work with (Biotrē 2.0) and how we could make that material as beautiful as the product inside. The coffee floral pattern is a throwback to our original (and very popular) botanical print on our previous bags. The exterior box, which shields the interior Biotrē bag from light, also features the redesigned motif. We love that the clear bags allow consumers to immediately see the coffee upon opening the box. I also just find it to be a bit whimsical.

Why are aesthetics in coffee packaging so important?

We believe that our packaging and branding should always, first and foremost, be a reflection of the coffees we source and roast—of the highest quality, clean and emanating unique character.

The foundation of our business is wholesale, so we wanted our packaging to show Parlor’s personality while telling the story of each coffee to any person interacting with each box. The wraparound label is color-coded by origin and makes for an intuitive presentation which clearly differentiates the coffees on our menu. Navy blue is reserved for our blends (Wallabout and Prospect), vibrant red for our African offerings, forest green for the coffees of Central and South America, and saffron yellow for our Decaf selection. We wanted to highlight the producers we work with and celebrate the diversity of the origins we are sourcing from through these design choices.

As an added bonus, the boxes ship more efficiently and are less prone to being damaged in transit, ultimately making for a better final presentation of our coffees to customers.

Where is the bag manufactured?

The clear bag is manufactured by Pacific Bag in Taiwan and is part of their Biotrē 2.0 line.

What type of package is it?

Paperboard and Biotrē 2.0.

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

The box is recyclable. The bag and its one-way valve are made from plant-based polyethylene. According to the information Pacific Bag has published on Biotrē 2.0, 60% of this material will break down naturally in a home compost environment, ultimately reducing the amount of packaging that ends up in a landfill.

In striving to be better stewards of a good food system, we remain steadfast in seeking to purchase the best and most sustainable coffee packaging available. Our newest retail packaging is a small step forward for Parlor’s commitment to this ideal.

Where is it currently available?

Our retail is always available on our website (parlorcoffee.com) and at our Tasting Room, open to the public on Sundays from 10am to 2pm. And, of course, many of our wonderful wholesale partners stock our retail. Drop us a line at info@parlorcoffee.com if you’d like to find your closest café or outlet offering Parlor!

Thank you!

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

The post Coffee Design: Parlor Coffee In Brooklyn, NY appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Sad news today at the start of WBC weekend. World Coffee Events has issued a statement about the death of 2019 Philippines Brewers Cup Champion John Michael Hermoso. According to news reports, Hermoso was shot and killed inside of Good Cup Coffee Company in Cebu City around midnight, April 11th, local time.

Hermoso, a managing partner, roaster, and head barista of Good Cup Coffee Company was a seasoned competitor, winning three competitions and placing in four in the last five years:

2014 Philippine Krispy Kreme Latteart Champion (Cebu)
2014 Philippine Krispy Kreme Barista Cup – 2nd Place
2016 Cebu and Food Beverage Expo Latteart – 3rd Place
2017 Cebu and Food Beverage Expo Latteart – 3rd Place
2018 Philippine National Brewers Cup – 4th Place
2018 Sanremo Latteart Throwdown Champion
2019 Philippine National Brewers Cup Champion

View this post on Instagram

Coffee in one hand, Confidence in another. #thegoodcupcoffeecompany #specialtycoffee #sourcingtoserving #pbrc2019 #roadtoboston #neverstoplearning

A post shared by John Michael (@blazing_john) on Mar 30, 2019 at 12:36pm PDT

WCE issued the following statement:

“This is a heartbreaking and shocking tragedy, and we want to express our deepest condolences to the friends and family of John Michael Hermoso, as well as those of Katie Ramos, who was also killed in the attack, and Jerome Amada and Sherwin Rivera who were injured.

To celebrate the life of John Michael Hermoso, we will be observing a moment of silence at 1:00PM EDT on Friday 4/12 on-site at the World Brewers Cup and World Barista Championship in Boston, and on the livestream at wcc.coffee/boston. Please join us honoring John Michael’s memory and mourning this great loss for the local and global coffee community.

John Michael Hermoso was supposed to be competing at the 2019 World Brewers Cup, but his visa application was rejected by US immigration. John Michael was pursuing Deferred Candidacy to compete in the 2020 World Brewers Cup, and it is enormously sad that he will not have the chance to do so.”

Click here to read the full statement.

This story is developing…

Top photo via World Coffee Events.

The post 2019 Philippines Brewers Cup Champion Dead In Tragic Shooting appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

One of my favorite things about attending Expo every year is the opportunity to meet and learn from people involved in every aspect of coffee value chain. Yes, I love going to every party happening after each day (which by the way, you should come to mine), but there’s no better time to cup coffees with the people who produced them or hear from incredible folks who’ve forged different career paths in the coffee industry. If only I could do all of this and have the added bonus of an incentive for engaging with the coffee world like this.

Enter the Atlas EXPO Passport.

This year in Boston, Atlas Coffee Importers are giving SCA attendees the chance to win either a trip with Atlas staff to a coffee producing country or go to the Atlas office in Seattle, Washington for a full week of training and education. All you have to do is print out the Passport and attend an Atlas event or hosted location ranging from panel discussions to visiting them in the Roaster’s Village to receive a stamp. Complete five of the six pages on the Passport and you’re eligible for the dual grand prize. Complete three of the six and you’ll be eligible to win one of ten runner-up prizes including a ton of Atlas and partner swag.

From Atlas Green Coffee Sales team member, Katherine Hartline:

With the Passport, it was our goal to create a fun way for people to follow along if they’re attending this year, and are trying to make it as inclusive an opportunity as possible. We have a dual grand prize—the winner’s choice of traveling with us either to a coffee producing country, or to our Atlas lab in Seattle for a week of education/career development—so that anyone along the supply chain would find it a valuable and useful opportunity. We also included a translation link on the Passport and did not include any events that would incur a cost outside of an EXPO pass.

Head over to the Atlas website to read the full list of events and complete rules for the contest. Even if just for the learning experiences alone, the Passport will be more than worth a try!

Michelle Johnson is a news contributor at Sprudge Media Network, and the founder and publisher of The Chocolate Barista. Read more Michelle Johnson on Sprudge.

Top image via Atlas Coffee Importers

The post Win A Trip To Origin With Atlas Coffee Importer’s Expo Passport appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

It’s true that 2018 WBC second runner-up Lex Wenneker and his business partner Dylan Sedgwick named their new cafe—FUKU—after the Japanese term for “good fortune.” If you speak with them, Wenneker, a three-time Dutch barista champion, will tell you how as a visitor to Japan he was impressed by all the small spaces where each day a single individual “puts the same attention in every cup.” In the same breath Sedgwick, a New Zealander with much international coffee experience, might cite Japanese craft precision as “inspiration for our workflow.” But if you’re like me, you might have doubts. The explanation’s a touch too cute for these two.

These are, after all, the guys behind Friedhats Coffee Roasters, a name they gleefully admit has led confused consumers to believe the company deals in French fries and attracted email spam targeted at milliners. What’s more, Friedhats’ aesthetic—most obvious in its packaging but now also at FUKU—might be summarized as ska-meets-psychedelica in a Roy Lichtenstein palette. Any way you cut it, their goofiness and subversion are colorful, contradicting any “expectations that we were gonna do something super chic and Berlin-style,” as Sedgwick puts it.

So while the cafe FUKU is pronounced to rhyme with “cuckoo,” it seems its nomenclature arose from the same place it does when the four-letter word is carved into an elementary school bathroom stall: frustration.

“There was a point that I was pissed off at the whole [coffee] thing… I was gonna quit,” Wenneker tells me. “I just got back from the WBC in Dublin and everything was normal again, and I just couldn’t hear one more complaint about the light-roasted coffee. People didn’t get it. I just couldn’t do it anymore, and that’s when I wanted to stop.”

He continues: “Then we decided to look for a cafe again, as a solution—to have something new to do. And as a joke, I wanted to call it ‘the Friedhats’ Fuck You Cafe.’”

His defiance was likely sparked earlier, by the shuttering of Headfirst, a micro-roastery Wenneker co-ran and where he and Sedgwick started working together. Its closure came suddenly after Amsterdam authorities accused the venue of violating rules about what it could sell as a designated retail spot rather than a food and drink vendor. That was in late 2015, when Headfirst, at just two years old, was quite popular among locals and coffee tourists.

In fact, the name Friedhats is no enigma—it is an anagram. Scrambling the letters of “headfirst” has provided at least a linguistically sentimental reincarnation of the old business. As for FUKU’s present-day semantic scrambling—the idea came from much closer than Japan.

“He was in Paris and he saw this place called ‘Fuku,’” recalls Wenneker about Sedgwick. “It kinda says ‘fuck you’ but not really.”

“A sushi place,” his partner specifies.

All that said, guests at FUKU, which opened in September, get no sense of being rebuffed or shooed. Before even going inside the cafe, a sight of delight appears on an entranceway door: a vintage column of feeder trays from legendary Dutch automat chain FEBO. Today, instead of hamburgers or krokets, they dispense coffee beans in Friedhats’ signature plastic jar packaging (nominated for a 2018 Sprudgie Award).

Wenneker and Sedgwick built the bar themselves, leaving a large façade for their illustrator (and part-time barista) Ivo Janss. The most prominent equipment is a rare Kees van der Westen three-group Mistral. There are three grinders: a Mahlkönig EK43, an Anfim Super Caimano Barista, and an ever-so R2D2-esque Lyn Weber EG1. Around the bend is a moss green Slayer Single Group, which patrons can get a courtside view of when seated in the front window.

Asked if his past titles up the pressure to perform in everyday work, Wenneker is candid, mentioning some particularly painful early feedback.

“There was this guy who came in. He was like, ‘Ah, I expected a bit more because he’s the almost-World Barista Champion, and it was just like a nice coffee that I got.’ It hit me quite hard,” he admits, with a good-natured laugh.

“Don’t come with too-high expectations,” Sedgwick half-jokes.

“Nah, that’s not true,” says Wenneker. “We’re doing something new now, I think, in the cafe with the long list of coffees that are available for espresso and filter. I don’t think any cafe in Amsterdam has that.”

Most remarkable is the menu’s “Super Specials” subsection, described by Wenneker as “coffees you just don’t find anywhere because they’re very expensive” and “usually rare or hard to obtain.” Often competition coffees, they are standardly prepared by V60 and cost 7.50 euros. On a recent visit, that list included Brazil Daterra Laurina, Colombia Gesha X.O., Colombia Sudan Rume, and Ethiopia Gesha Village.

Because they have all the necessary licenses, FUKU can serve alcohol—the wines lean towards natural and French—and food; the venue has begun with short hours and easy-to-eat carbohydrates, but eventually plans to stay open well past sunset. The back patio, with an overhang, is ready for warm even if wet days.

Wenneker and Sedgwick have two part-time staff, and Wenneker’s brother is their accounts manager. Still, the pair works six days a week, splitting their time between cafe and roastery. The latter, which they moved into in September, occupies a section of shared space in a hangar-like unit. Compared to the former roastery, it is the boondocks, though has no shortage of storage or parking for the new company car, a secondhand Volvo wagon used for local coffee deliveries. Most international orders are sent within Europe, though the US and Canada are catching on, they report.

Meanwhile, Wenneker maintains he is done competing. Earned in June 2018 at the WBC held only six kilometers south of FUKU, his latest, second place, ranking satisfies in far more ways than I expected to hear.

Lex Wenneker

He explains: “If you get first place, you have all these obligations, you have to go everywhere, people expect you to show up for stuff. We were already talking about the cafe, so we knew we couldn’t really do that. So before the whole competition started I was like, ‘Yeah, second. I’ll go for second.’”

“I was really happy,” says Wenneker of the outcome. “Second place is kind of what I really aimed for.”

The response is quintessentially Dutch: modest, pragmatic, evenhanded. It is also an elegant way of celebrating one’s good fortune while still issuing, to the powers that be, a big FU.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge. 

The post In Amsterdam, The Latest From Friedhats Coffee Is A Big FUKU appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

I love coffee books. How to brew it, how to pour it real pretty, everything someone knows about it, new rules for it: if words are committed to paper about coffee, I’m into it. It should come as no shock then that Sarina Prabasi’s new book The Coffeehouse Resistance: Brewing Hope in Desperate Times, released today, April 9^th piqued my interest. Published by Green Writers Press, The Coffeehouse Resistance is a book about “love, coffee, and the American dream.”

Described as “part coming-to-America story, part lyrical memoir and another part activist’s call to action,” The Coffeehouse Resistance tells Prabasi’s story, from Nepal to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia before finally immigrating New York City, where along with her husband she started the Bronx’s Buunni Coffee. Were that the sum total of the book, it would be a wonderful read, the story of new Americans finding a home and success thanks in some part to coffee. But as it did with many things, the 2016 presidential election shifted the narrative.

In a time where nationalism was spiking and moving into the mainstream, Prabasi and her family were left to question their place in their new home. Would they be accepted under this new regime? But instead of sitting back and waiting their fates to befall them, the proprietors of Buunni used their cafe to enact change by harkening back to one of the original roles of the coffeehouse: as “a hub for local organizing and action.” Per the website, the new narrative is one of “moving from despair to hope… about building community, claiming home, and fighting for our shared dreams.”

To promote her new work, Prabasi will be hitting the road for readings and book signings all across the country, including Expo this week in Boston. Other events throughout the month includes stops in Denver, Seattle, New York, and Portland, where you will be able to pick up a copy of your very own. Or, if you happen to not live in one of these five cities, The Coffeehouse Resistance: Brewing Hope in Desperate Times is available for purchase online and in retail stores like Barnes & Noble and Target. For more information on the book or the tour dates, visit Sarina Prabasi’s official website.

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

Top image via The Coffeehouse Resistance: Brewing Hope in Desperate Times

The post The Coffeehouse Resistance: A Story Love, Coffee, And The American Dream appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The first time I heard Jhone Milanez Lacerda, a coffee farmer from the Caparaó region of Brazil, speak about all he has done to transform his family’s farm, I was flooded with emotion. I had never before seen a young farmer so humble and kind, and yet so smart, inventive, and articulate. From that first day, I could tell Lacerda had big plans—today, I am thrilled to share a little bit of his story here.

Sítio Santa Rita, in the Caparaó region—a national park in a rocky area between the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo in Brazil—was founded in 1896. The Lacerda family is the fourth generation of coffee farmers in that farm area, and the first producing high-quality coffee.

Jhone Lacerda remembers the day his father, Tarcisio Lacerda, brought home a little can of coffee that smelled and tasted nothing like he had recognized as coffee to that point in his life. It was fantastic, and it was life-changing. He asked his father why this coffee tasted like that, and the elder Lacerda couldn’t answer his son’s question. So in 2008, Jhone Lacerda started taking courses on coffee grading and tasting and coffee farm management.

Jhone and Tarcisio Lacerda

“Between 2006 and 2010, we understood that good coffee was pulped cherry coffee,” says Lacerda. “It made sense at that time, as nobody was doing selective picking, and the simplest way to separate the greens out of the ripe cherries was to do so via pulped processing,” Lacerda says. He started selectively picking a very small part of his crop and selling it at very low prices. His neighbor farmers would stop by and call him crazy, since the middlemen, being either naïve or just plain cruel, would only pay “improved commodity” prices for it—something like USD $8-10 above market price.

In 2012, Lacerda became certified as a Q-grader and created a tasting lab on his farm so he could host his green coffee clients. Around the same time, Miriam and Fred Ayres, Lacerda’s sister and brother-in-law, started specializing in barista courses and transformed the space in a coffee shop.

Then, in 2013, at Brazil’s International Coffee Week, Lacerda attended a talk by Manuel Diaz on coffee fermentation. “Until this point in time, my dad, my granddad, and every other farmer would instruct us to avoid fermentation at all costs. This guy told me to do the exact opposite: in order to be good, coffee has to ferment. That was mindblowing to me,” remembers Lacerda. The next morning, Dr. Diaz presented some fermented coffees at the cupping table and Lacerda can still describe them as if he’d tasted them yesterday: very fruity, citric, complex coffees.

Sítio Santa Rita

Back on the farm, Lacerda had cupped a spectacular coffee from a neighbor whose coffee had been disqualified from a quality contest because of the humidity content. “When I asked my neighbor what was the secret of that coffee, he got shy and did not want to share. I insisted, so he ended up confessing: he was picking the beans every day, storing them inside fertilizer plastic bags during the entire week, and on the weekends he would remove the coffee from the bags and lay them out in the sun to dry. There was my second confirmation that fermentation was the way to go.”

Lacerda started testing. “There were so many tests,” he recalls. “Many people would say it was too fruity, the old school folks would say it has gone bad or something like that. Eventually, I started getting it right. The coffee tasted so good, I started varying the fermentation by time. Eventually, I realized that time was not the most important variable, but temperature was. If I fermented a coffee in May for 72 hours, it wasn’t going to taste the same as a coffee fermented in August for the same amount of time, since the average temperature in those months differs widely.”

By 2014, Lacerda and his clients were able to find so many different fruit notes in his fermented coffee they nicknamed the coffee lots “Fruit Salad,” so the buyers would know what to expect. Other lots followed suit: Brazil Nuts, Sweet Caparaó, Jasmine, Coconut Candy, and so forth.

The Bala de Côco (Coconut candy) lot comes from coffee trees located in a very steep area at the top of Pedra Menina rock, very hard to access, surrounded by eucalyptus trees. One day Lacerda was riding his bike up there and noticed the coffee trees had beautiful flowers and decided to proceed with the harvest. The coffee turned out to have candied coconut notes. It comes through a biannual crop only since it is completely shaded. It’s one of his most sought after—and expensive—lots.

Last year, Lacerda invested in a more elaborate fermentation process, which resulted in a coffee with black olive notes, nicknamed “Olivia.” “Olivia went through a dry, pre-fermentation stage, then on to a dry, pulped fermentation, and lastly, a hydrated fermentation. I tried to unite three processes that we already do into one, and it created something very unique, with notes of black olives. From our trial and experience, we can tell the pre-fermentation adds flavor complexity, the second fermentation adds sweetness, and third fermentation contributes to a clean flavor and acidity,” summarizes Lacerda. Due to climate change, photoperiod, rain season variations, etc, it was not possible to reproduce the olive notes in this year’s same experiment. “I can only control my experimentation tests and harvest and post-harvest techniques, but I can’t control nature,” he jokes.

Lacerda, a Coffee Management graduate, is also a tinkerer. With his father, he developed a unique drying device for his microlots, which allows them to dry up to nine microlots at the same time. He’s also developed, with partner Wesley Coelho, a remote temperature measuring system that allows him to control his fermentation lots from anywhere. The system sends a reminder to Lacerda’s smartphone when the coffee mass reaches preset target temperatures, so that Lacerda can move forward with the post-harvest process. They are working to make it available for sale to other farmers as well. As a pioneer in coffee fermentation in Brazil, Lacerda has traveled to Costa Rica and Colombia to implement processes similar to those of the “Fruit Salad” lot in farms in those countries.

Fred and Miriam Bruno

“None of this would have been accomplished had the tasks not been divided between my family and me,” recognizes Lacerda. “While I’m in charge of quality and commercialization of our coffees, Fred and Miriam are in charge of the coffee shop and the roastery, my dad the plantation, and Miriam takes an additional role in financing and administration. Without them, I wouldn’t have had so much time to focus on researching better practices of fermentation and quality improvement.”

Farming is no easy task. Lacerda is surely very lucky to have such a dedicated family team behind Sítio Santa Rita, but also deserves much credit and recognition for being an inventive and fearless trailblazer in the mountains of Caparaó.

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

Photos by Bruno Lavorato.

The post Using Fermentation To Take Coffee To New Heights At Sítio Santa Rita In Brazil appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Hello! Welcome to the official announcement of The Sprudge Twenty, presented by Sprudge and Pacific Barista Series.

This is a new program for us here at Sprudge, happening today for the very first time. What you’re reading will become an annual tradition honoring and amplifying leaders in the global coffee community, as part of an ongoing partnership with Pacific Barista Series. Pacific is dedicated to championing leadership and excellence in the coffee industry, and to supporting coffee culture as it happens worldwide.

We’re thrilled to announce this year’s inaugural Sprudge Twenty class. Twenty people who are changing the game in coffee, whose work challenges and excites us, from every step of the coffee value chain. It includes entrepreneurs and coffee producers (they’re often one and the same!), working baristas and cafe owners, career professionals and those whose careers are just starting, competition success stories and folks working quietly behind the scenes, leading by example.

From a massive list of nominees around the world, below please find the inaugural Sprudge Twenty class presented by Pacific Barista Series. Each one of these members will receive a spotlight feature in the coming weeks on Sprudge, so get ready to know them a little better. For now, read on to discover the Sprudge Twenty presented alphabetically, and thank you.

Want to nominate someone in your community for the next Sprudge Twenty class? The nomination schedule for the 2020 Sprudge Twenty presented by Pacific Barista Series will be announced this fall. Sign up for the Sprudge Newsletter and never miss an update. 

Nicole Battefeld – Röststätte of Berlin, Germany

Nicole Battefeld — Röststätte of Berlin, Germany

Nominated by Melanie Boehme

Nicole Battefeld is the head roaster and barista team leader at Berlin’s Röststätte. A former professional chef, Battefeld is the 2018 German Barista Champion and the founder of the Female Barista Society, “a project to encourage women by sharing knowledge and passion for coffee.” The Society is currently raising funds to offer free education, technical training and other opportunities to womxn and female-identified coffee professionals in Germany and beyond.

Jenny Bonchak – Slingshot Coffee Co. of Raleigh, NC

Jenny Bonchak (Photo courtesy Jenny Bonchak)

Nominated by Emily Davis

Jenny Bonchak is the founder of Slingshot Coffee, a boutique ready-to-drink coffee company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. An accomplished specialty coffee entrepreneur, Bonchak built her brand from scratch in 2012, starting out hand-packing and brewing every batch herself from inside a shared kitchen. Today Slingshot is distributed nationally through major grocery brands like Whole Foods, Publix and Target; Bonchak has been named as a Fellow for the 2018 Class of Coca-Cola’s Founders Forum and as Southern Living’s 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year. She manages the brand and oversees the project alongside her partner, Jonathan Bonchak, and together the couple has finaled at multiple national United States Brewers Cup events over the last decade.

Daniel Brown – Gilly Brew Bar of Stone Mountain, GA

Daniel Brown (Photo by Mary-Claire Stewart)

Nominated by Justin Brostek and Juanita Brown.

Daniel Brown is the founder of Gilly Brew Bar, a successful and important new coffee company based in the Stone Mountain suburb of Atlanta. Housed inside a historic 19th century home known as “The Mayor’s House”, purchased in 2015 by Brown and his wife, Shellane Brown, Gilly pushes quality and innovation across an ever-changing range of premium coffee “elixirs” featuring dried herbs, bitters, and aromatics. Brown was nominated by multiple people for The Sprudge Twenty, and in one nomination essay is described as “one of the most innovative, creative, savvy interpreters of the coffee experience I have ever encountered.”

Click here to learn more about Gilly Brew Bar from their official website.

Nora Burkey – The Chain Collaborative of Queens, NY

Nora Burkey (Photo courtesy Nora Burkey)

Nominated by Benjamin Myers

Nora Burkey is the Executive Director and Founder of The Chain Collaborative, an international organization dedicated to “investing in the capacity of Change Leaders in coffee growing regions and accompany them as they drive grassroots, sustainable development in their own communities.” Through Chain Collaborative, Burkey and her team have helped develop projects with coffee producers in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uganda, and other coffee growing regions around the world. They also collaborate with the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) for The Partnership for Gender Equity, an ongoing research initiative looking at the intersection between coffee and gender for coffee producers worldwide.

Gisele Coutinho – Pura Caffeina of São Paulo, Brazil

Gisele Coutinho (Photo by Tony Chen)

Nominated by Sabine Parrish

Gisele Coutinho is an entrepreneur and coffee educator based in São Paulo, Brazil. She’s the founder of Pura Caffeina, a subscription service offering coffee delivery by bicycle within the city, or by mail nationwide. She’s recently launched the Casa Pura Caffeina, an education space providing access and resources for the São Paulo coffee community. Sabine Parrish offers this depiction from her nominating letter:

“Gisele was the first in her family to go to university, majoring in journalism with an emphasis on scientific communication. This training has served her well—I’ve been lucky enough to take two of Gisele’s courses, and she has an amazing knack for making the many complexities of coffee something even novices can begin to approach without fear. Even though I no longer live in Brazil, I still look forward to my weekly email showcasing the available coffees—the newsletter is always delightfully written and filled with moments of joy.”

Felix Felix – Dune Coffee Roasters of Santa Barbara, CA

Felix Felix (Photo by Chach Hernandez)

Nominated by Kay Cheon

Felix Felix is a working coffee professional and competition barista living in Santa Barbara, California, where he works as a Cafe Manager for Dune Coffee Roasters. Felix is one of several nominees who was highlighted for their exemplary customer service, and for approaching coffee work with a level of care and consideration on par with fine dining. From Kay Cheon’s nominating essay:

“As one of our store managers, Felix sets an example for service and work ethic to all of our employees, and is always looking to improve his skills as a manager and barista. Before he and I worked together, he would always come in and ask me questions about the coffee we were serving that day, gently asking me questions about what flavors we were getting and just generally being excited about coffee and its potential to bring people together. He holds Danny Meyer and his book Setting The Table in the highest regard, and is genuinely the most creative and heartfelt person when it comes to customer service.”

Will Frith – WillFrith.com of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Will Frith (Photo by Huynh Nguyen Tan Phat)

Nominated by Elizabeth Chai

Will Frith is a career coffee professional working to “change the way the world sees Vietnamese coffee.” Frith has roots in the American Pacific Northwest, working for companies including Batdorf & Bronson and Modbar. Today he is based in Ho Chi Minh City, where his work includes training and education for the city’s booming coffee scene, the development of his own concept cafe project, and a wide-reaching green coffee initiative built around introduction arabica varieties to a region traditionally known for robusta. Sprudge has covered Frith’s work in Vietnam since 2013, and today his updating regularly at his own eponymous website.

Sara Frinak – Ally Coffee, based in Atlanta, GA

Sara Frinak (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

Nominated by Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp

Sara Frinak is well-known to a generation of American coffee professionals as a tireless volunteer and supporter of coffee events, both regional in the American Southeast, and nationally through the Specialty Coffee Association’s USA competitions circuit. In addition, Frinak is an Accounts Manager with Ally Coffee, a green coffee trading company based in Greenville, SC. From the nominating essay by Sprudge Editorial Advisory Board member Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp:

Sara is someone who exemplifies kindness and support in the coffee industry. She never hesitates to help her coffee community, volunteering countless hours with the SCA and local organizations, spending her time and resources to empower young coffee professionals in the southeast and beyond. She is a community cheerleader, relentlessly positive and enthusiastic, treating the victories of others as her own.

Priscilla Fisher – Floozy Coffee of Newcastle, New South Wales

Priscilla Fisher (Photo courtesy Priscilla Fisher)

Nominated by Grant Gamble

Priscilla Fisher is the co-founder of Floozy Coffee, an Australian coffee roasting and retail company based in Newcastle, New South Wales. Fisher opened the brand in 2017 alongside co-founder Kristy Mujana.

Floozy is at the forefront of fusing specialty coffee culture with feminism and social enterprise. Proceeds from both retail and wholesale coffee sales at Floozy go to benefit The Rough Period, providing sanitary items to at-risk women in and around Sydney. Floozy’s coffee program highlights the work of emerging coffee producers worldwide, with a focus on women-owned coffee projects. Their coffee ships worldwide.

Laura Gonzalez – @StrongWomenOfCoffee of Vancouver, British Columbia

Laura Gonzalez (Photo by Claudia Cantu)

Nominated by Stacey Lynden

Laura Gonzalez is the founder of @StrongWomenOfCoffee an Instagram account documenting the work and achievements of female-identifying and non-binary coffee professionals around the world. Born in Guadalajara, today Gonzalez is based in Vancouver, where she works at Genius, an espresso equipment supply and tech service. Through this work, she has helped lead multiple tech training seminars and info sessions, affordably priced and focused on offering resources to women and marginalized members of the coffee community.

Kristina Jackson – Intelligentsia Coffee of Boston, MA 

Kristina Jackson (Photo by Jon Santos)

Nominated by Rose Woodard, Rob Rodriguez, and Kat Melheim 

Kristina Jackson is an exemplary member and leader in the specialty coffee community. Her work is centered first and foremost on the city of Boston, where she is the founder of the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective, but it reverberates worldwide by offering a radical example of inclusion. Her work provides a roadmap towards confronting marginalization for coffee professionals of all backgrounds and identities, and to ensuring that the next generation of coffee pros see a place for themselves in coffee culture.

Sprudge readers are familiar with Jackson’s work through our coverage of the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective, and from Jackon’s Fall 2018 appearance on Michelle Johnson’s Black Coffee event panel in New York City. She is also an exceptional working barista at Intelligentsia Coffee’s Post Office Square location, a facet of her professional work captured vividly in this nominating essay (one of several Jackson received) from Rob Rodriguez:

“[Behind the bar], she often creates an experience and space where, despite how many people are in the shop, you feel as if you are her singular focus. This is reflected consistently in her exceptional coffee brewing skills. Each cup and shot regularly consistent and thoroughly enjoyable. While I could speak endlessly on her hospitality and coffee service skills, what sets Kristina apart from the rest is that her vision for an inclusive and equitable coffee community in Boston is strictly unmatched.”

Elle Jensen – Amethyst Coffee of Denver, Colorado

Elle Jensen (Photo by Charlie Burt)

Nominated by Kat Melheim

Elle Jensen is an entrepreneur, community organizer, and coffee professional based in Denver, Colorado. In 2015 Jensen opened Amethyst Coffee on Denver’s Capitol Hill; in 2018 the brand’s second location opened in the Berkeley neighborhood. In 2015 she launched the Cherry Roast, a landmark “platform and coffee competition to support and provide visibility for womxn/trans/GNC/gender queer coffee professionals.”

In her nominating essay, Coffee People Zine creator Kat Melheim writes “[Jensen] creates a welcoming and inclusive space for guests and baristas alike. She is an amazing, transparent, and honest business owner with the interests of the community at heart.”

Sam Keck – Commonfolk Coffee of Mornington, Australia

Sam Keck (Photo by 3000 Thieves)

Nominated by David Bishop

Sam Keck is an entrepreneur and founder of Commonfolk Coffee, located in the town of Mornington, on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne. Keck has spun a successful roaster/retailer into a series of social enterprise efforts, including Zukuka Bora, a farmers initiative benefitting coffee growers in Uganda; and Home Ground, which is focused on providing training and job options in hospitality to unemployed and at-risk youth in Mornington. By fusing the high demand for quality coffee with organized social enterprise, Keck’s work shows us how coffee can do more than just taste good—it can also do very serious good for communities at home and around the world.

Haley Lytle – Cryptozoology of Denton, TX 

Haley Lytle (Photo by Zac Cadwalader)

Nominated by Kara Herman and Ben Lytle

Haley Lytle is a co-founder at Cryptozoology, a quality-focused multi-roaster coffee bar located in Denton, Texas. Lytle is one of several nominees featured for their exemplary expression of service and hospitality in a specialty coffee environment. A working barista and entrepreneur, Lytle’s work in coffee helps advance the culture in ways large and small. Here’s more from a nominating essay by Kara Herman:

“Haley specifically thrives on efficiency and makes it an art. She is able to communicate with customers while knocking out an order before the customer even walks away from the bar. (Almost every time!)… She has been incredibly encouraging and inspiring to me. I am only a few months into joining the coffee community so I am very glad to be learning from her… She makes sure that our team is efficient, happy, learning, and exhibiting the best customer experience possible. She has a gentle way of teaching and showing me how to do certain tasks better and explaining why it will make an overall difference in what we are doing. High-quality drinks and exceptional customer service are our goals and she makes sure it happens while having a lot of fun… She goes above and beyond but has no idea.”

Aubrey Mills – Dapper & Wise Roasters of Portland, OR

Aubrey Mills (Photo by Grahm Doughty)

Nominated by Tyler Geel

Aubrey Mills is the Director of Wholesale at Dapper & Wise, a coffee roasting company with locations in Beaverton and Portland, Oregon. In her role with the company, Mills has avowedly championed the disparity in cost of production across the specialty coffee chain. She’s made public education her goal, focused on educating the public for the need to pay more for quality coffee and address wage instability for coffee producers. These issues were addressed at a recent forum hosted by La Marzocco USA in Seattle, Washington, during a Dapper & Wise cafe residency.

Umeko Motoyoshi – UMESHISO.COM and related ventures, Oakland, CA

Umeko Motoyoshi (Photo by Evan Gilman)

Nominated by Kat Melheim

Umeko Motoyoshi is an entrepreneur, coffee professional, technologist, social media provacateur, whistleblower and advocate for the marginalized. They are the founder of Umeshiso.com, the VP of Technology at Sudden Coffee, and the creator of @wastingcoffee on Instagram, among other ventures. They are the Sprudgie Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence for 2018, and the founder of CHANGING STRUCTURES in collaboration with the #CoffeeToo Project. In 2018 Motoyoshi was a named whistleblower in the Four Barrel Coffee sexual harassment scandal and subsequent legal action.

TBCH that’s roughly half of what we could have listed here for accomplishments related to Umeko Motoyoshi, who exemplifies the spirit and intentionality of the Sprudge Twenty through their multi-faceted work across the specialty coffee industry. Read more in Sprudge co-founder Zachary Carlsen’s recent interview with them here.

Laetitia Mukandahiro – Kigali, Rwanda

Laetitia Mukandahiro (Photo courtesy Laetitia Mukandahiro)

Nominated by Chelsea Thoumsin

Laetitia Mukandahiro is an accomplished coffee professional born and raised in Rwanda. Originally from the village of Musasa, located near the famed Dukundekawa cooperative, Mukandahiro distinguished herself early in her career as an accomplished and capable professional cupper. She’s worked for the Rwanda Smallholder Specialty Coffee Company (RWASHOSCCO), for the washing station management firm KZ Noir, and today for the noted Rwandan coffee exporter Bufcoffee, where she serves as Quality Control and Sustainability Manager. Mukandahiro is a certified Q Grader and has served on multiple international Cup of Excellence judging panels. Her continuing work with BufCafe includes establishing a training center and affording ongoing opportunities for Rwandan youths interested in a career in coffee.

Kazuhiro Nagasawa – Nagasawa Coffee of Morioka City, Japan 

Kazuhiro Nagasawa (Photo courtesy Kazuhiro Nagasawa)

Nominated by Mami Sakamoto

Kazuhiro Nagasawa is an entrepreneur and coffee professional based in Morioka City, some 300 miles from the city of Tokyo on the northern tip of Honshu. He is the owner/operator of his own eponymous small town coffee brand, Nagasawa Coffee, founded in 2012.

Here’s more on why Nagaswa Coffee is special from Mimi Sakamoto’s nominating essay:

“Let me explain a little bit about my hometown, the city of Morioka and its relationship with coffee. Coffee is loved by all generations here, and many families have their favorite coffee roasters and cafes. But what they call “coffee” has traditionally meant a dark roasted, thick, strong tasting drink. When Nagasawa Coffee opened in 2012, their coffee selection had fruity, lighter or sometimes unique tastes in addition to “traditional” dark ones.

Mr. Nagasawa was not trying to follow “in-fashion” coffee then. His coffee choices are not swayed by trends. Instead, he is cultivating his own world of coffee, traveling from Africa to Taiwan to keep his knowledge current, and expressing everything he’s learned here for the locals. I think this is how a barista in a small town can contribute to change and influence the world of coffee.”

Chris Tellez – Show & Tell Coffee of Kitchener, Ontario

Chris Tellez (Photo courtesy Chris Tellez)

Nominated by Priscilla Fisher 

Chris Tellez is a coffee professional and entrepreneur based in Ontario, where he serves as a regional sales representative for Phil & Sebastian Coffee and owns and operates Show & Tell Coffee. A career professional, Tellez has been competing in the Canadian barista competition circuit for more than a decade. His work came to international attention in 2019 for a protest routine on the Canadian Barista Championship stage, calling out an official World Coffee Events rule disallowing the use of alternative milk. Tellez’ routine was timed to the launch of a petition formally requesting WCE reconsider the rule.

Freda Yuan – Origin Coffee Roasters of London, United Kingdom

Freda Yuan (Photo by Gary Handley)

Nominated by Cat O’Shea

Freda Yuan is an accomplished coffee professional based in London. She is the Head of Coffee at Origin Coffee Roasters; a two-time UK Cup Tasters Champion, placing 3rd in the world at the World Cup Tasters Championship in 2017; a licensed Q Grader and SCA educator in both English and Mandarin; and an MBA from Middlesex University. Yuan has worked many roles throughout her coffee career and has been a vocal champion for recovery and advocacy related to eating disorders.

The Sprudge Twenty is presented by Pacific Foods Barista Series. For more information on the Sprudge Twenty, visit sprudge.com/twenty.

Nomination schedule for the 2020 class will be announced in Fall 2019. Follow Sprudge for updates. 

The post The Inaugural Sprudge Twenty Class Of 2019 appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Oh Science, why have you forsaken me? In what is generally a reliable green light to consume as much coffee as you damn well please, today’s science news has turned its back on us all. A new study lead by Vanderbilt University PhD student Jingjing Zhu finds that drinking two or more cups of coffee a day may come with an increased risk of lung cancer.

Before we go any further, let me just stop and say that no, it’s not because coffee drinkers are more likely to pair their cuppa with a cigarette; the study took that into account. And it’s not even because these bean teens are freebasing coffee, though I’d guess the study didn’t quite give that particular hypothesis its due. Now that we’ve eliminating the two most likely culprits we can move on.

According to Live Science, Zhu et al’s findings were presented at the annual conference for the American Association for Cancer Research on March 31st. For the meta-study, the “international group of researchers” led by Zhu analyzed data from 17 different studies with a sum total of 1.2 million participants in the United States and Asia who were tracked for an average of 8.6 years. In each of the studies, participants were asked if they smoked, if they consumed coffee or tea, and how much. Per Live Science, about half were non-smokers.

Over the course of the studies, a total of 20,500 participants that developed lung cancer. Cross-referencing those participants with their coffee and tea drinking habits, the meta-study found that coffee drinkers had a 41% higher chance of developing the disease, with tea also having a 37% higher risk.

And while these finding seem to point to caffeine—the most obvious commonality between coffee and tea—as the carcinogenic agent, the meta-study found that in fact decaf coffee was associated with a 15% higher risk than that of regular coffee.

But we coffee drinkers still have outs. As an observational study, Zhu et al’s findings don’t prove any causal relationship between coffee consumption and an increased risk in lung cancer. Additionally, due to the way to studies were performed, the reliability of their data may be in question; participants were only asked about their smoking and coffee/tea habits at the beginning of the surveys, leaving open the possibility of changes in habits over the course of the average 8.6 years.

Secondhand smoke may also be an untracked factor in the findings. Coffee drinkers, it would seem, spend more time at coffee shops, places where smokers are more likely to congregate (and depending on where and when these studies took place, smoking may have even been allowed inside these businesses). Because of this, it could be the case that the additional exposure to secondhand smoke may be the leading factor; one’s love of coffee merely led to this increased exposure.

But as with most of the coffee-based studies, more research needs to be done before any hard conclusions can be drawn. So don’t go changing your coffee habits or become some weird flat-earth science denier just yet. There’s still time for Science to get this error straightened out.

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

The post A New Study Finds A Link Between Coffee And Lung Cancer appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coorie (ku:ri) is the Scottish art of living happy. It used to mean something akin to snuggle—coorie in, coorie down—but in the last couple of years it’s developed into a style of aesthetics and living. It’s not just about candles and coffee. Coorie is about taking comfort and energy from both the wild landscapes of Scotland and the cheerful interiors that inspire cozy togetherness. You might have experienced something like coorie if you’ve ever walked into your best friend’s living room or your favorite coffee shop and immediately felt welcomed and loved.

While traveling around Scotland last fall, I searched high and low for the best coffee I could find, the places that made us want to coorie down with loved ones, a book, and coffee. The local coffee haven is Edinburgh. Here, coffee shops sprout up like mushrooms after a good rain. In the center of the city, it’s unlikely you’ll walk a block without spotting at least one. In the last few years, the local scene has begun shifting more towards specialty coffee with a focus on top quality and good service. We’ve rounded up our top ten coorie shops to help you get around the city without getting caught in the rain.

This guide is meant to be used in conjunction with Edinburgh cafes previously featured on Sprudge.

Artisan Roast

Artisan Roast is a welcoming, homey spot that feels worlds away from the central tourists hubs of Edinburgh. Here the roasters care deeply about their coffee, and tucked among plants, art, and knick-knacks are colorful flavor wheels and descriptions of the current coffees they’re roasting. Bags of coffee are displayed prominently and the bar is visually open, inviting everyone into the space.

When I visited Artisan, customers from the neighborhood and tourists from all over were making themselves at home in the front tables by the picture window and their comfortable back living room-style sitting area. When you visit, look closely at your surroundings, because hidden among the usual coffee shop trappings and home-like decor is a collection of funky wall art, a gold-framed photo of Morgan Freeman who reminds everyone to hydrate, and a cheeky promise “from” JK Rowling to never write there.

Baba Budan

Baba Budan has the kind of bubbly atmosphere that comes from baristas who are having fun behind the bar. The space is cheery too: high ceilings, sleek wood, and skinny lights pair well with their coffee to brighten up even the darkest winter afternoon. Named for the 16th century Sufi saint who is said to have introduced coffee to India, Baba Budan is a continued celebration of the spread of that beverage. The community table is a good space to work, and the whole cafe is a great place to meet up with a friend. The baristas were brewing up a Salvadoran coffee from Girls Who Grind on drip, along with espresso from Workshop. Rotating roasters include Square Mile, The Barn, Coffee Collective, and Dark Arts Coffee. If you’re feeling a little jittery from caffeine already, they have a selection of food using seasonal ingredients. It’s all made in-house.

Black Medicine

If you’re trying to drink coffee in the cafe where JK Rowling first wrote Harry Potter, Black Medicine is the closest you’re going to get. It stands where Nicolson’s used to, which is where Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (Later books were written at Elephant House, but despite claims to be “the birthplace” of Potter, they didn’t open until Philosopher’s Stone was almost published.) Today, Black Medicine is a bustling coffee shop serving up good brews, bagels, and high energy. The baristas are an upbeat and friendly group, even when there’s a chaotic line. Their menu of milk-based drinks is reliably good, and espresso is served with a ginger cookie to make your coffee break just that bit more exciting. The bohemian decor and excitable environment is conducive to any creative who finds people-watching inspiring, and you’ll find writers camped out with laptops everywhere.

If you care about the environment (and don’t you?), you’ll be happy to know Black Medicine has experimented with using steel straws for cold drinks, has completely banned drinking from takeaway coffee cups inside, and offers a 10% discount if you bring your own mug.

Brew Lab Coffee

True to its name, Brew Lab Coffee has an underground bunker laboratory feel that makes it a favorite of students. The rooms are laid out like a rabbit’s warren and packed full of young millennials writing, studying, and talking. There’s more exposed brick than you can shake a fist at, and the decor is focused on the scientific, including a menu that visually mimics the element squares of the periodic table. The focus here is on coffee: equipment is top of the line and the baristas are clearly extremely knowledgeable about the drinks they’re serving. Brewed coffee itself is not a rarity in Edinburgh, but the pour-over bar in central view for everyone is. Service includes drinks brought to the table (if you’ve found one) and friendly baristas. V60s are brewed into carafes and served on trays; flat whites show up with perfectly symmetrical rosettas.

Though it’s one of Edinburgh’s more spacious specialty cafes, popularity and proximity to the University of Edinburgh means finding a place to sit can be a challenge. If you can, try to snag one of the arm chairs at the back and settle in. When you’re done with caffeine for the day, Brew Lab also serves beer, wine, and cocktails.

Cairngorm Coffee

Behind the bar in Cairngorm read the words “Coffee and grilled cheese.” Generous sandwiches are constructed by the staff, and the coziness of this childhood favorite meal perfectly matches the coziness of Cairngorm. The ceiling is hung with burlap coffee sacks, and the natural wood and forest color palette evokes the eastern Highlands mountain range it’s named for. A snowboard, a skateboard, and skis hang on the walls to bring mountain adventure inside, or you can pick up an AeroPress and bag of this micro-roaster’s coffee to take on your next outdoor escape. When I dropped by, Cairngorm’s baristas were brewing up an excellent selection of Five Elephant coffee and their own Central American selection. They served up what was, hands down, the best flat white I had in Edinburgh. Attention to service is in everything Cairngorm does: tea was served with a timer to ensure it wasn’t over-steeped, newspapers were available for reading, and tablets set into bar seating were available to browse their website.

Find Cairngorm by descending some stairs from the main level of Frederick Street. The small patio outside is aces when the weather is great, or cozy up inside.

Castello Coffee

Just a block off of the Princes Street Gardens and the main tram line, Castello Coffee waits to supply you with coffee and food to fuel up. The space is clean and bright, and framed art features prominently on the walls. Clearly named for Edinburgh Castle nearby, this shop serves up an Americano made with Allpress Espresso that’s fit for a monarch and delicious hot chocolates for everyone else. The breakfast and lunch soup options are great, as well. Friendly baristas are behind the bar and the bustling energy patrons bring in and out of the shop is the perfect pick-me-up to accompany the coffee when you need one.

If you’re out playing tourist or shopping nearby, Castello is a convenient and reliably good shop to drop in on. Grab a seat at the counter facing the window to watch people stream by in this busy neighborhood or enjoy their wide patio seating under umbrellas to protect you from the elements.

Cult Espresso

Tucked away on a small road close to the University of Edinburgh is wee gem Cult Espresso. This long narrow shop has a sapphire blue facade that makes it stand brightly out from the rest of the store fronts on the street, and the front door promises coffee, brunch, and good times—indeed, the service is amazing and the energy in the shop is cheerful and welcoming. When I visited I had a delicious long black and a good long chat with the baristas about the coffee scenes in the US and Scotland, what makes Cult special, and how excited they were about the coffee they were serving that day. As a group of self-proclaimed “coffee nerds,” Cult is constantly curating seasonal single-origin coffees from the UK and Europe, and they’re truly dedicated to making sure each cup is delicious.

Cult Espresso may not be an actual cult, but I could come to be (almost) as dedicated to it as a real one. Drop by the shop for their ritual brunch and coffee combo, and don’t forget to snag some of their branded swag on the way out.

Fortitude Coffee

More than any other, Fortitude Coffee feels like a barista’s coffee shop. It retains the appearance of a converted rowhouse and is a peaceful background for great coffee, friendly baristas, and a community vibe. I sat by the windows and enjoyed a juicy pour-over roasted by Fortitude and perused the simple food menu. When I visited, they were quick to talk up the other coffee shops on the Disloyal 7 card, as well as recommend other must-try places around Edinburgh. They host the occasional cupping with their full lineup of coffees, and recently co-hosted a Meet the Roaster event with Edinburgh Coffee Society, so if you’re just visiting, check with the baristas to see if there’s an event coming up. Though still a relatively young scene, Fortitude is proof of how great a city’s coffee network becomes when everyone in it cares about the same main goals: delicious beverages and open community.

On a busy day, Fortitude is the perfect tranquil spot to relax, chat about coffee, and grab a bite to eat. Their full wall of retail coffee and coffee equipment is a great source for whatever your coffee-loving heart needs.

Lowdown

Literally low—down a flight of stairs—Lowdown is a minimalist shop. It’s a peaceful place to get away from the bustle of the main road, and has an airy feel to the decor and art. If you’re looking for a quieter place than Black Medicine to get work done, Lowdown is going to be your best bet for a distraction-free environment—the baristas are focused on careful, precise brewing. The coffee served and sold at Lowdown comes from all over Europe, including the delicious balanced shot of Ethiopian coffee from Colonna that was on drank when I stopped by. Similar to Artisan, Lowdown’s espresso bar is open and visible to guests, which invites an easy engagement that the baristas welcome.

The pastry case was full of beautiful pastries, including several cake options that are always the perfect pairing with any coffee for a good mid-morning snack. Bring a friend to take a break from shopping or sightseeing, or hunker down here with a good book. Lowdown is the perfect place to pass an afternoon with a cup of coffee.

Machina

The coffee aesthetic is strong with this one. Above the bar hangs a black metal industrial light fixture from which a portafilter, a pitcher, and other various coffee implements hang from to float over the space. The walls are clean and white, and the tables are modernist sturdy wood and black metal. In Machina, several shelves are dedicated to different retail options; if you’re looking for equipment Machina seems to have the largest selection in Edinburgh. Located just up the street from Filament, this micro-roaster’s shop is another warm and relaxing space to escape rush hour or a quick rain shower.

Drop by early to enjoy the food menu options and sign up for their coffee subscription service while you’re there. Try to snag the window seat—not only is it super comfortable, it’s the perfect setting for your next Instagram photo with coffee.

Valorie Clark (@TheValorieClark) is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. Read more Valorie Clark on Sprudge.

The post The Sprudge Guide To Edinburgh, Scotland appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

When it comes to coffee, there’s something everyone’s talking about and nobody is talking about: caffeine. For people who drink and enjoy coffee, caffeine is on the mind and a wonderful tasting cup is a big bonus. For the folx who work in the coffee industry, we tend to want to think we’re in the deliciousness business and a part of a beautiful value chain, not that we’re administering legal drugs in liquid form. Of course, great coffee can be both things, but as is so often true about the common and ubiquitous, very little is known about the science of caffeine consumption, and there are many misconceptions around it.

Juliet Han has been pulling double-duty as the head roaster at Blue Bottle while also continuing her studies at Peralta Colleges in Oakland with a focus on science, and naturally she researches coffee whenever she can. In her just-published research paper Correlation Between Caffeine and Roast Levels Using HPLC she took on the question, “Does dark roast have more caffeine than light roast?” This is one of the most common misconceptions around coffee, and while it is something that’s been studied in the past, Han’s 15 years of varied industry experience give her a practical lens to see the question through.

Han started by considering the question and pulling it apart: Does dark roast have more caffeine than light roast? As with most questions about coffee, it depends. Even if you assume the brewing is performed consistently, when you say “more caffeine,” you’re talking about more… in what? In the cup? In the beans? In the grounds? How are you measuring the coffee? Each answer yields a different approach to the question, different scientific variables, and ultimately, different conclusions.

In her research lab, among the various tools and instruments, Han had access to an HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) machine, which is a common scientific tool that takes a sample and analyses it for what components are in there and in what quantities. The details of her methodology and data are in the research paper, but let’s summarize what she learned and why it matters, categorized by how we might frame the caffeine/roast question.

By the bean

One way to think about this question is: Do caffeine levels change inside the beans during roasting? On this, the science is clear: caffeine is very stable through the roasting process. You’d have to roast it past turning it into charcoal before caffeine would chemically change, beyond even the darkest of dark roasts you could find. Point is, even though the individual beans go through physical and chemical changes while it’s roasted, the amount of caffeine a bean starts with is generally the amount it ends up with. If you’re talking about individual beans, the caffeine level is the same whether it is light or dark roasted.

Of course, while this may be interesting as a bit of trivia, it’s not that relevant to our day to day coffee lives, unless you’re a coffeebeanophage, which means “person who eats whole bean coffee” and is also a word I just made up.

By the cup and weighing the grounds

Han wanted to take the variables of brewing out of the picture, so she brewed the coffee by “decoction,” which means brewing coffee by actually boiling the coffee in water. She brewed the living hell outta the coffee, extracting pretty much all the coffee that’s soluble. Boiling it for 15 minutes (as she did) is a lot, and the coffee surely tasted gross and bitter.

Coffee nerds like to weigh the coffee grounds we brew. Mass is a constant, and scoops or tablespoons give you a variable that’s imprecise and inaccurate. (Sorry, scoop lovers.) Different coffees can have very different physical characteristics, so it’s a bit misguided to think that there’s a magic brewing recipe that works all the time.

What Juliet found was that when she weighed the coffee grounds and based her calculations on that, the darker roast did in fact yield more caffeine than the lighter roast.

By the cup and by the scoop

But what if you just can’t put down that spoon or scoop? Not everyone has or wants a scale, and however imprecise scoops and spoons may be, it’s still the most common way most home coffee brewers measure their grounds. Measuring this way introduces the density of the coffee grounds into the calculations, and Han also did the calculations to see what the results were if someone used tablespoons or scoops.

Turns out that even when using volume to measure the coffee, the darker roasts still resulted in more caffeine than lighter roast.

What does this mean? 

I’ve gotta tell you, I love Han’s research paper. There’s a lot to love about it, but what I love most is that it inspires so many more questions and possibilities for future research.

According to this research, dark roast does in fact yield more caffeine than light roast. This is consistently what Han found across experiments, and it makes sense, though not for the reasons one might think. A darker roasted coffee is less dense, so by the bean, it has lower mass than a light roasted coffee. All other things being equal, if you grind and weigh out a certain number of grams of coffee, there are more beans involved when using dark roast. It’s no different than if we ate a pound of fresh grapes versus a pound of dried raisins—far more sugar is consumed in the dried, condensed raisin equation.

So it’s not necessarily that “dark roast has more caffeine”—caffeine is stable across roasts—but rather, dark roast is less dense. Since the caffeine is so stable, the difference mostly boils down to density.

What I think it’s interesting to note is that when you look at Han’s data, the caffeine difference between the lightest and darkest coffees was around 9% when you measured by the scoop, but about 32% when she measured by weight. That’s a big margin! While it’s the density difference between the dark and light roast coffee that gives us the difference in caffeine content, the fact that a scoop of dark roast has less mass than a scoop of light roast actually reduces the net caffeine difference in the scoops-and-spoons scenario. So while darker roast does have more caffeine, that difference is more pronounced when you measure by weight than if you’re scooper.

32% is a fairly meaningful difference. It means that 16 ounces of Han’s light roast brew would have about as much caffeine as 12 ounces of the dark roast. But when you’re thinking about how this applies to your coffee consumption, keep in mind that Juliet Han is a scientist professionally controlling her variables. Once you leave the lab and get out into the world of coffeeshops and home coffeemakers (not to mention different coffees and roasters and brewing waters and brewing variables), you’re faced with the unfathomable number of factors that affect caffeine content beyond just roast level.

All in all, it appears that dark roasted coffee has more caffeine, but not for the reasons you think. That is a great bit of trivia to pull out the next time somebody brings this up at a party. “You know, dark roasted coffee has more caffeine, but not for the reasons you think!”

I can’t wait to see what other research Han and other coffee-knowledgable scientists come up with next. Go science!

Read the full academic paper from Juliet Han via Medium. 

Nicholas Cho (@nickcho) is a coffee professional based in San Francisco. This is Nicholas Cho’s first feature for Sprudge Media Network. 

Top image © Photosiber/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News