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Skate & Enjoy: Satellite Is Pittsburgh’s Plant-Based Skatepark Cafe

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satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

Inside Switch and Signal Skatepark, far from the trendy crowd in up-and-already-came Lawrenceville, is Constellation’s new sister cafe, aptly named Satellite. Opened this past July, Satellite almost didn’t happen. Switch and Signal’s owner, Kerry Weber, was a long-time regular at Pittsburgh cafe, Constellation, but when he first approached owner Amy Weiland about setting up and running the cafe he wanted in his Swissvale skatepark, she said no. Weiland was coming off a serious biking accident and also wasn’t interested in doing the same thing twice. But when she finally said yes, she did anything but repeat Constellation: though both cafes are owned and run by Weiland and use coffee from Ceremony Coffee Roasters, they have a very different feel.

Satellite’s design, like the skatepark it inhabits, incorporates many recycled elements from the bowling alley that originally occupied the building. The bartop used to be a bowling lane, the crown molding a gutter. The tables and benches in the cafe’s seating area are built from the pinboy benches that were behind the pin decks, back before the pin-resetting process became automated. Those pinboys’ nicknames—Red, Box, Bone—are graffitied on the back wall of the skatepark. Weber and his designer, Michael Whartnaby, worked with Construction Junction—a construction reuse nonprofit and longstanding fixture in Pittsburgh—to reuse as many building materials as possible in the cafe and for Switch and Signal’s ramps. Not all repurposed design elements came from the bowling alley, though: Satellite’s walls have a unique tile border running around the top made from recycled skateboard tiles from Art of Board, a Hanover, PA company.

satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

Weiland said she sees Satellite as “Constellation’s punk rock little sister.” Where Constellation’s design is elegantly understated, Satellite’s is more playful, a bit more rough-and-ready. Where Constellation’s menu is a little more “precious,” as Weiland admits, Satellite’s is simpler and more focused on service. This pared-down menu is designed to satisfy coffee enthusiasts while allowing baristas to be able to really engage with the community they’re in. Swissvale is a lower-income, less homogenous part of Pittsburgh. Locating Switch and Signal there was intentional on Weber’s part, who wanted to open his skatepark somewhere where it could really be a positive influence in the community, especially for  youth. He also wanted the cafe to be entirely plant-based, a challenge that intrigued Weiland and played a role in her eventual decision to accept Weber’s proposal.

Other than espresso shots, cappuccinos, and lattes—made on a two-group La Marzocco Linea—Satellite also serves a seasonal beverage, like the coconut iced mocha with coconut whipped cream on the menu this summer. The default milk option is Sunrich Naturals soy milk, but they also serve Califia Farms almond milk, Oatly oat milk, or, on occasion, lesser-known alternatives like Ripple pea milk. Getting to experiment is part of the fun for Weiland. Cappuccinos and espressos are served in beautiful red notNeutral VERO glassware. For filter, Satellite only offers batch brew coffee, made on a FETCO using a BUNN grinder. Not offering pour-over “opens up a focus on service,” said Weiland, in keeping with Satellite’s and Switch and Signal’s goal of engaging with the community. That’s also why Satellite only offers Rishi bagged tea and not the loose leaf Song Tea on Constellation’s menu.

satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

Amy Weiland

Satellite has the addition of a food menu, and it’s all-plant-based, too. Baked goods come from Gluuteny, a local gluten- and dairy-free bakery. Onion Maiden, a Pittsburgh vegan pop-up restaurant that’s finally found its brick-and-mortar home in Allentown, provides the bagels and cashew cream cheese, muffins, and paninis on Satellite’s menu. In keeping with the environmental motivation behind the plant-based menu and the recycled building materials, Satellite is focused on sustainability, and everything except the straws at the cafe is compostable.

satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

satellite coffee pittsburgh pennsylvania

Satellite isn’t a soothing-office-away-from-home kind of space. It wasn’t designed to be. It was meant to be the kind of space where the countercultural creativity that can be found in both the specialty coffee and the skateboarding worlds could flourish. It’s a place to try new things, to meet new people, to take off the headphones, to engage. Union Switch and Signal, the railway signaling equipment manufacturer from which the skatepark takes its name, used to be the largest employer in Swissvale. Switch and Signal Skatepark and Satellite hope to play an important and positive role in this community, too, one coffee-drinking, vegan-bagel-eating, skateboarder at a time.

Satellite Cafe is located inside the Switch and Signal Skatepark at 7518 Dickson St, Swissvale. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Rachel Grozanick is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. Grozanick has contributed previously to Bitch Magazine90.5 WESA in Pittsburgh, and 90.7 KBOO in Portland. Read more Rachel Grozanick on Sprudge.

The post Skate & Enjoy: Satellite Is Pittsburgh’s Plant-Based Skatepark Cafe appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Win A Fancy Flight To Guatemala With Populace’s Flight Of Fancy

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Time to ramp up those taste buds because Flight of Fancy is back! Populace Coffee’s game of “guess what coffee this is” is returning for its fifth year, and this go around, the winner earns themselves a plane ticket to Guatemala.

The game is simple… well, the rules are simple; the game itself is incredibly challenging. Each entry will receive four coffee of unidentified origin—represented in this iteration of FoF by different aircraft-shaped cards—and a map of eight coffee-growing countries. All you have to do is put the right plane on the circle representing the right origin. Easy, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong.

Thanks to a sneaky pause on the map shown in Populace’s announcement video, it appears the eight origins for this year Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, and Sulawesi. Is that a Colombia or a Guatemala? A Peru or a Sulawesi? We know for sure that one’s a Burundi… or is it an Ethiopia… with hints of Rwanda?



Once you’ve talked yourself out of choosing Burundi (because what were you even thinking?! Though it was your first instinct and those are often right), take a photo of your completed map and email it to fancy@populacecoffee.com. Then post that photo to Instagram, making sure to tag @populacecoffee and using the hashtag #☕FOF2019.

Whoever submits the email with the correct responses first and has the corresponding post to Instagram wins themselves an origin trip to Guatemala along with members of the Populace team and Onyx Green Coffee. Other prizes include a Baratza Sette 270 and Acaia Lunar Scale, Department of Brewology Bloom Series Prints, Fellow Stagg EKG and three Atmos Vacuum Canisters, Kruve Sifter 12, five Ebb Coffee Filters, and a Handground Coffee Grinder.

This year’s number of entrants has been limited to 300. Costing $35 each, Flight of Fancy boxes are available for pre-order now until January 31st, with all deliveries beginning the week of February 4th. For more information, visit Populace Coffee’s official website. And get those spoons ready.

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

All media via Populace Coffee

The post Win A Fancy Flight To Guatemala With Populace’s Flight Of Fancy appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Making Of A Master: Inside The Technivorm Factory

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technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

Only five people in the world, I’m told, possess the lapel pin: a golden hexagon with block serif letters split over two lines. One is the person whose dark glen-plaid blazer buttonhole I’m inspecting right now under institutional lighting in Amerongen, the Netherlands. His name is Frans van Cooten. His title nowadays is director and owner of Moccamaster Sales EU, one of three independent entities overseeing the majority of sales for the manufacturer known as Technivorm—which is also the word, shining in relief, on Van Cooten’s lapel.

2018 was a momentous year for the factory that created the world’s most enduring, stylish, and reputable home filter coffeemaker: the Moccamaster KBG 741. The year began sadly, with the passing of the machine’s inventor and Technivorm’s founder, Gerard-Clement Smit. In January, the engineer died at age 87. Years ago, he had given Van Cooten, his son-in-law, the Technivorm pin—although the first to receive one was Ina ten Donkelaar. She is not wearing it on the bright morning on which she tells me who is in the circle of pin-possessors, but no one doubts how close the brand is to her heart. She was Smit’s partner. Currently, Ten Donkelaar is Technivorm’s CEO and has been with the company, established in 1964, from early on. She remembers when Smit rented a workspace in the tiny village of Elst, in the province of Utrecht, initially producing stepladders and stacking shelves, followed by his first patented coffee grinder in 1965. She recalls when, in 1967, Technivorm moved to the neighboring village of Amerongen, right into Smit’s backyard, which was convenient, yet rough on his prune trees.

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

An original 1968 Moccamaster.

The rerelease of Technivorm’s first-ever coffeemaker made 2018 more celebratory. Developed in 1968 but launched a year later, the Moccamaster 69, named for its debut year, is smaller than the 741 (brewing up to eight, rather than 10, cups). With a round-edged hotplate tray and a circular heating tower and water reservoir, it very much appears to be of a curves-embracing era. Called the ’68 Jubileum, the rerelease retains those features, making it an unblinking fit into all the mid-century modern design resurrected of late. The limited-edition model has been available in Europe since March 2018. North America has had to be patient, as it is only scheduled for purchase there starting spring 2019.

Ten Donkelaar and Van Cooten receive me at Technivorm’s headquarters and factory in Amerongen. No longer occupying the family’s former garden, they have been situated in an industrial section of town since the late 1980s. Still, in the Netherlands, it’s hard to ever really get away from the pastoral; trees surrounding the premises are lush and across the road, I catch a couple of ponies grazing. In traditional Dutch office etiquette, a receptionist promptly offers drinks. White demitasses arrive, filled with a medium-dark roast provided by two-centuries-old Dutch roasters Smit & Dorlas. When I ask, perhaps a bit insipidly, if a Moccamaster was used, Van Cooten answers with an amiable “Jaaaa.” Downstairs, he volunteers, professional-line Moccamasters brew fresh batches for the factory staff. An 11 AM coffee break is another Dutch labor institution, but the punctuality of a koffiepauze is crucial when a production line is at stake, stresses Van Cooten. A bell goes off to let the workers know when it’s time for, as Ten Donkelaar puts it, “drinking coffee, getting a little baked good, and enjoying a smoke.”

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

Ten Donkelaar and Van Cooten

But upstairs, we are in what seems to be part boardroom—upholstered conference chairs tucked under laminate tables—and part museum. Exhibited in, on, and around glass-cased shelves are decades’ worth of artifacts: various models and iterations of home and commercial coffee machines, blade coffee grinders, hot plates, water boilers, and dispensers. Plus, there are samples of Smit’s pre-Technivorm inventions from when he was, essentially, a freelancer; highlights include a box of hot rollers and a snijbonenmolen (a string bean slicer, once considered a Dutch kitchen staple). The walls are like an open scrapbook, decorated with vintage corporate posters and multi-language ads from the past. On a stand of its own is a quilt: the batik-effect fabric with images of cups and beans features a dozen blocks, each with a uniquely hued 741 machine. It was occasioned by Technivorm’s golden anniversary, and the quilter was Kathleen Bauer, COO of Moccamaster USA, a second of Technivorm’s three related entities. Bauer is another pin-holder, and her craft brings some palpable Americana to the functionalism-driven European environs.

Moccamaster’s internal functions were uncovered by Popular Mechanics in a “disassembly report” detailing all 137 parts that are elegantly engineered into a single 741. The 2017 review praised it as “many coffee snobs’ brewer of choice,” though the machine’s appeal has undeniably broadened. The MoMa Design Store has sold it since 2016, and in June 2018, “new brides and brides-to-be” among Good Morning America’s staff ranked it their #1 wedding gift.

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

These days, the brand has distributors worldwide. Nevertheless, all Moccamasters continue to be constructed by hand and individually tested in the Netherlands. The manufacturer prides itself in using, whenever possible, recyclable or fully degradable materials sourced from within Europe, if not the Netherlands itself. New machines come with a five-year warranty, though tend to last far longer, being easy to repair or spruce up with replacement parts.

“We get lots of emails from customers asking, ‘Does the jug for the new 68 also fit in the old one?’ And they’re very happy to hear that it does,” says Van Cooten. The rerelease has a few technical updates, but “on functionality there is no difference.”

“This was the first ’68 model, back then called the ‘69,’” Ten Donkelaar specifies of an antique machine being stored behind glass. “We sold 769,473 pieces.”

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

The Jubileum ’68

In 2010, after selling off a local horse feed business inherited from his father, Van Cooten founded Moccamaster Sales EU. The move was steered by having agreed with Smit to find new markets for Moccamaster upon joining the enterprise of his spouse’s family. Clementine Smit, Van Cooten’s wife, once worked at Technivorm herself, though now is more likely to be found accompanying Van Cooten to coffee shows and festivals, he says, adding, “she know the product very well—she knows everything.”

Van Cooten and his team concentrated on Germany, Central Europe, and the UK. Scandinavia was not part of their remit because Technivorm had, since the early 1970s, been exporting to the region. It has remained the company’s biggest market for the last 30 years. Moccamaster Nordic, a third entity in the trio, handles these operations. Those strong ties are veritably sealed in a seal. Found on all Moccamasters is a sticker reading “approved” along with the name of the European Coffee Brewing Centre. Founded in 1975 in Oslo, the ECBC is an offshoot of the Norwegian Coffee Association, and testing brewers is its raison d’être.

Van Cooten explains: “In the Scandinavian countries, everyone knows about the ECBC, and our whole range passed this certification of brewing the perfect cup. For the ECBC, it’s not about the quality of the machine or the expected lifespan of the machine—they only certify based on achievement of the best brew, to reach the best extraction out of your coffee.”

To illustrate just how omnipresent, if not ho-hum, the Moccamaster is in the Nordics, Van Cooten asks if I’ve been tuning in to Dutch TV’s Detective Month, which airs crime series.

“If you watch the Scandinavian shows carefully,” he says, “probably at least once a week, you have a shot in the kitchen, no matter where the crime scene is, and they pour coffee with a Moccamaster.”

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

The younger of Van Cooten and Clementine Smit’s two children seems on track to wear a pin one day too. Rob van Cooten recently completed his third year of business school and has already done sales and marketing work in his father’s office. The elder Van Cooten says his son is interested in pursuing the family trade after graduating and getting some experience abroad. Daughter Floortje van Cooten keeps busy as an Amsterdam-based fashion blogger, though in a recent Father’s Day gift guide took the opportunity to call a Moccamaster the “best present there possibly is.” Her post spotlights a shiny stone gray KBG 741.

As Ten Donkelaar likes to say, the 741 is “an evergreen.” Developed in 1974, it hit the market two years later and today is the most iconic model. The Moccamaster remains one of several select home brewers certified by the SCA, reflecting its esteemed status among, to quote a Sprudge article on the brand’s Cup-one, “prosumer appliances.” It is true that Technivorm and specialty coffee have been friendly for decades. In 1988, the Dutch company became a founding member of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, and fast-forward to World of Coffee 2018, the Moccamaster stand was showing off the 741 in its latest colors: pastel green, pastel yellow, pastel blue, and midnight blue.

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

technivorm moccamaster factory netherlands

Globally, Technivorm and Moccamaster have about 200 employees. Amerongen hosts around 150. In August 2017, the European Coffee Trip published a cheerful video taking viewers inside the factory, profiling workers, and zooming in on the production line.

“We hope to build our 10 millionth this year,” Van Cooten said in that interview.

When, 11 months later, I follow up on the stated projection, he replies: “Yes, we did.”

Turns out, the 10 millionth coffeemaker was handed to Gerard-Clement Smit during a company celebration that coincided with the last birthday he lived to experience, in September 2017. The machine is a black and white Jubileum ’68. It is displayed in a hallway on an encased stand, with mini-spotlights flanking the keepsake. Above is a classic portrait of Smit, raising a cup to his smile. Below is the milestone, its numbers printed larger than all the other text, the Technivorm logo included.

“We just wanted to do the rerelease as an honor to Gerard,” Ten Donkelaar shares.

“But the second 10 million will not take that long,” she continues, returning to the brisker pace of business talk. “We are doing some internal movements to get more space for the production line. Last year, for the first time, we realized more than 500,000 machines—that was a lot of coffeemakers. And this year we will even sell more.”

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

The post The Making Of A Master: Inside The Technivorm Factory appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 65: Live From US Coffee Champs Nashville

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Felix Felix of Dune Coffee Roasters (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

In this special edition of the Coffee Sprudgecast, we take you live to the event floor at the 2019 US Coffee Champs Qualifying Event in Nashville, Tennesee! There we join multimedia director Elizabeth Chai, who—in addition to helming our must-follow Instagram coverage of the event—taped a series of original interviews for this week’s episode of the podcast.


Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes or download the episode hereThe Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by  Oxo, Urnex Brands, Hario, IKAWA Sample Roasters and Swiss Water Decaf

In this episode, Chai talks to Felix Felix of Dune Coffee Roasters. Felix competed in the 2019 US Brewers Cup Qualifiers using their very own coffee brewer.

Felix Felix custom coffee brewer as it brews coffee from Sprudgie Award winner Juan Peña.

Chai also chats with Robert Rodriguez of George Howell Coffee Roasters. Rodriguez competed in the US Roasters Qualifying Competition.

Sign up now as a subscriber to the Coffee Sprudgecast and never miss an episode. 

Listen, subscribe and review The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes.

Download the episode here.

Sprudge Media Network’s coverage of the 2019 US Coffee Champs is made possible by Joe Glo and Mahlkönig. All of SprudgeLive’s 2019 competition coverage is made possible by Acaia, Baratza, FaemaCafe Imports, and Wilbur Curtis.

Sprudge is an official media partner of US Coffee Championships.

Follow @SprudgeLive on Twitter and never miss a moment from the shows, and cruise over to SprudgeLive.com to read routine recaps, enjoy dynamic full-color photos, and check in on all the advancing competitors from Nashville.

2019 Sprudge Live coverage is produced by Zac Cadwalader. Our lead photographer is Charlie Burt. Multimedia direction by Elizabeth Chai.

See y’all in Kansas City!

The post Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 65: Live From US Coffee Champs Nashville appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The New Modbar Steam Rounds Out The Espresso AV Family

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Last year, Modbar released their Espresso AV, a collaborative effort with La Marzocco that took the reliable workhorse of an espresso machine, The Linea PB, and combined it with the undercounter design for which Modbar is known. And this weekend, Modbar is completing the full undercounter AV setup with the announcement of the brand new Steam AV module, now available for order.

The new Steam AV keeps all the favorite features of the original model, most notably the sleek, minimal design, but is adding in a host of new features. Working again in collaboration with La Marzocco, the new Steam AV includes a vacuum-insulated double-walled steam wand, high-volume dry steam ability, and an omni-directional ball fitting, per the press release. From the release:

Like all Modbar offerings, the Modbar Steam allows customers to introduce steam capacity wherever they may need it in the buildout. The Modbar Steam lever design matches the size, angle and position of the Modbar AV, creating a more ergonomic workspace for espresso steam combinations. It also keeps purging to a minimum so baristas can steam beautiful milk effortlessly.

The new Steam AV will make its debut at the NAFEM Show next month. It is currently available for order with a two-week production lead time. For more information, visit Modbar’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 Modbar

Disclosure: Modbar/La Marzocco is an advertising partner with Sprudge Media Network

The post The New Modbar Steam Rounds Out The Espresso AV Family appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee Design: Condor Chocolates & 1000 Faces Coffee In Athens, Georgia

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“This is not chocolate.”

A new sweet is now available from the folks at 1000 Faces and Condor Chocolates out of Athens, Georgia and it has five times the caffeine as a cup of coffee. It’s a new kind of candy bar–using roasted coffee in place of cacao—creating a lightly sweetened chocolate-like confection. The bar dropped in early November, a limited-run of 1,000 bars and had its second run over the holidays. The coffee bar’s packaging uses the colorful work of Athens artist Shannon DeLawn Lane. We spoke with Julianne Bierwirth of 1000 Faces to find out more about the design and the product itself.

Tell us a bit about 1000 Faces and Condor Chocolates!

1000 Faces is a small coffee roaster in Athens, GA opened with the mission of building a stronger community surrounding coffee. We were founded about 12 years ago on the principle of cultivating personal relationships with our farmers and honoring their work. As an example, the Don Francisco Coffee Bar was named for the farmer in Nicaragua who provided the beans we used. We find value in sustainability—both of the human infrastructure that supports the coffee industry and the consumables that surround it. In our Athens coffee shop we use compostable hot cups, lids, sleeves, and retail bags and encourage our patrons to compost their grounds and buy well-made reusables whenever possible.

Condor Chocolates is a bean-to-bar chocolatier in Athens founded about four ago by the Dale brothers, Nick and Peter. Their Ecuadorian-American heritage has strongly influenced their culinary style in other Dale-owned Athens restaurants, however, Condor is probably the strongest connection to their roots. They source their cacao exclusively from Ecuador and travel there frequently to visit family and work with farmers.

Our shared concern for forging relationships and crafting thoughtfully made foods has made our partnership and vision for this project rather easy to pull off.

When did y’all get together to collaborate on this project?

I contacted Nick in February of 2018 with the idea that we could make a confection out of coffee, cocoa butter, and sugar. He seemed on board with it and I dropped off a bag of our Koko Buni blend for a test. Koko Buni is a blend we develop every year for Creature Comforts Brewery as part of their chocolate, coffee, and coconut milk porter. Condor contributes cocoa nibs for the project, so we thought that would be a great place to start.

You talk about “highlighting the flavors of the grounds instead of the aqueous extract”—can you tell us more about that?

When we tried Koko Buni we found that it worked functionally as a product but had a long way to go for great flavor. It tasted over-extracted—not at all like the coffee tastes when we brew it. Our coffee, like most, is roasted so the dissolved solids that travel into our water during extraction are well balanced and pleasing. What is left in the grounds after making a cup of coffee isn’t desirable, otherwise we would keep extracting it. It makes sense then that in eating the beans we were getting all of the tasty components of a great cup of coffee, but we were overwhelming them with all of the undesirable components of the residual grounds. By logic, we needed to roast the beans so that it would taste dramatically under-extracted in a cup, but the flavor of the whole bean would be well balanced.

…wait, how much caffeine is in it?

Before launching we got the caffeine tested. The bar has 464 mg of caffeine—equivalent to about five cups of black coffee. 

Who designed the package?

Condor Chocolates designed the package with the help of commercial printers at the Georgian Press.

Tell us more about Shannon DeLawn Lane!

Shannon DeLawn Lane is a local Athens painter who describes her work as an escapist style of color therapy. She wanted to create a pattern without beginning or end so that the viewer could get lost in the image. She bases her colors on real-life images but breaks it down until it is unrecognizable except for the palette.
 
What information do you share on the package?

We found it important to clarify that this is not chocolate. We were all afraid from the start that the similar shape and look to the packaging would cause somebody to buy the bar thinking it was chocolate and eat the whole thing. The marketing and back of the package both try to make very clear that the product is actually made of coffee and highly caffeinated. The rest of the package is really dedicated to giving consumers some details about our partnership, the farmer that produced the coffee, the artist that designed the package, as well as more standard elements like flavor notes, ingredients, expiration date, and net weight.

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

The exterior paper cover is recyclable, but the interior food grade plastic wrapper regrettably is not.
 
Where is it currently available?

The bar can be purchased online at condorchocolates.com/shop, at our respective brick-and-mortar stores in Athens, and at some of our business accounts around the country.

Company: 1000 Faces & Condor Chocolates
Location: Athens, GA
Country: USA
Release Date: November, 2018
Art Design: Shannon DeLawn Lane

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

The post Coffee Design: Condor Chocolates & 1000 Faces Coffee In Athens, Georgia appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Turns Out, Celebrities Also Love Coffee

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Yesterday we put out a cheeky little post on the Twitter and the Gram asking for experiences folks had serving coffee to celebrities and what they ordered. And let me tell you, it went hashtag viral. Well, maybe not full on viral, but it was hashtag contagious at the very least.

Work in the service industry long enough and you’ll have tales of the rich and famous. I waited on Paulie Shore when he came in right as we were closing, and buuuuuuuddy can really wheez on the juice. All-time rush yards leader Emmitt Smith once stiffed me on a tip. An unnamed guitar virtuoso came into a coffee shop and definitely didn’t not do cocaine in the bathroom while a member of his backing band told another barista his instrument was the “skin flute.”

Celebrities, they’re just like us! And really, they are the greatest expressions of the human condition. With all that money, they can act exactly as they feel without regard for anything else around them or fear of consequence. They are the worst of us because they are the truest of us; they are humans in their final form.

But like all of humanity, celebrities are not a monolith. Many are actually quite pleasant and have completely normal interactions with the less well-known. Thanks to the outpouring on Twitter, we’ve put together some of our favorite responses, none of which involve celebrities being on their more-celebrity-ish behavior.

Look at this list of nobodies. Only one of them has ever been president.

Nicole contains multitudes.

How of much Sam Elliott’s cappuccino do you think he actually gets to drink and how much is lost in his mustache?

All is full of glug.

Breathtaking.

Someone introduce him to Ice-T.

More Like Leonardo DeuxCappuccino.

This is not what I would expect Coach McGuirk to order.

Can we talk about how maybe Victor should have been asking for HER autograph?

And of course, no list of celebrity encounters would be complete without…

and

Do you have any celebrity encounters? We want to hear about them. Head over to Twitter and sound off.

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 Turns Out, Celebrities Also Love Coffee appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Portland Coffee Shop Embroiled In #MeNeither Controversy

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Controversy involving a Portland coffee shop is garnering national attention.

According to OregonLive, writer Nancy Rommelmann and Penthouse Magazine columnist Leah McSweeney created a new YouTube channel titled #MeNeither in which they call into question “the honesty and motives of sexual assault survivors,” many of whom are part of the #MeToo movement. For their 20-minute first episode, Rommelmann and McSweeney discuss “toxic femininity,” specifically Rose McGowan and Asia Argento, actors who have both accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. In the video, Rommelmann and McSweeney call into question the reliability and motivations of the actresses, referring to the as “fame eaters,” according to Willamette Week.

Rommelmann is the wife of Ristretto Roasters owner Din Johnson and herself has been referred to as a part-owner, according to OregonLive, causing the controversy to bleed over into the coffee space. Ristretto denies that Rommelmann is involved in the ownership of the company, telling The Oregonian, ”Nancy is neither an owner nor employee of Ristretto.” The opinions expressed by Rommelmann and McSweeney have led many to state they would no longer support the coffee shop. Since the backlash, both Rommelmann and Johnson have stated that she has not had any affiliation with the company for many years now, though OregonLive found evidence of Rommelmann’s involvement—in the form of liquor licenses and company emails—as recently as May 2018. As of time of publication, Rommelmann is not listed as a co-owner according to the Oregon Secretary of State.

In response, an open letter condemning the blog has been penned by former Ristretto employee Camila Coddou and signed by 30 current and former employees of the coffee shop, which we are printing in full:

Nancy Rommelmann is an established author and journalist within Portland. A few weeks ago she started a Youtube channel with columnist and podcast host Leah McSweeney, titled “#meneither”. This channel currently consists of three videos in which they have in-depth discussions denying the experiences of sexual assault survivors and questioning their credibility, qualify gradations of sexual violence in order to label some as more valid than others, and espousing the idea that trauma is a personal choice.

Nancy Rommelmann also one of the owners of Ristretto Roasters, a local roasting company that has employed and served people within our community for over a decade. As former and current Ristretto employees we feel it is our duty to come forward and publicly denounce the perspectives shared on Rommelmann’s #meneither Youtube channel. The views shared are misguided, dangerous, and hurtful, and do not represent the values of the Ristretto employees signing off on this letter.

We believe it is a business owner’s responsibility to create a safe and supportive working environment for their employees. Invalidating assault survivors throws into question the safety of Ristretto Roasters as a workplace and has the potential to create a demoralizing and hostile environment for employees and customers alike. This cannot be tolerated.

As the public face of Ristretto, the people who make and serve you your coffee on a daily basis, we have done our best to ensure our customers feel welcomed in a business they can feel good about supporting. It is our hope that in sharing this information we can better inform the community at large and make it clear that we believe survivors. We would like to note that we also speak on behalf of some current employees who agree with the sentiment of this letter but do not wish to attach their name for fear of retribution.

Ristretto Roasters currently has a rating of 2.1 out of 5 on Facebook, with 67 of the total 105 reviews coming after the #MeNeither channel made news.

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 Portland Coffee Shop Embroiled In #MeNeither Controversy appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

For Coffee In Paris, Follow Your Nose To Yellow Tucan

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yellow tucan paris france

yellow tucan paris france

If you happen to venture onto the Rue des Tournelles, a calm street a few blocks away from the busy traffic circle around the historic Place de la Bastille square or the gracious Place des Vosges, you will be met by Yellow Tucan, a cafe that opened last fall. With large windows ensconced in a gracefully weathered wooden façade, the coffee shop’s namesake bird makes his first appearance on the glass front, greeting customers as they enter. Yellow Tucan’s tailored menu is anchored by coffee from Berlin’s excellent Five Elephant coffee roastery, which one may pair with a changing assortment of cakes and pastries sourced from Broken Biscuits. Rounding out the offerings are Halles Saint-Antoine fresh juices, Kodama teas, quiche, and organic Catherine Kluger granola.

In lieu of air conditioning, the iced coffee is bright-tasting and particularly refreshing in the summer heat, while espresso-based drinks with Beillevaire whole raw milk from Normandy or the chocolat chaud from master chocolatier Jean-Paul Hévin are good options for a hot beverage. Visitors are free to sit outside on one of the two benches in front of the cafe, or to lounge indoors where there are plenty of small tables perfect for conversing with friends, spending time with a good book, or even working on a laptop thanks to the free wi-fi and outlets. The overall effect of the dainty vases of fresh cut flowers (even outside), framed photographs, and the yellow, white, and green palate brings harmony to the sun-filled space. If you look closely enough at the surroundings, the Yellow Tucan mascot is whimsically perched in various corners, sometimes hidden in plain sight.

yellow tucan paris france

yellow tucan paris france

A self-described fan of coffee shops, Yellow Tucan proprietor Vincent Rouvière always enjoys discovering new places to drink coffee in his home city of Paris and during his frequent travels around the world. Indeed, Rouvière says he’s searched for good coffee everywhere from Seoul to London—and enjoyed exploring the neighborhoods surrounding these cafes as much as visiting the shops themselves. One day par hasard (by chance) he stumbled across a for rent sign on an empty commercial space in the well-known Parisian district of Le Marais. More on a lark than anything else, he called the phone number listed on the sign to see if the spot was still available to let.

By Rouvière’s recollection, everything fell into place quite quickly following that initial call. A few weeks of negotiating the terms of the lease later and the storefront was suddenly his. “I had never worked in a coffee shop,” said Rouvière. Lack of experience notwithstanding, there was no other choice but to dive headfirst into the challenging work of opening a cafe. Yellow Tucan welcomed its first customers in September 2017 after several busy months of building renovation, menu planning, intensive barista training, and bringing to life the design and cheery décor.  

Vincent Rouvière

Prior to the opening of Yellow Tucan, Rouvière was a serial entrepreneur, immersed in the world of startups in France and involved in a wide range of businesses including a car service using solely electric and hybrid vehicles, and bringing international fashion design talents to present their collections and network in Paris. When asked what it was like to become a new cafe owner after wearing so many other hats, Rouvière responded with a laugh, saying, “I love entrepreneurship and different projects. However, before Yellow Tucan I never had a physical storefront on the street! It is a different experience.” Nevertheless, according to Rouvière, the lessons learned from his previous endeavors, in addition to the impressions formed from the many different cafes he toured as a customer, motivate him to provide friendly service and high-quality products. For Rouvière, “Yellow Tucan was intended as a place for calm, a location to work, chat, think about projects, soak in the atmosphere of Parisian life, and meet people.”

When asked about the name, Rouvière chuckles. “The toucan is beautiful, elegant, colorful, and friendly, which seems appropriate for a cafe where people can be social. Also, they are native to Central America, and can be found in places like Costa Rica, where some of the world’s best specialty coffees are produced.” Fittingly, Rouvière—the man behind the tucan—is as genial as the cafe’s namesake: customers can expect good coffee and friendly service in French (or English).

Yellow Tucan Coffee Shop is located at 20 Rue des Tournelles, Paris. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Michelle Hwang is a writer who splits her time between California, Paris, and Seoul. Read more Michelle Hwang for Sprudge.

The post For Coffee In Paris, Follow Your Nose To Yellow Tucan appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Help Research Into Flavor Perception In Coffee By Taking This Survey

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sensory perception Fabiana Carvalho

sensory perception Fabiana Carvalho

There’s so much more that affects how we perceive flavor than just what’s in the cup. Research into the multisensory nature of flavor perception has already been well-established in the wine and beer worlds, but The Coffee Sensorium—a research project by Brazilian scientist Fabiana Carvalho—is bringing that same scientific rigor to the world of specialty coffee. And now The Coffee Sensorium needs your help. Teaming up with Professor Charles Spence, Carvalho is calling on all specialty coffee professionals and consumers to take a quick survey about flavor perception in coffee.

We have covered some aspects of Carvalho’s previous work that focused on specialty coffee, specifically how certain attributes of the receptacle—shape, color, and weight—shift flavor perception. But in this new collaborative study between the University of São Paulo, Brazil and the University of Oxford, UK, Carvalho and Spence are looking to expand upon that research by testing how the shape and color of espresso cups affect flavor perception across cultural lines.

To glean this type of cross-cultural data, Carvalho and Spence have developed an online study to assess people’s sensory expectations of an espresso coffee using only visual cues. In the study (that takes roughly 10-15 minutes to complete), participants will be presented different cup shapes and cup colors and will assess certain attributes—bitterness, sweetness, acidity, etc—according to their expectations.

Since the aim of this online study is to investigate cross-cultural effects, Carvalho and Spence are making the study available to the specialty coffee community in as many countries as possible. Currently available in five languages—English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Korean—the study is expected to be available in nine different tongues by the end of January, with data being collected until August.

The survey is open to all specialty coffee professionals and any consumers who have been drinking specialty coffee for at least one year. Your input is extremely valuable. To take part, visit the University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology’s official website here.

Go make Science happen!

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

Top image via The Coffee Sensorium By Fabiana Carvalho: A Revolution Of Flavor Perception by Juliana Ganan

The post Help Research Into Flavor Perception In Coffee By Taking This Survey appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News