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De Poezenboot! We Brought Coffee To Amsterdam’s Delightful Floating Cat Charity

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de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

Photo courtesy of Djaro G.

De Poezenboot. Goedemorgen?” That translates to “The Catboat. Good morning?” and it is how Judith, in a warm yet clearly down-to-business voice, answers the office phone. She is the manager and the public—human—face of a cat refuge long moored in the Singel, a large canal that once moated Amsterdam’s medieval center and still provides the embankment for Golden Age mansions.

By contrast, De Poezenboot (pronounced “POOH-sen boat”; poezen is Dutch for “cats”) appears as a simple wooden rectangle floating on concrete, in a boat style known as an ark. Hardly of Noah dimensions, the shelter can hold 50 cats at a time—this month they’re the chosen charity supported by sales of Santa Claude, a special holiday coffee collaboration between Sprudge, Cafe Imports, Roundhill Roasters, and Dutch Pack. Currently, there are 17 in-house cats, each with a distinctive personality, and while most of the cats at the shelter are rehomed in short order, some are too rascally to place with families, and now call De Poezenboot their forever floating home.

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

Kasumi is a yellow-eyed Persian that hams it up for the camera, but gets pushed aside by her housemates during mealtime and pees where she pleases. Samus, the dead ringer for Scut Farkus, comes with his own scratch-warning sign and last year posed in a photo with Ricky Gervais.

On a recent Wednesday, one of the two days the boat is closed to the public, Judith sat at her desk in the reception area. Between fielding calls, she talked about De Poezenboot and sipped a drink that Sprudge picked up prior to the interview. Good Beans, a nearby espresso bar which this past summer came under new American-Norwegian ownership, prepared Judith’s hot chocolate and an Americano with their own Rwandan Bourbon roast. The coffee went to Michi, a feline portrait artist and the volunteer that morning taking care of rigorous kennel cleaning.

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

Even though stray animals are not a systemic problem in the Netherlands, De Poezenboot has plenty of work. It takes in cats that are occasionally found on the street, orphaned, aging, or otherwise too difficult for owners to continue tending.

“Sometimes we have a whole family crying here because they have to bring in their cat,” says Judith.

As a schoolchild, she was one of De Poezenboot’s earliest volunteers, and eventually became a friend and a caregiver to Henriëtte van Weelde, the woman who began the sanctuary. That was in 1968, on a barge one canal over. Van Weelde died at age 90 in 2005.

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

Today, the De Poezenboot has 22 volunteers, organized into fixed teams that rotate boat shifts. Their main responsibilities are feeding, administering medicine, and cleaning. They also keep an eye on the neighborhood swan that likes to swim up to the deck and out-hiss its water-wary canal-mates. Some volunteers double as foster parents, socializing and nursing cats to more adoptable states. Judith had planned to do precisely that with a once “really tiny and scared” kitten, she recalls, but eight years later, Jumi is her family pet (as is a merle-coated Chihuahua named Rosa).

The boat survives on donations, with money put towards cat provisions plus mooring and other houseboat-related costs. The small fee that adopters pay largely covers health costs, including sterilization, vaccination, chipping, and sometimes deworming.

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

This past June, De Poezenboot celebrated its 50 year anniversary. Feline-themed festivities aside, the jubileum allowed the organization to raise funds for a campaign to help financially struggling Amsterdammers get their cats spayed and neutered “almost for free,” says Judith. The program is scheduled to run in February 2019.

In the meantime, rehoming remains the main mission. Would-be adopters who see a listing on the website or via social media can call or visit to inquire if they might be a good match.

“We do want to have the cats go to the most suitable house,” Judith emphasizes. “If we have a cat, for instance, that is scared of kids, but really beautiful, and somebody comes in and says, ‘Oh I like that beautiful cat,’ but she has three screaming kids, she will not get the cat.”

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

Yet, most adopters are, much like the creature they covet, sensitive and self-assured.

“We get nice people, people that think about what they’re doing, not people who are like ‘Oh give me a cat, and I don’t mind what kind of cat. Just give me one,’” says Judith.

Included in that group are business proprietors that seek a mouser or, for whatever reason, a whiskered workplace companion. Up the block, Café Kobalt got “a red one from us,” notes Judith, “and Café de Doelen also.” More recently, a local cigar store requested neither a cafe lounger nor a lap-sitter, but rather “an independent cat that goes his own way.” The satisfied owner has already emailed photos, says Judith. “Everybody loves him and he’s running through the store.”

de poezenboot amsterdam netherlands

De Poezenboot is located at Sigel 38G, Amsterdam. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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

Support De Poezenboot and drink delicious coffee with Santa Claude! Worldwide shipping available.

The post De Poezenboot! We Brought Coffee To Amsterdam’s Delightful Floating Cat Charity appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Most Of The Jonas Brothers Are Burnin’ Up Over This Coffee Mug

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Last year, we told you about the Ember, a “smart mug” that regulates the temperature of your coffee via a smart phone app. We may or may not have tossed around words like “overly complicated” and “you don’t need” and “$80.” Suffice to say, it didn’t make it to the final stages of the Sprudgie nominations. But you know who thinks we’re wrong? The Jonas Brothers. Most of them anyway.

CNBC reports that Nick and Joe Jonas are investors in the Ember. No Kevin, though. Kevin gets it.

After what some would consider a successful “music” career, Mr.’s Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner, respectively, have turned their sights to investing and comprise part of the $45 million the Ember has raised thus far, though the exact amount of Jonas money in not mentioned.

“Hot coffee is a big deal,” say Joe, which is the sort of thing you’d expect to hear from a person named after coffee twice. Though it’s a statement that is true and I agree with, I still find it somewhat infuriating, at least as an investment strategy. And what does Joe Jonas know? He’s got weird opinions about cold brew and “bougie third wave coffee [shops].”

But the Brothers Jonii aren’t the only celebrities that have put their money where their temperature-regulated coffee mug goes. Professional football players and noted best friends Aaron Rodgers and Ndamukong Suh, seen here playing a friendly game of Ankle-Step Butt-Slap, are also listed in the CNBC article as investors in the Ember.

They may never agree on whether or not you should be allowed to stomp on the neck of an opposing player, but if there’s one thing they can unite around, it’s battery powered coffee mugs.

The Ember has a current valuation at $140 million and has already netted north of $10 million this year, so what do I know? Nothing about coffee mugs or investing it would seem.

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

Top image via People

The post Most Of The Jonas Brothers Are Burnin’ Up Over This Coffee Mug appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Fantastic Drinks And Where To Find Them At Cryptozoology In Denton

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cryptozoology denton texas

cryptozoology denton texas

Enthusiasm in coffee is easy to come by; the first step of almost everyone’s third wave journey is doe-eyed excitement at this beverage they’ve consumed their whole lives but only now feel like they are really seeing for the first time. The tricky part comes in keeping that same sense of wonderment as one progresses through their coffee career, to not get jaded by the workaday rigamarole. Even after years working a variety of jobs in the coffee industry, husband and wife Ben and Haley Lytle have found a way to not let their enthusiasm dull; they have honed it, sharpened it. And it’s that excitement that is on full display at Cryptozoology, the brand new coffee bar for this pair of first-time owners, opened inside Denton’s Armadillo Ale Works.

Inside the 5,500-square-foot space, Cryptozoology occupies just one half of the bar top stretching across the southernmost wall. The rest of the space is devoted to fermentation tanks or communal, picnic table seating, almost all of which have at least one person sitting at them. It’s no small feat for a shop opened less than a month ago to have this sort of draw in a college town full of already established and very, very good coffee bars and to do so without any pull from Armadillo, yet to officially open their taproom. But one stop in and it is easy to see why.

cryptozoology denton texas

cryptozoology denton texas

Ben Lytle

During my visit to Cryptozoology, Ben (who full disclosure, was a coworker of mine at a local coffee roaster a few years ago) was working the counter and greeted everyone—and I mean everyone—by name; each guest was already a regular. A mix of big personality and bigger hair, Ben’s natural habitat is behind the bar, interacting with people. Intently focused on making drinks at the two-group Synesso Hydra, Haley is the yin to his yang. Whereas you might expect Ben—winner of the 2016 Western Conference Brewers Cup, his only year to compete—to be the person making the drinks, the espresso machine is Haley’s domain. Originally a schoolteacher before diving headfirst into specialty coffee and taking a barista position at Shift Coffee in Denton, Haley is academic, efficient. She quietly churns out drinks while Ben takes orders, never falling behind even with a line that refuses to let up, perhaps aided by the leisurely pace set by the stop-and-chat nature of ordering drinks at Cryptozoology. This experience, in a nutshell, is what Ben and Haley—currently the coffee bar’s only two employees—want to define Cryptozoology.

cryptozoology denton texas

Haley Lytle

“Our mission is to serve really great coffee quickly and with great hospitality,” Haley tells me. “Ben and I really have a heart for hospitality, but wouldn’t it be great for a coffee shop to have both warm personalities AND stellar coffee?!” Ben adds, “For me, I’m idealistic, and I want Cryptozoology to be pushing the boundaries of quality and experimenting with service styles while simultaneously being a place that’s welcoming to anybody who ordinarily feels alienated by specialty coffee. We take coffee really seriously behind the bar so that our guests don’t have to!”

cryptozoology denton texas

And while you don’t have to be really into coffee to have a great experience at Cryptozoology, it certainly helps as they have one of, if not, the most progressive coffee programs in the entire DFW Metroplex. Similar to that of Denver’s Amethyst Coffee, Cryptozoology adheres to an “any coffee, any way you want it” approach. Their menu consists of offerings from two rotating roasters—San Francisco’s Ritual Coffee and Bellingham’s Camber Coffee during my visit—that can be made as a pour-over using Crypto’s preferred brew method, the December Dripper, or as an espresso, pulled as an EK shot on one of the two Synesso groupheads specifically calibrated for this style of drink. Or you can just order an espresso or a latte and the Lytles will serve you their house espresso from the Mahlkönig K30 grinder in a more ristretto style (as compared to the longer EK shot, at least).

Cryptozoology also keeps a handful of non-coffee-forward drinks on offer, including a carbonated iced black tea made with Spirit Tea, because “if you don’t have good iced tea in Texas, what are you even doing?” Ben tells me with a smile. Or, if you fancy something a little sweeter, the Mothman may be more your speed. Espresso based, the Mothman includes sweetened condensed milk, sea salt, and a touch of activated charcoal and can be served hot or over ice.

cryptozoology denton texas

In the future, Ben and Haley will be collaborating with Armadillo for some taproom-only coffee beers. I’ve already put in a not-so-subtle request for a shandy-style beverage combining Crypto’s carbonated tea with Armadillo’s Land Yacht IPA.

The coffee scene in Denton right now is crowded and it is only getting bigger, bolstered in no small part by a number of barista-forward cafes, where the owners will still strap on an apron and get dirty. It’s a tradition that Cryptozoology carries on, and even as this new coffee company grows and evolves, I wouldn’t expect that to change. The Lytles love being behind the bar. It’s where they belong.

cryptozoology denton texas

Cryptozoology is located in Armadillo Ale Works at 221 S Bell Ave, Denton. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

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

The post Fantastic Drinks And Where To Find Them At Cryptozoology In Denton appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Alpha Dominche Has Ceased All Operations

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Alpha Dominche has shuttered.

The Brooklyn-via-Salt Lake City design company most known for the Steampunk, their modular automated immersion coffee and tea brewer, are ceasing all operations—sales, technical support, spare parts fulfillment, and internet/server maintenance—effective immediately. All social media accounts have been deleted.

The announcement came via a partners email from Alpha Dominche sent yesterday, December 4th, obtained by Sprudge via multiple sources. In it, the company confirms there will be “no further support available from Alpha Dominche to any customers, resellers, or affiliates.” From the email:

This past year we have explored every reasonable option to continue our business operations, but were unable to secure the resources necessary to continue. We deeply regret any hardship this causes our partners, customers, and friends within the coffee and tea industries. You have all been such a wonderful support and champion of our business over the past six years, and we are so thankful for the meaningful relationships we have built during this time.

In the wake of the news, many questions remain to be answered. The most pressing of which—at least for the 2,586 backers who committed over $230,000 on Kickstarter and Indiegogo—is what will become of the FLASK? A mix between an AeroPress and a French press, the FLASK was Alpha Dominche’s foray into hand brewing using similar, though manual, brewing methods to that of the Steampunk. It is unclear if any orders were shipped out before the closing. An email sent to backers states that the “company is exploring options to continue with fulfillment of the Kickstarter and Indiegogo [orders] if possible.”

And what of the Extraction Lab, AD’s Brooklyn showroom cafe generating all the buzz over the $18 cup of coffee? Will it remain in some fashion even with its namesake company closing? A call to the Extraction Lab has not been returned as of press time.

We have reached out to Alpha Dominche for comment and will update this article with more details as they are made available.

This story is developing…

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

Top image via Alpha Dominche

The post Alpha Dominche Has Ceased All Operations appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Looking Back At The US Coffee Championships Denver Qualifying Event

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And just like that, half the field is set for the 2019 US Coffee Championships taking place in Kansas City, Missouri next year in March. A total of 192 coffee professionals from around the United States gathered together in Denver, Colorado for the chance to move on to the National stage of coffee competition. Over the course of two days, these nearly 200 competitors took part one of (and sometimes more) the five events going on throughout the weekend: the Barista Championship, Brewers Cup, Cup Tasters, Roasters Championship, and for the first time in the US, the Coffee in Good Spirits. Now there are just 62.

If there are any large-scale takeaways from this weekend, it would be that, (1) there are a ton of new faces in every competition, and (2) those who have done well in past competitions continue to do well. While the prevalence of newcomers was felt throughout every competition stage—we’re guesstimating around half of the competitors were first timers—the veterans, unsurprisingly, owned the day. Every competition save for Cup Tasters was won, if not completely swept, by former finalists from the national level. Even Coffee in Good Spirits, which is only in its first year, was won by Sam Schroeder, who has previously made the finals of the Barista Championship (multiple times) and Brewers Cup.

Those moving on must now wait another month to learn who will comprise the other half of the field coming out of the second Qualifying Event, taking place mid-January in Nashville. But until then, let’s take a look back at the road that got these 62 competitors to KC, the weekend that was the 2019 US Coffee Championships Qualifying Event in Denver, Colorado.

SprudgeLive’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 AcaiaBaratzaFaemaCafe Imports, and Wilbur Curtis.

Barista Championship

For the Qualifying Event, competitors were given 10 minutes to serve the judges an espresso course as well as a signature beverage course; the milk beverage course, along with an additional five minutes of performance time, won’t be introduced until Kansas City. But even only having to serve two courses, the 10 minute run time proved to not be enough for many competitors; multiple baristas finished north of 11 minutes, some pushing into the 12-minute mark. This wasn’t just first-timers mind you. There were multiple veteran competitors who, while didn’t get the full DQ, had us sweating as precious point deductions continued to tick by.

Andrea Allen (Photo by Liz Chai)

From the field of 60 competitors, two truths crystalized this weekend. First, Andrea Allen remains a favorite. With three consecutive Finals appearances and another strong showing here in Denver, it’s hard to imagine she won’t make it four in a row. And two, Sam Neely is the real deal. If there was any worry that last year’s final appearance was a fluke or that they would suffer a sophomore slump, Neely’s significant 18-point win over Allen put that all to bed. Neely stands poised as the heir-apparent to be the barista that brings home a title for the new generation of competitors.

  1. Sam Neely, Switchback Coffee Roasters
  2. Andrea Allen, Onyx Coffee Lab
  3. Emily Orendorff, Boxcar Coffee Roasters
  4. Cassie Ash, Small Planes Coffee
  5. Hugo Cano, Independent
  6. Naida Lindberg, Verve Coffee
  7. Reef Bessette, The Coffee Movement
  8. Joel Bigelow, Messenger Coffee
  9. Hana Kaneshige, Counter Culture Coffee
  10. Raechel Hurd, Epoch Coffee
  11. Milo DeGoosh, Bard Coffee
  12. Matthew Barahura, Intelligentsia Coffee
  13. Austin Amento, Augie’s Coffee
  14. Kristi Persinger, Stumptown Coffee Roasters
  15. Meg Skop, Equator Coffees & Teas
  16. Douglas Park, Independent
  17. Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee
  18. Morgan Eckroth, Tried & True Coffee Co

Brewers Cup

Julia Peixoto (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

More so than any other competition, including the Barista Championship, the Brewers Cup is where previous Finalists loomed largest, taking the top three spots as well as ninth with Blair Smith (and let’s be honest, Smith is one of the most seasoned Brewers Cup competitors in the field, so I wouldn’t bet on her finishing below ninth on the national stage).

Jacob White (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

At the same time, the Brewers Cup was the only competition last year where a newcomer won it all. It just goes to show that it is anyone’s game, but expect to see White, Gann, McCormick-Goodhart, and Smith near the top. Maybe this is the year on of them finally breaks through.

  1. Jacob White, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters
  2. Kaley Gann, Messenger Coffee
  3. Justin McCormick-Goodhart, Sweet Bloom Coffee
  4. Lance Hedrick, Onyx Coffee Lab
  5. Joshua Modisette, Narrative Coffee
  6. Madeleine Longoria-Garcia, Independent
  7. Augustine Toscano, Windmill Coffee
  8. Avery Leith, Elixr Coffee
  9. Blair Smith, Augie’s Coffee
  10. Stephen White, Joe Coffee Co
  11. Nicholai Elkins, Switchback Coffee Roasters
  12. Kelly Hill, Temple Coffee Roasters

Coffee in Good Spirits

Josh Smith (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

Coffee in Good Spirits has been a staple of the World Coffee Events competition roster since 2011, but somehow, it wasn’t until the 2019 season that the United States decided to get involved, with the first appearance of the event on US soil taking place over the weekend.

CIGS in America still feels a bit like it is in the beta testing phases; only a total of six competitors decided to give it a go in Denver, but this is surely poised to change. America has some of the best cocktail bars in the entire world as well as an already established mixology competition scene; combine in the fact that many baristas have made the switch from coffee bar to bar-bar and you’ve got a recipe for strong future performances. It’s only a matter of time.

  1. Sam Schroeder, Olympia Coffee
  2. Kimhak Em, Peixoto Coffee Roasters
  3. Joshua Smith, West Oak Coffee Bar
  4. Michael Slomzenski, Huckleberry Roasters
  5. Kasey Headley, Trinity Street Coffee Bar

Cup Tasters

Noah Goodman (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

It doesn’t matter where you are in the building, whenever competitors start raising those cups looking for red dots, you can hear the roars of the crowd. With the immediacy of the scoring—is there a dot or isn’t there—Cup Tasters makes for some of the most exciting spectating in all of coffee competition.

In Denver, speed was the name of the game. With Sebastian Legner going a perfect six for six and another 10 competitors only missing one, that left only four spots for the 19 competitors that correctly identified four of six cups. Only two seconds separated Jie Jiang and ReAnimator‘s Cody McGregor, 2:25 to 2:27, but that was the difference between booking a ticket to KC and a ticket back home.

  1. Sebastian Legner, Copper Door Coffee Roasters
  2. Chris Kornman, Royal Coffee
  3. Jen Apodaca, Royal Coffee
  4. Chloe O’Connor, Everyman Espresso
  5. Scott MacBride, InterAmerican Coffee
  6. Roman Deshong, Amethyst Coffee Co
  7. Kevin Nealon, Huckleberry Roasters
  8. Andy Sprenger, Sweet Bloom Coffee
  9. Jin Chiew, Sweet Bloom Coffee
  10. Austin Amento, Augie’s Coffee
  11. Michael Schroeder, Oddly Correct
  12. Noah Goodman, Faema
  13. Khristian Yurchak, Sisters Coffee Co
  14. Brandon Despain, Caffe Ibis
  15. Jie Jiang, Andante Coffee Roasters

Roasters Championship

For the first time in competition history, the US Roasters Championship has a qualifying round. No more sign-up and show up, not that it made much of a difference for Andrew Oberholzer, last year’s sixth place finisher and the winner of the Denver Qualifiers.

One of the great features of the Roasters Championship is how it reduces the barrier between competitor and spectator. Unlike any other event, where those in attendance can maybe sometimes get to try a competitor’s coffee or sig bev, for Roasters, spectators not only get to taste the coffees but have a hand in deciding the outcome by voting on their favorite.

If there was a single feet at the Denver Qualifying Event that could be considered as the most remarkable, it comes from Roasters (and Cup Tasters) with Jen Apodaca making the podium in both events. If she can repeat this performance in Kansas City, it will undoubtedly be one of the best US Coffee Championship appearances in the history of the competition.

  1. Andrew Oberholzer, Joe Coffee Co
  2. Shelby Williamson, Huckleberry Roasters
  3. Jen Apodaca, Royal Coffee
  4. Leo Sideras, Independent
  5. Evan Inatome, Elixr Coffee
  6. Aaron Rollins, Caffe Ibis
  7. Hugh Morretta, La Colombe Coffee Roasters
  8. Daniel Mauck, Social Hour Coffee Roasters
  9. Mark Boccard, Southdown Coffee
  10. Weston Nawrocki, Manzanita Roasting Co
  11. Andrew Burgason, Windmill Coffee
  12. Nathan Van Dusen, Brio Coffeeworks

Photos for Sprudge and Sprudge Live by Elizabeth Chai and Charlie Burt.

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

The post Looking Back At The US Coffee Championships Denver Qualifying Event appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

At Daniel, Colin Harmon’s New Expression Of Coffee Culture In Dublin

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3fe daniel dublin ireland

3fe daniel dublin ireland

Interiors speak. We have a rough idea of what specialty coffee cafes are supposed to look like to make sure one knows it is a specialty cafe. But they can also be more personal. They can take us back to different times in our lives—memories of former homes, former lives, and former selves—while offering a warm nostalgia. Cafes can be those spaces we use to connect with other people and to catch a break for ourselves, without having to be the latest co-working spaces or culinary destinations in their own right. This vision into the past is central to 3fe’s latest outpost, Daniel, in Dublin, Ireland.

3fe’s Daniel, on the corner of Daniel Street, is a personal expression of founder Colin Harmon’s childhood. With a father who worked construction and traveled around Ireland on weekends, often with his kids, Harmon saw a lot of spaces that became comfort stations—homes away from homes. “My childhood is stopping in places like Claire and Mitchelstown in County Cork, and Horse and Jockey in County Tipperrary, and stopping in random pubs and having a cheese toastie and a can of Cidona. I said to my sister ‘wait till you see this place. It’s basically our childhood mashed into this little building.’”

3fe daniel dublin ireland

Colin Harmon

3fe, founded in 2009, is one of Ireland’s premier specialty coffee brands. Harmon started his journey from his apartment (which was on the 3rd floor of his flat’s building), today boasting has two additional locations in Dublin City besides Daniel—though they share very little in common. Its flagship cafe is on Grand Canal Street on the eastern side of the city while 3fe’s more central but southward Sussex street location is more a shop for coffee than a coffee shop. More floor space is given to espresso machines, accessories, and filter brewing equipment than there are to places to sit (but you can get espresso-based drinks to go). But at Daniel, it’s another story. The choice of interiors here relies on the heavy use of a wood with a reddish hue and farmhouse chairs and church benches, giving the whole place a warmth that is pubby and relaxing, yet still brightened by natural light.

So where does Daniel fit between these two extremes of coffee retail concepts? “The model is completely different because it doesn’t have a queue out the door and [people in] suits going to work,” says Harmon. “It becomes a hub to sit down and have coffee and meet a friend. Because the rent isn’t super high and there’s just two staff, we can do that.” Harmon tells Sprudge. “Grand Canal Street is different. We used to have free WiFi there and we had to take it down because people were using it as an office. I don’t mind people coming in for an hour or so and banging away some emails. That’s cool, I do that too, but people would come and sit in there for nine hours. When you’re in hospitality, it’s a hard thing to ask people to not come.”

3fe daniel dublin ireland

Central to all the spaces is 3fe’s own roasted coffee. I was served a Red Catuai variety washed Cerro Azul from Honduras, which can be paired with croissants and cinnamon rolls made by local bakery Bread Nation. On the weekends, the cafe sells whole bread loaves. Chocolates, too, are for sale by Nobó. For the canine customers, there is an under-the-counter stash of dog treats. When I visited, there was no Cidona—but there are indeed cheese toasties made to order. Choose from ham and cheese, cheese with mustard and red onion marmalade, or the Black and Blue. The filling is blue cheese with red onion marmalade and Whole Hoggs black pudding (an Irish breakfast staple of sausage made from oatmeal and pigs’ blood.) This particular toasty was smooth, creamy, rich and mildly spicy.

Harmon hopes that Daniel can expand the visual vocabulary of what a specialty cafe can look like. As specialty coffee grows evermore around the world, it’s going to take a personal and local touch to make a cafe really stand out. Or perhaps it’s about putting specialty coffee into places that evoke something older, culturally deeper than the slick minimalistic chilliness of today’s design trends. Dublin’s new Daniel feels completely different, and in today’s incredibly competitive global coffee scene for which Harmon & Co. are so closely watched, this is perhaps the highest compliment.

Daniel by 3fe is located at 19 Clanbrassil Street Lower, Dublin. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Sebastian Stephenson (@sebeys) is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared previously in Monocle. This is Sebastian Stephenson’s first feature for Sprudge Media Network. 

The post At Daniel, Colin Harmon’s New Expression Of Coffee Culture In Dublin appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Coffee In Good Spirits Championship: A Primer

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It’s finally happened. The Americans are officially getting hooked on CIGS. Coffee in Good Spirits, or CIGS as it is often called, has been a smokin’ hot part of the World Coffee Events competition canon for many years now, but it is—somewhat inexplicably—just now making its way to the United States, with its first official appearance taking place this weekend in Denver at the US Coffee Championships Qualifying Event. Luckily we’ve been covering the World event since 2014, when some dude you’ve probably never heard of named Matt Perger won it all, so we thought we’d put together a little primer for our American audience on what to expect when you’re expecting to watch the Coffee in Good Spirits Competition at the US Coffee Championships.

SprudgeLive’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.

CIGS is basically the signature beverage portion of the Barista Championship on steroids. Well, steroids and alcohol. For the CIGS Qualifying Event, barkeepers will have to undergo a truncated version of the World competitions, Specifically, the Stage Presentation portion. According to the 2018 Rules and Regulations, in the Stage Presentation competitors have 10 minutes to create “two (identical) hot/warm coffee and alcohol-based designer drinks and two (identical) cold coffee and alcohol-based designer drinks.”

For Denver, participants are required to use vodka in either their hot or cold beverages (or both) as well as the provided espresso machine to make one or both of their drinks.

So now that you have the general idea of the format, what can you expect to see? In short, some shit. You’re gonna see some shit. We’re talking fire, ice, smoke machines, friggin’ sabres.

Cantankerous whosiewhatsits, spendifoulrus dippledidoos, you name it.

Did I mention friggin’ sabres?

Needless to say, it’s going to be w-w-w-w-wild.

And just because this is the first run of the Coffee in Good Spirits championship doesn’t mean the competitors are new to this sort of thing. Smart money is on Kasey Headley to move on to the national stage of competition, who nearly missed the semi-final round of London Coffee Masters with his own coffee cocktail.

If you like the fireworks and the all-out wackiness of the signature beverage portion of the Barista Championship, then you are going to love the Coffee in Good Spirits Championship. If you’re in Denver this weekend, you’re not going to want to miss a minute.

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

All images from Day One and Day Two coverage of the 2015 World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship.

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee Design: MiddleState Coffee In Denver, Colorado

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It’s not too often we come across a new coffee offering in a bold, pink box. Denver’s MiddleState Coffee Roasters really went for it: special releases in a can’t-miss-it color that shouts “I’m a special coffee and I like to have fun.” Scott Hill designed the box using strong a typeface and adding playful touches all around. We asked Hill and co-owner Jay DeRose about this fun little number over email.

As told by Scott Hill and Jay DeRose.

Tell us a bit about your company.

MiddleState started in 2014. We are a wholesale roasting company based out of Denver, Colorado. Since the beginning, it has been pretty simple for us. Buy the best coffee we can that supports the entirety of the chain that is specialty coffee, and have as much fun doing it that we can. We take what we do very serious, but really try not to take ourselves to serious in the process. We like to buy small and very exciting lots of coffee from farmers and producers who we think are doing a great job supporting all hands in the process. – Jay DeRose

When did the coffee package design debut?

The package/coffee debut was right around October 1, 2018. -JD

Who designed the package?

I’m a minority owner of MiddleState and have been designing and managing the brand since its inception. We were stoked to push the boundaries of what our customers expect from our packaging to make this one a little special. We’re traditionally a brand that is anchored by a stark black and white core brand with pops of color at times. We decided to flip that convention on its head for this package to make it clear that this was an extremely unique moment for our product offering. – Scott Hill

What coffee information do you share on the package?

On the package, we have the roast date, farm information/farmer information, taste notes, varietal, altitude, and the process. Pretty standard in comparison to our other packaging. – JD

Why are aesthetics in coffee packaging so important?

I think that things that are seen as “craft” that have passionate followings are expected to deliver quality at every turn. This means that once a consumer has understood the attention to detail and quality that has gone into a few different coffees, the remaining tie-breaker could be how appealing the packaging is. People willing to spend more of quality coffee want that quality in every facet of the experience. – SH

Where is the bag manufactured?

We produced the custom boxes through Packlane. – SH

What type of package is it?

The coffee is in a clear poly seal bag with a one-way valve and a tin tie. That bag is concealed inside of the thin cardboard box. It’s hard to completely seal a box and put a valve on it. – JD

Where is it currently available?

You can purchase the coffee in our online shop. We had such a small quantity of each coffee that we didn’t want to offer too much of it for wholesale, rather though we wanted to offer it to our lovely consumers. – JD

To learn more, check out Haley Littleton’s 2016 feature on MiddleState Coffee. For even more, check out the 2018 feature about the new MiddleState location.

Company: MiddleState Coffee
Location: Denver, CO
Country: United States
Release Date: October 2018
Designer: Scott Hill

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

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Source: Coffee News

Sprudge Live Is Back This Weekend In Denver

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Coffee competition fans, rejoice! The 2019 US Coffee Champs season begins this coming weekend with the first of two qualifying events, and Sprudge Live will be there covering all the action live. We’re thrilled to bring our industry leading coverage of the US Coffee Champs tournaments to the Denver Qualifying Event, happening December 1st-2nd at the National Western Complex (4655 Humboldt Street).

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, and we’ll be covering the event all weekend long across a couple of different coverage nodes. Sprudge Live’s media team in Denver, and throughout the 2019 season, is helmed by Charlie Burt (lead photographer), Elizabeth Chai (multimedia director), and Zac Cadwalader (producer).

Sprudge Live — Our dedicated website to coffee competitions is back covering the US Coffee Champs slate. Visit Sprudge Live daily for smart schedules, original photography, routine recaps, leaderboards and much more live from Denver.

Instagram — Follow @Sprudge on Instagram for candid coverage all weekend long from Denver. Expect behind the scenes glimpses, eye-catching photos, and revealing, immersive moments from the show floor.

Sprudgecast — Subscribe to the Coffee Sprudgecast for upcoming podcast content produced live from the Denver event

Twitter — The much-loved @SprudgeLive Twitter coverage of the 2019 season is back! Follow Sprudge Live for play-by-play—really so much of it—live from the showfloor in Denver, and at all events all season long.

Every bit of this coverage is hubbed at SprudgeLive.com, the worldwide leader in coffee sports. We can’t wait for you to join us in Denver! Follow along, root for your favorites, and we’ll see you on the road to Boston all season long.

Coverage supported by Joe GloMahlkönigAcaia, Baratza, FaemaCafe Imports, and Wilbur Curtis.

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Source: Coffee News

Sign Up Is Open For The 2018 Third Wave Wichteln

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Third Wave Wichteln is back for another year of international coffee exchanging. Now in its sixth year, the Wichteln is a transcontinental specialty coffee Secret Santa, and registration is now open!

Third Wave Wichteln works like any holiday gift exchange, just on a much, much larger scale; last year’s saw over 2,000 people from 62 countries participate according to one of TWW’s founders Markus Reuter. Everyone who wants to participate puts their name in a hat—the hat being an online submission form in this case—and then those participants draw a name from the hat and that’s the person they need to buy a gift for. In this case, the name is assigned to you by TWW to make sure that everyone is receiving coffee from a different country than their own.

via Third Wave Wichteln

The gift must be specialty coffee and meet a specific criteria: no more than five days off roast at the time of shipment, no espresso roasts (filter only), no decaf, whole bean, and single origin. Then you just ship the coffee and wait for yours to come in the mail!

It’s just that easy. But also it’s not. Or is it? As should probably be expected from an international gifting program that relies on the honor system and fully functioning bureaucracies, there are catches.

For one, shipping can be expensive, often comprising more of the total cost than the coffee itself. In the United States, shipping a package internationally can cost roughly between $10-$50 depending on its destination. I spent somewhere around $30 to ship coffee to the Czech Republic in 2016.

The team at Third Wave Wichteln provides participants with information to ease shipping issues:

1. Use customs form CN22
2. Label the package as a gift
3. Specify “whole roasted coffee beans”
4. According to Reuter, “The shipping doesn’t have to be Express. Normal DHL or Fedex is fine. And sometimes it’s worth checking if there is a cheaper way to send just an envelope instead of a package.”

After you’re paired up with a mystery recipient and you’ve sent your package, the team at TWW doesn’t provide additional support to assist in tracking the package destined for you. It might show up, show up late, or not at all. For what its worth, I’ve always received my coffee. Sometimes it didn’t show up until February and ripped open by customs but ultimately none worse for the wear.

James Hoffmann, World Barista Champion, author, co-owner of Square Mile Coffee, and frequent TWW participant, tells Sprudge of his experience:

I’ve really enjoyed taking part in Third Wave Wichteln, since its inception. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve received coffee from a roaster new to me every time and it’s been fun, as a roaster, to send through a few bonus bits to whoever has been my recipient too. I look forward to it every year!

It’s all part of the gift-giving gamble. Caveat emptor. I’ll be back for a fourth year because the coffees I get are always interesting. From a specialty-grade Robusta grown in India and roasted in Poland to a lovely washed Colombian coffee roasted in merry old England, I’ve yet to be disappointed by the coffee I received… eventually.

Enrollment for the 2018 Third Wave Wichteln is open until Friday, December 7th and sign up can be done here. For more information, visit their official website. And while you wait for your coffee, join the discussion going on over at the Third Wave Wichteln Facebook group. Happy gifting!

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

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Source: Coffee News