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Millennials Prefer Travel To Coffee And Sex, Says Travel Agency

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Millennials: who are they are what do they want? And more importantly, how can we bilk as much money out of them as possible? Turns out, if you want those Millennial millions, you need to offer some sort of travel-based experience. In a new study, Millennials state they would be willing to give up coffee, alcohol, and even sex in favor of traveling.

According to Forbes, the survey was performed Contiki, a travel agency that caters to the Millennial generation. Polling 1,500 individuals aged 18 to 35, the travel company found out that travel is really important. And Millennials like to travel; 48% of respondents travel one to two times a year, with 35% traveling even more, in the three to five times annually range. Meaning at most, a scant 17% of all polled, roughly one in six individuals, don’t travel at all (though presumably some of those actually travel more than five times a year).

And according to the survey, folks ages 18 to 35 are by and large willing to give up most things associated with folks ages 18 to 35 if it meant they could travel.

Majority of the millennials said that they would give up Netflix (80 percent), coffee (77 percent), alcohol (73 percent), carbs (60 percent), and even sex (57 percent) to travel. Meanwhile, 41 percent of those surveyed said that they would relinquish their cell phone, even though 49 percent of them admitted to spending eight to ten hours per day on their device.

Now, what it means to “give up” these things remains unclear. Is it like a forever give up or more of a don’t-drink-coffee-for-a-month thing? Would I be able to drink coffee during my travel or is that also part of the giving up? Seeing how most of my travel is coffee-, drinks-, and food-related, this definition is pretty important for me. And quite honestly, do you even want to travel someplace new if you can’t have coffee, alcohol, or carbs? Kinda feels like you’d be missing out on a whole swath of cultural hubs, which seems to negate the whole point of traveling to begin with.

My guess is that these 1,500 Millennials were too busy Netflix and chilling atop a bed of spaghetti with their vodka and cold brews to realize what they were signing up for. Actually, that sounds like a great vacation.

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 © fizkes/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News

The Curse Of The Barista

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There’s no way it would happen for a fourth time.

                             It would be hilarious. Insane, but hilarious.

                                                                     Nah, it’s totally his year.

“In fourth place… froooom Caballero Coffee in Los Angeles, California, Ralph Snider!

Ralph forced a smile that pushed his eyelids into a squint, hiding disappointment and bewilderment. He followed it with a shrug and an even more forced chuckle before collecting his trophy and struggling to pay attention for the rest of the awards ceremony. Attention shifted for the most part to the top three but scattered coffee professionals in the freezing convention center stared at Ralph in amazement. For the fourth year in a row, he had rather frustratingly placed fourth in the United States Barista Championship. Four for four… for fourth.

Having given up on his initial dream of teaching philosophy at the collegiate level, today Ralph was a known quantity in the specialty coffee industry. Indeed, his presentations at the often inaccessible barista competitions struck a balance between professorial and comforting. He was a storyteller. He was driven by the desire to tell the story of coffee to anyone who would listen, whether through engaging competition routines or some well-favorited Instagram posts of his bi-annual origin trips.

When he wasn’t serving espressos, cappuccinos, and signature beverages to judges, Ralph shone as the dedicated head trainer for Caballero Coffee in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood of LA. Just a year out of his program at UCLA, he’d had some misgivings about starting his coffee career in a neighborhood he thought was a little suspect, but seven years in, he felt that Caballero had really lifted the neighborhood up and inspired even more quality food and beverage spots to establish themselves. There were now two equally good pho spots for lunch.

Caballero was a respected coffee roaster, though some vocal Twitter users frequently dragged the operation for its predominantly white male staff, which contrasted its myriad Latin American design influences. Ralph was open to ongoing dialogue about what the industry could do better but was greatly encouraged by the company’s recent hire of a woman of color, who he had no doubt would eventually graduate from cashier to barista.

As Ralph prepared for his seventh coffee competition season, he felt certain that he was contributing positively to his community but craved the ultimate recognition for his hard work more than he let on to his peers. Surely he wouldn’t be stuck in this perpetual cycle of fourth place for the rest of his career?

“Being up on that stage with five people who inspire me to strive for excellence is the great honor of my life,” he had told Bean Teen Magazine in an interview after his most recent fourth ranking. “But of course, I’d like to, sort of, y’know… take it to the next level.”

While working a rare bar shift at the roastery to cover for a sick barista, Ralph was so distracted by his determination to find the one element that would tip the scale in his favor in competition, that he failed to notice a paper cup that sat sideways on top of the espresso machine for a full minute.

“Anita,” Ralph said with a smile. “You know, it’s supposed to be cups up for milk beverages and cups down for americanos, right? I mean, I think it’s fun to put your mark on the place by putting a cup sideways, but it’s a little clunky for service if I don’t know what you mean by it.”

Without moving her head, Anita shifted her eyes to the espresso machine and then quickly back to the Chemex she was attending to. “Didn’t put that up there. We haven’t had a customer in the last five minutes.”

Ralph shrugged, grabbed the cup, and threw it into the compost heap, but then saw that the cup had writing on it. He took the cup back out and brushed off some ground coffee and bits of zucchini muffin to read a message neatly written in black marker:

“Fourth place again this year… OR DEAD LAST?!?!

Ralph was confused, if not a little unnerved by this hostile message. He was quite certain that the specialty coffee community deeply respected him. Who would taunt him like this when he had worked so hard and been so congenial with coffee professionals the world over? Was some jealous barista trying to get the best of him and shame him into giving up on competition? What had been a strong desire to prove himself quickly turned into an angry determination to prove the anonymous cup-writer wrong. He crushed the cup in his hand, thinking to himself, “First place this year, asshole,” as he threw it back into the compost.

After closing the shop for the evening, Ralph’s rage for the cruel cup message made him angry at just about everything. Anita had left early to attend a night class, leaving him all alone to attend to closing duties he hadn’t performed since his last bar shift a year and a half prior. As much as he thought it was the admirable thing to do to put himself in the floor worker’s shoes every once in a while, he thought Anita might have showed a little more dedication and initiative, especially if she wanted to work her way up in coffee. On top of that, a customer had spilled simple syrup on the floor by the condiment bar hours before without saying anything and the sticky mess was taking forever to clean up.

He worked in silence after the Fleet Foxes album he had barely been listening to ended. As he walked to retrieve the mop and finish cleaning, he heard a crisp whisper echo from the slightly ajar door that led to the roastery.

Fourth…fourth…fourth…fourth…

Surely this was his seething mind tricking him when he was ready to leave his frustrations behind for the evening…

Fourth…fourth…fourth…fourth…

Ralph was nervous at first but quickly resolved that he would teach this spineless asshole a lesson. Writings on a cup? Creepy whispering? Not today. Ralph stomped back to the roastery and flung the door open, ready to give his tormentor an earful, but was immediately struck by how dark it was in the roastery. The tall windows had somehow mostly been blacked out, save for a dim light from outside that shone on a patch of floor, where loose green and roasted coffee spelled out the message,

DEAD. LAST.

As Ralph finally started worrying about his safety, bright lights flooded the roastery and he turned in all directions looking for the menace. It took only a few seconds to discover a man with a weaselly face and barely any neck glaring at him while perched atop a large stack of green coffee bags. Ralph instantly recognized him as a truly annoying figure from his past. The man had spent all of his spare time hanging around Los Angeles coffee shops for hours telling any barista he could trap behind the counter about all of the coffees he had tasted that week and complaining that very few coffee professionals actually knew how to pull a great shot of espresso. But that was years ago. The guy had totally vanished. He hadn’t seen this man in… four years.

“It’s finally starting to make sense, isn’t it,” the man hissed.

“But,” Ralph started in disbelief, “how did you…”

“Make sure you’d come in fourth place every time?”

Ralph felt ill but curious as to how this man could’ve pulled off such a consistent sabotage.

“Look away for a few seconds,” the man started, “and you’ll be surprised at how easily your competition coffee could be switched out after your prep time. Not to something terrible. Wouldn’t want you to be suspicious of always coming in last. Just close enough that you would flub on a few flavor calls and always wonder if you just weren’t good enough to take it all the way.”

“But… why?” Ralph asked softly, stunned that someone could despise him so much.

“You’re too self-absorbed to even remember HUMILIATING ME??” the man wailed. “I tell you about the most amazing coffee I’ve had in my life and you very LOUDLY and CLEARLY tell me and everyone else in the cafe that it’s not “gay-shuh”, it’s “gehhhhhhhhhhshuhhhhhhhh”. I couldn’t be seen in another coffee shop after that! You’ve gotten what you deserved for long enough. If you won’t do the honorable thing, and end your mediocre career, I’m going to have to end it for you.”

Good god, had this strange man really spent years lurking in convention centers, committed to ensuring that Ralph was merely a very good competitive barista? And why was he clutching a spouted portafilter like that?

“Look, I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention to make you feel bad, ummm…” Ralph struggled to remember his name.

“Thurston! As I told you countless times, MY NAME IS THURSTON.”

Thurston lunged at Ralph with the portafilter over his head and before Ralph could fully grasp what Thurston intended to do with the bludgeoning instrument, he jumped out of the way just in time for Thurston to lose his balance and jam his hand inside a retail coffee bag sealer. Ralph looked away but shuddered hearing Thurston howl as the hot sealer closed on his thin hand, burning his skin and crushing his fragile fingers. But after the initial howl, Thurston immediately returned to glaring at Ralph and wouldn’t take his eyes off of him even as he was arrested and being taken in for booking.

Almost being murdered by a vengeful customer might have made other coffee professionals take a moment to rethink commitment to competition, but Ralph quickly became more determined than ever. It all made so much more sense now. He was better than he had imagined the entire time. He actually made coffee just as well if not better than those who had placed ahead of him for years. He truly was meant to be the person to tell the world the story of coffee. Standing with the others in the final six that year, he knew that with Thurston out of the way, this was his time.

“In sixth place…”

This is my year. Those judges were all smiles the whole time.

“…from Court Place Coffee in Austin, Texas, John Seles!”

I know those tech scores were perfect.

“In fifth place…”

That natty Gesha I just served them was literal bomb-ass shit.

“…from Elderflower Espresso in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rita Washington!”

But wait… did those capps really taste like Nilla Wafers?

“In fourth place…”

Eric J. Grimm (@ericjgrimm) writes about pop culture and coffee for Sprudge Media Network, and lives in Manhattan. Read more Eric J. Grimm on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

You’ll Love These Sprudge x KeepCup Glass Coffee Cups

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Welcome to Sprudge Shop Spotlights, a new weekend series in which we highlight our very favorite items currently available in the ever-changing, fast-moving, utterly bespoke Sprudge Shop. Now shipping worldwide, featuring unique artist and brand collaborations from around the planet. Enjoy! 

Ah yes, the disposable cup. So fraught. So wasteful. Fortunately, there’s a movement afoot to do away with our disposable coffee cup culture, led by brands like KeepCup of Melbourne, Australia.

Sprudge has collaborated with KeepCup on a limited number of reusable glass cork-lined cups, each one featuring a unique and adorable Sprudge kitty logo—the website’s name is hidden in meow-meow’s furry little muzzle pouch. So cute! And so practical.

Get your very own Sprudge x KeepCup collab cup today for 10% off using the promo code KEEPCUP. Supplies are limited so act fast, and join us again next week for another Sprudge Shop Highlight.

Sprudge KeepCup – $25.

Ships worldwide.

Disclosure: KeepCup is an advertising partner on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

The Coffee Sprudgecast With T. Ben Fischer Of Glitter Cat Barista Bootcamp

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The Coffee Sprudgecast is back! On this week’s episode of the Sprudge coffee podcast, we join co-hosts Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen from The Line Hotel in Washington D.C., somewhere betwixt a whirlwind of events across New York City, Philadelphia, and the DMV. This episode was taped on the eve of Black Coffee DC, the second stop of east coast Black Coffee events that included live shows at The Line Hotel in Washington DC and Classic Stage Company in Manhattan. A complete podcast presentation of these shows will be out shortly—stay tuned!

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

On this week’s show, Zachary Carlsen interviews 2018 US Barista Championship silver medalist and Glitter Cat Barista Bootcamp founder T. Ben Fischer of Elixr Coffee. They talk competition soundtracks, the genesis of Glitter Cat, and emotions—so many emotions.

Elsewhere on the show we chat about meet n’ greets, Gritty latte art, catching New York feelings, why Daniel G. haunts our dreams, an upcoming event in Spokane with Indaba Coffee, and why “Sprudge don’t judge.” All this and much more on this week’s episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast.

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.

The Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Oxo, Urnex Brands, Hario, and Swiss Water Decaf

Photos of T. Ben Fischer by Jake Olson for SCA.

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Source: Coffee News

Do LA Cafe Hipsters Love Donald Trump? This Man Says Yes

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Medium big note to all of you hipster liberal—and liberal hipster—coffee shop patrons out there: you need to tone down the volume of your voice when secretly complementing United States President Donald Trump. That’s because Jacob Wohl is listening. The “20 Year Old Financier and Political Commentator, Conservative, Trump Supporter, Zionist, and Writer for The Gateway Pundit” hears all, sees all, allegedly hangs out in trendy coffee shops, and yes, has Twitter.

And that’s not the first time Young Jacob, proud nationalist, has stopped us dead in our tracks. Just recently he uncovered the well-hidden truth (we thought at least) that it is actually the Democrats behind the “Suspicious Packages” being sent to all the liberal leaders in order to make Republicans “look bad.” And how did he find out? By overhearing us talking about it AGAIN at a liberal coffee shop in LA.

We would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for that pesky kid!

As Twitter user Alex Griswold points out, Wohl has caught us over and over again, simply by listening to us spill our trade secrets at hipster LA coffee shops. According to this super sleuth, who is neither delusional nor trapped in a feedback loop of his own imagined reality, Verve Coffee in downtown LA is where all the Trump supporters hang out. So make sure you speak in extra hushed tones between bites of steel cut oatmeal when plotting any future false flag campaigns.

[Ron Howard narrator voice]: It wasn’t. 

What have you overheard “some liberals talking” about at a downtown LA cafe? Remember, this does not need to reflect reality in any way shape or form. Use the hashtag #overheardsomeliberals and concoct your own fantasy today!

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 © Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News

The First Ever Florida Brewers Cup Is This Weekend

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The US Coffee Championships kick off in just a little over a month from now in Denver, but if you can’t wait that long (and you live in or are willing to travel to Florida), then you can get a little coffee competition fix this Saturday, October 27th, with the inaugural Florida Brewers Cup. Taking place at Deeply Coffee Company in Orlando, the Florida Brews Cup is taking the competition experience but removing many of the barriers of entry.

Following the format of the preliminary round of the US Brewers Cup, the Florida Brewers Cup wants to replicate the competitive spirit—even down to the two sensory judges and one head judge—but in a friendlier environment in hopes that the event will be “accessible for anyone with a desire to be involved,” per an email sent to Sprudge.

The hosts of the Florida Brewers Cup, Deeply Coffee, also hope the event will “bring positive exposure and competitiveness to the rising coffee scene of Florida as a whole.” For the inaugural event, 12 cafes and roasters from around Florida will send a competitor, who will have eight minutes to “[represent] their company’s identity in Florida.” The coffee companies fielding competitors are: Bandit Coffee Co, Bold Bean Coffee Roasters, Foundation Coffee Co, Jacq & Jack, Lineage Coffee Roasters, Ligature Coffee, Oceana Coffee, Deeply Coffee, LPCX, Craft Kafe, Craft & Common, and King State Coffee.

The winner will be crowned the Florida Brewers Cup champion, holder of a year’s worth of bragging rites over fellow Floridian baristas.

For anyone looking to take in the sights and sounds of coffee competition, the Florida Brewers Cup is free to attend. It all gets started at 4:00pm this Saturday at Deeply Coffee Company in Orlando. For more information, follow Deeply Coffee’s Instagram.

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 Deeply Coffee

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee Design: Coffee Manufactory In San Francisco, California

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Coffee Manufactory, the San Francisco-based coffee company, debuted its fresh, new look this month. Bags of coffee now sport a lovely saturated color palette in delicious letter-pressed Biotre bags. Coffee Manufactory also refreshed its website and brand-identity with the help of NY creative agency Gin Lane. To learn more, we talked to Maja Vojnovic over e-mail.

Hi, Maja! Can you tell us a bit about Coffee Manufactory?

Coffee Manufactory was born from a conversation about what is possible in coffee. With over two decades of green coffee supply chain experience, we hope to look at new ways to work with producers through our buying practices, multi-platform roasting strategies, and interconnected retail and supply chain collaboration.

Our focus on sourcing impacts and sets the standard for every part of our business. We believe that through key sourcing partnerships, coffee quality will reach its highest potential. To do this, we are working towards a more sustainable future for our producers. We want to bring customers closer to farms, farms closer to roasters, roasters closer to baristas, and back again. Back to the roots of great farming relationships and precise roasting. Back to being good. Balanced. Clean.

A screencap from the new Coffee Manufactory website.

When did the coffee package design debut?

Starting October 1, 2018, Coffee Manufactory will launch its new packaging, website, and branding, this launch represents nearly a year of heavy thought, research and design work.

Who designed the package?

We worked with Gin Lane, a creative agency based in New York City. Their main focus was to have our packaging reflect our simple, humble, and global approach toward design and connections.

What coffee information do you share on the package?

Each bag has a correlating letterpressed label which is made by our close friends at Aesthetic Union, an artist-run letterpress print shop in San Francisco. Each label contains the SKU number (00-11), name (Decaf, Espresso, Filter, Africa SO, Latin SO, Dark), and coffee components. Our blend labels have a % breakdown for all the coffees that go into them listed by country and name. Our SO’s have the coffee name listed. One really unique feature is the product marks and regional markers which are featured in the circle on the label front of our bags. Our blends and 00 Decaf receive a product mark featuring the CM lion, while our single origin, 03 and 04, coffees are branded with a mark representative of the coffee’s origin. We worked with Gin Lane to design regional markers for each origin region we buy coffee from. These marks are designed to capture “on the ground” experiences from these coffee growing locations – whether its the local flora and fauna, an architectural landmark, a municipal monument or sign, or a local form of transport, such as the Kenyan “boda boda,” or scooter taxi.

The CM Lion:

So much of our story is rooted in our work and efforts at origin. We choose to pay homage to Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee and one of the origins we have immense involvement in. The CM Lion is inspired by the 1954 modernist Lion of Judah statue by Maurice Calka located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This mark is a symbol of producer independence and the origin of coffee.

It is proud, humble, regal, and respected.

Another still from the Coffee Manufactory website.

What’s the motivation behind that?

With our markers, we wanted to feature a visual system that aims to connect consumers with origin and give them a sense of where our coffees are come from. We are very upfront with our blend composition %. Since we source our blends with the utmost intention and roast profile in mind, we wanted to be very transparent about what goes into our blends.

What are some of the improvements made in the packaging?

We chose to go Eco-Friendly and work with Pacific Bag Company to create a custom sized block bottom white kraft BiotreTM bag. Our bags are made up of 60% compostable and renewable plant-based materials which have been shown to break down into healthy compost in 12 weeks. We also added a zipper to ensure optimal freshness once the coffee bag is opened.

Why are the aesthetics of coffee packaging so important?

Packaging has the ability to say so much about a brand and their story. We want our new bags to tell our story. A story of origin and simple design that is approachable and conversational. Whether it’s via our regional markers or our color associated SKU’s, we want our consumers to feel connected to what they are buying.

Where is the bag manufactured?

The bag is manufactured by Pacific Bag.

What type of package is it?

Our bags are made out of BiotreTM, which is a packaging material composed of multiple, laminated layers. The outer layers consist of cellulose from wood pulp. Also, all colors printed on the bag are printed using Eco-Friendly water-based ink.

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

The bags are made up of 60% compostable and renewable plant-based materials. However, the zipper and valve need to be removed before placing these bags into a compost bin. Pacific Bag is currently working on a version that will have an eco-friendly valve and zipper, so look out for that!

Where is it currently available?

Starting October 1st, you will be able to purchase our bags from our website or from any of our amazing wholesale partners!

Tartine Bakery
Subrosa Coffee
Bi-Rite
Triniti – Echo Park
Fred Segal Café
Constellation Coffee
Float

Thank you!

Company: Coffee Manufactory
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Release Date: October 2018
Designer: Gin Lane

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

The US Air Force Can’t Stop Breaking Their $1,280 Coffee Cups

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We all have our favorite coffee cups. Mine is my hand-thrown Ben Medansky ceramic mug I splurged on the first time I went to Go Get Em Tiger in Los Angeles. Or most accurately, WAS my favorite mug, until my least favorite dog knocked it off a table and broke it. Ooooo I was soooo maaaaaad, but luckily my wife replaced it with my new favorite mug, another Medansky piece that looks strikingly similar (and from one of the last batches he made before moving onto more art-forward projects). Needless to say, I keep that dumb dog far away from my new mug because I’m a responsible person that doesn’t want my things to break due to carelessness.

But say I wasn’t so careful and I let the dog break a second mug. Would I be lucky enough to receive another replacement from a benevolent spouse? Probably not. Now, say I did it 389 more times and that each mug costs $835 on average. Sounds like I probably shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a coffee receptacle, right? Well, that’s what the US Air Force did, who have reportedly spent over $300,000 on special coffee mugs they keep breaking. Your tax dollars hard(ly) at work.

According to USA Today, the Air Force has spent $326,785 since 2016 on buying and replacing special mugs that can “reheat liquids aboard air refueling tankers in flight.” Costing $693 in 2016, the mugs have almost doubled in price to $1,280 due to “decreased parts production” and “increased material prices.” You’d think a $1,280 mug made specifically for military use would be exceptionally rugged, and yet you’d be wronger than you ever were in your entire life. Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman, spokesman for a squadron at Travis Air Force base in California—who have racked up $56,000 of that bill on their own—tells Fox News, “Unfortunately, when dropped, the handle breaks easily leading to the expenditure of several thousand dollars to replace the cups as replacement parts are not available.”

This expenditure caught the eye of Republican senator and real life Grandpa Simpson impersonator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who described it as “yet another report of wasteful spending in the Department of Defense.” Luckily Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has a solution: 3D print the handles. According to the article, creating a replacement handle via 3D printer would cost roughly $.50 each, as opposed to, you know, buying a brand new $1,280 mug.

It’s still not as cheap as my suggestion, though: keep using the damn mug without a handle. It’s not exactly integral to the primary function of a mug: holding liquid. It’s not like the handle is keeping you from dropping it anyway, so clearly it’s not an essential element of the design.

Though I have to say, after all this, I feel a little bit better about my dog now. He may be a big fat sausage that barks at everything and jumps all over the furniture and sheds and licks constantly, but at least he isn’t the US Air Force. I’m gonna go give my guy some snuggles until he annoys the shit of out me.

Kingsley, the mug-breaking, sad-eyed sausage

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 © Nito/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee May Reduce Incidents Of Rosacea

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Coffee is good for your insides—your liver, your gut, your very soul itself—but did you know that is also may be good for your outsides? A new study suggests that drinking coffee may reduce the skin redness associated with rosacea, a disease that affects a staggering 415 million people worldwide.

As reported by Health.com, the new study published in JAMA Dermatology found that women who drank four or more cups of coffee daily were 23% less likely to experience the disease than those who drank one cup or fewer of coffee per month. Researchers were particularly interested in coffee’s relationship to rosacea because it’s effects could have gone either way:

“Coffee is known to decrease vasodilation and have immunosuppressant effects, which may potentially decrease the risk of rosacea,” they wrote in their paper. “However the heat from coffee may be a trigger for rosacea flares.”

To reach this conclusion, researchers took data from over 82,000 women who participated in a national study from 1989 to 2005. They found nearly 5,000 participants suffering from rosacea, whose effects include “redness, flushing, bumps, and irritation, usually on the face.”

When cross-referencing those 5,000 cases against each person’s self-reported answers to “health topics, including their consumption of coffee, tea, soda, and chocolate,” researchers found the correlation between coffee and a decrease in rosacea, specifically caffeinated coffee. There was “no significant evidence” that decaf coffee drinkers were less likely to have the disease. But it’s not simply caffeine having the effect. Other caffeinated products—tea, soda, and chocolate—“were not significantly associated with a decreased risk of rosacea;” chocolate was even associated with a higher risk.

The researchers postulate coffee’s efficacy in reducing cases of rosacea comes down to one or all of three factors:

  • The high levels of caffeine may constrict blood vessels, lessening the flushing effect of rosacea.
  • Coffee contains antioxidants, which act as anti-inflammatories
  • It can moderate hormone levels, “which may further play a role in the development of rosacea.”

But as Health.com notes, the study was purely observational, so a causal relationship can’t yet be established between coffee and a decrease in rosacea. But nonetheless, if you’re part of the over 5% of the world’s population that suffers from rosacea, know that science says, at least for now, there’s no reason to think it’s making things worse.

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

Thoughtful Food & Tasty Coffee Outside Melbourne At Rudimentary In Footscray

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More than seven years ago, I moved from Brisbane to Melbourne to start anew—captivated by the coffee industry, the culture, the opportunities, and the freedom to wear as much dark-colored clothing as I wanted. For those first few years, the range of my living and working largely radiated around the city and the inner-northern suburbs—those hip and happening neighborhoods like Fitzroy and Carlton—if you asked me about anything beyond those bounds back then I’d probably have looked at you blankly, having only ventured outside of my radius to try and find a cheaper second-hand store.

Quite a few years later, with a stint interstate and something hopefully resembling wisdom under my belt, I made the move west, to the suburb of Footscray—a suburb in close proximity to the Port of Melbourne, along a truck transport route, and home to the multicultural buzzing hub of the Footscray market. While the move was largely predicated by the cheaper rent, larger houses, and delicious Vietnamese food there, I happened upon a lot more than I bargained for, including a unique venue dedicated to thoughtful gardening, community, and very importantly great food and coffee, called Rudimentary.

rudimentary footscray australia

Owned by Desmond Huynh and Lieu Trieu, Rudimentary sits on an expansive corner close to the business centre of Footscray: on half the property sits a beautiful garden and outdoor seating area, while a cafe occupies the rest. Upon walking through the gates, it’s immediately clear Rudimentary is a bit different than your typical cafe, with the structure of the building itself, in fact, made from shipping containers.

It’s a novel choice of building material, and a deliberate one at that. The block of land that Rudimentary now stands on had been in Huynh and Trieu’s family for decades, having previously been an overgrown carpark for local businesses. With the appeal of Footscray growing over the years, the family was continually being approached by developers who wanted to acquire the land, but the family had no interest in either selling or developing it themselves for at least another five years—as such, it was offered to Huynh and Trieu, a wholesale seafood operations manager and a pharmacist, respectively, to do with as they wished in the meantime.

Balking at the scope of such a proposition, the pair initially said no, before thinking on it further and deciding to approach it in a different way. Chatting to Huynh, he outlined, “We had five to 10 years [left at] the site, which meant that we had to get creative with construction methods. I studied architecture some years before and didn’t like the waste the industry created, so rather than build something that would be torn down, we felt it appropriate to create something that was more robust and could be relocated when the time came to move on.”


While shipping containers posed a challenge as an unconventional building material, the positives outweighed the negatives: the materials rang true with the historically industrial feel of Footscray, and the cost-effective nature of the material meant that they could transform the entire block of land on a limited budget, as Huynh puts aptly: “The business name—Rudimentary—gave us the framework for the entire project; it allowed us to create a space that was extensive but not expensive.”

Designed in collaboration with local firm RD Architecture, the cafe interior is light and bright, with a long bar housing the open kitchen and espresso bar that faces the cafe, and well-spaced-out seating. A few visible elements of the shipping container are thoughtfully revealed on the interior—without which you’d have no idea that it wasn’t just a regular cafe fit-out.

Coffee from Small Batch is brewed for espresso using their La Marzocco Linea, while filter coffee is brewed with a Behmor Brazen brewer. Almond milk and chai are made in-house, allowing the team to dictate what goes into the products they serve, as well as allowing them to tweak and improve on them as they wish.

rudimentary footscray australia
In food-focused Melbourne, more and more is demanded of cafes, and even in this competitive climate, the menu at Rudimentary stands out. As Huynh explained, “We change our menu with every season and we use the season to direct us in where to go. The one thing that guides us most is availability of produce. We use what’s in season because it tastes the best, it’s cheaper, and allows us to keep it local. Avocado, for instance, isn’t always the best year-round and is imported because Australians have an affinity with avo on toast. We elect to just pull it from our menu until it tastes good.”

Over the years, their menu has included inventive takes on classics and beyond, like chicken and waffles—including pickled watermelon rind—kimchi pancakes, and saffron rice pilaf. A key element that guides their menu is their produce that they use from the garden, a mere 10-second stroll from the kitchen itself. “The kitchen garden is run by our gardener, John, who is really knowledgeable and super-positive which gets us all inspired,” Huynh outlined, “John and the kitchen team get together once a season to go through what to plant for the coming months so that we can use whatever we’re growing in the dishes.”

rudimentary footscray australia

Desmond Huynh and Lieu Trieu, while not being the typical hospitality-lifers that we so often see setting out to open something, have built something quite special in Rudimentary. It’s an incredibly quality-focused venue that pumps out thoughtful food and tasty coffee, while still paying respect to the neighborhood that it calls home and creating a space for the community to congregate. It’s a fine balance that is incredibly hard to accomplish, and one that they’ve managed with aplomb—they’ve combined the old and the new of the diverse and vibrant neighborhood of Footscray, and here’s hoping they get to continue doing so for some time more.

Rudimentary is located at 16-20 Leeds St, Footscray VIC 3011. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Eileen P. Kenny is a coffee professional, winemaker, and Sprudge Media Network contributor based in Melbourne. Read more Eileen P. Kenny on Sprudge.

The post Thoughtful Food & Tasty Coffee Outside Melbourne At Rudimentary In Footscray appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News