News

Last fall, I finally got the chance to visit Giesen Coffee Roasters. Almost two years of intermittent emails, calls, texts, and mild-mannered coffee festival doorstepping had transpired between my first interview request and the morning I found myself journeying from home in Amsterdam to Giesen headquarters in Ulft. A bike, three trains, and a bus got me to the town, located in the province of Gelderland and, more precisely, within what is known as the Achterhoek, the country’s “back corner;” Germany is just a half-hour walk east.

That Monday was so chilling that most horses in fields along the way were draped with blankets and the still-erect sunflowers were suddenly shriveled. But as I would learn while sitting comfortably in the Giesen showroom that overlooks their production line, the visit’s timing was favorable. Many of their buyers want new roasters before Christmas or year-end, so I was seeing the factory in full flourish. What’s more, there was news for the new year.

In early 2019, Giesen unveiled its largest industrial-scale roaster: the W140A, which has been in development since 2017 and is named for its 140-kilo batch capacity and its automatic controls. Also due to debut is Giesen’s new roast profile software, promising to be more advanced, user-friendly, and remotely monitorable than its original version.

The Giesen W140A

Giesen is officially 12 years old, though it emerged from another entity that, in more ways than one, was its parent company. De Eik, as it was called, was a metalware factory that made parts and products for businesses in the area. One notable customer was Probat, the century-and-a-half old roaster manufacturer in Emmerich am Rhein, Germany, for whom De Eik made complete machines. De Eik was founded in 1988 by the father of Karin Bussink, who married Wilfred Giesen. When Bussink’s father died at age 50, about 25 years ago, Karin and Wilfred took over. They carried on with the metalsmithing, but in 2006, Wilfred decided to make his own fully realized roaster.

“We thought we could make a better roaster because we had the knowledge of how to build it, and we saw potential for a lot of improvements,” says Davey Giesen, Karin and Wilfred’s eldest child. “That was the point that my father designed the first roaster, the W6, and also put it on the market.”

He was just about a year old back then, but now, at age 26, is Giesen’s COO. Davey has been with the company for six years and has clearly been keeping notes.

“I think I was number 18,” he specifies, referring to where in the sequence of staff hires he falls. “So I saw the company grow.”

Studying IT and, on nights and weekends, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in management have helped prepare him for daily company duties, though his coffee education began much earlier. He got hands-on training working full-time for a year at the micro-roastery and shop that his parents ran in the nearby town of Doetinchem. They opened Koffiebranderij Venetië in 2008 “because they wanted to show how it should be done in the field,” says Davey. Besides providing a setting to test out Wilfred’s earliest products, the venue gave Giesen customers real-life, real-time lessons in running a roastery.

“But after some time,” Davey explains, “we didn’t have any time to run a roastery because of course we were getting better and better at building roasters. And we want to put the energy more into the factory than the roastery.”

Though they sold the shop about eight years ago, it still exists, and the current owners continue using the original W6A that Wilfred installed there. A souvenir from that chapter in the family’s entrepreneurial history appears in the form of the Koffiebranderij Venetië-logoed cup in which I am served coffee shortly after arriving at Giesen headquarters. Ebullient sales representative Miguel de Boer has prepared the drinks, and I talk with him before heading into the factory itself.

“We started 10 years ago with 10 people, and up until two years ago, in 2016, we had 50. In the last two years, we really expanded a lot,” he says.

Like the majority of Giesen’s staff, De Boer is a relatively recent hire. He appreciates the sales culture at Giesen after spending years as an account manager for PepsiCo, overseeing the Benelux sales of Tropicana, Gatorade, among other Big Bev and snack brands.

“In the fast-moving consumer goods, it’s hurry, hurry, hurry and small margins,” De Boer says. “Here, it’s: take it easy, big margins, no discussion about one- or two-dollar discounts. No. People might want to have a discount, but it’s not the most important thing when they want to buy quality.”

On that note, I follow De Boer on a tour. He begins in the electrical department.

“We make everything wire by wire,” he says. Here each order gets assigned a serial number and each machine-in-the-making is placed on a cart. As parts are amassed, they get checked off on a list. A photo documents the list and gets archived; this process is repeated elsewhere along the production line to ensure completeness and to keep record of what has been done when.

To expedite repairs, the warehouse shelves stay neatly stacked with piles of spare parts. In a fluorescent-lit office, a 24-hour service support staff sits, ready to field calls, emails, or Skypes from six continents. Visitors to the Giesen stand at World of Coffee 2018 may have noticed on hand some VR goggles and screens; a sales tool, they encourage prospective buyers to cozy up, virtually, to the various machines and envision how they might fit in their own workspaces.

The next department through which we wend is welding. Bodies of the roasters—as well as Giesen’s destoners, green bean conveyors, cyclones, filters, afterburners, presentation tables, and coffee bins—are made of steel. I see huge sheet metal rectangles resting on sawhorse tables, as casually available seeming as reams of paper might be in photocopy shop. Most materials are sourced from within Europe, and some come from very nearby. Ulft is situated in a region known as the Oude IJsselstreek, where the soil contains high amounts of iron, leading to a locally quite prolific industry; the earliest blast furnace is recorded as first appearing in 1689.

After assemblage, attention turns to surfaces. In the degreasing and painting department, a chemical scent hangs in the air, fittingly. Roasters come in standard black or customers can request a special paint job in up to three tones with a glossy or a matte finish. Lately, there has been demand for the unpainted raw look, which results in a griege coat that shows all the welding marks. Roofs come in stainless steel or hammered gold, and handles are made of olive, bubinga, or zebrano wood. Logos are not the only way to customize. De Boer is not being hyperbolic when he tells me anything is possible.

“You can have sparkles on it; you can even have Swarovski diamonds,” he says.

At the end of the production line, it is time for testing. This final step is usually executed by Wilfred, Davey, or Marc Weber, Giesen’s global sales manager. After three successful roasting sessions, a roaster is deemed ready to leave the factory.

A wall-mounted map in the front office is marked up with red and green radii showing the varying costs of delivery according to distance. The machines have all been assembled by hand in the Netherlands, and a bucolic Dutch touch travels with outgoing W1, W6, and W15 roasters. They reach their destinations by horse trailer, pulled by cars driven by the very mechanics who handle the installation. Larger machines go by truck while their mechanics catch a flight. Roasters bound for destinations that fall off the map are flown or sent by sea container. The company relies on 35 trained agents around the world who assist with sales, installation, and repairs. Where there are none regionally (for example, in Argentina and Maldives), Giesen headquarters deploys its own mechanics. These days, their market is wider than ever. I’m told that South Korea, China, and Germany are among the top purchasing countries. Roasters are still being shipped to Iran and Syria. And as of March 2018, Giesen appointed Pennsylvania-based agent David Sutfin for the US and plans to expand the Stateside team with three more agents.

The W6A remains the most popular model. Next is the W15A sold with an external cyclone (which permits less interrupted roasting because it does not require a user to stop mid-session to remove bean chaffs from inside the machine). The smallest-capacity model is the WP1, intended for sample roasting. What must be the very smallest Giesen ever made, however, stands on a table in the showroom where I begin and end my visit. Built in honor of Wilfred’s 50th birthday, in 2016, the delightful little dummy is, literally, fit for a Barbie Dreamhouse.

Human-size Giesen equipment is also exhibited in the showroom, as is a vintage sample roaster. Between that set-up and the espresso bar, featuring a two-group Synesso MVP, the back wall displays a collection of T-shirts lately being promoted by the new marketing department employees. A recent addition is a black fitted V-neck with the company name in swash-heavy font scripted over the fuchsia outline of a W6. It makes me think of the hot pink one- and six-kilo Giesen roasters once famously purchased by Kaffismiðja Islands coffee roasters in Reykjavik. It also reflects how this once mom-and-pop heavy-metal factory is changing with the times and appealing to a broader-hued spectrum of clients.

“They sell like crazy—people just want a T-shirt with ‘Giesen’ on it,” says De Boer.

“Even when we are at events, when we close down for the day, we have to take away these items,” he shares as he points to roaster handles, the likes of which expo attendees have apparently pilfered in the past. Still, De Boer sounds more flattered than flummoxed.

On a daily basis, Karin and Wilfred handle general management. Davey’s younger brother, Dani Giesen, oversees facilities and building management. The youngest Giesen sibling is still in secondary school, so it is premature to say if her future is at the factory. Regardless, the family is well positioned to communicate with a major rising segment of the coffee industry: younger people and their globally, millennially minded counterparts. I ask Davey what he has observed of his peers, particularly in comparison to his parents’ coffee industry cohorts.

“They do a lot of things differently,” he replies. “The older generation still want to have manual controls and want to see everything analog, and the generation after that is more about automatization, running a better business. They really use the profile system to control the roaster and all that kind of thing, so it’s more about the digital world.”

Davey Giesen

When I inquire about gender balance among clients, Davey acknowledges that “the market is more men than women.” He adds, “But we find it really good that more women are building roasteries. We also see a lot of couples doing this together, husbands and wives.”

The life-partners-as-corporate-partners format has certainly yielded much for the Giesens. In giving a new, more narrowly defined purpose to an old factory, Wilfred and Karin have enriched the specialty coffee industry with their products and their progeny. Both contributions are relatively young, but their potential to keep upping the quality of roasting and its accessibility for everyone is profound.

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

The post In The Netherlands, Touring The Giesen Roasters Factory appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Consider the Ratio Eight: a luxurious and attractive home coffee brewer first announced in 2013, and one of the original automatic brewers to make coffee with water within the SCA-approved temperature range. But the coffee maker was beset by production delays, and faced a major fundamental issue keeping it out of the hands of most consumers: the price. Ranging between $500 and $750+, the Ratio Eight was prohibitively expensive for most home users. (Why spend espresso machine money when a $40 Chemex or $129 Bonavita could do the trick?)

To combat this, Ratio has just announced their newest creation. Dubbed the Ratio Six and now live on Kickstarter, the new brewer is slightly smaller in size, and sports a similarly reduced price tag.

Functionally, the Ratios Six and Eight are very similar. Both machines have a 1.25 liter/40 ounce brew capacity made using a simple one-button design to initiate the two-stage (bloom and brew) system. But whereas the Eight also put an emphasis on super premium materials like walnut and hand-blown glass, the Six features “precision formed stainless steel, borosilicate glass, and high end BPA-free copolymers,” and is designed to last for at least five years of regular use.

Thanks to the new construction, the retail price for the Ratio Six has dropped considerably from that of the Eight, listing at $345. And if that is still too much of a spicy meatball for your bank account, did I mention it’s currently in Kickstarter, the home of deep discount pre-sale pricing? For the 99 quickest-acting individuals, the Ratio Six will be available at nearly half off, at a cool $194. After that, the brewing system will be available for Kickstarter early-but-not-super-early adopters at $242 or $272, if you want them to include two 10-ounce bags of coffee from Portland’s Good Coffee.

Rewards for backers are scheduled to be delivered in December 2019—just in time for the holiday season—and Ratio founder Mark Hellweg tells Sprudge the company is quite confident they will hit that deadline. That would make it perhaps the first coffee crowdfunding project to hit its delivery date, so take that for what you will. But someone’s gotta be the first, right?

For more information on the Ratio Six, visit their Kickstarter page.

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 Ratio Coffee

The post Now On Kickstarter: The Ratio Six Coffee Brewer appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Aubrey Mills – Dapper & Wise Roasters of Portland, OR (Photo by Graham Doughty)

Our coverage of the Sprudge Twenty interviews presented by Pacific Barista Series continues this week on Sprudge. Read more about the Sprudge Twenty and see all of our interviews here.

Nominated by Tyler Geel

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

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

What issue in coffee do you care about most?

The cost of production crisis weighs heavily on my mind. The first time I heard that many farmers are receiving less money for their green coffee than it costs them to produce was a little over a year ago. I had already been in coffee for four years prior, so finding out that this has been a massive issue for decades was shocking—I felt I should have at least heard about it. It’s not just morally wrong for an industry to be built up on the financial oppression of others, but these are people we call PARTNERS. This doesn’t sound like a partnership to me at all. Even if you look at this issue from a logistical point of view, it’s unwise business for, arguably, the most essential portion of our industry to have the greatest financial insecurity. I know this is common in other industries but I expect better of us in coffee.

What cause or element in coffee drives you?

Coffee is for everyone. I have heard someone say that there is the perfect amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee to bond with someone in conversation. I have no idea if this is scientific fact but I have been in that moment before. If coffee is for everyone and has the ability to facilitate connection then that is something I want to help grow.

What issue in coffee do you think is critically overlooked?

This is a hard question, but I would say that I would like to see more leaders in our industry providing tangible ways for people to be involved in solving issues apart from discussion. I don’t think I am the only one who hears about all of the problems we need to solve but have a hard time of figuring out where to start. It could be as detailed as providing intellectual resources to host an event and raise money for a cause, or it could be simple directions for how to break down these large concepts into conversations that can be had with customers and the public. If people are able to see where they can be useful in a cause and feel empowered to act then I think we will start to see actual change.

What is the quality you like best about coffee?

The smell of coffee is my favorite. Even garbage-tasting coffee usually smells great.

Did you experience a “god shot” or life-changing moment of coffee revelation early in your career?

The first time I tried a naturally processed coffee I was blown away. It was an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe that tasted like a blueberry muffin and I remember asking myself, “If coffee can taste like this, what else don’t I know?”

What is your idea of coffee happiness?

When we work as a fluid team from a place of strength not desperation.

If you could have any job in the coffee industry, what would it be and why?

I don’t have a specific job in mind but I would like to do more things like the panel event I hosted about the cost of production. I loved hearing different perspectives on the same idea and figuring out how to organize that information so the audience could get the most out of it. I am a value-driven person so I love being a part of solving big problems and building meaningful relationships. I don’t think these ideals are specific to a single job and I am starting to feel like the glass ceiling is only in my head.

Who are your coffee heroes?

To spotlight one, Junior’s Roasted Coffee is, in my mind, one of the strongest examples of value continuity in business. Mike & Caryn [Nelson] began Junior’s with the cost of production issue at its center–starting a dialog with customers and staff in every way shape and form. I kid you not, their wifi password is “askmeaboutcostofproduction”. On top of that, they are genuinely kind people who have invested themselves in our Portland community as well. HEROES.

If you could drink coffee with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Other than my dad, Fred Rogers was my childhood hero. He always kept his values in the forefront of his work and had the ability to address major societal issues in a way that a child could understand. If you haven’t watched his documentary (I recommend it) you’ll see moments of his fury communicated with boldness, compassion, and logic in order to change minds. I’d like to be more like that in my work and relationships.

If you didn’t get bit by the coffee bug, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

I played soccer for a majority of my life and believe in the impact that the teamwork mentality can have on a community and an individual. I would probably be trying to work for Adidas in team-centric programs for local communities.

Do you have any coffee mentors?

Not officially—but I do have the benefit of working closely with some really incredible people. To call out one person in particular, Michael Ryan is one of the wisest and most patient human beings I’ve ever met. I have gone to him countless times to help me brainstorm problems I am trying to solve or personal goals I want to refine. He listens more often than he speaks and when he does—it’s always thoughtful (and usually profound). I likely wouldn’t be looking at coffee as a long-term career choice had it not been for working alongside Michael for the past five years.

What do you wish someone would’ve told you when you were first starting out in coffee?

Don’t wait for permission or dwell on qualifications. 
Honestly, the very event that led me to this questionnaire was an emotional battle for me. I worked my ass off on that event and to understand “cost of production” as an issue but knew I was entirely out of my league to try and communicate its complexities (on stage, while being recorded). But I found a lot of comfort in the fact that it WASN’T ABOUT ME and that I was certainly qualified to ask pre-planned questions to highly intelligent people. All of this to say, I may have started taking risks earlier had I not been silently waiting for someone to give me the nod, and I don’t even know who that person is.

Name three coffee apparatuses you’d take into space with you.

I would take an AeroPress with an Able Brewing disc filter, obviously, because I would love to swim in a room full of thousands of tiny coffee bubbles. My second option would be espresso with a bottomless portafilter. I don’t totally know what would happen but I am trying to find out. My third option is a Voila packet because NASA might actually approve it coming on board.

Best song to brew coffee to:

Gary Clark Jr.’s “When I’m Gone” for a happy morning kind of situation.

Look into the crystal ball—where do you see yourself in 20 years?

I honestly have no clue, but hopefully I am still working with people I love and respect and contributing to something bigger than myself.

What’d you eat for breakfast this morning?

A protein shake. I have two very young dogs to tire out in the morning so the faster I can get calories into my body, the better.

When did you last drink coffee?

8:15 am

What was it?

Drip from the FETCO–Colombia Edilma Piedrahita.

Thank you. 

The Sprudge Twenty is presented by Pacific Barista Series. For a complete list of 2019 Sprudge Twenty honorees please visit sprudge.com/twenty

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

The post Aubrey Mills: The Sprudge Twenty Interview appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

They say that only two things are certain in this world: death and taxes. But as a person with no plans on ever perishing and a petulantly Libertarian view on paying my fair share, this idiom never really tracked with me. For me, I only abide two masters: coffee and pooping, both in order of importance and chronologically.

The coffee-make-boom-boom phenomenon is widely known yet not fully understood. What about coffee exactly is it that greases the wheels of progress so effectively? Is it the caffeine? Is coffee a jealous lover, so determined to be the only substance in our hearts and stomachs that it is willing to go to great lengths to literally push out the competition?

But thanks to new research, scientists have a pretty good idea what’s going on between your Bodum and your bottom.

As reported by Gizmodo, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston presented their findings on the topic over the weekend at the Digestive Disease Week research conference. In them they reaffirm what many scientists thought to be the case: coffee helps the muscles in the small and large intestines contract, which helps speed up food’s wait time in the digestive tract.

To reach this conclusion, researchers gave lab rats coffee over the course of three days to examine its affect on their tiny little butts. Different groups of rats were given both caffeinated and decaf coffee, after which they received a “physical examination and probe, focusing on the muscles that contract and help guide food (and eventually waste) through the gut.” The scientists also “studied how muscle tissues from the gut directly reacted to coffee in the lab.” They found that regardless of caffeine levels, coffee had the same “stimulating effect on gut motility,” as lead author Xuan-Zheng Shi tells Gizmodo.

Researchers also found that coffee may have an antibacterial affect on the microbiome in your gut, which sounds theoretically like a good thing but in fact is not. Examining rat poop from before the coffee experiments and after, they found “less total bacteria” in the coffee poops. They also found that the bacteria in poop grew less rapidly when exposed to a coffee solution in a petri dish, suggesting that coffee could be suppressing healthy bacterial growth in the gut, which goes against previous findings on the subject.

Shi states that more research needs to be conducted on the antibacterial properties of coffee, but one thing is for certain: coffee puts your intestinal muscles to work. Move over six-pack abs, a well-toned large intestine is the dad bod of summer 2019, and we have coffee to thank.

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 © Tierney/Adobe Stock

The post Coffee Makes You Poop, And Scientists Have Figured Out Why appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Cincinnati may not be the first city that you think of when you think of a destination coffee city. That honor might go to Berlin, Melbourne, or Portland, Oregon, and with good reason. But as one of the fastest-growing cities in the midwestern United States, Cincinnati has increasingly more and more to offer to the specialty coffee lover. The city also has a strong history in beer brewing, and in recent years, new craft breweries like Rhinegeist and Madtree have led the charge to put Cincinnati on the map in the world of craft beer. This has opened up a market for other craft beverages, and the coffee scene here has also grown a great deal in the past decade. Where there once were only a couple of local roasting companies, more and more are popping up each year, and the number of cafes serving acclaimed roasters from around the country is also growing. From excellent roasting companies to highly curated multi-roaster cafes, each of these businesses brings something unique to Cincinnati’s coffee scene.

Deeper Roots

When talking about Cincinnati, it’s hard not to begin with Deeper Roots. In the seven years they’ve been roasting coffee, Deeper Roots has done more to convert the coffee drinkers of Cincinnati than any other single company. Though it began as a wholesale roasting operation and still supplies many cafes and businesses around Cincinnati, Deeper Roots now has two cafes of its own. The first is in the Oakley neighborhood, and the second cafe, their most recent, is located across the street from Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market (featured here in Sprudge). This location is unique in that customers can sit on the same side of the bar as the baristas and be up close and personal for every step of their coffee’s preparation. In order to help showcase their brewing process, Deeper Roots is using a La Marzocco GB5 customized by the wizards at Pantechnicon Design, a selection of grinders from Mahlkönig and Anfim, and an absolutely beautiful Modbar pour-over setup, also customized by Pantechnicon. Deeper Roots places a strong emphasis on community and education, and this cafe is an excellent venue for ensuring that customers are invited into a conversation and an experience.

Rohs Street Cafe

Rohs Street is the original specialty coffee shop in Cincinnati. Located in the city’s Clifton Heights neighborhood, this cafe serves the University of Cincinnati’s student body every day of the week but Sunday. The large cafe space is shared with the church next door, and it’s been used to host live music, open mic nights, and other events for the local area. Rohs Street puts the local community first, but that doesn’t mean its coffee is an afterthought. They serve Deeper Roots as their house roaster and over the years have featured a number of excellent guests, including Vancouver’s 49th Parallel, Columbus’s Mission Coffee, and Wilmington, Delaware’s Brandywine Coffee Roasters. The bar setup is anchored by a well-loved La Marzocco GB5 and a fleet of Mahlkönig grinders. Rohs Street is cozy and inviting, and hanging over the bar is a “Filter Coffee Not People” poster from Department of Brewology. It’s easy to see why this cafe is a favorite of Clifton locals and the student population alike.

Collective Espresso

When Collective Espresso opened in 2012, it was immediately clear that the shop owners were  up to something special. In their small space on a side street in Over the Rhine, co-owners Dustin Miller and Dave Hart were quietly brewing up some of the best coffees around the country. The menu is anchored by house coffees from Quills Coffee Roasters in Louisville, and they have an extensive guest roaster program that’s featured many nationally renowned companies, including Hex, Kuma, Madcap, Sweet Bloom, and more. The bar setup is simple but effective: a two-group La Marzocco Strada MP, a pair of Mazzer Major espresso grinders, and a Mahlkönig EKK43. Collective also operates a second location that’s even smaller than the first in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood. It’s hidden down an alleyway strung with lights and features a beautiful courtyard. Though Collective’s cafes are small, they have a huge presence in the local coffee scene, and it’s common to find the bar seating full of local baristas on their days off, drinking espresso and catching up. It’s worth trying their pastries too—the owners of Collective own Mainwood Pastry, a baking company that supplies many of the cafes on this list along with their own cafes.

Carabello Coffee

Carabello Coffee started out with little more than a popcorn popper, a few pounds of green beans, and a dream to help support struggling communities in coffee-producing countries. 10 years later, the company has grown to a large cafe and roasting space just across the river from Cincinnati in Newport, KY. Carabello also has a strong network of wholesale accounts spread around both sides of the Ohio River and beyond. A couple of years ago, Carabello opened the Analog bar, a second bar space within its cafe.

Though it only has six bar stools, Analog is well equipped with a Synesso MVP Hydra espresso machine, a pair of Mahlkönig K30 grinders, an EK43, and a bevy of manual brewing equipment. It serves a different coffee menu than the main bar at Carabello, with a focus on monthly selections of signature drinks and single-origin coffees. In the short time it has been open, Analog has already gained a reputation for excellence. That space also hosts bar takeovers from local and out of town roasters as well as coffee training courses both for Carabello’s many wholesale accounts and the general public.

Urbana Cafe

Though Cincinnati is an eclectic city, it’s still surprising to see a baby blue three-wheeled truck serving coffee, but that’s exactly where Urbana Cafe began. After working for years in the corporate world, owner Daniel Noguera decided to strike out on his own and devote his life to serving Italian-style espresso off the back of a Piaggio Ape. He began at Findlay Market, and all his coffee is still roasted at their stall in the market on a Diedrich roaster. Though his trucks still roam the city and serve at various events and markets, Noguera has also opened two cafes under the Urbana name. The first, in Pendleton, is a beautiful two-story space that’s a favorite of freelancers and people looking to meet for coffee outside the hubbub of downtown. The second opened last year in East Walnut Hills, a neighborhood just north of downtown. This cafe is smaller and has a more intimate approach. Noguera chose to eschew Wi-fi in favor of a turntable and a crate of records. He hopes for the space to be a hub for the community, where people come to have engaged conversation rather than simply surf the net.

Landlocked Social House

Landlocked Social House is the most recent addition to the Cincy scene on this list, though they already seem like a pillar of the coffee community. Landlocked was started by two transplants from Dayton, Ohio who set out to create an all-day spot in between Clifton Heights and East Walnut Hills. In the morning, Landlocked serves coffee from Wood Burl Coffee in Dayton, Ohio from a signature yellow La Marzocco Linea Classic. Landlocked also offers incredible breakfast sandwiches alongside pastries from Mainwood, mentioned above. In the evenings, the cafe serves an extensive menu of beers from small craft breweries from Ohio and elsewhere. They pride themselves on serving a menu that you can’t find elsewhere with a particular focus on wilder ferments. Each Monday, they have a food pop-up with a local chef, and they regularly host events both for baristas and the community at large, including a latte art throw down for womyn and non-binary individuals on Galentine’s Day.

Alex Evans is a freelance writer and coffee professional based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Read more Alex Evans for Sprudge.

The post A Coffee Drinker’s Guide To Cincinnati appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Finding good coffee in American airports is becoming easier and easier these days. There’s a Cartel Coffee Lab in the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport serving some seriously good coffee, the Stumptown in the Portland International Airport is hands down the most beautiful airport cafe I’ve ever seen, and even though they are serving more of their “crowd pleaser” coffees, the La Colombe offerings at the Philadelphia International Airport are far superior to what you’d expect to find in an airport coffee urn otherwise.

But what about we kind souls who pick up our weary sojourners friends from the airport? What do we get while wait on your now twice-delayed touch down? Sure, a warm hug from a dear friend is nice, but that won’t keep me warm in the middle of the night. We want coffee. So it’s good news for those currently circling the Austin Bergstrom International Airport, there’s an Austin Java that just opened in the cell phone lot.

Austin Java is a bit of an institution. Back before the specialty coffee boom that has turned ATX into a must-visit coffee city, Austin Java was one of the best cups in town (and Metro. RIP). I myself have spent more than my fair share of time at the AuJa—a thing I used to call it and I don’t really remember why—cramming for finals or fueling up for a trip to Barton Springs. And now they are bringing their brand of fast casual coffee to the Austin cellphone lot, which means maybe I’ll start using it instead of aimlessly circling and parking curbside before being told to move and circle again.

Per Austin Food Magazine, this newest Austin Java—the sixth location for the nearly 25-year-old business—will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a “concentration on accessibility;” “guests have a plethora of ways to place on the go orders including a drive thru, online, inside the cafe as well as an outdoor window for grab and go.” Think things like breakfast bowls and because this is Texas, migas bowls and breakfast tacos. Austin Java will also be offering beer, wine, and cocktails for those especially aggrieved flight picker uppers.

I gotta say, coffee and waiting for someone’s flight to land has to be the least exciting iteration of the “Coffee And…” cafe model, but it may also be the most crucial. Just imagine: you’ve just stepped off your flight to Austin, you’re tired, you’re hungry, you just want to be done with the day. Then your friend shows up with a hot cup of coffee and a few breakfast tacos with your name on them. That sets the new standard as the only way I want to be picked up from the airport. And really, it’s the only way I would want to pick someone up too. Just have your passenger Square you for the damage, because they definitely should be paying.

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 PE.com

The post They Are Putting Coffee Shops In Airport Cellphone Parking Lots Now appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Photo by Tony Abbott

Our coverage of the Sprudge Twenty interviews presented by Pacific Barista Series continues this week on Sprudge. Read more about the Sprudge Twenty and see all of our interviews here.

Nominated by Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp

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

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

What issue in coffee do you care about most?

If I had to pick one issue, it would be resource distribution, which isn’t even a coffee-specific issue, and is both delightfully large and daunting. I’ve noticed in my time there are rarely issues of true lack of information or lack of finances or lack of support, but instead clogs in the system that prevent these things from being shared with equity. So, I suppose I care most about finding and supporting ways for information to be distributed as respectfully and responsibly as possible. I’d like to see investing and sponsorship extended to underrepresented markets. I’d even settle for witnessing folks taking their free time and using it to support coworkers and community members. I suppose this isn’t a very neat or concise issue, but most conflicts I encounter could be avoided with better systems of sharing and of support.

What cause or element in coffee drives you?

I’m not sure if I have a larger cause that motivates me that I could articulate well, so I suppose I’d have to simply say it’s the people of this industry that drive me. It’s so cliche, isn’t it? It’s just I’ve found most of the people I enjoy in this industry are the people working too hard to ask for help or for recognition, and few things light a faster fire under you than that.

What issue in coffee do you think is critically overlooked?

Something overlooked or grossly misrepresented? The autonomy of the supply side of the supply chain. Producers and exporters and “at-origin operations” are businesses, and often businesses maintained by folks with plenty of experience and understanding. The philanthropic side of the industry is beautiful, but often distracts from the personhood of supply-side participants. There is an incredible amount of respect in treating representatives of these businesses as capable and informed, not as helpless, uneducated people. Often times the best way to ‘honor the producer’ is to commit to the prices they name, pay them on time, and roast their coffee well.

What is the quality you like best about coffee?

I love the connectivity of this industry. We can maintain active partnerships with people all the way across the world because of the nature of the supply chains with which we work. There’s so much to be gained from the type of exchange of information across consumer markets and producing markets.

Did you experience a “god shot” or life-changing moment of coffee revelation early in your career?

Is it bad to say no? I certainly had moments in which I was impressed by a coffee, or surprised by what I tasted, but never anything that could be categorized as a “god shot.” My life changing moment came as a volunteer at Expo, when I realized people thought less of me because I worked for an ambiguous specialty coffee shop in Alabama. We roasted the coffee dark and weren’t afraid to mix more than two flavors in a latte; we were from the South, and for some reason that meant we mattered less. The lack of compassion really stunned me. But I’ve always been told, if someone says they’re hungry, the best way to know they eat is to cook them something and feed them. For every dismissive person I met, there was someone being dismissed, so being an attentive presence became very important to me.

I don’t work in coffee because I tried an amazing coffee that changed my life. I work in coffee because enough people were mean to me about things that didn’t seem to matter all that much, and I decided that needed to change, even in a small way.

What is your idea of coffee happiness?

One shift way back when at my first coffee job immediately comes to mind. We had just successfully implemented a “Hawaiian shirt Friday discount” where folks could get $0.25 off their drink if they wore a Hawaiian shirt into the store. I had a regular sitting at the counter, drinking his coffee, and telling us about the time he hitchhiked from South Florida to Alabama. I was dialing in the espresso for the day, and we had found the perfect Pandora station to play for our shift (I don’t even remember the station). It was a perfect combination of being with good people, drinking and thinking about coffee, and having a good time. It’s not a concise idea, but it’s what I think of.

If you could have any job in the coffee industry, what would it be and why?

As predictable as it sounds, I already have the only job I’ve ever wanted in this industry. I’ve always wanted to work with green coffee and supply-side logistics. Coming from a background of small, independent businesses means I am very aware of the things we could never afford. Now I get to help businesses access great coffees, sustainable partnerships, and whatever information they need—no matter the budget, no matter the business size. I don’t know if I’d do anything else in this industry besides what I do now.

Who are your coffee heroes?

Can I list them? I’m going to list them:

– Carllee Curran: because I have never witnessed someone maintain such fierce compassion, empathy, and fairness than her, especially in the face of the nightmare of coffee competitions in the US. She works so hard, and maintains such patience. She represents the type of character I want to have as a member of this industry: forward thinking, practical, fair, and compassionate.

– Sarah Barnett Gill: There are few people I respect more than this woman. She not only put up with me when I was an irritating little shithead, but also empowered me to learn about the industry and develop skill sets. She taught me how to roast coffee and taught me how to manage a cafe. She built a business out of thin air and entrusted me with a piece of it. Sarah is the leader I aspire to be, and our industry could learn so much from how she serves her staff and her customers.

– Ildi Revi: I feel like I only have to say her name and everyone will just sigh and say “oh yes, well of course.” Ildi is perseverance and endurance. No one supports people the way she does. She is one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet, and she uses that intelligence to empower other people to have a better understanding of their role in our industry. We owe so much to the hard work she’s put in.

If you could drink coffee with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

I know I’m supposed to name someone famous to impress people, but I really would only want to sit down and have a coffee with my friends Harry, Joey, and Trevi. We all used to work together in Alabama and have moved away from each other, but talk on the phone all the time. If I could pick anyone to share that kind of a moment with, it’d definitely be them.

If you didn’t get bit by the coffee bug, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

There was a time in my life where I thought I’d be a professional swimmer, so maybe that. If I ever leave coffee it’d be to work for or run an urban farm, because people have to eat and they should eat good food.

Do you have any coffee mentors?

They’re my coffee heroes (listed above). I might argue with them, but I’d do just about anything they told me to do

What do you wish someone would’ve told you when you were first starting out in coffee?

Success is not one-size-fits-all. Hospitality is more about meeting people where they’re at than it is about serving espressos with sparkling water on the side. You should fight for equity and not equality, even if one is harder to defend than the other.

Name three coffee apparatuses you’d take into space with you.

I would honestly probably just bring an auto-drip machine, a cup, and pre-ground coffee. I’d be in space! I’d probably be too busy eating astronaut ice cream to make a pour-over.

Best song to brew coffee to:

“Africa” by Toto or “Tu Amor Hace Bien” by Marc Anthony. I don’t make the rules, that’s just what I’d choose.

Look into the crystal ball—where do you see yourself in 20 years?

Hopefully outside in the sunshine.

What’d you eat for breakfast this morning?

Noodle soup.

When did you last drink coffee?

This morning.

What was it?

House coffee at Waffle House.

Thank you. 

The Sprudge Twenty is presented by Pacific Barista Series. For a complete list of 2019 Sprudge Twenty honorees please visit sprudge.com/twenty

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

The post Sara Frinak: The Sprudge Twenty Interview appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Wake up and smell the coffee. Then do it 9,999 more times and then maybe you’ll be a master at waking up and smelling coffee. Luckily, if you just want to be more adept at half of that equation—the smelling of the coffee part, not the waking up part—new research suggests that all you have to do it drink a lot of coffee.

According to an article in ZME Science, “regular coffee drinkers can perceive the smell of coffee with surprising alacrity” and do so much faster than non-coffee drinkers.

Before those who cup coffee on a daily basis let out a resounding, unified “no shit Sherlock,” this phenomenon appears to be more than just a simple “practice makes perfect” scenario. In a paper titled “Higher Olfactory Sensitivity To Coffee Odour In Habitual Coffee Users” published in the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, lead author Dr. Lorenzo Stafford of the Psychology Department at the University of Portsmouth argues that it is due in part to craving/addiction.

To reach this conclusion, Stafford et al performed two experiments. In the first, 62 individuals were divided into three groups: non-caffeine drinkers, light drinkers (70-250mg daily, roughly 1-3.5 cups), and heavy consumers (300mg, 4+ cups). With their eyes covered, the participants were asked to detect as quickly as possible small amounts of coffee added to an odorless substance. They were then asked to do the same task with lavender essential oil as a control. The heavy coffee drinkers were able to distinguish the smell of coffee at lower concentrations than the other two groups and were able to do it more quickly.

For the next test, 32 individuals were grouped by coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers. They were asked to perform a similar experiment as the first but with a non-food odor as the constant. Yet again, the coffee drinkers were more adept as identifying the coffee smell, which was not the case for the non-food odor.

These findings suggest, according to ZME Science, that “sensitivity to particular smells is linked to cravings,” and as Dr. Stafford explains, the more the craving, the more receptive a person is to the smell:

We also found that those higher caffeine users were able to detect the odour of a heavily diluted coffee chemical at much lower concentrations, and this ability increased with their level of craving. So, the more they desired caffeine, the better their sense of smell for coffee.

This research is the first step in what some hope will be a way curb drug use (caffeine is a drug after all). It has already been shown that creating an association between an odor and something unpleasant has led to “greater discrimination to that odor.” Combined with the idea that we can perceive the smell of things better the more we want it, the idea is to use that heightened sense to then attach the odor to something unsavory.

So if you too want to be good at smelling coffee, whatever that means in this context, Science says to just keep doing what you are presumably already doing anyway. Keep drinking lots of coffee. And maybe attend a few cuppings, too. It can’t hurt.

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

Nose mug by Rafael Cacharro Muciño

The post Drinking Coffee Makes You Better At Smelling Coffee appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee has a long, rich history in Vietnam. Sidewalk cafes with tiny tables and plastic stools are ubiquitous throughout the country. Traditional Vietnamese coffee—a phin-brewed combination of bitter Robusta and sweet condensed milk—is as much a symbol of Vietnamese culture as any other.

Despite a deep cultural appreciation for coffee and being the world’s second-largest producer, coffee in Vietnam—which is primarily robusta—isn’t known for being high quality. While big city shops like The Workshop and Bosgaurus have sought to shift the conversation around coffee in Vietnam, specialty coffee is still a relatively new concept in this rapidly changing country.

Now, in the burgeoning city of Da Nang, 43 Factory Coffee Roaster is leading the charge for Central Vietnam in the country’s coffee revolution.

Da Nang has grown rapidly in recent years. It recently reached a population of one million and is now touted as the new must-visit city in Vietnam. After years of being skipped over by visitors in favor of nearby Hội An and Hue, the coastal city is becoming a premier travel destination.

Seeing the rapid development around Da Nang and wanting better coffee for his fellow citizens, LÊ Đắc Thành co-founded 43 Factory to bring a better coffee experience to his hometown. Born and raised in Da Nang, he chose “43” as a nod to the first numbers on the license plates of Da Nang vehicles.

LÊ Đắc Thành is young and full of ambition. He has to be. He understands that he’s fighting an uphill battle when it comes to influencing the perception of coffee among his fellow citizens. Still, it’s an endeavor LÊ Đắc Thành has decided is worth taking on.

LÊ Đắc Thành

“I believe that it is very difficult for Vietnamese people to realize and face the truth that Vietnamese coffee is considered low quality and customers deserve to drink better coffee,” Thành says. “But we are young people who dare to fight. We love Da Nang, we love Vietnam, but we have our own way of doing things.”

He is resolute in his mission. Through 43 Factory, Thành’s goal is to effect change at the production level in Vietnam. By bringing a specialty-focused cafe to Da Nang, he believes that he can change the perception of what coffee can be. In turn, by showing that there’s a demand for better coffee, he hopes that producers will take notice and focus on producing quality coffee in Vietnam.

Historically, Vietnam’s “green bean production is poor quality and less sustainable,” explains LÊ Đắc Thành. “While people around the world can easily approach and consume high-quality Arabica coffee, Vietnamese people have very little opportunity to do so. That motivated us to build 43 Factory,” he adds. “The hope is that when consumer awareness and behaviors increase, there will be an improvement of the supply market.”

With an ambitious vision laid out for 43 Factory, LÊ Đắc Thành built the space to reflect his big dreams. As a result, 43 Factory is one of the most visually stunning cafes you’ll ever visit—each element carefully thought out, each flourish meaningful.

Located just a few blocks from the beach, the cafe is a harmony of industrial, minimalist, and tropical styles. Floor to ceiling windows, steel frames, and green trees provide a balanced design that manages to be equal parts elegant and simple. A profile view of 43 Factory reveals a roof in the shape of a bird’s wing to represent “the dream of reaching out for the coffee industry sky,” says LÊ Đắc Thành.

Outside, a massive koi pond surrounds the cafe. A concrete walkway cuts through the pond where sunken stone booths allow guests to sit amongst dozens of colorful fish. Inside, an open bar takes center stage. In the middle of the bar, a tree stretches up to the second floor. Furthering the design metaphors, LÊ Đắc Thành says that the tree symbolizes being “newly involved in the coffee industry but having aspirations to develop.”

With the baristas behind low counters adorned with various grinders and brewing equipment, customers can grab a seat at the bar and witness each step of the bean-to-cup process.

Transparency, attention to detail, and education are all part of the bigger picture at 43 Factory. Here, it’s understood that it’s not just about the success of the cafe, but the Vietnamese coffee industry as a whole. To this end, LÊ Đắc Thành and his team are happy to do their part.

“We never feared failure,” LÊ Đắc Thành says confidently. “We believe that one day, Vietnamese farmers will have to change their production habits towards quality rather than quantity,” he adds before summarizing the future he sees for his country’s coffee industry.

“Then, the world will officially recognize Vietnam on a specialty coffee map.”

Zach Anderson is a freelance journalist living in Southeast Asia. This is Zach Anderson’s first feature for Sprudge.

Photos courtesy of 43 Factory Coffee Roaster

The post Vietnam: Inside 43 Factory Coffee Roaster’s Stunning Da Nang Cafe appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Starbucks is beset on all sides by those looking to undo them. When they aren’t battling a scrappy young upstart with a projected $500 million IPO and a can-do spirit for the top spot in the world’s largest growing coffee market, they’re artfully dodging questions about what sort of stretching regimen former CEO Howard Schultz employs that allows him to simultaneously put his foot in his mouth and his head up his ass.

But this time, the call is coming from inside the house. Ok maybe not inside the house exactly. More like the next-door neighbor’s house, the one’s you decided to convert your two driveways into a basketball court with. According to Reuters, Starbucks is being sued by French press maker Bodum for “product disparagement.”

It all started with a recall. Per Reuters, on May 1^st, the Big Green Mermaid issued a recall for all 263,200 co-branded Bodum/Starbucks French presses “made from recycled materials” being sold in their US and Canada locations, the shared basketball court to continue the already tenuous metaphor. Starbucks states the recall is due nine instances of the plunger handle breaking, leading to “lacerations and punctures.”

Bodum, on the other hand, sees it a little differently. In the court filings, the French press maker states that “Starbucks had no basis to ‘unilaterally’ conduct the May 1 recall because the Bodum + Starbucks presses were not defective and met required specifications.” The company also alleges that “Starbucks recalled the presses even though laboratory tests found no evidence of product or design defects, because it had become ‘particularly sensitive to recall issues’ after paying large fines in an earlier recall.”

This, Bodum states, is giving the public a general impression that all Bodum French presses are defective, which has led to a media backlash and “significant brand damage.” The lawsuit is seeking Starbucks to pay for all costs associated with the recall as well as damages to the Bodum reputation.

The exact amount being request in Bodum Holding AG et al v Starbucks Corp is not yet available, but we do know the retail value of those quarter-million+ French presses eclipses the $5 million mark. Throw in a few extra Ms for reputation damage and that’s probably a good place to begin guessing.

Read the full article here from Reuters. 

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 French Squeezed: Starbucks Is Being Sued By Bodum appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News