{"id":690,"date":"2018-06-06T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/06\/06\/a-visit-to-counter-cultures-new-seattle-training-center\/"},"modified":"2018-07-30T15:20:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T01:20:43","slug":"a-visit-to-counter-cultures-new-seattle-training-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/06\/06\/a-visit-to-counter-cultures-new-seattle-training-center\/","title":{"rendered":"A Visit To Counter Culture\u2019s New Seattle Training Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Counter Culture Coffee<\/a>\u2019s Seattle Training Center is the sort of space you might stumble upon by chance. Located in a narrow storefront on 1st Street in the city\u2019s Pioneer Square, its two-C logo affixed to the building\u2019s facade just looks like it belongs<\/em>. Has it always been here?<\/span><\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t, but Counter Culture’s Seattle “TC”, as it\u2019s colloquially referred to, has been in the making since 2016. The independently owned Durham, North Carolina-based company entered the market in the city with one customer\u2014the diminutive Anchored Ship<\/a> cafe in Ballard\u2014but grew exponentially when hometown favorite Cherry Street Public House<\/a> picked them up as a supplier that same year. Counter Culture cut the ribbon on its new space in mid-April. Seattle regional manager Amanda Byron explains that the company wanted to have a unique launch event, not just another coffee party.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Amanda<\/p>\n

Amanda Byron<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just an open house,\u201d Byron says of what will surely be the first of many special events at the training space. \u201cThe idea was that we would do a book launch for <\/span>A Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee <\/span><\/a><\/em>Varieties<\/a><\/em>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The book, written by Counter Culture\u2019s Getu Bekele and Timothy Hill, is exactly what it sounds like, and sets out, according to its introduction, \u201cto provide a more complete picture of the unique coffee varieties found in Ethiopia and showcase the work researchers have been doing in the country for over 40 years to make Ethiopian coffee more disease-resistant and better tasting.\u201d Sounds like a lot to bite off? It would be, perhaps, for a roaster with less depth of knowledge in the field.\u00a0<\/span>The opening also featured Jeff Koehler, who wrote <\/span>Where the Wild Coffee Grows<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and showcased a limited-release single-farmer-lot coffee from Jose Sebastian Rodriguez in Colombia to commemorate the occasion. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Before opening their own space, Counter Culture\u2019s Seattle operations were run out of the La Marzocco<\/a> showroom in nearby Ballard. But having a facility fully their own is key to the Counter Culture model, says Byron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are four corners to a complete region\u2014education, sales account management, tech support, and a training center,” she explains. “We could’ve existed at La Marzocco for quite a while, but it never would’ve been our space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Operating in lockstep with other TCs, the Pioneer Square space features a <\/span>Mazzer ZM<\/span><\/a>, La Marzocco Strada and Linea PB machines, and a Marco Mix<\/a> system.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWith each new training center,\u201d Byron says, \u201cyou’ll see slightly different equipment, depending on what’s new at the time of its opening. But what we\u2019re really doing in each is creating spaces that are easy to use, functional, and welcoming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That means the company\u2019s popular Tasting at Ten<\/a> series will continue in Seattle, and Counter Culture\u2019s customers will of course have access to the space for trainings. Current partnerships include all of Cherry Street\u2019s cafes, two <\/span>General Porpoise<\/span><\/a> locations, <\/span>the Miir flagship<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>5 Stones Coffee Company<\/span><\/a> in Redmond, and James Beard Award-winning Seattle institution <\/span>Canlis<\/span><\/a>, which serves exclusive off-menu coffees whenever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tasting at Ten<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI’m interested in how [the new center] impacts our ability to expand in Seattle,\u201d Byron says. \u201cWe have a support model like nobody else does, and I think that a lot of places here don’t yet know it exists. My hope is to get people in here to see this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether they\u2019re invited in or just happen to be walking by, her hope seems a reasonable one.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Counter Culture Training Center is located at\u00a0313 1st Ave S., Seattle<\/a>. Visit their official website<\/a> and follow them on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Michael Light (@MichaelPLight<\/a>) is a features editor at Sprudge Media Network.\u00a0Read more\u00a0Michael Light on\u00a0Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some photos courtesy of Counter Culture Coffee.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post A Visit To Counter Culture’s New Seattle Training Center<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Counter Culture Coffee\u2019s Seattle Training Center is the sort of space you might stumble upon by chance. Located in a narrow storefront on 1st Street in the city\u2019s Pioneer Square,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,41],"tags":[63,45,65,47,61,49,59,67,55,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}