Best Coffee in Honolulu – The Curb Kaimuki

Ask any coffee company and they’ll tell you: repeat business is the key to success. And at Sprudge—also a coffee company—we couldn’t agree more. That’s why we are always excited to have repeat customers to our Build-Outs of Summer series. Beachcomber Coffee in Gibsons, British Columbia is the latest company to get their second punch in the Build-Outs Loyalty Card. Eight more and they get a free Sprudge!

Located along the glorious Sunshine Coast, this second Beachcomber outpost has all the hallmarks of the original: the prominent black and yellow aesthetic, a custom painted yellow Victoria Arduino White Eagle, and a prominent mural adorning the interior. It’s all part of what the self-described lifestyle brand wants to deliver to guests: a little slice of paradise. So let’s slide on our flip flops and grab a tandem beach cruiser and head on out to Gibsons for some easy living and easy drinking at the brand new cafe from Beachcombers Coffee Company.

The 2019 Build-Outs of Summer is presented by Pacific Barista Series, notNeutral, KeepCup, and Mill City Roasters.

As told to Sprudge by Martin DesRosiers.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

Founded in 2015 by Martin DesRosiers, a top 40 under 40 in Business in Vancouver recipient, Beachcomber Coffee is an award-winning craft coffee company based on the Sunshine Coast, BC Canada! Roasted in Vancouver but based in Gibsons, Beachcomber Coffee represents the Sunshine Coast lifestyle and produces proprietary blends of Certified Organic and Certified Fairtrade coffees. Beachcomber’s approach to coffee is to appeal to the daily Canadian coffee drinker by producing coffees that are chocolaty, sweet, and nutty in profile.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Our new space is based around a To-Go model, either fuel up before or after shopping as we’re located at the only mall here in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a 305-square-foot cozy space filled with the same personality that our customers are used to in our flagship location. It features another signature Ben Tour mural (local artist) of Sea Wolves, which are a breed of wolf found here on the west coast, the ultimate Beachcombers.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Our approach from day one was to build a lifestyle brand representing what we feel is a slice of paradise here on the Sunshine Coast. We just happen to do that through coffee. Our coffees hold various roaster and coffee certifications to ensure quality, freshness, and ethical practices are in place. We are pioneers in the local coffee scene when it comes to sustainable practices and approaching coffee from a unique angle. We are far from our average coffee company and our shops are vibrant, filled with colors, loud music, deadly donuts, and an obsession about the customer experience. It’s not just a coffee, it’s a lifestyle…

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

Our custom yellow-wrapped Victoria Arduino White Eagle will be producing those chocolaty shots for us. We’ve also standardized on FETCO equipment for batch brewing and grinding. For Espresso grinders, we went with our trusted Nuova Simonelli Mythos One.

How is your project considering sustainability?

We have a variety of sustainable elements within our shop. Our to-go cups (12oz and 16oz) are double-wall insulated, meaning no sleeves are required which means less waste. We’ve moved to metal spoons at our condiment station to reduce waste even further and have eliminated stir-sticks. We were the first shop in Gibsons Landing to offer a “bring your own cup” program and save 25-cents off your drink. We were the first shop in Gibsons Landing to offer compostable paper straws by default (we’ve never had plastic straws). We launched a LOCALS to-go cup, which is a purpose-built reusable 12oz coffee cup, offering 10% off every single time its used with the goal of reducing our paper to-go cup usage.

Unique to our To-Go location is we’re launching a Coffee Growler program to reduce coffee bags landing in the garbage. We’ve partnered with another local company, Luumi, to offer their Platinum Silicone bags with stainless steel clips that hold one pound of coffee beans. We have a hopper/refill station in shop and plan to encourage customers to refill their beans on a weekly basis.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

June 10, 2019

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

HUGE shoutout to John from Blenheim Construction, he was our contractor on our original build and turned around our new shop in just over two months. Also a massive THANK YOU to Ethan from Ethan Luc Designs who was the Designer/Architect on this project and was also the Designer/Architect on our first brick and mortar location. Also a special thank you to our Graphic Designers since day one, John and Roberta from Topshelf Design, they act as our virtual design department and have helped us execute on our vision on countless occasions!

Thank you!

Thank you for reading and if you’re ever thinking about visiting the Sunshine Coast, let us know!

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

Photos by Damon Berryman

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Source: Coffee News

People are always trying to make coffee hard. Brew it this way, sift the grounds to exactly this size, pour water here but NOT here for precisely this length of time and not a second longer, otherwise it’s all ruined. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to make coffee hard, but to make hard coffee, well that’s a whole nother thing entirely. That’s where Pabst Blue Ribbon comes in. The makers of every late-‘00s dive bar’s favorite beer has just announced Hard Coffee, an alcoholic coffee drink that is somehow not a coffee beer.

As reported by Food & Wine, Pabst Blue Ribbon Hard Coffee—I would have called it PeaBeRry or maybe just PBRry, but that’s just me—is a 5% ABV beverage “made using Arabica and Robusta coffee beans and rich, creamy American milk.” Per CNN, each 11-ounce can also contains 30mg of caffeine, roughly one third of that of an eight-ounce cup of coffee. The limited release malt beverage is out now, but currently only available in Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia.

But is it any good? Can we even define “good” in this context? Like, we’re talking about PBR here, a beer that made a comeback due primarily to its low, low price point. “Good” is just too much of moving target for any of use to hit. But according to Food & Wine, the crowdsourced beer rating website Untapped has Hard Coffee at 4.21 out of 5 caps (caps are like stars but for beer) in its first 160 reviews, which F&W rightfully describes as “an uncannily high rating.” Individual raters described it as tasting like Yoo-hoo and “like a Starbucks frappuccino bullshit,” which they appear to have meant as a compliment.

Is it any good? Most people seem to say, ironically or otherwise, that yeah it sure is.

So put down that barrel-aged golden coffee stout, that hazy Yirgacheffe IPA, and that cascara berliner weisse. This summer’s best coffee beer may not be a coffee beer at all.

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 Food & Wine

The post Is This The Best Coffee Beer? appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Kawhi Leonard shook the basketball world when news broke over the weekend that he was taking his talents to the Los Angeles Clippers and had recruited Oklahoma City Thunder defensive big man Paul George to join him. Noted “Fun Guy” Leonard is fresh off winning an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors feat. Drake, beating out former dynasty and next team to experience a grand herb bandwagon exodus, the Golden State Warriors.

Leonard heading back to his home city in hopes of ending the soon-to-be decade-long championship drought is sure to bring joy throughout the City of Angels, right? You’d think, but to do so you’d have to forget about the existence of Lakers fans, easily the most entitled fanbase in all of professional basketball and one that is making an argument for the top spot in all of sports. (I say this as a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, a team who hasn’t been relevant in two decades but whose fanbase still demands they be called “America’s Team.”) Lakers fans suck deeply. They are as good at being a group of whiny front-runners as their beloved team has historically been at winning championships. But even though the Lakers haven’t been winning championships in recent years, their fans have not stopped sucking. Last year, they got LeBron James, arguably the best player to ever throw a ball into a peach basket. So when Kawhi Leonard—arguably the best peach basketeer playing right now—became a free agent, Lakers fans assumed they had it in the bag; it id their birthright to get any and all players they ever want, whenever they want them.

Except this time they didn’t. And in true Lakers fan fashion, they didn’t take it well. According to Eater, it has even led to one Los Angeles-based cafe chain and gummy bear collaborator Alfred Coffee to issue an outright ban on both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George from all locations. The notice came via social media and “promised more details to come on the matter.” The original post appears to have been removed from Instagram, but all the clown emojis in the comments section of other Alfred posts remain.

Who cares, right? The board man got paid, to the tune of $142 million over four years, so what does Leonard care about not being able to go to a coffee shops with nine locations around the city? As an LA hometown kid, it’s probably tough to return home only to have people mad because you didn’t return home in the way they wanted (because again, this is a very entitled, very bandwagony fanbase that deserves all the sports misery that comes their way). And Leonard is notably frugal. Free coffee would probably lure the superstar into any cafe that would offer it to him.

So, Kawhi, if you’re reading this: first, hello, love your work. Thanks for not going to the Lakers. Second, if you were hoping to get free coffee in LA, I’m sure this Alfred news comes as a disappointment. If it makes you feel any better, there’s a really, really good cafe with six locations in LA that would love to have you.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing 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

There are many paths to becoming a roaster/cafe. Some begin with the cafe, serving coffee from another roaster or roasters before deciding to make the ultimate plunge into the yet-unexplored world of roasting. Others being life as a roaster, creating profiles in a small roasting space (sometimes even a garage) or renting time on someone else’s equipment. The latter path was the one taken by Los Angeles’ Compelling Coffee.

For seven years now, owner Kian Abedini has been roasting coffee under the Compelling Coffee moniker, though it originally had an “and Rich” spliced in the middle. Abedini roasted primarily for others, be they wholesale accounts or retail customers, but now, in 2019 Compelling is going in for themselves and completing the other half of the roaster/cafe equation. Set in the Line Lofts building in the Hollywood Hills, this first Compelling cafe is a proof of concept for the company, with success leading to other larger, more grand-scale projects over the coming year. But first, Abedini and Compelling have their eyes set on getting this first cafe off the ground. So let’s go to LA to visit a familiar name to the coffee scene, but one completely new storefront signage.

The 2019 Build-Outs of Summer is presented by Pacific Barista Series, notNeutral, KeepCup, and Mill City Roasters.

As told to Sprudge by Kian Abedini.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

We’re a wholesale coffee roaster and cafe partner from Los Angeles, California.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

We’re excited to open in the 2019 AIA|LA Residential Architecture Award-winning Line Lofts building in the Hollywood Hills. The space itself is 300 square feet, and will have a small kitchen, interior, and patio seating, and a takeout window. We’re planning on approaching this first space as a less-risky way of testing what works and expanding that to the larger cafes we’re planning around LA over the next year.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Our approach is to find exceptional coffees and make them accessible. While we’ve won awards for our lighter single origins, we’ve experienced that generally the majority of coffee consumers aren’t looking for a super acidic, complex cup every day; we try to find sweet, clean coffees, and roast them with enough development that they express ripe fruit flavors while still extracting easily for baristas of any skill level.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

La Marzocco Linea PB for espresso, and a modified FETCO batch brewer, as well as a TBA custom-made brewer.

How is your project considering sustainability?

We will be stocking only biodegradable cups and serviceware, along with asking our vendors to only make deliveries in recycled or compostable packaging.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

Late-July/early-August 2019

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

We’re working with local Fathom Design Studio to build out our space. Our food program will be heavily informed by local producers from the nearby Hollywood Farmers market, and supplemented by local bakers Farmshop.

Thank you!

You’re welcome!

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

The post Build-Outs Of Summer: Compelling Coffee In Los Angeles, CA appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

When it comes to the business of coffee buying—and the business of marketing those coffee buying practices—there’s a lot of wiggle room in the definitions. This allows companies to get away with suspet claims, like say, touting a coffee as “direct trade” without ever having to been to where the coffee is grown, or meeting the people who grow it (to say nothing of role of the importer).

There’s a lot of marketing sleight of hand that can thrive in these grey areas, and the ill-defined concepts in coffee buying are the sleeve that hides the magician’s tricks. But an international group of coffee companies are banding together to roll up those sleeves by creating “a common standard for transparency reporting.” They are called, aptly enough, Transparency Coffee and their goal is to bring transparency to coffee transparency.

Made up of 19 signatory companies in North America, Europe, and Australia—including brands like Counter Culture, Onyx Coffee Lab, Coffee Collective, Tim Wendelboe, and Seven Seeds—Transparency Coffee wants to “ensure a sustainable supply of coffee by working towards a living income for producers so they will continue to invest in the future of their businesses.” To this end, they have created The Pledge, a commitment other coffee companies can elect to take part in whereby they agree to report on “a fixed set of variables” in green coffee buying.

Along with a host of other commitments, companies that sign The Pledge agree to have at least one coffee they are selling to be included in a large-scale transparency report collated by Transparency Coffee. The report, which will be “publicly available and easily accessible,” will include producers, Free On Board (FOB) price paid, coffee quality, volume purchased, length of producer/buyer relationship, as well as the percentage by volume of “transparent coffees” that company has sold that year.

With this report, Transparency Coffee aims to not only hold themselves accountable (and put pressure on other companies to join the pledge) but to provide producers with information they can use to make sure they are receiving fair terms for their hard word.

As noted on their website, the initiative acknowledges that transparency isn’t the solution to the coffee’s price crisis. Indeed, many of the companies taking part have been on the forefront of transparency, much of their work we’ve reported on here at Sprudge over the years. They do note, however, that transparency is an incredible tool, one that when used the right way could help chip away at the problem.

But a tool is only useful when, you know, it gets used. And the initiative is off to a good start. Jonas Lorenz of Cross Coffee and Transparency tells Sprudge that over 30 new coffee companies have reached out about signing The Pledge in the first three days after its launch. As the number of companies taking part grows, so too does the report and thus, its efficacy.

For more information on Transparency Coffee or to sign up to be part of The Pledge, visit their official website.

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

Top image via Transparency Coffee

The post Bringing Transparency To Coffee Transparency With “The Pledge” appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

When visiting Brazil, tourists may never hear about Vitória, the island where you’ll find the capital Espírito Santo. It boasts Brazil’s largest urban mangrove, which together with the water, vegetation, and local fauna makes for a unique ecosystem: a boat ride around the island is a perfect way to see it all together. Vitória is also perhaps the capital that is closest to a specialty coffee producing area, taking less than a two-hour drive to get to the small farms of the mountains of Espírito Santo. Thankfully, you don’t even have to leave the city for good coffee: we have selected these fine coffee shops for you to drink a nice cup and be merry on the island.

Kaffa Cafeteria

Vagner Benezath and his mother, Carmen Benezath, founded Kaffa in 2010, close to a university area where bars were way more common than coffee shops. Carmen is a nutritionist and a culinary chef, so she took charge of the food offerings, and Vagner is the lead barista and coffee curator. From the beginning, they offered coffee-focused classes, which were fundamental in bringing more people from Vitória into the specialty coffee spectrum. Although the younger Benezath is a partner at Trentino, a Vitória-based roastery, Kaffa has multiple offerings from roasteries that source coffees from regions other than Espírito Santo.

Kaffa has a variety of coffee options as well as a lunch menu that changes seasonally. A good bet for dessert—or well, breakfast—is the artisanal bolo de côco (cold coconut cake) with one of the pour-over options.

Tulha Cafeteria

João Vitor Ribeiro says Tulha is the result of his culinary school term paper. He has always liked coffee, but it was not until he was studying cooking that he started to go after further education on the subject. He took some barista courses and then realized that his college final paper could unite two of his favorite things: food creations and coffee. He founded Tulha in 2018, and since the beginning has been making everything from scratch: from cinnamon rolls to cheesecakes and sourdough toasts.

To pair with the delicious pastries, the coffee: Ribeiro works mainly with Trentino due to its proximity and the possibility to tailor the origins and roasts to Tulha’s needs; however, he always offers beans from other roasteries as well. Don’t leave without trying their passionfruit tonic, made with passionfruit syrup, tonic water, and cold brew. Ribeiro is Brazil’s 2018 AeroPress champion, so, needless to say, ordering an AeroPress is also a safe bet.

Café 495

Lucas Tristão Ferreira started out as a barista at Kaffa, and when he realized he wanted to do that for the rest of his life, he invested his life savings on barista and sensory courses and then on founding Café 495 in 2017. Located at Praia do Canto, a beach not suitable for swimming but famous instead for standup paddling and other beach sports, the coffee shop charms neighborhood patrons as well as the beach crowd.

Café 495 is very proud of its artisanal bread line: everything is made in their recently renovated kitchen. And, to beat the capital’s heat, go with their famous drink Espresso 2222: coconut water, rangpur lime syrup, ice, and a shot of espresso.

Zayin Café

Danielle Segovia and Rafael Victor Pereira founded Zayin in 2015, aiming to, in their own words, “bring a cozy feeling back to Vitória’s downtown.” They carefully source their coffee from Trentino, and offer espresso-based drinks as well as filtered methods, the AeroPress being the most ordered.

The owners have an array of sweet and savory pastry options made with matzah flour—a note to their Jewish upbringing. They are proud to bring these and other Jewish-influenced foods to their patrons, most of whom are not acquainted with Jewish cuisine.

To pair with the coffee, go for the pão de queijo (gluten-free cheese bread—not yet a Jewish staple) filled with guava jam. You won’t regret it.

Trentino Cafés Especiais

Trentino is not a coffee shop, but worth mentioning here since it is the only quality-focused roastery in the greater Vitória area. Jonathan Piazarollo is the head roaster and has been working with coffee since 1994, first as a producer and then as a roaster and educator, while Vagner Benezath (from Kaffa) recently joined as his wholesale and marketing partner. Together, they have been able to strengthen the specialty coffee scene in Vitória to a whole new level, bringing higher quality coffee to unusual places such as the capital’s airport in a small kiosk and small bakeries, cocktail bars, and food joints across the city. Besides supplying the coffee, they offer barista training courses at the roastery and regularly promote trips to visit Espírito Santo farms and the producers they partner with. The Vitória coffee scene wouldn’t be what it is today without Piazarollo and Benezath’s effort to bring sensibly sourced coffee to restaurants, bakeries, and small cafes all across the capital Vitória as well as the state of Espírito Santo.

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

Photos by Roberto de Barros.

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Source: Coffee News