Best Coffee in Honolulu – The Curb Kaimuki

Ahoy there Sprudge reader—please allow us now brief update on a project we’re very excited about, headed into a busy coffee events weekend. Just a few short weeks ago we invited our readers around the world to nominate oustanding coffee professionals for the Sprudge Twenty, a new leadership initiative presented by Pacific Barista Series. And nominate you did, with an outpouring of entries received from around the globe.

Nominations for the series are now closed. The first full class of Sprudge Twenty honorees will be announced on Monday, April 8th, in advance of the 2019 SCA Event in Boston (also home to the 2019 World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup Championship). Winners receive spotlight features on Sprudge, mentorship opportunities from Pacific Foods Barista Series, and much more to be announced in the weeks and months to come.

It’s our hope that you’ll be thrilled by our inaugural class of honorees, and that you find this work to be as exciting and compelling as anything we’ve done in our near-decade of publishing Sprudge—the site’s 10th anniversary is this September. Watch this space, and be sure to follow this weekend’s live coverage of the 2019 US Coffee Championships, happening this weekend on Twitter and at Sprudge Live, our sibling site dedicated to coffee sports.

Want to be the first to know the inaugural Sprudge Twenty class? Subscribe to our newsletter and podcast—you just might get an up-front scoop.

Jordan Michelman (@suitcasewine) is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

The post The Sprudge Twenty Is Coming—Presented By Pacific Barista Series appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Spectrum Coffee is a new roasting company out of Brooklyn. The folks at Spectrum have been roasting out of the Pulley Collective in Red Hook for three years with the hopes of opening their own space sometime in 2019. Spectrum roasts coffee from Nordic Approach, Collaborative Coffee Source, and Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders. You can find their coffees at cafes like L’impremerie, Babydudes, Cafe Beit, and their sister cafe Dweebs out of Bushwick.

Spectrum packages their coffee in Biotre bags housed in a sturdy white box with clean lines, gold foil, and a pop of color on the top. All of the coffee information is kept in a tidy colorful band that distinguishes the type of coffee. The design process was a 50/50 effort between the Spectrum team and their designer friends. We reached out to Will Douglas and Sam Stoothoff digitally to learn more.

When did the coffee package design debut?

This most recent iteration released about a month ago. We’ve sort of been improving our packaging piecemeal since we started a few years ago. We’re pretty happy with it now, but as I’ve learned in this process, at least for me, I like change. I love working with people on new designs and the little sparks of idea you get in the shower that have to get translated into reality. We always looking to improve though, and through this design we already have fun new things we want to try next time.

Who designed the package?

The design was about 50% in house, 50% friends. We were lucky that one of our employees’ brother, Matt Varner, worked at a prominent design firm in New York. He created our logo font and layout, and we took it from there. The “scatter” logo on the bottom of the package was done by our friend Kaela Chambers, an independent artist in Jersey City.

The coffee information is on a wrap around the box—what kind of information do you think is important to share with the coffee drinker?

That’s been an interesting point of discussion for us. We include all the basics, like elevation, process, varietal, producer, etc. Something we’re interested in doing soon is including the price per pound that we paid for the coffee. Transparency is cool, but it needs context. A lot happens along the way to bump up the retail price, and we’re working on a way of communicating that so our customers know what they’re paying for. Cupping score is another metric we’re thinking about adding to the label. We’re figuring out how to present it so that consumers understand how the score fits in the bigger picture. A lot happens along the way that affects price, for instance, Costa Rica has a high minimum wage (cool and good) which leads to a more expensive final product that may score equal to a cheaper Colombian coffee. If you’re reading this and have thoughts, please reach out, we’d love to hear your ideas about what label info you’d be most interested in seeing!

Why are aesthetics in coffee packaging so important?

Coffee is fun and beautiful and deserves to be presented as such. If it weren’t dangerous and probably illegal we’d put one of those dumb party poppers in every box that would shoot confetti in your face the first time you open it.

Tell us the specifics on the design details.

The labels on the coffees are polypropylene. With our old retail design we needed something that wouldn’t rip. With this new one we’ll be switching to paper labels since they’re more environmentally friendly. We used a company called Packwire for the boxes. They were really nice to work with and manufacture in Canada. For a slightly higher price per unit we cut out an entire transpacific voyage compared to having them made in China. The gold foil is Crown #170 from Crown Roll Leaf.

The box itself is recyclable and the Biotre bag inside is 60% compostable. What 40% isn’t.

The innermost lining of the Biotre bags aren’t compostable, but they use an additive that allows them to break down in 5-10 years. The outermost two layers are totally compostable.

Where is it currently available?

Online or at one of our dope partners in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Thank you!

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

The post Coffee Design: Spectrum Coffee In Brooklyn, New York appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There’s more bad news on the horizon for the coffee market, as the price of coffee futures drops to its lowest point since 2006.

According to Bloomberg, the issue stems from a global oversupply due in large part to the world’s top coffee producer, Brazil, seeing a record crop in 2018 with another big yield expected in 2019. The slump is taking a big toll on arabica coffee, which the article notes is “one of the worst-performing commodities in the past year.”

Arabica futures for May fell as much as 2.6 percent to 94.65 cents a pound in New York. Prices have dropped about 20 percent in the past year, and speculators have been net bearish for about 18 months.

The problem of an oversupply is not one that is easily remedied. As the article notes, even countries struggling to produce are still taking hits because Brazil’s prodigious output. And for farmers, it’s not as simple as just switching crops. Coffee trees take years to grow and then produce for many years after. In order to switch crops, farmers would have to rip out the coffee trees, rendering useless all the work they have done to get the trees producing as well as removing any chance of earnings when the price rebounds. They are essentially stuck.

And the price is expected to rebound. According to Olam International, “the world’s second largest coffee supplier” (as per Bloomberg), the worst of it may be over soon. Even amid the surplus the importer expects pricing to come up, but unfortunately, the reasons why aren’t positive. Olam states that bad weather will have a negative effect on producers in Central and South American growing regions, which may in turn bring the prices back up a tick.

The issue of untenably low coffee prices isn’t going away, at least not any time soon. For their part, the SCA is investing in their Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative to help find ways to bring up the artificially low number. But for now, coffee futures remain low. What this says for the future of coffee itself is an open question.

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 Tanawatpontchour/Adobe Stock

The post Coffee Futures Hit Lowest Price Since 2006 appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Photo courtesy of Nico Alary.

When Holybelly opened in 2013 at 19 Rue Lucien Sampaix, it set a new standard in quality for the age-old union of food and coffee in Paris. The 30-seat establishment came out firing, serving world-class third wave coffee alongside neo-diner breakfasts of fluffy pancakes and egg and sides until noon, when the stunning seasonal lunch specials kicked in.

The concept puzzled Parisians at first. Was it a cafe? Or perhaps a restaurant? The chefs bustled about in gleaming whites, after all. “I think people struggle to put us in a category because we’re not a coffee shop, but we have really good coffee, and we’re not a restaurant, per se, but we have really good food,” says co-founder Nico Alary. “It’s not hard for Melbourne or New York, where every place is like that, but here we were kind of the first.”

Holybelly co-founders Sarah Mouchot and Nico Alary.

We assure you, not every place in New York or Melbourne is nearly as good as Holybelly. Despite the confusion, the cafe soon developed a loyal following, and brunch regularly drew crowds that spilled onto the sidewalk—perhaps even a little too often. “There was always a line and we were worried that people would associate us with, ‘I love Hollybelly and I love the food, but it’s too busy, let’s go somewhere else,’” says Alary. The space quickly outpaced the original vision chef Sarah Mouchot and Alary set out to create, which led to an expansion in 2015.

But the lines continued apace, and the couple had hesitations about further growth. They worried about Holybelly losing its soul, a carefully cultivated balance of good food, good coffee, and good service they pride themselves on. But when a space opened up down the street at 5 rue Lucien Sampaix in 2016, they decided to go for it. A year later, Holybelly re-opened there with 100 seats, inviting patrons to tuck into all-day breakfast from the comfort of snug leather booths and white-washed brick.

Mouchot and Alary still had the smaller, empty space at 19 rue Lucien Sampaix. They mulled over what to do with it: a roaster? A natural wine bar? But Paris had enough of those. “We thought, what about we just do another cafe, but we just do breakfast and lunch very differently?” says Alary. HB5, the “new” space, inherited the menu of big delicious breakfasts and daily specials, while the historic HB19 takes a more intimate approach to breakfast and seasonally inspired lunches. The menu is structured around a large selection of sharing plates and several daily lunch specials, a format that will enable Mouchot to showcase her talent in the kitchen and make the most of what’s in season.

The two locations complement each other: the founders were careful to preserve the Holybelly identity at both, while crafting two completely different dining experiences. Where HB5 channels cafe casual in leather booths, wood, and brick, HB19 offers a more intimate setting with teal velvet upholstery, marble, and tile. “HB19 is going to show what Sarah can cook and that precision she has for breakfast cooking that she also has for lunch cooking,” Alary tells Sprudge. “At HB5, a dish had to be a meal, so she was kind of limited in the things she could do. At HB19, she can do whatever she wants. It’s perfect for seasonal cooking because there’s no format. Maybe some days we’ll have ten plates and five another day, depending on what’s available.”

There are no pancake stacks at HB19 (don’t worry, they’re available all day down the street at HB5). Instead, Mouchot has run wild on a sweet and savory small plate experience, with dishes like soft-boiled eggs with buttery mouillettes, gravlax, haloumi slippers, beet salad with crunchy buckwheat nubs, kasha porridge, and mini-donuts with dulce de leche. The coffee here is also similar but different. Belleville Brûlerie still shines at HB5, where a more developed and accessible roast profile pairs wonderfully with hearty breakfast specials. At HB19, Swedish roaster Koppi accompanies what might be described as more delicate dishes, harmonizing well with the small but growing selection of natural wines on offer. In both cases, the coffee experience still stops short of a geek-out. “We stop before it gets too technical. So we do everything super well, everything’s weighted, calibrated, we use reverse osmosis water, but I always tell my baristas we’re not the kind of place where you can just make coffee,” says Alary, who would rather return to a place with good service and bad food than amazing food and poor service. “For me it’s about finding a balance between being a restaurant and a cafe.”

The interview portion of this feature with Alary was conducted just one day after HB19 opened. I found the space bustling with regulars, as though it had never closed. Alary attributes the easy transition to the experience the team has gained over the last six years, and a restaurant has evolved to reflect the owners’ own growing up as business partners and hospitality professionals.

“We’re still Holybelly,” says Alary. “We told our front of house staff, stay relaxed, friendly, dress however you want. It’s just really what you put in the plate and the coffee that changes, but we’re the same.”

Photo courtesy of Nico Alary.

Kate Robinson (@KateOnTheLoose) is a freelance journalist based in Paris. Read more Kate Robinson on Sprudge. 

The post In Paris, What’s Old Is New Again At Holybelly 19 appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There is pretty much nothing coffee can’t do. If George Washington Carver had turned his attention to this caffeinated little wunderseed instead of the lowly peanut, we’d probably be brewing space coffee in our luxurious Martian summer homes by now. But Carver chose legumes, so our earthbound scientists have spent the past century shouldering the burden of finding the other 299 uses for coffee. And they’ve discovered another application: using coffee grounds as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries.

As reported by Phys.org, researchers from Moscow’s RUDN University—known more formally and also quaintly somehow as the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia—have found a way to take used coffee grounds and repurpose them as an eco-friendly replacement for graphite-based electrodes commonly found in lithium-ion batteries and electric cars. In an article in the Journal for Cleaner Production titled Non-porous carbonaceous materials derived from coffee waste grounds as highly sustainable anodes for lithium-ion batteries, the researchers were looking to organic waste as a source of carbon materials to be used in lieu of graphite. They considered items like “cherry and olive stones, pomace, seaweed, and rice husk” before ultimately settling on coffee, leaving no stone unturned.

To create the anodes (negative electrodes), researchers took used coffee grounds from their university canteen and reground them for uniformity before baking them at a balmy 800°C. They were then combined with a plastic binding agent to create the organic anode.

When tested, the coffee grounds had a “heat storage capacity of 285 mA-h at the current strength of 0.1A,” which according to Phys.org is a “modest value compared to modern accumulators.” But these numbers are much higher than those of anodes made from other types of organic waste, and the electrodes made from coffee grounds have unique properties that make them “more long-lasting and therefore energy saving.”

“Lithium-ion accumulators with our electrodes kept their initial capacity after 100 cycles, losing only 0.23 percent per cycle,” says Raphael Luke, director of the Center for Molecular Design and Synthesis of Innovative Compounds for Medicine, and a visiting scholar at RUDN. “Increasing energy storage requirements make our work particularly interesting. Its advantages lie in its simplicity and expediency. This method may be scaled out to industrial levels, as coffee grounds are available all over the world in huge quantities compared to other substances used in the production of lithium-ion batteries.”

We are probably still a long ways off from seeing electric cars being fueled by dumping coffee grounds into a little hole in the armrest a la the Super Mario Bros movie, but given the eco-friendly nature and ubiquity of the source material, it may only be a matter of time. Soon enough we’ll all be zipping around in our coffee-powered cars on our roads made of coffee to our houses powered by, you guessed it, coffee. We’d probably already be there if George Washington Carver was a coffee guy. DAMN YOU, PEANUTS!

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 Scientists Turn Coffee Grounds Into Electrodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Kansas City is an established Midwestern coffee landmark, home to a wide range of coffee experiences for drinkers of every level of expertise. This coming weekend, the city will welcome coffee lovers and professionals from across the United States for the U.S. Coffee Championships at KC Expo Center. Whether you’re a competing barista or just visiting town and looking for caffeine, the Kansas City metro contains dozens of quality choices for coffee connoisseurs and newbies alike.

The metro area’s coffee scene is as diverse as the numerous suburbs and unique neighborhoods that it encompasses. It even crosses state borders, reaching into both Missouri and Kansas. The city has cafes that embody the quirkiest of Midwestern culture as well as outlets featuring just a good ‘ole cup of coffee, and in this way, Kansas City is a representation of how the Midwest is making its mark on the specialty coffee industry.

In this guide, we lay out the featured shops, recommended spots, and don’t-miss destinations from the city’s thriving coffee culture. You’ll find that Kansas City embodies both Midwestern charm and big city dreams, with a passionate community of coffee hospitality professionals and an experience for every taste. Let’s get drinking!

Quay Coffee

Photo by Cory Stipp

Quay Coffee (pronounced “key”) is a cozy, comfortable space tucked in Kansas City’s River Market district, located just north of downtown. The shop, the only multi-roaster on this list, features a rotating hand-selection of some of the nation’s best coffee. On any given day, the black letterboard announcing the brews available could list roasters like Hammerhand Coffee, based just a stone’s throw away in Liberty, Missouri, or Upper Left Roasters based in Portland, Oregon. Coffee offerings rotate every four to six weeks.

A stop at Quay pairs best with a walk through the Saturday Farmers’ Market or a visit to any of the City Market’s destination food offerings.

Messenger Coffee Company

Photo by Ryan Carr.

Since opening in fall 2017, Messenger Coffee Company has become a Kansas City coffee destination. Located inside a stately brick building, the vibe here is art museum meets coffee shop. A modern floating staircase invites you to the second-floor roasting space, coffee lab, and classroom alongside additional seating; keep going, and the third floor offers a quiet area with access to the rooftop. Come here to catch expansive views of the KC skyline from the heart of the Crossroads district while sitting next to the outdoor fireplace.

Be sure to check out the pastry case while you wait to order drinks. It’s filled with creative Ibis Bakery creations like fresh takes on classic croissants and mouthwatering desserts like the red wine brownie.

Broadway Cafe

Photo by Heather Burton.

Broadway Cafe and Roasting Company is widely regarded as a pioneer of third wave coffee in Kansas City. Located in the city’s lively and historic Westport neighborhood, Broadway Cafe is just a stone’s throw from some of KC’s favorite eateries and late-night hangouts. You can’t miss the cafe, with its striped awning and classic sign, right off of Broadway.

Inside the cafe, Broadway presents a no-frills espresso menu showcasing its coffee. Baristas sling espresso ristretto-style from a La Marzocco Linea machine set behind a high-top counter. Snack on a light item from the pastry case, like a sandwich or slice of cake, while sipping your drink. Settle in for an afternoon of Westport people watching from the cafe’s sidewalk seating, or sit inside and admire the eclectic art hanging from the warm tan walls.

Aside from the quintessential cafe space in Westport, you can grab a cup of Broadway Roasting Company coffee at the cafe located inside the roaster or at many of the Kansas City-area shops brewing Broadway.

Second Best Coffee

Photo by Aaron Rand.

Tucked unsuspectingly in a strip mall off in south Kansas City’s Waldo neighborhood, you’ll recognize Second Best by its giant eagle logo stenciled on the window. This open and minimalistic space presents a charming mix of modern clean design and homy nostalgia, with sleek black tabletops and white subway tiles paired with wood fixtures and vintage books. The name is meant to be cheeky: “Second Best” refers to the cafe’s continual focus on innovation and application.

The menu features manual brews, made exclusively using a Clever dripper, as well as classic espresso options. A seasonal menu offers more inventive drinks, like the winter favorite 511, a shot of prototype espresso over ice and AE Dairy eggnog topped with shaved Askinosie white chocolate. For a chilled option, try signature Red Ribbon Nitro plain, with milk and vanilla—called a Fred—or with milk and cinnamon, a Zip Zap.

Black Dog Coffeehouse

Photo by Ryan Carr.

Black Dog Coffeehouse is the only shop on this list located in the state of Kansas. The coffeehouse encompasses a large footprint in Lenexa, Kansas, a prominent suburb on the western side of the metro. Both coffee nerds and newbies can find something to suit their liking at Black Dog.

Black Dog serves Messenger Coffee, roasted just 13 miles north in the Crossroads district. An espresso-forward menu can be intimidating for those new to coffee; not so at Black Dog. A specialty latte menu provides options for those who don’t take their coffee black or need something a little sweeter. Coffee options find a home alongside a smoothie selection and Rishi Teas.

At Black Dog, you won’t have to worry about finding a place to sit. The space features three distinct seating areas as well as a large patio. It’s the perfect place to spend the day working, reading or socializing with a continuous flow of provisions.

Post Coffee Company

Photo by Liz Stevens

Post Coffee Company is one of my favorite spaces in KC. Located in Kansas City suburb Lee’s Summit, it feels far away from the city’s hustle and bustle. This bright and luminous shop with white-finished wood accents and polished concrete floors provides a subtle slate for creative coffee and work. The result feels almost retreat-like.

Post offers a straightforward menu—including batch brew, pour-over, iced and espresso options—that highlights the flavors and characters of Post’s own coffee, roasted on-site. Come for a coffee but don’t miss the donuts!

Also Worth Visiting

It’s impossible to highlight all of the outstanding coffee shops in KC’s varied and burgeoning coffee scene. I’d also recommend checking out Monarch Coffee, Oddly Correct, Eleos, the Roasterie, PT’s Coffee, and Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters, which currently doesn’t have a location but just opened an inventive greenhouse space in partnership with Family Tree Nursery called Cafe Equinox.

SprudgeLive Lead Photographer and KC resident Charlie Burt also suggests checking out Blip Roasters, Splitlog, Kaldi’s, Sister Anne’s, Filling Station, and Nomads.

Lauren Miers is a food writer based in Columbia, Missouri. This is Lauren Miers’ first feature for Sprudge.

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

Source: Coffee News

Stepping into Monarch Coffee in Kansas City feels like you’ve suddenly been transported eight hours forward in time and roughly 4,500 miles east. The Parisian aesthetics (reinforced through Instagram imagery) and detailed botanical wallpaper beckon even the shyest of selfiers to snap away in a fit of self-documentation. The space is simultaneously clean, intelligent, calming, and indisputably cute. But beyond the beautiful design, there is a holistic intentionality at work here, built around bringing people of all walks of life together in a comfortable, forward-thinking space.

The brainchild of Tyler and Jaime Rovenstine, Monarch Coffee’s mission becomes clearer when given some context. Tyler, a long and pedigreed member of the Kansas City coffee community as well as regional Barista Champion (South Central, 2014), sought to instill the space with some of the practices he picked up along the competition circuit. “We wanted to give the level of attention that’s given to judges [in competition] to the customer,” he tells Sprudge. Water service extends to guests in every corner of the cafe, for example, and seasonal signature beverages are given a prominent menu presence.

When initially stepping into the bare architectural space he saw the perfect layout for his ideal in-the-round coffee bar. “We knew we wanted an island in the middle to allow for drink delivery,” Rovenstine tells us. Service here happens on a custom seafoam green La Marzocco Linea PB espresso machine, paired with multiple Mahlkönig grinders in matte white and a Curtis G4 batch brewer. Monarch roasts their own coffee offsite using a Diedrich IR12.

Noticeably missing at Monarch are the regular shouts of, “<insert name>, your latte is ready!” Instead, the Rovenstines’ service style allows the customer to place their order at the bar and then immediately make themselves comfortable rather than waiting for their name to be called in the classic cafe stereotype. That’s more comfortable for the guests, but it also requires the baristas to address every drink customer in an inviting manner, building one-on-one relationships that feel personal and authentic. Actually knowing the customers becomes part of their daily equation. They cannot simply rinse and repeat.

The staff itself is small and tight-knit, composed of a diverse group of baristas rooted in gender-balanced, inclusive hiring practices. Tyler and Jaime Rovenstine hoped this would encourage both customers and staff from a wide swath of backgrounds and identities to find common ground at the cafe. Goals like this are always a work in progress, but a quick glance around the space reveals one of the most diverse coffee settings in the city, and this weekend Monarch’s lead barista, Gisel Alvarez, will represent the shop and the Kansas City coffee community at the 2019 US Barista Championship, hosted a few miles away at the KC Expo Center.

“This is the cafe I didn’t know I needed,” said Jaime, who headed the overall design approach to the space and vibe at Monarch. That work has led her to spend time training with The Open Table, a local organization dedicated to building a “…community where everyone belongs, a city where all have the power to pursue their dreams and ambitions, and a people who are committed to each other’s liberation…” This training has helped Jaime to co-lead anti-racism workshops on the local level; she’ll be hosting a special workshop on the weekend of the US Coffee Champs event in Kansas City (limited space available, sign-up here).

As a further extension to facilitate their outreach opportunities, Monarch Coffee’s nearly 1,500 square-foot private Drawing Room space has played host to several cultural and female-focused events and workshops such as the recent “Galentine’s Day” Pop-up party organized alongside The Homeless Period Project and American Daughters. The event showcased local female artists’ goods and snacks with the goal of raising awareness and donations of feminine hygiene products for women in need. Other public events have included holiday markets and yoga classes.

Kansas City’s coffee scene has come so far in the last decade, and it took that building and growth to lead us today to a shop like Monarch. The coffee tastes good. The room feels great. This place represents not just what’s possible here in Kansas City, but for the coffee culture at large headed into the next decade. I’m proud to call this my hometown shop, and if you’re reading with upcoming time in our city on the horizon, please consider this the strongest possible Sprudge recommendation for the coffee and culture work they’re doing at Monarch.

Charlie Burt is the lead photographer for SprudgeLive and contributor based in Kansas City. Read more Charlie Burt on Sprudge.

The post In Kansas City, Pushing The Coffee Culture Forward At Monarch appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

It can be hard out there for wholesale coffee roasters. As we gleaned from this year’s Build-Outs of Summer, it seems just about everyone roasts or wants to roast. And those adhering to the no-longer-en-vogue multi-roaster model are more inclined to stick with a few permanent options instead of rotating regularly. And even when they do find a home in a cafe, wholesale-only roasters’ entire consumer interaction is left outside their own hands.

The most obvious solution (if not also the most expensive) is to open a coffee shop of their own. And that’s exactly what Richmond, Virginia’s Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co is doing. After 14 years in existence, Blanchard’s is opening not one but two shops in as many years.

The expansion into the cafe space will be gradual for the company; the first location—in a “historic building in the 3100 block of West Broad Street, Richmond,” per a press release—is scheduled to be open some time in the summer of 2019. The second location, “part of a new mixed use development on Richmond’s Forest Hill Avenue,” is expected to fruition in spring of the following year. Blanchard’s will work with architectural design firm Fultz & Singh Architects on both locations.

For founder David Blanchard, these cafes are a long time coming. “We have thought about opening a cafe every year for the last 10 years. However, the momentum of our business has always pushed us to further our investment in roasting infrastructure,” Blanchard tells Sprudge. But it wasn’t until a family vacation at the end of 2018 that finally convinced him to put the wheels in motion.

“My wife, Kelly, two daughters, Molly and Ann-Cason, and I spent a week in San Francisco. One of our vacation traditions is to visit local cafes, and I witnessed a light click on in my children’s minds as we visited cafes in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. They have been around coffee their entire lives, but they saw coffee from a different point of view in on that trip,” Blanchard states. “As we were flying home, I thought about Molly and Ann-Cason’s coffee ‘enlightenment’ and thought about our farmer relationships. Blanchard’s brick and mortar cafes would give us a larger stage to tell coffee’s story from our perspective as roasters. Cafes would force us to double down on education, incorporating educational opportunities for both our wholesale partners and retail clients alike, creating a robust platform from which we can push sustainable coffee culture further in our community and beyond.”

These cafes are just the start for Blanchard’s expansion plans. There are murmurs of other projects in the works beyond Richmond that have yet to be finalized. For now, they are doing the extremely difficult task of building two coffee shops at the same time. They are taking control of their narrative and expanding the platform upon which they can tell their stories and of those they work with. For more information, visit Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co’s 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 Blanchard’s

The post Blanchard’s Coffee Branches Into The Cafe Space With Two Richmond Shops appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Montreal’s micro-roaster scene has exploded in recent years. Along with well-established brands, the city has witnessed the launches of many promising startups, with few projects more hotly anticipated than Jérôme Greniers–Desbiens and Mathieu Carrier’s Structure Coffee.

For years now, the longtime friends—and two of the most respected professionals in the local industry—were thinking of launching a coffee business. They had worked in Montreal and elsewhere, their professional paths never really crossing until Carrier’s return from the West Coast in 2017.

Greniers–Desbiens, a coffee “geek” with a background in chemistry, had been involved in numerous projects and was a co-founder of the East Coast Coffee Madness, an annual gathering of the city’s coffee community with renowned guest speakers from all over the world. Carrier worked as the general manager for 49th Parallel Kitsilano cafe in Vancouver and he has visited many coffee farms working with the Socodevi, a local nonprofit network of cooperatives.

Partners Carrier, Greniers–Desbiens, and Marco Dieckmann. Photo by Hélène Bouffard.

This time the two were ready to launch their own brand, Structure Coffee, planning an ambitious cafe-roastery in downtown Montreal. Permits and other assorted problems stalled the cafe project, but the young company had already bought green coffee during a trip in Colombia and decided to go ahead with the roasting.

“We started by renting the roaster at Kaito Coffee, nearly a year ago,” explains Greniers–Desbiens, who is the green buyer and head roaster. “We have two basic espresso blends, Fondation and 1852 (both made with a mix of coffees from Brazil and Colombia), along with single origin micro-lot coffees. We travel to meet producers and try to trade with them directly, as we work for the long-term profitability and sustainability of all parties.”

Due to the high expectations, Structure’s team knew they had to hit their stride quickly, and the response from the local community has shown that this goal has been reached. In a few months, the coffees were available in many well-known cafes in town like Cafe Myriade and Caffè In Gamba.

“As our needs were growing, we recently moved to the Montreal Roasting Society, a co-roasting facility created by Scott Rao and Andy Kyres,” explains Grenier-Desbiens. The space boasts two Probat Roasters, a 25kg and a 50kg, and many of the city’s newest micro-roasters use them.

With their roasting operations off and running, Carrier and Greniers–Desbiens returned to their cafe project. Getting the other side of the business on track proved a bit more complicated. In the process, a third member joined the team: Marco Dieckmann, a Berlin-born self-proclaimed “coffee aficionado” with a background in marketing and finance, who followed his circus passion all the way to Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil.

In spite of his creative background, the other two like to see him as the reasoned voice in the trio. Dieckmann agrees that he had to remind them that they really had to stay focused on their goals in order to get through all the obstacles. Finally, three locations and many long negotiations later, Structure opened its cafe on February 1st on busy McGill Street in Old Montreal.

Carrier manages the operations and aims to create a space where coffee lovers will be able to taste and appreciate their products. “This is something we’ve been waiting a long time for. I’ve learned from my time at 49th Parallel that it’s important to show respect to your customers, to acknowledge their needs, and to help them get the best of what they like.”

The vast space is bright with white furniture and there’s a central island which eases the flow of customers. The espresso machine is a three-group Sanremo Opera Revolution, and the staff has everything to meet the request of any coffee lover. There is a large selection of pastries and light bites baked by Automne Boulangerie and Dave Plant.

“Even with the large front bay windows, this is a semi-basement locale and we wanted to make it as ‘open’ as possible,” explains Grenier-Desbiens. “There are shelves on all the walls where we can highlight our products and those of our partners.”

Among those, a rich coffee caramel, the result of a collaboration with local confectioners La Lichée. And there’s also a beer, Tejo, prepared by Dunham Brewery with Structure’s Jaime Gonzalez Colombian coffee. Carrier hopes that the new cafe will open even more opportunities for Structure. “There are so many things we can do in a space like this. Once we are settled, and I’m confident it will come rapidly, I’m sure we will move forward.”

Michel Marois (@MMcafeLP) is a sportswriter for La Presse, and a Sprudge.com contributor based in Montreal. Read more Michel Marois on Sprudge. 

All photos by the author unless otherwise noted.

An earlier version of this story mistakenly described Greniers–Desbiens as the creator of the ECCM. There are five creators of ECCM, and you can read more about them all here. We regret the error.

The post In Montreal, Structure Coffee Finds A Home And Builds A Following appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

News broke last week (since confirmed by World Coffee Events) that 2018 Mexican Brewers Cup champion Carlos Maqueda had been denied a visa by the United States government, and will not be allowed entry into the country to compete at the World Barista Championship in Boston next month. As of the time of reporting, Sprudge can update that a total of four coffee competitors have been denied visas to attend the Boston event: both Maqueda and Emilio Arturo of Mexico, as well as the Brewers Cup and Barista champions from the United Arab Emirates Michaela Ruazol and Lablibell Bajarias, respectively.

As the adverse effects of international tensions trickle outside the bureaucratic world and into the lives of real, actual people, many in the coffee community are left with more questions than answers. Visa denials are constantly looming at World events; indeed, those international tensions can play out directly when it comes to accessing coffee’s grandest stage.

World Coffee Events brand manager (and former Sprudge editor) Alex Bernson told us that the exact number of visa denials over the near two decades of World Barista Championship events is difficult to know. While there are high profile cases of competitors having visa issues that play out publicly—perhaps none more famous that Iran’s first barista champion Mehran Mohammadnezhad Mirjani being denied and then finally approved for his visa at the 11^th hour to compete in Seattle in 2015—many can go unnoticed. “We don’t always receive full or even any reports from competitors and national bodies as to why they aren’t attending or sending a second place competitor instead of a first,” Bernson tells Sprudge, “nor do we necessarily expect everyone to let us know when they’re having visa specific troubles, because there are many reasons both political and personal that may be the case.”

According to Bernson, issues related to past visa denials are long ranging, and oftentimes unexpectedly personal. “[It could be] everything from not filling out forms exactly correctly to an embassy’s satisfaction on a first or second try, to having a citizenship from a country in Central Asia but working in and representing a European national body,” Bernsons tells Sprudge. “Sometimes the process takes too long and they don’t get their visas in time, especially with later championships. Sometimes competitors get a visa but their coaches and support people do not. Sometimes a person’s individual history in their own country or a host country may come into play with a government’s decision. Sometimes items are held in customs or huge costs and extremely intricate processes for visas are imposed on certain countries by other countries’ governments.”

Lacking sufficient data to know for certain, Bernson speculates (based on the past few years) that there are, on average, between one and three deferrals each seasons for the annual event roster. That includes events in the United States and elsewhere around the world. “For example, in 2017 we know of at least one visa issue occurring in each of the three host countries that year, including one competitor being denied, one set of coaches being denied, and a difficult to acquire competitor one taking multiple tries coming down to the last hour.” In 2017 the WCE’s portfolio of events were hosted in Seoul (South Korea), Budapest (Hungary), and Guangzhou (China).

After winning the Mexican Brewers Cup in September, Carlos Maqueda began working on getting his visa paperwork in order with Carlos de la Torre, the 2018 Mexican Barista Champion and Maqueda’s employer at Café con Jiribilla. De la Torre is no stranger to applying for visas, having won multiple national coffee championships over the past decade, and had already secured approval for his trip to Boston. Included in the paperwork for Maqueda was an invitation letter from the WCE “highlighting their achievements and the great importance of bringing together all national body representatives on the global stage,” per a statement from the WCE. A letter in this style is standard issue for all national champions seeking visas for international travel related to official SCA coffee tournaments. Also included was “a letter indicating that all his expenses for travel were covered… his status as national champion, [and] the coffee bar where he works also extended all the documentation to support his history as worker and the economic proof of payments,” per an email from Arturo Hernández Fujigaki, a Mexican Coffee Association member familiar with the situation.

Even with all this substantiating documentation, Maqueda’s visa request was denied. The government is required to give a reason for any denial, but Maqueda tells Sprudge he received no such information. “They never gave me a clear answer. I always got a, ‘You do not meet the requirements,’ but they never specified which requirements.” As of press time, no clear indication as to why these visas were denied has been made available—Sprudge has asked every entity involved with this saga, up to and including the US State Department (no reply as of press time).

With a potential five-year visa application ban looming if further appeals are made, Maqueda has now opted to apply for Deferred Candidacy, allowing him to compete in Melbourne in 2020. 2018 Mexican Brewers Cup runner-up Emilio Arturo was offered the spot in Maqueda’s place, but Fujigaki tells Sprudge that Arturo’s visa application was also denied. Arturo will appeal the decision, but if he is unsuccessful, Fujigaki states an invitation will be extended to the third place competitor, Miriam Aldana, who already successfully obtained a visa.

It’s worth noting this is not the first time a competitor from Mexico has had difficulty obtaining a visa to compete in the United States; indeed, the issues pre-date the Trump Era (shudder), and have become sadly commonplace. “In 2009 for the WCE in Atlanta we faced the same situation with Aleli Moreno, our first woman champion, who was not able to get the visa,” Fujigaki tells Sprudge. Aleli ultimately received the aforementioned and deeply onerous five-year ban after exhausting her number of appeals. “We are very upset by the decisions taken in the visa process for Carlos, but that is out of our hands,” says Fujigaki. “The deferral process is not the best solution for him but at least Carlos will not face the same situation as Aleli lived years ago.”

Sprudge was a vocal critic of the SCA’s Deferred Candidate Policy as originally announced. But that policy underwent substantive review before being put into motion, thanks to the hard work of the SCA’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force. Today the policy (read it in full here) is non-discriminatory, and centers the dignity and humanity of any competitor faced with a difficult situation. It is beyond shitty that governments around the world—including our own historically shitty regime here in America—have made a habit of not issuing visas to competitors seeking to travel and represent their nation on coffee’s biggest stage. But used in this context, it’s clear to see why a Deferred Candidacy Policy is so very necessary. This way, competitors like Carlos Maqueda get a second chance to represent their country on the international stage. It’s a right they’ve earned.

This story is developing. Do you know of other competitors having issues acquiring their visa? Contact us here.

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

Zachary Carlsen and Jordan Michelman contributed to this reporting. 

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Source: Coffee News