Best Coffee in Honolulu – The Curb Kaimuki

Hong Kong is dense. Its buildings, with their varying lines, curves, stacks, and layers, present a unique fingerprint in the city’s iconic skyline—the jaggedness hinting at a seemingly infinite race towards the sky among the architectural giants. Getting lost is an adventure in itself and is probably my favorite way of exploring the city. From the vibrant markets in Kowloon to the steel towers of Central to the unexpected wrong turns leading to the grittier parts of the city—each area is distinctly its own.

Perhaps my favorite hour is the neon glow of nightfall, when the streets and structures transform into an illuminated maze. The blend of colors light the darkness to reveal an endless array of vendors who saturate the air with an assortment of aromas both unfamiliar and enticing. With a bombardment of sights, sounds, and smells around every corner, the city can be a shock for first-time visitors. If you’re in search of a place to wind down and escape the metropolitan jungle, head to the eclectic neighborhood of Sheung Wan, no doubt one of the city’s coolest districts. In between the whispers of ancient Hong Kong that lurk in the dried seafood and tonic stalls on Wing Lok Street and the incense smoke from Man Mo temple, coffee shops and cafes thrive in every nook and cranny.

NOC Coffee Co.

Already boasting a collective assortment of eateries, stylish boutique stores, and art galleries, charming Gough Street ices the cake by hosting one of Sheung Wan’s most beautiful coffee spaces. With its pure white exterior and giant glass doors, the shop is a stark contrast to the busy textures along Gough Street. Upon entering, you’re immediately greeted with a sleek seven-meter-long white countertop bar so immaculate you’ll feel like polishing off every speck of dust on your shoes. The menu offers classic black and white espresso drinks along with a rotating selection of single-origin and house-blend beans available as pour-overs.

NOC wholeheartedly embodies its vision of being a coffee shop that is Not Only Coffee. The very much approachable baristas exude passion in their craft and offer suggestions with enthusiasm. The drinks are served with some of the best free-pour latte art I’ve seen not just in the city, but across my travels around Asia. An ever-evolving food menu with a variety of feel-good toasts, salads, and grain bowls are available throughout the day. Trust me when I say the trek up the stairs is worth the climb.

Hazel & Hershey Coffee

On the cusp of Sheung Wan and Central is Peel Street, a small sloping hideaway housing one of the area’s most peculiar coffee shops. It’s hard to miss Hazel & Hershey—its vibrant teal exterior will turn heads and lure the curious inside its doors. This eclectic character extends inside, from the warped clock lighting fixtures that cover the ceilings to the stacks of takeaway cups featuring local artists. Coffee paraphernalia canvases the walls, carrying notable brands such as Kalita, Hario, Acaia, and Bonavita. The assortment of the latest coffee gear, books, and gadgets is enough to spark a coffee nerd in anyone.

While the shop boasts an impressive collection of coffee tools, the coffee selection is not to be overlooked. Hazel & Hershey roasts their beans in-house and offers an impressive list of a constantly rotating variety of single-origin beans and micro-lots, sourcing from Indonesia to Brazil to Ethiopia. Sip on espresso or wait for your pour-over in the shop’s quaint outdoor patio, a recluse from bustling Hollywood Road.

13 Peel Coffee Bar by Momentum Coffee Roasters

“Drink naked coffee” is the motto at 13Peel, the first coffee concept store by Momentum Coffee Roasters (formerly known as Inferno Dynamics Roastery). The shop takes pride in its commitment to sourcing directly from farmers, offering an ever-changing seasonal selection of beans to ensure the freshest batch of coffee is served to its consumers.

Trinity ONE brewers—the closest thing to magic you’ll get in the coffee world—line the marble countertops, providing a spectacle for even the most closeted coffee geek. This unassuming contraption brews six ways: gravity press, cold drip, batch brew, immersion, pour-over, and espresso-style extraction. Adding to the shop’s minimalistic flair is the subtle Modbar with wooden handle accents—used for pulling espresso.

While the focus is extracting the most unique flavor from each cup, the shop isn’t afraid to push boundaries with coffee. The playful neon lights hint at its whimsical creations, with seasonal mocktails and in-house concoctions such as coffee lemonade, bubble coffee with Okinawan brown sugar, and curry fish ball pairings.

That begs the question: what coffee pairs best with curry fish balls? That answer requires a trip to Peel Street.

The Cupping Room Roastery

Home to Kapo Chiu, a veteran on the barista world stage and who recently placed 3rd in the World Barista Championship in Seoul, The Cupping Room is bound to exceed your routine caffeine fix. The latest location in Sheung Wan is one of four branches dotted across Hong Kong Island and offers not only a careful selection of seasonal beans sourced worldwide, but also a sizable food menu, making it a brunch hotspot for locals and visitors alike.

Unique to the shop is their roasting powerhouse: a black and steel Probat UG15 Retro. The iconic roaster accentuates the aromatic and sweet profiles in coffee, developing a unique taste with each batch. Like Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the roaster stands behind large glass windows just behind the brewers bar, allowing consumers to gaze upon the finishing stages of bean-to-cup production. Several Melitta drippers line the countertop, while each coffee is paired with an informative card highlighting flavor profiles and origin details. Lactose intolerants, rejoice! Those who prefer milk in their brew have alternative dairy options, including the ever-elusive Oatly oat milk. Seating is limited, so come early to enjoy the efforts of a world-class barista.

18 Grams

18 Grams is a tiny shop that packs a big punch. The dark walnut tables and natural leather seats offer a casual homey vibe while a five-seater counter bar provides a more up and close personal look into the brewing process. The menu offers a solid list of milk-based beverages and serves one of the most velvety flat whites in a neighborhood sardine-packed with coffee shops. Humid day favorites include the shakerato, which is shaken iced espresso served in a martini glass, and the coffee whiskey sour. While I consider myself an espresso purist, I definitely wouldn’t mind starting my day off with the latter.

What started as a small humble espresso corner in Causeway Bay back in 2010 has now evolved into eight locations, with Sheung Wan being the newest of the branches. Thanks to the efforts of founder John So and head roaster Kammie Hui, 18 Grams paved the way for specialty coffee in a now booming Hong Kong coffee culture.

Jessica Hernandez (@hernandezjess) is an international freelance journalist and photographer. Read more Jessica Hernandez on Sprudge. 

The post Where To Drink Coffee In Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan Neighborhood appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

In episode 68 of the Coffee Sprudgecast we interview Coffee People founder Kat Melheim and Amethyst Coffee’s Claudia Campero about their new print publication DRIP. DRIP is a submission-based publication that features writing and art “where we explore how we feel about our bodies, sex, gender, nudity, power, vulnerability, expression, and identity.”

Read about DRIP Zine here.

Only 250 copies of the first issue have been printed and are selling for $15 at the Drip Zine website.

Listen to the full episode below:

Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes or download the episode here. The Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by  Oxo, Urnex Brands, Hario, IKAWA Sample Roasters and Swiss Water Decaf. 

Sign up now as a subscriber to the Coffee Sprudgecast and never miss an episode. 

Listen, subscribe and review The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes.

Download the episode here.

The post Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 68: The One About DRIP Zine appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

CBD is having a bit of a moment right now. The non-psychoactive and generally legal part of the marijuana plant (though it’s mostly harvested using hemp or other sources, like tree bark) is being added to juices, soaps, and of course coffee. Indeed, the “would you like CBD with that?” $5 upcharge is a growing boon for coffee bars and cafes across the United States. But one coffee company is understandably none too pleased about it.

That would be Coffee By Design, a Portland, Maine coffee company whose trademarked name and acronym they argue are being infringed upon. According to Bloomberg, the 25-year-old brand has held both trademark for the name Coffee By Design as well as the initials CBD used in conjunction with the sale of coffee since 2010, two years before Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use of cannabis and six years before their home state followed suit. In 2017, the company rebranded to simply CBD. Now, with the recent boom in recreational cannabis as well as the proliferation of CBD products, the Coffee By Design trademark has seen a deluge of what the brand alleges to be textbook infringement.

Not only were customers coming in expecting to get a sweet mellow at the local Coffee By Design, but other shops around town were advertising their own “CBD coffee” (no relation to Coffee By Design). This causes heaps of customer confusion, and United States trademark law puts the burden on Coffee By Design to defend the use of their trademarked term, a legal reality we’ve explored previously on Sprudge as it relates to coffee.

Coffee By Design co-owner Alan Spear tells Bloomberg that he isn’t trying to keep other shops from putting CBD in their coffee, but wants them to not call it “CBD coffee.” From Bloomberg:

“We’re well within our rights to prevent others from using the term CBD as a trademark in relation to coffee and coffee shops,” Spear says. “As a responsible trademark owner, we have an obligation… All we hope to do is prevent consumers from being confused about what they are purchasing and who they are purchasing it from.”

Spear goes on to suggest shops sell the product using the term “CBD extract coffee” or “cannabidiol coffee.”

Coffee By Design’s defense of this trademark in Maine could have wide-reaching implications for the use of “CBD coffee” in other settings across the country. This story is developing, and in the meantime we look forward to the inevitable Tim Horton’s “THC” rebrand following Canada’s national marijuana legalization.

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 Don’t Call It CBD Coffee, Says Coffee By Design appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Joe Coffee Company in New York now offers instant coffee alongside their whole-bean selections, joining a growing number of specialty coffee companies like Ritual Roasters and Black and White Coffee Roasters. Joe partners with specialty instant coffee makers at Swift Cup and currently offers three selections in their specialty line: The Daily ($18), Nightcap Decaf ($20), and the La Familia Guarnizo single origin coffee ($20). Like Swift Cup, Joe Coffee’s instant comes in paper packets housed in a sturdy box. To find out more about Joe’s transition to instant and their design choices, we talked to Graphic Designer Leina Sanchez.

When did Joe release instant coffee?

Joe debuted its Specialty Instant Coffee line in April 2018.

Tell us a little bit about the design process.

Our partners over at Swift Cup Coffee really helped us get the ball rolling. They had already found success packing their instant coffee in these little boxes, and we were pretty happy with them. There’s a sticker that wraps around the box, and I thought of it like a ribbon wrapping around a present.

We’re big fans of the little box—were there a few prototypes of packaging the instant?

I could start a little museum showcasing the evolution of the box and sachet with all the mock-up packaging I made along the way (although I’m not sure who would visit!). The sachet probably underwent the biggest transformations. At one stage, I made some intricate ink-drawings of coffee flowers and leaves, with the idea that we could have a unique illustration for every variety of instant coffee and these sachets would be collectibles of sorts. Our team quickly realized that real estate would be better used to show people how to actually make the stuff! Maybe an idea to revisit for the future?

Who designed the package?

It was really a collaborative effort. I definitely had my ideas to get us started, but many people on our team and on the Swift Cup team weighed in along the way. I took all that feedback and brought it into every design stage, hoping to get closer to our vision of what this exciting new product could be.

How would you describe the look?

When we first launched, instant coffee was still relatively new to the specialty coffee scene, so it was important for us to show our customers that it was a product to take just as seriously as our whole bean coffee. The look is largely a reworking of our existing bag design, chosen to make sure the two could live together in harmony.

Instant coffee is becoming more popular as specialty coffee companies continue to push the category forward—how long has Joe instant been in development?

We started considering the idea in January 2018 and it took about three months to come to fruition.

What’s next for the instant line?

We feel that Swift Cup’s process results in a more nuanced cup, which means as we develop this product line, we’ll likely be exploring more interesting and complex single origin coffees. We’re particularly excited about featuring a Rwandan single origin from the Hingakawa Women’s Association. We expect it to be available later this spring!

Where is it available?

Joe Specialty Instant Coffee is available for sale in our New York City and Philadelphia cafes, on our website, on Amazon, and at select REI locations in the Northeast.

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

Disclosure: Joe Coffee Company is an advertising partner on the Sprudge Media Network.

The post Coffee Design: Specialty Instant Coffee From Joe Coffee Company appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Today is Valentine’s Day, which means baristas will be pouring an above-average amount of hearts in lattes. And today especially (though really this is an everyday occurrence), should muscle memory kick in and they pour an unrequested heart—one of the three primary latte art shapes, mind you—it will inevitably be misconstrued as some sign on interest by the customer and thus begin awkward series of interactions with a person who has already planned the entire relationship in their head. Based solely upon a foam shape in a cup. Baristas, along with service industry members in general, get objectified on a daily basis. A significant part of their livelihoods, tips, are based solely on being nice and welcome and often gets contorted by many into some grand but subtle gesture of affection. But a new zine is fighting back. Called DRIP, this new print publication exists as a space for members of the specialty coffee community to reclaim their sexuality, and it comes out today.

Created by Coffee People founder Kat Melheim and Amethyst Coffee’s Claudia Campero, DRIP Zine is a submission-based publication where coffee professionals can feel free to explore their illicit sides. Works will include “photography, poetry, short stories, illustrations, and other artwork where we explore how we feel about our bodies, sex, gender, nudity, power, vulnerability, expression, and identity.” And what better way to celebrate this new print venture that with a party, on Valentines of all days?

Tonight in Denver at Amethyst Coffee’s Lakeside location starting at 6:00pm, the DRIP Zine holding a release party, and it will be a night of erotic good times. Included in the night’s festivities includes “Glitter Pussy,” an aphrodisiac signature beverage competition presented in collaboration with Glitter Cat, X-rated Valentines Day card making, and even a little flash. Hand-poked tattoos from custom-made flash by @stickandpeg will be going on all night.

But for those unable to attend the release party, copies of DRIP Zine are available for $15 via the Coffee People Zine website (with the option of donating more). Partial proceeds from sales will go to benefit Planned Parenthood.

Just because today is a manufactured holiday designed solely to separate you from your hard-earned cash via overpriced plants and mass-produced confections doesn’t mean you can’t also treat yourself. Pick up a copy of DRIP Zine today and maybe find out how your fellow coffee professionals are treating themselves (and other consenting adults).

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 DRIP Zine

The post DRIP Zine Lets Coffee Professionals Celebrate Their Sexuality appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee people are very strange these days. If they’re not drinking iced coffee during a polar vortex, they’re shooting green coffee into space to roast it. And now, there’s a new startup that wants to make your coffee without any coffee at all. It’s called Atomo Coffee, and according to Food & Wine, the company is “working on a way to replicate a standard cup of coffee—down to the taste, aroma, and even mouthfeel—all with natural ingredients, none of which are coffee beans.”

This is by no means the first iteration of “coffee hold the coffee.” In Italy, there is a long tradition of caffè d’orzo, a caffeine-free, coffee-like beverage made of roasted barley that is consumed by children, the elderly, and those looking to eschew the jittery jolt for health reasons. But this Atomo Coffee—“molecular coffee” as the company refers to it—feels like something entirely different.

Created by microbiologist Jarret Stopforth—a “radical food scientist,” per the company’s Kickstarter, whose CV includes time at Soylent and Chobani, both of which have pre-established links to the coffee world—and not-microbiologist Andy Kleitsch, Atomo coffee is trying to break down coffee to a molecular level, figure out what’s going on inside, and then rebuild it anew using… not coffee.

It is a coffee but it is like, not coffee. Think about that.

Their goal, according to Food & Wine, is to create a coffee without “the dreaded bitterness,” WHICH I SHOULD NOTE is a thing that can also be accomplished through quality-focused sourcing and roasting practices, a notion upon which the last let’s say two decades plus of specialty coffee have been predicated. One need not put the bolts in the neck of a reanimated mishmash of molecules to drink coffee without the aforementioned “dreaded bitterness.” It is possible to drink actual delicious coffee from actual coffee farmers and roasters without experiencing such dread.

What actually comprises Atomo is as yet unknown. The Kickstarter lists them as “naturally-derived sustainable ingredients.” For their first product, Atomo is aiming for a “smooth cup of coffee, not too light, not too dark,” but after the success of their already-funded Kickstarter campaign they plan to release single-origin varieties including an Ethiopia, Colombia, Kenya, and 100% decaf (sorry caffé d’orzo).

This may come as a surprise given the completely serious and not at all flippant tone of this article, but I’m a bit skeptical of the entire enterprise. Though to be fair, in a blind taste test performed by the company on the University of Washington campus, Atomo was the heavy favorite over the other option, some roasty-ass Starbucks they trucked around campus, god knows how long after brewing it.

Have 21 out of 30 college students ever been wrong about anything?



Perhaps I am the one who is wrong. Maybe the kids these days want their space beans and molecular “coffee” drinks. If that’s you and you want to live in this sort of future, you can pre-order you own Atomo via their Kickstarter page. What a time to be alive.

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 This Coffee Beverage Was Grown In A Lab appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Though there is no Ctrl-Z for much damage done to the Earth, there are ways to boost environmental sustainability. In this spirit, one product making a splash in and around the Netherlands is SOOP, a hand and body soap made from coffee grounds and orange peels.

SOOP is the signature product of BeeBlue, an Amsterdam-based collective working to upcycle organic waste streams, converting them into ecological, social, and economic resources. Robert-Willem Dol and Noor Buur co-founded the company in September 2016. Two years later, SOOP became available internationally. It comes in three bar variants (coffee with orange oil, coffee with orange oil and peels, and orange peels with orange oil) and two liquid (orange and coffee, which both contain orange oil).

To learn more, Sprudge spoke with Buur and, at BeeBlue headquarters, got the opportunity to witness coffee’s full sudsy potential.

Your website describes how in his own kitchen, Robert-Willem started playing around with coffee grounds and orange peels to come up with the idea of using them in soap. What prompted the experimentation in the first place?

Robert-Willem started experimenting with the idea of “stop wasting my waste,” which was sparked by frustration with how we treat waste in our societies. Waste is a human concept; nature does not “produce” waste. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands alone, the consumption of coffee and fresh orange juice produces 155 million kilos of coffee grounds and 250 million kilos of orange peels each year. These resources are widely considered an inevitable part of our day-to-day consumption and get discarded into organic waste streams. But this can be handled better if we see waste as a resource and use it in a circular way. Coffee grounds are a powerful natural scrub, and orange peels work as a natural skin booster and fragrance. The shift towards a circular economy and a more sustainable economic system feels abstract and big, but SOOP, as circular soap, makes it tangible.

Robert-Willem Dol and Noor Buur

What sets SOOP apart from other soaps?

SOOP is made of palm-oil-free certified resources, is biodegradable, and does not contain microplastics. In this regard, SOOP stands out but is not unique (fortunately!). SOOP is unique, however, in using “waste” as a valuable, function-serving resource.

How exactly do the coffee SOOPs get made?

SOOP is produced by existing soap-processing factories in the Netherlands. The bars are produced using a palm-oil-free soap emulsion; the liquid is a Marseille soap. Our coffee grounds and orange peels are treated in a way that makes them safe, functional ingredients in accordance with Dutch laws on soap and cosmetics. The smooth coffee bar is made with dried coffee grounds and orange oil extracted directly from orange peels; the textured coffee bar also contains pieces of orange peel. Both are effective as an exfoliant, colorant, fragrance, skin booster, and cleaner.

Where do you source the grounds and peels?

Our innovation in the field of the circular economy started with product development, yet in order to actually produce SOOP, we quickly had to get familiar with the world of waste. Because the logistics involved in collecting, drying, and treating coffee grounds and orange peels are so major, we cooperate with professionals in different fields. We work with PeelPioneers, an orange peel-recycling company in the Netherlands, which sources peels from Dutch retailers (for example, supermarkets with a fresh juice press in store). The coffee grounds are currently collected for us by a production company, but we are in the process of trying to find waste management companies to team with. Presently, the coffee grounds come from everywhere, but for the future, we’re focusing on collecting them mainly from the offices of companies, organizations, and hotels.

BeeBlue has made clear that the organization also values social return. How is that incorporated into the SOOP business model?

SOOP partners with Amsterdam’s social-return employment company Pantar (which gives jobs to people who for circumstantial or personal reasons experience disadvantages on the labor market). Individuals employed through Pantar service the coffee machines at the City of Amsterdam’s various offices, and collecting the grounds had been part of their daily work. Due to our scalability needs, we eventually had to turn to another, larger-capacity service that could collect the grounds, but Pantar currently does the handling for SOOP, which includes packaging, product labeling, and part of the transport.

Tell us about the packaging.

Incorporating sustainability into packaging is a challenge, but it is very much needed. The SOOP bar’s cardboard wrapping is made of recycled carton, which can, in turn, be recycled. The SOOP liquid bottles are made of recycled PET, which can also be recycled. The product labels are FSC-certified.

Your Facebook page shows photos of SOOP at the Dutch Embassy in Ethiopia and at a Hotelschool The Hague presentation. How did SOOP find its way to those events?

SOOP finds its way all over the world, and that is simply because people we talk to and work with see themselves as ambassadors of SOOP and tell our story. For example, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency arranged to have SOOP sent to Dutch embassies worldwide as a leading example of circular innovation that has sprung from Dutch soil. SOOP was a part of the Next Way of Living pop-up store at Dutch Design Week. SOOP has also found its way into the promotional and Christmas package sector, such as through sustainability-focused gift companies and Geschenk met Verhaal.

SOOP at Hotelschool The Hague

Sales of SOOP began in late 2018 at Dutch and Belgian home goods chain Dille & Kamille. Your products have also been made available online through Next Way of Living. What’s in store for the future?

We’re developing SOOP for institutional dispensers, so it can serve as a day-to-day soap in offices and hotel settings. To reach individual consumers, we will continue partnering with our existing webshop and retail partners. This is not a regular soap, but we want it to become your regular SOOP!

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

The post From Amsterdam, A New Soap Made Of Coffee Grounds And Orange Peels appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

After a successful inaugural event last year in Seattle, Womxn In Coffee is taking a three-hour road trip down I-5 to Portland. Taking place Friday, February 15^th at Black Rabbit Service Co., Womxn In Coffee will feature candid conversations about the hardships faced by underrepresented members of the coffee community and ways to address these issues head-on.

Using the first Womxn In Coffee as an outline, event creator Tatiana Benitez will use a panel format to give a voice to firsthand experiences of injustice faced by members of the (mostly) Portland-based coffee community, not just women but people of color, queer, and non-binary individuals as well. For the panel, Benitez has enlisted the help of #CoffeeToo co-founder and coffee professional at Seattle’s Broadcast Coffee Molly Flynn, a return guest from the first Womxn In Coffee. The panel will also include local professionals Sara Reynolds of Good Coffee, Alejandria Acereto of Stumptown, Paxton Ogwaro of Never Coffee, and Camila Coddou, the former Ristretto Roasters barista who made news for taking a stand against #MeNeither, a YouTube channel created in part by Nancy Rommelmann, the wife of Ristretto owner Din Johnson.

The goal of the event, according to Benitez, is to “raise awareness about these injustices and to start the conversation” as well as “[discuss], along with the audience, solutions, and ideas that we may all have on how to stop this from happening within their cafes.”

Food and drink—both alcoholic and non—will be provided on a first come first served basis. The event is completely free and open to the public. It all gets started at 6:30pm at Black Rabbit Service Co in northeast Portland. For more information and to review the code of conduct, visit the Womxn In Coffee Facebook event 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 Womxn In Coffee, designed by Chris Hulsizer.

The post Womxn In Coffee Is Heading To Portland appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The current coffee scene in Mexico is facing a bit of a conundrum: production in the country has declined as consumption has increased. Mexico has gone from producing more than double what it used to consume (1.69 million tons in 2003) to producing almost only what is necessary to cover the national demand (0.82 million tons in 2016).

Along with the drop in production, demand has been increasing both globally and nationally (per capita consumption has gone from 29 oz. in 2005 to 49 oz. in 2017). It has been driven mainly by the millennial market and the rise of specialty coffee in the country.

But if Mexico City already boasts a large number of great coffee shops, other big cities in the country, such as Guadalajara and Monterrey, are just beginning to crawl in this direction. The latter has emerged as one of the most important cities in Mexico, and gradually, the industrial and technological city has seen its gastronomic scene also rise—and with it, the culture of specialty coffee.

One of the pioneers in this area is Café Pistola, run by a group of friends that names among its partners the founders of BreAd Panaderos—a local sourdough bakery that has changed the scene of loaves in the city—and a businessman with a wide history in the coffee market: Antonio Alanís comes from a family that started producing quality coffee in Mexico many decades ago.

“Our brand, Don Emilio, was born with my father,” Alanís says. “We focus on providing beans to cafes, restaurants, and other businesses. It’s good quality coffee, but it was not in this range of specialty coffees. Café Pistola was the chance to enter this new market thanks to a partnership with the guys from BreAd,” he explains. Alanís says that despite being a new brand, the concept of Café Pistola had been in his mind for at least five years.

Alanís has worked in his own roasting company long enough to acquire the know-how to develop the sensorial profiles of the coffee beans served to pair well with all the bread and other dishes created by the founders of BreAd: Alejandro Reyes, Juan Carlos Galán, and Bernardo Flores (who is Alanís’ cousin).

Café Pistola exclusively works with beans from Mexican farmers, from regions such as Chiapas and Veracruz, and different varieties like Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuaí. One of the partners’ main goals is to serve good, but also affordable, coffee. “In general, Mexican coffee is still expensive compared to other producing countries. But since we have a good production capacity, unlike other local micro-roasters, we have been able to offer coffee cups at a lower price, so more people can have our coffee,” he adds.

Café Pistola serves four types of coffee, with different flavor profiles (Magnum, Parabellum, Nambu, and Revolver) that vary from those with more acidity, with a tangy, fruity taste, to those more intense and bitter. The main goal is to keep coffee unpretentious, so as not to frighten the novice drinker. “Few know the difference between a Geisha and a Bourbon, or how the altitude impacts quality… Our coffee needs to be democratic to both help shape the new local consumer taste and please connoisseurs,” Alanís points out.

Each of their blends is named after a firearm, in reference to the coffee shop’s name itself: Pistola as a symbol of the world’s greatest revolutions—such as the specialty coffee revolution. They are also “fighting” for the Mexican coffee identity, taking advantage that the country is in a strategic location, with the potential and the chance to provide good coffee to neighboring countries, such as the United States, which is the largest consumer of specialty coffees in the world.

With their own ammunition (good quality coffee, affordable price, local beans), the founders of Café Pistola want to hit their target and help transform the scene of Mexican coffee. A revolution that is worth fighting for.

Rafael Tonon is a freelance journalist based in Brazil. Read more Rafael Tonon on Sprudge.

The post Starting A Coffee Revolution In Monterrey With Café Pistola appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Giving someone a nice, warm cup of coffee is a small act of kindness that, combined with other small acts of kindness, could increase your overall karmic quotient leading to some grand cosmic benefit at some unknown point in this or future lives. It may also have a more direct benefit for those looking to reap their just desserts in this lifetime. According to a study, holding a warm drink makes people more generous.

As reported by WPTV, the study suggests that “people are more likely to give something to others if they hold something warm” and that holding a cold beverage has the opposite effect. Performed by Yale University professor of psychology John A. Barg and PdD student Lawrence E. Williams, the study had participants hold either a hot or a cold coffee before asking them to assess the personality traits of an individual whom they knew nothing about beyond the “packet of information” given to them during the experiment. Questions were broken down into two categories: those related to warm/cold distinctions (generous/ungenerous, happy/unhappy, good-natured/irritable, sociable/anti-social, and caring/selfish) and those unrelated (attractive/unattractive, carefree/serious, talkative/quiet, strong/weak, and honest/dishonest).

The researchers found that participants who held hot drinks rated the subject as “significantly ‘warmer’” than those that held cold drinks for all questions related to the warm/cold distinction. They also found no difference in the responses from either group to the questions unrelated to warm/cold.

And it is more than just how others are perceived that is affected, but also how participants interacted with them. In a second study, participants could were told they could “receive a gift certificate for a friend or a gift for themselves.” Those holding the warmer item were more likely to give the gift to a friend, whereas those holding the cold item were more inclined to keep it for themselves.

“It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behavior as well,” Bargh said. “Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer – more generous and trusting – as well.”

Now, I’m not saying that people who drink hot coffee are more generous, caring individuals or that iced coffee/cold brew drinkers are selfish curmudgeons only looking out for themselves. Science is. Science is saying that. If that gets your cold brew straw all in a twist, take it up with them. Though, I’m not sure giving them a piece of your mind is quite as generous as it sounds.

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 © Emil Durov/Adobe Stock

The post Holding Hot Coffee Makes You More Generous appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News