Best Coffee in Honolulu – The Curb Kaimuki

There will be no brew eyes crying in the rain today as Texas legend and true American hero, the one and only Willie Hugh Nelson has announced his own line of CBD-infused coffee. That’s right, the 85-year-old country music icon known for his greener predilections has created Willie’s Remedy, a line of cannabidiol-infused products, and the first one set to be released is coffee.

According to GuideLive, the whole bean coffee will deliver a 5mg dose of CBD in every eight-ounce cup. Willie’s Remedy won’t get you high, though. CBD lacks the psychoactive-inducing properties associated with marijuana; that comes from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and can be found in Willie’s Reserve, Nelson’s strain of marijuana launched in 2015.

Modern country music is complete vapid garbage. It’s banal top-40 trash about a rural life the performers never lived, sung with an affected twang they didn’t come by honestly. But Willie. I fuck with Willie. Everyone does. He is literally the only artist you and your probably-racist uncle can agree on. The pride of Abbot, Texas. You’re welcome.

Willie’s Remedy, the “hemp derived cannabis products to supplement a legendary life well-lived” per their website, will debut in Colorado some time in September. From what little can be gleaned from the website, the whole bean coffee will be “small batch” roasted, “infused with full spectrum CBD oil derived from American sourced and organically grown hemp,” and sold in eight-ounce tins.

Willie’s Remedy adds to an increasingly crowded field marijuana-based coffee products. There are cold brews in both THC and CBD varieties, coffee pods, dehydrated coffee, and even an American coffee shop where cannabis products can be consumed on premises. But Willie’s Remedy marks the first whole bean offering (to our knowledge), proving yet again that Willie Nelson is truly a pioneer.

God bless Willie Nelson and God bless Texas.

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

Top image via Willie’s Remedy.

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Source: Coffee News

Can someone please tell the JAB Holding Company that the coffee industry isn’t just a big game of Katamari Damacy, because they seem dead set on rolling through every coffee company until they’ve created some sort of Frankenstein’s monster coffee star. The Luxembourg-based investment firm has already swallowed up big time coffee brands like Peet’s, Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Caribou, Keurig, and Pret A Manger, and now they have turned a lustful gaze at one of the largest independent coffee companies left: Illy.

But there’s another player, a cousin of Prince JAB to keep the Katametaphor going, with interest in the 85-year-old coffee company, none other than Nestlé.

According to Bloomberg, the Swiss company is looking to add to their coffee portfolio that includes homegrown brands Nescafé and Nespresso as well as acquired entities like Blue Bottle and the rights to market Starbucks products. But neither Nestlé or JAB are going to have an easy time adding to their collection as Illy Chairman Andrea Illy has stated that, “Every hypothesis of corporate agreements has been deemed inappropriate.” For now.

Were a sale to occur (and let’s be honest, it’s probably going to happen, right?), financial experts believe the bidding would start at a cool $1.6 billion, roughly three times Illy’s yearly revenue based on 2016 earnings.

Illy’s market share in the coffee space has stagnated at around .2 percent since 2008, whereas Italian competitor Lavazza has increased from 2 to 2.5 percent in that same time frame thanks to acquisitions like that of French brand Carte Noir. Experts believe that this stagnation—along with the acquisitions happening all around them—will make it harder and harder for Illy carve out their own space in the coffee industry:

For now, Illy remains independent. One would think that $539 million in annual revenue across 140 countries would insulate a company from talks about not being able to compete in a global market and acquisitions. But that’s just not the case in the current coffee marketplace, where power is quickly consolidating around only a handful of brands (with a few new players trying to gain ground). It seems if you want to be a multi-national independent coffee company nowadays, you need to turn those M’s to B’s.

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

Top image via AWS Productions.

Disclosure: Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, and Stumptown are advertising partners of the Sprudge Media Network.

The post JAB and Nestlé Are Looking To Acquire Illy appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Many coffee companies started small. Before they were a multi-national entity, Blue Bottle for instance got their start at a local farmer’s market. It is an origin story not uncommon in the specialty coffee world, but our next entry into the Build-Outs of Summer has a twist. Lynchburg, Virginia’s Golf Park Coffee started out like many others, selling coffee at local community events, but unlike others, Golf Park only served cold brew.

That’s all changed now, though, with the opening of their brand new brick-and-mortar cafe and full service coffee bar. You will of course still be able to get cold brew, but now Golf Park is offering espresso drinks and filter options courtesy of Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Company, themselves a Build-Outs alum. So let’s head down to Kentucky to check in (and maybe slam a cold brew or two for old time’s sake) on the new Gold Park Coffee in Lynchburg.

As told to Sprudge by Carl Arvidson.

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

We started Golf Park back in 2014 as a pop-up cold brew company. Over the past four years we have been a part of many local events—music festivals, holiday markets, weddings, and other private functions. In 2016, we had the opportunity to compete for a grant that the City of Lynchburg was offering—and we were awarded some money to expand our business. We used that money to purchase our cold brew trike. The trike is now a staple at our local community market each Saturday morning and we love using it around town.

We didn’t think opening a shop was the right move for us during the first few years. We wanted to focus on our pop-up coffee service and get to know our community in a way that enabled us to be mobile. Our plans changed, as they often do, when we were presented with the space that we are moving into and we feel really good about the direction we’re headed with our brick and mortar.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

The new space is located inside the Bedford Exchange, a 33,000-square-foot business incubator, just off of Lynchburg’s popular Rivermont Ave. The opportunity to be a part of the revitalization of Bedford Avenue is something we are really looking forward to. Serving the Lynchburg community in a new space that encourages collaboration and the flow of ideas seems like the perfect spot for us to be.

We were drawn to this location because of the natural light—it’s basically all windows. The bright, open space pairs well with our minimalistic design scheme. Creating a space that fosters community is super important to us. The room is anchored by a 10ft-long community table—perfect for conducting business, working solo, or meeting new people. The perimeter of the shop features a wrap-around window bar that overlooks the street.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Our approach to coffee is pretty simple—we brew what we like. We try our best to stay out of the way of the coffee itself. Our cold brew is best enjoyed straight up over ice so you can really get a feel for the complex, rich flavors of the beans we use. It’s our goal to do the same with our full-service coffee bar.

Over the past four years, we have been working with Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Company, based in Richmond, VA. We’ve developed a great relationship with their team and regularly consult with them for our offerings—these guys know their coffee and we respect what they are doing in the coffee industry in Virginia and beyond. Blanchard’s honors each coffee’s story with a commitment to sustainability in the global coffee community through responsible sourcing, stewardship, and thoughtful roasting.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We are going to be working with a La Marzocco Linea EE and a Mahlkönig K30 for our espresso program. We will offer a house blend drip coffee as well as an ever changing single origin option.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

Our current target opening date is July 6

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

We’ve been really lucky to basically have our entire shop built by our friends. It’s been one of the most special things to experience. Seeing people become as excited as we are about our new location has been extremely humbling and so cool to watch. Our community is full of talented craftspeople and we’ve been so lucky to tap into their expertise on this venture.

Daryl Calfee, one of the owners of the Bedford Exchange, has played an instrumental role in helping us get to this point and we are so grateful for his guidance and support.

Thank you!

Thank you!!!

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: Golf Park Coffee In Lynchburg, VA appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Breaking news coming out of the Food and Drug Administration today as they announced that alternative milks aren’t actually milk at all. Wild, I know. But it turns out that these alternative milks—y’know, nut, soy, oat, etc, the ones defined specifically by their not containing lactose (lacktose)—aren’t technically milks because they don’t have lactose.

According to Politico, the FDA is going to start cracking down on the marketing of alternative milks as “milk,” because it is apparently confusing and may lead to someone accidentally not buying cow milk when they really want cow mi… oh look! Cashews! I wonder how they got cashews in that cow’s milk. Better buy a carton and find out without reading anything else on the packaging.

Or as FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb puts it, “An almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.” Which is maybe a funny joke that would have elicited a snicker in the hippy dippy Meet The Parents sequel, Meet The Fockers, but it’s hardly a guiding principle by which the government should be making regulations. The FDA will be issuing “a guidance document outlining changes to its so-called standards of identity policies for marketing milk.”

Not to Whataboutism this to the high heavens, but really? This is what the government is spending time on? How is it that Conservatives—the party of limited government and unfettered capitalism—have decided that they, the government, should step in here? Shouldn’t we get to call anything we want a “milk” and let the market determine if it is or not? Isn’t that how that works? I understand it’s a stupid way of doing things, but isn’t that what the whole conservative economic platform is all about?

And further, who in the hell decided that “milk” was defined by a presence of lactose? Sure, the first milk humans presumably encountered (breast milk) contained lactose, but that hardly seems like the defining characteristic. When someone describes something as “milky,” are they commenting on how much lactose is present? Or are they describing some other quality—a creamy texture perhaps—one that is in cow’s milk, oat milk, nut milk, coconut milk, soy milk, milk oolong, and so on? It’s clear the government is in the pockets of Big Udders.

Anyway, Gottlieb states that the FDA will “soon start gathering public comment before taking next steps in redefining the rules for milk products.” So pretty soon you’ll have to order a tall iced latte with an “almond-based alternative to milk but definitely not milk,” or whatever cumbersome new naming convention the FDA will come up with.

Please no one tells these rubes about turkey bacon.

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

The post Are Name Changes Coming For Non-Dairy Milks? appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

When is a Build-Out not a build-out? When it’s a knock out. Which is to say, when the space next to an already existing cafe becomes available, allowing for a much-needed expansion via knocking out a wall or two. That’s the story for the partially new Spencer’s Coffee in Bowling Green, Kentucky. When the law firm next door unexpectedly closed, Spencer’s had the rare chance boost their seating capacity (because 80+ just wasn’t enough) while still serving the neighborhood they love. It’s win-win, especially if you are one of those 50 people that now has room to sidle to up to a table and enjoy some baked goods made in house along with one of the offerings from Sunergos Coffee, Spencer’s main roaster. So grab a cup of coffee and fan out, there’s room for everyone at the new and improved Spencer’s Coffee in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

As told to Sprudge by Justin Shepherd.

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

Originally a cozy coffee shop, we’ve grown into what we call a “coffee-centric restaurant” over the past 17 years. We serve both breakfast and lunch, a full menu of coffee and espresso, craft beer, fresh pastries… basically everything you need for a fulfilling existence. We’re located in the historic downtown square of Bowling Green, Kentucky’s third-largest city and home to Western Kentucky University, whose campus is just a few blocks away. Our clientele is a vibrant mix of professionals (bankers/lawyers/etc), young families, and plenty of college students, particularly in the evenings. We’re also the host of My Old Kentucky Throwdown—a once-a-year latte art competition that’s undoubtedly one of the largest in the south, boasting a 64-person bracket and competitors from literally all over the country, including a number of CoffeeFest champs.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Spencer’s Coffee is located in a 200-year-old brick beauty called the Landmark Building, which housed a JCPenney department store about a century ago. With 2,500 square feet and 80+ seats (along with another 40 outdoors), we were already pretty large, but the neighboring law firm (part of the same building) closed suddenly when our friend and attorney Brad Coffman passed away; as the last real option for expansion in our current space, we decided to jump on the opportunity. We added just under 50 seats, most of them geared toward readers and laptop users—these people were already our customers, but now they have a dedicated space that’s a little quieter than our main room, plus it frees up the more traditional four-tops in our main space for larger parties. We also gained a conference room, which will seat 8-10 and be good for meetings, both for customers and for our own staff sit-downs.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We used to use the tagline “Great coffee, made simple.” We offer a variety of coffees from Sunergos Coffee of Louisville; a majority of our filter sales are batch brew, though we do offer by-the-cup options made on a Curtis Gold Cup. We’ve also got the standard array of espresso-and-milk drinks, along with seasonal creations. We strive to give our customers as much or as little information as they want—we can talk brew methods, processing, flavor notes, and extraction ratios if that’s your thing, but we don’t force it on anyone. Oh, and we’ve got both nitro cold brew (brewed in-house) and Matchless Coffee Soda on tap.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We were fortunate to work with Jacob Ellul-Blake of Pantechnicon Designs a couple years back; he customized our wood-and-white three-group La Marzocco Linea PB, which was the first of its kind (we’ve seen a few more around since). We’re big fans of the Nuova Simonelli Mythos One, and our FETCO has been crushing rushes for years now without a single hiccup.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

We opened the new space a few weeks ago, and while it’s already popular, the real test will come when WKU is back in session in mid-August; in spring and fall, we often run out of seating, so it’ll be interesting to see how many people we can comfortably pack in!

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

One of our longtime baristas, Benjamin Fox-Ezell, crafted a pretty sick retail display cabinet; woodworkers Stephen Gordon and Ben Hughes built out our community tables and countertops in the new space; Rustic Nail and Co. crafted the custom steel legs for the communal tables; and Brock Coffey Construction did the renovation work (and yes, we might have chosen them based on the last name alone).

Thank you!

Longtime Sprudge reader, first-time submitter! Thanks for keeping the coffee world informed.

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: Spencer’s Coffee In Bowling Green, KY appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

We’ve said it before but Melbourne has become something of a hotbed of food, coffee, and wine over the years. There are so many specialty coffee shops and boutique cafes that you can find at least one in every neighborhood, and a generation of hospitality professionals who are spending lots of time working for other people before opening their own spaces. These new businesses often become even more niche and focused than the venues that spawned their owners: think niche shops focusing in and limiting their offerings, or very small venues in previously un-catered-to areas. So it’s even more surprising when a venue takes on an ambitious space, choosing to prioritize areas that the owner hasn’t necessarily specialized in.

Take, for example, Wild Life Bakery. Opened in September 2017 by Huw Murdoch, Wild Life found its home in a warehouse in the inner-north Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, with a focus on high-quality bread. Murdoch is a familiar face in Melbourne, having managed Market Lane Coffee’s Therry Street store for six years, with long stints in cafes and restaurants while studying jazz performance at Monash University. Over the years, he began baking sourdough at home and slowly realized that it far outshined the bread he could buy around his local neighborhood of Brunswick.

Sometimes when a business arises from a business owner’s hobby or passion, they tend to try and take on that role professionally, which doesn’t always work out. While Murdoch did toy with the idea of translating his love of bread into working in the bakery day-to-day, the venue he found ultimately dictated the way the business was structured. “It came down to the size of the site that I found,“ he says. “If I’d found a hole-in-the-wall to sell bread and some coffee out of, I would have thought more about trying to be the baker and to learn on the job a bit. But once I thought hard about the kind of venue it would need to be to work, I realized that I was much more qualified to run the front of house. For new businesses particularly, it’s nice for the locals to actually meet and talk with the owner, which is something that I can do out front but probably couldn’t have done out the back.”

Walking into Wild Life, one is struck by just how large the space is. It’s a huge light-filled warehouse that’s been lovingly transformed by Sarah Trotter of Hearth Studio into a beautifully compartmentalized space encompassing a well-sized kitchen, a dedicated bakery (with large circular peepholes in so that customers can view the magic), and a T-shaped island that houses the bread display and barista station. Light filters in from skylights, while tables and chairs luxuriously spread out in front of the bakery windows and kitchen pass.

Murdoch outlined his motivations for the business: “My aim was always to make a simple space that focused on sourdough bread, with the hope that eventually I’d find smaller local grain suppliers, and possibly make some positive contribution to supporting farmers growing higher-quality, less commodity-focused products.”

The menu here is (understandably) bread-focused, with a kimchi toastie on the menu from day one, whiles grains sneak their way in in non-bread form via porridges and the like. Murdoch has taken inspiration from folks like SQIRL in Los Angeles, and Tartine in San Francisco (pre-Manufactory). “Bar Tartine, and their philosophy of trying to make everything in-house, is something we think about a lot,” he adds. 

These inspirations come to light in things like Wild Life’s delicious take on Tartine’s salted rye cookie recipe, or their delectable range of Viennoiseries and sweet treats, but it’s an inspiration that blends beautifully with Murdoch’s choice of a unique menu; you won’t find poached eggs on avocado toast coming out of this kitchen, but you will find one of the best gazpachos you’ll ever have (accompanied by a cheese toastie, of course).

While the bread and food are definitely a huge draw, the beverage offering is expectedly no slouch—with Market Lane Coffee being brewed either through the La Marzocco Linea or as pour-over filter coffee, and a small wine and beer offering rounding out the all-day menu with a focus on approachable minimal-intervention delights from folks like Jamsheed Winery and La Sirene Brewery (thanks to a pre-exisiting liquor license from the building’s previous tenants).

While Murdoch intends to continue to bring good bread to the Brunswick locals, his non-glutenous goals for the future are equally noble. “I just really want to run a business where everyone is treated and paid well and correctly,“ he says. “It’s kind of ridiculous that I can take any pride in paying all of my staff the award wage, but it’s still pretty rare in Australian hospitality businesses, which is sad. I’m still very much learning how to run a business, so it’s early days, but creating and maintaining a positive work environment and culture is probably my main priority.”

Eileen P. Kenny is a coffee professional, winemaker, and Sprudge Media Network contributor based in Melbourne. Read more Eileen P. Kenny on Sprudge.

The post Melbourne: Sourdough And Coffee Find A New Home At Wild Life Bakery appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Over the past very troubling 18 months, America has become increasingly hostile toward refugees and their families seeking to start a new life without living under the threat of violence. For its part, the coffee industry at large has pushed back on these encroaching hyper-nationalist tendencies in an attempt to show that a country of immigrants still welcomes immigrants. Efforts have ranged from nationwide fundraisers for the ACLU and ASAP to simple gestures of making it explicit that their cafe is a safe space for everyone.

And now Berkeley, California’s 1951 Coffee Company is looking to continue the conversation by exploring what it means to be a refugee in coffee in America. Taking place Tuesday July 24th, “Refugees Welcome? Perspectives on Inclusion in Specialty Coffee” will dive into what it means to be a refugee in America and the role the coffee industry has played in the process of resettling.

According to their website, 1951 Coffee is “a non-profit specialty coffee organization seeking to promote the well-being of the refugee community in the San Francisco Bay Area by providing job training and employment to refugees and asylees while educating the surrounding community about refugee life and issues.” For Refugees Welcome?, 1951 Coffee teamed up with the Bay Area Coffee Community (BACC) to host a panel discussion on “employing refugees in the coffee industry.” Panelists will include graduates of 1951’s barista training program that have gone on to find jobs at Blue Bottle, Dandelion Chocolate, and Mazarine Coffee who will be sharing their experiences as new baristas and new Americans.

After the panel discussion, 1951 Coffee and the BACC will “review some practical ways to implement more inclusive hiring, on-boarding, and training practices.”

Refugees Welcome? Perspectives on Inclusion in Specialty Coffee is free to attend but due to its limited capacity, 1951 Coffee asks that only coffee professionals come to the event. To register for the event, visit the Refugees Welcome? Eventbrite page. For more information, visit their Facebook event page.

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

Top image via 1951 Coffee.

The post Refugees Welcome? A Panel On The Perspectives Of Refugees In Coffee appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

How many times have we all fantasized about the day when we might pick up our life, pack it in a trailer, and drive towards our dreams? That’s exactly what Eighthirty Coffee Roasters founder Glenn Bell did in 2010. Finally prepared to pursue his long-held ambition of coffee roasting, and ready to move on from the cafe he was running in Wellington, it was time to head towards the land of New Zealand coffee opportunity—Auckland—and open a business all his own.

Eight years ago, Auckland was very much a city with traditional tastes—an espresso-based culture looking for consistent, full-bodied, dark chocolate long blacks and flat whites. Bell and his business partners set up a cafe and roasting space on the city’s famed K-Road (Karangahape), with the goal of building a community-based, values-centered business serving great coffee.

“I want our spaces to have a sense of discovery,” says Christy Tennent, general manager and co-owner of Eighthirty, and indeed, discovering each Eighthirty shop has its own sense of newness and wonder, with every cafe very different from the next. Eighthirty’s design team, led by architect Dominic Glamuzina, has allowed the bones of the individual spaces to shine through. Eighthirty’s branding and color palette are worked tastefully into each setting, sometimes providing the only stroke of color in rooms otherwise dominated by bare wood or black and white. Yet the main accents of beauty in each shop are still the spaces themselves—as in the cement floors and industrial windows at their High Street location, or the vaulted ceilings and crossbeams in the 1920’s Tasman Building on Anzac Avenue, or the huge exposed brick walls at K-Road. The vibe within these spaces is a perfect fit: great music playing, open concept, clean, modern coffee bars proudly and straightforwardly displaying their equipment. There is a youthful energy present at each one of their cafes and it is a breath of fresh air in a city where consumers are still a bit stuck in their old ways.

One glance around the roastery shows a view peppered with some of the best equipment on the market. Espresso is being served on a La Marzocco Strada MP and ground through a Nuova Simonelli Mythos. Move further down the bar past a Mahlkönig EK-43 and you find New Zealand’s first Modbar, serving up pour-overs on V60’s. But as Tennent excitedly points out, the true showpiece of the room is the company’s sparkling Loring S35 Kestrel roaster, which produces their cafes’ rotating selection of blends and single origins to please a wide range of flavor preferences—from traditional Aucklanders’ to those of a newer school, all under the purview of Eighthirty’s Head of Coffee, Jessica MacDonald. “After returning from London where I was working for Square Mile [Coffee Roasters] I realized Auckland’s coffee felt a bit stagnant in comparison,” said MacDonald. “Customers were choosing consistency and darker roasts over experimentation. Locals were set in their ways.”

But over the last few years, customers have become more curious and aware of different origins and are requesting to try coffees from different countries, rather than just those they are used to, MacDonald says. Still, the company aims to have a little something for everyone. “We value our community and we want people to feel valued when they visit our cafes. That they can feel they are a part of something. Everyone is treated the same whether you are a hipster, homeless, or wearing a suit,” said Tennent. To that end of serving the community, Eighthirty has partnered with a number of organizations including a local male prison where they will be providing barista training to inmates.

It is exciting and inspiring to witness a business that after eight years still hasn’t lost the fire. Looking ahead, Eighthirty has plans to increase training initiatives with their community partners in the months and years to come. And as part of an upcoming renovation to their K-Road space, the company has hired head chef Maxine Woodnorth to create a more extensive food menu for that location, with plans to expand to the other shops soon after. In a time when Auckland’s coffee culture is now rapidly advancing, and when the world is in need of a sense of community, Eighthirty is providing beautiful spaces where people can come together for a thoughtful coffee.

Peter de Vooght is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more Peter de Vooght on Sprudge.

The post Eighthirty Coffee Roasters: Moving Auckland Beyond Traditional Tastes appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

China is shaping up to be the next battleground in the big coffee chain wars. In the past week alone, two major developments—backed by some serious investments—have been announced as two brands are making big pushes to challenge Starbucks in the world’s most populated country.

The first brand is homegrown. As Crunchbase reports, Chinese startup Luckin Coffee has raised $200 million in investment capitol, putting their total valuation at a staggering $1 billion. From the article, Luckin is “working to provide an upscale experience at a reasonable price point… using a mass-store model to compete with Starbucks in China.” Starbucks currently has over 3,300 stores in China, its second biggest market outside of the United States.

The next competitor comes from North America—Canada to be specific—with Tim Horton’s announcing plans to open 1,500 stores in China. According to The Guardian, the stores are scheduled to open over the course of the next decade, adding to the Canadian coffee chain’s 4,700 locations.

With a population nearing 1.4 billion, China makes sense as the next big coffee brand frontier. These two brands alone may soon combine to eclipse the number of Starbucks stores in the country. The winner in this heavyweight battle—should there be a winner, and let’s be honest, there’s probably room for all three to thrive—remains to be seen. But for now we know that a lot of money and a LOT of coffee are coming to China.

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

The post Starbucks Is About To Have A Lot Of Competition In China appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There have been more than a few times in my life where I had maaaaaybe just a little too much to drink when I would perhaps be better suited to be wide eyed and bushy tailed, like the night before finals in college, say. And in those times, I’d find myself looking for any magical elixir to cure what ails me; calculus is hard enough as is without seeing double. I would of course chug a lug of as much coffee as I could get my hands on, hoping for the best. But these efforts it seems were in vain as science has concluded that caffeine won’t sober you up.

In theory, coffee as an antidote for alcohol makes sense: alcohol makes you cloudy and unable to focus and coffee gives you focus. They should cancel each other out, right? Not so says The Independent. Based on the research of Professor Tony Moss of London South Bank University, the article notes that while coffee will make you feel more alert, it doesn’t do anything to curb alcohol’s effects on your hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

To test his theory, Professor Moss got five college students equally drunk (calculating the amount of vodka tonics to serve them based on body weight) and gave them each a hand-eye coordination test where they had to “guide a metal hoop around a wire without touching it.” They all failed. Each of the participants were then given a cup of coffee and asked to perform the test again. They all failed again.

The results jibe with a 2009 study where instead of using college students as lab rabs, lab rats were used as lab rats. In that study, drunken lab rats and drunken and then caffeinated lab rates performed equally poorly—and far below the levels of sober rats—at finding their way around a maze.

“Taking coffee is a stimulant that will reverse that feeling of being slightly tired as your blood alcohol is coming down,” Professor Moss stated, but “the only thing that’s going to sober you up in that respect is a bit of time.”

So coffee isn’t going to sober you up. Only time and a healthy amount of water will do that. But coffee is like 98% water, so while you are waiting to get right, you might as well enjoy a nice warm cup of mostly hydration.

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

Top image via Morbotron.

The post Coffee Won’t Help You Sober Up appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News