Coffee Shop Archives - Page 19 of 73 - The Curb Kaimuki

Dusk settles onto the city and the light starts to fade. Several baristas slip one by one past a “Closed” sign and into Commissary Barber and Barista, arranging themselves at a corner table. Soon the surface of the table is littered with books, pens, paper, coffee cups, and dice.

“Everybody ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

“We let off on the deck of the Whistlepig, having just booked passage to begin the quest to find Mr. Thistlebelle’s lost wife, can I get a constitution check?”

The baristas reach for their dice and each roll one D20.

“Natural twenty+two.”

“I got a five+seven.”

“Ha!” “Seventeen+three!”

***

Indianapolis, Indiana is a coffee community with many events. But there is nothing quite like the monthly meeting of baristas who play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that has been around since the ‘70s and is experiencing a recent upsurge in popularity around the country.

This group meets the third Monday of the month, either at coffee shops, or members’ houses. Known as Barista Bards, the group features a cast of four main characters and a rotating cast of guests.

The Dungeon Master takes a sip of her cappuccino and clears her throat:

“Alright, after dinner and a short rest, Taltos, you find yourself suddenly awake in the middle of the night.” She slowly looks around, pointing at one of the players.

“All around you is eerie quiet, none of the usual sounds of busy ship’s crew, and as you look out the window you notice a thick, viscous fog surrounding the boat.”

“What do you want to do?”

Taltos, a rogue wood elf with red hair and copper skin springs out of bed and nudges his companion, Thurk (pronounced hurk, silent T) a dwarf barbarian.

“Let’s go.”

Thurk rolls over—a difficulty, since he is as thick as he is tall—grunts, and goes back to sleep. Taltos gives up on the idea of getting Thurk out of bed and stealthily sneaks up onto deck, looking around apprehensively.

“All you see is the fog surrounding the ship, all you hear are waves lapping against the sides of the ship, UNTIL you see a crumpled shape near the wheel, do you want to go closer?”

Taltos tiptoes up to the figure, coming closer, he realizes that the skin is disfigured, the entire left side scalded beyond recognition. Taltos turns and runs to his employer’s cabin:

“Thistles, Thistles!”

“I need you!”

A rotund gnome wearing a nightdress and slippers clears his throat.

“Ahem” blinks slowly and says condescendingly.

“The name is THISTLEBELLE.”

Everyone around the table laughs, startling the barista at the counter counting money. The game breaks so the manager can check her close; this was, until only a few moments ago, a working specialty coffee bar. He gives her a thumbs up and heads back to the table.

“Thistlebelle snaps his fingers and his familiar, an orange fox, jumps on Thurk, sniffing, pawing, and poking his wet nose everywhere until Thurk wakes with a start ‘Garrrumph.’”

“No time for any of that,” Thistlebelle barks. “Let’s go!”

***

Much has been written about the cafe’s capacity for community building; it is a concept as old as the cafe itself. But the social component of a life spent in cafes burns no less brightly for those who make it their chosen career path. In Indianapolis, the strength of the coffee industry’s community has long been in League of Lattes, a monthly latte art throwdown series. But as the specialty coffee culture here has evolved, so have the ways in which coffee professionals connect to each other. The Indianapolis barista D&D group began last year with two baristas at Bee Coffee Roasters discussing past campaigns on a morning bar shift. As word spread, baristas from several shops expressed interest. There are now three separate campaigns combining baristas from smaller shops such as Bee Coffee and Commissary, alongside powerhouse shops like The Well and Provider (nominated for a Best New Cafe Sprudgie Award in 2018)

There are reasons so many coffee professionals are interested in D&D. Coffee culture often parallels nerd culture, with both communities built around unironic enthusiasm and pursuit of passion in niche interests. Specialty coffee as an industry is, in part, an exploration of the impact we can make through coffee in our world, reached through an emphasis on methodology and social interaction. While D&D is an exploration of fantasy worlds, players find success the same way, via social interaction and tactical methodology.

Both cultures reward geekery. Both cultures are increasingly inclusive. A female-identifying Dungeon Master—like a female-identifying roaster, cafe owner, or barista champion—used to be something unusual. Now it’s just part of the fun.

After grabbing a round of beers, the baristas turn back to the business at hand.

“Alright, you’ve woken up Thurk and Mr. Thistlebelle and the three of you are standing on the deck when you realize there is a disturbance in the air around you, a green glow illuminates the outlines of a vague shape.” The DM pulls out several miniatures and arranges them on the deck of a ship drawn on tracing paper.

“Roll initiative.” (Initiative determines the order of turns during combat.)

Several dice clack their way across the table top.

“Thistlebelle, you’re up first.”

“You see an arm-like shape detach itself from the smoke monster in front of you, as it swipes the air, you duck, but it catches the edge of your shoulder, tearing the fabric of your coat and raising welts.”

“I want to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.”

Thistlebelle turns to the creature with a wry smile on his face “How do you punish coffee?” He pauses. “You ground it!”

The entire table breaks into laughter and groans.

“Well, I am a coffee merchant.”

The DM rolls a wisdom save for the creature. “It’s a seven, they fall prone on the deck of the ship.”

Thurk: “Well at least that joke was good for something.”

Taltos and Thurk take their turns and one by one the rest of the miniatures disappear off the ship as they handily kill them off.

“Congratulations guys, you’ve won your first battle of the adventure.”

The baristas stretch, looking around the empty shop. Books, pens, and maps disappear into backpacks. Coffee cups clatter as the table is cleared.

“Same time next month?”

“Yep.”

One by one the baristas put their coats on and slip out the door into the night, leaving the shop silent and dark.

Joanna Thompson is a coffee professional based in Indianapolis. This is Joanna Thompson’s first feature for Sprudge.

Top image by Lara Antal.

The post Barista Bards: A Dungeons & Dragons League For The Indianapolis Coffee Community appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

What does it take to reach the upper echelons of coffee competition? Really good coffee and lots of practice are probably two things we can all agree are required, but beyond that it’s a bit of a black box for those of us who only count ourselves as spectators. In a new video series, April Coffee Roasters’ Patrik Rolf—fresh off his second place finish at the 2019 World Brewers Cup run in Boston—peels back the curtain to help demystify the coffee competition process by discussing, for better or worse, everything that went into his routine.

Available now on YouTube, Rolf—the best 2019 competitor not named Du Jianing—explores every facet of his run to the Finals round of the World Brewers Cup in a new 12-part video series. The near combined two-hour total run time of the mini-sodes includes topics like: practice, green coffee, roasting, compulsory coffee, the presentation, coaching, and the score sheets. Rolf also dedicates a video to each of his First Round and Finals Round “Open Services,” where the competitors give their 10-minute presentations on the coffee they brought with them. The video series is one of the most in-depth looks into coffee competition from the viewpoint of a single competitor.

The video series offers a unique insight into what competing looks like proffered by a competitor who went from second-to-last in the 2018 World Brewers Cup to second in 2019. For those looking to get into competing or perhaps looking for a way to take the next steps, these videos would be a good way to spend two hours in the offseason.

For more information, check out the Reflections by Patrik Rolf video series on YouTube.

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 2019 World Brewers Cup Runner-Up Discusses Competition In New Video Series appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

In a world of rapidly rising costs of operation and living, it can feel impossible to make ends meet as a cafe worker. From barista to manager, it’s rare to find a job that offers a living wage, especially before you factor in tips—and, often, it’s not due to stinginess, but razor-thin profit margins on the part of owners. As this pinch grows tighter on all sides, it can become progressively harder for cafes (especially small ones) to gain and retain talent. As wholesale trainers who spend their days training baristas, Counter Culture Coffee educators Jenna Gotthelf of New York City and Hana Kaneshige of Los Angeles want to explore these issues through asking questions and gathering data. Counter Culture’s next Prodev—a quarterly continuing educational series exploring a range of topics relevant to coffee professionals—titled “Baristatainability” will focus on the sustainability of the barista profession.

Leading up to the prodev on June 12, Gotthelf and Kaneshige will be using three surveys to collect data from current and former cafe workers at all levels. These surveys—one for baristas, one for managers and trainers, and one for program directors and owners—will be live until May 5th.

Hana Kaneshige (left) and Jenna Gotthelf.

The coffee industry spends a lot of time focusing on issues coffee producers face, and rightly so, but as Gotthelf and Kaneshige’s project points out, baristas, too, are a critical link in the supply chain. If they can’t afford to stay in their jobs, the whole chain suffers the consequences. I talked with Gotthelf and Kaneshige about the inspiration, goals, and hopes that underpin this project. Read on to learn more about Baristatainability.

Hey Jenna, hey Hana. How long have you both been in coffee?

Jenna Gotthelf: I’ve been working in coffee for eight years.

Hana Kaneshige: About nine years, but in specialty coffee for the last four or five.

What about your experience in coffee inspired you to choose this prodev topic?

HK: Jenna!

JG: Seven of my eight years in the coffee industry were working as a barista behind the bar. I love making coffee for people. The ritual and routine of working behind the bar is satisfying and fun, but it seems like it is a job that comes with an expiration date.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard “you can’t be a barista forever,” I would have enough money to be a barista forever. I watched my colleagues move on from the bar to different jobs in the industry—working in sales, as trainers/educators, as technicians, etc. I felt pressure to do the same, not just because my peers were doing it but because the quality of my life was suffering as a result. It is difficult to make a living wage as a barista.

Barista work is skilled labor. It takes time to hone in and cultivate those skills. We need to change the perception of being a barista from a job with an expiration date to a skilled career full of potential.

How does this topic relate to your jobs as educators for a wholesaler?

JG: We work with and train thousands of baristas a year from a diversity of coffee-serving businesses. We are responsible for inspiring new generations of coffee people. I think it is important to understand where people are coming from, whether it is a restaurant, a small boutique cafe, or a very busy coffee shop so we can deliver information in ways that makes people want to do their jobs.

HK: As a wholesaler, we primarily work with retailers—a large chunk of our time is spent training new hires. However, the most efficient cafes and operations seem to have staff members that have been around a long time, and who know the ins and outs of the business and how to make coffee. When business owners are asking how they can be more efficient or streamline the business, retention is huge—a well-trained employee is far more effective than two brand new employees. It’s helpful (and healthy) to have a mix of both, but workplaces that are able to retain all levels of employees seem to have the best work environment.

What are some of the main issues you see coffee professionals facing at the cafe level?

JG: A major issue I see is not being able to make a living wage or having to work well over 40 hours a week to live reasonably. Not having health insurance is another major issue. Working in a cafe is physical work. There is a lot of wear and tear. If folks aren’t able to take care of themselves because they don’t have access to healthcare, they can’t do their jobs.

HK: It’s a mix of things. For baristas, it’s the need to work multiple jobs or seek promotions to earn a living wage, or to move out of coffee entirely when they are ready for a “real” life (i.e. need health insurance, are looking to start a family, etc.). I’ve also seen baristas seeking promotions they didn’t necessarily want, but are looking for a higher level of benefits or wages.

For those in management, as well as baristas, burnout is very real—the pressure to work day in and day out with minimal days off and minimal opportunity for actual time off.

There seems to be a degree of disconnect between all levels of those working in cafes/owning cafes/managing programs that contributes to devaluing certain positions. Ultimately, baristas are the link between everything we stand for in coffee supply chains and the consumer. We need them to both enjoy their jobs and want to do their jobs.

What do you think needs to happen in the specialty coffee industry to make cafe positions sustainable?

HK: An assessment of wages (of course!) and how to empower staff members so they feel like they are part of something. Trust goes a long way, and fostering a solid and sustainable work environment (in my opinion) involves communication happening across all levels, and confidence that your manager can do your job just as well (if not better) than you can. People have different skill sets, we should reward and encourage that as we aim to be an actually inclusive industry.

JG: Baristas need to be able to make a living wage in healthy work environments without having to compromise.

Why do you feel that coffee workers outside of the cafe need to think about these issues?

HK: A good workplace is a good workplace. There are commonalities that can be applied across the board for those who enjoy (or don’t enjoy) their work environment.

It’s pretty costly to train new employees in anything from the ground up—any industry, coffee included, should be aware of that fact. Those who aren’t in the cafe still generally rely on those in cafes to showcase our product. Even with the rise of subscription services and direct-to-consumer outlets, a lot of people are still being introduced to specialty coffee through cafe, restaurant, or hotel environments. All of these environments have staff members.

JG: Baristas are the most public-facing part of the industry. They are the link between consumers and the rest of the coffee supply cycle. The cafe is a launching point for the coffee industry. If we can have healthy launching points, then we are on our way to a healthier industry.

What changes do you hope to see come out of this project?

JG: I hope to see a shift in the perception of the barista profession.

HK: I’m hoping to see more questions! Having reviewed a few surveys so far, I just want to gather more and more information. Ultimately, one of my goals is to see what makes people want to stay at their job, versus what makes people want to leave their job, and work toward developing a guide for a more sustainable workplace.

What is one thing you want people to take away from this project?

HK: That sustainability is multifaceted—it’s important to consider all aspects, whether it be where our coffee is coming from to how we operate our businesses.

JG: This project is a catalyst. It would rule to see this ProDev grow into other projects, spark conversations, and help with projects that are already happening.

If you currently work or have ever worked in a cafe, take the surveys here:

Baristas: https://forms.gle/TCX6GBtTqLsDDVeVA

Managers/Trainers: https://forms.gle/MyhixJKfa3umaZM68

Program Directors/Owners: https://forms.gle/UuPjwA2FzZD1fYhB9

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of The Knockbox, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

Disclosure: Counter Culture Coffee is an advertising partner on the Sprudge Media Network. 

The post Concerned About A Barista Living Wage? Take This Survey appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Will Frith (Photo by Huynh Nguyen Tan Phat)

Welcome to the Sprudge Twenty interviews presented by Pacific Barista Series! Read more about the Sprudge Twenty and see all of our interviews here.

Nominated by Elizabeth Chai

Will Frith is a career coffee professional working to “change the way the world sees Vietnamese coffee.” Frith has roots in the American Pacific Northwest, working for companies including Batdorf & Bronson, Olympia Coffee Roasting Company, and Modbar. Today he is based in Ho Chi Minh City, where his work includes training and education for the city’s booming coffee scene, the development of his own concept cafe project, and a wide-reaching green coffee initiative built around introduction arabica varieties to a region traditionally known for robusta. Sprudge has covered Frith’s work in Vietnam since 2013, and we spoke with him digitally for this Sprudge Twenty interview, presented by Pacific Barista Series.

What issue in coffee do you care about most?

I care most about addressing the inequities throughout the supply chain—what people are paid for their work; access to information, resources, and community—and customer experience (also throughout the supply chain).

What cause or element in coffee drives you?

Caffeine and flavor are the elements in coffee that drive me! But seriously: fairness, developing potential, and sustainability.

What issue in coffee do you think is critically overlooked?

The fact that the people are the most important element, at every step, involved in producing the coffee experience for the consumer. It only takes one misstep, bad actor, or flippant comment to ruin the entire experience.

What is the quality you like best about coffee?

It brings people from many levels in society together. The enjoyment of good coffee (not limited to specialty or “third wave”) is something that anyone can access.

Did you experience a “god shot” or life-changing moment of coffee revelation early in your career?

Coffee and my passion for it revealed itself slowly over the course of many smaller great experiences. I can’t really narrow it down to a single beverage or time. The people who supported me, provided guidance, and shared their experience all worked together to provide a long-term, ongoing series of revelations that continue to inspire and drive me.

What is your idea of coffee happiness?

A quiet, slow morning with a cool, light breeze and a great view. A warm cup of filter coffee, nothing too fancy. Could be something great, could be something mediocre, as long as the moment itself is great.

If you could have any job in the coffee industry, what would it be and why?

Coffee Idea Person, a job where people come to me with coffee problems and I help to solve them, and I have a team of people to design and produce any gadgetry that I think up. It would be sort of what I do already, without all the hardest stuff. I really like what I already do, I just wish it was easier sometimes.

Who are your coffee heroes?

Trish Rothgeb (Wrecking Ball), Carmel Laurino (Kalsada), Oliver Stormshak (Olympia Coffee), Andrea Allen (Onyx Coffee), and Fuadi Pitsuwan (Beanspire).

If you could drink coffee with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

My maternal grandparents, who passed away a few years ago. Before they died I hadn’t had a chance to master their language sufficiently to really get to know them. They both had incredible lives, lived through war, poverty, migration. They were rice farmers with a typically huge family in the Mekong delta. I really would just want to know what their lives were like, what kinds of things they thought about when they weren’t immediately concerned with survival.

If you didn’t get bit by the coffee bug, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

Renewable energy and water reclamation are two subjects that have really captured my attention, but I haven’t made the kind of time needed to really dive deep into those things. I find them just as compelling as I do coffee, and if I spend the rest of my life in the coffee industry, I know I’ll eventually learn more about them. But my interest in these things definitely came as result of working in coffee…

Do you have any coffee mentors?

My heroes are also sort of my mentors (whether they volunteered to be or not). The people I’ve had the most formal mentorship-like relationships with have been Oliver Stormshak (Olympia Coffee) and Quang Nhat Trang (La Viet)—but these have been sort of co-mentoring relationships as well.

What do you wish someone would’ve told you when you were first starting out in coffee?

I think people might have even told me, but I was too immature to listen: slow down, focus on one thing at a time, and don’t try to do everything all at once.

Name three coffee apparatuses you’d take into space with you.

A duffel bag full of tasty instant coffee, a way to make ice, and a way to heat water.

Best song to brew coffee to:

Silly Love Songs, by Wings.

Look into the crystal ball—where do you see yourself in 20 years?

Using my experience in coffee growing areas to help other coffee growing areas address climate change. I’ll know my way around robusta as well as I do arabica, and will have been able to apply that learning to the problem of the climate crisis. Also it would be really cool to figure out how to grow robusta that tastes really great in the United States, because in 20 years our time may be up as an industry focused on special, far-away coffees cultivated with cheap labor.

What’d you eat for breakfast this morning?

Coffee. I’ve been playing with intermittent fasting (intermittently), and today was a fasting day.

When did you last drink coffee?

This morning, about an hour ago.

What was it?

An arabica blend from “Uncle” Son, who grows, processes, and roasts coffee in Dalat. I made an iced pour-over.

Thank you. 

The Sprudge Twenty is presented by Pacific Barista Series. For a complete list of 2019 Sprudge Twenty honorees please visit sprudge.com/twenty

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

The post Will Frith: The Sprudge Twenty Interview appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There’s been a real boom of coffee confections to make their way to the pages of Sprudge over the past week. We’ve seen ice cream topped with coffee chaff and three different varieties of cold brew gummy bears. But it’s a new week and we’re turning a corner in our coverage, pivoting towards more hard-hitting, pressing concerns in the world off coffee. Today we’ll be focusing on [checks note] coffee licorice. Okay then.

But these candies are just some shitty Red Vines (that’s right, Red Vines are shitty. I’m not even sure they are candy at all) dipped in old, dusty espresso. This new coffee licorice combo dombo is a collaboration between two Danish powerhouses in their respective fields, Lakrids by Bülow and the Coffee Collective. They’ve combined forces to create Lakrids C: Coffee Kieni, a sweet licorice coated in a blend of milk chocolate and Kenya Kieni coffee.

For anyone familiar with Copenhagen’s Coffee Collective—and not one of the many, many So-and-So Coffee Collectives copping their moniker, of which this writer is one of the guilty thieves (though one of the earliest thieves, if that’s better somehow)—it isn’t much of a surprise to see them collaborating in this fashion. Maybe the licorice-ness of it is a surprise, but the Coffee Collective has a long history of using coffee as a component of some larger product, be it a coffee cheese, kaffeekombucha, coffee caramel, coffee beer, or a very tasty coffee liqueur.

And as with other collabs, this new Coffee Collective jammer exceeds expectations. Upon receiving a press-exclusive sampler, resident licorice aficionado and Associate Editor Liz Clayton found the confection to be, quote, “delicious.” Per Clayton, Lakrids C “starts with a coffee, cream, and sugar vibe and crunches down into lush, rich licorice. Nothing too strong and disagreeable for those black licorice haters out there.”

“There’s enough chocolate and sugar at the front that it wouldn’t need to be one of the world’s best coffees inside… but it’s always nice to know that it is.”

For those looking to get a lick of licorice, Lakrids C: Coffee Kieni is available for purchase via both the Lakrids by Bülow and Coffee Collective webstores (but the Coffee Collective has it for a few bucks cheaper).

It’s clear that coffee is the perfect accoutrement for all manner of sugar. What will be the next collab? Coffee cotton candy by Cat & Cloud? Coffee cheesecake by Coffee Manufactory x the Cheesecake Factory? Coffee Sweet Tarts made by who else but Sweet Bloom and Heart? I wouldn’t say no to any of them.

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

All media via Lakrids by Bülow. 

The post Now Coffee Collective Is Making Coffee Licorice appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee in Armenia is like beer to Europeans. When you arrive, you’ll quickly learn that when a new friend invites you out for a drink, they don’t mean a pint of beer. It is almost always a coffee.

In homes, cafes, and restaurants, it is predominantly made with unfiltered, finely ground beans in a small pot, called a jezve or cezve. This is, of course, known as Turkish-style, though don’t say that to Armenians due to the historically tense relations between the two neighbors. Armenia, a small nation of three million, is also wedged between Georgia, Iran, and Azerbaijan. The people here see coffee as a staple of every meal. It comes dark and rich and, more often than not, sweet.

A landlocked country with a complex history, the country experienced a politically charged 2018. Sick of the deep-rooted corruption that had spread its roots through every part of society, people took to the streets in a bid to overthrow the long-ruling Republican Party. After a peaceful revolution, the protest leader, Nikol Pashinyan, became Prime Minister and has since seen his party win a landslide election. It is a time of optimism in this small, yet beautiful, former Soviet country.

The capital of Yerevan embodies this newfound optimism. Bright and bustling, one of the oldest cities in the world is a fusion of monolithic Soviet-era buildings, ad hoc balcony and roof extensions, and modern new-builds. Water fountains, parks, grand government buildings, and public squares are spread across the city. And with an increasingly demanding service industry, cafes have become Yerevan’s speciality. There are hundreds within the city centre.

The Green Bean

Launched in 2012, The Green Bean was an attempt to carve out an environmental conscience in Armenia’s cafe industry. Owned for the last three years by Lilit Ishkhanian and her husband, The Green Bean claims to be the first in the city to be entirely non-smoking.

Its sustainability mindset combined with a craving for locally sourced produce can create issues at times, admits Ishkhanian, but they have led the charge with their eco-concept approach. The theme continues through the restaurant’s design, including messages of environmental caution sketched on the walls and a wide chipboard bar at the main cafe, which is just minutes from the Republic Square.

Another Green Bean cafe serves the students at the campus of the American University of Armenia, while a franchise outlet is located at the foot of the city’s grand Cascade stairway. All three sell a Costa Rican and Peruvian blend roasted at the main cafe. They began roasting five years ago and have seen locals join tourists in buying into the cafe’s coffee and concept—particularly during the Velvet Revolution, says Ishkhanian.

She recalls tables full of excited Armenians, desperately following the movement on laptops, tablets, and phones. And the subsequent political changes have left Ishkhanian excited for the future. “The country now needs an economic revolution,” she says when asked about any possible expansion.

Mirzoyan Library

An escape from busy city centre traffic, Mirzoyan Library is hidden just behind Yerevan’s impressive Republic Square. An arched entrance on a narrow side street opens into the grand 19th-century courtyard, which houses a small public library, a cafe, art gallery, and studio space. An ancient chestnut tree stands tall above the two-floor wooden terrace which is packed full of young tourists and locals throughout the year.

Named after its founder, Karen Mirzoyan, the cafe was opened in 2014 alongside the photobook library, which features donated books from across the world. The gallery also serves as a late-night venue with regular jazz and electronic music nights.

The coffee, Buon Gusto, comes from Bristot, and blends Arabica beans from Brazil, India, and Central America with Asian Robusta varieties. The rich body and intense aroma make it ideal for an intense espresso and there is nowhere better in Yerevan to enjoy it than overlooking Mirzoyan’s sunlit courtyard.

Jazzve

One of Armenia’s largest cafe chains, Jazzve opened its first branch back in 2003 when Yerevan was a completely different city. The ubiquity of Yerevan’s cafes and restaurants had not yet appeared across a city that was still adjusting to independence from the Soviet Union, and Jazzve can take some credit for that industry’s subsequent success. Its name comes from the concept of combining cezve-made coffee and jazz music and has stretched to five outlets. Three of those lie within Yerevan’s small city-centre with the most popular on Abovyan Street, just meters from the Republic Square.

Despite a rebrand in 2018, the chain has kept true to its traditional method of coffee-making. Using cold water in a cezve pot filled with blends from Ethiopia, Honduras, Cameroon, and Guatemala, the coffee comes thick and rich. Around a year ago, Jazzve opted to introduce three “Armenian coffee” varieties to its customers as a tribute to one of the nation’s most beloved writers, Hovhannes Tumanyan. Named Gohar, Anush, and Tamar, characters from Tumanyan’s poems—the brand uses the term Armenian coffee loosely as it refers to the techniques of their process rather than the coffee being grown in the small, mountainous nation. All three are sold in shops across the country, with Anush, a 70-30% blend of Arabica and Robusta, this writer’s favorite choice.

Artbridge Bookstore Cafe

One of Yerevan’s oldest coffee spots, the Artbridge Bookstore Cafe in the city centre was the first to combine literature and coffee. The cafe was opened in 2001 by Shakeh Havan, who wanted to create a space where women felt comfortable to dine or drink alone. Its interior has changed little in the 18 years since, and includes a smoking room inspired by Armenian manuscripts and hieroglyphics. The ceiling’s exposed beams are decorated with painted copies of ancient documents while the walls host different artists every month. The back (non-smoking) room takes its inspiration from the Urartu Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Van, which was centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands—now modern-day Turkey.

Customers in Artbridge can surreptitiously tuck themselves into the cafe’s corners. High-profile Armenian-Americans such as System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian are often seen there during visits to Yerevan and it has also been a personal favorite eaterie of the current Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the years.

Artbridge buys its coffee from a local roastery, where it is blended into what they call their “secret Artbridge blend.” A combination of Costa Rican and Tanzanian beans, it is served in a French press and has a light, subtle sweetness. Those looking for a more authentic experience can order the small muddy Eastern coffee. Either way, the best bet would be to pair it with the cafe’s mouthwatering French toast.

Impresso

The ideal experience for a romantic late-evening coffee, Impresso is Yerevan’s tribute to the Italian cafe. It pairs modern lighting and tall ceilings with a number of vintage accessories, including a 1950s analogue TV that sits high on the bar. They only sell Caffé Mauro, which is bought directly from Italy and the cafe boasts that it is the “only place to get a real Italian espresso in Yerevan.” Almost the entire Caffé Mauro range is for sale though you’ll generally find yourself drinking from the original line, with its high-caffeine, spicy aroma, and strong flavors.

Aside from their coffee, Impresso also offers a broad menu ranging from a number of succulent pasta dishes to the intriguingly named pizza cones. The real eye-catching food items are found in the dessert menu, however, with homemade carrot cake and gato-chocolate among the choices.

Despite its long opening hours, the dark, classy interior and teardrop lighting make it more suitable for an evening outing. With piano music every night except Sunday, Impresso offers far more than just a great Italian espresso.

Joe Nerssessian is a freelance journalist based in Armenia. This is Joe Nerssessian’s first feature for  Sprudge.

Photos supplied courtesy of each cafe.

Top image © Adobe Stock/Photoaliona

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Source: Coffee News

Mohammad Fakhri’s kettle. (Photo by Elizabeth Chai)

We’re back with a new episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast podcast! Sprudge Live Multimedia Director Elizabeth Chai, who—in addition to helming our must-follow Instagram coverage of the event—taped a series of original interviews for this week’s episode of the podcast with World Brewers Cup competitors from backstage.

Listen to the full episode right here:

In this episode, Chai interviews UK Brewers Cup Champion Lewis Maillardet, Indonesia Brewers Cup Champion Muhammed Fakhri, and Ireland Brewers Cup Champion Stephen Houston.

For more World Brewers Cup content, read about the 2019 World Brewers Cup Champion Du Jianing of China.

All of SprudgeLive’s 2019 competition coverage is made possible by Acaia, Baratza, Faema, Cafe Imports, Wilbur Curtis, Third Wave Water, Minor Figures, and Mahlkönig.

In 2019 SprudgeLive is home to the Digital Roasters Village because it takes a village to cover a barista competition. The Digital Roasters Village features Camber Coffee, Verve Coffee, Partners Coffee, Intelligentsia Coffee, Rishi Tea, Kickapoo Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee, Onyx Coffee Lab, Creation Coffee, Amavida, and Equator Coffees without whom this work would not be possible.

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. Follow @SprudgeLive on Twitter and never miss a moment from the shows, and cruise over to SprudgeLive.com to read routine recaps, and enjoy dynamic full-color photos. 2019 Sprudge Live coverage is produced by Zac Cadwalader. Our lead photographer is Charlie Burt. Multimedia direction by Elizabeth Chai.

Sprudge is an official media partner of US Coffee Championships.

The post Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 74: Live From The World Brewers Cup Stage appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The threat of climate change looms large over the future of coffee production. If problems like leaf rust and artificially low C prices are the past and present hurdles for coffee growers, climate change is the certainly the future (though, in truth all three problems have existed and will continue to for years to come). Often colloquially known as “global warming”—though we don’t use that as much anymore because there are dum-dums in this world who take the presence of cold weather as a sign that everything is a-ok—climate change is best represented by extremes in weather, both hot and cold. And while the earth is warming and that is shifting the regions suitable for coffee production, these swings in temperature can have a more immediate impact, decimating vulnerable coffee trees almost overnight.

But in a bizarre twist of fate, it was one of these temperature swings that led to the discovery of what the MIT Technology Review calls a “climate-change-proof coffee.”

The new F1 hybrid—meaning it is the first-generation offspring of two genetically distant parents— is called Centroamericano and was created in Costa Rica’s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). A combination of Sudan Rume and T5295—a “Sarchimor” variety hybrid made from Villa Sarchi and Timor—Centroamericano was created for “disease resistance, yield, and taste;” according to the article, “it produces a high-quality beverage, yields over 20% more coffee beans than average per hectare, and shows high tolerance to coffee leaf rust, a much-feared plague.” But no real thought was given to how it would hold up in extreme conditions.

Until February 6, 2017, that is. On that night at a test farm in Laos, the temperature underwent a drastic drop, bringing with it a frost that “blackened and severely injured most of the trees on the plot.” By the next morning, only three rows of trees had survived: “those with Centroamericano and two other hybrid varieties from Central America.”

Scientists believe these trees survived due to something called “hybrid vigor,” a concept more widely utilized in things like corn, poultry, and rice that has more recently found its way to coffee thanks to the work of Benoît Bertrand at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and other researchers. Hybrid vigor is essentially the idea that each parent organism of the hybrid passes on to their offspring different genes, making it more genetically diverse and therefore more resilient.

The article notes that hybrid vigor may be a boon for the health of coffee, which is “notorious for its lack of diversity,” with Latin American coffee having “an especially shallow genetic pool.” And indeed, initial trials showed these new varieties to have 20-50% more hybrid vigor than their parents, were yielding more coffee, and were disease tolerant.

But the future of coffee hasn’t been secured just yet. Producing these F1 hybrids is expensive—each seedling costs two to three times that of a normal seedling—and they are incredibly unstable. Left to their own devices, these F1 hybrids would create any number of new varieties as the “parents’ genes reshuffle to create new combinations.” This would lead to the loss of stability in the hybrid as well as the vigor.

Nonetheless, Centroamericano represents a step forward in staring down climate change, a problem that doesn’t just impact the coffee industry but everyone, and as such is an issue that is going to require more than just coffee people to affect any real change. So until the Twitter-toting dodo birds of the world jump on board with the idea that humanity needs to amend their practices for the earth to survive beyond our own noses, planning for surviving the worst may just be the best practice. Centroamericano may just be that plan for coffee.

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 MIT Technology Review

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Source: Coffee News

Can you feel it? The long days are getting longer, the sunshine is getting shinier. The flowers, they bloom. Not to mention the baseball—did you know they’re playing it every day now? We’re almost—almost!—ready to gear up for an incredible Series Seven of our annual Build-Outs of Summer roving feature series, exploring the best and brightest in new cafes under construction around the world. Look for an open call for submissions on the near horizon, somewhere amidst the barbecue smoke and chilled sparkling beverages.

But for today we’re taking an in-depth look at a project built not during the summer, but across a long and frigid Minnesota winter. Our longtime partners at Dogwood Coffee just opened a truly stunning new roasting headquarters and cafe space in Minneapolis at 1209 Tyler St NE (just across the river from Downtown and not far from the University of Minnesota). It was an epic undertaking, involving creatives from a wide berth of fields and plenty of support from the local Minnesota specialty coffee community.

Photos of this place look truly wild. The wallpaper! The vibe! All that gorgeous neon! To learn more we sat down for this in-depth interview (a glimpse of Build-Outs to come) with Dogwood Coffee owner Dan Anderson.

As a start, let us know a bit of background about this project—how long has the new HQ space been in development? Who did you work with on this project for design and architecture?

Our new space was just down the hall from where we’d been roasting since our beginning in 2010. Truth be told, we coveted the space for a long time. It was originally a photo studio and I totally get it now. It’s a huge open space with just the best natural daylight. The photography studio had covered all the sides of this southern-facing space with large windows and glass garage doors, no interior lights really—just lots and lots of glass. So, that was the foundation of the space. Last winter (we tell time with seasons here), the tenants who had it under lease told us they were gonna let go of the space and we jumped right on it.

We worked with an architect for the city submittal plan, but most of the design we actually did ourselves collaborating with a lot of talented friends. First off, the space was vacant and just down the hall, so I really had unlimited access to sit/stand/walk and dream/stare/notice and of course, lots and lots of thick blue masking tape marking off every idea and option. My wife was my greatest partner in helping define and refine the design. She really helped me pull everything together. We wanted a space that was bright, playful, welcoming, reflective, layered, warm and uniquely us.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lot of help from great friends and ultimately they are what allowed us to achieve the type of space we hoped for. Here’s a snapshot of some of those collaborations:

*Michael Brown, production designer for Bon Iver and The National—walked the space with me early on and shared thoughts on lighting, acoustics, and creating environments. Put me on to using wool felt as an acoustic material. Our lighting (Turf Designs) are large felt baffles with integrated LED lighting and some of them are even full RGB color adjustable, which allows us to play with light as color in the space.

*Ashley Mary, painter—worked with us on a custom mural to cover a long-running wall on the cafe side. Her use of color and forms create such a playful, bright and energizing space.

*Alec Soth, photographer—in between losing in ping pong matches to him, Alec heard out our vision and searched through his catalog of photographs for just the right one and was then willing to have us large-scale print his museum worthy work on FRP (Marlite.com) to use as the back wall of our bar. It was a first for both of us. 

*BluDot, furniture company—their headquarters is just down the way in our same building complex. They worked with us on all our soft seating in the cafe and all our office furniture. Nadia (their Visual Creative Lead) and her team even personally helped us plan and execute the furniture layout.

*Loll & Intectural, furniture and architectural supply—these and companies are owned by our friends up in Duluth. With Loll, they created custom booths for us made from recycled bottles. Intectural supplied us with Richlite panels that we made our bar from and also all the thermally-modified wood we used for interior walls and our deck/patio. They even did a custom milling of our wall boards that allowed us to add ¼” strips of felt (supplied by the lighting company TURF that matched our felt lights) between each row of boards.

*Skyline Neon—Since Neon (our espresso blend) has been a core product for us since our beginning, we always have a neon installation in all our cafes, and they’re all made here in Minneapolis by Matt Thompson. This neon installation was by far our most ambitious and Matt made it happen. We essentially suspended four running tubes in mid-air that start at our bar, puncture through the wall that separates the cafe from our roasting space, and then stops above our roaster. On the cafe side, a separate neon tube appears and then wraps around/squeezes all the tubes together. I know it’ll be missed by many customers, but I also know my staff is aware of what the neon installation represents. Each of the four tubes start from a different place and connect both our retail and roasting spaces. For us, it is a visual reminder that encompasses all of what Dogwood does with a knowing that we are bound together with all the people involved along the way.

*Benoit Tardif, illustrator and fellow hockey fan—we had the wonderful opportunity to work with a longtime personal favorite illustrator. Benoit is from Montreal and as we continue to strive to express the humanity behind and in our business, he created the perfect illustration that is uniquely Benoit and uniquely Dogwood. The illustration is what we used for our signage on the outside of our space. It was hand painted by Forrest Wozniak and his team. They painted it outside in the middle of January here—single digit temps at best. We built a little structure covered in plastic with a heater pumping in. I’ll never forget running coffee out to them in super freezing weather, and there they were painting away wearing just t-shirts.

What neighborhood is the new space located in, and can you tell our readers a bit about it?

The new space is located in NE Minneapolis. It’s a great neighborhood with a lot of artists, breweries, creative businesses, restaurants, and even a local ice arena a block away. Most people affiliate a lot of our local craft beer growth coming from within a number of blocks from us: Indeed, Dangerous Man, Able, BauHaus, and several more. It’s about a five minute drive or a 12 minute rollerblade, depending on your preferred mode of transportation, across the Mississippi River to the north of downtown.

Talk to us about some of the gear at the cafe and roastworks—what roaster are you working with? How about cafe gear? Anything new or notable to play with?

Lots of new tools and toys!

First off for roasting, we purchased a new Mill City 30kg roaster with a tube loader from Cablevey and a 500g Mill City for sampling and profile development. We previously had Probat roasters, and spent time considering them, Loring, and Mill City. We spent a lot of time with Joe Morocco and Steve Green here at Mill City and really liked what they’ve come up with and where they are going with Mill City. So far we’ve been really happy with their system and the coffee is tasting better than ever. We also got a few items that help in terms of the physical demands of being a roaster. We’re using a prototype hydraulic lift cart with a built-in scale from Mill City that is immediately being appreciated in terms of cutting down all the repetitive lifting and loading.  We also have a new ergonomic lift workstation (Ergotron) that we use for roasting. It has a large screen and is running a beta version of Cropster developed for Mill City. It’s also on casters and can move between our sample and production roasters. We are big fans of Cropster and have used them for all our inventory and profile management.

On our warehouse side, we purchased a sweet little blue 1991 battery Mitsubishi forklift with pneumatic tires (need for driving in the snow here). So fun! Previously we used hand pallet lifts for all the coffee and we just can’t get enough of  the forklift now. We also got enough storage shelving from Uline to qualify for the free chocolate covered peanuts that are so good. We built a new training and cupping lab on our warehouse side and have a Synesso S200, Mahlkönig K30 Air and EK43s, two Curtis Corinth water towers, lots of Chemexes and Kalitas, Acaia scales (including the Cinco for cupping), Fellow kettles, notNeutral cupping bowls, and a bunch of Umeshisho rainbow cupping spoons.

For the cafe coffee tools, we got a glitter stardust powder-coated three-group Synesso MVP Hydra, three Mahlkönig PEAK grinders (for espresso service), EK43s paired with two Modbar pour-over units, and a Curtis G4 Thermopro paired with an EK43 for batch. We use notNeutral’s Vero glassware for our espresso drinks up through cappuccinos. We have the rose color for our Neon-based drinks and the smoke color for our Bear Hug-based drinks. More Chemexes, Kalitas, Acaia scales, and Fellow kettles. We’re also using Square’s new register and so far, so great.

What’s something you’re especially excited about for the space that folks might not notice at first glance?

I’m especially proud of the thought that went into this space in terms of accessibility. I know ADA requirements will address a baseline of accessibility considerations, but we wanted to push it further in terms of thoughtfulness. One example is that we put the best seat at our bar at wheelchair height and included another chair right alongside it for a friend or special someone. The rest of the bar bumps up to the traditional bar height. I couldn’t think of any bars around that someone in a wheelchair could pull up to and it’s been one of my greatest joys in the space to see it when it’s used. We’re currently arranging a third party accessibility audit of all our shops to learn how we can better make our spaces accessible to all. More than anything coming from this interview, I’d love to encourage everyone out there to consider doing an accessibility audit of their spaces if they haven’t already.

What’s your favorite coffee right now in the Dogwood line-up?

I am a total sucker for our Andrade family coffee from Colombia. We’ve purchased all of their exported coffee since 2012 and do some day lot separations of the best days. It ends up supplying us with an almost year-round supply of constantly arriving small vac-packed bricks of stunning coffee. We roll out one day lot after another and they are a consistent favorite of mine. We’re on one lot right now that just has the juiciest tropical flavors—it’s such a satisfying cup! 

Your previous HQ space was full of delightful nick-nacks and tchotchkes—we partied there a full time and the space had so much personality. How did you transfer that spirit into a new home?

I love trying to figure out fun little surprises to add throughout our spaces. Things you might not always notice in coming once, but the more you come, the more you might discover. In this space we have a full glassed-in room (racquetball court-esque) dedicated to just playing ping pong. It has a real tennis court floor with a center stripe, and the only music in the room comes from a custom Mixtape (Mixtape is also a blend of ours) cassette we made that’s played on an 80’s JVC Boombox.  

We have two bathrooms in our space; one has this metallic tiger pattern wallpaper and only plays “Eye of the Tiger” on repeat and includes an early Balboa cardboard cutout on the back of the door, the other has a gold chain foil wallpaper and includes a vintage large photo of Run DMC, only plays “My Adidas” on repeat and has a vintage pair of Jam Master Jay Superstars hanging from their laces on a pipe running across the ceiling. I also had a pair of baby Superstars glued down to a lower shelf on a diaper changing table in the room, but someone already stole those, sadly. I think bathrooms are an easy place to have some fun with, maybe it can just catch someone off guard a little bit and make them smile.

Another fun spot is hard to explain without seeing, but is essentially a combination of a mirrored multi-angle wall, a glass wall and a wallpapered wall. The wallpapered wall is a reflective mylar galaxy design that then has a suspended ceramic astronaut and a separate small rotating globe coming off the wall. About five feet across from that is the multi-angled mirrored wall that reflects back into the retail space through the large glass wall that separates the spaces. Oh forget it! Too hard to explain. It’s a big mirrored wall that reflects the customers back into the space. They bring the color, the movement, the dynamism to the space, and at just the right angle for them as they walk by, they’re reflected back into this deep cosmic space.

A final little touch of fun is we’ve adorned a wall in our cupping room with all the national soccer scarves we could find from countries we buy coffee from. The only bummer is a quick realization that East Africa needs some better representation on the world soccer stage.

Are you going to make more hockey pucks?

We just made some new ones inspired by the old Minnesota North Stars logo. Kevin is our production manager here and one heck of a designer! He’s done a lot of designs for us, and this is one of my personal favorites. We like them as tamp mats, paper weights, and the obvious as hockey pucks.

The Minnesota (and specifically Twin Cities) coffee scene is really special—lots of personality, lot of cafes. What makes the coffee culture in your part of the US so great?

The Twin Cities at its best can pair humility with quality, something special from both the product and the experience. We do have a lot of great coffee here and some really wonderful shops. We’re also home to Cafe Imports, Mill City Roasters and the Northern Coffee Alliance, which are obviously huge assets here to the coffee community. We really have world-class restaurants (currently three women chef James Beard finalists representing us), baking (Rustica, Baker’s Field, Sunstreet, Patisserie 46, Black Walnut), and beverage communities (too many distilleries, cocktail rooms & breweries to name).

We’re also home to some people doing really special things, like Sean Sherman, author of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen and a personal hero of mine, who is revitalizing Native American cuisine and currently building a new project here called the Indigenous Food Lab; Steve Horton, a gifted baker who has brought flour milling back to Minneapolis, sourcing various grains from local small farmers, stone milling it right here in Minneapolis and then baking naturally-leavened breads in a wood-fired oven; Tony Querio at Spyhouse, winner of the 2106 US Roasting championship; and the team at Gutter Punk, who works to provide employment and development for youth experiencing homelessness.

We’re very fortunate to be surrounded by such a gifted and collaborative community.

Thank you. 

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

The post Inside The New Dogwood Coffee Roasters HQ In Minneapolis appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There is no greater candy on this earth—and until we can prove the existence of alien life, the entire universe—than gummy bears, specifically the clear pineapple Haribo variety. It is the perfect candy and I’ll not abide any talk to the contrary. It stands to reason, then, that combining the greatest candy in the world with coffee, the greatest liquid in the world, would create the greatest something or other in the world. This, at least, is what Sugarfina is betting on. Teaming up with Los Angeles-based coffee shop Alfred, the luxury candy shop has just released three coffee-flavored gummy bears with caffeine.

As reported by Food & Wine, the new gummy line from Sugarfina was released on Monday, April 22nd and is being touted as “the world’s first coffee-infused, caffeinated gummy bears.” Available online and in stores, the coffee candies come in cold brew, bourbon cold brew, and iced vanilla latte flavors, the latter of which leads me to a very important question: why iced vanilla latte? Does it taste different than a hot vanilla latte gummy bear would? Does this mean that it tastes more like cold milk and not properly steamed milk, making it less sweet? It’s an important distinction they are drawing and I want to know why.

And these aren’t just coffee-flavored. These bears got bite. Equivalent to a shot of espresso, in fact. According to Food & Wine, each serving of Sugarfina’s coffee gummies have 60mg of caffeine, the same as a shot of espresso. What a “serving” of gummy bears equates to is anyone’s guess. But later in the article, F&W states that 9.5 ounces of gummy bears have 125mg caffeine, which puts a serving size at roughly 4.5 ounces. At first blush, a quarter pound-plus of gummy bears sounds like a pretty large serving size, but then again, that’s about the size of a standard box of movie-theatre Haribos and I can put back about three of those things faster than you can say, “Avengers: Engame is how long?!”

Prices for the gummy bears range from $14 to $25 for 12 ounces, depending on if you want them to come in a boring old bag or a super tumbly tumbler. If you can’t decide, Sugarfina has even put together a handy quiz to help you figure out with flavor you are (I’m bourbon cold brew gummy bears btw). Or you could just get the $21 “pick 3 mini coffee cup” sampler pack.

I’m all for new coffee combinations, but I still prefer my coffee and gummy bears the old fashioned way: by sneaking them into the theatre myself.

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 Sugarfina

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Source: Coffee News