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There are so many barriers to entry for those looking to get into coffee roasting. The price of the roaster alone is enough to make most say, “nah.” Then there’s sourcing, never mind actually figuring out how to actually roast the coffee well (might I suggest this video series?). But now one company is looking to be a one-stop shop for all your roasting needs, and they just raised $10 million in funding.

Berkeley, California’s Bellwether Coffee wants to get more people and places roasting coffee. Grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, home users, Bellwether is hoping to become the go-to for the next generation of nano-roasters, the ones with the desire to roast but who don’t yet necessarily possess the know-how. Offering roaster rental services—of their “zero-emissions commercial roaster” per the press release—along with a green coffee buying marketplace and even pre-defined roast curves available via their software platform, Bellwether’s goal is to provide the products and services necessary for new roasters come to out swinging. (Don’t worry, you can also customize your own roast curves.)

And investors are taking notice. It was announced earlier this week that Bellwether had secured $10 million in new funding from Congruent Ventures. With more than $6 million in pre-orders already, including “a leading U.S. grocery chain,” the company is off to a good start and that $10 million investment is already looking pretty sound.

The idea of a one-stop shop for roasters, green coffee, and roasting curves is certainly novel. All but eliminating some of the largest barriers to entry into coffee roasting will without a doubt lead to more folks getting involved. For more information on Bellwether Coffee and their services, visit their official website.

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 Bellwether Coffee

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Source: Coffee News

Earlier this year, we reported on a new video series from Cafe Imports titled Roasting Concepts. The eight-part introduction created by Cafe Imports then-director of eduction Joe Marrocco (now with Mill City Roasters) and creative director Andy Reiland is intended to serve as a foundation for those looking to break into the roasting game, the building block to bean browning, if you will. And now, all eight videos are available for your viewing pleasure. For free!

When the series was first announced in February, Cafe Imports released the first three videos, covering some of the main concepts that will be explored in subsequent videos: Introduction, Seed, and Machine. Along with Taste (as seen in Episode Four), the latter two represent the three core components of roasting. For videos five through seven, these three components were combined in different ways to show how they work together. Episode Five—Seed & Machine—for instance, goes into more depth about how the size, density, processing method, freshness, etc. of a coffee may (or may not) affect the overall time, heat application, and air flow in the roasting process.

Finally, for Episode Eight, Marrocco puts it all together three components for The Profile.



For anyone even in the exploratory phase of opening the roasting can of worms, the Roasting Concepts video series is a must-watch. But as Cafe Imports freely admits, these are the do’s and don’t’s; they aren’t here to tell you what is the right way and wrong way to roast coffee, simply “[helping] you optimize your quality by connecting the conceptual dots between your roasting machine.” And it’s completely free. For nascent coffee roasters, you’d be hard pressed to find a better use of two hours. To check the out videos for yourself, visit Cafe Imports’ YouTube channel.

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

*all media via Cafe Imports

Disclosure: Cafe Imports is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network.

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Source: Coffee News

For a coffee shop whose names bears a striking resemblance to one of the more memorable lines of coming-of-age drama The Outsiders (and I dare you to find a movie packed with more A-listers before they were A-listers. Go ahead, I’ll wait), Stay Golden Restaurant & Roastery sure is packed with a lot of coffee insiders. Nashville’s newest cafe is the brainchild of Jamie Cunningham, Sean Stewart, and Nathanael Mehrens, the trio behind Steadfast Coffee, a roastery/cafe with a lot of buzz about them after a strong showing at the 2016 US Coffee Championships, who still remains as one of the city’s must-visit cafes.

But now the trio have joined forced with DesignWorks Collective for a brand new venture. Stay Golden will be a full-service coffee bar as well as a restaurant and cocktail bar. They don’t want to be a cafe that also has food or a cocktail bar that also has coffee, but want to put each aspects of Stay Golden on equal footing. And indeed, from the looks of their Instagram, you’d be hard-pressed to find one aspect that supersedes the others. Begging pardon from Robert Frost, but Nashville’s newest coffee shop is something gold that we hope stays.

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

The result of a partnership between coffee and hospitality experts Jamie Cunningham, Sean Stewart, and Nathanael Mehrens and DesignWorks Collective, Stay Golden Coffee Co. is founded on principles of putting people first, community mindedness, and sustainability. Stay Golden Restaurant & Roastery is the brand’s flagship brick-and-mortar location and will feature a coffee bean roastery and full-service bar and restaurant.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Set in the Berry Hill/100 Oaks neighborhood of Nashville, Stay Golden Restaurant & Roastery is a bright, welcoming space that includes a grab-and-go coffee counter, full-service restaurant complete with coffee and cocktail bar and second-level mezzanine, an onsite coffee bean roastery, private event space, and hydroponic gardens.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Inspired by the Golden Rule, Stay Golden was founded with a purpose in mind. Incorporating the principles of putting people first with a focus on community mindedness, the founders plan to offer educational programming, as well as serve as a haven for industry events. Aiming to roast the highest quality coffees with an emphasis on sustainable and ethical sourcing, Stay Golden fosters meaningful relationships with its coffee purveyors and growers, allowing them to maintain a direct connection with each batch throughout the entire roasting process.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

August 13, 2018

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

In addition to the coffee, Executive Chef Simoni Kigweba will lead the chef-driven, seasonally inspired food menu, which will encompass breakfast, lunch, and happy hour. Beverage Director Nathanael Mehrens will oversee coffee drinks and cocktails.

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.

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Source: Coffee News

Being a barista is a full-contact sport, one you have to do with a smile on your face. And that may be truer than ever this Saturday, September 1st at Iconik Coffee Roasters in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To christen their brand new location (featured earlier this week as part of our Build-Outs of Summer series), Iconik is hosting the first annual Southwest Barista Olympics, a multi-discipline contest to determine which barista is the fittest and the littest.

The competition consists of three different events: a pentagon cupping, where participants try to guess the origin of a coffee based on taste alone; a coffee mocktail contest; and a barista obstacle course, “requiring the most refined and fierce barista skills.” The winner will be crowned the Southwest Barista Olympics champion, earning them entry into the US Barista Olympics, should such a thing actually exist (it doesn’t… yet).

For those not looking to compete but still wanting to come hang, there will be all sorts of food, ice cream, live music, and prize giveaways from sponsors including: The El Rey Inn, Ojo Caliente, Fire and Hops, The Grove, and Ten Thousand Waves.

It all gets started at 5:00pm on Saturday, September 1st at Iconik Coffee Roasters’ brand new Guadalupe Street location. For more information, visit the Southwest Barista Olympics Facebook event page. Time to limber up.

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 Iconik Coffee Roasters

The post Santa Fe: The Southwest Barista Olympics Is Coming Your Way appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

It’s about the journey not the destination, or at least that’s what they say when the destination keeps moving around. For Lemma Coffee Roasters, the destination was a Denton, Texas filling station that they planned to convert into a roastery/cafe. But when that fell through (in between writing their original Build-Outs of Summer feature and the one you are about to read no less), the destination became unclear. So Lemma did what any industrious person going on a journey would do: they bought a van.

But just because their space is smaller doesn’t mean they are making any concessions (get it? Concessions?) on their vision. They’ve stocked their 18′ roving cafe with a brand new Slayer Steam X expresso machine, multiple Mahlkönig grinders, and a full-blown FETCO batch brew system. They even had to install extra power sources just to keep up with everything they are running. This is no ordinary van. Lemma is putting their own new twist on an old saying: It’s about the journey not the destination, but make sure you are riding in style.

As told to Sprudge by Daniel Baum.

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

Lemma is a specialty roaster based in Denton, TX. We’re all about pushing ourselves to do things to the best of our ability. Our philosophy is to offer delicious coffees in the most welcoming way possible. We do our best to be easily accessible to our wholesale partners by pushing communication. We believe this helps us all succeed and keeps things dialed for our customers.

Like any business, our first year was all about establishing Lemma. It’s been a lot of offering samples at local markets, cold calls, and walking into cafes, grocers, etc to introduce ourselves.

The coffee truck is our first step into retail. We love the flexibility of establishing a consistent location for every day use while also being able to work events of all kinds.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Definitely! It’s a Freightliner with an 18′ box on the back. In order for us to build the kind of truck we ultimately wanted, we needed a ton of power and water. We lucked out when it came with some solid electrical equipment that only needed a little reconfiguration. We’ve got a 12kw generator that is built into the side of the truck, so noise level is quite minimal. We’ve also got six 6v deep cell batteries and two power inverters totaling 3,500 watts. For plumbing we added a 40-gallon fresh water tank with a pump that can push 5.5 gallons per minute with a two-gallon accumulator tank. Dialing in consistent water pressure for a mobile coffee bar is a little tricky, so we’re really excited to see how this setup performs.

The truck, like all others, has wheel wells to deal with, but this one also has some boxes from the generator and electrical equipment; we really had to design our bars around them. We basically bought a ton of 2x6s, created a 90° jig and went to town on building legs. Some cross bracing and 3/4″ plywood bar tops made it nice and sturdy.

For the exterior, we wanted a vintage feel with hand lettering and illustration. The concession window is gigantic which provides an open feel and allows us to easily communicate with our customers.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We look to source sweet, clean, and balanced coffees with delicious flavor profiles. We look to offer as fresh crop as possible from East Africa and both Central and South America. From a roasting standpoint, we approach each coffee unbiased and roast it to a degree where it’s hitting on all aspects. This tends to be in the light to medium range.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We’ll have a two-group Slayer Steam X paired with a Mahlkönig K30 Air. For batch we’ll be using a FETCO XTS paired with a Mahlkönig GH2. Batch will be setup with three liter airpots. We like the idea of brewing often so our customers drink a lively cup.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

We’re hoping for this month! We’ve got a few more details to finish up, but we’ll be going for the inspection asap!

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

This truck was a project we took on ourselves. With a passion for turning wrenches it was something we knew we could knock out. Huge thanks to my brother-in-law Zeb and amazing friends Corey and Chase. Also have to thank my pregnant wife for letting me practically live at the shop recently.

We worked with James Lafuente for the exterior design. James handled our package design that we’re stoked on, so it was a no brainer to get him on board for this.

Thank you!

Thank you! We love the content Sprudge puts out and greatly appreciate the feature!

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: Lemma Coffee Roasters In Denton, TX appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Don’t look now but the 2018 Coffee Masters New York is just around the corner. Taking place October 12th through 14th at the Metropolitan Pavilion as part of the New York Coffee Festival, Coffee Masters is the fast-paced, multi-disciplinary competition masquerading as a coffee party. And there’s still time to apply to compete, but not much.

Applications to be part of one of the most fun coffee contests around are due Friday, August 31st. To be considered for one of the 20 spots, potential competitors must complete a registration form, which can be done here (that’s the easy part), and create a one-to-two minute video highlighting a coffee-based signature drink of their own making, and it has to be inspired by New York. Maybe a coffee Manhattan served in a big apple? I dunno. You can see why I’m not competing.

And if the tight deadline isn’t pressure enough, Coffee Masters New York has announced the judges and emcees for this year’s event. There are a lot of familiar faces returning, including head judge Anne Lunell of Koppi Coffee, Kris Schackman of Five Elephant, and David Donde of Cape Town’s Truth Coffee. Joining them for her first foray into judging is none other than the Chocolate Barista herself, Michelle Johnson. They will be joined by emcees extraordinaire Lem Butler of Black & White Coffee Roasters, our very own Jordan Michelman, and the reigning Coffee Masters New York champion Erika Vonie.

So yeah, no pressure, just some of the biggest names in the coffee industry scrutinizing your every move. If you’re lucky enough to be one of the 20 competitors, that is. But if you think you’ve got what it takes, get that submission in before Friday. No rush, but do hurry.

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 Coffee Masters

The post Submissions For Coffee Masters New York Are Due Friday! appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Build-Outs of Summer are drawing to a close for 2018 (don’t worry, we’ve still got a few weeks), but we’re not phoning it in, far from it. Today’s entry takes us back to London, which has to be one of the most exciting scenes in Europe, nay nay the world. Workshop Coffee has been a staple in London coffee for seven years now, and with their newest location, they continue to solidify their place.

For their fifth cafe, Workshop has set up shop inside The Pilgrm, a boutique hotel in Central London. But the cafe is for more than just hotel guests; they are just a quick hop, skip, and a jump away from the Paddington Railway Station, so they are keeping their doors open to the public as well. No bookings necessary, so let’s go check it out, the new Workshop Coffee in London, England.

As told to Sprudge by Richard Frazier.

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

Workshop Coffee was established in 2011 and is dedicated to showcasing the best coffee possible.

To do this, we source, roast, and serve a rotating seasonal range of single origin coffees from the world’s best coffee producing countries, farmers, and producers.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Workshop Coffee at The Pilgrm is our fifth central London coffeebar and is located less than 400 feet from Paddington Railway Station.

It’s nestled inside The Pilgrm, a 73-room boutique hotel, and we’ll be serving espresso and filter to locals, regulars, and hotel guests every day of the week. We’re also continuing our work with Postcard Teas—breakfast, green, and oolong teas will be available alongside viennoiserie from Yeast Bakery and baked goods from Fortitude Bakehouse, who we’ve just started working with.

The space itself has been lovingly and incredibly carefully restored and the details and features throughout the space—from the light fittings and radiators that have been reclaimed from old military gyms and psychiatric hospitals around the UK, to the North Atlantic stone marble and iron timber bar, and restored 300-year-old wooden staircase.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We start at the beginning, spending several months of each year at origin building ongoing relationships with the world’s best coffee farmers, producers, cooperatives, and importers.

Roasting the coffees we procure at our roastery in London’s Bethnal Green, we aim to unlock and highlight each coffee’s potential as best we can, employing a plethora of quality control stages to ensure everything that leaves us is up to the standards we set ourselves.

But the idea is that all of this hard work happens behind the scenes, away from the bar. When it comes to brewing and serving our coffee drinks, we do so carefully and consistently and are ready and willing to talk at length about a particular producer or processing method. But we’re equally happy, if not happier, to just make you a delicious cappuccino and hear what you’ve got planned for the day.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

Alongside our two-group La Marzocco Linea PB and Nuova Simonelli Mythos One grinders for espresso, we’re continuing to champion batch brew. In fact, the nature of the space and the local area means it’s going to be our only filter option, which we’re excited about. Whether you’re a guest staying at The Pilgrm and heading out for a day of exploration in the West End or a commuter that’s turned up five minutes early for your train to Bath to get a good cup of coffee, the idea of being able to grab a clean, sweet, delicious coffee to take with you in seconds is superb.

As in all of our coffeebars, it’ll always be freshly brewed, with fresh pots hitting the bar every 30-60 minutes.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

We’re opening on Monday 13th August at 07:00.

Thank you!

No, 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: Workshop Coffee In London, England appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Yesterday, we ran on article on an Amerisleep survey about coffee consumption. Surveying over 1,000 people, the survey shed some light on Americans’ coffee drinking habits, including: number of cups consumed daily, yearly coffee expenditure, and even reason for drinking coffee. In short, it was a good survey. We liked it.

But it got us to thinking. Do these results represent the average American coffee consumer? What about those that really, really like coffee, those that would, oh I don’t know, read about specialty coffee news and culture online from the most trusted name in coffee journalism? We’re inclined to believe, dear readers, that a survey of coffee geeks—both those employed in the dark arts and home dabblers alike—would produce… different numbers.

So we’re putting that theory to the test. And we think we can get more than 1,000 responses. We’ve based this survey on that of Amerisleep’s but modified it a bit to better represent the Sprudge-reading, coffee-drinking public. If you would be so kind, please take the nine question survey below. You won’t be spammed with emails, your information won’t be sold to Cambridge Analytica (or shared with anyone for that matter), or any other nefarious thing that you could imagine as the result of answering a few questions online.

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We’ll post the results some time next week, so stay tuned. Thanks for participating!

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 © Steheap/Adobe Stock

The post How’s Your Coffee Doing: The Sprudge Survey appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There is so much happening in Denver that it can’t all possibly be contained within Denver. That’s why Greg Pierce and Shelley Flood looked west to Arvada to find the home for their new roastery and cafe. There they found a perfect and truly unique space for their dream shop: a red grain silo. Well, kind of. The namesake for Red Silo Coffee Roasters isn’t technically the home for the operation but still stands on the 19th century farm upon which Pierce and Flood opened their cafe.

But the silo was inspiration for more than just a name. Pierce and Flood want Red Silo like a farmhouse, “a gathering place for friends and family,” as Flood says. And I have to say, it’s a pretty unique setting. I’d be hard pressed to not take my coffee to go and try to sneak in into the old grain tube. Red Silo in a red silo. I can’t think of anything more fitting.

As told to Sprudge by Shelley Flood.

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

Red Silo was founded by two long-time friends with a passion for great coffee and entrepreneurship. Greg Pierce and Shelley Flood have worked together on new construction and design projects for more than 20 years. Their latest project, a mixed use commercial campus, located just 20 minutes west of Denver, seemed to be the perfect location to launch their latest idea… a craft coffee shop… and Red Silo was born.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Red Silo is located on what used to be a family farm plot back in the late 1800s. The red grain silo is all that is left of that legacy and became the namesake for the cafe and roastery. Aside from providing a fantastic craft coffee experience, our goal is to become a hub for our local community. Our space embodies the farmhouse—a gathering place for friends and family. We look forward to people connecting and conversing at Red Silo. Interestingly enough, we do not plan to offer wi-fi in our cafe. We really want to encourage a community connection, not just be another internet cafe.

In addition to this beautifully designed space, featuring both soft seating, an outdoor area (boasting a lovely view of our turn-of-the-century silo), and plenty of cafe seating, we have included a reservable “Community Room” which will be available for gatherings, meetings, parties, and the like. This space will feature a huge farm-table and will also host full audio/visual capabilities for state-of-the-art meetings etc. We have also replicated the Red Silo inside the cafe—it houses our roaster and will be a constant reminder to the family and community connection that the silo symbolizes for us.

Last but not least, Red Silo has a full coffee education lab, which will be utilized not only for quality control and employee training but for fun coffee education classes for our customers as well.

What’s your approach to coffee?

While we have always had a passion for a really great cup of coffee, we are relatively new to the craft coffee industry. We have spent the last two years visiting every craft coffee shop we can find, meeting baristas, roasters, other cafe owners, and gaining knowledge from the very best in the industry. What we have learned is this: coffee truly is a love language. People are passionate about their coffee, and so are we! We look to push the bar forward in everything we do. We like to try the new and interesting and put our own twist on it. We love the experimental (empirical??) side of craft coffee, just trying out new blends—or a different roast—or crafting a new specialty drink.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We have the gambit—Synesso MVP espresso machine, Mahlkönig EK43, Peak, Tanzania grinders, Marco Dual SP-9, BUNN Trifecta (for tea), Curtis GemX brewer and tea brewer, Kegerator for Nitro Coffee, Cold Brew, Nitro Tea, Kombucha, and other tasty bevs. 10kg Proaster roaster and sample roaster.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

September 15 (fingers crossed)

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

The space was designed by both owners, Greg Pierce and Shelley Flood.

Thank you!

Thanks for considering us. We are so excited to share our space with 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: Red Silo Coffee Roasters In Arvada, CO appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

How much do you spend on coffee every year? It’s probably a number, while impressive, that you’d feel better not seeing represented as an “that can’t be right, can it” annual sum. It’s an understandable feeling. When you can track your yearly spending in terms of number of home espresso machines (plural) you could have purchased instead, the number gets a little depressing.

But have you ever wondered how your coffee spending stacks up to others? Well, you are about to find out. In a new study, Amerisleep polled 1,008 coffee drinkers about their habits and have chopped those numbers up in a ton of interesting ways.

Brought to our attention by Brit + Co, the study takes a look at the coffee consumption habits of Americans across industries and age ranges and finds that, unsurprisingly, we drink a lot of coffee. 79% of coffee drinkers polled stated they consume at least one cup on a daily basis, even though 12% of those daily drinkers believing that caffeine is “damaging to their bodies” (contrary to pretty much every scientific study we have written about here on Sprudge). What is perhaps more surprising is that almost as many people stated their primary reason for drinking coffee was the taste as there were who stated it was for energy/to stay awake/to stay focused, 42.9% to 46.4% (the study considers these three reasons to be separate, but they are all basically saying the same thing).

And as all these Baby Boomer-penned articles suggest (you know the ones, where avocado toast and coffee are keeping kids these days from saving money and buying houses), Millennials spend more on coffee than other age groups. According to the study, people ages 25-34 spend on average $2,008 a year whereas the next closest age group, those 35-44, only spend $1,410. As someone on the cusp of switching between these two groups, I can at least look forward to an extra $600 in my pocket. Do I get it in a lump sump on my birthday? That would be sweet.

Image via Amerisleep

Based on industry, the study finds that wholesale and retail and hotel, food services, and hospitality top the list of most cups consumed daily with an average of 3.5. Interestingly enough though, these two industries aren’t the biggest spenders on coffee. That designation goes to finance and insurance, spending $709 a year on coffee—$117 more than wholesale and retail in second—even though they rank as the sixth-highest coffee-drinking industry with 3.0 cups daily. All that extra whip and drizzle adds up. Hotel, food services, and hospitality spends an ostensibly low amount of coffee, $278 a year, until you realize that group is comprised of baristas and servers who have access to free coffee as part of their job and just make it for themselves.

Do you feel better about your coffee habits after seeing the survey? Yes? No? Want to feel better/worse? Then check out the full survey results here. And grab another coffee. What’s one more cup gonna do?

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 © Alena Ozerova/Adobe Stock.

The post How Much Do You Spend On Coffee Each Year? appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News