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Last week we reported on an evolving mystery out of Portland, Oregon, where multiple coffee companies had received the same handwritten complaint letter requesting a replacement for “stale” coffee. But quickly we learned this was not just a Portland phenomenon—first dozens, and now more than 100 brands have contacted Sprudge over the last week, having received their very own identical Daniel G. letters from the same name and address in Nevada.

You’ve graciously sent us photos of your letters, from coffee brands big and small, in urban metropoles and rural hamlets alike. We’ve been deluged with clues, red herrings, false leads, and no shortage of what appear to be legit customer service complaints and requests for refund misidentified as Daniel G. communications. Sleuthing is currently underway behind the scenes to establish more information about the sender, to confirm their identity, and to shed light on the truth behind this mystery, one of the great coffee grifts of all-time.

Today we need your help. 

While we’re currently tracking a suspect (or suspects) to an address in Las Vegas, another possibility has emerged over the last few days, tied to a chain of letters sent out from a different Nevada address—and with a different name attached. This new suspect made our hair stand on end. We have reason to suspect they may be connected to the person or persons responsible for the Daniel G. letters.

Here’s one of the letters, sent from Reno, NV by a new suspect we’re calling Person T:

If Person T is indeed connected to the massive set of Daniel G. letters, this would be a bombshell new development, one with implications stretching several years. Person T has lead us to investigate a disturbing set of truths behind who, exactly, is sending these letters, and why.

The letter above bears some connection with the Daniel G. letters but also carries with it several discrepancies. This is far from a home run—we are not claiming definite knowledge or certainty that the letters are connected. But we’re sharing this with you today to see if others have received letters in the style of Person T over the last decade, and to request those who have to get in touch with us immediately.

Here’s another letter from Person T:

Connected? Random? An early example of what would go on to become Daniel G.? Here’s a quick outline as we see it:

Connections

1. Similar MO — both letter writers are sending hand-written, unrequested mailings to specialty coffee companies around the country over the last half-decade. The earliest Person T letter we’ve seen dates to 2013. The earliest confirmed Daniel G. letter dates to 2016.

2. Odd grammar — both letters include unusual uses of punctuation and grammar.

3. “Sincerely” — both letters end with a handwritten “Sincerely,” sign-off.

4. Nevada — both letters were sent from a return address in Nevada.

5. Return letter stickers — both sets of letters include pre-printed “return letter” stickers, of a similar make and style, in place of a handwritten address on the envelope.

6. Block address — both sets of letters include handwritten block addresses within the body of text.

7. Lined paper — both letters are sent on blue-lined notebook paper of a similar style.

8. No digital footprint — both letters contain absolutely no information about how to contact the sender aside from a return address. No email, no phone number, no social media handles, and no website.

Discrepancies

1. Handwriting —  a cursory view of the handwriting between each letter seems to suggest that it’s not an exact match. We’re following up with a handwriting expert this week to learn more.

2. Different address — Person T is writing from Reno, while Daniel G is writing from Las Vegas, more than 400 miles away.

3. Different request — Person T is simply requesting a sale sheet; Daniel G. demands replacement coffee and an explanation.

4. Letter variation — the Person T letters we’ve seen so far all differ slightly—some are multiple paragraphs, others are just two sentences. Daniel G.’s letters are all of an identical length and style.

So far only a few coffee companies have checked in with letters from Person T, but we have reason to believe there could be many more letters of a similar style sent all over the United States, dating back to as early as 2013. We’re keeping those coffee brands anonymous for now because the more we learn about Person T, the more we uncover disturbing information tied to their name—and past convicted crimes.

Here are a few more of these letters from Person T:

Have you seen letters like this before? At any point in the last decade were you contacted via mail with a handwritten letter asking for a “sell sheet” or “toll-free” number? Does this jog your memory, ring bells, or remind you of something you’ve received before? Get in touch with us. We have reasons to believe this could be connected with the saga of Daniel G.

More news as it develops this week, only on Sprudge.

E-mail us.

1-888-55-SPRUDGE

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The post Who Is Daniel G? A New Suspect Emerges appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee production in Guatemala is facing a new crisis. No, it’s not roya, climate change, or low coffee prices. It’s all of them, and they are causing greater numbers of workers and some landowners to abandon the coffee farms and migrate north to the United States.

According to a recent article in Time, Guatemala has undergone three decades of migration. Civil war in the ‘80s, “economic crisis, grinding poverty, and natural disasters” in the ‘90s and ‘00s, and gang and domestic violence in current years have all led of hundreds of thousands (of a population of 16.5 million) with no option but to relocate north.

And now troubles with the coffee industry are causing even more to leave. The roya outbreak in 2011 decimated 20 percent of the coffee crop, having a particularly devastating effect on higher-end Arabica varieties. The leaf rust outbreak has only been exacerbated by climate change, with “warmer temperatures spreading the disease to higher altitudes” and also “[increasing] the frequency of droughts, floods, and cold shocks, which can decrease, or at times completely destroy, production.”

At the same time, countries like Brazil, Vietnam, and Honduras had particularly good yields, leading to a drop in the price Guatemalan coffees could fetch. Whereas producers were at one time able to get $170-180 per 100 pounds of coffee, prices today stand around $110, lower than the cost of investment it takes to produce the coffee.

With no money to be made in the coffee field, many Guatemalans are forced to migrate. And according to Time, whereas many would head for Guatemala City, low wages and gang violence have made the journey to the United States much more appealing.

To stay afloat, many coffee farms are taking the advice of ANACAFÉ—Guatemala’s national coffee association—and diversifying their crops to include bananas, plantains, and macadamia nuts. This, the article notes, will help the farms survive the current price dip, but it does little to affect employment, as the new crops don’t require near the same number of people to harvest as coffee does.

It’s easy to forget, especially for those of us not living with the circumstances everyday, that these issues don’t exist in a vacuum. Climate change, unrest, violence, immigration, untenable coffee prices: they are all connected.

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 Time.

The post A Guatemalan Coffee Crisis Is Leading To Greater Rates Of Migration appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Breaking today here on Sprudge, Stumptown Coffee Roasters is now open in Cobble Hill. The Portland-based brand launched a new cafe today inside of an 1860’s Brooklyn firehouse, located at 212 Pacific Street. They’ll be celebrating all day long with a series of events, readings, and the occasional impromptu drumline, so if you’re reading this from Brooklyn, get thee to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop, served by the A, G, and sometimes C trains.

In the works since late 2017, Stumptown marketing director Mallory Pilcher describes the cafe as “a singular vision driven by several different people” within Stumptown’s national team. “There were a lot of chefs at the table,” Pilcher says, “and we collaborated in this project across departments to achieve a soulful creation.”

To be clear, this is not an imagined interpretation of a pre-Civil War firehouse based on preserved architectural documents—it is an actual 150-year-old building, which first served the neighborhood as a fire department way back in the 19th century, and had most recently functioned as an indoor archery studio. Through the space’s gorgeous white brick foyer, past the flowers, you enter a grand cafe main room with retail wall, coffee bar, and marble floating tables with intricate brass work underneath, evoking a vintage subway car.

Continuing towards the back of the space you pass through a middle corridor, featuring more flowers, a water and magazine station, and finally into the back room, featuring wrap-around banquette seating offset by an original work from renowned Brooklyn artist Marcel Dzama.

Original triptych by Marcel Dzama, titled “To Rise and To Fall and To Rise and To Fall and To Rise and To Fall Again, 2018”

This is Stumptown first proper cafe in Brooklyn, following their roasting HQ and tasting room in Red Hook. The space’s design is a fusion of Brooklyn and Portland elements, featuring architecture from NYC’s own TBD Architecture + Design Studio paired with the vision of Portland’s Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, alongside custom design work by Zachary Marvick, also of Portland.

The cafe’s drinks menu includes a standard battery of established Stumptown offerings, including espresso via an eye-catching La Marzocco Linea PB, with customization work by Pantechnicon and hand-drawn art by Melanie Nead. Gear by Curtis and Mazzer help anchor the bar, which also features cold brew taps and pour over drinks, along with a few more Portland favorites like Woodblock Chocolate and Steven Smith Teas. There’s a significantly expanded food offering here in partnership with Lalito, chef Gerardo Gonzalez’s lauded San Diego (by way of Meso-America) restaurant in lower Manhattan. Think carnitas burritos, coconut rice bowls, and chef’s ever-popular banana tahini bread.

A series of community events celebrate today’s launch, including readings from Books are Magic, sweeties from Du’s Donuts, and a performance from Brooklyn United Music & Arts Program. But you’ll be forgiven if you’d like to simply walk in and wander about, picking out little details across the space—the classic brass fittings, antique retail shelves and converted fridges, and white subway tile everywhere. But when queried on her favorite element of the design, Pilcher told us candidly, “The bathrooms!”

Her pick is hard to argue with—these loos feature sweeping arches overhead, and include a host of little design quirks like horsey coat hangers and whimsical peepholes. “New York is so chaotic and insane,” says Pilcher, “and it can feel like the restroom is the only solace you get all day here. These ones are really beautiful and I love them.”

Check out one of those special peephole designs below, then peruse out even more images from inside the new cafe, with photos by Sprudge contributor and Brooklyn resident D. Robert Wolcheck.

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

Photos by D. Robert Wolcheck for Sprudge Media Network. 

Disclosure: Stumptown Coffee Roasters is an advertising partner on the Sprudge Media Network. 

The post First Look Inside The New Brooklyn Stumptown Coffee Roasters appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There’s a colloquialism that the Great Lakes region is America’s Third Coast, and it’s easy to see why. Standing in Michigan on the shores of the state’s titular lake, with sandy beaches stretching in both directions and a colossal blue sky overhead, you could easily be looking out to the Pacific Ocean. 

Specialty coffee in the state is, understandably, concentrated in its southernmost urban centers—Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. There are outliers further north—both Lansing and Bay City have burgeoning coffee scenes—but Michigan’s northern resort towns have historically lagged behind.

That’s beginning to change. Traverse City, with an enviable lakeside location on the northwestern tip of Michigan’s glove, is undoubtedly a tourist epicenter. The town has, over the years, served as a gateway to the area’s myriad summer attractions—from hiking and fishing to winery tours and festivals—while itself generating a reputation for producing food, wine, beer and now coffee.

When visiting, it can be easy to just linger in and around Traverse City, but it’s worth taking the time to explore the countryside further out to get a real taste for what Michigan has to offer. To that end, here’s a list of coffee to enjoy the next time you’re in Traverse City, and one option to seek out if you find yourself further north.

A quick note for vegan-conscious vacationers: in a sign that the alternative milk wave has reached even this far north, oat milk is available at every cafe in this guide, which made my wife very happy.

Morsels Espresso + Edibles

Located on the east side of downtown Traverse City, with an outside seating area on the banks of the Boardman River and views out to West Grand Traverse Bay, Morsels Espresso + Edibles is a good place to start a coffee tour. A short stroll down Front Street from the bustling, touristy heart of Traverse City, Morsels lends a sense of calm—away from the crowds, surrounded by trees and water.

Although known primarily for the tiny cake bites that give the company its name (which include pun-tastic options such as Espresso Yourself and Matcha Made In Heaven), Morsels’ coffee lineup is not to be ignored. Intelligentsia provides the coffee, a La Marzocco GB5 cranks out espresso from atop a big granite counter, while Chemex and Hario V60 options are also available for those so inclined.

Seating here is plentiful and comfortable, and although it was quiet at the beginning of the summer season, it’s easy to see Morsels being inundated with customers at its peak. Pairing one of their bite-sized cakes with a Black Cat Espresso cortado makes it a worthy first stop.

Planetary Coffee

Handily, the next cafe in this guide is less than a block directly south of Morsels.

Planetary Coffee started life, like so many coffee companies before them, inside a truck, traveling the streets of Traverse City and the surrounding area to serve coffee at various events, from farmer’s markets to summer festivals.

In December 2017, they moved to a more permanent home inside the State Street Marketplace, an indoor market featuring food, beer, vintage clothing, and more. This huge, light-filled space makes Planetary seem much bigger than it really is—there is a shared seating area in the center of the market, and an outside patio for when the weather warms up.

Using a Synesso MVP and Mahlkönig grinders, Planetary makes espresso drinks with Halfwit Coffee Roasters from Chicago. If lattes aren’t your thing they do a stellar cold brew, as well as house-made chai and the requisite pour-over options.

Planetary is the definition of starting small and growing smartly. As their following continues to increase around Michigan, and their coffee truck continues to be in demand over the summer months around the city, even more growth is sure to come.

BLKMRKT

To reach the next stop, you have to walk back down Front Street, through the throngs of vacationers debating which brewpub to choose for lunch, maybe stopping to glance upwards at the State Theatre’s gorgeous marquee. If you come during the Traverse City Film Festival in early August, there’s a good chance you’ll bump into Michael Moore, the festival’s founder, wandering around downtown. You might even run into him at our next cafe.

In the Warehouse District to the west of downtown, just past another brewpub, lies BLKMRKT, situated inside the upscale Warehouse MRKT retail center. The brainchild of Traverse City native (and Morsels alum) Chuck Korson, BLKMRKT’s ambiance is influenced by the former warehouse it calls home. A subdued palette, clean design, and abundance of natural light is balanced with greenery from houseplants dotted around, as well as original artwork on the walls.

A low bar and equally low-slung Kees van der Westen Spirit espresso machine gives the space a cohesive feel, allowing for less of a separation between barista and customer while drinks are being prepared. Speaking of drinks, BLKMRKT uses a rotating selection of guest roasters—currently Brooklyn’s Parlor Coffee—alongside their own in-house roasted coffee

BLKMRKT is as high-end a coffee experience as you’re likely to find in these parts, and wouldn’t be out of place in San Francisco or Chicago. The fact that it’s hiding away in Northern Michigan makes it more special, somehow—a secret waiting to be discovered.

Higher Grounds Coffee

To reach the penultimate coffee stop, you’ll need transportation of some kind.

On the southwest edge of downtown Traverse City, where the town begins to bleed out into the countryside, lies The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, formerly known as the Traverse City State Hospital and, before that, the Northern Michigan Asylum. The Village is an ambitious renovation project, turning the derelict (and faintly spooky) former asylum into apartments, shops, and restaurants, as well as 480 acres of conservation area surrounding it.

Higher Grounds Coffee shares a former laundry with the Left Foot Charley winery on the outer edges of the development, with a shared patio overlooking a green expanse of lawn that leads down to the main complex. Although ostensibly a coffee bar attached to a wholesale roastery, Higher Grounds offers a warm and welcoming environment, with lots of tile and wood and floor-to-ceiling windows to let in the sunshine.

A La Marzocco Linea Classic, supported by Mahlkönig and Mazzer grinders, provides espresso drinks, while a large selection of Higher Grounds coffees are available for pour-over. They also offer creative specialty drinks—The Buzz, made from honey and soda mixed with espresso and served over ice, is particularly refreshing on a warm spring day.  

The neighborhood coffee house feel that Higher Grounds has generated extends to the takeaway coffee cup options, of which there are none. Instead, there is a wall of donated ceramic mugs that customers are welcome to take with them, return, or just keep. There are spots for recycling and even composting, all of which connects to Higher Grounds’ wider environmental and social goals, such as offering year-round bicycle delivery in Traverse City, or building schools in Ethiopia.

Dripworks

For the last leg of our Northern Michigan coffee tour, you’ll need to drive out of Traverse City, hugging the shore of Lake Michigan as US-31 winds its way northwards, past vineyards and through sleepy resort towns for about an hour and a half until you reach Petoskey.

Why Petoskey, you might ask? Well, aside from its claim to fame as the birthplace of The Blacklist star Megan Boone, it’s also the home of Dripworks Coffee, located in the historic Gaslight District just across US-31 from Petoskey’s picturesque marina.

A specialty cafe crossed with a French pâtisserie, Dripworks was formed by Northern Michigan natives Danielle Charles and Mike Davies. After living in Seattle and Vermont, as well as a year in London, the pair was inspired to bring what they’d learned abroad back to their home state by opening their own ideal coffee shop and bakery.

The cafe is set up galley-style, long and narrow with the bar on one side and booth seating on the other, with window seats and regular two-top tables toward the front. Lots of wooden furniture, white tile, and accents like metal cups and yellow stools give the space a farmhouse kitchen feel, which is echoed in the slate serving trays upon which sit a broad range of pastries—the blueberry pinwheel danish in particular comes highly recommended.

Coffee here is handled by a shiny white Slayer Steam, which pulls Madcap Coffee with the help of Mazzer and Mahlkönig grinders, while two Wilbur Curtis Seraphim brewers (also white) handle manual brewing, assisted by a Mahlkönig EK43. Coffee is not the only show in town, however, with a wide selection of loose leaf teas available, as well as the ever-popular matcha latte.

The fact that a coffee shop as polished and sophisticated as Dripworks can exist in a town as small as Petoskey is a testament to the work and dedication put in by the owners, as well as the changing tastes in this part of the country.

With all these cafe options in the area, it’s good to know that the next time you plan a vacation to the northern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula, you can do so safe in the knowledge that you’ll never be far from great coffee.

Fionn Pooler is a journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the publisher of The Pourover. Read more Fionn Pooler on Sprudge.

The post The Coffee Lover’s Guide To Traverse City, Michigan appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

We’re tracking a remarkable mystery right now here at Sprudge—and no, we don’t mean Daniel G. a case we’re updating regularly as it unfolds.

Someone broke into Sense of Place Café in Arlington, Virginia, which by itself isn’t entirely national newsworthy; sadly people steal from coffee shops all the time. But what did the burglars take from Sense of Place? A notebook of secret recipes and roast profiles.

According to WUSA9, the robbery took place Tuesday, July 10th, with the burglars smashing through the door and “[bypassing] expensive electronics and machines to steal a book of secret recipes.” Per Anna Seo, the niece of the shop’s owner, the notebook contained “baking recipes along with roasting times and other family secrets.”

The burglars also made off with an undefined amount of petty cash. But if the past week of researching Daniel G. have taught me anything, it’s that nothing is as it seems. The burglars wanted that notebook and took the cash just to throw us off the scent; it’s the oldest trick in the book.

The Arlington County Police currently have no description of the perpetrators at this time, so if you have any leads, I’m sure the ACPD would love to hear from you. Be careful, y’all, there’s some weird energy in the coffee cosmos right now.

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 A New Mystery: Who Stole Sense Of Place Cafe’s Book Of Secrets? appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

San Francisco’s Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters was all set to provide coffee catering services to Dreamforce, a Bay Area conference hosted by Salesforce that saw some 160,000+ attendees last year. Contracts had been drawn up, compensation agreed upon ($40,000), and everything seemed good. That is, until news broke that Salesforce had been contracted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency, leading Wrecking Ball co-owners Trish Rothgeb and Nick Cho to decline the pay day pending changes in the relationship between Salesforce and Customs.

As told by the San Francisco Chronicle, Rothgeb and Cho had been contacted by George P. Johnson Experience Marketing, the firm in charge of acquiring vendors for the conference set to take place September 25-28. They agreed on a $40,000 fee for the event, which would “pay for [Wrecking Ball’s] raw coffee supply for about two months,” per Cho. Then on July 19, news came down that the nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services rejected a $250,000 donation from Salesforce due to the company’s involvement with CPB, the agency the SF Chronicle notes is “responsible for enforcing the Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of asylum seekers from their parents.”

According to the article, the news has led to thousands of Salesforce customers signing a petition requesting the company end the contract. And to Wrecking Ball backing out.

But Wrecking Ball is standing by their decision.

“Business is going to have to be the resistance we want to see,” Rothgeb said. “That’s the truth. You can’t get anything done unless business is going to take a stand.”

“Because we do occupy a thought leader position, there’s more attention on what we do, and therefore there’s a burden of leadership,” Cho said.

Rothgeb and Cho state they would be willing to honor the original contract, under one condition:

It remains to be seen if Salesforce will respond to the pressure being applied by Wrecking Ball and their own customers. This story is developing and we will provide any updates here when they are made available.

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 the San Francisco Chronicle.

The post Wrecking Ball Turns Down $40,000 Salesforce Contract appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News