Honolulu Archives - Page 33 of 34 - The Curb Kaimuki

Halloween is a mere eight days away, so it seems like a good time as any to remind you that ghosts are real (read: probably not real) and they are just like you: they like to hang out at coffee shops. Or at least they like to hang out at one particular coffee shop, Cool Beans Coffee Roasters in Marietta, Georgia, which real-life paranormal investigators have described as “definitely haunted.”

According to the Marietta Daily Journal, Cool Beans (which I assume has already changed their name to Ghoul Beans) invited paranormal investigators Will Aymerich and Christina Kieffer to look into “strange occurrences” that had been reported by baristas, including a “ghostly whisper” rising from behind a pastry rack, knocked over chairs, and other items being out of place.

To check for the presence of spirits, the pair-of-paranormalists “swept the coffee shop with an array of equipment ranging from high-tech gadgets designed to read electromagnetic fields to flashlights, a tennis ball, and a rubber ducky.” They also had a squirt gun full of holy water just in case things went sideways, which thankfully they didn’t.

Most of the paranormal activity was focused on two areas: a private booth in the corner of the cafe and the back hall leading to the restroom. The spirits in the booth proved to be friendly if uncooperative. They did respond, however, when asked if they liked tacos. Using some sort of AM/FM dial type device the paranormal investigators had on hand that the spirits like to use to communicate, the eternal camper responded with “taco.” I assume that means they like tacos, because who doesn’t like tacos? As the Daily Journal also notes, “the voices in the spirit box also uttered what may have been the monosyllabic name of the MDJ reporter on the assignment when asked.”

But in the hallway, though, less friendly specters took residence. As the investigators were investigating the upstairs, they heard what sounded like a baby crying below, which a Cool Beans barista later corroborated hearing, thinking it was coming from the upstairs. Aymerich states that ghosts appearing as children are “often up to no good” and are demons disguising themselves as more innocent creatures.

Also, dude, “demons” is not the preferred nomenclature. “Inhuman spirits,” please.

The bad spirits were also being uncooperative, not answering to questions, but Aymerich believes these ghosts were from the Marietta Museum of History nearby. And how was he able to tell these noncompliant spirits were there at all? He got mad.

Back here, I was getting angry, and that’s something which is not a good sign… I can tell when there’s a spirit around sometimes just because of how my body reacts, my hair stands up on end, I can feel something behind me.

Now, none of this will probably convince a skeptic that ghosts are real. Or at least it isn’t enough to persuade one particular skeptic (the one writing this article). But it nonetheless gives me comfort to know that even if I’m wrong about the whole “there being sprits” thing, I may get to spend all the afterlife hanging out at a coffee shop, and that doesn’t sound half bad.

BOO!

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 13 Positively Ghoulish Latte Art Frights

The post This Georgia Coffee Shop Is “Definitely Haunted” appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Specialty coffee is booming in the Randstad, as the Dutch call the conurbation of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. But what about outside this urban quadrumvirate? Yes, beyond these metropolises, there lies a coffee universe. And in the more rural, less-tourist-traipsed country’s north, there is an undeniable Polaris: Black & Bloom. Located in the province and same-named city of Groningen, the cafe has been shining bright since summer 2012. Locals know it. The rest of the world should, too.

The individual behind it is barista, roaster, and Specialty Coffee Association technical and sensory judge Gerben Engelkes. His first name means “strong as a bear with a spear” in Frisian. It is fitting; Engelkes is unshy about sharing emotions and is given to bold statements about what he likes and what he does not like. He has competed in four Dutch Brewers Cups, the last being in 2016, when he placed fourth, proudly using coffee Black & Bloom had recently begun roasting.

Gerben Engelkes

That same year, Dutch trade publication Misset Horeca awarded Black & Bloom first place on its annual Koffie Top 100. This year, Engelkes is a head juror for the ranking body. He acknowledges that the list is sometimes derided by specialty coffee industry colleagues; one common criticism is that venues—or their more moneyed sponsors, often commercial roasters—must apply to be assessed and the applications carry a fee.

“Lots of people say, ‘You sold your soul.’ I say, ‘No, I just want to improve coffee quality in the Netherlands,’” says Engelkes. “It was meant to be a list to make entrepreneurs aware that coffee is their business card and they should improve in making better-quality coffee in HORECA [food service], in general.” The jury’s scope is “not specialty,” he emphasizes, but coffee-serving establishments overall, “in a bar, for instance, on the corner.”

On an old street near neighborhood of the University of Groningen, Black & Bloom seats only 25. Though neat and meticulously furnished, it feels comfy, not cramped. There is a place for everything, including a two-group Synesso MVP Hydra and four grinders: a Victoria Arduino Mythos One, an Anfim Super Caimano, a Mahlkönig EK 43, and a Mazzer Mini.

Referring to Black & Bloom’s menu, two espressos and two filters are “the magic number,” says Engelkes, “because you cannot keep [more than that] fresh.” To prepare the latter, he favors the Kalita Wave “because of the flat bed immersion.” For coffee cocktails, he uses a Kyoto-style cold-brewed elixir and fruit syrups from the 130-year-old Groningen liqueur-makers Hoog Houdt.

Tempting cakes “have the look and feel of North America and the taste of the Netherlands—so [they’re] not overly sweet,” says Engelkes, who bakes them himself, though can easily take up confectionary consultation with his wife, a pro pastry chef. She comes from the northern province of Drenthe, where her parents had an asparagus farm. In fact, for both spouses, food has been a family enterprise.

Engelkes’ parents once ran Vonk’s Automatiek, a snack bar in his hometown of Winschoten that was passed down from his grandfather. There, Engelkes witnessed an artisanal approach to quickly consumed everyday treats—the croquettes, among other deep-fried staples, were made by hand. Engelkes’ cosmopolitan outlook and signet-ringed flair for presentation seem influenced by a period in his early 20s, when he was employed as a hotel operational manager in Salzburg, Austria. Later, he returned to the Netherlands and managed a small hotel in the seaport city of Delfzijl. That was no dream job, though it awakened him to local demands.

“Especially on Sundays, we had 10 kilos of coffee going through easily on a fully automatic machine,” he recalls observing on his hotel shifts. “So I said, ‘Let’s do something different than that. I want to be the best coffee place in Delfzijl.’”

Engelkes did not open the best coffee place there, but eventually—after barista training, owning two franchises of Coffee United, and working a merch stand at World of Coffee 2012 in Vienna—did so in Groningen. Black & Bloom is set to hold the title.

This past May, the shop’s Giesen W6A moved into a new roastery, allowing for an increase in weekly output beyond the previous 45 to 60 kilos. That, in turn, will let Engelkes expand wholesale and—planned for this fall—launch a subscription service. He would do well to ship coffee to other provinces (not least adjacent Friesland, where the city of Leeuwarden was designated a 2018 European Capital of Culture) and, really, anywhere else on Earth wanting a taste of the Dutch north.

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

The post Dutch Coffee Outside The Randstad At Black & Bloom In Groningen appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Cherry Roast, Denver’s premiere barista competition for “womxn, gender queer, non binary, [gender nonconforming], and trans folx,” is back! Now in its fourth year, Cherry Roast is returning for another round of inclusivity-forward coffee competing on November 12th at Copper Door Coffee.

Started by Amethyst Coffee’s Elle Jensen, Cherry Roast is a “chance to experience barista competition in a safe space” for “all women, transmasculine, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming baristas of all skill levels,” as Sprudge contributor Ben Wiese described it from his coverage of the 2017 event. Cherry Roast works a little differently than most barista competitions; it puts baristas through four rounds of multi-disciplinary rigmarole that includes triangulation, brewing, latte art, dialing in, order fulfillment, and signature drinks. And while details of what exactly the 2018 event entails, organizers are promising “a more organized, less rowdy (but still ‘party-forward’), more inclusive, cleaned up version of our favorite coffee competition,” per the Instagram post announcing the event.

If this sounds like the sort of ringer you’d like to be run through, Cherry Roast is currently accepting registration. Interested parties simply need to email CherryRoast@gmail.com with their name, preferred pronoun, and employer to get signed up. The cost to compete is $20—and here’s the cool part—but the fee will be sponsored by co-organizer Breezy Sanchez for anyone that provide evidence of an active voter registration (I don’t think we need to rehash how important the upcoming elections are). But for those without proof of registration or who just want to chip in, all proceeds are being donated to the Milkrose Coffee Farm.

Details about Cherry Roast 2018 are still being rolled out, so to stay informed, follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

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 Cherry Roast

The post Cherry Roast Returns To Denver In November appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

It sounds like the beginnings of a bad joke: a post punk band member and a biologist get together to run a coffee shop. But it is the genesis of a new coffee spot in Galway, the harbor city on the west coast of Ireland, a city that’s fast becoming synonymous with incredible food and beverage experiences, including Michelin star destinations like Aniar and Loam, plus Bib Gourmand honoree Kai. On the coffee front there is Calendar Coffee, run by Zarah Lawless and Dan Boobier, opened in early 2018. This new cafe is standing out in Galway through delicious coffee, efforts in sustainability, and a whimsical design approach.

Located in a former computer repair shop, Calendar Coffee’s name references the seasonality of their on-site roastings. A new batch comes out every Wednesday, with beans sourced from across the planet—one week might be a farm in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala, or the deep red soils of Nyeri, Kenya the next.

The duo, who met in London working side jobs in production at Workshop Coffee, combined their backgrounds in the arts and sciences for a design-minded approach to coffee. Their coffee bags anthropomorphize each bean into a cartoon with packaging designed by artist Cadi Lane. The “Santa Marta” (a washed coffee from New Oriente, Guatemala) features a hairy-legged heel-wearing bean atop an oozing coffee drip mountain. “March Flower,” from the Espirito region of southeastern Brazil, is a Red Catuai variety with notes of black currants and wine gum, which explode out of the head of the cartoon character on the bag.

Though this was Lane’s first graphic design endeavor, her body of work is focused on storytelling through production and costume design for theater. “The characters are just made up through me playing and imagining scenarios between the tasting notes. I really enjoy drawing things spilling or pouring out… Also [I] love giving limbs to pieces of fruit and making things look a bit strange and surreal,” says Lane.

Lawless and Boobier were inspired by the success of Keith Shore’s illustrations for the Mikkeller brewery packaging, and wanted to bring the same whimsy to the coffee space. “We started with some super freaky fruits and cups in drag and reined it in from there… We wanted each coffee to have its own identity and inject some fun into the sometimes quite serious world of tasting notes,” says Lawless.

Beyond attempts to make tasting notes more visual-friendly, the duo remains focused on what it means to run a new business during a climate crisis, where having a former biologist on staff becomes especially relevant. “We’re acutely aware that the highest amount of carbon emissions occur in countries where coffee is consumed, not produced,” says Lawless. Their roastery, also located in Galway, is “99% zero waste,” offsetting shipping emissions through a reforestation project in County Clare, a nearby town in Ireland.

Though Lawless and Boobier’s mission is first and foremost to serve delicious coffee, they’re after more respect for the way the rest of the world views Irish food, particularly in Galway. “There are so many incredible food producers and chefs here, redefining what Irish food is,” Lawless tells me. “Give it 10 years and Galway will be the next Copenhagen!”

If that’s true—and it might well be—this generation of Galwegian food and beverage heroes will need good coffee to steel them for the climb. Leading the way is a gaggle of cartoon characters, who just want coffee to have more fun.

Emma Orlow is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn, writing for Saveur, Dazed Magazine, and MOLD. Read more Emma Orlow for Sprudge. 

The post In A Changing Culinary Landscape, Galway’s Calendar Coffee Is Right On Time appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

You have to hand it to Dunkin’. They’re really leaning into to this whole drop-the-“donuts”-from-our-name-and-focus-on-coffee thing. They are taking their slogan, “America runs on Dunkin’,” a little too literally, or at least they would be if their slogan was “America lives in a tiny house that runs on Dunkin’.” For a limited time, Dunkin’ is renting out a tiny house on AirBnB that is powered by used coffee grounds.

The new ad campaign, presumably thought up by my aunt who lives in the Northeast and “wishes she could live in a cup of Dunkin’ coffee,” coincides with Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee at Home, the brand’s push into the at-home market. So they made a home… at which you can make their coffee… to power the home.

According to their website, Dunkin’ partnered with Blue Marble Biomaterials, “a sustainable biochemical company,” to create eco-friendly biofuel from 65,000 pounds of spent coffee grounds. The biofuel is created by putting extracted coffee oils and through a chemical process known as “transesterification,” which then gets “washed and refined.” For every 170 pounds of coffee grounds processed, a total of one gallon of biofuel is created, which means Dunkin’ and Blue Marble created a little over 380 gallons.

For only $10 a night, two guests can stay in the 1 bed/1 bath “studio” currently located in “beautiful Nahant, MA, providing picturesque views of the Atlantic Ocean and Boston skyline,” per the AirBnB listing. “It is designed and decorated to look as modern as it runs,”—which may not be the best way of describing it, seeing how it runs on old, used (not modern) coffee—“featuring a chic aesthetic with custom-designed elements.” And of course, guests have access to unlimited, presumably Dunkin’, coffee as well as a “cozy coffee nook” to drink it in. And here’s a fun fact: the interior was designed in partnership with actress Olivia Wilde. That’s cool I guess. Not really sure how it ties in to everything else going on here, but that’s what happened. Olivia Wilde designed the interior.

Now, it’s unlikely you’ll be lucky enough to book time in the Home That Runs On Dunkin’. The tiny home is only available for rent until October 26^th and I’d bet dollars to donuts that it’s completely booked. But, if you want to see what it looks like, a tiny 360 virtual tour is available on the Dunkn’ Donuts Coffee at Home website.

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 Dunkin’ Donuts Is Renting A Coffee-Powered Tiny Home On AirBnB appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Sandy Bledsoe is the Dungeon Master—his actual title—at Coral Sword, Houston’s premier board game Twitch stream specialty coffee bar. He’s also the co-inventor of a wallet that may just be the perfect solution for coffee professionals. Called the Wallaby, it’s capable of carrying your cards, some cash, a cupping spoon, and houses a customizable notebook for all of your cupping notes, coffee musings, and—for retail managers—milk orders.

Bledsoe and business partner Alex Pagliere launched a Kickstarter campaign this month and are halfway through funding the campaign with over $11,000 pledged as of press time. Just $15 will get you two Joeys, and $22 will get you two Wallabies right now on Kickstarter. We spoke with Bledsoe digitally to learn more about the project.

How did this project get started? Who is involved?

Our first product, The Wallaby, was born in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle four years ago while I was visiting my dear friend (and now business partner) Alex Pagliere. I had been using the back pocket of a Moleskine notebook as my wallet, but the pocket had come apart and my stuff kept falling out. I was fed up. I turned to Alex and said something like, “Why can’t the pocket in this thing actually hold my stuff?” He’s a design person, so he jumped up and started carving up a cereal box with his X-Acto knife, and then we stapled in the guts of my cannibalized Moleskine. That cereal box prototype was a hit when I showed it to people; some friends even tried to buy it from me. That’s really how The Wallaby was born.

How has the product evolved over the years?

The overall design hasn’t changed very much since the original cereal box prototype, though we replaced the original name “CR Brand Signature Pocketbook Wallet” with “Wallaby”. We retired the X-acto knife and started die cutting the covers, which are now made from a fiber-reinforced paper that behaves and wears a lot like leather. The paper that we selected for the interior pages is the right balance between bleed-resistance and thickness so you can actually use both sides of the page but without unnecessary bulk. We use a faint dot grid pattern that’s really the best of lined, grid and blank paper. We’ve focused on elegance, toughness, and utilitarianism. You could call it concise—more with less. We’ve also introduced a smaller size, called The Joey, which is still a wallet and a notebook, but slightly smaller than a deck of playing cards. Perhaps the most exciting change we’ve made recently is an environmental partnership that allows us to plant a tree for every notebook that we sell.

Tell me more about the Kickstarter campaign.

Alex and I have had other jobs and other businesses over the years that have kept us from really focusing on CR Brand. We’d talk frequently about getting things rolling, but it wasn’t until Hunter Pence, my business partner at Coral Sword, invited the business and marketing wizard Gary Vaynerchuk onto our Twitch stream, where Hunter brought the product to Gary’s attention. It was actually after getting some positive feedback from them that I called Alex and said “We HAVE to do this!” The next day I was talking at the cafe with a customer named Van, who happened to be a cinematographer and social marketer, and he jumped at the opportunity to work with us to get a Kickstarter campaign off the ground. The campaign ends at the end of October and folks can expect to have their rewards before the end of the year. We’re hoping to raise $25,000, build up our e-mail newsletter, and help some people get organized in their lives through our product.

You’re the Dungeon Master at Coral Sword—what does that entail?

Coral Sword is (to my knowledge) the first board game cafe in Houston. We serve coffee, tea, beer, wine, and some simple gamer grub. We have a library of free-to-play board games, with titles like Battleship, Connect Four, Catan and Cards Against Humanity, and many many more. I am blessed with wonderful business partners Hunter and Alexis Pence, Ming Chen, and Greenway Coffee. On the worst days at work I unclog toilets and solve problems like “why is _______ broken/leaking/missing.” On the best days I get to make guests and staff feel recognized and special, and I get to watch people make wonderful memories in the cafe with people that they care about. My favorite thing about the service industry has always been the tremendous power that we have to make someone’s day. I want to say it was David Schomer (quoting Randy Pausch) who introduced me to the idea that, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you expected.” I think of my job (in any environment really) as constantly trying to improve the experience of everyone involved.

An early version of the wallet.

Have you used your notebook for coffee purposes?

First of all, everything I do is for coffee purposes (lol). Maxwell Mooney was the first person to use our product for cupping notes while green buying. But David Buehrer was the first person to realize you can use a Wallaby to hold a cupping spoon while you write cupping notes. Several folks have also used a Wallaby to journal and take notes at origin, but also just while traveling in general. In fact, that has been one of the happiest surprises since undertaking this project—seeing the clever and amazing ways that people use our creation has been inspiring.

What’s next for CR Brand?

The Wallaby and The Joey serve a pretty awesome community of people, who (like ourselves) are focused on self-reflection and self-improvement, as well as documenting the many splendors of life. We had no idea what these folks would do with our products, but now we get to watch people hack and modify them, and I love hearing things like “I use this to take notes in my EMT class” or “I use this to practice Katakana.” We want to continue nurturing and listening to that community and seeing what people do with our products and what they use our products to achieve. I’m turning 35 this first week of October. The business started as an open excuse to stay close with a good friend as we grew older and grew physically apart. The possibility that what we’ve created might help someone else do something so meaningful in their own life is incredible. AND we get to plant trees because of it? Come on.

Thank you!

Photos courtesy Sandy Bledsoe.

The post We Found The Perfect Wallet For Coffee Folks appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Bad news for anyone running a cafe with a no kids policy, as coffee—the very thing they love over all else—appears to be conspiring against them in a very Longshanksian way. A new study from the National Institute of Health suggests that men who drink at least two cups of coffee a day are twice as likely to get their partners pregnant.

According to the Telegraph, the study took a look at 500 couples trying to conceive and found that the male participants who consumed two or more cups of coffee each day the week before the couple had sex had double the chance of conceiving. Dr. Sunni Mumford, the lead author of the survey, states:

We were somewhat surprised by the results though the research on male caffeine intake and its effects on fertility is pretty mixed.

These results highlight the importance of lifestyle factors in both male and female partners during sensitive windows of reproduction to influence fecundability, and the need for appropriate preconception guidance for couples seeking pregnancy.

The results fly in the face of previous research on the topic that suggests caffeine in fact decreases male fertility by “possibly damaging the sperm DNA,” leading to a lower sperm count. Professor Sheena Lewis of Queens University in Belfast offers up one possible explanation involving caffeine’s effects on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and guanosine triphosphate (GTP):

Caffeine prevents these chemicals from breaking down so more energy is available to cells including sperm so they can swim faster or longer.

Professor Lewis goes on to note that, were this explanation to be the case, it would be good news for men with fertility issues “because lots of infertility is caused by sperm that are poor swimmers.”

Now, I’m no doctor, but it stands to reason that caffeine could have both positive and negative effects. It could at the same time decrease the total sperm count while supercharging ones that remain; it only takes one little swimmer juiced up on 12 shots of espresso, you know?

Nonetheless, many of the reproductive experts the Telegraph spoke to for the article remain unconvinced by the findings. The prevailing thought in the face of this new study is if your partner is trying to conceive, when it comes to caffeine, don’t change what you are doing just yet. What they do know is this: don’t smoke and don’t drink to excess. Coffee? Maybe.

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 Ubisafe.

The post New Study Suggests Coffee Doubles The Chances Of Fatherhood appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

There are so many exciting homegrown coffee festivals happening in Europe right now it’ll make your head spin. Glasgow, Ljubljana, Tehran, there’s an exciting new breed of festivals for locals worldwide (to speak nothing of the larger, Allegra-organized events in London, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Milan). No list of international coffee festivals is complete with out Prague. Now in its seventh year, the Prague Coffee Festival is a weekend full of lectures, workshops, and of course, tons of coffee.

Taking place October 20th and 21st at the Prague Market, this year’s festival includes over 50 Czech and international roasters and cafes working either the brew bar or espresso bar (or in some cases, both), including notables like: La Cabra (Denmark), Origin Coffee (UK), EMA Espresso Bar (Czech Republic), and Double B (Russia).

Along with tasting coffee, the Prague Coffee Festival invited attendees to a host of discussions and workshops. Expect to find a range of lecture topics, from “Good coffee hunting: tips and tricks for enjoying specialty coffee in 2018” to the headier “Mechanisms of resistance of the genus Coffea” as well as a “Physiotherapy for baristas” session. And for those looking to get more hands-on, workshops on cupping, making coffee at home for a variety of brew methods, sensory training, and even a “coffee cosmetics” are all available. Workshops (as well as cuppings) do require a registration through the Prague Coffee Festival website, so make sure you get signed up in advance.

Tickets for the Prague Coffee Festival are 399 Kč (roughly $18 USD) and can be purchased through the website. Saturday has already sold out, so snag your Sunday tickets now before they are all gone. For a full roster of roasters and events, visit the Prague Coffee Festival’s 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 the Prague Coffee Festival

The post The Prague Coffee Festival Is This Weekend appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A few short days ago we were given an extraordinary opportunity here at Sprudge. Leading members of the Brazilian coffee community, including coffee producers, cafe owners, journalists and activists, have authored an open letter stating their ardent opposition to the presidential candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro, a Brazilian politician commonly referred to as far-right, ultra-conservative, fascist, misogynist, and homophobic.

In consultation with our editorial advisory board, and in advance of the international coffee community’s upcoming travel to Brazil for Brazil International Coffee Week, we’ve decided to publish their letter in full. It includes a link to the community’s petition via Change.org (text in Portuguese).

Please note that it is Sprudge’s policy not to endorse any individual political candidate or party. The views represented in this open letter do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our owners, staff, editorial advisory board, or advertising partners. For additional context, the authors of the letter below recommend recent reporting from the BBC and John Oliver’s weekly news program on HBO, Last Week Tonight.

Coffee for Democracy

An Open Letter From Brazil’s Coffee Community

In times of turmoil we, professionals involved in the specialty coffee chain throughout Brazil, find ourselves with no other alternative than taking a stand and stating our commitment to democracy.

The specialty coffee chain, mostly made up of small- and medium-sized producers and companies, symbolizes a future that considers the environmental impact of food production, fair remuneration for producers, as well as respect and promotion of equality and social safety nets for coffee workers. Herein, we exercise the democratic right to oppose the proposals of the candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who in our understanding disseminates hatred and intolerance, going against the basic principles that we understand as pillars of our community. We would be overlooking if we did not stand by people of color and LGBTQ+, many of whom are members of our community as workers and/or customers, at a time when their lives are being threatened. 

We know that we are not alone, both in Brazil and globally. In a recent episode, Sprudge was opposed to doing media coverage for an international event that would be based in a country with homophobic legislation. Part of such event was eventually transferred to Brazil.

To summarize, we believe:

– In the respect for the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) and its acquired and strengthened labor rights.

– In equal conditions and rights for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, and economic conditions.

– In a fair production chain, committed to sustainable development, respect for the environment, and guided by the principles of human dignity and appropriate salaries, thus ensuring better living conditions for all involved in the production of specialty coffee.

Finally, we have the belief that cafes are spaces for dialogue and debate of ideas, thus we need to preserve them. This becomes more difficult if the context in which the cafes are inserted is undemocratic and averse to dialogue. We know, from recent historic events, that authoritarian government projects do not tolerate the free circulation of ideas, one of the bases of democracy: the untouchable right to be opposition with freedom of expression.

With these principles in mind, we believe that the presidential candidate Professor Fernando Haddad is the only one with who we share a shared vision of the future.

Authoritarianism makes everyone’s cup bitter. 

Some Coffee shops/roasteries that signed this letter are below. The full list can be seen at the Change.org petition. 

Takkø Café  – São Paulo

Pura Caffeína – São Paulo

Oop – Belo Horizonte

King of the Fork – Sao Paulo

Objeto Encontrado – Brasília

Casa Quilha – Brasília

Café Secreto – Rio de Janeiro

Por um Punhado de Dólares – São Paulo

Yerba – São Paulo

Fora da Lei – São Paulo

4 Beans – Curitiba

HM Food Café – São Paulo

Futuro Refeitório – São Paulo

Café Magrí – Belo Horizonte

Los Baristas – Brasília

Isabela Raposeiras

Felipe Croce

Sensory Coffee Roasters – São Paulo

Urbici – Fortaleza

Bikebrew – Brasília

AHA! – Brasília

Seu Patrício Café – Brasília

Kaffa – Vitória

Hey Coffee – São Paulo

Portal Coffea – São Paulo

More information and an up-to-date list of signees is available at Change.org. 

All Brazil coverage on Sprudge. 

The post An Open Letter From The Brazilian Coffee Community appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

In the Northern Hemisphere, official fun-in-the-sun season is over. Yet some lucky autumnal gallivanters in the Netherlands are finding themselves at events with a parking spot reserved for Bitter & Real. After a busy summer, the electric mobile specialty coffee company that advocates “more coffee, less fossil fuel” is still on the road. Upcoming stops include Rotterdam’s creative lifestyle-outfitting Swan Market, Amsterdam’s annual jewelry fair, and a culinary disco bash in a Breda church.

It was at a food truck festival in Amsterdam’s Westerpark that Sprudge caught up with owners Laura van der Have and Minos Eigenheer. Amidst all the vying vehicles and victuals at Rollende Keuekens this past May, Bitter & Real stood out. Finished in matte indigo paint, the 1971 Citroën HY Van is haloed by a hand-drawn wood cutout of the brand’s name and logo—a lightning bolt striking a black demitasse.

Eigenheer and Van der Have

Van der Have and Eigenheer have been serving specialty coffee from the fully electric vehicle since fall 2015. They spent months refurbishing, essentially, a rusty cab and chassis after purchasing it secondhand from, in their words, “a Citroën old-timer freak” in Germany. Today, 300-kilo electric batteries get all three tons of it moving “90-ish kilometers per hour,” says Van der Have, who assures, “with the wind on your back, it can go up to 107.”

Li-ion batteries also power the equipment inside. That includes a Tetris-like arrangement of a two-group Kees van der Westen Spirit, a Victoria Arduino Mythos One grinder, a Mahlkönig EK43 grinder, a 3Temp one-group Hipster Brewer, a Marco Ecoboiler WMT5, as well as two fridges (to hold a couple hundred liters of milk, nitro cold brew, beer, and iced tea kegs), an oven to bake fresh sweets (rhubarb frangipane tartlets, anyone?), and a dishwasher.

To charge its batteries and run all the appliances, a single cord from within the vehicle can plug into some on-location power source. Additionally, 12m2 of solar panels line the roof, producing 1800 watt-peaks of solar energy—asked for a layperson’s equivalent, Van der Have estimates that “on a nice summer day that is enough to constantly use a hairdryer.”

Of the choice to use solar panels, she explains: “We wanted to be able to power all this coffee gear anywhere without taking a generator, so we can also function off-grid. And that’s what we often do for catering [at events] where a 400-volt phase power supply is not available.”

Indigenous to warm climates though they may seem, the couple met while snowboarding in Eigenheer’s native Switzerland. Before moving to the Netherlands, he had worked for Revita, a small company that designs water turbines. Van der Have started in the hospitality industry at age 15, at boutique hotel and restaurant Villa Augustus in Dordrecht. A 15-minute train ride from Rotterdam, the river-surrounded city is nowadays Bitter & Real’s headquarters. Van der Have’s parents have an estate there, which hosts their chicken coop, a garden yielding ingredients for their baked goods, and an old barn sheltering the parked truck and their Diedrich IR-12. Since January, they have been roasting their own line of coffees, providing for themselves, online customers, and, recently, Villa Augustus.

At a typical festival, five or six Bitter & Real staff work in two shifts, and up to five can simultaneously—and seemingly merrily—fit in the tight space. On a good day, they report selling 800 coffees. It is a compact, classy operation, but eco-friendly portability comes with concessions.

“Often at catering locations, there is no power outlet that can handle a Spirit and all the espresso bar gear without the help of a big battery bank with inverter,” says Van der Have. “During peak hours or while the espresso machine is warming up, we need about six times more energy, which gets drawn from the battery.”

Plus, it is “paper cups most of the time—we very much prefer using porcelain.” Still, she maintains: “We have sooo many people come to drink coffee that you wouldn’t have in a cafe.”

Bitter & Real have undoubtedly upped the standards in mobile coffee—this year all the more apparent with the brand’s freshly roasted beans onboard. However, that was not their explicit intention. Rather, it was “his sustainability vision and my coffee vision [that came] together in this van,” says Van der Have of their enterprise. And, she points out: “It was not that I really wanted to change festivals. We kinda rolled into it.”

Once autumn ends, “we have a semi-winter sleep,” she says, though admits that preparations for the upcoming summer never stop. An exciting project will be putting the finishing touches on their second electric vehicle creation, a 1984 Citroën ideal for hauling extra crew, supplies, and really, anything under the sun.

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

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Source: Coffee News