Specialty Coffee Archives - Page 23 of 35 - The Curb Kaimuki

Breaking news here exclusively on Sprudge, as Ozone Coffee Roasters International have completed an agreement with Has Bean Coffee to combine ownership of the two companies. Has Bean founder Steve Leighton along with longtime colleagues Dale Harris and Chris Glover-Price will now join Ozone as shareholders in the combined group. The move was finalized on June 29th, 2018.

Ozone Coffee was founded in New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1998 and expanded to London, UK in 2012. It currently operates two cafes—one in London, the other in New Zealand—and services a network of wholesale cafe partners in both countries. A third cafe will open later this year, bringing some 4,000 square feet of curated coffee retail to the city of Auckland. Has Bean was founded in Stafford, United Kingdom in 2002, and as a roaster operates exclusively as cafe wholesale and direct to consumer subscription.

In a statement provided to Sprudge, Ozone Coffee Roasters International Managing Director Craig Macfarlane writes, “Like Ozone, Has Bean has worked hard, over many years, to grow a successful business—one that is built on a family culture and honest relationships. And maybe that’s why this new relationship feels so genuine.” Elsewhere in the statement, Macfarlane outlines that Ozone Coffee and Has Bean will continue to operate as independent brands, with Leighton taking on a new Executive Director role at OCRI, while Harris and Glover-Price maintain their current roles at Has Bean. “We’ve both been operating within the specialty coffee industry for years,” writes Macfarlane, “and in that time the two businesses have developed complementary strengths and expertise. Together, we have some very exciting plans in the pipeline and we’re now in the position to make them a reality.”

In a separate statement also provided to Sprudge, Has Bean founder Stephen Leighton addressed the news, writing, “As of 29 June, Has Bean has become part of the family of Ozone Coffee Roasters International (OCRI) based in Both New Plymouth, New Zealand and London, UK.”

Leighton continues, mentioning his humble roots launching Has Bean at the early dawn of third wave coffee (“I remember the first time I was roasting in the back of my garage and the chimney caught fire…”), and outlining the length of courtship between the two brands. “We have been talking for eight months now,” Leighton writes, “and during that time I have got to know the Ozone team. This has given me the reassurance that we are similar companies in the same market but with different skill sets and different strengths, but most importantly we share the same values. This partnership opens new doors, to projects and new opportunities that we’ve been dreaming about for many years.”

Leighton’s new role with a jointly operated Has Bean + Ozone exists outside his ongoing work in the speciality coffee industry. That includes a co-owner role at Drop Coffee in Stockholm, Sweden (reported here in 2015), as well as an investment in Dublin’s 3FE, the growing coffee brand founded by Colin Harmon that now includes multiple cafes and a roastery. “Both of these [3FE + Drop] will not cross over to the OCRI,” Leighton tells Sprudge, “and will remain 100% independent and follow their own path.”

In reporting this story Sprudge spoke at length with James Gurr, Director of Projects + Brand for Ozone Coffee Roasters in the United Kingdom. Mr. Gurr offered clarity for us on a variety of points:

• Has Bean and Ozone will continue to operate as independent brands, post-merger, with both brands maintaining their own current lines of packaging and sourcing.
• As to what exactly this was—a merger, an acquisition, or some melange of the two—Gurr offers some clarity. “The whole of the company was acquired but the deal was structured in a way that Steve Leighton, along with two of his long-standing colleagues, Dale Harris and Chris Glover-Price, now join existing Ozone Coffee shareholders as owners of the combined group. Steve will also join the OCRI Executive Team in a newly created role of Director of Coffee.”
• Has Bean’s global subscription service will continue under the new arrangement, and Leighton will continue producing original content for his subscribers in the form of his groundbreaking In My Mug video blog (now on episode #504!) and in Has Bean’s proprietary Has Blog website.
• There are at the moment no plans for a physical Has Bean cafe location under the new ownership agreement.

“As the UK specialty coffee market is maturing an increasingly competitive business environment is emerging,” Gurr tells Sprudge. “During our discussions over the past eight months we’ve found that Ozone and Has Bean share some exciting long-term goals. This collaboration provides a level of scale that means we can act on these opportunities much sooner than would otherwise have been possible. This move will allow both businesses to get better at what we already do as well as providing the opportunity to diversify and build on what has been created to date.”

Today’s news heats up the coffee mergers and acquisitions beat here in 2018, and puts our focus for future news of this stripe squarely on the United Kingdom’s white-hot specialty coffee market. Are you sitting on coffee merger news in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter? Get in touch.

Visit HasBean’s official website.

Visit Ozone Coffee Roasters’ official UK and NZ websites. 

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

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Source: Coffee News

Gear Patrol—Hearst Magazines‘ “gathering place for guys who want to make the most of life”—are going hard on coffee coverage here in 2018, authoring authoritative-ish listicles on top roasters, SCA approved coffee brewing gear, coffee subscriptions, instant coffee, and much more. Yesterday’s feature—ostensibly about the SCA giving awards to turmeric latte blends—contains some curious advice as it originally appeared (emphasis added):

This statement ran in an article titled “The Coffee Industry Wants You To Put Turmeric In Your Espresso“, which is quite a headline! The post has since been updated to reflect that the SCA does not, in fact, recommend any such practice (see below for an official statement on the matter). But that headline, which remains unchanged, sent us here at Sprudge down a profound path of ponderous wonderment. Does the coffee industry really want you to put turmeric in your espresso? Has anyone actually tried it? And who, exactly, is the *you* in this question? Is it the royal you, meaning all of us with the ability to drink espresso and peruse websites? Or is it a command for me, specifically?

Who is you? Who am I? Maybe Gear Patrol is on to something. I would never deign to make such a claim on behalf of an entire industry, but what do I know? My abilities as a guy just making the most of life have long been questioned. Nevertheless we want to hear from you, dear Sprudge reader—both specifically from you and from the unwashed masses of the royal you—as we ask our readers to weigh in on this, the pressing coffee issue of our time.

Does the coffee industry really want you to put turmeric in your espresso?

Take our Twitter poll. Sound off in the comments below. We’ll update with our findings in the next 24 hours. In the meantime, below please find an official statement from SCA Communications Director Vicente Partida:

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

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Source: Coffee News

Specialty coffee and art have always worked hand in hand; artists of every stripe have long gravitated towards coffee work for the flexible hours, the freedom of expression, and, of course, the free access to their favorite caffeinated beverage. As specialty coffee culture has brewed over time with the artists who populate its coffeehouses and roasteries, it’s become deeply marked by the presence of the arts, a relationship which is visible in every detail of the specialty movement, from the expression of perfect microfoam as a fluid rosetta to the obsession with aesthetically flawless roast graphs that showcase a rainbow of flavors on the cupping table and in the espresso machine. The newest tribute to this is the Coffee People zine, coming out of Denver, Colorado. It’s an ode to coffee people who are artists, as well as coffee as an art in itself.

For creator Kat Melheim, Coffee People was inspired by her friends and coworkers in coffee who are also artists. Melheim, who roasts coffee at Logan House Coffee and baristas at Amethyst, went to an art show featuring the work of fellow Denverite Breezy Sanchez of Crema Coffeehouse and had a *click* moment. “She’s one hell of a barista and everyone knows her behind bar, but lots of folks didn’t know she did rad art, design, and graphics. At her art show I had this a-ha moment of ‘everyone should know about this,’” said Melheim. Inspired, she started thinking about all the other baristas, roasters, and productionistas who work in coffee but also have creative projects on the side, and, with the support of a tight-knit group of Denver coffee friends including Elle Jensen, Emily Orendorff, Johanna Hirschboeck, Kristyn Wade, Melissa Vaiden, and the aforementioned Sanchez, she worked to create a platform where everyone could showcase their art. The first two issues are available for purchase online. Rather than releasing new issues on the fiscal quarter, zine releases align with the two solstices and equinoxes that occur each year, which means issue two dropped June 21.

Coffee People Zine creator Kat Melheim.

Content-wise, Coffee People has a lot going on. First off, Melheim donates a portion of each zine sale to charities that benefit coffee people—and, since proceeds from the first issue went to the Coffee Too project, a nonprofit that focuses on fighting harassment and discrimination in the coffee industry, a lot of content in the first issue focuses in that direction. The zine’s inaugural Know Your Rights segment, which will focus on a different workers’ rights topic each issue, breaks down workplace sexual harassment with a digestible infographic, and there’s also a Coffee Too fact sheet, followed by a helpful and hilarious guide to mansplaining.

Peppered throughout are poetry, photography, and graphic art from coffee people, including an exquisite corpse drawing on a hot sleeve and a scratch and sniff with coffee flavor notes (there’s a surprise involved here, but I don’t want to spoil it). The zine also features notable new coffeehouse openings and a locally focused but internationally reaching events calendar, including a section on recurring events—many of which are free.

It includes some Coffee Championship-related content, but doesn’t shy away from substantial critique. It focuses on the inequities in coffee competitions, including interviews and statements from queer competitors on their response to the Specialty Coffee Association’s scheduling of world coffee championships in Dubai, a country where queer identity is heavily criminalized (the event has since been rescheduled). It then delves into an admittedly “informal and unscientific” breakdown of gender demographics at the Coffee Champs Denver preliminary based on local survey results.

In addition to providing a platform for coffee creatives and connecting the community through the events calendar, Melheim wants to advocate for and uplift people who work in coffee, especially baristas, as the specialized and skilled professionals that they are, rather than people who are just working in coffee until they get higher-paying jobs. Melheim was drawn to the zine format to do this work because many artists and coffee people alike enjoy physical materials they can hold and keep. She also wants to maximize accessibility, so she plans to make a lot of content available online as well, including online Know Your Rights pdfs that reinforce the material in the zine.

Issue two benefits Prodigy Coffee, a local shop with an apprenticeship program for youth in the neighborhood. To snag the first two issues, pick up a tee shirt, or submit content (including art, articles, photography, doodles, letters, short stories, comics, and more), visit their official website and follow their progress on instagram @coffeepeoplezine.

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

Photos courtesy of Andrew Horton.

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Source: Coffee News

In the latest news in the war on straws, Starbucks announced Monday its plan to eliminate the use of straws in its network of 28,000 cafes worldwide by 2020. The news was reported by NPR, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and a host of other national news publications.

Here’s more from the official Starbucks release:

Read the full release here via Starbucks.

Plastic waste floating in water. Richard Carey / Adobe Stock

Who will be the first third wave coffee company to remove straws from its locations? Or has Starbucks successfully ret-con’d themselves into third wave status, inherently negating this question? For now at least, expect glares at your favorite coffee bar if you say yes to an offered straw, and don’t expect the option for long.

Straws are the new smoking.

The post Starbucks Vows To Suck Less By 2020 appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Rome is a city that runs on an excess of caffeine. Brought up from childhood on drops of dark Robusta roasts, Romans tend to demand coffee that is bitter, scalding hot, and made in a hurry.

It is no wonder that coffee shops offering 100% Arabica and modern brewing methods have been hesitant to take on a stubborn, espresso-centric coffee culture.

The concept of Slow Food was born in Rome, and after a significant wait, specialty coffee is finally being ushered onto the Italian capital’s gastronomic scene. Likening good coffee to quality olive oil or specialty wines, new bars are finding a customer base that understands and craves something other than household brand industrial roasts.  These new bars are offering unique coffees that can be hard to find outside of Italy, while simultaneously introducing Romans and visitors alike to specialty coffees from roasteries around Europe. While the drink-and-go culture of quick coffees and little chit chat still dominates, Rome’s modern cafes are also embracing the idea of ambiance—creating the small havens in the middle of a gorgeous, if chaotic, Italian city.

Pergamino Caffè

Located between St. Peter’s Square and the entrance to the Vatican Museums, Pergamino Caffè sits in one of the most heavily trafficked areas of Rome. Despite the endless stream of potential customers who are simply passing through and unlikely to return, the small shop has embraced a serious approach to specialty coffee. As in many Italian bars, prices vary depending on if the coffee is consumed at the bar or at a table. For this reason, as well as to ensure sufficient room for the gleaming La Marzocco Strada EP, the counter dominates the space.

Below a printed manifesto on the cafe’s use of specialty coffee (and organic milk from a local producer), Ceado and Mahlkönig grinders, multiple V60s, a siphon, and an AeroPress stand at the ready. After a day of pounding ancient cobblestones, the prettiest sight in the modern cafe is the nitro tap. Pergamino is the first bar in Italy to offer nitro coffee, and the resulting crisp and sweet cold brew is the perfect antidote to the Roman sun.

Regardless of the preparation method, Pergamino offers coffee from a rotating selection of Italian roasteries, including Lady Cafè, Gardelli, and Rinaldi. A monthly guest roast from London, Berlin, or Amsterdam is also usually available.

Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria

Roscioli is a name that is familiar in Rome food circles. The gourmet family owns a bakery, a modern pizzeria, a well-respected restaurant, and a wine school that all lie within a few minutes’ walk of each other in the historic center of the city. As a result, specialty coffee was a natural next frontier. The understated entrance of the cafe is easy to miss, but finding a spot along the bar can require patience and/or a well-placed assertive elbow nudge. The two-level counter runs the length of the narrow shop, allowing a ledge for coffee as well as a glassed-in view of Roscioli’s signature pastries. The entrance of the narrow bar is a difficult place to linger, but the shop also has a somewhat hidden and darkened back room with a communal table for 12. This is the best place to take a seat to enjoy specialty Italian coffee prepared via AeroPress or dripper. Roscioli serves coffee from Verona-based roastery Giamaica, but really draws crowds with their selection of traditional Roman sweets and savory panini to pair with espresso throughout the day.

Marjani Coffee Roaster

Marjani is a true one-man coffee show in the businessy EUR district outside of central Rome. Sharing a storefront with a popular sandwich counter, Alessandro Pau singlehandedly manages a glossy Della Corte DC Evo 2, Chemex, v60, and AeroPress. Pau sources artisan roasts from around Italy, but what makes the trip to his coffee counter truly unique for Rome is that Marjani also acts as a local micro-roastery. While most guest roasts are 100% Arabica single-origin coffees from Ethiopia and Central America, one of Marjani’s signature “Roman” roasts is a blend of 70/30 Arabica and Robusta that appeals to local tastes. The deep and acidic espresso blend offers a complexity that is impossible to find in the city’s standard coffee bars. However, Pau also turns out 100% Arabica roasts in small batches depending on the beans he has sourced recently.

Marjani’s tiny shared space is short on seating and atmosphere, so the trip to EUR is best between peak rush hours when you have time to sidle up to the bar to sample and chat about the current coffee selection.  Outdoor seating is also available along the street.

Faro – Luminari del Caffe

Having opened in December 2016, Faro – Luminari del Caffe is a welcome newcomer on the specialty coffee scene here. The laid-back coffee house is a short walk from the city’s main train station, but still falls a bit off the usual tourist map. Faro (which means “lighthouse” in Italian), tries to gently educate customers over every cup. The highly trained baristas encourage every guest to taste the coffee “senza zucchero”—without sugar. Co-founders Dario Fociani, Arturo Felicetta, and Dafne Spadavecchia always find the time to stop by and chat about the available roasts which change regularly. The house blend comes from Italy-based Gardelli, but Faro also offers a kind of tasting menu of single-origin coffees that comes complete with descriptions of the flavor notes. While the La Marzocco Strada EP and Mahlkönig EK43 setup is impressive, Faro really manages to distinguish itself on the Rome scene with ambiance. The spacious cafe is filled with natural light and plenty of seating. Inspired by his time in Melbourne, Fociani worked with his partners to create a sense of balance and an alternative to the slam-and-go Roman espresso culture that still reigns supreme in the city’s standard coffee shops.

Tram Depot

A tiny kiosk on a busy intersection in Rome’s trendy Testaccio district, Tram Depot is one of the more unexpected specialty coffee stops in Rome. With a Wes Anderson palette of outdoor seats, the coffee cart is only open seasonally from April through October. The interior of the vintage tram car has been remodeled to turn out coffee throughout the day, and then transitions to cocktails through the wee hours of the morning. Tram Depot offers a rotating selection of coffee from Parma-based Lady Café, with most locals still opting to drink their coffee in a traditional espresso style. But keep in mind that the little cart also has filter and siphon options. You can read more Sprudge coverage on Tram Depot here.

Natalie Kennedy is a California-born, Italian-based travel writer and the publisher of An American In Rome. Read more Natalie Kennedy on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

Last month, over the weekend of June 22nd-24th, Sprudge Media Network banded together with a couple hundred of our favorite cafes and coffee brands across the United States in a fundraiser benefitting the Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project. We called the event Coffee For Families, and it’s part of the outpouring of support ASAP has received over the last few weeks.

With most of the reporting in, the coffee community has raised $100,000 and counting for Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project. There’s still a few more partners left to report and we’ll be adding to that donation total in the coming days. All donations were made directly to ASAP—and if you’re moved by this effort to get involved, you can donate directly to ASAP right here.

“ASAP is so grateful to Sprudge Media and all the businesses that participated in Coffee for Families for raising over $100,000,” says ASAP Co-Founder and Co-Director Dorothy Tegeler, “Throughout the country, business owners and coffee drinkers not only raised money, but helped to raise awareness about the challenges facing asylum-seekers who come to the United States fleeing persecution. It is incredible to see such an outpouring of support.”

Thank you to our fellow media companies who took the time to report out this story, including Chicago Tribune, Eater Austin, Eater Dallas, Easter Houston, Eater Portland, and Grub Street. And a huge thanks very much to everyone who participated, shared, donated, and made this effort part of your life over that weekend in June.

There’s so, so much work left to be done, but it’s heartening to know that coffee’s capacity for leadership and advocacy runs so deep. We’ll be back again this fall with our next bi-annual Night of 1000 Pours event. If you’d like to get involved in this fall’s event, please reach out here.

Here’s a complete list of all the participanting companies in this fundraiser. Thank you all so much!

1900 Barker Bakery and Cafe — Lawrence, KS
Amethyst Coffee — Denver, CO
Andytown Coffee Roasters — San Francisco, CA
Anelace Coffee — Minneapolis, MN
The Arbor Lodge / Tanager Coffee Roasters — Portland, OR
Ascension Coffee Roasters — Dallas, TX
Assembly Coffee Roasters — Pittsfield, MA
Atkinsons Coffee Roasters — Lancaster & Manchester, UK
BattleCat Coffee Bar — Asheville, NC
Beantween Coffee — Manhattan Beach, CA
Blacksmith — Houston, TX
Blackwood Coffee Bar — Los Angeles
Blue Bottle Coffee — Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, Boston
Blue Copper Coffee — Salt Lake City
Blueprint Coffee — St. Louis, MO
Brandywine Coffee Roasters — Wilmington, DE
Cafe Integral — Chicago, New York, Los Angeles
Caffe Streets — Chicago, IL
Carrier Roasting Co. — Northfield, VT
Case Study Coffee — Portland, OR
Chattahoochee Coffee — Atlanta, GA
Chrome Yellow Trading Co. — Atlanta, GA
City & State — Memphis, TN
The Coffee Ethic — Springfield, Missouri
Coffee Party — El Paso, TX
Community Loaves — Jacksonville, Florida
Coral Sword — Houston, TX
Counter Culture Coffee — Asheville, Atlanta, Emeryville, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Durham, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C.
Cultivar Coffee — Dallas and Denton, TX
Dark Horse Coffee Roasters — San Diego, CA
Dichotomy Coffee & Spirits — Waco, TX
East One Coffee Roasters — Brooklyn, NY
Edorffeine — Los Angeles, CA
Either / Or — Portland, OR
Everyman Espresso — Manhattan and Brooklyn, NYC
Evocation Coffee — Amarillo, TX
First Village Coffee — Ossining, NY
Fleet Coffee — Austin, Texas
Flight Coffee Co — Bedford, NH
Foster Sundry — Brooklyn, NY
Four Letter Word — Chicago
FUTURO — Phoenix, AZ
Gelateria Gemelli — Austin, TX
Gimme! Coffee — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Upstate New York
Go Get Em Tiger, G&B Coffee — Los Angeles
Goat Hill Coffee & Soda — Kansas City, MO
Greater Goods Coffee Roasters — Austin, TX
Greenway Coffee — Houston, TX
Hal’s Office — Albany, CA
Heart Coffee Roasters — Portland, OR
Houndstooth Coffee — Austin and Dallas, TX
Hovey & Harrison — Edwards, CO
Hillside Coffee & Donut — El Paso, TX
Intelligentsia Coffee — Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, San Francisco
Kaladi Coffee Roasters — Denver & Englewood, CO
Kickapoo Coffee Roasters — Viroqua, WI
Kindness and Mischief Coffee — Highland Park, CA
KIOSKO/Smalltime Roasters — Portland, OR
La Colombe — Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego
Lamplighter Coffee Roasters — Richmond, VA
Little Amps Coffee Roasters — Harrisburg, PA
Lupa’s Coffee — College Station, TX
Marigold Coffee — Portland, OR
Metric Coffee — Chicago, IL
Monarch Coffee — Kansas City, MO
Morningstar — Houston, TX
Mudhouse Coffee Roasters — Charlottesville, VA
New Gotham Coffee Community — Chicago, IL
No Booze on Sunday Podcast — El Paso, TX
Oatly
Oddly Correct — Kansas City, MO
Okay Yeah Co. — Oklahoma City, OK
Onyx Coffee Lab — Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale, and Rogers, AR
Ox Coffee — Philadelphia, PA
Palace Coffee Company — Amarillo, TX & Canyon, TX
Paperback Cafe — Mendocino County Covelo, CA
Parakeet Cafe — La Jolla, CA
Parlor Coffee — Brooklyn, NY
PennyCup Coffee Co. — Asheville, NC
Pentacle Coffee — San Francisco, CA
Philter — Kennett Square, PA
Phoenix Coffee — Cleveland, Ohio
Pleasant Pops — Washington, DC
Port of Mokha — Oakland, CA
Portland Roasting Coffee — Portland, Oregon
Posies Bakery & Cafe — Portland, OR
Post Coffee Company — Lees Summit, MO
The Potters House — Washington, D.C.
Presta Coffee Roasters – Tucson, Arizona
Public Square Coffee House — San Diego, CA
ReAnimator Coffee — Philadelphia, PA
Relax, It’s Just Coffee — Mansfield, OH
Rising Star Coffee Roasters — Cleveland, Ohio
Ritual Coffee Roasters — San Francisco and Napa, CA
Rock City Employee Cooperative — Rockland, ME
Rosalind Coffee — Garland, TX
Sip Stir Coffee House — Dallas, TX
The Society Hotel — Portland, OR
Sólo Espresso — New Orleans, LA
Stumptown Coffee Roasters — Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, NYC
Sustainable Harvest — Portland, OR
Tartine Bakery & Coffee Manufactory — San Francisco
Three Brothers Coffee — Nashville, TN
Toby’s Estate Coffee Roasters — Brooklyn, Manhattan
Trade and Lore — Asheville and Charlotte, NC
Ultimo Coffee — Philadelphia, PA
Upper Left Roasters — Portland, OR
Vagabond Coffee Co. — Jacksonville, Florida
Verve Coffee Roasters —Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Francisco
Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate — Gainesville, FL
Water Avenue Coffee — Portland, OR

To learn more and donate directly to Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, follow this link.

The post Coffee Just Raised $100,000 For The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Dutch winds blew chilly outside World of Coffee 2018, but inside, at the Amsterdam RAI convention center, June 20th to 23rd were hot-ticket days.

Breaking records this year, nearly 11,000 professionals registered for WOC, according to its organizing body, the Specialty Coffee Association. At a pre-ribbon-cutting press conference prior to the trade show’s official opening, SCA chief events officer Cindy Cohn cited a presence of 271 exhibitors and called it “the best-looking event we’ve put on.” Later, on the competition floor, Agnieszka Rojewska from Poland made history by becoming the first woman in the contest’s 18-year existence to win the title of World Barista Champion.

Visitors to Amsterdam sometimes joke that they can’t remember much from their trips to the famously live-and-let-live city, but these five WOC booths proved unforgettable.

Kees van der Westen

Nothing lights up a Dutch coffee event like the indigenous splendor of the Kees van der Westen brand, and everybody, from everywhere, was getting revved-up to see the debut of the Mirage Slim Jim. Presaged in a 2016 Sprudge interview with Kees van der Westen himself, this new espresso machine is “kind of a mixture” between others in the existing seQries, explained Yvette van der Westen, who oversees marketing for the company that her father heads. “Technically, visually, and price-wise, it will offer users an experience that falls somewhere between the Mirage and the Spirit.”

Unlike the Mirage, the Mirage Slim Jim is a multiple-boiler machine. Available in a Douette or a Triplette configuration, the groups have been given plenty of love and attention, each having its own two-stage progressive pre-infusion cylinder, a shot timer, a thermometer, and a pressure gauge. Other features include a dual hot water temperature knob and a dual volumetric lever.

The Slim Jim Idrocompresso model shares many of the same specs as the standard Slim Jim, but its prominent lever group cylinders have been built to be fully encased in hot water. This produces “a water cushioning effect which takes off a bit of the pressure and it won’t hit you in the face,” said Yvette, explaining that the lever on previous Idrocompresso models was susceptible to shooting up if a barista forgot to load the portafilter.

All four prototypes showed unique details, including interchangeable legs, front and side panels, cup rails, awnings, and knobs, plus various colors and room for customized logos. Still, they all shared a nostalgic Americana automotive design sensibility, so much so that baristas might start pulling out their Pomade and poodle skirts.

Following WOC, the Van der Westen family—all members showed up, including Yvette’s two sisters, now also her colleagues—were due to cruise back to headquarters in Waalre. Their road map foresees a few more technical tweaks, a pre-production series, and finally, the Mirage Slim Jim’s availability by early 2019.

Qima Coffee

At WOC Amsterdam, the launch of Qima Coffee, a London-headquartered company sourcing specialty beans from Yemen, was bittersweet. “The Yemen Coffee Revolution Starts Here” read the slogan on the stand’s backdrop, a lively mocha- and gold-toned illustration of Sana’a’s ancient skyline. Helping lead that revolution is Faris Sheibani, a UK-born Yemeni who founded Qima in late 2016, seeking to do something for his parents’ country of origin, where civil war has killed, wounded, and displaced thousands of people since early 2015.

Booth-side, Sheibani and colleagues warmly received visitors, telling them about Qima’s debut collection. Some 800 smallholder farmers across northern and central Yemen produced about 250 coffee lots, which were cupped and scored by Dutchman-gone-Californian Willem Boot of Boot Coffee. For the expo, Cafe Keppler co-owner Kees Kraakman roasted sample beans and praised Sheibani, a former SCA course student of his, for “how he combines a moral cause with a commercial enterprise.” Some farmers can now earn 20 times more income working for Qima, said Brahim Boukadid, Qima’s commercial manager in the Netherlands. He reported that 10% of profits get reinvested in the farmers’ villages, supporting agriculture and education projects, though above all, he emphasized: “We want to give them hope with this coffee.”

Attendees showed avid interest in Qima, suggesting its commercial prospects in Europe are real. Those glimmers of hope, however, were overshadowed by a conspicuous absence: that of four Yemeni farmers and a Yemeni NGO worker who were expected to be part of the company’s Amsterdam delegation. Their visa requests to visit the Netherlands were denied twice after what Sheibani described in an impassioned video message as an arduous, time-consuming, and humiliating application process filed via the Dutch embassy in Amman, Jordan. The visa denial made headlines and generated social media posts hashtagged #freeourfarmers. Qima has been outspoken about the decision’s unjustness and its irony. In the same video, Sheibani stated: “The Dutch East India Company took—smuggled—seedlings from Yemen, coffee seedlings from Yemen, to Amsterdam to plant them in the botanical gardens in Amsterdam, illegally. Four hundred two years later, we wanted to legally… together with the Dutch, celebrate coffee culture.” Qima has since published a follow-up video, captioned as a “message of hope and coexistence from the farmers of Yemen to the people of the Netherlands and the world!”

At the time of writing, three of the farmers remain in Amman, Sheibani told Sprudge in an email shortly after he returned to the UK. He said that he is helping the farmers apply to other global coffee exhibitions so they can personally represent their coffees. “If they go back empty-handed, it would be a devastating blow to thousands of farmers following the events from Yemen and a significant setback to the Yemeni coffee industry in general,” wrote Sheibani. (For the latest news, follow Qima on Facebook.)

Department of Brewology

It was a sight for sore eyes and some salve for the soul to spot the Department of Brewology making their WOC debut. The dauntless design duo from Austin, Texas, was selling wearables and wall art featuring their Filter Coffee Not People slogan, among others.

“It’s been great, actually. We love coming to Europe,” said company operations manager Brett Cannon, when asked their reception outside the US. New items on show included two coffee blossom pins and mini-prints of their iconic illustrations commingling botanicals and barista tools. Company designer David Salinas also told Sprudge about a new campaign, expected to launch in the coming months. For it, the Department of Brewology is working with The Lucy Foundation, a New Zealand-based organization promoting greater visibility of people with disabilities in the coffee industry. In the same spirit that sees proceeds of the FCNP T-shirt going to the Refugee Services of Texas, the new initiative will help raise funds for The Lucy Foundation. These designs are a collaboration between Floridian illustrator Anna Coleman and Salinas, and will be anchored by their own slogan. Those words are not yet public, but the campaign is geared “to really advocate for coffees that do good as opposed to just coffees that taste good,” said Salinas.

Collezione Henk Langkemper

Not a booth but a veritable buffet table, the Collezione Henk Langkemper snaked its way along one side of the trade floor’s food court. On show were 25 vintage espresso machines and grinders manufactured between 1936 and 1972, and now belonging to Dutch coffee industry vet Henk Langkemper. His entire 110-piece collection of such relics is usually at Espresso Service West, his three-decade-old coffee import and distribution company in The Hague that has become synonymous with supporting Dutch baristas in national and world competitions.

Asked for his most cherished, Langkemper pointed to what he called “any collector’s favorite:” the Rondine, described as the first La Marzocco one-group ever made, in 1953. The journey to get the machines to Amsterdam was tumultuous, said their owner: the idea began hatching at last year’s WOC Budapest, was slowed down by uncertainty about where on the expo floor the display could be accommodated, got called off after Langkemper had a heart attack in November, and then by February, reignited when an ESW customer pledged to provide the display bars. Before long, friends of Langkemper, from Seattle to Hong Kong, pitched in to help restore the machines. And so there they—and their owner—stood, back in shiny working condition.

Coffee Pixels

Winning this year’s Best New Product Competition in the category of food was Coffee Pixels Cascara, one of two edible coffee bars being sold by Latvian cousins Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns. Former specialty cafe owners in Riga, the trio today forms the company Solid Coffee, which started producing Coffee Pixels in 2017. Raivis described it as an idea born from necessity or, more precisely, withdrawal while traveling. Recounting instances when gas station or airplane coffee was their only option, he said they asked themselves “how we can take the quality of experience and the values that we have in specialty coffee truly on the go.”

The 10-gram bars are made from cocoa butter, Ethiopian coffee, coffee cherries, sugar, and salt. The “Milk” version contains 33 milligrams of caffeine and the winning “Cascara” contains 50 milligrams, the equivalent of approximately 30 milliliters of espresso. Sourced by Panama Varietals, the cascara comes from Nicaragua, and its choice as an ingredient reflects “the other part of the drive to build this product,” said Raivis, which is “to really tackle the waste produced in the coffee industry.”

Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns, founders of Coffee Pixels.

Another edible coffee benefit is that it “will be micro-dosing itself within your body,” he said. Because the caffeine is in saturated fat, it takes longer for the body to absorb, with its effect lasting up to four hours, Raivis estimated. He also pointed out that cascara contains antioxidants, so “this clean boost” accompanies the caffeine kick. “It feels like you have more energy in the head.”

And no wonder WOC Amsterdam was full of superlative highs and yet, still so memorable.

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

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Source: Coffee News

Allegra Events are coming to Los Angeles. Just announced today, the group behind coffee festivals in London, Amsterdam, New York, and Milan as well as the Coffee Masters competition is heading westward for the inaugural Los Angeles Coffee Festival taking place November 9th through 11th at The Reef.

For this first-of-its-kind event in LA, you can expect to find a lot of the favorites from past festivals: coffee companies from around the world, coffee art, and all manner of cocktails. But there will be a few new wrinkles for spectators’ enjoyment, most notably the Coffee Mixologists competition. Making its first appearance in the United States, Coffee Mixologists pits teams of two (one barista and one mixologist) in a battle royale to see who can create the best coffee cocktail using a set of unknown ingredients.

Also new for the Los Angeles Coffee Festival is The Kitchen, a casual dining experience harnessing the power of one of the country’s best culinary cities. Per the website, attendees can expect “fiery demos, workshops and talks headed up by culinary legends” from the “vibrant Los Angeles cooking scene.”

Tickets for the Los Angeles Coffee Festival are on sale now, with early bird pricing starting as low as $22.50 (through July 31st). For more information or to purchase your tickets, visit the Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles Coffee Festival.

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Source: Coffee News

Direct Origin Trading is a farmers collective based in Colombia and Honduras “made up of many small-scale coffee farmers,” whose goal is to offer these small producers “direct access to roasters willing to pay fair prices for their microlots independently.” Many of the farmers that comprise the collective are based in conflict-torn areas of Colombia still recovering from civil war. Now a new microloan initiative created by Kiva is hoping to raise $50,000 to help raise the wages of these coffee producers.

Based in San Francisco, Kiva is a non-profit organization that hopes to help pull people in developing countries out of poverty via microloans. In essence, it works like Kickstarter. Backers contribute an amount of their choosing, but instead of getting some sort of reward, you will—assuming all goes well—get your investment back. No interest, just good will.

According to the microloan site, the $50,000 will help extend Direct Origin Trading’s “pre-financing program to more smallholder farming families, especially in isolated, marginalized areas affected by armed insurgency. This loan will allow Direct Origin to process and export more coffee more efficiently while paying a 50%+ premium to rural farmers.” With eight days left in the campaign, Kiva has raised 66% of their goal, leaving some $16,000 to go as of publication.

They are asking for loans as small as $25 all the way up to $500. Kiva is expecting the loan to last 14 months with repayments occurring as the funds are available to the farmers.



To learn more about Direct Origin Trading, visit their official website. For more information on the microloan and to consider donating, visit Kiva’s donation page.

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

Top image via Kiva.

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Source: Coffee News

The Build-Outs roll on and we are returning to Manchester, which has been pretty fertile ground for Build-Outs the past few years; last year we featured Roc & Rye—our first ever foray into the UK’s second most populated city—and then not but two weeks ago we highlighted Atkinsons Coffee Roasters. And here we are for round three with Grindsmith Coffee Roasters.

Featuring a hyper-clean lab space and a hyper-clean Loring Smart Roaster, Grindsmith is driven by three core values: community, customers, and craft. And from the looks of the shindig below, it looks like they’ve got it nailed down. So let’s head back to Manchester one more time for Grindsmith Coffee Roasters.

As told to Sprudge by Laura Wood.

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

Grindsmith was created with the aim of serving the best coffee experience in Manchester. We believe this can only be delivered through quality of product, commitment to customer service excellence, and by creating a community that is enjoyed by staff, stakeholder and suppliers alike. Therefore, the Grindsmith is underpinned by three core values—community, customer, and craft. These pillars are part of our brand promise and are fundamental as the specialty coffee supplier of choice.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

The Grindsmith Coffee Roastery is a state-of-the-art laboratory and the latest innovation within the Grindsmith portfolio. The expansive space, set across two floors, has been renovated and is supplying all three of its stores with home-roasted coffee.

It includes an industry-leading Loring Smart Roaster machine—an odourless, flavour-locking system with lower emissions—and a Tech Lab that will help the company push further boundaries within the industry when it comes to quality and taste.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We use expert knowledge, training, and feedback to source, roast, and perfect the best coffees for our stores. We have a commitment to serving high-quality single origin coffee and innovative brew methods.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

Loring Smart Roaster is the heart of our operation.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

May 2018

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