Specialty Coffee Archives - Page 27 of 35 - The Curb Kaimuki

Back in April, the judging for the 2018 Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence took place in Matagalpa, with five coffees breaking the 90-point mark. Since then, the country’s unrest has boiled over; protestors killed by authorities, food shortages, road blockages, and political strife have left the country at a standstill. This has given no small amount of uncertainty to the status of these valued COE lots. That’s why the Alliance for Coffee Excellence has taken the unprecedented step to not only ship the coffees to a safer location but to also move up the auction date by six days.

According to a press release, the auction originally set for June 19th has been moved up nearly a week to June 13th as a means of ensuring these coffees are accessible to buyers. In coordination with ACE Nicaragua, RGC Coffee, and Peralta Coffees, ACE has decided to immediately move the COE lots out of Nicaragua. All vacuum-sealed, the lots are currently in Corinto awaiting shipment on June 8th, with a scheduled arrival at the Port of Oakland on June 29th. They will then be stored in RGC Coffee’s warehouse until shipment to each lot’s purchaser.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of ACE, RGC, and Peralta, some of the best coffees produced in Nicaragua—including the highest scoring Nicaraguan coffee to date with an astounding 91.8 points—will not get lost in turmoil, but will make it to buyers around the world and more importantly, will fetch the much-deserved prices and much-needed income the farmers have worked so hard for.

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

Photo by PixieMe/AdobeStock

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Source: Coffee News

These days, it’s pretty commonplace to find really good, local coffee inside a grocery store. But have you ever found a grocery store inside a really good, local coffee shop? If you live in Denver, you are about to have the chance to, with the opening of the new Method Coffee Roasters.

Opened in 2013, Method has kept a community focus at the heart of what they do. And with the opportunity to open a cafe in Denver’s Lower Highlands area, a “minor food desert” as Method’s James Lopez explains to us, they seized it. And added a small grocer to it. Along with coffee, patrons can pick up things like eggs and prepared meals from local restaurants. It’s a novel idea, turning the coffee-in-grocery-store concept on its head. So let’s check in Method Coffee Roasters in Denver, Colorado, shall we?

As told to Sprudge by James Lopez.

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

Method Coffee Roasters officially began in early 2013, however its roots were planted long before. The concept of sourcing, roasting, and serving coffee for the community came from the founders’ shared interest in the the economics of impact and… of course coffee. MCR is the adventure that we all embark on to become a better self.

In a garage in 2013 some friends setup a coffee roaster with the idea to start a coffee company. Their goal was to honestly source amazing coffees, prepare it with passion, and serve the community. Since then, MCR has grown to serve the greater Rocky Mountain area and give back to the community through scholarship funds, non-profit partners and direct donations.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

The new space is designed with the local community in the Lower Highlands area in mind. We wanted to create a space that could be a community gathering place, allowing people to connect and share in a great coffee experience. Being a wholesale roaster for five years, we were very excited to start offering our coffees to the public as well as pairing it with great pastries and foods from local producers.

We also saw there was a mild food desert in the area, with two grocery stores close but still an inconvenient drive away. We wanted to build a specialty grocer space to allow people to pick up odds and ends when they are heading home or in the neighborhood without having to get in their car. Things like eggs, prepared foods from local restaurants, and other odds and ends will be stocked at the cafe.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We want all of our coffees to be extremely accessible. Dustin, our head roaster, is fantastic at creating great flavor profiles that are developed to balance acidity and sweetness, making each of our coffees great day to day coffees. When we have someone come into the shop, our goal is to create a consistent experience and open up the world of specialty coffee to our customers without overwhelming them. We like to emphasize flavors like honey and caramelized sugar to help customers enjoy without too much background knowledge in coffee varietals.

Method Roasters was also one of the champions of nitro cold brew and we will be featuring our nitro cold brew coffee at the space offering a variety of different seasonal and our regular cold brew recipes.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We will be using a La Marzocco Linea Classic, Mahlkönig K30 Twin, and nitro cold brew setup. We really wanted to limit the amount of equipment we had to focus on our coffees and consistency.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

Early June

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

A huge shout out to Raw Creative who did everything to make our space come to life!

Thank you!

No, thank you…

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

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Source: Coffee News

Tragedy has a way of changing the way we see things. By the light of darkness, experiences—even seemingly mundane ones—can be given a certain power. This is certainly true of Flower of Flowers, a new 30-minute documentary from Stumptown and Farm League that follows four people around Antigua, Guatemala, the city some 10 miles from Sunday’s Volcán de Fuego eruption. With the death toll continuing to rise—up to 75 as of this morning—and Anacafé stating the eruption causing a total loss of .9% of the national coffee crop, Flower of Flowers shifts from the documentation of a journey to a reminder vibrant country and the people on the front lines of the devastation.



Filmed earlier this year in February, the mini-documentary follows pro skateboarders Rick McCrank and Ray Barbee, artist Lori Damiano, and Stumptown Quality Assurance Manager Jim Kelso as they “engage with local coffee producers and learn about what’s happening in Central America through the lens of music, art and skateboarding.” But even in the 55-second trailer, the spectre of tragedy a few months in the future looms large; Volcán de Fuego hangs in the background of multiple shots, still in its more placid state.

Having watched the preview before the weekend’s events and then again after it, it is interesting how the focus moves away from the film’s four subjects and into the background, the people and places that surround them. But it is also a reminder of the beauty that once was not so long ago and can be again with our help. That’s why Stumptown is donating all proceeds from today’s (June 6th) cafe sales will be contributed to relief efforts in collaboration with the Guatemala Bella Vista Mill.

Flower of Flowers will premier on June 24th at the Brooklyn Bazaar in New York, with screenings in Los Angeles and Portland taking place on June 27th and July 9th, respectively. For more information on the film, visit Stumptown’s official website. To donate directly to relief efforts, PBS has put together a list of places to do so here.

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

*all media via Stumptown

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

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Source: Coffee News

Counter Culture Coffee’s Seattle Training Center is the sort of space you might stumble upon by chance. Located in a narrow storefront on 1st Street in the city’s Pioneer Square, its two-C logo affixed to the building’s facade just looks like it belongs. Has it always been here?

It hasn’t, but Counter Culture’s Seattle “TC”, as it’s colloquially referred to, has been in the making since 2016. The independently owned Durham, North Carolina-based company entered the market in the city with one customer—the diminutive Anchored Ship cafe in Ballard—but grew exponentially when hometown favorite Cherry Street Public House picked them up as a supplier that same year. Counter Culture cut the ribbon on its new space in mid-April. Seattle regional manager Amanda Byron explains that the company wanted to have a unique launch event, not just another coffee party.

Amanda Byron

“It wasn’t just an open house,” Byron says of what will surely be the first of many special events at the training space. “The idea was that we would do a book launch for A Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties.”

The book, written by Counter Culture’s Getu Bekele and Timothy Hill, is exactly what it sounds like, and sets out, according to its introduction, “to provide a more complete picture of the unique coffee varieties found in Ethiopia and showcase the work researchers have been doing in the country for over 40 years to make Ethiopian coffee more disease-resistant and better tasting.” Sounds like a lot to bite off? It would be, perhaps, for a roaster with less depth of knowledge in the field. The opening also featured Jeff Koehler, who wrote Where the Wild Coffee Grows, and showcased a limited-release single-farmer-lot coffee from Jose Sebastian Rodriguez in Colombia to commemorate the occasion.

Before opening their own space, Counter Culture’s Seattle operations were run out of the La Marzocco showroom in nearby Ballard. But having a facility fully their own is key to the Counter Culture model, says Byron.

“There are four corners to a complete region—education, sales account management, tech support, and a training center,” she explains. “We could’ve existed at La Marzocco for quite a while, but it never would’ve been our space.”

Operating in lockstep with other TCs, the Pioneer Square space features a Mazzer ZM, La Marzocco Strada and Linea PB machines, and a Marco Mix system.

“With each new training center,” Byron says, “you’ll see slightly different equipment, depending on what’s new at the time of its opening. But what we’re really doing in each is creating spaces that are easy to use, functional, and welcoming.”

That means the company’s popular Tasting at Ten series will continue in Seattle, and Counter Culture’s customers will of course have access to the space for trainings. Current partnerships include all of Cherry Street’s cafes, two General Porpoise locations, the Miir flagship, 5 Stones Coffee Company in Redmond, and James Beard Award-winning Seattle institution Canlis, which serves exclusive off-menu coffees whenever possible.

Tasting at Ten

“I’m interested in how [the new center] impacts our ability to expand in Seattle,” Byron says. “We have a support model like nobody else does, and I think that a lot of places here don’t yet know it exists. My hope is to get people in here to see this.”

Whether they’re invited in or just happen to be walking by, her hope seems a reasonable one.

Michael Light (@MichaelPLight) is a features editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Michael Light on Sprudge.

Some photos courtesy of Counter Culture Coffee.

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee conventions are great places to meet like-minded coffee professionals, but for the not-so-type-A types, these opportunities are often not as easily accessible. For this week’s Coffee Fest in Denver though, Oatly and Atlas Coffee Importers have teamed up to host Nice To Fika: A Coffee Centric Meetup. Like speed dating but for coffee friendship, Nice To Fika allows even the most reserved participant the chance to interact with many well-known names in the coffee industry.

Taking place this Friday, June 8^th at Zeppelin Station, all ticketed guests will be able to spend five minutes one-on-one with six panelists, and will even receive a list of questions “to help keep each chat flowing.” According the to Facebook event page, the panelists include:

After the conclusion of the speed round, the event will be opened to the public for music, food, and drinks.

Tickets for the one-on-one meet up portion of Nice To Fika cost $10 ($12.31 with the Eventbrite service fee) and include food and beverage. The after-party is free to attend, but Atlas and Oatly ask that you RSVP by “purchasing” a free general admission ticket, also through Eventbrite. All proceeds of the ticket sales will go to the Cafe Femenino Foundation.

So if you’re going to be at Coffee Fest Denver, break out of your shell in an inviting environment and make some new friends.

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

*images via Nice To Fika.

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Source: Coffee News

We’ve been fans of Either/Or here in Portland, Oregon since they launched in 2013 with a sweet little cafe in sleepy Sellwood, in the city’s south. But now, after a furiously quick build-out on N. Williams, Either/Or have opened a new expanded version of the concept: quality focused multi-roaster, but now with drinks, good wine, and food.

With a sumptuous, forest green forward interior design scheme and a playful attention to detail, Either/Or has quickly become one of Portland’s major coffee openings in 2018. And yes, that is a coffee swag version of a claw machine in the back.

As told to Sprudge by Ro Tam.

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

We are a multi-roaster cafe in Portland, OR that opened in 2013 out of a 300 sq ft shop. We’re known for our different flight offerings, mocktails, and a house-made chai that turned into it’s own company called Tanglewood.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

It’s literally five times as big as our previous space. With this new location, we are able to actualize our original concept of the business which is to also be a bar. The cafe will have a full coffee menu available from 7:00am-7:00pm daily with some limited AM cocktails, and in the evening we will be a full bar with some limited coffee service late into the night (bar time). We built a full kitchen so will have food available all day. It’s also on a busy bike corridor.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We tend to lean towards lighter roasted, washed coffees. Everything we make is a palate-driven so our espresso is dialed in taste>tactile. In the true collaborative spirit of Either/Or, our staff blind cups coffee every week and its how we determine our menu. It gives us a chance to only serve what we are really excited about without any bias from packing or suggested tasting notes.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We have a claw machine filled merchandise (#coffeeclaw) and a couple of Orion dosing scales on loan from Acaia. I think Acaia will also be donating a golden Pearl scale for the coffee claw. Everything was built with ergonomics in mind for less wear and tear on our baristas. Instead of an under counter milk fridge, we have an ice well used as a cooler to hold milk within arms reach, and just about everything else you need so there isn’t a lot of moving around or bending that needs to happen. It also allows us to have soda water on a bar gun which is pretty fun.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

May 31st was our grand opening.

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

Too many people to list. I do want to say that a lot of our contractors were women, which was a nice change from the male-dominant industry. Also, Marie Castorini who was been an employee since the beginning painted an amazing portrait for us of Jackie Shane, a Transgender Woman soul artist from Nashville. It represents our Queer POC roots and the other communities that we are a part of.

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

Breaking news here via the Coffee Tycoons With Political Ambitions newswire, as Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz has announced he will leave the company at the end of June 2018.

The original report via The New York Times contains this great big venti half-caf extra whip bombshell of a quote:

“I want to be truthful with you without creating more speculative headlines,” he told The New York Times. “For some time now, I have been deeply concerned about our country — the growing division at home and our standing in the world.

“One of the things I want to do in my next chapter is to figure out if there is a role I can play in giving back,” he continued. “I’m not exactly sure what that means yet.”

Asked directly if he was considering running for president, he said, “I intend to think about a range of options, and that could include public service. But I’m a long way from making any decisions about the future.”

He throws a little bit of Starbucks Single Origin Nariño Cold Brew on the prospect of running for president later in the article, telling Times Deal Book reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, “I want to be of service to our country, but that doesn’t mean I need to run for public office to accomplish that.”

Okay but still. The internet is freaking out, and perhaps for good reason. They’re at full Drudge Sirens over at The Drudge Report—and it’s much the same here at Sprudge.

In conclusion, Howard Schultz is running for president…maybe. Or maybe even probably! But definitely not definitely.

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

Photo by SeanPavonePhoto/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News

Yesterday, Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala erupted, killing at least 25 people and injuring 20 others, according to CNN. Sitting just outside Antigua, the latest eruption by Volcán de Fuego has led to more than 3,100 people being evacuated and is expected to affect 1.7 million people in total—including many thousands of coffee growers.

While the eruption of one of Central America’s most active volcanoes has concluded, Guatemala’s National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology states that it created some 14.763 feet of ash that has spread throughout a 12-mile radius, with the potential for winds to expand that distance even further, per CNN. Already ash has traveled 25 miles northeast to Guatemala City, causing the closure of the country’s primary airport, La Aurora International Airport.

In a joint statement released (and translated to English here) by Anacafé—the National Coffee Association—and Funcafé—the Foundation of Coffee for Rural Development—the eruption affected coffee growing areas in the “departments of Escuintla, Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, El Progreso and part of the east of the country, specifically the coffee area towards the south-west.” The statement goes on to say that in the villages of “El Rodeo, Escuintla and Alotenango, it is estimated that the sand and ash affected between 15 and 20% of the coffee area.”

Anacafé and Funcafé have opened up their headquarters and regional offices throughout Guatemala to be used as collection centers. They are requesting for donations of non-perishable and canned food items, potable water, blankets, clothes, and medical supplies, including medications for burns and gauze. All donated items will be distributed in coordination with CONRED, Guatemala’s National Coordination for Disaster Reduction.

The total damage done by the eruption of Volcán de Fuego remains to be determined. Anacafé and Funcafé are helping lead relief efforts locally, but more aid will certainly be needed from outside Guatemala. We will update the story with ways for the international community to assist in the relief efforts as they are created.

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

Photo by Rainer Albiez/Adobe Stock

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Source: Coffee News

Picture this: it’s early morning and you’re walking along Flinders Street at the edge of Melbourne’s city centre, the sun is just starting to peek over the trees on the southeast side of the city, and you think to yourself, “the only way this could be better is if I were drinking a delicious coffee right now…” then, lo and behold, you stumble across a pastel paradise with a sign declaring “Vacation.”

Opened in August 2017, Vacation is the brainchild of Julian Bedford, Jimmy Tjoeng, and brothers Kael and Matt Sahely—a group that collectively has a wealth of experience working in and owning cafes, including the likes of Dukes Coffee Roasters, Pillar of Salt, Caravan Coffee (London), Sensory Lab, and Bawa.

As has been mentioned numerous times before here on Sprudge, Melbourne isn’t lacking in coffee shops. In fact, you could say the city is somewhat awash—okay, flooded—with coffee options. The flipside of this, however, is that the population’s appetite for good coffee appears to be near insatiable, which allows gems like Vacation to carve out a neat little niche for themselves in the competitive city centre.

Sitting on the corner of Exhibition and Flinders Streets, Vacation is a beautifully light and airy space, with a 6.5-metre-high roof, floor-to-ceiling windows (to take in the surprisingly expansive view over Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens and MCG), 1950s-style pastels, and a plenitude of satisfyingly rounded corners. Architecture and interior design of the space was undertaken by Alex Lake of Therefore Studio, with branding by The Company You Keep—with the brief by the Vacation team to the tune of “peaceful, tranquil, holiday vibes.” It’s an aesthetic that immediately feels calm and acts as a point of difference from the white-tiled, brass and copper, light wood Scandinavian stylings of many of Melbourne’s cafes, and has even been referred to as “millennial-pink Tatooine” by some visitors (which feels strangely apt).

Chatting with Bedford, it’s clear that they set out to build a cafe that didn’t take itself too seriously, “We think that coffee quality doesn’t have to come at the expense of approachability and service—so we just tried to make it a bit fun and kooky,” he says. Whimsical illustrations personify the flavour notes on their packaging (including a googly-eyed pineapple), part of the fun and lighthearted approach of the Vacation brand.

Espresso is brewed here on a white powder-coated La Marzocco Linea with Victoria Arduino Mythos One grinders, while filter is exclusively brewed with FETCO—showcasing the coffee that the Vacation team roast themselves at Bureaux Collective, a coffee roasting collaborative space in Abbotsford. The food offering sits neatly alongside the coffee, with a simple cafe menu: think sandwiches (with Meatsmith cured meat), toast with fancy toppings (avocado, seeds and sprouts, or peanut butter, banana, black sesame), and mueslis—as well as pastries from Noisette and Cobb Lane, and some raw and refined-sugar-free treats from Sarah Sivaraman who bakes in-house.

The response from patrons and the local coffee industry alike to Vacation has been a positive one so far: it’s still a rarity to see a specialty coffee shop located in the city centre that has such a substantial food offering, and it’s even more unique for somewhere like that to open on the weekends as it does (which thoroughly pleases the multitudes of local customers who live in the city).

Looking towards the future, Bedford and the team hope to open more shops, and also have their own roasting space. Keeping in line with their aesthetic, however, they’re going to take it slowly and let it grow organically, always making sure not to take it too seriously because, after all, it’s a Vacation, right?

Eileen P. Kenny is a coffee professional, winemaker, and Sprudge Media Network contributor based in Melbourne. Read more Eileen P. Kenny on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

As professional brewers of coffee, many baristas dream of ascending the heights of competition, besting their foes to be crowned the… okayest barista? Sure, it may not sound as glamorous as being named the “best barista,” but it certainly sounds like more fun, at least when it comes to the Second Annual Colorado’s Okayest Barista Competition. Taking place next week at Huckleberry Roasters in Denver, the Okayest Barista Competition looks to find out once and for all (at least until next year) who is pretty, pretty, pretty okay at this whole coffee thing.

Corresponding with the start of Coffee Fest Denver, Colorado’s Okayest Barista Competition is a night of head-to-action, pitting two baristas against one another all for the deranged pleasure of judges Ryan Willbur (La Marzocco USA), Anna Gutierrez (Barista 22), and Omar Herrera (Cafe Imports). Competitors will have to be more okay than their adversary through five rounds consisting of latte art, triangulation, brew methods (random), and a mystery signature beverage, before the final round, a cortado evaluation.

And for those less okay, there will be “beer, fun, and mini-games,” with prizes and swag for the event being provided by Oatly, Department of Brewology, Cafe Imports, La Marzocco, Mahlkönig, Spirit Tea, AeroPress, Barista Magazine, Trade Coffee, and many, many more.

The competition will be capped at 32 entries, and those wishing to compete can reserve a spot by emailing pecos-cafe@huckleberryroasters.com. Total cost of entry is $5, but the event is free to attend. It all gets started promptly at 6:30pm on Thursday, June 7^th at Huckleberry Roasters’ Dairy Block location (which is easily their okayest location). For more information, visit the Second Annual Colorado’s Okayest Barista Competition Facebook page.

Do you have what it takes to be okay?

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 Huckleberry Roasters

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Source: Coffee News