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Specialty Coffee Archives - Page 34 of 35 - The Curb Kaimuki

This Is A Good Drink

By Coffee, News

What we call our coffee drinks says a lot about us.

Here in America it’s all-Italian-everything. Cappuccino. Italiano. Espresso. The way we talk about coffee is still beholden to the Italian craftspeople who invented espresso technology, and thus espresso drinks, over a hundred years ago. There are of course a few exceptions, like the Mocha, which has its roots in Yemen, or the Gibraltar, which is named for the Libbey brand glassware it’s served in. Slang is creeping into the American coffee experience slowly, but for the most part our cafe menus have stayed the same, even as seemingly everything else about coffee in America has changed dramatically.

The Australians, meanwhile, slang-obsessed and giving little to zero linguistic fucks, have developed* their own lingua franca of coffee drinks. An Americano is, in Australia, a “Long Black,” made with four ounces of water and two-ish ounces of espresso. A simple espresso is, by the same logic, a “Short Black.” A latte is a “Flat White”—that’s really all it is, don’t @ me—and a “Magic” is, I think, a double ristretto topped up with like 120-150 ml of milk, although most of the time it isn’t a true ristretto shot, because that would mean resetting the grinder. So the mythical “Magic” is really just an overdosed shot or a shot pulled short with a little bit of milk. It’s a glorified macchiato with a great big ego and rare earth mineral rights, basically.

There are some drinks that get all the love—people were once obsessed with the cortado/Gibraltar paradigm, in a way that seems quaint now—and there are some drinks that feel like they get the short end of the stick. Consider the Americano: has the Americano ever been cool? Isn’t it just a way of ruining a shot of espresso? True espresso drinkers drink theirs straight. And if you want a six to eight ounce beverage, why not have a delicious, meticulously dialed in cup of “batch brew” (the American term) and/or a “filter coffee” (what they call it in the Commonwealth, except for Canada, where, sorry, it’s called “drip”).

The Americano is the cafe menu’s ugly duckling. Not quite a purist beverage, not quite a specialty of specialty. This juxtaposition cuts me straight to the heart because, friends, the tiny Americano is my favorite drink.

I’m not sure where I first confronted the Americano stigma, but I do recall an experience in a small village in Italy that probably cemented the feeling. At a tiny basement cafe in the religious pilgrimage town called Assisi, in the heart of Umbria, I had one of those emblematic Italian cafe experiences and it has stuck with me for years. First, I attempted to order a cappuccino. It was 3pm in the afternoon and my order was met with a lot of hand gesturing. Instead, the barista/barkeep (it is a dual role in Italy) thought I might like an Americano (was it my Airwalks that tipped them off?) and proceeded to make me what remains to this day the best Americano I’ve had in my life.

I don’t mean “best” in any kind of points score technical way—this was one of those Illy umbrella sorts of places—but I was sixteen and knew exactly nothing about coffee, other than it seemed to fuel the daily efforts of adults, which is what I desperately wanted to be. Sitting there on the Piazza del Comune, with thousands of years of Roman Catholic history all around me (the church next door had an ancient Roman blood sacrifice altar!), well…they could have served me dishwater and I’d have loved it.

But I’ve since reflected that it was, perhaps, the water to coffee ratio of the drink itself that I loved best. I think it was an Americano constructed out of some combination of derision and spatial limitation: two ounces of water and a standard Italian espresso shot. The beverage was perhaps 4 ounces in total. Not a straight espresso—certainly not—but not, as I would come to learn in the years proceeding, a standardized Americano, which is typically at least six ounces, and often more like eight ounces or 12 ounces, and commonly presented with room for cream.

I don’t like these great big ghastly Americanos. Who needs that much water? I don’t even really like the “Long Black” with its two parts water to one part spro dichotomy. But I do love, and really, I mean love, an espresso drink made with just two ounces of water. This is a good drink. Only I’m not sure what we’re supposed to call it.

(To be clear, in brief sidebar form, I am most decidedly not talking about the Montreal allongé, or an EK43 shot, or a Pergerccino or a Coffee Shot or whatever the hell else you want to call the briefly popular gigantic long shot of espresso, which, if I’m strolling down St-Viateur with a wood-fired bagel, sure, but otherwise, no thank you.)

I have heard my favorite drink called, in no particular order, a “Little Buddy,” an “Italiano,” a “Tiny Americano,” a “Teeny-Cano,” a “Baby-Cano,” a “Lil’ Cano,” a “Medium Black,” a “Minicano,” a “Two x Two,” a “Peggy,” the “Unamerican Americano,” a “Little Meri,” a “Halfacano,” a “Roaster’s Americano,” the “Spanish American War” (at Houndstooth Dallas), the “Mitch” (at Seattle’s Espresso Vivace), and a “Danny DeVito.”

A surprising number of people actually call this drink a “Danny DeVito”—I did some public polling around the question of what this drink is called, and multiple people from different parts of the United States had that response. It is named this because it’s “short and strong.” This drink is for real being called a Danny DeVito out in the wild. That’s amazing.

Also, some people were rude:

BECAUSE IT IS GOOD JUSTIN.

I typically order my tiny Americano drink with a combination of hesitation and what I hopes come across as empathy—sort of, you know, “Yes I am self-aware that my coffee drink order is fussy and particular, and I’m sorry for both of us that I’m on some Frasier Crane bullshit, but please, this drink is good, so if you don’t mind…” And from there it’s a game of ounces and cups. If it’s for here I ask for a cappuccino cup, as a kind of spatial limiter. That typically gets the job done, ratio-wise, because those cups can only hold so much liquid. If it’s to go, I’ll say something like, “Can you just use like half as much water as you normally would for an Americano?” I either get a funny look in response or sometimes a knowing, enthusiastic reply if the barista is also aware of this drink and its inherent goodness.

I will also, occasionally, be corrected to just call it by one of the many names. This is my favorite potential outcome. “You mean a Little Buddy?” Yes, I do mean that, but I’m not going to just say that to you apropos of nothing across the counter. Because what if you’ve never heard of a Little Buddy before? What then? If there’s no agreed-upon nomenclature for my favorite drink, I’d rather err on the side of you correcting me halfway through my order ratio song and dance.

I hope that coffee in 2018 is post-stigma for most things. The coffee culture has more important stuff to care about, frankly, and so there should be no more hating on condiments. No more batch brew derision. No more eye-rolling if a place wants to offer a really, really good white chocolate mocha, or a blended frappe. And no more looking down upon the Americano, especially my beloved tiny Americano. Whatever you call it, I love this drink. This is a good drink.

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

*and / or thieved from New Zealand. 

The post This Is A Good Drink appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Underground Coffee: At The HasBean Pop-Up Market In London

By Coffee, News

Just around the river bend from the London Coffee Festival and outside of Christ Church Spitafields, the team at HasBean has opened a four-day pop-up market. Deep underground, in what was formally a public toilet turned nightclub turned restaurant, the space is now filled with coffee goods, brewing devices, espressos, and cheeky ice cream with coffee competition inspired toppings.

HasBean got its start as a cafe in Stafford (in the Midlands region) from 2000-2003, and has helped pioneer coffee culture and sales in the online space ever since, working with an international network of wholesale accounts along the way. This marks the company’s second London pop-up experience, following last year’s pour-over only [H]AND bar inside Uniqlo. 2018 marks the first time the company has built a cafe all their own.

Stephen Leighton and Co. brought 18 coffees for the pop-up with at least four different ways to enjoy them: as pour-over at their hand-drip station, as an ice cream sundae, a self-serve “In My Mug” station with a La Marzocco Linea Mini, and a full-service espresso bar. Among those brewing coffee is none other than World Barista Champion Dale Harris, pulling shots off a Modbar station in the back.

The pour-over zone is branded as [H]AND, greeting visitors as they walk down the steps just to the left. HasBean’s blog describes it as “a place where you can sit back and relax whilst you taste, whether it’s a single cup of something lovely or a tasting flight of all three of the day’s coffees.” You can check out the day’s offerings on their Instagram @madebyhandcoffee.

The In My Mug area highlights the company’s subscription service and video-cast and gives folks a chance to pull shots on a shiny red Linea Mini espresso machine.

Like the In My Mug self-service zone, the ice-cream station is also a hands-on experience. “That’s half the fun,” Leighton tells us. Pete Williams helped translate three competition signature beverages to the medium of sundae. House-made syrups of oolong tea, fermented red plum, and elderflower gel are available for squeezing with orange milk meringues, chocolate soil, and blackcurrant Turkish delights on offer for toppings. An espresso finishing powder is available to give the whole thing a kick.

Along the wall, the pop-up offers a selection of brewing devices, books, and vessels. “We wanted to create a market-like setting,” explains Leighton.

Along with two six-top tables, the space also has a comfortable living room chill-zone with trophies on display from various competitions over the years and perhaps my favorite piece: an enormous red HasBean bean bag chair.

When asked if Leighton ever considers opening another permanent brick-and-mortar cafe, he says it’s something they think about often. If it happens, he assures us, “we’ll do something unusual with it.”

HasBean Pop-Up Market is located at 82A Commercial St and is open from 8am-5pm Thursday-Sunday. 

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge. 

The post Underground Coffee: At The HasBean Pop-Up Market In London appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Take The #CoffeeToo Pledge Against Harassment

By Coffee, News

#CoffeeToo, a “volunteer-run grassroots community project dedicated to gathering and sharing information and resources with coffee professionals on the topics of discrimination and sexual harassment within the coffee industry” spearheaded by Molly Flynn is launching a new initiative in the form an epic pledge campaign. The campaign, according to Flynn, “urges the whole coffee community (not just the US coffee community) to pledge to conduct themselves in a non-toxic way and to be active allies in toxic situations.”

In a written statement, the organization explains “#coffeetoo has created a pledge for any person, organization, or business to say they will not engage in toxic or dangerous behaviors, and will instead adopt an action plan for being an active ally for those who are in toxic situations.”

Once members of the coffee community sign the pledge, there will be a number of ways to show solidarity: the organization will be handing out enamel pins and users will be able to express their allyship digitally with custom Facebook photo frames.

To help support the initiative, #CoffeeToo are hosting an upcoming event—their first—to drive community engagement and support. To learn more about #coffeetoo and this event, head over to the #coffeetoo Facebook page.

The post Take The #CoffeeToo Pledge Against Harassment appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A Cafe Tour Of Bali With Giulia Mule

By Coffee, News

Indonesia: home to lush beaches, beautiful jungles, incredible art and culture, and one of the world’s great specialty coffee scenes.

We dug deep into the Bali coffee culture during a recent Sprudge Instagram takeover. Longtime Sprudge contributor Giulia Mule spent a week in Indonesia on the islands of Bali and Java. While there, Mule took over our @Sprudge Instagram account, chronicling her cafe stops along the way.

EXPAT Roasters — Seminyak, Bali

Anomali Coffee — Ubud & Kuta, Bali

Hungry Bird Coffee — Canggu, Bali

Juria Coffee — Ubud, Bali

Gangga Coffee Gallery — Bali

Senima Coffee Studio — Ubud, Bali

Revolver Espresso — Seminyak, Bali

Ubud Coffee Culture — Ubud, Bali

Milk and Madu — Ubud, Bali

Epic Coffee — Yogyakarta, Java

Each month we feature a new Instagram takeover on the @Sprudge account—give us a follow, won’t you, and who knows where we’ll be popping up next.

Much more visual beauty from cool cafes around the world, exclusive content only on the official Sprudge Instagram channel. 

Read more of Giulia Mule’s work on Sprudge, follow @mondomulia on Instagram, and visit her official website.

The post A Cafe Tour Of Bali With Giulia Mule appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A Very Special Brewers Breakfast In Fort Collins, Colorado

By Coffee, News

What if I told you that you could drink beer for breakfast, in your pajamas, and call it a culinary delight? You may be surprised to know that such an event exists, but you may be less surprised to learn that it is happening in Colorado, a stalwart of really good beer and really good coffee. It’s called the Brewers Breakfast and it is taking place this Sunday, April 15th at Ginger and Baker in Fort Collins.

Hosted by Black Bottle Brewery, Bindle Coffee, and Troubadour Maltings—a craft malted grains company started by none other than Chris Schooley, formerly of Coffee Shrub—the Brewers Breakfast is a four-course brunch featuring cool pairings and collabs from the three hosts. The menu includes items like Brewers Breakfast Cereal with almond milk, Troubadour malt sourdoughs, malt ice cream affogatos, and the “Cereal sundae with Troubadour vanilla malt ice cream, cereal streusel, bananas and maple caramel.”

Tickets for Brewers Breakfast are $55 ($25 for the three-course Brewers Brunch Kids menu), and seating for the event is very limited. Tickets for the inaugural event can be purchased here. For more information, visit the Brewers Breakfast Facebook event page. If there’s a better way to spend a Sunday than eating a four-course brunch, drinking coffee, and having a few breakfast beers, I have yet to find it.

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 Ginger and Baker

The post A Very Special Brewers Breakfast In Fort Collins, Colorado appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A Coffee Drinker’s Guide To Western Massachusetts

By Coffee, News

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Western Massachusetts is, generally speaking, the bucolic chunk of land lying west of Worcester County—an area containing the Berkshires, the Connecticut River Valley, and the city of Springfield. Here we have The Basketball Hall of Fame. We have mountains that would be hills in any other state. We have old mill buildings converted into bookstores, artist studios, and breweries. Interstate 91 cuts through our modest region, carrying travelers south to New Haven and New York, north to Burlington and Montreal. Leaf-peepers stop over en route to Vermont’s fall foliage, parents pack into hotels at graduation time, and Trump voters and Bernie die-hards avoid eye contact in the Stop N Shop parking lot. The towns are small, the farmland hugs the houses, and the river wraps up this pretty land with its rich history of classic New England Colonialism, crop cultivation, and, of course, college students. This area has long been home to craft beer, gorgeous produce, and handmade everything—but in recent years good coffee has sprung up like the ever-present cornstalks that in winter here, peek out like stubble from fluctuating layers of snow. Here are some of Western Mass coffee’s very best.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Share Coffee Roasters

The Share Coffee roastery rolls up its door weekdays at 8:00am, as commuters thread along Route 9—a stretch of chain stores bisecting the farming town of Hadley, Massachusetts. Inside, owner Ken Majka can be found Mondays and Thursdays roasting coffee on his 60-year-old Probat. The coffee is roasted, bagged, and shipped out the same day to wholesale accounts and weekly subscribers, and delivered to his two cafes in neighboring Amherst and Northampton. Share prioritizes seasonality in its coffee, and changes the components of its two blends—Daily Driver and Pickup Espresso—often, maintaining a consistent flavor profile. Their single-origins are divided into Comfort and Adventure categories—a way to guide customers towards a coffee that will align with their tastes.  

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Behind a single table and thin counter, the whole operation is laid out for locals who trickle in to buy beans, ask coffee questions, and possibly taste something just roasted and not yet in the rotation. It is common to be the only one there, and Majka is happy to pull shots on his Kees van der Westen Mirage while launching information across the counter about his retrofitted Probat, his newest coffee, or his partnerships with local breweries. He is enormously passionate, and very educated, and it’s easy to be spat back into the parking lot head spinning.

Share Coffee Roasters is located at 220 Russell St #201, Hadley. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Circuit Coffee

Circuit Coffee sits at the edge of Westfield’s main square, and has the shiny, particular feeling of a cafe that just opened its doors. Customers sit on couches and at repurposed wire-spool tables—seeming right at home. Behind a Kees van der Westen Spirit, owner Ted Dobek pours maple lattes, his most popular drink. When customers order caramel lattes, accustomed to Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks—the only other coffee options in town—Dobek steers them gently towards his version, made with local maple syrup, local milk, and Share Coffee’s Pickup Espresso. Parts of the interior are also local—the bar and countertop’s thick maple was salvaged from a bowling alley next door.

Dobek is 25, recently married, and lives in the apartment upstairs. He spent a few years after graduating from Westfield State working in different coffee shops—including Share—dreaming up a way to bring good coffee to his area. With his background in graphic design he created the logo and drew plans for the interior himself, and with build-out help from family and friends, and a successful Kickstarter campaign, opened Circuit Coffee this past September. “I wanted to make sure a coffee shop wasn’t just what I talked about doing. I was working a job I hated and I didn’t want to say, ‘I wish I had opened a coffee shop.’”

Circuit Coffee is located at 22 Elm St, Westfield. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Tunnel City Coffee

After encountering the colossus that is MASS MoCA—our country’s largest contemporary art museum—it is easy to stumble past Tunnel City Coffee and instead find solace at Bright Ideas Brewing, also contained within the many outbuildings of this former mill’s campus, some of which hold even more art. But venturing inside Tunnel City provides a gentle anecdote to James Turrell’s lightworks, which are both beautiful and exhausting. Here they have soft lighting, light and dark roast options, and the quiet space to decompress.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Tunnel City roasts its own coffee in yet another converted mill nearby, this town once full of water-born industry, which they pay homage to in their name—a reference to the nearby Hoosac Tunnel. The construction of this four-mile tunnel—at its completion in 1875 the longest in North America—killed about 200 workers and created a vital economic link between Albany and points to the west. Their espresso blend, Number 50, is named after the first train to travel through the tunnel. They also have a single-origin espresso available, today a Brazil Peaberry Fazenda Guariroba, pulled on their shiny La Marzocco Strada. Outside the window is Natalie Jeremijenko’s Tree Logic, in which six live trees grow suspended upside down, and if you venture a look up at the ceiling, pipes can be seen leftover from this building’s industrial use—long before the coffee break was invented.

Tunnel City Coffee is located at 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

No. Six Depot

Inside No. Six Depot Roastery and Cafe, architectural lamps hover above thick wooden tables, where co-owner Lisa Landry attends the bar, topped with a Victoria Arduino Athena Leva. In the back, her husband Flavio Lichtenthal may be standing watch at the roaster. He worked as a chef and journalist before landing in coffee. They will soon release a line of “Campesina” coffee from women-owned cooperatives—building on their longtime use of Ethiopia Amaro Gayo by Ethiopia’s first female exporter, Asnakech Thomas.

Landry and Lichtenthal spent years talking about starting a roastery before finding a space, “that we could make a bigger dent in, spread out, do what we wanted,” says Landry. With her background in art, branding, and journalism, this meant dedicating the largest room to space for a gallery. With its white walls, farm-blue floors, and extravagantly paned windows, this space retains the elegance of its original use as a train station—built in the 1830s when marble was being exported from a nearby quarry.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

“We, at first, wanted to be strictly coffee roasters; but Flavio is Argentine and I lived in Italy for years and the idea of coffee separated from community and culture was impossible for us to envision,” says Landry. They incorporate the community as thoroughly as possible, holding events all winter in appreciation of the locals—the backbone of this region whose population quadruples come summer.

No. Six Depot is located at 6 Depot St., West Stockbridge. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Iconica Social Club

The front door at Iconica opens directly onto the bar where owners Em Withenbury and Fitzpatrick Mulvaney are usually stationed—serving Ritual Coffee on their La Marzocco GB5 and Swings Coffee on their rotating pour-over bar. With no batch brew available, this place is set at a sluggish pace, and as customers wait for their drinks they often explore the elaborately decorated space. Withenbury and Mulvaney spent two years renovating it themselves, filling it with family heirlooms and flea market finds. They have thought everything out to the very last detail—from the screen-printed hand towels in the bathrooms to the Depression-era glassware, and a sign painted on the brick wall that politely implies the use of space, pointing customers to a lo-fi area in the back, and a Wi-Fi area upstairs. The Wi-Fi area is set up like a library—complete with map wallpaper, dark-stained siding, sturdy desk lamps, and bookshelves lined with thick tomes and back issues of National Geographic. The “low-fi” area has industrial tables, chairs that swing on metal brackets, a small stage, and a wood burning fireplace that Mulvaney feeds every so often—squeezing past customers sipping coffee on well-worn couches.

western massachusetts coffee guide oona robertson

Customers come for the coffee, cold-pressed juice and almond milk, and pastries baked in-house, but at its heart, Iconica is trying for something bigger. “In creating it as social club, community was at the forefront to what we are thinking about,” says Withenbury, “and we wanted to create a space where everyone felt like they could come in and engage on a lot of different levels.” This may mean stopping by for a movie night, attending a free weekly cupping, sitting in the public parklet outside, playing with the antique machines that sit like paperweights on every table, or picking up one of the books strewn about as if the reader is just up getting a refill.

Iconica Social Club is located at 1 Amber Ln., Northampton. Visit their official website and follow them on Instagram.

Oona Robertson is a freelance journalist. This is Oona Robertson’s first feature for Sprudge Media Network.

All photos by Haley Carchio except Tunnel City images courtesy Tunnel City.

The post A Coffee Drinker’s Guide To Western Massachusetts appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

NXT LVL Joins Michelle Johnson’s Black Coffee Event On April 24th

By Coffee, News

BLACK COFFEE, the new event from creative director Michelle Johnson, debuts in Portland, Oregon on April 24th. This live podcast event draws from the coffee industry’s deep pool of Black intellectual and industry leadership, for a lively two-hour original block of programming presented in a theater format. Tickets are on sale now, and listeners worldwide can join us by subscribing to the Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes.

We’re thrilled today to announce a new partner for the event: NXT LVL, a grassroots collective based in Portland dedicated to “partying for social justice.” Founded in late 2016, NXT LVL’s mission is to “center and amplify WOC/QTPOC/Two Spirit voices and causes.” From dance parties to film screenings, beach vogues to fundraising dinners to epic festivals, NXT LVL has been a guiding force behind some of Portland’s best events of the last two years. BLACK COFFEE is their first event in the coffee space, and we are delighted to welcome the team at NXT LVL as partners on April 24th.

“NXT LVL echoes the need and support for conversations and dialog around these important race issues,” says NXT LVL founding member Connie Wohn. “[NXT LVL] wants to see the community coming together to have in a positive environment.”

NXT LVL joins event partners La Marzocco USA, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Oatly, and The Ace Hotel Portland. Ticket proceeds will be donated to our charitable partners, Sankofa Collective and Brown Girl Rise.

Please watch this space for more announcements about BLACK COFFEE in the coming days, and we hope you can join us April 24th in Portland, Oregon. Buy tickets today. They are going fast!

TICKETS TO BLACK COFFEE APRIL 24TH PDX 

Original poster art by Taylor McManus (@tmcmanusillustration) with many thanks. 

The post NXT LVL Joins Michelle Johnson’s Black Coffee Event On April 24th appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

First Look At The New Modbar Espresso AV

By Coffee, News

Life has no facet more certain than the simple passing of time. The seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, and decades roll on inexorably, unabated by the whims and fathoms of man. And yet we mark the days by our achievements—what is history, if not the archiving of time through a human lens?

Five years ago today (less a single sunset) Sprudge Media Network brought the world its first glimpse of the Modbar, the revolutionary undercounter espresso technology built by what was then an unknown little coffee tech start-up out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Principle investors at launch included Marco Beverage Systems of Dublin, Ireland and La Marzocco, the international espresso machine brand headquartered in Florence, Italy and Seattle, Washington.

In the years since our original story ran the relationship between Modbar and La Marzocco has deepened, and that takes us to today, with the launch of the brand new Modbar Espresso AV. Through years of collaborative R&D, and drawing from La Marzocco’s previous work crafting the Linea PB and Linea Mini, this new Modbar is coming with some big ideas attached.

“It’s a reset of the velocity of making coffee,” says La Marzocco Product Manager Scott Guglielmino. That’s a pretty big claim, but he should know; in collaboration with Modbar, Guglielmino has helped head up an international R&D team responsible for dramatically rethinking Modbar’s tech, while maintaining its style, identity, and manufacturing base in the American Midwest. “It’s the direction I think espresso machines should go,” he adds, “and it’s really all I want to do: to make insanely good espresso machines that people can’t wait to wake up to and get to work on.”

The new Modbar Espresso AV features La Marzocco boiler design, integrated scales for volumetric precision, PID temperature control, and a host of new little details sure to delight those who work on espresso machines every day, not least of which being temperature stability modeled on the Linea PB, whose overall identity as a “workhorse” in the La Marzocco lineup served as a major inspiration for this new Modbar. Other updates include an easily programmed interface, auto-backflush and rinse, an updated positioning of the machine’s power, water, and drain hookups, and a removable group cap that makes for easy tinkering.

“It’s a simplification,” says Guglielmino. “Simplifying the interaction between barista and customer, simplifying the experience of making coffee, and simplifying technical needs, all while making it look beautiful. It really nails, philosophically, what a brilliant simple reliable espresso machine can be.”

And beautiful looking it certainly is. The machine’s chrome taps are available with built-in digital display and customizable wooden tap handles. The single group unit features a unique “Add-a-Tap” system that allows you to start with one group, then add another without replacing your original unit—perfect for a small cafe with an eye on growth, or, you know, a stylish wine bar that wouldn’t mind the ability to serve a nice espresso or three during happy hour. Below counter, glowing red buttons on the new Modbar AV gleam in a direct visual reference to the Linea PB—a subtle nod, visible only to the operator, a bit of assurance, perhaps, to this new Modbar’s pedigree.

But as always with an undercounter machine, the beauty is really in how the machine becomes incorporated into the wider world. The freedom of placement and design possibilities presented by undercounter espresso technology is still just in its nascency. The implied possibility for mise en place in cafe, bar, and restaurant settings still feels brand new, five years in. As more of these style machines are installed around the world, we continue to marvel at where they fit into the schemes and plans of cafe designers and architects.

“This is a ground-up rethink of the Modbar,” says Modbar Marketing Manager Lena Prickett. “Five years after our launch, the industry has never been more focused on customer orientation, reliability, and offering a consistent workflow. That’s what these teams have achieved with Modbar AV: it’s not Modbar 2.0, it’s a brand new machine.”

There are a couple more aspects of this new machine that border on the metaphysical, echoing the magic and wonder evoked by Modbar’s mesmeric Instagram campaign around the new release, created by La Marzocco Vice President of Marketing & Consumer Strategy Scott Callendar. One is the new “Drip Prediction” technology, a software that “maps the flow rate of each shot and can accurately predict the future flow rate,” allowing the machine to auto-magically stop your shot to hit a programmed target. Another aspect is the new Modbar AV’s approach to temperature stability, modeled on the Linea PB but capable of delivering to a unit separated from taps by a short length of tube.

“We are thrilled at La Marzocco to launch the new Modbar AV, the exciting result of the collaboration and innovation between Modbar and La Marzocco,” says LM General Manager Andrew Daday. “This machine pushes forward the benefits that can be realized with an undercounter espresso solution.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Lena Prickett of Modbar, who in the course of researching this story spoke eloquently and passionately on behalf of the smaller Midwestern brand. “I think it speaks to La Marzocco’s longstanding commitment to innovation—you know, Modbar is a small company in NE Indiana that some might have seen as a competitor, but La Marzocco saw it as an opportunity to further the art of espresso design.”

“That’s a really cool part of the story,” she continued. “It is extremely meaningful for LM as a larger company, a global company, to be able to support a company like Modbar so that it can stay in Fort Wayne making these beautiful machines, testing each one, assembling each one, and continuing the great tradition of manufacturing in northeast Indiana.”

And now we see what happens next. As with any new espresso machine—but perhaps especially so when it comes to undercounter espresso tech—it’s what happens out in the wild with this equipment that truly matters most. The design and conceptual possibilities first presented by Modbar—tiny Modbar, the little coffee start-up that could, pride of Fort Wayne—have been made new again for 2018 in the form of the Modbar Espresso AV, coming soon to a stylish cafe near you.

 

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

All images courtesy Modbar.

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Source: Coffee News

New Study Finds Undetectable Levels Of Acrylamide In Coffee

By Coffee, News

It has been widely (including here on Sprudge) reported that a judge in California has ruled that all coffee sold in the state needs to come with a cancer warning. This is due to coffee containing trace amounts of acrylamide, a carcinogen created during the Maillard Reaction in the roasting process. Many people have spoken out against this ruling, including the American Institute for Cancer Research, which essentially says that the defendants (coffee and coffee accessories (coffee’s lawyers)) didn’t prove that coffee wasn’t dangerous. Well, a new study tested nine popular coffee brands and found each and every one to contain undetectable levels of acrylamide.

The research was performed by Denver-based Clean Label Project, a nonprofit organization “focused on health and transparency in labeling” per their press release, who purchased nine brands of off-the-shelf retail coffee to be brewed and tested by Ellipse Analytics, a third-party analytical chemistry lab. Brands in the test included Starbucks, Peet’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Caribou, and Folgers, amongst others. When analyzed, each of the nine samples were found to have undetectable levels of acrylamide.

Now this doesn’t mean that there was none of the carcinogen present in the samples. For acrylamide to be detected in the tests, it would have to be present in levels at or above 40 parts per billion. It was not.

For perspective, Clean Label Project compares the average levels of acrylamide in a cup of coffee to that of a serving of French fries. Whereas a cup of coffee contains 1.77 micrograms per serving, French fries—which come with no such cancer warning—have a whopping 75.65 micrograms per serving, some 40+ times as much of the carcinogen as in coffee.

All the samples tested were of a roast profile much more developed than that of your average specialty coffee roaster. And given that acrylamide is caused by the Maillard Reaction, it stands to reason that lighter roasted coffee would have even fewer ppb than the already undetectable levels of the carcinogen found in the study.

via Clean Label Project

Though the original court battle is now over, appeals can still be made on the ruling. And given that the ruling was based upon coffee not being shown to not be deadly, this research by Clean Label Project may be the sort of empirical data needed to overturn the original outcome.

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 New Study Finds Undetectable Levels Of Acrylamide In Coffee appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Vancouver’s Moving Coffee Finds A Permanent Home At Fife Bakery

By Coffee, News

In January, Edmond Keung and his wife were walking through an industrial neighborhood in Vancouver, B.C., when they stumbled across a bakery that had just opened its doors. As he popped his head inside to take a look, his eyes were immediately drawn to the EK 43 sitting on the bar. He glanced over at his wife and in that moment experienced what he now calls fate. He had found a new home for Moving Coffee.

Years before this fateful encounter, Keung started laying the groundwork for what would eventually become Moving Coffee. While he grew up in Vancouver, he was born in Hong Kong, where he returned to begin his career in coffee. In 2011, he became one of the first six people to receive a Q-grader certification in Hong Kong and used this experience and expertise to establish a consulting business. After working with local independent shops, chains, and hotels, Keung discovered his true passion: moving specialty-grade coffee forward. In 2012, he began roasting and named his business after his inspired maxim: Moving Coffee.

Edward Keung.

After moving back to Vancouver with his wife in 2014, Keung slowly began scaling up his business through pop-ups around the city. He now finds himself sharing space in Fife Bakery and taking his roasting business another step forward. The bakery/cafe is a small functional space housing both the bakery business and Keung’s coffee bar. A two-group Victoria Arduino Black Eagle is the showpiece of the room with two Mahlkönig EK 43s in contrasting black and white serving dual purposes, as Keung presents his coffee both as espresso and filter. His minimal menu lists “Black” and “White” options, with Curtis drip coffee and pour-overs prepared using a Bonavita Kettle and a copper vessel. However, most interesting of all is a third section of the menu labeled “Iced,” which features a peculiar item called Morning Whisky.

Through the extraction of slowly falling droplets, Keung uses a slow-drip tower from Korea’s CoffeeGa to create his own cold-brew coffee dubbed Morning Whisky. “The name comes from how I envision people drinking it,” he says. “Either neat, no cream or sugar, or over ice.” After hearing that the process takes six to eight hours to make a three-liter batch, it would be hard for anyone to resist the curiosity to taste it.

When Moving Coffee and Fife Bakery came together, the two businesses wanted to create a cohesive atmosphere for their customers. Fife’s Felix Yau had already designed the space and was actually serving coffee before Keung moved in. But with the addition of Moving Coffee, the cafe was able to upgrade and take its space to the next level. Inspired by his new partner, Yau began creating offerings such as the coffee bun, a simple yet delicious bread item with the soft texture and sweet filling of a pastry.

In an effort to diversify the business and make use of the large multifunctional warehouse space currently housing the roasting equipment and baking supplies, Keung has begun hosting regular coffee workshops. With his diverse experience in specialty coffee and his Q-grader certification, Keung is able to provide training on everything from coffee tastings to barista training and Q-level courses. The workshops are designed for all levels of experience—whether you are a passionate home brewer or a practicing professional.

When speaking about his business, Keung is the first to admit that Moving Coffee is still very new to Vancouver’s coffee scene and is changing and defining itself constantly. But the one thing that will never change is his mission to represent and put forth specialty coffee at its best. “I want to have different, exciting coffees when our customers come through the door,” he says. He achieves this by purposefully choosing and roasting coffees that no other local roasters are using. With his strong focus on high-quality roasting, Moving Coffee hopes to establish itself as a recognized roasting facility and to work toward growing to wholesale capacity.

“I want to move coffee forward,” he says. “From farm to roaster, coffee to shop, liquid to customer.” While Keung may have moved around a lot to arrive at his present situation, when it comes to his coffee, things are definitely moving in the right direction.

Moving Coffee Roastery is located inside Fife Bakery at 64 E 3rd Ave, Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Peter de Vooght is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more Peter de Vooght on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News