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In Braga, Portugal, A Touch of Scandinavian Coffee Culture At Nórdico

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Portugal is not yet known as a country that boasts a large variety of quality coffee. In fact, finding a good place that serves a great caffeine fix can be tricky—unless you’re in big cities, like Lisbon or Porto, where the specialty coffee scene is already starting to take shape, thanks to a new wave of entrepreneurs willing to look with more attention at what they put inside the cups.

In the many cafes and bakeries spread all over the small and charming territory located in Peninsula Iberica (Portuguese people love coffee!), usually the coffee served is over-roasted, made with Robusta-Arabica blends without much concern for quality. But this scenario is starting to change slowly—even in the interior of the country.

Braga, a beautiful and calm city in the heart of Minho region well known for its religious tourism, now may become a destination for fans of good cups of galões (the local term for espresso with steamed milk) and espressos, since Ricardo Ferreira and Catarina dos Santos Silva decided to open Nórdico there last March.

After a four year stint in London—in which dos Santos Silva worked as a fashion designer and Ferreira as an assistant manager in a sushi restaurant—the couple decided to go back to their homeland and open their own business. “After Brexit, living in London was no longer so appealing,” says Ferreira. “As we spent most of our time in coffee shops socializing and tasting new beverages, our knowledge of coffee grew so we thought it was a great opportunity to get back and open our own coffee shop.”

Ricardo Ferreira and Catarina dos Santos Silva

During their first years in London, they didn’t even imagine opening their own business, but over time the couple discovered the specialty coffee scene and “fell completely in love” with this universe, Ferreira says. They both attended workshops and classes in roasting and latte art during the time they lived in the English capital, where the specialty coffee scene has become one of the most important in the world. “There could be no better place to learn about coffee,” he says.

With the increase in tourism in the city of Braga, along with the growth of the Brazilian community in the city (that has an even closer relationship with the beverage), they thought a coffee shop was a good bet. “Although we are more decentralized, we thought that Braga had much potential to welcome this idea since it is Portugal’s youngest city, the third largest in the country and before us, there were no specialty coffee shops,” Ferreira says.

Located in the historical area, Nórdico is a cozy coffee shop where one can eat a variety of bagels, toasts, and pancakes, as well as order an espresso tonic, an iced matcha latte or even a ristretto—prepared on a La Spaziale S5. “We chose to open in Rua do Anjo (Angel Street) because it is a popular zone with great potential, where some of the most alternative and modern restaurants in the city are opening, creating a new hip neighborhood,” Ferreira points out. Being a developing area, too, makes rent values still attractive, as he explains—in the piece of land where they are located, besides the interior area, there is also a patio with tables and stools.

The name Nórdico honors their influences from northern Europe, especially those related to the coffee scene that was created there. “We love the lifestyle, the minimalist way of addressing all the issues and the great weight that sustainability and equality have in those countries. We also chose to work with light roast beans, especially for our espressos,” dos Santos Silva says. The coffees used at Nórdico coffee vary according to the sensory profiles and may come from different roasters—although their favorites are from Has Bean. “For our espresso, we like to work with notes of chocolate and caramel, as for brewed options we like to use single origin with more citric aromas. But it’s not a rule, and we change every month,” dos Santos Silva adds. For brewed coffees, they serve method options such as V60, AeroPress, and Chemex.

Dos Santos Silva also explains that food plays an essential role in their concept, which leans towards breakfast fare like fruit pancakes and avocado toast with a poached egg. “We tried to maintain a healthy and natural style of food because it is something that we feel was missing in Braga, where food chains dominate,” she points out.

The formula has worked, as the coffee shop seems to welcome more and more visitors. In addition to the couple—who are in charge of serving customers and preparing coffees and dishes—, Nórdico also has two other employees during the weekends, when the crowds are bigger. For the future, Ferreira and dos Santos Silva hope to be able to do their own roasting, but it is a plan for later: now they are very busy cooking and preparing coffees—and even helping to improve the diversity of the coffee scene in their homeland.

Nórdico is located at R. do Anjo 90A, 4700-305 Braga. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Rafael Tonon is a freelance journalist based in Brazil. Read more Rafael Tonon on Sprudge.

Photos by Nani Rodrigues.

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Source: Coffee News

Enjoy 10% Off And Flat Rate US Shipping This Weekend At Sprudge Shop

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It’s your last chance to secure Sprudge Shop goods before Christmas and this weekend we’re offering special flat-rate shipping prices for US/Canada. PLUS, all shoppers enjoy 10% off storewide using promo code SPRUDGECLAUS.

That mean’s 10% off The New Rules of Coffee:

10% off Bumper Stickers:

Show you’re proud of the coffee professional in your life by picking up a couple of Proud Parent bumper stickers from Sprudge. Available in the following phrases:

Please note: these stickers are also applicable to any and all colloquial/social issues of the term “mom”, “dad” etc. You can be someone’s “coffee mom” without being their biological mother, and that is totally cool—indeed, we have made these stickers with exactly this scenario in mind.

10% off totes:

Cat shirts (new sizes in stock!)

We’ve restocked a series of these classic works by designer Thomas Putman, each one featuring a real-life Sprudge cat. Most designs now available in XS-XXL!

Our elves will be shipping off items all week long. Be sure to check “priority” shipping if you want to get these goods before Christmas*!

Flat-rate priority shipping is available to US shoppers. Order before Monday, December 17th for pre-Christmas delivery.

Shop now!

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 63: Live From US Coffee Champs Denver, Part Two

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On the second-part of a very special edition of the Coffee Sprudgecast, we take you live to the event floor at the 2019 US Coffee Champs Qualifying Event in Denver, Colorado! There we join multimedia director Elizabeth Chai, who—in addition to helming our must-follow Instagram coverage of the event—taped a series of original interviews for this week’s episode of the podcast.

Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes or download the episode hereThe Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by  Oxo, Urnex Brands, Hario, and Swiss Water Decaf

In this episode, Chai talks to Julia Peixoto of Peixoto Coffee Roasters in Chandler, Arizona. Peixoto competed in the 2019 US Brewers Cup Qualifiers using coffee grown on their family farm in Brazil.

Chai also chats with Miguel Vicuña and Rita Kaminsky of Sweet Bloom Coffee in Lakewood, Colorado and Snowdrift Coffee in Roscoe, Illinois, respectively. Along with judging USBC and WCE events for a decade, Vicuña is the current Chair of the USCC (United States Coffee Championship) Working Group. Kaminsky is the U.S. Coffee Champ committee chair for the Coffee in Good Spirits.

Sign up now as a subscriber to the Coffee Sprudgecast and never miss an episode. 

Listen, subscribe and review The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes.

Download the episode here.

Sprudge Media Network’s coverage of the 2019 US Coffee Champs is made possible by Joe Glo and Mahlkönig. All of SprudgeLive’s 2019 competition coverage is made possible by Acaia, Baratza, FaemaCafe Imports, and Wilbur Curtis.

Sprudge is an official media partner of US Coffee Championships.

Follow @SprudgeLive on Twitter and never miss a moment from the shows, and cruise over to SprudgeLive.com to read routine recaps, enjoy dynamic full-color photos, and check in on all the advancing competitors from Denver.

2019 Sprudge Live coverage is produced by Zac Cadwalader. Our lead photographer is Charlie Burt. Multimedia direction by Elizabeth Chai.

See y’all in Nashville!

The post Coffee Sprudgecast Episode 63: Live From US Coffee Champs Denver, Part Two appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Introducing The Uniform: A Brand New Grinder From Wilfa & Tim Wendelboe

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There’s a new grinder about to hit the market and it’s got the stamp of approval from one Tim Wendelboe, or at least we assume it does seeing how he helped design it. Working with the eponymous coffee roaster, Wilfa has just announced the Uniform, a sleek new grinder designed with the home user in mind.

This isn’t the first time Wilfa and Wendelboe (“Wilfaboe” I’ll call them, because it sounds like “whiffle ball”) have teamed up; the Norwegian homewares company also released the Precision, an automatic coffee maker designed by the World Barista Champion. When conceiving the idea for the new grinder, Wendelboe’s stated goals were pretty simple: “All I wanted was big adjustable flat burrs, and an on/off button.” And what Wendelboe wants, Wendelboe gets; the 58mm stainless steel flat burrs are some of the largest on the home user market, and the on/off button has both an on and an off setting.

But the Uniform Grinder has much more to offer than these rudimentary features. The top off the matte black cylinder also doubles as a precision scale—measuring to the .1g level—with Bluetooth capabilities to interact with a downloadable smartphone app. The 40-step grinder runs at an intentionally slower speed so as to not heat the grounds. And not to keep harping on this on/off button, but the Uniform does have an automatic shut-off feature that uses a sensor to detect when there are no more beans left in the hopper to grind. Add in an anti-static stainless steel container for the ground coffee to keep your counters clean and you’ve got yourself some much-needed improvement to many grinders currently on the home market.

Currently, the Uniform Grinder is only available via the Tim Wendelboe website and only in a 220 volt model. Sorry Americans. The official launch will take place at Wendelboe’s Oslo cafe on December 20th, where an additional 160 units will be available for purchase. The Uniform Grinder retails for 3,499 Krone, roughly $408 USD, which again, doesn’t matter because it won’t work in the States. For more information on the Uniform Grinder or to snag one of the 60 unites available or sale, visit Tim Wendelboe’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.

All media via Tim Wendelboe

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Source: Coffee News

The SCA Announces New Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative

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As of writing this, the price of coffee on the commodities market is $.98 per pound, a number that is up .31% for the day. In September, the price dipped to its lowest point, $.94, with the per pound price in the past year maxing out at $1.31. In fact, coffee prices have eclipsed the $2 mark since late 2014. Even as auction lot coffees continue to fetch record-breaking prices, these numbers paint a far more dire picture of the current coffee market. And now, the Specialty Coffee Association is getting involved, with their brand new Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative “aimed at understanding and addressing the price crisis affecting coffee farmers and threatening our supply chain as a whole.”

Initially announced via email, the initiative will be spearheaded by Ric Rhinehart, the SCA’s current Executive Director who will be stepping down in January and into the role of Executive Director Emeritus. Through previous research, the SCA has determined the “price threshold for profitability” for coffee farmers to be $2.50 per pound, a price commodity coffees haven’t fetched since 2011. In hopes of bringing the current price up to a more sustainable number, the Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative has outlined its first year objectives:

  • Increase funding and resources allocated to better understanding the topic in collaboration with the staff and volunteer advisory councils of the SCA’s Advocacy and Sustainability Centers
  • Conduct research on the coffee price crisis and its effects on producers and the entire value chain
  • Convene experts from the private sector and academia to explore alternative price discovery tools for the specialty coffee industry
  • Outline alternative economic models for the specialty coffee trade and provide a meaningful way for companies to address risks in the supply chain

For more information on coffee pricing, the SCA has a whole host of resources available on the current crisis as well as farm profitability in general. The full statement from the SCA on the Coffee Price Crisis Initiative can be found here.

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 with the Specialty Coffee Association

The post The SCA Announces New Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Coffee Design: Dona Chai In Brooklyn, NY

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One of my personal highlights at the New York and Los Angeles Coffee Festivals were getting to spend a little time away from coffee with the folks at Brooklyn’s Dona Chai. We featured the company’s spice-infused marshmallows that were on offer, paired with their warm turmeric and chai sippers. Hiding in the back of the booth, however, were sneak peeks at the company’s newest offering: spice sodas.

I know, I know, this is technically a series on coffee design, but surely we could all use a break every once and a while and put the spotlight on coffee adjacent canned beverages, right? The colors really shine in this collection of drinks: colors of lemons, limes, and pink peppercorns pop on store shelves. We spoke with the founder of Dona Chai, Amy Rothstein, to find out more.

Tell us a bit about your company.

At Dona, we craft spice based tea concentrates and spice sodas. Our quality begins with our ingredients. We source spices from collectives across the world, paying attention to the place of origin, growing conditions, and end quality. Each spice is cupped to test for flavor profile, natural sweetness, and body. Our brewing process begins with whole spices that are ground fresh per batch. Then, our spices are slow steeped to build complexity. The result is a full-bodied and balanced drink.

We value sustainability. After our brewing process, all of our ingredients are composted locally.

When did Dona Spice Sodas debut?

Officially three weeks ago! Approximately the beginning of December (kinda weird timing for sodas—I know—but it will give us a chance to really get things in place for spring).

How long has this product been in development?

A year and a half! I first had the idea when we launched our turmeric concentrate. We brew our turmeric with pink peppercorn, and holy cow, this spice is crazy. #1 is beautiful in color, but #2 the flavor is nuts. It smells like skittles and has a bright, fruity, peppery, and smoky flavor. It’s so unique and no one is featuring this spice as a star player—I realized then that I wanted to showcase it and show everyone how amazing spices are.

Who designed the package?

Our designer for everything Zach Ruden.

Describe the look in your own words!

I love our cans because they are bright, poppy, and fun, but tie back into our concentrate line because of their simplicity and classy typography. Zach played with oversized text to create something really eye catching. Most brands use imagery/icons/shapes, and I love that we only have text. I think it’s so special that we were able to create such a unique look with typography alone.

How is the product made?

Our process shadows our concentrate line. We begin with whole spices, from all over the world. We grind them fresh, then slow steep them to develop flavor. Then, we strain, sweeten, carbonate, and can.

Where is the product made?

We brew in-house in Gowanus, Brooklyn. We’re working with a friend who has a canning line to help us package our product.

Where is it currently available?

Nationally via our website. Locally in NYC through cafes and grocery stores. We just began the sales process but already have a bunch of amazing partners. The feedback has been really exciting.

What’s next for Dona Chai?

Take a breath on creating (although I could do this part of my job forever) and figure out the logistics of having a retail/grocery product.

Thank you, Amy!

Company: Dona Chai
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Country: United States
Release Date: November 2018
Designer: Zach Ruden

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

The post Coffee Design: Dona Chai In Brooklyn, NY appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

New Evidence Shows Coffee May Help Prevent Parkinson’s & Lewy Body Dementia

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before (or heard me use that lead-in before to introduce an article about the health benefits of coffee, because honestly there are so many I can’t keep track anymore), but new research shows that coffee may in fact be good for you, your brain in particular. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a new study finds a link between two compounds in coffee that may work together to fight degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia.

This isn’t the first time we’ve reported on coffee’s effects vis-à-vis Parkinson’s. Last month, we looked at a study linking dark roast coffee with a reduced risk of contracting Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s thanks to “phenylindanes, a compound believed to prevent ‘two protein fragments’ commonly associated with the diseases.” For this new article, M. Maral Mouradian, director of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Institute for Neurological Therapeutics, and Professor of Neurology William Dow Lovett led a team of Rutgers scientists in researching two other compounds: caffeine and Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide (EHT).

While caffeine has “traditionally been credited as coffee’s special protective agent,” per Science Daily, EHT is a “fatty acid derivative of the neurotransmitter serotonin” found “in the bean’s waxy coating” that may also be doing some of the heavy lifting in protecting the brain. The study finds that “EHT protects the brains of mice against abnormal protein accumulation associated with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.”

Working in concert, though, the efficacy of EHT and caffeine appears to increase. From the article:

In the current research, Mouradian’s team asked whether EHT and caffeine could work together for even greater brain protection. They gave mice small doses of caffeine or EHT separately as well as together. Each compound alone was not effective, but when given together they boosted the activity of a catalyst that helps prevent the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain. This suggests the combination of EHT and caffeine may be able to slow or stop the progression of these diseases. Current treatments address only the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease but do not protect against brain degeneration.

The article goes on to note that additional research needs to be done to determine the exact “amounts and ratios” of EHT and caffeine to have the same effect in humans.

Both Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia are currently incurable diseases. This new research provides further evidence that, while coffee may not act as any sort of cure for these degenerative brain diseases, it help diminish the chances of contracting either to begin with. And you don’t even have to drink dark roast.

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 Bello Propello/Adobe Stock

The post New Evidence Shows Coffee May Help Prevent Parkinson’s & Lewy Body Dementia appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Very Best Of The 2018 Milan Coffee Festival

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milan coffee festival italy

milan coffee festival italy

Italy is sometimes regarded as the final frontier for specialty coffee, and at the first Milan Coffee Festival all signs pointed to progress—and a promising way forward for coffee culture in the nation that helped create it. Italy’s decades-old espresso cultural laws and general unwillingness to change the flavor, preparation, and most restrictively the price of coffee are all directly under challenge by a new generation of entrepreneurs and globe-traveling coffee lovers. Contradicting this reputation, there is a rapidly growing group of coffee professionals of all ages and backgrounds dedicated to increasing quality and shaking up cultural coffee standards in Italy. It’s a really exciting time to be here to see it all unfold.

Change is in the air here, proliferating and circling throughout the industry for years, and now it’s been given a consumer-friendly platform in the form of this new festival. The consensus is that the Milan Coffee Festival was able to provide a capsule snapshot of today’s inspiring new movement and an opportunity for the public to explore the new Italian specialty coffee in an approachable format.

The event stayed busy across all three days, in a notably smaller space than, say, the juggernaut London Coffee Festival (also hosted by Allegra Events), yet there was plenty to explore and experience. Here are a few people and moments that left a strong impression.

Pasta, of course.

milan coffee festival italy

Mattia Angius and Martina Miccione of Milan’s slow food bistro and natural wine bar, Tipografia Alimentare, concocted one the most glorious surprises of the weekend with two of the greatest things on the planet: ravioli and broth. They were hand making delicious ravioli on the spot and cooking them in a bowl of salted water with an espresso machine steam wand. For the broth, Angius was dosing a tamping his dried vegetable mix into a portafilter, then pulling broth shots from the group. “It took a week to dial in the grind size particles of the vegetables for the perfect extraction,” he said. A splash of the wine they brought along to pair made it an ideal unexpected aperitivo.

Unique Brews

milan coffee festival italy

There were some funky and fruity beans in almost every booth at the festival. But one coffee that truly stood out was an Ugandan coffee roasted by World Roasting Champion, Rubens Gardelli of Gardelli Specialty Coffee in Emilia Romagna. The brew was crafted by Piemontese barista Serena Gentile.

Ugandans use the Bantu word “Mzungu” when referring to someone of European descent, and for whatever inspired reason—perhaps a bit of self-satire—Gardelli decided to name the coffee “Mzungu Project.” Besides the coffee being made with rare and indigenous coffee varieties, it is also processed in a proprietary “secret” fermentation technique called the “Gardelli Natural Process.” After some research, it’s not really clear what that actually implies, however one thing for sure: it made for a shocking and unusual cup! Think layers of freshly toasted cocoa nibs, tepache (fermented pineapple), marjoram, and cherry mostarda arriving one after the other in delirious deliberation.

Women In Coffee

milan coffee festival italy

A long overdue focus on the women in the Italian coffee industry as a major component of the Milan Coffee Festival. This came as some relief to the many festival participants that were actively raising awareness around the lack of diversity in the European Coffee Symposium.

On Saturday in “The Lab,” a full crowd was focused attentively on a panel of eight women, roles ranging from barista trainers to CEOs, who were speaking about their personal experiences and discussing the landscape, challenges, issues, and opportunities for women working in coffee in Italy. The panel was organized and led by Valentina Palange of Specialty Pal. “Times are changing in Italy,” Paling told the crowd. “The barista woman is no longer wanted at times for her physical appearance but rather for her professional skills.” She went onto explain that there are still huge obstacles in the workplace including not being trusted to handle technical aspects, employee training, and machine maintenance.  

A common discussion theme was dismissal of opinion or ability from customers or coworkers. Jessica Sartiani, panelist from Florence, emphasized this important point, “I have always felt that I had to fight for my place, unfortunately often having to be aggressive to avoid being walked on.” She concluded, “I would like to see skilled woman treated as they deserve and not forced into being some kind of warrior to prove your ability.”

Specialty Pal

milan coffee festival italy

Valentina Palange and Luca Rinaldi of Specialty Pal.

Being the first festival in Milan, it was especially important to involve the community in grassroots advertising and by involving social media influencers that are passionate about coffee. Two of the most active participants in the organization of the festival were the aforementioned Valentina Palange and Luca Rinaldi of the coffee culture blog, Specialty PalComing from a background of personal coffee research and passion to learn more, they were able to rally the whole community together for this event. They spent weeks before the event visiting almost every cafe and participant to deliver flyers and spread the word with a personal touch. Rinaldi was also the official photographer of the festival, and Palange hosted the Latte Art Live booth throughout the weekend.

Fusillo Lab

milan coffee festival italy

Another huge contributor and activator of the festival was Michael Gardenia of Fusillo LabDuring the month leading up to the festival, Gardenia hosted a series of coffee awareness events featuring previous coffee champions and current educators like Francesco Sanapo and Matteo Beluffi. As content creators, the Fusillo Lab events were a collaboration with the festival that were geared towards bloggers and journalists to offer a hands-on experience in the world of specialty coffee.

On Sunday, Gardenia was present at the festival in a pop up Fusillo Cafe. He collaborated with local coffee roaster, Peacocks Coffee, to make a private label Fusillo Coffee bag with a blank frame in which guests could create their own label design for the coffee bag and submit it to a contest to win a lot of splendid swag.

New(ish) Equipment in the Wild

milan coffee festival italy

Any Italian coffee festival worth its salt should be awash with exciting coffee gear, and Milan Coffee Festival did not disappoint. It was good to meet face to face with a couple of unfamiliar pieces of equipment!

One machine that was exciting to play with was the Dalla Corte XT. Simone Guidi, coffee roaster at La Sosta in Florence, walked me through some of the wild features that really allow the barista to dig into extraction parameters. Since the machine has independent boiler for each group, there is an easy interface that allows to maintain three groups at three different temperatures.

It also comes equipped with a patented flowmeter technology that provides extremely accurate results. You press a button on a screen above the grouphead when the first droplet of espresso arrives on the portafilter spout, and that is when the flowmeter starts to count rotations. We pulled 10 shots and weighed them afterwards and they were all spot on.

milan coffee festival italy

Guidi then started unscrewing a mini allen wrench key from the DC tamper that you can use as a dial to adjust each group heads flow rate live during extraction.

The machine can also communicate with the DC grinder to adjust coffee grind size automatically if the machine detects fluctuations in a profile that you can program into the machine.

No doubt it demonstrates stunning technology, but I wonder if it underwent Paolo Dalla Cortes crowbar test.

milan coffee festival italy

Meanwhile, the Bugan Coffee Lab from the nearby city of Bergamo went all out on their booth that was stationed directly across from the CMx stage. Portafilter and gasket ring toss, Panettone from their wholesale customers at Bologna’s cafe and artisan bakery Forno Brisa, daring cold brew in a flask, and latte art throwdowns with Dritan Alsela were just some of the highlights during their residency. They were also seen enthusiastically slinging spro on a Modbar AV (or Ah-Voo as they say here), and grinding coffee for filter with a Ceado E37Z Hero grinder (roughly $6,500 USD). Through the lab and field trials that Bugan Coffee Lab has been conducting with Ceado, head roaster Gian Andrea Sala described it as being very versatile and a unique grinder.

50’s Throwback

milan coffee festival italy

One showstopper on the show floor was FAEMA’s completely functional Saturno lever machine. Only a few units of the machine were originally manufactured in 1950, and this one was brought into working order for the festival by espresso machine collector and curator of the MUMAC museum, Enrico Maltoni.

This was the first FAEMA that used the design of the double boiler to lower the machine body and to give the coffee machine a better aesthetic, and was the first coffee machine with patent “pistol taps.”

milan coffee festival italy

“Everybody loved it!” Maltoni said. “The Saturno represents a piece of history not only for FAEMA but also in the coffee machine industry.”

CMx Italia

milan coffee festival italy

Carlos Alvarado (left).

The groundbreaking competition series Coffee Masters debuted the CMx Italia contest at the Milan Coffee Festival. After passing through 7 disciplines during the competition, Matteo Pavoni of Peacocks Coffee Roasters came in second place to CMx champion, Carlos Alvarado of Checchi Downtown in Brescia. Carlos is originally from El Salvador and has been working in coffee since he arrived in Italy. From high paced traffic at a highway side Autogrill, to working at boutique specialty coffee shops in the center of Milan, there’s not much he can’t handle behind the bar. Carlos will be moving on to compete in the Coffee Masters at the 2019 London Coffee Festival. Bravo Carlos!

Alexander Gable (@mrgable) is a freelance journalist based in Milan. A regular contributor to Sprudge Wine, this is Alexander Gable’s first article for Sprudge.

The post The Very Best Of The 2018 Milan Coffee Festival appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Tenth Annual Sprudgie Awards Finalists

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Welcome to finalist voting for the 10th Annual Sprudgie Awards, presented by Oatly! From our biggest-ever global field of nominees comes the biggest-ever final list of finalists: 8 choices per each category, including dozens of first-time nominees and some big name returning favorites, plus the opportunity to write-in the candidate of your choice for each category. Please vote using the ballot below, and share this post to encourage your communities to vote. Voting is absolutely free and open to all thanks to our sponsors at Oatly—thank you Oatly!

Because the Sprudgies are for everyone, we present the nominations and voting process completely free for all, supported by Oatly. And in that same spirit we’ve opened the awards up this year for write-in-candidates. In a coffee scene where write-in candidates can ascend to the SCA Board we absolutely want to make the same campaigning available for The Sprudgies. If there’s someone you think should be honored, well—in the words of America’s most recent competent president, don’t boo, vote!

Below the ballot we’ve presented links for each of the categories to help make up your mind, plus this year’s nominating criteria. Thank you and happy voting.

Voting for the 10th Annual Sprudgie Awards presented by Oatly closes at 11:59 PM PST on Friday, January 4th 2019.

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Notable Roaster

This award honors a roaster doing exemplary work in 2018. This may include roasted coffee quality, strength of e-commerce, cafe locations (if applicable) and all other facets of running a successful coffee roaster. This year’s nominees are:

Devoción (Brooklyn, NY),
Go Get Em Tiger (Los Angeles)
Black & White Coffee Roasters (Wake Forest, NC)
Square Mile Coffee (London, UK)
Red Bay Coffee (Oakland, CA)
Gardelli Coffee (Forlì, Italy)
Sey Coffee (Brooklyn, NY)
Coffee Manufactory (San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA)

Notable Coffee Producer

This awards honors outstanding work by a coffee producer at origin. This year’s nominees are:

Daterra Coffee (Brazil)
Benjamin Paz (Honduras)
Long Miles Coffee Project (Burundi)
Gesha Village (Ethiopia)
La Palma y El Tucan (Colombia)
Juan Peña (Ecuador)
Gilberto Baraona (El Salvador)
Aida Batlle (El Salvador)

Best New Product

This awards honors a new coffee product released for public use in the year 2018. This year’s nominees are:

Minor Figures Oat M*lk
Atmos Vacuum Canister by Fellow Products
Melodrip
Yes Plz Coffee Subscription
Modbar AV
DrinkTrade.com
Huskee Cup
Umeshiso Cupping Spoons

Best Coffee Video/Film

This award honors an original coffee video or film released in the year 2018. This can include feature films, short films, promotional videos or social media clips. The nominees are:

AeroPress Movie
Gender In Coffee
Chris Baca on YouTube
James Hoffmann on YouTube
Go Get Em Tiger on YouTube
Cafe Imports Roasting Concepts Series
Flower Of Flowers by Stumptown Coffee
Unpacking Coffee

Best Coffee Writing

This award celebrates the best coffee writing of the year. Please nominate an individual, or a specific feature. If you nominate a feature, please add a link for review. This year’s nominees are:

RJ Joseph for The Knockbox
Phyllis Johnson for Strong Black Coffee originally appearing in Roast Magazine
Sabine Parrish for She’s A Lady originally appearing in Standart Magazine
Dear Coffee Buyer by Ryan Brown
The Monk Of Mokha by Dave Eggars and Mokhtar Alkhanshali
Ashley Rodriguez for Barista Magazine Online
Jenn Chen for Newsletter and Collected Works
James Hoffmann for JimSeven.com

Best Coffee Magazine

This award honors an outstanding coffee magazine or print publication release. This year’s nominees are:

Drift Magazine (USA)
Solo Magazine (Brazil)
Caffeine (UK)
Coffee People Zine (USA)
Standart (Slovakia)
Roast Magazine (USA)
Barista Magazine (USA)
Pour Over by Califia Farms (USA)

Best Coffee Instagram/Twitter

This award honors outstanding work across social media platforms. This year’s nominees are:

@umeshiso_
@fellowproducts
@coffeefeedpdx
@dapperandwise
@catcloudcoffee
@symmetrybreakfast
@perfectdailygrind
@coffeetablemags

Best Coffee Podcast

This award honors outstanding work in the podcast medium. This year’s nominees are:

The Coffee Podcast
Cat & Cloud
Boss Barista
Keys To The Shop
Coffea
Coffee People MX
Coffee With April
SproCast

Best Design/Packaging

This work honors notable design or packaging work in coffee. Nominees may include coffee products, coffee bags, coffee logo or graphic design work, or any other example of outstanding coffee design. This year’s nominees are:

Coffee Manufactory (San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA)
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters (Lakewood, CO)
Brandywine Coffee Roasters (Wilmington, DE)
Kaffa (Oslo, Norway)
Fjord Coffee Roasters (Berlin, Germany)
Onyx Coffee Lab (Bentonville, AR)
Lüna Coffee (Vancouver, Canada)
Friedhats (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Best New Cafe

This award is presented to a cafe that has opened in 2018. Nominations for cafes that have opened before January 2018 will not be eligible for this category. This year’s nominees are:

Ladder Coffee (Spokane, WA)
Dayglow (Los Angeles, CA)
Mane Coffee (Boca Raton, FL)
Misión Café (Madrid, Spain)
Provider (Indianapolis, IN)
Stumptown Coffee Cobble Hill (Brooklyn, NY)
Center Coffee Myeongdong (Seoul, South Korea)
Rosslyn Coffee (London, UK)

Sustainable Cafe

This award is presented to a cafe for prioritizing sustainable environmental stewardship. This can include zero waste practices, pursuing a reduced carbon footprint, and highlighting sustainable coffees and products. This year’s nominees are:

Isla Cafe (Berlin, Germany)
Casa Quilha (Brasilia, Brazil)
Bar Nine (Los Angeles, CA)
Madcap Coffee (Grand Rapids, MI)
Houndstooth Coffee Walnut Hill (Dallas, TX)
Kokako Organic (Auckland, New Zealand)
Smith Canteen (Brooklyn, NY)
Miir Flagship (Seattle, WA)

Outstanding Achievement In The Field of Excellence

This award is presented each year to a remarkable coffee person, organization, cause, or entity that embodies coffee excellence. This is our most prestigious award. This year’s nominees are:

T. Ben Fischer
Phyllis Johnson
Coleen Anunu
Umeko Motoyoshi
Agnieszka Rojewska
Adam JacksonBey
Michelle Johnson
Erna Knutsen (posthumous)

Voting for the 10th Annual Sprudgie Awards presented by Oatly closes at 11:59 PM PST on Friday, January 4th 2019.

The post The Tenth Annual Sprudgie Awards Finalists appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

The Barn & Intelligentsia Announce New Cafes In Berlin & Austin

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I don’t know how you’ve been this year, but it’s safe to say the little coffee children in Austin and Berlin have been exceptionally good, because Santa Claus/Weihnachtsmann is bringing some new cafes down the chimney for them this year. Berlin stalwart The Barn is opening their fifth location while Chicago’s Intelligentsia is making a push into Austin with their first cafe in the south.

It’s a pretty hot day for big brands in the international coffee scene making cafe announcements. The first comes courtesy of The Barn, whose newest location sits in “the exact spot where East and West Berlin intersect.” Situated in the Weinhaus Huth, the new location for The Barn is an over 100-year-old “post-war symbol for the destruction and division of the city,” per the press release.

For decades, The Huth restaurant was the meeting place for society and wine-lovers alike on Berlin’s ‘Times Square’ of the 1920s. The building was the only one surviving the war at Potsdamer Platz.

And it will once again be a meeting place when The Barn opens its new space, bringing in design elements like a raw flame-finished granite bar, rough-plastered walls, untreated floors, and Eames chairs. The first official day for The Barn’s newest café is slated for Saturday, December 22nd, just in time for Jolly Ole Saint Nick.

Not to be outdone, Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee announced they will be making a push into Austin, adding to their outpost cities alongside Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. According to Austin360, the brand isn’t entirely new to the city, already having a fully functioning training lab connected to East Austin’s Revival Cycles. The cafe will be just south of downtown in the lobby of the soon-to-be-open Third + Shoal building.

But unlike its Berliner counterpart, this little gift won’t be ready in enough time to make it under the tree, with an expected open in late spring of 2019. It’s more like those coupons you used to give as gifts to your parents when you were a kid, the ones that can be redeemed at some future date. But instead of it saying “Good for one vacuuming of the house without complaining,” it’s “Good for one major US coffee brand making a move into one of the hottest coffee cities in the south.”

Good tidings of comfort and joe.

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

Disclosure: Intelligentsia is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network.

The post The Barn & Intelligentsia Announce New Cafes In Berlin & Austin appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News