The Curb Kaimuki Archives - Page 32 of 36 - The Curb Kaimuki

In 2018, the concept of “service with a smile” is changing. While many have grown accustomed to the hospitality model of going above and beyond to please the customer, some cafes are taking steps not only to serve individuals but to honor whole communities.

The Potter’s House, a historic bookstore-cafe in Washington, DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, has been around since the 1960s. Founded by Gordon Cosby, the cafe and 501c3 non-profit first opened with loosely faith-based roots.

While the cafe today strays quite far from any sort of religious affiliation, the team at The Potter’s House tries to respect its original identity as a gathering space and a safe place for marginalized and housing-unstable people to come for a cup of coffee or a needed meal. The shop also faces a few challenges: a changing neighborhood, a widening demographic, and expectations placed on them as a historic gathering space. The Potter’s House aims to be many things to many people, including its own staff.

With a simple, spacious layout, liberally curated books, and a no-frills Counter Culture coffee menu, it may be hard to believe that The Potter’s House has undergone several different identities prior to a revamp in 2015. Most notably, the cafe was a crucial gathering point for the Civil Rights Movement after the assassination of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We were one of the spaces that stayed open to be a rallying space, a community space to talk through what this upheaval meant for the community and how we look after the community in an intentional way,” says Mike Balderrama, General Manager and Coffee Director of The Potter’s House. “We are constantly engaged in so many different things.”

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, The Potter’s House remained a central meeting space to tackle the issues of mental health and homelessness in America. After Reagan shut down several mental health facilities in his term, the Adams Morgan neighborhood became a birthplace for social programming and non-profit operations, many of which were conceived of within these cafe walls.

When The Potter’s House changed hands in 2015, the team had to ask itself how to maintain this historic identity. Balderrama said the focus became “upholding as much of the principles of the past and thinking what we can do while also offering really good food, really good coffee, and books that promote ideas and thought.”

Today, The Potter’s House honors its roots with an abundance of programming and books that speak to its past. Guests can expect to find a huge range of left-leaning reading material that ranges from ethnic cookbooks to self-help guides, liberal-themed graphic novels, memoirs from POCs, and more. In addition to poetry readings and open mic nights that focus on social justice and equality, the cafe also partners with a lot of local organizations and hosts community-centric events like “Mindful Monday Yoga” and monthly prison-letter-writing events—a chance for the incarcerated to connect with others on a human level.

The Potter’s House is connected to the D.C. coffee community too; the gang is always excited and ready to host a Thursday Night Throwdown when the opportunity presents itself. However, Balderrama hesitates to laud The Potter’s House as “specialty coffee cafe.”

“We are a shop that sells specialty coffee, but I wouldn’t necessarily call us a specialty coffee shop, because more than anything we’re a community shop and I think there’s a lot of weighted language that comes from the concept of a specialty cafe,” Balderrama says. “I want to engage with people in the community more—I want to make sure they have a cup of coffee that they like, have a pastry that’s good, have food that they enjoy and keep coming back for, and when they enjoy and their curiosity is piqued enough, I’m ready to talk coffee with them.”

“Community to me, in general, is super important because community is what keeps people in coffee in my opinion,” says Adam JacksonBey, a Potter’s House barista who also serves as a member of the Barista Guild of America’s executive council. “You’re drawn to it for many reasons, like the need for a job and customer service, but from all the coffee folks that I talk to, community is what keeps them there.”

“The community at The Potter’s House is different because you’re not just dealing with the greater, national coffee community or the D.C. coffee community—both of which I love dearly—but also with a community in D.C. that has been around for almost 60 years, so it feels great to be a part of something that large,” says JacksonBey.

JacksonBey says that the cafe’s goal to provide meals to those who need them is much of why he finds meaning in his work at The Potter’s House, where he’s worked for two years.

“We’ve been serving the community since the ’60s—serving people who didn’t have enough food, or couldn’t pay for it that week. Social workers know to come find some of their clients here. It’s a really beautiful thing to see and work with,” says JacksonBey.

However, keeping the doors open to a wide variety of faces can occasionally leave the doors open to conflict as well. To this end, Balderrama forgoes 911 on speed-dial at The Potter’s House, encouraging baristas instead to take de-escalation, bystander, and first aid training classes—but to also be welcoming resources for Adams Morgan.

“People think they are entitled to a very long laundry list of expectations when they come into our space and a lot of us is saying no, this is actually what our program is, and I think sometimes sitting in that discomfort is better than over-accommodating someone or having to move people around,” Balderrama explains. 

“The things we do have control over and consistency over is the coffee that we make, the food that we make, those kinds of things. Everything else is negotiable in a way.”

Everything else, that is—except community.

Katrina Yentch is a Sprudge contributor based in New York City. Read more Katrina Yentch on Sprudge.

The post Community Focused, DC’s The Potter’s House Is Many Things To Many People appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

It would not be an unfair statement of fact/criticism of me to say that I prefer light-roasted coffee. Sure, a nice ristretto shot using a developed coffee is lovely once every year or so, but I’m hardly going out of my way to find one. And perhaps it is this inherent bias that leads me to scientific research substantiating my already held beliefs—ones I have no interest in changing—that light roast is in fact better. So for the sake of fairness, I’d like to give equal time to the darker arts: new research indicates that dark roast coffee may be better at reducing the risk of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s than light roast.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, the new study is the product of the Krembil Brain Institute in Toronto, who tested for the presence of phenylindanes, a compound believed to prevent “two protein fragments” commonly associated with the diseases. Phenylindanes occur naturally during the roasting process, so the thinking goes that the more the coffee is roasted, the more phenylindanes and the more beneficial it is for brain health.

To test this theory, researchers measured the phenylindanes count in three different types of Starbucks VIA instant coffee—light roast, dark roast, and decaf dark roast. They found their hypothesis to be correct: dark roast had the highest concentration of the compound.

But before we all start searching for third crack, researchers still aren’t entirely sure how it is that phenylindanes interact with proteins. And Howard Bauchner, editor in chief of the medical journal JAMA and The JAMA Network, is quick to note that almost all coffee studies only show associations between consuming coffee and the potential effect; the causal relationship is never proved. This study is no different.

But still, dark roast coffee may be better for you brain health than light roast. And if you’re not looking to make the switch to the dark side, just do what I do: drink more light 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 Hrtwarming.com.

The post Dark Roast Coffee May Help Prevent Parkinson’s And Alzheimer’s appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

In cities large and small across the US, workers’ rights violations have long been so commonplace within the service industry that they frequently go unchallenged. Service employees often lack the time, energy, knowledge, or money to fight violations. But as more and more workers find a permanent or semi-permanent home within the service industry, more workers are learning that they do have rights in the workplace, including the ability to organize and fight for fair treatment free of retaliation. When Julia Baker and Lou Kramer, baristas and labor organizers in Pittsburgh, PA, were terminated from their positions at specialty coffee shop Tazza D’Oro (full disclosure: my former employer five years ago) for reasons they believed to be unlawful, they researched their options and pursued fair treatment, ultimately winning a lawsuit against the company with the help of restaurant worker rights advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC).

Baker joined Tazza D’Oro in the early summer of 2017, adding barista work to her roster of work as an organizer, which includes running an organization called Open House PGH and working as a member of both Socialist Alternative and ROC. At a staff meeting about six months into her tenure, Baker tells Sprudge, she and several other staff members brought up issues they were experiencing in the workplace, including lack of clear raise schedules and job descriptions, concerns around reduced management hours, and questions about promotion to management positions. “The day after the meeting,” Baker claims via email, “I started experiencing retaliation in the form of harassment and intimidation by management at work.” Baker claims this retaliation came in the form of “false claims” in their personnel file regarding workplace performance. Following another staff meeting in December of 2017, “they fired me out of the blue” claims Baker. Another coworker who was vocal about similar issues, Lou Kramer, was fired on the same day, as per Baker.

When Baker was fired, she drew on her background as a labor organizer in formulating next steps. “As an experienced organizer who has worked on several labor rights issues in the past,” she tells Sprudge, “I knew there was something very wrong about what we had experienced and wanted to learn more about our rights.” This fell under the purview of ROC, whose work includes taking on individual cases of worker violations, fighting for better wages across the board, and fighting discrimination in the industry. Baker reached out to a local ROC representative, who felt their claim fell under a protected right to speak with coworkers about workplace issues and to discuss those issues openly at work. The local Pittsburgh ROC representative encouraged Baker and Kramer to file an Unfair Labor Practice claim with the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that exists to examine cases of worker violations, including retaliation.

In the six months that followed, Baker and Kramer went through the process of pursuing legal action with their NLRB caseworker. ROC national lead organizer and caseworker Jordan Romanus described cases like what Kramer and Baker experienced to be “as common as potholes in Pittsburgh.” Seeing cases like this all the time, he was prepared to help and thought the case was a great example of why it’s important to fight workers’ rights violations. “It’s important to exercise your rights in the workplace,” Romanus tells Sprudge. “You’d be surprised how much power you have when you organize collectively.” Fellow ROC organizer Bobbi Linskens, who got into ROC after winning a similar case against restaurant chain Eat’N Park with Romanus’s help, agrees that these cases are painfully common. “But I don’t see as many cases as I should, because most people don’t realize that they have rights and can stand up for themselves in the workplace,” she said.

After several months of investigation, the NLRB found merit in the charges Baker and Kramer brought against Tazza D’Oro. “At that point, Tazza could either choose to settle with us out of court or we could bring the issue to federal court with the NLRB representing us for free,” said Baker. “The NLRB was extremely helpful with the suit. We also had the advice and assistance of our ROC representatives throughout. If we won the case, Tazza would be required to pay us back-pay from the day we were fired until the day we found equal employment and also offer us reinstatement to our positions,” adds Baker. “We ended up settling with out of court with the same conditions, totaling about $10,000 each for Lou and me.” Both Baker and Kramer have found new jobs since their termination.

In addition to paying out back-pay, Tazza D’Oro was also required to put up a poster visible to employees for 60 days, explaining employees’ federal rights to advocate for workplace needs, bargain collectively, and specifically to “form, join, or assist a union.”

Tazza D’Oro owner and founder Amy Enrico agreed to comment on this story, in the form of a written statement. We’re publishing that statement in full below.

For 19 years, Tazza D’Oro has been a leader in creating community and providing all of our employees with decent paying jobs, opportunities within and outside of the company and in other parts of the coffee industry. We provide many hours of professional barista training with the goal of developing skills so baristas can be proud of their craft and connection to coffee. We have always strongly believed in and provided a diverse, inclusive work environment. We have been committed to all fair labor practices; while constantly striving to provide and move toward a living wage and professional training for all our employees – these practices we hold dear and abide by according to the law.

Also, in our 19 years of operation, with hundreds of employees through the years, we have never had a complaint or charge filed against us about an employment issue or unfair labor practice. Termination of employees is always difficult and sometimes complicated; something that we have never taken lightly and only done when serious infractions were found. Thus, we were disappointed that NLRB charges were filed by two former employees and that this investigation occurred. And, as much as we would have wanted to present our full defenses to the investigation, the costs attendant to fully presenting our side were just too high. Staggering legal costs, time and emotional energy required us to make the very hard business decision to resolve the matter before heading to litigation.

We have worked diligently and in 100% compliance to resolve all matters with all parties so that we could move forward in a positive way. At Tazza D’Oro, we will continue to follow our passion in building community, provide opportunities for our baristas and commit each and every day to do our best by respecting the coffees, respecting the craft and trying to brew the best cup possible for our customers.

This story is bigger than just one suit, or any one labor dispute at a single coffee company. Indeed, it speaks to much larger issues in the service industry related to worker’s rights and the role of workplace advocacy resources. Baker wants her story to encourage others to stand up for their rights in the workplace and to become active workers’ rights advocates. “Everyone who has worked in the restaurant industry knows how common it is to hear stories of violations at work or unacceptable working conditions,” Baker tells Sprudge. “If we build a strong national movement of restaurant workers, we can revolutionize the industry. We can address the rampant racism and sexism in the industry, we can fight for better wages, and we can raise the standard of expected working conditions.” The official homepage for ROC is here, and it includes local and national resources for those looking to learn more. ROC is also a non-profit, and you can learn more about donating here.

“I want workers to realize that they do have rights and ROC is here to help them,” says ROC organizer Linskens. “If they exercise their rights in the workplace, they’d be surprised by how much power they have when they organize collectively. Reach out to us immediately. As the watchdog of the restaurant industry, we will do everything we can to help.”

The more that workers know and share, the more power they have. The work of Baker, Kramer, Romanus, and Linskens offers service workers a powerful hospitality industry example of what it looks like to recognize your rights, organize collectively, and pursue justice for yourself and others.

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

The post Worker’s Rights In The Coffee Space: A Case Study appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

‘Tis the Season, y’all, by which I mean it’s still half a month until Thanksgiving but everyone is already rushing full steam ahead towards that other holiday season, maybe only slowing down to grab a drumstick on the drive by. But if it’s for coffee, I’ll abide the encroaching of the December festivities (I mean, it’s gonna happen anyway, so might as well pretend we have some agency in it, right). That’s why I’m not so down about Onyx Coffee Lab’s Coffee Advent Calendar. It’s 24 days of coffee for your Yuletide countdown pleasure.

According to their website, each Coffee Advent Calendar contains 24 two-ounce (56g) bags of coffee, “the perfect amount of coffee for one pot or one Chemex.” All coffees are whole bean, and each bag is nitro-flushed for freshness. And what coffees will be included? Who knows, that’s the whole fun of it. Included in the 24 different coffee could be the Ethiopia Chelbesa or maybe a lacto-fermented Gesha from La Palma y El Tucan or maybe neither. Half the fun is the anticipation. And you get that excitement everyday for 24 days, which in this household we refer to as the “Triple Hanukkah.”

Onyx Coffee Lab’s Coffee Advent Calendar is currently on pre-order, with orders expected to arrive at your doorstep in time for the Advent advent. Each box set costs $95 and includes free shipping within the United States. For more information or to order you own Coffee Advent Calendar, visit Onyx Coffee Lab’s official website.

And then we’re going to be back to thinking about Thanksgiving, ok. I’ll be damned if we’re just gonna skip over my yearly-anticipated turkey, dressing, gravy, and cranberry sauce on a yeast roll sandwich.

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 Onyx Coffee Lab

Disclosure: Onyx Coffee Lab is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network

The post 24 Days Of Coffee With Onyx Coffee Lab’s Coffee Advent Calendar appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Undercurrent Coffee in Charlotte, North Carolina

Summer’s come and gone, a-trill

and molting like the whip-poor-will

gave way to autumn’s shimmered gloom.

And tho the winter’s sun grew weary

season cycles pedaled clearly 

t’wards a waltzing April’s bloom.

The sun again begat the thrill

of Building-Out—an out to build!  

Another summer is in the books and that means so too is another Build-Outs of Summer, Sprudge’s series highlighting new and upcoming cafes from around the world. This is our seventh season for the Build-Outs of Summer, and each year it gives us a nice snapshot of where coffee culture is and where it is heading. Entries include first-timers, second locations, sister companies, and collabs aplenty, giving us a unique data set from which to extract trendy trend lines. And extract we shall.

As we have done three seasons previous, we busted out our finest spreadsheets, Google maps, and thinking caps to make sense out of this crazy little world we call coffee. The finding we present to you now: The Analytics of Autumn: A Requiem For The 2018 Build-Outs Of Summer.



Where Are They Building

This year we saw 41 entries, the second-most in Build-Outs history behind 2016’s 43. This year’s roster includes six non-US cafes: two from Canada and four cafes from England, the most ever recorded by a country not the United States. Of the 35 American cafes, the eastern third of the country was easily the most represented with a whopping 17 shops, followed by 12 in the central, and a measly six from the once-mighty west. But while the east is most represented, the central’s greater Denver area is home to most shops on this year’s list with a total of five.

And as previous years’ Build-Outs have shown us—and something we herald just about every chance we get—coffee outside the big cities is thriving. Of the American entries, Charleston, South Carolina—the 201st largest city by population—falls as the median city with 134,875 residents. This means that over half the 35 US entries don’t even break the top 200; only 12 are from the top 50.

Everybody Roasts

I’ve had more than a few coffee friends tell me off the record (read: over a few drinks and not in any official interview capacity) that eeeeeeverrrrryyyybody wants to roast their own coffee nowadays. This year’s Build-Outs certainly gives legs to their otherwise anecdotal evidence. 30 of the 41 respondents—73% in total—roast for themselves, including first-time cafes, who had 15 of 22 roasting for themselves out of the gate.

And the multi-roaster may be on its last leg. Only five of 11 non-roaster cafes are multi-roasters, but included in that total are shops like Amethyst, who have one permanent roaster and one guest that rotates in on a quarterly basis. The 10-roasters-rotating-weekly cafe is becoming a thing of the past. I’m not saying the multi-roaster shop is dead, I’m just saying I’ve begun putting together my rough outline for its eulogy.

Equipment

When it comes espresso, there isn’t so much a trend as a constant: the persistent dominance of the La Marzocco Linea. Over a third of the shops that listed their espresso machine in their questionnaire use the LM workhorse. The 13 Lineas outpaces the second through fourth most used machines combined.

For grinders, the Nuova Simonelli Mythos One has put an end to Mahlkönig’s espresso dominance, beating out the PEAK by a total of 10 to seven. When it comes to espresso machine/grinder combinations, the Mythos One and PEAK tied for first, each pairing on four different occasions with a La Marzocco Linea.

Spencer’s Coffee in Bowling Green, Kentucky

But if there’s one piece of equipment that could be described as a coffee shop must based upon the Build-Outs findings, it’s the Mahlkönig EK43, which remains the favorite grinder for brewed coffee (and to a lesser extent espresso). The total 16 EKs is yet again the most common piece of equipment found in Build-Outs cafes.

The Slighting of Hand-Brew

Speaking of brewed coffee, making it by hand is falling out of fashion. Of the 32 cafes who responded with the specifics of their brewed coffee program, only nine are doing hand-brewed coffee. That’s 28%. Only two had exclusively hand-brewed coffee as their filter option. And of the nine hand-brewers, three responded simply with “pour-over.” This continues a trend we’ve seen over the past few years, where shops used to laundry list every pour-over device they planned to use, but are now instead moving to something simpler, both in terms of what they offer and how they respond to the Build-Outs questionnaire. And while that doesn’t necessarily mean that folks don’t like hand-brewed coffee anymore, we generally find that people use the Build-Outs to discuss the things about their project they are most excited about. And that ain’t hand-brew.

Woodshed Coffee & Tea in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

This isn’t to say single serve coffee is necessarily on the outs; 11 other shops have some sort of automated pour-over: Curtis Gold Cup and Seraphim, Poursteady, Marco SP9, etc. In total, 62.5% of cafes have some sort of single-serve filter option.

But that’s nearly 20 percentage points lower—81.25% in total to be exact—than the number of shops who expressly mention their batch brew program. And with the exception of two, all of the 25 batch brew shops enumerated at least the brand of batch brewer they were using (btw, Curtis is the most popular batch brewer, edging out FETCO by a tally of 11 to eight). In total, 12 cafes are batch brew only, higher than both the number of automated single-serve filter coffee shops as well as the number of cafes with hand brew.

And Now, The Armchair Philosophizing

So what does it all mean? Where is specialty coffee in 2018? If new cafes are any indication—and I wholehearted think they are, Build-Outs even more so; talking about your shop in these long-format pieces allows a new owner to reach for the aspirational, to talk about what their shop is TRYING to be, whether or not they are ever really able to make 100% good on that promise. Coffee shops are moving back towards being the third place, an almost revolt against the “snobby” coffee shop. This isn’t just true, it is aggressively true. Snobby coffee shops are flat out uncool, real square, totally Melvin these days.

It’s evident in what respondents say as well as what they don’t say. Take the brewed coffee, for example. Cafes would more readily talk about their batch brew setup than their hand brew; nearly 40% didn’t even mention what type of grinder they use. The gear arms race is over—though let’s be honest, with the Linea and EK43 always taking the top spot, there was never really much of a race in the first place. Convenience and community are in.

Method Coffee Roasters in Denver, Colorado

How do we know? Well, the word “community” appeared on average 1.4 times per article. But if we look at just the 24 cafes that talk about community, the word appeared 2.4 times per article. Which is all to say, building a sense of community is the common thread amongst this crop of Build-Outs.

What is perhaps a more interesting question, though, is if this is just the natural swing of the zeitgeist pendulum or something more akin to soldier’s returning home from war. For so long, specialty coffee had to fight to be taken seriously, which meant goofy gadgets, over-reverence, LOTS of comparisons to wine and sommeliers, and just a general “otherness” to help distinguish specialty from the other coffee. Now, specialty coffee is more of a household thing.

This is not to say that everyone is drinking specialty coffee, but more people are aware of it and we have (for the most part) moved past the hipster-barista-punching-bag phase. The way I see it, specialty coffee is on the same trajectory as craft beer. Once upon a time if you drank something from a local brewery, you were a “beer snob,” and engaged in some kind of special act. But now craft beer is mainstream. If you call someone a “beer snob” now for liking craft brews, you look like the asshole, not them. Specialty coffee isn’t quite there yet—it’s still a step or two behind, and still worn like a badge of pride by some. That won’t last for long. Snobbery is dying because snob-worthy coffee has gone way mainstream, big time, and that’s not slowing down anytime soon.

Is this the coffee shop returning back to its resting state, the relaxed hang out spot, or are we going to see coffee want to impose another round of super seriousness? Only time will tell.

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

“Avast, Ye Builders-of-Out” original poem by Jordan Michelman. 

The post The Analytics of Autumn: A Requiem For The 2018 Build-Outs Of Summer appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Black Coffee, the new event series from creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista) recently staged major events in New York City (October 15th) and Washington DC (October 19th) at the Classic Stage Company in lower Manhattan and The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan. Hosted by Michelle Johnson, produced by Sprudge, and featuring NYC co-hosts Tymika Lawrence (Atlas Coffee) and Ezra Baker (Oren’s Coffee Co.) and DC co-host Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House, Barista Guild of America Executive Council), these events centered the voices and experiences of Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, all with unique perspectives that spanned intersectional identities and roles on the retail end of the value chain.

The NYC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Revelato,r Coffee, Oatly, Everyman Espresso and Oren’s Coffee Co. and featured panel guests Lem Butler (Black & White Roasters), Kristina Hollie (Intelligentsia), Winston Thomas (Barista Champion of South Africa/Urnex Ambassador), and Candice Madison (Irving Farm). Extra special thanks to the team at Everyman Espresso and Classic Stage Company for helping support this event onsite, and to Oren’s Coffee Co., Discovery Wines and Make My Cake for afterparty support. (Special thanks to D’Onna Stubblefield for music, party logistics, life advice, et. al.) Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Noemie Tshinaga.

The DC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Oatly, Revelator Coffee, and The Line Hotel, and featured panelists including Aisha Pew (Dovecote Cafe), Candy Schibli (Southeastern Roastery), Reggie Elliott (Foreign National), Victoria Smith (The Cup We All Race 4), and Donte Gardner (Vigilante Coffee Company). Ticket sales at this event benefited Collective Action for Safe Spaces. Special thanks to everyone at The Line Hotel for their incredible support and accommodation for this event—particularly Farrah Skeiky for her exceptional coordination and consideration—and to Gran Cata and Danielle’s Desserts for supporting a delicious afterparty. (Special thanks to Callie Eberdt of Oalty for onsite support and general positivity.) Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Kayla Butler.

Video of the event will premiere in the coming weeks, filmed by Lanny Huang.

Michelle Johnson

A huge thank you again to all of the sponsors—everyone at La Marzocco USA, everyone at Oatly, Cameron Heath and Joshua Owen at Revelator Coffee, Ezra Baker, D’Onna Stubblefield and the team at Oren’s Coffee Co., Sam Penix and the team at Everyman Espresso, and especially to the exceptional facility teams at Classic Stage Company (NYC) and The Line Hotel (DC). You make this work possible—thank you.

Poster by Taylor McManus

You can now listen to both episodes via podcast! Download them here and subscribe.

All images from Black Coffee NYC by Noemie Tshinaga.

All images from Black Coffee DC by Kayla Butler.

The post Black Coffee NYC & Washington DC: The Live Podcasts Are Now Available appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Los Angeles, are you ready for the LA Coffee Festival? I sure hope so, because it gets going today, November 9th. And like with all the Allegra Events-created shindigs that follow the general naming convention “[city] Coffee Festival,” the three-day bash descending upon LA is going to be chockablock with all manner of coffee good times. We’ve rounded up a few of the can’t-miss happenings going on this weekend; if you are in the City of Angels over the next few days, these are the things you need to check out.

The centerpiece for these coffee festivals is always a competition and the LA Coffee Festival is no different. This year’s event is the Coffee Mixologists, where teams of two—one barista and one mixologist—work together to see who can come up with the best coffee cocktail using mystery ingredients provided to them that day. And a fun twist for this year, baristas and mixologists will be doing daily takeovers of the Latte Art Stage for Coffee Mixologists LA Allstars, where teams will be making drinks on the fly THAT YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DRINK.

That’s not the only way to get your fill. New for this year, the LA Coffee Festival has added The Kitchen, a casual dining experience featuring “fiery demos, workshops and talks headed up by culinary legends” from the LA food scene. Look for features like “One Way to Have Your Eggs” by Go Get Em Tiger’s Marilei Denila as well as “Fine Dining Meets Specialty Coffee” with Joseph Geiskopf of TRINITI and Maya Alber of Devocion.

And lest you think it’s all about whatever you can shove down your gullet (which to be honest, is still a pretty great way to experience these festivals), there’s learning aplenty to be had at The Lab when you are recovering from your over-caffeinated food coma. Many of the discussions taking place are on hot button topics within the coffee community: sustainability, colonialism, and women in coffee. It’s kinda like food, but it’s food for thought.

But then it’s back to more flavorful goodies, including a tasting room, a street vendor market, and the True Artisan Cafe, La Marzocco’s rotating coffee concept that will feature over 30 different cafes taking over their space throughout the course of the festival, including G&B Coffee, Stumptown, Cartel, Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, and so many more.

Tickets are still on sale for the Los Angeles Coffee Festival and range from $27 to $100 for single-day passes and Super VIP three-day access. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Los Angeles Coffee Festival’s official website. See you there!

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

Top image via the Los Angeles Coffee Festival

The post What To Do At The Los Angeles Coffee Festival This Weekend appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

A recent examination of Melbourne cafes by Broadsheet editor, Nick Connellan, asks an honest question: do the city’s cafes have what it takes to continue influencing cafe culture globally? Can they still be unique enough from each other locally to survive? And is the era of Melbourne cafe as international cultural symbol beginning to fade?

With hundreds of cafes in the Melbourne CBD alone, and hundreds more in the surrounding suburbs, the market appears to have reached what any reasonable person might define as saturation. Even with the Instagrammable build-outs, inventive restaurant-quality menus, and coffee offerings scaling from your basic $4 cappuccino to a $10 cup of an anaerobic process coffee from Central America, Melbourne may have “backed itself into a corner”, as per Connellan. Because these cafes are all starting to feel the same.  

From Broadsheet:

Our autumn 2015 cover story, “The Design Question”, asked why so many cafes were starting to look the same: polished timber, white subway tiles and Edison light bulbs. Since then, the similarities have become more pervasive than just aesthetics. Many of our cafes have begun to feel the same, too. It’s like everyone’s read the same basic manual on how to open a “Melbourne cafe”. “It’s become a very fashionable industry, and the barrier to get in is very low – you just need an apron and a beard and you’re in,” jokes Al Keating, a partner at Coffee Supreme, one of Melbourne’s earliest specialty roasters.

From the outside looking in, it’s interesting to read Melbourne roasters and cafe owners talk openly about the faults of cafes. Some of these faults include six-figure investments at least in design, branding, marketing, on top of building a kitchen and coffee program. Cafes today are spending big on making everything look good, and using influencer marketing quite regularly to drive a fickle local customer base with endless options. And that’s just to keep up.

I’m a self-proclaimed coffee culturalist particularly interested in the roles cafes and coffee shops play in everyday life in different places. As an temporary migrant to Melbourne (who also works in the coffee industry), it looks to me like observing the first results of a shift in priorities for cafes and coffee shops globally. In other words, rising investment costs and a marble pour-over bar aren’t the only things everyone is doing the same. Al Keating’s joke to Broadsheet has some truth to it: everyone doing it also looks the same.

We’re seeing stagnation of a coffee culture due to a lack of diversity in real time.

Melbourne has had a number of things that’s allowed it to set the standard to be a successful coffee city. The general public have a basic understanding of what specialty coffee is, what’s good, and where to find it. Most cafes serve coffee well enough to be considered “good” with still a fair amount achieving “exceptionally good” and “downright delicious.” Add those to the list along with food dishes that look like they’re out of Masterchef Australia against the backdrop of an indoor concrete greenhouse. Melbourne can be a coffee lover’s dream.

But what’s real is this: white men dominate cafes, especially in upper management and ownership. This is true so many places around the world, but it is very obviously most evidently true here in Australia, and in Melbourne especially. So it should come to no surprise that the same bunch of white men who created the template are out of ideas to innovate it. If Melbourne business leaders and cafe investors want to solve the city’s cafe diversity problem, they should start by investing in diverse business owners. This is the real next wave of coffee, and something Melbourne must consider if it wants to remain at the forefront of cafe culture globally.

Michelle Johnson is a news contributor at Sprudge Media Network, and the founder and publisher of The Chocolate Barista. Read more Michelle Johnson on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

The Good Food Awards are back for a ninth year and they have just announced their finalists. The yearly celebration of American-made consumables with a focus on sustainability has narrowed down the 401 products making it to the last leg from a field of over 2,000. Among the 27 finalists in the coffee category, there a handful of familiar names as well as a few new ones. And it’s not all Ethiopian coffees this year; it’s only mostly Ethiopian coffees.

The 2019 Good Food Awards coffee finalists are:

Bard Coffee, Organic Costa Rica La Mirella, Maine
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, Geisha XO & KIUNYU Coffee Factory – Peaberry, California
Broadsheet Coffee Roasters, Special Prep Ethiopia Natural Bombe, Bensa Sidama, Massachusetts
Caffe Ladro, Ethiopia Limu Organic, Washington
Catalyst Coffee Consulting, Ethiopia Keramo, Oregon
Commonwealth Coffee Roasters,Carmen Estate Washed Geisha, Colorado
Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea, Kossa Kebena, Ohio
Drink Coffee Do Stuff, Ethiopia Guji Hambela Wamena, California
Elixr Coffee, El Injerto Pacamara, Pennsylvania
Equator Coffees & Teas, Ethiopia Gedeb 1 Organic Gotiti Lot 143, California
Folly Coffee Roasters, House Bean – Ethiopia Guji, Minnesota
Intelligentsia, Organic Ethiopia Kurimi, Illinois
Linea, Ethiopia Suke Quto, California
Noble Coffee Roasting, Ethiopian ‘Buku Sayisa’, Oregon
Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters, Guji Highlands, Ethiopia – Natural Process, Organic, Texas
Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, Girma Eshetu, Texas
Onyx Coffee Lab, Colombia Granja La Esperanza, Arkansas
PERC Coffee Roasters, Ethiopia Kayon Mountain, Georgia
Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Kayon Mountain, Virginia
Royal Mile Coffee Roasters, Ethiopia Kayon Mountain Taaroo & Kenya Ichamama Peaberry Washed, New Jersey
Spyhouse Coffee Roasting Co, Duromina/Ethiopia, Minnesota
Still Vibrato, Ethiopia Shantawene, Oregon
Thanksgiving Coffee Company, Upsetter Espresso, California
Vashon Coffee Company, Organic Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Hambela Buku, Washington
Vibrant Coffee Roasters, Ethiopia Idido Washed, Pennsylvania

But coffee isn’t just in the coffee category anymore; it’s being utilized as an ingredient in multiple categories, including:

Beer:
Rolling Meadows Brewery, Coffee Break, Illinois

Chocolate:
Dark Forest Chocolate, Gimme Coffee & Dark Chocolate, New York

Confections: 
COCOPOD, Coffee Cocoa Chocolate Hazelnut, North Carolina
Garcia Nevett Chocolatier de Miami, Cafe de Hacienda, Florida
Vermont Amber Organic Toffee, Percolator Toffee, Vermont

Elixirs:
Sightglass Coffee and Shrub & Co.,Coffee Cascara Shrub, California

Snacks:
Hot Mama Salsa, Smoky Coffee Chili Oil, Oregon

Sprits:
Elixir, Caffe’ Corretto Liqueur, Oregon
Griffo Distillery, Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur, California

Winners of the 2019 Good Food Awards will crowned on Friday, January 11th at the GFA Gala in San Francisco. For more information about the Good Food Awards or for tickets to attend the awards show, visit their official website.

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

Top image via the Good Food Awards

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Source: Coffee News

No matter the industry, employee turnover comes with major costs, some more obvious than others. Between the costs of recruiting, onboarding, training, offboarding, and burnout, employee turnover can cost as much as four to 12 months’ worth of the lost employee’s salary—a number which is steep to begin with and gets steeper the more highly placed the employee is in the business. For all those reasons and more, employee retention is crucial to keeping costs under control as well as maintaining positive and consistent service and operations from the cafe upward. Leading human resource experts have different opinions on what a great retention strategy looks like, but one of the best ways to learn about retention is to talk to long-term employees that continue to be excited about and engaged in their jobs. In this piece, I talk to five coffee workers in varied positions who have been with their companies for five years or more about why they’re still excited to show up for work every day.

Pay and Benefits

Maybe the most obvious factor in long-term retention is pay and benefits. However, almost all of the folks interviewed acknowledged that while pay is important, they could probably make more elsewhere and don’t stick around primarily for pay.

Kailyn Fulmer, who has worked at Monocacy Coffee Company for 13 years and currently occupies a manager and lead barista role, listed competitive pay and employee incentives as key retention factors, but also acknowledged that she wouldn’t be in her job if cash were the number one factor. “Let’s be honest—it’s definitely not because of the money. I think what it boils down to is the love of the craft, the love of our industry.”  

Emily Davis has worked at Counter Culture Coffee (full disclosure, my former employer) for six years and currently inhabits the role of Director of Education. For Davis, staying in her job has been more about growth and fulfillment than pay. But, like Fulmer, Davis also lists salary and benefits as key to retention. “Companies should do what they can to demonstrate employee value by way of salary, bonuses, or benefits. I think that acknowledging value and demonstrating it are two very separate things and that both are necessary to retain employees.”

Jackson O’Brien, head barista and educator at Peace Coffee, has been with his company for six years and is more committed to his company’s fair pay policies for all than his own pay specifically. “The thing that initially made me want to work with the company has also made me want to stick around: the fact that the company endeavors to treat every employee fairly. Aside from competitive wages, we make sure that every employee including starting baristas and warehouse production assistants gets paid vacation and sick time, 401k benefits, yearly guaranteed cost of living raises, and full health and dental plans. Not only do I feel like I’m fairly treated, I feel like all of my colleagues are.”

O’Brien added that when money is tight, transparency around pay helps to cover the gap. “When it’s transparently communicated that times are tight, people might not be happy about their pay and responsibilities, but they’ll understand.”

Basic Fit and Growth

Perhaps also obvious, all of the long-term engaged employees I spoke to enjoy the basic work of their jobs and have found themselves able to grow and learn within them.

Davis found that fit and growth were the key factors in her own longevity. Starting as a customer relations representative and growing into her current director of education role kept her challenged and engaged. “I felt like I had learned the company well enough to take on a new layer of responsibility. The familiarity I had gained made me feel more deeply connected to the company, and that familiarity gave my influence a power and efficacy that I valued. That’s why I stick around—I believe I have helped the company grow as much as the company has helped me grow.”

Maciej Kasperowicz, the director of coffee at Gregory’s Coffee, has been with his company for eight years; fit and growth are the main reasons why he’s been happy long-term. His position has evolved significantly over time, allowing him to grow with the company and stay engaged and fulfilled.

Christy Greenwald, cafe manager at Ritual Coffee Roasters, has been with her company for 10 years, growing from barista to manager at the company’s flagship cafe. She too cited “opportunities for personal growth, job position and otherwise,” as a key factor in her own longevity.

Communication, Expectations, and Feedback

Healthy communication, clear expectations, and the ability to give and receive feedback also played an important role in retention for everyone I spoke to.

“Setting clear expectations for employees and delivering on them is key,” said O’Brien. “This shouldn’t be anything that is in any way innovative or out of the ordinary and yet I feel like so many employers don’t do it.”

Greenwald agrees and sees feedback as a two-way street. “Receiving direct feedback and encouragement really builds trust in employees, as does encouraging and heeding all employee input.”

Appreciation and Human Connection

According to all five of the workers I spoke with, the people involved matter. Being appreciated, seen as a whole person, and having a human connection with coworkers were all important in long-term engagement and employment.

Kasperowicz credited top-to-bottom team fit for a huge portion of his job satisfaction. “I get to work with people I really respect and care about: from our shops to our roastery, our education department, our boss, and even the people I get to buy coffee from. When I think about what I’d miss most about my job and what makes me care about my company, working with those people is towards the top of the list.”

Greenwald cited not only her team but her company’s female owner as important in happiness and shared values, while Fulmer emphasized the importance of providing a safe and positive working environment.

O’Brien talked about demonstrating care through treating workers as humans. “Understand that employees are not cogs in a machine but rather human beings with basic human needs. Again, it shouldn’t be out of the ordinary but somehow is.” For instance, O’Brien feels that to truly treat employees as people, employers not only need to provide paid sick leave but also compassion and support when an employee is sick. Rather than asking employees to get their own shift covered or interrogating whether or not they’re truly sick, employers should encourage workers to get the rest they need, treating them as whole people.

The Complexity of Feeling Valued

The factors that help workers feel valued and engaged long-term can seem complex and varied, but ultimately, they might not be that surprising. According to the long-term engaged employees I talked to, people care about being able to live and work in safety and relative comfort, as well as access to growth opportunities as they get older and grow; they care about connecting with the people around them and growing as a larger team. These things may not be easy to provide in equal measure at all times, but treating people as humans and taking the time to appreciate them as best you can seems to be the underlying factor in keeping workers happy and present.

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

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Source: Coffee News