Last Week With Ben Blake – Week Of November 16th, 2013

How much coffee stuff happens around the world each week, you ask? A whole lot—and Sprudge.com was there, covering it all. In case you missed it (and who can blame you if you did), I’ve created this handy little recap of everything that’s happened over the last seven days. It’s like a fresh cup of coffee on a crisp November morning. Let’s just say—I’ve ground the beans, poured the water, taken the Instgram pic, and served it up. All you have to do is drink it.

Here’s what happened:

Eileen P. Kenny scooped Denmark’s Coffee Collective’s residence in Sydney, Australia. Part of the Paramount Coffee Project, consider this a temporary takeover, not a move—PCP has created a unique café space that’s communal, and allows for a rotating, changing array of cafes to open shop for short periods of time. Owner Klaus Thompson was on hand to lead the week-long Coffee Collective takeover.

Robert Wolcheck brought us this fantastic feature on Lamplighter Coffee in Richmond, Virginia. Check out that patio.

We ran this story on No Sugar. Apparently, the city of Vilnius decided it wanted in on the boutique coffee scene, and they’re off to a mighty fine start. Sprudge snagged some photos and got the inside story on this minimalist cafe in Lithuania.

Alex Bernson gave us these “11 Shocking Facts About Coffee Leaf Rust Everyone Should Know.” That means you, too! Coffee Rust is here to stay, so you’d better get up to speed on how it’s affecting coffee producers all over, and what’s being done about it.

 

Fodor’s Travel Named The Top 15 American Indie Coffee Shops this week…so…please direct any and all complaints, angry emails, or threats to the following Sprudge.com staffer. 

The saddest espresso hopper in the entire world was found and rescued. Grab some rags.

We posted these photos of a brand-new Starbucks that was opened on this Swiss Train.

Sprudge imagined exactly what it’d be like if popular children’s literature character Amelia Bedelia had a book about brewing coffee. This is exactly what it’d be like.

We published this in-depth list of “12 Things That Happened At Kansas City Barista Nation” last week. Zachary Carlsen of Sprudge was there for the whole thing as a documenting journalist, a featured speaker, a charmed observer and cultural appreciator, and even the DJ at the afterparty. Giddyup, KC. You’re doing good things.

Robert Galinsky’s book Coffee Crazy, (available now in print and e-book) came out. Galinsky, creator of Coffee The Musical, tapped the brains of celebrities, rock stars, dot com billionaires, Black Panthers, David Hasselhoff, the world’s foremost “tanorexic” YouTube celebrity, and even Your Sprudge Editors for a collection of aphorisms, epiphanies, deep thoughts, and wild times. It’s definitely the most outrageous coffee book ever written. It’s so outrageous we included this GIF in our write-up.

The folks at Colectivo Coffee released this video of their experience at the Big Central Regional Barista Championship. We love it, and think you should take a look.

Also, look at these amazing moments from the video, enhanced because they’re in the form of animated GIFs.

Alex Bernson (Mr. Scoop/Scoops McGee) has this look at Búðin, an ambitious new Nordic-styled cafe, bar and design goods store that plans to bring coffees from roasters such as Tim Wendelboe in Norway and Koppi in Sweden to NYC’s Greenpoint.

Ben Blake is the genius behind Draw Coffee (@drawcoffee) and a weekly recap contributor to Sprudge. Read more Ben Blake on Sprudge right here.