Andrew Brewtbart is a Boca Raton-based author, coffee pundit, and “leading voice of the Conservative Coffee Movement.” Writing here exclusively for Sprudge, Mr. Brewtbart has toned down his trademark liberal-bating, instead proudly bringing you a message of impending electoral opportunity for registered BGA members.

My Friends,

There is no season that stirs the marrow in my bones like election season. Gingrich? Romney? The villainous Ron Paul? I’m not referring to Presidential caucuses – kooky blasts of ca-ca, best left in the Caucusus – nor the Republican primaries – secondary at best – but rather, the pressing electoral decision of our time and age, presented before us on this very day. That’s right, America – it’s the BGA Leadership Elections, and they are now upon us.

The spoils: two (2) Executive Council positions, plus new chapter reps for the Northwestern, Western, Mountain, South Central, and Southeast regions. 9 candidates offering their service for the EC; a heated pool of willful entrants vying to represent the Northwest. You can read the full candidates list by clicking here, and you can check out some more information on the voting process and what these positions mean by reading this pamphlet by Scott Lucey. Your official ballot is available here, but remember! Only active BGA members may vote in this election. No foreign nationals, no former members whose dues have been in lieu since the victory of Mike Phillips, just the current and bona fide electorate.

Voting has now begun, and will run until February 17th. As the Kennedys used to say, “vote early and vote often.”

Happy voting, friends. While I shall endorse no candidates, I do have these words for you consider when going forth into the digital voting booth: When you exercise democracy, you exercise freedom; and when you exercise freedom, you exercise courage; and when you get this much exercise, I feel well-within my inalienable rights to take a day off at the gym. God bless America! In Brewtbart we trust.

-A.B.

Starbucks is proud to join other leading Northwest employers in support of Washington State legislation recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples … This important legislation is aligned with Starbucks business practices and upholds our belief in the equal treatment of partners.

Go Starbucks! Now, we’ve been a little hunty to you in the past, but we gotta give it up for Starbucks getting on the gay marriage train in their home state. Good job, Howie and Co.

Unfortunately this sort of political support opens you up to all kinds of attacks, like from the gaycists at Opposing Views:

Coffee isn’t the only thing brewing at Starbucks. So is controversy–as customers learn about the company’s bold blend of liberal politics. This week, the coffeehouse jumped into a fierce battle over marriage in Washington State, home to the Seattle-based company. While the state is still sharply divided over same-sex “marriage,” Starbucks has decided to sweeten the pot for homosexual activists and join the attack on local families.

There’s no shortage of this sentiment on the web following that statement from Starbucks, but it’s okay, folks at Opposing Views and the Family Research Council – it’s your American right oppose to marriage equality for homosexuals. Just be aware that these homosexuals are the very same people who foam your cappuccinos, steep your Tazo Tea infusions, and whup that 3,000 calorie Frappuccino of yours within an inch of its life. If you’re really all that anti-gay marriage, we suggest that you forgo the convenience of your local Starbucks, and order your beans elsewhere.

Look for more from us in the coming weeks, as we organize the specialty coffee community to support marriage equality in the great state of Washington. #YesEqual onwards.

From Sprudge North Portland HQ, with regards to this Seattle Top 15 Coffee Shops list from the Seattle PI online:

Jordan Michelman: It’s a completely stupid list, with several glaring exceptions.

Zachary Carlsen: It’s not a stupid list.

JM: There are many shops that are not on that list that should be on that list, and several shops that did make the list that no one cares about, or goes to, or has heard of.

ZC: I’m sure those places are great.

JM: Have you even been to half of them?

ZC: No. But you just wanted to run that funny headline.

JM: Well, yes, but also I really do think it’s a stupid list.

Filter artist Ben Blake doodles on filters. Ooh la la. What’s next, Aeropress filter origami? Able Kone Madonna bras?

Gorgeous. Sustainable. Bamboo. This is a must have for the eco-conscious barista, available just in time for competition season.

Judges, I call this tamper “The Bamboozler…”

Coffee Common NYC is underway in Chelsea. In a recent blog post, CC explains a section of its pop-up: “At the ingredients bar folks can taste exactly how cream and sugar make bad coffee taste better by masking it, and delicious coffee taste worse by diluting it.”

At its core, Coffee Common’s aim is to enhance the public image of coffee, and we feel that’s terrific. We imagine a lot of New York coffee drinkers never really gave their usual coffee modifications much thought. It’s appropriate for Coffee Common to showcase exquisite coffee at this limited engagement. However, we take issue with celebrating “delicious” coffee while categorically poo-pooing everything else. We’re reminded of the Sweet Maria’s/Coffee Shrub 2012 “Mondo Coffee” calendar and the month of April that asks some tough questions:

Is anyone thinking about the importance of volume anymore? And how can a roaster act like they just hit a home run for the farmer when they buy a 10 bag Micro Lot? How is that going to pay the bills?”

We feel it’s important to celebrate all coffee, in all forms, from the most delicious 90+ coffee served in a champagne flute to the Cafe du Monde au lait, served with beignets and a heaping helping of powdered sugar. The segundos have their place in the coffee chain. Just because a coffee could benefit from the addition of cream and or sugar doesn’t necessarily make it a bad coffee. 

Speciality ((how uncomfortable I am with this term)) likes to use nouns. Solid, statement-of-fact nouns: This coffee tastes like blackberry.

Starbucks surprised me, not only by their consistent use of acidity which confuses me on a couple of different accounts, because they don’t use as many nouns. Lots more descriptive words, more adjectives and adverbs. Are they harder to argue or disagree with? Perhaps a more accessible way to describe coffee to their customers?

PS – Why is it “speciality” over there and “specialty” in North America?
PPS – I love that James uses the term “embiggens”. “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”

Local San Francisco NPR affiliate recently interviewed the owners of leading cafes in the Bay Area, including James Freeman of Blue Bottle, Jeremy Tooker of Four Barrel, and Eileen Hassi of Ritual.  One of our favorite coffee bloggers had this to say about the affair:

The radio program played out like your typical coffee innovator/”third wave“/bleeding-edge routine that we’ve become accustomed to over the past decade. While a bit heavy on the Coffee 101 — particularly when callers asked common FAQ-type questions that have been answered on the Internet 20,000 times over already — KQED produced a good program overall.

James Freeman noted Italy’s “industrialized system of near-universal adequacy,” which is a different but accurate way of summing up our long-held beliefs that outstanding coffee in Italy is almost as hard to find as unacceptable coffee. Other covered topics included coffeehouses eliminating WiFi, Berkeley’s Caffe Mediterraneum inventing the latte, the Gibraltar, and even James Freeman designating home roasting as coffee’s “geeky lunatic fringe.”

Listen to the whole interview right here on Sprudge.com:

Coffee types, you may have been auto-tweeted by a bot that has been floating around for some time now. It’s the Cultivar Awareness Bot, a snarky and pun-obsessed Twitter feed whose only purpose is to correct improper usage of the noun ’varietal.’ That’s right – Bourbon or Pacamara or SL-69 are not, in fact, your favorite varietals; according to this grammatical robot (and his prestigious list of supporting sources), they are your favorite varieties, or if you still needed to sound erudite, your favorite cultivars.

This pedantic project was obviously created by some total wine dork(s) - serving as proof that wine geeks are trumping us on the creative front - but the Awareness Bot does not aim its digital huff-and-puff at viticulture alone. He / she / it is more than willing to step in and tut-tut the usage of coffee tweeters.

From the Cultivar Awareness Bot FAQ:

You’re clearly a wine bot, but you responded to my tweet about coffee.

Remember, I’m a simple bot. There are times when I can figure out that you’re tweeting about coffee (or olive oil, or chocolate, for that matter), but I’m not some fancy-schmancy AI program that can somehow grok the meaning of your tweet. I can’t tell that a half caf pumpkin soy Venti refers to coffee (if very dubiously). That said, the coffee world, too, is rife with misuse of the word “varietal,” and I am grateful for my many coffee geek followers. (Those who talk about “varietals” of

Don’t you have better things to do with your time?

You forget I’m a bot. I have all the time in the world.

Cultivar Awareness Bot, you’re the best non-human Twitter user since the Bronx Zoo’s Cobra.

Ohmigosh we’re SO EXCITED for Coffee Common. The pomp! The circumstance! Can you hear those golden trumpets in the distance, like God-swans hooting into the dark bliss of night? WE SURE CAN.

Ooh, they’ve announced some of their baristas! Here’s an incomplete list. All-Star voting traditionally allows for several late-game replacements and alternates, so expect more names to be named, while considering this your classic Starting Lineup:

FIRST BASE: Trevor Corlett – Fairfax, VA. MadCap Coffee Roasters

CATCHER: Mike White – Brooklyn, NY. Shotzombies.com

LEFT FIELD: Ben Kaminsky – San Francisco, CA. Ritual Coffee Roasters

RIGHT FIELD: Anthony Benda – Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Cafe Myriade

SECOND BASE: Keaton Ritchie – Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Cafe Myriade

STARTING RHP: Yeekai Lim – Los Angeles, CA. Cognoscenti Coffee

SHORTSTOP: Cora Lambert – New York City. RBC NYC

THIRD BASE: Matt Banbury – New York City. Joe

RELIEF RHP: Elia Weg – Brooklyn, NY. Gimme! Coffee

RELIEF LHP: Scout Rose – New York City. Joe

CENTER FIELD: Amanda Byron – New York City. Joe

PINCH HITTER / UTILITY: Park Brannen – Brooklyn, NY. Cafe Grumpy

PINCH RUNNER / UTILITY: Erin Meister – Manhattan, NY. Counter Culture Coffee

(in the role of TEVYA): Jessie Kahn – New York. Counter Culture Coffee

FIRST BASE COACH: Mike Jones – New York City. Third Rail Coffee

SKIPPER: Amber Sather – Brooklyn, NY. SCAA

All in all, the squad looks solid, though they could probably use some more replacement infielding, especially if they plan on playing small ball. They’re acking a true big bopper presence in the middle of the lineup, but expect reliable RBI from Lambert and Banbury. Corlett is always a threat, especially against LHP. Free agency is still an option, though our humble, unsolicited suggestion to the CC Board is to call up some talent from within their own organization – there are several options available from the NYC farm system with favorable WAR, for pitching in particular. Our prediction: 93 – 69, good enough to win an outright playoff spot, drawing the Tigers in the Divisional Series.

(Ed note: we went with the baseball schtick because, when considering football options, we couldn’t decide who would be Tight End.)