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Hereโ€™s all the coffee news you missed in the last 7 days โ€”all in one spot. Itโ€™s like a really wonderful vanilla latte at Sterling Coffee in PDX on a cool summer morning.

B4B Update:ย We caught up withย Joe NYCย manager and longtime specialty coffee person Carrie Webster to find out how sheโ€™s doing since she was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2012. You may recall way back in 2012, her colleagues at Joe New York and friends back in Portlandย created fundraising eventsย under the banner of โ€œBaristas For Boobsโ€ to help herย pay for costly medical bills.

Big Olโ€™ Regional Shakeup:ย The Specialty Coffee Association of Americaย announced a major overhaulย of the United States Barista Champion Regional events this week. ย More from SCAA:

โ€œBased on the overwhelming success of the โ€œBig Centralโ€ regional competition, which has combined the North and South Central regions over the past two years, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has confirmed that the six-region barista competition program will officially be held in 3 regionally-combined events beginning with the 2014 cycle.

This is a long rumored switch and weโ€™re excited to see it play outโ€”stay tuned for more information.

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LA:ย The ever-impressive Julie Wolfson chatted with Withย Tyler Stonebreaker, Real Estate Mogul To The Coffee Stars. Mr. Stonebreaker has helped such coffee folk as the men from Handsome Coffee find their amazing space in the LA Arts District.

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Dublin:ย Our own Elyse Bouvierย sat down with 3FEโ€™s Colin Harmonย and got the latest scoopย on Mr. Harmonโ€™s plans to develop 3FE into a stand alone business with its own proprietary roasting operation, with continued green sourcing and quality control support from HasBean.

This was way more than a breaking news story, though. Mr. Harmon shares candid and canโ€™t-miss thoughts on his business and on the coffee industry as a whole.

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San Francisco:ย We broke the newsย thatย De La Paz Coffee Roastersย will be opening a brand new cafe later this week at theย Contemporary Jewish Museum, in a partnership withย Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen. The cafe will feature a two-group Synesso espresso machine pulling shots of DLPโ€™s Big City Blend, and will offer batch brewed filter coffee. Pour over coffees as well as custom blends for the space will come later. This will be the first De La Paz cafe since the Four Barrel acquisition and closing of their temporary roastworks coffee cart.

Just look at that packaging. *Swoon* Itโ€™s like theย Intelligentsia Silver Lakeย floor and bar tiles crawled up onto a coffee bag.

Weโ€™re continuing our Build-Outs of Summer series here on Sprudge.com, where we take you behind the scenes, during the construction phase, at brand new cafes and roasteries around the world. There are coffee spots popping up ev-ry-where.

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Hong Kong:ย We took a look atย The Cupping Roomโ€™s second location, and interviewed Ms. Betty Liu to find out a bit more.ย We first learned about this cafe through our coverage of the 2013 World Barista Championship in Melbourne, where The Cupping Roomโ€™s owner, Derek Chiu, represented Hong Kong and placed 15th internationally. Mr. Chiuโ€™s new shop will be the first independent cafe in all of Asia to serveย Counter Culture Coffeeย exclusively.

Dallas:ย The folks atย Oak Cliff Coffee Roastersย have spent much of the last two years converting a 1940โ€ฒs autobody shop into a beautiful new cafe space. This brand new space (4 years in the making!) will primarily be used for roasting, but will feature a 1300 sq ft cafe in the front. Exciting for Dallas Coffee.ย We found out more from Shannon Neffendorf.

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Philadelphia:ย The folks at ReAnimator are already up and roasting in nearby Kensington, but this cafe will be their first, and a chance to bring locally owned roasting and cafe culture to the very hip neighborhoods north of Phillyโ€™s Center City downtown.ย ReAnimatorโ€™s Mark Corpus filled us in on whatโ€™s next.

From the Boston Herald:ย Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramerย announced heโ€™d be Rockinโ€™ & Roastinโ€™ย his way into the coffee world starting next monthโ€”good news for anyone anxiously awaiting the next big celebrity coffee roaster with totally awesome awesome packaging.

Ben Blake is the genius behindย Draw Coffeeย (@DrawCoffee)ย and a regular contributor to Sprudge.ย Read more Ben Blake here!

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