Hereโs all the coffee news you missed in the last 7 days โall in one spot. Itโs 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 sheโs 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 โBaristas 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:
This is a long rumored switch and weโre excited to see it play outโstay tuned for more information.
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.
Dublin:ย Our own Elyse Bouvierย sat down with 3FEโs Colin Harmonย and got the latest scoopย on Mr. Harmonโs 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 canโt-miss thoughts on his business and on the coffee industry as a whole.
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 DLPโs 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* Itโs like theย Intelligentsia Silver Lakeย floor and bar tiles crawled up onto a coffee bag.
Weโre 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.
Hong Kong:ย We took a look atย The Cupping Roomโs 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 Roomโs owner, Derek Chiu, represented Hong Kong and placed 15th internationally. Mr. Chiuโs 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 1940โฒs 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.
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 Phillyโs Center City downtown.ย ReAnimatorโs Mark Corpus filled us in on whatโs next.
From the Boston Herald:ย Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramerย announced heโd be Rockinโ & Roastinโย his way into the coffee world starting next monthโgood 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!