Joanna Han recaps our week in coffee on Sprudge.com. Follow her on Twitter @joannakarenina, Instagram, and check out her blog Joanna Karenina on Blogspot. 

Dinner (And Decaf!) At Feast Portland: Earlier this fall, Sprudge.com co-founder Jordan Michelman was invited to covere the Stumptown Coffee event at Bon Appetit’s Feast Portland. In the latest essay in the new Sprudge Confidential series, Mr. Michelman recaps a private dinner event featuring a Stumptown Coffee pour over bar that took place that night at the Allison Inn & Spa. It’s a wonderfully written account of his adventures in fancy foods and wealthy wine-loving old couples, complete with charming cartoons drawn by our very own Zachery Carlsen. Do yourself a favor and enjoy the story with a cup of coffee if you haven’t already read it.

Reading Rainboe: We’d be surprised if you haven’t read the latest Tim Wendelblog post by now, considering it’s been retweeted more times this week than the words “fiscal cliff” have been dropped on NPR. Following up on Part I of his “Coffee Is Cheap” post, the noted Nordic roaster expresses his frustration with the complaint that his coffee is too expensive (starting at roughly 22 USD per 12 ounces, it certainly isn’t cheap). Mr. Wendelboe goes on to explain the pricing structure of coffee, then breaks down one of his own recent green coffee purchases. Deeming fair/direct trade label solutions “lazy,” Wendelboe pushes the transparent model, which he believes is the best way for consumers to be more aware of what they’re paying for. What do you think? Is this transparency model the future of coffee? (That is, if there even is a future of coffee?)

Counter Culture Coffee’s Tim Hill at FB&F Asheville.

Back On The Road With CCC: http://joannakarenina.blogspot.com/ Counter Culture Coffee’s Fermentation & Fruit Bombs tour is back, and Sprudge co-founder Zachery Carlsen was on the road with the CCC crew all week. The first stop was Asheville, North Carolina, aka Ashvegas, and highlights include cupping a rare natural coffee from Burundi, drinking beer specially brewed for this event by Green Man Brewery, Katie Carguilo’s USBC signature drink, and raffle prizes galore. Watch for Atlanta and Chicago coverage soon! In the meantime, catch up on coverage from the Part I.

Sprudge Reader Survey: How can Sprudge be even better than it is now, if that’s even possible? Take our very first annual Sprudge Reader Survey and let us know your thoughts!

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A few weeks back, Sprudge.com had the distinct pleasure of joining our partners Counter Culture Coffee and La Marzocco on their inaugural “Works In Progress” road show, visiting Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Durham, and points in between. We’re excited to announce that this week we’ll be hopping back in the Cortado Minivan and heading out to the second Fruit Bombs & Fermentation tour. We’ll be reporting from Asheville, Atlanta, and Chicago, and eating as much BBQ as possible along the way.

Everyone’s invited and expect dazzling presentations from CCC green buyer Tim Hill and USBC champion Katie Carguilo (who was recently profiled here in Slate) along with  once-in-a-lifetime cuppings (in the last tour, folks tasted some out of control naturally processed Rwandan coffees) as well as some USBC championship worthy signature drink realness. Carguilo and Hill are a dream team of info, and they’ll be taking all your stupid questions and answering them to the best of their ability.

Tim Hill leads a presentation at Fruit Bombs & Fermentation: Boston

Did we mention someone has a chance of winning a brand new La Marzocco GS/3? In the last tour, a lucky Bostonian named Sam took home a custom Fruit Bombs & Fermentation GS/3 and this time, another one is totes up for grabs again. Buy raffles tickets on site at the events in exchange for coffee/swag. Proceeds will go “to a sustainable project in one of the coffee farms featured in the tour.”

More information from Counter Culture Coffee:

“Tim is doing incredible work with farmers from El Salvador to Burundi that challenges what we know about how processing affects flavor,” observed 2012 USBC champ Katie. “And, I’m psyched to have the chance to present my USBC fermentation-inspired signature drink and take my deepening interest in and knowledge about the fermentation process to the coffee communities served by our training centers.”

Join us! RSVP on Facebook:

• November 14, Asheville Training Center
• November 15, Atlanta Training Center
• November 17, Chicago Training Center

Follow us on Twitter @sprudge hash tag #fruitbombs!

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Can’t stop, won’t stop. For the third straight year, Counter Culture Coffee have publicly released their annual Transparency Report, and for the third straight year, we want to bring this remarkable living document to your attention.

An overview, from the report itself:

This marks our third annual transparency report, and every year it seems more valuable than hte year before. Often, when asked about Counter Culture Direct Trade Cetification (CCDTC), we end up effusing over the importance of transparency and describing it as the umbrella for everything else we use – from quality to communication to price -t o measure the strength of our relationships. In 2011, we both added new dimensions to existing relationships by supporting different kinds of experimentation and also added a few brand new offerings to our lineup of certified coffees.

The report features 10 distinct CCDTC coffees, stretching from Jagong, Indonesia to Haru, Ethiopia, to Aida Battle’s constellation of fincas in El Salvador. Raw data – including average cupping scores, the last time each farm was visited, and whom on the CCC staff made that visit – are buttressed by thoughtful essays on each relationship and even a glossary of terms, explaining such esoteric coffee trading terms as “FOB”:

FOB stands for “Free On Board”, and represents the price paid for a coffee at the point of export, when it is ready to be loaded onto a ship at port. The most common way to express price paid for coffee, FOB represents the price paid after farming, processing, milling, and preparation for export, but before overseas shipping, importation, and overland transport. The New York “C” market price is expressed in terms of FOB.”

Congratulations to our friends and partners at Counter Culture Coffee on year three of the Counter Culture Transparency Report, and feel look back at our coverage of year 1 and year 2. This model has already been adopted by Tim Wendelboe and others, and we hope to see its spread continue throughout the upper echelons of the specialty coffee industry.

New Englanders can personally pat Counter Culture on the back at this weekend’s Boston Brewer Trade Up, which goes down Saturday, October 20th at noon. Get yerself a free Bonmac, score some beans, and see that gorgeous new Training Center space. Jealous.

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Our partners at Counter Culture Coffee are taking it to the road for a new biannual exhibition of coffee and expertise, the opening salvo in their new “Work In Progress” tour concept. They’re calling their inaugural roadshow “Fermentation and Fruit Bombs,” CCC has partnered with La Marzocco USA to host a series of events at Counter Culture training centers in Boston, Philadelphia, DC, and Durham. The whole shebang starts on September 17th and the brand new TC Boston, which we profiled a few weeks ago.

From the official CCC Press Release:

The inaugural tour, titled “Fruit Bombs & Fermentation,” focuses on Coffee Buyer Tim Hill’s experimentation with coffee processing in Ethiopia and New York Coffee Trainer and 2012 United States Barista Champion Katie Carguilo’s fermentation-inspired, USBC-winning presentation from 2012. Attendees will be able to taste exotic and experimental Ethiopian coffees along with Carguilo’s awarding-winning signature beverage.

“Fruit Bombs & Fermentation” schedule is as follows:

• Monday, September 17, Boston: 7-9 p.m.
• Wednesday, September 19, Philadelphia: 7-9 p.m.
• Thursday, September 20, Washington, DC: 7-9 p.m.
• Saturday, September 22, Durham, NC: 7-9 p.m.

All week long Sprudge.com will be reporting live from the road with Counter Culture and La Marzocco, embedded in the caravan and making nice with you from town to town. Stay tuned to Sprudge.com for exclusive coverage from CCC’s WIP F&FB w/ LM Tour!

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Let me start out by saying, as a person, I am very guilty of having multiple favorites in many different contexts. Whether I say it of the places I like to travel or the coffees I like to drink, I say “favorite” and “best” about every other day. However, I will commit to this one for time come: La Paz in Bolivia is simply my favorite city I travel to. Whether it is the staggering elevations, weird witch markets (and, yes, that is not a typo), bowler caps, amazing graffiti, or good food and company – there is simply something very special about this city.

Full photo set is available here.

Do you have a photo set lost within the unsearchable Flickr database? We’d love to see it! Write to FlickrFracas@sprudge.com.

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Summer is a GREAT time to put in all the schmuck work that goes into opening a new cafe. The long Home Depot days, the late paint fume nights, the quirky contractors, the hold-ups, the reclaimed lumber swap meets…it’s a joyful mess, and we love it. All summer long we’ll be featuring build outs and sneak peaks from fab new cafes around the world.

Our panoramic bird’s-eye view of the international specialty coffee zeitgeist soldiers on, dropping us off this time on the doorstep of Counter Culture Coffee’s brand new training center in the Union Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachussetts. This will be Counter Culture’s 7th TC location (if you’re counting on your fingers, the Philadelphia Training Center should be up and running soon), and while not a cafe per se, expect CCC Boston to be armed with gear and coffee aplenty when it’s slated to open in September.

We spoke to Counter Culture’s very own Jesse Kahn, a native New Englander who has spent the last few months wrist-deep in hustle on this Boston space. As per Mr. Kahn, and paraphrased by us, Bostonians can expect a full schedule of events and an announcement for a grand opening event in the near future, kicking off some time in September. Counter Culture’s Boston space will host the usual spate of weekly cuppings and educational opportunities endemic to the Counter Culture TC model, and chances are (we’re guessing / hoping) that you’ll be able to check out some sweet worms while you’re there.

Mr. Kahn made it quite clear to us that the Union Square area of Somerville is “poppin’!” with readily available social and gustatory diversions including Journeyman (fancy pants tasting menu only), Backbar (cocktail bar, serves entire “lobe” of Foie Gras for $100), the Sherman Market and its cafe (serving Batdorf and Bronson and “well above average sandwiches”), and the nearby “Peruvian chicken joint”, of which Mr. Kahn is a “pretty big fan”. There’s also a cool brewery in the neighborhood (Pretty Things); Direct Trade chocolatiers Taza Chocolate make their home nearby; and big weekly specialty food and farmers market events take over the area, hosted by Union Square Main Streets.

Counter Culture Boston will run with a permanent staff of two. Mr. Kahn was tight-lipped about what exactly they’ve got planned for the space’s design and features, offering us only a few precious details: the TC’s counter tops will be made “from salvaged wood from a 19th century mill in PA,” the space’s cupping table will be “custom poured concrete table made by a local artist”, and the building itself features a striking original Shepard Fairey mural on one of its exterior walls.  More details will be available shortly, as the space nears its projected September opening date. In the meantime, watch Counter Culture’s official listing for their Boston space for news and updates.

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Counter Culture’s initial offering of “Variety: Bourbon” is a blend of two distinct coffees, one from Finca Santa Elena in El Salvador, the other from Finca Nueva Armenia in Guatemala. In the future, this project will feature different coffees, some blended, some single origin, similar to CCC’s ever-changing “Apollo” espresso blend. More information on the project is available here via CCC online.

If you’re curious to try or buy “Variety: Bourbon” in a cafe setting, here’s an (admittedly incomplete) list of some of the shops around the East Coast and Midwest that will be offering this coffee after its June 11th launch date:

*Everyman Espresso, NYC
*Not Just Coffee, Charlotte, NC
*Roast, Milwaukee, WI
*Empire State South, Atlanta, GA
*Condesa, Atlanta, GA
*Dose, Nashville, TN
*Barista Parlor, Nashville, TN
*Kudu, Charleston, SC
*Big Bear, Washington DC
*Zojo Cafe, Urbana, IL

CCC answers some questions concerning their new line of coffee:

Q: How long will the first version last?
A: A number of months: we’re trying to make this as stable as possible, in part so that we can list the components on the label. Anticipate only 2 or 3 reformulations of Variety: Bourbon every year.

Q: So it will be available all year?
A: That’s our goal! It’s a challenge to source the increasingly rare Bourbon variety year round, but our coffee department is up for the challenge, and has secured some great Bourbon varietal coffees for the future. Nothing is certain in coffee, but our idea is to have this available all the time.

Q: Doesn’t focusing on variety obscure the coffee’s origin or the farmers?
A: Our “Source” line is about celebrating farms and their geographies (we always talk about the farm or the co-op, and locate the “source” on the map). In this case, we’re just exploring a different aspect of coffee, its botanical variety (notice, a botanical illustration replaces the map on the bag). We maintain our commitment to transparency, traceability, and farmer celebration: this is not an attempt to obscure the farmer or the geography, but just to celebrate a slightly different aspect- variety?

Also worth checking out is this educational film on varieties, developed by Counter Culture for in-house training but now available for free on Vimeo. It includes a helpful biology review, and an in-depth look at the arabica species and its many varieties. If you’ve ever been curious about attending one of CC’s Pro Series classes, this video offers a snapshot of that style of coffee higher education.

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Katie Carguilo is your 2012 United States Barista Champion. Ms. Carguilo competed in the USBC as a regional champion, having last March earned top prize at the Northeast Regional Barista Competition in New York City, where she lives and works. Let’s get to know her a bit more, shall we?

Katie has worked in the trenches of specialty coffee for nearly a decade, as a barista, a trainer, and a customer service rep for Counter Culture’s NYC office. She got her start in specialty around 2003, whilst working at a Barnes and Noble cafe, where she met Nick Cho and made the jump to his newly-opened murky coffee in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. She joined the murky crew, going on to manage their Arlington, VA cafe space for four years. In 2007, she moved to NYC to join the Counter Culture Coffee crew as a customer relations representative.

Katie first competed in 2005, in the Southeast Region – she competed using an Indian Monsoon Malabar espresso, and her first signature drink was entitled “The Fighting Vicky”, named after her guinea pig (Ms. Carguilo has owned a series of GPs over the years; they are her spirit animal). She placed second in that year’s SERBC. The next year, in 2006, she competed in the Mid-Atlantic region, and went on to compete in the 2006 USBC using a signature drink called the “Ring of Fire”, which was supposed to capped off by lighting a ring of fire around the signature drink vessel. Unfortunately, Ms. Carguilo left the lighter on a cart that was wheeled off stage prior to her performance. Hearts sank in the audience as Katie conceded, “It appears that I’ve forgotten the lighter.”

Katie competed and won the 2007 Midatlantic Regional, with a signature drink comprised of espresso and pistachio gelato. At that year’s USBC, held in Long Beach, CA, she made a last minute decision to change a signature drink to a popular murky coffee menu item. Called the “Coffee Maker”, it involved a shot of espresso dropped into a glass of warmly steamed milk which all four judges, head judge and Katie consumed together. The signature drink was not well received at USBC; comments from the judges included “Milk? Coffee? Really?”

In 2008 Katie competed at the NERBC in Ithaca representing Counter Culture Coffee, using a signature drink comprised of goats milk, beet juice, and a natural processed Ethiopian espresso, from Biloya. She placed 3rd. After a year off, she came back to the NERBC in 2010 and placed fourth after re-pulling shots and going over time in finals. We spoke to Katie about her 2010 performance:

“I took that loss really hard and thought that I’d never compete again. I felt like I had let myself and my company down.

A judge stopped by the Counter Culture pop-up bar in Houston last year and asked me why I wasn’t competing. I told him that I always messed it up and didn’t have the stuff to win. He said that was ridiculous and that I was a really great barista and that the USBC could use my talent. That confidence inspired me and I began devising a way to reinvent myself as a competitor and really showcase the talents I had accumulated over the last ten years in the industry.”

For her winning routine at the 2012 USBC, Katie competed using organic natural and washed coffee from Ethiopia. She pulled shots of the Idido co-op’s naturally processed coffees for the cappuccino flight. “I did that because naturals have great flavor that’ll cut through milk,” Katie explained. Between cappuccinos and espressos, Katie brought out a sorting screen and described the process of sorting to screen size. Uniformity in bean size lends to an even roast, and at Counter Culture, Katie cupped several screen separations with coffee buyer and quality manager Tim Hill. The roasters in Durham hand sorted all of Katie’s competition coffee, using coffee from the Haru washing station, so that Katie served coffees to the judges that had been separated at screen size 16. She used the screen as a tray for the espresso course.

The signature beverage was a play on the fermentation that occurs before the Ethiopian washing process. “The first washing station was built in Yirgacheffe at 1959. Ethiopia has a unique way of washing coffee, soaking coffee seeds underwater for 48 hours,” she told us, paraphrasing her opening speech to the judges. Using stone fruit, Katie drew an analogy between the pit of a nectarine with the seed of a coffee cherry. Dropping the pit in a glass of water, she explained that over time, the pit/seed   ferments. To recreate the flavor of fermentation water, Katie used jasmine green tea, lemon juice, a nectarine, soda water, and white vinegar, topped with espresso and served the judges a sparkling beverage in grappa glasses.

Throughout the presentation, Katie infused analogies of human relationships and coffee & milk with gems like, “If espresso is my best friend, then drinking a cappuccino is like hanging out with her and her boyfriend. A cappuccino is a relationship between espresso and milk because the elements are not only balanced, but they bring out the best qualities in each other.”

Before calling time at 14:56, Katie finished, ”Coffees are indigenous to Ethiopia; you could make the argument that that’s the place they’re truly meant to be. Ethiopia produces the champagne of the coffee world.”

When asked what advice she’d give to baristas that have aspirations of winning the championship she answers, “Keep competing. Take the feedback, don’t let it get you down, and keep pushing yourself.”

While conducting these interviews with Katie and others backstage, we had a chance to chat with outgoing USBC Director Marcus Boni. We’ll leave you with his quote on Katie Carguilo:

“I think Katie is a consummate, poised professional, and I’m so excited she’ll be representing the United States in Vienna. And I’m doubly excited that it’s a woman. It’s about damn time we got another girl up there!”

Congratulations, Katie Carguilo!

Further reading:

New York Times Interview With Katie Carguilo (published Monday, April 23)

Photos by Alex Negranza, extended USBC coverage made possible with the support of Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

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Proper manual brewing results in coffee that tastes quantum leaps better than most auto drip machines. That’s why on Saturday, November 5th, the folks at Counter Culture Coffee Chicago are doing their part to spread the manual brewing-is-better message, by offering consumers a chance to trade in their hunk-a-junk electric coffee makers for a manual pour-over brew kit. Even better, they are offering lessons as part of the deal.

On Saturday, November 5, from 2-4 p.m. (CST), the Counter Culture Coffee Chicago Training Center will host a special Trade Up event, in which people who trade in their counter-top electric drip machines will receive:

• Counter Culture Classic Pourover Brewer
• Hario 4-cup glass server
• Natural Paper filters

RSVP for the event at CCCC’s Facebook Page. More than a few cafes in the past that had similar trade-in programs and think it’s a great idea. The question is: what do you do with the old electric coffee machines? Recycle them? Donate them?

Counter Culture is partnering with the Chicago Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center to find a home for the trade-in electric drip machines.  The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center is one of the larger and most respected substance abuse recovery programs in the United States. It provides comprehensive, specialized services to persons seeking to overcome the disease of alcohol and substance abuse.

Let us know about similar projects (pouroversforleftovers@sprudge.com) and we’ll keep track of them for an upcoming feature.

[Ed. Note: The Technivorm Moccamaster is the only Auto Drip we've used and stand behind. If we could fit a Fetco Extractor in our kitchen, we would. Everything else is a hunk-a-junk.]

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It’s a few days after the Peter G cupping, and Aida Batlle is in town to with coffees from her farms in El Salvador. In case you’ve been living under a specialty coffee rock for the last decade, Aida Batlle is the producer behind extraordinary coffees such as Aida’s Grand Reserve, the fabulous Grounds For Health auction Kilimanjaro, Los Alpes and Finca Mauritania auction lots, and Cascara, which has been made into tea, beer, and fancy cocktails.

Aida is distinct among coffee farmers for a variety of reasons. For starters,  she’s incredibly accessible, traveling often to America and around the world for events (including attending last Summer’s Camp Pull A Shot barista retreat). For many baristas and coffee types, Aida is commonly the first producer they’ve ever met. She’s tremendously well-publicized, having been featured on the cover of Barista Magazine (her cupping at CCC was attended by several journalists), and she doesn’t really fit the mold for what people think of when they think of “meeting a farmer”. Leave your preconceived notions of occident and orient at the door: Aida dresses better than you do, is staying somewhere nicer than where you are, and will drink your ass under the table.

We cupped a series of Aida’s “signature” coffees for Counter Culture, including the Finca Kilimanjaro, whose washing process mimics those commonly found in Kenya, along with coffees from Finca Tanzania, Finca Mauritania, and Los Alpes. Among the small but well-heeled group, Los Alpes won the straw poll for the favorite coffee, with many people pointing towards its clarity and charming acidity – perhaps a by-product of the fact that Los Alpes is only just now becoming available to the American coffee market, having previously been shipped exclusively to Japan. The natural process Finca Mauritania had a remarkable berry and sweet lemonade flavor that earned several appreciative exclamations from the crowd – something along the line of “that’s so dope”, or “this tastes like huckleberry syrup from IHOP”.

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