A few years back we wrote about the majesty and beauty that is a 3AM visit to Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans, for the divine pairing of chicory coffee and powder sugar drenched beignets. And during the Fruit Bombs and Fermentation tour with Counter Culture Coffee, did the entire van get a dozen donuts to pair with some Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut Coffee? You better believe it.

Yes, friends, it’s true: nothing goes better with coffee than a big, beautiful donut.

The fine folks at Saveur celebrate the pairing of the chicory and beignet, and several others, in this beautiful comic written by Sprudgie Award winning journalist Erin Meister and cartoonist/illustrator Lucy Knisley. More from Saveur (it’s pronounced Sah-verrr):

In today’s recipe comic, cartoonist and illustrator Lucy Knisley(who previously shared with us her love for orange-colored foods as well as her Tanzanian Travelogue) paired up with writer Erin Meister to pay tribute to the addictively delicious pairing of warm sweet donuts and fresh hot coffee, whether it’s a nibble of French Crullers that complements a sip of dark-roasted coffee, the double-decadence of jelly donuts with cappucino, or the sweet-bitter play of glazed donuts with a shot of espresso.

And here’s just a taste of the cartoon:

Other pairings include the West Coast Style Long John and an Espresso Cortado, as well as the simplicity of a Glazed with a shot of espresso. Delicious! And since we’re on the topic, here are a few of our favorite donut hot spots around the country:

The post Donut And Coffee Pairings: Beautifully Drawn, Zero Pretension appeared first on Sprudge.com.

BCRBC In Requiem:

The 2013 Big Central Regional Barista Championship crowned its new champions this week after three days of jam-packed barista routines and Brewer’s Cup sessions in Kansas City. We were thrilled to cover the entire event thanks to our friends at Nuova Simonelli, PTs Coffee Roasters, and Kaldi’s Coffee. Big Central is a massive event, loaded with talented coffee professionals from all over the middle of the US, and we put together a whole heck of a lot of coverage for it.

Here are your 2013 BCRBC Champions:

North Central Barista Champion: Charlie Habegger, Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea
North Central Brewer’s Cup Champion: Jon Ferguson, Dogwood Coffee Company
South Central Barista Champion: Pete Licata, Parisi Artisan Coffee
South Central Brewer’s Cup Champion: Jonathan Aldrich, Houndstooth Coffee

Mr. Habegger and Mr. Licata receive automatic births into the 2013 United States Barista Championship semi-finals, and they will be joining SERBC champ Lem Butler on the 2013 Cafe Imports Origin Trip to Kenya.

Congratulations to all! And there’s more on the coverage front, as we just recently published these in-depth, oddly personal essays for each of the 12 North Central and South Central Barista Competition finalists, with photography by Charlie Burt. Be sure to follow @SprudgeLive for coverage of this weekend’s Northwest Regional Barista Championship, and watch Sprudge.com all week long for schedules, previews, and more!

Sanapo Snags Italian Barista Championship

On the international competitive coffee front, the Italian Barista Champion wrapped up earlier this week in Rimini, Italy, with Francesco Sanapo taking home the gold. Feel free to congratulate him on Twitter @SanapoFrancesco – he’ll be stoked.  This is Mr. Sanapo’s third National Championship in the last four years, which is an impressive feat. He now holds the IBC title in 2010, 2011, and now 2013. Complimenti, Francesco!

Also worth noting—this year’s IBC was the first time a World Coffee Events sanctioned competition utilized live scoring from the judges. The scores were displayed at the end of each performance. Developing…

In the meantime, here’s a cool profile we did on Francesco back in September 2011.

Meister Talks Hidden Costs of Coffee
Sprudgie Award-winning writer Erin Meister broke down the hidden costs of coffee in the latest in her series of articles for Serious Eats. Meister’s experience at Counter Culture has helped her gain invaluable insight into all the intricacies of coffee expenses that often go overlooked by the average consumer. This is a fantastic and important piece of educational work.

Man Uses Coffee to Help Remove Explosives

A unique coffee-charity collaboration comes to us from Kronenweiter, Wisconsin resident Jim Harris, founder of the group “We Help War Victims.” Mr. Harris, a retired elementary school principal, uses income generated from selling coffee to fund the removal of unexploded bombs, mines, and other dangerous, buried explosives in the country of Laos. This process helps make fields and other landscapes safe for residents, still affected decades later by 20th century conflicts. The coffee Mr. Harris imports and sells is grown in Laos, on some of the ground he has helped clear in the past.

Yes, You Can Bathe In Coffee.

But where?

If you answered “in my bathtub,” you’re only halfway right. The real answer is, “at a Hot Springs Amusement Park in Japan” of course! More bizarre (and wonderful) details here.

San Francisco’s Newest Multiroaster

Our own Zachery Carlsen learns more about Stanza, a unique multiroaster in SF’s Mission District. The cafe stands apart by offering coffees from around the country—anywhere but San Francisco—and even encourages home roasters to share their coffees. Stanza features a Slayer Espresso machine, and is the first high-end cafe we’ve seen to successfully offer guest roaster spots to home roaster hobbyists.

A Quick Reminder…

The most extreme coffee contest in the history of extreme coffee contests wraps up in only 5 days time! Be sure to Instagram (or email) your #XtremeKone pictures and brewing recipes by the end of January 31st for your chance to win all kinds of goodies, including round trip flights to Portland and a stay at the wonderful Ace Hotel from the folks at Able Brewing. Check here for more details.

SNL On Starbucks

Check out this rib-tickling SNL spoof of the Starbucks Verismo Home Machine—get the Starbucks experience right in your kitchen, misspelled names and all. Plenty of folks wrote in about this one, so thanks y’all for the hot tips. Do you have a hot tip for Sprudge? Write us at tips@Sprudge.com

The post Last Week With Ben Blake: Week of January 26th, 2013 appeared first on Sprudge.com.

For more on Ging’s presentation we turn to Erin Meister, who covered the 2012 SCAA Symposium event for Sprudge.com:

“SCAA deputy executive director Tracy Ging served up a slice of honest humble pie with a presentation about the motivations, behaviors, and perceptions of the specialty-coffee customer base, reminding us that for the average consumer, coffee is all about heart. Sparkly hearts, to be exact – just like the ones found on myriad collages depicting “What Specialty Coffee Means to Me” created by focus-group participants in the coffee-driven markets of Los Angeles and Portland, OR.

“The people who drink [specialty coffee] have the capacity to love it deeply,” Ging said in response to the groups’ collected results. “Something happens over a great cup of coffee that’s different than when you’re just grabbing a cup of caffeine.”

Ging reminded the attendees that while our customers do have a healthy curiosity about what they’re drinking and how we make that magic happen, they don’t want to be beaten over the head with it: In fact, many of them sound like they kind of need a big ol’ barista bear hug.

“They want a love affair, and we’re giving them altitude and rainfall statistics,” she said. Not every detail, and not at every moment. And hey, flash a smile every once in a while, okay?”

How does this perspective make you feel? Sound off in the comments below!

The post SCAA Symposium: “Understanding The Consumer” appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Our friend and occasional contributor Erin Meister (@TheNervousCook) is organizing a big ol’ coffee crawl in NYC to benefit coffee bars in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Part hands-on community economic stimulus, part “holy shit I can’t believe that just happened”, this crawl will be a loosely communal way for coffee enthusiasts and professionals to reconnect with fine cafes in The Greatest City In The World. There’s lots more info on the crawl’s Facebook page, which you should join. The event is happening this coming Sunday, November 4th. Deets:

Floods, gusty winds, and power outtages might slow us down, but the coffee community in NYC can’t stop won’t stop.

Join your caffeinated friends, neighbors, and coffee-loving strangers in a citywide cafe crawl this Sunday to support the coffee shops who have suffered setbacks from the storm.

CAFE OWNERS: If your shop won’t be open yet on Sunday, let us know in the comments. If you can give an ETA for your grand re-opening, post that, too: We will be there, and we will drink your macchiatos.

The Facebook page includes an updating map of which shops will be open. Use Facebook to communicate with Meister as to your shop’s availability, or which shops you’d personally like to visit Sunday. This crawl is a “choose your own adventure” sort of affair — visit one shop, visit many, and show your support to the cafes of post-Sandy NYC.

Facebook has more details. We love you, New York.

The post New York City: Post-Sandy Coffee Crawl To Benefit Cafes appeared first on Sprudge.com.

A few excerpted gems from Meister’s feature:

* The barista is on your side. The people behind the cash register and the espresso machine at your local cafe are there because they like coffee, they like making people happy, and they like working hard for a living. They want to make you something that you will enjoy, and appreciate when you support their business. They are not the enemy, and they are not “beneath” you.

* If you would describe yourself as “not a coffee snob,” you would do well to pick a coffee shop whose aesthetic and product resembles what it is you’re looking for in particular. If you are irritated by baristas who tend to get excited about the coffees they’re serving, or whom you find too effusive or chatty (aka “lecturey”), you might feel more at home at a cafe with less of a focus on the coffee itself and more on the hospitality experience.

* If you would describe yourself as “not really a people person,” or find that you feel frustrated by questions or requests from your customers more often than not, being front-of-house in a service industry like coffee might not be for you.

* The people that walk up to the cash register and the espresso machine at your cafe are there because they want to support the business and purchase something they will enjoy. They are not the enemy, and they are not “beneath” you.

This is the best article on specialty coffee we’ve read in a long time, and you should definitely go and read the whole thing on Serious Eats. If you dig it, or are riotously offended by it, feel free to comment over there on the SE post, where Meister is actively engaging with her readers in the comments forum.

The post Meister’s Musings on Serious Eats: Can’t We All Just Get Along? appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Sprudge contributor and longtime Counter Culture Coffee customer relations representative Erin Meister asked her followers on Facebook, “Remember that time I went to Italy? Well, I wrote a little ditty about it. If you want to read it, you know, you could click here or whatever. Only if you want to. No pressure.”

That “little ditty” is a riveting print feature for the Washington Post Travel section, an epic that takes the reader to four distinct cities, and within those cities several cafes, each with their own individual take on the espresso experience. Meister’s take on the Italian espresso culture is both honest and humble, and it’s enormously exciting to see this kind of coffee travel writing in print, from one of our industry’s most talented journalists. There’s even a supplemental cafe and travel guide to Italy.

Juciy bits:

Sacred spots are scattered across Italy: Each major city has its own coffee tradition, and limiting myself to one or two would feel as incomplete as sticking to decaf. As a barbecue fanatic must bounce not only between the Carolinas but also through Missouri, Tennessee and Texas for meaty enlightenment, I won’t fulfill my pilgrimage simply by slugging a few espresso shots in Rome.

On espresso in Sant’Eustachio il Caffe:

Signs around the cafe proclaim, “Il caffee senza zucchero va richiesto all’ordine,” or “Coffee without sugar must be requested when ordering.” Asking for a shot amaro, or bitter, might earn coffee cred back home, but you’d be missing out here: Whatever alchemy takes place behind the curtain yields delicious results, and it’s best to trust the master at the machine. The frothy, almost meringuelike crema on this espresso is unlike any other I’ve tasted, and while there’s a noticeable kiss of sweetness, it neither overpowers nor distracts from the coffee’s deep roasted-chestnut flavor.

Washington Post: In Italy, a spiritual search for the essence of espresso.

The post Meister Pens Italian Feature For WaPo appeared first on Sprudge.com.

World Fair Trade Day is next Saturday, so you can expect a glut of FT articles to appear in your news reader throughout the week this week. Fortunately, writers like Erin Meister are out there to take on the Fair Trade assignment, and pen a easy to read, smart, and informed primer on the subject. Meister takes her readers at Serious Eats on the basic 101 Fair Trade journey, and she doesn’t mince words on the criticism Fair Trade receives on quality:

While the message and the mission behind Fair Trade–certified coffees is commendable and defendable, be aware that good intentions don’t always make for delicious coffee: As with any consumer product—especially the edible ones—if the coffee isn’t grown, harvested, processed, roasted, or brewed well, all the good intentions and fairness certifying in the world aren’t going to make it taste good. (And if it doesn’t taste good, you’ll probably be less inclined to buy it again—which of course sends those good intentions right on down the drain.)

Buying fair, sustainable, and delicious coffee isn’t an act of charity: It’s a moral, political, and taste-based act, and your tastebuds are ultimately the chorus of with the loudest opinions. So while I certainly and wholeheartedly advocate for coffee drinkers to seek out responsibly traded coffee, I also acknowledge that it might take a little tasting around to find the source that’s a perfect fit.

Even more interesting is the active role Meister is playing in moderating an avalanche of comments. Commenter Larikatz says, “I’d rather have good coffee than fair coffee. I don’t buy so-called fair trade nor organic or special labels. Since the price for fair trade is set, what’s to keep the farmer from selling his better quality beans elsewhere for a better price and handing over his poorer quality beans to the fair trade market for a guaranteed price? Like a commercial for Kashi, it sounds all happy smiling sunshine, but the consumer is not getting the best end of the bargain unless all the consumer wants is a clean conscious.”

Meister comes back with this:

But to speak to your (potentially rhetorical) question, “What’s to keep the farmer from selling his better quality beans elsewhere for a better price and handing over his poorer quality beans to the fair trade market for a guaranteed price?” I offer a couple of answers.

The average coffee farmer will sell all of his coffee — good and bad and everything in between — to buyers that purchase it based on quality. That quality is determined by the industry-standard practice of cupping, a method of flavor and aroma assessment. If the farmer sells all of his coffee in a single lot, that lot will be cupped and scored accordingly based on its quality. If that farmer sorts his lots — by density, by section of his farm, by variety, what have you — each one will be cupped and scored accordingly. The price is then set based on the cup score. So while there is price negotiation, there isn’t terribly much room for conniving on the farmer’s part, or “tricking” a Fair Trade purchaser into buying lesser coffee for a higher price.

Secondly, what Fair Trade certification has done is encourage farmers to enter into democratic organizations or co-ops, which means they operate as a group. Each member is responsible and answers to his or her co-op or group leadership, which makes quality and price more standard and less of a gamble. It also means that those kinds of buying/selling decisions are made en masse, rather than by individual farmer members.

Read the whole thing here via Serious Drinks.

Further Reading:

Catch up on Erin Meister’s take on the 2012 Symposium here on Sprudge.

The post Now Reading: Fair Trade Day The Meister Way appeared first on Sprudge.com.

The tables were turned – and turned hard! – on a crowd of coffee people in a lunch coma the afternoon of Day 2, with a twofer of flipped philosophy on media and consumer perspectives of coffee, and a game-changing argument about improving and redefining the retail experience.

The first, a panel moderated by Wrecking Ball Roaster’s Nick Cho, comprised three prominent voices in the outside-coffee world: Seattle Times columnist Melissa Allison, Cool Hunting blogger Julie Woolfson, and the omni-contributive Oliver Strand. As writers at the mercy of cranky editors, rapid-fire deadlines, and superfickle consumer trends, what do these three media taste-makers think are the important stories to tell in coffee, from the angle of reader interest?

“The ‘artisinal food’ movement has taken hold of everybody,” Woolfson offered, speaking to Cool Hunting’s drive toward finding the hippest new spot, the most eye-catching new package, and the visual story behind the coffee and its place in a person’s individual design and lifestyle landscape. “More and more I hear people shifting their conversations from food and cocktails to ‘Where are you drinking coffee?’ and ‘Where is the best coffee?’”

Meanwhile, Allison spoke to the difficulties she faces as a business writer in a city that derives a significant amount of its economic health and growth from the coffee industry: “I’m used to writing for a business reader. When I write about Starbucks, I feel like the traditional business readers are getting what they want. But the independent coffeehouse customers and baristas… That’s a different story.”

“The coffee’s fun, but the coffee industry seems to be unhappy being told that coffee’s fun,” Strand said, laying a gentle smackdown on the sometimes blinding self-importance that specialty coffee industry insiders can exude when insisting that our “stories” be told in infinite, intimate detail.

“The [specialty coffee] industry has taken what is a very complicated product and made it more complicated. Most other industries take complicated products and make them simpler in terms of perception, in terms of understanding.”

Despite himself, Strand even drew comparisons between coffee and wine: “Wine is incredibly complicated, but it tastes great, and the story and narrative is very easy.” He would go on to say: “I think the wine analogy is a horrible idea and a terrible mistake [in coffee],” because of the imprecise use of a largely misappropriated vocabulary that it encourages. “The best wine is better than the best coffee, and you’re never going to match it. It’s never going to happen. So use your own words. Cheese isn’t trying to be like ‘cow wine,’ it has its own language.”

Meanwhile, chucking wine out the window, Square Mile Coffee Roasters co-owner and former World Barista Champion James Hoffmann compared espressos and hamburgers. We’ve all had the $1 hamburger, and the vast majority of us have also had a mind-blowing $15 hamburger: We understand the inherent differences between the two experiences because of the ingredients used, the environment each one is native to, and the way that it’s presented and priced.

But what about espresso? “What would you pay for a good espresso?” Hoffmann asked. “About 1.6UKD? That number doesn’t really matter. Compare that number to what you would pay for an average espresso, or a bad espresso.” Its all the same 1.6UKD, it’s all the same “queueing up to the register,” exchanging cash for a paper cup, and expecting to see the same faces day in and day out, one espresso shot after another.

“If you had a friend who had Burger King for lunch every single day, wouldn’t you stage an intervention? [In specialty cafes], we just want you to come back every day. But the better a restaurant gets,” Hoffmann argued, “the less often they see the same people. Yet they manage to be successful and sustainable.”

Diversity, he emphasized, is the only solution. “We desperately need to foster diversity in our industry, even if it feels contradictory to what we do. If we create a diverse marketplace, everybody benefits.”

Disrupt everything. Make it fun. Turn coffee into a love affair, and celebrate both the simple and complicated joys that come with it. Get out there and make it happen. But first, where are we getting $15 hamburgers in Portland?

The post Meister’s Musings: Symposium Day Two, Afternoon appeared first on Sprudge.com.

We discovered a thread on a popular home barista bulletin board / “personals site”, and at least one poster hinted at some hijinks that might occur at the event this weekend:

I’m gonna just head over to the Goodwill and buy me a coupla cheap $3 coffee machines. Then I’mma borrow my mom’s hatchback and drive on down to teh event and cash in. My new lab goes public in two weeks, and I want to make sure I have the coolest equipment in case there might be girls at my opening gala. Heh heh, those CCC suckers are gonna get L0Lled by my L337 hax0ring. #OpBrewNet engage.

We’d give about anything to be a fly on the wall next Saturday at this event (or would it be “worm in the compost”?).

Here’s some more about the event, from Counter Culture’s very own Meister:

It’s been said that Microwave Cooking for One is the world’s most depressing book, but I disagree: In my opinion, the most depressing written work in history is the instructions pamphlet that comes with an electric Mr. Coffee pot.

For one thing, you know any text with the opening line, “To reduce the risk of fire, electric shock and/or injury to persons …” is going to be a major downer, and those fears are confirmed a few paragraphs later with gems like, “Do not use the coffeemaker outdoors,” and, “Replace the decanter on the warming plate within 30 seconds to avoid overflow and possible injury.” What’s worse, that’s not even halfway to the thing’s dramatic climax: “If the coffeemaker is brewing only water, there are no coffee grounds in the filter basket. ADD THE DESIRED AMOUNT OF COFFEE.”

The saddest truth about this little bummer of a booklet is that so many people own it: It comes standard with any dreary plug-in pot, a common sight in the average American kitchen. As common, I suppose, as the microwave we can apparently use to whip up lonely solo meals night after night.

She goes on about the event specifics, of course, but dang if that isn’t some really beautiful prose. We’ll just keep saying it and saying it until it becomes accepted knowledge: Meister is one of the very best coffee writers working today.

Facebook event info available here.

The post Counter Culture Chicago Brewer Trade-Up appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Round one starts with Ethiopia, with the Tattooine-esque spice lands of Yemen to follow. It’s a great primer on the why’s and how’s of Ethiopian coffee:

  Ethiopia throws processing into the mix of variables that contribute to the classic flavor profiles common in coffees from its southern reaches. Harrar coffees typically undergo the “natural” or “sun-dried” process, which requires coffee cherry to be picked ripe and dried over the course of up to several weeks on raised beds of metal mesh, constantly raked and turned to prevent spoilage on the fruit.

Read the whole thing here, and follow along with more installations over the next few weeks.

The post For Your Perusal: Serious Eats Presents “Meister’s Odyssey” appeared first on Sprudge.com.