We’ve got word that starting tomorrow, May 1st, public international shipping will be offered for the first time by Tim Wendelboe. The venerated Oslo roaster will feature a fully integrated worldwide shipping option available via their webshop.

International shipping is still a rarity in the specialty coffee world, owing to the vagaries of different national customs systems and a lot of bureaucratic red tape, not to mention cost. After years of struggling with Norway’s own postal system, Tim Wendelboe has developed a relationship with FedEx, who’ve been able to offer them easy shipping around the world, tax conversion services, and favorable shipping rates. This means that tomorrow, we could conceivable get some Wendelboe sent to us in Portland, no problem, which is kind of unbelievable but also definitely very cool. It also means that, so long as they’re willing to pay for it, well-heeled polyroasters across North America can begin considering coffees from Tim Wendelboe for their menus. This arrangement with FedEx has already allowed TW to develop wholesale relationships with accounts in Copenhagen (Noma), Berlin (The Barn), and London (Kaffeine & others).

For more details on the international shipping program, we were lucky enough to grab Tim Wendelboe for a quick interview.

Sprudge: Why now?

TW: The biggest thing was programming our web shop to be able to handle several different tax and shipping rates. I guess the reason why we can do it now is because we have really good rates from FedEx. Norwegian shipping has been at 60% rate of loss or return – with Fedex we’ve done experiments in New York and Germany, and it takes around 2-5 days for it to arrive. It’s actually faster to ship to New York than it is to ship to Denmark.

I think that mainly for the web shop, it will be home users. We have had a few FedEx international wholesale accounts, but it is so much easier and cheaper now. We’re shipping to Noma every other week now with Fedex – so there is no problem, and we’re hoping for more.

Sprudge: This new program goes live tomorrow. Which coffees are you most excited about offering right now?

TW: During the next week we will be putting our new Kenyan on the web shop – it is from Tekangu, a cooperative that we have been buying from in the past that we are very excited about. We just did our first test roast today – it’s quite floral to be a Kenyan, light rose hips and a floral style, with intense acidity and a tea-like mouth-feel. We’re also offering a new coffee from Colombia, where I have just came back from yesterday. We’ll be selling the November harvest from Colombia soon, and it’s much better than the June harvest. This coffee is called Finca Tamana, and ‘juicy‘ would be the first word that comes to mind, but it has much more intensity in acidity and flavor, like a pomelo, if you’ve ever had that.

International shipping begins May 1st at the Tim Wendelboe webshop.

The post This Just In: Tim Wendelboe Now Shipping Worldwide appeared first on Sprudge.com.

We sat down with Tim Varney not to flip out, but to play a simple game of five questions on the eve of his departure from Tim Wendelboe.

Won’t Tim Wendelboe, The Person be devastated that you’re leaving Tim Wendelboe, The Company?

I’m pretty certain Tim Wendelboe, the man and business, will be absolutely dandy without me. I’d like to think I’ve contributed something to the way we’ve worked as a business in terms of service, atmosphere and approach, but without question Tim has obviously driven and shaped the way we’ve developed. To be honest, I think I’ve mostly added sparkles. Working with him has been super rewarding and I’ve been spoiled to have worked with such fantastic coffees and people.

Your next stop is The Barn, Ralf Rüller’s highly regarded Berlin specialty coffee landmark. We’ve heard them called one of the best cafes in the world, but what does Tim Varney think? And are they still on about not allowing prams?

The Barn is a really interesting one. While on a Bromance with Tim Styles in Berlin, we stumbled upon The Barn by accident, got talking to Ralf and was really impressed with his drive and willingness to improve his coffee service. Tim & I returned to help with brewing and some training, and Ralf told us about his plans for the roastery. To his credit, he’s now opened the roastery to mixed bag of press and I’m keen to get back to work with him some more.

The source who clued us in about your impending departure mentioned you’ll be spending some upcoming time steering the coffee service at Noma. As I’m sure you’re aware, Noma’s coffee service has been a catalyst for a great deal of blogatorial thought in the last few weeks – some trenchant insight, some exhaustively detailed portraiture, and some blithering drivel. What will your time at Noma entail? 

Ever since Rene Redzepi announced at the NBC that he’d strive to have the best restaurant coffee in the World, they’ve done nothing short of making that happen. They’ve approached the coffee service with the same amount of care and consideration they would offer to anything else they do – every detail has been attended to. Water filtration, staff training, hand-blown glassware, a better grinder and most importantly selecting coffees that match their food and wine which has ensured top notch coffee is now part of the Noma experience. I’m really excited to be able to spend some more time with sommeliers Mads and John who’ve been the key to making it happen.

Tim, you are an Australian. The 2013 World Barista Championship is being held in Melbourne, in just 5 short weeks. Tell us a couple of places we just can’t miss in Melbs.

Melbourne. What a cracking city for the WBC. I think Melbourne will do a bloody great job of hosting. For coffee, you’d be mad not to visit Bowen (mega hunk and uber nice guy) at Patricia in the City. A stupidly beautiful space, gorgeous detail and coffee from Melbourne’s best roasters : Seven Seeds, Market Lane & Small Batch. Try the drink “Clouds Mountains“. For food, you’re spoilt for choice, but Jenni Bryant recently took me out for a hot date at Cumulous Inc.. You’ll get a great display of Australian wines and yummy Aussie fare to boot. Plus, they’ve just opened a wine bar upstairs, so you’ll be able to pop some delish Aussie rieslings in the gob.

So after Noma, and after WBC Melbourne, where will you be headed next? Where shall the seas of wind, sand and time whip you asunder?

Fuglen Tokyo. This is immensely exciting for me. Fuglen Oslo have done a wonderful job in offering the best of Oslo’s roasters in the one location; they’ve become quite the institution in Oslo, and have successfully brought their unique mix of Norwegian coffee, vintage furniture and cocktails to Tokyo. The space in Tokyo is true to the Oslo location and has had a huge amount of interest from the coffee community in Japan. I’ll be there to head up their roastery and to bring the Oslo roast profile – whatever the hell that means – to Tokyo. I’ll be working with a great team of talented and excitable people and will endeavor to find Tokyo’s best ramen and umeshu. Plus, Japanese babes.

The post 5 Questions For Tim Varney, On His Departure From Tim Wendelboe appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Exciting news out of Norway – the coffee creatives at Kaffikaze picked up at prestigious award for “Årets Vakreste Bøker” (this year’s most beautiful book). The award was presented by Graffill, a Norwegian creative communication organization.

Ingri Johnsen (Solberg and Hansen) and Harald Johnsen Vøyle (Creative Director at Kaffikaze) accepted the award. Harald tells us that he said “something completely odd and ridiculous about Lars [Kolstad Huse] not being there”.

(Instagram)

Lars K. Huse (pictured left) illustrated A To Z coffee – and the team at Kaffikaze set out to create an accessible and amusing book, “filling a gap in the market overflowing with purely informative, and at times frankly boring books.”

The team went at great lengths to create a truely beautiful object, hand selecting the perfect grade of paper for the pages as well as the cover. In a recent interview, Lars discusses the process:

I went around to different paper companies, feeling and touching.

I wanted something a bit ephemeral, and had an idea of using a bible paper. I was looking at this German one that was 40gsm!

It was a matter of feeling and light shining through. It needed to be just right, not showing too much through the page. But also it needed to be printable, obviously, and I was on a budget. I found these amazing Japanese papers and an architectural paper that was quite similar to the paper used in coffee filters.

(Instagram)

Congratulations to the Kaffikaze team! For more on the project, visit their website.

The post Oslo: A To Z Coffee Wins “Most Beautiful Book” Graffy appeared first on Sprudge.com.

As per this feature in the Wall Street Journal, Starbucks is readying for a major expansion into Scandinavia:

[Starbucks] will open the first in a series of stand-alone stores in Norway’s biggest city, Oslo, next year and then expand to the streets and neighborhoods of Stockholm.

The Seattle company currently has eight stores in the Nordic region, mostly tucked into train stations and behind security gates at airports. In an effort to find more customers and attract a more steady diet of repeat customers, it has signed a deal with a Norwegian firm—Umoe Restaurant Group—in hopes of building a far more robust network in some of the healthiest economies in the world.

“This is a milestone deal,” Michelle Gass, head of Starbucks operations in Europe, said in an interview Wednesday. The Umoe deal will be officially announced on Thursday in Europe.

The feature goes on to detail just how expensive it is to do business in Scandinavia, with hefty labor costs, national taxes, and a set of Big Mac index rates approaching $7. But will Starbucks be targeting your average daily fika taker? Or will Schultz & Co. go after more boutique coffee tastes? For a perspective that might surprise you, we’ve captured this raw feed of an early morning interview conducted today with Tim Wendelboe, ofnOslo’s noted cafe/roaster Tim Wendelboe:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The post Siren Invasion: Starbucks Expands To Scandinavia appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Wendelboedacious

The coffees on-board read as a who’s-who of kangaroo roasters, including Market Lane, Cup Coffee, Air Coffee, Proud Mary, and Axil Coffee (whose Matt Perger recently won the Aussie Barista Championship). The event goes down March 10th at Solberg & Hansen (Enebakkveien 125, Oslo). Spots are still open for baristas and judges!

Read more at the Wendelblog.

The post Throwin’ Wendelboes: Aussie Espresso Battle In Oslo appeared first on Sprudge.com.