Our Scandinavia-obsessed, Portland-based intern Joanna Han publishes this gorgeous photo blog and tweets as @joannakarenina. Don’t just compliment us on her weekly recap posts; share the love with her on Twitter. Think of it as Direct Trade.

Nordic Roaster Forum: The sold-out Nordic Roaster Forum is happening this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. An adjunct event of the annual Nordic Barista Cup, NRF sees Scandinavian roasters of all stripes gathered together for the 2-day seminar at the Johan & Nyström Konceptbutik Pavillion and Auditorium. Guests will learn about processing, sourcing, direct trading, and roasting through a mix of lectures, conversations, and cuppings led by Morten Wennersgaard, Graciano Cruz, Felipe Croce, and João Hamilton dos Santos, among others. They’ll also going all out with fancy feasts at a welcome dinner and goodbye party — fun! Follow Nordic Barista Cup on Twitter for event updates.

Blue Bottle Sells Equity For $20m: Quite a bit of media frenzy followed the news of the $20 million sale of Blue Bottle Coffee to a fellow named Bryan Meehan, but we don’t think it’s anything to go crazy over, really. Founder James Freeman told Oliver Strand that he’ll still be in charge of decisions about opening or not opening new shops, what shops look and feel like, what kind of coffee to buy, etc., and it seems to us that none of the things that really matter will actually change. We congratulate Mr. Freeman and the Blue Bottle team for their continued success – their coffee just gets better and better.

New Grinder Requirements For USBC Competitors: The SCAA has announced official WBC rule changes requiring competitors to use official sponsor-provided grinders at national-level competitions, and you heard about it here first on Sprudge. Personal grinders may be used, as long as they’re by the same manufacturer as the official USBC grinder sponsor, and while competitors can’t alter grinders internally, they may adjust grind particle size and doze externally. What do you think? Love it/hate it? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section — looks like so far, reactions have been positive, or at least understanding.

Pop Up, Stay Put: San Francisco pop-up shop Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters is officially staying put inside gallery and event space Firehouse 8 in SF’s Nob Hill neighborhood. The shop currently serves Kalita filter brew coffee and espresso drinks using a La Marzocco GS3, and owners Trish Rothgeb and Nick Cho plan to start serving pastries and tea, install a Strada EP, and add a three-seat slow bar inspired by the Brewers Cup Competition and South Korean “Top Barista” Youngmin Lee. Just one more chip in the argument for San Francisco as the world’s fancy coffee capital. Also, they’re hiring.

Kenya Dig It?: Sprudge’s sixth public cupping party is next Thursday, October 25 in the Windy City! We’ll be hosting it at Intelligentsia (222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza Suite 1212) and featuring a refined selection of around 25 Kenyan coffees, along with a chance to get some serious knowledge dropped on you Intelligentsia’s green buying visionary, Geoff Watts . The event is from 4pm-7pm and is free and open to the public. If you’re in the area, come by – you will still have time to do other stuff that night.

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Our most commonly asked question these days: “Is your intern actually real?” Yes, Joanna Han is definitely a real person who works for us, and she’s great. Follow her on Twitter.

Sirens Invade Scandinavia: That magical region of the world known as Scandinavia had managed to stay Starbucks-free for an impressively long time (Norway’s first Starbucks location opened just earlier this year at the Oslo Airport, and Sweden remained free of the chain until 2010), but those days are long gone. Starbucks plans to further its invasion of the Nordic region, beginning with a stand-alone store to open in Oslo next year, then continuing onto the streets of Stockholm. We caught a raw feed of Tim Wendelboe expressing his thoughts on the news in an early-morning interview:

The (New) Rules Of Extraction: Regional competitions leading up to USBC 2013 are coming up, and Sprudge staff writer Alex Bernson, who just so happens to be a certified USBC judge, explains the new and improved scoring rules. Major changes include the elimination of the 0 to 6 “Colour of Crema” score, the consolidation of the “clean working area at end” and “station management” categories, and a flavor descriptor requirement for the espresso portion of the competition. Meant to help competitors focus more on “making delicious drinks and relaying actually interesting information about their coffees,” the changes will very likely be reflected on the WBC scoresheet as well.

Hüsker Brew: Your globe-trotting, exhausted Sprudge editors were in the Twin Cities last week to attend Hüsker Brew, a giant, totally free party we threw with our friends at Cafe Imports. We cupped some amazing coffees, feasted on a whole roast pig, and drank plenty of wine on what was all-in-all a fantastic night. Read our full recap of the event very, very soon.

Sprudge x AIDS Walk LA: Sprudge.com is proud and honored to be official media sponsors for the 28th Annual AIDS Walk LA. The event, happening Sunday, October 14th, will gather together thousands of people to raise money for AIDS Project Los Angeles, which provides services to people living with HIV/AIDS and funds numerous prevention programs. So if you’re in the LA area, click here to register, lace up your sneakers, get an espresso at Handsome or Intelli (or both), and support an awesome cause that we’re super stoked to be a part of!

SprudgeTip #3: We show you how to turn a Strada EP into a nifty shirt steamer. Next time you head straight to the bar after closing the shop on a Saturday night, you can show up with a freshly-pressed and wrinkle-free shirt (though we can’t guarantee you won’t slightly of smell like steamed milk).

And to end this week’s Weekly Weekend Week In Review, here’s a weird Dutch car/coffee commercial for you to ponder:

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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.

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Specialty coffee is no stranger to innovative industrial design, from the Chemex to the Clover and all 8 million brewing devices in-between. But right now, I’m fascinated by a recent wave of new products that show just how some of the central concerns of specialty coffee – quality, innovation, and stability – have seeped into the mainstream coffee consciousness.

This new coffee maker from Koziol is a prime example. Called the “Unplugged”, it looks much like any other coffee maker you’d find sitting on the kitchen counter…until you lift the top and discover that it’s in fact one of those “pour over” coffee makers we’re all so excited about. (Are we still real excited about all that? I digress…) The Koziol sports an easy-looking-to-use manual cone with integrated stand, all with a Scandinavian design aesthetic. Read more here via Appliancist.

On the polar opposite end of the spectrum is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ new expansion of their Keurig® single-cup brew line, the Vue®. While this new office-oriented product is desperately lacking in the aesthetics department, the new technology behind it shows that GMCR’s designers are taking some quality control issues quite seriously. The Vue® system introduces variable beverage size, adjustable “water pressure, timing and airflow so users can brew to suit individual strength preferences…as well as a brewing temperature range between 187 and 198 degrees Fahrenheit”. All of these variables can be adjusted by touch screen, or according to pre-programmed recipes included in RFID tags in the packaging of their many (now slightly more recyclable) beverage offerings.

I am well aware that many, many learned people think K-cups will be the death of our industry and mankind itself, but the Vue® represents a tangible leap forward in terms K-cup quality, and that’s worth investigating. Who knows, maybe in 5 years you’ll able to select desired TDS via the holo-display on your Artisinal Series Keu Vue® Breu 5000 by Dolcepump.

Last up is the Geo line of vacuum-pots from Normann Copenhagen. We all know how important a thermal carafe is to keeping brewed coffee fresh and hot, but unless your automatic machine came with one, you might not have one in your kitchen (much less one that looks this fine).

The Geo’s stunning minimalist design and its wide variety of retro and modern color combinations suit me just fine, and better still, it’s a great way to store brewed coffee for maximum weekend leisure breakfast enjoyment. Even if many consumers balk at the $90 price tag, I fully expect to see some gorgeous Nordic coffee bar sporting a few of these within the year. Learn more via Better Living Through Design.

Alex Bernson is a staff writer for Sprudge.com, hollerable via @alexbernson

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Since 2003, the Nordic Barista Cup has been the premiere Scandinavian national team competition/seminar program in all of Scandinavia. Coffee professionals from around the world visit to enjoy lectures, speakers, cuppings, wine tastings, whale eating, and costume parties. NBC’s motto is to “be together, act together, learn together”, and togetherness was had all around.

This last weekend bore witness to the momentous undertaking that was Nordic Barista Cup Copenhagen 2012. Like so many, we followed along all weekend via content on NordicBaristaCup.com, and on Twitter at #NBC2012.

Each year, the NBC hosts a coffee producing country and this year it was Kenya, Kenya, Kenya. All Kenya, all the time. As mentioned, we followed along closely via NordicBaristaCup.com, and from their archives, we’ve compiled some of our favorite presentations from this year’s NBC.

Morten Wennersgaard, founder and green buyer for Norway’s Nordic Approach, took the audience of the Nordic Barista Cup on a sweeping Scandinavian journey, sourcing quality coffees from deep in the darkest bowels of EAST Africa. Watch this exclusive video, found exclusively on the Nordic Barista Cup exclusive website:

Last year at the Nordic Barista Cup, James Hoffmann – Square Mile co-owner, World Barista/Brewers/Tasters Cup Champion, and International Coffee Legend – dared to “Reinvent Espresso” in a stunning, memorable lecture. This year, Hoffmann asked hard ball questions and told the audience things they perhaps weren’t ready to hear.

Tate Britain wine buyer and head sommelier Hamish Anderson is a celebrated wine aficionado. Coffee took a back seat for this wine-forward presentation, sending the audience into fits of wine tasting ecstasy.

Tim Wendelboe is regarded as one of the finest purveyors of speciality coffee in the world. His roastery, espresso bar and coffee school in Oslo is a global point of pilgrimage for coffee connoisseurs. Mr. Wendelboe is the 2004 and 2005 World Cup Tasting Champion, and the 2004 World Barista Champion. He spoke to the assembled Nordic Barista Cup delegation the topic of “Developing Green Coffee Quality”:

YouTube links not working correctly? Here are standard HTML links:

Morten Wennersgaard – Sourcing Quality in Africa
James Hoffmann – How To Make A Viable Career In Coffee
Hamish Anderson – Terroir Vs. Blending in Wine
Tim Wendelboe – Developing Green Coffee Quality

The post Nordic Barista Cup 2012: Our Favorite Moments appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Varney and Co. have published the top two 2012 World Aeropress Championship recipes online. Charlene and Ingri’s contributions join the growing list of innovative brewing methods for Scandinavia’s favorite brewer, the Aeropress.

Ay chihuahua.

The post The Joy of Aeropress: WAC Recipes appeared first on Sprudge.com.

In the coming months, Morten will be in East Africa from August to December covering Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Tim will spend time in Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia. We will both be back in Africa first quarter of 2012 as well as going to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in Central America during the 2012 harvest.

We can offer “back to back” FOB from Kenya and Ethiopia as well as Brazil, Colombia within the next 6 months and onwards.  We also expect to start with a few exclusive spot offerings first quarter of 2012.

Nordic Approach via WordPress

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