Sprudge LIVE!: Are you following @SprudgeLive on Twitter yet? Itโs our brand new Twitter handle dedicated exclusively to live broadcasting barista competitions and events. We tested it out for the first time the other night to tweet through the premiere of Todd Charmichaelโs Travel Channel show, โDangerous Grounds,โ so if you missed out, follow us and catch up with our not-to-be-missed commentary!
Take Our Survey On Barista Health!: ย Our very own Alex Bernson is working on a special series on the health effects of barista health, and he needs your help! Please take our easy 14-question survey to help contribute to his research, pass it along to your barista friends, then watch for the series in mid-November. Do it!
NPR x Coffee: NPRโs been doing more and more coverage on coffee lately, including this weekโs feature by Allison Aubrey on four African women who are changing the face of coffee, including Mubula Musau of Kenya, certified Q-grader; Angele Ciza of Burundi, owner of a 24.7 acre coffee plantation and employer of 100 women. A highly recommended read (or listen). Here are some past NPR coffee features: cat poop coffee (ugh), a โhot debate on cold-brewed coffeeโ (double ugh), and coffee as the new wine.
The Coffee Collective Releases New Book, God Kaffe: Itโs been a few weeks now, but Copenhagen-based The Coffee Collective has released a new book. Titled simply โGod Kaffe,โ or โGood Coffee,โ the book covers the basics of specialty coffee, from cultivation to latte art pouring and everything in between. For now it only comes in Danish, but for non-Danish speakers it could come in handy as an aesthetically-pleasing book to show off on your kitchenโs coffee shelf, right between your Aeropress and copy of Coffee With Tim Wendelboe. Try reading Google Translateโs hilarious translation of the synopsis in a Scandinavian accent for your own amusement.
Oh, Starbucks: Starbucks has a few unnecessarily extravagant but admittedly nice-to-look-at stores in Dubai, Xiโan, and Fukuoka, and plans to test out the first-ever Starbucks on rails are in the works in Switzerland. Two double-decker Starbucks cars will be speeding along between St. Gallen and Geneva beginning 2013, and if successful, more will be added to lines traveling through the Swiss countryside. But wait, thatโs not all! Starbucks has shelled out an absurd $35 million on an all-new expo they call the โLeadership Labโ in Houston, Texas. 9,600 Starbucks store managers were gathered together for part leadership training, part corporate trade show. Starbucks, man.
