Itโs been another busy week in coffee, and if thereโs one thing Iโve learned since I started here at Sprudge, itโs that the Sprudge Machine never sleeps. It just keeps on going, and thereโs a pretty good chance you missed something this week. Thatโs okay, Iโve got you coveredโhereโs a whole weekโs worth of coffee content, rolled up into a nice, round bouncy ball.
Colombia:ย We took an in-depth lookโthough really we only scratched the surfaceโat the second staged Coffee Farmers strike this year in Colombia. Somehow, this latest strike has slipped under the radar, but coffee farmers are participating in a strike that has been dominated by mass mobilizations and blockades of major highways, riots in the capital, protesters dead, dozens of police injured and hundreds arrested. The government called out the Army to restore order. Michael Sheridan helped us break it all down.
Coffee Uncut:ย There was a brand new episode of โCoffee Uncut,โ a podcast we host here on Sprudge. This weekโs episode is part two of a discussion on customer service. This time, host Alex Littlejohn talks shop with John Martin (Lamill โ Los Angeles, California), Teresa Pilarz (Espresso Elevado โ Plymouth, Michigan), and Andrew Villa (Bellano Coffee โ San Jose, California).
Speaking of Podcasts, we announced yesterday that our Sprudge Media networki s now the home for โPortafilter Interviewsย with Nick Cho.โย (The very first episode dropped late last night on iTunes). More from our coverage:
โPortafilter Interviews is a โnew editionโ of the Portafilter.net podcast, originally hosted by Nick Cho and Jay Caragay. The show went on hiatus in 2008 and had a resurgence in 2011 with Nick Cho and Mark Inman. Now, Portafilter Interviews has a fresh new format. Portafilter Interviews is โconversations by, for, and about the people and personalities in the coffee industry.โ
In the first episode, Nick Cho interviews SCAA Executive Director Ric Rhinehart. Mr. Rhinehart talks about his early days eating wings as a KFC fry cook in the 1970s โ and how that lead him to his role today. It is a compelling hour of radio โ and we hope youโll listen.
Copa Via:ย Our Los Angeles contributor Julie Wolfson sat down with Copa Vida owner Steve Chang to talk about the brand new coffee spot in Pasadena. This brand new space is in Old Town Pasadena, surrounded by high end stores, and just a stoneโs throw from Intelligentsia Pasadena. Mrs. Wolfsonโs rhetoric and photography put you right in the action and provide a fantastic glimpse of Pasadenaโs newest coffee spot.
Crossley Street:ย Eileen P. Kenny took us behind the scenes of Seven Seedsโ brand new espresso bar โTraveller,โ located on Crossley Street in Melbourne, Australia. More from Ms. Kenny:
โThe space for Traveller is petite, highly functional, and very inviting. Walking in the door from Crossley street, youโre immediately hit with the warmth of the light wood, the velvety-looking red benches, and the streamlined espresso bar. There are no seats, and the space is oriented around the takeaway coffee, with a little window looking out onto the street and a cosy ledge for city-workers to pick up their coffees from.โ
Classic:ย Ms. Kenny also spent some time at Patricia Coffee Brewers in Melbourne, soaking in the aesthetics of the cafe and providing readers with yet another glimpse into the awesome coffee scene thatโs blossoming in Melbourne. More from her time there:
โOpened in December 2011 as a joint venture by Bowen Holden (formerly ofย Seven Seeds, Brother Baba Budan, De Clieu) and Pip Heath (formerly ofย Dead Man Espresso), Patriciaโnamed after Pip and Bowenโs grandmas of the same nameโis an aesthetically beautiful and quality-driven coffee bar in the heart of Melbourne.โ
Cutting Ribbons:ย We took a look at the brand new Onyx Coffee Lab as part of our Buildouts of Summer (BOOS) feature. The folks at Onyx took what was formerly known as โArsagaโsโ in Fayettsville, Arkansas, and turned it into a brand new shop in just five days. Husband and wife team Jon and Andrea Allen installedย hand-made wooden shelves and bar tops, a pour-over bar, several cold brew towers, and a Modbar. They gave us the latest scoop on all the goods.
Also as part of BOOS, we talked with Supagroupโs Guitarist Benji Lee. Mr. Lee owns The Saint Bar & Lounge, an iconic dive bar and tiki joint in New Orleans, and has spent the summer building out HiVOLT Coffee in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans.
Combo-Brewers:ย Our own Liz Clayton penned a nice little article over on Serious Eats entitled โ5 Coffee Splurges That Arenโt Worth the Money.โ Liz has some great advice in there, but we wanted to take a closer look at one of the items on her listโthe combination coffee brewers. These โconvenient,โ โefficient,โ and โspacesavingโ Rube Goldberg machines have all the bells & whistles these days. We think theyโre ridiculous, but you should go see for yourself.
Citroen:ย We chatted with Intelliโs Stephen Morrissey to find out a little bit more about the new set of wheels parked outside the High Line Hotel Intelligentsia in Chelsea, NYC โ the brand new Intelligentsia Coffee โMini Barโ, housed in an elegant 1967 Citroen HY Van. The van was found in France, rebuilt in Jersey, and ready to travel โ Intelligentsia plans to mobilize it once the New York City weather shifts to Winter-mode.
Coffee Orders:ย And, we released what may be the biggest coffee development of the entire week…
โAfter years of exhaustive research, the team at Sprudge Labs have built theย Most Annoying Coffee Order Ever generator. This generator is finally out of months of beta testing and officially released under version 1.0.โ
Go on, getcha some.
Ben Blake is the genius behindย Draw Coffeeย (@DrawCoffee)ย and a regular contributor to Sprudge.ย Read more Ben Blake here!