Last Week With Ben Blake - Week Of June 22nd, 2013

Maybe you were glued to your television this week watching LeBron James, the pride of Akron, Ohio (my home town), or maybe you were busy packing your bags for Nice,France—whatever the case may be, here’s the latest coffee news you missed in the last seven days. It’s like a hand-crafted cup of coffee with a honkin’ plop of butter, only hold the butter.

Lachlan Ryan took some time to write about the famed Aussie tradition—The Babycino. He goes in-depth in a two-part series and explains everything you need to know about the necessary and cutesy drink, including its origins:

The drink’s origin story begins in the mid-90s, when baristas across Australia and New Zealand had their Eddie Vedder tresses in a twist over the growing trend of mums and dads bringing kids into the hip cafes. The babycino was born out of necessity, as a simple drink that allowed baristas to adopt a SDSU (sit down, shut up) service model for children. It was originally served from the cold dregs of a milk jug, and were initially offered free of charge. This “free babycino” trend was short-lived, however, as it attracted a fiscally-frigid type of parent who would sit on a glass of water whilst their army of offspring, high on calcium, turned the tastefully appointed urban cafe space into Lord of the Flies.

Read Babycino Part 1 and Part 2.

We found out about a brand new pourover concept from designer Craighton Berman —a beautiful wood and glass stand designed to live on your countertop.

advert new rules of coffee now available

Sprudge.com staff writer Alex Bernson gave us a first-look at Hi-Collar, a kessitan-style Japanese coffee bar in the East Village. His was the world’s first feature on this exciting new cafe, scooping every single New York City food and culture outlet in this exclusive feature for Sprudge.

Earlier this week, one Chantal Martineau penned a “13 Signs You’re A Coffee Snob” piece for Food Republic (tagline “Eating The Way A Man Should Eat”). We felt Chantal’s article really missed the mark, so we asked a real coffee snob, Laurent Harlow, to weigh in on Martineau’s list. There may or may not have been shade involved.

We had another world first for you this week, with this feature on Method Coffee Bar in Olympia, WA. Method is the work of Matt Chrisope, a US Regional Barista Competition competitor and judge, and Jared Gum, a longtime Olympia Coffee Roasting barista and Brewers Cup competitor.

Your Sprudge Editors will be appearing at Tamper Tantrum Live next week in at the SCAE’S World of Coffee event in Nice. Look for loads more coverage from France all next week on Sprudge.

We’ll leave you with some dynamic media that appeared on Sprudge this week. Our brew guide, created by Clive Coffee, lives permanently here at Sprudge.com/brew – it’s currently being featured on the homepage of Visual.ly. We’ve also released Episode Three of Alexandra Littlejohn’s wildly popular “Coffee Uncut” Podcast, which is currently sitting as the #7 food podcast in the world over on iTunes (ahead of Martha Stewart and the New York Times). Download Episode Three right on iTunes right here

Also, this happened:

Once just a humble intern, Ben Blake (@drawcoffee) is now our regular weekly recap guy here on Sprudge.com. He draw coffee as Draw Coffee, and is currently living the Pacific Northwestern dream in Seattle, Washington.