Welcome to another edition of our weekly Saturday news magazine, โLast Week With Ben Blakeโ. Mr. Blake is Sprudge.comโs trusty news intern, and a world-traveling illustration genius. Check outย Draw Coffeeย for more of Benโs work. Ben calls this week’s illustrationย “possible beginning sketches of the ‘Milo & Sprotis’ or ‘Homeward Grounds’ #coffeemovie posters?”
#coffeemovies blows up on coffee people’s twitter feedsย –ย It was a pretty average Friday night on Twitterโnothing too out of the ordinary, really. People were posting artsy pics of the coffee they just brewed, #FFs were being divvied out, and somewhere out there Tim Varney was making a dirty Aeropress joke and then BAM!
It happened.
Led by Erin Meister, Ryan Soeder, and many others, a multitude of punny, clever Coffee Movie titles surged from these folks’ subconscious straight to the surface for the rest of us to enjoy. Check out the #coffeemovies hashtag if you’ve got 4 hours and nothing to do. Here are some of my favorites:
The Last of the Sprohicans
20,000 Leagues Under the COE
The Sixth Sensory starring Brews Willis
Milo & Sprotis
Ferris Brewler
Spro Brother, Where Art Thou?
Failing the Qโthe Agony of Defeat –ย This week, Mr. Simon Ouderkirk shared an in-depth and behind-the-scenes look at the Q-Grader process. It’s an invaluable and honest look at the entire week:
ย The kind of feedback and access to expertise that goes down during these parts of the Q Week allowed me to grow, coffee-wise, by leaps and bounds, not just from Rob but from my classmates as well.[7] For me, it was as though a huge doorway was opened for me, exposing the true and massive nature of coffee and the coffee trade. I felt suddenly very small.
A-Z Coffee Wins Book Award –ย Oslo’s Kaffikaze recently accepted an award for “The Years Best Book” for their collaboration with illustrator Lars K. Huse on the A-Z Coffee Book. Lars’ beautiful illustrations, inside coffee jokes, and meticulous paper choices all contributed to the award, given by the Norwegian creative communication organization Graffill. Be sure to check out more on the project and pick up a copy for yourself!
New Cafes –ย As always, new specialty coffee spots are popping up all over the world. Here’s a quick round up of what we covered this week:
Blueprint Coffee Roasters in STL – “A high profile location in STL’s Delmar Loop featuring a roaster / retailer collaboration between Mike Marquard (Half & Half, winner of the 2012 South Central Brewers Cup.) and a gang of Kaldiโs Coffee longtimers, including roaster Andrew Timko, retail manager Kevin Reddy, and barista Nora Brady.”
Code Black Coffee Roasters in Melbourne – “Inner-city Warehouses turned coffee roasting facility and cafe? Count us in. This space looks beautiful.” More via Frameweb:ย
For a Melbourne-based coffee roasting company, interior architecture studioย Zwei converted two inner city warehouses into a sleek, industrial roastery and cafรฉ.
The company behind the Code Black roastery, Cafenatics Operations, needed space for not just their roasting machine, but their administration. Zwei seperated the operations within the twin warehouses, keeping the public space in one area and the paperwork in another, but left the open aesthetic, allowing customers to see behind-the-scenes.
Caffe Streets Roastery and “L” Train Kiosks in Chicago –ย Coffee kiosks along Chicago’s “L” Train lines just got gobs better. Neighborhood news blogย DNA Info broke the news that Caffe Streets will take over two coffee service kiosks along the Chicago Transit Attorneyโs Blue Line train.ย Long regarded as one of the best poly-roaster cafes in Chicago, the original Wicker Park location of Caffe Streets will be joined by two new locations at the iconic California and Damen โLโ train stops, under the name โCafe Transitโ.
Last, and perhaps most importantly, Augie’s Coffee has teamed up with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in an awesome fundraiser.
Children with Cystic Fibrosis have to fight for every breath. Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that affects every organ in the body, but the lungs have the most devastating affect.
Right now there is no cure and CF is considered terminal but the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation currently has medications being researched, developed and in trials that could give our girls a full life of health and happiness. Every child deserves that. But, these medications will only continue to develop with your help. There is no government funding. Your donations and coffee purchases are our only hope to push these medications through and into the hands of the beautiful young people that need it most.
Seriously, this is a fantastic opportunity to merge your love of coffee with a tangible way of making a difference. We’re all buying and drinking coffee, so why not make your next coffee purchase the 65 Roses Blend from Augie’s? Every penny of your purchase goes to help fight Cystic Fibrosis. Learn more!
Your Sprudge Intern is super proud and humbled to have been asked to design the label and be a part of this great cause.
