Build-Outs Of Summer: Topeca Instruments Division In Tulsa, Oklahoma
Build-Outs Of Summer: Topeca Instruments Division In Tulsa, Oklahoma

The fourth season of Build-Outs of Summer has officially come to a close. This yearโ€™s Build-Outs series was truly an international affair, with a total of 39 coffee spots opening in six different countries. We covered an estimated 75,000 square feet of cafe spaceโ€”1.3 American football fieldโ€™s worth. Or 6,968 square meters, for you non-American builders out there. Inspired by the likes of Nate Silver and a general love of spreadsheets, we figured, โ€œWeโ€™ve got all these numbers, why not crunch โ€˜em?โ€ And crunch โ€˜em we did. We present to you: โ€œSprudge Presents – The State of the Build-Outs of Summer 2015: A Retrospective.โ€

Build-Outs Of Summer: Bakers & Baristas In Artesia, CA
Build-Outs Of Summer: Bakers & Baristas In Artesia, CA

Location, Location, Location

It comes as no surprise that the Greater Los Angeles area had the most representation in this yearโ€™s Built-Outs, with four-ish new cafes (depending upon where you land on the Orange-County-as-part-of-L.A. thing). Indeed, sunny California led all American states on the list with six entries. But what is surprising is who came in a close second: Anchorage, Alaska with no fewer than three entries in the series. In fact, the city of Anchorage had as many or more Build-Outs than any state not named California. London, the first international entrant, came in third with two.

But Build-Outs isnโ€™t all about big, bawdy numbers. Itโ€™s also about the pioneers, the first-timers, and there were quite a few this year. Shops in Israel, Lithuania, and Crete all represented countriesโ€™ first cafe appearances on the hallowed Sprudge pages.

Build-Outs Of Summer: Crooked Nose & Coffee Stories, Vilnius, Lithuania
Build-Outs Of Summer: Crooked Nose & Coffee Stories, Vilnius, Lithuania

In the United States, where 32 of the total 39 shops reside, an unsurprising and all too frequent geographical trend appeared: Middle America got flown over again. The West Coast (including Alaska and Hawaii) had 13 shops and the East Coast had 12, but the great land mass in the middle only had seven. This isnโ€™t due to any East/West Coast bias; we here at Sprudge love the Heartland and welcome all comers. So come on, Midwest, we expect a big push from you next year. Challenge extended.

places

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Build-Outs Of Summer: Origin Coffee Roasters In London
Build-Outs Of Summer: Origin Coffee Roasters In London

The Rise of the Machines

Stylish, functional, and sometimes trendy, thereโ€™s often a lot of todo about the machinery a shop uses and what it means. Even with the abundance of super sexy, technologically advanced espresso machines on the market today, the La Marzocco Lineaโ€”a trusty old workhorse by industry standardsโ€”stood head and shoulders above them all. Making up 10 of the 22 La Marzoccos (the most implemented brand by quadruple its nearest competition), the Linea doubled the number of Slayers and surpassed the Victoria Arduino Black Eagle. The Lineaโ€™s closest competition? Its trendy new sister machine, the Strada.

espresso-machine-pie

grinders-numbers

Unsurprisingly, the Mahlkรถnig EK-43 remains coffeeโ€™s it-girl, totaling 30% of all reported grinders and 18 of the brand-leading 29 for Mahlkรถnig. But in a twist, the EK-43 was not the most popular espresso grinder. The Nuova Simonelli Mythos One took that honor, beating out the EK by one machine. Most of the EK love came from the pour-over bar. In typical fashion, Mazzer quietly anchors the 22% of the espresso programs reported, making it the second most popular grinder brand in our series.

Build-Outs Of Summer: Eureka Coffee, Oakland, CA
Build-Outs Of Summer: Eureka Coffee, Oakland, CA

The Shape of Coffee to Come

If thereโ€™s anything approximating a trend from which we can make predictions about the future of coffee, it would be the proliferation of shops eschewing the standard four-walled coffee-only establishment. 12 of the cafes (31%) were โ€œCoffee andโ€ฆโ€. From implementing more coffee-centric training labs to selling high-end stereo equipment or denim to including a whiskey bar, fashion boutique, and design consultancy, cafes are diversifying what they offer to customers in a pretty big way. And coffee is going mobile with over 10% of the respondents hitting the road with anywhere between two and six-wheeled cafes. We also saw an uptick in shops not serving espresso. Four Build-Outs decided to stick to brewed coffee only, with half of those coming from Europe. One shopโ€”a cart actuallyโ€”focuses only on cold brew. (There was a lot of cold brew in the Build-Outs. So much cold brew.)

pie-chart

There you have it, the 2015 Build-Outs of Summer Year In Review. So what should you take away from these numbers? I don’t know, honestly. Maybe you should be content to just laugh at the guy who took too small of a sample size and tried to uncover โ€œtrendsโ€ that werenโ€™t there (Iโ€™ve got a beautiful mind, in the John Nash sense, but not the genius John Nash sense). Or maybe you see that there is a lot of really cool stuff happening all over the world and that thereโ€™s never been a better time to be a coffee drinker. Especially in Anchorage. Who knew?

Zac Cadwalader is a Sprudge staff writer based in Dallas, Texas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Explore our Build-Outs archive here.

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