Sprudgie Awards And Verve Coffee On The Coffee Sprudgecast

Breaking! There’s a new episode of Sprudge coffee podcast The Coffee Sprudgecast! On the newest episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast, hosts Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen talk about the winners of the 15th Annual Sprudgie Awards, all while drinking the newest iteration of the Wilder Blend from Verve Coffee Roasters in California.

This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Baratza, Pacific Barista Series, Ghirardelli, and DONA.

Wilder Blend

Pomegranate, candied citrus, and juniper flavor notes are front and center with Verve’s 2024 Wilder Blend, an annual and seasonal offering now in its sixth year. From Verve’s website: “Wilder Blend showcases three distinct processes from three different regions, a washed Costa Rican from Jose Alvarado’s farm El Higueron, a honey from the Sampieri family in Chiapas, Mexico, and a natural from a group of smallholders in Quiche, Guatemala.” They say it’s like drinking coffee in a blossoming orchard…we think it’s like drinking coffee in a blossoming orchard while recording a coffee podcast.

The 15th Annual Sprudgie Awards

We’re delighted to announce the winners of the 15th Annual Sprudgie Awards, presented by Pacific Foods Barista Series. Congratulations to all of the winners, finalists, and honorees!

Notable Roaster

Winner: Cxffeeblack (Memphis, TN)
Honoree: Coffee Relief (Quito, Ecuador)

Finalists: Dak Coffee Roasters (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Subko Coffee Roasters (Mumbai, India)
Sunday Coffee Project (Portland, OR)
Switch Coffee Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Tim Wendelboe (Oslo, Norway)
Um Coffee Co. (São Paulo, Brazil)

Best Coffee Writing

Winner: Fabiana Carvalho for “Beyond Freshness: How Packaging Color Influences Consumer Behavior” appearing in 25 Magazine
Honoree: Lukasz Galecki for “Barista Stories” (collected) appearing in European Coffee Trip

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Finalists: Christopher Feran (collected work)
Jenn Chen (collected work)
Ashley Rodriguez for Boss Barista
Brit Alexandria Sims for The Non-Binary Barista
Justyna Błaszkiewicz, Ewa Nowakowska-Bogdan, Krzysztof Barabosz et. al for “Effect of green and roasted coffee storage conditions on selected characteristic quality parameters” appearing in Nature
Nick Mabey for “The Case for Canephora” appearing in Standart

Best Coffee Book/Magazine

Winner: Standart Magazine
Honoree: ‘We Belong: An Anthology of Colombian Women Coffee Farmers’ by Lucia Bawot

Finalists: 25 Magazine
Coffee People Zine
‘How To Taste Coffee’ by Jessica Easto
‘The Business of Specialty Coffee’ by Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
Solo Magazine
The Coffee Magazine

Best Social Media

Winner: James Hoffmann on YouTube
Honoree: Brian Quan on YouTube

Finalists: @MorganDrinksCoffee on TikTok
Lance Hedrick on YouTube
@RoasterKat on Instagram
@LailaGhambari on Instagram
Coffee Reviews on YouTube
@CoffeeandLucas on Instagram

Best Coffee Podcast

Winner: Tim Wendelboe Podcast | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Honoree: Coffee Made Me Do It | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Best Design/Packaging

Winner: Onyx Coffee Lab (Rogers, Arkansas)
Honoree: A Matter of Concrete (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Finalists: PERC Coffee (Savannah, GA)
Black Label by Black & White Coffee Roasters (North Carolina)
Brandywine Coffee (Wilmington, Delaware)
Maru Coffee (Los Angeles, CA)
Moklair Coffee (Reims, France)
Nemesis Coffee (Vancouver, BC)

Best New Cafe

Winner: Café Regina (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
Honoree: Dayglow Coffee (Brooklyn, NY)

Finalists: Brew Lab (Dublin, Ireland)
File Systems of Coffee (Los Angeles, CA)
Kite Coffee (Taipei, Taiwan)
Mother Tongue (Oakland, CA)
Nagare Cafe (London, UK)
Now and Then (Nashville, TN)

Sustainable Cafe or Coffee Roaster

Winner: Coffee Relief (Quito, Ecuador)
Honoree: Azahar Coffee (Bogota, Colombia)

Finalists: Buna (Mexico City, Mexico)
Coffea Circulor (Arendal, Norway)
Driftaway Coffee (Brooklyn, NY)
Painted Leopard (Oakland, CA)
Skylark Coffee (Brighton, UK)
Vital Coffee Roasters (Fort Smith, Arkansas)

Notable Event

Winner: World of Coffee Athens (Athens, Greece)
Honoree: CafeShow Seoul (Seoul, South Korea)

Finalists: The 2023 SCA Event (Portland, OR)
Glasgow Coffee Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)
SF Coffee Festival (San Francisco, CA)
The Barista League (International)
The Color of Coffee Collective Symposium (Houston, Texas)
Creative Coffee Week (Durban, South Africa)

Outstanding Achievement

This award is presented each year to a remarkable coffee person, organization, cause, or entity that embodies coffee excellence. This year’s slate of Outstanding Achievement nominees are each being recognized as full and rightful winners of a Sprudgie Award. Congratulations to our eight winners of a 2023 Sprudgie Award for Outstanding Achievement!

Nigel Price
Jen Apodaca
Kent Bakke
Will Frith
Juliana Ganan
Lucia Solis
Wendelien van Bunnik
LaNisa Williams

The 15th Annual Sprudgie Awards are presented by Pacific Barista Series.

See all past winners of the Sprudgie Awards.

Listen to the complete episode right here:

A quick note about the Coffee Sprudgecast: we’ve been coffee podcasting for you for eight years and we would like to elevate the coffee podcasting experience by making a few changes to the program. Look forward to new segments, new voices, and maybe even a new theme song? Stay tuned…

This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Baratza, Pacific Barista Series, Ghirardelli, and DONA.