Fresh Cup Magazine | May 2017

MACHINE TECHNICIANS | TUK TEA | SHERRI JOHNS | A-FRAMES | SOUTH KOREA | CLIMATE CHANGE

May 2017 » freshcup.com

An in-depth look inside.

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T H E M AGA Z I N E FO R S P E C I A LT Y C O F F E E & T E A P R O F E S S I O N A L S S I N C E 1 9 9 2

FEATURES MAY 2017 Fresh Cup Magazine » Vol. 26 » No. 5

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SPECIAL SECTION: CUPS From ceramic mugs to fully recyclable to-go cups, this month’s special section takes a deep dive into the world of drinking vessels. P. 44 LIPS AND CURVES: How the look and feel of teacups can contribute to business success. By Jessica Natale Woollard P. 46 THE COFFEE DRINKERS GUIDE TO BEING PRESENT: Contemplating a serious slowdown, starting with our daily coffee. By Brendan Leonard P. 52 THE CERAMICIST: Q&A with ceramicist Mary Carroll. By Rachel Sandstrom Morrison P. 54 A BETTER SOLUTION FOR COFFEE ON THE RUN: The fully recyclable paper cup that’s changing the to-go game. By Ellie Bradley P. 56

HERE’S YOUR SIGN Ten tips to make curbside advertising work for you. P. 58

BY RACHEL SANDSTROM MORRISON

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DO YOU KNOW SHERRI JOHNS? Director of training at Alliance for Coffee Excellence and a head judge for Cup of Excellence. P. 42

BY ELLIE BRADLEY

THE ROAD TO COFFEE THROUGH SOUTH KOREA

THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE

Design-forward cafés and locally roasted coffee are popping up all along the peninsula. P. 60

What Haiti reveals about the adaptation challenges facing the global coffee sector. P. 70

BY JOSH DOYLE

BY TATE WATKINS

DEPARTMENTS MAY 2017 Fresh Cup Magazine » Vol. 26 » No. 5

40 18

24 26

32

18

28

36

London Coffee Festival; New Balance’s coffeeinspired shoe; Jül smart mug; Coffee Fest celebrates twenty-five years

Who You Gonna Call? Hiring an Equipment Technician

by S. Michal Bennett

The Challenge of Patience

by Nathanael May

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32

38

Beansmith Coffee Roasters Omaha, Nebraska

by Ellie Bradley

Tea Truck Travelers

by Beverly Fortner

A Worthy Starting Point

by David Planer

THE FILTER

BEHIND THE BAR

IN HOUSE

THE WHOLE LEAF

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NINE BAR

ORIGIN

12

FROM THE EDITOR Inadequate Metaphors

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CONTRIBUTORS COUNTER INTELLIGENCE People and products

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34

40

Everyone Gets A Strawberry!

Community Collaborations

by Brian Helfrich

The Dock Coffee Spooner, Wisconsin

by Kay Vandette

CAFÉ OUTFITTER

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

WHOLE BEAN

CAFÉ CROSSROADS

80

CALENDAR Trade shows and events

82

ADVERTISER INDEX

STRAWBERRIES PHOTO BY ARTUR RUTKOWSKI

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FC

FROM THE EDITOR INADEQUATE METAPHORS

I GREW UP IN A SPORTS WORLD, WHERE PAIN, heartbreak, and personal growth were guaranteed, and the chance of success was enough incentive to justify years of training. Because of this, I tend to use sports metaphors when trying to grasp something outside my understanding.

I found myself “sports-ing” a lot while putting together this month’s issue—mostly in trying to fathom the patience demonstrated by coffee farmers. They battle a growing number of challenges to produce quality coffee, for which they’re only sometimes paid a fair wage. Challenges faced in sports pale in comparison to those of coffee producers, and any other terms of comparison feel insultingly inadequate.

Coming from an economy of privilege, it’s nearly impossible to comprehend the sacrifice and dedication of producers around the world who remain committed to producing a crop that has been known to break hearts and bank accounts. Fresh Cup connects an incredible network of individuals who can help us begin to understand some of the realities of our industry.

In “The Climate Challenge,” writer Tate Watkins uses Haiti as a case study to examine how farmers are implementing strategies like diversification to cope with mounting challenges posed by climate change. In search of photos to pair with Tate’s thoughtful words, I reached out to Joey Stazzone of Cafe Kreyól, who has worked extensively with farmers in Haiti. He sent me a selection of images, which are featured in the piece, and also shared this story about Philemon, the farmer seen in many of the photos:

Philemon’s story represents one of the many hard-hitting realities of coffee production. But obstacles present themselves at all points of the supply chain, requiring the patience and sacrifice of many in the name of industry progress.

By sharing some of these stories each month, we seek to deepen your understanding of the industry (hopefully giving you better comparisons to draw from than sports metaphors), and introduce inspiring names and faces with whom you can identify.

ELLIE BRADLEY, EDITOR ellie@freshcup.com

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

CONNECT WITH US

/FreshCupMagazine

@FreshCupMag

@FreshCupMag

ON THE COVER: CUPS A selection of ceramic mugs by Mary Carroll.

Photo by Cynthia Meadors

ED ITO R P HOTO BY CYNTHIA M EA DO RS; TO P RIGHT PHOTO BY JO SH DOYLE

Philemon made $6,700 from his coffee farm two years ago. In one of the photos I sent [page 76], he points to where coffee once grew, where now, only a few scraggly trees remain. He made only eighty dollars this year. That’s it. He is eighty-five years old, his crops are now dead, and his wife is paralyzed. I had him start planting beans for food until next year’s harvest. In one of the photos, he just received news that the Own-a-Tree project we manage would be giving him a new farm, ready to produce cherries in the fall. I get a lump in my throat just remembering this moment.

Fresh Cup Magazine « freshcup.com

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FRESH CUP MAGAZINE ~~~FRESH CUP FOUNDER~~~ WARD BARBEE 1938-2006 ~~~FRESH CUP PUBLISHING~~~ Publisher and President JAN WEIGEL jan@freshcup.com ~~~EDITORIAL~~~ Editor ELLIE BRADLEY ellie@freshcup.com Associate Editor RACHEL SANDSTROM MORRISON rachel@freshcup.com ~~~ART~~~ Art Director CYNTHIA MEADORS cynthia@freshcup.com ~~~ADVERTISING~~~ Sales Manager MICHAEL HARRIS michael@freshcup.com Ad Coordinator DIANE HOWARD adtraffic@freshcup.com Marketing Coordinator ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com ~~~CIRCULATION~~~ Circulation Director ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com ~~~ACCOUNTING~~~ Accounting Manager DIANE HOWARD diane@freshcup.com ~~~EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD~~~ DAVID GRISWOLD

ANUPA MUELLER

Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers

Eco-Prima

CHUCK JONES

BRAD PRICE

Jones Coffee Roasters

Monin Gourmet Flavorings

JULIA LEACH

BRUCE RICHARDSON

Toddy

Elmwood Inn Fine Teas

COSIMO LIBARDO

MANISH SHAH

Toby’s Estate Coffee

Maya Tea Co.

BRUCE MILLETTO

LARRY WINKLER

Bellissimo Coffee Advisors

Torani

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FR ES H C U P.C O M

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CONTRIBUTORS S. MICHAL BENNETT Who should you call when your espresso machine breaks down? S. Michal Bennett tackles the question surrounding equipment technicians: to develop an inhouse team, or hire an outside company (In House, page 28)? Bennett is a freelance writer, poet, and blogger from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Bennett owns a mobile coffee business with her husband, called Coffee Roboto.

JOSH DOYLE Josh Doyle is a writer and author living in East Asia.

He writes for magazines, newspapers, and business blogs for clients around the world, and is working on his first novel. Find him on Instagram @jdoylewriter. In “The Road to Coffee Through South Korea” on page 60, Doyle takes us to Seoul and Busan, exploring the growing coffee culture in South Korea.

BEVERLY FORTNER Buffalo, New York, is known more for chicken wings than it is for high-quality loose leaf tea, but husband and wife duo Beverly and Randy Fortner are changing that. Beverly talks tuk-tuks and tea in the Whole Leaf on page 32. The Fortners own Tuk Tea Company in Buffalo.

BRIAN HELFRICH Brian Helfrich looks to the craft beer industry for inspiration in this month’s Whole Bean (page 34). Helfrich writes about Summit and Methodical’s Mixed Company collaboration blend, and how, sometimes, coffee is better created in partnership. Helfrich is the co-owner of Summit Coffee Co., located in Davidson, North Carolina.

BRENDAN LEONARD Brendan Leonard is the creator of the website Semi-Rad and writes for a variety of outdoor publications. He lived in a van for three years and wrote almost exclusively in coffee shops around the American West. His essay, “The Coffee Drinker’s Guide to Being Present,” highlights the importance of slowing down, starting with how we drink our coffee (page 52).

NATHANAEL MAY Nathanael May is the director of coffee and green coffee buyer for Portland Roasting Coffee—but it took him a few jobs and years of patience to get there. In Nine Bar, he offers several tips for how anxious baristas can practice patience while expanding their job skills (“The Challenge of Patience,” page 36).

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

DAVID PLANER Starting as a barista, David Planer worked his way up to being the regional director of sales for Axiom Specialty Coffee Company. In Origin, Planer writes about combatting the problems plaguing coffee growing regions by developing micro-lot coffees (page 38).

KAY VANDETTE Kay Vandette is a freelance writer and former English major who considers herself a travel writer with a local bent. As a former barista, she delights in any opportunity to combine her passions for writing and coffee. Vandette authored this month’s Café Crossroads (page 40), where she dives into the excellence of small-town coffee in Wisconsin.

TATE WATKINS Tate Watkins looks to Haiti to forecast the effects of climate change on coffee (“The Climate Challenge,” page 70). It’s not all doom and gloom—Watkins presents solutions and research directed toward protecting the future of coffee farming. Watkins is an economic journalist and research and publications fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC).

The FILTER A Fine Blend of News and Notes

PH OTO S BY K EVIN RIC HARDS

LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

L

ast month, the London Coffee Festival celebrated a successful seventh year in the hip East London quarter of Shoreditch. Housed in the Old Truman Brewery, the vast converted factory played host to an international celebration of the bean which, this year, attracted 30,832 visitors.

Coffee lovers and trade delegates poured in from across the globe to peruse the stalls and stands of over 250 exhibitors. From small mom-and-pop roasters, to equipment manufacturers such as Faema and Mahlkönig, to the global behemoth Starbucks, the entire industry was represented.

The festival held attractions for coffee enthusiasts and professionals, with artisanal coffee and gourmet food stalls, tastings, demonstrations from world-class baristas, interactive workshops, street food, coffee-based cocktails, live music, a coffeerelated art exhibition, and—to end the first day—

Coffee lovers and trade delegates poured in from across the globe to peruse the stalls and stands of over 250 exhibitors. an espresso martini party featuring a live deejay set from legendary London deejay, Norman Jay MBE. A range of educational lectures included a presentation to a packed auditorium from Professor Jonathan Morris and Luigi Morello from the Mumac coffee museum and academy in Milan, Italy. They described ongoing efforts to have espresso recognized by UNESCO as an item of Italian “intangible cultural heritage.”

Visitors were also treated to a spectacular display of skills as twenty world-class baristas faced off for the prestigious crown of Coffee Master and a prize of several thousand dollars. The competition ran over all four days of the festival. Competitors showcased skills in latte art, origin identification, and a segment called the Order (turning around a ten-drink order in just nine minutes!). James Wise of London’s Treves & Hyde took home the Coffee Master title.

The festival marked the launch of UK Coffee Week, which supports coffee-growing communities in the developing world by raising funds for Project Waterfall, a charitable incentive to bring clean drinking water to schools in Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.

—Russell Higham

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SWEET KICKS, YO

R

eady for a fresh look to pair with your coffee shirts? Give your Chucks a rest and say hello to the J. Crew X New Balance 997 Cortado. That’s right—cortado.

Just for kicks, New Balance partnered with J. Crew and Counter Culture Coffee to produce a coffee-hued sneaker and accompanying medium roast coffee. The multi-tone shoe features a white body and suede panels in shades of warm browns and gray. Slate-colored laces unite the swirl of white and tan—a pleasing palette for caffeine lovers and sneakerheads alike.

The shoe officially launched the last week of March, offered only at select J. Crew stores (listed retail price is $299). Counter Culture celebrated the release at their New York City training center, offering attendees early access to the shoes and special coffee blend.

Guests were also treated to lessons on how to make a perfect cortado (no report on whether wearing the shoe imparts specialized barista skills).

Those hoping to get their hands on Counter Culture’s limited-edition collaboration coffee will also have to pick up a pair of shoes—the roast is only available with a 997 Cortado purchase.

—Ellie Bradley

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

GO AHEAD, SIP SLOWLY

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P HOTOS (O PP O SITE PAGE) C OURTESY OF C O UNT ER C ULTUR E CO FFEE; P HOTO O N T HIS PAGE C OU RTE SY OF POW E R PRACTI CAL

t happens all too often: you make a cup of coffee, take it to your desk, get absorbed in a project, then, boom—cold coffee. Or perhaps you’ve experienced the contrary, and have scalded yourself one too many times on a fresh brew.

Many drinking vessels have been designed to hold a brew temperature, but few offer adjustable temperature control and aesthetic appeal.

Power Practical designed a smart coffee mug to regulate temperature from first sip to last. The Jül Smart Mug comes with a USB-powered coaster that actively monitors the temperature of liquid inside the mug. The twisting base rotates between a temperature range of 120 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Rotate the base to your desired temperature, and an indicator light lets you know if it’s too hot (amber), too cold (blue), or just right (white)—Goldilocks would love this mug.

The base isn’t the only hot spot for action. The Jül’s thoughtfully designed lid rotates between three different functions—drink mode, cooling vent, and spill-proof seal—and its concave shape means no lid-to-nose contact. The mug also features a stainless-steel inner vessel, integrated heating coil, and soft-touch molded body.

While the Jül was designed with desk-bound office workers in mind, a second coaster sized for vehicle beverage holders means users can experience the same temperature control in the car. Free of battery packs and occupying only a small amount of space, the lightweight Jül is a practical, affordable solution for maintaining your beverage’s ideal temperature.

Power Practical launched the project on Kickstarter last month and reached their funding goal in just three days. At the time of press, the project had tripled its $50,000 objective.

—Ellie Bradley

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COFFEE FEST CELEBRATES TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

P HOTO S C OURTESY OF C OFFEE FEST

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offee Fest celebrated its twenty-fifth year with a fun and successful weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. The show featured more than 200 exhibitors and over 100 educational sessions, offering attendees an information-packed event at Music City Center.

The show marked the culminating competition for America’s Best Espresso, hosting champions from the 2015–2016 season in a head-tohead showdown. Sump Coffee triumphed in the tournament of champions. The St. Louis, Missouri roaster took first place of the twelve finalists, followed by Dragonfly Coffee Roasters (Boulder, Colorado), and Slate Coffee Roasters (Seattle, Washington).

Installments of the Latte Art World Championship Open and America’s Best Cold Brew Competition were

also held in Nashville. Robert Kim of Bambina Newmarket Café (Auckland, New Zealand) bested the field of latte art competitors and Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Pilcrow Coffee was deemed to have the best cold-brew of the thirtytwo competitors.

The show floor was full of tasty new products and innovative technologies. Maison Routin was recognized for their 1883 Spritz Syrup with the award for Best New Consumable Product, while DrinkTank’s Insulated Cups won top honor among non-consumable products.

Chicago, Illinois, will play host to the Midwest Coffee Fest show next month, where new pools of competitors will face off and showcase their skills, and a slew of exhibitors will be present to showcase products, lead educational seminars, and put their love of coffee on display. FC

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Milk & Sugar: The long bar encourages customer interaction with baristas all the way down to the condiment station—situated conveniently near the barista manning the pour-over bar.

Systematic Storage: Beansmith uses a prioritization system to determine where items get stored.

Items used once an hour get placed on shelves above the counter; items used once a day get stored below the shelf; things used once a day are placed in back stock.

Manual Labor: Five to six origins round out Beansmith’s coffee menu. The manual brew bar features three-cup Chemexes and Acaia scales. Rishi singleestate teas are also brewed at the pourover bar. “We’re huge tea nerds,” says Ian Wiese, director of coffee and operations. “The baristas are drinking tea all day long.”

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Slay All Day: The featured singleorigin espresso is pulled on Beansmith’s twogroup, gray-blue Slayer. Only one espresso selection is offered at a time, but the selection rotates as often as twice a day.

Tower of Tunes: Beansmith didn’t skimp on audio setup. A Pro-Ject record player spins tunes from an album collection stored on hand-crafted wooden shelves.

Bowers & Wilkins speakers spread sound throughout the space, and a Rotel sound system is on standby when the record player isn’t in use.

Clever Clover: The Clover point-ofsale system is built into the counter, complementing the shop’s minimalist aesthetic without compromising efficiency.

Education Station: Brewing guides, barista books, and other coffee resources are kept on shelves above the shop’s cupping bowls.

Staff cup together twice a week, and baristas regularly pull books from the shelf to share with curious guests.

Go for the Gold: A Curtis Gold Cup Brewer stands within reach of the register, giving baristas quick access to fill batchbrew coffee orders. Two neighboring Yama cold-brew towers handle the shop’s cold coffee needs.

A Sweet Treat: Beansmith carries baked goods from Omaha-based Sweet Magnolias.

Offerings include homemade PopTarts, donuts, and scones, along with savory egg-andmeat hand pies.

BEHIND the BAR

PH OTO S BY BEN RIC HARDSO N/@ DRINKC O FFEEWIT HBEN

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By Ellie Bradley

Beansmith Coffee Roasters » Omaha, Nebraska

xposed brick: check. Record player: check. Whitewashed walls illuminated by a towering wall of windows: check.

Beansmith Coffee Roasters has all the makings of the sleek, modern cafés found in major coffee cities like San Francisco and New York—it just happens to be in Omaha, Nebraska.

The capacious coffee den is situated among restaurants and breweries in the Old Market, the up-and-coming historic district a few blocks from the city’s business hub.

“It’s definitely an exciting time to be here,” says Ian Wiese, director of coffee and operations. “There are two or three roasters opening up every month, and coffee shops opening all the time.”

But that hasn’t always been the case for Nebraska. Specialty coffee is only just making a splash in the Midwestern state, and much of the recent growth can be credited to Beansmith.

The roasting company first launched in 2010 as a financial endeavor by cofounders Chris Smith and Jason Burkum. Recognizing the dearth of quality roasting in the region, they recruited the help of Cafe Imports’ Joe Marrocco to help them develop a specialty coffee program in the Omaha suburb of La Vista.

A tasting room was eventually added to the roastery to provide a connection point for customers, but with the arrival of new roasters in Omaha, coffee enthusiasm dwindled in the suburbs as residents turned to the city for their specialty coffee experience. “We really needed a space to better showcase where Beansmith was going,” Wiese says.

Beansmith opened its downtown Omaha location in 2014.

The design is a result of a partnership with local architecture firm Alley Poyner Macchietto. “We wanted to make sure it was a great representation of who we were, and we really wanted to show off,” Wiese says, describing how Alley Poyner expertly created a design to capture the essence of the café’s high ceilings and cast-iron structural elements, while optimizing efficiency and customer interaction with the bar layout.

A long, open bar leaves plenty of space for guests to watch their coffee being made and interact with baristas.

With specialty coffee still being a new concept for the city, Wiese says they encourage curiosity and exploration—and they’re big on education. The staff hosts biweekly cuppings for the public, as well as brewing education courses, all free of charge. The coffee menu also changes frequently, encouraging guests to try new things and ask questions about the offerings.

“The market is so young,” Wiese says. “We try to educate people on why our coffee is different and what’s unique about specialty coffee.” FC

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Café OUTFITTER:

Everyone Gets a Strawberry!

A member of the rose family, high in vitamin C, and the only fruit with seeds on the outside, strawberries are a harbinger of spring. They’re the first fruit to ripen and May is National Strawberry Month in the United States. We’ve collected some of our favorite strawberry-forward products to inspire ideas for expanding your offerings, and to add a little spring to your step.

3 2 1

4

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1) WELCOME TO MY HOUSE Maison Routin’s strawberry syrup delivers fresh berry flavor balanced with subtle sweetness. Its smooth texture makes for an easy addition to champagne, cocktails, sodas, and smoothies—it can even spruce up apple juice. Tempt your customers with a sumptuous strawberry selection. The possibilities are endless! 1883.com

2) FLIP CUP Chobani’s limited-batch Strawberry Summer Crisp is a fruit-forward and probiotic-filled way to fuel summer. The white chocolate and graham cracker combo flips into the strawberry yogurt, adding a crunch and sweetness customers of all ages will love. Chobani’s Greek yogurt includes live and active cultures, three types of probiotics, and contains less than 5 percent lactose. chobani.com

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3) STRAWBERRIES FREEZEDRIED FOREVER Crunchies freeze-dried strawberries are a tasty snack on their own, and a fun way to add some crunch to your five-a-day. These berry bursts are excellent in smoothies or as a healthy topping for ice cream, oatmeal, or chia seed pudding. Crunchies works directly with farmers, providing consumers with fruit that has been harvested fresh, cleaned, then quickly frozen. crunchiesfood.com

4) FROSÉ ALL DAY Monin’s new fruit purees have concentrated and consistent flavors, making them easy to use in multiple ways. Strawberry puree is a key ingredient in frosé—last summer’s favorite boozy frozen treat— and also works as a flavor addition to yogurt, cocktails, and teas. It can even be used as a donut filling! monin.com

5) SUGARY SNACKABILITY Smashmallows are better-for-you, gluten-free, and snackable marshmallows in fruity flavor smash-ups.

Smashmallow’s Strawberries & Cream flavor is a sweet treat your customers will love atop hot chocolates, or on its own as a dessert.

Eighty calories per serving makes for a tasty option that won’t ruin a healthy day. smashmallow.com FC

In HOUSE

T

o continue churning out delicious coffee, brewing equipment requires regular upkeep—that’s a given. Some cafés fix their espresso machines and batch brewers themselves, others go to local independent technicians, and a number rely on

specialty coffee industry, and for good reason: healthy equipment is probably the most vital component of a successful café, after coffee and water. It’s the perfect time to ask yourself, “Are we offering brewing equipment service in a way that optimizes benefits for both our company and our customers?”

The level of service we were getting from our in-house tech couldn’t match the thirdparty companies, who exclusively maintain equipment and have that knowledge. their roasting company to resolve mechanical issues. With the establishment of the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) Coffee Technicians Guild, coffee equipment service is receiving more attention and consideration in the

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SIZE & SERVICE Roasting companies range in size from small, local one-man shows to large-scale companies operating coast to coast. Size is a critical factor when considering adding an internal service

tech department—around 200 to 250 local accounts seems to be the tipping point, according to Terry Patano, owner of DOMA Coffee Roasting Company in Post Falls, Idaho. Running a small roastery, Patano discovered that paying an in-house technician meant the tech had to multi-task in other departments, which negatively impacted customer service and prevented the tech from focusing on cultivating specialized skills.

Nossa Familia Coffee in Portland, Oregon, maintains equipment at about fifty local wholesale accounts in addition to their own espresso bar.

They used to have a service department, but decided to close it and contract with a local tech company.

“It is a very specialized thing,” says Geoff LeCoq, Nossa Familia’s operations manager. “The level of service we were getting from our in-house tech couldn’t match the third-party companies, who exclusively maintain equipment and have that knowledge.”

PH OTO BY C O RY ELDRIDG E

Who You Gonna Call? Hiring an Equipment Technician » By S. Michal Bennett

They can now offer twenty-four-hour access to quality service and machine maintenance. Nossa Familia’s wholesale accounts get added value from the arrangement—minor issues can still be handled in-house and the third-party contract means subsidized service fees.

Gimme! Coffee, based in Ithaca, New York, established their service department almost immediately after opening ten years ago. According to Thom Cooper, Gimme Coffee’s equipment and facilities manager, it was highly beneficial, because “anything we needed done was done almost immediately. We didn’t have to wait for a technician to come.” They now have seven cafés, supply a long list of wholesale accounts in the surrounding areas, and roast an average of 230,000 pounds of coffee per year.

students, “You guys need to create a positive impact, because the coffee industry needs professional, honest, hardworking, and gifted people with your skill set.”

EQUIPPING FOR A GROWING FUTURE Adding a service department demands extensive planning and education. Techs can seriously injure themselves simply by touching the wrong wire inside an espresso machine.

Comprehensive training is fundamental to providing dedicated service to a roaster’s accounts—whether done in-house or through a third-party service.

CONTROL & QUALITY Shad Baiz, chairman of the newly formed Coffee Technicians Guild, says having control of your customer experience is where roasters get the most benefit out of having an inhouse technician. He explains that a tech who is invested in the company, knows its coffee profiles, and builds history with clients also improves the quality and consistency of the coffee.

The key lies in identifying and hiring the right person.

A service tech will most likely have more face time with clients than anyone else within a roasting company. Finding the right person—with a combination of people skills and technical know-how—can heavily influence the decision to hire or outsource a technician. Independence, logic, critical thinking, and a customer service mindset are among the traits a technician should have and develop.

Alex Lambert, part owner of Black Rabbit Service Co. in Portland, says every tech should possess, “above all, customer service. I can teach the wrenching and technical knowledge parts, but it is much harder to teach someone how to interact with a customer.”

Ryan Klineman, who teaches “wrenching and technical knowledge” at Nuova Simonelli, agrees with Lambert. He tells each of his

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In addition, the Coffee Technician’s Guild aims to support manufacturers by offering technical foundational training in core competencies such as electrical, plumbing, and filtration, laying the groundwork for more concise and company-specific education.

Ideally, this will open more opportunities for technicians, allow independent service companies to train more cost-effectively, and give technician-seeking roasters more hiring confidence.

The question of whether to develop an in-house equipment maintenance team or to hire an outside company can’t be decided by any one factor. Customer service, technical skill, cost, efficiency, and safety must all be taken into consideration when devising the best service plan for your business. Pursue a path that gives your customers the best product, served by baristas who have confidence in their well-oiled (and well-maintained) coffee equipment. FC S. Michal Bennett is a poet, blogger, and freelance writer. She and her husband co-own Coffee Roboto in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

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PH OTO BY C O RY ELDRIDG E

Equipment manufacturing companies make it easy for roasters, third-party contractors, and independent companies to receive training through hands-on classes, official online technical specs and information (like Bunn’s Online Learning Center), and tech support phone lines (like at La Marzocco USA). Information is accessible to technicians, café owners, roasters, sales people—anyone interested in expanding their knowledge.

The WHOLE LEAF

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f you’ve ever traveled to India, Thailand, or Singapore, chances are you’ve seen a tuk-tuk zipping around with passengers in the back. Our electric ETuk, Camillia, does do some zipping around too, but we don’t carry people, we carry tea.

The search for a unique threewheeled vehicle that could act as a food truck began after a trip to Northern California in 2014. My husband, Randy, and I were drawn to the concept of using a unique vehicle as a food stand to sell coffee and lattes. We wanted to bring the beverage truck

By May of 2016, our little Camillia was ready to go—clocking in at a blistering pace of twenty miles per hour—and we set out on the streets of Buffalo to sell tea.

The city’s food truck industry was booming, with over fifty different food trucks offering anything from wood-fired pizza to bánh mì sandwiches, cheesecake desserts, and everything in between. Operating from a thirteen-foot orange tea truck—tiny by food truck standards—made us stand out from the crowd and grabbed everyone’s attention. Our product also attracted curious customers: selling

By May of 2016, our little Camillia was ready to go—clocking in at a blistering pace of twenty miles per hour—and we set out on the streets of Buffalo to sell tea. concept to our neck of the woods.

After an extensive search, we learned that ETuk USA was importing tuktuks from the Netherlands with a vendor box on the back. It was a perfect fit for what we wanted.

We wanted to sell something uniquely beverage based and after throwing around a bunch of ideas (coffee, cold-pressed juices, smoothies) we decided on tea. I grew up drinking tea with my Nana and have always been a huge tea enthusiast. My husband spent some time in Georgia as a child and learned to brew great sun tea. In 2015, we founded Tuk Tea Company in Buffalo, New York.

Together, our passion for tea and owning our own business has allowed us to create a company that continues to grow. Being mobile has played a significant role in our success.

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small-batch brewed iced tea and madeto-order loose leaf hot teas was something new for Buffalo.

Our patrons come from all around.

Some are huge tea enthusiasts, but most are just looking for a cold drink that’s not filled with sugar. We do this well. Most of our iced teas are fruitbased tisanes and have no sugar. Our menu is simple, never more than five iced teas and a few tea lemonades (our hand-shaken matcha green tea lemonade is one of our best sellers).

Even with a small menu, people have lots of questions about our offerings. The menu includes a list of each tea’s ingredients, which leads to lots of inquiries about rose hips and hibiscus.

Between answering questions about our unique vehicle, and educating our customers about tea ingredients, caffeine quantities, and the green

powdery stuff that goes into the matcha lemonade, we spend a lot of time talking. But the opportunity to educate such a vast population on tea and introduce them to new flavors and origins is one we cherish. For every curious customer, we take time to explain ingredients, brewing methods, and our sourcing practices.

Jeffrey McIntosh’s article on paring down tea menu offerings in the name of accessibility (Fresh Cup’s August 2016 issue) rings true for our customers. For the most part, Tuk Tea’s visitors are new to the world of tea and quickly become overwhelmed with information about varieties, names, processing, and so on. After all, Buffalo is best known for its chicken wings, pizza, and snow storms—not tea. A simple menu that is short and easy to explain has worked well for us. We enjoy introducing people to tea from the Camellia sinensis plant, but also to yerba mate, rooibos, and more.

We’ve also learned that when it comes to engaging customers, naming our teas is as important as what goes in them. Our featured teas include Summer Strawberry, Buffalo Blue, Island Green, and Redlight Zen. Add to that a matcha lemonade and an in-house blended take on a Thai iced tea, and we have something for everyone.

With each outing we take, we find new people eager to taste and talk about our teas, who are quickly converted to returning customers. We often get asked if we have a brick-andmortar location where we sell our teas.

We do not—we enjoy the mobility afforded by the truck and all the new audiences we’re able to reach. We’re even thinking about adding a second truck, opening the doors for Tuk Tea to travel even farther and faster. FC Beverly Fortner co-owns Tuk Tea Company with her husband, Randy, in Buffalo, New York.

P HOTOS BY RANDY FOR TNER

Tea Truck Travelers » By Beverly Fortner

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The WHOLE BEAN

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here’s often a fear associated with collaboration.

A fear that collaboration will force us to share our secrets. A fear that after working together, you’re going to steal my best practices and then, suddenly, I’m none the wiser.

Collaboration has the opposite effect on me. I believe that collaboration breeds innovation.

In the coffee industry, all parties are better served when the industry progresses, when remarkable things occur. If another coffee roaster creates outside the box—such as Counter Culture Coffee partnering with J. Crew on

Collaboration has the opposite effect on me. I believe that collaboration breeds innovation. the Cortado shoe (see page 20) or Kickapoo Coffee Roasters releasing their very transparent minimum price guarantee—our entire industry is in the news. Specialty coffee is still so new to so many people that being creative, newsworthy, and fresh is a bonus.

The coffee industry is so dynamic, from farming, to brewing, and everywhere in between, that there’s an infinite number of things to learn. I operate my business in a way that forces us to innovate in order to sell coffee differently.

Another industry near and dear to my heart is the craft beer business.

In so many ways, specialty coffee is following the trends of craft beer.

Studying the beer industry gives me inspiration for innovation, and one thing the beer industry does very well is collaboration.

One great example is Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, who recently

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opened a second brewery location in Asheville, North Carolina (just a twohour drive from our roastery in Davidson). Their Beer Camp series is rooted in collaborations with other brewing companies. I entered 2017 trying to mimic the fundamental belief that we stand more to gain by working with competitors (for lack of a better word) than we stand to lose by sharing our secrets and profits.

Why are beer companies excited to brew together, share a label, and share the attention, but coffee companies are hesitant to partner on roasting?

In 2017, Summit Coffee Roasters took on two collaboration projects.

On a smaller scale, Summit teamed up with Greenville, South Carolina’s Methodical Coffee for a co-branded roast: Mixed Company. On a grander scale, Summit partnered with S&D Coffee and Tea, one of the largest private label roasters in the United States, to help them with a smallerscale specialty project.

Will Shurtz, the roaster and coowner of Methodical, and I shared enthusiasm in creating something unique to coffee. We’re both relatively green coffee roasters—Summit started its roasting operation in 2015, Methodical in 2016. And since we’re a mere 100 miles door-to-door, we find ourselves lobbying for some of the same wholesale accounts. But Will and I, and our teams as a whole, are learners. We want to converse and interact, cup and brew side by side, and leave the day knowing more about coffee.

Logistically, we knew a post-roast blend was our best option, so for starters we wanted to put everything on the table. Literally. Summit brought our five single-origin coffees, Will put four of his on the table, and we cupped everything together. Our party of five then spent an hour mixing and blending, then brewing on different devices, trying to nail down the right coffee.

The trick with good blending is to make something better than each of its parts, which is so hard to do. Our 50/50 solution, ultimately, added depth to our natural Ethiopian and added bright acidity to Methodical’s washed Colombian.

Out of this exercise came Mixed Company, and a working friendship.

I learned plenty from Will, as a coffee roaster and as a coffee professional, and he learned plenty from us.

For our second project, S&D reached out to us to roast their coffee for the America’s Best Cold Brew competition at Coffee Fest. The company has access to tremendous coffee, and also has a super talented team. They do not, however, have a roasting machine or operation small enough to tackle this project.

S&D’s Steven Lim worked alongside Summit’s Evan Pollitt, our director of coffee, in each step of this project. Just as we would for our own profiles, Steven and Evan partnered to source the right coffee, then nail down its profile on our sample roaster, 300 grams at a time.

With Evan’s knowledge of coffee and the roast profile, and Steven’s engineering background, we then transferred the roast to a production machine and made tweaks along the way to give S&D exactly what they were looking for in their finished cold-brew product.

As I’ve written about in Fresh Cup, I’m a firm believer in making the jump from good to great; settling for the former is often the enemy of this process. And as part of this, we cannot stop learning.

We can take classes and read literature, for weeks and weeks, and there’s value in that. But ultimately, learning sideby-side in collaboration with other coffee professionals is how our industry will continue to innovate. FC Brian Helfrich is a regular contributor to Fresh Cup and co-owner of Summit Coffee Roasters.

P HOTO C OURTESY OF WILL SHURTZ /METHO DICA L CO FFEE

Community Collaborations » By Brian Helfrich

COLLABORATE AND LISTEN: Methodical Coffee and Summit Coffee’s co-branded roast.

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NINE BAR

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was working in a café when I realized my true professional calling: leading coffee education and trainings. I had all the skills necessary to be a success—I was comfortable speaking in front of large groups, I had a couple years of experience behind the bar, I was passionate about people and their development, and I had a sparkling sense of humor that made me a delight to listen to. I had even read a book called Now, Discover Your Strengths that showed me my strengths aligned perfectly with a career path as an educator.

I excitedly shared my epiphany and supporting evidence with my manager, who told me that no, I wasn’t ready

tween my interview and the day I was offered the job, I woke up wondering if this was going to be the day. Four hundred days of waiting. My patience was tried, but also rewarded.

Patience is the state of mind you live in between the time you know you’re ready for a job, and the time you actually get it. Often, that takes longer than you think it should. While you’re waiting, there are a couple mistakes you might want to avoid making. I already made them for you! Learn from my foolishness.

First, don’t stop developing yourself. You think you’ve arrived at the necessary qualifications to get the job you want, but maybe you haven’t.

Patience is the state of mind you live in between the time you know you’re ready for a job, and the time you actually get it. to do that, and handed me a different book to read: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

A little on the nose, don’t you think?

Frustrated that my career vision wasn’t being supported, I started looking for other jobs at places that did value me and my particular skill set.

One company seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of having me on their training team, and they offered me an interview. I nailed it. I made a clear and concise case for why my experience aligned with their needs, and they were sold. In a couple weeks, I was told, the job will probably be yours.

Thirteen months later, I started my first day as their new trainer. In the intervening year, I held two other jobs, pretended to move to Kentucky (a column for another time), and finally received a job offer. Every morning be-

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Maybe your skills are great, but you lack experience. Experience, frustratingly enough, takes time to develop.

Knowledge is awesome, but wisdom— the ability to apply knowledge—is much more valuable.

I can speak very comfortably in front of a group of people, but the ability to handle interruptions, off the wall questions, distractions, uninterested audiences, and a host of other issues came with practice and time. When I “knew” I was ready to be the trainer for that first company, I was wrong. It took time and a lot more practice for me to get to the point where hiring me to train baristas was a wise decision for any company.

Second—and this may be even more important—don’t fill your resume with short stints at a bunch of companies to show how experienced

you are. Stay somewhere. The company you work for now may not be able to promote you or give you the job you want, but leaving because you think another company will can lead down a slippery slope. Chasing the promotion carrot from job to job and company to company shows commitment to no one except yourself. While you most certainly should advocate for yourself, showing loyalty and commitment will go a long way toward getting you to the place where you’re as promotable as you believe yourself to be.

If I had stayed at some of the companies that I left because they didn’t see me the way I saw myself, I would have a much more enviable resume than I have today. Almost twenty years with Disney? Wow. Over a decade with Starbucks? Neat. Who knows where I could be with those organizations if I had been patient.

What if I hadn’t taken the gift of a book as a slap in the face, and instead saw it for what it actually was—an attempt to help me develop into the person I wanted to be?

Back then, the only thing I thought about was myself. What does the company I work for owe me? What position have I earned that I deserve to get on my timeline? I look back now, and I’m thankful that I had managers see through my selfishness and give me a chance to grow. I didn’t deserve it, but they showed me grace anyway.

Don’t be like me. Be better than I was, and be willing to wait. Of course, don’t stay at a company that mistreats or abuses you. I’d never advocate for that.

But be willing to consider the possibility that others will eventually see you as the incredible person that you are. You just need to be patient with them.

You may look back someday and be grateful that you were. FC Nathanael May is the director of coffee and green coffee buyer for Portland Roasting Coffee.

P HOTO BY CASSIDY KELLEY

The Challenge of Patience » By Nathanael May

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ORIGIN A Worthy Starting Point » By David Planer and fails to account for price hikes due to inflation, or make any nod to the fact that coffee has taken leaps in quality during those decades (this disparity is addressed in the inaugural Origin column in Fresh Cup’s June 2016 issue). Yet, these are the numbers most coffee is priced against. If the market lingers at unsustainable numbers, what’s stopping farmers from using their fertile soil and well-worked land to invest in a more stable crop?

Poverty in coffee is spoken about frequently in the industry, but it’s rare to see measurable actions. We don’t

More and more importers and roasters are building relationships with farmers and intermediaries to create programs designed to continue year after year. These relationships with micro-lot producers also influence coffee pricing—both at a directtrade and commodity level.

Barriers in language and technology often lead producers to rely on intermediaries and importers as their brand evangelists to people in the United States and beyond. These relationships can be extremely valuable to farmers, but they represent an additional—sometimes requisite—step to get their product into the first world market (which represents another set of challenges altogether).

Compounding these adversities is the C market, which is rarely a friend of farmers. Looking at the average trend of the C market, coffee prices have barely risen in the last few decades. This is not a dissimilar to the market than it was in the seventies,

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need grandiose plans to solve it; what we need is a worthy starting place. We need steps in the right direction. One effective step companies are taking is through small, carefully managed micro-lots.

Micro-lot programs are important for many reasons, one being their role in humanizing the coffee production process. The narrative we’ve created has us—importers, roasters, and café owners—headlined as the protagonist, which isn’t wrong so much as it’s naïve.

Good coffee does not happen on accident. It’s the product of years and years—sometimes generations and generations—of back-breaking,

thankless work provided by the real heroes of the coffee industry—the producers.

Shifting the spotlight is about more than just coffee producer notoriety, it’s about monetary significance. More and more importers and roasters are building relationships with farmers and intermediaries to create programs designed to continue year after year. These relationships with micro-lot producers also influence coffee pricing—both at a directtrade and commodity level.

Most of the time, micro-lot coffees are not bought on differentials at all, completely avoiding the volatility of market fluctuations. They are instead bought with an outright price representative of quality. While these prices are tied to supply and demand, they can push the boundaries of traditional pricing, effectively raising the price threshold with each sale, making historical trends more representative of the rise in quality and of the emerging market of buyers willing to spend six dollars on a cup of coffee.

These problems and partial solutions are linking us to a sustainable, better coffee future for everyone. The farmers I’ve met and talked to aren’t looking for a handout or a charitybased rescue. They’re looking to be compensated appropriately when they do an exemplary job—allowing them to feed their families and begin building a business.

These are just the first few steps.

Micro-lots aren’t going to completely solve the problem of poverty because they only offer a solution for people with access to the land necessary to grow and maintain such a highquality crop. However, it’s a worthy starting point. FC David Planer is the regional director of sales for Axiom Specialty Coffee Company.

P HOTO BY DAN LEIF

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ooking at beautiful pictures of coffee farms, it can be easy to forget all the challenges faced by the friendly, hardworking faces smiling warmly at the camera. The challenges of coffee producers are many, and poverty ranks high on the list.

Location and economic climate of coffee farms heavily influence a producer’s income. Coffee is grown in the most remote, impoverished areas in the world, and it’s an extremely volatile crop.

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Café CROSSROADS

The Dock Coffee » Spooner, Wisconsin

By Kay Vandette

A

town of less than 3,000 in northern Wisconsin might seem an unlikely place for top-notch coffee and barista knowhow, but at the Dock Coffee, that’s exactly what you’ll find. Located in the heart of downtown Spooner, Wisconsin, the Dock embraces casual coffee drinkers and connoisseurs with its cozy, cabin atmosphere.

Customers are welcomed by two towering barnyard doors, refurbished for the shop’s entryway. Wood floors and paneling enhance the café’s rustic feel, while antique water skis and a canoe housing the shop’s bus tubs hearken to summer days whiled away at the lake.

The quest for coffee perfection began with Rochester, Minnesota, natives Sue and Jeff Churchill. The Churchills had been spending their summers in Spooner for many years, and the town became a second home for their family.

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“Spooner was always it. We knew that we would retire here and that in our next career we wanted to own our own business in Spooner,” Sue Churchill says.

The Dock is truly a family affair— part of the rustic decor even includes family antiques. Jeff works for the local company that provided the steel for the bar top and the Churchill’s son Blain, a local artist, drew up the giant guide to coffee drinks featured in the shop.

Initially, Sue Churchill and her daughter Xan Nelson—the shop’s manager—knew very little about coffee, except that they loved to drink it.

They gleaned management and coffee education from a local shop before opening the Dock, mastering the basics while in the development stages of their own business venture.

“In the planning stages,” Sue Churchill says, “we talked about how many cups of coffee we would need to sell every day to make this work.”

The Dock has come a long way since forecasting cups of coffee. Their extensive food menu includes flat bread pizzas, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, and soups from scratch. Scones, rolls, cookies, and croissants are all made in-house (the scones are always the first to go), and warm summer weather brings rotating, hand-dipped ice cream flavors.

Coffee is prepared using a french press or the shop’s red, two-group La Spaziale S5. The Churchills considered a pour-over bar, but opted to focus on espresso and staff training for the time being.

To help develop the Dock’s staff training program and act as lead barista, the Churchills brought on Michelle Carlson. Carlson earned her barista certification through the Specialty Coffee Association, and has been integral to the Dock’s pursuit of perfection. “Before I started here I was a coffee nerd,” she says, “but I

PH OTO S C OURTESY O F MO STLY ZEN P HOTO GRA PHY/SAR HA SANTM YR E

DOCK FAMILY: Xan Nelson (left) with Jeff and Sue Churchill.

just scratched the surface. The training I was a part of has totally changed my perspective.”

Carlson credits the Churchills with giving her the autonomy necessary to help the shop grow. “Working with Sue and Jeff and their inspiration to try new things, be creative, keep learning, and not be afraid to push comfort zones, has been amazing. The directions we’ve been able to take are because of the trust of the Churchills,” she says.

Carlson, Nelson, and the Churchills have worked hard to incorporate a training program that educates both employees and the community. Carlson explains that they face a different set of circumstances compared to bigger city coffee shops. Whereas a shop owner might expect to hire baristas with at least basic qualifications in a metropolitan area, but most of the Dock’s employees are hired without any coffee or serving experience.

The Dock has implemented innovative training techniques to bring new hires up to speed, including an interactive touch screen tablet with a complete recipe guide and step-by-step pictures. The tablet adds another level of checks and balances and allows more hands-on training once the basics have been learned.

Educating employees is first priority, but the Dock also seeks to teach the community about coffee and tea (they’ve been known to surprise big city vendors with their love of learning and desire to raise the bar). Latte art throwdowns have become a routine part of training, and staff members regularly offer coffee tastings to customers to encourage conversation around the coffee served in store.

The Dock, despite being only two years old, has fast become a local favorite. Nelson says getting out of the café and into the community has helped establish the Dock as a serious coffee business. The staff has turned up at events around town, making frappes and smoothies at the high

LEAD BARISTA Michelle Carlson

school basketball games and serving hot cocoa and coffee during the Jack Frost Winter Festival. Nelson says, “There’s always something new going on, whether it’s brainstorming housemade syrups, creating drink specials, hosting a monthly open mic night, or catering a party.”

The Dock proves that no matter your size, location, staff experience, or community, it is possible to pursue excellence and keep up with the everevolving coffee industry. FC

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Do You KNOW?

A

By Ellie Bradley

Sherri Johns

s a college student, Sherri Johns fueled her study groups with french presses full of coffee from origins around the world. Rather than focusing on the academic material, Johns would buzz around the room, collecting feedback on the nuances in flavor each origin displayed. Her love of coffee has never waned.

With over forty years in the industry, Johns has traveled the world to share and develop her coffee knowledge, from helping Starbucks grow their empire, to starting a chain of cafés in Malaysia, to her current work with Academy of Coffee Excellence (ACE) as a trainer and head judge for Cup of Excellence (COE). She has also been a great friend to Fresh Cup throughout the years, partnering with magazine founder Ward Barbee to launch barista competitions, and working with past editor Steven Krolak to develop the Nine Bar column.

Johns made me an americano (a blend of COE coffees from Brazil and Honduras) and gave me the scoop on what it was like to brew coffee long before latte art, extraction measurements, and micro-roasting came into play.

This interview has been edited for clarity and space.

COFFEE CAPTIVATED YOU EARLY IN LIFE. WHY?

I attribute it to my mom. She was the generation that always had fresh percolator coffee, and every time we had guests come to the house or there was a visitor, she always brewed fresh coffee.

of a big brouhaha at the time because I wasn’t Italian and I was female. My secret weapon was an ice cube in the steam pitcher. It was that simple, but very complicated, still.

HOW DID BEING INVOLVED IN COMPETITIONS INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER PATH?

Winning a competition was very exciting. I still just kept making drinks—it was all about cappuccinos and perfect foam and how do you enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, and why is it important? I ended up managing that espresso bar and from there I managed another café, then I owned and operated my own café.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST TRAVEL TO ORIGIN?

I traveled to Ethiopia and Kenya; it was on one trip and it was amazing. At that point, I hadn’t really traveled much, and that was really early on, after I’d won some competitions and been in the coffee business for a little while. I just decided it was time to get to origin.

The very first article I wrote was for Fresh Cup and it was about getting yourself to origin. It was just after that trip, and I realized what a wealth of information I’d garnered from that and what a depth of understanding and newfound appreciation for all the work that goes into it and I wanted to bring that back to the people because they weren’t traveling like they are now. I’ve been in coffee for forty years and I’ve been traveling to origin for over twenty-five years. Hundreds of trips and each one is equally exciting and new and thrilling.

DID YOU DRINK COFFEE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG?

I really didn’t drink coffee until I moved to San Francisco. It was 1976 and I was going to school to be an art therapist at San Francisco State University. I was enamored with the espresso world. At that time, there weren’t really cafés like there are now. We had an espresso bar on campus and I was known as the pickiest customer. They’d see me in line and they’d switch off who was on bar. I was going to get a job off campus, and instead they offered me a job. I just fell into coffee.

P HOTO C O UR TESY OF SHERRI JO HNS

WHAT WAS COFFEE LIKE IN THE LATE SEVENTIES?

We didn’t call ourselves baristas at the time. This was before the SCAA existed, before there were schools or consultants. I learned through self-exploration and by watching other people. During that time, there was a program called the San Francisco Fair and Competition and they had a barista competition—it was the first recorded barista competition, and that was in 1980. It was a very different competition than what we have today. The judges were separated from the baristas; you got to make one cappuccino, there was no practice time, and it was judged just on the taste. I won the competition three out of four years. It was kind

HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK FOR THE ACADEMY OF COFFEE EXCELLENCE?

I began a private consulting business many years ago, and ACE was one of my clients. I’ve been a head judge with Cup of Excellence for thirteen years. I started working with ACE and COE and really believing in the program of what we do and what was being done at the time—putting money back to the farmers, helping them be discovered, and bringing their coffee to the world. As I was doing more work for Susie Spindler [founder of ACE], she finally said, “You know, Sherri, I can’t afford you as a consultant anymore, you should just come work for me.” I’ve been here four years.

WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CUP OF EXCELLENCE?

You won’t find any other program that ensures 100 percent traceability like COE does. It allows all farmers to be on equal footing. Whether you’ve got a big farm or a little farm, it’s an open competition. It’s always about the people and the quality. When the coffees are auctioned off, many times that roaster and buyer will continue with that relationship. FC

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PH OTO BY CYNTHIA MEAD ORS

CUPS

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From ceramic mugs to fully recyclable to-go cups, we take a deep dive into the world of drinking vessels.

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LIPS AND

CUR V ES

THE ANATOMY OF A TEACUP

By Jessica Natale Woollard

CAREFULLY CRAFTED: Taiwanese potter Lin Jianhong uses Ru Yao celadon glaze, a style prized during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Jianhong fires his pieces in a gas oven, where temperatures can reach upwards of 2,282 degrees Fahrenheit. The result is velvety texture and rich finish, shown in the Camellia Sinensis cup pictured above.

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TEA & GLORY chose glass for its teacups (below). Similar to glazed ceramic, glass doesn’t interfere with the flavor of the tea, but showcases the tea’s color.

PH OTO (OP PO SITE PAGE) C O URTESY O F CA MELLIA- SINENSIS.C O M; PHOTO (THIS PAGE) C OUR TE SY O F TE A & GLORY

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he choice of teacups was a key decision for Andrew Perryman as he prepared to open his London tea shop, Tea & Glory, in March 2017.

Would he go Eastern traditional and choose Japanese-style clay gaiwan bowls, or Chinese blue and white ceramic? Or should he opt for British traditional, with English fine bone china? There were considerations beyond material, too. Handle or no handle; saucer or no saucer?

“Cups are fundamental to a good customer experience,” Perryman says, who left his job in finance to launch his tea company.

Tea & Glory sells single-origin, artisanal teas, and Perryman, a certified tea sommelier, has visited the farms of the teas he sells. He looked to his company ethos to inform his choice of cups.

“You think about what type of company you want to be, what kind of values you have,” he says. “We wanted to distinguish ourselves through our cups and tell our story.”

He selected a double-walled glass mug with a handle and an elegant, curved lip. Similar to glazed ceramic, glass wouldn’t interfere with the flavor of the tea (like unglazed stoneware would), and it would showcase the myriad colors of the beverage. The handle would make the cup more accessible for England’s traditional tea drinkers, and the curved lip would add a special element to enhance the

experience. Plus, the cups would withstand a busy café environment and hold up well in the dishwasher.

“It took us a long time to find a design,” Perryman says, explaining that he and his team sought a sophisticated cup. “People can see that a little more thought went into it than just mass-produced containers.”

Tea shops that choose glass cups often do so for the same reason as Perryman: a desire to put the shades of tea—the ambers, greens, reds, and blacks—on display.

Others choose homemade pottery, delicate porcelain, mismatched china, or mugs with the company logo.

Kevin Gascoyne co-owns Camellia Sinensis, a teahouse, boutique, and tea school in Montreal, Québec. The vessels used in his tea shop are chosen depending on the tea the customer has ordered. “Teaware enhances the moment of sitting down to drink tea, so the nicest teaware you can offer is always going to improve that moment,” he says.

With each order, staff at Camellia Sinensis consider how the material of the cup might react with the water and flavor, the shape and size of the cup—which affect the sensory experience of how the liquid hits the mouth and tongue—and what role aroma will play in the tasting experience. Finally, the aesthetic is taken into consideration, which heightens the customer experience—“connecting the sipper to a tea-drinking culture thousands of years old,” Gascoyne says.

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TENMOKU comes from Fujian in China and dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The reflective and coppery effect is specific to this type of glaze.

creates a barrier, one that can be made into a work of art depending on the etchings and materials used (silver is common).

Cups & Culture For shop owners committed to offering an authentic cultural experience, choosing teaware reflective of a particular tea culture is a favored option.

Turkish café Simit and Chai in Toronto, Ontario, uses the vessel popular in the Turkish tea tradition, a tulipshaped glass resting on a small, porcelain saucer with colorful decorations. Dobrá Tea’s eight US locations select vessels depending on the culture and traditions of the tea they’re serving, such as gaiwans for Chinese tea and clay pots for Indian tea.

Russian Tea Time in Chicago serves its house Russian tea—their top seller—in narrow, cut crystal glasses that fit snuggly into a podstakannik, a metal tea glass holder with a handle, decorated with patterned etchings and popularized in the late nineteenth century, when tea became commonplace in Russia. With hot tea inside, the cut crystal glass is too hot to hold; the podstakannik

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PODSTAKANNIK: Widespread in the twentieth century, these stable vessels were found extremely useful on railroads in Russia as tea was served in moving carriages.

TENMO KO PHOTO CO URTESY O F CAME LLIA- SINENSIS. CO M ; P HOTO O F P O DSTAK ANNIK BY JÜRG VO L L ME R/ MAI AK.I N FO

“Most of the bowls we’re using will be put together in a specific style to enhance the flavor profile we’re presenting to customers,” he adds, noting there’s a lot of wisdom behind the more traditional designs such as ergonomics and subtle textures to please the hand and lips.

Taking tea at Camellia Sinensis, a client could sip matcha from a bowl valued at 150 Canadian dollars (about 113 US dollars), or cradle a ninety-dollar cup from China. Gascoyne acknowledges there’s some loss through breakage, but says “most people leave and they’ve never experienced anything like it. Many remain loyal by becoming internet clients, and we have clients coming from all over the world.”

While using traditional vessels enhances the moment of taking tea, the decision to focus the tea shop on a particular tea culture can be limiting, excluding potential customers who are unfamiliar with that country’s tea customs.

Follow Perryman’s advice and look to your company ethos and brand to help guide your decision.

Form & Function Research and experimentation show that similar to wine, a teacup’s style and shape influence the flavor and sensory experience.

Timothy d’Offay of London’s Postcard Teas collaborated with English ceramics designer Peter Ting to produce a series of three luxury white porcelain tea tasting cups, designed to optimize the flavors of teas.

THE HIDDEN VALUE OF PAPER CUPS Do customers really notice—or care—what’s on their paper cups? The controversy and excitement around Starbucks’s red holiday cups suggests they do, as does 7-Eleven’s “7-Election” campaigns, which offer customers a choice of cups branded with their preferred electoral candidate, an unofficial poll that has been surprisingly accurate in predicting US election outcomes.

Believing in the potential of cups to spread messages, Sidharth Singh of Mumbai, India, launched CupShup, a business that sells advertising on cups to corporate clients, then delivers the cups free of charge to more than 2,500 tea vendors.

“Tea is special to Indians and a significant

PETER TING TEA V ESSELS P HOTO BY JA N BALDWIN; TO- G O C UP P HOTO BY R O SS VARRE TT E

amount of discussion transpires over a cup of tea every day,” he says.

The content of the cup ad functions as a discussion prompt, influencing the conversation and therefore making “a deeper impression PETER TING’S 1660 LONDON tea tasting series includes (from left to right) the Fragrance Cup, the Texture Cup, and the Balance Cup. The platinum-gilded bottom is achieved by firing the cups to temperatures high enough to cause the metal to adhere to the porcelain.

The Fragrance Cup is a tulip-shaped vessel ideal for an aromatic tea; the shape retains heat and channels the fragrant vapors to the nose, allowing the olfactory to complement the taste. The Balance Cup has a wide top, with steep vertical sides and a curved bottom. This shape delivers more liquid into the mouth, allowing for a full-bodied experience, which is desirable for black teas. The Texture Cup works best

in the customer’s mind,” especially given the exposure time is five to seven minutes, which is more than radio, TV, or print ads.

The company conducts regular surveys to gauge the effectiveness of cup advertising (brand recall is more than 90 percent, Singh says) and tracks success with coupon codes and other promotions. CupShup’s clients—including Coca-Cola, Google, and Uber—have reported business gains tied directly to their advertising through CupShup.

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for green teas because of its large surface area. The curved lip enhances the tactile experience and allows for more control of the placement of the liquid as it enters the mouth.

In 2012, the cup series, named 1660 London, won Best New Product at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and has been added to the permanent collection of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. In North America, the set is sold exclusively through Gascoyne’s Camellia Sinensis.

The Traveling Teacup While cup design is a primary consideration of in-house teaware, what role does it play in disposable cups?

Since the Tang dynasty in 618 to 907 CE, vessels have been crafted specially for drinking tea, influenced over time by culture, industry, fashions of the day, and technology. In the twentieth century, to-go culture impelled the rise of the disposable cup.

Many tea shop owners submit that the very idea of taking tea to go is contradictory to the slow food tradition of the drink, noting that the psychological benefits of tea require slowing down, calming the mind, and drinking with intention.

The most common complaint of tea to go is permeation from materials of the disposable cups into the tea, contaminating flavor. The preferred option is to encourage customers to use travel mugs, and many tea shops offer a per-cup discount to promote the option.

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Jane Pettigrew is the education director of the UK Tea Academy in London and has written books and articles on teaware and culture. Though she prefers taking tea inhouse, she recognizes the permanence of tea to go and says branding cups is “quite important. It’s like bags and other packaging that people carry around. Why lose an opportunity to advertise your brand?”

For Andrew Perryman, extending Tea and Glory’s newly designed corporate identity to his to-go cups was a nobrainer. His double-walled cups have a brown background with orange tea leaves and a pattern of dots, a graphic representation of the terroir of tea.

Minnesota’s TeaSource, an award-winning tea importer and shop with three locations, offers its fine teas to go in paper cups branded with the simple but elegant company logo. When owner Bill Waddington opened TeaSource in the nineties in a spare bedroom, the cost of purchasing branded cups wasn’t worth the expense, he recalls, noting that most printers at the time required an order of quantities far beyond what his shops would use.

Eventually, he added the logo with mixed success, he says, because he didn’t brand the sleeve, which covered the logo.

Learning from each iteration of his cups, he regularly revisits how he can improve his vessels, to stay and to go.

“We’re always trying to do a better job,” Waddington says.

Joshua Zad of Alfred Tea Room in Los Angeles, California, says design—from the blush paint on the walls to the

TEASO URCE P HOTO S C OURTESY OF TEASO URC E

TEASOURCE to-go cups are custom printed with the logo and the company’s mandala-like design.

ALFRED TEA RO O M P HOTO S BY M AR Y C O STA PHOTO GRAP HY

ALFRED TEA ROOM’S to-go cups play an integral role in the company’s iconic branding.

pattern on the disposable cups—is “a major part of the appeal of Alfred.”

Zad says people love collecting Alfred’s to-go cups, which feature a rose-pink background, hand-drawn white and black floral designs, and a Victorian-inspired frame encasing the word “tea” with antlers extending from the top of the A. The tea shop, which opened in May 2016, is a spin-off of Alfred Coffee, a popular chain in LA with an established brand. The coffee shops and the tea room share design elements like the font and antlers, but the blush pink is the tea shop’s very own.

To Zad, presenting a brand that customers connect with emotionally forms part of his business strategy. The proof is in the social pudding: you only need to check Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to witness the global reach of fans endorsing Alfred’s aesthetic.

Zad considers the cost of branding cups to be minimal compared to the value gained in customer loyalty. “You could post a photo of your drink everyday on social media and your friends and followers will not get fatigued by it,” he says. “If you can deliver that beverage to customers in unique and cute packaging, you are making it even easier.”

Tea All the Time Tea shops will not always be able to offer the best vessel for tea; café environment and budget considerations

necessitate a certain amount of compromise, in both to-stay and to-go cups.

To find the right option for your shop, consider where you are willing to make compromises. Is it on the quality of the tea leaves in favor of vessels? The cost of replacing cups when they break? The aesthetic and sensory experience?

Authenticity to a particular tea culture and tradition?

Ultimately, look to your brand to guide your choice.

“Choosing your teaware is part of the whole process of planning your tea room,” Pettigrew says. “For me, it’s one of the most important elements. . . the choice of teaware goes hand in hand with your approach to creating a wonderful space.”

For Tea and Glory, the company philosophy led Perryman to select glass cups that showcase the myriad colors of the teas he serves. Dobrá Tea opted for culturally authentic vessels to align with its mission.

In the case of Camellia Sinensis, luxury teawares are in line with the brand. But, Gascoyne says, a preference for exquisite vessels does not mean he is rigid about how people should or should not consume tea.

“We’re very encouraging of people to drink tea at any time. If there are occasions where there is a certain amount of compromise to be made for the possibility of serving tea, we don’t mind. . . as long as we feel we’ve done the best for that situation,” he says. “Everyone should be drinking tea all the time, that’s basically our idea.” FC

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THE COFFEE DRINKER’S GUIDE TO

Being Present

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PH OTO BY CYNTH IA M EAD ORS

A

By Brendan Leonard

bout five years ago, my friend Tommy told me what I thought was an insignificant thing: he had taken a ceramic mug to his office and had started using it for his morning coffee instead of a travel mug. He said it made him feel less rushed.

Since then, Tommy’s little seed of an idea stuck with me, and gradually—almost subconsciously—grew into a full-blown life philosophy. I too tried to start drinking out of ceramic mugs when possible. I minimized drinking coffee in a car, preferring to schedule a few minutes for drinking coffee somewhere stationary, whether it was at my apartment or a coffee shop. Every coffee shop I visited, I specified “for here” to avoid being served coffee in a paper cup. I noticed at hotels and sometimes airport coffee shops in Europe, coffee was served in ceramic mugs. I liked it much more compared to a typical hotel breakfast in the United States, often served on disposable dishes and cups. (Obviously, it’s also better for the planet if we’re not creating trash every time we drink a cup of coffee, but I’m talking about something else here.)

I wouldn’t have expected that concept to change my life, but now I look at to-go cups and travel mugs like the equivalent of drinking wine out of stemware versus straight out of the bottle. Or maybe more accurately, sitting down to eat a sandwich at an actual table compared to wolfing down a drive-through meal while navigating freeway traffic. I’ve learned to like my coffee the same way I like my conversations with good friends: not rushed.

But we all feel rushed, don’t we? We live in a world that seems to get faster and faster every month. And how do we deal with it? Most of us try to adapt and keep up with it all, without even thinking about it. We have at least eight different methods people can use to contact us and we have to check them every fifteen minutes just in case we missed something. We eat lunch at our desks, and drink our coffee out of nonspill vessels, often in our cars.

Yes, it’s great that we’ve been able to make lots of things portable, including drinking coffee. But while the actual coffee is portable, the experience of slowing down and taking a minute to be present isn’t so mobile.

Maybe my friend Tommy is onto something with his ceramic coffee mug, and he knows something most of us should admit: that rushing the things we love isn’t making us any happier—even if it is making us able to scroll through meters and meters of social media feeds every day. Maybe instead of trying so hard to keep up with everything, we should all take a small step in resisting the velocity of our discontent. FC

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Ceramicist THE

How long have you been making ceramics?

My first class was a little over three years ago. I was going to school for graphic design, and I had a hard time not

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Once you’re consistent, be willing to take a chance. doing the fun classes first. I did calligraphy, photography, charcoal, painting, drawing. I took a hand-building class first. It was fun to learn how to attach things to clay and not have them pop off in the kiln. I did a wheel throwing class, and three classes after that, because I decided that I loved it. I decided I was going to get good at it and keep coming. Then I was like, “I need to buy a wheel.” I had a

P HOTO BY CYNTHIA MEA DO RS

M

ary Carroll is the wholesale administrative assistant at Heart Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon, and the ceramic artist behind the beautifully crafted mugs seen in a handful of local cafés. Her style is inspired by childhood loves and nineties sitcoms, and her creative drive and fun energy have helped grow her business. Carroll’s ceramics are showcased on her Instagram page (@marycarrollceramics), and her newly designed website, marycarrollceramics.com.

Interview has been edited for clarity and space.

realized that cups are what people wanted. I started taking the body style of the planters and adding handles, merging my two styles into one. Good Coffee asked for cups, then Kainos Coffee [both in Portland, Oregon] asked for cups, and then suddenly, people were like, “Mary Carroll, she makes cups for cafés.”

How long does it take to do each mug, from lump of clay to first fire?

I listen to music when I throw, usually Beyoncé or Harry Belafonte. From when I start the lump on the wheel to when it has become a cup, it has to be done before the song is over. I do about one cup per song.

What are you inspired by?

I went to Painted Hills in John Day, Oregon, last summer, and I was like, “Oh man, I really want to make cups that look like this.” I also try to add color as much as possible because of my childhood love of Lisa Frank. My dream mug would be a cross between Saved by the Bell and Lisa Frank. I’m also inspired by those retro camp mugs that we all used to drink out of—the splatter and speckle that’s on a lot of the cups is inspired by those.

How much control do you give cafés over design?

BY RACHEL SANDSTROM MORRISON

I give them the clay options, and they’ll give me some inspiration as far as colors. I meet with them and we decide what they’re into within my aesthetic. We come to an agreement of something we both feel really good about.

There have been times where I’ve said no. I don’t want to do hundreds of cups in a style I don’t really like.

What should café owners know before buying from local artisans?

whole studio set up. I took over our entire apartment and then I was like, all right, I have a business. I get really into things once I decide I like it.

You’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit.

Mmhmm, when I was a kid, I would sell suckers. I’d buy the bag for like $2.99, and sell each sucker for fifty cents.

I was making big money. I had a slogan too. “Mary’s store, the place you want to shop.” I think I might put that into my current store: “Mary’s ceramics, the place you want to shop.”

Were cups always your thing?

It started with planters. At the first Portland Night Market, I noticed my cups were flying and the planters were selling at a normal rate. When I ran out of cups, I

Know that although everything is going to be meticulously made, there are going to be natural flaws and areas where it looks handmade. Nothing is going to be 100 percent perfect, because I don’t want it to be. If you’re a local company that wants to order handmade stuff, embrace when it looks handmade.

Do you have advice for a local artisan in a different market who might want to do what you’re doing?

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. My friends will ask me how I got my stuff into shops, and I think you just have to not be afraid. There are still times where I think to myself, “My stuff’s not even that good, why do people want to buy it?” I think my stuff is good, but there’s always this doubt—you always wonder if it could be better. There’s a level of quality that you have to get to before you sell, but once you’re consistent, be willing to take a chance. Also, never burn a bridge. Most of the places I’m in, it’s because I have a connection with that person. I like to keep really good, healthy relationships. FC

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IN THE WILD FreshBrew, one of the largest US-based coffee roasters and the coffee partner of American Airlines, has recently begun exploring how EarthCoating may be used as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic coatings for the paper cups and other paperboard barrier packaging they use to serve their products.

FreshBrew president Al Ansari says that in addition to providing premium-quality coffee, the company recognizes the importance of using sustainable materials in its coffee-service packaging. “We’ve recently engaged with Smart Planet Technologies to evaluate their new recyclable paper cup and anticipate offering reCUPs to our customers in the near future,” he says.

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A BETTER SOLUTION FOR

Coffee on the Go

BY ELLIE BRADLEY

P HOTO C OURTESY O F SMA RT PLANE T TE CHNO LOG IES

I

t’s Saturday morning: the cribbage board is out, a newspaper lays splayed open on the counter, and the kettle spits steam as water heats for a pour-over. I cradle my ceramic mug in both hands, carrying it ceremoniously to the Chemex, eager to capture the aromas of first bloom before settling in for a leisurely morning of cards.

My idealistic view of coffee consumption? Certainly. An everyday ritual? Hardly.

Sure, it would be nice if we were all in the habit of sitting and sipping our coffee and tea from hand-crafted mugs. But that’s a far cry from reality when it comes to consumer behaviors. To-go culture is alive and well—and creating lots of waste.

While the majority of a to-go cup is comprised of paper, traditional take-away cups are rejected by recycling companies because of the polyethylene coating used to keep the cup liquid friendly. This lining is incompatible with standard paper recycling processes, and as such, cups are often treated as waste. A few specialized recyclers have invested in processes to remove the polyethylene coating found on traditional paper cups, but, the process is costly and the rendered fibers are low in quality—only usable in a low-value application such as tissue paper.

It’s unlikely we’ll see a massive changeover to ceramic cups anytime soon (though we’re trying to inspire a movement—see page 52). In the meantime, how can “coffee on the run” be made more sustainable?

The next best thing after ceramic would be a cup that’s affordable for cafés to use, performs as well as a traditional paper cup, and can be manufactured with the same process and equipment as traditional cups. This ideal cup would also be engineered to be recyclable in standard recycled paper mills—profitably—as if there was no polyethylene coating at all, allowing it to be used in highquality recycled paperboards.

The makers of reCUP believe they’ve found this ideal solution. They’ve created a fully recyclable paper cup that meets the above criteria. The new cup technology was engineered by Smart Planet Technologies and uses an in-

terior coating called EarthCoating, a mineralized blend of polyethylene and calcium carbonate. The cup is designed to be fully repulpable and recyclable using traditional paper recycling equipment and processes.

The ability to transform a paper cup into high-quality recycled paperboards is key—cups need to be made of material that’s valuable to recycle to incentivize recycling facilities to get on board.

Traditional take-away cups are rejected by recycling companies because of the polyethylene coating used to keep the cup liquid friendly.

The new recyclable to-go cup is also winning over major names in coffee that are looking to influence a wave of change industry wide. UK coffee giant Costa Coffee made global headlines when they announced plans to run product tests with reCUP as part of an effort to transition to using fully recyclable cups. Costa had already taken steps to promote in-store recycling of traditional cups, but also opted to explore early adoption of reCUP to allow customers to recycle cups anywhere.

As more cafés offer a recyclable takeaway cup, pressure builds for industry-wide adoption. With increased volume of recyclable cups, additional recycling jobs are required to meet the demand for processing reusable materials, extending the reach of sustainability afforded by to-go cup technology far beyond the café.

We may be far from adopting an everyday ceramic habit, but we’re certainly a significant step closer to ending the unnecessary waste caused by to-go cups. FC

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HERE’S YOUR

SIGN

BY RACHEL SANDSTROM MORRISON

Sandwich board, display board, A-frame, or advertising placard. It’s known by several names, but the goal of these—whatever you call them—is the same: entice foot and drive-by traffic into your café.

We’ve talked to shop owners and have compiled some tips for making the most of passing traffic and send the right message to your customers. Here are our top ten!

1

BE CLEAR Make your message easy to read and simple. “Coffee” written clearly on a sign visible from the road is better than a catchy phrase that’s hard to read.

STAY TRUE TO YOUR BRAND

2

3

KEEP IT LEGAL Most, if not all cities have permitting regulations and requirements for sidewalk signs. Make sure you know your city’s rules to prevent a visit (and a fine) from the Man.

CONSIDER SECURITY

4

Well-designed signs always face the unfortunate chance of being stolen. If your neighborhood is known for sticky fingers, find a way to secure your sign (subtly and legally) or at least make sure it’s within sight of your staff.

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PH OTO S THIS PAGE: “C OFFEE” SIGN CO URTESY O F K AINOS CO FFEE; A LL OTHER P HOTO S BY CYNTHIA ME AD ORS

Your sign is every potential customer’s first impression of your company. Is the sign dirty? Is it in your color scheme? What message does it send? Get an outside opinion and go from there.

5

MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL Beautiful, hand-painted signs can cost approximately the same as regular (boring) signs. Go with the well-designed and/or handpainted sign. It’s much more visually appealing and tells a better story.

6

MAKE FRIENDS WITH ARTISTIC PEOPLE “I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by artistic people. I was able to give some ideas to Kev Hennessy, a customer of ours who does signs, and he did what looked best.”—Travis Coe, owner of newly opened Jet Black Coffee Company in Portland, Oregon.

7

MIND THE DETAILS If it has an arrow, make sure it’s pointing toward your café. You’d be surprised how often arrows point customers to other businesses.

8

PH OTO S THIS PAGE: “C OFFEE NOW” SIGN BY RAC HEL SANDSTRO M MO RRISO N; GR O UNDWOR K P HOTO B Y E L L I E B RAD L E Y ; LTD SIG N C O URTESY OF LUK E SCH ILLING ; “V ” SIGN BY K YLE WILSO N; OTHE R PHOTOS BY CYNTHIA ME AD ORS

KEEP IT CLEAN, LITERALLY

If your sign is muddy, potential customers will associate your café with dirt. If innuendo is part of your brand identity, cool. If not, keep it figuratively clean too.

9

MAINTAIN VISIBILITY Your sign needs to be highly visible from the street. Make sure it’s not obscured by trees, bushes, or a late-in-the-day parked car. Test it yourself, and recruit friends to test it as well.

A-frames are an investment; make sure it’s working hard for you every day.

DON’T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY

10

Your A-frame is an opportunity to show some personality. If you’ve picked a sign with a changeable message, rotate it often and keep it light. Make jokes, let your employees take a crack at it, and have some fun. FC Check out other clever A-frame one-liners at #anotherltdaframe.

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THE ROAD TO COFFEE

Corporate coffee giants have found a welcome home in South Korea, but design-forward, independent cafés and locally roasted coffee are popping up all along the peninsula. Savvy baristas are at the forefront of Korea’s growing coffee scene, answering demand from trendloving Koreans seeking the best coffee has to offer.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOSH DOYLE

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5 EXTRACTS’ industrial-chic design sets an idyllic scene for the urban café.

THROUGH SOUTH KOREA

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5 EXTRACTS’ Hyun-sun Choi (left) is the 2010 Korean Barista Champion. Below: A bright-yellow bar is central to the Itaewon café’s airy, modern feel.

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I

t’s a calm and quiet Saturday morning in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood. Wrapped in long woolen coats, weekend shoppers stroll casually down the street of this international district, a reputation that grew around South Korea’s largest US military base. The Korean barbecue and foreigner-centered bars are shuttered at this hour, but the door to 5 Extracts is open, a café where one of Korea’s best-known baristas, Hyun-sun Choi, makes coffee.

White walls and minimal furniture lend an urban energy to the café. The interior is bright and modern; behind a yellow counter is a science lab of stainless steel and glass, all devoted to the perfect cup of coffee.

5 Extracts is not the only café around, not by a long shot. On my short walk from the subway I counted two others, and now that I’m here I see a Starbucks Reserve right across the road. But Choi is confident in his skills, which have been tried and tested at both international and Korean competitions. Choi was confident enough to open 5 Extracts with Starbucks nearby, a bold move that characterizes the growing demand for specialty coffee on the Korean peninsula.

“There weren’t always this many roasteries in Korea,” Choi says, reflecting on his early days as a barista.

Until a few years ago, ordering pour-over coffee from most Korean cafés would have earned you a blank stare. But the success of cafés like Choi’s is changing the local coffee culture, driving demand from trendloving Koreans who want the best in gourmet coffee.

While Choi brews me a cup of Colombian coffee, I check out the hardware on the counter: 2011 World Barista Championship, seventh place. 2010 Korean Barista Championship, first place. While it’s good for Choi’s business to display his awards, he’s shy to talk about them. But he agrees that awards like this have helped put Korean baristas on the map, remembering not so long ago when coffee knowledge on the Korean peninsula was confined to corporate chains and instant offerings.

“People looked to the internet and took some influence from other countries,” Choi says about the sudden shift in awareness. “At this point, we’re seeing a Korean style emerge.”

And a surge in cafés to back it up. The number of coffeehouses in Korea grew six-fold between 2006 and 2011. By 2015, there were over 17,000 cafés in Seoul alone, putting the city ahead of US coffee hubs like San Francisco and Seattle in cafés per capita.

Like most Korean baristas who got into the business before the coffee wave, Choi’s interest started abroad. He attended both high school and

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HOME SWEET HOME: Eclectic furniture and warm wood tones give 5 Extracts’ Hongdae district location a homey feel.

university in Melbourne, Australia, where he spent a lot of time in local cafés. “That’s where my interest started,” he says.

He came back home and opened a café in Seoul’s artistic Hongdae district, a laid-back shop built in an old Korean home. The café is still going strong, frequented by an eclectic customer base including well-dressed business professionals and students seeking a trendy study spot. Choi’s Itaewon location was his way of trying something new, adjusted to fit the upper-class shops and Starbucks Reserve sharing the street.

Now after multiple awards and two cafés, he’s happy brewing what he likes, and hopes his customers feel as passionately as he does.

“It’s not my style to enter a contest every year. I’d rather wait until I find a great bean I want to introduce,” Choi says. He gushes about

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flavor and complexity, determined to extract all five flavors—or 5 Extracts—from every bean he roasts: sweetness, acidity, body, bitterness,

the country teach cupping, roasting, and proper milk-pouring techniques.

For some of Korea’s youth, facing the burden of grueling educational

For some of Korea’s youth, facing the burden of grueling educational schedules and daunting competition for entry into good schools, the dream of becoming a barista has replaced that of doctor or teacher. and aromas. “Balance is the most important thing,” he explains.

Though Choi launched his coffee career in Australia, Koreans can now access world-class coffee education in their home cities. Academies across

schedules and daunting competition for entry into good schools, the dream of becoming a barista has replaced that of doctor or teacher. For others, it’s become a viable second career option.

HAKSAN draws on local character to design each of its Terarosa cafés.

A BOOMING BUSINESS When Yongdeok Kim first dove into the coffee business fifteen years ago, he hardly knew a thing about beans.

Now he runs a $17 million business with a focus on specialty coffee, called Haksan roasting company.

Kim started the roastery in 2002 at age forty, after spending twentyone years as a bank branch manager.

Operating out of Korea’s quiet and mountainous Gangwon-do province, Haksan distributed beans to hotels, upscale restaurants, and gourmet coffee shops. Then in 2012, after word of their superior roasting spread, they opened Terarosa, their first café.

Haksan now has eleven Terarosa café locations across the country, with plans to expand into China.

“The first key to our success has been quality,” Kim says. “We started off distributing . . . so quality was always number one. Our employee

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TERAROSA has eleven cafés across Korea and plans to open a shop in China.

training is also pretty thorough; we teach them to strike a balance between coffee expertise and good service.”

At first glance, the baristas at Terarosa look like those at any other Korean chain: gray berets, identical aprons, name tags. But peek over the counter, and you’ll see baristas with a deep knowledge of their beans and acute attention to detail, timing their blooms with steady hands for a long line of customers.

“Slowly, but quickly,” Kim says is the motto he envisions for their cafés.

“Our goal is to be the Hermès of the coffee world.”

His reference to the premium fashion brand as a benchmark is admirable, and at this point, Terarosa seems to be right on track.

The interiors of their eleven cafés all have a similar feel, with rustic furniture and concrete floors a common theme.

But there’s a uniqueness to each location that draws on the local character.

“Each café we open has its own concept. The culture is the same, but they all express it in a different way,” Yongdeok says.

Their Busan location is a perfect example of this, reflecting the city’s local character in their design.

Korea’s city by the sea, Busan is the country’s second-most populous city and home to the world’s fifth-largest shipping port (by cargo tonnage).

Terarosa captured the city’s industrial history by purchasing space in an abandoned steel warehouse and transforming it into a sprawling café, decorated with retired machinery from its steel-making past.

THE POWER OF AESTHETICS Touring the trendy coffee stops in Seoul, there’s cause to believe it isn’t just the coffee, but cafés themselves that are driving Korea’s coffee craze.

Home brewing hasn’t seen nearly the same growth spike as coffee shops.

In a space-starved country, these wide-open, professionally-designed cafés have become indispensable social centers; a place for first dates, anniversaries, and birthdays.

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MOMO’S statue garden welcomes guests to the coastal café (left). A barista prepares coffee for eager customers (right).

Cafés like Terarosa represent a changing landscape where design and quality are equally important. The shop’s industrial interior is a haven for die-hard Instagrammers, but Terarosa has also built a reputation on quality.

“When we first opened, 95 percent of people were still drinking instant coffee. Then Starbucks landed here, which had a huge impact on Korean coffee culture,” Kim says. “Three years later there were so many roasteries you couldn’t even count them.

Recently we’ve seen the number of shops with good coffee and good design rise significantly.”

As Terarosa looks to expand even further, eyeing markets in China and the Middle East, they’re counting on quality to set them apart.

Another Busan staple, Momo’s Coffee, also looks to quality to build loyalty with customers. The city’s poster child for gourmet, ethically sourced coffee, Momo’s first opened in 2007 as a takeout booth on a quiet uptown street.

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“Now we’ve got two full floors, a bakery, a roastery, and a coffee academy,” says Hyun-ki Lee, owner and founder of Momo’s.

He leaves out the two balconies, take-out window, and statue-filled bamboo garden. With its natural hardwood and traditional Korean roof, you could almost confuse Momo’s for a temple. Then you spot the constant flow of people carrying take-out cups and bags filled with baked goods. “These days our café gets around 1,000 guests a day,” Lee says.

The roastery and bakery are both housed in their own temple-esque buildings, with glass walls on each to showcase bakers kneading dough or the roasters obsessing over their beans. There’s no question that atmosphere is part of the reason for Momo’s popularity, but they’re also serious about quality.

“I think people’s attitude toward coffee has changed a lot. There’s a lot more interest in quality now. Coffee

culture from America, Europe, and Japan came in and spread quickly.

Korean people are enthusiastic about new things,” says Lee. “When we find something good, we try to mirror it.”

He’s been a barista and café owner through the Korean coffee market’s biggest changes, watching Korea transform from a country of primarily instant coffee consumers, through a market dominated by franchises, to a population thirsty for quality coffee with baristas who know how to find it.

Lee first started training in 2008 in neighboring Japan, a country respected by Korean baristas for its comparatively long history with specialty coffee. In 2009 he traveled to the United States, where he earned his Q Grader and SCAA Cupping Judge certificate. According to Lee, this is where he learned about coffee marketing, forming the basis for a business back in Korea.

“I also learned a lot about consumerism and coffee production areas.

ABOVE: Momo’s take-out window caters to customers who are in a hurry. BELOW: Checking out the roast.

Even now I still visit the farms we trade with every year,” he says.

Lee is invested in coffee’s future, and is looking to build a community from farmer to customer.

You can see that long-term focus at work inside the café. The staff at Momo’s is upbeat and on top of their game. Everyone from the bakery to the front counter shares Lee’s passion for the café, an energy palpable from the moment you walk in the door.

“Most of our staff has been here a long time,” Lee says. “We want to keep making their lives better, so we think about their work environment and their welfare. This is what gives our employees motivation and helps us to grow.”

When I ask Lee about his plans for the future, he says major expansion isn’t his vision for Momo’s.

“We’re still focusing on staying true to the basics, and putting in the effort to keep our customers and suppliers

happy,” he says. “We think expanding might not fit our local business goals.

Maybe we’ll get involved in some local art projects, or some community development.”

All this talk with Lee about coffee makes me thirsty, so I order a cup of the Costa Rican coffee. I walk through a crowd of excited coffee drinkers in their element. It’s busy, and seats are scarce, so I take my coffee outside to the garden. A natural flavor in a natural setting— a fitting end to this coffee journey down the peninsula.

Coffee’s journey through Korea has been swift, but with cafés like Momo’s, it has reached a place where taste, service, and sustainability are held at high value. Rapid growth has inspired a new generation of Koreans who are passionate about their work, take quality and customer service seriously, and are leading the charge for the continued transformation of the country’s coffee culture. FC

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M

y grandparents couldn’t have fathomed paying five dollars for a cup of coffee. For that price, they could buy an entire vacuum-sealed can of the Maxwell House or Folgers grounds that lined the pantries of their generation.

In the last several decades, coffee consumption has transformed dramatically; the retail coffee market in the United States is estimated to be worth nearly $50 billion. The specialty segment has been booming as well, growing at an estimated 10 percent annually for about a decade.

Continued growth in the specialty market presents new opportunities for coffee producers. By selling to a quality-minded buyer, a coffee grower might be paid twice what he or she would make if selling into a less-

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

The latest research from both the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and World Coffee Research suggests that by 2050, the global area suitable for coffee production could shrink by half. discriminating commodity market.

Amidst this boom, however, there’s an overarching challenge staring down coffee farmers: climate change.

OPPORTUNITIES IN HIGH-END COFFEE Coffee is a finicky plant—especially Coffea arabica, the species known for its excellent cup quality. Coffee trees grow only in specific microclimates limited to wet, mountainous

areas of the globe’s tropical belt. As temperatures are predicted to rise in coming decades, the area viable for coffee cultivation is expected to retreat toward cooler climes found at higher elevations.

The latest research from both the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and World Coffee Research suggests that by 2050, the global area suitable for coffee production could shrink by half. Farmers who

P HOTO C OURTESY OF CA FE K REYÓ L

RESIST THE RUST: Cafe Kreyól employees (from left to right) Francis, Joel, and Peterson hang out in the nursery with arabica Blue Mountain trees, which currently demonstrate resistance to leaf rust.

currently rely on coffee for their livelihoods could be devastated—if they don’t find ways to adapt to their changing environment.

Because most coffee is harvested selectively by hand, and coffee cherries ripen sporadically over the course of a months-long season, there are relatively few economies of scale in harvesting it. Partly for this reason, coffee is one of the most profitable crops for small-scale farmers. Collectively, an estimated 25 million smallholder farmers produce about 80 percent of the world’s coffee. And because they’ll never compete with the volume produced by high-yield farms, the more lucrative specialty market is a natural fit. Even a meager harvest can be a worthwhile proposition if sold at the right price.

The high-end coffee boom has encouraged more product differentiation. Roasters often market a bag of coffee similar to wine—labels might feature information about the variety of the coffee plant, the

altitude at which it grew, and how the beans were processed, all of which can influence its taste. Roasters are also likely to emphasize the coffee’s origin down to the growing country, region, and even farm.

As one result, producers have become the focal points of specialty coffee marketing. A trend toward direct-trade and relationship-focused coffee sourcing has further highlighted the role of producers. Consequently, awareness has shifted toward the challenges at this end of the supply chain—including climate change, and how it might shift the outlook of the global industry over coming generations. If there’s one coffee-growing country that may be an indicator of what’s to come for the global industry, it’s Haiti.

HAITI AS A HARBINGER “It’s better to grow something you can sell on the international market,” says Dieujuste Joseph, a farmer in the mountains of southeastern Haiti.

As we walk around his farm, Joseph

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explains that he can make more money selling his high-quality arabica coffee into an export market than by selling to local buyers. But diversifying his crop production is also important to him, he adds. Avocado, mango, banana, and grapefruit trees also grow among his coffee plants.

Coffee, in theory, is a great option for a rural farmer in tropical mountains. But many of Joseph’s fellow Haitian farmers have either neglected their coffee or abandoned it entirely because they’re “in misery,” he says, struggling to feed their families. Their need for subsistence crops to feed a family today wins out over investing in a longer-term cash crop.

Haiti’s coffee sector has been on a steady decline for a half-century.

Since the 1980s, production has fallen by half, and official exports have

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

plummeted by 95 percent. There are many underlying causes—some of them not related to coffee at all.

Since Haiti gained its independence through a successful slave revolution in 1804, it has been plagued

functioning roads, a fair judiciary, or any other system that would help its citizens flourish.

The uncertainty that still undergirds much of daily life threatens long-term planning and investment

Beyond the economic challenges, coffee plants are vulnerable to more than 1,000 diseases and pests, including two of the most damaging—coffee leaf rust and the berry borer beetle. by political instability and weak institutions. Regardless of leader, the state has too often focused on private, short-term gain rather than building a proper education system,

of all sorts. Coffee plants can take up to four years for a new seedling to give its first full harvest. Food crops like beans or vegetables, on the other hand, have multiple growing cycles

OBSTACLES: Coffee leaf rust (left) damages leaves. The berry borer goes straight for the fruit (right).

each year, and can help feed a farmer’s family in addition to earning income on local markets.

Beyond the economic challenges, coffee plants are vulnerable to more than 1,000 diseases and pests, including two of the most damaging—coffee leaf rust and the berry borer beetle.

When it comes to weathering natural hazards like hurricanes, drought, and earthquakes, Haiti is one of the least-resilient nations in the world. While some of its vulnerability can be chalked up to unfortunate geography—the country lies along a hurricane alley and sits on a tectonic boundary—most experts agree that the crux of it is poverty, along with the consequent deforestation and soil erosion after centuries of pressure on the land. For many of the same reasons that Haiti is vulnerable to natural disasters, a changing climate stands to exacerbate many of the coffee sector’s existing challenges—if not decimate the industry entirely.

P HOTO C OURTESY O F CAFE K REYÓ L

COPING WITH CHANGE Most experts agree that climate change is expected to weaken coffee-growing prospects in much of Haiti.

A 2014 report by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) notes that by 2050 “coffee will become considerably less suitable for production at lower elevations.” Less rainfall and higher temperatures could cause both coffee yields and quality to fall, especially at altitudes below 1,200 meters.

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Varying climate conditions increase coffee’s susceptibility to pests and disease. Too much moisture can promote leaf rust, where orangish spores attack leaves and prevent plants from photosynthesizing, capable of destroying an entire farm in a single season. (In 2012, a rust epidemic caused an estimated $1 billion in crop losses across Central America.) Too little rain, on the other hand, will stress the plants’ ability to produce full crops. Drier conditions can also be favorable to certain types of borer beetles that attack coffee.

The CIAT models predict that while arabica coffee production will become less viable in low-altitude areas, it will become more suitable in higher areas, including the southeastern mountains where Joseph lives and farms.

Most Haitian farmers practice diversified agriculture. But farmers at low elevations will likely have to diversify into other crops further in the face of climate change, if not completely replace their coffee production. Cacao may be one viable alterna-

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tive—CIAT notes that it’s “highly suitable for production in Haiti and is likely to remain so, despite long-term changes in the climate.” Like coffee, cacao also grows in tropical mountains, just at lower altitudes.

Impending climate challenges will require various solutions depending on context and local factors, but the CIAT report makes one recommendation clear: farmers should adapt.

MOVING FORWARD Potential adaptations to manage these effects include irrigation systems, improved coffee varieties resistant to drought or disease, and better shade management to cope with higher temperatures. Haitian growers may be well-suited to improve shade conditions. Most of their coffee is already grown under some shade, largely due to the diversified agriculture practiced throughout the country.

A major question for Haiti, however, will be how small-scale farmers can accomplish these sorts of adaptations in a country with a per capita gross

domestic product of just $830 (compared to approximately $55,000 in the United States) and feeble political and legal institutions that are antithetical to long-term investment.

It may simply turn out that it will no longer make sense for many Haitian coffee farmers to remain coffee farmers. Mangoes, cacao, and other crops, if not other lines of work entirely, may become better options given the trade-offs. But if adaptation will be particularly difficult for Haiti, other countries should be better suited to adapt to a new coffee world.

Cenicafé, Colombia’s national coffee research center, for instance, has spent decades investing in developing coffee varieties resistant to leaf rust.

The center has helped Colombian farmers replace more than three billion coffee trees with improved varieties, translating into “higher productivity and regional adaptation.”

Thanks to a Cenicafé web platform, Colombian growers can also check regional climate conditions online and compare them to historical trends.

P HOTO C OURTESY O F CAFE K REYÓ L

A HAITIAN FARMER, Philemon, points to where lush coffee plants once grew.

Philemon’s crop was decimated by coffee leaf rust.

Similarly, Brazil has funded research for coffee adaptation strategies using heat-resistant varieties suitable for the relatively low altitudes and high temperatures of the country’s coffee areas. Certain growers in Guatemala have also begun to adapt their farms by using improved shade management, homemade sprays that help prevent leaf rust, and mixes of both traditional and disease-resistant or high-yielding varieties. Some have even started to diversify their coffee production with cardamom and honey.

Most coffee agronomy research is conducted by public institutions or national governments. As the coffee sector’s vulnerability to climate has become more apparent in recent years, however, the private sector has started to focus on the great needs at the production end of the chain—and on what will have to happen to make sure the sector will be able to adapt and continue to thrive.

World Coffee Research (WCR), a nonprofit organization housed at Texas A&M University and largely funded by donations from coffee importers, roasters, and industry stakeholders, is pushing the limits of coffee research—“ensuring the future of coffee,” as its website reads. In the summer of 2016, WCR released Coffee Varieties of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, a comprehensive variety catalog packed with information concerning yields, disease resistance, botanical data, and cup quality for coffee varieties grown across Central America and the Caribbean. The organization estimates that just by using the resource to help make decisions about which varieties to plant, farmers can increase both coffee quality and quantity by up to 15 percent.

BULLISH ON THE BEAN Enthusiasm for pour-over, espresso, and other higher-priced coffee drinks shows no sign of slowing any time soon—which bodes well for the next generation of coffee farmers. It’s a good bet this demand will continue to drive innovation and adaptation, ensuring coffee drinkers around the globe can still get their fix.

Adaptations and solutions to changing climates will likely look very different from Brazil to Ethiopia to Haiti. Despite doomsday headlines about “coffee’s coming extinction” due to climate change, global demand will continue to drive innovations from the coffee farmers, agronomists, and researchers who make the sector their lives and livelihoods—and ensure pour-over and espresso remain.

From farmers’ perspectives, the world of coffee production may look very different in the next fifty years—and it’s possible many will not call themselves coffee growers anymore. FC

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FC

Counter INTELLIGENCE A THEORY OF EVERYTHING The new Zojirushi Thermal Gravity Pot beverage dispenser (SY-BA60) is equipped with a durable stainless-steel vacuum liner that provides excellent temperature retention and a sleek plastic body that resists dents and corrosion.

Its innovative design allows for the base to be easily detached, while a seventeen-ounce drip tray—the largest in the industry—locks in to stay secure. The Gravity Pot has a one-and-a-half-gallon (six liter) capacity, and is NSF-certified. zojirushi.com/new_syba60

ROYAL TEA

ALL T, NO SHADE

According to the Bruce Lee Foundation,

Owl’s Brew presents tea-based

Lee would drink tea every day and add

radlers: a combination of beer

ginseng, royal jelly, and honey for his

and freshly brewed tea, with a

mental and physical health. Lee’s tea

hint of juice to brighten the fla-

recipe for natural energy is now avail-

vors. The line includes four fla-

able under the Bruce Tea label. Bruce

vors: That’s My Jam (amber ale,

Tea is available in three flavors: Origi-

Darjeeling tea, and hibiscus),

nal, Honeydew, and Passion Guava.

the Blondie (wheat beer, black

A portion of all profits from the sale

tea, and lemon), Short and Stout

of Bruce Tea help fund the Bruce Lee

(chocolate stout, masala chai, pineapple juice, and

Foundation scholarship program. bruceleetea.com

coconut water), and Wicked Watermelon (wheat beer, white tea, and watermelon). theowlsbrew.com

78

GET SWOLL

JEEPERS KEFIR

Sunniva Super Coffee

Matcha continues to rise in popu-

is a “better-for-you

larity, due to its many physical

bottled coffee.” Their

health benefits and association

cold-brew Colombian

with rich tradition and ceremony.

coffee is blended with

Lifeway Foods, a leading supplier

ten grams of protein

of kefir is launching Ceremonial

and MCT coconut oil. Three brothers—also collegiate

Matcha Kefir. Available in a thirty-

student athletes—started brewing in their dorm room

two-ounce bottle, Ceremonial Mat-

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cha combines kefir with antioxi-

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dant-rich green tea and vanilla to

healthier ingredients. Sunniva’s line of super coffee

create a gluten-free, organic, and

officially launched at this year’s Natural Products

non-GMO beverage packed with

Expo. sunniva.co

probiotics. lifewaykefir.com

May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

» People & Products «

COFFEE LEAF TEA The boys of Wize Monkey learned about the 200-year-old tradition of coffee leaf tea while researching a hypothetical business for their masters program, then decided to actually build the company. Wize Monkey is tea made from the leaves of coffee plants grown in Nicaragua.

Coffee leaf tea has a smooth, lightly sweet taste, and because it is harvested in the offseason, creates yearround jobs for coffee farmers. wizemonkey.com

SAVORY SNACK ATTACK

CREMA OF THE CROP

KIND revamped and re-

At this year’s SCA

released their Strong &

Expo in Seattle,

Kind line—a selection of sweet and spicy snack bars

Washington, the

packed with ten grams of plant protein. Flavors in-

Homer Laughlin

clude Roasted Jalapeno, Thai Sweet Chili, Korean

China Company launched a new collection of din-

Chili BBQ, Chipotle Honey Mustard, and Sweet Cay-

nerware, called the Crema Perfecta Collection. Cre-

enne BBQ. KIND’s new line is available at retailers

ma Perfecta is designed to enhance crema for both

nationwide and online. kindsnacks.com

flavor and latte art. The collection is offered in Ivory Body and Arctic White and is now available for purchase. fiestafactorydirect.com

GRAVY TRAIN

RISE UP

Richardson Brands has

Irvine, California-

expanded to offer some

based

Rise Bar

highly recognizable,

just launched new

nostalgic favorites such as Gravymaster Browning

packaging to emphasize the company’s commit-

and Seasoning Sauce, Dryden & Palmer rock candy,

ment to simple ingredients and real-food nutrition.

Beechies gum, and Bogdon Old Fashioned Candy

The new packaging includes color coding to identify

Sticks. These products have a long heritage of quality

dairy- and plant-based bars, as well as a seal that is

and staying power—Dryden & Palmer was originally

three times stronger than the previous—extending

introduced in 1880! rbcweb.shopfactory.com

freshness. All bars are free of gluten, soy, peanuts, sugar alcohols, and artificial ingredients, and are non-GMO project verified. risebar.com

Fresh Cup Magazine « freshcup.com

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FC

Trade Show & Events CALENDAR M AY

J U LY MAY 4-6 CAFE CAMBODIA Phnom Penh, Cambodia cafe-cambodia.com

MAY 20-23 NRA SHOW 2017 Chicago, Illinois show.restaurant.org

MAY 23-34 CAFFE CULTURE London, United Kingdom caffecultureshow.com

JUNE JUNE 7-11 LET’S TALK COFFEE Kigali, Rwanda letstalkcoffee.org

JUNE 9-11 COFFEE FEST Chicago, Illinois coffeefest.com

JUNE 11 COFFEE & TEA FESTIVAL NYC: ICED New York, New York coffeeandteafestival.com

JUNE 12-15 WORLD TEA EXPO Las Vegas, Nevada worldteaexpo.com

JUNE 13-15 WORLD OF COFFEE Budapest, Hungary worldofcoffee-budapest.com

JUNE 13-15 WORLD LATTE ART CHAMPIONSHIP Budapest, Hungary worldlatteart.org

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May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

JULY 6-9 CAFE SHOW CHINA Beijing, China cafeshow.com.cn/huagang/hgcoffceen/ index.htm

AUGUST AUGUST 27-29 WESTERN FOODSERVICE & HOSPITALITY EXPO Los Angeles, California westernfoodexpo.com

SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 10-12 FLORIDA RESTAURANT & LODGING SHOW Orlando, Florida flrestaurantandlodgingshow.com

SEPTEMBER 13-16 GOLDEN BEAN Portland, Oregon goldenbean.com

SEPTEMBER 21-24 ISTANBUL COFFEE FESTIVAL Istanbul, Turkey facebook.com/istanbulcoffeefestival

SEPTEMBER 23-24 COFFEE & CHOCOLATE EXPO San Juan, Puerto Rico coffeeandchocolateexpo.com

SEPTEMBER 24-25 CANADIAN COFFEE & TEA SHOW Toronto, Canada coffeeteashow.ca

OCTOBER OCTOBER 12-13 ALLEGRA WORLD COFFEE PORTAL CEO FORUM New York, New York allegraceoforum.com

» 2017 Coffee & Tea Trade Shows, » Classes & Competitions

OCTOBER OCTOBER 13-15 NEW YORK COFFEE FESTIVAL New York, New York newyorkcoffeefestival.com

OCTOBER 13-15 COFFEE FEST Portland, Oregon coffeefest.com

OCTOBER 20-24 HOST Milan, Italy host.fieramilano.it

N OV E M B E R NOVEMBER 1-3 INTERNATIONAL COFFEE & TEA FESTIVAL Dubai, United Arab Emirates coffeeteafest.com

NOVEMBER 4-5 COFFEE & TEA FESTIVAL PHILLY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania coffeeandteafestival.com/philly

NOVEMBER 9-12 CAFE SHOW SEOUL Seoul, Korea cafeshow.com

NOVEMBER 9-12 SINTERCAFE Herradura, Costa Rica www.sintercafe.com

NOVEMBER 12-13 HX: THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE ROOMS TO RESTAURANTS New York, New York thehotelexperience.com

Fresh Cup Magazine « freshcup.com

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FC

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ADVERTISER Index Go to freshcup.com/resources/fresh-cup-advertisers to view the Advertiser Index and the websites listed below.

ADVERTISER

CONTACT

ONLINE

PAGE

Art of Tea

213.493.6518

wholesale.artoftea.com

22, 77

Barista Pro Shop

866.776.5288

baristaproshop.com/ad/fresh

19, 63

Bodum

800.232.6386

bodum.com

Brewista

888.538.8683

mybrewista.com

Bunn

800.637.8606

bunn.com/H3X

2

Cappuccine

800.511.3127

cappuccine.net

7

Coffee Fest

425.295.3300

coffeefest.com

Coffee Planet

310.880.5337

coffeeplanet.com

13

Franke/BKON

info@bkonbrew.com

bkonbrew.com/craft.brewer

23

Fresh Cup Magazine

503.236.2587

freshcup.com

67

Golden Bean

310.266.2827

goldenbean.com

83

Gosh That’s Good! Brand

888.848.GOSH (4674)

goshthatsgood.com

15

Grandstand Glassware + Apparel

800.767.8951

egrandstand.com/coffee

21

Holy Kakow

503.484.8316

holykakow.com

11

Host-Fiera Milano

39.02.49971

host.fieramilano.it/en

81

Java Jacket

800.208.4128

javajacket.com

13

Malabar Gold Espresso

650.366.5453

malabargoldespresso.com

29

Monin Gourmet Flavorings

855.FLAVOR1 (352.8671)

monin.com

Oregon Chai

888.874.CHAI (2424)

kerryfoodservice.com/brands/oregon-chai 5

Phillips Syrups & Sauces

800.350.8443

phillipssyrup.com

PumpSkins

877.994.4600

pumpskins.com

20

RetailMugs.com

970.222.9559

retailmugs.com

77

SelbySoft

800.454.4434

selbysoft.com

11

Service Ideas

800.328.4493

serviceideas.com

30

Smartfruit

800.801.7330

drinksmartfruit.com

20

StixToGo

800.666.6655

royalpaper.com

19

TEA House Times, The

973.551.9161

theteahousetimes.com

77

Toddy

888.863.3974

toddycafe.com

63

Vega Mfg.

800.224.8342

vegacases.com

73

Vessel Drinkware

855.883.7735

vesseldrinkware.com

65

Vio by WinCup

800.292.2877

viofoam.com

World Tea Expo

866.458.4935

worldteaexpo.com

74

Your Brand Café

866.566.0390

yourbrandcafe.com

14

Zojirushi America

800.264.6270

zojirushi.com

May 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

4, 17, 31 30

6, 72

3, 84

9

34 (insert)

27, 75