I recently watched the Netflix docu series Chef’s Table for the first time, and suddenly everything about craft coffee trends and tendencies made sense. The main things that annoy me about smallscale artisan craft coffee and that have never really made any sense are explained not by the series per se, but by how the … Continue reading Things Craft Coffee Can Teach Us About Forever Young America
Coffee
About that $18 Cup of Coffee
About that $18 cup of coffee in Brooklyn that went viral. What’s up with it? Why does it cost $18 and why did everyone have something to say about it? Let's break this down. 0. This coffee is not actually available yet. When it is, it will cost $18/cup. Two weeks ago, Alpha Dominche, a … Continue reading About that $18 Cup of Coffee
When America Speaks
Something incredible happened yesterday. - Without any centralized organization, millions of people around the world took to the streets to peacefully and nonviolently voice their concerns about the disparaging rhetoric issuing from the mouth of the man holding America's highest office and to advocate for basic decency and informed policy making that addresses the needs … Continue reading When America Speaks
The Importance of Inefficiency and the Danger of Detail
Specialty coffee is overwhelmingly inefficient. This inefficiency might be the one unilateral criterion that makes certain coffee special and also the one unilateral virtue—or opportunity for positive impact—that circumscribes specialty coffee as a category. Between 275-320 bags (total varies depending on country of export and their standard bag weight) of coffee are packed into … Continue reading The Importance of Inefficiency and the Danger of Detail
Southdown: A Place You Want to Be
Southdown: A Place You Want to Be One of the unexpected benefits of working for an importer is that I’m able to explore coffee shops beyond my normal MTA-bound radius and get to know roasters who are not maybe not the flashiest social media magnates but are busy making great coffee for the people … Continue reading Southdown: A Place You Want to Be
Dispassionate Coffee
People have a lot to say about their passions for coffee, myself included. Because coffee is indeed an addictive caffeinated beverage and there is plenty of physiological and neuroscientific study to show why our brains and bodies love it, it makes sense that we feel the need to gush about our adoration for a beverage. … Continue reading Dispassionate Coffee
New York Coffee Festival
It's happening. The New York Coffee Festival opens tomorrow, and not only will coffeepeople from New York be representing hard, coffee folks from around the globe will be present to celebrate the thing we all love to love: coffee. Coffee Festival has rocked London and Amsterdam, and it is set to bring its A game … Continue reading New York Coffee Festival
Celebrate the Good
Coffee, like everything else, is not perfect. Coffee regularly gets negative press of being exploitive on one end and elitist on the other. (For some thoughts on the complexities of making trade fair, see my second guest post for Angels' Cup.) It's nice to take a moment to recognize that coffee is also very inclusive … Continue reading Celebrate the Good
Celebrity Farmers
Way back in the post Division of Decision I suggested that we don't always know what me mean by the words that we use. When we say "farmer" who are we actually talking about? The romantic, idyllic image of a lone man toiling in harmony with the land that we associate with the word is … Continue reading Celebrity Farmers
2015: Digital Coffee Summer
The sun is out and the summer is sweaty; it's the season of cold brew and there's lots that has been steeping here at When Coffee Speaks. First, When Coffee Speaks: Stories from and of Latin American Coffeepeople is now an ebook! Find it on amazon.com (where it's also now available in hard copy) or on … Continue reading 2015: Digital Coffee Summer
