The Coffee Compass

Your Guide for Craft Coffee

New Merch: Coffee Compass Logo T-Shirt

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The perfect cup of coffee may not exist, but we’re pretty sure the perfect t-shirt does: the American Apparel gray track shirt. We’ve long dreamed of slapping our logo on one is these cozy beauties, and that dream has finally become reality. We mostly made these for our team, but we have a limited number of Medium and Large t-shirts up in our webstore while supplies last. This shirt is not guaranteed to repel coffee stains, but it is guaranteed to make your morning coffee taste better. Ours does anyway.

Cultivator Coffee Puts Down Roots in New Albany, Indiana

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Cultivator Coffee Coffee is a fruit. Or, to be a little more precise, coffee is the seed of a fruit. Like any other fruit, the cultivar, or variety, of a given coffee has a tremendous impact on its flavor profile. I’m not sure if coffee cultivars were the inspiration behind Cultivator Coffee & Other Plants but it certainly seems an appropriate name for the New Albany, Indiana café….

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Osito Coffee Launches Fundraiser for Colombian Farmers

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Colombia-based coffee exporters Osito Coffee has launched a fundraiser for Colombian farmers on Gofundme.com. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and a national strike, Osito explains many of their producers are facing a dire situation.

 

In our network of coffee farmers, we’ve seen folks struggle mightily with cash flow.  With a delayed harvest and limited access to town centers because of the widespread roadblocks, farmers still have to lay out money to maintain their farms and families with little money coming in at this time.

The company has pledged to match the first $4,000 of donations. The money will be used to provide farmers with essential tools like GrainPro bags for storing coffee. A smaller number of farmers will be gifted new drying equipment.

 

Peixoto Coffee Redefines Direct Trade in Chandler, Arizona

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The specialty coffee community often celebrates direct trade: when coffee roasters buy their coffee directly from farmers without utilizing a trader. In theory, the practice ensures more of the profits go to the people who grew the coffee.

But Peixoto Coffee in Chandler, Arizona takes direct trade one step further: the vertically integrated coffee roaster sources most of their coffees from their family estate in Minas Gerais, Brazil. …

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A Look Inside Liturgy Beverage Company in Durham, NC

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Liturgy Beverage Company More than a year after opening Litugry Beverage Company, Tim and TiLissa Jones can finally welcome dine-in guests to their café. It was a long time coming. It’s been over two years since we published this interview, when Liturgy was a pop up kiosk in a YMCA waiting for their space at the Durham Food Hall to be ready. Construction delays bled into a statewide lockdown, forcing Liturgy to navigate a pandemic in addition to new business struggles.

But they soldiered through and when I visited their café earlier this month, things were humming.

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Now Brewing: Peru Baltazar Guerrero from Brandywine Coffee Roasters

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When I started this coffee blog 9 years ago with two friends, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to write about.

First and foremost, I wanted to write about cafés. I fell in love with coffee shops before I started drinking black coffee. I had a personal blog where I talked about the coffee shops I went to and those posts would get the most traffic. It seemed like a natural progression to start a website that would guide people to the best coffee shops, and thecoffeecompass.com was born.

What I didn’t want to write were coffee reviews. At the time there was a glut of coffee blogs focusing on coffee reviews, assigning points or stars, quibbling over tasting notes. It felt tedious to me. So I made a decision: no coffee reviews. In the early days, we received almost weekly inquiries from roasters that offered to send us coffee, and though we happily received any free coffee a roaster wanted to send us, we made it clear we weren’t going to review it on this website….

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Product Review: The Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper

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Some years ago, Prima Coffee asked me to write a blog post comparing an assortment of flat-bottom pour-over drippers and I was surprised by which one was my favorite of the bunch: the Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper. I had borrowed it from Prima, and was a little sad to give it back, but also couldn’t really justify buying another brewing device.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, where I found myself at the Blue Bottle Coffee on Broadway in Lower Manhattan and in need of a 2-cup coffee dripper, preferably flat-bottomed. I noticed the handsome porcelain device while waiting in a socially distanced queue and impulse bought it.

Since then, I’ve used the Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper 2-3 times a day, and have developed further thoughts on the device. …

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Stories Coffee & Wine Captivates in Tbilisi

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In recent years the country of Georgia has seen a rather unexpected tourism boom. Travelers came not only for its unspoiled natural beauty, but its fascinating cuisine and 6,000-year-old wine culture. And while it’s still qvevri-fermented natural wines that make Tbilisi a world-class beverage destination, if you find yourself in the Georgian capital, there’s good coffee to be had as well….

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Take a Video Voyage to Guatemala with Primavera Coffee

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For green coffee buyers, the harvest season is a time of excitement and anticipation as they show up at coffee origins, passport and cupping spoon in hand, to select which lots they want to purchase.  In recognition of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic will keep most coffee roasters from going on origin trips this year, Guatemalan coffee exporters Primavera Coffee have put together a nine-part video series about Guatemalan coffee farming. For those of us in the coffee industry who don’t regularly travel to coffee-producing countries, it’s an intimate look at what is often the most opaque part of the supply chain.

Listen as Kim Staalman narrates different approaches to pruning, harvest practices, and fermentation techniques. But be warned: far from satiating our wanderlust, after watching the series we want to visit Guatemala more than ever!

 

 

Good Hands in Coffee: an Interview with Stuart Ritson

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For many coffee pros, Stuart Ritson needs no introduction. The former chair of the Barista Guild has worn many hats in the coffee industry, including serving as Cafe Imports’ director of European Sales. In 2019 Ritson left that position to take some personal time and reevaluate his long-term goals. After that sabbatical, Ritson launch his own consulting company, a roasting project, and is working to amplify the voice of charities working at coffee origins.

We recently caught up with Ritson over Zoom to learn about his new projects and how taking some time off gave him a new perspective.

How did you get started in coffee?

I was in my last year of college and needed a job. I applied at all sorts of places and nothing stuck. I got an interview at a café and bakery that was re-opening. The new owner had a real focus on specialty coffee. I really fell in love with coffee and wanted to stick it out.

After that, I started with Monocle to run their café in London. It gave me a chance to be hands-on running something, but I didn’t stick that out too long.

I realized my skills are better behind the bar than on the bar, so I joined Workshop Coffee for 3 or so years. I was their wholesale manager and trainer. All sorts of stuff. It was a very formative time for me. By the end, I was cupping like a pro.

In 2019 I left Cafe Imports to take a personal break and work out what I really wanted to be doing. I now have a really broad portfolio of what I do. In essence, I source green coffee, I roast for another brand, and my own brand, Untitled Coffee….

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