Archives for February 2021

Roaster. Consultant. Podcaster. There’s not much Patrik Rolf hasn’t done when it comes to coffee. Originally from Sweden, Rolf made a name for himself as a coffee roaster in the Berlin coffee scene. After deciding to found his own company, Rolf moved to Copenhagen to launch April Coffee.

In 2019, Rolf won the Swedish Brewers Cup competition and went on take second place at the world championship. Although all competitors write a routine around their coffee, Rolf took it one step further and designed an entire brewing device: the April Pour-Over Brewer. We recently caught up with Rolf over email to learn what’s so special about his device.

Baristas love to complain about the shortcomings of different brewing devices, but you set out to design a better pour-over dripper. What was the inspiration?

To brew the roasted coffee from April in the best possible way. If you think about it, very few, if any, current brewing devices are created with modern (lighter) roasted coffee in mind. After a long time of improving my roasting, I felt there was a missing link and it was clear that it was my brewing that wasn’t able to keep up with my roasting….

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The country of Yemen plays an indispensable part in the history of coffee. The vast majority of commercial coffee varieties first came to Yemen from Ethiopia before spreading around the world. In fact, for centuries European researchers assumed coffee was endemic to the peninsula, as indicated by the name Coffea arabica. 

But Yemen is also poised to play a crucial role in coffee’s next chapter. Recently, researchers in partnership with Yemeni coffee exporters Qima Coffee made a staggering discovery: a previously unmapped gene pool of coffee varieties. Qima is marketing this new cluster of varieties as Yemenia. With climate change and leaf rust decimating coffee production around the world, the discovery of new Arabica varieties offers new genetic material to breeders, not to mention unexplored flavors for coffee lovers.

The discovery comes at a pivotal time. A long, devastating civil war has created in Yemen what many are calling a humanitarian disaster. (The BBC recently shared a harrowing account of children being targeted by sniper fire.)

A group of coffee companies, including Qima Coffee, Square Mile Coffee, and Intelligentsia, have come together to put on an event to raise funds for charities working in Yemen. Amal Yemen, which translates to “Hope for Yemen,” will take place on March 26th. According to the event website:

Amal Yemen is a spontaneous movement designed to illuminate Yemeni coffee history, culture and arts while raising funds for humanitarian relief efforts… It is an attempt to better understand the dire circumstances Yemeni people are facing due to conflict and catalyze new efforts to address them.

The event’s program includes a guided coffee tasting with Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia, a presentation from Christophe Montagnon about the Yemenia coffee variety cluster, and a Yemeni Oud performance by Ahmed Al Shaiba. Participants can purchase a coffee kit, containing eight different Yemeni coffees, each roasted by a different specialty roaster. The coffees will highlight the regional and varietal differences found throughout Yemen. Tickets for the event can be purchased on Eventbrite.

It’s safe to say that Oatly, the one-time plant-based milk darling of the specialty coffee community, has officially gone mainstream with their recent Super Bowl commercial.

The commercial features Oatly CEO Toni Petersson playing a keyboard in a field of oats.  With a voice unlikely to upstage Super Bowl halftime performer The Weeknd, Petersson croons “It’s like milk made for humans.”

The Super Bowl, like most versions of popular professional sports, is not particularly popular in the barista community, but the commercial promises to introduce their product to a wider audience. Even if initial reactions have been less than positive.

All that @oatly super bowl commercial shows me is that we’re all paying WAY too much for Oat Milk.

— CABELL TICE (@Cabelltice) February 8, 2021

It’s not the first time Oatly has been in hot water with ethically-conscious consumers. Previously the company caught flack when Chinese government-owned China Resources bought a stake in the company, followed by the private equity firm Blackstone. The controversy, however, has not stopped the company from soaring to a $2 billion valuation.