Your Guide for Craft Coffee
Perhaps no city has been affected by overtourism more than Barcelona. Between the tour groups of clueless Americans, gap year backpackers, and poorly-chaperoned packs of students, it’s impossible to escape the hoards of tourists in Barcelona. I, of course, am part of the problem. When I visited Barcelona, I was one more foreigner with a camera gawking at the Gaudi architecture. That is, until I stepped inside of Dalston Coffee….
Kentuckiana roaster/retailer Quills Coffee first opened in 2007 under the name “Quills Coffee and Books.” The original Kentucky St. location in Louisville’s Paristown neighborhood– long since closed — featured an entire wall of new and used books. It’s where I bought my first Dave Eggers novel, years before I would work at Quills, first as a barista and later as the company trainer.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Quills’s seventh café also has books. Actually, it has over 100,000 of them, only they’re not for sale….
It’s not just a new year but a new decade, and we intend to kick it off drinking fantastic coffee. In 2020 we hope to not just increase the quality of coffee we drink, but our quality of life with these five resolutions.
Waste Zero Coffee
If you’re anything like us, your pantry has 3-4 different bags of whole bean coffee, each with less than 20 grams left. Rather than tossing the remnants, we were inspired by coffee marketing expert Jenn Chen to make impromptu blends. Not only does this cut down on waste, it often creates fantastic flavor combinations. Not into blends? You can…
We live in the age of the food hall. All around the globe, property developers are converting old industrial spaces into massive temples of gastronomy. Pick a city, any city, and you’ll likely find a refurbished factory or warehouse, complete with a cheesemonger, French patisserie, and at least one “elevated street food concept.”
Miami residents need look no further than The Citadel, which claims to be the largest such food hall in South Florida. In addition to the usual food hall suspects, it’s home to the second location for local coffee company Vice City Bean. …
San Francisco-based coffee design company Fellow has already smashed their fundraising goal for their new Ode Brew Grinder. The Kickstarter campaign more than tripled its $200,000 target in the first few days. The Ode Brew represents Fellow’s first foray into designing a consumer grinder. The company is perhaps best known for the Stagg Kettle….
And just like that, it’s December and you’re wondering what to get the coffee addict in your life. Maybe you’re asking yourself, do they really want one more coffee-related gift? And the answer, of course, is yes. After all, what else are you going to give someone on a day you’re forced to wake up at the crack of dawn to open presents? Lucky for you, we’ve compiled the top coffee related gifts for the holiday season at a variety of price points. Coffee from your favorite roaster not included.
thecoffeecompass.com Travel Mug
We spent years searching for the best insulated travel mug, and hands down Miir’s tumbler takes the cake. It’s the perfect size, its heat retention is second to none, and, most importantly, the air-tight lid is dribble free. We did a super limited run of matte white, laser-etched 12 oz tumblers, and we couldn’t be happier with them. We use ours almost everyday and so far we’ve only found one flaw: it keeps the coffee too hot….
If your barista owns a coffee maker, there’s a pretty good chance it’s a Technivorm Moccamaster.
For over four decades, the family-owned Dutch company has been making high end home coffee brewers loved by coffee aficionados. Their popular Moccamaster model is one of a select few that meets the strict standards of the Specialty Coffee Association‘s Certified Home Brewer Program.
Although the Moccamaster is a great coffee maker, it’s not without it’s short comings. Most notably, …
Most visitors to Cyprus come for the Mediterranean island’s sunny weather and immaculate beaches. Nicosia, the country’s landlocked capital, rarely even gets so much as a stopover. With the international airport in Larnaca, most tourists have no incentive to make the trek to Cyprus’s largest city. But those who travel inland will find a bustling coffee scene well worth skipping a beach day. These were four of our favorite place to have coffee in Nicosia. …
I recently bought a bag of coffee from one of my favorite European roasters. When I opened the bag I was surprised to discover the coffee was quite a bit darker than I expected. Brewing the coffee revealed a flavor profile to match the color: bitter chocolate, roasted nuts, and — dare I say — ash.
Even though many specialty coffee drinkers prefer a light to medium roast, there’s still a significant number of people who prefer something darker. For them, coffee should taste like, well, “coffee.” And though I will admit my personal preference is for a coffee dropped closer to first crack than second, a good dark roast can be enjoyable if prepared properly. But dark roasted coffee needs to be brewed differently than light or medium roast coffee to get the best results….
Amsterdam has been one of our favorite cities for visiting coffee shops– er — cafés since before we even started this website. But there’s a lot more to the Netherlands than just its capital. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Den Haag. The coastal city might be best known as the home of the International Court of Justice, but it’s also boasts a growing number of specialty coffee shops, serving up the best roasters from the Netherlands and beyond. Although we weren’t able to visit every café on our list, there were three of our favorites. …
