There is perhaps no coffee brewing device as ubiquitous or divisive as the French press. There are over 4 million apartments listed on AirBnB, and each one of them has a French press, most likely a
Author: Michael Butterworth
Michael Butterworth is an authorized instructor of the Specialty Coffee Association and the inventor of the Etkin Dripper. He cofounded the Coffee Compass mostly as an excuse to visit more coffee shops. For consulting and training enquiries please visit butterworth.coffee.
How to Help Volcano Victims in Guatemala
The rich volcanic soils of Antigua, Guatemala have a lot to do with its coffee’s distinct terroir, but Antigua’s picturesque Fuego volcano is active and tragedy struck this week in what
Clearing Up Three Misconceptions about Turkish Coffee
We live in the era of fake news, and in the world of coffee there’s certainly a lot of misinformation about Turkish coffee. But we’re here to set the record straight about the syrupy, sludgy cu
Book Review: The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers has always been connected with specialty coffee in my mind. I purchased my first Eggers’s novel from Quills Coffee and Books on Kentucky St. in Louisville’s Paristown neighborhood.
The La Marzocco Turkey Showroom Opens in Istanbul
Few people could have predicted the way specialty coffee has boomed in Istanbul over the last five years. It wasn’t that long ago you could count the number of specialty coffee shops in Turke
Introducing Bellwether Coffee: A Zero-Emissions Roaster
With the most pessimistic reports predicting the near extinction of arabica coffee in the next fifty years due to climate change, the specialty coffee industry has an invested interest in reducing
How to Make Iced Coffee with the December Dripper
Last year, the December Dripper emerged on the scene with a simple but revolutionary design. The brewing device uses a silicon gasket to adjust the flow rate with a simple twist. One of the more in
Meet Martell Mason of Arabica Trading House
Small coffee roasters face numerous challenges, but Turkish roasters face a bigger obstacle: access to quality green coffee. Most coffee in Turkey is imported twice: first by an European or America
Sunergos Coffee Opens Fourth Louisville Location in Deer Park
Long time readers of The Compass will remember our first post highlighted an exciting new espresso bar in Downtown Louisville. That espresso bar, of course, was the third retail location for Loui
Dear Coffee Buyer: The Ryan Brown Interview
I’ve often bemoaned that specialty coffee doesn’t have a book like Kermit Lynch’s classic memoir Adventures on the Wine Route. The story of how coffee travels from remote farms i