Stories

For the most part, one can predict the sorts of places one finds a good coffee shop, and they usually don’t include malls. Sure, it’s easy to find some ubiquitous dark roast from an international chain’s kiosk, but you’re probably not expecting to get a single estate microlot next time you’re shoe shopping.

The shopping malls of Istanbul, however, are a surprising exception. As compared to the suburban sprawling concrete blocks one thinks of in other countries, most malls in Istanbul are mixed-purpose buildings, with residences and offices, many of which have won international awards for contemporary architecture. In a city with precious few parks, shopping malls occupy an important place in public life. It also turns out, many of them are a great place to get a pretty decent cup of coffee.

Kronotrop

Founded in 2012, Krontotrop is one of the oldest specialty coffee companies in Turkey. Even after changing hands and embracing an aggressive expansion plan, Kronotrop has managed to stay true to brand, with a distinct aesthetic and excellent coffees. Their newest location is in Emaar Square Mall, a mall that combines indoor and outdoor shopping in the Asian side’s Ünalan Mahallesi. It’s hard to think of a starker contrast to Kronotrop’s original surroundings in gritty Cihangir than a Gucci store, but the world is a crazy place. With two single origin espresso options and fresh batches of filter coffee, it’s hard to think of a better place to caffeinate before facing the material longing of late capitalism.

Petra

The roaster/retailer has not one but two cafés in malls: Etiler’s Akmerkez and Levent’s Kanyon. With its gravity-defying design, Kanyon remains my favorite mall in the city, even if it’s susceptible to to some pretty serious wind tunnel effects. On the ground-level floor, near the main entrance, Petra’s kiosk is a great place to get a take-away coffee, or take a break in their hidden, garden-like seating area. (Read about our visit to Petra’s massive Gayrettepe headquarters.)

Pieton Coffee

Astoria AVM in Şişli is perhaps the oldest mall on this list, but has remained relevant thanks to a prime location in Şişli, Istanbul’s central business district. Inside, tucked next to the escalator, is Pieton Coffee. The small stand only boasts one table and a bench, but brews fresh cups of coffee from Four Letter Word, a micro-roaster with operations in both Chicago and Burgazada— a small island in the Marmara Sea just off the coast of Istanbul.

Cargo Coffee Co.

Cargo Coffee Co. might be Istanbul’s prettiest café, let alone the prettiest café in a shopping mall. From the hanging birdcage-like chairs, to the sensible soft seating, every detail is carefully thought out. A minimalist menu of house-roasted coffees are offered by the cup. I wish a little more information about their coffees was available, but I found my pour-over to be sweet and well balanced.

Borderline Coffee

Borderline’s original Teşvikiye café has yet to even celebrate its first anniversary, but they’ve already expanded with a small kiosk in Emaar Square Mall. Expect coffee from a rotating cast of international roasters, good design, and the best take away cups in the Istanbul coffee scene.

Whether it’s the morning paper or a good book, perhaps the best pairing with a cup of coffee isn’t breakfast or a cigarette, but something to read. Adam Goldberg is the founder and editor in chief of Drift, a biannual periodical about “coffee, the people who drink it, and the cities they inhabit.” We caught up with Goldberg to ask him how he makes his coffee and where Drift is going next. 

Print media is supposedly dying, but you started a print-only magazine about coffee culture. Why?

We take the experience of reading Drift very seriously, which is why we offset print on thick stock and have run all our issues ad-free. “Print media” is a broad category. The data shows us that readers prefer digesting weekly, and even monthly, periodicals online–I think the online experience is often better for that type of continuously updated content. But the opposite is true for books, for example, where readers still prefer paperback to digital. The e-book market has slowed considerably after the initial excitement. That’s why we chose print. We couldn’t think of a better experience than cozying up with a hot cup of brewed coffee and the latest issue of Drift….

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Do you feel like no matter what you do the coffee you make at home isn’t as good as the coffee you get at your favorite café? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to make coffee that’s every bit as good as a five dollar pour-over. In fact, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be better. Most home brewers make at least one of these five mistakes that can be easily corrected. …

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The Problem with most Aeropress Recipes 

There’s few questions a barista dreads more than “Could you grind this for Aeropress? While you can always count on an espresso to use a fine grind and a fast brew time, and a French press the opposite, Aeropress recipes are all over the map, and most are terrible. 

First, completely disregard the recipe on the box. No disrespect to the legendary inventor of the Aeropress, Alan Adler, but the whole notion of using lower temperature water to have a less acidic coffee is flawed in several key ways. For one, acids dissolve before the more complex carbohydrates, so lower-temp brews are missing more than just acidity- they’re missing a lot of sweetness too. Secondly, acidity levels have a lot more to do with the coffee origin. (If you don’t like brighter, fruitier coffees, stick with Brazilian and lower elevation Central American coffees.)

But there’s also reason to be wary of many of the more popular recipes circulating out there. Many call for more an absurd amount of coffee, often a 10:1 ratio, or even stronger. While I’m sure that many of these recipes with the right coffee could make an interesting, even delicious cup of coffee, for people in the real world, who are using their hard-earned cash to purchase coffee, I question such an inefficient recipe. If you can make a delicious cup of coffee with 15 grams of coffee, why on earth would you waste another 5–7 grams?

That’s why I’m sharing my fourth place recipe from the 2016 US Aeropress Championship*. Sure, it wasn’t quite good enough to book my ticket to Dublin for the World Championship, but it’s surprisingly versatile and pretty simple. You’ll need an Aeropress, a grinder, a scale, a kettle, and some coffee.

1. Grind 15 grams of coffee

You want to use a medium grind. Not too fine, not to coarse.

2.  Place two rinsed filters in the Aeropress.

Double filtration helps keep any sediment out of your brew. If you really want to live life on the edge, you can use three (somehow, we never seem to run out of filters. It’s like they magically replenish themselves.)

3. Briskly add 225 ml. of boiling hot water. Quickly, but carefully, place plunger in Aeropress to create a vacuum.

This keeps the coffee from dripping. You need all the water steeping with the coffee to get the highest possible extraction.

4. At 1:00, remove plunger and gently break the crust with a spoon.

Replace plunger.

5. At 4:00 begin to slowly push the plunger down.

No coffee left behind.

6. Decant and drink.

*The Aeropress Championship was founded as a sort of lampoon of barista competition culture. To use a wrestling analogy, It’s more WWE than UFC.

If we have one hope for 2018, it’s to drink even better coffee than the year before. But since we all can’t drink Panamanian Geisha every day, it might be better to set some realistic goals. So here’s our nine coffee-related New Year’s resolutions we hope you’ll join us in making. …

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It seems like a good idea, buy a home espresso machine and stop spending money on all of those five dollar lattes. But we should probably warn you, making café-quality espresso at home is incredibly difficult, and you’re probably going to burn through a lot of coffee in the process. You’re not going to save any money and you’re still going to spend a lot of money in coffee shops.

But that being said, making espresso at home can be a fun and rewarding hobby, but only if you have the right tools to work with. So if you’re thinking about taking the plunge, make sure the espresso machine you’re buying has several key features….

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American consumption of specialty coffee continues to rise, and the Specialty Coffee Association has a snazzy new infographic to prove it. The infographic is based on research by the National Coffee Association, which has been tracking American coffee consumption trends for over sixty years. Specialty coffee consumption numbers were up in every category, but the daily consumer saw the biggest increase, with 41 percent of those surveyed saying they drank specialty coffee every day. In 2001, that number was only 14 percent of Americans. Heather Ward, SCA Market Research Manager, observes,

Overall, this information demonstrates the continued consumer desire for more and better tasting coffee. We are acknowledging it through different measurements of consumption and based on these trends, there are no significant signs of slowing.

As November draws to a close, it’s time once again to start thinking about what Christmas presents you’re going to get the coffee lovers in your life. Sure, you could get that cheap grinder you found on sale at your local department store, or you could get them something they actually want. Lucky for you, we have the inside scoop on the latest, hippest, trendiest coffee swag around. 

Breville Precision Brewer 

Many of the best cafés in the world are moving away from pour-overs and towards really delicious batch brew. Simply put: making a perfect cup of coffee isn’t rocket science. You just need to control some basic variables like water temperature, ratio, and grind size. Breville’s new Precision Brewer aims to give consumers the same amount of control as a commercial coffee brewer. The Precision Brewer utilizes a PID for state of the art temperature control. An adjustable flow rate means you have the customization of a pour-over, with the convenience and repeatability of autodrip.  Is the Precision Brewer’s $299 price tag a little steep for you? At $153 the Bonavita BV1900TS is still our best coffee maker for the money. 

Coldwave Coffee Chiller

It might be winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s never too early to start thinking about iced coffee. The Coldwave Coffee Chiller, quite simply, is the only iced coffee maker you’ll ever need. The device uses 90 frozen cylinders to rapidly chill hot coffee in a matter of seconds. Chilling hot-brewed coffee allows for a full extraction without any dilution. More refreshing than cold brew, sweeter than Japanese iced coffee. We speak highly enough of this device.

Drift Magazine Subscription 

They might say print media is dying, but we believe there will always be a place for gorgeous periodicals like Drift. Each issue of the journal focuses on a different city’s coffee culture. From Tokyo to Havana, whether it’s Third Wave or traditional, Drift is telling stories that no one else is.  Issue six on Mexico City is preordering now.

Customized Push Tamper 

Yes, we did have the PUSH Tamper on our holiday gift guide last year. But now you can get them customized with your café’s logo, your name, or anything you else you want to put on your tamper. The PUSH Tamper continues to be the tamper of choice for many elite barista competitors, but now there’s another reason to pick one up: a recently published journal article shares research that suggests the PUSH Tamper helps reduce repetitive stress related injuries. 

December Dripper 

There’s never been more pour-over devices on the market, though we find most are simply reinventing the wheel. The December Dripper is a notable exception. With an adjustable flow rate that allows brewers to more precisely dial-in their brew times, the December Dripper offers the control that coffee nerds crave.  We use our Kickstarter edition almost every day, but the second edition features an improved silicon gasket for better performance. 

Brew 

Gift-giving is more of an art than a science, but there is one universal rule that applies in all times and places: you can’t go wrong with a beautiful coffee table book. Brew by Brian Jones is the approachable guide to craft coffee we wish we had written. Brian Jones is something of a personal hero of ours. His popular blog Dear Coffee, I Love You was one of the main inspirations to start this very website. The illustrated brew guides make this a great present for aspiring enthusiasts, while the stunning design ensures even the most seasoned coffee professional would like to have this on their shelf. 

Precision Milk Pitcher 

Perhaps the great irony of being a working barista is that you spend more time steaming milk than actually making coffee. And considering baristas spend so much time with a milk pitcher in hand, it’s shocking more thought hasn’t been put into design a proper one. Even our favorite brands are notorious for having irregularities from pitcher to pitcher. Matt Perger and the rest of the team at Barista Hustle set out to rectify that. The Precision Milk Pitcher has a laser-welded handle that is guaranteed to be perfectly aligned with the spout. Perhaps our favorite feature: there’s no gap in the handle for gross milk gunk to accumulate in. Barista Hustle is currently taking preorders for the Precision Milk Pitcher, which is due to arrive before the holidays.

Onyx Coffee Snapback

Arkansas’s Onyx Coffee Lab had something of a year in 2017. At the 2017 US Coffee Championship, Onyx took top honors in the roasting and brewers cup competition, and owner Andrea Allen took home the second place trophy in the barista competition. While any of their blends or single origin microlots would be a fine present, we’ve had an eye on one of their stylish snapbacks for a while, if you’re inclined to get your favorite coffee bloggers a little something for the holidays. 

Ancap Cupping Bowls

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to improve your palette in 2018? Then you need to start cupping. For over 100 years cupping has been the standardized process that coffee farmers, green buyers, and roasters use to evaluate quality. It’s also one of the best ways to improve your tasting abilities. We’ve used a lot of different cupping bowls, but our favorites are Ancap’s. Made in Verona from Italian porcelain, these cupping bowls are elegant but durable. Customers of Ancap USA can have custom logos added as well.

Crema.co Coffee Subscription

There are a lot of coffee subscriptions to choose from, but only one that is an official sponsor of The Coffee Compass. Unlike most subscriptions, Crema.co allows you to queue the coffees you want as often as you want them, meaning, you’re not going to get stuck with any bags you didn’t want. With over 20 specialty coffee roasters, you’re bound to find something you love. One of the most memorable coffees we drank last year was we recieved through this subscription: a special lactic acid process from La Palma y El Tucan in Colombia, roasted by PT’s.