Stories

A Farewell to Fresh Cup

October 22, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

I remember realizing this spring that coffee shops I knew and loved would not survive the pandemic. It especially hit home when Quills Coffee shuttered their U of L café— a shop where I had logged thousands of hours on bar.

With cafés around the country closing their doors or switching to takeaway-only, perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me when Fresh Cup Magazine notified me that my upcoming article about Turkish Coffee would be in their last issue. After all, who could imagine picking up a communal magazine off a random café table in the COVID-19 era?

My relationship with Fresh Cup started in 2014. I had seen the magazine …

Iced Coffee: A User Guide

July 1, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

Every day for the last six years, the majority of traffic to this humble coffee website has come from a simple Google search: “how to make cold brew with a French press.” The data reveals a simple truth: people love iced coffee. But there’s perhaps never been more confusion surrounding a beverage.

Cold brew. Cold press. Slow drip. Flash chilled. The list goes on. But what do any of these terms even mean? Lucky for you we’ve compiled a handy guide to drinking iced coffee….

Coffee in a Time of Corona Virus: Cup of Joy Opens New Istanbul Café

June 11, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

Cup of Joy

Istanbul, like much of the world, has spent the last three months locked down due to COVID-19. Coffee shops, along with bars and gyms, were some of the first businesses to be shut down by the government. As such, I went the longest stint I’ve gone in my coffee-drinking life without having an espresso or cappuccino.

Of course, it’s hard to complain about missing such luxuries when so many have truly been forced to go without. Besides, if I’m being honest, it hasn’t been coffee I’ve missed as much as coffee shops. The human interaction. A space to be creative. Bumping into old friends and make new ones. Corona Virus might have called the economic viability of coffee shops into question, but we’ve never been in greater need of the holistic services a good coffee shop provides….

You Probably Need to Buy A Coffee Grinder

April 22, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

hand grinder

Coffee luminary Peter Giuliano dropped a bombshell on #coffeetwitter last week. According to Giuliano, of the staggering 14 billion dollars worth of coffee Americans brew at home each year, more than 90% is pre-ground.

This, of course, probably comes as no surprise to you, random reader of this coffee website. Why buy a coffee grinder when pre-ground coffee is the same price? If there’s a coffee grinder in your house, statistically it’s a blade grinder, which is perhaps slightly more consistent than repeatedly jumping up and down on your bag of whole bean coffee while wearing combat boots. …

What’s the Best Automatic Drip Coffee Maker?

April 8, 2020 By Michael 1 Comment

If you don’t have a good coffee maker, now is probably a good time to get one. As much as we love making a meticulously handcrafted pour-over, sometime we just want to press a button, hop in the shower, and come back to a perfect cup of coffee. Unfortunately, the large majority of consumer coffee makers out there are pretty terrible at making coffee….

Fundraiser: Travel Mug Proceeds to go to Laid-off Baristas

March 25, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

It’s hard to speak too hyperbolically about the cataclysmic effect Corona Virus is having on the specialty coffee community. Around the world, ten of thousands of coffee shops have been indefinitely shuttered; even more baristas have been laid off. To make matters worse, there’s no end in sight.

It’s been a while since any of us here at the Coffee Compass worked a bar shift, but we remember what it’s like, and we want to do what we can. Until the end of April, 100% of sales of our travel mugs will be donated to relief funds, especially those helping laid-off baristas.

While we certainly don’t recommend taking that travel mug out anytime soon, it will keep your coffee hot (or cold) for hours. And, of course, we recommend filling it with specialty coffee, bought directly from your favorite local roaster’s web store.

A Coffee Maker for Each Enneagram Type

March 16, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

At some point in the last year someone has asked your Enneagram number. In the very least, you have seen a social media bio with a strange set of numbers and letters (3w2, ENTP, Ravenclaw). The ninefold personality test has reached popular culture tipping point territory, and while I’m not sure if the Enneagram can be used to predict taste preferences, I think there is undoubtedly an ideal coffee maker for each of the nine Enneagram types. Not sure what number you are? Take the test, and see if our assessment is right. …

Amethyst Coffee Shines in Denver

February 25, 2020 By Kathleen Hartsfield Spicer Leave a Comment

Amethyst Coffee

At five years old, Amethyst Coffee is making its mark on Denver’s thriving coffee scene and the industry as a whole. On a recent trip to Denver, I discovered this first hand when I visited the first of their four locations — a retail space in a strip mall on Broadway. The space is warm and the staff exudes a certain hospitality that leaves you feeling happier than when you walked in. That is on purpose, explains co-owner Breezy Sanchez.

“Really good hospitality are things that people would never notice,” she says. For Sanchez, that happens behind the scenes– the goal is to read what each guest needs and to meet them where they are. …

Three Great Cafés in Zurich

February 19, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

Few cities have made an impression on me like Zurich. Sure, the labels “sleepy” and “conservative” are sometimes hurled at it. But Zurich is the understated sort of city that doesn’t need to impress you. It’s confident, self-assured, and surprisingly thoughtful. It’s also a city with a number of great places to get a cup of coffee….

Five Coffee Resolutions For 2020

January 2, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

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…