If you’ve ever been to Nashville and had the inclination to find a good cafe, there’s a good chance you came across Crema in your search for the best coffee in town. Started by Rachel and Ben Lehman 11 years ago, Crema has grown to be one of Nashville’s most beloved coffee shops. In those years, they’ve also gained national notoriety and have become zero waste with the aim of eventually being carbon neutral. One of the hallmarks of Crema is their careful approach to growth, which is why the opening of their second location–nestled on Duke Street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in East Nashville– is so exciting and remarkable. …
Stories
Three Great Places to Get Coffee in Den Haag
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. …
Three Great Cafés in Granada, Spain
Ernest Hemingway said, “If you were to visit just one city in Spain, it should Granada.” The picturesque Andalusian city is home to more than just the sprawling Alhambra palace or its towering Renaissance cathedral, it also boasts a growing independent coffee scene that demonstrates the depth and diversity of the Spanish specialty coffee scene….
Four Great Coffee Shops in Vienna
It’s been a long time since Vienna was the capital of Europe’s largest empire, but it remains a cultural center unlike any other. Majestic palaces and cathedrals pay testament to a bygone gilded age, but a new wave of contemporary coffee shops prove that Vienna is a city very much in the present. In addition to Jonas Reindl Coffee Roasters (read our full review here), we enjoyed these four Vienna coffee shops during our recent visit….
Three Beautiful Cafés in Bratislava
As someone with a penchant for geography, I was embarrassed by how little I knew about the Slovak Republic when I boarded a bus for Bratislava– Slovakia’s capital and largest city. I knew Slovakia has a burgeoning natural wine seen. I knew about the so-called Velvet Divorce with the Czech Republic. And I had learned from our friends at European Coffee Trip that the city has a thriving specialty coffee scene. Even so, I was surprised and impressed by the depth, diversity, and quality of the café scene in what’s a relatively small city. Sadly, my limited time and caffeine tolerance kept my experience to three cafés, but if you’re looking for more, I’m sure the baristas at these beautiful cafés can point you in the right direction….
Miir Launches Kickstarter for New Pourigami Brewer
Does the world need another pour-over dripper? If you asked us yesterday, we would have said no. Between the Kalita Wave (our daily go-to), the Hario V60 (the device that started it all for us), and the million other conical and flat bottom drippers out there, there’s enough brewing devices to keep coffee bloggers such as ourselves gainfully employed writing reviews and tutorials that explore each gloriously subtle difference. And if you, say, wanted to crowd-fund a new pour-over device? Forget it. That shipped sailed years ago.
Well, that’s what we would have said right up until the point we watched the video for the Miir Pourigami, a collapsable brewer currently being crowd-funded on Kickstarter….
Yonder Coffee: Connecting Consumers with Roasters at Origin
Specialty coffee is often compared to wine, although the two beverages might have less in common than many coffee professionals might wish. For one example, the top wines of the world are usually vinified in a cellar located on or near the vineyard where the grapes were grown. Coffee, on the other hand, is usually roasted thousands of miles from the land that produced it. Although practically all specialty coffee drinkers have had coffee from Colombia, Brazil, or Kenya, how many have had coffee from a craft roaster in one of those countries? Yonder Coffee is trying to change that. The rather unconventional coffee subscription program aims to connect specialty coffee consumers with specialty roasters in coffee producing countries. We caught up with Yonder’s founder Caleb Durham to learn more about their new initiative.
You’ve been running a very unique coffee subscription with Yonder Coffee for a while now. How did that come about?
Yeah, it’s been a wild ride so far! I’ll give a little backstory. I’ve been traveling pretty much full-time since 2012. Most of those years, I have worked with a charity that rescues children from different forms of trafficking and abuse and places them in safe homes. My background is in design, video, and storytelling, so for me, working overseas means short, whirlwind trips to gather and tell stories to help raise funds and awareness. I feel really lucky to have gotten to see so much of the world (over 70 countries so far!), but the intensity of the type of work that I do can really get you down. Coffee shops were my space to recenter and process….
How the Ikawa Coffee Roaster Changed Barista Competitions
Du Jianing of Nanjing, China won the World Brewers Cup Championship in Boston at SCA Expo 2019. Du’s winning routine was remarkable in many ways. The Chinese champion utilized different pouring speeds at different points of the brewing process to highlight certain flavor attributes, and used a tablet linked to her scales to allow the judges to check her technique in real time. Perhaps what was most remarkable, though, was how Du choose to roast her coffee.
The coffee had been roasted in an Ikawa coffee roaster in small batches, 4 days prior to the competition. The Ikawa, which fits in a carry-on sized suitcase, is a bluetooth-enabled coffee roaster that’s controlled with a smartphone app, allowing the user to plot the coffee’s exact profile.
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Coffee Maker
After years of being the favorite scapegoat of baristas everywhere, coffee professionals are recognizing anew that automatic consumer coffee makers are not that bad. In fact, when it comes to the class of SCA-certified brewers, like the Bonavita 1901 series or the iconic Techivorm Moccamaster, you would be hard pressed to get better results with a pour-over.
That being said, even with the right equipment, getting the most out of your coffee maker requires a little care. That’s why we’ve compiled a surefire guide on how to get the most out of your coffee maker….
Habitude Opens in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı Neighborhood
Almost every major player in the Istanbul coffee scene has a Nişantaşı outpost now, but the upscale neighborhood on the city’s European side continues to welcome new coffee shops into its fold. In the year since I wrote a neighborhood guide for Sprudge, Nişantaşı has seen half a dozen new shops open. The latest is Habitude Artisan Patisserie & Cafe, a multi-roaster shop focusing on house-made pastries….
