win-win
ONE.
Good Food Awards
San Francisco, CA | That Good Good
The winners of the 2017 Good Food Awards were announced in San Francisco on January 20, 2017. Our winners in coffee are as follows. Let’s go out and taste them and see what the other judges thought was so wonderfully good, why don’t we? Our Good Food Winner’s below:
Bard Coffee, Hambela Estate, Maine
BeanFruit Coffee Company, Ethiopia Adame Gorbota Cooperative, Mississippi
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, Panama – Hacienda La Esmeralda Noria Lot, California
Craft & Mason Roasting Co., Ethiopia Hunkute, Michigan
Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea, Ethiopia Kossa Kebena, Ohio
Giv Coffee, Panama – Boquete – Kotowa Geisha Natural, Connecticut
Higher Grounds Trading Co., Yirgacheffe Idido, Michigan
Kickapoo Coffee Roasters, Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Charbanta Natural Process, Wisconsin
Klatch Coffee, FTO Ethiopia Gedeb, California
Lineage Roasting, Kenya – Kagumoini (Kamacharia Coop), Florida
Mr. Espresso, Ethiopia FTO Worka Natural, California
Noble Coffee Roasting, Ethiopian Adisu Kidane & Ethiopian Shilcho, Oregon
Olympia Coffee Roasting Co., Ethiopia Konga, Washington
Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Ethiopia – Washed Hambela, Virginia
Speckled Ax Wood Roasted Coffee, Ethiopia Bekele Dukale, Maine
Spyhouse Coffee Roasting Co., Ethiopia – Kayon Mountain, Minnesota
TWO.
Coffee Champs
San Francisco, CA | Ten minutes of fame.
The first of two Qualifying weekends for the United States Coffee Championships were held this past weekend. Dozens of competitors competed. It was riveting: the coffee, the music and the stories, including learning of new origins like Myanmar, having coffee from Addis Ababa and hearing tales of new methods. There was the story of Counter Culture’s optical sorter for the assurance of the coffee quality control, more stories of Long Miles Coffee out of Burundi f and the rise of freezing green coffee for prolonging roasts.
Specialty coffee culture is exciting and as one barista, Penelope Hearne of Tobys Brooklyn said, “There is a romance to coffee drinking.” Cue all the sunrise.
Coverage of the competition is here and here and here and here. Pick any one and stay tuned for the next weekend happening February 11, 12 out of Austin Texas. Yee-haw or bust.
THREE
Joe
New York, NY | A Cup of Homegrown
What happens when a homegrown New York brand turns thirteen and finds a voice with one of the state’s most known restaurateur. Enter Joe Coffee New York and Danny Meyer. Roasting in Red Hook, Brooklyn for 14 cafes and other restaurants and cafes, its now the recipient of an investment from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group.
The partnership seems a good and likely match since according to a press release issued on January 23rd, “USHG has had a meaningful relationship with Joe Coffee and founder Jonathan Rubinstein for many years, both as avid fans of their coffee bars and also having served their coffee at Union Square Events for years. We chose to make this investment with Joe Coffee because they are dedicated to the pursuit of making flawless coffee, are led by passionate and exceptional management, and share the same hospitality values as USHG.”
The latter sentence peaks this culture’s interest given my personal interest in hospitality as applied to coffee. Additionally. in this past weekend’s coffee competition one barista espoused the relationship of fine dining to specialty coffee when Erik Czuprinksi of River City Roast asked “Why can’t we draw from fine dining for coffee service?”