Dinosaur Coffee reminds me of what I enjoyed most about the cafes that prompted me to start this blog when I was living in Korea — the shop radiates idiosyncratic personality. Quirky creative touches, from art to plants to decorative dino merch, can be found all around the interior, which was designed by the same...
Hidden in a nondescript tunnel attached to the Fulton St. subway station, Voyager is a refreshing change from the sort of samey visual aesthetic a lot of specialty cafes have embraced. With a name and logo referencing the Voyager space probe (which just celebrated its 40th anniversary), the vibe is decidedly otherworldly. A circular...
Juan Valdez, the smiling, mustachioed “cafetero” with his mule and sacks of coffee, is perhaps one of the most recognizable coffee brands worldwide. The character – portrayed by actual coffee farmers since the 1960s – is a proud icon of the 500,000+ Colombian small farm coffee producers who co-own the brand through the national federation...
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters is a name I’ve seen being served at great cafes from New York to Los Angeles over the past couple years, so when I visited Denver I had to pay a visit to their cafe & roasting facility. Sweet Bloom was founded in 2013 by Andy Sprenger, a Brewer’s Cup champ...
Earlier this year I stayed in Helsinki for a couple days en route to a conference in Tallinn (it’s easier and cheaper to take a ferry from Helsinki than finding a flight from NYC). It was my first time returning to the region since grad school, so I was excited to hop on a bike...
Go Get Em Tiger (GGET) represents the vision of cafe culture championed by Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski, both Intelligentsia alums and US Barista Champs. Whether it’s pre-grinding for espresso, creating their own tongue-in-cheek-but-amazing house-made takes on pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes, or ditching pour-overs in favor of batch brewers when that was (and...
Heads up if you’re in New York, the NY Coffee Festival is in town again with public sessions open from Sep. 17-18 at the 69th Regiment Armory. A number of quality focused cafes, roasters, and related companies have booths (Toby’s Estate, Counter Culture, Devocion, Chemex, La Marzocco, Curtis, Alpha Dominche, Joe Coffee, etc.) and there are...
Huckleberry Roasters is one of several local roasters making a name for Denver’s growing coffee scene. Starting out of a garage in 2011, they now have a retail cafe and roasting space, along with a new brand called Port Side in the RiNo arts district serving their coffee with breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, and light...
Verve is a well regarded roastery and cafe out of Santa Cruz, CA. In the past couple years they’ve expanded with a handful of shops in Los Angeles and even an outpost in Tokyo. Their first Los Angeles location debuted at the Ace Hotel in Downtown, and it’s a really striking space. Mirrors give the...
Bar Nine is a Culver City-based cafe and roaster that recently celebrated its second anniversary. Despite its relative youth, the company is making a name for itself by experimenting with long-established cafe norms. Bar Nine isn’t alone here: I’ve noticed a wider move among more progressive coffee bars, especially in California, to drop some “Third Wave”...
Everyone loves to try out a new coffee brewer, but in all honesty the grinder is perhaps your most important piece of brewing equipment. When you grind coffee, even the best grinders produce a range of different particle sizes. The less size variation you have, the more evenly you’ll extract flavor from your coffee and...
Founded in 1997, Amor Perfecto is one of Colombia’s pioneering specialty coffee roasters. From their base in Bogotá, their reach is beginning to expand outside of the country as well (their coffee is now available through Amazon – though I’d try to find a fresher source myself). I lucked out when I visited as the...
