Fresh Ground is a blog for global nomads and kindred cosmopolitans. Plan your own trip, or follow along with my guides to cafes and reviews of the world's best coffee in Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond.

Cafe Reviews
Rosie's Coffee & Wine in Malmö, Sweden

Rosie’s Coffee & Wine in Malmö, Sweden

A humble apology for the lack of updates lately – I’m finishing up my masters in applied cultural analysis at Lund University, and it has been taking up all of my concentration. On the bright side, I just recently made a trip back to Sweden for a few seminars and meetings, and got to visit...
3FE (Third Floor Espresso) Ireland

3FE (Third Floor Espresso) Ireland

3rd Floor Espresso’s owner, Colin Harmon, has won the Irish Barista Championship twice, and both times placed 4th in the World Barista Championship (2009 and 2010) – which is no easy feat! 3FE uses Hasbean coffee, a world class roaster based in the UK, as well as guest roasters. I haven’t had occasion to visit...
Tonx Coffee Subscription Discount

Tonx Coffee Subscription Discount

Tonx Coffee is offering a $10 discount on subscriptions. If you’ve followed the specialty coffee industry for any length of time, you’ve probably seen or heard the name Tonx float around. Tonx is Tony Konecny: Tony began his descent into coffee madness as a barista and then head roaster at Seattle’s seminal Victrola Coffee and...
The Independent Coffee Book - London

The Independent Coffee Book – London

London is blessed with a great coffee scene, numerous cafes, and no less than two World Barista Champions who call the city home. I’ve been slowly cataloging the cafes I visited on my trip to London, but if you’re planning your own vacation a new guide book has come out that’s worth your while. The...
Untitled at the Whitney Museum

Untitled at the Whitney Museum

The Whitney museum has surprisingly good coffee, a fact I discovered with the help of Oliver Strand’s contribution to the ever-useful New York Times’ app, “The Scoop.” Past the long lines for museum admission that wrap out the door, you’ll find Untitled, a restaurant and coffee bar down stairs serving a refined take on diner...
Toby's Estate, Brooklyn - Public Cupping Sessions

Toby’s Estate, Brooklyn – Public Cupping Sessions

Toby’s Estate is a new cafe and roastery in Brooklyn, with Australian roots. I’ll be writing more about them later (the short review: nice coffee, great sandwiches, cool space), but for now I wanted to share that they are offering public cuppings every Wednesday. I went a few weeks ago and had a great time....
A visit to Tapped & Packed, London

A visit to Tapped & Packed, London

I wanted to share a few photos I took of Tapped & Packed, a specialty cafe with two locations in London – marked on the outside only by their street numbers “114″ or “26.” Each space is different, with No. 26 feeling more like a cozy neighborhood haunt, and No. 114 like a destination you’d...
Single Origin Coffee, LA Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax

Single Origin Coffee, LA Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax

Coffee news in recent weeks has been dominated by the highly anticipated opening of Handsome Coffee Roasters in Downtown LA. But not to be overshadowed, another noteworthy cafe called Single Origin just opened its doors. This new shop is in the Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax, next to the Grove shopping mall, and it’s...
Blue Bottle Coffee, Manhattan

Blue Bottle Coffee, Manhattan

Blue Bottle has been one of the bigger success stories in specialty coffee, garnering press and praise since the early 2000s, starting with its locations in San Francisco. Since then, they’ve expanded rapidly, with recent profit growth of 50% each year. Blue Bottle excels in creating and telling its own trend-setting story about coffee, using...
La Frontera, Peru - Counter Culture Coffee

La Frontera, Peru – Counter Culture Coffee

La Frontera, as the bag explains, is the name given to a collection of small family coffee farms in Peru near the border with Ecuador. In 2007, we began our work with five small cooperatives of farmers in a valley with no name, calling the project Valle del Santuario. It has been our most successful...
Best Cafes in Seoul, Korea: 2012 Updates

Best Cafes in Seoul, Korea: 2012 Updates

I moved from Korea to Sweden back in the summer of 2010, and that unfortunately marked the end of my coverage of Korea’s best cafes & roasters (and a few of its quirkiest). However, I get a lot of people asking for recommendations about where to visit in Korea. A number of interesting new cafes...
Prufrock Coffee, London

Prufrock Coffee, London

Prufrock Coffee is home to Gwilym Davies, 2009 World Barista Champion. The affable, scruffy bearded barista who lives on a boat has assembled a talented supporting cast at two locations in London. My favorite is Prufrock Cafe on Leather Lane, a large, airy and colorful space, inviting you to linger and enjoy one of the...