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 later went on to bend the coffeebar genre as part of Intelligentsia Coffee’s notorious Los Angeles project. He has the dubious distinction of being among the first “coffee bloggers” for which he sincerely apologizes. Tony thinks better coffee makes for a better life.

Together with Nik Bauman of Foodzie.com, the duo have created a nicely designed subscription coffee service that ‘curates’ small batches of coffee, roasts it and ships it fresh to your door every two weeks. You can delay shipments if you’ll be out of town, too. The website is simple, smart, and effortless; all you have to do is look forward to that little box of joy to arrive in the mail.

They’re also expanding – having just added Nick Griffith to the team this week. You can read more about that in this write up by Joshua Lurie at FoodGPS:

Konecny and Griffith first met in 2006, when the former helped recruit the latter to work for Intelligentsia as they were starting a Glassell Park roastery and Silver Lake coffeehouse. Six years later, Konecny said, “We’ve wanted to put together the best team, and I think Nick has one of the best palates that I’ve ever encountered in coffee, and he’s no bullshit, and those two things don’t always go together.”

I had been meaning to try their coffee as I’d heard many good things, and the $10 discount was irresistable. If you’ve also been waiting, now might be the time to give it a shot – $28 for two shipped bags of coffee is a bargain.

I paid a visit to Coffee Fest NY yesterday and took a few pictures to share (today is the last day of the show, so if you want to visit you have a few hours left, or pre-register for next year). Trade shows are rather unglamorous, full of syrup manufacturers, smoothie products, and other goods & services targeted to all kinds of coffee related businesses, rather than consumers. But it can be interesting if you’re a hardcore coffee geek with a lot of patience. Below are a few highlights from my visit.

The majority of booths at a trade show are like this — free samples of Guittard chocolate? Don’t mind if I do.

 PTs Coffee

The folks at PTs Coffee (below) were really nice. Visiting from Kansas, they had some great coffee available to sample. I really enjoyed the Colombia Villa Loyola, a Caturra Peaberry prepared on the Chemex. It was the best that I tried at the show and I’ll be looking out for more of their coffee here in New York – you can try some at Culture Espresso (article coming soon).

ZPM Espresso

I was really looking forward to checking out the espresso machine built by the guys at ZPM Espresso. If you haven’t heard, they’re the ones who came up with a new design and crowd-funded its development on Kick Starter, raising far more than their initial goal (currently they’re at $370,000). With PID temperature control, the potential for after-market open-source software customization, and a focus on producing a machine for geeks at an affordable price, this is definitely something to keep an eye on. You can still pre-order machines, so check out Kick Starter or contact them directly.

Unfortunately their final prototype was not fully functional at the show, so I tried a shot on the original prototype. It was a solid shot, and according to Steve Rheinhart, who pulled more than a few, the machine was pretty consistent. I’ll be looking forward to reading reviews of the final product and might just purchase one myself. Wish Gleb and Igor all the best with their rapidly growing company.

Birch Coffee

I’d never heard of Birch Coffee, but apparently they’ve been roasting in NY for two years. They had a Kenya that tasted like a ripe tomato, and a pleasant espresso. I’ll have to visit their retail location sometime to try more.

 Dallis Bros.

Dallis Bros. is one of the oldest roasters in New York, with nearly a century of history. They also sponsor competitions like the Northeast Regional Barista Championship (NERBC). I enjoyed one of their coffees from the Dominican Republic and look forward to learning more about them.

Kuma Coffee at Visions Espresso

Kuma Coffee is new to me, but I enjoyed their Panama Elida prepared via Clever at the Visions Espresso booth.

Overall it was an interesting mix of experiences – some nice coffee, some not so nice, and some weird, as every coffee trade show I’ve gone to has been. The $30 admission price ($20 if you pre-registered) is a bit steep, but you could get discounted subscriptions to Roast and Barista magazine, partially offsetting the expense. I had been meaning to subscribe to Roast and took the opportunity to do that. The best part about it is meeting people behind the businesses, and having an opportunity to taste samples of coffee and other products from a variety of companies. It’s perhaps most useful for indie cafes and other businesses looking to improve their coffee service, but if you’re a super geek you might have fun too.

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 small-scale farmer relationship to date – we’ve sourced incredible, organic coffee directly from small farmers, delivering premiums for quality, and have built rewarding personal relationships at the same time. Over the past couple of years, we’ve sought to expand our work beyond the little valley, to the surrounding mountains where other small farmers grow coffee with the same dedication and passion. This year, we’re introducing a new label – La Frontera – to bring these great new coffees of northern Peru to you. La Frontera means “the Border,” since these coffees are all from the mountainous northernmost border area of Peru.

‘La Frontera’ is a washed blend of the Caturra, Bourbon, Pache, and Catimor varieties. The aroma ranges from intense dark chocolate with hints of spice and cherries, to something reminiscent of the sweet smell of fresh cut wood and sap crackling on a camp fire. In the cup it’s a balanced but sophisticated coffee, with pronounced raisin-like sweetness, the complexity of a single estate dark chocolate, and a nice red grape acidity.

This coffee has been submitted to the upcoming Coffee Common event at TED in Long Beach, and I can see why. It’s nuanced but accessible, a real treat. You can try this coffee at Coffee Common if they have a public event in Los Angeles (or if you’ve got the deep pockets to attend TED), or order direct from Counter Culture’s website. Let me know what you think if you’ve tried it!

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 and roasters have opened in Seoul over the past couple years and I think it’s time for a post highlighting a few of the most noteworthy.

This was a real collaborative effort, with invaluable translation, research, long-distance phone calling, and photos by my girlfriend Claire Lee; more great photos and notes provided by my friend, former co-worker, and fellow coffee-geek, Jin Park; as well as photos by Tom from TomEatsJenCooks.com – whose current adventures in Seoul you should definitely be following! Thanks so much!

Republic of Coffee

This is one of the cafes I had most wanted to visit, but unfortunately I moved before it was opened, and it has since changed ownership. Republic of Coffee was the home of Korean Barista Champion Lee Jong Hoon, who also made it to 5th place in the 2009 World Barista Championship (competition video here). I really enjoyed meeting Jong Hoon, and his girlfriend & partner Mi-Kyeong, while I was in Korea. At the time they were roasting for wholesale on a tiny shop roaster and conducting trainings at their workshop, which you can see in several of my older posts (here and here). Their uncompromising dedication and attention to quality is really evident in their work; for instance, Jong Hoon used Cup of Excellence coffees (which undergo a rigorous national selection, competition, and auction) in his espresso blends. His roasted coffees were among the best I’ve had.

They’ve since moved on and Jong Hoon is now working with a specialty cafe & roaster, Cafe MOMOS in Busan, Korea’s second largest city on the southern coast. Apparently there’s quite a cafe scene and a new wave of coffee shops opening up there, taking advantage of the cheaper rents to invest more in better equipment, better green coffee, and larger spaces. Rest assured, next time I visit Korea I’ll be including a trip to Busan to enjoy the beaches, and check out the cafes :) Republic of Coffee is still open for business in Seoul, and the new owner has been trained by Jong Hoon, so it’s worth a visit if you’re near by — please let me know how it was in the comments!

(Photos from last year soon after they opened, taken by Claire Lee)

Coffee LEC

Formerly working with the Coffea Coffee chain, 2010 Korean Barista champion An Jae Hyeuk has opened his own cafe, called Coffee LEC (“Limited Edition Cafe”). Their first location was in Bundang, but they’ve since moved to the fashionable Garosugil strip in Sinsadong, Seoul. They’re roasting their coffee in-house with a Giesen roaster, and the “Limited Edition” concept is a reference to their standard coffee blend changing twice a year. They also have rotating single origins, and Jae Hyeok says you can ask the barista to use “specialty coffee” in your order if you want to try it as a single origin espresso or in a cappuccino. They also have signature drinks, blending espresso with other ingredients, that change quarterly. One of their specialty drinks is called a “black and white,” which is espresso, cold milk, and cream shaken together – you can see it in the pictures below.

Watch out for a new location opening in Hongdae soon!

Photos below by Jin Park – see more of her work here!

5 Extracts

Korea’s 2011 Barista Champion, Choi Hyun Sun, opened this roastery & cafe in the Hongdae neighborhood known for its indie music scene, cafes, restaurants, and night life. The cafe is housed in what used to be a private residence, and its eclectic interior is full of subdued wood tones and bright, colorful contrasting details. It looks like a perfect fit for the neighborhood with it’s Korean-hipster vibe, and seems like it would be one of my favorite spots if I was still living in Seoul.

The name 5 extracts refers to body, aroma, sweetness, acidity, and bitterness – elements that should be balanced in a good brew. Their coffee is roasted in house, using a 3 kilo Diedrich, and a variety of brew methods are available on their table menus – which are apparently iPads. The most eye catching piece of equipment is the siphon bar that gets so much press in the US (see any article about Blue Bottle). Aside from the standard fare, there is a constantly changing menu of specialty concoctions, inspired by the signature drinks made in barista championships – like orange and cream over espresso.

Photos below by Jin Park – see more of her work here!

 Coffee Sedona

Sedona is an off-shoot of the Caffe Artigiano franchise in Seoul, and deserves an honorable mention given that there aren’t many decent coffee options around COEX (Espressamente illy is passable). They use coffee from 49th Parallel and Intelligentsia (and from the looks of it, a bit of Stumptown too), world class roasters from the US and Canada, but because it’s shipped internationally, if the cafe isn’t on top of quality control it can be a bit old at times. When it’s fresh, it can be good, so you might want to try persuading the barista to whisper their shipping schedule and plan your visits accordingly. I hear they have a Canadian barista (champion? regional champion? competitor?) on staff with them as well. Also, I’m not sure why, but they seem to have four La Marzocco FB-80s in different colors. Maybe you can find out and post in the comments?

The easiest way to get to Sedona is to go to the Oakwood hotel, take the elevator to B2, and it’ll be next to ‘Bulgogi Brothers.’

Picture credit goes to Tom from TomEatsJenCooks.com – look to his site for more reviews from Korea, as soon as he gets tired of exploring alcoholism Korean drinking culture :) 

Coffee Libre & Cafe Wee

Coffee Libre is a roaster in Korea, located near Hongdae. They’ve been getting a lot of attention and good reviews lately, and Sang Ho Park from Tapped and Packed has been using their beans (and winning) in the UK Barista Championship regionals. Check out their website to order their coffee online, or stop by their roastery next time you’re in Hongdae to snag a fresh bag.

Coffee Libre doesn’t currently have their own cafe (one will be opening near Hongdae soon), but one place you can try their coffee now is Cafe Wee. In this case, with typical Korean charm, Wee stands for both “We enjoy espresso” and “We” as in building community. But Cafe Wee is more than your typical specialty cafe, apparently they go out of their way to provide jobs for immigrant women, many of whom come to Korea to work or marry and send money back home to their families. These jobs are a way to gain some independence and build opportunities, something that is very difficult for immigrants in Korea’s very homogenous and competitive society. The women started training for the job four months prior to opening, working on their language skills, and learning how to run a cafe and brew coffee. Cafe Wee operates with local government support, and all of their profit goes towards programs that provide assistance for these women and other disadvantaged multi-cultural families & their children.

Cafe Wee is located in Bundang, about an hour outside of Seoul, and their menu is very inexpensive, starting at 2500 won. I know a lot of English teachers live in Bundang and work at its many hagwons, so I hope at least a few of you will visit and post your experience in the comments below!

Pictures below by Jin Park – check out more of her work here!

I’ve updated my Seoul Coffee Guide with these new cafes, see below, or open in a new window for the full list!

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Here’s part two recapping my Easter visit to Stockholm (click here if you missed part one). As it turns out, most shops were closed during the Easter holiday, but we did manage to stop at Drop Coffee and Snickarbacken 7, while peeking in at a couple other places.

Cupcake STHLM

Drop Coffee

Snickarbacken 7

Johan & Nystrom Concept Store

Finally, we tried to visit Johan & Nystrom’s concept store, but it was closed for the holiday. It does look nice and I’d try to visit in the future. As Sweden’s largest specialty roaster, they offer a very wide range of coffees. I especially like their “Cherry Red” project coffees, so keep an eye out for that.

If you make a trip to Stockholm, do check out Kalle Freese’s map for some more recommendations.

Here’re a few more photos of Stockholm – it’s a beautiful city, and I wish I’d had more time to explore!

Only in Sweden

This marks the first year of the World Brewers Cup, a coffee competition similar to the World Barista Championship, though instead of espresso it’s focused solely on brewing coffee. The goal seems to be to do for manual brewing what the Barista Championships have done for espresso, pushing the leading edge of knowledge, technique, and quality farther forward.

I had a chance to visit with Sweden’s entrant to the Brewers Cup, Emil Eriksson, who is also Sweden’s 2010 Barista Champion. He’s currently working with the country’s largest specialty coffee roaster, Johan & Nyström. Several of us, including Luis from Cafe 14, met up to watch Emil’s practice performance at J&N’s new, very cool workspace out in the industrial harbor area of Malmö. Click below to read on and check out the pictures!

The Brewers Cup is divided into two rounds, the first judged on taste alone with all competitors using the same coffee. The final round lets the competitor choose his or her own coffee, and perform a little while presenting the coffee to the judges, which counts for 30% of their overall score.

Emil is competing with quite nice and well known coffee from Kenya Gethumbwini, roasted by Johan & Nyström. He’s up-dosing slightly and brewing with a slightly lower water temperature to really bring out the blackcurrant and grapefruit acidity that he’s looking for. He also has a couple other tricks that you’ll have to keep an eye out for in the pictures or watch at the competition. Tasting the coffee, his parameters and techniques work well producing a nice juicy, balanced, and exceptionally clean cup. The Brewers Cup should be streamed online June 22-23, keep an eye out on Twitter for a link.

Best of luck to Emil in the competition, and I look forward to seeing how things go overall for this first annual Brewers Cup.

This post is incredibly long overdue given that one of the first people to welcome me to Sweden was Dan Stenqvist, blogger, barista extraordinaire, and roaster for Solde Kaffebar in Malmö. It’s been about nine months since I arrived, and I think I’ve been to Solde more often than any other coffee bar in Malmö. Click below to see why!

When I first moved to Malmö, Dan, Johan, and Jonas of Solde were in the process of setting up their roastery (which you can see in the pictures above), and since then they’ve been continually tweaking their offerings, learning and improving. It’s fun as a specialty coffee consumer because each visit holds something different. We’re not talking about a big, established specialty roaster with multiple layers of staff or fancy equipment, but three guys directly serving you coffee they’ve sourced, roasted, and blended themselves. That’s more than a commodity transaction; that’s an invitation to take part in their adventure, and it’s what makes visiting local, independent, artisan coffee shops so fun.

So far, I’ve been most impressed with their espresso blends, which seem to be getting better and better each time I visit. They also do drip coffee blends, and single-origins occasionally, which are pleasant most of the time, but I think will see some more work before reaching the same level as their espresso roasting and blending. For now, it’s the espresso at Solde that really sets them apart. I can still remember a few of the espresso shots I’ve had there over the past year – from subtly spicy and sweet, with the finish of a nice cigar, that made trudging through the icy Swedish winter a little more enjoyable, to the more recent summery notes of sweet, tangy, sun dried tomato with a strong and lingering chocolate finish. But if you’re not in the mood for espresso, Solde’s got you covered with their very own World Latte Art Champion, Johan Carlström. They also have sandwiches that look nice, but I always forget to try them because they’re hidden below the counter.

Inside, Solde is all high counters and stools, an arrangement that breaks down barriers and makes for a more open, shared social space; something I enjoy, perhaps because it’s uncommon in the US. It’s not a place to park for two hours with a laptop (there are other spots more suitable for that), but definitely a place for a chat, reading a paper, and sparking a conversation (if you can speak the language). When busy, the cafe crowds up with an interesting mix of Malmö’s hipsters, but also young families out for a walk with the baby, and shoppers taking a break from the nearby shopping street. If you can get one of the comfortable corner seats, it makes for entertaining people watching.

Solde recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, and I look forward to seeing where Johan, Jonas, and Dan take it in another five years. I’m expecting great things!

Map and directions below:

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Lilla Kafferosteriet, a cafe and roastery in Malmö, hosts occasional cuppings on Sunday afternoons. I’m terrible at keeping up with the Swedish coffee scene (I don’t speak Swedish) and would never have known about these, but luckily Oscar from Portafilth.com keeps me in tune with where the coffee geek action is happening in Malmö.

Last time I went to a Lilla Kafferosteriet cupping, it was a series of coffees from different regions in Harrar, Ethiopia. The other weekend they were doing something even more interesting: cupping the same coffee brewed with four different kinds of water. If you drink your coffee with milk and sugar, this is the time to tune out and go watch Youtube or something. But if your interest is piqued, read on.

Måns, barista of what I gather is the ‘specialty’ focused slow bar at the back of Lilla Kafferosteriet, started off the cupping by explaining how water’s chemistry, acidity, and mineral levels affect the flavor of brewed coffee. This was in Swedish, so I didn’t understand a word of it. But I’ve read a bit in the past, and some information about water content and coffee brewing can be found at David Schomer’s blog or at Cirqua or Everpure’s websites (both major water filtration suppliers). The SCAA also has a 56 page ‘Water Quality Handbook,’ which you can buy for $35 from the SCAA, or you can read about it on Home-Barista.com.

In short, brewed coffee is mostly water, so it’s important to have water with chemistry that plays well with the soluble materials in the ground coffee. To taste the difference, we had before us the same coffee brewed with four different kinds of water: Pur Pur, a specially formulated bottled water for coffee brewing; Lilla Kafferosteriet’s own filtered and conditioned tap water; unfiltered Malmö tap water; and Evian bottled water.

Evian and unfiltered tap water both muted the flavor of the coffee, obscuring the acidity, and for lack of a better word the ‘sparkle’ of fleeting flavors and aromas that fresh roasted coffee should have.

The filtered and conditioned tap water was much better, tasting like what I’d expect a good brew to be with balanced and defined acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. The Pur Pur was marginally better tasting, bringing out a little more nuanced sweetness and acidity, but not with enough difference that you’d notice it if you weren’t looking for it.

All in all this just underscores what I’d mentioned while testing the Coava Disk at Solde, that you need to, at the very least, filter your tap water when brewing coffee at home. I’m not about to advocate buying bottled coffee-brewing water (like Pur Pur) all the time, it’d be excessive and wasteful I think. But it might be a nice exercise to try once, compared with what you’re usually tasting. It could be an eye opener.

(Look out for a proper article about Lilla Kafferosteriet, as well as the rest of the Malmö coffee scene in the future — been busy with my masters program, but I’m working on it!).

Coffee Collective is a world renowned Danish cafe and roastery, part-owned by 2006 World Barista Champion Klaus Thomsen, along with Peter Dupont, Casper Rasmussen, and Linus Törsäter. Their coffee is highly regarded and I’ve seen their bags proudly displayed like trophies behind the bar or in the back rooms of specialty cafes around the world.

When I moved to Sweden, the Coffee Collective was at the top of my list of cafes to visit. Luckily my masters is a joint program partnered with the University of Copenhagen, so several times a month, after a jaunt across the Öresund bridge and several hours of lecture, I get to stop by the collective for a coffee.

Click here to read more and see tons of photos!

On my first visit I was surprised to see the Strada, La Marzocco’s prototype pressure-profiling espresso machine. It has been making the rounds of high-end coffee shops for pre-production feedback and testing (click here to read Coffee Collective’s, or Tim Wendelboe’s thoughts on the machine). The espresso that day was quite nice, very sweet, with a bright, upfront acidity and tart fruity flavor (think cranberries and raspberries), balanced by an equally distinct and lasting finish of chocolate and roast notes.

The Coffee Collective neighborhood in Nørrebro.

Here you can see the La Marzocco Strada in the open bar area.

Since then I’ve been back a number of times. I usually order an espresso, but they do Aeropress cups of their coffee that are pretty good as well. On my last visit I tried some of the coffee from Hacienda La Esmeralda, in Panama. This farm uses the Ethiopian geisha varietal, and produces a crop that is highly regarded in the specialty coffee world.

It’s also rather expensive, its reputation for quality and exquisite taste has resulted in record setting auction prices. Certain lots have bid up to $175/lb. Compare that to the ‘fair trade’ price floor which is not much more than $1/lb and you’ll see just how high that price is.

The tasting notes on the label are spot on, and when the coffee is prepared fresh it’s like earl grey (i.e. bergamot), jasmine, and honey; very light and fruity, though with a bit of a roasty, dark chocolatey finish that seems to be a trademark of their roast style. I bought 250g (~$30) of the Esmeralda for brewing at home and the dry aroma is amazing; the taste in the cup is exceptionally delicate, fruity and sweet.

These muesli and berry bars are awesome.

Espresso made on the Strada. Don’t let the tan stripe fool you, from what I hear, with some pressure profiles you end up getting better results with a shot that runs longer and blonder than you’d typically want.

The old Probat roaster.

The new Probat roaster.

The Coffee Collective bar – preparing Aeropress.

Back to normal, sans Strada.

Coffee Collective is known for their light Scandinavian style roast, so if you visit you should expect lots of fruity acidity and lightly roasted chocolatey notes. Most of the time this is great, and it’s a fine example of a regional coffee style. At times, though, this doesn’t agree with my preferences, and occasionally I’ve had an espresso that was unpleasantly tart, reminding me of the occasional dried apricot you find in the bag that is both sour and bitter, with underdeveloped sweetness.

But, all in all, Coffee Collective is most assuredly deserving of their reputation and I always look forward to visiting. Their little kitchen, which is open to the customer, makes it feel warm and inviting (if a bit awkward when you first realize you’ve walked right into their workspace), and their baked goods – especially the bars you see coming out of the oven in my photos – are a perfect companion to their sweet and fruity coffees.

Right next to Coffee Collective, the Assistens cemetery is non-creepy and a nice walk! Grab a coffee and then pay a visit to Niels Bohr and Soren Kierkegaard.

Here’s a map to The Coffee Collective in Copenhagen, Denmark. There’s not an easy way to get there by the metro, your best bet is to look for a bus route that drops you at one of the nearby intersections. If you do take the subway, the Forum or Frederiksburg stops are about a 15-20 minute walk.

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Paul Bassett’s shop at Gosok Terminal in Seoul, Korea (article here), was one of my most frequented shops due to its consistently great espresso (though its convenient location didn’t hurt). They also have a shop in Tokyo that I had a chance to visit this past summer.

It turns out that Paul Bassett’s Shinjuku cafe is a ~10 minute walk from the Toyko Metropolitan Government building, the second tallest structure in Tokyo with a free observation deck on the 48th floor, so we made a stop for some coffee before heading over to take in the cityscape.

Paul Bassett, who’s from Australia, is the 2003 World Barista Champion. He opened his first shop in Ginza, Tokyo in 2006, though it appears that it’s now closed, leaving the Shinjuku shop and a new location under construction in Jiyugaoka. One thing unique to his shops (both in Japan and Korea) is that every location does its own roasting on a large Probat open for public viewing. The retail bags of roasted coffee are then stored in climate controlled cabinets, something I’ve never seen anywhere else.

Having tasted their sweet and well balanced espresso many times in Korea, I opted for a macchiato on this visit, which you can see in the first photo of this post. These are great cafes with staff that consistently make great drinks. I wonder if there are any plans to expand outside of Asia? Until then, if you ever find yourself in Seoul or Tokyo, Paul Bassett’s shops are a sure bet for a good coffee.

To the left you can see the climate controlled cabinet that they store coffee bags in.

And just for fun, here’s a shot of the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building.

Click here to see a map of Paul Bassett’s Shinjuku location.

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