
Best coffee in Helsinki, Finland
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...

Review: Coutume Cafe, Paris
While I’m out visiting Los Angeles, we have a series of guest dispatches from Paris! Please enjoy the first of three posts & photos by Alden Gewirtz below. In the past few years, as the coffee revolution in the States and Australia started brewing in the post-Starbucks era, it became cliché for Americans to...

A Look Back: Los Angeles Coffee Culture (Part 3)
Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 of my look back at LA’s growing Coffee Culture, it’s time to look at what has changed over time: Handsome Coffee Roasters: recently acquired by Blue Bottle and in the midst of being assimilated, so it remains to be seen what happens here! In the mean time, here’s...

A Look Back: Los Angeles Coffee Culture (Part 2)
Here’s the second in a series of posts looking back at LA’s growing coffee culture (see Part 1 here). Below you’ll witness the proliferation of both multi-roaster shops, like Cognoscenti Coffee and Commissary Coffee), as well as home-grown roastery-cafes like Portola and Cafecito Organico. Proof Bakery / Cognoscenti Coffee, Atwater Village A perfect match...

Crema – Denver, Colorado
It seems like I keep hearing about how awesome Colorado is. People moving there. Others visiting and coming back with stories of craft beer flowing like water, delicious food, and gorgeous country. So when I recently had a business trip that took me to Denver, hyped was an understatement – I was looking forward to...

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...

Photography: Other than coffee in Malmö, Sweden
October saw Malmö getting quite a few visits from coffee industry folks from as far off as Japan. These days it seems like the world is a really small place when you can bump into people at multiple points on the globe by chance. File that under #firstworldnovelties. But if you didn’t have the pleasure...

Searching for the Best Coffee in London (Part I): Notes Music & Coffee
Earlier this summer I took a trip back to the US to visit family, having been abroad for the past year and a half. A stopover in London was the same price as a direct flight, making it a perfect opportunity to explore the Anglo coffee world and meet some of the people I’d only...

Searching for the Best Coffee in Stockholm – Part 2
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 One place we popped in...

A trip to Paris, introducing Cafe Lomi & Frog Fights
The French have, some would say deservedly, a terrible reputation in the specialty coffee community. I tried to find a few good cafes to review while I was in Paris over the holidays, a little ray of hope for the French coffee scene, but unfortunately most of the time they were closed due to special...

9 Days in LA Part Three: Intelligentsia
Last winter I was able to go home to Los Angeles with Claire for a quick 9 day holiday vacation with my family. Here’re some pictures of our visit to Intelligentsia’s Venice and Silver Lake locations. I feel like everyone knows about Intelligentsia already and a review would be redundant, so I’ll just share some...