The Sprudge Report
Different name, same great newsletter. ☕️
Welcome to our new Substack newsletter—new name same great newsletter. We’ll send you a once-weekly recap of coffee news, job posts, new cafes, and more.
Sprudge Twenty returns
Nominations are now open for this year’s class of The Sprudge Twenty, our annual initiative honoring and amplifying twenty extraordinary individuals in the specialty coffee community. Now in its fifth season, presented in partnership with Pacific Barista Series, the Sprudge Twenty is dedicated to mentors and leaders, game-changers and inspirations, baristas and coffee producers, traders and teachers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and original voices in the field of coffee.
Behind the scenes at three coffee roasting coops
Editor-At-Large Jenn Chen speaks with three US-based coffee roasting/retailers about their transition to a worker-owned cooperative model. “There’s a subtle but significant difference between a company having a union, and a company being worker-owned; both unions and cooperatives are examples of collectivity, where you are stronger as a group than as an individual, but the practical reality of these modes of operation look totally distinct.”
A new Cleveland, Ohio coffee guide
Freelance journalist Sam Hoag takes us to seven must-visit cafes in the Cleve. “Cleveland boasts an incredible roster of cafes, with an overwhelming majority preparing their own in-house roasts. Though there are some big names with several locations of which most have heard or visited, even the small, single location operations shine in their homemade blends and delicately-chosen single origins. At any of these cafes, patrons will get a taste for the fantastic civic pride that animates Clevelanders served up alongside their choice of top-tier coffee.”
Coffee Movement opens second location in SF
Longtime Sprudge contributor Michael Light visits Coffee Movement’s new location in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood. “The new location is considerably larger than the first, an intimate, outdoor seating only space one block east the San Francisco Cable Car Museum, with trollies full of tourists rumbling by every 15 minutes. Here in the Richmond, a butter-colored Volkswagen van Overstreet bought and renovated in 2017 sits parked out front, a reminder of The Coffee Movement’s original incarnation as a mobile catering and pop-up concept.”
Coffee Design: Thankful Friend in San Diego
This week we profile Thankful Friend in San Diego. The company stands out for its unique way of categorizing coffee, colorful packaging design, and passion for using coffee as a gateway toward healing. (And their plucky penguin mascot.) Check out our interview with the founders here.
New coffee gear
Anfim announced their newest commercial espresso grinder, The Luna. Combining German engineered precision burrs and modern tech enhancements, the Luna “caters to commercial coffee professionals looking for best value performance in espresso grinding.”
Seattle-based Miir debuted a carafe-brewer combo-dombo and is raising funds on Kickstarter right this very moment. Made of vacuum-insulated, double wall 18/8 stainless steel for heat retention, the Carafe comes with a conical brewer, also stainless steel, that can be screwed directly onto it. Then, when the brewing is complete, you just take the brewer off and plug in the press fit lid—made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. The brewer is designed to be used with any conical filter, and the Carafe is able to hold two cups of coffee.
And Latte Art Factory, the new push-of-a-button microfoam dispensing system, won another award at World of Coffee earlier this month.
There’s a new coffee travel series on YouTube
Coffee Breath is the brainchild of Jason “Double J” Johnson, the co-founder of Black Rabbit Service Company, a coffee equipment sales, repair, and consultation service based in Portland and Los Angeles. Working alongside Field Theory Pictures, Johnson wants Coffee Breath to “fill the gaps in the food and travel doc. category in television.”
A new study caused a stir
We love coffee here at Sprudge, but not in a blind, pollyanna sort of way. The coffee industry faces serious, perhaps even existential threats from the impact of climate change and the ongoing, ridiculous exploitation of speculative prices on the C-Market, which is one of the reasons why drinking specialty coffee matters so very much in the first place (also it is delicious).
Another issue facing coffee lovers is grappling with the sheer amount of carbon emissions the industry creates. From production all the way to consumption, greenhouse gases are produced up and down the coffee chain. Reducing these impacts is a major focus of mindful coffee consumers, and helps explain the growing interest in carbon neutral, sustainable cafe models. Scientists who study coffee are interested in these topics as well, and one recent study has resulted in a pretty considerable kerfuffle across coffee industry channels.
And WaPo really stepped in it.
A closer inspection of the methodology (and one critical error within) tells a different, more complicated story.
On Thursday, Washington Post published a three-paragraph “well, actually” op-ed in response to all the heat.
Walk For Water
For World Water Day, Wednesday, March 23rd, non-profit Project Waterfall is organizing the Big Water Walk, where folks will raise money to get clean water to coffee growing communities by walking along the Thames River in London.
For those outside London, all you need to do is design your own path and use the same JustGive platform to raise funds. Registration for the London even cost £15 and includes a bunch of gear. Outside of London, it’s free to sign up (no gear though). Both can be done at Project Waterfall.
New job listings from Sprudge Jobs
Each week our jobs board posts employment opportunities around the globe. Here’s a list of this week’s new listings:
Coava Coffee Roasters - Accounts Payable Specialist - Portland, OR
Dune Coffee Roasters - Shop Manager - Santa Barbara, CA
Proud Mary Coffee - Account Manager - Portland, OR
New cafes on Sprudge Maps
Here are new cafes discoverable on our global cafe portal Sprudge Maps. Register your cafe for free—thanks to the support of La Marzocco and Pacific Barista Series.
Constellation Coffee - Pittsburgh, PA
Ohana, The Coffee Family - Budapest, Hungary
Uncle Paulie’s Deli - Los Angeles, CA
Pilgrim Coffeehouse - Seattle, WA
Groundwork Coffee - Los Angeles, CA
Paper Mill Coffee - Talinn, Estonia
Cloud City Coffee - Seattle, WA
Cafe Alto - Detroit, MI
Remedy Coffee - Knoxville, TN
Basking Coffee - Fukuoka, Japan
FreshGround Roasting - Geneva, IL
2 Queens Coffee - Narrowsburg, NY
Opo Coffee - Decatur, GA
Do you have a news tip? Feedback? A fleeting thought? Send an e-mail, contact us on our website, leave a message at 1-888-55-SPRUDGE, or send us a letter at PO Box 3943 Portland, OR 97218.
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