Καφές C ΗΠΑ Προθεσμιακά - May 15 (KCK5)

142,43 -6,18    (-4,16%)

25/02 - Σε πραγματικό χρόνο CFD. Νόμισμα USD ( Αποποίηση )

Είδος: Εμπόρευμα

Ομάδα: Αγροτικά

Μονάδα: 1 Λίβρα

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• Πρ. Κλείσιμο: 142,43
• Άνοιγμα: 142,43
• Εύρος ημέρας: 142,43 - 142,43

Συναλλαγή Τώρα

Καφές C ΗΠΑ 142,43 -6,18 (-4,16%)

 

Συναλλαγή Τώρα

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Επισκόπηση Καφές C ΗΠΑ

•   Διάγραμμα σε Σχήμα Κεριού
•  Περιοχή Διαγράμματος

• 1
• 5
• 15
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Διαδραστική Συνομιλία

Καφές C ΗΠΑ  142,43-6,18(-4,16%)

Πρ. Κλείσιμο142,43

ΜήναςMay 15

Ελάχιστη Μεταβολή0,05

Άνοιγμα142,43

Συμβολαίου37.500 Λίβρες

Αξία Μεταβολής18,75

Εύρος ημέρας142,43 - 142,43

Είδος ΡύθμισηςΦυσική

Σύμβολο ΒάσηςKC

52 Εβδομ.157.80 - 225.50

Τελευταία Ημέρα Συναλλαγών21/04/2015

ΜήνεςHKNUZ

Επιστροφή 1 έτους-18,91%

Brewers Cup: From the Shadows to the Cutting Edge in Manual Brewing

At the 2015 US Brewers Cup Championship in Long Beach, Calif. Photo courtesy of SCAA.

by Clark Le Compte

Brewers Cup could be considered the younger sibling to the higher-profile, SCAA-sponsored Barista Championship. As younger siblings do, it has in recent years combined scrappiness and growth spurts to break free from the elder’s shadow and form its own identity.

As a venue for coffee professionals and home brewers to meet and share knowledge, skills, innovations and experience, there’s no better event.

Unlike the barista competition, Brewers Cup attracts a diverse competitor base, from professional roasters who manage every phase of the green bean to final extraction process, to passionate home roasters and brewers, to well-established coffee company CEOs. This kind of variety in competitors’ backgrounds leads to unpredictable, and unexpectedly rewarding, results.

The home brewers and enthusiasts who may not be immersed in the coffee trade on a daily basis have a different perspective from that of those competitors representing the industry. With less access to the whole ‘farm to cup’ process, they tend to exercise impressive and organically developed sensory awareness and methodological creativity.

Consider the fact that, historically, many of the best and most popular brewing devices have come from outside the coffee industry. Innovators such as chemist Peter Schlumbohm (Chemex), housewife-to-entrepreneur Melitta Bentz (paper lined filter top), and the engineer-machinist team of de Ponti and Bialetti (moka pot), have introduced devices and methods that have shaped the quality and experience of coffee worldwide.

Coffee brewing is a daily ritual of the people, and Brewers Cup represents an ideal platform for this kind of development, with a mutual sharing of technique, information and equipment among home brewers and professionals alike.

Post author Clark Le Compte competing at the 2015 US Brewers Cup. Photo provided by Le Compte.

On the other side of the competitor spectrum are people like 2014 Northeast Regional Champion Todd Carmichael of La Colombe and the popular Travel Channel show “Dangerous Grounds,” who chose the US Brewers Cup in Seattle to premiere his new brewer, The Dragon. Riffing on a long-established siphon design, The Dragon represents an insider’s modification of an outsider’s innovation. It is brewing evolution in progress.

An arguably more accessible competition than other coffee championships, Brewers Cup requires few tools without a reliance on fancy machinery. It is truly a test of skill — the single skill of coffee brewing.

“For me, it is exactly the use of affordable, common brewing devices that make competitions like Brewers Cup and Aeropress Championship wonderful and approachable for either home or shop baristas,” says Mikey Rinaldo, Bikram Yoga Instructor, home brewing enthusiast, and 5th place winner at Southeast Regionals this year. “One thing I especially like about the Brewers Cup is that when sound parameters are in place, I can brew using non-coffee gear — hence my choice of a tea ball and a cocktail shaker for immersion.”

It seems every year, some creative freestylings of Brewers Cup competitors challenge traditional thought and pique the interest of the industry at large.

Sifting ground coffee is one example that has now put brewers in two camps: those who value even extraction from uniform, sieved grounds; and those who believe a variable grind creates depth of flavor. Last year, we saw “polished immersion” —  brewing coffee in a cupping bowl then pouring it through a filter — and this year we see competitors like Rinaldo modifying the idea, and placing.

At its core, Brewers Cup is less a competition and more a showcase of exploration.

“Competition begets innovation and fosters deeper appreciation and passion,” says Neil Balkcom, chair of the SCAA Brewers Cup Subcommittee and Director of Coffee Operations for M.E. Swing Coffee Roasters. “So what does that matter? Because it’s a proven way to increase quality.”

Sarah Anderson of Intelligentsia LA was named 2015 US Brewers Cup champion. Photo courtesy of SCAA.

With its relatively open-ended competition platform, Brewers Cup asks the questions, “Where can we go?” and “How can we get there?” Competition preparation is all about asking those questions and taking that journey. The competition itself puts the answers and the navigation to the test. Does this technique improve quality?  Here is a panel of expert judges to tell you yes or no.

Are these innovations useful in a cafe’s day to day pour-over bar or in a home brewer’s normal routine? Or, are they just esoteric techniques useful to win competitions? My sense is that as Brewers Cup grows in age, reputation, and attendance, it will actually drive industry-wide innovation in brewing methodology and equipment more so than its older sibling, the Barista Championship.

The next step in Brewers Cup, I believe, will be more competitors like Carmichael, who pair with designers, or engineers, to create new brewers for the competition. For some time now, even good design houses have been reshaping brewers we’re already long familiar with. Perhaps it will be competitor-designer teams at Brewers Cups breaking truly new ground.

“The competition itself is a wonderful gathering of people who are intimate with coffee and technicians at their craft,” says Balkcom. “Ideas are born, collaborations begin, relationships start.”

Artis ‘Live Roast Experience’ Opening in Bangkok, Three U.S. Stores to Follow

February 25, 2015 3:10 pm

Artis Coffee Bangkok location. All photos by Artis Coffee.

Artis Coffee, the Berkeley, Calif.-based brand that skewed the traditional roaster/retailer model with its “live roast experience,” is about to open up in Bangkok, with several more stateside locations soon to follow.
The Bangkok store is actually a licensing of the brand with a business partner who visited the Berkeley store and fell in love with the concept. A refresher: The “live roast experience” involves Artis employees working with customers in the retail store to identify tastes, preferences, budget, etc., then roasting green coffee right then and there. The Berkeley retail concept also includes a traditional coffee bar and a brewing equipment marketplace.
The Artis team says at least three more stores are planned to open in 2015, including a San Francisco location in the Hayes Valley neighborhood for which the Artis team recently broke ground:

Artis Coffee has recently partnered with the crowdsource investment partner CircleUp, which is working with dozens of consumer product companies, many of which are in the upscale food category.
In a Q&A with Artis co-founder Alex Lowe meant to drum up interest among potential investors, CircleUp shares some details on the unusual arrangement in Bangkok:

Did I see somewhere that you’re opening somewhere in Thailand?
Yeah it’s built, staffed, hired, and trained! It’s opening on the 20th of February. Though, it’s actually a brand lease, so it’s one of our partners opening our concept. They’re running it, but it’s an Artís store with the same customer experience.
How did that come about?
He re-designed the roaster we use, upgraded it. He came out to see our concept, immediately fell in love with it, and asked, “Can I open one up in Bangkok?” He runs a five star resort and in Puket and 15 restaurants, so we trusted that he could do it well. probably better than we can right now.

Here’s more from the Bangkok location:

Related Reading:

Direct from Dublin: The World’s Best Irish Coffee Recipe

February 24, 2015 

Tom Stafford of Vice Coffee Inc. Photo by Valentina Alvarez, courtesy of the Dublin Whiskey Festival.

Let’s operate under the assumption that the best Irish Coffee in Ireland is indubitably the world’s best.
Although the drink was made famous in San Francisco at Buena Vista Cafe in the 1950s after a recipe was imported by longtime Chronicle columnist Stanton Delaplane, it was nonetheless an Irish invention, intended to warm the cores and brighten the spirits of weary travelers.
The National Standards Association of Ireland published a six-page standard for Irish Coffee in 1988, for the purpose of helping consumers identify “shortcomings in either the quality or quantity of the ingredients or in the method of preparation can have undesirable effects on the resultant beverage” and outlining some basic quality requirements for the primary ingredients: coffee, Irish whiskey and heavy cream.
Paying tribute to those three ingredients, the inaugural Dublin Whiskey Fest launched this week with a “Best Irish Coffee” competition at the Irish Whiskey Museum. Ten of Dublin’s finest baristas and bartenders met in the finals, competing head to head for the title before a panel of judges, including four-time Irish Barista Champion Colin Harmon of venerated Dublin roastery 3fe.
3fe provided the coffees, including blend of an Ethiopia Kerbal Kercha and a Brazil Fazenda Passeio, while distiller Teeling supplied small-batch, single-malt and single-grain whiskeys.
In the end, it was a barista who claimed the title. Here is the winning recipe from Tom Stafford of the appropriately named Vice Coffee Inc., courtesy of the Dublin Whiskey Festival:

Combine a double Espresso a 40ml of the 3FE Momentum Blend
35.5ml Teelings Single Malt
18ml brown sugar syrup & 100ml hot water in a warmed glass.
Top with Glenisk Organic Cream infused with orange zest & a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg.

Tom Stafford of Vice Coffee Inc. Photo by Valentina Alvarez, courtesy of the Dublin Whiskey Festival.

ME Swing and Pueblo a Pueblo: A Case Study in Charitable Collaboration

February 16, 2015 1:29 pm
Donate X amount per X sold for X cause.
It’s a simple enough formula, even an intuitive one in the case of giving back to coffee-producing communities, but filling in those Xs is easier said than done.
“As a small business, you can get wrapped up in your daily operations over a long period of time, and it can be very easy to lose sight of the bigger picture,” says Mark Warmuth of ME Swing Coffee, a nearly 100-year-old Washington D.C.-area roastery with an upscale shop a stone’s throw from the White House.
In other words, seeking out someone’s name to write on the “pay to the order of” line of a check may not always be top priority.
As with almost anything in coffee, charitable collaboration is driven by relationships. Swing is in close proximity to the headquarters of Pueblo a Pueblo, a nonprofit whose primary focus is sustainable health and education for children in coffee-farming communities in Guatemala.
Pueblo a Pueblo last year reached out to ME Swing with a broad idea for a kind of pilot partnership. Nearly a year later, the result was  a more than $2,500 donation, the ability to send nine children in Guatemala to school and provide for their basic healthcare needs, and the immeasurable value of awareness among Swing’s customers. All this with little to no additional investment or work from the coffee company, outside of some barista training regarding the collaboration and some bean counting.
“The easy thing to do would be to write a check for $500 or $1000, and we could be happy with it, but we talked about a way to kind of create more awareness,” Warmuth says of a casual meeting with the Pueblo a Pueblo staff during the SCAA Event in Seattle last year.

ME Swing and Pueblo a Pueblo for the custom “Make Your Coffee Count” campaign.

The collaboration a two-week window during which 10 percent of revenue from all cups of coffee and bags of coffee sold by Swing were collected for a specific Pueblo a Pueblo school program. Additionally, customers could choose to match the 10 percent donation by buying a bag of coffee with a Pueblo a Pueblo sticker. A small informational station on the fundraising program was set up near the coffee bar, and Swing made a conscious decision not to promote any kind of donation jar, so as not to take tips away from baristas.
In two weeks, Swing sold 929 bags and 5,842 cups of coffee, and about 1/3 of the total donation amount ($2,566) came from transactions where the customer kicked in a 10 percent match.
While such success may be duplicated, the models through which it is achieved may not always be.
“More and more, we’re seeing coffee companies that want to give back, and they want to contribute, but often they don’t know how,” says Pueblo a Pueblo Executive Director Rosemary Trent. “We try to work with each person we reach out to in a way that works for them. So what we do with Swing might not work with another coffee business.”
The Swing collaboration was actually one of Pueblo a Pueblo’s first involving direct outreach with roaster/retailers. The first was with D.C.’s Peregrine Espresso, and Trent says more collaborations may follow as the nonprofit focuses on connecting to consumers through coffee.
“In terms of dollars, it wasn’t huge,” Trent says of the collaboration. “But it it gave us lots of exposure. I think there’s a push to engage consumers more, and we envision this kind of collaboration as one way to do that.”
Says Pueblo a Pueblo Resource Development Manager Claire Dickson, “The partnerships with Swing and Peregrine were sort of the beginning. When you have more campaigns running back to back, then the dollar amount really starts to add up. We’ve been testing the waters, and the response has been great.”
Of course, what works for Swing and Pueblo a Pueblo might not work for X coffee company and X nonprofit. Trent notes that some coffee companies may be drawn to broader fundraising efforts, while others may only be interested in donating to programs tied to a specific farm or cooperative, something that may or may not always be practical at origin.
“We really do have a core strength,” Trent says. “We don’t profess to do anything and everything. For us, it’s kind of second nature what we do on the ground. We always talk about trickling down for these kinds of efforts, but it’s also about trickling up.”

Coming to Columbus: Mission Coffee Co.’s Roastery and Education Lab

February 17, 2015 10:46 am

Photos by Mission Coffee Co.

Mission Coffee Co., which has helped drive Columbus, Ohio, coffee culture since opening a Short North shop in 2012, plans to open a coffee education and roasting production facility on 4th Street in the Italian Village.
Mission’s Nathan Okuley hinted at the new facility when we caught up with him about the company’s amazing cold brew bike last year. Although the new roasting, education and retail space is not yet open to the public, the US Roaster Corp roaster is installed and will be supplying the Short North shop within weeks under the supervision of new roastmaster Hans Hochstedler, formerly of Mechanicsburg’s Hemisphere Coffee Roasters.
Mission says the invited roastery space will be used to help give customers a glimpse into the seed-to-cup story based on the company’s green buying relationships.
“We love hanging out with the creatives, the entrepreneurs, and the dreamers,” says Mission Co-Owner Jared Williamson. “We’re transforming the second space into a clean, warm, and approachable environment to come and learn more about coffee.”

Mission has been one of the 12 shops participating in the Columbus Coffee Experience, a network of roasters and retailers sharing in a loyalty program with a focus on locality. Mission’s customer experience director Joe Capatosto describes the company’s venture into roasting as “humbling,” and the company plans to continue carrying some coffees from other roasters from throughout the nation at the Short North shop.

Meet The Crowd-Conceived Handground Manual Grinder

February

The Handground in nature on the West Coast tour. Instagram photo.

The makers of Handground, a manual grinder that was creatively crowd-developed, has nearly quadrupled its initial $35,000 production funding goal on Kickstarter, with weeks still remaining.
Home brewers Daniel Vitiello and Brandon Warman created the “Crowdsourced Coffee Experiment” after feeling dissatisfied with their existing manual burr grinders. From the beginning, they looked outward for product development help, from the name — the initial concept was Kaizen Coffee — to the actual design.
Hundreds of freelancers submitted designs on the 99 Designs platform, with a model from Joaquin Herlein winning out. Working for seven years with an Italian design consultancy, Herlein has actually had a hand in developing numerous coffee equipment products for companies including Bialetti, Lavazza and La Cimbali. He’s now stayed on as a full member of the Handground team, which is currently in the midst of a West Coast product tour that will conclude at the US Coffee Championships in Long Beach, Calif., at the end of this month.
The grinder itself will be composed largely of ABS plastic, while nickel and copper variations will have an electroplated finish. The handle will be composed of wood, while the main vertical axle and all the screws and washers will be stainless steel. The team is still experimenting with the shape and the exact material treatment for the conical burrs, which will be composed of aluminum oxide ceramic. The grinder will have a 100-gram capacity and will include 20 different grind settings at 125 micron intervals.
Current estimated retail pricing, including a refrigerator magnet for recipe logging, is $80 for the basic model, up to $120 for the plated models.

The copper-plated Handground

We recently hit Vitiello with various permutations of one essential question: In a world full of manual grinders, why this one?
“One of the main differences of Handground versus other grinders is the side-mounted handle,” he told us via email while on tour. “This makes grinding easier and provides a more ergonomic motion compared to most grinders, which have a handle mounted on the top. We are working to source coffee wood from a farm in Costa Rica to make the knob for the handle of the grinder. The wood will come from coffee plants that are no longer producing quality coffee cherries and are usually cut down and burned to make room for new trees — coffee wood is almost never used to make products.
“A huge frustration that people have with other coffee grinders is that it’s difficult to choose a coarseness setting. Usually you have to remove multiple pieces just to change the setting, and there is typically no reference point for returning to a previous setting. We have simplified this process by drawing inspiration from a performance camera lens. With one twist you can choose from 20 different settings, each adjusting the coarseness by just 125 microns.”

Ραγδαίες εξελίξεις στο ΕΣΠΑ με τις νέες δράσεις για Μικρομεσαίες Επιχειρήσεις και ανέργους

Ξεκινάει η υλοποίηση δύο εμπροσθοβαρών δράσεων του ΕΣΠΑ 2014-2020, ύψους 100 εκ. ευρώ, για Μικρομεσαίες Επιχειρήσεις και ανέργους, μετά την συνάντηση του Υπουργού Ανάπτυξης και Ανταγωνιστικότητας κ. Κώστα Σκρέκα και του Υφυπουργού κ. Οδυσσέα Κωνσταντινόπουλου, όπου εγκρίθηκε η προδημοσίευση των προσκλήσεων για την ενεργοποίηση δύο σημαντικών εμπροσθοβαρών δράσεων από το νέο ΕΣΠΑ 2014-2020, συνολικού ύψους 100 εκ. ευρώ.

Η επιλεξιμότητα των δαπανών δύναται να ξεκινήσει από την ημερομηνία προκήρυξης για την δράση ΕΠΙΧΕΙΡΗΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΕΥΚΑΙΡΙΑ. Ως ημερομηνία έναρξης της επιλεξιμότητας δαπανών ορίζεται η 1.1.2014, υπό την προϋπόθεση ότι δεν θα έχει ολοκληρωθεί το επιχειρηματικό σχέδιο, πριν την ημερομηνία υποβολής της αίτησης χρηματοδότησης, για την δράση ΕΠΙΧΕΙΡΟΥΜΕ ΔΥΝΑΜΙΚΑ.

Συγκεκριμένα οι δράσεις αφορούν:

• Την Μικρή και Μεσαία Επιχειρηματικότητα με ύψος χρηματοδότησης 50 εκ. ευρώ και στόχο την αναβάθμιση της επιχειρηματικής οργάνωσης και λειτουργίας των Μικρομεσαίων Επιχειρήσεων, δίνοντας έμφαση στην εξωστρέφεια και την διείσδυσή τους σε νέες αγορές. Σημειώνεται ότι η δράση αφορά υφιστάμενες μεσαίες, μικρές και πολύ μικρές επιχειρήσεις (εκτός τουριστικών επιχειρήσεων) με επενδύσεις από 20.000 μέχρι και 300.000 ευρώ, ενώ η επιχορήγηση έχει ορισθεί μέχρι και στο 50% του συνολικού ποσού της επένδυσης. Επιπρόσθετα, υπάρχει δυνατότητα προκαταβολής μέχρι και 40% επί της συνολικής δημόσιας δαπάνης.
  
• Το ανθρώπινο δυναμικό και συγκεκριμένα άνεργους συμπολίτες μας, εγγεγραμμένους στο μητρώο του ΟΑΕΔ, για ενίσχυση των επιχειρηματικών σχεδίων τους με κάλυψη λειτουργικών εξόδων καθώς και θέσεων απασχόλησης, συνολικoύ ύψους χρηματοδότησης 50 εκ. ευρώ. Η δράση αυτή αφορά έργα ύψους από 25.000 έως 40.000 ευρώ, με 100% ενίσχυση του συνολικού προϋπολογισμού της επένδυσης, ενώ υπάρχει δυνατότητα προκαταβολής μέχρι και 40% της δημόσιας δαπάνης.
  

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Ενημερωθείτε αναλυτικά στο 210 65 40 681 ή στείλτε μας email ΕΔΩ. FBS - Franchise Business Services.

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Οι νέες δράσεις αλλάζουν τα δεδομένα που είχαν προκύψει από τις διαρροές του ΥπΑν, όπως αυτές δημοσιεύθηκαν στον τύπο, καθώς δεν επιδοτούνται λιανικό και χονδρικό εμπόριο και για τους ανέργους απαιτείται εγγραφή τους στα μητρώα του ΟΑΕΔ. Οι νέες δράσεις αξιολογούνται θετικά από την επιχειρηματική κοινότητα καθώς δεν εξαιρείται το franchising δηλ. οι δικαιοπάροχες εταιρείες υφιστάμενες και νέες μπορούν να ενταχθούν στα νέα προγράμματα αρκεί βέβαια να εμπιπτούν στους ενισχυόμενους τομείς προτεραιότητας του ΕΠΑνΕΚ. Αυτό είναι και το σημαντικό καθώς στόχος του ΕΣΠΑ είναι η ενδυνάμωση της ανταγωνιστικότητας της χώρας και αυτή μπορεί να επιτευχθεί μόνο μέσω ενός στρατηγικά καθορισμένου πλάνου προτεραιοτήτων.

Το πρώτο κατάστημα του πρωτοποριακού concept ... - Vivartia

Το πρώτο κατάστημα του πρωτοποριακού concept FLOCAFE Espresso Room στην βόρεια Ελλάδα, και δωδέκατο στην σειρά, είναι γεγονός. Το νέο κατάστημα στην Πυλαία Θεσσαλονίκης, εντός του εμπορικού πάρκου Florida, μας καλεί να ζήσουμε την απόλυτη εμπειρία καφέ!

7 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Το νέο concept FLOCAFE Espresso Room έφτασε στην Θεσσαλονίκη και μας προσκαλεί να ζήσουμε την απόλυτη εμπειρία καφέ. Με μότο «For Coffee Lovers and Passionate People», το νέο κατάστημα ξεχωρίζει για την ιδιαίτερη αισθητική του, και οι εξειδικευμένοι baristi του, θα μας μυήσουν στον κόσμο του καφέ, μέσα από 3 διαφορετικά χαρμάνια, για να βρούμε αυτό που μας ταιριάζει. Γιατί οι λάτρεις του καφέ, μπορούν να απολαμβάνουν τον καλύτερο καφέ, όπου και αν βρίσκονται!

Green Coffee Prices Hit 11-Month Low as Brazil Crop Reaches Crucial Stage

Graph by the International Coffee Organization.

Average prices for green coffee dropped to their lowest in nearly a year in January amid weather concerns in Brazil, according to the latest monthly report from the International Coffee Organization.
The ICO’s composite indicator price — a historical data series that reflects price monitoring for coffees from all the world’s main growing regions — dropped to a monthly average of $1.482 USD per pound in January, a 1.6 percent decline from January and the lowest monthly average since February 2014.
The ICO says Brazil’s dry weather at the beginning of the month drove prices higher, with the composite indicator reaching $1.554 by the middle of January, but subsequent rain forecasts drove the price back down.
“Nevertheless, overall rainfall levels in Brazil remain below average, with the development of the 2015/16 crop now at a crucial stage,” the ICO states in its report. “Furthermore, an infestation of coffee berry borer has led to a state of phytosanitary emergency being declared in the states of São Paulo and Espírito Santo.”
The ICO also shared its most recent export data for December, with total exports estimated at 8.9 million bags for the month, mirroring total exports for December 2013. However, the ICO noted a 5.5 percent decrease in arabica exports, which was compensated by a 9.9 increase in robusta exports.
The crop year 2013/14 saw the highest export volume in recorded history, at 111.7 million bags. Despite that, the $18.5 billion value for those exports recorded in 2013/14 was 4.1 percent lower than the total value recorded in 2012/13, according to the latest ICO data.
Here is the full report in pdf form, including exporting-country-specific data, and further data on all four group indicators (Brazilian naturals, Colombian Milds, Other Milds, and Robusta).

Ipath καθαρό βήτα Καφές (CAFE) Ειδήσεις Νέα - NASDAQ.com

Ipath καθαρό βήτα Καφές (CAFE) Ειδήσεις Νέα - NASDAQ.com

Coffee preparation

Different drinks

The coffee we drink is made from roast and ground coffee prepared in different ways:
Filter or drip coffee is made by putting finely-ground coffee in a paper or reusable cone-shaped unit. Nearly-boiling water is then poured on top. The brew filters through the unit into a pot or mug and is ready to drink. The coffee grounds remain in the cone. These days, this is mostly done by electric filter coffee machines.
The plunger or cafetiere^TM method is made from coarsely ground coffee placed in a pot and hot water added to the grounds.  The brew is stirred and left to steep for three to five minutes. The plunger is then pushed down to separate the coffee grounds from the coffee infusion.
Espresso machines force hot water under pressure through very finely ground and compacted coffee into the cups below. This enables significant aroma and flavour to be extracted with low quantities of water. Espresso coffee also usually has a top layer of crema, which is a fine and creamy foam.
Swedish/Scandinavian brewed coffee, as its name suggests, is used in Sweden, as well as other parts of the Nordic region, such as Finland. It is made by boiling ground coffee in water and serving, often without filtering. It tends to be very strong. The coffee is often kept hot for consumption throughout the day.
Turkish coffee is made in an ibriq, a small copper pot with a long handle. Two teaspoons of finely-ground coffee plus one of sugar are added to a cup of water and the mixture is brought to the boil. The ibriq is taken off the heat as it comes to the boil, usually three times. It is then poured out and drunk. A cardamom seed is sometimes added for flavour.
Coffee may then be elaborated to suit individual tastes, for example by adding milk and sugar, frothed milk, flavouring syrups, spices etc.

Instant coffee

Instant – or soluble – coffee is made from coffee beans that have been roasted and ground. The ground beans are then extracted with hot water to recover the coffee flavour and aroma. The process is similar to using a coffee percolator at home. The coffee extract is then dried in one of two ways:
Spray-drying
In spray-drying the coffee extract is sprayed into a stream of hot air at the top of a tall cylindrical tower. As the droplets fall, they dry, becoming a fine powder by the time they reach the bottom. The powder may then be texturised into granules to facilitate dosage and dissolution. The quality of the aroma and flavour are preserved thank to the very fast drying occurring during this process. Spray-drying is the most commonly used drying process.
Freeze-drying
In freeze-drying, the coffee extract is frozen to about – 40°C and cut into granules. The frozen granules are then dried at low temperature and under vacuum. The quality of the aroma and flavour are protected by the very low temperature and gentle drying conditions.
Finally, the soluble coffee is packaged into either glass jars or sachets.

The World’s Most Bird-Friendly Coffee, in Ethiopia, and Why it is In Danger

Coffee grown under the shade of native plants is the most bird-friendly, according to new research. Creative Commons photo by msafari2425.

Ethiopian coffee grown under shade cover from native plant species is likely the most bird-friendly in the world, according to new research that underscores a need for paying smallholder farmers a premium for careful land management.
After netting nearly 1,700 birds representing 71 native and migratory species at approximately in coffee lands at approximately 1,800 meters in elevation in the Oromia region of Southwest Ethiopia, a University of Utah-led research team put forth a kind of hierarchy of environmental biodiversity as it relates to coffee farming.
From most bird-friendly to least, it is: 1) native forests; 2) small coffee farms where native coffee varieties are cultivated under native tree cover; 3) larger coffee plantations with native tree cover; 4) larger coffee plantations with non-native tree cover; and 5) full-sun coffee plantations.
The study, which will be published in the journal Biological Conservation this week, adopted the well-established premise that shade-grown coffee has superior conservation value to full-sun-grown coffee in deforested areas, but it is unique in attempting to quantify the biodiversity value among different types of shaded environments.
“Not all shade coffee is equal,” says the study’s senior author, Cagan Sekercioglu. “Because shade coffee is trendy, there are a lot of commercial plantations in the world where they grow shade coffee under exotic trees, not native trees, so they can call it shade coffee. But it’s not as bird-friendly as in Ethiopia.”
The researchers, including the study’s lead author Evan Buechley, say they hope the results will create some value differentiation for native Ethiopian coffees cultivated on small lots without chemicals and beneath the shade of native plant species.
“We hope to see increased marketing of Ethiopia shade coffee so the local farmers get a better deal for their beans by keeping the shade coffee intact rather than converting it to open sun farming,” says Sekercioglu.
Coffee cultivation the, researchers suggest, is part of the much larger problem of deforestation in Ethiopia and beyond. In a preview of the publication, the team writes:

Ethiopia is undergoing rapid deforestation from population growth; expansion of open farming for coffee, tea and other crops; and harvesting of trees for firewood or charcoal. The study area is in one of 35 recognized “biodiversity hotspots” on Earth.

In a sense, the study concludes that the best approach to biodiversity is to leave forests untouched, but if coffee must be grown, then it should be grown with as little impact to native plants as possible. Further, to make that possible, farmers must be paid a higher price based on the naturally lower yields.
Interestingly, the study found that some migratory bird species may actually prefer the naturally shaded Ethiopian coffee farm environment to the native forests, theorizing that they more closely resemble the birds’ ideal environments to the North.
Says Sekercioglu, “Shade coffee isn’t a substitute for forests. But shade coffee provides good habitat for many other species, including migrants from Europe and Asia.”

Kona Coffee Leaders Renew Push for Purity Standards and Packaging Disclosure

Legislators and Hawaiian coffee growers have aggressively renewed efforts to rewrite labeling standards for Kona and other Hawaiian-grown coffees.
The Kona Coffee Farmers Association is circulating a petition in support of Hawaii House Bill 387, which was recently introduced by Rep. Richard Creagan with support from eight other representatives, that would require any coffee blend sold with the Kona name to include at least 51 percent Kona-grown coffee. That bill states:

The legislature finds that for more than twenty-three years Hawaii has been the only region in the world that statutorily authorizes the uses of its geographic names, such as “Kona”, “Maui”, and “Ka‘u”, on labels of its specialty agricultural products and requires that only ten per cent of the product originate in the geographic area.  The legislature further finds that the low ten per cent requirement directly damages and degrades the reputation of the world famous Hawaii-grown coffees.

The petition also supports Senate Bill 594, put forth by State Senator Russell Ruderman and six other legislative supporters, that would require an 80 percent Kona composition.
“The KCFA supports both these bills,” the group says in an announcement of support for the petition, which as of this writing included more than 1,600 signatures. “Either would provide a significant step toward protecting the integrity of Hawaii-Grown coffee and protecting the economic interests of coffee growers.”
State law in 1991 changed to allow sellers of packaged coffee to market products under names like Kona, Maui or Ka’u, if the blends contained just 10 percent volume of coffees grown in the given region.
Legislators and local farmer representative groups like KCFA have been fighting to change the law ever since. In recent years, legislators have put forth a bill that would have required coffee blends labeled as Kona to contain at least 75 percent Kona-grown coffee, and one that would have required sellers meeting the 10 percent threshold to disclose on the package the origin of the non-Kona-grown coffee. Neither bill was signed into law.
For the KCFA, which represents some 300 producer members, this issue is closely tied with the integrity of the Kona name and the perceptions of consumers in Hawaii and beyond.
“People don’t like to be deceived,” the group says. “This practice is bad for Hawaii tourism. Tourists like going places where they are treated fairly, not cheated. The Creagan and Ruderman bills are consistent with, and important to, the State’s efforts to build the goodwill and affection of visitors.”

Behind the Lens with the Creative Duo at European Coffee Trip

Radeck Nozicka (right) and Ales Pospisil of European Coffee Trip.

For the coffee-obsessed, road trips to new cities typically involve mapping out coffee destinations and building the itinerary around them. Coffee is not an afterthought dependent on factors like timing and proximity. It is the starting point, and a reputable guide is a major bonus.
Ales Pospisil Radek Nozicka are hoping to be that guide for travelers in Europe. The two have created European Coffee Trip, a guide site rich with beautiful photography, customized maps and a blog highlighing coffee shops and the characters within them. ECT also recently unveiled an educational component, a video series with former World Barista Champion Gwilym Davies.
Pospisil says he came up with the ECT idea after he founded Coffee Club Zurich, an online hub for local coffee obsessives. He and Nozicka, the primary photographer and videographer, discussed the site concept over infinite coffees, eventually launching the site in English as a way to bypass some European language barriers.
We recently caught up with Pospisil to talk about ECT’s creation and what the 2015 itinerary might look like:

What was the impetus for ECT?

Initially, it was connecting two aspects of our lives that Radek and I are eager to explore further: good coffee and travel. We thought there was space for an online platform or magazine that could connect all people interested in speciality coffee across Europe. Each country has its national language, which limits how far words and ideas can be spread.

Is this purely a labor of love?

Since the beginning of the project, we have planned to turn it into something sustainable. In recent months, we have gotten involved in the project full-time and are searching for sponsors who can make the rest of the trip possible. We started to contribute to some Czech and international coffee-related magazines and we are experimenting with bringing coffee from various European micro-roasters to the Czech Republic. We would like to continue. We are on our way to figuring out how.

What are your backgrounds, and when and how were you drawn to the coffee world?

We are bot engineers by education — I am telecommunications engineer; Radek still studies mechanical engineering — but we both lean toward the business and marketing side of the profession. I discovered speciality coffee during a home barista course in Brno (Czech Republic) with Jaroslav Tucek, owner of great roastery in Prague called Doubleshot. I remember the moment he mentioned a coffee he was holding would smell and taste like strawberries and chocolate. I thought he was crazy until I opened the bag and tried it myself. I started my journey that day and I never looked back. Radek got on board much later and his initial motivation was the creativity of the project rather than coffee itself. That has changed a lot since the beginning, and he has learned a lot.

What have been some of the personal highlights of your trip?

Some are discussing speciality coffee for national television and radio in Poland, or presenting our stories to full hall of people at Prague Coffee Festival. We really like Prague. We have incredible memories from Poznan, Poland, where we met Damian Durda, who works for Bonanza Coffee in Berlin, and he was incredible guide on our way. If somebody asks us about a specific coffee experience, we usually say Headfirst Coffee in Amsterdam.
One truly influential meeting was with Gwilym Davies, who we interviewed during Coffee Week in Brno. His thoughts and stories were mind-blowing and we couldn’t wait to share it. We are happy to call Gwilym friend now.

What kind of gear are you shooting with?

Ohh, good question! Radek carries with him Nikon D5100 with a set lens, plus a 35mm f/1.8 extra lens. For the audio recording, we use Zoom H1 recorder and Audio-Technica lavalier mic. We also have a GoPro 3 Silver camera and “selfie stick” for alternative videos and photos. It allows us to create a favorite sub-project of ours we call “coffee people.” We are releasing a picture of a person almost every day, in addition to some of his or her story. It’s a way baristas can learn more about their colleagues from all over Europe.

How would you describe the upscale coffee industry’s growth on a continental scale?

We’re seeing very rapid growth in most countries and cities we visit. East and South are a bit behind North and West but that’s changing very fast. Most cafes we visited didn’t exist two years ago, and some not even 2 month ago. Prague has doubled its speciality cafe scene, Vienna has tripled. What’s more important is that customers are getting educated in coffee, and that is what makes the market more interesting..

What’s your itinerary for 2015?

Next trip is to Finland (Helsinki), and Baltic countries, visiting Tallin, Riga and Vilnius. We are also visiting the main coffee festivals in Europe (Bratislava, Vienna, London), and we plan to be present at World of Coffee in Gothenburg. We are looking forward to visiting the UK and Scandinavia, as well as Greece and Turkey. It will be also pretty exciting to explore what some people might describe as “undiscovered” coffee culture in Romania and Ukraine.

So when you’re going to a city that’s new to you, what’s your coffee guide?

This is tricky part. In the very beginning, we knew baristas from each city, so we asked several of them what cafes would they put on the map. Our criteria is the use of speciality coffee, consistency in delivering great coffee, well-trained baristas and quality machines. We choose the final list based on the time we have in each city. It’s quite difficult, but we don’t aim to generate a complete list from each of our visits.