Owner and CEO Sam Penix with CFO and co-owner Sam Lewontin.

Back in 2011 I called Everyman Espresso’s landmark East 13th Street cafe in Manhattan “my favorite cafe in New York“, and six years on, not much has changed six. Or at least not for me; I’ve gone as far as to book lodging in New York based solely on proximity to the East Village, so that I may pretend, however briefly, to be one of this cafe’s grand and exotic flock of regulars. But plenty’s changed for Everyman, as the Manhattan-based brand grew to include a SoHo location in 2012, and now in 2017 has introduced a new member to the family: Everyman Espresso Park Slope, the brand’s first foray into Brooklyn.

The new Everyman occupies 400 square feet at 5th Avenue and Degraw, in the heart of Park Slope. Everyman CEO Sam Penix, who searched for the new location across four of the five boroughs—”I missed Staten Island this time”—has taken over the space formerly occupied by Venticinque, a neighborhood coffee bar with a small footprint. “It was this cluttered, kind of dirty coffee shop that wasn’t doing well,” Penix says, but that clutter has been transformed into a bright, airy space, designed in collaboration Everyman CFO and co-owner Sam Lewontin and longtime Everyman architect Jane Kim. Penix describes Kim as “great at interpreting my aesthetic, and Sam Lewontin’s vision for bar flow and efficiency,” describing their ongoing collaboration with Kim and contractor Sen Wang (of Senrong Development Consulting) as a “dream team.”

The space is stocked with gear by Nuova Simonelli (Climapro grinders), La Marzocco (a Strada EE 2 group espresso machine), Mahlkonig (an MK-710 grinder) and a Curtis Gold Cup brewer. Everyman is a longtime exclusive partner of Counter Culture Coffee, and that won’t change in Brooklyn, but there’s some shakeup happening behind the scenes. Penix and Lewontin are switching all three of their locations away from Counter Culture’s seasonal blends, and towards a program focused on the Durham, NC based roaster’s expansive list of single origin offerings, with menus chosen “at the discretion of each store manager,” according to Penix.

The focus at Everyman Park Slope is on “efficiency and quality”, as per Penix, who expands: “Quality doesn’t come from theatrics. Quality is about brewing a well-extracted cup of coffee that is super delicious; it’s about finding a way to meet people’s needs with quickness, while also being able to provide experiences and coffees that are impeccably brewed. I feel like we’ve matured and come into our own and we aren’t afraid of the tools we use to bring us to that goal of quality.”

Perhaps the most striking design element in the store is its tile backsplash, a branding hook that is in place at all three Everyman locations. “It’s a way we brand our spaces without being overtly commercial,” says Penix, who describes this new shop’s tile color palette—pink, black, and brassy yellow—as being inspired by “working girls from the 1970s—they’re always on my mind.” Think Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlin.

Other notable details include the use of Corian—a compacted stone dust—throughout the coffee bar, from the baseboard of the coffee bar to the back bar work counters, as well as slip-resistant floor tiles with a wood grain pattern.

The new shop is a close to Lewontin’s home in Brooklyn, and for Penix provides a much different customer environment than he’s encountered back on Manhattan. “This has been a huge departure from opening in Soho,” he tells Sprudge, “which was great, but it was a hard neighborhood to crack. The attitude there was more like “Who the -f- do you think you are?” Here in Park Slope the vibe is different, or at least for the most part—there’s always going to be Yelp hot takes. “My favorite thing about the new shop is really the people who are coming in,” Penix says, “because they’re coming in as groups and families, with happy faces, and saying things like ‘Thank you for being here.’ It really is changing my life and restoring my soul.”

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Photos for Sprudge by Lanny Huang.

The post Inside Everyman Espresso’s New Cafe In Park Slope, Brooklyn appeared first on Sprudge.

Cascara, once little more than a waste byproduct of coffee production, is now the drink de rigueur of the worldwide coffee scene. Cascara is the dried husk of the coffee cherry. East Africa coffee producers have steeped dried cherry for hundreds of years, but it’s been a recognizable export only recently—we first covered it in 2010. Depending on its quality, the prepared drink (steeped like tea) is a reddish amber color, fruity, and has a honey-like sweetness. Cascara has held the interest of new-wave specialty coffee companies for nearly a decade, and now it’s moving into the booze world in the form of a cascara liqueur.

Before it was boozified, it was introduced to the United States in its purest form: served steeped alongside tea and coffee drinks at cafes like Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and sold wholesale by Durham roaster Counter Culture Coffee. In 2011, the Nordic Barista Cup worked with El Salvador producer and Sprudgie Award winner Aida Batlle to create a limited-edition cascara beer. Early cascara adopter Everyman Espresso experimented with the ingredient and created a syrup concentrate for cool refreshers like cascara soda. Square Mile Coffee Roasters used cascara as a substitute for cacao to create a chocolate-like bar for a coffee festival, and bottled cascara coolers are now available from Berlin to Grand Rapids to Phoenix. Sprudge used cascara kombucha as a punchline in a video, and years later it became a real beverage served at Scandinavian Embassy, alongside a raw oyster on a half shell with cascara infused butter.

And now, Cascara Moonshine from Sydney’s Campos Coffee, the Sydney-based coffee roaster with locations in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Park City, Utah. Campos created the “world’s first” cascara liqueur, with a limited 100 bottle run in December of last year. Sprudge was lucky enough to slip a bottle across international borders, and brother, it’s something special—we hope they make a couple hundred more bottles in 2017.  I just had to learn more about this special spirit, so I reached out to Campos Head of Marketing Nathan James.

Hey, Nathan! Cascara Moonshine. It’s real, and it’s spectacular. When did this new product debut?

Campos Cåscara Moonshine first made its debut mid-December last year, with a first run of 100 bottles and was sold out within the space of one day.

Who did you team up with to produce it?

John Thompson from Campos Coffee and Andrew Fitzgerald from Melbourne Moonshine teamed up to produce the world’s first liqueur based on the Cåscara coffee cherry bean. They went through many trials and test batches of the product before settling on its current flavour profile. The challenge was to not let the moonshine overpower the sweet taste of the Cåscara.

Where did you source the cascara?

Cåscara is produced by the Helsar De Zarcero micro-mill in Costa Rica. Local farmer Ricardo Barrantes and his daughters have worked to create a unique process of de-pulping and drying organic coffee. Unlike other cascara products on the market, the husks are dehydrated instead of sun dried. The result is a light, crispy shell, so crunchy you can eat as a snack.

How has the response been?

We knew we were onto a good thing once we’d tasted the liquor but were unsure of how the public would feel, as Cåscara is relatively unknown in Australia. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive, with customers loving the sweeter notes in the liquor, not dissimilar to cherry. It’s a really approachable flavour that people will have never tried before, surprisingly though it tastes nothing like coffee. A sell-out of 100 bottles in just a day demonstrates the positive response so far.

Do you have a drink recipe you recommend?

Absolutely—we call this the “Cåscara Blood Moon”:

1 part Cåscara Moonshine (30ml)
1 part Campari
100ml of blood orange juice

Shake over ice, strain into an iced tumbler and garnish with a slice of ruby grapefruit. For a better effect, infuse the Campari with coffee beans by adding 50g roasted coffee beans to a bottle of Campari, cover and refrigerate overnight, and strain and return to bottle.

Can I pour it over ice cream?

We firmly believe anything that can be poured over ice cream, should be. However this is especially true for Cåscara Moonshine, with a sweetness that would pair perfectly with a vanilla, white chocolate or coconut ice cream.

How much is a bottle?

Cåscara Moonshine retails for AU$70 or US$52.62

We were thrilled to get to try this bottle. How can our readers do the same? Where does one buy this?

The boys at Melbourne Moonshine are busy creating another limited edition Cascara Moonshine batch, so if you’re interested head to our website and place your name on the waiting list, and we’ll be sure to let you know when the next batch is released.

Thank you! 

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.

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The 2017 Global Coffee Expo has come and gone, shimmering bright like a magical diamond, then fading out like a golden sunset. All that’s left are the memories.

We covered the coffee competitions. We dug into the important panels and showfloor gear debuts. But while we at Sprudge strive to maintain our status as a Very Serious Publication, we do also, from time to time, like to get a little weird, and events like SCA (pronounced “schwa”) afford us the magical opportunity to do so with 20,000+ of our closest friends.

Take, for example, our giant anthropomorphic coffee beans, Buzzy and Spesh, who delighted the children and brought joy to the crowds at North America’s biggest coffee expo.

Is it morbid to watch a giant coffee bean brew its bean’d brethren? To dose, tamp, and pull his countrymen into a problematic slurry of suspended solids and liquids? Yes. But it is also funny, possibly.

Ay, but what of the humans of SCA 2017? Their hopes, their dreams, their fashionable finery? In a tradition that dates all the back to 2010 (plz click link), Sprudge is your exclusive qualified home for fashion coverage from the showfloor at SCA(A). This year’s dynamic duo of Eric J. Grimm (on-screen talent, identity crisis) and Lanny Huang (filmographic implementation) take you deep into the many looks and accessories of this year’s event. This isn’t some ghastly convention center in Seattle: this is the Fashion District, darling, and your fifteen minutes start now.

Speaking of on-camera talent, you’ve probably heard of TruTV’s much-lauded Billy On The Street series starring Billy Eichner. But here’s a new loud-mouth surprise game show shock artist on the scene and he’s stealing Billy’s bit and taking his schtick. It’s Eric J. Grimm! Buzzy the Bean guest stars on the first episode of Eric On The Floor, and together they charm and delight a panoply of SCA Global Coffee Expo guests.

Just look at at this sampling of surprise cameos…

It’s Jenna Gotthelf of Everyman Espresso!

This guy! [If you are this guy, get in touch and we will update the post]

Ken Olsen, publisher of Barista Magazine!

And US Barista Champion Charles Babinski of Go Get Em Tiger and G&B Coffee!

Check out the whole first* episode here:

* The ‘Eric On The Floor’ show has been put on hiatus for retooling.

Videos produced for Sprudge by Lanny Huang. Follow Lanny Huang on all forms of media and peruse his official website here.

The post Hijinks On The Floor At The 2017 Global Coffee Expo appeared first on Sprudge.

Before drinking this Twin Peaks–inspired beer with no fishy percolators, please take a moment to mentally queue up Julee Cruise’s “Falling.” Let the opening bass notes and swelling synth orchestration set the mood.

This should help prepare your palate for Short’s Brewing Company’s Black Yukon Sucker Punch, which was named after a mysterious cocktail with a dark base and blueish head from Season Two, Episode Five. Just like David Lynch’s network television masterpiece, this beer is complex and satisfying. A little weird, a little bold; but overall a well-constructed, dynamic piece of art.

Twin Peaks references are not uncommon in the coffee world; the phrase “damn fine coffee” may conjure images of both a spit-taking Kyle MacLachlan and Everyman Espresso. In this context, you’ll see those words used in reference to the incorporation of Higher Grounds coffee (a frequent Short’s collaborator and nearby roaster down the way in Traverse City, Michigan).

The show references don’t stop there; the label includes representations of three Short’s Brewing team members posing as Judge Clinton Sternwood, Agent Dale Cooper, and Sheriff Harry Truman (respectively), each holding a Black Yukon Sucker Punch (akin to how it showed up in the series originally) in the Black Lodge (the iconic netherworld of plush leather chairs, blood-red drapes, and zigzag-patterned floor). While that wasn’t the milieu in which the three characters imbibed, it was used as a clear signal to the show’s fans.

But why even a Twin Peaks theme? Head brewer Tony Hansen explains: “We do have some Twin Peaks super-fans at Short’s. When we heard that the series was coming back, we felt very inspired to create some Twin Peaks–themed beers. Black Yukon is one of three beers that we created. The others were Diane—a coffee porter—and Fire Walk With Me—a coffee porter with chilies. All of which had the common theme of using ‘damn fine coffee.’ ”

This imperial porter, brewed with coffee and blackberries, was barrel-aged in emptied Woodford Reserve whiskey barrels. The result is a dark, rich, thick-pouring beer. It’s definitely on the heartier side of the porter style; you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a stout. The novelty of the drink doesn’t end at the label; the low-key but active head foams with a blueish tint. The blackberries were chosen specifically for the coloring, to bring the otherwise dark, opaque drink to something that could match the fictional cocktail (the precise recipe for which is never revealed in the show).

Fans of both beer and the television show will be pleasantly surprised that this bottle isn’t just a novel, nominal nod to a piece of popular culture. It’s a handsome beer and a bold, fruity ride. The blackberries hit your nose immediately, flooding the palate on the first sip. They’re not alone though; the rich, roasted malts and subtle coffee notes soon follow. The barrels come in toward the end with a kick of oak. The whole shebang is heavy on dark fruit; notes of berries, prunes, raisins, and dates are at play throughout the glass. The barrel notes are subtler; the tell-tale vanilla and caramel that often come from American whiskey barrels take a back seat to the blackberries and malt. The blend of fruit, wood, and alcohol culminate in a luxurious, fortified red wine flavor; this beer puts the “port” in porter. And at more than 10 precent ABV, you have to watch these; they sneak up on you.

It has so much going on, one could imagine stopping short, being good enough sans Higher Grounds’s contribution. Or with different fermentation as a sour beer. This is a bottled thought experiment. But it’s certainly a more complete whole with the additional roast and subtler fruit components from the coffee, which help stabilize the much more aggressive flavors of blackberries and wood. Every part plays nicely together; and let’s be honest, could a beer referencing Twin Peaks not include [damn fine] coffee?

This special beer isn’t in Short’s regular rotation. And as part of Short’s “Private Stache” series, it’s only released at the Short’s Brew Pub in Bellaire, Michigan. But for those looking to spend some time in the northern part of the mitten, Hansen says they are planning on making it again. The barrel-aging will take some time, so like the return of Twin Peaks itself, you may need to have a little patience.

D. Robert Wolchek is a Sprudge contributor based in New York City. Read more D. Robert Wolchek on Sprudge. 

The post Coffee Beer: Black Yukon Sucker Punch By Short’s Brewing appeared first on Sprudge.

September 29th, 2017 is National Coffee Day, and the 8th anniversary of the launch of Sprudge. To celebrate we’re calling on our readers around the worldwide to join us in a new charitable initiative: The Night of 1000 Pours.

How is this night different from any other night? On September 29th we’re asking our colleagues, readers, and allies to take part in a global fundraising event. We want you to plan a throwdown, a brewing competition, a signature drink exhibition, or any other sort of beverage fundraising event, and donate the proceeds as part of this grassroots effort. You might also choose to donate a portion of proceeds from sales in your cafes, or make a corporate charitable donation. We’ll organize a new Night of 1000 Pours event every six months, and feature new charities each time.

Click here to register and host an event for Night of 1000 Pours.

For the inaugural Night of 1000 Pours event, we’re suggesting two really important charities—Houston Food Bank and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund—but we aren’t here to dictate how you donate your money. Our goal is to activate the coffee community (and our colleagues in wine, beer, and cocktails) as a node for charitable fundraising and a force for philanthropy. You can raise funds for a local or national charity of your choice, based on what speaks to you and your community. Groups like Charity Navigator offer many worthwhile charities to choose from. We just want you to join us in throwing an event that gives back.

How do you get involved? Cruise over to Nightof1000Pours.com and get all the information, including an easy five-step process to set up an event, a FAQ, and an updating list of participating companies. We hope to feature you or an event in your area on that list.

We’re thrilled to kick off this initiative with a group of launch partners across the United States, including founding partnerships with the Greenway Coffee family of brands benefitting the Houston Food Bank and Everyman Espresso benefitting the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

Our launch partners include:

Greenway Coffee, Houston, Texas

Everyman Espresso, New York City

Wormhole Coffee, Chicago

All Day, Miami, FL

Joe Coffee, New York City

Counter Culture Coffee, Durham (nationwide)

La Marzocco USA, Seattle (nationwide)

Intelligentsia Coffee, Chicago (nationwide)

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Portland (nationwide)

Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland (worldwide)

Either / Or, Portland, OR

Batdorf & Bronson, Atlanta and Olympia

Fleet Coffee, Austin, TX

Cuties Coffee Bar, Los Angeles

Toby’s Estate, Brooklyn

Department of Brewology, Austin

Portland Coffee Social Club, Portland, OR

Onyx Coffee Lab, Fayetteville, AR

Want to get involved? Click here! 

Calling all creatives! You can throw your support behind Night of 1000 Pours by volunteering to create original poster art for an event in your city. Check out our poster info—we’re looking forward to featuring these posters in an upcoming feature series on Sprudge.

That URL again is Nightof1000Pours.com and we’d sure love to hear from you. Thank you, and thanks for 8 years of reading Sprudge!

The post Night Of 1000 Pours: Join Us To Raise Funds On September 29th appeared first on Sprudge.

On September 29th, 2017 we’re organizing coffee bars and beverage lovers from across the beer, wine, and cocktail industries for a night of charitable organizing. It’s called the Night of 1000 Pours, and it’s part of a new initiative of bi-annual fundraising events happening twice a year. You can read much more about these events—and sign up to host one yourself—by visiting the official Night of 1000 Pours website.

The response from coffee and beverage communities around the world has been staggering, but none more so than the coordinated effort being launched by our colleagues in New York. Lead by a three-person team of Sam Penix (Everyman Espresso) Eric J. Grimm (Everyman Espresso/Sprudge) and Dandy Anderson (Gimme! Coffee), the New York Coffee community has been organized into a multi-pronged fundraising movement, activating spaces across the city as centers for philanthropy and disaster relief.

“Coffee houses have an ancient history that has always been tied to community activism,” Everyman owner Sam Penix tells Sprudge. “The city of New York’s coffee community is proud to continue the tradition of cafes as a place for propagating ideas and philanthropic support of progressive national movements by participating in Sprudge.com’s Night of 1000 Pours.”

If you live in New York City and read Sprudge, go to these events.

Poster by Syd Low (@coffalofee)

First, this coming Thursday, September 14th, our partners at Joe are hosting an epic throwdown fundraiser at their Washington Square Park shop (37 East 8th Street). This event is presented by TNT NYC, and you can learn much more via the event’s official Facebook page. Competitors are encouraged to do their own community fundraising to support a buy-in of $50, and there is a suggested entry fee of $10 at the door. Competitors can register here. Target fundraising goal is $1500! Funds raised will go to the charity of each company’s choice, to support disaster relief.

Poster by Syd Low (@coffalofee)

Next, on September 29th, another massive latte art throwdown fundraiser is being hosted by our partners at Counter Culture Coffee at their lower Manhattan Training Center (376 Broome Street). This event follows the same format as the event on the 14th, meaning it’s a $50 fundraiser fee to enter, plus $10 at the door, although no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Target fundraising goal is $1500! Funds raised will go to the charity of each company’s choice, to support disaster relief. Ticketing info out soon, and we’ll update this post with more info when it goes live.

Poster by Nick Hiltner (@nickyhiltner)

And finally, from September 27th-29th a collection of some of New York’s best coffee bars are teaming up to offer drink specials and on-site fundraising across the city. To keep things fun and weird in the face of tragedy, this fundraising effort is themed around those most lovable agents of battle and friendship, the Pokemon. You’ve simply got to collect them all as signature drink specials roll out across the city, including:

We’re inspired by the sheer amount of organizing and good will going into these events, and proud to support them. We hope reading this might have inspired you to throw a fundraising event in your region for Night of 1000 Pours on September 29th. Cruise over to the official #1000Pours website to learn more about this initiative, check out some of our worthwhile suggested charities, and register to throw an event in your city.

Thank you New York City, we love you.

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge. 

The post Night of 1000 Pours: NYC Coffee Goes Big With Multiple Events appeared first on Sprudge.

So we’re pretty much blown away with the outpouring of support from folx all over the country today, uniting to help activate coffee and the wider beverage community as a source of charitable giving. It’s the inaugural Night of 1000 Pours tonight—search for an event in a community near you—and we just want to take a moment today to say thank you to everyone participating, and to highlight some of the leaders who have stepped up big in their communities.

First and foremost, our colleagues in New York City have been working over the last few days to raise funds for disaster relief, with a special focus on Puerto Rico. More than 30 cafes around the city have been serving signature drinks over the last few days to help raise funds, and there is a huge event happening tonight in Manhattan at the Counter Culture Coffee Training Center (376 Broome St). A huge thank you to all the participating cafes—Joe NYC, Everyman Espresso, Chalait, Underline Coffee, Toby’s Estate, Variety, Gimme!, and Gregory’s—and to the event organizers Sam Penix, Eric Grimm, and Dandy Anderson. Thanks also to Lin Manuel Miranda and Debra Messing for retweeting info about these events (no, really, it happened).

Speaking of Counter Culture, we have been just astonished by their organizing work and donation of time and resources to support 1000 Pours over the last few weeks. CCC are hosting or sponsoring events across the USA tonight, including events in Asheville, Atlanta, Boston, the Bay Area, Charleston, Chicago, Durham, Los Angeles, the aforementioned NYC event, Miami, Philly, Seattle, and Washington DC. Thank you to all of the folks hosting events nationwide, and to the team at Counter Culture HQ in Durham (especially Jennifer Hoverstad and Brian Ludviksen) for helping support these events.

We also want to shout out some of the folks helping raise funds today in the form of donating a portion of their sales proceeds, or hosting online specials. Onyx Coffee is donating 100% of online profits today to the Houston Food Bank. That’s rad, and if you were uh, you know, in the mood to buy some coffee (who isn’t?) make your first click Onyx to support the Night of 1000 Pours. La Marzocco‘s truly great La Marzocco Cafe in Seattle are donating all of their proceeds today to Direct Relief, and Portland’s Either/Or cafe will donate a portion of sales proceeds today to the Transgender Legal Defense Education Fund.

Speaking of Portland and Seattle, these are pretty good places to help support the Night of 1000 Pours throughout the day. In Seattle? You can support by drinking delicious Olympia Coffee Roasting Company coffee at the La Marzocco Cafe, then check out a party at Sound & Fog in West Seattle (raising funds for TLDEF). Cap off your evening with a very special menu of Mezcal cocktails at Liberty Bar, with funds going to support Mezcal Union‘s relief work in Oaxaca. Or perhaps you live in Portland? Either/Or is the spot for day drinks today, and then tonight please join us tonight at 6pm at Foxy Coffee for a charity natural wine bar pop-up hosted by our sister site Sprudge Wine, along with a rowdy throwdown, funky DJ’s, and surprises galore.

There’s more stuff—the wonderful Fleet Coffee x Department of Brewology collab happening in Austin, the excellent multi-charity fundraiser from Colorado’s Ozo Coffee—but you can read about all of this, and much more, at the official Night of 1000 Pours website. As a last shout out let us thank the team at Oatly USA (especially Bryan Hasho and Sadie Renee), who contacted us when the first round of 1000 Pours events were announced and have generously stepped up to support events tonight in New York and Portland.

Thank you all. Let’s make tonight one to remember, and then heck, move right on to support the incredible #CoffeeAyudo fundraisers in Chicago for Puerto Rico and Mexico relief and Equator Coffee‘s IWCA fundraisers this Sunday. If this is what coffee looks like in 2017—charitable, involved, partying for a cause—we are so here for it.

THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US AT SPRUDGE MEDIA NETWORK!

nightof1000pours.com

The post Tonight Is The Night Of 1000 Pours appeared first on Sprudge.

New York, New York. As the song goes, if you can make it here, you can make it dairy-free.

Wait, that isn’t how the song goes?

That’s news to Oatly, a Swedish-born alternative milk derived from oats that’s quickly taken hold among the most esteemed coffee bars in the five boroughs. In a city where every single element of business is competitive and “extra” shelf space is nonexistent, the rapid-fire spread of oat milk—of all things—across the city’s finer coffee bars is steaming up the scene.

“It’s been really surprising for us, too,” Mike Messersmith, United States General Manager for the Oatly brand told me over oat milk cortados one sunny Sunday in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. Since January of 2017, Oatly—specifically Oatly Barista, a creamy, coffee-optimized version of Oatly designed for steaming and serving in hot drinks—has gone from being served in only a dozen cafes to being available in more than 200 of the city’s coffee shops. From early adopters like Intelligentsia (which serves the alternative milk in its cafes nationally), Oatly’s been picked up by local chains like Café Grumpy, Joe Coffee Company, and Ninth Street Espresso, as well as many companies with smaller footprints like Sey Coffee, Kaffe 1668, Everyman Espresso, Cafe Integral, and Little Skips.

An oat milk cappuccino at Sey Coffee, Brooklyn.

If you just read off the names of some of the city’s best-respected cafes, there’s a reason for that. The company’s oat penetration strategy—to send friendly reps to all the city’s best coffee shops with free samples over and over and over—seems to have worked. It’s a gamble that the company, well-established in Sweden for more than two decades, could afford to make.

“The company wanted to wait until it felt like we were ready,” says Messersmith, who along with a small team has spearheaded Oatly’s grand entrance into the US market. The company already sells Oatly—in countless varieties from chai to chocolate milk to cream to “oatgurt”—in more than 30 countries globally, with its largest presence in the EU. To expand to North America, Messersmith says, the oat mogul felt it would be critical to gain a foothold in the barista community before large chains or grocery stores.

“It was a choice for us to try to pursue on-premise specialty coffee first,” Messersmith tells me. “Oat milk doesn’t exist for US consumers, as opposed to Sweden. We felt like we had a lot of work to do.”

Messersmith keeps a sense of humor about it all. “I mean, a lot of people, even my family, are still like, what? Oats? Explain that to me again?”

By and large, the city’s baristas have embraced it, largely because their customer base likes it, too. Jenna Gotthelf, a barista at Everyman Espresso admits, “As a consumer, I don’t really drink alternative milks.” But as a barista, finds her guests enjoy the product. “Customers have been asking for it,” says Gotthelf, “and enjoying it more than almond or soy milk. The Oatly brand steams nicely, so it is easy to work with.”

Oat farming in Sweden.

Though the romantic notion of drinking exotic, creamy Swedish oats may appeal, US Oatly is derived more locally—from oats grown in the Western United States and Canada, and manufactured into oat milk at a shared factory in Minnes—oat—a. “Oats are an incredibly sustainable rotational crop,” says Messersmith, “they bring crop diversity to those parts of the country. As opposed to some plant-based milks that are very taxing, oats use less water and fewer pesticides,” he says, arguing that oat farming has less environmental impact than many other alternative milks, like recently-maligned soy and almond milk.

What’s the downside, then? Some drinkers wary of the stabilizing agents that most plant milks use may balk at the inclusion of canola oil on Oatly Barista’s ingredients list. Messersmith says that the oil is not used as a thickener—which isn’t apparently needed due to what he refers to as an “amazing enzymatic process”—but rather to add creaminess. They use a non-GMO canola oil, and it makes up about 2% of the product by volume.

Among the Swedish oats

What it all adds up to in the cup is a neutral but creamy dairy substitute that’s muscled its way into those tightly packed New York cafe refrigerators—in some cases, kicking its sister soy milk off menus completely. For any coffee product to cause such a ruckus with such speed is unusual—in New York, it’s practically unheard of—and even tea professionals, who rarely agree on anything, seem to like it, too. Doug Palas, who runs Intelligentsia’s Kilogram Tea, says Oatly “accentuates tea flavors better than milk—it’s my default recommendation for tea drinks.”

Next up, the brand will continue to sow its oats in markets like Milwaukee, Denver, and of course, Los Angeles, whose artisanal alternative milk scene leads the nation. “The coffee industry in the US is really so connected,” concludes Messersmith of Oatly’s speedy growth. “When [baristas] find a brand they are passionate about that really gets them and delivers on that end product they care about, then…it’s really about facilitating, not pushing.”

“When the product’s really good,” he says, “it’s just—be cool, and don’t screw it up.”

Sweden images courtesy of Oatly.

Liz Clayton is the associate editor at Sprudge Media Network. Her world coffee guide with Avidan Ross, Where to Drink Coffee, drops this November on Phaidon Press. Read more Liz Clayton on Sprudge.

The post Oatly Madness: The Alternative Oat Milk Spreading Around NYC Cafes appeared first on Sprudge.

Baristas and other service workers in New York City are about to see a whole slew of new laws ensuring consistency and work-life balance in their schedules. Set to take effect on November 26, these new labor laws, called the Fair Work Week package, step out further than any in the country have yet in the direction of guaranteeing service workers some of the same benefits that allow workers in other sectors to live fairly and equitably.

“Last fall, we promised to make the lives of some of our city’s hardest working just a little bit easier by bringing fair, predictable scheduling to their jobs,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Predictable schedules and predictable paychecks should be a right, not a privilege. With this legislation, we are continuing to build a fairer and more equitable city for all New Yorkers.”

The five-law package mandates that workers must receive their schedules two weeks in advance, that they cannot be scheduled for shifts with less than an 11-hour gap between them, and that part-time workers are offered full-time roles before new workers are brought in. It also prevents certain businesses from placing workers on call and allows workers to deduct a portion of their paychecks as donation to a non-profit of their choice if they so desire. In coffee terms this means that, as of November 26, NYC baristas will see an end to “clopens”, same-week schedule releases, being called in on their days off, and being continually part-timed for business owners’ convenience.

In an era when so many US politicians are looking to weaken workers’ rights in the face of soaring housing and healthcare costs, NYC leadership framed this legislation as a way to keep its labor force safe, healthy, and intact. “One in nine New Yorkers is a retail worker, they are among the lowest wage earners in our city, and they struggle to survive on often part-time work, barely making ends meet,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, who emphasized that the new laws will help workers plan their lives around childcare, education, or multiple jobs.

New York coffee workers I talked to feel that the changes are mostly positive, although they see more complexities and potential downsides to the actual implementation. “On the whole, I think these changes promoting worker protections are awesome,” said Bailey Arnold, Director of Coffee at Gregory’s Coffee. “We’ve always been very careful to try not to overwork or demand too much from our employees, not only because we value their health, well-being, and general workplace satisfaction, but also because most of our shops are pretty high-volume and that’s how you hit the gas on turnover.”

However, even though many high-end coffee businesses already try to live by these laws, some of the measures do present new challenges. “For us, a possibly negative aspect to these new protections are that some people who specifically work in the service industry in order to have freedom and flexibility in their schedules may feel disappointed or limited by needing to give conflicts so far in advance,” said Arnold. “Also, if a team member leaves a store due to promotion, transfer, resignation, or termination, the manager can’t whip up a new schedule as quickly or as simply as previously. Businesses who are doing the right thing already may groan that they’re being ‘punished’ for others who may have taken advantage of their employees.”

“But it’s not all bad,” says Arnold. “We should be grateful, hopeful, and excited that we’re moving toward this becoming the norm.” Arnold tells Sprudge that the CEO and HR team at Gregory’s briefed store leaders about it as soon as they found out in early September, and the company acted as if the laws were already in effect starting October 1 to work out kinks before the official start date.

Gregory’s has more than two dozen locations across Manhattan and New Jersey. What about smaller coffee bars? Sam Penix, owner of the Everyman Espresso cafe brand (currently with three locations), supports the new legislation but has major concerns around how the details of implementation will play out in smaller companies like Everyman. “My baristas have always had the freedom to ask their coworkers to swap or cover. I do release the schedule in advance, but by far the majority of my edits are initiated by employees,” he said. When he announced the news, the reaction from his staff was mixed, with full-time workers pleased and part-time workers worried about their ability to navigate between multiple jobs.

He also voiced concerns about how the new law that requires full-time positions to be offered to part-timers will play out in specialty cafes specifically. “It could have some unintended consequences for employers who have highly specialized roles within the company,” says Penix. “For instance, let’s say you have someone who is not ready to be on bar making drinks and will require several more weeks of training and you lose a seasoned bar-trained part-timer. You won’t have the option to hire a new fully-trained past employee or experienced trained barista so you can fill those shifts.” But, despite the logistical issues presented by the new laws, he’s still excited to see workers’ rights laws move forward and is working to acclimate staff gradually leading up to the 26th.

As NYC housing costs continue to climb faster than its wages, a legislative move to bolster the quality of life of one of the most vulnerable categories of workers represents good business sense. While retail workers are often undervalued, they are an absolutely crucial part of a local economy, and if they thrive, the region thrives. In response to these laws, many express the hope that NYC’s commitment to service workers’ rights will act as a model for the rest of the country to move toward. However, the adjustment won’t be easy, and workers who have built their lives around flexibility rather than consistency may face a difficult learning curve as the culture for NYC retail workers shifts. Hopefully the protections will do more good than harm for the coffee workers of NYC—and for coffee-loving New Yorkers across the five boroughs.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network. 

The post How Will NYC’s New Fair Work Week Laws Affect Coffee Shops? appeared first on Sprudge.

After a two-month wait, just as World Barista Championships got underway, the Specialty Coffee Association rocked the coffee world with the announcement that three major world coffee competitions will remain in Dubai this year, despite the numerous protests of the US coffee community—especially those who are LGBTQIA+ or allies. As an amendment to their initial rollout, SCA officials added the new Deferred Candidacy Policy, which allows candidates to defer to another year if they cannot attend world competitions for reasons of safety, health, or unforeseeable circumstances, pending approval from WCE’s World Championships Committee.

Widely criticized in the queer coffee community, this decision and added policy have led many to reconsider their involvement with SCA. I talked with some of those who felt the deepest impact from this decision: queer coffee professionals who have invested their time, money, and energy in the SCA, its guilds, and its competitions. These are their voices.

James McCarthy, Espresso Technician, Counter Culture Coffee
World Brewer’s Cup Champion, 4 years competing, 2 years organizing, 1 year volunteering, several years SCA member

The SCA’s deferred candidacy policy is shameful. First, they decided not to move next year’s event to a place where queer/trans people feel safer—a place where anti-queer/trans laws aren’t on the books. This policy doesn’t just put the onus on the competitor to out themselves, it effectively punishes them by making them wait until the championship is not held in a place that is dangerous to them. It equates being LGBTQI with having a death in the family—can we pause on that one? To this board—or, to the majority of this board, because this was voted as a majority vote—being queer/trans is equal to dealing with the tragedy of familial death?

If the year I won the US Brewer’s Cup, the competition was being held in a country that had anti-queer/trans laws on the books, I would have been very nervous to travel there, and I know that I would not have gone. I have an F on my driver’s license and my passport; both still have my old name on them. Travelling is always nerve-wracking for me, even within the US. I would not have travelled to a country where it was very likely that the fact that my gender presentation doesn’t match what it says on my ID could land me in jail. I also need to acknowledge that these laws, in practice, end up being used on trans women, GNC, and those queer folks on the feminine spectrum overwhelmingly more often than on masculine of center folks, and on people of color way more often than white people.

With this new policy, I would have to prove possible discrimination to a committee before getting my deferment approved. They get to pick the host city, and then it falls on the competitor to work around the limitations caused by mostly white, cisgender, straight, male board.

This isn’t just international: I know that there are places in the US where queer, trans, and people of color do not feel safe traveling for coffee events—would I have wanted to go compete in Durham, NC if the bathroom bill was still standing? I know that my class and whiteness protect me, but what about others who would feel less safe? Why should we have to prove to a committee of mostly cis, white, and male folks that our safety and comfort matters?

They should have reached out to their queer and trans members more, and really listened to us. There is a way to support the global coffee community without putting some of their members in danger or singling them out as other. I also hope that the white coffee community doesn’t demonize the people of these countries because of these laws—I’ve seen more than one comment calling these countries themselves “backward,” a word which has a lot of shitty colonialist history attached to it, and also classist and racist implications. As we stand against the SCA in our opposition to this policy, we need also to stand with the coffee people living in these countries with anti-queer/trans laws.

I don’t see any part of this policy as beneficial, and I plan on removing myself from all SCA activities until they prove they will support and protect their queer and trans members.

Christina Snyder, Roaster
2 years SCA and RGA member, 1 year competing, 1 year volunteering

In my brief time as a member of the SCA and RGA, I’ve witnessed the institutions of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia mirrored throughout the events and policies enacted by these organizations. I have chosen, often defiantly, to remain a member in hopes of creating visibility and amplifying the voices of marginalized community members. The news of the selection of Dubai for the world events not only forced me to withdraw from competition but ask if my efforts and the efforts of many brave others have been in vain.

The deferred candidacy policy is a direct act of oppression on the LGBT+ community. By forcing the work onto queer/trans individuals, the hierarchy of heterosexual, cis males is maintained. It is appalling to place the burden of proving one’s identity onto any queer/trans individual; it is inconceivable to ask this for the sake of their safety.

By continuing to hold the events in Dubai, the SCA Board of Directors has made clear that their priority lies in monetary investments rather than the welfare of its members. The outrage of the LGBT+ community is loud, it is justified, and it is an appeal to the heart. I am saddened that only the wallet has listened.

Sam Penix, Owner, Everyman Espresso
10 years SCA and BGA member, several years competing, judging, coaching

I had to read the statement several times because I just could not believe my eyes. The statement sent a painful shock wave of cognitive dissonance throughout my body. How do I reconcile the community that I myself have benefited from and fostered all these years with the condescending statement released last week? However polite the language, it’s clear that the action or lack thereof sends a message which I as a trans person received as, “The SCA is not willing to sacrifice financial gains to maintain safety for its LGBTQIA members.”

I would like to have seen a statement that was fully transparent and answers the questions I have surrounding the lead up to the decision to choose UAE as a location for the international coffee event. I would like to see a investigation into the members of the SCA who selected Dubai as a location. Were there bribes involved? What legal or financial obligations does the SCA have to the venue in UAE?

How dare the SCA tell me this is my problem; how naive and untrue. We the members of the SCA will not tolerate the hosting of events where SCA members cannot safely attend. I am the SCA, because without members there is no SCA.

I do acknowledge that there are many countries for various reasons that pose a conflict for members. There must be a policy in place to address this. It’s just clear that this location was not thought through and/or decision-makers were corrupted with cash incentives. I hope that the SCA reconsiders this position, cancels the event in Dubai, and launches an internal investigation to find out what the fuck is going on.

Everyman Espresso will not renew its membership with the SCA and BGA and is strongly considering withdrawing from the 2018 barista competition circuit. We await further clarification from the SCA in light of our community’s response to their decision.

Dani Goot, Head of Coffee Strategy, Bellwether Coffee 
2 years on Roasters Guild Executive Council, 15 years RGA member, several years volunteering, 1 year competing

It’s hurtful for me to know that all the work I have done to be my true self still leaves me unsupported by the organization I have worked to develop. I have avoided working with the SCA years prior because of the ways patriarchy showed in the organization. Things appeared to shift and balance out a bit, so I ran for the Roasters Guild Executive Council and was voted in by the Roasters Guild members. I ended up resigning a few months ago and still feel very good about that decision due to my political views and personal ethics. This deferred candidacy policy has put the queer community back a few years from all the work we have done with breaking down gender inequality in coffee. I am asking for you to stand with the LGBTQIA folx that do not feel safe or included in any coffee events including and not limited organizations such as the SCA or WCE. We as a community need to support each other as a whole. If we can’t do that, it isn’t a community worth being a part of. Where do we go from here as queer people within the coffee community?

Jasper Wilde, Coffee Educator, Ritual Coffee Roasters
3 years BGA member, I year competing, wanted to compete or judge every year but could not afford to do so

I am devastated that the most influential coffee organization is choosing to view me and other queer people as non-essential. I am shocked that this decision was approved by their board of directors. I am particularly offended at the extreme sense of othering that the SCA is asking its members to subject themselves to. What is obscene is the need to gain permission by the Deferred Candidacy Policy. This is extremely harmful and repeats a long history of requiring queer, particularly trans people, to gain favor with the people oppressing them. This is respectability politics: the SCA wishes for us to out ourselves, come to them as gatekeepers, and prove our worth and vulnerabilities before we are given the honor of representing the country we are from. One action that I will take after this decision is to boycott the SCA. I will also be discussing with Ashley, my co-host of Boss Barista, if we wish to use our platform to help lead others to boycott. On a more broad level, this decision makes me question my future career in specialty coffee. I had once hoped that I would work at the SCA to advocate for worker rights as an industry leader but this decision has created a deep mistrust and I would never consider working with them on any level.

Bailey Arnold, Director of Education, Gregory’s Coffee
4 year SCA member, 1 year judging, 2018 preliminary winner, competing in 2018 qualifier

The idea that SCA is relying on competitors to be in the same work/life situation the following competition season is absurd. Confidence, morale, and support are all great contributors to performance, and this undoubtedly affects all three negatively. Even if someone is up to waiting around to compete at a location where they feel safer, what are the odds they’ll be as motivated, excited, or mentally prepared? It’s an automatic disadvantage on top of everything else.

As a first-time competitor unlikely to advance to an international level anytime soon, whose fees are already paid for NOLA, with the main motivation for competition to be able to coach a new competitor from my company in a subsequent competition season, I’m conflicted. If I were an independent competitor I would likely consider pulling out, not wanting to support competition until the SCA’s actions align with their stated policies. However, I’m not competing solely for myself, it’s for my company and ultimately for our less seasoned baristas (potentially of a less visible demographic, as around 3/4 of our company is made up of POC) to get more engaged and excited about working with coffee.

Additional points have been made that if currently signed-up competitors pull out, people who are waitlisted can/will sign up, which yields even more profit for the SCA. At the current time I plan to continue on the “road to competition,” while keeping in mind any action I can take while participating. I’m a huge proponent of visibility and I’m “out.” I live in New York City, my family is tolerant, I’m white, I’m cisgender, I’m buoyed by tons of support, and I have a pretty solid bill of mental health. I’m in a place of considerable privilege and willing to take on this emotional labor while participating, whatever that will look like in the moment.

Jenna Gotthelf, Barista, Everyman Espresso
BGA member, 3 years competing, 2018 preliminary winner, competing in 2018 qualifier

The deferred candidacy policy lacks the same foresight as the initial decision to hold WCE competitions in Dubai. It is absurd to have to qualify and approve someone’s legitimate safety concern. It’s not right to force someone to come out like that. I don’t think it is a logical solution to the problem. Deferring for a year is not what competitions are about. It doesn’t work like that in sports. In the pursuit of championship, it is important to carry the momentum of a win into the next round expediently.

The best solution here is to turn back time and undo the decision to host in Dubai, but that is not an option. The SCA is a business. Dubai is a money country. From what I understand of the recent regional competition structural changes over the past few years, there is a budget issue. I image there is a huge financial investment here, and forfeiting completely would result in an astronomical loss. I am not saying this isn’t upsetting, but it is unrealistic to think that the SCA would pull out of Dubai completely.

I do not believe there is malice behind the SCA’s decision. They have stated that moving forward, infrastructural changes will be implemented to avoid something like this from happening again. The most important part of making mistakes is acknowledging and learning from them. The SCA made an egregious error that they have acknowledged, and will end up paying for in backlash of the community. I support my peers who will be boycotting the SCA and competitions moving forward. I will not be doing so. I don’t compete because I am gay. I compete because I want to win, and if safety is another hurdle then that is unfortunate, but if every member of the LGBTQ+ community abstains from participating in these events, who will rise?

Shannon, Operations Consultant
10 years on-off BGA, RGA, or SCA member, judge for the first time at 2018 preliminaries 

This year was the first time I’d ever attended or judged a SCA event. Occasionally over the last 10 years I’ve held RGA or SCA membership, this year was my first as a BGA member. The SCA has never appealed to me; in the early days the amount of money it cost to be a member in exchange for the services received seemed preposterous. All marketing material featured white, middle-class heterosexual men and the occasional cis woman. I could not see myself in those faces. All they have had to offer was competition and high-cost educational classes. This decision is confirmation that the SCA is not for queer or low-income bodies. I will not renew my membership unless this decision is overturned.

Michelle Johnson, Barista Hustle
2 years SCA member, Level 1 SCA-certified barista, Barista Camp attendee, 1 year Expo attendee (including panel hosting and Symposium attendance), 1 year attending World of Coffee, 1 year attending WBC, consulted for SCA in Dublin on SCA’s strategic planning

When I first heard that there were going to be multiple coffee competitions in Dubai, I knew damn well I wasn’t going to go. As a Black woman who learned the hard way (sexism but more notably, racism) in Budapest, Hungary this year, the anxiety and extreme hyperawareness that comes with being who I am in certain countries—and honestly, international industry events, in general—isn’t worth it.

When I learn more about why Dubai was a problematic place to hold an event, through Sprudge and my own research, I felt that it just further pushed me and so many others away from being able to attend and support events like that. As someone who spent most of my coffee career as a barista from DC and Arizona, the idea of going to international industry events was always cool, and I felt they could help enrich my learning and expand my view of coffee on a global scale. But after attending several and the Dubai decision, I haven’t felt all that welcome.

The Deferred Candidacy Policy is just trash. Echoing what I just said, it just further boxes people out of those spaces. And I feel the most for nonbinary and trans people, especially those of color, where the opportunity to even be a part—as a competitor, supporter, general attendee, etc—isn’t even remotely available to them in Dubai. It’s also discouraging as fuck to just be pawned off to another year (if they’re a national competitor) and it’s harmful as hell to make people have to “justify” themselves through outing for being deferred in the first place. I think it’s fucked.

Having just moved continents, I’m definitely still in a transitional and recharging stage but I’m working to create more space for those more affected than I to voice their hurt and concern (mostly through the Barista Hustle Facebook group), amplifying and boosting events happening around the world, and the BH team has been talking a lot about what we can do, too.

Izi Aspera, Roaster, Wrecking Ball Coffee
4 years volunteering, SCA class attendee, 2 years competing, 3 years Expo attendee

The SCA’s decision to hold World events in Dubai and their deferred candidacy policy were superficial. As much as SCA has advertised their global reach, they often lack global awareness and how their investment in said region promotes complacency to the exploitation of migrant workers and violence towards the LGBTQIA locally and abroad. It made it clear that there is little hope for the LGBTQIA community to be represented on just allyship alone and the SCA must engage more in the communities they occupy for these events.

I already struggle every year to afford booking a flight, guarantee time off for the event, a place to stay, and a ticket to the annual convention and SCA classes. That being said it is very easy for me to back out of continuing to financially support the SCA going forward. There is no reason for me to continue to support an organization that finds my support expendable or value my contributions beyond their financial gain. If anything the SCA’s actions have made me realize how important it is to invest in local organizations that reflect my own core values.

Oodie Taliaferro, Barista, Cultivar Coffee Bar
3 years SCA member, 2 years attending Coffee Champs, 1 year Expo attendee, 2018 regional competitor, competing in qualifiers for 2018 cycle

I think that the Dubai decision was naive, frankly. For an organization that is home to so many different types of folx, it’s up to them to make sure that we can attend events, not only as competitors, but volunteers, judges, etc. I understand that the outrage is pretty American-centric, but each country’s own governance (former SCAA, SCAE, et al.) is responsible for their constituents, and this time, now that it’s affecting us, we have the opportunity to make change. If anything, this decision has given more opportunity for smaller community events to crop up, and that’s really neat.

I’m still competing. I’ll speak out when given the platform to do so. I’m working in the Dallas metroplex area and greater south central region to promote more inclusive, more progressive events and discussions more often.

Colleen Anunu, Director of Coffee Supply Chain at Fair Trade USA and Director for SCA
8 years volunteering, 2 years on RGEC, 3 years on SCA board, Vice Chair of Research

The deferred candidacy policy raised a lot of red flags for me and you can be sure that I voiced all of my concerns on multiple occasions and very loudly. I was, and still am, not in favor of the policy for a number of the discriminatory reasons that many people have already written about, as well as for more complex reasons related to my interpretation of my duty of loyalty as a governor of the association.

We owe the members of the association a lot of information, and I am committed to pushing for it without spin and without filter.

From the outset I have volunteered to take part in the Review Panel to ensure that the perspectives from my community of peers reached the desk of the President’s Council of the board. That task force had a discrete number of activities and timeline, but there is still so. much. work. to. do. in terms of ensuring that those voices are not only heard but are understood. We are stating from a 101 space where terms like “outing” and “passing” and the letter Q aren’t understood, let alone the dynamics at play in identity based discrimination. The numerous conversations that I have had with both the board as a whole and individual board members have shown mixed results. To be clear, there have been aha moments, so some of what I’m focused on now is getting those people to champion the work. I try to maintain accessibility and non-judgement for my colleagues to ask honest questions, but a strong position when my informed perspectives from lived experience are disregarded.

One of my main non-preassigned priorities on the board is to support the work being done on embedding concepts of inclusivity and diversity throughout the association: HR, guilds, events, and governance.This includes the policies and procedures for event selection, as well as guiding philosophies on governance, creating pathways to leadership for marginalized folks, and ensuring that staff and volunteer leaders are supported.

I have a personal mission to demystify the association: structure, strategy, governance, who to contact (and how amazing the staff are), and on and on and on. I want members to have access to their association leaders and to take full advantage of their rights and benefits. People can reach out to me at any time to talk.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Queer Voices Respond To Deferred Candidacy appeared first on Sprudge.

Working as a barista while transgender comes with its own set of unique challenges, both logistical and emotional in nature. On top of the difficult customers and irregular wages cisgender baristas face, transgender baristas also cope with frequent microaggression or outright aggression from customers, not to mention the harassment and discrimination many face on their side of the bar. While there are challenges to working in service while trans, there are also many great trans coffee leaders working to construct healthy workplaces who have excellent solutions to offer the industry for mitigating problems they’ve faced. I talked to five transgender coffee professionals who present a vision for how a better cafe can operate; some of these recommendations are very small and readily feasible, some more ambitious, but the best part is that while these policies are designed by and for trans workers, they create positive systems for all cafe workers, and cisgender employees will find them just as valuable.

Harassment Policies and Clear Procedures

All of the coffee workers I interviewed said that in order for trans workers to have equity at the cafe level, it’s absolutely crucial to have a policy that not only bans harassment from both staff and customers, but also clearly defines it and outlines procedures for reporting it. These policies need to be accessible and equally applied to everyone.

Em Halpern, former quality controller and employee trainer at Function Coffee Labs, said that when coffee businesses don’t have a clear harassment policy, it’s not only unprofessional, it’s also a liability. They added that companies need to go further than just having a nominal policy in place: “If a policy outlines no actual steps to follow or protections for the employee, the employer is free to act how they see fit, leaving room for personal biases regardless of good intentions. In the worst case scenario, employees can be made to feel like their claim is invalid and end up further victimized.” Halpern also shared a great example of a clear, comprehensive policy, the one they experienced while working at Ultimo Coffee: “Any instance of discrimination or harassment by staff member, customer, or other person related to the business of Ultimo Coffee should be reported immediately to Aaron or Elizabeth Ultimo. The report will be handled in a swift and appropriate manner and will not result in any retaliation on the employee who made the complaint.” Being clear about how to file a complaint and about the fact that filing won’t result in retaliation allows workers a clear picture of the process they will actually go through when reporting harassment.

Important also to note in the policy is that harassment isn’t just something that can occur between employees; it can also be a problem with customers. Shannon, who works for a French bakery chain and does cafe consulting work on the side, used to work for a restaurant group that had a great policy stating that any worker experiencing harassment of any kind from a customer should immediately notify a manager, who would then take over and ask the customer to leave, preventing any further contact, a detail that he said generated a very positive response.

In general, on-paper policies that are clear and specific help create equitable treatment, but beyond that, they also help companies to scale. Policies that live in managers’ heads are much harder to disseminate consistently and fairly, and all workers benefit from clear avenues for communication and procedure, especially as small companies grow larger and need more employees and managers.

Sensitivity Training and Education

Part of the difficulty of working while trans is that not everyone has the education they need to engage appropriately with trans coworkers and customers, and trans employees usually end up carrying the burden of providing that education (usually for no extra pay).

Halpern wants to see employers and employees alike receive regular high-quality LGBTQ/GNC sensitivity trainings, as well as trainings on other forms of systemic oppression. They also hope that going forward, the Barista Guild or Specialty Coffee Association can team with a reputable institution to make those types of trainings readily available and affordable. Sid Ditson, barista at Coava, added that many cities have community education organizations that offer basic trainings. Ditson also thinks that new hire training and continued staff education need to include explanations of common microaggressions that transgender workers face (eg. misgendering, sexual harassment).

Sam Penix, owner of Everyman Espresso, said that asking for employee pronouns during the interview process and introducing new workers with the correct pronouns goes a long way toward creating a less presumptuous culture. He also said that employers and workers alike need to know that asking questions about the bodies or sex lives of trans coworkers is harassment, and that while it’s okay for trans workers to talk about their own gender identity, it’s not okay for workers to talk about their coworkers being trans (a practice called outing). On a customer service level, Halpern also wants workers to receive training on how to improve customer service by not gendering customers (eg. calling them sir/ma’am, using gendered pronouns to talk about them), as a means to avoid misgendering transgender customers. Those are all examples of things employers and workers would learn during sensitivity training.

Wage Transparency

Long-term wage data reveals that while white women make 79% of what men make over the course of their lives, that percentage dips lower for non-white women, dropping as low as 54% for Latinx women. Unsurprisingly, transgender workers—especially those who are women or nonbinary—also face a daunting wage gap. According to data collected by the Williams Institute and published by the Center for American Progress, “One study found that the earnings of female transgender workers fell by nearly one-third following their gender transitions. This research strongly indicates that in addition to facing significant workplace discrimination in hiring and firing based on their gender identity, transgender women experience significant gaps in pay largely attributable to their gender.” Because of pay disparities that tend to occur whenever pay rates are determined through standard new-hire negotiations, pay and wage transparency are excellent ways to ensure fiscal equity among cafe workers.

Halpern recommends establishing transparent wage systems that detail not only why an employee starts out at a specific rate, but also exactly how they can earn raises, how often raises should happen, and what those raises should look like. Ellan Kline, Retail Trainer at Ritual Coffee Roasters (and, full disclosure, my spouse) works within a model just like that: baristas all start at the same rate, undergoing a series of coffee tests that lead to preset raises, and eventually moving into a yearly review system with both clear time-based raises and extra raises that employees can earn by going above and beyond. These on-paper wage brackets help not only trans employees, but also cisgender female employees and workers of color, who know they’re being paid equitably; the transparency has a demonstrably positive effect on morale and retention at Ritual.

Support and Empowerment 

Emotional and professional support are valuable in helping trans workers thrive in coffee companies and in the larger coffee community. Mentorships programs at both a company level and industry level could go a long way toward helping transgender coffee workers find the same coffee community that cisgender coffee workers enjoy.

“Trans and gender-nonconforming folks are, like all marginalized groups, underrepresented in coffee leadership,” said Halpern, who wants to start a coalition of trans and gender-nonconforming service industry workers to mentor, empower, and advise on difficult professional situations and career-building. “Many of us carry the unique emotional burden of defending our gender and identity to customers, coworkers and employers; I want to help people to reduce that emotional burden they carry.”

“Support, empower, promote,” said Kline, talking about her responsibility as an advocate for bringing more trans people into coffee and helping them move up through the ranks if they so desire. Penix said that it’s important to prioritize hiring trans and gender-nonconforming workers as well as workers of color. “This doesn’t mean I exclusively hire trans people or POC,” he said. “It means that I am aware of hurdles that those communities face and seek to remove those challenges. I make statements when I hire to make sure I have a welcoming message free from ambiguity. I am willing to volunteer my own time to training those folks and sending them along with recommendations to other cafe owners.”

Trans coffee professionals in leadership positions like Halpern, Penix, and Kline are doing foundational work to let other trans coffee workers know that they can find comradery and support in the coffee community, and have seen more trans and nonbinary workers moving into cafes since public representation has increased.

Living Wage and Healthcare

Factors that affect all workers’ ability to be healthy and safe while working and coffee, especially pay and healthcare, are critical in supporting trans workers. All five of the coffee pros I spoke to cited paying a living wage and providing healthcare if possible as major factors in trans cafe worker wellbeing.

“Most baristas in this country don’t make a reasonable living wage,” said Halpern. “Most of us don’t get healthcare coverage with our jobs, so we have to rely on government assistance or out- of-pocket insurance plans. The minimum wage in Pennsylvania is $7.25 per hour; nobody can reasonably exist on this wage, nor should they have to struggle because they enjoy working in coffee.” Shannon pointed to Australia, a country where the average barista makes $20 per hour and have health insurance, as a successful and thriving model for where the US coffee industry should go over the next few years. While it’s not always possible for employers to offer affordable health insurance to workers, a lack of access to affordable care disproportionately affects trans workers, many of whom need to be able to access hormone therapy and psychological support in order to do their best work.

“I think getting rid of tipping culture by raising wages and upping prices to account for the amount people budget for tips is the biggest and easiest change to implement industry-wide,” said Kline, adding that tips encourage the idea that the customer is always right, enabling them to treat trans employees disrespectfully without repercussion. “If a customer is making up the gap between the minimum wage and a living wage, how comfortable are trans employees going to feel shutting down customer harassment?”

Providing a living wage and affordable health care within the narrow profit margins of a small coffee business isn’t always feasible; nevertheless, those are still critical success factors in trans worker support, so businesses should try to be cognizant of how that will affect their ability to support trans workers.

Next Steps

These strategies provide a model for cafes that want to be more supportive to transgender workers to gain traction and actualize that goal. Some of these strategies are expensive and take time to plan for, but many are low-cost or free and can even save money by reducing liability and worker turnover. While few coffee companies start out perfect, a little goes a long way, and the trans workers I talked to are excited that coffee businesses are starting to look at free and easy policy moves that lead to cultural shifts. Bringing new perspectives into leadership in the coffee community will allow for novel approaches to old problems that the industry will need to solve in order to move forward.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, the publisher of Queer Cup, and a coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Working In Service While Trans: A Guide To Better Workplaces appeared first on Sprudge.

The Spirit of Tea tour is back for another round. After a successful West Coast tour, the two-part tea tutorial and throwdown hosted by Marco and Spirit Tea is heading east for a three-stop tour. And it starts on Wednesday in Dallas.

Like with the last Spirit of Tea tour, each stop breaks down into two events, one during the day and the other at night. The daytime is the more formal of the two, featuring a tea dialing-in workshop. The nighttime event, a matcha latte art throwdown, is far less education-based, unless you plan on putting on a clinic on the finer points of six-tier, green latte tulips.

The second leg of the Spirit of Tea tour begins in Dallas with the dial-in on Wednesday at Edison Coffee and the Matcha Latte Throwndown the next day at Cultivar’s Oak Cliff location. The following week, it moves to Durham/Charlotte for stops and Counter Culture and Not Just Coffee, before concluding in New York City at Everyman Espresso and Joe Pro Shop.

For more information on the Spirit of Tea tour, visit Marco’s official website.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*all images via Spirit Tea

The post Spirit Tea And Marco’s Spirit Of Tea Tour Heads East appeared first on Sprudge.

Hello Sprudge readers, and welcome to the 2018 edition of Night of 1,000 Pours, our bi-annual charitable fundraiser. Coffee has the capacity for great moral and civic leadership, and the cafe space remains an incredible hub for sharing ideas, supporting people of all backgrounds, and making the world a better place. We hope you can join us by getting involved in this year’s fundraiser by throwing a party, raising funds in your cafe, designing a poster, or patronizing a business taking part in these events. Together we can do good work.

Last fall we encouraged readers to donate to four really important charities, including the Houston Food Bank, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, the American Red Cross. This March 16th we’re taking it back where we started as a fundraiser and asking participants to donate to local and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, to support their legal fight on behalf of immigrants from around the world and civil rights here in the United States.

Some of the biggest issues the network of ACLU civil rights attorneys are working on right now include continued opposition to current US President Trump’s proposed Muslim immigration ban, ratification of the Dream Act to protect a generation of young immigrants who are American in all but paperwork, and a nationwide anti-discrimination campaign centered around the Masterpiece Cakeshop case in Colorado. These are just some of the worthy causes the ACLU fights on behalf of on a daily basis, and it’s work we’re proud to help raise funds and awareness for.

In 2017 Sprudge readers raised nearly a half-million dollars to fight against the Muslim ban—a truly monumental effort uniting more than 600 cafes around the country and leading brands across the coffee industry. This time around the ACLU is supporting Sprudge and cafes around the country who want coffee to stand for something more. “Last year in the wake of the Muslim Ban, ACLU staff and members were heartened by the tremendous support for immigrants’ rights and the ACLU in cafes nation-wide,” says Michele Moore, Chief Communications Officer for the ACLU. “These efforts raised nearly half a million dollars and provided a critical investment to our on-going fight to protect and advance civil liberties. Cafes have always been essential gathering places for connecting, sharing ideas and building community—a role that is more critical than ever especially as the rights of our most vulnerable communities are threatened. We are grateful for this groundswell of support will once again champion our work.”

How do you get involved? Cruise over to Nightof1000Pours.com and get all the information, including an easy step-by-step process on how to register and set up an event, a FAQ, and an updating list of participating companies.

Register today for an event in your area!  We want you to plan a throwdown, a brewing competition, a signature drink exhibition, or any other sort of beverage fundraising event, and donate the proceeds as part of this grassroots effort. You might also choose to donate a portion of proceeds from sales in your cafes, or make a corporate charitable donation. We’ll be featuring original posters created for these events over the next month across our media network, and promoting the heck out of your events, large and small, as they happen nationwide.

Join us for the 2018 Night of 1,000 Pours benefitting ACLU! We’re proud to launch this year’s initiative with the support of the following launch partners:

Stumptown Coffee Roasters

Reanimator Coffee Roasters

Joe Coffee

Pacific Foods

Portland Coffee Social Club

Greenway Coffee/Blacksmith/Coral Sword/Morningstar

Everyman Espresso

G&B Coffee/Go Get Em Tiger

Fleet Coffee

Heart Coffee Roasters

Roseline Coffee

Intelligentsia Coffee

Equator Coffees 

Want to join us? Register today and get all the details at the official Night of 1000 Pours website. 

The post Night of 1,000 Pours: Join Us To Support The ACLU On March 16th appeared first on Sprudge.

The 2018 edition of Night of 1000 Pours happens Friday, Mach 16th, raising funds for the American Civil Liberties Union in their ongoing fights to support immigrants rights, LGBTQIA rights, and the rights of students to conduct lawful protests. Coffee brands across the country are getting in on the action by raising funds and throwing parties, including Equator Coffees, Stumptown Coffee, Heart Coffee Roasters, Reanimator Coffee Roasters, Everyman Espresso, G&B Coffee, Joe Coffee, Intelligentsia Coffee, Fleet Coffee, and many more.

Interested in joining in on the fundraising? Register an event here and learn much more at the official Night of 1000 Pours homepage.

For this, year two of the Night of A Thousand Pours, Sprudge is getting in on the action in a new and special way. We’ve teamed up with Portland Coffee Social Club and members of the Portland, Oregon coffee community to host a very special coffee and childhood breakfast treat service. We’re calling it the Pop-Tart Pop-Up.

The first-annual Portland Pop-Tart Pop-Up will take place from 10am-3pm on Friday, March 16th at Sprudge Studios (3640 SE Belmont Avenue), with all proceeds benefitting the ACLU of Oregon. $5 at the door gets you a Pop-Tart of your choice (there will be a surfeit of options)—toasted to your preferred level of perfection on Breville Smart Toasters—and a delicious cup of batch brew drip coffee, sourced by Omar Herrera of La Bodega and roasted by Angel Medina of Smalltime Roasters, the house brand of Portland’s own Kiosko Coffee. Coffee service will be supported by the experts at Black Rabbit Service Co., with delicious condiment options on hand thanks to Oatly, Pacific Foods, and Sunshine Dairy. There’s also a lovely raffle happening with prizes donated from near and far, hosted by Portland Coffee Social Club, and who knows, Buzzy and Spesh—our giant anthropomorphic coffee beans—may be making a very special appearance.

This is the first public event at Sprudge Studios, the new creative studios and events space from Sprudge Media Network. You can learn much more about the development of this project over the last few months in the latest episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast, out now—download via iTunes—but suffice to say we’re thrilled to welcome you into our space to drink delicious coffee, snack on a Tart or two, and raise money for the ACLU.

Thank you and we’ll see you March 16th!

The post A Pop-Tart Pop-Up At Sprudge Studios To Support The ACLU appeared first on Sprudge.

After a successful inaugural event in San Francisco, QC: Queer Coffee Events is hopping coasts for their second get together. This time taking place at Counter Culture’s New York City training center at the end of April, this QC event revolves around a panel discussion titled, “We Out Here: Chatting About Our Experiences Navigating the Coffee Industry.”

The New York event was organized by 2013 World Brewers Cup champion James McCarthy of Equator Coffees, Counter Culture’s Farah Khawaja, and Share Coffee Roaster’s Ezra Baker and is “dedicated to creating spaces for queer coffee people and friends to build community, collaborate, and have fun.” The day begins with a hang out and snacks provided by Little Skips, followed by an intro from McCarthy immediately preceding the panel discussion. Moderated by Baker, the discussion will feature panelists Alexandra Zepeda of Gimme! Coffee, founder of the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective and shift lead at Intelligentsia Kristina Jackson, and Katie Bishop and Desmond Hughes-Rivera of Everyman Espresso.

The event is free to attend. The organizers ask that all attendees read the Code of Conduct—which can be read here—before arriving. It all gets started at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 28^th at the Counter Culture training center in New York City. For more information, visit the QC: NYC Facebook event page.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via QC: Queer Coffee Events

The post QC: Queer Coffee Events Hosting NYC Gathering In April appeared first on Sprudge.

Black Coffee is back.

The original live event from creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista, Sprudge) returns for two exclusive engagements on the American east coast, happening in NYC on October 15th and Washington DC on October 19th.

Exploring the intersection of race and coffee culture, Black Coffee takes the form of a lively on-stage panel discussion—a dialogue that centers the voices and experiences of Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, all with unique perspectives that span intersectional identities and roles on the retail end of the coffee chain. The program launched earlier this year in Portland, Oregon, and you can watch a full video presentation of that evening right here.

On Monday, October 15th Black Coffee is in Manhattan at the Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th) in an evening sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Revelator Coffee, Oatly, Everyman Espresso, and Oren’s Coffee Co. This conversation is hosted by Michelle Johnson, with co-hosts Tymika Lawrence (Genuine Origin) and Ezra Baker (Oren’s Coffee Co.). Panelists include Lem Butler (Black & White Roasters), Kristina Hollie (Intelligentsia), Winston Thomas (Barista Champion of South Africa/Urnex Ambassador), and Candice Madison (Irving Farm).

Buy tickets now for Black Coffee NYC. Sales benefit Brownsville Community Culinary Center.

Black Coffee PDX (left to right, bottom to top) Zael Ogwaro (Never Coffee), Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista), Ian Williams (Deadstock Coffee), Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House), D’Onna Stubblefield (Icon Coffee), Cameron Heath (Revelator Coffee Company), Gio Fillari (Coffee Feed PDX) and Ezra Baker (Oren’s Coffee Co). Photo by Shaunté Glover for Sprudge.

On Friday, October 19th Black Coffee is in Washington DC at The Line Hotel (1770 Euclid St NW) in an evening sponsored by La Marzocco, Oatly, Revelator Coffee, and The Line Hotel. This conversation is again hosted by creative director Michelle Johnson, with co-host Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House/Barista Guild of America). Panelists include Aisha Pew (Dovecote Cafe), Candy Schibli (Southeastern Roastery), Reggie Elliott (Foreign National), Victoria Smith (The Cup We All Race 4), and Donte Gardner (Vigilante Coffee Company).

Buy tickets now for Black Coffee DC. Sales benefit Collective Action for Safe Spaces. 

Poster art by Taylor McManus. 

Read Michelle Johnson’s original statement of intent for Black Coffee. 

All Black Coffee coverage on Sprudge. 

The post Black Coffee Is Coming To New York City And Washington DC appeared first on Sprudge.

Black Coffee, the new event series from creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista) recently staged major events in New York City (October 15th) and Washington DC (October 19th) at the Classic Stage Company in lower Manhattan and The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan. Hosted by Michelle Johnson, produced by Sprudge, and featuring NYC co-hosts Tymika Lawrence (Atlas Coffee) and Ezra Baker (Oren’s Coffee Co.) and DC co-host Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House, Barista Guild of America Executive Council), these events centered the voices and experiences of Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, all with unique perspectives that spanned intersectional identities and roles on the retail end of the value chain.

The NYC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Revelato,r Coffee, Oatly, Everyman Espresso and Oren’s Coffee Co. and featured panel guests Lem Butler (Black & White Roasters), Kristina Hollie (Intelligentsia), Winston Thomas (Barista Champion of South Africa/Urnex Ambassador), and Candice Madison (Irving Farm). Extra special thanks to the team at Everyman Espresso and Classic Stage Company for helping support this event onsite, and to Oren’s Coffee Co., Discovery Wines and Make My Cake for afterparty support. (Special thanks to D’Onna Stubblefield for music, party logistics, life advice, et. al.) Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Noemie Tshinaga.

The DC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Oatly, Revelator Coffee, and The Line Hotel, and featured panelists including Aisha Pew (Dovecote Cafe), Candy Schibli (Southeastern Roastery), Reggie Elliott (Foreign National), Victoria Smith (The Cup We All Race 4), and Donte Gardner (Vigilante Coffee Company). Ticket sales at this event benefited Collective Action for Safe Spaces. Special thanks to everyone at The Line Hotel for their incredible support and accommodation for this event—particularly Farrah Skeiky for her exceptional coordination and consideration—and to Gran Cata and Danielle’s Desserts for supporting a delicious afterparty. (Special thanks to Callie Eberdt of Oalty for onsite support and general positivity.) Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Kayla Butler.

Video of the event will premiere in the coming weeks, filmed by Lanny Huang.

Michelle Johnson

A huge thank you again to all of the sponsors—everyone at La Marzocco USA, everyone at Oatly, Cameron Heath and Joshua Owen at Revelator Coffee, Ezra Baker, D’Onna Stubblefield and the team at Oren’s Coffee Co., Sam Penix and the team at Everyman Espresso, and especially to the exceptional facility teams at Classic Stage Company (NYC) and The Line Hotel (DC). You make this work possible—thank you.

Poster by Taylor McManus

You can now listen to both episodes via podcast! Download them here and subscribe.

All images from Black Coffee NYC by Noemie Tshinaga.

All images from Black Coffee DC by Kayla Butler.

The post Black Coffee NYC & Washington DC: The Live Podcasts Are Now Available appeared first on Sprudge.

It’s here! A complete video presentation of Black Coffee events in NYC and DC is now available via Sprudge Media Network on YouTube.

From creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista), Black Coffee centers the voices and perspectives of Black coffee professionals from around the world, each one with unique perspectives from up and down the value chain. These most recent live events took place in New York City (October 15th) and Washington DC (October 19th) at the Classic Stage Company in lower Manhattan and The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan, respectively. Each event was hosted by Michelle Johnson and produced by Sprudge, with video presentation directed by Lanny Huang.

Watch Black Coffee NYC here!

Watch Black Coffee DC here!

And now, a word from creative director Michelle Johnson:

Black Coffee NYC

The NYC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Revelator Coffee, Oatly, Everyman Espresso, and Oren’s Coffee Co. and featured co-hosts Tymika Lawrence (Atlas Coffee) and Ezra Baker (Oren’s Coffee Co.), alongside panel guests Lem Butler (Black & White Roasters), Kristina Hollie (Intelligentsia), Winston Thomas (Barista Champion of South Africa/Urnex Ambassador), and Candice Madison (Irving Farm). Ticket sales for this event benefitted Brownsville Community Culinary Center. Extra special thanks to the team at Everyman Espresso and Classic Stage Company for helping support this event onsite, and to Oren’s Coffee Co., Discovery Wines and Make My Cake for afterparty support. Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Noemie Tshinaga.

Black Coffee DC

The DC event was sponsored by La Marzocco USA, Oatly, Revelator Coffee, and The Line Hotel, and featured co-host Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House, Barista Guild of America Executive Council) alongside panelists including Aisha Pew (Dovecote Cafe), Candy Schibli (Southeastern Roastery), Reggie Elliott (Foreign National), Victoria Smith (The Cup We All Race 4), and Donte Gardner (Vigilante Coffee Company). Ticket sales at this event benefited Collective Action for Safe Spaces. Special thanks to everyone at The Line Hotel for their incredible support and accommodation for this event—particularly Farrah Skeiky for her exceptional coordination and consideration—and to Gran Cata and Danielle’s Desserts for afterparty support. Live Instagram coverage and event photography was produced by Kayla Butler.

All images from Black Coffee NYC by Noemie Tshinaga.

All images from Black Coffee DC by Kayla Butler.

The post Watch The Black Coffee NYC + DC Videos Now appeared first on Sprudge.

Baristas and other service workers in New York City are about to see a whole slew of new laws ensuring consistency and work-life balance in their schedules. Set to take effect on November 26, these new labor laws, called the Fair Work Week package, step out further than any in the country have yet in the direction of guaranteeing service workers some of the same benefits that allow workers in other sectors to live fairly and equitably.

“Last fall, we promised to make the lives of some of our city’s hardest working just a little bit easier by bringing fair, predictable scheduling to their jobs,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Predictable schedules and predictable paychecks should be a right, not a privilege. With this legislation, we are continuing to build a fairer and more equitable city for all New Yorkers.”

The five-law package mandates that workers must receive their schedules two weeks in advance, that they cannot be scheduled for shifts with less than an 11-hour gap between them, and that part-time workers are offered full-time roles before new workers are brought in. It also prevents certain businesses from placing workers on call and allows workers to deduct a portion of their paychecks as donation to a non-profit of their choice if they so desire. In coffee terms this means that, as of November 26, NYC baristas will see an end to “clopens”, same-week schedule releases, being called in on their days off, and being continually part-timed for business owners’ convenience.

In an era when so many US politicians are looking to weaken workers’ rights in the face of soaring housing and healthcare costs, NYC leadership framed this legislation as a way to keep its labor force safe, healthy, and intact. “One in nine New Yorkers is a retail worker, they are among the lowest wage earners in our city, and they struggle to survive on often part-time work, barely making ends meet,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, who emphasized that the new laws will help workers plan their lives around childcare, education, or multiple jobs.

New York coffee workers I talked to feel that the changes are mostly positive, although they see more complexities and potential downsides to the actual implementation. “On the whole, I think these changes promoting worker protections are awesome,” said Bailey Arnold, Director of Coffee at Gregory’s Coffee. “We’ve always been very careful to try not to overwork or demand too much from our employees, not only because we value their health, well-being, and general workplace satisfaction, but also because most of our shops are pretty high-volume and that’s how you hit the gas on turnover.”

However, even though many high-end coffee businesses already try to live by these laws, some of the measures do present new challenges. “For us, a possibly negative aspect to these new protections are that some people who specifically work in the service industry in order to have freedom and flexibility in their schedules may feel disappointed or limited by needing to give conflicts so far in advance,” said Arnold. “Also, if a team member leaves a store due to promotion, transfer, resignation, or termination, the manager can’t whip up a new schedule as quickly or as simply as previously. Businesses who are doing the right thing already may groan that they’re being ‘punished’ for others who may have taken advantage of their employees.”

“But it’s not all bad,” says Arnold. “We should be grateful, hopeful, and excited that we’re moving toward this becoming the norm.” Arnold tells Sprudge that the CEO and HR team at Gregory’s briefed store leaders about it as soon as they found out in early September, and the company acted as if the laws were already in effect starting October 1 to work out kinks before the official start date.

Gregory’s has more than two dozen locations across Manhattan and New Jersey. What about smaller coffee bars? Sam Penix, owner of the Everyman Espresso cafe brand (currently with three locations), supports the new legislation but has major concerns around how the details of implementation will play out in smaller companies like Everyman. “My baristas have always had the freedom to ask their coworkers to swap or cover. I do release the schedule in advance, but by far the majority of my edits are initiated by employees,” he said. When he announced the news, the reaction from his staff was mixed, with full-time workers pleased and part-time workers worried about their ability to navigate between multiple jobs.

He also voiced concerns about how the new law that requires full-time positions to be offered to part-timers will play out in specialty cafes specifically. “It could have some unintended consequences for employers who have highly specialized roles within the company,” says Penix. “For instance, let’s say you have someone who is not ready to be on bar making drinks and will require several more weeks of training and you lose a seasoned bar-trained part-timer. You won’t have the option to hire a new fully-trained past employee or experienced trained barista so you can fill those shifts.” But, despite the logistical issues presented by the new laws, he’s still excited to see workers’ rights laws move forward and is working to acclimate staff gradually leading up to the 26th.

As NYC housing costs continue to climb faster than its wages, a legislative move to bolster the quality of life of one of the most vulnerable categories of workers represents good business sense. While retail workers are often undervalued, they are an absolutely crucial part of a local economy, and if they thrive, the region thrives. In response to these laws, many express the hope that NYC’s commitment to service workers’ rights will act as a model for the rest of the country to move toward. However, the adjustment won’t be easy, and workers who have built their lives around flexibility rather than consistency may face a difficult learning curve as the culture for NYC retail workers shifts. Hopefully the protections will do more good than harm for the coffee workers of NYC—and for coffee-loving New Yorkers across the five boroughs.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network. 

The post How Will NYC’s New Fair Work Week Laws Affect Coffee Shops? appeared first on Sprudge.

After a two-month wait, just as World Barista Championships got underway, the Specialty Coffee Association rocked the coffee world with the announcement that three major world coffee competitions will remain in Dubai this year, despite the numerous protests of the US coffee community—especially those who are LGBTQIA+ or allies. As an amendment to their initial rollout, SCA officials added the new Deferred Candidacy Policy, which allows candidates to defer to another year if they cannot attend world competitions for reasons of safety, health, or unforeseeable circumstances, pending approval from WCE’s World Championships Committee.

Widely criticized in the queer coffee community, this decision and added policy have led many to reconsider their involvement with SCA. I talked with some of those who felt the deepest impact from this decision: queer coffee professionals who have invested their time, money, and energy in the SCA, its guilds, and its competitions. These are their voices.

James McCarthy, Espresso Technician, Counter Culture Coffee
World Brewer’s Cup Champion, 4 years competing, 2 years organizing, 1 year volunteering, several years SCA member

The SCA’s deferred candidacy policy is shameful. First, they decided not to move next year’s event to a place where queer/trans people feel safer—a place where anti-queer/trans laws aren’t on the books. This policy doesn’t just put the onus on the competitor to out themselves, it effectively punishes them by making them wait until the championship is not held in a place that is dangerous to them. It equates being LGBTQI with having a death in the family—can we pause on that one? To this board—or, to the majority of this board, because this was voted as a majority vote—being queer/trans is equal to dealing with the tragedy of familial death?

If the year I won the US Brewer’s Cup, the competition was being held in a country that had anti-queer/trans laws on the books, I would have been very nervous to travel there, and I know that I would not have gone. I have an F on my driver’s license and my passport; both still have my old name on them. Travelling is always nerve-wracking for me, even within the US. I would not have travelled to a country where it was very likely that the fact that my gender presentation doesn’t match what it says on my ID could land me in jail. I also need to acknowledge that these laws, in practice, end up being used on trans women, GNC, and those queer folks on the feminine spectrum overwhelmingly more often than on masculine of center folks, and on people of color way more often than white people.

With this new policy, I would have to prove possible discrimination to a committee before getting my deferment approved. They get to pick the host city, and then it falls on the competitor to work around the limitations caused by mostly white, cisgender, straight, male board.

This isn’t just international: I know that there are places in the US where queer, trans, and people of color do not feel safe traveling for coffee events—would I have wanted to go compete in Durham, NC if the bathroom bill was still standing? I know that my class and whiteness protect me, but what about others who would feel less safe? Why should we have to prove to a committee of mostly cis, white, and male folks that our safety and comfort matters?

They should have reached out to their queer and trans members more, and really listened to us. There is a way to support the global coffee community without putting some of their members in danger or singling them out as other. I also hope that the white coffee community doesn’t demonize the people of these countries because of these laws—I’ve seen more than one comment calling these countries themselves “backward,” a word which has a lot of shitty colonialist history attached to it, and also classist and racist implications. As we stand against the SCA in our opposition to this policy, we need also to stand with the coffee people living in these countries with anti-queer/trans laws.

I don’t see any part of this policy as beneficial, and I plan on removing myself from all SCA activities until they prove they will support and protect their queer and trans members.

Christina Snyder, Roaster
2 years SCA and RGA member, 1 year competing, 1 year volunteering

In my brief time as a member of the SCA and RGA, I’ve witnessed the institutions of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia mirrored throughout the events and policies enacted by these organizations. I have chosen, often defiantly, to remain a member in hopes of creating visibility and amplifying the voices of marginalized community members. The news of the selection of Dubai for the world events not only forced me to withdraw from competition but ask if my efforts and the efforts of many brave others have been in vain.

The deferred candidacy policy is a direct act of oppression on the LGBT+ community. By forcing the work onto queer/trans individuals, the hierarchy of heterosexual, cis males is maintained. It is appalling to place the burden of proving one’s identity onto any queer/trans individual; it is inconceivable to ask this for the sake of their safety.

By continuing to hold the events in Dubai, the SCA Board of Directors has made clear that their priority lies in monetary investments rather than the welfare of its members. The outrage of the LGBT+ community is loud, it is justified, and it is an appeal to the heart. I am saddened that only the wallet has listened.

Sam Penix, Owner, Everyman Espresso
10 years SCA and BGA member, several years competing, judging, coaching

I had to read the statement several times because I just could not believe my eyes. The statement sent a painful shock wave of cognitive dissonance throughout my body. How do I reconcile the community that I myself have benefited from and fostered all these years with the condescending statement released last week? However polite the language, it’s clear that the action or lack thereof sends a message which I as a trans person received as, “The SCA is not willing to sacrifice financial gains to maintain safety for its LGBTQIA members.”

I would like to have seen a statement that was fully transparent and answers the questions I have surrounding the lead up to the decision to choose UAE as a location for the international coffee event. I would like to see a investigation into the members of the SCA who selected Dubai as a location. Were there bribes involved? What legal or financial obligations does the SCA have to the venue in UAE?

How dare the SCA tell me this is my problem; how naive and untrue. We the members of the SCA will not tolerate the hosting of events where SCA members cannot safely attend. I am the SCA, because without members there is no SCA.

I do acknowledge that there are many countries for various reasons that pose a conflict for members. There must be a policy in place to address this. It’s just clear that this location was not thought through and/or decision-makers were corrupted with cash incentives. I hope that the SCA reconsiders this position, cancels the event in Dubai, and launches an internal investigation to find out what the fuck is going on.

Everyman Espresso will not renew its membership with the SCA and BGA and is strongly considering withdrawing from the 2018 barista competition circuit. We await further clarification from the SCA in light of our community’s response to their decision.

Dani Goot, Head of Coffee Strategy, Bellwether Coffee 
2 years on Roasters Guild Executive Council, 15 years RGA member, several years volunteering, 1 year competing

It’s hurtful for me to know that all the work I have done to be my true self still leaves me unsupported by the organization I have worked to develop. I have avoided working with the SCA years prior because of the ways patriarchy showed in the organization. Things appeared to shift and balance out a bit, so I ran for the Roasters Guild Executive Council and was voted in by the Roasters Guild members. I ended up resigning a few months ago and still feel very good about that decision due to my political views and personal ethics. This deferred candidacy policy has put the queer community back a few years from all the work we have done with breaking down gender inequality in coffee. I am asking for you to stand with the LGBTQIA folx that do not feel safe or included in any coffee events including and not limited organizations such as the SCA or WCE. We as a community need to support each other as a whole. If we can’t do that, it isn’t a community worth being a part of. Where do we go from here as queer people within the coffee community?

Jasper Wilde, Coffee Educator, Ritual Coffee Roasters
3 years BGA member, I year competing, wanted to compete or judge every year but could not afford to do so

I am devastated that the most influential coffee organization is choosing to view me and other queer people as non-essential. I am shocked that this decision was approved by their board of directors. I am particularly offended at the extreme sense of othering that the SCA is asking its members to subject themselves to. What is obscene is the need to gain permission by the Deferred Candidacy Policy. This is extremely harmful and repeats a long history of requiring queer, particularly trans people, to gain favor with the people oppressing them. This is respectability politics: the SCA wishes for us to out ourselves, come to them as gatekeepers, and prove our worth and vulnerabilities before we are given the honor of representing the country we are from. One action that I will take after this decision is to boycott the SCA. I will also be discussing with Ashley, my co-host of Boss Barista, if we wish to use our platform to help lead others to boycott. On a more broad level, this decision makes me question my future career in specialty coffee. I had once hoped that I would work at the SCA to advocate for worker rights as an industry leader but this decision has created a deep mistrust and I would never consider working with them on any level.

Bailey Arnold, Director of Education, Gregory’s Coffee
4 year SCA member, 1 year judging, 2018 preliminary winner, competing in 2018 qualifier

The idea that SCA is relying on competitors to be in the same work/life situation the following competition season is absurd. Confidence, morale, and support are all great contributors to performance, and this undoubtedly affects all three negatively. Even if someone is up to waiting around to compete at a location where they feel safer, what are the odds they’ll be as motivated, excited, or mentally prepared? It’s an automatic disadvantage on top of everything else.

As a first-time competitor unlikely to advance to an international level anytime soon, whose fees are already paid for NOLA, with the main motivation for competition to be able to coach a new competitor from my company in a subsequent competition season, I’m conflicted. If I were an independent competitor I would likely consider pulling out, not wanting to support competition until the SCA’s actions align with their stated policies. However, I’m not competing solely for myself, it’s for my company and ultimately for our less seasoned baristas (potentially of a less visible demographic, as around 3/4 of our company is made up of POC) to get more engaged and excited about working with coffee.

Additional points have been made that if currently signed-up competitors pull out, people who are waitlisted can/will sign up, which yields even more profit for the SCA. At the current time I plan to continue on the “road to competition,” while keeping in mind any action I can take while participating. I’m a huge proponent of visibility and I’m “out.” I live in New York City, my family is tolerant, I’m white, I’m cisgender, I’m buoyed by tons of support, and I have a pretty solid bill of mental health. I’m in a place of considerable privilege and willing to take on this emotional labor while participating, whatever that will look like in the moment.

Jenna Gotthelf, Barista, Everyman Espresso
BGA member, 3 years competing, 2018 preliminary winner, competing in 2018 qualifier

The deferred candidacy policy lacks the same foresight as the initial decision to hold WCE competitions in Dubai. It is absurd to have to qualify and approve someone’s legitimate safety concern. It’s not right to force someone to come out like that. I don’t think it is a logical solution to the problem. Deferring for a year is not what competitions are about. It doesn’t work like that in sports. In the pursuit of championship, it is important to carry the momentum of a win into the next round expediently.

The best solution here is to turn back time and undo the decision to host in Dubai, but that is not an option. The SCA is a business. Dubai is a money country. From what I understand of the recent regional competition structural changes over the past few years, there is a budget issue. I image there is a huge financial investment here, and forfeiting completely would result in an astronomical loss. I am not saying this isn’t upsetting, but it is unrealistic to think that the SCA would pull out of Dubai completely.

I do not believe there is malice behind the SCA’s decision. They have stated that moving forward, infrastructural changes will be implemented to avoid something like this from happening again. The most important part of making mistakes is acknowledging and learning from them. The SCA made an egregious error that they have acknowledged, and will end up paying for in backlash of the community. I support my peers who will be boycotting the SCA and competitions moving forward. I will not be doing so. I don’t compete because I am gay. I compete because I want to win, and if safety is another hurdle then that is unfortunate, but if every member of the LGBTQ+ community abstains from participating in these events, who will rise?

Shannon, Operations Consultant
10 years on-off BGA, RGA, or SCA member, judge for the first time at 2018 preliminaries 

This year was the first time I’d ever attended or judged a SCA event. Occasionally over the last 10 years I’ve held RGA or SCA membership, this year was my first as a BGA member. The SCA has never appealed to me; in the early days the amount of money it cost to be a member in exchange for the services received seemed preposterous. All marketing material featured white, middle-class heterosexual men and the occasional cis woman. I could not see myself in those faces. All they have had to offer was competition and high-cost educational classes. This decision is confirmation that the SCA is not for queer or low-income bodies. I will not renew my membership unless this decision is overturned.

Michelle Johnson, Barista Hustle
2 years SCA member, Level 1 SCA-certified barista, Barista Camp attendee, 1 year Expo attendee (including panel hosting and Symposium attendance), 1 year attending World of Coffee, 1 year attending WBC, consulted for SCA in Dublin on SCA’s strategic planning

When I first heard that there were going to be multiple coffee competitions in Dubai, I knew damn well I wasn’t going to go. As a Black woman who learned the hard way (sexism but more notably, racism) in Budapest, Hungary this year, the anxiety and extreme hyperawareness that comes with being who I am in certain countries—and honestly, international industry events, in general—isn’t worth it.

When I learn more about why Dubai was a problematic place to hold an event, through Sprudge and my own research, I felt that it just further pushed me and so many others away from being able to attend and support events like that. As someone who spent most of my coffee career as a barista from DC and Arizona, the idea of going to international industry events was always cool, and I felt they could help enrich my learning and expand my view of coffee on a global scale. But after attending several and the Dubai decision, I haven’t felt all that welcome.

The Deferred Candidacy Policy is just trash. Echoing what I just said, it just further boxes people out of those spaces. And I feel the most for nonbinary and trans people, especially those of color, where the opportunity to even be a part—as a competitor, supporter, general attendee, etc—isn’t even remotely available to them in Dubai. It’s also discouraging as fuck to just be pawned off to another year (if they’re a national competitor) and it’s harmful as hell to make people have to “justify” themselves through outing for being deferred in the first place. I think it’s fucked.

Having just moved continents, I’m definitely still in a transitional and recharging stage but I’m working to create more space for those more affected than I to voice their hurt and concern (mostly through the Barista Hustle Facebook group), amplifying and boosting events happening around the world, and the BH team has been talking a lot about what we can do, too.

Izi Aspera, Roaster, Wrecking Ball Coffee
4 years volunteering, SCA class attendee, 2 years competing, 3 years Expo attendee

The SCA’s decision to hold World events in Dubai and their deferred candidacy policy were superficial. As much as SCA has advertised their global reach, they often lack global awareness and how their investment in said region promotes complacency to the exploitation of migrant workers and violence towards the LGBTQIA locally and abroad. It made it clear that there is little hope for the LGBTQIA community to be represented on just allyship alone and the SCA must engage more in the communities they occupy for these events.

I already struggle every year to afford booking a flight, guarantee time off for the event, a place to stay, and a ticket to the annual convention and SCA classes. That being said it is very easy for me to back out of continuing to financially support the SCA going forward. There is no reason for me to continue to support an organization that finds my support expendable or value my contributions beyond their financial gain. If anything the SCA’s actions have made me realize how important it is to invest in local organizations that reflect my own core values.

Oodie Taliaferro, Barista, Cultivar Coffee Bar
3 years SCA member, 2 years attending Coffee Champs, 1 year Expo attendee, 2018 regional competitor, competing in qualifiers for 2018 cycle

I think that the Dubai decision was naive, frankly. For an organization that is home to so many different types of folx, it’s up to them to make sure that we can attend events, not only as competitors, but volunteers, judges, etc. I understand that the outrage is pretty American-centric, but each country’s own governance (former SCAA, SCAE, et al.) is responsible for their constituents, and this time, now that it’s affecting us, we have the opportunity to make change. If anything, this decision has given more opportunity for smaller community events to crop up, and that’s really neat.

I’m still competing. I’ll speak out when given the platform to do so. I’m working in the Dallas metroplex area and greater south central region to promote more inclusive, more progressive events and discussions more often.

Colleen Anunu, Director of Coffee Supply Chain at Fair Trade USA and Director for SCA
8 years volunteering, 2 years on RGEC, 3 years on SCA board, Vice Chair of Research

The deferred candidacy policy raised a lot of red flags for me and you can be sure that I voiced all of my concerns on multiple occasions and very loudly. I was, and still am, not in favor of the policy for a number of the discriminatory reasons that many people have already written about, as well as for more complex reasons related to my interpretation of my duty of loyalty as a governor of the association.

We owe the members of the association a lot of information, and I am committed to pushing for it without spin and without filter.

From the outset I have volunteered to take part in the Review Panel to ensure that the perspectives from my community of peers reached the desk of the President’s Council of the board. That task force had a discrete number of activities and timeline, but there is still so. much. work. to. do. in terms of ensuring that those voices are not only heard but are understood. We are stating from a 101 space where terms like “outing” and “passing” and the letter Q aren’t understood, let alone the dynamics at play in identity based discrimination. The numerous conversations that I have had with both the board as a whole and individual board members have shown mixed results. To be clear, there have been aha moments, so some of what I’m focused on now is getting those people to champion the work. I try to maintain accessibility and non-judgement for my colleagues to ask honest questions, but a strong position when my informed perspectives from lived experience are disregarded.

One of my main non-preassigned priorities on the board is to support the work being done on embedding concepts of inclusivity and diversity throughout the association: HR, guilds, events, and governance.This includes the policies and procedures for event selection, as well as guiding philosophies on governance, creating pathways to leadership for marginalized folks, and ensuring that staff and volunteer leaders are supported.

I have a personal mission to demystify the association: structure, strategy, governance, who to contact (and how amazing the staff are), and on and on and on. I want members to have access to their association leaders and to take full advantage of their rights and benefits. People can reach out to me at any time to talk.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

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