Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/43236
OFF THE WIRE continued from page 21 150 drinks an hour for three hours straight, just pumping them out as fast as we could." Hetzel estimates the baristas served 12,000 drinks over the five-day festival, and he says that while the chaotic rushes created some stress, it was ultimately good for business. "I think we definitely accomplished our goal of making a huge public spectacle focusing on the barista profession and getting people to drink good specialty coffee," he says. The specialty coffee scene in Russia is already alive and well, highlighted by two third-wave roaster-retailer chains: Koffein (employer of Russian champ Melik- Karakozova) and Coffee Mania. What Soyuz is hoping to add to the mix is a model that favors a coffee focus over the restaurant vibe common in Russian cafés. "I think Soyuz is trying to push more of the focus on coffee and not as much on food," Licata says. While it's unknown how the Soyuz strat- egy will work out, it can't be argued that the company had an attention-grabbing launch, putting coffee next to the Kremlin. "It was a bizarre sort of public spectacle in the way that I think can only be done in Russia," Hetzel concludes. "You've got one of the most historic landmarks in the history of Western civilization, and we've got our barista champions doing rosettas, serving coffee to the general in charge of Russia's European forces. I'm still kind of wondering if it was all real." —Chris Ryan APP-ING INTO THE RECENT RISE OF L.A. COFFEE In the years since specialty coffee has increased its visibility in the world, the café cultures of many major metropolitan areas have taken turns in the spotlight. Much of the early attention went to Seattle, birth- place of Starbucks and, subsequently, many successful independents. In recent years, cities such as Portland, Ore., Chicago and New York City have received recognition for their numerous innovative shops. The lat- est recipient of specialty coffee buzz seems to be Los Angeles; following the Southern California launch of Intelligentsia Coffee, quality-minded independents have been popping up in droves. This wave of coffee activity led London- 22 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com based Blue Crow Media to create L.A.'s Best Coffee, an app for the iPhone, iPad and Android billed as featuring "the city's best independent cafés and artisan coffee roast- ers." The app includes more than 50 cafés and carts, with information on the chosen spots including details about the beans and machinery used by each café; geolocation that leads users to their destination; and the ability to rate cafés and see other users' ratings. The app is the work of brothers Mark and Derek Lamberton, and it's their fourth install- ment of Best Coffee—previous incarnations covered the café scenes in London, New York and San Francisco. The pair launched Blue Crow Media last fall with the London version; Mark Lamberton says the venture was started as a way for him to get to know the British capital. "Initially it was a way of explor- ing a city I didn't know so well," he says. "Independent cafés are generally not located on a high street; they're a couple blocks in, tucked away on some side street. But then I realized how tasty the coffee was, and the ball got rolling fast." For the latest version, Lamberton headed to Los Angeles with an initial list of top shops, then fleshed it out via first-hand experience. "When I landed in Los Angeles in April, I had a list of about 35 places," he says, "and then I picked up the rest from word-of-mouth—people are very aware of the next few shops in the area that are doing a similar thing." As for one of the app's features that should appeal to both coffee professionals and diehard enthusi- asts—the one listing each shop's equip- ment—Lamberton says owners and baris- tas were excited to discuss what they use on bar and why they chose it. "Usually they're pretty excited to talk about their equip- ment because that's what they work with every day," he says. Blue Crow Media's next endeavor isn't cof- fee-related—it's an app called Project Neon covering neon signs in New York City—but the company hopes to tackle another city's coffee scene in the future. "We're eyeing a few cities, but we can't really make the call just yet," Lamberton says. "Maybe Chicago, maybe Seattle. The U.S. is just popping up with great roasters everywhere." —Chris Ryan ANTHONY CITRANO/ZIGZAGLENS.COM