Kainos Coffee Switches Gears with a Brick and Mortar in Portland OR

Kainos Coffee Switches Gears with a Brick and Mortar in Portland OR

sampurnokopi civet coffee   11:50 AM   Comment  

Plenty of people in Portland, Ore., enjoy biking to work. Some even continue to bike after they get there, which was initially the case for new Portland roaster Kainos Coffee, whose built-from-scratch wood-fired 8-kilo roaster’s drum was turned by chain linked to a fixed-gear bicycle.

Kainos Coffee launched with a retail food cart in April of this year, supplied by their own wood-fired roaster whose drum speed was controlled by the cyclist, while airflow was regulated with a damper on the bottom and a flu on the top.

“The coffee was phenomenal, it just had a few issues in regard to production,” Kainos co-owner Marten Boyden told Daily Coffee News, explaining that for one thing, they couldn’t see the coffee as it roasted, so they had to be especially vigilant for the sound of first crack. And then because of the nature of a wood-burning fire, they’d have to be very careful about drum speed and air flow to manage the temperature once first crack came around.

 “It was fun. It was an interesting adventure for a little while,” said Boyden, who reported that for the purpose of scaling up their business, they have since transitioned away from the homemade roaster and into the Buckman Coffee Factory shared roasting facility.

He added that the decision was also for the best from an environmentalist standpoint, for while he and co-founder Austin Roberts were confident in the carbon-neutrality of the inputs on the human-powered, wood-fueled roaster, the output of wood and coffee smoke were admittedly in need of greater mitigation. Said Boyden, “If we’re going to be a green community and a green company, we should probably actually be a little more green.”

Boyden also noted that while customers enjoyed their product right off the bat, their peers on the Portland scene couldn’t help but express some uncertainty about the model.

“I wouldn’t say they were critical, as much as just very question-y. ‘Are you going to be able to make that work?'” said Boyden. “In a sense, we didn’t. We chose to go another way. But it was not a choice based on whether or not we were creating a coffee we liked the flavor of. It had everything to do with, we wanted to give more to the orphanage; we wanted to be able to produce the coffee that we need to produce.”

Kainos donates 21 percent — a number both founders blurted out in unison when trying to decide on a portion they could announce to customers, and therefore be obliged to stick to — to an orphanage in the Philippines with which Boyden has been personally involved for the past four years. On roughly 5 acres of land purchased by friends of Boyden and subsequently leased out to farmers, two houses have been built so far with a third under construction. Said Boyden, “We are constantly getting more children that are in need of housing.”

Children come to the orphanage from areas nearby including the slums at the Wawa garbage dump outside Manila. “The first time I was over there was kind of a surreal experience. There’s 2,000 people that live literally on a garbage dump,” said Bowden. “We went in and there was this older lady who walks up to us and says ‘Hey, take this baby.’ We’re like, what?! You can’t just hand us a baby, there are other things that have to be done!”

The organization did eventually take the child in and sort through the appropriate procedures, though, and it was inspiring for Boyden when he returned six months later. “We were able to, the next time I was there, see the child with clothes on, eating food, fat and happy.” For the benefit of the orphanage, Kainos recognized the importance of scaling up the business, which was a driving factor in both the tough decision to abandon the bike-powered roaster and the comparatively easier to choice to roast in a way that creates balanced, chocolatey, instantly-lovable coffees to be appreciated by as wide an audience as possible. “We would rather have the chocolaty finish than the fruit-forwardness all the time,” Boyden said of the Kainos roasting approach, noting that they also enjoy some experimentalism to that end. “We’ve looked a lot into both the German and Japanese roasting worlds. In Germany there are many roasters that will roast for extended periods of time, up to 45 minutes actually,” said Boyden, describing a process that starts at a lower temperature and climbs very gradually.

“We’ve found that that’s pretty fun to toy with. We don’t go 45 minutes,” said Boyden. “But we will extend up to 18 minutes for our house blend, and we’ve had a ton of success with that.” Doors opened on November 1 at the 600-square-foot Kainos coffee shop at 6633 NE Sandy Boulevard in Northeast Portland, with a Rocket R9 espresso machine anchoring the drink menu. “We’re the first in the U.S. to be using this machine,” said Boyden, considering the machine on par with the latest from Synesso and other groundbreakers, with individuated groups each with its own programmable pressure profile and temperature. The R9 is paired with a Mahlkonig K30 Air Twin grinder, and the shop will also be serving V60 pourover.

The green coffees Kainos sources through Walker Coffee Trading, Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders and Royal Coffee are now roasted on the various Joper and Proaster machines at Buckman, complete with all requisite afterburners and other environmental safeguards. They’re also excited to explore the green coffee resources provided by Buckman as well.

“They’ll do cuppings quite often with different importers who work directly with the farmers,” said Boyden. “We’d really like to start transitioning into that a little more, having more hands-on information about what we’re serving.”

Boyden said he hopes Kainos grows to include multiple locations. “The plan is to grow. That’s why we switched over our way of doing things,” said Boyden, adding that the original coffee cart is in storage and might eventually make a return to duty for special events or weddings. He sees potential for one or two more stores in Portland, as well as possibly establishing a roastery-café in The Dalles, where both Kainos founders grew up. “It’d be cool to be potentially the first-ever local roaster out there, maybe in the next three to five years or so.”

http://dailycoffeenews.com

Well-Made Coffee Migrates to Midtown Manhattan

Well-Made Coffee Migrates to Midtown Manhattan

sampurnokopi civet coffee   10:49 AM   Comment  

Finding coffee in Midtown Manhattan, home to nearly two-thirds of New York City hotel rooms and a good number of caffeine-starved office workers to boot, is as easy as walking down the street. After all, there are about 50 Starbucks locations from 33rd to 52nd streets alone, according to the company, with aggressive expansion planned from the savvy chain Gregory’s Coffee. But seeking out well-made coffee — with delicately roasted beans and swan-neck kettles pouring precisely into a row of Kalita Waves (the Ferrari of Japanese pour-over filters) — has more often been reserved for a trip downtown, or to Brooklyn. Not anymore

Over the last couple of years an impressive lineup of ambitious coffee bars and cafes, with well-trained baristas and adventurous, avocado-toast-forward menus, has bloomed in all parts of Midtown. “We like to think of ourselves as an oasis,” said Richard Shaer, chief executive of Taylor Street Baristas, a popular London-based, Australia-inspired outfit that opened its New York City flagship a year ago on lightly traveled East 40th Street.

Mr. Shaer, along with a handful of independent operators in Midtown, is convinced that operating in a prime, and expensive, corner location is not required in the coffee game. With the right brew (ideally with expertly roasted beans arriving from a micro-lot somewhere in Bolivia or Ethiopia), customers will come.

And come they have, to hidden-away gems like Ninth Street Espresso off the lobby of the Lombardy Hotel; Toby’s Estate, at a stall in the UrbanSpace in Vanderbilt Market; and the San Francisco import Blue Bottle, with a location buried in the dim concourse of Rockefeller Center.

On a nondescript stretch of Lexington Avenue between East 55th and 56th Streets sits Little Collins, a tiny Australian-style cafe with a United Nations menu of sandwiches (gyro, country ham, schnitzel) and de rigueur Down Under coffee drinks including the flat white (steamed milk poured over espresso) and the piccolo (think of a baby latte). Before Leon Unglik opened the cafe in 2013, he was a corporate lawyer in Midtown and was quite depressed by his coffee options.

 “I found the lack of a good coffee to be frustrating and unbearable,” he said recently, sitting at one of the narrow tables in the packed cafe as a line of hungry office workers snaked out the door. After establishing a “very serious” espresso setup at his TriBeCa apartment and regularly knocking back a few shots to load up for the day, he took matters into his own hands. “We didn’t know how this neighborhood would respond,” he said as baristas hurriedly steamed milk and pulled espressos.

But no coffee outfit has fixed Midtown’s overlooked areas quite like Culture Espresso. In 2009, a first location opened near the corner of 38th Street and Avenue of the Americas, an area whose claim to fame is being the city’s unofficial bead district.

A few blocks away, a second shop, tucked midblock on West 36th Street in the garment district, opened in 2014 with a $25,000 Synesso espresso machine and, soon, a passionate fan base. “The drip is good, the espresso is fine, the cookies win over everybody,” said Matt Buchanan, an editor at Eater, the restaurant and culture website, pointing out the cafe’s gooey chocolate chip cookies with an unholy chocolate-chip-to-dough ratio.

But don’t be fooled: Culture, whose name reflects the cafe’s rotating art and photography exhibitions as well as the owners’ intent to build a coffee culture in Midtown, is serious about what’s in the cup. The operators work exclusively with the cult roasters Heart, of Portland, Ore., and serve a slim list of classics like drip, espresso and cold brew that has regulars lining up.

Culture’s general manager, Johnny Norton, said the three Midtown locations — the latest opened in Hell’s Kitchen in February — were determined by walking the streets to see where coffeeless zones existed and to gauge foot traffic and density. “I always thought it was silly for writing off the middle of one of the best cities in the world,” he said. Those instincts proved to be correct. “When you are going up against Starbucks and Pret a Manger, you are kind of received universally as a hero,” Mr. Norton said.

And as for the next neighborhood in need of a coffee-bar boom? “The coffee situation near 1 World Trade is pretty grim,” said Mr. Buchanan, who predicted that Blue Bottle would do extraordinarily well if it opened a flagship store downtown. “For coffee, downtown could be the new Midtown.”
www.nytimes.com

Coffee drinkers have a lower mortality rate and lower risk of various cancers

Coffee drinkers have a lower mortality rate and lower risk of various cancers

sampurnokopi civet coffee   10:41 AM   Comment  

(NaturalNews) That morning cup of java may be providing a lot more benefits than just giving you the energy to start your day. Numerous studies have shown that daily consumption of coffee can help you to live a longer, healthier life.

You may have heard of some of coffee's many health benefits, but there may also be a few that you weren't aware of.

Last year, the Harvard Gazette reviewed a number of studies and discovered "an emerging picture of coffee as a potentially powerful elixir" against a range of ailments, from cancer to cavities.

The scientific evidence continues to mount: Coffee is good for you!

And the good news just keeps on brewing. One of the most recent studies found that coffee consumption not only reduces the risk of death from heart attack, but also reduces mortality risk even after a person experiences an acute myocardial infarction.

But that's just one reason to keep drinking the beverage that inspired Bach to write a cantata in its praise.

Here are a few of coffee's scientifically-proven health benefits:

Overall Longevity: As mentioned above, coffee helps prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer, but several studies have shown that daily consumption also lowers the risk of death from several other illnesses, including type II diabetes and neurological disease.

Cancer Prevention: Coffee has been shown to play a role in the prevention of several types of cancers, including lethal prostate cancer, skin cancer, liver cancer and colorectal cancer.

Alzheimer's Prevention: Several studies have found coffee to be effective in preventing Alzheimer's and dementia.

Parkinson's Prevention: A recent study in Sweden showed that people with certain genetic predispositions may have increased resistance to Parkinson's disease if they also consume caffeine.

Diabetes Prevention: One study showed that drinking six cups of coffee per day decreases the risk of developing type II diabetes by 22 percent. A review of several studies conducted by a Harvard researcher found that the risk of diabetes is lowered by 9 percent for each cup of coffee consumed daily.

Liver Health: Research has shown that coffee not only lowers the risk of liver cancer, but also helps to prevent cirrhosis of the liver.

Fighting Depression: Coffee has been shown to reduce depression and suicide risk. One study found that women who drank four or more cups of coffee daily "were 20% less likely to suffer from depression."

Oral Health: Drinking black coffee helps kill tooth bacteria, but adding sugar or milk negates the effect. Coffee may also help to prevent gum disease.

Retinal Damage Prevention: The antioxidants found in coffee may prevent retinal damage caused by oxidative stress.

Gout Prevention: A study involving more than 50,000 men found that the risk of developing gout decreases as coffee intake increases.

DNA Protection: One study found that coffee strengthens DNA. The white blood cells of coffee drinkers showed significantly less spontaneous DNA strand breakage than that of non-coffee drinkers.

Multiple Sclerosis Prevention: Four or more cups of coffee per day may help prevent the onset and recurrence of multiple sclerosis. Recent research suggests that coffee prevents neural inflammation that may lead to the development of MS.

Muscle Pain Relief: Drinking two cups of coffee has been shown to cut post-workout muscle pain by nearly 50 percent.

Why is coffee so effective in preventing disease?

The actual mechanisms involved in coffee's many health benefits aren't entirely known, even though numerous studies have repeatedly proven its power to prevent many types of disease.

Although caffeine is one of the beneficial compounds, there are more than 1,000 others contained in the beverage, and it's relatively unclear which ones provide the various proven disease-fighting effects.

What is known, however, is that coffee provides a powerful antioxidant effect, and that may be one key to many of its health benefits. Coffee provides more antioxidants for most people than any other source, according to one study.

It's important to note that adding sugar or milk to coffee can decrease its beneficial effects; a little sugar or milk may be okay, but it's best to drink it black. Artificial sweeteners and skim milk should also be avoided, cautions Dr. Sanjiv Chopra, Harvard Medical School professor and renowned coffee advocate.

http://www.naturalnews.com

Italian Groups Leading $2.6M Investment in Ethiopian Coffee Industry

Italian Groups Leading $2.6M Investment in Ethiopian Coffee Industry

sampurnokopi civet coffee   10:33 AM   Comment  

Italian agencies and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have signed a financing agreement that will invest approximately $2.6 million USD in the Ethiopian coffee sector in a project called “Improving the Sustainability and Inclusiveness of the Ethiopian Coffee Value Chain through Private and Public Partnership.”

Supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the project will be implemented by UNIDO in partnership with Italian coffee giant Illycaffè and the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the Illy-family-run nonprofit that has historically focused on scientific research in the coffee sector. The groups said they will work closely with Ethiopian coffee institutions, including the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority, which was officially re-formed last May.

The overarching goal of the three-year project is to increase the quality, traceability and international recognition of Ethiopian coffee to increase export revenues and generate more income for the country’s thousands of smallholder farmers.

With implementation in Addis Ababa and the Oromia and SNNP regions, the program is being designed to provide direct support to smallholders and cooperatives through the dissemination of best practices for coffee agronomy, along with tool kits for post-harvest processing, washing station infrastructure development, cupping laboratory creation and modern marketing strategies.

The project will also provide the Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority with financial support and an Addis-based coffee roasting training center designed to develop skills while promoting domestic development of roasted coffee.

A joint announcement from the Italian development agency and UNIDO said the role of Illycaffé and the Ernesto Illy Foundation will include financial support as well as work directly with project partners to scale up “local capacities and knowledge of the coffee value chain,” as well as “serving as trading facilitators and advisors.”

“The coffee value chain is very important for this country,” Italian Agency for

Development Cooperation Addis Ababa office head Ginevra Letizia said in a public announcement of the signing issued last week. “Coffee is a treasure of the culture of Ethiopia and it is a duty to improve the coffee production. The genetic variety is the most important in the world and the government strategy rightly stresses the importance of improving the traceability and the quality of the Ethiopian coffee”

http://dailycoffeenews.com