Happy Easter

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The Coffee In Amsterdam’s “Coffeeshops” Has Never Been Better

You have to admit it’s getting better. So reports Karina Hof, a longtime Sprudge staff writer based in Holland, who has for years been fascinated by the disconnect between Amsterdam’s famed “coffeeshops”—lounges where legal cannabis is sold and consumed freely—and the actual coffee served therein. In a city with one of the world’s great modern coffee cultures, and centuries of history in the coffee trade, why would the famed “coffeeshops” serve high quality cannabis but such low quality brews? 

Happily that’s changing, and fast. Karina Hof reports to us today from Amsterdam, just in time for the global 4/20 cannabis holiday.

By 2016, Amsterdam had an astounding 173 coffeeshops—lounges where cannabis can be bought and consumed onsite, much to the delight of tourists, expats and yes, evens some locals. For an article on this site the year before, I went looking for an enjoyable coffee to have at the city’s cannabis purveyors, many of which offer patrons a place to sit and smoke, snack, and sip. There were a couple of OK cups, including one prepared with what could be readily identified as “specialty coffee”, but mostly I encountered over-extracted old-school-Mediterranean dark roasts and staff who were caught off guard by my inquires; sometimes it felt as though I was asking such a trivial or taboo question, like: who provides your toilet paper?

Here in spring 2019, I revisited the assignment, finding that in four years, the number of coffeeshops serving specialty coffee had quadrupled. The figure itself is not extreme, but it shows evolution—perhaps as much of specialty coffee’s democratization as cannabis culture’s mainstreaming. Five places described here use coffee from either Australian-headed, Amsterdam-founded Lot Sixty One or the longer-established Dutch operation Bocca, both of which are among the Netherlands’ larger specialty roasters. These brands appear in cafes, restaurants, and stores around the country, but to experience them in a coffeeshop imbues in that euphemism for these venues a new, true meaning.

Tweede Kamer

The arrival of specialty coffee to Tweede Kamer is just another jewel in the tiara of this coffeeshop, the most elegant around in terms of interior (art deco) and staff (as personable as professional). Now standing alongside the pre-rolled joint cones and plastic storages—many containing a cannabis selection from Amsterdam Genetics—are Tweede Kamer-branded Lot Sixty One coffee packages. The display itself reflects how much changed since Sprudge last visited, back when they were serving, “terrible coffee,” as company social media coordinator and ever-effervescent budtender Babiche Bakker puts it. “It was a lot of different beans mixed.”

Today, Tweede Kamer and its sister business, Coffeeshopamsterdam, send their staff for barista courses at Lot Sixty One, which Bakker points out is a smart move since Tweede Kamer as a training space is “too small probably.” Elbow-to-elbow seating does not deter their loyal, diverse clientele. No wonder that American tourist’s dying wish: to have his ashes preserved at his favorite coffeeshop—worry not, the urn is on a shelf well above the strains and the beans.

Tweede Kamer is located at Heisteeg 6, Amsterdam. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Coffeeshopamsterdam

On what Smokers Guide to Amsterdam calls the High Street owing to its concentration of coffeeshops, one that stands out for its plainly memorable (in the long, not short, term, naturally) is Coffeeshopamsterdam. Formerly known as Dampkring II, this venue, which has the same owner as Tweede Kamer though is about triple the size, also sells a cannabis selection from Amsterdam Genetics and coffee from Lot Sixty One. Both budtenders and baristas here are attentive and easygoing, whether handing over with your cappuccino a free mini stroopwaffel or a 10-euro gram of Girl Scout Cookies.

Fully embracing its polysemous branding, the business prints “Amsterdam Coffee” on its coffee packaging, baggies, and literature; accompanying the words is the image of a white demitasse with, not steam, but ascending smoke rings. Explains company digital media manager Paul James: “Advertising for a coffeeshop is totally illegal as is promoting the sale of drugs. However, promoting Amsterdam Coffee is not. We just let people make their own minds up about the connection between the two.”

Coffeeshopamsterdam is located at Haarlemmerstraat 44, Amsterdam. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Green House United

When, on a springy Wednesday morning, a soft-spoken server brought to the table the menu’s “Healthy Breakfast”—low-fat yoghurt, low-sugar cruseli, fresh fruits, and a sprig of mint all gingerly arranged in a custard goblet—the place suddenly seemed less like an Amsterdam coffeeshop and more like a Le Pain Quotidien. But instead of bottomless hazelnut spread, there was that common coffeeshop fixture: a glass filled with green leaves of rolling-tobacco substitute.

Sure enough, this was Green House United, the largest of the city’s four Green House coffeeshops.

With an actual kitchen, it can cater to meal-size munchies day or night and, turns out, perfectly extract a single-origin Brazilian coffee, Bocca’s Soulmate. The light, fresh fare contrasts with leathery maroon furnishings and dim lighting, though the walls are undeniably brightened by Cannabis Cup trophies, smiling stoner celebrity photos, and clips from VICE/HBO’s Strain Hunter. That show follows Arjan Roskam, founder of Green House Seed Co. and the eponymous coffeeshops, as he searches for cannabis landraces on continent-hopping expeditions that sometimes share remarkable similarities with coffee-origin trips.

Green House United is located at Haarlemmerstraat 64, Amsterdam. Visit their official website.

La Tertulia

Brownie points are in order here because four years ago, when Sprudge sought low and high for decent coffee at coffeeshops, La Tertulia delivered. The same holds true today. “We are still serving Bocca coffee,” replies Aline, the younger of the mother-daughter team who own the business, when recently asked for an update. “Moreover, all our employees are getting a training by Bocca soon!”

Whether or not the baristas will master latte art, which Aline hopes for, La Tertulia is sure to maintain its unique appeal. The coffeeshop is women-owned and women-operated, has more space than most—upstairs, small groups can comfortably work or play a borrowed board game; outside bistro chairs and tables allow for smoking and sipping al fresco and canal-side—and a respectable snack menu. The toasties come in about a dozen variations (who would have known tomato-chili chutney, zucchini, and pineapple work together?). And the pot brownie is of American-standard dimensions, homemade by a baker to whom Aline delivers her regularly collected shake.

La Tertulia is located at Prinsengracht 312, Amsterdam. Visit their official website.

Hempstory

You cannot smoke or vape here, but this hemp-heralding lifestyle store deserves an honorable mention. At its core is a bar with a La Marzocco Linea Classic, which Bocca-trained baristas use to prepare Bocca coffee drinks. Hemp milk repeats on the menu, and hot beverages come with a complimentary heart-shaped Hanf & Natur hemp biscuit.

From clothes to cosmetics and chips to cookies, much of the goods sold here are made from or with hemp. The shop also well stocks CBD products from world-renowned seed bank Sensi Seeds, whose founder, Ben Dronkers, owns Hempstory itself, the neighboring Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, and industrial hemp company Hempflax. Despite being in the middle of the Red Light District, Hempstory is green-leaning—stylistically more Broccoli than Pineapple Express, more GOOP than Snoop—but equally respectful of the aesthetics surrounding coffee and cannabis.

Hempstory is located at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 142, Amsterdam. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge. 

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Low Life Still Life

At Beardsley Reservoir

Just a bad bird shot that turned out kinda cool

Another without the cormorant

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Stumptown To Release CBD Cold Brew Elixir Just In Time For The Holidays

Tomorrow is April 20th, colloquially known as 420, a holiday you’ve all been waiting for. That’s right, tomorrow is National Cold Brew Day, which definitely started by Stumptown as a joke, but is now being treated as a real thing by thirsty cold brew marketers worldwide. To help slake that thirst, Portland’s Stumptown Coffee Roasters has a special release just for you. For one day only, Stumptown will be selling a new CBD Cold Brew Elixir.

CBD cold brew is hardly a new product. Not a week goes by where I don’t feed the trash folder in my inbox news of some start-up disrupting the cold brew market with a disruptive addition of CBD to a disruptive new cold brew nitro can or whatever. But Stumptown’s take on the form is a lot of fun, and will be appearing in an extremely limited drop timed for 4/20.

Available only in their Portland stores (excluding the airport), Stumptown’s CBD Cold Brew Elixir is a collaborative effort with East Fork Cultivars, “one of Oregon’s leading craft hemp and cannabis farms,” per the press release. The three-ounce drink pairs the coffee company’s original Cold Brew concentrate—which is twice the strength of their regular Cold Brew—with 15mg of USDA organic “water soluble CBD extract.”

CBD Cold Brew Elixir is a 420 exclusive product with an extremely limited run; only 1,000 total bottles are being made available for purchase. Each three-ounce bottle will cost the exact price we all expect it to: $4.20 (which makes you wonder why it isn’t a 4.20 ounce bottle).

So tomorrow if you’re looking to dabble with a doobie or get trippy with a tipple, head on over to any non-airport Portland Stumptown location and get you a mellow high.

For more information, visit Stumptown Coffee‘s official website.

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

Top image via Stumptown Coffee Roasters

Disclosure: Stumptown Coffee is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network. 

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The Lit List: Michelle Johnson’s Favorite Moments From SCA 2019

For the biggest coffee weekend of the year—the 2019 Speciality Coffee Association Expo in Boston—we sent intrepid journalist and Chocolate Barista founder Michelle Johnson onto the showfloor to put her finger on the pulse of what’s new and exciting in the coffee industry today. Here is what she found.

Coffee POGs Are Most Certainly Now A Thing

Only 90s kids will remember the popularity that surrounded POGS and slammers back in the day, and thanks to Jen Apodaca, they made a HUGE comeback for SCA Boston. George Howell, Umeshiso, and Boss Barista POGS were being traded like Pokemon cards on the EXPO floor, and I couldn’t figure out if we were in 1995 or 2019. If there was a winner for having the most coffee POGS, Alicia Adams absolutely takes the cake (pictured). I didn’t grow up with POGS and quite frankly, didn’t know what they were until this weekend. But after collecting a few of my own, I realize they’re a lovely reminder of the fun, not-so-serious side of the coffee world. I expect this to become a new tradition for SCA.

I Tasted The Best Coffee I Ever Had. Ever.

One of my favorite parts of Expo is getting to taste so many different coffees from nearly every origin around the world. I went hard this year participating in an Ethiopian coffee cupping, indulging in multiple Califia oat milk lattes, and drinking World Brewers Cup competitor coffees in the Activities Hall. At the Sustainable Harvest Relationship Coffee booth, I tried the most delicious coffee I’ve ever had. Period.

Roasted by Colo Coffee in Bogota, Colombia, this Eugenioides species microlot from Colo’s Ancestros series (a series of coffees highlighting rare heirloom varieties native to Colombia) tasted like a berry fruit juice BOMB. Jamil Hallasso Holguin of Café Inmaculada, the producer of this coffee, happily poured me a second cup while we talked about its juicy, sweet characteristics. It was a wonderful example of the duality of countries that are producing and consuming. They know better than anyone how their coffees should taste!

Claw Machines (And Other Lottery-Style Games) Are In

The Fellow Products booth was consistently packed throughout the weekend thanks in part to their claw machine where Expo attendees could try their luck winning Stagg EKG kettles and other swag. Did anyone actually score a Stagg EKG? I’m not sure. I heard more people bragging about the fact they couldn’t grab anything than the opposite. Over at Baratza’s booth, you could try and scratch your way to owning the new Baratza Virtuso+ with a lottery ticket, but I’m not sure anyone won that either. Better luck next year, folks!

Visible Diversity At Expo? You Got It!

Let’s be real: a consistent critique of Expo and many coffee industry events is the lack of diversity on all sides—from those standing at the booth to people in attendance. This year’s event looked different and I mean that in the best way possible. As I walked around the floor, I saw people from different backgrounds talking to people about equipment, apps, and the state of the coffee industry with respect to the C Price (which is currently at $0.90). I heard coffee described in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Swahili. Two Asian women from China and South Korea were crowned as our World Brewers Cup and World Barista Champions, respectively. While there’s always more work to be done, it’s important to take a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come. It’s in these moments we can begin to imagine more possibilities for the coffee industry as we continue to grow.

Many Babies Had Their First Expo Experience And We Loved It

Photo by Paige Hicks

Many coffee professional parents will be adding “Baby’s 1st Coffee Expo” to the baby book as the next generation of coffee lovers were in high attendance this year. We spotted Erica Escalante, owner of The Arrow Coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon with her daughter, Lupe, in tow in the Activities Hall (where the competitions were held), as well as several other coffee children. This portion of the Expo was the only place infants and children under the age of 12 were allowed according to the Specialty Coffee Association’s show policies.

Fortunately, friends and colleagues alike stepped in to help watch Lupe and any other babies so their parents could take some time to see the rest of the show. Coffee parents are starting to sound off about this show policy and how it bars access from people with children who want to remain focused on their careers. We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for how this conversation develops. In the meantime, I’ll be swooning over all the baby photos from the weekend.

Tell Your Grandparents: Frozen Coffee Is The Future

Don’t worry, there will be dedicated round-up of coffee tech from Expo, but I spent a considerable amount of time at the Cometeer Coffee Capsule booth going from hard skeptic to a believer. I’m already an advocate for frozen coffee—frozen beans vacuumed sealed at the optimum point post-roast to be enjoyed months, even years after the fact. But Cometeer took it in a different direction. They extracted the best parts of already brewed coffee, apparently at its peak state, and froze it inside these 100% recyclable capsules for use whenever you see fit. I tasted the Counter Culture capsule brewed via Keurig and was pleasantly surprised by how great it tasted. The coffee had clarity and distinct but subtle fruit notes. It should be no surprise that Cometeer won 2019 Best New Product, and we should expect to see more from them soon!

The EXPO Sneaker Game Was On Point

There was no shortage of heat on the EXPO floor, and we’re not talking about water for coffee brewing. We love a good sneaker here at Sprudge and while in the hometown of Reebok, I made sure to keep an eye out for the latest fire people wore to coffee cuppings on the show floor. I was so far from disappointed. Spotted on foot were Lebron 15’s, Adidas, and every style of Nike in multiple colorways—Huaraches, Air Max 97’s, and bedazzled (!!!) Air Force One’s.

The coffee industry’s Dad Shoe Dad himself, Nick Cho, took it to another level with Balenciaga Track Sneakers while demoing the new Wootz Grinder. Of course, those were just one of several rarities he brought to show out. I think my favorite shoes this weekend were on Gio Fillari (@CoffeeFeedPDX, Sprudge, Nike), who blessed us with the Air Max 97 Off-White. To round it out, I came to Expo with my own heat that I saved specifically for emceeing the World Brewers and Barista Competition—the millennial pink Aleali May Jordan 6, a recent drop from Jordan Women. Next year when SCA lands in Portland, the collision of sneakers and coffee will be even more apparent and perhaps, intentional.

Michelle Johnson is a news contributor at Sprudge Media Network, and the founder and publisher of The Chocolate Barista. Read more Michelle Johnson on Sprudge.

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Elmstone at Westerleigh

Elmstone at Westerleigh by Polygon is a new 4-storey condo development located at Polygon’s masterplanned community of Westerleigh, Abbotsford. This project will offer a collection of 142 stylish 1- and 2-bedroom homes, sizes range from 600 – 1,145 square feet. The homes at Elmstone is located steps from Club West – a 9,000 square-foot resort-style clubhouse just for residents – and features West Coast contemporary architecture with traditional touches like rich brickwork and metal detailing. Inside, these bright and airy homes will have spa-inspired bathrooms, laminate wood flooring, and gourmet kitchens with spacious islands, sleek stainless steel appliances and polished stone countertops.

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The Incredible Pop-Up Cafes of SCA Expo 2019

For those convening upon Boston this past weekend, there was no shortage of great coffee at mini-cafes popping up outside, over, around, and through the 2019 Specialty Coffee Expo. But of course, when you get right down to it, there will always be those superstars of the pop, those who pop a little EXTRA with the best coffee or the longest lines or biggest buzz or deepest DJ grooves. Here’s what our team on the ground spotted on the scene of see and be seen coffee pop-ups.

Miir

Seattle-based Miir is an “it” vessel manufacturer these days, whose sustainability mission as a reuseable cup company walks the walk with a giving program that contributes grant money to philosophically aligned projects like providing clean water to the Asian subcontinent, or bicycles to help Zambian students (and teachers) get to school. The B Corp’s Seattle flagship is LEED-certified, and let’s be honest—the cups are also stylish af, which is why all the coffee brands you love already use them.

And which is also why fans of the brand—and free stuff—lined up for times upwards of one hour Friday and Saturday mornings to get some of the most coveted swag of the convention: SCA Expo-exclusive Miir mugs, which of course you could have topped up with Verve coffee brewed in Miir’s ingenious fold-flat pop-out travel drippers, or with the same roaster’s Nitro Flash Brew coffee. Once in hand, the Miir Expo cup proved to be the perfect fashionable accessory to flash while lounging around the modern furnishings of the Miir booth flipping through Verve’s latest Farmlevel journal, or admiring numerous displays of other Miir designs out of which one was not currently drinking. And if you so happened to be sucked out of the calming Miir oasis and back into the vortex of the show floor, that same cup proved perfect for sustainably sampling coffee from all the other great pop-ups out there.

La Marzocco

It’s almost not even news to say that La Marzocco‘s Expo presence drew a bustling crowd, but let’s go ahead and say it: this equipment company is always on the vanguard not only of coffee tech but of roaster/barista relationships. The LM booth at Expo is a perennial nexus of activity for those looking for an excellent espresso drink from a quality roaster (maybe one they’ve never tried before) made on a beautiful machine.

This year the company drew attention for its angular new KB90 machine, built with barista ergonomics in mind, like portafilters that slide straight in. But the La Marzocco booth—or should we say, booths, as the company’s appeal is large enough to have literally spilled across the convention aisle—was also a hotspot for roasters from all over to pop up throughout the event. The list of guests on the La Marzocco booth included, but was certainly not limited to, such names as Tandem Coffee Roasters, George Howell, Linea Caffe, Metric Coffee, Pavement Coffeehouse, Joe Coffee Company, Ruby Coffee Roasters, Variety Coffee, and Onyx Coffee Lab. You were pretty much guaranteed NOT to get a bad coffee if you came through—and that’s the kind of guarantee we can all pop about.

Dark Matter

Chicago-based Dark Matter flipped the show floor script a bit with a corner cafe/booth that pumped out good music and good energy while drawing in a crowd that felt like community—no small task in a building that looks like a slightly upscale airplane hanger. First, the company went big on color: from bringing in a vanload of tropical plants, to hanging a huge, vibrant mural from Chicago artist Dan Grzeca with the artwork for the brand’s new This Caffeine Kills Fascists coffee blend. Guests brewed in color as well, on loud, proud Origami coffee drippers, and Dark Matter’s flamboyant “coffee cold” cans (with names just as trippy as the can art, like Brown Acid and Black Splash) were on sample too.

But beyond all the posi vibes emanating from the actual, you know, marketing, Dark Matter’s was also a booth with a meaning: Hope For the Day, a suicide prevention and awareness group, shared space alongside the coffee crew, offering community outreach and their “it’s ok not to be ok” messaging. It was uplifting to come by this booth again and again during the show (and not just for the caffeine).

Atlas Coffee

If there’s an importer with a stealth reputation for fun it might just be Atlas Coffee, which doubled down on its Expo presence with both a high traffic coffee pop-up on the main show floor as well as a coffee bar in the World Coffee Championships Roaster Village. At either location you were likely to find pro baristas alongside traders alongside coffee producers, sharing both coffee and stories.

On the exhibition floor, Atlas’ bright, sort of picnic-chic cafe stall cranked out guest roasts all through the day surrounded by those who’d brought the same coffees to this (highly!) drinkable point from their origins as green. And while it might be a little easier to impress the masses roaming glassy-eyed up and down aisles of de-gassing valve technologists and water wizards, Atlas held its own in the Roaster Village alongside the likes of full-time, full-on retailers like ST. ALi, Stumptown, locals Broadsheet, and many more. When we visited, Sumatra’s Ketiara Cooperative was the featured origin, the kiosk graciously hosted not just by Atlas’ own staffers but by the co-op’s leader, Ramah, who also offered woven Ketiara wristbands to visitors. You can’t drink a coffee under much more origin-storybook conditions than these, folks.

Chemex

Leave it to Chemex to do something both totally stylish and a little elusive all at the same time. Tucked away on the second floor of the convention center—which of course you’d easily find if you had diligently attended all of the lectures you’d planned to—popped an epic Chemex kiosk, its glassy-Rube-Goldberg-esque towering waterworks providing a stunning spectacle bathed in natural light. These hometown heroes—okay, home state—okay, home commonwealth—lived up to their reputation of timeless good-looks, offering a variety of brews on lovely new glass single-cup Chemex X-5 drippers, spinning dizzying rings around the barista (don’t try this at home) in a handcrafted artisan bar. The drippers were paired with new Chemex “Chettles” (oh yes they did), induction-heated water kettles with gooseneck spouts. (They’re also cool to the touch and dishwasher safe, for those of you teaching your children to brew alongside you.)

From the grand presentation (yes, that’s a Chemex as big as your torso at the top of that crazy display) to the new products on display to the respectful murmur that always accompanies this classic brand, you’d think that might be enough. But no—in a seating area adjacent to the Chemex pour-over bar was the pièce de résistance—a Chemex The Game station, projecting the truly unique game onto a big screen for all around to see your successes (or failures) at reliving the life of Chemex founder Dr. Peter Schlumbohm, filtering out the nastiest bits of coffee brewing in search of that perfect cup. As we sat basking in the late-afternoon glow high above the trade show floor, living out our fantasies as an 8-bit inventor, one couldn’t help but think they’d achieved a glory almost as crowning as having your own gold-plated Chemex hood ornament.

Liz Clayton is the associate editor at Sprudge Media Network and the co-author of Where to Drink Coffee. Read more Liz Clayton on Sprudge.

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