Happy Birthday, Amber

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The CDC Releases Report On The Health Risks At Coffee Roasteries

Last year, we reported on the potential dangers of inhaling roast exhaust, specifically as it relates to a higher likelihood of developing lung disease. This was based on research being compiled by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and now they have released the full 67-page report, according to USA Today.

As previously noted in our first article on the topic, the main culprit suspected of causing the lung damage is a chemical called diacetyl, a naturally occurring byproduct of coffee roasting. Per the USA Today article, the National Institutes of Safety and Health “recommends workers not be exposed to more than 5 parts per billion of diacetyl as a time-weighted average over an eight-hour work day… calculated to limit the risk so that no more than 1 in 1,000 workers would be expected to have reduced lung function at those exposure levels over a 45-year work life.”

When testing 49 air samples from around Just Coffee Cooperative’s 16,000-square-foot roasting facility in Madison, Wisconsin—the site where all the collection data occurred—the CDC found 10 samples that exceeded the 5 ppb threshold. From the report, “grinding roasted coffee beans, blending roasted coffee beans by hand, and weighing and packaging roasted coffee were associated with higher diacetyl levels, likely due to the close proximity of the employee’s breathing zone to the roasted beans.” Grinding coffee was tagged with the highest diacetyl exposure levels for employees at 37.6 ppb over a 14-minute time period. The report also notes that the inside roasted coffee storage bins had instances of diacetyl at 99.4 ppb but are not reflective of employee exposure.

The results of this exposure on the workers is not insignificant:

Our findings of upper-respiratory symptoms with a work-related pattern in many employees, four-fold excess of wheeze and abnormalities on lung function testing in about a third of participants suggest a burden of respiratory problems in this workforce.

CDC recommendations for means of reducing exposure to diacetyl include vacuuming instead of sweeping, which just kicks dust around; the use of masks/respirators during higher-exposure tasks; adding exhaust fans over grinding and blending stations; and the use of automated blending devices.

This report is just the first step the CDC is taking to better understand exposure at coffee roasteries. According to USA Today, they are currently doing similar research at 18 roasters across the United States, with results expected in the coming months.

The full report can be found here. To read a statement from Just Coffee regarding the findings, visit their official website.

Comments are open. Sound off below.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.

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Thud

Leaves from the box elders fall with a rustle or even a rattle if the wind is blowing.

I can't wait for mulberry drop when all the leaves from all our trees rain down over just a few hours like a green and golden waterfall.

However the leaves from the cottonwood by the driveway clunk down thud, thud, thud like a herd of ponies on the prowl.

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Coffee On Instagram: Brian W. Jones Of DCILY

As the specialty coffee world has grown and expanded, so has the design around it, from cafe interiors to coffee making tools. These days, coffee and design seem to go hand in hand, stimulation coming as much from the visual aspects related to coffee and its consumption as from the caffeine intake.

One blog that has been following that evolution is Dear Coffee I Love You, run by Brian W. Jones. A designer by trade, Jones is well-respected in the specialty coffee industry, melding his love of coffee and design into a path that includes everything from coffee branding to co-founding AKA Coffee to writing the book Brew: Better Coffee at Home, with the occasional contribution to Sprudge along the way. Based on the west coast of Sweden, he’s well tapped into the buzz of the Nordic coffee scene, but work also has him spending a lot of time in the coffee-centric San Francisco area. Bridging the two continents, and traveling everywhere in between, leads to a lot of visual inspiration, which you can follow on his popular Instagram feed @DCILY.

We caught up with Jones to learn more about his process and what keeps him inspired.

How would friends of yours finish this statement “Brian is….”?

Always drinking wine.

How did DCILY the website get started? How has it evolved since then?

The website began as a way for me to feed my growing curiosity around coffee and to share my discoveries with family and friends. After having that first “aha moment” with good coffee, I wanted to know everything there was to know about it. The site was also an outlet for me as a designer to focus on a specific subject that I found steeped in creativity explore the trends and patterns that I saw happening at the time. As I learned more about coffee, it became a way for me to encourage better appreciation for coffee and inspire people to drink better coffee.

How does your Instagram feed fit into that evolution?

Instagram wasn’t around when DCILY first launched, so it actually took me a while to separate my personal Instagram account and create one dedicated to just coffee. I had a few friends who complained about seeing too many cups of coffee (and now complain about all the glasses of wine), so I separated the two accounts. My personal account almost never shows coffee any longer. But IG has been a way to continue sharing things with people that don’t necessarily require an entire article written about them. I’ve noticed the attention span of many readers has decreased a lot (including my own). Instagram plays into this trend and allows people to engage with visual content, new cafes, packaging, products, without needing to read a lot about them. People can discover things easily and discuss in the comments if they want. It creates a much more interactive forum for certain types of content.

Why do you think that Instagram has become such a popular platform for the community?

I think it’s an easily digestible format, whether for inspiration or just keeping up to date with what others are doing, drinking, brewing with, etc. From a business side, it’s a very easy way to project your brand and share your newest products with customers.

What are some of your favorite images that you have done in the last few months?

I posted an image just last week while I was having coffee at home in Sweden. The morning light was just perfect and I captured the feel of the coffee with such clarity. It’s such a simple image but makes me crave another cup. The images I capture while traveling to new places are usually my favorites. I was recently in Tokyo, and several of those pictures really sum up the magic of Japan, the people there and why I love it. Then there are those really well-composed overhead shots that are incredibly cliché, but still look great. I kicked off my trip to the SCA Expo in Seattle with one of those.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your creative process?

I don’t really have a creative process for my Instagram photos. All of the content I post is mine and captured mostly with an iPhone. I do some light editing with a photo app called Afterlight, but it is still very raw compared to some of the coffee accounts out there. I don’t repost other content and it is very much a visual diary (this is what coffee I’m drinking today, this is the cafe I visited recently). The primary purpose is to simply inspire more coffee lovers and occasionally promote/cover an event or share products that I’m honestly enjoying and excited about. I was hesitant at first, but I’ve grown to love IG stories and the ability to share more fleeting moments with them. I find boomerangs incredibly hypnotic, so I prefer them to videos.

What are some of your sources of inspiration?

I love cabin porn and architecture photography. Also a lot of tattoos and sneakers. Drone photography also really makes me happy and I’ve been trying to justify getting one myself, but so far I’ve talked myself out of it. Generally, I try to look entirely outside the realm of whatever I’m working with for inspiration.

What coffee are you drinking right now?

All this week I’ve been brewing some Catuai from Finca Takesi in Bolivia that The Coffee Collective roasted in Denmark. It’s one of those coffees that has such a unique flavor profile that it makes me really question what I love about coffee. It’s very different than the Geisha variety that Intelligentsia offered from Finca Takesi, but it is still wonderful and I’m always excited when I can get a hold of coffee from this farm.

Favorite coffee shop?

Koppi in Helsingborg, Sweden. I would live there if Anne and Charles ever let me to set up a bedroom in the basement.

If you could drink coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

This is ridiculously hard to answer. I would probably want to keep it casual, so definitely a comedian. I know Jerry Seinfeld beat me to it, but I would love to have coffee with Aziz Ansari. Also, both Grace Parra and Samantha Bee would be great coffee companions for talking politics, while still laughing about it.

Anna Brones (@annabrones) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in the American Pacific Northwest, the founder of Foodie Underground, and the co-author of Fika: The Art Of The Swedish Coffee Break. Read more Anna Brones on Sprudge.

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Brooklyn’s Little Roy Coffee: The Little Cafe Across The Park

There’s a small, rambling dog-run at Bed-Stuy’s Herbert Von King Park, but few dogs know of it—unless they live off the G train. Little Roy Coffee Co. opened recently across from this park, and the owners, borrowing the name from their late Pomeranian, Roy, want to give unknowing folks more reason to visit the park, one of the oldest in Brooklyn.

“It’s such a friendly, great place that it’s just nice to have a space here to participate,” explained Jannah Greenblatt, who opened Little Roy with her husband, Moe Gabr, after having lived in Bed-Stuy nearly a full decade. While it has less green space than fellow neighborhoods, it’s also where brownstones and block parties reign. The thrumming neighborhood swelled with restaurants and bars over the past decade, but the streets surrounding Herbert Von King Park remained mostly residential—until Little Roy opened its doors.

Von King Park is romantic in this way. Groomed but not manicured, it’s replete with tree-lined paths, basketball courts, playgrounds, and a baseball field; a generous amphitheater vibes with live performances, and shaded lawns host birthday parties and Sunday sunbathers. Here, community thrives.

Greenblatt and Gabr opened Little Roy in order to extend this experience—to offer space for the community to linger, and to enjoy the park—perhaps in a more caffeinated manner.

“We designed the space to connect to the park and atmosphere,” explains Gabr. “The standard approach would have a bigger operations side, which means you have the bar on one side of the interior,” explains Gabr. “But you would really diminish the space for a seating area, and for people to enjoy the park—so our focus was to really give the people the space.”

Gabr has made the most out of 500 square feet. The glass storefront opens into a stylish seating area; its walnut banquette seats plenty along one side, and a handful of tables with black Windsor-style chairs seat more on the other. A cosmic, brass light fixture of interconnecting globes adds contemporary spirit to the already sunlit interiors, and white, geometric wainscoting stretches across the walls and counter to give the cafe its subtle, Brooklyn edge (can you guess that he owns an interior design boutique?).

It’s crisp and minimal, so as not to distract from the bigger picture: the parkside view.

Perfect for a hot Brooklyn summer, Little Roy is pouring necessary cold brews, which they’re making with Caffé Vita’s chocolatey Theo Blend. For espresso, drinks are made with selections from Counter Culture Coffee.

“We’re planning other refreshing non-caffeinated drinks that have an Egyptian, or Middle-Eastern influence, sort of melding it with something that’s accessible or interesting to people here,” says Jannah, paying homage to Moe’s Egyptian roots.

On the menu now, Moe’s Helba Latte is a popular curiosity. Traditionally served with warm milk, Moe crafts his own version in latte form with fenugreek, ginger, turmeric, and honey. In coming months, they plan to add items like iced licorice tea—it’s dark, naturally sweet, and popular in Egypt.

Pastries by local bakers, like Ovenly and Bed-Stuy’s Saraghina, line the counter with croissants and slices of pistachio-cardamom loaves. On the menu, Moe’s heritage embellishes classic cafe fare; an essential avocado toast is front and center, while fig and goat cheese toast gets a sprinkle of za’atar. The house-made hummus was one of the first dishes to land, while an egg-in-a-hole recently made an appearance, along with a grilled cheese that’s brightened with preserved lemon and oregano.

And there’s one appearance you can all but guarantee: You’ll spot the neighborhood’s best friends, from terriers to retrievers, awaiting their owners alongside the cafe’s outdoor benches—here, the water bowl is always on the house.

Little Roy Coffee Co. is located at 571 Greene Ave, Brooklyn. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Keith Flanagan is a freelance writer and photographer based in Brooklyn, contributing to Condé Nast Traveler, Tasting Table, USA Today, Paste Magazine, The Robb Report, and more. Read more Keith Flanagan on Sprudge.

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Coffee In California May Soon Come With A Cancer Warning

There’s a battle raging in the California court system right now over whether or not coffee should come with a cancer warning label. The suit, brought about by non-profit group the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, has been around since 2010 but resumed in the court on Monday. If successful, the lawsuit could cause substantial financial penalties to be levied against the 90 or so companies named.

According to CNBC, the entirety of the suit revolves around acrylamide, “a carcinogen found in cooked foods such as French fries that is also a natural byproduct of the coffee roasting process.” The article notes that the coffee industry acknowledge the existence of the chemical in coffee but states that it is harmless in the trace amounts present in coffee.

Named in the suit are companies as large as Starbucks all the way down to “mom-and-pop operations.” If the judge rules in favor of the non-profit, the defendants would have to post cancer warnings (in their California establishments) as well as pay civil fines up to “$2,500 per person exposed each day,” going back eight years “in a state with close to 40 million residents.” Which is to say, more money than God, though CNBC notes it is unlikely for the higher end of that figure to come to fruition.

The lawsuit is the result of California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which allows “private citizens, advocacy groups and attorneys can sue on behalf of the state and collect a portion of civil penalties.” The same law was used by the non-profit in 2008, resulting in potato chip makers paying $3 million and agreeing to remove acrylamide from their products.

But according to CNBC, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act is complicated:

The law has been roundly criticized for abuses by lawyers shaking down businesses for quick settlements but is also credited with reducing chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects, such as lead in hair dyes, mercury in nasal sprays and arsenic in bottled water.

The defense argues that coffee falls under an exemption to the law whereby chemicals that naturally occur from “cooking necessary for palatability or to avoid microbiological contamination” don’t require any sort of warning.

So while the legal battle continues, let it be known that coffee contains some trace amount of acrylamide, a known carcinogen. And it always has. Act accordingly I guess.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.

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Metric Coffee At Chicago’s Museum Of Contemporary Art

These days coffee goes wherever it wants to go, darling, and that means hot new coffee bars are popping up in otherwise unexpected places. One such trend we’ve been eying carefully is the fusion of high end coffee and high art, in the form of delightful coffee bar installations at lauded museums worldwide. One such new cafe opens today at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, in the heart of the Miracle Mile.

Dubbed “The Street,” this project is a collaboration between Jason Hammel and Metric Coffee. Metric needs no introduction to our readers—we’ve featured the Chicago coffee roasting brand previously on Sprudge—and Hammel is the noted chef behind Chicago’s much-loved and oft-suggested brunch/lunch/dinner destination Lula Café. He’s bringing not one but two concepts to the Museum of Contemporary Art: a restaurant, Marisol, and adjacent coffee bar, The Street, both featuring Metric Coffee.

Sprudge co-founder Jordan Michelman spoke with Metric’s Xavier Alexander to learn more about the project, which opens today. “We’re simply excited to serve our coffee at such a lauded institution,” Alexander tells Sprudge, “where our coffee can help immerse the visitor in an artful atmosphere.”
And the space itself is stunningly gorgeous, designed by LA design firm Johnston Marklee.

This is exactly where coffee should be in 2017: at home amongst art and culture, collaborating with top chefs, and doing it all in effortless Chicago big city style.

Hey Xavier—thanks for speaking with Sprudge. How long has this project been in development? When did you start working on it?

A little over a year ago, the first conversations with Chef Jason Hammel formulated. Our relationship with Hammel goes back a while though (his Logan Square staple, Lula Café, is a longtime/close wholesale partner). While initially the museum eyed larger brands, Hammel’s focus for a local, quality coffee and his rapport with Metric allowed for us to cement ourselves as Marisol’s mainstay roaster shortly after he was announced to be helming the Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Arts (MCA) food program. From there, we were able to help develop a home for our coffee at the MCA both in the form of a restaurant, “Marisol,” and a walk-up coffee bar, “The Street.”

What special design features are in the cafe?

The cafe strives for a minimalist aesthetic. Natural light drips into the space and white Carra marble drapes atop the counters establishing a classic euro-inspired canvas for artfully prepared food and drinks to strikingly juxtapose. The restaurant possesses a more specific vibe. A Chris Ofili mural wraps around the space. And the soundscape will consist of rotating records curated by contemporary artist!

What gear will you have?

Trying to mirror the minimalist aesthetic, we aspired for streamlined and elegant gear to boot. A two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic, Mahlkönig K30 Twin grinder, and a FETCO XTS 2132 will churn out classic drip and espresso options (sans flavored syrups).

I know tea service is a feature here as well, working with Spirit Tea—why work with them?

Spirit Tea is a neighbor and a friend. But most importantly Spirit Tea is company focused on sourcing principles, similar to those that we practice. Spirit spends twenty percent of their year at origin promoting regional experts and seeking artistic offerings from Taiwan, China, and Japan. Pairing Spirit’s progressive tea sourcing with our coffee and Hammel’s seasonality focused dishes seemed hand-in-hand.

Did you work with a designer on this space? 

Due to the venue’s desire for privy, the project was fairly mum on all fronts with various specialists purely contributing their two cents to their respective fields. Therefore, our portion in the collaboration steered solely towards coffee: equipment, education, et cetera. We only recently were permitted to see the space designed by Los Angeles Architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (of Johnston Marklee).

What challenges does working in a museum space like this present? What opportunities? 

With any wholesale relationship, it all boils down to two things: 1) “How do they serve our coffee?” 2) “How can we empower them to do so?” We’re excited about this relationship in particular because of Chef Hammel and the MCA’s commitment to quality. This will allow us to have an on-going relationship and education process, so that these coffees can continually have quality preparation and attention.

As for opportunities, we’re simply excited to serve our coffee at such a lauded institution, where our coffee can help immerse the visitor in an artful atmosphere, whether he or she is visiting a current exhibition or catching a MCA Talk (some of which have featured Solange Knowles and Chance the Rapper).

Have you lined up any special coffees or signature drinks for these spaces? 

The emphasis at Marisol and The Street will be on seasonal, fresh coffee options; therefore, the menu will be altering constantly to match. Currently a Honduras Santa Barbara, an Ethiopia Banko Guiti, and a Natural Process Brazil Mogiana are on docket; however, again, the offerings will rotate regularly. In addition, we’re excited about an innovative seasonal drink menu, e.g. Cascara Fizz, Whey Lemonade, and Smoked Date Horchata, which will really pop against the otherwise traditional menu. Down the road, single origin pour-overs will be introduced to the program.

Smoked date horchata, dang. Thank you Xavier. 

Marisol and its adjacent coffee bar, The Street, are located at the Museum of Contemporary Art (205 East Pearson Street) in Chicago’s Miracle Mile. The Street has hours Tuesday through Sunday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Mirasol serves from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm (both are closed on Mondays). Lunch and brunch hours at Marisol coming soon.

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

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