Even Lions Love Coffee

Who doesn’t love coffee? Not lions, that’s for sure. Instead of making you work your way out of that unnecessary and cumbersome double negative, I’ll go ahead and tell you that lions love coffee.

A new video from the Times of Israel show a group of lions having themselves a time by rolling around in coffee grounds at the Ramat Gan Safari near Tel Aviv. “Who gave these lions coffee and why are they rolling around in it?” are two questions you are surely asking yourself right now. Working backwards and then forwards, let me just start by answering your question with another question: “who among us hasn’t rolled around in coffee grounds before? Let them cast the first puck.” The real answers, though, are that the big cats were given the coffee grounds by their handler, Yifta, and was done in hopes that the animals would act as they would in the wild.

According to the article, predatory animals often have a natural instinct to roll around in things with a strong scent, which effectively disguises their own smell from their prey. And indeed these lions as they are wont to do, rolling around in the coffee for nearly half an hour.

Either way, just look at these terrifyingly cute little buddies. Have you ever seen so many big ole cats acting like tiny kitties in such a deadly cuddle puddle?

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

*all media via the Times of Israel

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Stranger than Fiction

This is our house. 

When we were kids we called it the haunted house...we didn't live there then, just went by on the school bus. I never met the boss til I was 30, though he lived on our bus route.

Nowadays, when we give directions we just say, "Look for the house that looks as if the Addams family lives there."

See the two birds on the chimney and the tower?

Yeah, Black Vultures.

You can't make this stuff up.

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Black Coffee: The New Event From Michelle Johnson Premieres April 24th

My dear coffee friend, come, sit. It’s time for us to have “the talk.”

It may seem like we’ve had this talk before—the one that involves race and how it intersects with coffee culture, but trust me when I say we’ve barely scratched the surface. We’re living in a time where having difficult conversations about our social climate are becoming unavoidable. They shouldn’t be avoided to begin with; people in the United States and beyond aren’t being afforded the most basic of rights in 2018.

Nearly two years ago, I presented an examination of what this looked like as a barista through my personal lens as a Black woman. Many of the things I experienced still stick with me. Some of them are haunting and others, just pure annoyances.

Since first publishing The Chocolate Barista in 2016, the resulting ripple effect has been mostly positive. I have been able to connect with other Black coffee professionals who knew my experience intimately. They were living it themselves, but many had never vocalized it. There’s now a strong, growing community of us supporting each other through camaraderie and amplification of each other’s ventures. We now have a Black man on the Barista Guild of America Executive Council—an historic first. Groups like I See You and the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective are hosting events centering coffee professionals of color, driving home the point that we’re still fighting for visibility, representation, and access to opportunities in the industry.

And I put a strong emphasis on still. While there has never been more dialogue surrounding social issues in coffee, race rarely gets much airtime. More often than not, the role of race in coffee culture goes largely ignored. And yet, we have such a rich opportunity right now to change all that. To examine the role that race plays in issues across the coffee industry, from gender discrimination—you can’t ask a Black women to pick which identity to fight for over the other—to issues of gentrification, identity, and the creation of global coffee shop culture.

The microphone is far too often passed over us when the opportunity for dialogue comes.  We don’t want to be spoken for—we want to speak.

In a special live podcast event from yours truly, creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista) and produced by Sprudge Media Network, I invite you to come join a conversation about race and coffee culture.  The panel-style discussion will cover a range of topics from workplace dynamics to the Black consumer experience, and also dive into how we make coffee culture all our own, led by us, for us.

This is Black Coffee.

The event takes place on Tuesday, April 24th from 6-9pm at the Clinton Street Theater, a classic cinema and live theater venue in the heart of Southeast Portland, Oregon. Ticket pre-sale is now available. Hosted by Ian Williams (Deadstock Coffee), Gio Fillari (Coffee Feed PDX), and myself, you’ll hear from Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, all with unique perspectives that span intersectional identities and roles on the retail end of the value chain. Special guests include D’Onna Stubblefield (Counter Culture Coffee), O.M. Miles (IKAWA), Zael Ogwaro (Never Coffee), Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House), and Cameron Heath (Revelator Coffee Company).

We’re excited to partner up with several sponsors for this event, including La Marzocco USA, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Oatly, and The Ace Hotel Portland. Ticket proceeds will be donated to our charitable partners, Sankofa Collective and Brown Girl Rise.

Black Coffee tickets are $10 pre-sale, $15 at the door. We’re offering a limited number of VIP tickets that include an invite to the after party at Sprudge Studios, and a special “come down” event the following morning.

We hope you can join us April 24th in Portland! This could be the start of something special, and you’ll be able to hear it all in a podcast presentation following the event. Much more details and additional partners to be announced in the coming weeks. Follow Sprudge for more details.

#blackcoffeePDX

Original poster art by Taylor McManus (@tmcmanusillustration) with many thanks. 

Michelle Johnson (@thechocbarista) is the publisher of The Chocolate Barista, and the marketing director at Barista Hustle. Read more Michelle Johnson on Sprudge.

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Where the Wild Things Are

We had only a short spell of birding yesterday, as the boss was away all day with a friend, sharing carpentry and camaraderie, and generally having a good time.

We went out in the gathering evening, to hit the river in search of that elusive Greater White-fronted Goose. Thought I saw it, but nope, it was gone.

On the way home, we followed the loop that has netted us everything from that surprising Golden Eagle to Snow Buntings, Horned Larks, and the handsome little Merlin in recent weeks.

We were treated to a stunning sunset, the valley a clear bowl of light awash in gold as bright as treasure and as warming to the soul. The mountains and trees painted inky sketches against the sky, and it was good and calming indeed.

As we descended one hilly road we often traverse, a sound rang out. The boss thought it was the car coming up with yet another squeak or squawk.

I knew though that it was a bird. A bird I had never heard before. We turned around and went back to see if we could figure out what it was. I set up the little camera to record the sound.

All was quiet.

Then SHRIEK!! it came again.

And again, screaming like you never imagined. I knew it wasn't an owl. I study owl calls, even the ones we don't see or hear around here.

Not an owl.

The only thing it reminded me of was the male peacock, back when we had them. He used to scream whenever he saw me come out the back door, which tickled my fancy no end.

We sat there a long time, peering into the gloomy trees, seeing nothing, but hearing plenty.

Then suddenly something fluttered across the brush line. Too dark for me to see what it was, but Mr. X-ray vision laughed and said, "It's a pheasant."

Yep, after two YEARS of looking for pheasants we found two in just a few days.

The bridge gave us another show...

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At Chiquitito, A Tiny Cafe Makes It Big In Mexico City

It begins in London, where Jeremy Clouser and Cecilia Morales were working toward their master’s degrees. In a city known for its amazing coffee culture, the couple felt inspired to bring some of the British capital back to their home in Mexico City. They wanted to open a cafe, and so, in 2008, Clouser took another educational plunge and enrolled at Portland’s American Barista School.

Then, in 2011, a small space opened up in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood. Or rather, a tiny space opened up in Condesa, and Clouser and Morales found themselves repeating the Spanish Chiquitito, over and over and over. And so their first cafe was named “tiny,” and they filled it with a La Marzocco Linea PB and beans from Caffè Pecora, which owns and operates a farm in Veracruz and a roastery in Mexico City.

Clouser and Morales would go on to open a second cafe in Cuauhtémoc after their first, and now are beginning to iron the kinks out of their third, in Prado Norte, a beautiful financial district near a residential area called Las Lomas. The cafe is equipped with a La Marzocco Strada and, in addition to sourcing beans from Pécora, offers coffee from Café con Jiribilla, the roasting arm of Avellaneda.

Clouser and Morales’ partnership with Pécora persists today in large part because of their shared vision with Carlos Avendaño, the company’s head farmer and roaster, whose ethic is one that prioritizes traceability. The three have a strong connection and believe that the keys to transparency are shortening the production chain and collecting quick feedback. As Chiquitito grows, Café Pécora does as well, but the transparency of their supply chain remains unchanged.

While Chiquitito is the first specialty cafe in Prado Norte, it and its historic name have so far been well received. Slightly larger than the previous locations, this newest cafe is already populated by locals and those working in the area—it represents an evolution of a tiny model that’s already proven to be a success.

Chiquitito has multiple locations around Mexico City. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ximena Rubio is a coffee professional based in Mexico City. Read more Ximena Rubio on Sprudge. 

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Patience Grasshopper

I was just waiting for the boss to wake up so I could ask him to take me down to the river to look for a bird......he takes Becky to work at quarter to four every day, so I try to let him get a little sleep in the morning.

And then I found out he had to go away elsewhere for the day.....

Drat.

See, while we were perusing a thousand or so Canada Geese up in Fort Plain yesterday, another birder was seeing the Greater White-fronted Goose we were hoping to spot, right here in tropical Fultonville.

I was hoping to hit the river as early as possible.

Oh, well, the best laid plans and all.....guess I will work on the Farm Side and hope an ooh ahh bird shows up at the feeder. It's been known to happen....

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Askance

Frieland Bama Breeze

The girls didn't seem too impressed with my visit this morning.

Maqua-kil Neon Moon

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