Tokyo’s All Seasons Coffee Finds A Home In Shinjuku
The area of Yotsuya-Sanchome is typical for the outskirts of Shinjuku. It’s a neighborhood filled mainly with office buildings and a collection of pubs and restaurants to accommodate the office workers who spend their days there. Among this, walking the streets, you’ll find locals and passersby; people there for business, people living nearby, and travelers staying just outside of...
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...
Tea Cakes Are The New Sneaker Drops
The tea cake is nothing new. Compressed tea bricks date back to before the Ming Dynasty, where they were traded along the ancient Tea Horse Road across Tibet, Sichuan, and Yunnan. In modern times tea cakes (called bǐngchá) are most commonly used for Pu’erh teas hailing from Yunnan, though other kinds of tea cakes and tea bricks are produced...
How To Brew With An AeroPress Coffee Maker
The AeroPress is a darling among coffee enthusiasts everywhere, and for good reason. Invented by Alan Adler in 2005, the device has become a staple in professional coffee bars and home kitchens over the last decade. Adler is an amazing guy—he’s big on the idea that any of us can be an inventor, and even taught inventing to 7th...
6 Remarkable Destinations For Tea In New York City
New York City is often seen as a vanguard of trends, of things to come. It is said, “If you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere.” For a town that is remarkably one dominated by (sometimes excellent) coffee, by an unwavering need for speed, and for a mentality that “time is money,” tea...
Wize Monkey Is Coffee Tea, But Not THAT Coffee Tea
As Tea Week comes to a close here on Sprudge, we’re going ease ourselves back into robust coffee coverage (don’t want to pull a hammy, y’know), and there is no greater middle ground than coffee tea. Coffee tea is nothing new to the specialty coffee world. Normally, its comes in the form of cascara, made by steeping dried coffee cherries—a...
How To Brew With A Hario V60 Coffee Maker
The Hario V60 Coffee Maker is a pour-over brewer, and a certified Sprudge favorite that’s perfect for brewing with at home. The V60 was invented in 2004 and is manufactured in Japan by Hario. The name stems from its distinct V shape and 60º angle. The brewer is available in various materials—glass, plastic, metal, and our personal favorite, ceramic...
How To Brew With A Kalita Wave Coffee Maker
Kalita was established in Tokyo, Japan in the late 1950s. The company specializes in drip-based coffee-making equipment—coffee mills, kettles, and pour-over devices. The Kalita Wave began popping up in US cafes in 2012 and took the coffee world by storm. It boasts a flat bottom, which proponents of the Wave claim allow for a more even brew. Here’s our tried-and-true...
Coffee Design: Soul Chai In Portland, Oregon
Over the years we’ve featured dozens of coffee companies and their beautifully designed packaging and felt like it was time to shake things up and give chai some shine. Lucky for us, Portland has a number of incredible chai makers—Tanglewood Beverage Company, Pip’s Original Doughnuts & Chai, and Smith Teamaker are all a stone’s throw away from the Sprudge...
How To Brew With A Siphon Coffee Maker
The coffee siphon (or vac-pot) experienced a renaissance among coffee professionals around 2007. In its heyday, baristas wielded siphons as they wielded portafilters: updosed, interpretively underextracted, and shrouded in a wizard’s cloak of theater and pocket science. While some cafes still offer siphons, it’s nowhere near as popular as it once was—but that doesn’t mean it’s not delightful and...
