Part love letter, part visual treatise, A Film About Coffee is a beautiful documentary that explores the growing field of specialty coffee. It’s a short but comprehensive film that ebbs and flows from roastery to farm to café. With interviews from industry professionals around the world—including company owners, champion baristas, seasoned growers, and dedicated buyers—this food doc covers many bases to prove the importance of ethically sourced and skillfully crafted coffee. By showing the hard work and passion it takes to make a great cup of coffee, A Film About Coffee asks viewers to... Read More

With the recent opening of Ink! Coffee on Larimer and 28th, Denver’s River North Art District (RiNo) continues its food and coffee supremacy. RiNo, which is technically a part of the Five Points neighborhood, is already a nationally recognized food hub. The new location from the Aspen-based Ink!—one of Colorado’s biggest coffee chains—will most likely only fuel RiNo’s status as a popular culinary center. Ink! will be competing with two other coffee shops on Larimer Street—Huckleberry and Crema. On nearby Brighton Boulevard, coffee lovers will find two other options: Wystone’s at Industry... Read More

While it can be tough relying on tips for a living, working as a barista also has the potential of being a tolerable, decently paying, and possibly even enjoyable part-time or transitional job. With specialty coffee companies on the rise and major chains still making solid profits, the occupational opportunities and benefits of barista-ing have actually never looked so appealing for those searching for employment. Of course now that I’m not working in a coffee shop, I kind of miss working in one, even though I didn’t adore the scene when I was in it. Maybe “the beans are always fresher... Read More

Last week’s coffee-centered gift guide will hopefully come in handy while you do your holiday shopping. But if you’re looking for more affordable gifts, I recommend buying something that every coffee lover really wants: coffee beans! A bag of beans from a third wave or local roaster is an excellent and relatively inexpensive gift—it makes for a great stocking stuffer too. Give the gift of delicious coffee this Winter and support roasters who strive to do right by their coffee farmers/suppliers. Here’s my list of this season’s best coffee to gift:   Boxcar Coffee – the Kenya Gatomboya... Read More

Coffee is deeply imbedded in many people’s daily routines and personal rituals. For many coffee drinkers, coffee is more about convenience or comfort and less about complexities of taste or particulars in trade. Usually when you’re drinking a cup of coffee, you’re probably not thinking of all the steps taken by numerous individuals to bring that cup to you. From farmer to roaster to barista or packager, so many passionate and hardworking hands are involved in the coffee industry. It’s something worth thinking about, every once in a while, when you’re drinking your favorite brew. Coffee... Read More

The phrase “third wave coffee” sounds inflated but it’s a term that best sums up the current trend that many coffee companies are invested in. Many independent coffee shops care about the nuanced flavors of different regional or varietal beans so they buy beans, or roast their own, from domestic companies which use roasting methods that bring out the distinct flavors of each kind of bean. Most of these companies also care about the ethical and environmental impact their industry has on the globe so they make efforts to do direct or fair trade with organic coffee farmers around the world.... Read More

As a former barista and current coffee enthusiast, I regularly find myself talking to others about coffee. In the coffee discourse, my aim is to promote the ideals of third wave coffee without sounding grandiose. A label that is often met with eye-rolls and associated with shallow trendiness, “third wave coffee” is actually an extensive umbrella term and one that I like to use when describing my favorite aspects of America’s current coffee culture. On this new weekly column, I’ll be expounding on contemporary coffee themes and exploring Boulder’s very own coffee scene.     I... Read More