Coffee Culture in America

MARCH 2019 | MODERNWELLNESSGUIDE.COM

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Coffee Culture in America Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis is using her social platform to create a unique culinary experience

DISCOVER how a family-owned Italian coffee company is breaking new ground in sustainability

SEE HOW the NBA’s Golden State Warriors’ partnership with Peet’s Coffee is helping give back to the Bay Area

Connoisseur PERFORMANCE COFFEE BREWER Brews Coffee to Golden Cup Standard in About 6 Minutes LEARN MORE at BonavitaWorld.com

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Brew the Perfect Cup of Coffee With Tips From the Experts The coffee masters at Bonavita reveal the best techniques to help you make coffee like a professional with these easy steps Choose a method that fits your preferences Whether you pick the convenience of an automatic brewer or the artisanal methods of pour-over or French press with a kettle, select the tools that are the best. In an automatic coffee brewer, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) certification and the Golden Cup Standard are two indicators of excellent quality.

Find the perfect grind to preserve freshness and quality Try to use coffee that was roasted in the last 30 days and store in an airtight container in a dark cabinet. Grind your coffee right before brewing, aiming for a medium/coarse setting — similar in consistency to ground salt — for the best results.

Maintain the proper coffee-to-water ratio Applying the same ratio of water to coffee grounds each time you brew will result in a more consistent cup of coffee. Since different roasts have different weights, using a scale to weigh your coffee is the best method.

If you don’t have a scale, measuring out your coffee in tablespoons is a good alternative. With an automatic brew method for a 5 ounce cup of coffee, follow this ratio and adjust to your taste: For 8 cups of water, use 56-72 grams of coffee (approximately 16 tablespoons ground).

Use high-quality water An average cup of coffee is over 98 percent water. Brewing with fresh, filtered water whenever possible helps minimize the scale build-up in your brewer, which will help you brew your best.

Laura Sommers, President, Bonavita

Coffee Talk: Getting to Know Award-Winning Professional Barista Cole McBride Cole McBride talks his unexpected career as a coffee expert, changing trends and the challenge misconceptions about baristas has on the industry.

Cole McBride calls himself an accidental coffee professional.

The award-winning barista didn’t intend to get into the coffee industry, but that’s what happened when he and a friend took a road trip from Nashville to Seattle in the early 2000s. The car broke down in Idaho, so they continued west on a bus.

McBride loved Seattle and got a job in a coffee shop. Even though he didn’t know it yet, his career in caffeine was underway.

“I really discovered I had a passion for hospitality and service,” says the now 34-year-old, who focused on being the best barista he could be.

He even built his own coffee lab at home. McBride began participating in national and international barista competitions. In 2018, he won the United States Barista Championship, a 15-m in u te c om pe tition wher e the barista must prepare and serve espressos and cappuccinos, as well as a personally designed signature beverage for four sensory judges.

The ultimate unifier McBride knows coffee can bring people together and enjoys connecting with his customers.

He has seen strangers become friends in a coffee bar and even attended over 20 weddings of couples who met at coffee shops.

While a cup of coffee is a small luxury, it has big rewards. “For how much happiness that $5-6 can bring a person, I think it’s a really magical thing,” he said.

Adapting to changing preferences McBride starts his day with a 16-ounce drip coffee. He also drinks espresso every day.

“I have a really fond passion for espresso; it’s just really magical,” he said. “It’s so hard to make it perfect and repeat it to make it the way I would like it to be. It’s so challenging.”

Back when he started as a barista, customers had really long, modified orders like you’d see on TV shows like “Friends” or “Frasier.”

Instead of these complicated orders, the current trend revolves around milk alternatives.

“Three years ago, everyone wanted almond milk, now they want oat milk,” said McBride.

Baristas are getting creative in designing their own signature drinks too, making a cocktail-style coffee that doesn’t contain alcohol.

One of McBride’s signature drinks is an “espresso old fashioned,” which has bitters, fresh cherries and citrus and is served over ice.

“One of the things that’s great about coffee is there are a million different styles and none of them are right or wrong,” he said.

Everyone’s order can be different.

“I’m totally OK with people having their coffee any way they like it,” McBride added.

Making a career in coffee He loves his industry, but says that one aspect is still challenging.

“I’ve been doing this for 16 years, I won the United States Barista Championship and every day someone asks me what I’m studying in school,” said McBride. “I’ve done my masters in coffee essentially and every day someone asks me what I’m going to do when I grow up.”

He says we need to start viewing these roles not as part-time jobs but as a respected career option. n Kristen Castillo

Publisher Melissa Duarte Business Developer Abe Freedberg Managing Director Luciana Olson Designers Tiffany Pryor, Celia Hazard Copy Editor Travis Atwell Director of Sales Shannon Ruggiero Director of Business Development Jourdan Snyder Director of Product Faye Godfrey Lead Editor Mina Fanous Production Manager Josh Rosman Content Strategist Vanessa Rodriguez Cover Photo Courtesy of illy All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise specified. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve San Francisco Chronicle.

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Make Your Coffee a Sustainable, Green Solution With Coffee PHOTO: COURTESY OF CLUB COFFEE

in various composting processes, as spent coffee is a highly valued input for making great soils amendments,” said Susan Thoman, managing director of the Compost Manufacturing Alliance.

There’s another benefit: With plastic pods, the hot water drips through the plastic when brewing.

But that’s not happening with compostable pods, a relief for consumers concerned about the dangers of the chemicals in heated plastic trickling into their drink.

“Single serve is not going away.

People like the convenience and personalization,” says Ackrill. “And now companies and brands are actively looking for better ways to meet that demand through consumer-friendly innovation.”

Every day two-thirds of Americans drink at least one cup of coffee. Drip coffee has been the standard but that’s changing as many consumers switch to single cup pods for their coffee fix.

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recent study by the National Coffee Association (NCA), an industry trade association, of more than 2,700 American adults shows 63 percent of coffee drinkers own a drip machine and 41 percent own a single cup machine.

Consumers like the convenience.

“With single serve, you’re consuming what you’re using and it’s the freshest, fastest,” says Solange Ackrill, vice president of marketing and corporate strategy for Club Coffee L.P., which produces

coffee pods for brands and retailers across North America such as Boyd’s and Jumping Bean.

Single serve plastic pods grew in popularity rapidly over the past decade. But there have been concerns about the waste consumers see with the pods. Last year, an estimated 56 billion coffee pods were trashed.

“A conventional single serve coffee pod is made of plastic, has a liner and is extraordinarily difficult to recycle,” says Dr. Calvin Lakhan, research scientist with Canada’s largest waste research project “The Waste Wiki Project” at York University in Toronto. “It tastes great but is not so good for the environment.”

But now there’s a greener solution: compostable single-serve coffee pods are on the market.

Sustainable sips Composting, the biological decomposition of food or plant waste, is an environmentally friendly way to dispose of coffee grinds. Composting puts valuable nutrients back into the soil. Instead of trashing the coffee pods after one-time use, consumers with access to commercial composting facilities that accept certified compostable pods can compost the entire pod.

An innovator in single serve coffee, tea and other hot beverages, Club Coffee created PurPod100™, the first single serve pod to be certified compostable in commercial facilities by the Biodegradable Products Institute and approved by the Compost Manufacturing Alliance, representing major U.S. composters.

PurPod100™ uses plant-based components, including the lid, ring, coffee and mesh. Plus, unlike plastic pods, you can smell the coffee in the pod.

Club Coffee received the 2018 Waste Wiki Environmental Leadership Award. The research group praised Club Coffee for developing “an innovative compostable solution that maximizes environmental impact at the lowest possible cost.” In addition to waste diversion impacts, it identified climate change-related benefits from the compostable pods making them an “economically and environmentally preferred option” to conventional plastic pods.

“Our network of compost facility owners appreciate that extra steps have been taken to field test the disintegration of the PurPod100™,

Better solutions “It’s exciting to see companies trying to figure out better solutions for waste,” says Rhodes Yepsen, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI).

He says while more communities need infrastructure for composting, this is a good green start.

“Consumers with access to composting facilities that accept BPI certified pods can divert those away from landfill,” says Yepsen.

“The compostable pod enables the composting of the coffee grounds, which is the really valuable part to the composter.”

Dr. Lakhan reminds consumers that “not all coffee pods are created equal,” he says. “Different flavors, different brands and each have different levels of recyclability or compostability.”

Consumers should read product labels and look for BPI’s certification logo on single-use coffee pods and check with their local composting facilities to make sure they’re compostable in their local curbside programs.

Coffee drinkers don’t have to feel guilty about the environment impact of enjoying single-serve coffee.

“It’s a wonderful way for people to enjoy a single-use product without environmental waste associated with it,” says Dr. Lakhan. n Kristen Castillo

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Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis Talks Cooking, Coffee and Making Connections PH

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: AU B R I E P

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How has your site and your social media presence helped you connect to your customers and build a brand outside of your Food Network career?

I really wanted to create a platform where I could have a direct dialogue with my audience — one that was much more casual and organic. If I cooked a great dinner for Jade and wanted to share it the next day online, Giadzy made that possible in a way that doesn’t happen with television and books. One day I hope Giadzy will be a space

Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis’ social media platform, Giadzy, is creating a fresh way for her audience to engage and connect through food. where you can shop the entire look from pantry to table in one place. A full 360 experience!

Coffee culture in many countries has a history around bringing people together and sharing quality taste and experiences.

How did your Italian roots influence your culinary style and the experience you wanted people to have from your site?

Italian culture is all about that exact idea. Food brings people together

in ways that few other things in this life can. Meals in Italy are meant to be enjoyed with company over a long period of time — finding takeout anything is very difficult in Italy! We let the ingredients speak for themselves, too. The ingredients in my recipes are simple and purposeful, and that’s what makes them so delicious!

How does your palate help you select quality ingredients that set your restaurant apart?

I like to think of my style of cooking

as Italian with a California twist. My staple ingredients for any dish are parmesan, olive oil, lemon and salt.

I think people usually think of Italian food as being very hearty, so it’s a nice change to dine at one of my restaurants where more freshness is incorporated.

When selecting what coffee to serve customers, friends, and yourself, what standards and values are most important to you?

Ah, good coffee is so important to me. When selecting the coffee for

Dos and Don’ts for the Modern Coffee Lover SPONSORED

Over 60 percent of American adults drink coffee every day. But do you really know what it takes to make a quality cup of coffee?

“You can’t make an amazing coffee experience in San Francisco without starting with an excellent coffee farm,” says Peter Giuliano,

chief research officer for Specialty Coffee Association, a nonprofit, membership-based coffee association. “From processing to roasting, there are all these steps that have to happen perfectly in order for the coffee to be elevated.” illy, a third-generation family-owned coffee company from Trieste, Italy, only sources Arabica, the highest quality coffee.

For the past 30 years, illy has worked directly with local growers to educate them on quality and sustainability.

“Our approach creates this virtuous circle,” says Mark Romano, senior vice president of education, quality and sustainability for illy caffè North America. “By investing

in the farmers, the farmers can invest in producing high quality coffee and we keep the investment throughout the supply chain, and in return coffee connoisseurs recognize the value and are willing to pay a higher price for the higher quality product.”

measurements that are critical to holistic sustainability.

“One hundred percent of the product we bring through our supply chain is audited through our certification protocols,” says Romano, noting the company’s entire supply chain is sustainable.

Sustainability Read coffee labels and you’ll see terms like fair trade and organic but Romano says those certifications don’t differentiate for quality.

That’s why illy innovated it’s own Responsible Supply Chain Process Certification which not only accounts for quality, it is comprehensive — including social, environmental and economic

Education illy started their University of Coffee in Italy to help foster and spread high quality coffee culture and to provide academic and hands-on training for coffee growers and baristas.

Coffee lovers can learn about coffee and preparing it through illy’s University of Coffee, which hosts taste experiences at illy’s

Pronto, we went through weeks of tasting sessions before finally landing on the perfect blend from Counter Culture coffee. It’s bold, slightly acidic and delicious. I’ve been trying lots of different organic coffee brands, with a few of my favs being Java Planet and Groundworks’ ‘Bitches Brew’.

What are some of your favorite ways to take your coffee?

I take my coffee only one way — black with plenty of agave.

What is one of your favorite recipes from your site that you think pairs best with an espresso?

My New-and-Improved Lemon Ricotta Cookies, of course. We serve them at Giada Vegas but I recently perfected the recipe (and made a few tweaks!) and shared on Giadzy here. n

San Francisco flagship store.

Learn how to make latte art and how to craft espresso shots and perfectly steamed milk drinks.

Caffeinated tips Avoid bins of beans. The bins get an oily buildup that can become rancid and stale.

Freshness. Once it’s opened, coffee starts losing its aroma and freshness. Use it within 7-9 days for maximum freshness.

Small batches. At home, grind small batches at every use and seal it up right away. Romano recommends making the coffee within 20-30 minutes of grinding the beans.

Barista chat. Giuliano, a former barista, recommends talking to the barista and asking questions when visiting a café. He says they’re passionate about coffee and love to share their knowledge. n Kristen Castillo

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PHOTO: JACK ARENT/GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

San Francisco Syrup Company, Torani, Is Working to Make a Positive Impact on Its Environment and Community As more businesses are leaving the Bay Area, local syrup company Torani is determined to stick around and reignite its home of the past century.

In the Bay Area, where a large share of the job market is tied to technology and startups, Torani is proud to be a homegrown beverage company that has offered a wide range of career opportunities for nearly 100 years.

At a time when more and more businesses (especially manufacturers) are uprooting their headquarters and moving out-of-state, Torani is dedicated to remaining in the Bay Area. Torani is planning for a relocation of its own just across the bridge, from South San Francisco to San Leandro.

Established in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in 1925, you could call the popular syrup and sauce company a “94-year-old startup,” having put Italian sodas on the map and introducing the world to the first flavored latte right here in our own backyard.

The company is deeply rooted in the region and committed to making a positive impact in the community and providing opportunities for its team members and partners around the world. Torani recently achieved certification as a B Corp, which is awarded to companies that strive for a positive environmental and social impact. Joining a community of businesses committed to driving a global movement based on the philosophy of using business as a force for good has helped reinforce the values the company has upheld since its humble beginnings.

Just as Torani flavors are crafted to bring out the best in your drinks, the company believes in bringing out the best in everyone.

Torani

Warriors created a custom dark roast blend called “Warriors Grounds” as a tribute to the Bay Area community.

The coffee company donates 5 percent of the proceeds from each sale (up to $10,000) to the Warriors’ Hoops for Kids program.

The Warriors have also held “barista events,” in which players serve coffee at Peet’s to connect with their community face to face.

“Whether you’re looking for your afternoon pick-me-up cup or starting your morning with your go-to coffee beverage, imagine having your coffee handed to you by your favorite Warriors player and having a moment to talk to them about the NBA season or your favorite Warriors basketball memory,” Schneider said. “It’s through this partnership, and more specifically, through the barista events, that we’re able to create a sense of community engagement through a simple gesture and a cup of coffee.”

Working as a team

Golden State Warriors and Peet’s Coffee Form Partnership to Keep the Bay Area Thriving San Francisco’s Golden State Warriors and Peet’s are combining basketball and coffee to connect with the Bay Area and provide service to the community.

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ew things can connect people like a cup of coffee. Look no further than the partnership between the San Francisco Bay Area’s Golden State Warriors and Peet’s Coffee, who have teamed up to create a custom blend which gives a portion of sales back to the community through the Warriors’ nonprofit, The Warriors Community Foundation.

“Our partnership with Peet’s Coffee has always underscored the importance of social responsibility and impact, and the way we’ve connected their coffee offerings to create and support local nonprofits is special,”

said Brandon Schneider, chief revenue officer for the Warriors.

The Warriors Community Foundation has surpassed $10 million in grant donations since its inception in 2012.

Its goals include striving for educational equity in the Bay Area, refurbishing basketball courts to encourage safe and clean play among children from low-income families and spreading the joy of basketball by offering free tickets to Warriors games through local schools and nonprofits.

Another way the team has engaged with fans while giving back is through “Warriors Wednesdays,” giving fans who sport Warriors gear at Peet’s on Wednesdays a discount on their coffee.

“Other times, we’d surprise Peet’s Coffee customers with Warriors players visiting the shop’s locations, offering fans a chance to interact with their favorite Warriors players, allowing our players a fun and engaging way to interact with Dub Nation,” Schneider added.

When the Warriors need a jolt in the morning or before a game, they turn to their partner coffee shop. This applies to both the players and staff, Schneider noted.

“Our staff is headed toward our fifth-consecutive postseason run, and every step of the way, Peet’s Coffee has been the choice beverage to fuel our staff,” he said, adding that the coffee is served in the team’s Oakland and San Francisco offices.

The Warriors believe their partnership with the chain offers a wide range of benefits.

“The way we’ve connected their coffee offerings to create and support local nonprofits is special,” said Schneider. n

A community “pick-me-up”

For its partnership with Peet’s, the

Melinda Carter