Coffee Bean Issue 24 www.coffee-magazine.co.uk in this issue... Raleigh’s Slingshot Editor: Jay Cee Coffee Star Wars Coffee [email protected] Table Sensation co-pilot has been Design: The Coffee Bean Team suspended for drinking [email protected] coffee www.coffee-magazine.co.uk Coffee-drinking parrot Contributors: car crash Briancee - Poet Editorial Well it’s time once again for to astronauts on the Coffee Bean - we are now on International Space Station. issue 24. Not really much to tell Some fun things and you really - just Sales of serious things co Pilot gets fairtrade-certified products suspended for drinking dropped in 2014. Specialty coffee whilst flying also a buyers think they can coffee drinking parot causes do a better job sourcing a car crash you can’t blame products independently. the coffee Well that’s it for now and I Star Wars coffee table causes will tell you a little more in a stare in the coffee world. issue 25. A specially designed Ta Ta coffee machine that works The ED in space to be delivered From Across The Pond Investment of $400,000 Sets up Raleigh’s Slingshot Coffee for a Continued Growth Pattern A tremendous achievement for business, including production, current home. “We wanted a first-time competitor — or sales, marketing and new product to be somewhere near the for any competitor, really — development. “Pray, tell?” we asked neighborhood where I lived. I Jenny Bonchak recently placed of the latter, but Bonchak says she want the business to continue to second in the US Brewers Cup is currently “not quite ready to let be part of a community.” in Long Beach, Calif., behind the cat out of the bag.” champion Sarah Anderson Slingshot also opened a limited- of Intelligentsia and in front Slingshot’s core products hours retail component, of 2014 U.S. champion Todd currently include a ready-to- called Weekend, with outdoor Goldsworthy of Klatch Coffee. drink bottled cold brew, a seating, tapped cold brews and This was at a time when bottled cold brew concentrate hot coffee pourovers. Slingshot’s a large percentage of her and, most recently a cascara pattern thus far has been step- professional energy was largely tea. Bonchak sources her coffee by-step growth in fairly rapid focused elsewhere, in Raleigh, from Durham-based Counter succession, and Bonchak says the N.C., where her cold brew Culture, where her husband company may yet outgrow its business Slingshot Coffee was in Jonathan Bonchak has worked existing space, although she’d like the middle of a $400,000 for four years. (Both Bonchaks to stay there for as long as possible investment round with multiple have now stood on the figurative and further develop the Weekend firms. “I’ve been busy,” Bonchak Brewers Cup podium). Jenny component this Spring. Bonchak takes an innovative said on the heels of her Brewers “I have always had a lot of faith Cup success. approach in the bottled cold brew segment, pushing coffee in what this is — making a really good product,” says Bonchak. The funding was initiated through quality to the forefront. Slingshot even offers a seasonal brew, “I’ve certainly had ideas about a somewhat-chance meeting with ‘I would love to be at X sort John Replogle, the President and using single-origin coffees from Counter Culture. of place by X sort of time,’ but CEO of Seventh Generation Inc., there is a lot more focus just on and former President and CEO While Slingshot’s products are doing what is really good, and on of Burt’s Bees. Replogle got a hold now in stores in at least 11 being calculated about how we’re of Slingshot Coffee through a states, its beginnings three years growing as a brand. mutual friend of Bonchak’s, tasted ago were modest. Bonchak the product, requested a meeting, was brewing and bottling in a and the two hit it off. small kitchen space after hours. She would go in at 11 p.m., work “He’s been an amazing partner to through the night, go to her day have,” says Bonchak, who has also job, get a few brief minutes of secured investments from two shut-eye and do it all over again. separate private equity firms that she declined to name. “He believes As production grew, the one- so much in what we’re doing and person operation moved into he believes in the entrepreneurial an approximately 150-square- spirit. It’s not just a monetary foot space inside a Raleigh bike support he’s bringing, it’s a different shop owned by friends. In June kind of support he offers, and I’m 2014, feeling further production really grateful for it.” growth Bonchak moved yet again, into a 1,000-square-foot With the investment round dedicated space. nearly finalized, Bonchak says she intends to add staff and “We were very picky about ramp up all aspects of the where we wanted to be,” Bonchak says of Slingshot’s Sales of fairtrade-certified products dropped in 2014. Specialty buyers think they can do a better job sourcing products independently. For the first time ever, Fairtrade assess the coffee’s quality before comparison) producer in the International saw its UK sales fall by committing to buying specific developed world. The playing field nearly 4 percent in 2014. This is a amounts, if any at all. “For us the is not level between producers in significant drop for an organization main thing is quality, and we’re rich and poor countries – from that has been a forerunner in ethical prepared to pay for quality.” basic school education, access to shopping for the past two decades. training, markets, and credit to Shoppers are less interested in Breton chef Olivier Roellinger the ability to invest sufficiently to looking for the Fairtrade logo than told the Guardian that he strives meet international standards. they are wanting to save the extra to treat his providers of spices dollars or support alternative the same as all his producers, Fairtrade doesn’t promise sourcing methods. paying a fair price when they have to save the world, nor will high quality spices to sell and it lift farmers out of poverty Fairtrade International’s trusting them to manage good on its own, but I don’t think ubiquitous logo is found on a and bad years on their own. people should be so quick to variety of products including brush it aside. Fairtrade used chocolate, coffee, tea, sugar, “The Fairtrade scheme is kind in conjunction with direct cotton, bananas, and flowers. It of neo-imperialistic,” Roellinger trade could be a potentially is meant to be an easy way for says. “Can you imagine what powerful force, rather than consumers to recognize that a British farmers would say if their rival trade models, and there’s product has been purchased fairly American customers came to no reason why the best and from its original producer. But, them and said, ‘Well, I’m only highest quality products can’t as its critics point out, Fairtrade going to trade with you guys if be Fairtrade. does not meet everyone’s needs. you get together and I can buy from all of you at the same time.’” As Harriet Lamb, CEO of Fairtrade Direct trade is seen as an International explains, “If a company appealing alternative, in which While Shannon and Roellinger knows of a group producing at buyers deal directly with make legitimate points, I think a particular high quality, they can producers, minus the Fairtrade they miss the point of Fairtrade. always support them to become “middlemen” and farmers’ Fairtrade strives to do exactly Fairtrade certified.” cooperatives, and, in some what these two buyers wish cases, pay much more for a to avoid – protect small-scale Related on TreeHugger.com: high-quality product than the farmers in years of great need and Fairtrade-mandated minimum. poor harvest by providing them Why we buy organic and The Fairtrade system, according with a secure source of income, Fairtrade: feelings matter. to some buyers, compromises support from a cooperative, quality because it sets prices a and community benefits. Would Coffee lovers, do you know the year in advance, without knowing Roellinger simply abandon his difference between direct trade what the quality of the next producers during those years and Fairtrade? harvest will be. when they don’t have high quality spices to sell? Most can’t fall back It’s not fair to bash Fairtrade “Fairtrade coffee is essentially on crop insurance or social welfare futures coffee,” Richard Shannon assistance to make ends meet. of Workshop Coffee in London tells the Guardian. Specialty It’s naïve to treat these farmers roasters want to be able to the same as a wealthy (by www.coffee-magazine.co.uk Star wars Coffee Table Sensation “Star Wars” fan Ray Choi is dying Baker. Along with his talented gift he’ll treasure forever. to try out his new Han Solo team of artists, he builds amazing Baker starts off with a pre-made coffin coffee table tributes to movies and video coffin he then disassembles games for superfans nominated and modifies it so it can really Turns out you don’t have to by friends and family. be used to sleep in, as well as be Jabba the Hutt to get your utilized as a coffee table. Baker own life-size Han Solo trapped Baker and his crew in a recent also re-sculpts the face of Han in carbonite. On this week’s episode built a Han Solo Solo to look more like the super episode of the DIY webseries in carbonite coffin coffee fan who gets the coffin table.