Tag: Caffeine

Categories
Dining Living

A look at Kusmi Tea’s flagship store in Westfield World Trade Center

Kusmi Tea
Kusmi Tea
Kusmi Tea in Westfield World Trade Center

Ever since I took my first sip of Kusmi tea, I was hooked. I usually resorted to ordering on Amazon, but can now walk right on over to their 800-square-foot space at Westfield, which they recently opened on the cusp of their 150-year anniversary. With 53 boutiques in France and 23 additional international boutiques, this latest opening marks a significant moment for the brand’s presence in the United States.

Located within the Oculus, the store’s design was conceived by Christopher Jenner, whose firm has also collaborated on designs for luxury brands including Liberty London, diptyque Paris, L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris. The aesthetic references the brand’s Franco-Russian heritage through a baroque and modern lens, including a central tasting station that brings a sense of ritual to the Kusmi experience.

Raphael Camp, the company’s COO, spoke with Downtown about the decision to open up shop downtown and what sets Kusmi apart from the David’s Teas and Teavanas of the city.

What made you decide to open your flagship store at Westfield?

Raphael Camp: The revival of Lower Manhattan represents both a memorial site and a business district. Westfield World Trade Center is the perfect expression of this dynamism, and Kusmi Tea naturally found its place in this visionary upscale new mall that attracts visitors from all around the world.

Does the location hold any significant meaning for you, personally?

RC: To me, the Twin Towers symbolized the grandeur of New York. On September 11, 2001, my mom was on a business trip to New York and personally witnessed their destruction. This memory is very emotional. Today, I don’t live far from the new World Trade Center myself and am proud to participate in the revival of the area.

What sets Kusmi’s tea apart from other teas?

RC: Kusmi Tea is one of a kind. It is a brand with a heritage of 150 years. The teahouse was founded in St. Petersburg in 1867, and since then, Kusmi Tea has carried the same exclusive tea recipes — like Prince Vladimir and Anastasia — that were created at the end of the 19th century. Classic teas like Karavan recall times when tea pharmacy online was originally imported from China to Russia via camel caravan. However, Kusmi Tea is also a modern teahouse that has adapted to contemporary tastes by creating wellness blends like the Detox line.

Some foreign tea shops have had to shut down their New York City flagship stores, stating that the “tea-culture” in New York City is different than in Europe…

RC: The Anglo-Saxons have always been great drinkers of tea. It is true that Americans belatedly appreciated high-end loose-leaf tea, but things are changing, especially in New York City.

Categories
Dining Featured

Sam Lewontin talks Krups, Everyman Espresso, and all things coffee to Downtown

Sam Lewontin

 

Sam Lewontin
Sam Lewontin

Sam Lewontin isn’t just any barista. In addition to coming up with inventive new coffee recipes for his patrons, overseeing two coffee shops on downtown’s east side, and adjusting to life in Fort Greene after hailing from the coffee capital of the world — Seattle — he has the titles of North American Brand Ambassador for Krups, and the General Manager of Everyman Espresso to live up to. Downtown caught up with him between cups to get the scoop on what’s brewing.

How did you get into the barista business?

Sam Lewontin: In Seattle, low-rent barista gigs are the jobs that teenagers take in order to convince themselves that they’re not working in fast food. I worked a number of such jobs to pay my way through college, and when I finished my degree, I figured I’d use those years of experience to land myself one last coffee job while I decided what I actually wanted to do with my life. After a couple of pretty revelatory cups of coffee, I knew I was in the coffee business for good.

What are some of the coffee “trends” you’ve seen lately, and where?

SL: We’re seeing more and more drinks, in various forms, using coffee to provide flavors beyond “just coffee,” and showcasing it in contexts beyond traditional milk-based drinks, like coffee lemonade. Many of these drinks draw inspiration from the world of craft cocktails, incorporating ingredients like bitters or fresh juices to complement the inherent flavors of the coffees around which they’re built. Beyond this, I see more and more people understanding and engaging with the differences between different coffees, the coffee’s origin, its variety, and how it’s processed and roasted affect how it tastes.

 

Sam Lewontin
Sam Lewontin

Do you think the days of a “plain old cuppa joe” are numbered?

SL: Traditionally, people think of coffee as being essentially “coffee-flavored,” and of milk and classic baking flavors, chocolate, vanilla, nuts, and so on as the only appropriate complements to it. There’s a whole world of amazing coffee flavor beyond these preconceptions, though, and a whole world’s worth of ways to build drinks around those flavors. I love opening people’s eyes to these possibilities; it’s why I do what I do, both with Krups and in my shops.

What is your favorite little known fact about coffee that people often find surprising?

SL: This is certainly better known now than it once was, but the coffee “bean” is the seed of a fruit. The same factors that affect the quality of fruit — ripeness, freshness, and growing season, for example — that affect the quality of coffee.

Ditto on being a barista…

SL: Ooh! This is a tricky one. There’s a broadly-held assumption that barista is a transitional job, that we’ll all wind up doing something different eventually. For the best baristas, though, coffee is a career as broad, deep, and varied as any, and more so than most. Many of us have actively chosen this over other paths that might have been more lucrative, but are less fulfilling. We work in coffee because we love coffee.

 

Sam Lewontin
Sam Lewontin

Have any coffee trends surfaced lately that you’d advice people avoid?

SL: Bulletproof coffee, and by extension, butter coffee in general, is both a scam — from a health perspective — and pretty disgusting. Don’t do it!

Any tips for perking up our coffee at home?

SL: First, use fresh coffee! Coffee remains good for about two weeks after it’s roasted, so buy only as much as you’ll need for that timeframe, and be sure to buy coffee with the date on which it was roasted printed on the bag. Freezing or refrigerating coffee damages it, so store your coffee as you would tea, spices, flour, or sugar: in an air-tight container, in a cool, dry, dark place.

Second, grind your coffee as close to brewing it as possible! Ground coffee goes stale in a matter of minutes, so a good burr grinder — burr grinders grind more consistently than blade grinders, giving you better and more consistent coffee — is the best investment you can make in making your coffee at home tastier.

Third, use filtered water! Water makes up over 98% of your cup of coffee, so better water means better coffee!

Categories
Culture Events

The New York Coffee Festival Returns From Sept. 16 to 18; Founder Jeffrey Young Talks To Downtown

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This September, the New York Coffee Festival is back for its second run in the city. After a successful launch last year, founder Jeffrey Young is excited to be back and share the art of coffee with thirsty New Yorkers.

From Sept. 16 to 18 — three glorious days of coffee heaven — the 69th Regiment Armory will once again transform into a mecca devoted to all things coffee. This means tastings of different roasts, learning how to make the perfect cup of java (using the right coffee maker), food to keep you going, and so much more.

For entertainment you’ll also find The Coffee Music Project, a music competition for emerging musicians sharing a passion for making great music and coffee culture, as well as Coffee Masters New York, where 16 carefully chosen contenders from around the world meet to compete in fast-paced challenges such as “The Brewing” and “The Signature Drink.”

Downtown caught up with founder Jeffrey Young to hear his thoughts on last year’s festival and what to expect this year.

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Jeffrey Young / Photo courtesy of Gcrmag.com

Coming back for your second year, what’s new for this year’s festival?

Jeffrey Young: We will have more than 30 new vendors, a new Latte Art Live showcase and we hope to double the attendance this year to more than 12,000 visitors.

Lookout also for Bailey’s coffee cocktail experience, also the 75th anniversary of Chemex, Exquisite Brazilian coffees from Ally Coffee, plus so many more.

Looking at last year’s event — it being the launch of the New York Coffee Festival — what is something that went over better than you’d expected?

JY: The community feels that we observed and the fact that an event like this for coffee had never been created before in New York City. The genuine surprise from the vendors and visitors that this was much better than they imagined, a multi-sensory experience. Also, the free coffee for all visitors once they enter, it allows visitors to taste and explore coffees from all around the world.

And that’s something that you’d have liked to have done differently?

JY: More time and also a larger venue, plus creating greater awareness of the wonderful lab educational seminars that are free to the audience. We are also spending more time this year in further improving the aesthetics of the event.

What did you take with you from last year’s festival when planning this year’s festival?

JY: Working closely with the vendors behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the logistics pre-event so that we can focus more on the outstanding delivery of visitor experience.

Staying on that topic, what is one of your favorite moments from last year’s launch?

JY: Seeing the whole thing come to life and the enjoyment and surprise that guests experienced by being at the event. From The Coffee Music Project — music stage — to the Coffee Masters competition, the Coffee Cocktail Espresso Martini Bar, plus all the tastings at the various booths, especially the long lines at Devocion for their Colombian cold brew potion and Bluestone Lane’s latte art throwdown and too many more to mention and La Marzocco’s guest barista demonstrations.

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What do you hope the trade professionals take away from the festival?

JY: That this is an exciting industry, rapidly-growing with much more growth to come. There is so much room for those who innovate and for those who strive to be the best. Today’s consumers want quality.

What is one of the workshops you’re most excited to have on this year’s program – and why?

JY: The science of water for great coffee by Everpure will be fascinating, as will be the history of coffee shops in New York by Meister from café imports.

How do you choose which coffee and/or equipment vendors partake in the Festival?

JY: We have more demand for booths than we can cater for so only those who we see as genuine innovators who have something special to offer will be selected to take part.

And how do you choose the bands for the Festival?

JY: The Coffee Music Project, which will have preliminary access at Pianos and finals at Webster Hall, provides a very exciting array of talented singer-songwriters from New York City and around the U.S.

When you had to decide the venue, how did you find the place?

JY: The 69th Regiment Armory was a natural choice because it has the right non-corporate feel for such a large central Manhattan event venue. The only downside is that it’s almost not big enough to host all the vendors we would like to add.

The London Coffee Festival 2015 The London Coffee Festival 2015

What’s different from the New York festival compared to London and Amsterdam? What makes New York — and Downtown Manhattan, in general –- such a great place to host a coffee festival?

JY: New York has an energy that no other city in the world can match. It’s also the most caffeinated city on the planet so a great starting point for a festival. We try to adapt the model to the local market. Hence local New York roasters feature prominently as do cold brew, iced lattes, and matcha.

When all is said and done with this year’s festival, what do you hope the guests take away from it this year?

JY: That this is a local community event made for the tens of thousands of coffee lovers in this great city. Come and celebrate the beverage that inspires us to do what we do in our daily lives while also giving back to a great cause of clean water. Together, we can have a lot of fun and make a difference. The world is a better place because of coffee and coffee shops.

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Read more about the New York Coffee Festival on their website, and see how to get tickets, event times and more. If this doesn’t have you jonesing for a cup of joe right now, we don’t know what will!