Down in Bend, Oregon, between all the bike-powered pubs and breweries, oft-lauded Oregon Spirit Distillers is constantly busy doing what they do best—messing around with interesting combinations of botanicals. In One-Eyed Jon, they’ve used their talents to craft a...
Sandwiched with Rwanda between Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo lies the Republic of Burundi, a small ex-Belgian colony whose economic livelihood depends on coffee more than the remainder of its industries combined. One of the four poorest nations...
The new kid on Portland’s Distillery Row block, Wild Roots Vodka has staked its claim with two berry vodkas that “strive to embody the true essence of the Northwest.” The most specifically true-to-Oregon of these is Wild Roots’ Oregon Marionberry Vodka. With more...
What’s in a coffee shop name? In researching this particular list, I found several common tropes. For one thing, the world of coffee shop names has lots of extraneous ‘z’s. There were the good (Ugly Mug has a great ring to it, and made the list), the bad and the...
“No one else on the market that we’re aware of has a product quite like it,” says Brian Anderson of Whistling Andy Distilling. The Bigfork, Montana operation produces its one-of-a-kind Hopshnop once a year and stocks it only while supplies last. Coaxed from barrels...
While much of Central and South America are shipping coffee at present, the majority of Latin American coffee producing countries enjoy their peak shipping season during spring, with some (especially Central and Northern South American countries’ seasons) carrying...
I know. I can’t believe it’s New Year’s, either. I could have sworn I only just wrote my wrap-up of 2013. But so much has happened in coffee since then that it must have been a full year—it just took looking back at the last 12 months to realize it. Here are a few...
While anise spirits including absinthe have been experiencing an upswing in popularity over the last few years, others, like ouzo, have been next to neglected. Still, Dry County Distillery’s ouzo-style Black Rope Anise has done more than well for itself, garnering...
“Come in! Make yourself comfortable.” Chef Caprial (ka-PREEL) Pence stops our conversation for a moment to welcome a man who’s just stepped in off busy First Avenue in downtown Seattle. He smiles, relaxes and removes his coat to sit down. Yet even if the words...
For all its countless contributions to American and international coffee culture over the course of the last half-century, Seattle has only spawned one signature coffee drink. The Caffè Medici was invented by Irv Cisski, owner of now defunct The Last Exit on...
