Good Vodka is distilled using coffee fruit that might otherwise be discarded or converted to fertilizer. Photo by Tristan Willey, courtesy of Good Vodka.
New York State-based startup Good Liquorworks is the latest beverage industry player to transform the byproduct of coffee fruit into a new product altogether.
The startup has just launched its flagship Good Vodka, a clear spirit made from alcohol derived from sugars in coffee cherry, the fruity layer around the coffee bean that is often discarded or turned into fertilizer during the post-harvest phase of coffee production where coffee is grown and milled.
Good Liquorworks Co-Founders Tristan Willey and Mark Byrne met roughly a decade ago as distillers at Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, New York. From there, Byrne moved on to become an editor at GQ Magazine and then worked as a consultant on brand development projects in the liquor industry, while Willey’s path led to the opening and operation of cocktail bars.
Forth and Nomad in Houston’s Greater Heights neighborhood presents an intersection of inspirational wares, including apparel for adults and babies, home goods, furniture and other sundries. Adding to the mix is the new Coffee Bar at Forth and Nomad, designed to provide some creative fuel for wanderers within these eclectic retail environs.
Forth and Nomad Owners Andy and Morgan Sommer, who opened the 4,000-square-foot shop in 2017, opened the coffee bar for to-go drinks last October along one side of the building.
“We stock the store with new products and emerging brands, so it’s got something for everyone,” Andy Sommer recently told Daily Coffee News. “The Coffee Bar has taken on the same concept; we want to create a lasting experience for our customers.”
Solar panels atop the new Combs’ Coffee Roastery in Gainesville, Texas. All images courtesy of Combs’ Coffee.
An unlikely specialty coffee complex has emerged in the small city of Gainesville, Texas. Combs’ Coffee has converted an 8,500-square-foot Coca-Cola bottling plant into a fully solar powered coffee and cacao roastery, quality control and training facility, and green coffee repository.
Combs and partners are also now the owners of the entire 5-acre lot on which the building stands, including some 60,000 square feet of building space. Straight north of Dallas off I-35 near the Oklahoma border, the site also includes an original 19th-century power plant, ice house, creamery, flour mill and scale house.
Inside the new Charlie Foster’s coffee shop in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo by Rocket City Digital, courtesy of Charlie Foster’s.
A cheery coffee shop in West Huntsville, Alabama, called Charlie Foster’s is serving as an inspirational counter its location’s exploitative industrial past. Bursting with pinks, reds and cream colors, the shop is serving well-crafted coffee drinks, while providing training and employment for people with special needs.
Roughly half of the 18-person staff at Charlie Foster’s is composed of people of special needs, a model Charlie Foster’s Co-Owner Austin Jenkins pursued in keeping with the spirit of the Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center, the arts education nonprofit founded by his parents Alan and Debra Jenkins.
The North Stands is a collaborative nonprofit created in March 2020 to deliver stipends to service industry workers who have lost wages due to COVID-19. All images courtesy of the Minnesota Roasted consortium.
Nine coffee roasting companies from throughout the Land of 10,000 Lakes have formed Minnesota Roasted, a collaborative fundraising effort to support the regional service industry.
Each of the nine companies is applying its own approach to a single green Colombian specialty coffee and then donating 100% of proceeds from that roast to The North Stands, a nonprofit that was created last March to deliver stipends for hospitality workers who have lost wages due to the COVID-19-pandemic.