Are you a coffee addict with a penchant for travel? Then you’ve come to the right place! From one-of-a-kind coffee academy in Brazil and elegant Italian coffee bars to Colombia’s innovative coffee themed-park, here are some of the most fascinating holiday destinations that need to be on your bucket list:

Vienna, Austria:

Austria’s capital is as renowned for its coffeehouse culture as it is for its historic monuments. Thanks to numerous coffee houses that dot the city, Vienna was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. From traditional coffee houses like Café Schwarzenberg, which was established in the 19th century, to progressive, third wave cafés such as Fürth Kaffee, Vienna offers something for every coffee connoisseur. The most popular vintage Viennese coffee shops include Café Central and Café Prückel. But if you like all things contemporary, hit up cafés like Sassmünd Kaffeebar, Zweitbester and Waldemar. Oh, and if you fancy enjoying brunch in the company of furry felines then Das Augustine is the place to go! The best time to visit Austria is from April to May and September to October.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam:

Coffee was introduced to Vietnam by French colonialists in the 19th century. According to Topdeck Travel, Vietnamese-style coffee often includes added ingredients like egg yolk and yogurt to make the beverage more flavorful. Traditionally, the rich drink is served in a glass with sweetened condensed milk at the bottom. Shin Coffee in old Saigon is one of the best places to sample Vietnamese specialty coffee. The Coffee Ship is yet another must-visit stop for coffee enthusiasts. Housed in a boat that floats on the Kenh Te Canal, it’s hands down one of the trendiest coffee shops in the city. Meanwhile, if you dig the idea of sipping coffee in the warm embrace of nature, you cannot go wrong with Du Mien Garden Coffee. Other popular cafés in Ho Chi Minh City include Yoko Café, The Workshop Specialty Coffee and The Snap Café. For an ideal vacay in Vietnam, plan your trip between January and March.

Milan, Italy:

Among Italy’s famous culinary contributions are some of the finest coffee beverages including espresso, cappuccino, macchiato and caffè d’orzo. Moreover, it’s the Italian capital’s coffee culture that inspired former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz. Some of the most notable cafés in Milan are Orsonero, Marchesi, Taglio, Caffé Napoli and Moleskine Café. The city also boasts of a variety of lavish al Bancos or coffee bars such as Pavé, Bar Luce and Caffè Baglioni. The best time to visit Italy is in May. Or, in September and October, if you’d like to avoid high tourist footfall.

São Paulo, Brazil:

Brazil has been the world’s largest producer of coffee for the past 150 years. Particularly known for its Arabica and Robusta coffee, the Latin American country is one of the best destinations for coffee buffs. São Paulo is home to an array of coffee shops and roasters. From traditional gems like Sofá Café, Café Floresta and The Little Coffee Shop to contemporary cafés like Beluga and Octavio. And if you take your coffee very seriously, a visit to Coffee Lab is a must. The innovative café doubles as a microbrewery and coffee academy. Visitors can sample different kinds of Brazilian coffee, choosing from a vast selection of beans and brewing methods. Meanwhile, for a great farm to cup experience, Isso é Caffè is the place to go. Located near São Paulo Museum of Art, the brewery serves coffee made with dark roasted beans in a small glass tumbler known as cafezinho. Summer and spring is the best time for a Brazilian getaway.
Istanbul, Turkey: Strong, sweet and black as night, that’s Turkish coffee for you. The full-bodied beverage is prepared with finely ground, unfiltered coffee. It’s served in traditional porcelain cups known as fincan. With its plethora of coffee shops, Istanbul is a dream destination for avid coffee lovers. For an authentic Turkish coffee experience, check out Pierre Loti Café and Fazil Bey’s Turkish Coffee House. If you’d like to explore more trendy establishments, visit The House Café, Java Studio Istanbul and Midpoint Café. And if you prefer your cuppa joe accompanied by a stunning view, look no further than Galata Konak Café. The best time to visit Istanbul is between September and early November.
Jakarta, Indonesia: Coffee is an integral part of the Indonesian lifestyle. The South-Asian country is known for its exceptional coffee varieties, including Java, Sumatran, Toraja and Gayo coffee. More adventurous coffee aficionados might also want to try its Kopi Luwak or civet coffee which also happens to be the most expensive coffee in the world. Jakarta boasts of a rich coffee culture. The bustling capital city is dotted with coffee shops that will please every kind of coffee lover. For those looking for a cozy spot to get their caffeine fix, Lucky Cat Coffee and Kitchen will fit the bill. And if you like all things vintage, Trafique Coffee and Bakoel Koffie should be on your checklist. Meanwhile, if you’re in the mood for some exquisite specialty brews, check out cafés like Anomali and Coffee Grounds. Alternatively, for an immersive cultural experience, enjoy a glass of herb-infused coffee at one of the streetside stalls called warung kopi. If you’re planning a trip to Jakarta, the best time to go is from July to October.
Seattle, Washington, USA: Home to world’s first Starbucks located in Pike Place Market, Seattle is a perfect place for coffee snobs. Fancy elegant indie cafés? Try Elm Coffee Roasters, Lighthouse Roasters, Analog Coffee or Victrola Coffee Roasters. If Instagrammable latte art is your thing, check out Moore Coffee Shop on the 2nd Avenue. Hit up Milstead & Co, if you’d like to sample hard-to-find caffeine treats in a cosmopolitan setting. For fans of traditional establishments with an old-world charm, Café Allegro and Seattle Coffee Works’ Express Bar are highly recommended. Best time for a visit to the rainy city is in late June or between September and October.
Other must-visit destinations include Cuba, Portugal, Finland and Colombia – home to the National Coffee Park – a theme-park complete with attractions like a coffee garden, coffee museum and cable car.

So, where would you head for a caffeine-packed getaway? Let me know in the comments below!

I’ve been a digital journalist and writer for the past four years, primarily covering lifestyle and wellness. After completing my post graduation in International Journalism, I worked as a Features Writer at Cosmopolitan India where I wrote extensively on pop culture, society, and everything lifestyle. I’ve also contributed to The News Hub, Zee News, Business for People and Planet and OneWorld South Asia, among other publications. Other than that, I’m an avid reader and enjoyer of quality procedurals. When not penning articles or chasing deadlines, I like to travel, bake, dabble in poetry, and make DIY craft projects.

source: http://www.forbes.com / Forbes / Home> Lifestyle / by Nomah Nazih, contributor / October 28th, 2018

Rwanda has made strides in being competitive in the global market, producing quality cash crop.

It only came as a surprise to many who have not followed the growth of Rwandan coffee over the years.

Rwanda’s efforts to produce one of the best quality in the coffee sector has indeed paid off. Rwanda’s coffee has now scooped two awards in the 3rd annual Ernesto Illy International Coffee Awards that took place on October.

Ngororero Coffee Washing Station bagged a brace of prestigious accolades including “Best of the Best” and “Coffee Lover’s Choice” awards, marking a historical milestone. No coffee from any part of the world has ever picked up both awards, which was an achievement that will go down into the history books. Indeed the strategies to make the world’s best coffee bore fruits.

In its bid to be competitive in the international market, Rwanda has made a series of changes in the coffee sector, to ensure high-quality production of the cash crop. Last year, the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) implemented new approaches that ranked the country’s export among the best, globally.

Based on the beans’ aromatic richness, complexity, balance, elegance and aroma intensity, and strength, a jury of coffee experts in New York, USA considered Rwanda’s coffee as “Best of the Best.” The exposure was vital for the country to learn more about the global market and areas to improve to be at the top of the log.

Bagging the two awards this year, Rwanda edged top producers of coffee in the world including Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, and Nicaragua. The country eased past both South American and East Asian countries that as well are potential competitors in producing top-notch quality coffee.

llycaffè S.p.A. an Italian coffee roasting company that specializes in the production of espresso announced Rwanda’s coffee milestone in the gala. The company that was founded by Francesco Illy in 1933 is a global leader in high-quality coffee, passionate about perfection.

Rwanda made its official debut at exporting roasted coffee to the USA in 2017, a ten-tonne consignment with the first shipment valued at U$77,000. The business partnership opened up other investment opportunities for the Rwanda coffee to expand its market and increase its share of export revenue. It also boosts trade in the agriculture sector between the U.S and Rwanda, furthering the partnership between America and Africa.

Rwanda seeks to export at least 24, 500 tonnes of quality coffee in a year, 1,500 tonnes more than 2017 and 2,500 tonnes more than 2016. As part of NAEB’s strategies to produce quantity and quality coffee, they aim at planting 34,000 new coffee trees by the year 2024.

Global prices should increase the export receipts given that the country sells quality cash crop. Rwanda’s total coffee export revenue rose to $59.8 million in the first 11 months of 2017, up from $53.8 million earned over the same period in 2016, registering a growth in value of 11.1 percent or $6 million.

source: http://www.exchange.co.tz / Exchange / Home> Industry & Trade> Agribusiness / by John Green / October 18th, 2018

Perhaps because I’m writing this as I sit in a vibrant, quirky coffee shop in Washington Heights, its walls decorated with graffiti-inspired art and fake ivy, it strikes me that whenever I arrive in a new city, I make a beeline for the nearest independent coffee house. But it wasn’t until I read Shachar Pinsker’s new book, “A Rich Brew: How the Café Created Modern Jewish Culture” (NYU Press), that I learned that Jews and coffee shops have been connected for at least a century; Jews, especially Jewish writers, he argues, have made the café their primary gathering place and, in many cases, their collective muse. (Read The Jewish Week’s review on the book here.)

Pinsker, who teaches Hebrew literature at the University of Michigan, chronicles the history of cafés in six cities (Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv), showing that major Jewish journalists, novelists, poets and playwrights, from Sholem Aleichem to Isaac Bashevis Singer, were not just inspired by coffee shops but frequently used them as the settings for their work.

Jews have a long history with coffee. While coffee houses first sprang up in Constantinople, Cairo and other Middle Eastern cities during the mid-sixteenth century, it was a Jewish entrepreneur who brought the coffee house to Europe, opening one in Livorno in 1632. The first café in England was opened in 1651 in Oxford by one “Jacob the Jew,” who was an immigrant from Lebanon.

As coffee drinking became popular throughout Europe, according to the late Robert Liberles in “Jews Welcome Coffee: Tradition and Innovation in Early Modern Germany,” engagements between Jewish couples were sealed by the parents over a cup of coffee rather than a drink at the local tavern. David Liss’ 2003 historical novel, “The Coffee Trader,” centers on a 17th-century Jewish refugee from the Portuguese Inquisition who tries to corner the market on coffee only to be caught up in all kinds of commercial and romantic entanglements.

The kinds of food served in cafés also often had a Jewish connection; think of the Viennese Jewish pastry maker Franz Sacher and his famous creation, Sacher Torte, or Stephen Klein, also from Vienna, a Jewish chocolatier who escaped to America in 1939 and started Barton’s Candy Corp.

Donald Schoenholt is the president of Gillies Coffee Company, the oldest coffee maker in the country. The business, which was started in 1840 by a Scottish family, was taken over by Donald’s uncle, Mac, in 1912. I first met Donald in the late 1980s, when I joined the Little Neck Jewish Center, which he served as president. It was the era of the yuppies; Starbucks (acquired in 1987 by Howard Schultz, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn) was just emerging on the scene and “specialty coffees” were all the rage. As Schoenholt put it, “People were starting to eat brie instead of Velveeta,” and they needed a more upscale coffee to go with their meals.

Schoenholt told me that Jewish merchants participated in the American coffee trade since the 18th century, and that, “with each wave of Jewish immigration, more Jews were drawn to it.” While New York was the center for manufacturing coffee, he said, the major port for the importation of coffee was New Orleans, where Jewish merchants like Jacob Aron traded in both coffee and gold. By the 1880s, Philip Wechsler, an immigrant from Austria who became a major donor to the United Jewish Appeal, had opened a coffee-roasting factory in New York. William Black (né Schwartz), who started by selling shelled nuts under a stairway in Times Square, founded the chain of luncheonettes known as Chock Full o’ Nuts. And Samuel Schonbrunn, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, created the Savarin brand of coffee, which was served at the Waldorf Astoria.

In our time, coffee shops loom large in pop culture — think of Monk’s Café, where the characters on “Seinfeld” hang out in almost every episode, sitting in a booth near the front door. (The exterior shots were taken, of course, at Tom’s Restaurant, an actual diner at Broadway and 112th.) Ruth Cohen (that’s her real name), the cashier, appears in more episodes than any other character besides the stars. Jerry Seinfeld went on to create and host the web series “Comedians in Cars Having Coffee,” now in its 10th season; it has featured Mel Brooks, Bob Einstein and Sarah Silverman.

And who could forget “Diner,” Barry Levinson’s semi-autobiographical 1982 valentine to his hometown of Baltimore; the film is about a group of 20-something Jewish friends in the 1950s who made the local diner their gathering spot.

Even non-Jews associate coffee with the Chosen People. As a sign outside a church in Harveys Lake, Pa. (in the Poconos) asked last summer, “How does Moses make coffee? Hebrews it.”

Ted Merwin’s column appears the fourth week of the month

source: http://www.jewishweek.timesofisrael.com / Times of Israel / Home> The New York Jewish Week / by Ted Merwin / October 23rd, 2018