Standart Magazine #17: Scrabble, Death and Coffee

In our ‘Coffee’ chapter, we begin an exciting new series from Gwilym Davies looking at coffee myths—both true and untrue—and how they play into our conception of coffee. Implicit bias is a hot topic right now; read how far its tendrils permeate the coffee world by investigating its implications for the cupping table. Consider China as a behemoth rising specialty producer through the eyes of an insider, and, finally, sink your teeth into a statistical study of the effects of weather on coffee yields in Hawaii.

Our ‘People’ chapter, in which we explore the talented people that make up our industry, trying to get to know them beyond just coffee, is positively bursting. We travelled to London to interview Paul Ross, wholesale manager at Kiss the Hippo and 2019 UK Barista Champion, about competition, running, and Scrabble; we had our good friend and founder of This Side Up, Lennart Clerkx, write a delicately wrought and powerful piece on the moments and experiences that have informed his professional choices and business practices; an academic takes a hard look at some of the troubling representations of producers that still abound in specialty coffee marketing; and, to round out the chapter, we look at how milk was first introduced to coffee, what it meant, and what it still means.

In our ‘World’ chapter, an anthropologist reconsiders the site of her book research amidst its changing coffee culture, a writer muses on the phenomenon of origin travel after having visited Panamanian coffee farms for the first time, a coffee geek guides us through Tel-Aviv’s coffee scene, and the unique history that led to what it is today, and finally, we interview an experimental psychologist and anglican priest about the meaning of our mortality, moral quandaries, human universals, and speaking about death in coffee shops, sometimes with cupcakes.

Our official sponsor for this issue is Faema. The espresso machine manufacturer had one of their most exciting years. Read all about it in our sponsor profile piece, where we take a look back at the year that was 2019 for Faema