Greetings, Neighbor!
As you have probably noticed, specialty
coffee in the United States is undergoing a Renaissance. The Pacific
Northwest has long been at the forefront of the coffee industry in the
United States, pushing the envelope both in terms of technology and
quality. The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have recently
emerged as a national powerhouse, turning out large numbers of high
quality baristi and roasters. Even here in the Northeast, New York
City's specialty coffee scene has grown by leaps and bounds in the last
five years.
In each of these locations, the existence of a supportive community surrounding specialty coffee was
key to the burgeoning success of the local cafes and roasteries. I
write to you today to suggest that we would do well to take steps
toward cultivating a community of our own, right here in Providence,
with the twin goals of advancing the level of coffee excellence in our
fair city and providing a culture of support and inclusion across the
board.
In pursuit of these goals, Todd Mackey of New Harvest
Roasters and myself have, after many discussions over perhaps too many
shots of espresso, decided to create the Providence Coffee Society. We
envision the Providence Coffee Society to be a group which meets
monthly in a casual but intentional manner, aiming to support our
collective efforts to improve the coffee community in Providence.
We
would like to invite you to join us in our inaugural meeting, to help
outline the goals and ideals of the Coffee Society, and to meet your
fellow Coffee Geeks. If we work together, we have nowhere to go but up.
The first meeting of the Providence Coffee Society will be held in New
Harvest's coffee lab in the Hope Artiste Village, room 704, on Tuesday
February 9th from 7:00PM to 8:30PM.
If you
will be in attendance or if you would like to be kept abreast of future
meetings, please send us an email at
Providence.Coffee.Society@gmail.com .
I hope to see you soon!
Simon A. Ouderkirk
Coffee Manager, Seven Stars Bakery