Amy Scattergood

Coffee at Cafecito Organico

If coffee is your preferred source of caffeine, then you may have come across the term "sustainable" in some form or another on a package label. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sustainability is both a principle and a set of precepts for a productive co-existence between humans and the environment. Last night's "From the Ground Up: Sustainable Coffee Culture" ALOUD panel at the Central Library provided a more concrete sense of what this means in Los Angeles and beyond.

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Flickr/iain

What is it about coffee shops that seem so conducive to getting work done? Is it all that caffeine? Maybe the social aspect of actually having to face other human beings, instead of blogging in your pajamas until two in the morning? Maybe it's just the noise.

Coffitivity is a new beta service that seems to think you might work a little harder from home if you just had some of that ambient coffee shop sound surrounding you. You know; the opening of doors, the clanking of mugs and pots, the general buzz of half-heard chatter. According to the three-person team behind the emerging site Coffitivity.com, all of those bits of aural clutter combine to make you more alert, more focused, and more responsible when it comes to managing your own time.

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T. Nguyen

Cognoscenti Coffee's Jonathen Liu prepares for the Southwest Regional Barista Competition

Starting today and going through the weekend, over 30 baristas -- including a good number from Los Angeles -- will be in Santa Cruz to compete in the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Southwest Regional Barista Competition. This would be one of six such regional competitions; the top 6 from each region automatically move on to compete in the U.S. Barista Championship in Boston next month. The winner of this national competition then represents the United States in what generally is considered the Olympics of the coffee world, the World Barista Championship. To date, only one American has won the WBC: Handsome Coffee Roasters's Michael Phillips, in 2010.

As a spectator sport, the barista competition falls somewhere between a spelling bee and a Top Chef Quickfire challenge: Maybe not as stressful as watching a 14-year-old trying to spell guetapens, but not as frenzied as a reality cooking show, either.

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T. Nguyen

Latte from Tierra Mia

Because surely you could use a horchata frappe on a warm winter day: Tierra Mia Coffee, the specalty coffee shop and roastery that started in South Gate, is expanding into Echo Park. It will take over Echo Lake Coffee Company's space, so if driving up Alvarado towards the 2 freeway and/or Taco Zone is part of your commute, you can look forward to a new caffeine pit stop in the very near future.

This will be Tierra Mia's second cafe in L.A. proper; the first opened in Downtown just seven months ago.

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R.E.~/Flickr

Coffee at Handsome Coffee Roasters

Oh, how good times fly: Handsome Coffee Roasters is turning one year young, and to celebrate, the shop will be pouring free coffees today from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. So maybe take a detour on your way to work this morning, or go on a long coffee break this afternoon. It'll be worth it.

The party doesn't end today, though.

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T. Nguyen

Cappuccino at Caffe Vita

It took about a year and a half of construction and cutting through the red tape, but Caffé Vita finally opened last week in Silver Lake, right next to Rudy's Barbershop. Founded in Seattle in 1995, Caffé Vita is one of the most prominent independent coffee shops in the Pacific Northwest; the Silver Lake location is the cafe's first outpost in California.

Founder Mike McConnell and partner Bob Prince say that they were drawn to L.A. partly because of the neighborhood: It reminds them a bit of Capitol Hill area of Seattle where their flagship shop is located. Seattle transplants to L.A., meanwhile, are no doubt pretty happy that a part of their hometown has followed them down south.

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Photo: Cafecito Organico

Cafecito Organico in Burbank

It's not too often that a locally-owned, independent coffee roaster manages to take over a space formerly inhabited by a giant corporate franchise, but such was the case when L.A.-based Cafecito Organico opened up its sixth Southern California location Thursday in what used to be a Starbucks in Burbank.

Located on the ground level of ABC Family's emerald-colored tower on Alameda St., the new Cafecito Organico inevitably lacks the mom-and-pop charm of their more neighborhood-y locations in Silver Lake, Malibu and East Hollywood, but the brand's signature skeleton imagery and "Hecho a mano" window decals painted by artist Julio Turuno help make it feel less like a Starbucks and more like the beloved, community-drive coffee chain that it really is.

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Photo: Jennifer Swann

Cafeina Galeria from its alleyway entrance on Sunset Blvd.

"This is the story of a cappuccino," says John Ownes, the owner -- as well as the barista -- behind the Spaziale Vivaldi espresso machine at Cafeina Galeria, the new Silver Lake coffee shop that Ownes insists isn't really a coffee shop. "We're a gallery with one bitchin' espresso machine," he says, referring to the small coffee counter and adjacent patio that you might miss if you didn't turn down a narrow alley on a stretch of Sunset Blvd. occupied almost exclusively by auto repair shops.

Once you've figured out how to find the place -- a sandwich board on the sidewalk helps draw in foot traffic, mostly from European tourists with a built-in radar for outdoor patios -- you'll also find an apothecary and a vintage clothing shop. Together, the three mom-and-pop shops are marketing themselves under the name Stopping Station.

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The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Free coffee

Half a century ago, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf graced us with their first location in Brentwood. Today, with over 900 stores across 25 countries, the company shop is the oldest coffee and tea retailer in the United States. They're celebrating their 50th birthday on Wednesday, Jan. 30 and the drinks are on them all day long.

Patrons get a free 16-ounce cup of the company's Anniversary Blend coffee or tea. Note that the promotion is only available at locations in California and Arizona.

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jgarbee

Jiva Coffee Cubes

Sooner or later, a modern marriage of the current artisan and coffee crazes was inevitable. Still, when that box of Jiva coffee cubes landed on our desk, we found the idea of 'artisan' instant coffee highly entertaining (it was a long day). And, to be fair, our Folgers times have changed. Starbucks introduced its line of instant coffee packets a few years ago, and refill pods for the (almost instant) espresso machines long been popular in Europe now line Smart & Final shelves.

With Jiva, the beans are fair trade Colombian Arabica, the sugar is not just any sugar, but panela (raw, unrefined cane sugar). The two are pressed together into a compact rectangle; each looks like a tiny relative of Mexican chocolate with its flecks of caramel-colored sugar amidst the dark coffee. As these are instant tablets, they're individually wrapped so you can pop one in your pocket for those unexpected caffeine-free moments: A spur of the moment camping trip, the untimely visit to a friend's mountainside retreat when everyone is on a juice cleanse, that sailing trip around the world, or at least to Catalina Island, that you've always wanted to take. So, how do they taste?

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