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                                                                                                                                                                             Photo /LINO Espresso and Saucer Stone, notNeutral
                                      A CUP





                          OF DESIGN








                                      W           hat makes a good cup of coffee?

                                                  Well-roasted  beans,  excellent
                                                  brewing skills, beautiful latte
                                                  art… Yet, there’s still one import-
                                     ant element that hasn’t been fully valued yet —— the
                                     coffee cup. When it comes to wine, people always
                                     care about the glass just as they do about the origin                                              A Desire of the Coffee Cup Design     oration further led to a bigger collaboration with
                                                                                                                                                                              The Coffee Collective, a Copenhagen-based
                                     or the brand. No matter if it is a Riedel or Spiegelau
                                     wine glass, or even a champagne glass, the right                                                       “We knew that the coffee community cares   specialty coffee shop.
                                     glass will maximize the taste of different types of                                                so much about the origin, roast, and brew meth-  It is not difficult to see  that  coffee  cup
                                     grape. Coffee, which has a complex flavor wheel                                                    od, so we thought it would be a shame not to put   design has recently become a serious matter for
                                     just like wines, also deserves a cup that is just right.                                           equal importance on the actual method of con-  more coffee brands and shops. Magdalena, the
                                                                                                                                        suming the beverage,” said Mark Vecchiarelli,   ceramist of the MK Studio, told us: “Yes, defi-
                                                                                                                                        chief marketing officer for KRUVE. KRUVE is   nitely in the past five years, there are a lot more
                                                                                                                                        one of the pioneers in the coffee cup design   specialty coffee bars who are pursuing perfec-
                                                                                                                                        industry. The company’s EQ Glassware with its   tion. To do that, they want something different
                                                                                                                                        special design to ‘harmonize all your senses’   and special that will define their style and max-
                                                                                                                                        when drinking coffee won the 2019 Best New   imize the drinking experience.”
                                                                                                                                        Product from the Specialty Coffee Association.   With the third-wave coffee booming around
                                                                                                                                        Surely KRUVE is not the only company in the   the world, people nowadays require high-quality
                                                                                                                                        industry that dedicates itself to coffee cup design.   coffee. That is to say, people want coffee where
                                                                                                                                        Founded in 2001, and as part of the architecture   “beans are sourced from farms instead of countries,
                                                                                                                                        design company Rios Clementi Hale Studios,   roasting is about bringing out rather than inciner-
                                                                                                                                        notNeutral completed its first coffee cup design   ating the unique characteristics of each bean, and
                                                                                                                                        project with the American coffee brand Intelli-  the flavor is clean and hard and pure” as described
                                                                                                                                        gentsia Coffee to help the coffee company create   by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan
                                                                                                                                        a family of coffee cups for their new shop in   Gold. To meet that requirement, single-origin
                                                                                                                                        Venice, CA, USA. Now, notNeutral has developed   beans can now be easily ordered online. Profes-
                                                                                                                                        a range of fine coffee cup collections, such as   sional roasters are accessible worldwide. After all,
                                                                                                                                        LINO and FINA which have been recommended   to better present and enjoy coffee, we still need a
                                                                                                                                        by Forbes and many other media.       well-designed coffee cup.
                                                                                                                                            Nevertheless, the business of coffee cup   “We were in the right place at the right
                                                                                                                                        design doesn’t only stay inside the design sectors.   time. Collaborating with Intelligentsia baristas,
                                                                                                                                        Ceramists and artists have stepped in as well. For   we were able to provide something to the third-
                                                                                                                                        example, MK Studio which specializes in ceram-  wave coffee market that simply didn’t exist yet.
                                                                                                                                        ic vessels first designed and produced coffee cups   Customers and brands began to realize that up-
                                                                                                                                        for coffee professional Mikaela Gervard in 2016.   dating the vessels we drink and brew coffee from
                                                                                                                                        Gervard eventually took out 2nd place at the   can be improved and/or reinvented,” explained
                                                                                                                                        World Barista Championship that year with the   Clancy Pearson, senior designer for product and
             Photo / Propel Espresso Glass, KRUVE
                                                                                                                                        MK Studio’s customized coffee cup. The collab-  technologies for notNeutral and RCH Studios.
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