We at Sprudge are fans of Kalle Freese, from his 2013 Finnish Barista Championship win, his recent work with the newly formed Barista Guild of Europe, and from the highly fashionable Freese Coffee, the coffee company he opened in 2013 on Helsinki’s Freesenkatu. We’ve featured Freese Coffee a number of times before on Sprudge, and now we’re excited to share Freese’s latest venture: forbetter.coffee, a new online coffee education platform with a series of videos on everything from using a Moccamaster (Technivorm) or “Frespresso” to making an espresso tonic, available in English and Korean.
The first iteration of forbetter.coffee will be making it’s full launch at the Slush tech/startup conference in Helsinki on November 18th. The striking website is designed by Agent Pekka, developed by Nordkapp, with illustrations from design duo Craig & Karl. The online learning hub will launch with a series of eight videos, four of which are available today: Moccamaster, French Press, Espresso Tonic, and 5 Tips For Better Coffee.
The videos were produced by KLOK, with Freese presenting an English version and Sang Ho Park from Square Mile Coffee presenting in Korean. Freese says that they are releasing this first batch of videos for free “to find out how interested people would be in this kind of content,” but he notes that producing them professionally does cost money and that after the initial launch they plan to develop “a sustainable model to be able to grow this project.”
On releasing the videos in both English and Korean, Freese says: “we want to have coffee professionals and enthusiasts around the world inspiring and empowering others to make Better Coffee at home – in their languages. Instead of just myself presenting, we want to have a community involving everyone from farmers to roasters to baristas making their contribution.”
Mr. Freese’s coffee endeavors always seem to have a passionate philosophical cant, and forbetter.coffee is no different. He says that he hopes “to build the best service on the web to learn about coffee—everything from growing to brewing,” with the ultimate goal of getting more people to “drink Better Coffee—coffee that doesn’t just taste great—it’s also ecologically, ethically and economically better for everyone.”
It is truly boom time in coffee education, and we’re excited for the increasingly broad and accessible levels of information available to consumers and coffee pros alike. To see for yourself what forbetter.coffee hopes to bring to the field, you can find the first four forbetter.coffee videos embedded below, and check out their pretty landing page here, with the full site launching the 18th. Follow along on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more updates.
Alex Bernson is the Managing Editor at Sprudge.com. Read more Alex Bernson on Sprudge.
All imagery courtesy forbetter.coffee and Kalle Freese.