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The results are in—our seasonal staff beverage contest has crowned not one, but two winners this year. It’s always a favorite moment for us, when our team brings their creativity to the menu, sharing stories, memories, and flavors close to home. This time, the winning drinks come from our Columbia Business School cafe and right here at Joe HQ. Pomegranate Mocha Latte Andy, Cafe Lead at Columbia Business School Over the years, our presence on Columbia’s campus has steadily grown, welcoming students, neighbors, and visitors into our cafes. Today, we’re proud to have four cafes and a pop-up across campus. At Columbia Business School, you’ll find Andy—our cafe lead and one of this year’s beverage contest winners—with his Pomegranate Mocha Latte.  We sat down with Andy to learn more about the inspiration behind the drink and his time at Joe. How long have you worked at Joe? This September will be my third year at Joe! What’s been one of the biggest highlights during your time here? One of my biggest highlights was scoring a 100% on our Coffee Audit here at CBS. It was a true testament to how hard the team here works but also how much the baristas here care about their craft. Another big highlight for me was having some students from the graduating MBA class of 2025 leave me small notes showing appreciation for just being their barista while they were here. What was the inspiration behind the Pomegranate Mocha Latte? There are two main inspirations! The first was that pomegranate is my late grandmother's favorite fruit. One of the earliest memories I have is of me as a child sitting on her lap, eating a pomegranate while she drank a cup of coffee so I wanted to combine these two flavors!.The second was my favorite candy, Brookside Dark chocolate-covered pomegranate! I really wanted my drink to come out tasting exactly like the candy, so I was super happy with the end result! **What’s your usual go-to coffee order?**I like to start off my day with either an 8oz vanilla latte or an oat cortado! What’s your first memory of coffee? It’s really hard to pinpoint my first memory of coffee since I can’t really remember anytime I haven’t been around coffee. I can’t remember a night of my childhood where the day didn’t end with my whole family enjoying a cup of coffee together with conchas (a mexican pastry). What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? I believe the quote was “ If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you're done.”. It’s a great reminder to be to constantly working towards my goals and small consistent increments is the best way to achieve them! Miso Brown Butter Latte Jordi, VP of People & Culture If you make your way to 30th and Park Avenue South, you’ll find the heart of Joe—our HQ. We’ve recently moved a few floors up, making room for a brand-new training space we’ve lovingly named the Park Ave Lab. HQ is home to the teams that keep Joe running—wholesale, education, marketing, leadership, HR, and cafe management. Over the years, we’ve grown a lot, and our VP of People & Culture, Jordi, has been a driving force behind that growth. He’s poured his creativity into our seasonal staff beverage contest many times, but this year his Miso Brown Butter Latte truly took the spotlight. We sat down with Jordi in the office to talk about his work, his journey, and the story behind this winning drink. How long have you worked at Joe? Since June 2020. What’s been one of the biggest highlights during your time here? Being able to help build the culture of kindness, collaboration, and values-forward business we work in. Just the idea of a mandatory micro-aggression training, an ethical business council, a workshop on emotional intelligence and compassionate accountability would have all been scoffed at in previous companies i worked for. so i'm happy i found a place were those things are seen as truly valuable. That has been a proud highlight... oh and singing about our HR/Payroll system at the Joe show was quite memorable, as well. What was the inspiration behind the Miso Brown Butter Latte? To be completely honest, it was inspired by a 2 live crew song from the 1980's that sounds like 2 of the ingredients.... but also, I used to joke that we should do a Miso Ramen Latte with noodles. This has all the warmth and umami....without the carbs! What’s your usual go-to coffee order? Summer: Yuzu Espresso Spritz (I love lemonade with a shot of espresso, when I can't get to a Joe) Winter: Good ol' La Familia Guarnizo drip. I love a bright fruity light-roast. What’s your first memory of coffee? My mom used to let me drink the last sips of her coffee when I was a young kid. She added milk and sugar to her coffee so the last sips had all the undissolved sugar which made it quite the ephemeral treat! What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? My grandfather used to always say, "it could be worse!" which isn't direct advice, but it is a gratitude-forward perspective that my entire family in general has internalized. Understanding how blessed we are, even when are struggling, really keeps things in perspective.

A few years ago, we launched our seasonal beverage contest—a chance for the experts behind the bar, cafe baristas and managers, to showcase their creativity and gain firsthand experience in product development here at Joe. This contest invites them to brainstorm, develop, and compete to craft the next standout drink for our seasonal menu. The latest winner emerged from our Bryant Park cafe, a small but mighty kiosk tucked away in the southwest corner of the park on 41st Street. Crafted by barista Makenzie Sandoval, the Banana Bread Latte is a cozy creation that blends banana, praline, brown sugar, and a dash of cinnamon-nutmeg spice creating the ultimate nostalgic aroma of freshly baked banana bread—sweet, spiced, and topped with a perfect crumble. Plus, it pairs perfectly with espresso or matcha! We’re so excited to bring Makenzie’s creation to you and hope you love it as much as we do. After a recent shift at the cafe, we caught up with Makenzie to learn more about the inspiration behind the drink and what’s been happening in her life lately. JOE: Hey Makenzie! Nice to see you. How long have you worked at Joe for now? MACKENZIE: Since March 2023! J: What do you love about working at the Bryant Park cafe? M: Building connections with our regulars. I love getting to know their preferences and hearing their stories. It’s also amazing to meet people from all over the world, especially with so many tourists passing through. And, of course, being surrounded by the iconic Bryant Park adds to the fun every day. J: What was the inspiration behind the Banana Bread Latte? M: The inspiration behind the Banana Bread Latte came from countless cozy afternoons with my roommates, baking banana bread together. The aroma of the bread would fill our kitchen so I wondered how it would taste in drink form. That curiosity led to creating a latte that captures the warmth and flavor of banana bread to fill my satisfaction. J: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? M: Just go for it, even if the outcome isn’t what you expected. At least you’ll have tried, and you’ll gain experience, confidence, and valuable lessons along the way. J: That’s great advice, thanks for taking the time to chat! We’ll be sippin’ on the Banana Bread Latte all season long. Banana Bread Latte is now available for a limited time at all Joe Coffee cafes. Sign up for the Joe Coffee loyalty app and enjoy a discount on your first one!

One of our favorite parts of the changing seasons in New York is the opportunity to capture the essence of the weather in our rotating featured seasonal beverage. We get especially excited about this because all of our drinks are selected through an in-house competition, with Joeys from across our community entering their own creative conceptions. It’s a way for us to celebrate not only our city and our coffees, but also our people. The final privilege is sharing these delicious drinks with our customers. Since current circumstances are preventing us from sharing this joy with you all in person, we decided to come up with an easy to make at home seasonal drink so folks can still enjoy a pick-me-up when we all need it most. Usually our seasonal beverages are espresso based, building upon our Waverly Espresso but we decided to shift gears this season to make this drink something anyone can make at home while highlighting a coffee that is near and dear to our hearts, the Rwanda Ejo Heza. You can read more about why the Ejo Heza is special to us on the here, but the vibrant and mouthwatering flavors of stone fruit and custard with intoxicating florals make it a perfect fit for welcoming springtime in the city. In our Bright Tomorrow Iced Coffee we pair flash brewed iced coffee with a cardamom-rose syrup to complement the fragrance and complexity, and just a splash of lime juice to boost the vibrancy. All of this is shaken together to give the drink a silky mouthfeel and served with a twist because we all deserve a treat right now. Bright Tomorrow Iced CoffeeIngredients: 6oz flash brewed Rwanda Ejo Heza* ¾ oz cardamom-rose syrup (see note) ¼ oz lime juice Lime peel, for garnish Directions: Add iced coffee, cardamom-rose syrup and lime juice to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 15 seconds. Double strain over fresh ice into a collins glass or your favorite drinkware. For an effervescent touch, top with seltzer water. Express a lime peel and garnish with a twist * See our Flash Brewed Iced Coffee Recipe here (makes approximately 17 oz)Note: Cardamom-Rose SyrupIngredients: 1 cup raw sugar 1 cup water 5g whole green cardamom pods 5g dried rose petals Directions: Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan and set it over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Gently crush the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle. Once the simple syrup is nearing a boil, add the cardamom and rose buds, reduce the heat and cover. Let the mixture simmer gently for 15 minutes. Strain the syrup and let cool before storing in the fridge.

Over the past few years cold brew has emerged as one of the most popular ways to drink cold coffee, and rightly so as cold brew offers a unique flavor profile that highlights the bass-ier tones of a coffee, shining a light on chocolate and caramel flavors alongside an emphasized body and moderated acidity. However for coffee drinkers looking for a brighter, more aromatic profile a method called "flash brew" is a great option, and one that is easy to make at home. Flash brewing essentially involves brewing a strong cup of hot coffee and diluting it with ice, which rapidly drops the temperature (flash chills) and brings the strength into balance. This kind of approach isn’t necessarily new, restaurants and diners have been icing old pots of hot coffee for tomorrow's iced forever, but the key differentiator in a flash brew recipe is the built in dilution, ensuring the final result is not only cold but delicious. We typically recommend starting with a 1:16 brew ratio for hot filter coffee as this produces a sweet and balanced cup, but diluting this further with ice would drop the strength too low, and the sensations of sweetness, complexity and freshness would all be lost. In order to retain as much of the origin flavor as possible, our flash brew recipe calls for a significantly stronger brew ratio in tandem with a finer grind and extended bloom to achieve a proper extraction and high strength so the dilution won’t negatively impact the final cup. The finished brew is made with a ratio between 1:14 and 1:15, but only 60% of our water weight is actually used to brew the coffee with the remaining 40% coming from the ice added at the end. This means we’re brewing below a 1:10 ratio prior to dilution! This recipe can be scaled up to produce larger batches, though we strongly recommend making it fresh the day you plan on enjoying it, but there’s a bit less wiggle room in scaling down. Since only 60% of the water weight is being used in the brew, contact time (how long the water and grounds are mixed together in the brewing process) is at a bit of a premium. If the brew becomes too small, you’ll need to use too fine of a grind which can contribute muddy and bitter flavors. Finally, while our recipe is designed to use the Kalita Wave, flash brewed iced coffee can be made with a variety of methods, including other pour over devices like the Chemex, an automatic drip machine or even immersion methods like the French Press or Aeropress by replacing roughly 40% of the brew water with ice and adjusting the dose and grind. Happy brewing! Flash Brewed Kalita WaveYou’ll need: Kalita Wave 185 brewer, filter & decanter 35g of coffee, ground finely 300g of water, 208° F 200g ice Scale Timer Spoon Weigh 35g of coffee and grind on a fine setting similar to table salt. Set up the Kalita Wave, filter, and vessel on the scale. Heat water in the kettle to 208° Fahrenheit. Gently pour hot water into the center of the empty filter. Continue pouring in a spiral outwards to wet the entire filter. Be careful not to pour too hard as the filter can collapse. Empty the water from the vessel, place back onto the scale, and tare to zero. Add the coffee to the Kalita Wave with the vessel on the scale, ensuring that you add 35g of ground coffee, and tare to zero. Start the timer and add 70g of water to the bed of coffee quickly, in about 5 seconds. Stir the bloom with a spoon a few times ensuring all of the grounds have been saturated and mixed. Let the coffee bloom for one minute. When the timer reads 1:00, start pouring in the center and spiral out in concentric circles with a strong flow. It's okay to pour onto the filter walls if grounds are clinging to the paper. Continue pouring until the scale reads 150. This should take roughly 10 seconds. Let the slurry drain for roughly 10 seconds, or by about half an inch. When the timer reads 1:20 quickly add another 50g of water to raise the level again and bring the total brew weight to 200. This should take roughly 10 seconds. Let the slurry drain for roughly 10 seconds, or by about half an inch. When the timer reads 1:40 quickly add another 50g of water to raise the level again and bring the total brew weight to 250. This should take roughly 10 seconds. Let the slurry drain for roughly 10 seconds, or by about half an inch. When the timer reads 2:00 quickly add the final 50g of water to raise the level again and bring the total brew weight to 300. This should take roughly 10 seconds. Let the slurry drain completely. This should take between 45 seconds and 1 minute. When the slurry has drained completely, remove the brewer from the decanter and tare the scale so that it reads zero. Add 200g of ice to the decanter and stir to incorporate. Flash brewed iced coffee is ready to drink as is or over fresh ice. Enjoy!