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Photo by Brian Addison. Above: the interior of Recreational Coffee in DTLB. 

I’ve long touted about Long Beach’s coffee roasting scene—it’s pretty much unlike any other. On top of that, we have amazing coffeeshop after amazing coffeeshop after, well, amazing coffeeshop.

So it makes sense that DTLB staple and all-round local fave Recreational Coffee will not only be representing Long Beach in America’s Best Espresso competition at Portland’s massive Coffee Fest but comes back with a double-whammy by scoring a nomination at the Good Food Awards for their Nicaragua La Bastilla.

Of course, owner Bobby Hernandez will be as humble as possible about the accomplishment.

“I’m super stoked to have an opportunity to showcase Recreational Coffee and Long Beach coffee in general to a larger platform,” Hernandez said. “We’re always looking to get our coffee out there and show people how much we love what we do and the care and effort we put into the whole chain of coffee making: from green coffee selection and relationships built in that process, to roasting, to brewing, to the service…”

America’s Best Espresso competition is no joke: it brings in some of the most respected coffee roasters from around the nation, honing in with the best espresso pullers, and tries to hone in on an culinary art form that, up until the turn of the century, was widely relegated to Europe.

When it comes to the Good Food Awards, this is where taste meets social awareness. The awards look for restaurants, roasters, brewers, cheese makers, and more that not only make spectacular items for the gastronomical world but also help the world create food more sustainably and less invasively. Bobby and Crew will be submitting their natural processed Nicaragua La Bastilla bean—a coffee that Bobby described as a “fruit bomb,” with tropical citruses, cherries, and a cocoa aftertaste. (They’re serving it so go have at it—it’s wonderful.)

“We’re just excited to keep doing what we do: push the envelope, keep innovating, and keep making coffee that we love and share it with our amazing customers,” Hernandez said. “And to now be able to share that on a larger platform with these competitions, we’re even more excited to show people what’s up in Long Beach.”

Well, we’re excited, too.