Equipment
In May, our team flew to Kansas City for an extremely fun and celebratory event... one of our favorite Midwest coffee shops was hosting Kansas City’s AANHPI festival!
When the plane landed among idyllic clear blue skies, our team headed straight to Café Cà Phê - Kansas City’s first Vietnamese coffee shop. Started by Jackie Nguyen, Café Cà Phê is a first-generation woman-owned business on a mission to amplify the AANHPI narrative in the Midwest through the medium of Vietnamese Coffee - one cup of “hella good” coffee at a time.
Rancilio first partnered with the cafe for 2023’s AAPI festival, “AAPICONIC,” and we are proud to have maintained a relationship with a small and local business that is so rooted in their mission for community. At Rancilio, we strongly believe that coffee has the ability to bring people together, and Café Cà Phê is a powerful example of this philosophy in action.
For their third-year hosting Kansas City's AANHPI festival, they chose the theme "identity - celebrating what makes us, us." Nearly 3,000 people registered for a day of celebrating culture, identity, and community!
This year, AANHP-IDENTITY was held at CPKC Stadium, the first woman’s professional sports stadium in the world! Yes, you read that right. Upon entering, attendees were greeted with the amazing smell of various food vendors, rows of small business artisans, a stage of entertainment, and a huge line waiting for what Café Cà Phê is known for best: their delicious coffee.
At the coffee booth were two custom colored Rancilio Specialty Invictas in Fuchsia and Cerulean, as well as a line-up of Homeline espresso machines and grinders - Silvia Pro Xs and Stiles. Each booth was brewing up their one-of-a-kind drink specials, using Vietnamese coffee roasted by Nguyen Coffee Supply and inspired flavor combos provided by Chagaccino and Torani.
The festival is a true labor of love and it was amazing to watch the team at Café Cà Phê come together and put their whole hearts into this day of celebration. Overall, the event was truly amazing! The KC Current stadium was full of energy, excitement, and a lot of caffeine!
Once the festival was underway, our team headed to Café Cà Phê's brick and mortar location for a small surprise: installing a brand-new espresso machine. The team at Café Cà Phê were ready for an upgrade in equipment, and we were thrilled they chose a Rancilio.
The Rancilio Specialty RS1 was designed to empower baristas to unlock their coffee's full potential and craft espresso that shines. The machine is fully customizable and programmable, utilizing innovative technology that provides baristas with full control over extraction metrics like time, volume, pressure, and even starting and ending brew temperature.
It was no surprise that the machine looked so great in its new home! The red in the Rancilio logo really popped against the vibrant cafe environment.
The day after the festival, we were able to answer barista questions and help them dial in their espresso to perfection. Café Cà Phê uses Vietnamese coffee roasted by Nguyen Coffee Supply. With their espresso blend being a combination of robusta and arabica beans, the RS1’s precise temperature profiling abilities could really shine!
Madoka, a long-time employee at the cafe, messaged a few weeks after installation saying: “I LOVE the machine, and the fact our espresso tastes so much better. The crema is so creamy! I can taste the difference.”
Learn More about the RS1
On our final day, we stopped by for a final goodbye and one last drink at Café Cà Phê. Their flagship store is nestled in the Columbus Park neighborhood, down the street from a lush park and in between a sweet bakery and an amazing BBQ spot. From a few blocks away, you can see their amazing and vibrant mural painted on the side of their building – with the word coffee written in bold beckoning you in.
Their cafe vibe is welcoming and bright, a warm and vibrant environment that simultaneously energizes and relaxes. Their front window reads “Putting the Culture in Coffee Culture.” The space is filled with artistic murals, colorful merch, framed press articles, comfy couches, and a cafe full of people enjoying community and coffee.
We asked the barista, Eri, for their drink recommendations and got two of their most popular drinks: the “Hella Good” latte and the “Chè Ba Màu.” Their Hella Good latte is from their Specialty Drink menu, and is made with ube syrup, oat milk, espresso, and a condensed milk drizzle. The Chè Ba Màu is from their “Year of the Dragon” menu and based off a popular Vietnamese dessert featuring pandan, white chocolate, condensed milk, coconut milk, and topped off with red beans and sesame seeds.
The drinks were delicious and the perfect way to say goodbye (for now) to our friends at Café Cà Phê and KC as we headed to the airport.
We had a great time with the team at Café Cà Phê, celebrating AANHPI voices and identity. It’s amazing to see what the power of community can do, and how coffee spaces can bring people together under a shared mission and values.
Until next time!
