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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on April 25, 2009 at 10:30pm

While I offer loose leaf Rooibus and Vanila Rooibus as part of my tea selections I have not and highly doubt will ever put tea in my portafilters. I own a coffeehouse that also offers a good seledtion of teas not a teahouse. Yet if I had a dozen or two people a day request redespresso I never say never from a business standpoint. But I'm not about to get and promote the stuff saying to regulars, hey try this redespresso instead of my main espresso blend, or SO espresso, or guest espreso blend... Somehow calling a pressure extracted root (not even really tea to tea purists) espresso (red or otherwise) just doesn't sit well with my place in the cosmic order. Must be part of chaos theory kicking in:-)

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on April 26, 2009 at 5:25am

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

While I offer loose leaf Rooibus and Vanila Rooibus as part of my tea selections I have not and highly doubt will ever put tea in my portafilters. I own a coffeehouse that also offers a good seledtion of teas not a teahouse. Yet if I had a dozen or two people a day request redespresso I never say never from a business standpoint. But I'm not about to get and promote the stuff saying to regulars, hey try this redespresso instead of my main espresso blend, or SO espresso, or guest espreso blend... Somehow calling a pressure extracted root (not even really tea to tea purists) espresso (red or otherwise) just doesn't sit well with my place in the cosmic order. Must be part of chaos theory kicking in:-)

Alright, now Mike this is something I cringe at (referring to the half-calf thread). But usually if you explain to customers that you have to clean the machine and portafilters after you run tea through to get the flavor off of the group and out of the portafilter and that it's a huge PITA then they understand. But yeah... no "Russian Tea" in our shop, although we do have about 35 different whole leaf teas in house (herbal or otherwise), I say let's brew it in the tea-ware. Just seems logical to me; you buy tea ware, you brew tea in the tea-ware. The same way I don't drink coffee out of a cuia with a bombilla, I'm not running tea through my PF.

-bry

-bry

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Permalink Reply by Brendon Parsons on April 26, 2009 at 9:48am

I watched the videos of the product when it first won best new product at the 2007? SCAA. Not sure how that works...Anyways, looks gross, and it is seriously wrong to call it espresso...

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on April 26, 2009 at 11:41am

Mike, Brian, Brendon, were on the same page here. I'm not buying a dedicated spro machine for this. Call me old fashioned or what ever. If you want tea lets sit down and enjoy some brewed tea English style, or with some class. You know what I mean. I know very little more than what I have read here on redespresso. Like you say mike not in "cosmic" order. I'm sure this would taint my karma as well. In stead of explaining anything I think I will try and share this new "fad" with the shop down the street. Heck I may even suggest they start selling it so I can focus on coffee people.
Speaking of coffee I forgot to have some this am....
Cheers,
Joe

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Permalink Reply by ray peck on April 26, 2009 at 11:55am

Starbucks has already set a tone for tea lattes. I am impressed with redespresso, geared toward the tea drinker. I do get the thinking of those that responded. I just had a flash!! Redespresso could be very complimentory for those coffee drinkers that are starving for something in the afternoon, but not coffee. Apparently redespresso provides, at some cost, a specialized portafilter that assists to get the shot.

I am thinking it would not compete with coffee because people that want coffee, want coffee. Redespresso would be catered to the sissies. joking here of course. Still thinking but leaning toward giving it a shot. If I do, I will let you know how it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on April 26, 2009 at 12:22pm

Ray,
interesting business deduction. I will watch for your posts.
JoeR

ray peck said:

Starbucks has already set a tone for tea lattes. I am impressed with redespresso, geared toward the tea drinker. I do get the thinking of those that responded. I just had a flash!! Redespresso could be very complimentory for those coffee drinkers that are starving for something in the afternoon, but not coffee. Apparently redespresso provides, at some cost, a specialized portafilter that assists to get the shot.

I am thinking it would not compete with coffee because people that want coffee, want coffee. Redespresso would be catered to the sissies. joking here of course. Still thinking but leaning toward giving it a shot. If I do, I will let you know how it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Kerkhof on April 26, 2009 at 7:16pm

I looked into this, but with the patent they have, they force you to buy their product and put it on your menu with their trademark. All they did was do a coarse grind on some rooibos and poke fewer holes in a portafilter basket.

You have to get approval too, send them menus, add their logo, etc. What a pain.

And as mentioned above, is it really worth it? We already make a few tea lattes with rooibos and they are wonderful. Why I would need to make a concentrated shot, increase the amount of milk (and cost), I don't think it's necessary.

It's a nice experimental idea, but you'd probably want to take a complete approach to tea espresso shots in general. I heard from someone that herbal teas and black teas work (high temp), but you don't want to mess with anything else because of incorrect extraction problems. I can't even imagine how you could get a good extraction on certain teas with that pressure...?

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Permalink Reply by ray peck on April 27, 2009 at 7:36pm

All the input is good. Appreciate it. I do have questions and waiting to hear back from redespresso. I do view an opportunity to build a "brand" and be unique in my market area. I would venture to say if redespresso were to be everywhere, most independent stores would want it. Customers demand, you know.

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