All Posts - Blog - Barista Exchange

How much should coffee shops charge for soy milk?

Posted by Melissa Allison on December 31, 2009 at 8:31am

I'd be interested to know what you charge and what you think. Here's the Coffee City post.

Still in a buying mood? Surreal coffee T-shirt on sale today only

Posted by Melissa Allison on December 29, 2009 at 8:19am

... plus sales on old and new La Marzocco espresso machines.Here's the link.

hotels , car rentals, and grinders... oh my

Posted by kirk knipmeyer on December 29, 2009 at 5:30am

With less than two weeks to go until the South Centra lBarista competition and there is still alot to do . let's start with the basics.My name is Kirk Knipmeyer and I've been a barista for the past 6 years. After Katrina I started working for Coffee Roasters of New Orleans: barista trainer, technician, and most recently sales. I'm also a member and founder of a little group called the Society of New Orleans Baristas. Now you got the backstory. So as said above still alot to do. Need to find a place to lay the head, most likely the Sheraton, but hey were open to suggestions..... Oh yeah I'm also handlin' the logistics for the rest of the S.N.O.B. krewe( Anderson, Drew, Jeramy , Greg and rumors of some Kentucky action). So being just a ragtag bunch of baristi, we're trying to keep it on the cheap. With car rentals( ooohh yeah.. CAR RENTALS) , burr changes and enough ice chests to keep milk cold for an 8 hour trip, still a bunch to do * ............... So, I'll hollaI would have rather said said beaucoup stuff , but i thought it may have been a little much

The next step

Posted by Bj Davis on December 28, 2009 at 1:49am

Here we are thinking about the next step.This location proves to be a hindrance to our collective ideals about coffee and its possibilities.We hope to find ourselves in an area of appreciation for flavor and of local offerings. We have found a location that may be able to support us as individuals set in making a new wave of coffee appreciation in Indianapolis.Wish us luck in finding the funding to do this, and pray we are able to remain friends as well as business associates!

SPAIN - Homologation of Judges - sensorial and technical ones

Posted by Birgit on December 27, 2009 at 8:31pm

On January the 15th SCAE SPAIN will organize a course to homologate sensorial and technical judges for the SCAE Championships of Spain.This course will take place at our facilities in Castelldefels / Barcelona free of charge and we're proud to collaborate with SCAE Spain in this important task. Without judges the championships could not take place.For any information about this course, please get in touch with secretaria@scae.es

Regional and National Barista Championships of Spain

Posted by Birgit on December 27, 2009 at 8:27pm

We're pleased to inform about the datas of the regional and national Barista Championships of Spain:10th of February 2010 - Regional Championship in Foz26th of February 2010 - Regional Championship in Murcia30th of April 2010 - Regional Championship in ZaragozaThe Spanish National Barista Championship will take place in Zaragoza on the 01st of May 2010. As you all know, the Champ will be the representative of Spain at the World Barista Championship in London.For any information about the championships you can get in touch with SCAE SPAIN - secretaria@scae.es

Christmas coffees, me and my yum...

Posted by Mike McGinness on December 25, 2009 at 9:05am

Crema flowing, pa yum pum yum pumEsmeralda Gesha, pa yum pum yum pumChristmas Eve Americanos, pa yum pum yum pumSipped with Muppets Christmas Carol, pa yum pum yum pumyum pum yum pum, yum pum yum pumWe so savor them, pa yum pum yum pum,When we come.Morning beanies, pa yum pum yum pumKenya Kirinyaga, pa yum pum yum pumFew gifts in the stockings, pa yum pum yum pumYet Americano a marveling, pa yum pum yum pumyum pum yum pum, yum pum yum pumOh we savor them, pa yum pum yum pum,Together we come.Debi and Bryan sit yonder, pa yum pum yum pumGifts unwrapping, pa yum pum yum pumScarce yet loving, pa yum pum yum pumBreakfast smells cooking, pa yum pum yum pumyum pum yum pum, yum pum yum pumShall I pull for you, pa yum pum yum pum,More yum to come.Charlie Brown Christmas, pa yum pum yum pumBreakfast repast over, pa yum pum yum pumBricoletta working, pa yum pum yum pumEsmeralda straight shots! pa yum pum yum pumyum pum yum pum, yum pum yum pumThe Coffee Gods smiled at me, pa Yum pum Yum pumMe and my Yum.

What is specialty coffee? Do you know?

Posted by Spyridon Gkinnis on December 24, 2009 at 4:13pm

What is specialty coffee? Do you know?Specialty Coffeeby Ric RhinehartIn a 1998 article for the Specialty Coffee Chronicle Don Holly wrote the following as he grappled with the question of defining specialty coffee: “My understanding of the origin of the term ‘specialty coffee’ is that it was first coined by Erna Knutsen, of Knutsen Coffee Ltd., in a speech to the delegates of an international coffee conference in Montreuil, France, in 1978. In essence, the concept was quite simple: special geographic microclimates produce beans with unique flavor profiles, which she referred to as ‘specialty coffees.’ Underlying this idea of coffee appellations was the fundamental premise that specialty coffee beans would always be well prepared, freshly roasted, and properly brewed. This was the craft of the specialty coffee industry that had been slowly evolving during the twenty-year period preceding her speech. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) continues to define specialty in this context.” This reference was the basis from which we have built the case for specialty coffee over the history of our organization.On closer inspection it becomes clear that the unique chain of custody of coffee dramatically impacts the ways in which we can recognize, develop and promote the specialty product. Unlike wine, the beverage we often use as analogous to coffee, there are typically many actors involved in the control of production and delivery of the final beverage. In the wine model, a single individual or company might well be responsible for the planting, husbandry, harvesting, initial processing, further processing and packaging of the grapes and ultimately the resulting beverage. Moreover, the service of wine is dependent on nothing more complex than extracting a cork and pouring the product into a suitable glass. Coffee, on the other hand, most often arrives in the final consumers hand after a long series of baton hand offs from farmer to miller to intermediaries to roaster to brewer, and the final experience is dependent on no single actor in the chain dropping the baton. Thus, in order to truly look at what specialty coffee is, we must examine the roles that each plays and create a definition for specialty at each stage of the game.The first key concept here and through the supply chain, is potential. Until the moment that the roasted coffee is brewed and transformed into a beverage, the concept of specialty coffee is locked up as a possibility, just a potentially wonderful gustatory experience. Starting at ground level, so to speak, we must limit specialty coffee to those that are drawn from the appropriate intersection of cultivar, microclimate, soil chemistry and husbandry. Plant a great variety of coffee at the wrong altitude or in the wrong soil and no specialty product can be produced or get the right combination of cultivar and chemistry, but the wrong climate and the potential for quality is destroyed. Ultimately, plant husbandry is essential to the preservation of potential.The next key concept is preservation. A ripe coffee cherry on a healthy plant of suitable ancestry planted in the right soil, blessed with appropriate climatic conditions and cared for properly must be picked at the peak of ripeness in order to preserve the potential for greatness that it holds. Coffee buyers often tell coffee growers that the single most impactful thing that they can do for coffee quality is to harvest only ripe cherry.From the point of harvest a new round of pitfalls arises. The coffee cherry must undergo some initial processing at this point. For the majority of specialty coffee this begins with the delivery of the ripe cherry to a wet mill of some type, large or small. The time that elapses between harvest and the beginning of processing can have a dramatic impact on the final results for the coffee. Specialty coffee is dependent on a quick delivery from the tree to the mill for potential to be preserved.Whether the coffee is mechanically pulped and then fully washed or if it is processed in a demucilaging machine, the initial processing stage must be carefully managed so that the coffee is not harmed. After removal of the skin and pulp, the coffee must be dried, another critical activity. Dried too quickly or too slowly, dried unevenly, dried and then rewetted, not dried sufficiently – all of these can be disastrous to the final quality of the coffee. From here the coffee must be rested before undergoing the last stages of raw processing and preparation for shipping. At this time relative humidity, temperature and storage containers and conditions all become critical. Finally, the coffee must be hulled, separated by size and packaged for shipping. More critical points arise here, and small mistakes in screening or larger mistakes in the selection of packaging or the storage conditions prior to shipping can bleed the coffee of its potential.The coffee changes hands again and begins the next stage of transformation, from green bean to roasted coffee. Here we must grapple with the third key concept, revelation. The roaster must accurately identify the potential for the coffee, properly develop the flavors and ultimately properly package the roasted product. An unskilled roaster, equipment that is not operating properly, poor packaging materials or practices can all lead to disaster. Provided that all goes well here and the coffee’s potential remains intact, there are two remaining steps before the long chain of custody that is unique to coffee ends in the consumption of a specialty coffee beverage.After roasting and before brewing, the coffee must be ground. Grinding is best done as close in time to brewing as possible, as many delicate aromatic compounds are fully released upon grinding and the dramatic increase in surface area necessary to effect brewing also opens the coffee to rapid oxidation and staling. The size of the ground particles is also important and driven by the method of brewing to be employed. Too fine a grind for the selected brewing process and the coffee may be destroyed by over extraction. Too coarse a grind and the coffee may never develop its full flavor potential in the cup.Finally, after every step from coffee tree to the end consumer has been carefully orchestrated, the final process must take place – the coffee must be brewed. Whether the coffee is to be prepared as an espresso, as drip coffee or in a steeping method like a French press, the exacting application of standards of water quality, brewing temperature, coffee to water ratio and extraction must be applied to create a specialty coffee beverage.So how do we define specialty coffee? Well, in the broadest sense we define it is as coffee that has met all the tests of survival encountered in the long journey from the coffee tree to the coffee cup. More specifically, we measure it against standards and with methods that allow us to identify coffee that has been properly cared for. For example, while it is not possible to inspect every bean from every farm at the point of harvest, or during processing or drying or shipping, it is possible to employ the standards developed by SCAA to make a meaningful judgment on the preparation of the coffee through aspect grading and to employ a standard cupping protocol to assess the quality of the cup and to discover any defects caused by poor practices that result in a loss of potential for the coffee.The SCAA defines specialty coffee in its green stage as coffee that is free of primary defects, has no quakers, is properly sized and dried, presents in the cup free of faults and taints and has distinctive attributes. In practical terms this means that the coffee must be able to pass aspect grading and cupping tests. The development and application of these standards, also furthered through the work of the Coffee Quality Institute, has helped to define specialty coffee in its raw form, but much work remains to be done in refining these standards and adding new ones to help preserve the potential that the coffee bean embodies.From the green stage to the final beverage there are other standards either currently in place or in the process of being developed. For example, the SCAA Brewing Standard for preparation of drip coffee defines the proper ratios of water to coffee, the proper extraction, brewing temperature and holding temperature and time. There is also a standard for espresso preparation and one for steeping is under development. Roasting standards are in process, part of a monumental effort by the Roasters Guild to implement a certification for roasters that ensures they have been properly educated and trained in preserving and revealing the full potential of the specialty coffee bean. Similarly, the Barista Guild is well under way in developing a certification for the barista to ensure that the final preparer of the beverage is also an expert in the extraction of all of the coffee flavors inherent in a specialty coffee and delivering them in the cup.In the final analysis specialty coffee will be defined by the quality of the product, whether green bean, roasted bean or prepared beverage and by the quality of life that coffee can deliver to all of those involved in its cultivation, preparation and degustation. A coffee that delivers satisfaction on all counts and adds value to the lives and livelihoods of all involved is truly a specialty coffee.Article published by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) – June 2009

"No Brainer" first shot and other meanderings

Posted by Mike McGinness on December 24, 2009 at 5:09am

Yesterday evening after about an hour dialing in the PID's for the brew boilers pulled the first shots on our Roastery Cafe's new Linea 4AV (new as in newly rebuilt from the chasis up with dual brew PID). No brainer cuz have up to manual functionality only, Friday electronic controls and brain go back in. Somewhat surprisingly first shot was quite decent. Somewhat surprising since no dial in the grind shot on the Major, simply adjust the grinds by feel between the fingers before grinding for the shot.Bryan's been a GREAT help since arriving from Michigan last Saturday evening. Last couple of days his primary focus inbetween helping bag roasts and general keeping my in line has been cleaning a bunch of used grinders I've sourced the past months and haven't had time to deal with. Bunn G3 ready to rock-n-roll and the 2 Majors and 3 SJ's taken apart and thoroughly cleaned ready for various needed wiring mods (defeating auto-fills etc., getting rid of a couple of those stupid timer switches for on.off swithces and converting start/on/off swithces to on/off only to use with plug in shot timers), doser sweep mod and doser snozola mods. He also got 7 or so snoz plastics cut from milk jugs yesterday.Also yesterday got enough people together to finally get that 4' deli display cooler out of the trailer and then out of the cart it was bolted into. (Had been used at a farmer's market.) I got it rewired and re-tested, came right down to temp no problem. Since it had been mounted in a cart had no idea how the front bottom looked (customer side), as luck would have it pristine. What a steal for $300! Just need to pick up some rubber non-slips for the bottom before placing it today.Also got the pecan stain coat on the oak pour station yesterday we'd built the day before. Really brought out the grain beautifully. Today will get the first of multiple Marine varnish coats.The place looks like a disaster area! Took some pictures yesterday. (will post 'em later) But it's really not as bad as it looks. Just tools and parts and boxes of stuff like all kinds of porcelain everywhere. Though besides my mind I've temporarily lost all but one of the four Synesso 14g ridgeless PF baskets I got for the Roastery coffeehouse....they might still be over at Paradise Cafe....I hope....or it could be days before they get unburied from where ever they're hiding!Lots still to do but we'll make it to open by or before NY Day, no problem!

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Posted by Alex Lens on December 24, 2009 at 1:42am

People often ask me how many times I see a movie before reviewing it, and with rare exceptions the answer is "Just once." But a week and a half after I saw Sherlock Holmes, I found that the film had all but disappeared from my mind, and so I went back to see it a second time. I don't think it was just the usual clutter of holiday releases that caused the memory of this one to vanish like a mirage. Directed by the compulsively in-your-face Guy Ritchie (RocknRolla), Sherlock Holmes is an odd amalgam, a top-heavy light entertainment that keeps throwing things at you and doesn't seem too concerned with whether they stick.Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.), the venerable sleuth of 1880s London, is still a master of deduction, sniffing out clues that are invisible to everyone else. But he is now, in addition, a crowd-pleasing man of action who leaps out of buildings, dodges explosions, and engages in the occasional ultraviolent bare-knuckle brawl. He and his comrade, the genial Dr. Watson (Jude Law), are still partners in crime-fighting, but they're also whimsical, nattering fops who carry on like old college roommates sharing private jokes for which you really had to be there.The film brims with "colorful" London-cobblestone backlot atmosphere — which sounds like a good thing, except that Sherlock Holmes is often as busy and crowded as a musical, so that the background frequently threatens to engulf the foreground.Oh yes, I forgot: There is also…a detective plot. It rests on some shady business about a slime named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), who is tried and hanged for murder — Dr. Watson is on hand to ensure that he's dead — but who then mysteriously rises from the grave so that he can launch a plan for world domination. If that sounds like an extravagant ambition for a Sherlock Holmes villain, the whole movie, in its popcorn way, is bumptiously extravagant; it's like a 19th-century National Treasure sequel crossed with an episode of the old Batman TV series. All of which would be fine if it added up to a crackerjack entertainment, but Sherlock Holmes, while a diverting enough night out, is both fun and numb, enjoyable and exhausting. It's a case of more adding up to less.The best thing in the movie is Downey. As Holmes, he's rumpled and amusingly jittery, an investigator who lives on his own plane of perception and can scarcely be bothered with anyone else's. There's an authentic Sherlockian intensity about him. Early on, the film shows us that Holmes is a creature of deduction even in the middle of a fistfight: In the space of a few super-slo-mo seconds, he literally thinks out the half-dozen punches he's about to throw. Downey, analyzing each blow (and the damage it will cause) with his puckish British inflections, transfixes us with his casual command. Each time that Holmes actually has to figure something out, Downey widens those dark saucer eyes, which are shot so they're pools of black; he's hypnotic. The movie, unfortunately, isn't really built around Holmes' deductions. They're more like brainy little hermetic games sprinkled along the way. Even his ability to deconstruct a fight is introduced only to be forgotten.Since Sherlock Holmes is the kickoff to a franchise, it might for once have been terrific if the movie had been an origin story, with Holmes discovering his lightning powers of intuition. But Sherlock Holmes, with its jaded hero, jumbly overkill, and skittery mystery plot, is more like a part-five sequel made by people who were forced to put on a big show of conviction. The whole movie is a put-on — it's a smoke-and-mirrors blockbuster. Mark Strong, as the villain, looks like Andy Garcia as a hulking Dracula, but apart from that there's not much to him, and Rachel McAdams, as a former lover of Holmes', now with murkier loyalties, is enticing in such a sweet Victorian way that it seems perverse for the movie to muffle the romantic spark between her and our hero. The real "love story," of course, is the jokey, stiff-upper-lip, entirely fraternal bromance between Holmes and Watson. Their muttery ironic joshing has a certain out-of-time talk-show cleverness, but like the movie itself it holds your attention even though there's never really anything at stake.

Close to opening...

Posted by Java Gem Coffee Drive Thru on December 23, 2009 at 4:02am

Well just when I thought things weren't going to work out then ended up working out after all. I finally got all the plumbing and electrical done, I was putting the sheet rock up last night and mudding and taping (always fun) and even installed 1 of the 3 LCD tv's in the main dining area. Carpeted the lounge area to get ready for the furniture which they tried to deliver yesterday and wouldn't fit!! So now I have to go and pick out new furniture, that sucks. I am getting very excited to share my place with everyone and hopefully they will make it their place, we have some great music coming so it is going to be a fun time!Merry Christmas to everyone!BrianCyber Infusion

Coffee Shop Name

Posted by Mike M on December 23, 2009 at 12:13am

I've been playing around with different name possibilities and logos for a while now.On one hand, I do wish that I had the name figured out as one less 'to do' on an already infinitely long list. On the other hand, I'm comforted by the fact that I'm not going to settle for a sub-par name that doesn't capture the essence of the business I'm making plans to create and that when the name finally does come to be, it will be 'the one' much in the same way that I knew my wife was 'the one'. Each one involves a labor of love.Sometimes I DO worry about being too picky, but I believe there's a lot to be said about the shop's name when it comes to the world of brand management.To use another bad analogy, I would imagine parents give just as much if not more consideration when considering names for their children, only I can't take the easy way out by naming the shop after my father. Come to think of it, my wife and I already have a name a girls name picked out should our first-born be a girl... and that was MUCH easier than this process has been.Hmmm...

Road Trip Coffee Addiction Are We There Yet?

Posted by Pat Riggs on December 22, 2009 at 5:30am

The first thing I notice is the TV antenna. It's affixed to that skinny mast. There's no rotor. Its pointing like a compass toward civilization. This image is testimony that although cable has yet to arrive on scene, drugs have made themselves at home here at 45 Main Street USA where "we never close."I snapped the picture via Blackberry while visiting this anonymous hell-hole-of-a-town, out in the Central Valley. I was late for court, representing a drug client. I was on the run, not knowing what kind of justice I was going to receive for being, what was now, ten minutes late. As usual, I was craving coffee.That craving causes me to day dream. The dream for today was the “what a great place for a cafe fantasy.” A lot of people dream about flying, or dating someone like Heidi Klum. I dream about coffee, and where to start café’s. The mental loop started off with, just call it 45 Main, and keep it cable free. That one antenna lead would bring in a signal displaying a snowy, old school world. The TV would be black and white, strapped to the wall, tuned with a knob, by one of the baristas while standing on a stool. The press would come by and like the fact that we could only pull in one or two channels. And most importantly, we could keep the Drugs We Never Close sign by grand-fathering it via the local zoning ordinance.I put my dream on hold until I met with the next subliminal coffee cue. I walked through the doors to Department 1.When you are an attorney who is not a member of the local bar, the protocol is: polite, heads up, keep the hair short, and don’t loose your cool when the judge goes through a sort of scripted hazing ritual where the content is designed to prove that he or she knows more than you do. The drill is not quite a public shaming. You laugh at a few of the jokes pointed your way, and you move on.My client’s case was on for sentencing. I knew it was going down hill when the judge called my client an addict, maybe even a dealer. He stated on the record, “Mr. so-and-so you could fly into any town in the world, and as soon as you land, you would know exactly where to go. You would go straight to the seedy part of town, and buy what ever you need to satisfy your addictions.”The court reporters hands were bobbing up and down, next to a tall Starbucks paper cup, next to the pink folding doughnut box, which was next to the empty jury box.I was thinking to myself, no your honor, no need to fly anywhere, 45 Main is just around the corner. They sell drugs there. It says so on the wall. DRUGS, in white letters, surrounded by a field of robins egg blue against a back drop of this wonderful big sky country of yours.I then had a coffee epiphany.The reporter’s bobbing hands and the Starbucks cup beside the doughnut box was the second subliminal coffee cue of the day. It reminded me that addiction is a universal human trait. Addiction is in my genetics, it's a gene I acquired back in the day. One of my remote coffee ancestors had an error in their DNA replication. They had a DNA strand with a coffee mutation that not even a repressor protein could cure. I was made as well as I could be made. Maybe addiction, in any of its many forms is the quest for perfection, to become like gods, to find that missing piece that we believe we don't possess, or missing link that will somehow finally satisfy us. Maybe addiction is the opportunity we take to keep us from who we really are.As a culture we migrate from one drug to the next. My Coffee ancestor would never have left the cradle of mankind in the Olduvai Gorge, if a good espresso machine capable of producing god shots would have been available. They had to keep moving, they had to keep evolving because they only had basalt and chips of stone to tamp and grind their coffee.So the dealer of addiction, who never closes, is going to go far in this world. This place, 45 Main, was just a block from Highway 5. It is the methamphetamine highway which begins in Mexico and links many of the small cities up and down the Central Valley of California.The bailiff was circling to remand my client, whose last words to me before they whisked him away, “I can do the time. That’s not it, I just wanted a rehab. Jail won’t do me any good. I am an addict and need help.”Maybe this post has taken a turn down a very dark alley about an unpopular subject. I need coffee every morning. I suffer withdrawal if I don't get it. It seems to improve my life. I enjoy it in a big way. Right now I am enjoying some Mexican Zaragoza. from my Chemex.I'll drive to any part of town to satisfy my addiction, but make mine legal.What about you?Patcopyright all literary and photography rights reserved 2009

2800 Miles Later

Posted by Bryan Wray on December 21, 2009 at 9:04pm

http://thatcoffeeguy.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/2800-miles-later/

Climbing and Coffee

Posted by Gabe Windham on December 21, 2009 at 5:29pm

So I have noticed a theme where I am residing. The rock climbing gyms in my area are starting to steer towards selling coffee beans or something along those lines. The gym that I am a very loyal patron to has started selling beans from a company called Coffee AM and the new gym being built in Atlanta (right down the road) will have an entire floor devoted to a coffee shop, yoga center and weight lifting gym. I worked at a small coffee house in my immediate area whose target market was cyclists. As many of us know, the cycling/coffee scene in Europe is rather common and in the old days the coffee scene was turned at motorcyclists, which birthed cafe racing. In the southeast United States, climbing has really been blowing up. And now it seems like climbing and coffee are becoming one in the southeast just like it took a merge with cycling in Europe. Just a thought. Anyone got any thoughts?

Business Plan - Blank Canvas

Posted by Mike M on December 19, 2009 at 8:28pm

Today I reached the point in my coffee education where I felt ready to begin developing the first iteration of my business plan.The problem is that I have endless ideas, some of which I have formally developed in a binder, and am only now starting to figure out how to transcribe and articulate those ideas in the form of a business plan. Much easier said than done..I once read about a clock-maker, or 'timepiece' maker, who was renowned for his artistic brilliance and ability. When asked why he did not take up sculpting or some other art form that would allow him a greater degree of flexibility to be creative, he stated that a blank canvas was too intimidating. The point is that people like to have boundaries and limitations, because then we have waypoints and a bit of guidance from which to then create our masterpieces.I want to type this business plan until my fingers fall off, but the trouble is getting started. The blank canvas still feels a bit intimidating..

Jumped one of the last hurdles...

Posted by Mike McGinness on December 15, 2009 at 2:00pm

Bruce, my health inspector (both for my existing downtown Paradise Cafe and now soon to open Roastery Coffeehouse) stopped by this afternoon to look the place over. He said all looks good and approved the pre-open plan. Now just a few (hundred, or is it thousand:-) remaining things to do before the actual final pre-open inspection sometime before NY Day Grand Opening Party... Drive fast (and safe) Bry! :-)

The Roaster is here!

Posted by Stickman on December 14, 2009 at 2:43pm

The gas fitter was in today and tomorrow the venting goes in. Bean order is placed. Nervous! Excited!Hoping to be running our beans for the New Year...Expecting hiccups.

Coffee is a Four Minute Novel

Posted by Pat Riggs on December 13, 2009 at 10:04am

Brewing coffee is a four minute novel.Pulling a shot of espresso is a mere fraction of that.You grind, you heat, coffee blooms, and then it dies. The novel, the ceremony, takes on the seriousness of a game.For example, coffee is like a game of pinball. Pinball, like brewing coffee, is random, encased in glass, and an event, once the ball is launched, almost entirely beyond the player’s control. We have this human desire to beat the odds by telepathically imposing our will on the ball or shaking the machine. In coffee, especially, espresso we are all players. We have a history of loss, and the occasional high score.Daily, every morning in fact, the thrill comes from not knowing whether your efforts will produce a good cup, a good shot, or something destined for the sink. As people, our strong suit is reflection rather than prediction. We are better at mourning than prophesying. Since we seldom see the end result in our mind’s eye, we have this deficit that gives us hope. We hope to just keep the ball in play, hope to brew the cup, and hope to extract the perfect shot.Pat© all photographic and literary rights reserved 2009 Pat Riggs

Seed Prep Theory

Posted by byron on December 12, 2009 at 4:53am

So it has been quite a while since I've posted here. My http://journal.youngtreecoffee.com/ receives most of my blogging attention. I think this is new idea might actually hold some weight. Live links and pictures can be found on my blog listed above.On my last trip to the farm I spent a lot of time watching coffee dry. When I had full-time employment obligations in the US I was not able to spend as much time as I like on the farm. A one week trip to the DR would only allow maximum 3 maybe 4 days playing in the dirt. The rest of the time was spent in transport to Los Frios from Santo Domingo.In the coffee circles that I get my inspiration from, there has been a shift in "appropriate" drying times from a maximum of 10 days up to 30 days. Just two years ago when I was asking all the processing questions to anyone who might know the answer they usually said that washed coffee should be dried between 5-10 days. Just before leaving on this last harvest trip I had a really enlightening conversation with Tim Hill from Counter Culture Coffee. "Yea Byron the Peru - Valley de Santurario and the Burundi - Bwayi from this year were both took up to 30 and 20 days to dry respectively," said Tim. In my opinion, the Peru was tasting super solid at the end of its green lifespan (6-8 months) and the Burundi was one of my favorite CCC coffees of the year. The Bwayi was also the only Burundi that had a post-fermentation-soak after the washing.Then at SCAA in Atlanta, I had a chance to get a coffee drying tutorial from the owners of Virmax. They recommend that the growers build these raised beds with coffee stacked one over the other. After the coffee is washed the coffee is placed on the lower bed to drip dry. (If you are a grower and want to learn from my mistakes please contact me directly). It is really important that the coffee is spread very thin, no more than 2 beans stacked. Then as the coffee dries it is raised up to the second tier. Then after a week, the coffee can be raised up to the highest bed where it is dried in the sun under the plastic tarp.This year in Colombia the micro-lot from the La Golindrina project at CCC is the result of an experiment with underwater ferment, done by a couple farmers. When Tim and Kim cupped the coffees from the coop, Organica, there were 3 stand out coffees on the table. All three came from the same farm! When Kim asked what was different the farmers said the only thing they did differently was to ferment the coffee underwater, they had heard that it had good success in other places and wanted to see if it made a difference there.To prepare coffee seeds for planting: pick the cherries ripe, depulp, ferment, wash the muscilage off and dry the coffee in the shade until it reaches about 20%.So my seed prep theory came to me when I was drying coffee. All of these new processing techniques are more akin to seed prep than the old theories of coffee prep. Older coffee processing techniques were all about pushing coffee through processing because it is much more cost effective. For example, one wash, as short as possible fermentation times, as short as possible short drying times, and less experimentation. If you follow the Virmax recommendations about coffee drying you could take the coffee off the middle bed and plant it because the processing until the last stage is exactly the same as seed prep. As I've mentioned before Virmax's advice won them First and Seventh last year at SCAA. Then if you look at all the post fermentation soak and underwater ferment that is showing signs of success it only further supports the theory because just prior to planting coffee seed it is ideal to soak them for 24 hours in water.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.