Posted by Matt Milletto on September 16, 2009 at 12:14pm
San Leandro, California – September 3, 2009 – Ghirardelli is excited to announce the launch of our newest Ground Chocolate flavor “Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa with Peppermint Flavor”; just in time for this holiday season!
The luxuriously deep flavor of Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa with Peppermint Flavor creates the intense, lingering chocolate experience. We start with cocoa from the finest cocoa beans; blend just the right amount of sugar, real vanilla and peppermint. No need to add additional peppermint syrup as Ghirardelli Peppermint Ground Chocolate is blended for the perfect flavor, resulting in a rich chocolate taste balanced with a hint of peppermint. This not only provides cost savings but also a consistent taste with every drink served.
Just mix with milk, add espresso (optional) and enjoy as the pleasure of your Peppermint Ground Chocolate beverage lingers and time stands still.
First ship to Ghirardelli distributors begins week of October 5, 2009.
Contact:
Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Foodservice Division
1111 139th Avenue, San Leandro, CA
Ph: 800.833.9338 ext. 2627
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Posted by Matt Milletto on September 16, 2009 at 5:43am
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact Matt Milletto: 503.232.2222 | matt@bellissimo.netcoffeeschool.org | espresso101.com
(PORTLAND, OR. September 14, 2009) With the opening of an American Barista & Coffee School [ABC’s] affiliate school in Beijing, China in September of 2009, ABC’s becomes the first U.S. coffee school to expand into the International arena.
Currently, ABC’s is the premier professional coffee school in the U.S., and the first in the history of the specialty coffee industry to offer a complete coffee business educational course combined with hands-on barista training. To date, ABC’s has graduated 600+ students from 47 states and more than 40 countries around the world.
Bruce Milletto, founder of ABC’s and Matt Milletto, the school’s Director, traveled to Beijing in August to set up the China Barista Coffee School [CBC] and train the CBC staff prior to the school’s grand opening on September 2.
“Opening an affiliate school in China is a major step forward for Bellissimo and The American Barista & Coffee School,” said Bruce Milletto. “ABC’s has become the first coffee school in the world to establish an international brand, and to do so in a country that is on the cutting-edge of an explosive coffee market is very exciting."
The ABC’s curriculum was modified to fit the particular needs of the Chinese specialty coffee industry, while staying true to the ABC’s model. The CBC training center features more than ten two-group espresso machines, each from a different manufacturer. ABC's representatives will travel periodically to China to insure CBC and their trainers are meeting the standards set by ABC's for its affiliate schools.
“I was excited to see so many passionate baristas in China,” said Matt Milletto. “I had the opportunity to train and work with 12 of the top regional barista competition winners, who were very eager to learn more about great coffees and how to present them. I see huge growth potential in China’s coffee industry in the coming years, and we are thrilled to have an ABC’s presence in Beijing and to expand our global reach as educators.”
About Bellissimo and the American Barista & Coffee School
Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup is the specialty coffee industry's leading consulting company and well known as the producer of award-winning coffee training DVDs and the publisher of coffee business manuals. Bellissimo’s worldwide client list includes Fortune 500 companies as well as American and International entrepreneurs. As a result of the success of his company, Bruce Milletto is recognized by the press and the coffee industry internationally as “the voice of North America’s specialty coffee industry.” Bellissimo is also the parent company of The American Barista & Coffee School [ABC’s], the premier professional school in the U.S. devoted to domestic and international specialty coffee business education and hands-on barista training.
Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup
American Barista &
Coffee School
1028 SE Water Avenue
Suite 275
Portland, Oregon 97214
P 800.655.3955
503.232.2222
F 503.232.5733
http://www.espresso101.com | contact@bellissimocoffeeinfo.comhttp://www.coffeeschool.org | info@coffeeschool.orgRead more…
Posted by James Spano on September 15, 2009 at 6:10am
I haven't been on here in a while and felt the need to remedy that. I do have a blog that I've started for the roastery (which also needs to be posted on soon) and I plan to start posting those blogs here for you guys to see. If you want to see what's already there, you can head on over to http://cuptocup.wordpress.com. I'll put one of my first posts here for you to get an idea of what it's about. Hope you enjoy!This is the first of what I hope to be several articles attempting to educate the confused but budding coffee enthusiast. I'll answer questions or discuss coffee topics that can be confusing or just make general offerings for you to add to your coffee encyclopedia. With that being said, let's get right into the first topic!What is all that stuff after the name of the country where the coffee is from?I'm glad you asked. If you look at the coffee offerings page of our site or other coffee sites, you find coffee from various countries. After the name of the country, you'll also see more words that may or may not make sense like, Guatemala San Pedro, Tanzania Peaberry, Ethiopia Natural Sidamo Gerbichu Lela. This extra stuff is a way of providing more information about the coffee than just the country.If you were going to buy a nice bottle of wine, would you pay big bucks for one that simply said California on the side? Of course not. You might want to know what vineyard it came from, or what type of grape, or whatever else it is wine people want to know about wine. This is the same idea behind this extra information on the coffee.For example a coffee might provide you with the specific region in the country where the coffee was from. Guatemalan San Pedro tells you that the coffee is from Guatemala and grown in the San Pedro area. The coffee is actually Guatemalan San Pedro La Laguna. Laguna translates as lake and refers to the well known Lake Atitlan. So just in case you might be thinking of a different San Pedro, it lets you know which one.Other information you might get is something related to the bean itself, whether that be a specific varietal of coffee plant (French Missional Varietal) or something about the shape or size of the bean (Tanzania Peaberry, Kenya AA). Note: varietal and peaberry are terms we'll go over in future posts.You can also find out how the coffee was processed, that is, how it got from sitting on the plant to being ready to be roasted. These are terms like natural processed, pulped natural, and washed.There are other things sometimes listed as well such as the name of the farm, or a name given to the coffee.Sometimes only one bit of information is provided, but othertimes you get all sorts of information, like our Columbia Huila Los Naranjos de San Agustin which breaks down like this; Columbia (country) Huila (region) Los Naranjos de San Agustin (name of the collective of coffee growers).Go through our coffees and see if you can figure out what means what.I hope you enjoyed the first coffee jargon . I'll try to add posts regularly so that the learning experience can continue. Peace.
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Getting excited about competing at the Millrock Latte art competition at coffee fest. Only a few days away!! I have so much practice to get in still. I woke up this morning dreaming about the perfect pour. I'm sure people looking from the outside in are wondering if I have a life ouside this world of making espresso and obsessing over a $5,000 cup-a-joe. At least I don't live in my mother's basement, and have a pasty-white complection, right?The move to Cannon Beach and Bella Espresso is coming up quickly here. I'm so excited for school to start, and can't wait to start working with a new team of people...even though I'll be low man on the totem pole once again. Hopefully I can work some of my charm and have another band of merry baristas in the game of things when I'm done.
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Posted by Mike McGinness on September 12, 2009 at 1:08pm
Just finishing bagging up an 11 batch 85LB greens (includes one half batch load Kona) session that took ~4hrs from powerup pre-heat to cool-down shutoff. Thinking back a couple years when I was starting this insane professional journey waiting for this little USRC 3k to be built and was driving Two max overloaded voltage boosted CCR HotTops simultaneously with batches @~333gr to yield two pounds from 5 roasts at approximately 4 batches total per hr both running non-stop it would have taken TWENTY-NINE hours continuous roasting instead of four! Which meant I was insanely doing 12hr plus sessions most Sat & Sundays plus roasting virtually every night after closing the café for a number of months... I was NUTS!!!! (Still am:-)
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Social Media Use By Restaurants (NYC, SFO & PDX)Initial Results of New York, San Francisco Bay Area and Portland OR MarketsChalkboarder.com is compiling the results of an exhaustive study of social media use by the restaurant industry nationally. Some preliminary discoveries are very intriguing.While the entire study encompasses sixteen (16) major metropolitan areas, we’d like to share initial results from New York, Portland Oregon and the San Francisco Bay Area.Records were generated from Urban Spoon and Yelp – cataloging the top thirty (30) percent of user-recommended operations in the Urban Spoon $$$ Affordable Fine Dining category.Here’s the results:NY % SF % PDX %Number of Restaurants 932 1491 168Records Surveyed 272 29% 444 30% 50 30%Websites 222 81.6% 231 52.0% 42 84.0%Email (direct link) 131 48.2% 128 28.8% 25 50.0%Facebook 15 5.5% 32 7.2% 4 8.0%Twitter 11 4.0% 20 4.5% 5 10.0%Twit only 3 1.1% 7 1.6% 3 6.0%Blogs 2 0.7% 8 1.8% 3 6.0%The remaining metro areas we are compiling are:Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami, Washington DC, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans and Minneapolis. We’re also curious about rural areas and are setting up an additional study to analyze the five states with the least population per density.Two things surprise us the most – web presence overall and the opportunity to connect.We’re surprised that so many restaurateurs choose not to invest a small amount of money in web presence (San Francisco’s 52% is very surprising, given the proximity to Silicon Valley). For the equivalent of three months print advertising, an operation could open a virtual door for years.The opportunity to connect with current customers, enlist them to share the restaurant with their friends, be engaged directly with your patrons – all with minimal investment – at least, significantly less expense than traditional advertising, is real.We’ll release the completed study early next week. Originally posted at Chalkboarder.com White Papers. Comments and questions are encouraged!Jeffrey KingmanPresident, Chalkboarder.com
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Posted by Alun Evans on September 8, 2009 at 10:01pm
At this time of year the air can be crackling hot- at lunchtime hot enough to burn and blister the soles of your feet if you are silly enough to be walking through the sawah without shoes on. The rains threaten to come everyday, but as the day ebbs to dusk it is ultimately an unfufilled promise.Because of the heat, and also in part because its the fasting month, we decided to do our monthly expat walk up into the hills early than normal. The group was smaller than the last walk I lead, only six of us. However the 2.5 hour trek up ridges, through coffee groves and past the friendly villages that cling onto the slopes of this mountainous area was fantastic. The friendly men and women that make up this rural area always heartens me. Sitting down, chatting about coffee- also about the western world where we all come from is something I always look forward to. I think if more expats could just experience this magical part of Indonesia, then a lot of the bad press this country gets would be washed away.
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Earlier this summer a woman who teaches at a nearby university sent me a book list for a course she teaches on the history of coffee. Just thought I'd pass it along:Liss, David. The Coffee Trader: A Novel. New York, Ballantine Books, 2005. Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds. New York: Basic Books, 1999.Cycon, Dean. Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee. New York: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.Gresser, Charis. Mugged: Poverty in Your Cup. London: Oxfam Publishing, 2004. Moodle Readings [M]
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Looking for the perfect barista: Espresso Italiano Champion is comingThe Aibes, the Italian Association of Barmen and Supporters, and the Italian Espresso National Institute will work together in the professional channel of coffee with the objective to increase professionalism in this industry. This is the objective of the agreement signed between the two associations involving the intervention of the National Italian Espresso both in competitions and in training by Aibes. In particular in the regional and national Aibes championships, the section Espresso Italiano Champion will be created. So in 2010, through the regional championships and the national competition that will follow, it will be possible to identify the best barista in Italy."This agreement with the Italian Espresso National Institute - said Giorgio Fadda, President of the Aibes - allows Aibes to implement the skills of our members in the coffee area, which we consider of essential importance. The qualified support of the Italian Espresso National Institute will be then used as part of our training programs. Since we believe that our competitions are an important moment of confrontation between professionals, we included in the 2010 program of competitions the section Espresso Italiano Champion: a new exciting challenge for the industry"."The agreement between the Italian Espresso National Institute and Aibes is a historical step for the bar industry in Italy - said Gianluigi Sora, president of the Italian Espresso National Institute - Espresso Italiano Champion will be a stimulus for growth in the sector because it will reward professionalism. However, the collaboration is not just limited to competition: in fact the Italian Espresso National Institute will support Aibes in the training in the coffee sector through its members. And the partnership with Aibes will allow our professional baristas, the Espresso Italiano Specialists, to enhance their culture in mixed drinks and in the high level hospitality".The Italian Espresso National Institute, which includes coffee roasters, equipment manufacturers and other partners that focus on quality espresso, now has 40 members with a combined turnover of around 650 million euros. The Aibes deals with developing the professionalism and skills of people working in bars through a training program that includes courses, masters, study trips and moments of confrontation between barmen and other companies in the sector. Aibes has a history of 60 years of activity and more than 3,000 associated barmen in Italy.
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please see this page, interesting!http://wwwaboutcoffee.blogspot.com/Towards giving valid information about coffee !Any views or information about coffee, is a useful tool for every body !The opinion and your contribution to our efforts become desirable!(At first post were in Greek.. but from now on the post will be published in English)Thanks and regards
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still looking for information, is there an asosication for exchange between the United States and North Africa, namely Morocco. I have launched a nice little coffee shop and i am a beginner though i have 4 people working, i still need to learn myself how to be a real good coffee shop owner and i need training, any ideas please . morocco is in North Africa, very close to Spain
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Posted by Josh Ferguson on September 1, 2009 at 2:37pm
Come see some of the nation's finest baristas compete! This year's Midwest Regional Barista Competition will be held in St.Louis, MO at the Soulard Preservation Hall. Additional info will be available shortly at kaldiscoffee.com. Please save the dates of Friday Oct30th - Sunday Nov1st.Soulard Preservation Hall1921 South Ninth StreetSt.Louis, MO 63104
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