Photos from origin

Photographs taken in coffee growing regions are all the rage this year. Well, that and pour over coffee. Pour over is something I have a great deal of experience with. The chances of ever taking a trip to origin for me is slim to none. This will have to suffice in lieu of origin photos.

My daughter drew this coffee tree on the white board with erase markers. This is currently her favorite medium. After snapping the picture, she added a ladder with a stick man (me) picking ripe cherries from the heavily burdened branches of this gargantuan variety.

The Old Logo

Seeing the old, although somewhat modified, logo from Starbucks today got me thinking about it’s evolution from the sexy bare breasted and seductive mermaid who spreads her double fishy tail for the coffee consumer into the cleaned up version that it is today. Poeple look at it today and can’t even tell that it was once a mermaid, or siren as they tell us, or what those two things are that she is holding. Her supple and perky breasts are fully covered up with long wavey hair, but most of all, her spread eagle split tail is cropped right out of the circle.

She is a Siren, and she is meant to entice you drink her beverage by using feminine wiles and sexuality.  The pleasure of the drink will be like the pleasure of the flesh.  She is an archetypal character symbolic of feminine power, sexuality, and fertility.  She is a  Sheila-na-gig, and you can read all about her here.

Just take a look at some of these other Sirens.

The article in the link has some pretty far out ideas on the subject.  I didn’t come up with this stuff, I’m just relating it here because I find it fascinating.

And the Big Announcement Is……

Starbucks rolls out their new blend.  Yup, that’s it.  A new all Latin American bucks blend, Pike’s Place, hit the streets today in full force after much tension was built with a huge marketing campaign.  Some have been heard to discount this as mere advertising trickery and over-hype.  But this is the same technique we employ to get good results from our 5 year old daughter.  Every little thing is greatly praised and often recounted with cheering and laughter.  It’s just what you do.

I referred to the “new” old logo as the naked Mermaid and the Barista corrected me.  It’s a Siren.

I had a hankering for cup of coffee after lunch, and I remembered that today was the big day.  I made my way to West Chester’s very new Starbucks location.  This place has been built out to emphasize the theatrics of the coffee bar.  There is bar seating at one end with marble counter top and a great view of the Barista’s side of the Super Autos.  You can watch the whole show and interact with the Partners while you sip your free cup of Pike’s Place Blend.  They promise it is the “smoothest” coffee they have ever served, and they will make it fresh every 30 minutes.  Most quality oriented coffee shops I know have longer holding times if they use any type of thermos device.  And in fact, I did see the black aproned “Coffee Master” dump at least a half gallon of P.P. down the drain just as the timer sounded.  He then used a large measuring ladle to prepare another batch from the pre-ground beans.

Black Apron Coffee Master promptly dumps the coffees every 30 minutes .

As for the coffee itself, I have to say that I had my hopes and expectations very high.  I have been reading on the Starbucks employee blog how much the Partners themselves enjoy the new blend with less cream than they normally use, and how highly they regard this new national sensation.  My first whiff of the aroma reveled a lot of cocoa and caramel.  At it’s hottest, I thought at first that it came across with just a tiny bit of phenolic like fresh plastic note, but at a more reasonable drinking temperature it was definitely the most pleasant coffee I have ever tasted from this company.  The finish still betrayed the beginning of roastiness, but in comparison to their other coffees, it was really well restrained in it’s roast level.  There was a discernible and pleasing amount of brightness also, which was a surprise.  However, the roast level was just a bit past what might have expressed a more dominant origin character.  As a result, there was a certain lack of complexity.  Still, the coffee was very well balanced, very fresh, and all at a very good level of extraction.  Did I mention it was free?  I asked for a 12 oz, and the Barista let me know I could have an 8 oz free of charge.  I said OK.

For those who dislike the company for philosophical, political, or ethical reasons, there is just not going to be any way for you to be pleased.  When the company was huge and served mediocre coffee at acrid roast levels it was easy to be a hater.  There will be many who continue to hate.  But the fact is that they are moving toward a style that is more fashionable among the coffee educated.  Also a fact is that they are beating many an independent shop on consistency and freshness.  The employees were really friendly and accommodating to me.  How can you hate these things.  In the past these guys were a last resort coffee shop when you were in a different town and you didn’t know where else you could go.  You could choke down a cup if you needed to, even if you couldn’t finish the last quarter.  Which by the way, was still pretty good with the Pike’s Place blend.  This gives me somewhere I can go and get a more than mediocre, pretty fresh, pretty good cup.  If you own your own coffee shop, you should be so lucky (or skilled, as it were) to do as well as they are doing with this new, but over marketed, coffee.

Spruce Street Espresso

Recently opened at the corner of Spruce St. and 11th in downtown Philadelphia is Spruce Street Espresso.This is a little project that we, at Counter Culture, have been working on. Owners Betty Ortiz and Luis Montanez asked our advice when they were ready to close down the Mochima coffee shop and reopen with a new identity. They bought the place after the previous coffee shop had gone out of business. We gave them a few ideas for bar layout, coffee selection, equipment specs. We hooked them up with 9th St. Espresso’s old 3 group GB-5 when they (9th st.) switched to two 2 groups. We trained the staff. They decided to change the old style spread sheet menu board to a chalk board with 6 listings, and down size to drinks no larger than 12 oz to go, and no larger than 10 oz ceramic. They decided to brew only French Press coffees. There is no “House Blend”, only rotating single origins. They found a distributor for Mexican Coca-cola. It has been a fascinating experiment to see a shop go from 20 ounce to 10 oz. The deepest fears of coffee shop owners all over North America, “If I down size, I will loose a major segment of my customers”, was never realized. On the contrary, their customer base grew larger right out of the gate.

Here is what it was like before:

After a few weeks of work, the new space looks like this:

There have already been some nice reviews from traveling coffee geeks, which is very flattering considering they had come in only days after the soft opening. So please come by if you live in Philadelphia, or if you plan on passing through. They have really put a lot of the theories that get debated in the coffee forums to the test. So far I have not seen anything fail.

They have hired Aaron Ultimo to work at the shop beginning in April. He and his wife are moving to the city then. It should be a real fine time.

Late Jam Wrap-up

I have never been to a Barista Jam before. I had twice in the past made lame attempts (more like wishful musings) at beginning to organize one for the Triangle area in North Carolina. Too much work, money, confusion, paper work. Troy Reynard of Cosmic Cup had done it twice now, so Cheers to you Troy! Great job! Gerra Harrigan of New Harvest Coffee in Providence was our fabulous co-host, and her tireless efforts was rewarded with a room at the B&B with a jacuzzi.

The Bank Street Annex is so well suited for the event. They have lots of electricity, space, a big kitchen, and a big square table cloth served as a make-shift screen for Peter Giuliano’s slide show for a talk on sustainability. There is even an old timey vault door, although for safety reasons that were not immediately apparent to me, the back wall of the vault opened up to the hallway.

First day- Easing into it

I picked up Peter G. in Center City Philadelphia and we stopped by Spruce Street Espresso, my new account which just opened, and we ran into Aaron Ultimo, also on his way to the Jam. After some delicious shots, we drove out to Easton and went into the Annex. Some equipment installation ensued, three GB-5 2-groups, and one GB-5 3 group, a hot water tower and bulk grinder, and ultimately there was also 3 Mazzer grinders, 3 Compak grinders and one Anfim with Search mod. Later on as participants showed up there was some open play time on the machines, Jon Lewis’s “I am your Espresso, Let it Flow” keynote speech/performance, and Peter’s slide show. Troy gave out plastic medals and a trophy to Rich Westerfield for winning the spro down. Over 30 of the best Baristas in the Mid Atlantic pulled shots of the New Harvest Espresso, which featured some Africans in the blend. Some were thrown off by the brightness, trying to pull short ristrettos, but the finalists and the winner pull longer shots. The judges say that the longer shots showcased the sweetness and cleaned up the aftertaste. It just goes to show you can’t apply one standard to all coffees, you have to bend when the wind blows.

The crowd gathered for coffee and conversation on the first night.

Day two- The Madhouse

Baristas started showing up in the morning and by the time it was open Jam time on the machines it was a mad house. Each of three machines downstairs had a crowd of people pulling shots, pouring art, checking out the Pacific Soy and the Hemp Milk, and just going at it like cowboys and rancher women. James Hoffmann and Anette Moldvaer had come in the night before (for Cheese Steaks) and James was upstairs teaching his extraction class. Chris Deferio later taught latte art, Jay Caragay had another class downstairs, and it was just insane. John Hornall wanted more temperature, Erin McCarthy wanted more steam preasure, I wanted time with the Anfim. The day ran long as two latte art throwdowns occured, one with whole milk and one sponsored by Pacific with their awesome texturising soy. All entry fees went to Bikes To Rwanda. Jon Lewis was victor of both, earning him two plastic trophies. Beers came later at Troy’s favorite tavern, and at the point that I headed back to the hotel, there was a group of Baristas getting ready to take the stage for the pub’s open mic night. I don’t know how that went.

The Jam was a beehive of Baristas.

Day 3- Over stuffed

Ellie Matuzak lead a class on tips for the competing Barista, and I got the impession there were some contenders in the audience. She has been around the competition block a couple of times, and gave some real insightful advice, the type of which I wish someone had shared with me before my fiasco performance. We then set up a cupping with 66 rock glasses. I said 66. There was a Columbian Cauca from Counter Culture, Sumatra Gayoland from New Harvest, and Yemen Sanani from Bumper Crop. All were fabulous coffees, and each was very distinct with it’s own characteristics of origin and processing. We were prepared to set ‘em up again if the crowd was big enough. As it was though, there was enough for everyone to break a crust who wanted to break a crust. After the break down, and I will spare you the details, we were all starving. Jay Caragay shows up holding a menu for a South American restaurant, and he wants Troy to show us how to get there. Dary Berlin says, “if you want good food, follow Jay”, so we did. We asked the chef to make us some kink of appetizer, and a main course that he felt best exemplified his restaurant. I am still full. Jay might eat like this all the time, but for me it was a meal I will remember for a long time. It was just magnificent.

My introduction to Ceviche was followed by this huge plate of South American cuisine.

Jon Lewis, keynote speaker, prepares a portafilter with a steady and sure hand.

I can’t wait till next year.

Anfim and Compak

I had the opportunity to try out these grinders at the Jam last week and I wanted to post a few observations I had and to ask about anyone else’s experience with them.

I’ll start with the Compak:
I used this with the Biloya for SO espresso. I was trying to use a low dose, about 15 grams. The grinder has a massive conical burr like the Robur but is slightly smaller in width and hight. It is also a bit lighter, which made it easy to move around the counter. It ran very quietly, which was very nice. It has a stepless grind adjustment that is much more sensitive than the Mazzer adjustment collar. You have to turn the dial more to achieve the desired result, but that means you can make even more subtle changes. The adjusting ring itself if very large in the palm of your hands and is smooth and rounded. This makes it feel nice. It has to be loosened and tightened with a set screw for every change, which is a little bit of pain. Overall I like it better than than the Robur for it’s size and weight and infinite adjustment. And the icing on the cake is that the grinds fall straight down. You don’t know how much of a luxury that is till you use it.

Which brings me to the Anfim:
This machine does posess all the qualities that have been attributed to it as of late. It has great visibility into the dosing chamber, the wheel sweeps the chamber very cleanly, the grinds fall straight down. It is also a very quiet grinder and has those big flat titanium burrs. The grind adjustment is a click setting, so no stepless changes. This is where the timing device comes in. I was at first really thrown off by this grinder as to how to achieve the proper balance between grind setting and timed dose. But I reallized it is like the old days when I use to use a stepped grinder. I had to use my dosing to get those “in between” adjustments by uping or downing depending on how the coffee was flowing. I figured out that with the Anfim you have to chose one of two options. If you have a coffee that benefits from up dosing, you must find the next best coarse setting and adjust the dose up to the right flow rate. If your coffee is better at a lower dose, you set it the next best fine grind setting and adjust the timer down to achieve the right flow rate. All the training we do with stepless is geared towards leaving the grind adjustment as the only variable to play with. With the Anfim, you find a close grind setting and use the dose as the changing variable.

After using both of these grinders over a three day period I am convinced that the dynasty of the Mazzer as the industry go-to grinder is fast coming to a close. They are either too loud, bulky, hot, or messy when compared to others coming out on the market. I believe that the Barista community needs to take a serious look at both of these models. I first thought that the recent rash of Anfims out there was a quaint and trendy ripple in the business, but I am definitly a convert.

_________________

MANE Barista Jam in Full Swing

Today we hooked up four GB-5s, splicing electrical cord, duct taping it to the rug, and in some cases rigged a little hard wiring, to get things up and running for the East coast Jam of the year.  Jon Lewis, billed as “Keynote Speaker”, wheeled in a cart which was outfitted with a hand crank grinder, thermal French Press, and pumping device.   He brewed some coffee in the press after which he poured the liquid into a bucket of water, pumped the coffee/water solution with the handle driven pump into one cup, and poured it’s contents into someone else’s cup.  That cup was poured into another, and then again and again, until the whole audience had both received and gifted the coffee to others.  All the while, Jon talked of letting it flow, let it flow, let it flow like Ralaph Waldo, let it flow like Ultimo, let it flow like Giuliano.  There was also something about creating our own deliberate life as an artist would create a work of art.  Don’t forget, he was dressed in brown overalls and dark brown specs, as he was to be the espresso shot of the collective Baristas.  Thusly did we commence the Barista Jam.

A Spro Down was to follow, and I am wanting a rematch against Aldo’s Rich Westerfield, as he narrowly beat out Austin of Olso coffee in Brooklyn, and myself in the second and final round of the robust and friendly competition which raised over $300 for Bikes to Rwanda.  Not present was the whoopin’ and hollerin’ typically characteristic of these events.  Instead there was a respectful atmosphere nurtured with polite “golf” applause.

Cupping and Skimming

There is a point during the cupping process when you must skim the floating grounds and CO2 foam off the top of the cups. Brent Hall in Charlotte call it “skimming the Chum”. I was taught to do it using two spoons held together and to pull from one end of the cup to the other. Usually a second pass is used to get any stray floater.

Peter Giuliano claims to have seen cuppers in Central and South America skim with one spoon. Upon hearing this, I took it as a personal challenge to master the skill.

Tim Nobel, a coffee enthusiast here in the Philadelphia area (and soon to be coffee shop owner), shot a little video at our cupping today at MilkBoy Coffee in Ardmore.

I can’t seem to embed, but just click this.

This is the Big One

Remember about a year ago when we were promised the Barista event of a life time, or of the decade, or the event to end all events? Remember how it never came together? There is a Barista Jam coming up in March 5-6-7 that I think embodies the spirit of what could have been, but wasn’t. The Mid Atlantic/Northeastern Barista Jam boasts a line up of coffee personalities and a workshop schedule that makes this a MUST-BE-THERE event. And you don’t have to be an “advanced” Barista to attend.

DISCLAIMER: I am employed by Counter Culture Coffee, the head line sponsor of the Jam. I just think that coffee people will be seriously enthusiastic about getting to this event, and I wanted to folks to know.

Here is the line up:

James Hoffmann…Square Mile Coffee, 2007 WBC Champ
Jon Lewis…Bumper Crop Coffee
Ellie Matuszak…Coffee Solutions
Rob Stephen…Coffee Solutions
Chris DeFerio…Carriage House Cafe
Jay Caragay…’Spro Coffee
Daryn Berlin…Counter Culture Coffee
Jamie Schoenhut…Royal Coffee New York
Kim Bullock…Counter Culture Coffee

Educational Sessions:

Sustainability
Process of Coffee
Cupping for Defects
Espresso Extraction
Milk Frothing/Latte Art
Cupping/Alternate Brewing Techniques
How to Compete in a Barista Competition

You can find some more details here.

Matt Milletto of the American Barista and Coffee School made this logo for the Jam.

Petty slick

My famous coffee hand

This gruesome close up of my thumb and index finger clutching a demitasse of delicious espresso was a quarter page photo in the Raleigh News and Observer for an article that was published just before my relocation to the Philadelphia area. This is my famous coffee hand, as it is the same hand that makes a brief appearance in the 1996 independent film “The Delicate Art Of The Rifle”. There is quick montage of short clips where the main character remembers some of the events that cause him to go nuts and start shooting people from the top of the university library building. My hand vigorously slams down a cappuccino (sporting a pompadour of mountainous white foam) onto a cafe table while a Grunge Girl scowls at the attached but unseen Barista; me. Any how, this same coffee hand now reappears in this bit about Dan Kehn (HB) and his engineering cronies as they abuse some very expensive equipment.

The coffee geeks started to arrive at around 7 am a the training center that day in Durham to get things set up in anticipation of the news reporter and her photographer. One guy even set up a popcorn popper to demonstrate the home style roasting technique. Once everyone was there they started pulling shots and boasting most egotistically. These guys were worse than shop Baristas when it came to smack down banter.

I came across the newspaper clippings while painting my kitchen this week end. The last couple of weeks before the move were poignantly sweet and sour days for me. I was leaving my adopted home, where my life had been centered since 1979. I was getting ready to embark on this coffee journey that has taken me away from everything familiar. The memory of the newspaper crew and coffee geeks is especially vivid to me now, and the pictures bolster my nostalgia with a particular heft.