onion-bean

2006-11-28T11:38:00.000-05:00

Check it out over at the other blog page.

I have moved it here.

2006-11-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

Must resist temptation...........to....switch......to.....WORDPRESSSSSS..........

So what's the deal? I don't know what the advatages are. Is more user friendly? Can you post huge MP3 files on that thing without routing to hidden webhosting service? Becuse that would be awfully nice. Or is it just what all the cool kids are doing. I'n not knocking that, I would like to be cool someday too.

(EDIT- Holy crap, all the cool kids are doing it, it say so right on their own page)

Aida Batlle Reception and Cupping

2006-11-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

The reception held for Aida Batlle last night at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, N.C. Was a small intimate affair with about 20 people in attendance. I knew that she was in town because I read that she had made a stop at Pheasant Creek. Then, a few days ago, I received very short notice that would make a surprise visit to the shop where I work on Friday nights, but it was too short and I could not be there. I was delighted to find that a 12 oz bag of her Grand Reserve had been left behind, but more on that later. The relief I felt when I found out about the reception, and found out that I had a babysitter for the evening, was a great satisfaction.

My wife and I arrived to find a few people milling about the training and cupping room. This is wing of the CCC building that is roughly 700-900 square feet outfitted with a GB-5, FB-70, a towering Robur grinder, a Mahlkonig Guatemala grinder, an assortment of smaller Mazzers (I think that is the make) and their newest addition; the LaMarzzoco Swift. There are several tables, glasses, spoons, scales, and of course, the cupping grease board. Standing by the door was Peter Giuliano, pouring himself a cupping glass of red wine. I received bottled water, also in a cupping glass. That was all they had, cupping glasses.

There was a fantastic buffet of food (I don't know who catered) that included shrimp, crab cakes, sesame beef on a stick, and some crescent shaped stuffed and fried Indian things, the name of which I do not know. It seemed a little thin for the vegetarians, except for the Indian crescents, but I was told Gee was out of town, and he would be the only one to complain if he were present (I always imagined him eating ½ inch thick, red, runny, rare steak. You just never know). Every thing was delicious.

After everyone got their fill Peter Giuliano began to introduce Aida Batlle by prefacing that her humility and modesty prevented her from telling people about the CoE's that her coffees started winning immediately after she took over her father's coffee farms (her family has farmed coffee for 5 generations). The first year she entered samples, (around 2002, I forget the exact year) she broke a number of records: the first female farmer to win, the first to have two samples in the top 20, the first El Salvador to take first place. Peter listed some others that escape me.

After being praised for long enough, she began her slide show presentation. She spoke of how she went back to El Salvador, her country of origin (no pun), after having lived in the U.S.A., and having no coffee back ground herself. The farms were in bad shape as a result of pushing the trees to overproduce for so many years, only to fetch low mass market prices. In addition to the low monetary earnings, the shade grown trees had not been taken care of properly as all the efforts went into pushing the trees. Activities such as stumping (cutting trees back to 2 foot stumps to create new low growth), breeding, nursery growing, and proper pruning had not been done for a long time. Even though she had no direct knowledge of the coffee growing business, Aida said she understood very well that growing for quantity was sure to sacrifice quality, and she began to turn around the farming practices they used at the three farms she was now managing; Los Alpes, Finca Kilimanjaro, and Finca Mauritania. The farms are producing far less than they did in years past, but she now produces coffees
on par with some of the best coffees in the world. The peaberries that make up the Grand Reserve, which were selected from the best crops of each of the three farms, sold this year for 20 American dollars per pound, green. She admitted that she would have been perfectly happy (and only expected) to get $3.00 for it. She was going to auction a third of the micro lot among three American buyers, but then the buyers just offered her the $20 per lb. (under the suggestion of Peter Giuliano) and split the lot between them. She sold another third to buyer in Japan, and the last to a buyer in Norway. So you will have to go a long ways to find this coffee anywhere else in the world. And to think that just two years ago other coffee farmers were telling here she would not be able to give away peaberries, since there is no market for them (in El Salvador they are considered a defect, an aberration, a useless mutation) That is exactly what she did; she gave away her peaberries. I think she stated that her intention was to try to create a market where she perceived there was none.

When the presentation was over, there were a couple of Q & A's about some farming practices, and it turns out that changing over to organic practices has been an extremely expensive shift. The organic pesticides cost something in the neighborhood of 5 times more than the commercial products, and she started to buy organic chicken dung and manure, which is also very costly. The time spent on pruning and raising new saplings and taking care of the shade trees is much more exhaustive than the techniques of the late 20th century. But her inspection for her organic farming certification was just last month, in October of 2006, and she seemed confident about the results, which she will be getting back soon.

Then came the good stuff. Beans were weighed, water was boiled, spoons and spit cups were passed out to all who wished to partake in a traditional cupping. There were also several press pots plunged for those who wanted to sample the goods in a more “after dinner” style. Three of her coffees were presented in the cupping: Finca Mauritania, Grand Reserve, and a third which had no label or writing on the bag. I heard what it was called in passing but I don't remember now. They said they did not have a label made for it yet, but that Murky had made their own label for it. So if you are in the D.C. area, ask about Aida's “other” coffee. I got a whiff of Brandy fragrance, and it had a sweet flavor that made me think of raisins and dried figs. It also had a clear acidity and a marvelous velvety body.

I will let you find some Mauritania for yourself, but this entry would be incomplete without a run down of the Grand Reserve. The moment the hot water hit the grounds I caught a distinct fragrance of apricots. This happened on three different occasions (I have been drinking the stuff since Thanksgiving day). There was also and sweet brown sugar smell, and hint of lemon. I forgot to mention, the beans smell like candy in the bag. One CCC employee, Rich Futrell, described it to me as peanut butter cups before I mentioned the candy thing to him (a little validation goes a long way in such subjective efforts). I have had both medium and thick body sensations from different cuppings, and when it was thick it was fantastically rich. If you get a hold of some of this stuff try it with a long steep time, and despite the temptation to be stingy with such pricey coffee, make sure you are at the top of your ounces to water ratio. It will be well worth it.

The acidity of this coffee was astonishing to me in that it was unlike any I have previously experienced. It is no stretch to say I perceived a good deal of tart nectarine and sweet Mandarin orange. Like the sweet tart candies, it has that magical Yin Yang balance. This is an all around stellar coffee, and because of the extremely limited supply (I think 500 lbs in the whole world) it is wroth the $45 per 12 oz. bag.

The closeness I feel to this coffee, after meeting with the farmer and seeing photos of the people who pick and sort it by hand increased my appreciation for it all that much more. I'm really going to be working hard to increase the knowledge base of our customers to reel them into understanding these kinds of coffees, their scarcity and their value. Casual coffee drinkers could have their coffee drinking experience so much more enriched with the proper education. I have been talking to customers one at a time about these kinds of coffees, and even let one sample the Grand Reserve. I had him scared to spill a drop of it on the way to his table, and he loved it and appreciated it down to the dust at the bottom of his cup. Aida showed me how little I know and understand about the cultivation of coffee. There is so much work and sweat and manure and miles and lives and stainless steel between the farm and table, I doubt if anyone has more than a window of understanding into the whole journey of the bean from proverbial seed, to proverbial cup.

Aida's Grand Reserve

2006-11-23T18:11:00.000-05:00

I thought I let her slip through my hands, I had not sampled it when I had the opportunity. Then, out of nowhere, a sample showed up. Plus, I will be meeting Aida Battle this weekend at CCC.

Apricots, Nectarines, and Mandarin Oranges.

Barista Training - The Whole Team

2006-11-20T11:41:00.000-05:00

The mission: To train all the Baristas of an established coffee shop, and the G.M too.

The complication: Six of the Baristas, with experience ranging from 3 years to 3 months, have been working on all the equipment, having been trained in the "sink or swim", learn-through-osmosis tradition. The other 3 are new, thankfully, and will be the proverbial blank slate.

The problem with re-training Baristas who believe they have already been trained is that they believe they have already been trained. The ones that have been there the longest also believe that they know what's what, and have seniority. Salt is added to the injury in the fact that I have only been working at this shop for 7 months, and I only work on Friday nights. I try, however, to keep my mind open to knew knowledge and techniques. If something comes along that improves freshness, quality, increases public education, or in some way advances the industry, I would like to think that I will check it our and verify for myself before either incorporating it into my mental model, or writing it off. The average PBTC, I have noticed over the years, will accept certain things as truth from the beginning without having any understanding of why it is the truth. This can and does lead to a wide variety of myths and fallacies passed on from one Barista to the next. Let me illustrate with a "humorous anecdote".

Mama Jones teaches her daughter (son) how to prepare the Christmas (Passover) ham (Matzah balls, or ham, like my Jewish vegetarian friend Jonathan). Little Debbie (insert non insulting yet ethnic sounding name of either gender here) asked her mom why she has to cut three inches of ham off the end, and she says:

"My Momma always made it like that".

In a puzzled state of confusion, they called Grandma Jones to ask why, and her response was,

"My Momma always made it like that".

This was no better, so they called Great Grandma Jones to ask her.

"Great Grandma" they questioned, "why do you cut off the last three inches of ham?"

Her answer was simply this:

"I could never afford a lager pan, I cut off the part that didn't fit".

Baristas who are not given an understanding of why they need to perform certain procedures a certain way can and will propagate a habit to other Baristas without explanation. It seems that there are only a handful of Baristas who have the wherewithal to ask why. I have noticed that some will give reasons that make no logical sense, but that is what they have been told by others. I have also noticed that some Baristas will deliberately make up reasons because they have a hidden agenda, and they want things done their way for their own reasons.

It is a delicate task to cut and paste new information into an existing set of mores. One cannot expect to rush in and proclaim ultimate control of all procedures. New ways of doing things will be balked at. In cases where it is more convenient for the Barista to do the less fresh, lower quality procedure, there will be turbulence. The funny thing is, they will blame the customers buy saying if it takes longer to do something the customers will complain and become impatient. I wonder if they will be able to see the flaw in the philosophy of convenience before quality.

"If you can wait one minute, I'll have a perfectly fresh cup for you, thanks."
vs.
"I knew you would be in a hurry, so I had the closing staff grind all the coffee last night, it's all stale, but I'm saving you 30 seconds of your valuable morning."

It is true that specialty coffee shops are held in a dualistically oxymoronic view by the general public. We are supposed to provide them with a gourmet product of the highest quality. They expect a certain level of culinary achievement and an atmosphere of culture, all with the efficiency of the MacDonald's drive through window. At least once every Friday night I hear a customer plead with me for their drink while I am delivering someone else’s beverage to the counter.
"Excuse me, I had ordered the triple pumpkin spice skinny mocha."

I check my list of tickets, and sure enough, it will be one of the next two drinks to make. The problem is that they ordered the drink four minutes ago, and it is not ready yet. They automatically assume I lost the ticket. So there is a two fold educational journey upon which I must embark. The Baristas need to learn how to draw the best shots and build the best drinks without compromise. The customers must be brought into the fold and made to understand the caliber of beverage they are receiving. It is an entierly different thing to teach someone how to spark the imagination of a customer. There is a certain "je ne sais quoi" in the way one can talk about coffee to a customer that conveys a sense of passion and enthusiasm and love for the product. The ability to pull someone into the vortex, and grab them by the buds, is perhaps more of a chracteristic than a skill.

I don't expect everyone to be trouble, but I know there will be some problem areas. I fact, I know some of them are excited about getting things going towards a higher quality of product. The training process will go on for months just the get everybody in the shop up to snuff. By then someone will have gone back to school, taken another job, moved out of town. Then the knowledge will be passed on to someone new. I don't mind, I asked for this.

Red Mountain, Papua New Ginea

2006-11-16T20:41:00.000-05:00

I don't know much about this Papua New Guinea, the "Red Mountain". It just came into the shop today for the first time. The roasting would have been done just yesterday, and the ridiculous amount of gas it gave off would seem to support that. As soon as the hot water hit the inside of the beaker the grounds puffed up bigger than any coffee I have ever seen. The crust expanded and put out large bubbles like a seventh grade vinegar and baking soada volcano. I had to wait a minute just to add the rest of the water, after the grounds settled back down a bit.

There was a sweetness to the aroma that it was giving off that put me very much in mind of red velvet cake, if you know what that is. It's really just chocolate cake with enough red food coloring in it to wipe out half the cactus population in Mexico. But then I thought, just because they call it "Red" Mountain does not mean I have to envision red things in the flavor, does it? Then I came to my senses, it was caramel. It smelled like a dark molases enhanced caramel. For some reason, I always think of bread when I smell the coffee crust, but this another story; sweet caramel.

After plunging and pouring, I noticed that there was not the amount of oily residue floating on top, at least not as much as I expect from a plunged brew. There was, however, a very persistant foam that took a good 6-8 minutes to dissapate. I wish crema was as tenacious. Hmm, maybe this would be good in espresso, carmel, crema, try it out folks and see what you get.

The body seemed medium to thin, but not in a negative way. It was very much in balance with the very pleasant acidity which was lightly giving off a little grapefruit/tangerine, very lightly. A slight buttery mouthfeel complemented the the balanced acid/body very well too; the trifecta of tactile.

At this point I could swear my mouth was begining to warm up a bit, the way it would with spice. Not woody spice like cloves or nutmeg, but like red peppers? No, it seemed not quite that intense, ginger I think. Not the flavor of the ginger, but the heat of it.

One of the really pleasant things about this coffe was the way the aftertaste came on as a kind of sweentness, and then sharply trailed off to a mild hint, a shadow of the beautifully balanced appeal it had in the begining. The acidity became more prominent as it cooled off, which gave it a crispness that was just approaching the cusp of some African coffees, but still held on to its clean Indonesian roots.

This was an excellent coffee that would go very well as an after dinner beverage, rounding off a filling a thick textured meal. But I get the feeling you would need a vanilla dessert, not chocolate. So if you are into coffe and food pairings, that would be my recomendation.

(edit: I just realized that apparently Daniel Humphries and Daryn Berlyn are also thinking of drawing straight shots of this stuff, follow the same link in "get to know your roasters")

Press Release

2006-11-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

Baristas, get to know your roaster!

2006-11-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

Read this blog entry for some insight into the Roaster/Barista relationship, and think about how you can contribute to the growing knowledge of coffee and espresso. It has been a fortnight or two since the Americans threw away all that perfectly good tea, only to replace it with a beverage so completly misterious that it's proper preparation remains an enigma, wrapped in a parchment, embeded in a cherry. The bean, like an onion, continues to reveal layer after layer of new flavors, nuances, techniques, tehchnologies, as well as myths and missinformation. Let us not peel on our own, but join together in the fight against blackend beans, big gulp beverages, and high fructose concoctions. Now, if you will excuse me, I feel like a nice tall glass of Lipton ice tea.

My New Position at the Shop

2006-11-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

My infectious enthusiasm, effervescent passion, and constant hunger for new information and techniques related to coffee and it's preparation have translated into recognition from the Boss man. I work part time at a coffee shop owned by someone who's main occupation as an investment banker keeps him at a arm's length from the day to day goings on of his retail venture. As a coffee enthusiast, he wants the shop to produce top quality, but he dosen't have the time or energy to be the one to spread the right attitude amoung the workers himself. Lucky for him I came along, attracted by the quality of the source beans they use, and a ever-present need to handle a portafilter and pull shots on commercial equipment. After six months on the job, working only Friday nights, I have had the position of "Director of Coffee Operations" (or some such or other title) created for me.

Among my new duties include Barista training of all new employees (and well as refresher training of veteran Baristas), creation and implementation of all coffee making and drink building standards for the shop, and customer education of all aspects of coffee from the donkey to the demi-tasse. I have a very clear vision of what I believe the shop could be doing, and a crystal clear path laid out to get it there. If any lesson of life stands out for me at this point, however, it is to be ready for any possible twists, turns, and forks in the road. This challenge I will meet with the zeal and fervor required to accomplish any idealogical objective.

For all you small batch roasters of fine coffees sourced from the best places and best farmers on the planet, keep an open ear for my order of small quantities of your exotic and delicious product. I will be featuring the top beans from the best roasters to suppliment our inventory, and to educate the local coffee drinking public. I hope to expand the exprerience of enough customers to raise the bar for other shops in the area, and raise the standards and expectations of the market.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to put a fresh blade in the hack saw, and bolt the grinder on to the work bench. Our portafilters have a little too much crotch.

P.S. I just put the photos up because I like to keep the blog visually stimulating.

The Misty Valley Indido Yirg

2006-11-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Peter Giuliano, Counter Culture's director of coffee, met a coffee farmer named Bagersh while traveling int the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. It seems Bagersh had a little experiment going on, whereby he was sun-drying some beans, in the ancient Yirgacheffe tradition. This is only unusual in light of the fact that all coffees from that renown region have been washed ever since 1958. So the sun-dried product is a bit of a technological regression, even though one could say that is how it has always been done. The 48 years of washing beans is just a drop in the bucket when you take in the big picture. However, the clean, lemony, bright floral characteristics we associate with Yrigacheffes is all that we have in our living memory of these great coffees (I realize there are some senior coffee drinkers who may remember this style, please let us know if you are still out there). This throw-back flavor has an entirely different dimension, making it infinitely more complex than what we have gotten accustomed to. This is an amazing coffee that knocked me over from the moment I opened the bag.

(Edit: Bagersh is a coffee merchant, not a farmer, so I think he has contacts on farms who are drying the beans in the sun.)

My first impression, after recovering from my school girl swooning experience of the powerful cocoa and berry aroma, was that the beans were covered with some kind of powder. I thought it might just be the shadow of the bag in the bright Autumn sunlight creating a visual abnormality, but when I got them inside they still appeared strange. They look powdery gray, like they have been dusted with fine chalk, and the color has a light brown and dry matte quality. The size of the individual bean is very small, which is not unusual for Ethiopian coffee.

The flavor from the French press still has everything that I have come to expect from a Yirgacheffe. It was citrissy, with Jasmine flower accents, and had smooth and rounded body. There was also a dry mouthfeel while still seeming a little thick. But along with this was a powerful berry aromatic, like black and blue berries and some cherry. I thought there was a big chocolaty component, like cocoa powder. To drink it was almost like having a confection.

I want to finish the bag myself, but I suppose my co-workers at the coffee shop aught to have a taste, and my wife probably wants some too. One fellow Barista is actually waiting to brew his pound of it till he finds a grinder he likes.

Please send in those pictures of Soy latte art, read here for the prized you could win if you've got the right stuff.

Treat your Tastebuds to something New!!!

2006-11-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

This is not meant to enhace your coffee enjoyment.

She must have a potty mounth.

My mom always had a cushion that looked like a tomato, I don't think she ever tried it like this.

I just thought you needed to see this.

You can find the rest of her pics here.

2006-11-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

For those who have been here before, I have changed the look of the page, because I thought the other one looked too much like Martha Stuwart's 1970 cigar room wallpaper.

And by the way, this is my fixed, but forever horny cat. His name is Nearly Normal Norman KneeHigh.

2006-11-04T03:11:00.000-05:00

I have come to find out that I have been brewing coffee at home in an unusual way, although I never realized it was strange untill the other day. While using a Chemex brand brewing decantor, I developed a technique for using paper filter that are not Chemex type filters, and another technique that achieves a French Press type of flavor.

If you have ever seen a Chemex filter, you will know that you can not simply subsitute them with any old thing. They appear stupidly oversized to the uninitiated, because they aren not pleated , crimped, rippled, or otherwise designed to fit into a basket. These things are perfectly flat circular sheets of filter paper with a diameter of about 12" or 14" (I don't have one in front of me at the moment to measur). The top of the Chemex is an inverted cone with a radius to match the shape of the filter which has been folded in the proper "Chemex" fashion. One must fold it in half, then fold the semi circular half in half to create a pie wedge shape that is a 1/4 circle. Popping open from the curved end makes it flare out to form the cone, which is placed in the top of the Chemex. The paper must be stiff enough not to buckle and fall into the bottom of the "hour glass" when wet, and large enough to keep all the grounds and water from spilling over the top. I havn't held one of these things in my hands for some 13 years now.

About 14 years ago I got a set of Chemex decantors at a yard sale. They were old even then, maybe 10-15 years old already. My roomate at the time kept one of them, and I got to keep two, one small size and one family size. The smaller one has been smashed for a decade now, but the large one (it holds more that a "12 cup" Mr. Coffee pot) lives on. It has a large shard chipped out of the top cone, but there is enough left to hold filters.

The official paper filters are not a common grocery store item. I have never seen them in departments stores either. I have not checked Willima Sanoma, but their stuff is usually out of my price range anyhow. That is why I began to use a gold filter in conjuction with the Chemex. I do not know what brand my filter is, but it is some metalic mesh with a "golden" color. I picked it up at the supermarket next to the Millstone and 8 o'clock display for maybe $5.00. It is not a perfect cone, it is made to replace #4 filters in some brand of auto drip machine. For this reason it does not fit perfectly into the top of the Chemex, but as long as one point of the gold filter is Keyed into the pouring slot it is quite suitable.

Using one of two methods, (please refer to the photo montage) I can replicate the flavor profiles of either the traditional Chemex method or the French Press. These are the two brewing methods most used by coffee roaster and coffee industry specialist. There are a couple of other unique decantor types, but the brewing principals are the same. The paper filter hold back certain coffee oils, and when the right temperature and brewing taboos are observed, one can make a clear, sweet, smooth, low acid coffee with a silky mouthfeel. The French Press allows these oils to pass through the wire mesh which brings out subtle floral or fruity notes, big birghtness in the acidity, and lets the beans shine with all their might. It also gives me heart burn and always has a muddy residue that settles to the bottom of the cup. The trick is to allow the particulate matter to settle by handeling the cup very gently and allowing only the most necessarry disturbances of the brew. The heart burn is something I am more than happy to put up with.

For the Traditional Chemex flavor I use a typical ruffled melita paper basket filter (my wife got a BJ's membership and came home with a pack of 600). I flatten it and fold it in half. The I fold in the two corners from a point off center to replicate the basic shape of a #4. Of course, you could just use a #4 filter, but that wouldn't be a cool technique specially devised by yours truely. At this point, just follow proper cone filter etiquette and your dreamy Prince Charming will take you to the ball.

To achieve the French Press flavor, simply omit the paper. Using the correct grind for my mesh filter, I place the appropriate amout of grounds in the filter and ad just enough hot filtered water to soak all the grounds without dripping down into the bottom of the hour glass. I wait plus or minus two minutes for the bloom, depending on the coffee, before adding the rest of the water, which is waiting on a heat source. This gives them time to expand as they take in moisture, and give off a lot of CO2, which is copiously expelled and inflates the bed of grounds like a pregnant lady. This is where it gets tricky, and I concentrate on three things here as I pour the remaining water:

1- Don't soak any part of the grounds more or less than any other part.

2- Don't pour the water directly through the side of the screen or it will pass without steeping any grounds.

3- Don't float the gournds by pouring fast or they will stick to the sides as the water level falls, leaving unsteeped grounds high and dry.

I think it is also important at this stage to time it so that the ground are not in contact with the water for more than four minutes from the first drop till the point when all the water has passed through the grounds. The result is a slightly cloudy brew with briliant and full flavor, like you might expect from a great French Press. All of this is assuming you are using very freshly ground coffee, very good quality beans, and an expertly roasted product. Obviously you don't need the Chemex to do this; you could place the gold filter in the top on any container you want your coffee to flow into. This includes but is not limited to: your cup, another brand of glass decantor, a thurmos bottle, some glass slipper you picked up at the ball. So long as the thing doesn't fall off the top or tilt over you are good to go.

I am not any sort of expert, master, or guru on the subject, as such, but simply some guy with an old beat up jar who happens to live close by to one the best roasting companies in the world. The coffee used in the photos is an organic Bolivian coffee from Counter Culture, and it was roasted about 28 hours before this brewing. I hope you enjoy similar results in your cup.

2006-10-21T03:04:00.000-04:00

If you check out the Counter Culture Coffee web site you will see that for a limited time you can order some of the winning espresso from this years South Eastern Regional Barista Competition. This is Nick Cho's tribute to Aida Battle, the El Salvadorian coffee farmer praised for her passion and zeal for great coffees. The blend is available in very limited quantities because, well, there just isn't that much of the great coffees that make it up.

I was in their training center in Durham this afternoon to meet with some of the fine folks about some ideas I have to propel the shop in which I work to the forefront of the industry (Clover?), and they left me alone for a good half hour and told me to make myself comfortable, and there in the big black Robur was Nick's blend. I was told to help myself.

I pulled 3 doubles, just to make sure I was getting it right. After sipping a bit of the first two, and finishing off the third, I was satisfied that I had teased out most of what I was going to be able to get from it. This must have been pretty fresh from the roast, as the crema was as bubbly as a kitchen sponge, but I felt like I had just eaten a fruit cup. This was a flavor that was really outside the box as far as espresso goes, but there was nothing I found offensive about it. In fact, I greatly admired the balance, the big juicy citrus fruitiness, and the soft dissipating after taste as a well rounded and complete experience. There was absent many of the features one usually expects to get from a blend that is based in a Brazilian, but there was no dissappointment. These shots all had a sleek and sensual body that I would easily expect to see in a Victoria Secret advertisement.

Later on, as others came in for their daily 2:00 p.m. shots, as is the tradition at Counter Culture, the discussion carried on about the nature of Nick's Champion blend. It was generally agreed upon that the all El Salvador espresso was analogous to the fashion industry. While Intelligentsia's Black Cat could be said to be a three piece suit, and Counter Culture's Toscano an evening gown, Nick Cho's blend was more like something you would see on the runway. It is not necessarily something most people could pull off wearing to work any day of the week, but it can certainly be appreciated as Haute Couture. This coffee makes a statement. Maybe it says something about the nature of single origin espresso, maybe it is about the whole Seed-to-Cup nature of the coffee experience that is so easily overlooked by the average consumer. Either way, the statement has decibels behind it.

If you get the chance to order a pound of this, do it. I think it is a little piece of history that will soon vanish from the face of the earth. Other great coffees and blends will surly come and go, but each one is like a child. Character and personality manifest in each one in a unique way that can never be duplicated in exactly the same expression of life.

Matt Riddle

2006-10-17T10:20:00.000-04:00

Matt Riddle,
originally uploaded by PeaberryPicker.

See my exciting and awe inspiring photos from the Barista Olympics. These were games held at Counter Culture Coffee the night before the South Eastern Regional Barista Championship. Matt Riddle, National chapion and designer for Intelligencia of Chigago, was the suprize guest. Also Daniel Humphries, Director of Coffee for Cafe Grumpy in Brookly (and now Manhattan too), was coicidentally in town for some scrumtious cuppings with Peter Gulliano.

There were trivia questions, gasket ring toss, a decaf taste test, guess how many beans, and a little chest beating as the boys tried out the LaMarzocco GB5.

I have been sitting on these photos for a little while now, so I figured I would go ahead and get a free Flickr account, and I hit my monthly limit on the first day. That's where they get you, now I'll have to pay to post the rest of my SERBC photos, or wait till next month. Dang.

2006-10-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

The Great Soy Challenge is on. Stockton, Graham & Co. are the official sponsors, and these will be the prizes.

1st place
=====
1 Espresso 101 VHS tape
1 Espresso thermometer
1 Measured shot glass
1 Frothing spoon
1# Midnight Lotus Espresso
1 Stockton Graham & Co. Coffee mug
3 Stockton Graham & Co. Luggage tags
1 Cupping spoon
1 Coffee scoop

2nd Place
=======
1# Midnight Lotus Espresso
1 Stockton Graham & Co. Coffee mug
3 Stockton Graham & Co. Luggage tags
1 Cupping spoon
1 Coffee scoop

These will be the Official rules.

1- Must be soy- open to any brand, we are, after all, trying to flush out the best brand and the proper steaming/frothing technique.

2- Must be free pour- the idea is to achieve free flowing, pourable, near mirofoam texture.
-Rosettas-Hearts-Shooting Hearts (the Bronwen style)-anything you can pour, so no etching. I don't have anything against etching, per se, but it is not conducive to the goal of finding good soy foam.

3-Size doesn't matter...really..... no I'm serious, I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. Even Machiattos, they are so cute.

4-Hot Cocoa counts

5-Pros and Home Enthusiasts are both eligible

EDITED 10-15-06

6-You may send in multiple entries

Entries must be sent gmail account that begins with my name, philproteau.

EDITED 10-15-06
Please include technical info-Brand of soy, amount of streching, final soy temperature, special pouring techniques (unless it is a secret).

The contest will run from now till November 24th, I reckon that is the day after Thanksgiving (that is an American Holiday that involves eating large amounts of turkey, potatos, and cranberry gelatin, followed by heavy drinking, and topped off with hearing about how much of a dissapointment you have been to your entire family, not be confused with Canadian Thanksgiving wich is on a different day, and has less gun play).

After that I will post the pics on the blog to count votes, which should be sent to the same email account.

I will not be participating in a competitive manner, and I have no personal or financial affiliation with the sponsoring company.

Good luck

2006-10-08T15:31:00.000-04:00

Send me those pictures of your Soy Milk Latte Art, I'll be picking the best one and crowing the King and Queen of Soy.

Here I am in the parking lot of Iron Gate Vinyard just outside Mebane N.C. I don't drink the stuff, so I can't tell you what it is like, but they have a very micro set up you can look through if the wine maker or her husband happen to be in when you stop by. Otherwise you can just sit at the bar and try one of every thing.

2006-10-07T12:27:00.000-04:00

It's Soy, Baby!!

I have never had much luck with soy latte art. This is the first success I have had with it, so I hearby publicly pose the Soy Challenge. I am sure there must be some good stuff out there, I just have not see any posted though any of the usual outlets.

So here it is people, you got anything better, then bring it!

Submit it to philproteau(don't type this)@(same here)gmail.com, and I will be happy to crown the King and Queen of Soy. If you can take it to the hoop with Rice Milk, Egg Beaters, Non-dairy Powder, or Sour Cream, you can have your own special category too.

Any retailors who want to sponsor with the donation of a prize, you are welcome to contact me as well, but we do it for bragging rights, mostly (but material goods are never frowned upon).

2006-10-06T11:05:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago (on October 4) I was poking fun at corporate coffee companies and their tendency to put out flavored coffees, which has now been exacerbated by the move toward flavoring with registered trade marked name brand items. I satirically propsed that Jay Caragay, of Jay's Shave Ice, was putting out a meat flavored coffee.

To my total astonishment, he is appearently planning something along those lines for the judges at the next USBC. Please see this thread posted (on October 5) in You Know Where.

Did I plant the seed of an idea, or was it just the natural progression?

The real news will always be funnier than the crap we can make up.

2006-10-05T15:54:00.000-04:00

Here are some mushrooms I had in my yard this summer after the tropical storm rains came through. The tiny abundant ones are inky caps, they melt into black liquid after one day. The tall white one is Amanita Phlloides, The Destroying Angel, and it is deadly. I wounder what kind of flavored coffee that would make.

2006-10-04T11:11:00.001-04:00

Even the independents are now feeling the squeeze of those crafty Megalacorporate chains. Demand has been created in the market for these name branded flavored coffees, so much so that if you want to stay in business and stay competitive you have to march in step.

Jay Caragay, of the famed Jay’s Shave Ice in Timonium, Maryland, has introduce a new flavor that is sure to appeal the greatest cross section of the coffee consuming public. Using his patent pending spice recipe and super secret cooking technique, he has managed to put his rib flavor into specialty coffee. I can’t believe he has caved into the pressure after maintaining such high standards for so long.

Apparently, even industry insiders are embracing the new marketing device. I overheard Cindy Chang, Barista Competition organizer and long time employee of Counter Culture Coffee, telling a co-worker that she even uses Jay’s new flavored coffee as dry rub before grilling meets. And I thought she was a vegetarian.

Legal disclaimer

Please don’t take this seriously, though it’s not that far from the real truth of the industry, and many thanks and apologies to Jay Caragay and Cindy Chang.

2006-10-03T10:03:00.000-04:00

Does anybody know about Seattle's Best Coffee? This is the corporate coffee company that is getting ready to take over cafe operations for a certain mega internationally spread book store that originated in middle America. The book conglomerate, which owns mega book superstores, mall based intermediate book stores, and I think a brand of news stand (at least they did in the not so distant past) has something in the neighborhood of 400 cafes around the world.

A little back story on them would be appropriate. On the web site for Seattle's Best they claim to have been one of the pioneer coffee roasters of Seattle in the 70's, and were crowned as the best coffee in a coffee tasting contest. Who else entered, we are not told, nor are we told who the judges were other than to say it was held at a "local restaurant". It couldn't have been a MacCafe, because they weren't around quite yet. They have a photo of their neon sign hanging from the facade of a building, and in the background, creating a visual parley with the main subject of the composition, you can plainly see the erected signage that spells out "PUBLIC MARKET". Now if that is not a silly thing to associate your coffee business with, I don't know what is.

They also have a variety of flavored coffees, which in and of itself is not unusual. But they have a strange hybrid of flavored coffee. They have married the traditional high fructose corn syrup with the trade marked, registered, intellectual property of other businesses. For instance, they
offer the Cinnabon® Flavored Coffee. One cup for breakfast, one for lunch, and a sensible dinner, and you are on your way to that size 3 bikini just in time for spring break. Since when does the flavor of a flavored coffee have a little R in a circle? I am not really sure what the implications of such marketing strategies for name branding this may have, but I have a really bad gut reaction to it. I'll have to sleep on it to figure this one out.

The icing on the cinnamon flavored bun is this, Starbucks owns Seattle's Best Coffee since 2003. They were very well aware of their reputation as the nations second biggest retailer of charcoal, right behind Kingsford. In an attempt to scoop up the other piece of the pie graph, they needed an outlet for what they describe as coffee with "smooth flavors". Presumably that means coffee that is not roasted so dark, or unsmooth. But this is not about bashing Starbucks, this is about the bookstore.

The cafes in the book superstore giant, (O.K., I'll go ahead and tell you, it is Borders) have suffered for at least a decade from a lack of freshness from the roasters to the cup. The beans are roasted, stored in warehouse, shipped, stored in a warehouse, shipped again, then sit on the shelf in the cafe for a week or tow before brewing. But what has been more harmful are the blends themselves. The brewed coffee house blend is sour with notes of saltiness. This is good on a potato chip, or in BBQ sauce, but there is a time and place for these things, and its not in a cup of coffee, ever. And it has tasted the same for years, so it is not just a bad batch.

I would have to say that when they complete the transition, the quality of the product at the book store cafe will no doubt improve, and quite frankly, I count on the corporate giants to provide a "gateway" product to pull people into the specialty coffee market. I just wish they would get off the notion of flavored coffee. If you don't want the taste of coffee in you drink,
please, order a Mt. Dew.

2006-10-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

Here I am just after my press confrence with Don King, that was when I predicted finising in the top 3 next year. That is my Mom in the middle, she was so tickled to meet Don.

2006-10-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

I hope my double jointed jaw dose not get too displaced as I live out next year with my foot in my mouth. My dentist is already concerned about the tooth grinding and the lip biting.

Having been cited by this blog, popular in the "Third Wave" community, I will be held accountable for my prediction of placing in the top three at next year's SERBC.

With a mouth like Muhamad Ali, I better bring it next year, floating and stinging, with syle and grace, and keep my promise. The practice and planning never stops. Possible ingredience for my next sig bev include:

-cuccumber
-Star fruit
-Tomatillos
-Sun dried tomatoes
-Rasins
-Tincture of St. John's Wart (a happy judge is a high scoring judge)
-Juniper Berries
-Silver cupcake sprinkels, both balls and cylinders (Freudian slip unintended)

2006-09-30T18:47:00.000-04:00

Nick Cho is the 2006 Southeaster Regional Barista Champion, and he really is beloved by most folks in the industry. He is a tremendous representaive for specialty coffee, an advocate of Barista as a serious and respected career option, he is director of the Barista Guild of America, and has served as MC for regional barista competitions as well as this year's World Barista Championship. He is also a good sport and a genuinly nice guy and family man. If you are ever in the Washington D.C. area, stop in at his coffee shop call Murky Coffee, it is really really gooooooood.

The poeple surrounding his photo are at the reception for the competition, held at 3 cups in Chapell Hill, North Carolina, and they are all teasing him with the "I heart Nick Cho" button and the Barista Action Figure. He had not yet won the competion when I took their photos that night. In the upper center you can see Nic himself, just moments after his phenomenal performace, still in his silk shirt and tie, about 30 minutes before the official scores were anounced.

He ask me in a completely sincere and genuine manner "how did it look from out there?". I told him "Man, it was absolutly beautiful, and masterfully executed."

2006-09-29T14:17:00.000-04:00

Here I can be seen battling my nemesis, Mothra, with my giant Ego towering over downtown Tokyo. Mothra is using his mind numbing powers to make the clock run out on me, but if I can just douse his delicate wing scales with scolding hot espresso, maybe I stand a chance for next year. Plus a little planning and some well timed practice won't hurt either. Must.... pay...attention...to....time....pick up.....pace....

2006-09-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

Time to buff that portafilter.

2006-09-28T10:52:00.002-04:00

Shortly after my Humiliating Disqualification at the Southeastern Regional Barista Championship, I have launched my own blog to chronicle my rise to the top three next year. All that training and planning was not in vain, as I bring home a wealth of new experience. I am armed with amunition to beat my nemisis, the clock, no wait, that was Lem's nemisis. Let's see, my nemisis will be, well, I guess I'll have to take Mothra untill the Clock becomes available again. Lem did come in under time this year, so maybe the Clock has a slot just now openning up. Well see, but untill till then, Mothra, you better watch out!