Globe piece on 11 shops in metro

The Boston Globe's Kathleen Pierce covered the specialty drinks of 11 shops in the metro.  An interesting insight into our community through the view of signature beverages.  It was however unfortunately titled '
11 coffee shops that put Boston on the map'.  Probably an editorial decision but not the tact of the article nor accurate.

The article is a nice plug for several spaces in the metro and could constitute a fun cafe crawl.  If we were doing a list of the coffee spots that put Boston on the map, it would be a shorter list for sure starting with Simon's and Diesel (for different reasons) but after that most of the shops we'd mention are definitely in the last three years.

The point I'd love to add to the article or at least express due to the title is that our coffee community has existed for a long time and has been building steam slowly against what had been a lot of resistance from shop owners/roasters.  Our coffee community and this new culture did not suddenly come into existence with the influx of a few national roasters and the posturing they've brought.  It has been viral.  An insistent pushing and prodding from the ground up by those at the front line.  It has been barista driven more than shop owner/roaster driven so far, though we are working as a roaster to support that change as much as possible.  Over the last 4 years as a company, we are proud of the influence we've had but realistic that what has happened is due in large part to our counterparts serving up the coffee.  Humbling to look back and see the  changes that have happened but also exciting to look forward.

NERBC, things to look for

We've been lucky to work with two competitors this year who will be in the mix. Keep an eye out for Calen Robinette of Voltage coffee and Brandon Duff of RBCNYC. Both have high expectations of executing the routines they've been polishing for the NERBC stage.

Calen is doing a coffee cherry theme around fresh crop (literally weeks off the patio) Hacienda Santa Rosa's Buena Esperanza Alfaro. After meeting the owner, Gustavo Alfaro, Calen made Esperanza his coffees of choice.  The espresso is a pairing of a rare Mundo Nuevo lot and a seperately grown Tekisik lot. Both are grown at 1800m which makes the Mundo Nuevo turn out as a bit of an over achiever given common expectations for this varietal based on cuppings of lower elevation plantings. Both coffees are also stellar picks, as Edwin Martinez puts it 'unusually ripe and even cherry'. The same patio day of Mundo Nuevo for Calen was pulped and the remaining fruit was prepped as Cascara.  The freshness and extreme ripeness of the cascara made for a suprisingly pleasant tasting whereas many we've tried have been quite dissappointing (especially in comparison) Calen also plans to use some of Gustavo's coffee flower honey as well in his signature drink.

Brandon is planning on using our Soma espresso, a pairing of two Guatemalan coffees with a Kenya. The Guatemalan coffees are Las Rosas (Huehuetenango) and Miriam de Villanueva's El Bosque (right outside of Antigua) while the Kenya is our Othaya. Brandon bar tends on the side and his approach for sig drink will be that of a cocktail. Current secret version looks tight and brings a clever approach to sig drinks that will be fun and tasty.Brandon placed in the finals last year so keep an eye on him and his trajectory in the competitions.

Coffee community

One of the biggest driving forces locally has been the Boston TNT.  It was definately inspired by the Providence coffee society and the Tulip Tuesdays Providence Throwdown.  It is really not roaster focused and remains really laid back and approachable.

This is a contrast to the heavily roaster driven and branded events in other major cities. Having been to many of these, it often felt like a sales outreach by one aggressive company rather than a true community driven event.  That really kept many of us from having one here until seeing how well the ones in Providence were run.

The key was keeping sales people at bay and making the shop it was being hosted at the focus. This made for a really relaxing event where turnout peaked over a hundred for the first Boston TNT and was solid for the most recent.  The diversity of shops represented as well was most impressive to me and yet no tension or posturing.

A big piece to that has been shops like Voltage and Render which bridged what has been a very tight and active coffee community in Cambridge to the rest of the larger community.  Living on either side of the Charles means you don't visit the other side that much. The TNT changed that and merged the Boston and Cambridge communities for now.

A big thanks to those involved and please keep supporting the TNT.

Branding roast

After the On Point piece, I realized clearly we don't talk as much about roast level as other roasters do.  We talk about matching the right brew method up with the right coffee more than the roast degree.  The reasoning is that we don't want to throttle customers with our opinions or 'ideology', we want to focus on the right match.  That is in theory doing our best job to present a range of coffees we feel strongly about and making sure customers can take an experience home more times than not that they will enjoy.  It is in the end about customers finding some level of attachment to the farm brand (and therefore the producer).

Though there are fewer and fewer trying defend the losing argument that is dark roasting somehow equals quality, a light roast does not guarantee quality coffee in itself either.  That's the issue at hand, which is better, and we decide not to talk about it most of the time.

For me personally, I do not enjoy dark roasts.  I do not therefor roast into second crack on our coffees.  We may be the only local roaster whose lineup is roasted between first and second but that often escapes the discussion when others are branding themselves as light roasters and we are silent on the issue.  It is my suggestion that if you are to take the mantle that light roasts equal quality, your company should boldly abandon roasting french roasts, vienna roasts, South Italian, and all other roasts that are focused on dark.  You can't have it both ways and still be sincere.

While I may not enjoy dark roasts, there are very few good light roasters out there.  More times than I can count I've been served up grassy and underdeveloped roasts that seemed more about getting the lightest possible aesthetic color than palatable drink.  It is that same astringency and unpleasant acidity that shows up in poorly done dark roasts that is even more intense and stomach churning in poorly done light roasts.  The few good light roasters there are seem to be frustratingly inconsistent which compounds the consumer perception of what light roasts are.

When someone says they don't like a light roast, I'm never shocked because a lot of things have to line up to make a good cup.  That's why we put our focus on brewing it correctly and trying to teach our customers how to take that experience home.  It is a barista focus for sure but it has helped us immensely moving forward.

In the meantime, we are going to continue refining what we've been doing and keep moving forward.

Found two bags of old coffee

While collecting items in our kitchen coffee setup to cup late night, I came across these two bags.  The design is one I worked on with Lex Nemzer and I still like it a lot.  It really brought me back.

I am now cupping this against a 'blonde roast' and some of our newer coffees late night to get ready for radio time Friday morning.   I only opened the Costa to try now, saving the other for the late. Honestly, it still had some character but not a bit of surface oil which considering how old it is I was impressed.  The flavor though was quite stale compared to fresh coffees so it was not all that unexpected.

Lesson, drink fresh coffee, store the labels for posterity. It was really fun to look back at the old label to remind me what an uphill battle it had been to push quality the way we have.  Glad to see things progressing so quickly these days.

On Point

Our own Jaime van Schyndel will be joining Tom Ashbrook for a segment on NPR's On Point tomorrow morning Feb 10th at 11:00am. The topic? Light roast coffee. Tune in to 90.0 WBUR for a live broadcast or listen anytime after the broadcast online.

A busy week

Friday the 13th was the Reanimator event at Voltage. It was a great turnout on a cold night to drink beers and watch a movie. There was no competition but a heck of a lot of camaraderie. A big thanks to Lucy and Voltage for being gracious hosts as well as our own Steve Jaunzemis (future dwelltime'r) for putting the event together. We are excited to see many more events in that space over the next year.

This past Tuesday, Ben Pratt, Tyler, Pete, and I went to the Providence Coffee Society throw down held at New Harvest Roasters. It was a great event and a lot of fun. They set it up as a latte art competition with single elimination rounds. I ended up dusting off the old steaming pitcher and getting back into the fray. Oddly enough, it was Ben vs myself in the final round and Ben edged me out ever so slightly! Since Ben won, he chose me as his partner for the next event which was a one arm latte art throw down. That meant I was the left arm and Ben was the right arm for espresso all the way through latte art. Needles to say, it was fun even though we had little success in that one.

On Thursday night was the big event at dwelltime, the first Boston TNT of what will be a monthly recurring industry event. Pete Cannon, who will move over from barismo to dwelltime has been a main organizer for this not for profit barista focused event and is owed a lot of credibility for it's success. A special thanks to Jack's Abbey for donating a coffee beer with our El Bosque Yellow. The turnout according to the sign in book topped 100! Huge success and congrats to Chuck for taking the prize money. Next month, we'll have to go take it back when Render Coffee hosts the next one.

This Saturday we had several appointments in NYC and ended up dropping by the hugely hyped Coffee Common pop up. It inspired to start thinking that our local coffee community could easily arrange something focused around the quality local roasters we have here. Talking about fresh roast, fresh ground, and fresh brew methods with quality local roasters would be a lot of fun and would be easy to organize. As a small batch regional roaster, it seems odd there are so many events with roasters and people from the opposite coast when the talent and quality coffee exists here to support such endeavors.

That was a busy week with a lot of educational experiences a nd a lot of fun in between. We are looking forward to doing a lot more in the coming months and really getting back to tastings and events the way we had int he past. Keep an eye on our twitter for updates going forward.

Re-Animator Tasting and Screening this Friday

This Friday, Voltage Coffee and Barismo are teaming up for a tasting of our Re-Animator espresso. The tasting will also feature a screening of the cult classic, and the espresso’s namesake, Re-Animator. Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader said of the movie, “it's this kind of flat-footed stuff that gives garbage a bad name.” You’re gonna LOVE IT! Clown Shoes, one of our favorite breweries, will be providing the good libations. Here are the details:

What: Re-Animator Screening & Tasting
Where: Voltage Coffee, 295 3rd Street, Cambridge, MA
When: This Friday, the 13th of January, from 7-10PM

This event is open to members of the coffee community and press only. Please RSVP at stephen@barismo.com.

-Stephen.

Limited release Jack's Abby beer with Barismo coffee available tonight.

Tonight at Redbones in Davis Square, Somerville, there will be a small batch of Smoke and Dagger from Jack's Abby on cask. This beer has been dry-hopped with our Kenya Ruthangati. Jack's Abby produces some of the most delicious craft lagers around. We're really excited to see how this beer came out. We'll see you at the Bones!

Christmas hours

We will close on Christmas eve at 4pm and be closed Christmas day and the day after. We will reopen on Tuesday with normal hours.

Don't wait until the last minute for that retail bag of coffee, plan ahead.

Buena Esperanza Alfaro

Gustavo at barismo

Technically speaking, Buena Esperanza Alfaro is a lot from Hacienda Santa Rosa in Huehuetenango, Guatemala owned by Gustavo Alfaro. It's a separate plot at about 1800m that we picked up because of a unique varietal. Well, it's not exactly unique, it's a varietal that rightfully doesn't get a lot of respect because where it's commonly grown is fairly low elevation (mostly in Brazil) with poorer results. We're talking about Mundo Nuevo, which would cause many a seasoned coffee pro to do a double take and question whether it could be good and why someone would plant it this high.  It's actually exceptional at this high elevation on his farm and has gotten rave reviews out of the gate from top barista locally. It was a bit of a competition to get this coffee from him after word got out about how it was cupping.  When we tasted it blind, it stood out in a big way and still holds up in production. It has been uniquely honey crisp apple (a note that shows up in many of  the Santa Rosa coffees) while floral pear blossom on the nose followed macadamia nut and nougat in the cup.  Next to the lot of Mundo Nuevo, there is some Tekisik that should have a good yield next crop for a more traditional bourbon style Huehuetenango offering. There are plans to plant some experimental lots as well, including some African varietals, so the hopes are high at the aptly named 'good hope'.

Gustavo with Simon at Simon's

The owner of Hacienda Santa Rosa is the charismatic and creative Gustavo Alfaro, a fourth generation owner of Santa Rosa. Gustavo recently came out to visit us and we chose to do a quick cafe crawl. It was a great experience where many ideas were exchanged over a lot of coffee and good food with friends. Gustavo made instant relationships among the community as we visited shops and did our best to be good hosts.

In it's essence, we were explaining both his story and the personalities of those that would be representing his coffees. Both Gustavo and those he met gained from the experience in a lot of ways.  We feel like he came away with a clear understanding for the strong community that exists here, not just the excitement, but truly the sincerity behind it.

Calen and Gustavo at Voltage

Gustavo had one strong commentary after tasting our Zone10 espresso, an all Guatemala espresso named after the Zona Viva in Guatemala City.  He wanted us to change it to Zona10 and to have just his coffees in it!  We'll take it under advisement have a special Alfaro edition in the spring with artwork based on his ideas just in time for the NERBC.  Rumor has it that a local barista is going to compete with this after meeting Gustavo!

For us, the experience was a reaffirmation to keep working hard and moving forward with big ideas.  We've been blessed by good fortune to find people along the way who understand us and get excited about coffee the way we do.  After years of hearing the critics, many people are coming around to the same seriousness we feel about coffee.  We feel like Gustavo is one of those people and are looking forward to working with him in the years to come.

Gift Ideas: Classes, coffee, and samplers

Looking for quick gift ideas, try one of January classes:

• Milk
• Espresso
• Pour over

For something unique, reserve one of our samplers:

• Filter Coffee Pack
• Espresso Pack
• Limited: Linnaean St./Reanimator Combo
• Bosque Sampler Pack

Or try one of our newly released coffees:

• Buena Esperanza
• Zone 10 Espresso

For orders online (to meet the Holiday rush) please specify in the message at checkout if the items are a gift, if you would like us to waive shipping to pick the items up in store(169 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA), or if you would like to delay shipment to the week before Christmas.

Pour over cheat sheet

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you get the most out of your home Hario V60 and Buono kettle set-up.

Before you pour:

1) Temperature: After your water is done heating, make sure it is the correct temperature. All of our coffees have a recommended brewing temperature on the bottom left side of the front label.

2) Rinse: It’s important to rinse the filter. Doing so helps to get rid of unwanted paper-y tastes and also helps ‘stick’ the filter evenly inside of the V60 Dripper. This also pre-heats your v60 and range server (or cup). You can do this with the water while it’s cooling down to the ideal brewing temperature. Just don’t forget to toss the water before you brew!

3) Fresh: Grinding fresh should be the last step prior to actual brewing. This and a fresh roast can ensure the freshest cup of coffee possible.

Pre-Infusion:

Place the coffee in the filter and make a small divot in the center of the grounds. Start from the center of the bed of coffee and, in a spiral, work your way to the outside of the V60. At this point, you only want to evenly wet the grounds. Start your timer, and wait 15-20 seconds (or until the bloom stops bubbling and settles). You should see the coffee begin to expand, or bloom, and then settle slightly during this phase.

Brewing:

After the coffee has bloomed, start pouring again from the center of the coffee. Work the stream of water in a spiral evenly toward the outside of the V60. Be careful not to touch the outermost edges of the coffee bed with water. This prevents water from running directly down the side of the V60 without passing through the coffee. Continue to pour evenly spiraling in and out until you have reached the recommended yield (end brew volume) for your V60.

After you have finished brewing, the bed of coffee should look concave as opposed to flat. This is a sign that the coffee was evenly extracted.

Other tips and recommendations:

1) When you are pouring, the water should look like it’s falling from the kettle, almost like a tail. An aggressive pour can result in channeling, and improper extraction. You can place your free hand at the top of the kettle to help control the flow rate. A kettle gicluer helps to control the flow rate even further and is a highly recommended addition to your V60 set-up.

2) If the time for the water to drain from the grounds and enter the range server after your final pour takes longer than 30 seconds, your coffee might be ground too finely. If the water drains through the bed of coffee quickly after the final pour, your flow rate might be too fast and the grind too coarse.

3) A 1 cup v60 takes 2-3 minutes for a brew while a 3 cup takes 3-4 minutes. See our brew guides in our shopping section.
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The V60 system is one of the most clean and satisfying brew methods around, but it can take many tries to really get it down. As long as you are using the correct temperatures and dose, maintaining an even flow, and distributing the water correctly, in no time you will be making pour-overs that rival some of the finest coffee-bars around. - Steve J.

Follow barismo on twitter!

Over the coming weeks through Christmas we'll have several offers on twitter, make sure you follow us to catch these limited offerings and specials!

Cupping without the brand

One of the most powerful exercises in coffee is doing a blind tasting.  We often do this with our coffees and others as well as triangulations (one coffee in each set of three is different and must be identified) in shop.  If you have interviewed for a job, you may have been asked to complete a triangulation during the interview and know all too well what an experience it is.  It is a great equalizer which can rattle or disarm even the most cocky barista.  It can quietly convey that there are always challenges or more to learn in this industry.

I recently talked to a few students doing an article for the Harvard Crimson by walking them through a blind cupping of 'house coffees' around Harvard Sq. Too often, when evaluating a coffee we are heavily influenced by the perception we have of the roaster/shop that produced it and this exercise was about tasting coffees not judging brands or methodology.  It's fair because there is a lot of money and energy put into branding but gems can be missed due to this same bias and brand perception.  What I gained from the exercise with these students is that once you take the brands away, the coffees don't always have that much to say but with the brands attached, the expectation can easily lead the discussion.  I was personally given a bit of validation when the only two single estate coffees on the table were identified immediately (our Bosque at Hi Rise and an El Salvador from Clover Harvard Sq.) by both myself and these self proclaimed coffee illiterates.  Alternatively, it was a bit of a let down in that those were the only two clearly labeled as to what the origin farms were.  It was a tremendous exercise and we'll be doing it again soon.

To organize a good cupping for a small group, we recommend having at least two roasters on a table and enough coffees to have a minimum of 3 (but up to 7 makes for a better challenge).  (we recommend our sampler for aspiring cuppers)  Start with 8 grams of coffee (medium-coarse grind) per 5 ounces of water in each cup.  Use water off boil and pour directly over the grounds.  Let dwell for 4 minutes and then break the crust with a gentle dipping of the spoon at the surface of the cup.  Do not stir or dredge the bottom of the cup.  Afterwards, skim the remaining floating grounds off the cup.

Record the dry ground aromas and make note of any variation between the three cups of each set.  After the water is poured, make note of the hot aroma.  It is best to evaluate the hot aroma a minute in and come back to evaluate it at 3 minutes when it has developed more.  Look for sweetness, cup variations, and distinct (pleasant and unpleasant) aromas.  A critical point is aroma at the break (when the crust is gently disturbed 4 minutes in) as it is the best chance to catch interesting aromas.  Once the surface floaters have been skimmed and the cup has cooled enough to taste, this is the hot cup evaluation.  Roast notes are most prominent here and therefore it's hiding some underlying characters.  Once the cup has cooled considerably, the cold cup evaluation can reveal fruit, acidity, and also defects or roast problems (such as grassy notes, moldy, etc).  A quality roasted coffee will remain similar from dry aroma to cool cup but the flavor characters will become more prominent during each phase.

To set up a good blind cupping, we recommend adhering to a few rules though:
1. Shut up.  There is nothing worse than watching the first person to speak lead the rest towards a set of descriptors or favorites.
2. Let it cool.  Many defects show up in the cool cup and a great hot coffee can really fall apart as it cools.
3.  Keep your notes... yours.  Write it down and stick to what your impressions are.  This is keyed up by following step 1 and documenting everything through in step 2.
4.  Let everyone in.  Don't hog the space, you can always return later.  There is nothing more telling (and distracting) than someone lingering at a particular cup.
5.  Keep the suspense.  Save the reveal until the end and have a good discussion about what was tasted first.