Chris Owens headed south...

Chris Owens of Gimme coffee fame will be headed down to Atlanta for the next year. More details on his site. We wish him the best but hope he can make the North East regional& MAR barista competitions.

What's the deal with Injerto?

We at Barismo are trying to wrap our heads around the sales of this CoE winner and one of the ten most expensive coffees in the world...
The premium lot of Guatemala Finca El Injerto, Bourbon Reserva (Cup of Excellence #1 lot) that went for $25.10/lb at the CoE guatemala auctions is creeping out for sale. Forbes predicted it would reach $50/lb or more retail.

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Let's do the numbers...
Sweet marias is turning over the green for sale unroasted at $29.90/lb

Stumptown is selling it roasted at $36.25/lb

Terroir is selling it at $49.95/12oz

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*Note: Terroir is holding limited roasts only on holidays and will offer the lot as a vintage in the next few years. Achievable only because of George's green freezing system...
No updates from Robert Thoreson at Kaffa or 49th parallel on what they may charge for the same lot.

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Is Stumptown underpricing? Are they making money on this once shipping and all costs are included? Would you as a home roaster take the risk at burning a few roasts to get it right? Is Terroir overpricing or creating demand by restricting supply? Long after the last lot of Injerto is sold elsewhere, Terroir wll still be selling it for special release...

Coffee Blog roll sound off...

- NORTH AMERICA -

A quick run down of the coffee blogs I read these days. There are many more out there that are great and amazing, but these are the people I follow enough or know well enough to discuss them on site.

Jason Haeger

The coffee fanatic. Jason lives in Buddy Holly country down in Lubbock Texas and is available for barista training if anybody in the area needs it. When Jason updates, there are often some good soul searching tidbits about what it's like to be a barista who really cares in a culture that doesn't... yet!

Chris Owens & Mike White

Chris Owens and Mike White of Gimme Coffee in Brooklyn, NY. I know Chris fairly well and have huge anticipation for what he will do in the future. He gets it in a way few people do. No suprise, since he was trained by former World Barista Champ Tim Wendelboe and what more can I say. His recent trip to the Nordic Barista cup is a good read(and the photos are primo too!).

- Part One

- Part Two

Matt Brinski

The 'Mile High' home user in Colorado. Brinsky has gone through the same evoloution as Jason, Chris, and our Barismo kids of finding out what all this 'flavor concept' stuff is. Origin flavors, finding the right volume and temp for each bean... Brinsky did it all alone with only Tacy's archive to work from and what he got from analytical observation and forum discussions.

When Brinksy does update, it's interesting.

Aaron Blanco

Aaron Blanco of Brown coffee company is roasting out of San Antonio, Texas. Aaron has a lot to say and has this intriguing idea of an all coffee bar. Using a clover brewer and all high end drip methods to give many beautiful coffees a stage. Coffee like wine in a way.


- the beautiful view

- a glimpse of the past. a picture of the future of coffee.

Steve Ford

Steve Ford, formerly of Blue Bottle in SF is now working with Andrew Barnett at Ecco. While this is Steve's blog, his real blog is the FlickR one. Steve is an avid photo hobbyist who takes a photo of every morning's cup of coffee. While the photos are cool, the commentary and introspection is better.

http://www.aldocoffee.com/event_calendar/index.html

Rich is the part owner of Aldo coffee in Mt. Lebanon, PA. You'll need to search throught the site to figure out what aldo means! Rich is a frequent updater who blogs about everything from the cafe floor to non coffee stuffs. Good reads and often a good chuckle or two in there if you read between the lines...

Daryn Berlin

Daryn Berlin is the account rep for Counter Culture Coffee in NC... The blog is more of a watching Daryn's coffee tree grow. How it got so big, I don't know... but it's worth the look.

Dwelltime

I was a big reader of Dwelltime back in the day when Nick Brown was manning the keyboard. These days this Vancouver BC blog is fairing just fine post NB. Hopefully Nick will spring some new coffee blogs in his Toronto location if he can find an outlet...

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Other notables:

Chris Tacy - Now limited to Archives, an interesting read to follow if you have the time to read it from the beginning. BenC plans a best of Tacy at some point for Barismo.

Tonx Tony is a flickr junkie like Steve so keep an eye on the photos. The blog is largely archival right now but seems to have some recent life again as Tony gets closer to his new project.

Espresso: Dosing video

A quick short film about dosing(The Schyndel Move?). No theme song or dance yet, but the video is done. Dedicated to Rich(for coining the phrase) and BenC(for forcing me to do the video).




I didn't count on the Youtube logo so I will fix that later.

Why the North American cafe culture is a negative on coffee quality

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We pull up to a table at the nearest cafe and nestle ourselves in with a 20oz to go cup of coffee flavored milk and sit. Content to settle in for a few hours of work. Comfortable watching all the others in the cafe sitting on their laptops, headphones on, happily typing away on study projects and work assignments. We just want a cheap tea or coffee that will justify our sitting in the cafe for hours on end, taking up space that the owner would surely love to have for other paying customers.


We should be ashamed of ourselves that this is what our cafe culture has come to. Isolated individuals who no longer converse and talk. Too easily irritated by the commotion around us. Impatient with the people behind the counter and complaining about the lack of ambiance. We miss out on great coffee experiences because the perception of cafe owners is that they will be over run with students or laptops so why pay more for good coffee? Why invest in training good barista? Why work on making the coffee prep consistent? Why buy the good equipment when the consumer will only douse their coffee with milk and sugar? They cynically believe consumers are a bunch of people who will come in and choose the cheapest menu item and pull up taking table space for as long as their conscience will allow. Many shop owners believe customers won't pay a nickel more for bettter coffee and they may be right in many cases.


The sword cuts both ways when we complain about the coffee or tea, realize that we, as the consumer share a fault in this. As long as we settle for less, we should expect only the minimum. The majority of us will miss out on great coffees coming out of the Cup of Excellence program. We will miss out on great barista who can pour and know tastes like a sommolier.


When it comes down to changing this, consumers need to see these tiny developing sections of coffee no longer as a commodity but as a true specialty that has nothing to do with syrups or chemical flavorings. These are the micro-lots of coffee that have distinct floral and naturally sweet flavors which need to be recognized as unique by themselves. Each region and microlot being distinct and unique in taste from the next.


When you demand to know the name of the farmer and the specific farm it comes from as well as it's growing climate and then begin to educate ourselves about what this means, we can begin to challenge things. We can demand the division of more auction lots of coffees into smaller lots too small for large commercial chain roasters but just right for artisan roasters who can focus on perfection of roast. We can get past burnt bitter over roasted coffees and defect laden under roasted grassy coffees to perfectly roasted ripe defect free coffees. We can learn to accept these disctinct coffees as quality experiences of flavor and not something based on volume or quantity. We can stop trying to get the most volume for the cheapest price and focus on the best tasting drink where caffeine is an afterthought. When we demand fresh ground, fresh brewed, AND fresh roasted(with dates), then we will see things begin to change.


When consumers and shop owners head in the direction that the Cup of Excellence is going, then the debate over what is good coffee will change from what goes good with milk to what flavors are inherent in a Grand Cru Kenya or is the Brazil CoE really worth $50/lb? That's a beautiful thought.


-Jaime