Moving Day!

Thanks to everyone who has taken a gander at my coffee musings thus far. However, it is time to leave blogger and move on to my very own site! From this point forward I'll be writing about coffee culture and related topics at the shiny new site www.coffeeculturerva.com so come on over and check it out! For the time being, the archived entries will remain here but I'll soon bring those over too.

Barista, The Modern Bohemian

Lets call this a little bit of a teaser for a project I'll be working on for the next few months. I was a barista for many years and now I am fortunate enough to spend most of my days working with baristas and coffee industry professionals. Lately I've been thinking a lot about community and culture and I realized that there are a few communities out there that are almost completely filled with truly amazing people. The coffee community is a shining example in my humble opinion.

We are a vastly diverse collection of vagabonds united by an underlying sense of passion. We're almost all passionate about coffee but then many are artists, musicians, performers; many of us write or cook. We come from all racial backgrounds and sexual orientations, male, female; some are tattooed, some love pets. Still it all comes back to passion; we are the modern bohemian culture and for this we should be recognized and we should be proud.

I'm going to be researching and featuring the diversity of our community by taking a look at some of the most talented and fascinating baristas in town so that everyone knows, when they get their perfectly constructed latte, that the person crafting that drink is a professional and a unique and integral part of our budding coffee culture.

By the way... recognize that barista?

The Turtle Wins the Race

This is not really a post about coffee, specifically, but it certainly relates to my ability to write about coffee in the future. As a certain lovely lady often points out, I am often rather oblivious to the world around me; this is especially true when it comes to technology. I know that there is a way to do just about anything with respect to the web and computers but I'm just not savvy in this regard so I'm often left surprised by things most folks take for granted.

Today I realized I could post pictures and text easily from my mobile directly to this blog. Big deal? Probably not, but when I'm out and about enjoying the awesome coffees of Richmond and beyond I can more easily share the experience.

The past two posts have been mobile posts to see how the whole thing works. So far? I'm a fan.

This isn't necessarily coffee related but its a lovely table I shared with a lovely lady last night. We enjoyed market vegetable pad Thai and tuber slaw with a lovely malbec.

Simple joy brought to me by the folks at Lamplighter Roasting

Little Pleasures, Peregrine Espresso

One of the perks of my work is a healthy dose of regional travel. I spend a great deal of time on the road and in turn, I get to visit lots of coffee houses I may never have otherwise discovered. Stopping to find great coffee experiences in the places I visit has become an integral part of my adventures. This summer I've also been fortunate to enjoy a good deal of recreational travel and to no surprise, my coffee shop hopping usually finds its way into those trips as well.

Recently we had a planned trip to Baltimore that included a full day in The District to soak in some art at the National Gallery and the Hirshhorn. My coffee obsessive side had already scoped a nearby jewel of espresso culture, Peregrine Espresso, located near the Eastern Market on 7th Street, Capitol Hill. I've had my eye on Peregrine Espresso since early spring when I met the owner and many of the employees at CoffeeFest NY/Meadowlands. For those of you who don't know, CoffeeFest is your typical trade show where people push their products, concepts and companies in general while schmoozing, eating and drinking on company tabs and hopefully striking up at least one business relationship that will boost revenue in the coming year. The additional layer with CoffeeFest is that it also houses national and international competitive barista circuits. Many, if not most, of Peregrine's team of baristas were competing at this regional. They all did extremely well including several category winners. I was impressed by the performances and even more impressed with the espressos and macchiatos I sampled after the competitions. I made it a point to visit the shop at my first opportunity to get a feel for what a star-studded coffee house looks like on a daily basis.

Peregrine Espresso is a small, unsupposing shop with a bright, airy feel and a small number of seats. The predominant space is the espresso bar which was constantly teeming with action. The shop was packed and a steady line circulated to order from the extremely simple menu. When I walked into the shop the first thing I noticed was the five employees working behind the counter. All five were baristas who have been featured in barista and coffee magazines for their talent and success in the coffee world. Notably the cashier and the bus boy were both winners from the NY CoffeeFest barista competitions. This is definitely what one would call a "stacked deck".

Sparse doesn't even begin to describe the experience as a whole. I cannot say I was all too impressed with the vibe of the shop and, upon further contemplation, I think that may be what they were going for because the focus was, quite simply, on the product and its proper presentation.
Order placed--one espresso and one skim cappuccino with a jalepeno cheddar scone.
The barista calmly places two worn, white porcelain saucers on the bar counter. She then carefully places a spoon on each.
One porcelain tasse and one porcelain demitasse, both also worn, are bathed in hot water for tempering.
Two small glasses of water are placed alongside the saucers to cleanse the palate.
Espresso is ground with the well used Mazzer Super Jolly while portafilter is rinsed and tempered.
Ground espresso is dosed, tamped and portafilter spouts are rinsed while heads are flushed.
A perfect ristretto espresso is pulled in the demitasse while the barista expertly stretches and manipulates the skim milk.
Two gentle tamps of the microfoamed skim yield glassy milk with the texture of Greek yogurt.
Textured milk mixes with thick, rich crema, a tight clockwise arc, quick shake of the wrist and a swipe through the center of the cup reveal a perfect rosetta.
Both cups are placed on their saucer and the barista offers a slight smile.

We drank our coffee, which was excellent to say the least, and watched as this clockwork process repeated and repeated and repeated. The shop was humming; ever out of control but never out of customers. Where the shop lacked in frills and asthetic appeal it made up in pure efficient quality. In all of my coffee shop adventures, I rarely see the level of honor and passion for the product that I witnessed here. It is no wonder these folks continue to maintain a respectable presence in the world of internationally competitive baristas.

Gadgets :: Brewing at Home :: Aeropress

It is tough to make coffeehouse quality coffee at home; this is a sentiment that echos through my daily conversations with coffee enthusiasts from owners and operators of highly successful coffee businesses to the average joe (no pun intended). I hear you folks, and I agree. For years I've been a strong proponent of brewing home coffee in a French Press--but lets call it a Press Pot from now on shall we? The press pot is no more French than the "French" Fry or the "French" Horn. The press pot, as most would agree, makes a stellar cup of coffee but there are two major draw-backs; There is sludge at the bottom of every cup and clean up is messy and all together obnoxious. Brewing coffee in the press pot becomes a chore and finally we all end up going out to the local shop or settling for inferior brew from that fell fallowed kitchen kermudgen, Mr. Coffee.

Folks, there is a solution, a savior if you will, a long time friend of the tea drinker converted to the dark side of coffee cultism. This angel of quality home coffee is the Aeropress.
A few weeks ago a friend, and fellow coffee enthusiast let me borrow his coffee making device. He had been talking it up for some time and I was somewhat embarrassed that I had no idea exactly what he was talking about. I received a bag full of bits and pieces that, to the unknowing eye, would have been taken as some sort of drug paraphanalia involving water, gravity and smoke. In all honesty, the technology isn't all that different. So I experimented with this contraption and I will stand behind this until proven otherwise, the aeropress makes the best cup of coffee possible at home with the least amount of clean-up. Best of all, they're easy to purchase and quite inexpensive. A google search will reveal a million places to buy one but here is one on Amazon for under $26.00. I took a step by step pictoral approach to introducing the aeropress and how it works, take a look!


Mis en Place :: Gather your ingredients and all of your parts and pieces. Today I used a Northern Italian style espresso roast, I find the blend and lighter roast make a very nice press pot coffee so I figured it would translate well here too.




Grind :: If you read back to my post on grinding you'll know that I prefer professional grinders to home use grinders, today I used a Malkonig Guatemala Lab Grinder which costs several thousand dollars. If you'd like to buy one I'd be happy to sell it to you! That aside, I prefer a standard cone filter grind for the aeropress because the slightly finer grind adds body to the final cup; don't worry, there is a small paper filter to reduce the sludge factor.




Base :: Coffee goes in the base on a small paper disc-filter.








Water :: Place the base over the cup and fill with "off-boil" water. Water should be 185-200F depending on the bean. At home this means "off-boil" which is bringing your tea pot to a boil, taking it off the eye to let sit for about a minute and then pouring it over the coffee. Give it a good stir and then press!




Enjoy :: You get an amazingly flavorful cup of coffee with almost no sludge and the clean up is simply dumping the dry coffee puck in the compost and washing off the plastic pieces!

CoffeeShop-Hop, Episode 2, Latte

Finally, there is a free moment to post the results of my Traditional Latte CoffeeShop-Hop. For once in my life, I took detailed notes of my experience and that break from the norm has proven quite fortuitous.
I decided to focus this episode on the Traditional Latte for several reasons. Mainly, I realize that I'm in the minority by only drinking espresso; most folks prefer milk beverages and I totally respect that. The latte is truly the basis for just about every hot espresso beverage considered part of the modern mainstream menu. I won't bore you with digression on the historical progression of latte and cappuccino, at least not yet, because all you need to know for this article is that the Traditional Latte is espresso with steamed milk and light foam. Whether that foam is integrated micro-foam or dolloped foam is a matter of style, technique and personal preference; some of that will be covered later. Now that all of that is said, on to my trip!


Starbucks River Road was the third stop on my journey. Already I can sense the "why did you go to Starbucks?" vibe and I have to say, shut up. Simple fact is, without Starbucks, the specialty coffee industry in the United States would not exist. If you don't like Starbucks, that is fine, but as a company, as an industry leader and as a brand there are very few true competitors around. Corporate opinions aside, here is my objective review of my latte experience; my Starbucks latte was exactly what I expected, and in Starbucks land, that is a good thing. My drink was hot, flavorful, balanced, prepared quickly with good customer barista interaction. As for the actual quality of the drink, it is important to note that Starbucks does not employ the same style of latte making as most independent coffee houses. Starbucks uses a very, in my opinion, dated style of drinking making that does not reflect the progressive science and art of new age coffee culture. The simplest way to explain the difference is in the process. Starbucks creates voluminous foam as opposed to micro-foam, and they build the latte in layered stages instead of a fused, free-pour style. Personally, I do not care for the Starbucks style of latte construction, but I cannot complain about the construction of the drink. My only true complaint is that the barista did not offer to make my latte in a porcelain cup. Would I repeat this experience? Absolutely. I trust Starbucks for consistency and since I travel a great deal, I often simply want a reliable cup of coffee which is always what Starbucks will provide.


My second stop in the trip was Black Hand Coffee on Sheppard Street. I feel I am always guaranteed an interesting experience at Black Hand. This experience was one of the more tame I've had. Chris, my barista greeted me cordially and made a pretty epic latte. Technique wise, the latte was flawless with an excellent free-pour, balanced micro-foam that emulsified well with the espresso crema. The espresso was well roasted and interacted well with the fats and sugars of the milk. The overall flavor of the latte was heavy on nutty notes with a smoky caramel finish. The finish lingered a bit longer than I would have liked. Other than that, my only complaint is that the latte was huge. Folks, a latte for pleasure should never be more than 6 or 8 ounces. Anything more than that is a meal. The Black Hand experience placed a very strong second in my latte excursion.


My choice for winner of the best latte on my trip solidly goes to Lamplighter Roasting Company on Addison Street. Owner, Noel, was my barista for this latte experience and she crafted one of the better lattes I've ever had in my entire coffee career, no kidding. First of all, as you can see, the presentation was superb with a hand made, properly sized and shaped cup, excellent micro-foam balanced excellently with the hand roasted espresso crema. The espresso, part of their rotating selection of espressos was beautifully suited to milk fat and sugar. There was absolutely no outward acidity or unbalanced smokiness. The drink had the texture of silk and flavor notes of lavender, honeysuckle and fruit blossom. This latte washed over me like colors, purplish-orange to be exact. Quite simply, I was blown away. I hope she can repeat this gem for everyone who walks in her shop. If I can muster one complaint, it is in the shop space itself. Put simply, the room needs ventilation. The smell of cooking food permeates your clothes and skin giving you a lasting "eau du cafe" which does not bode well for afternoon meetings.

Overall I was extremely pleased with my entire latte excursion minus the painful milk coma in which I found myself that night. I don't care what the adds say, milk does NOT do the body good. I still stand behind the point that specialty coffee is a luxury and the experience will always be different for each person. The product counts, certainly, but it isn't always the reason for a good or bad experience. I enjoyed each of these shops immensely because each provided a great vibe in addition to a quality product. This made the judging easy because I simply had to taste and generate an opinion.

The Zero-Waste Obsessionist's Guide to Handling Bad Coffee

You've bought bad coffee, don't lie. You probably have bad coffee in your home at this very moment. Don't be ashamed, it happens to the best of us and no one can truly criticize you because just about everyone has had or currently has bad coffee in their home. I, for one, discovered bad coffee in my own home thanks to my breakfast companion who aptly pointed out the fact that the coffee I pressed in my Bodum Press did, in fact, suck. As a coffee professional preparing coffee in my own home for someone of a highly educated coffee palate, the worst thing you can hear at 10:00 am is "no I don't want another cup, this coffee isn't very good". So, after you pick up your pride off the floor, what do you do with this coffee? My idealistic side says throw the whole lot in the garbage but I was raised by the rural-southern children of depression era parents who believe that 'waste' is a four letter word, so to speak. I distinctly remember my grandmother showing me her unused WWII ration cards when I questioned why she ironed and washed already used pieces of aluminium foil. Throughout my entire life I have always remained conscious of exactly what I tossed in the trash and whether or not it could have an actual use that might save it from the landfill one more day. For many years I thought this was a tired, outdated ideal but it seems that now my waste-thrift and frugality are coming in-vogue once again.
So, what can one do with a big batch of bad coffee? Luckily, there are hundreds of options depending on the level of horrible your coffee has attained. Here are a few I employ on a regular basis:

Mix N Match
I the case of my recent "bad" batch of coffee, it wasn't horrible, it was just poorly roasted. This coffee was a gift from my parents who bought it on a trip abroad. They bought me several different coffees from shops they visited and this particular coffee happened to be deeply over roasted. In this situation I chose to employ the Mix N Match technique which is basically the idea of taking really great coffee and not so great coffee, blending them to make a decent coffee and using it for a less quality driven application. I was getting ready to make a batch of Thai coffee so I took Illy Scurra and the charcoal beans my parents gave me, blended them together and started my 24 hour cold brew. After the sweetened condensed milk and ice were added, no one could ever tell that I had filtered in sub-quality coffee. Problem solved.

Crunchy Granola
I am not what a certain person would call "crunchy" by any means, but once again, I do not like to waste anything. I re-use empty beer bottles to make my own beer, I keep Ziploc bags that held dry foods to use for dry foods in the future, I buy bulk cleaners and refill small bottles and yes, I compost. I know not everyone can compost but you don't have to have a huge heap of rotting bio-matter to use coffee as compost material. I throw bad coffee, brewed coffee and also brewed tea into my compost heap. The acids and oils in coffee are very nutritional for acid loving plants such as roses, azaleas and tomatoes, so adding this material to your compost heap will add a great deal to your potting soil for next season. If you don't have a compost heap, you can still extract the benefits of coffee by simply adding it to the soil of your potted plants. I do not, however, recommend doing this on a regular basis with your indoor plants as the smell will begin to get annoying and you may grow some mold.

Car Air Freshener
I discovered, many years ago while transporting fifty pounds of fresh roasted coffee to a fundraising event, that the smell of coffee in the heat of your car is indescribably divine. Coffee is the greatest natural air-freshener because it actively absorbs ambient odors and emits its own pleasurable odor. Even bad coffee tends to smell wonderful so I will often take stale or low quality coffee, place it in a paper bag and stow it under my car seat. The smell of coffee will permeate my car for weeks. When it starts to dissipate I then move the coffee up to the compost heap thus using the grounds for two purposes instead of one!

I know there are many more uses for undrinkable coffee out there. Many of them I have used and still use to this day and I'm sure there are many I have not even considered. The bottom line is that coffee is a natural product that should never be dumped in the garbage. At the least, pour it out in the grass so they can soak up the oils and acids left behind. Do you have a special use for your bad or used coffee grounds? Please share them!

CoffeeShop-Hop, Episode 1

Almost every single day people ask me where the best coffee spots are in our fair city. What a loaded question right? First of all, my opinion on this matter changes on a daily basis. Second, most of the shops in town serving coffee are in some way my clients so picking a favorite would be uncouth at best. Third, there are so many factors that decide what the "best" place for coffee might be, I really don't think it is possible, as things stand, to single out one shop as superior over all the rest. As my favorite food writer says, "I would like to play the favorites game but I'm not very good at it". All that said, I do visit a lot of coffee shops and I do drink a lot of coffee; I believe it bears reason that these experiences should be shared. I'll call this recurring series CoffeeShop-Hop; here goes!

Yesterday I visited three coffee spots here in Richmond. I ordered the very same thing in each shop as is my custom. I am, admittedly, very habitual in my coffee shop orders so I will try, for the sake of diversity, to mix it up a little for these posts. However since this is the first installment it is fitting that I stick with my standard order; a simple double espresso. For the record, I generally order espresso because it is the highest iteration of coffee extraction. It requires the most skill and generally exposes the full quality (or otherwise) potential of the bean and the roast. This was my experience.

Ellwood Thompson Cafe

This was actually my third stop on the tour but I'd like to go in order of impression. Admittedly, ET Cafe is one of my favorite shops in town for a variety of reasons, however, in this case my espresso was not the best I've had there. It was still a wonderful espresso, don't get me wrong, but I know its potential and it didn't quite live up. I seek two main characteristics in espresso: crema and balance. I can appreciate most flavors as long as they're balanced. That sounds very simple but the levels of perfection involved in creating balance are almost endless (an article for another time). My espresso at ET Cafe had lovely crema but it was out of balance; the acidity was high and the body was weak giving me a sharp, palate biting sensation that I found mildly off-putting. This is odd for this shop and having watched the extraction I chock it up to barista error. In an ideal world, she should have dumped that shot and pulled another for me. I was still happy with the experience over all and I highly recommend the shop.

Cafe Caturra Midlothian

Cafe Caturra in Midlothian surprised me yesterday. I am usually prepared for a very dark, smokey espresso at all of the Caturra locations because their roast profile (yes, they roast on site) is a very deep French or Italian style. Often I find this smokiness tends to drown out all flavor of the bean itself which is a particular style of espresso from which I tend to shy away. This particular shot, albeit very smokey, had the most amazing floral notes at the front of the palate. These notes transitioned into deep strawberry tones and ended with the smokiness. I was very pleasantly surprised. The aftertaste, however, bothered me because it was a lingering charcoal flavor in the back of my throat. Had that aftertaste not presented itself I would have listed this as the top espresso of the day. I must also note, my barista was a jerk. Baristas: Don't be jerks--your job is to make people happy, not uncomfortable. Otherwise the experience was lovely.

GlobeHopper CoffeeHouse & Lounge

Globehopper, you took the proverbial cake. This espresso experience (which was my first stop) was all around the best of the day. The espresso was perfectly extracted, balanced, had lovely crema and the presentation was beautiful. I watched the barista attentively prepare and extract the shot while she made conversation to boot. The atmosphere was beautiful and I wanted to stay for more. This, folks, is how a coffee experience should go so I highly recommend paying them a visit soon.

All three of these shops did a great job and I would recommend them all to budding espressophiles. I will certainly be visiting them all again soon. It was clear to me that the ownership, management and staff in all of these locations are actively concerned about the quality of their product, the atmosphere of their stores and the overall quality of their customers' experience. Good job guys!

Buy Local, Buy Often

I owe a big thanks to Kimmy for providing the impetus for this post with her comment on my last entry. Kimmy wrote in response to my promotion of the idea "buy local, buy often" when it comes to purchasing coffee for your home. Basically what I said was that in my opinion, the best way to purchase coffee is in small quantities from your local roaster or coffee house on a more frequent basis to ensure freshness of coffee and sustain the social aspects of the product through interaction with your roaster or purveyor. I think Kimmy assumed that I was advocating buying coffee ONLY from local roasters which is not the case. With that said, I'm going to dive into the subject of "buy local, buy often" when it comes to purchasing coffee.

Kimmy brings up a great point when she says "no coffee is local". Spot-on Kimmy; coffee grows in a fairly tight band on either side of the equator, thus excluding 49 of the 50 United States. Barring some freak greenhouse experiment, we're not getting local coffee until we all migrate to the jungles of Brazil. So if no coffee is local then how could I possibly advocate "buy local, buy often"? I like to over-simplify this idea: There are two types of coffee buying, the kind that comes with a handshake or the kind that comes with a free can. Buying local coffee, in my opinion, means buying coffee that comes with a handshake. Once again, coffee is a social product that begs for conversation and connection so a great place to start is with the folks selling you your beans; chances are, they're fairly knowledgeable about their product.

Kimmy's other point was that buying local coffee doesn't have to mean buying locally roasted coffee. Once again, spot-on Kimmy; owning a roaster does not a great coffee make. It takes years of patient, thoughtful practice, research and constant study to develop the skill and intuitive understanding of the balance between art and science that makes a single good roast of coffee; then you have to repeat it. I understand this as well as anyone from the years I spent in front of a roaster, notebook, timer and pencil in hand. I'll never mention specific names, but I have visited places that roast coffee in this town that would be far better off buying bulk beans at Sam's Club and repackaging. On the other hand, I am a sucker for locally roasted coffee; there is no hiding that fact, but I never limit myself to such a small swath of product.

Let's consider buying coffee locally as an experience and an investment. When I buy coffee I want to have an engaging social experience centered on the product I hope to take home. For me, it is sort of like buying the record of a band I've just heard in concert. I want to feel the passion and excitement about what I'm being sold. I never pick up a bag of coffee off the shelf and slap it on the counter with my credit card. I want to taste it, talk about it, hear it's story; for me, this all comes from the guy or gal behind the counter. I will buy your expensive coffee if you actually sell me on it. Yes, it helps if you roasted the coffee yesterday. Yes, it helps if you are a locally owned and operated business. Still, to tell the truth, I've had the experience at Starbucks and I've gone home with a bag of Brazil Ipanema roasted somewhere up in PA, and you know what? It was a damn good cup of coffee.

Buy Local, Buy Often. This means treat coffee as the luxury it should be, not the commodity it often is. If coffee is just a means to a caffeinated end for you then save money and opt for the free can experience. If not, then seek out the luxury. Danny Meyer wrote that the only thing to remember in providing a memorable customer service experience is the three things you get when you're born, "a smile, a touch and some food"; that philosophy has helped him become one of the most successful restaurateurs in the country. In a sense, this is exactly what I'm looking for when I buy coffee. It is an experience, a trade between two people, in my eyes it doesn't get any more local than that.

Bump the Grind

A friend recently asked me to help him find an upgrade coffee grinder for his home. "Upgrade from what?", I asked. This all spiraled into a long, in depth conversation about different types of grinders, their merits and downfalls and ultimately, what amount of equiment you want to have laying around your kitchen. The short side of the story is that my friend was looking to make the jump from your standard $18 Kitchen Aid blade grinder to a full-on commercially certified portion control burr grinder. This, admittedly, is probably overkill but to his credit, my friend is already on a very slippery slope to full coffee-geekdom so this venture comes as no surprise.

All of this grinder talk, however, got my brain churning and I revisited my thoughts and opinions on coffee grinders and coffee grinding in general. Before diving in though, I need to make clear the fact that in this instance I am speaking strictly about home-use applications. Coffee houses, in general, need a minimum of one commercial bulk grinder and one commercial espresso grinder. A second espresso grinder and a portion control grinder are highly recommended. With that said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think my stance on coffee grinding at home has taken a 180 degree about-face in the past few years. I began my career in coffee almost ten years ago and based on my education related to the good bean, I was a staunch advocate of every single home owning a coffee grinder of some type. I stood firmly behind the idea that even if your grinder didn't do a particularly good job, it was still best to grind moments before brewing. Ask me today and I'll tell you very much the opposite but there are some nuances with the subject that create caveats so the topic bears some exploration.

There are two major types of coffee grinders, blade grinders and burr grinders. Blade grinders (what most of us have in our cabinets) use a rotating blade to dispatch coffee. Notice I did not say "grind" coffee; blade grinders crush coffee, they do not grind it. Burr grinders use two circular plates with burred edges, one stationary and one spinning to grind, or more aptly, to "shave" coffee. Without getting to arduous on the subject, the shaved coffee looks like long flat slivers of coffee under the microscope whereas the crushed coffee looks like chunks and nuggets. To illustrate which is more desirable lets imagine you've spilled your coffee on the kitchen counter. You pull down some paper towels to wipe it up and you have to decide whether to ball the paper towels up into tight balls or leave them flat and put them over the spill. Which method soakes up the most liquid the quickest? The same notion applies to extraction of coffee oils (flavor) from the bean. So, everyone should go out and buy a burr grinder for their home right? Well it is not that simple. Home use burr grinders are usually in the $100-$200 range which is a lot for most coffee equipment budgets and, unfortunately, they are of a very low quality and will not produce the results necessary to justify the investment. Furthermore, there is no viable step between home use burr grinders and commercial grade units.

This is where my philosophy has split. I used to advocate sacrificing grind quality for grind freshness. Experience, experimentation and the prevalence of places to buy great coffee have changed that view. I hate to sound like I'm on a band wagon, but the answer is this; buy local and buy often. Buy local coffee because you really should know your producer/dealer. Coffee is a social product and you can't get more social than chatting with your roaster about what you're getting ready to put in your body. There are so many great roasters and coffee houses in Richmond now you should be within walking or biking distance to at least one. Heck, I live in the suburbs and I can walk or bike to three independently owned local coffee houses, two of which feature roasters! Buying often is the most important point here. Know how much coffee you use in a week and buy no more than that. For most people a single pound is ideal. Have your coffee house or coffee roaster grind the entire bag of coffee for you at the time of purchase because they have invested thousands of dollars into grinding equipment that produces the best ground coffee possible. This is one of the many reasons coffee house coffee always tastes better than the same coffee brewed at home. I guarantee that the flavor of properly ground coffee trumps the flavor of recently ground coffee when all other factors are equal. I can make this guarantee because I've tested this hundreds of times. If, for some reason, you aren't buying your coffee at a local shop you can usually take your whole bean to a shop and they'll grind it for you anyway, just be nice and throw a dollar or two in their tip jar or buy a cup while you're there. Do NOT, however, trust coffee grinders at the grocery store. Yes, they are free for anyone's use, but equate that convenience to free, public-use dental surgery stations at Wal-Mart (not a good idea). Grocery store grinders are rarely maintained, usually stink of stale flavored coffee and have been touched and handled by thousands of people before you.

"Yes, the coffee is wonderful!" *gag*

Do you remember the Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show? Of course you do, it was a staple of childhood television consumption since long before most of us were born. I often revisit some of those old cartoons as an adult and find that they truly are masterfully conceived pieces combining children's entertainment with social commentary, not to mention a hard-hitting soundtrack with the likes of Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, Rossini, and the list goes on. One could write a full dissertation on the content and impact of such a program but, of course, I'm here to write about coffee so what am I getting at? I'm thinking of that classic cartoon plot where Elmer Fudd is chasing Bugs down a hallway full of doors. He opens every single one only to find some horror or embarrassment but, alas, no Bugs Bunny.

I know this might be a stretch, but this is how I feel when I have coffee in some one's home. Be warned, my elitist leanings know no bounds when it comes to coffee and I find no shame in this fact. The best I can do for the rest of this post is try very hard to not mention names. I cringe and shudder inside when I am in some one's home and I hear the words, "would anyone like a cup of coffee?" Even my family and closest friends often surprise me with some coffee-esque abomination. The problem is compounded by the fact that people are proud of their strange, unsavory coffee tragedies and since they know my profession and passion, they want to prove to me how wonderful it is. I know that when the Mr. Coffee starts-a-bubblin' I'm being set up to open yet another door down the hallway of bad coffee to be appalled by one more misconceived notion of "good coffee".

Of course, these experiences could all be easily fixed with a little education, a dose of common sense and a minimal investment in equipment. With that said, I'd like to take a few examples from my past guest coffee experiences to highlight simple ways to have good coffee in your home to wow your guests and placate cantankerous snobs such as myself.

Scenario One
A few years back I was in the home of a family whom I know to have very good taste in food and beverage. They have an absolutely lovely home in an affluent neighborhood; the kind of home that makes you wish you had gone into medicine instead of music and coffee. After a very fine meal and good company the dreadful question was posed, "would anyone like a cup of coffee?" I inspected the scene and I was very pleased to see a Bialetti stove top espresso maker being lifted from the cabinet and I figured I was safe to assume I would enjoy this experience. I was wrong. I took my first sip of piping hot, well textured Bialetti-style espresso only to find that it tasted like hazelnut and chemicals. There is no place for flavored coffee in 2010 people! Haven't we learned that chemical perfumes added to poor quality coffee does not a good cup make? There is a simple solution. If you love hazelnut flavor with your coffee simply add some hazelnut syrup or extract after the brew and I guarantee you'll find it tastes better than your International Gourmet chemistry project.

Scenario Two
Recently I was enjoying the company of some friends and as the evening went on, the coffee question was posed again. This time the issue was compounded by the request that I make the coffee because it is assumed that since I work in the industry I can take your horrible grinds and long-dead Mr. Coffee, wave a wand, and produce a cup of rich, earthy Sumatra Mandheling. Still, I found myself agreeing to this idea and asked the host where I could find the coffee. I should have taken it as a sign when he pulled out six different flavors of creamer prior to producing the coffee. It got very bad, very quickly from that point forward. The host dug deep into the refrigerator, into the vegetable section (which is extra humid) and pulled out a strangely shaped can of French Vanilla flavored coffee of some unknown brand. Obviously I've already trashed the notion of flavored coffee so I will spare you that soapbox. Lets talk about coffee storage, and I promise this will be an entire post at some point soon but for now, keep your coffee out of the refrigerator and freezer! This old wives' tale is totally false. In fact, chilling coffee destroys any flavor it may have once had. The best place for your beans or grounds is neatly sealed in a Tupperware or plastic bag and stowed away from light, moisture or wild temperature variations. I choose the pantry. Your beans will stay fresh and flavorful much longer and won't take on pesky refrigerator smells such as raw onion.

Scenario Three
This story can basically be applied to 60% of people out there but I'll use my own mother because she knows I love her just the same. Cheap electric coffee pots make bad coffee. My mother is a lover of thrift stores and without a doubt, her latest coffee maker was purchased at one. The job of a coffee pot is simple, to heat water and dispense it slowly over ground coffee into a vessel. Heating is really the integral function here because most coffees need temperatures around 200F for proper extraction. I recently brewed a cup of Folgers at my Parents' cabin only to find that the coffee was not noticeably hot. I questioned my mother who delightedly responded, "oh I just put it in the microwave". Once again, fodder for a complete post here, but you have to have the proper temperature at the time of extraction. There are great coffee makers out there for around $150.00 that will provide many years of great coffee. I prefer the Cuisinart 12 Cup Thermal. If that is far out of your budget, go simple and get a Bodum Press for under $50.00 depending on the size.

Making a great cup of coffee for your guests in your home is not difficult or costly. It doesn't require any special skill or extravagant investment. Simply go to the nearest market that features local food producers and find coffee roasted locally and buy in small batches (8-16oz). For an even better experience, go visit your local small batch roaster and you'll likely enjoy tastings and education on the products you're buying. Take your coffee home in its original package and find it a Tupperware or plastic bag and a home in your pantry. Only add flavorings or sweeteners to the cup, not the brew and make sure you use a brewing method that can guarantee you're getting 200F water. Keep it simple, brew in small batches and for goodness sakes, don't ask me to do the brewing!

Iced Coffee, Science=Quality

With exception to the off chance you live in a subterranean, climate controlled bunker and only emerge every six months for snacks and supplies, you’ve noticed something about Richmond; it is Hot.

The waning appeal of a piping hot cup of full-city roast Sulawesi on days reaching 103F and 100% humidity is not lost on me despite the fact that I am a full-frontal coffee-obsessor. This, of course, is how the gods of consumer placation invented iced coffee. I’ll spare everyone the digression into the sordid origins of the coffee concoctions we drink, for now at least, and get on with the subject at hand. So we have iced coffee and we’re going to call it a natural progression in the “need->innovate->consume” train; what is it? Is it any good? How do I know? These are the questions you should be asking yourself before you slap that wad of crumpled one dollar bills on the counter and dig for your ubiquitous loyalty punch card in a zombie-like, caffeine withdrawn stupor. Even drug addicts are discerning about the product, so lets examine this a bit further shall we?

In the coffee production world, there are a myriad of production methods for just about everything. Why? Because coffee nerds are just that, nerds, and if you give them all one simple task (brewing coffee) they will compete to the death for supreme nerdery. This is mostly wonderful for you and I because it gives us innovative options; this, in turn, allows us to become elitist snobs—another digression for another time. So how do we get iced coffee? Well years ago, when I was a young, bright-eyed barista in the omnipresent coffee mogul we had a documented technique. This technique, I have found through years of education and experimentation, sucked. The good news is our friends the coffee nerds have given us techniques that don’t suck, but for better understanding, lets go through the various popular methods of production for iced coffee and expose their pros and cons and hopefully, shine the light on a clear choice for quality results.

Before we dive in we need to talk about extraction. Extraction in the coffee world is simply defined as the process of pulling flavorful oils and microscopic particulate from the roasted coffee bean through exposure to water. The important item to grab from this definition is “flavorful oils”. The particulate is basically just the woody fiber that turns the water brown; flavor-wise you really only get smoky and woody. The oil from the coffee bean is what holds the flavor therefore it is our top priority and it happens to be extremely delicate. Extraction therein becomes the science and art of preserving the coffee oil within each brewing condition.

Old School Beta
Back in the dark ages before Starbucks modified iced coffee production to “less than horrible” means, the method of production for iced coffee was simple; brew coffee into a pitcher, toss it in the refrigerator over night and bam, in the morning you have iced coffee. Even worse, a lot of times you would see people taking old stale coffee at the end of the day and refrigerating it over night for the same effect. I don’t need to explain why that is a horrible foul. So what are the pros for this method? It is easy for the barista—that’s it. Cons? Lets talk oil extraction. Hot water brewing is the most efficient way to extract oils from coffee beans—think about washing olive oil off your hands with hot water versus cold water. However, remember that coffee oil is extremely delicate. One of the best ways to destroy coffee oils is through extreme variance of temperature. Extracting coffee at 200F and chilling it to 41F breaks down the coffee oil molecules thus flattening the flavor and allowing astringent acids also present in the extraction to take over. This equals bitter iced coffee. Briefly, the Starbucks modification to this method was to take extremely deep-roasted (thus lower acidity) coffees and brew them at double strength, which compensates for the broken molecule flatness and the overpowering acidity. I like to call this “fake-n-bake”

Cold Press
Skip over millions of iterations of the technique listed above and you come to cold press iced coffee. Unfortunately, this is chronologically out of order but such is the nature of innovation; sometimes the best isn’t always the last. Popular trends are often misconceived modifications of the gold standard. Yes, it is clear, I am fond of the cold press technique, and with good reason. Cold press is simple; just grind coffee, place it in a vessel, fill vessel with cold filtered water, cover and place in refrigeration for about twenty-four hours, filter coffee grounds out of extracted coffee and serve over ice. Why is this method king? Remember, coffee oils are delicate, especially to change in temperature. In order not to break the oil molecules it is crucial to maintain a consistent temperature throughout the life of the extraction—from first soak to final sip. This keeps the character of the coffee intact and allows the balance of acidity and flavor to interact as it would in a hot application. That would be the pros, the cons are that this process is lengthy and messy for what tends to be a relatively low yield.

Sun Brew
Sun brew is in vogue right now—a fact proven to me by the enthusiastic chatter I’ve read from a local blogger-mogul who loves a good cup of coffee. Sun brew is a riff on the cold press; the idea that following the cold press technique except brewing outside between 85 and 100F instead of the refrigerator, will speed up the brewing time. Yes, the coffee will extract quicker but go back to the simple principals of coffee—no drastic temperature changes. If your extraction falls from 95F to iced (38F) in a matter of seconds when you pour it over ice, you still break the oil molecules and leave room for the acid to take over. In addition, the other bane of coffee stability is bright light so being in the sun is an end product killer.

I know there are countless other techniques out there but I don’t want to write a book just yet. Hopefully some of the science described sheds light on why this is not so much an opinion, but a researched…theory? Ultimately, I want everyone to enjoy amazing cups of coffee, even when it is unbearably hot outside. My recommendation is to venture out, one Saturday morning, to the South of the James Farmer’s Market and try the Blanchard’s Coffee Iced Coffee ($2). This is produced using the cold press method on a grand scale. It is an epic cup of coffee that will refresh and most definitely caffeinate.