James Hoffman, owner of Square Mile Roasters in the UK, earns my respect with almost every post he writes: always asking questions, constantly saying to himself – and to us, via his blog – “what if?” Never stuffy, always accessible. It’s why jimseven is one of my favorites blogs – not just one of my favorite coffee blogs – but one of my favorite places to go on the internet, period.
In his latest, James asks the question, “does aeration – as it is done to wine – improve a coffee’s flavor?” It seems the speculative answer is “yes” but the jury is still out.
5 February 2010 ∞ | Links | No comments yet
It’s a coffee bar, not a cafe. Oliver Strand – by way of Stumptown’s Duane Sorenson – of the New York Times drops some knowledge.
28 January 2010 ∞ | Links | No comments yet
James Hoffman – AKA “jimseven” – owner of Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London, UK has posted a few videos worth watching on his site, one featuring Norwegians descending on London and drinking all of it’s espresso and two more featuring a couple Intelligentsia Venice folks doin’ their thang on the espresso machine and siphon brewer.
28 January 2010 ∞ | Links | No comments yet
The current lineup. The collection continues.
27 January 2010 ∞ | Photography | No comments yet
Brew Methods is a directory of how-tos, tutorials and guides on how to make coffee using virtually any method you can think of – a one-stop-shop, if you will – and if you don’t see a how-to, tutorial or guide you can suggest it yourself. (via James Hoffman)
23 January 2010 ∞ | Links | 1 comment so far
Doug Zell of Intelligentsia talks – briefly – on their future plans for San Francisco & Los Angeles. Of interest: an “Ecco move” to San Francisco (from Santa Rosa) and yet another café in Los Angeles.
I must say that I am just a bit excited for the possibility of Ecco opening something in San Francisco. The post doesn’t talk explicitly about an Ecco café proper but I wonder if it might be something that is in the cards. It would be a very good reason – among others: closer to clients both current and future, first-hand exposure to San Francisco’s still-burgeoning coffee scene… – for moving away from Ecco’s current relatively low cost real-estate situation up north to the exceedingly expensive San Francisco.
21 January 2010 ∞ | Links | No comments yet
The last of the Verve Burundi Bwayi blooming in the Chemex (click for the LG version).
18 January 2010 ∞ | Photography | No comments yet
What if a Yirg & a Kenya ...?
I made a pilgrimage of sorts this week to Santa Cruz, CA for an opportunity to soak in the aura of a roaster who’s coffee I have been enjoying locally for some time now. I’ll leave my experience at their café for another post – that’s what the Café tramp series of posts are for – but Verve coffee roasters’ beans have left me impressed.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are three cafés – each of which I have great respect for – that feature the coffees of Verve: Modern Coffee in Oakland, Sightglass in San Francisco and farm:table, also in San Francisco.
At each location the espresso blends, the single-origins are all just … well … well, hell, they’re just scrumptious. Flavor, flavor, flavor. Packed with it. Impressed.
They’ve all been interesting as well. “Interesting?”, you say? “What on earth are you talking about?”. I’m talking about individuality in flavor. Each Verve coffee I have had carries some unique flavor profile. Walnuts in one, sweet cane in something else, leather, cocoa and cardamom in another. So far, everything I’ve tasted from Verve has it.
But what about the Burundi ?..
Verve’s Burundi Bwayi – The short version …
if a Yirgacheffe and a Kenyan coffee had a love-child, well, this – Verve’s Burundi Bwayi – is what it would taste like.
… and a little bit longer one
On one hand, like a fine Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia, Verve’s Burundi Bwayi has aromas of delicate oolong tea and fragrant flowers. On the other, there are traces of Kenya’s concentrated, molasses-like sugars and dark berry-like sweetness.
Where the Burundi Bwayi distinguishes itself, where it makes itself unique – like any good child should – is in it’s creamy mouthfeel, the slightly sweeter fruit-punch-like berry flavors that also make themselves known and it’s distinctively – for an African coffee – woody, earthy palate (almost Sumatra-like) that carries over into the long, dry finish. Top it all off with a sharp but pleasant, sort-of tart apple-like acidity and you’ve got another unique entry in the Verve lineup.
A little more info … for the truly geeky
Of interest to me was the fact that this was a wet processed African coffee. Wet processed – as opposed to dry processed – coffees are known for their clean, un-muddied flavors and crisp acidity. The tart-apple-like acidity of the Bwayi was not of particular surprise then. What was surprising was the almost Sumatra-like woody, earthy component.
If you look at the photo above (click it to make it larger) you’ll notice three terms at the very bottom of the bag: Bourbon, Jackson, Mibitzi. I was already aware that Bourbon referred to a particular coffea arabica variety. Bourbon is a popular and highly productive variety of coffea arabica that was planted by the French on the island of Bourbon (now Réunion) around 1708, mutated and was then planted throughout Brazil in the late 1800s (Wikipedia). Jackson and Mibitzi I was not familiar with. A little research revealed that both Jackson and Mibitzi are both Bourbon cultivars native to Rwanda and Burundi. Now you know.
Just the facts
Who: Verve Coffee Roasters
What: Burundi Bwayi Wet Process
When: Roasted on January 7th, 2010
Where: Santa Cruz, CA
Why: I ♥ coffee
How: Chemex
12 January 2010 ∞ | Tasting notes | No comments yet
Roaster Project looks like it’s going to be an amazing, ambitious adventure:
My goal is to create the best shop-scale commercial roaster that I possibly can and then use it.
I can’t wait to see the results.
11 January 2010 ∞ | Links | No comments yet
