Daniel of Arabica
brew, drink, repeat
Archive for September 2009
Highlighting Innovation in the Coffee World: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Producers Panel
Highlighting Innovation in the Coffee World: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Producers Panel
Say what you will about the sincerity of the company ethos Stumptown projects to the public. It’s events like this that support their claims to the responsible business throne.
Brazilian Blue
No, I’m not sad. Not at all. How could I be with a coffee like this in my pot every morning? It’s Ritual Roasters’ Daterra Sweet Blue.
The fragrance of the freshly ground coffee? Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches (yeah, I said PB&J).
I brewed the Daterra two ways: press-pot and Chemex.
In the Chemex, as always the aroma during the pour-over is especially intense. More intense than in any other preparation. Aromas during the poor in the Chemex were of sassafrass (yeah, I said sassafrass). In the cup it was sweet and smooth but a little boring. In the press-pot, on the other hand, things became a little more interesting.
The press-pot brought a lot more complexity to the table. Cranberry. Cola. Cherry. Hazelnut. Cardamom. Thick, round and sweet with a still light but lively acidity. Now, that’s better.
I can’t find this coffee on Ritual’s website but the next time you find yourself in the Mission, take a gander at the shelves. Maybe you’ll get lucky.
Independent Coffee Shops
Independent Coffee Shops (via kingseven)
This video was produced as a companion to a piece at the UK’s Guardian travel site – “Ten of the best UK coffee shops”.
Speaking of James Hoffman, he shows up at about 1:25 in.
jimseven | James Hoffmann’s coffee blog.
jimseven | James Hoffmann’s coffee blog
James Hoffman is my coffee industry hero of sorts. Mr. Hoffman has an iconoclast’s bent but with his even-handed approach to what can be divisive issues — and in the close-knit and sometimes provincial world of specialty coffee, what can’t be? — and his focus on objective reasoning and passion for quantitative research, he is consistently a breath of reasoned fresh air in a world of too many strongly held opinions.
Hoffman was the World Barista Champion in 2007 and he’s also the owner of Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London, UK.
Coffee Hero
Coffee Hero
If it is related to coffee and it interests us, then it is fair game for Coffee Hero
So there ya go. Michael Allen Smith, out of the “Coffee Hero World Headquarters” in Seattle, is the producer and creator of the e-zine INeedCoffee and the main organizer for the Coffee Club of Seattle.
Alex Scofield is the leader at Coffee Hero’s “Northeast Regional Branch Office” in Cape Cod, MA where, “if all else fails”, he roasts his own beans.
First Cup
First Cup
Starting all the way back in 2005, “dogmilque” (that’s his Flickr username) — AKA “the guy in charge of roasting at Ritual Roasters in San Francisco, CA” — has photo-chronicled his first cup of the day.
Man Seeking Coffee
Man Seeking Coffee
The masked man of espresso and café reviews, MSC travels the U.S. (and the world?) “[…]on a quest to find a better cup of coffee.”
Remedy
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Remedy:
Taken on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland.
Remedy is a new café opening, according to its owner, in “around six or seven weeks”. They are serving coffees from Ritual.
Currently, the café consists of this little cart out front (à la Four Barrel and Sightglass both of whom kept or keep a cart as an ad hoc pre-café before the opening of their proper cafés) of their space containing an espresso and a Clover machine. In the window of the building is a distinctive and quite large question mark that, as I can attest, does a great job of attracting interest from passers by.
“On tap”, as it were, at the Remedy cart are a small selection of Ritual coffees, all of which are available on the Clover and one of which (currently, I beleive, Ritual’s High Striker seasonal espresso blend) is available on the espresso machine.
On my initial visit I partook of a Clover’d cup of the Daterra Sweet Blue from Brasil. Beautiful cup: sweet (as you might expect), hints of cola, Red Vines and milk chocolate, full bodied. Very nice.
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