Chicago

Off to Chicago in the morning, with a strong feeling its going to be a wonderful couple of days.

I’ll naturally be checking out Intelligentsia and all its spots, and hopefully I’ll be meeting up with their wholesale trainer Sarah Kluth, of recent Portafilter podcast praise.  I’m really looking forward to tasting Black Cat when it hasn’t been in a plane. After spending a summer working with it, It will be interesting to see how close I ever got to what they consider Great Black Cat.

I’ll also be checking out Metropolis Roasters uptown as they have a great reputation and their website is pretty nifty too. I’m dying to see them level their pfs in a rush.

But probably the best thing about the trip will be the chance for Jen and I to catch up with two of our closest friends who are flying down from Vancouver, AJ and Lyndsey.  AJ currently works in The Elysian room and has promised to bring some infamous nova coffee. See how quickly I went from discussing a non coffee thing to a coffee thing.  Worrying.

I’ve stupidly promised to bring lots of coffee home with me so I can see myself buying an extra suitcase.

So you can expect many many photos and I will also try blog a plenty.

Happy New Year all.

Christmas

Hello

I’m a little tipsy as I write this but then it is Christmas so I think I’m allowed.

Look what my brother got me. Expect developments soon.

Happy Christmas everybody, and happy ‘me’ day tomorrow.

Stephen

blends

I’ve been thinking about filter blends recently and what place they have in our end of the industry. The focus on single origins, micro lots, and not on blends would suggest that in a few years time the filter blend might be quite rare. I can’t decide how I feel about this, and whether I actually believe it could happen. Obviously at a basic consumer level, a blend will always be an attractive all rounder especially for the not so sure coffee buyer.  However if we then consider how much we’re enjoying our single estate coffees and cup of excellence lots recently it would seem wholly unnecessary to want to twiddle with them in an attempt to create a blend.  Do we feel a blend will better display a coffees character or is it more that in a blend it can play unique roll that perhaps no other coffee could fill. This talk could be borrowed from espresso blending literature yet I think filter is so different that it needs individual consideration. Does a blend have something to offer a single origin never will?

I remember loving two blends Intelligentsia had over the summer, the Summer Solctice and the Red Sea Blend. The Summer Solctice was particularly good and I remember especially loving the balance of profiles in the cup. It was one of the few coffees that I will always remember from that summer. So now I’m wondering have any of you ever tasted a coffee that worked better in a filter blend than by itself? Do the same rules of blending for espresso apply for filter?

Its interesting to see how many filter blends Intelligentsia are offering, and Stumptown, and more locally, Hasbean.

I just don’t see myself buying many blends over single estate coffees and thus questioning the role they’ll play in time to come.

night

ola

Just a quick hello. I´m currently in Malaga in the south of Spain celebrating my mother´s 60th birthday. The city is quietly charming with lots of small streets and some good shopping strips.  The coffee Stephen, what about the coffee?

Well dear readers, I just don´t get it. Its largely dark roasts,  laden with robusta, quiet stale, with machines that are generally dirty, I´m yet to see a pf being cleaned between shots, its always served with burnt, reheated milk, its consistently under-extracted and yet despite this, my entire family love it and reckon they´ve never had coffee as good!

I want to say well now, its because well you´re in Spain for Gods Sake, of course things will taste better. But somehow I don´t believe it. They love the speed, the simplicity apparently the taste, but also the non fuss of it all. It is interesting how the robusta adds such body to the shots despite their diarrhea like extractions. (excuse my descriptive vulgarity).

 So anyway, despite some interesting bar layouts which wouldn´t work back home due to the different service on offer here, I´m yet to see any truly quality focused cafes in Malaga. The coffee here, in my opinion at least, is far from foul, or offensive. It is simple, no nonsense, a little rough and leaves you with a pleasent tar like finish.

adios