No more spilling the beans

I will no longer be writing my Spill the Beans column for the local paper. Today was my final column for the HTR (temporary link). Here below is the original draft (they did edit out a few sentences, ostensibly for reasons of space, in the published version). I appreciate everyone reading the column every other week and all of the very kind compliments, via email and in person, that followed each article. I'll continue to write similar articles here on the blogsite and possibly elsewhere if the opportunity presents itself.

Good to the Last Drop

This will be my final "Spill the Beans" column for the Herald Times Reporter. The last couple of years of sharing my opinions and knowledge of coffee and the specialty coffee industry have been great fun, and the response from readers following each column has been very gratifying. I'd like to thank HTR Editor Steve Reed for accepting my proposal to create this column, and Ben Wideman for being a professional and thoughtful editor as well.

Since our coffee house opened four years ago the number of coffee shops in this lakeshore area has more than doubled. That's a good thing. They all have something positive to offer and they all provide that socially necessary "third place" for people to congregate and socialize.

That being said, my next comment may come as a bit of a surprise.

I long for the day when we can confidently say that we have a real, honest-to-goodness "coffee culture" here in the Manty/TR area, one where the preponderance of coffee shops are staffed with passionate and knowledgeable baristas (baristas in the "skilled craftsman" sense of the word) and where receiving an excellent espresso or cappuccino, in their traditional form and manner as well as in quality, is de rigueur.

At this point all of the coffee shops in our area, including the one I operate, fall in line with the commonly perceived model of the American coffee shop. That is, they serve a variety of brewed coffees via insulated air pots while also offering espresso and milk-based drinks with any number of flavored syrups, and in sizes that are often, in my opinion, too large. All of us are less coffee-centric, if you will, than some of the more "serious" specialty coffee shops that are at the forefront of the industry.

Don't misunderstand. I love the variety of coffee shops we have here and I've always been a vocal supporter and promoter of my fellow coffee businesses. I do, however, think we can all do much better and could, collectively, create a legitimate local coffee culture that garners respect and attention from a much wider audience, if we become more coffee-centric in a few key areas. We certainly have a great start in the number of shops and quality of people running them.

As I don't have the space here to go into a long list of "things we need to do" to accomplish that, here's a short list of only three visual "markers" that I notice in a coffee shop that give me either a positive immediate impression or make me a little wary, before I even take a drink:

Drinkware - Do they serve the various drinks in ceramic or take-out cups appropriate for the drink, or will I get, for example, my double espresso in a 16 ounce cappuccino bowl or, worse yet, a large paper take-out cup? I also feel better if I don't see drink sizes on the menu that are larger than 20 ounces. I do believe a 20-ounce coffee drink is too large, but I also understand that balancing the ideal with customer desires is very important. But good drinks are generally smaller in size, and emphasize taste and balance over quantity.

Syrups - One can debate whether or not flavored syrups should be a part a serious coffee house, but the practical fact is that there is really no way around them if one expects to serve any significant number of customers. That being said, what kind of syrups does a place use: cheap, high-fructose syrups that can be purchased at most big-box grocery stores, or high quality syrups that use natural ingredients and cane sugar?

Grinders - Are the coffee grinders filled to the top and do the coffee beans and insides of the grinders look oily? That's not a good sign. It likely indicates stale coffee. Even worse, do they just dose coffee for your drink without grinding to order? Unless you're in a line of people waiting to place your order every drink should be ground to order.

Thanks for reading.

Waking up with Ethiopia

Unedited Spill the Beans column below. (9 times out of 10 I don't approve of the edits that might be made. They usu ally weaken the flow of the story. Fortunately they are few & far between.)

Waking up with Ethiopia

I'd been in a rut lately, a coffee drinking rut. I imagine it happens to other passionate coffee aficionados once in a while. For the past couple weeks I just hadn't been into preparing and drinking coffee like I usually was. It's not that I didn't enjoy my morning, afternoon and evening coffees. I did, but the satisfaction had been subdued, with the ritual perfunctory and uninspired.

The reasons for the funk are unimportant. But what helped me get out of it is well worth sharing. It was, simply, a great cup of coffee. To be specific, it was an Organic Ethiopian from the Sidamo region that reawakened my taste buds and, by extension, cleared the fog and recovered my mojo.

This Ethiopian Sidamo coffee was a common one that I've enjoyed many times before, but it had been a while since I'd last had it. And what more appropriate coffee to revive oneself with than one from the birthplace of coffee itself? Ethiopia is commonly thought to be the place where coffee originated, or was discovered.

Sidamo, in the south-central part of Ethiopia, is one of the significant coffee growing regions in the country. The arabica coffee produced there is, along with Yergacheffe and Limu (or Limmu), one of the most notable coffees in a country famous for producing outstanding coffees. Ethiopia has a diverse geography, characterized by mountainous regions interspersed with valleys and plateaus. The climate is predominantly tropical monsoon, although the diversity of terrain has a significant influence on the climate in various regions. For our purposes it is enough to say that Sidamo is a region with excellent coffee growing qualities. It has the elevation, the soil, the rainfall and climate, and the ecological diversity necessary to produce a unique and coveted coffee.

The cup I had was pressed. I have a small French press that I use from time to time. It's the press I usually keep in my car when traveling and holds only around 8 ounces of liquid. And because it's small with brass-colored top and frame it appeals to my fondness for gadgets. Besides using it as a "road press" I use it when I feel like having just one cup of coffee.

Well, this "just one cup" was the first of three. Good Ethiopian coffees are prized for their complexity, moderate acidity and floral character. They can also, if they are dry-processed, be a little grassy or "wild" in character, which can be a little off-putting to some people. Personally, I like the rustic quality of many dry-processed coffees as much as I enjoy the smooth, wine-like characteristics of wet-processed Ethiopian coffees.

I'm guessing that this one was wet-processed, or "washed," because it was smooth and clean in the mouth, with distinct berry notes and none of the grassiness or fresh garden vegetable notes that dry-processed coffees sometimes have.

The first sip is what made me take notice. Lately I've been enjoying Farmer's Market cherries and with the first sip I couldn't help but detect notes of cherry. It was the first time in two weeks that I'd actually tasted something below the surface. I became acutely aware that there were multiple flavors swirling around here that demanded my attention. In addition to the cherry there was a little milk chocolate, and a slight sweet nuttiness, like cashews. The aroma was sweet and light, not unlike a Kona or Puerto Rican coffee. Mouthfeel, soft and full. The finish, clean.

Like most things, context is, many times, everything when it comes to enjoying or not enjoying coffee. It was a beautiful morning, after all. And I do like using that little steampunk-looking press. Or maybe it was just time for my taste buds to end their two-week hibernation (timing can be everything too).

I do, however, also believe that the coffee had much to say. Sometimes you just need to listen.