Location: Columbia, Missouri

Drink: Cappuccino

Drinkers: Chris Hess

Meant to write this one up the last time I was in the great town of Columbia. I took pictures. I drank multiple drinks. I simply never got around to it.

So a year later, while on a week-long family tour of the deep Midwest, our route from Missouri to Iowa took us again throughColumbia. We ate fine food. We drank fine brew (not the coffee kind). And before it was again time to hit the road with audiobooks to pass the time, it was determined I needed a fine cup of coffee.

Walking back into Kaldis a year later, most is the same. It is a large space. There is a focus on fine coffees with a food menu to please the college and business folk that populate the downtown area. A change I noticed: the menus are less cluttered, easier toread. Kaldis now offers french press (bonus) and chemex (double bonus). I had an idea of them brewing it directly into my mouth while I planked the coffee bar so I could become an internet sensation in certain circles.

Deeming this to be inappropriate and maybe impossible (reverse gravity pour?)…and deterred from either of these brew methods by not feeling confident in my ability to imbibe 32 oz. of coffee on my own while being behind the wheel…I went with a cappuccino. Triple bonus? Kaldis now offers their house espresso alongside a single-origin offering. Feeling special, I went with the S.O. – a promising Guatemala.

Whilst I waited for my capp, conversation ensued. The Kaldis baristas are talkative and pleasant. What’s more, they are genuine. There is a difference between talking with a customer to pass the time while waiting for their beverage to be handed to them and truly engaging with someone. I was engaged with. My barista’s father is from Fort Collins and she wants to move West but needs a job. Kaldis is also in the process of getting their drip bar/by the cup system rolling (Quad Bonus). See what you learn when you actually meet people instead of “meeting” people?

Next, my drink arrived. It was quite good. Nice balance and texture. Some of the sweetest milk I’ve ever tasted, and the espresso held up very nicely as the drink cooled while I drove north.Well done, fellow behind the machine who I didn’t get to speak with much. You were pleasant as well, though. I have the feeling we might have spoken for some time.

Thank you, Kaldis, for being the official coffee sponsor of my Missouri-Iowa transition. I will return. I recommend you – reader – try it for at least the first time. If not in Columbia,

then one of their other locales.

Methinks you’ll dig it.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PcoMrwEa5o

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The Rocky Mountain Craft Coffee Alliance has been coming and we didn’t really want to say anything about it because we wanted it to be ready for you. It is the idea of our friend Chris Schooley. We all sat at Choice City Butcher this past fall and talked about promoting craft coffee up and down the great rockies. Who were “we all”? Folks from Everyday Joe’s, from Coal Creek, from Coffee Shrub, from Ozo, from Allegro, and more. We formed an alliance, tho not like Voltron because that is played out. More like a sincere handshake.

The charter for the RMCCA is up over at its official web presence, but here is a snapshot:

From our heart:
The Rocky Mountain Craft Coffee Alliance is a group of folks dedicated to promoting…well…craft coffee. Coffee can be a craft – just like beer brewing or knife making or wood working. We want you to taste that.

From the charter:
A group of coffee professionals and amateurs seeking to promote coffee that has been skillfully and carefully sourced, profiled, analyzed, roasted, prepared, and monitored for quality.

And here is a logo that shows how snappy a pink dot can look:

Membership details are coming, but they are horizontal. This is not just for the professional roaster or the retailer. It’s for anyone who loves the craft of fine coffee and can’t wait for the next time you have people over for breakfast because you can’t wait to make them coffee.

But now, it’s time to promote craft coffee and introduce the RMCCA. It was determined via conversation that the best way to do this would be to hold an event. An event with a reception to follow.

On June 25, Everyday Joe’s will be hosting Sensory Science: Testing Coffee Beyond The Cupping Table. The morning will be a lecture and presentation (redundant??) by Paul Songer (Cup Of Excellence). The afternoon will be roasting and brew method workshops. The reception will blow your mind if what we think might happen happens.

More details about the event (i.e. a in-depth descriptions of the lecture & workshops) will come to you soon. For now, you can register for the event here. Cost is $35 in advance or $50 the day of. Still need convincing? Poster form:

We’re very excited for all of this. We’ll see you very soon.

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1. Coffee & Goodness: Ruminate Magazine So...apparently the rapture is supposed to go down this coming...
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Everyday Joe’s is a member of the SCAA, and it is one of the communities we sincerely love being a part of. It is also a bit of a nerve center for coffee things, as you may gather from the video tour. We’ll be attending the annual SCAA Event again this year…and we hope this trip is free of stomach sickness. We’ll blog it again…from the wonders/heat/humidity of Houston, TX. Until then, enjoy the tour.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RGUheRBbZM

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Back in September we thought, “We want to host coffee tastings.” Then we thought, “These tastings need to be about more than coffee.” One last thought occured, “The tastings should benefit people doing good things.”

And so those thoughts formed one larger thought that was acted on and out came Coffee & Goodness. It is an afternoon of coffee exploration to benefit good things. The upcoming Coffee & Goodness (Saturday March 6) will benefit the Fort Collins Food Co-Op. We will be exploring a coffee from Ethiopia: Amaro Gayo Sun-Dried. It will be explored 4 different ways:

• Hario V60 Drip
• Clever Coffee Dripper
• French Press
• Espresso

The doors are open from 2-5 pm. Come by any time during those hours and receive 6 oz. samples of Hario, Clever, and French Press and a double shot of the espresso. You can tell us things, we can tell you things, we can exlpore the flavor wheel, we can draw pictures…all for just $7.

PLUS, our good friends at Novo Coffee have generously and graciously and lovingly donated all the beans, so nearly all of that $7 will go directly to the FC Food Co-Op. Prolific!

See you then.

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The video below is groundbreaking in the realm of coffee brew methods. It will change you.

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Location: Gothenburg, Nebraska

Drink: Latte

Drinker: Seth Daire

There are days when I feel compelled to drive 21 hours from Colorado to my home in Erie, Pennsylvania. Those days don’t come often, but February 14th was one such day, and along the way, I had a craving for coffee. The road to Pennsylvania known as I-80 is long and boring, with the exception of a few cities until you hit Chicago. With my newly acquired GPS, I searched for the only coffee house I expected to find, and found one, many miles ahead.

On the way there, I saw an exit with a sign for Lasso Espresso. Not sure what to expect, but excited about the possibility of a new coffee adventure, we gave it a go. What can one expect from a coffee house in Gothenburg, Nebreska? Well, the only way to describe the decor is eclectic. As one reviewer describes it: “Lots of cute little cards, candles, piggy banks, jellies, home made treats and other trinkets. You can drive go through the drivethrough for your coffee or walk in and sit at a table or couch.” I opted to walk in and order a latte, straight up. The owner was also there and offered us some popcorn from their popcorn machine, made with corn from their corn fields! Yes, it appears the family business is corn…in Nebraska.

We talked with the owner a bit, and the quality of their coffee is very important to them. They use Seattle-based Caffé D’arte, a roaster who hand crafts their coffee in the Italian tradition. That’s not what I expected to find on a random stop somewhere in the middle of Nebraska, but found it I did, and my coffee craving was satiated.

Further:

• Caffé D’Arte Official Site
• More Reviews of Lasso Espresso

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Hola,

I’m in Bogota, Colombia enjoying some time with friends and seeking to loosen up and disengage whatever stress barnacles managed to build up over 2008. Every year brings plenty of joy and stress, among other things, and while the turn of the calendar year may not be an all-powerful life-cleanser, it is certainly as good a time as any to step back a bit and do a system re-boot, if for no other reason than that it feels good.

At the moment I’m staying in a hotel called Celebrities Suites, which I can vigorously recommend. The place is perfectly located in central Bogota and the rooms are big and tastefully set up in a clean, sparse, Scandinavian kind of way. Each room is themed after a different celebrity, and the slogan is “escoja con quien pasar la noche” (choose who you would like to spend the night with). Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Beyonce, Sean Connery, Bob Marley, Angelina… they’re all here. I got assigned J.Lo when I checked in, and after the first night, I moved up to Alfred Hitchcock when I found that the place was nearly empty and the rates were ultra-discounted for the holiday.

Thinking about what is in store for 2009, I cannot remember entering any year in the last decade with more reason to be excited, despite whatever economic difficulties continue to linger. We’ve got an incoming president who has the entire planet slightly giddy with anticipation of Change, in whatever form that may take. Even without knowing what exactly is to come, there is a sense of trust that it will somehow be good, that our collective world is on the verge of altering course in a decidedly positive way. And I do believe that what is sometimes needed most is just a basic belief among a large number of people that a door has been opened, an obstacle removed, and that we have an opportunity in front of us to unify international efforts that perhaps seemed quite a bit less possible just a year ago. Inspiration can accomplish a lot, regardless of where it comes from or what it really means. Working with coffee over the last 13 years has shown me that oftentimes the most critical and elusive element needed to achieve real forward progress is the ability to motivate people. Once motivated, people tend to rise towards their real potential and even surprise themselves in finding that they’ve got more ability to control the outcome of their works than they had previously believed.

During the last pile of years that I’ve been traveling, I found that whenever I mentioned I was from Chicago, regardless of whether I was in Africa, Indonesia, or Latin America, few people had any sort of knowledge of the city. Was it on the coast? Is it in California? Whenever there was any sort of recognition it came down to one of three things: Al Capone, Michael Jordan, or wind. Such has been the legacy of my home in the eyes of the world at large. But the last few months have been different. Now when people hear “Chicago,” there is a noticeable light in their eyes as they say “Obama!” Good stuff.

As regards to Intelligentsia and our plans for ’09, I would like to mention just a few things before I sign off to take my first tango lesson. Here, in no particular order, are some of the places we expect to be putting our energies:

1. East Africa
Kenya and Ethiopia should be on nearly every coffee lover’s Top 5 list when it comes sensory quality. Some of the most deeply flavorful, complex, nuanced and profoundly sweet coffees the world has to offer come from these two countries, and yet they still lag far behind places like Costa Rica and Colombia when it comes to consumer recognition.

This is partly because of a lack of infrastructure and access to technical resources have meant massive inconsistency in quality when compared to some of the more developed countries in Latin America. Corruption and limited transparency in the financial chain have played a big part in holding these industries back as well. Windows are opening, however, and I’m particularly excited about what the next few years will hold for our coffee projects there. You’ll be hearing a lot about them in the coming months.

2. Indonesia
In 2003 when I first traveled to Indonesia on a three week tour through Sumatra, Java, and Bali, I turned right back around and spent the next several years focusing most of my efforts in Central and South America. Indonesia was just too messy and too far away. Situated on the other side of the earth, it takes nearly five days just to get there and back. The coffee industry is incredibly fractured, and the efforts necessary to attain the levels of transparency and quality made it seem like it would rival the work of Sisyphus. I wasn’t necessarily prepared for the work then, but it is now 2009 and things are different. We’ll be putting in the work to get some world-class coffees out of Indo in the coming years.

3. Coffee by the cup, brewed to order
The age of the urn and the airpot is coming to a close. I believe that brewing in large batches is antithetical to the very idea of specialty coffee. Once brewed, coffee begins to lose aromatic and flavor qualities almost immediately, and after even 15-20 minutes, it has changed so much as to have lost many of the very things that made it special in the first place. This method of preparation means that the retailer loses out because they are dumping a lot of coffee down the drain after it gets too old to sell (at least I hope that they are doing this!). The consumer loses out because she is deprived of choice. What if I want a cup of Kenya, my sister prefers a tasty coffee from HueHuetenango, and my girlfriend wants to drink some Colombian coffee from Santuario? People have different preferences and they ought to be able to choose their favorite coffee each time they walk into a shop rather than settle for whatever happens to be on tap at the time. The coffee loses out because it doesn’t really get a chance to show what it can do.

4. Coffees being bought and sold seasonally relative to their harvest cycles
There is always harvesting happening somewhere in the world, and we are aiming to showcase coffees from each country we work in during the months in which they are in their prime. Doesn’t that just make sense?

5. More information about each coffee delivered to our customers through the web
There is so much detail behind each and every coffee we sell, but much of it has historically gotten held up in my laptop or in my brain. Coffee Info sheets and Nod emails and the like have been a good vehicle to get you more intimately acquainted with the origins of our coffees, but they only scratch the surface. Look for much greater depth of information and interactivity to be coming your way—I want to help you understand these coffees the way that I do, and in lieu of bringing each and everyone of you with me to the farms, I’m going see what I can do to bring the farms closer to you.

There is surely a 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 but I need to get to my dance lesson. Before I leave, I am going to ask you to read up on Kurimi, our Direct Trade offering from Ethiopia. This coffee is tasting great and is one of our real successes from 2008. So goodbye for now, happy 2009, and I hope you are all as excited about the coming year as I am.

Saludos,

Geoff Watts
Green Coffee Buyer
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea

Further:

• About that Sisyphus fellow
• Concerning Kurimi
• Intelligentsia Official Site

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A post popped up on FudgeGraphics this morning titled “Artists’ Tea & Coffee Appreciation Group.”

Sweet Moses this is fantastic. An excerpt from the post:

“I’m a self-diagnosed tea and coffee addict and I am not ashamed about it. I know that many artists, be they designers, musicians, photographers or other got the same problem. Without our daily dose of cafeine [sic] we just don’t function. In order not to be alone with that burden I decided to open a flickr group where I invite you all to post your “I-drink-tea/coffee-self-portraits“. I believe this is a nice way to get to know each other a bit better. After all we’re a big and happy family.”

Let’s look at that last line again:

“After all we’re a big and happy family.”

One more time:

“After all we’re a big and happy family.”

Oh, family. A theme coursing deep through my veins during 2008. Throw coffee and art into the mix, and I melt like butter in the palm of your hot, sweaty hand.

This Flickr group seems to have been tailored for a very large segment of the Everyday Joe’s family. Now Franz is a part of the family. I just birthed him into it…whether he knows it or not.

Click here to view the group and upload your photo.

Further:

• FudgeGraphics blog (really, it’s a great resource)
• Artist’s Tea & Coffee Appreciation Flickr Group

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