The New York Times over the past three years has really gotten behind the developing New York coffee scene. With wonderful places such as Cafe Grumpy and Ninth Street Espresso, it’s well deserved. It’s an interesting read, and you get some perspective with quotes from the owners of Ninth St, Grumpy, and some thoughts from Doug Zell of Intelligentsia fame:
For all the coffee that New Yorkers have consumed for decades, usually heavily dosed with milk and sugar, it was more a beverage to get the day started than to satisfy their taste buds.
“It was a badge of honor to drink bad coffee out of those blue cups,” said Mr. Zell, referring to the once ubiquitous cardboard cups decorated with Greek figures that were used by bodegas and street vendors. “For all its center-of-the-universe feel,” he said, “New Yorkers can sometime be the last to change, because lots of things are very entrenched. Coffee was one of them.”
Pittsburgh is on the verge of experiencing a similar shift. The good people of this city are for the most part drinking REALLY bad coffee and drowning it in cream and sugar (among other things) to make it taste like anything other than coffee. Most “coffee shops” in this area specialize in drinks that taste nothing like coffee. Coffee is more often treated like a (caffeine delivery) drug than food or beverage. It may still be a few years away, but there are a small handful of shops around here that are slowly changing/challenging people’s perspectives. It’s just more of an underground movement here than a full-on renaissance.
Read the full article here.
If you come in to visit as a result of this AP writeup, please let us know.
Why are we (coffee people) in a genuinely good mood every day? Do you find yourself behaving more pleasantly or generously toward others after grabbing a hot cup at our shop? The answer, apparently, has been found through science! Just found this online…
Yale University psychologists have found that people judge others to be more generous and caring after they hold a warm cup of coffee, compared to when they hold an iced coffee drink. Read Entire Article Here…
I drink hot coffee every morning before we open for business, and I have to say that I’m some kind of jerk until I have it. After that, well, it’s nonstop bliss all day long (more or less). I didn’t need to read some scientific study to tell me that… I looked it up in my gut.
The study doesn’t delve into whether or not the coffee actually tasted good (!!!)… that may explain any additional benefits our coffee may bestow upon you.
A few times over the past week a customer has said to me:
“what? you’re sold out of coffee xyz? again? really?”
Yes, for really. We sold out. I told the customer that if we had an inexhaustible supply of coffee xyz sooner or later that coffee would be stale, so I’d rather sell out frequently and know that it’s tasting great than nervously watch fresh roasted beans turn into… well… beans. We want everything you drink here to taste like it should, and sometimes that means we sell out. We try to order enough so that there are always several choices for coffees, plus a nice selection of beans to take home.
So let’s talk about The 21st Street Menu… new Direct Trade Ethiopia (Kurimi) and Direct Trade Nicaragua (Flor Azul) are in!
While the Guatemala (Itzamna) and Costa Rica (Flecha Roja) (and Honduras for that matter) are all still “In-Season” and delicious, we have learned that too many wonderful choices can lead to customers developing “analysis paralysis”. They’ve been bumped for the new offerings. We’ve decided that around three or four single origin coffees was about right, and we throw in our one dark roast and a couple decaf choices and that about fills up our menu. Last year at one point I think we had 16 coffees going at once! Needless to say this created some issues moving the line. A tight, fresh menu allows us to guarantee that everything brewed and sold in our shop is typically within a week or so of the roast date.
Over the last month we’ve experienced our best sales for coffee and whole beans (take that stupid economy). It’s taking some time to learn what the new order numbers should be, so we’re adjusting our orders up each week accordingly. We’re always trying to balance freshness and having enough stuff to brew/sell. Just to make sure we stay on top of things, and you help keep us in line, we get all our bags roast dated. This way we don’t lose track of a coffee, sell it to you, then you take it home and wonder why it tastes flat and stale.
By the way a certain national chain is proudly displaying roast dates in their stores now… something along the lines of: “your coffee was freshly roasted… TWO MONTHS AGO… hope it tastes like something” (I added the last bit in my mind when I read it). Here we are freaking out about whether the coffee is at worst 9 or 10 days off roast, and they’re ANNOUNCING they’re stuff is dead on arrival. That’s part of the reason why our coffees taste like something other than “regular coffee”.
