Tag Archive for 'Rants'

The Post Gazette visits 21st Street

Published
by
Luke
on April 6, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

We’re in today’s Sunday Post Gazette giving our thoughts on Starbucks’ buyout of the Coffee Equipment Company- makers of the Clover 1s coffee brewer. Quite a few people came in today for the first time, mentioned the article, and teased me about my dark roast comments.

A lot of folks have come into the shop lately and asked us about our feelings on the issue, and I think this article sums it up nicely. What we want to make clear is that to make great brewed coffee you have to have great (and fresh) beans. It really depends on what you put into your brewer, and then everything that happens next depends on your gear and your preparation. Just as you can ruin great coffee by brewing it incorrectly or by using a machine that doesn’t get the water hot enough, you can’t get a great cup on the best equipment with the best trained baristas if you’re starting with stale, defect ridden, over-roasted coffee.

At our shop, we try to bring all of these elements together- the best and freshest beans, a high level of training, and top end equipment that gives us a greater degree of control and accuracy in the brewing process.

To give an example, we have a great espresso machine that gives us control over the brew water temperature to within half a degree Fahrenheit. Yesterday we finished off one espresso blend (Kid-O) and put the new batch (Black Cat) in the hopper. To get the new coffee (also a more recent roast date) ready to go we needed to adjust our grind as well as drop the temperature down about 5 degrees (as the coffee was almost “too fresh”). We then made finer grind adjustments until the coffee tasted the way we wanted it to- good fruit, but balanced acidity, chocolaty finish, syrupy body. The reason I go into all of this is because even with great coffee and great equipment, you still need a trained palate to taste these coffees throughout the day and have baristas that care enough to make the adjustments necessary to bring out the best in those beans.

We care, and we try to improve our game incrementally each day. I’ve been playing around with my Chemex a lot lately because it’s just a great way to make coffee- if you prepare it carefully. The Clover makes a lot of sense for us because it allows us to deliver great quality repeatably and quickly. We believe in the saying “put your money where your mouth is”. We have never been about doing things purely for show (the wow factor as I alluded in the article)- and that’s why we’re happy with our Clover and will continue to tweak it and learn more about what we’re brewing.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Published
by
Luke
on March 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

So by now I’m sure most of the readers of this site have learned that Starbucks has bought out the Coffee Equipment Company- makers of the Clover. I’ve held my tongue for a little while on the subject but the NY Times had an interesting article today about their new approach- “fresh pressed coffee”. Let’s hit the street for a closer look…

sign of the apocalypse

Along for the ride with the reporter was Mr. George Howell- one of the “godfathers” of the specialty coffee industry. Mr. Howell knows coffee, he knows brewing equipment, and he knows you need to put it all together to get the proper results. His take?

Mr. Howell sipped the Arabian Mocha Sanani and made a face. “I hate it. That’s really spoiled fruit, like really bad wine,” he said, adding that he was perplexed at its popularity.

If none of the coffees made a favorable impression, we concluded, it seemed that the problem lay less with the Clover, or the quality of the beans, than with the roast.

And there you have it. “Dark” is not a “better” roast profile, just like getting a steak well done is not the best way to enjoy that cut of meat. “Dark” does not equal “Strong”. “Dark” tastes more like the roast and less like the coffee it once was. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just that if you want to truly taste the flavor of a coffee it needs to be roasted much more lightly to preserve it’s natural aroma and acidity. But wait, Starbucks has other coffees to try…

Starbucks also offers “mild” roasts, which is another way of saying lighter. I ordered two of them, the Colombian Nariño Supremo and Guatemalan Antigua, from the Clover, as well as from the regular drip coffee maker and from a French press.

The drip coffee tasted burned and acidic. Then we tried the Clover coffee. “That’s interesting,” Mr. Howell said of the Guatemalan Antigua. “There’s a brighter clarity to it.” While the Guatemalan Antigua was “coming out quite nicely,” the Colombian, more flavorful than any of the coffees we tried earlier, was still over-roasted.

So they tried a drip, the press, and the Clover…

“The new machine, the Clover, did the best job,” Mr. Howell said with a nod.

Imagine what the coffee could taste like if you put incredible beans in an incredible machine? I wish we had one of those newfangled Clover deals.

BTW did you see their new honey latte? It’s a latte, but… and here’s the catch… they put honey in it… oh and whipped cream- because espresso is at the heart of everything they do. It’s just that the heart is clogged with whipped cream and sugar. That’s a rant for another day.