Gods in Cups

In March, I stumbled across God in a Cup by Michaele Weissman at my local Barnes & Noble. If I hadn't been in the food writing isle looking for another book on coffee (Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast), I never would have found it, and today I wouldn't know of its existence -- much less have had the pleasure of reading it.

What makes this book about the specialty coffee industry so enjoyable and so insightful are the people. Instead of focusing solely on the bean or the complex global industry that exists around it, Weissman focuses on the people in specialty coffee -- specifically Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia, Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture Coffee, and Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee. And as she travels with Geoff and Peter to origin in Africa and Central America, she meets an impressive cast of key players within the industry including farmers, buyers and exporters. When she visits Geoff, Peter and Duane on their home turf in LA, Northe Carolina and Portland, she also brings in importers, roasters and baristas.

This book is an examination of the specialty coffee industry as it stands today. It's a snapshot in time of the guys at the forefront of the self-proclaimed "third wave" of coffee with a glimpse at some of the giants that came before them. It digs deeper than other treatments of the industry such as Black Gold (see my previous post on this documentary). Weissman is not afraid to explore the complexity of the industry -- the drawbacks of co-ops for farmers, the controversies over the value of fair trade and the potential risks of direct trade -- revealing the struggles that exist from origin to retail.

It is clear throughout her book that Weissman obviously developed a deep respect for her subjects and their passion for coffee, which often crosses the border into obsession. In her Authors@Google appearance, she compares the subjects of her book to the wave of independent film makers of the 70's -- a band of irreverent, talented and passionate guys who fundamentally changed an industry. And the farmers at the other end of the chain? They are artists, she says. All farmers are not alike.

And as such, all great coffee is not alike -- a theme that runs throughout her book and is illustrated by the search for the next Hacienda La Esmeralda Special, a Panamanian coffee produced by a specific coffee varietal called geisha that has become the obsession of many within the specialty coffee world and inspired the title of Weissman's book. (There are many different varietals of coffee plants that produce different types of coffee, similar to different varietals of grapes producing different wines.) While this book has so much to offer, if I were to pick one aspect that resonated with me the most, it would be this sentiment that not all great coffee is alike -- the complexities of growing and finding great coffee and the stories of those pursuing fine coffees like geisha. I would pick this because it helps to explain my own obsession with coffee.

An old friend of mine recently commented to one of my countless Facebook status updates about coffee by saying: "You spend more time thinking about coffee then I spend thinking." I think many of my friends and family members (including my 15 month old) have probably thought the same thing at one point in time. Why do I spend so much time thinking and talking about a beverage?

At a recent holiday dinner, one of my wife's family friends asked me: "What's the best coffee in the world?" I didn't know quite how to answer this question. I've spent so many years drinking so many great coffees (and finding new ones every month) that the thought of pointing to one cup and saying "that's it, there are no others" seemed completely foreign to me.

But this is a question I often face from non-coffee geeks. The dilemma reminds me of an article that Malcolm Gladwell wrote a few years back called The Ketchup Conundrum. In it, Gladwell talks people's expectations and perceptions of taste and a man named Howard Moskowitz. Moskowitz was the first person to realize that what people often want (even though they don't often know it) are varieties in taste. There was no such thing as the best universal taste for Pepsi or pasta sauces or mustard. But at the same time, some tastes are so embedded in a culture that it is almost impossible to stray from them. Ketchup is one such taste. Heinz dominates the ketchup market because people expect ketchup to taste like Heinz. Any great deviation from the Heinz recipe doesn't stand a chance.

Coffee, I think often suffers from similar cultural baggage. People expect to find one great coffee that they can stick with forever. Yet most coffee drinkers I know who are also wine drinkers would never dream of sticking to only one label of wine forever. Unfortunately, most people don't think of coffee like wine. They think of coffee like ketchup. They find a label and stick with it.

Weissman manages to argue in a couple hundred pages why you should change your thinking and open your mind on this subject for coffee. Don't try to find the best cup of coffee. Try to find the best cups of coffees. Instead of trying to find God in a cup, look for gods in cups.

I've feebly tried to explain this in many of my posts on this blog. If you want to save time, pick up Weissman's book.

(Note: this post was written under the influence of Kuta, Waghi Valley, Papua New Guinea by Counter Culture and Wondo Worka Co-op, Ethiopian Yrgacheffe by Ritual Roasters.)

Snobbery Revealed! Two Weeks in the Life of a Coffee Snob

I am often accused of being a coffee snob. Doesn't really bother me. 'Cause it's kind of true.

But snobbery is all relative, isn't it? I mean, it's not like I only like one particular type of coffee. It's just that I only like quality coffee. And as I've said before, especially here in NYC there are tons of great coffee to choose from.

To prove that I'm not too much of a snob (but definitely a stickler for quality) below is the list of the coffees I've had over the last two weeks. I've posted them in my personal order of preference but all of these are excellent cups from talented roasters. Check them out yourself and maybe you can become a coffee snob, too.

Valle del Santuario (San Ignacio, Peru) roasted by Counter Culture. By far, my favorite over the last couple of weeks. I stumbled across this one by pure accident at Everyman Espresso. A pleasant, well-rounded, sweet cup with hints of vanilla.


Finca El Colmenar (Guatamala Amatitlan) roasted by Oren's Daily Roast. I've been enjoying this one for the few days at work in a nice little french press I got for myself at the office. A nice fruity cup. Yum!

Ethiopia Sidamo #3 also roasted by Oren's. (As I stated in an earlier post, I also have some green beans of this which I haven't tried roasting yet. I'm hoping I can do these beans justice when I do.) Hints of berries here -- just what I like in an Ethiopian. Also check out my earlier post on Oren's if you're not familiar with them.

Panama Hartmann Honey roasted by Gimme! Coffee. I first had these beans at Cafe Grumpy (don't remember the roaster). Nice body to this coffee and syrupy taste. The great guys over at Gimme! keep blogging and tweeting about it so I picked up a bag again this week at Cafe Royal. Glad I did.

El Salvador Pulp Natural Finca Mauritania roasted by Coffee Llama (that would be me). I picked up these beans from Sweet Marias and made a decent city roast for Easter dinner. A nice mellow, sweet cup. Decent, even in the horrible drip coffee maker we used. I'm looking forward to another roast that I can brew properly and hoard for myself.

I also roasted a few batches of a Brazil Moreninha Formosa Raisin Coffee MicroLot. The first batch wasn't too impressive. Some hints of caramel but not much else. I made a second roast a little darker and it made a much more impressive cup. A lot more fruit came out under the caramel. But it was a bit darker than I usually like my beans. I have enough beans to roast one more batch. I'm going to try to get somewhere between the two previous roasts.

Anjilanaka, Organic Bolivia roasted by Intelligentsia. I used to get this coffee at a now defunct cafe on Bleeker Street. Smooth, fruity and chocolatey. Luckily it's now available at Ost Cafe. And now that Ninth Street Espresso carries Intelligentsia I'm pretty sure they carry it now, too. In truth, I probably like this coffee better than my own roasts, but I couldn't resist the tempation to list myself above Intelligentsia. :-)

All in all, I think this is a pretty good selection for two weeks of coffee drinking. Can't wait to see what I can get my hands on in the coming weeks!

Learning from Craft Beer at the Coffee & Tea Festival NYC

A lot of great things have been happening in coffee in New York City these days. Unfortunately, the 4th Annual Coffee & Tea Festival NYC was not one of them.

I try not to post negative comments on this blog. It's too easy to be negative in a blog. Instead, I prefer to focus on coffee experiences and stories that excite and inspire me. But the festival I attended today was just too disappointing for me to ignore.

I tried my best to behave myself but a few negative comments did slip out and my friends who joined me at the festival were probably getting annoyed by my sour looks and almost instant dismissal of many of the products that were available to sample.

I was first skeptical of the event when I realized it was being held on the same weekend as the annual SCAA exposition in Atlanta, where many of the movers and shakers of the specialty coffee industry are spending their week. But I was still willing to give the festival the benefit of the doubt and see what I could discover.

My next disappointment was walking into the Manhattan Pavilion. It was nearly empty after the event had already been open for two hours. A lack of participants would have been bad enough but the amount of empty space within the pavilion was the worst part. I have paid much less to attend events in the same space where I have had the pleasure of exploring products from 3o to 40 times the number of vendors that I found today. (The annual Bust Craftacular and the Chocolateshow are just two such events.)

After a quick tour around the floor, my disappointment continued as I realized I could think of at least 7 destinations within walking distance of the show where I would have a better coffee or tea experience than I would have at the festival. While this was my first NYC Coffee & Tea Festival, I have been to a number of such festivals before. I expect there to be a number of vendors offering products that don't interest me -- bottled beverages and powdered mixes are the common offerings I tend to avoid. But I realize these are part of the industry and there are attendees and businesses who are interested in such products.

However, when it comes to pure coffee, I do have some high quality standards. I don't expect everyone to follow them, but when someone tries to sell me their coffee based on the benefits of its origin but only offers that coffee to me in a Viennese roast, which has burned away all the characteristics of origin, how can I possibly get excited? When another vendor across the room was pouring yet another dark roasted coffee out of a glass carafe kept on a warmer under a cheap drip coffee maker, I didn't even bother with a sample.

The find of the day was the booth for NY Craft Beer Week. They had a number of coffee-themed beers on display and were pouring samples, including Brooklyn Brewery's Intensified Coffee Stout. Not only was this a great beer (made with Stumptown Coffee) but the guys serving it at the festival took the extra time and effort to pay attention to how it was served. They didn't just have a keg sitting up on the table. They tapped their keg into a cooler full of ice. The beer pulled up through a metal coil embedded in the ice, which cooled the beer to a perfect serving temperature. I found it ironic that the beer guys were some of the only ones at the entire festival who understood the importance of these details when serving their products to new patrons.

Two other beverages of note at the festival included Zen Green Tea Liqueur (very smooth and light) and Gillies Coffee (which was brewed with a French Press and served for the coffee cupping demonstration).

For any New Yorker looking for new experiences in tea or coffee, you are probably better off checking out the coffee and tea isles at WholeFoods for free. Or for less than the price of entry to the festival, you can sign up for a cupping class at the Intelligentsia New York Training Lab.

Fresh from Oren's Daily Roast

Not too many years ago, while I was already living in the West Village in New York, I thought my only options for coffee were Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and the coffee cart that parks on the corner of 14th and 7th every morning.

Then I found Oren's Daily Roast. The first shop I visited is down on Waverly Place near Washington Square Park. They keep their glass jars of fresh roasted beans in a glass display case at the back of the store. Being there for the first time and watching my beans scooped out of those jars, I knew I'd discovered something special. This was a totally different experience than grabbing a shiny pre-sealed bag off the shelf. These seemed like fine specimens kept in precious small quantities only for the discerning coffee fanatic.

At the time, I knew very little about coffee (other than how much I liked it) so I was convinced I only liked dark roasts. I asked for the best dark roast they had and got their Beowulf Blend. It's really their espresso blend, but I brought it with me to my in-laws for the holidays and proudly poured the fresh grounds into their drip coffee maker and shared a pot with the family.

I think that may have been the day I first grew hair on my chest, but I was hooked. This coffee was certainly a whole new world for me. I didn't know of any other shops at the time that claimed to have roasted their coffee within the last 24 hours. Since then, I've discovered more great coffee in the city and of course there has been a slew of newcomers but Oren's is still one of the best.

I stopped by today for a couple new samples.

• Guatemala Amatitlan from Finca El Colmenar
• Brazil Cerrado from El Dattera
• Ethiopia Sadamo #3

I've added the links for each because they all include a description of the coffee and a story of origin. (And if you're a reader of this blog, you know how much I appreciate the stories that come with every cup of coffee.) I also have some green beans of the Ethiopia Sadamo which I'll roast later this week.

I'll post again once I've brewed and roasted and tasted. In the meantime, I'm just going to continue dipping my nose into the bags that they came in. That's the smell of real fresh coffee my friends.

Thanks Oren's. Keep up the good work.

Coming Up: New York Coffee & Tea Festival

While I'm not making it to the SCAA exposition this year, I am looking forward to the upcoming New York Coffee & Tea Festival.

I'll be attending on Saturday, April 18th and plan on tweeting my experiences at the event. So keep an eye on my Twitter feed that afternoon if you're interested.

If you are in the NYC area and would like to attend, you can order tickets in advance on the festival web site. But don't be like me. Use the discount code featured on the Imbibe Magazine web site to get your tickets for half off!

Sweet, Sweet Maria's

I'm ashamed of how long it's been since I've visited Sweet Maria's to buy my green beans for roasting. I've gotten lazy and have been buying my green coffee (of relatively unknown origin) from The Roasting Plant around the corner from my apartment for months.

Given all my talk about origin on this blog lately, I figured it was a bit hypocritical of me to keep buying and roasting "Ethiopian Yirgacheffe" that I knew nothing about -- despite repeated requests for additional information on origin.

So I visited the standard source for any serious home coffee roaster, Sweet Maria's. Not only is their selection amazing, but their site is packed full of information (although even they admit it's a little hard to navigate).

Here are the three coffees I purchased. The link for each brings you to a page with everything you would ever want to know about the coffee including the farm, processing method and cupping score.

El Salvador Pulp Natural Finca Mauritania

Brazil Moreninha Formosa Raisin Coffee MicroLot

Ethiopia Organic Dry-Process Birbissa

While I'm eager to try all of these, I'm particularly interested in the Brazil since it is tree dried, a process which is new to me.

I'll post more on each once I've roasted and tasted them.

You Say Tomato, I Say: Are They in Season?

I admit I've become a bit obsessed with fresh produce in the last couple of years. There is no doubt that the wonders of modern technology have enabled us to have fresh produce all year round, no matter what the season, but if you think seasonality no longer matters for produce you're kidding yourself. Tomatoes are the perfect example. This time of year, anyone in NYC would be hard pressed to find a really fresh tomato. Of course, you can find them in your supermarket and of course they look fresh but the taste can't even compare to the mid-summer tomatoes you can pick up at the farmers market.

Since coffee is a produce, it also has seasons. Getting fresh coffee in season is definitely not as easy as getting a tomato in season but depending on your roaster, you can certainly get fresh roasted coffee that's in season.

The seasons for coffee differ based on its origin and the seasons shift based on the growing conditions in a given year. I found a great little post on coffee seasonality on the Counter Culture website. Enjoy.