Category: Olympia Coffee Roasting Company

Sunday lab 4/3/11

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I have been going to the lab on Sunday’s to keep sharp, especially now that I don’t work in a cafe.  After the first few times I decided I needed to have at least one other person to try the coffee I was making, before my next lab session I tweeted an open invitation to whoever was in the area.  My really good friend Larissa who roasts for Seattle Coffee Works was my first visitor for my Trifecta blog.  We had a lot of fun and the extra company was nice to have.  Last week I had three people visit but I really want to talk about this weekend.

My Sunday started normally I had some breakfast and got my things together for the lab.  I jumped on my bike and headed to EP with nothing in particular to work on this week.  First I made a Clever of the Guatemala Finca Santa Isabel and headed over to Oly coffee to chat with the staff (we share the same building as Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. and I used to work there).  Jared and Carson were working and I invited them over if they had extra time to play.  Mr.Elvin was in the cafe so he and I chatted it up for a minute and as I was leaving I noticed my friend Rebeka was there so I invited her over too.  After a while I headed back to the lab to start lab time.

As I was getting everything together Mike from shipping showed up.  Mike just moved here from Mass. and is looking forward to learning more about coffee.  We chose to brew with the clever, which has become my favorite brewing method as of late.  Mike really liked how easy it was to use and was impressed with the quality of the coffee.  Shortly after that Rebeka and her friend Sara showed to make some coffee.  Next up we brewed a syphon using an infrared beam heater and F.S.I from Oly coffee.  Everyone loves the show you get when using the syphon and the IR beam heater really adds to that.  I normally don’t brew with the syphon because it’s not the easiest thing to use and I really don’t like the cloth taste.  A few more people trickled in and before I knew it there were ten people in the lab!  We have a new guy from Oakland, his name is Jeff and he’s pretty cool.  Jeff dialed in the Big Truck blend from Oly coffee, it ended up tasting sweet with some hints of lemon and had a very syrupy body.

It was so much fun sharing great coffee with people who want to learn more about our industry.  This was definitely one of my favorite coffee days I’ve had in a while.  The whole room was filled with people eager to learn share techniques and make coffee better.  It makes me feel great that even in this small town there are people who do care about the craft and embrace specialty coffee.  I want to make it easier for coffee consumers that maybe haven’t worked in a cafe before and lack some basic knowledge that we think of as common sense to join us in celebrating coffee.  Educating our customers is one of the most important things we can do.  The more we educate our customers the more they can enjoy and appreciate the experience we provide with this amazing beverage.  KEEP EDUCATING AND APPRECIATING YOUR CUSTOMERS, without them we wouldn’t have anything to do.

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1,001 hits!

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Whoa I really can’t believe there are so many readers! Thanks to everyone who reads the blog you give me a good push to keep current things up here.

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Seattle Coffee Society/Cafe Crawl

Posted on Posted in career, Coffee, Herkimer Coffee, job, life, Neptune Coffee, Olympia Coffee Roasting Company, Seattle Coffee Society, Trabant Coffee & Chai2 Comments

I heard about The Seattle Coffee Society meeting from Sara Dooley about a week before it happened and decided I would attend.  I got the day off so i could go up to Seattle and do some coffee stuff before the meeting what follows is a summary of where I went and what I had.

First stop Neptune Coffee located in the greenwood neighborhood.  Dan has been coming into our shop(OlympiaCoffeeRoastingCo.) a lot lately so I thought I would show some love and stop by.  As you walk through the door you notice to the right there is a long bench with tables along it and chairs across from it.  In the rear is a ping-pong table that was being used and I liked to hear that in the background.  To the left of the entrance is an over-sized table covered in laptops being analog I opted for the bench.  I ordered a shot of their SOE Panama Boquete Volcancito, Lauren pulled a most excellent shot, it was about one and a half ounces had great flecking and a nice caramel aroma.  I was punched in the mouth with toffee a great chocolate body and caramel finish that left me with a smile on my face.  I picked up some semi washed Sumatra Lintong which turned out to be the most amazing Sumatran coffee I have ever had.  When I got back to my shop on Friday I ran it through the Clover 35g/12oz/40sec, SUPER clean, nice cedar and tobacco undertones and as it cools it gets a really nice berry quality.  I also picked up some El Salvador La Fany that I have yet to try.

Ten blocks south of Neptune is Herkimer Coffee.  Heads up: cash only.  I had a double of the espresso blend the barista wasn’t quite sure what it was made up of.  The shot was a little over one ounce very bright and had a sharp finish.  The inside of the cafe was low lit but had a lot of windows for natural light to come through.  Very nice location.

I hit the road to downtown Seattle for Seattle Coffee Works(SCW) and Trabant.  After realising I parked in the most expensive parking garage I possibly could I headed to SCW.  SCW has a great location, it sits where the old johnny rockets was across from Pike Place Market.  When you walk in you instantly feel welcome.  Because they have a lot more space you get more choices for seating, there are benches, chairs and table, couches and a nice area where the slow bar is.  The choices don’t end with seating, you can get a pour over, siphon pot, espresso, or french press.  I opted for a  shot of El Salvador Villa España.  It was around two ounces, milk chocolatey with a wine like body and a great roasted hazelnut finish.  This was one of my favorite stops this trip.

Last but certainly not least Trabant Coffee & Chai.  I have recently fallen in love with this space.  During coffee fest I attended the train wreck party and had a great time.  The shot of 49th Parallel’s Epic espresso was very nice.  Matthew the Barista explained to me that he has been tooling around with long shots all the way up to three ounces.  The shot I had was a little over two ounces, there was a pleasing acidity to it very light body and a burnt sugar finish.  The Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Koke really came out as the espresso cooled and the Honduras added a nice milk chocolate finish.  Like Neptune they have a large bench with tables and chairs along the left side of the cafe with a small area at the entrance that has tables and chairs.  There are really great quilts on the walls which I believe are from the next door gallery…..if I’m wrong please correct me, my favorite of which was a depiction of an ice cream cone with the words “yum factor 10” sewn on.  I picked up some of 49th Parallel’s Costa Rica Helsar micro lot and have yet to brew it at home.  I highly recommend this spot for great conversation with Baristas that like to geek out more than what I have experienced in other shops.

Now that I am fully caffeinated I head back to SCW for the inaugural meeting of the Seattle Coffee Society.  Daniel Humphries put this together to get more open discussion within the Seattle coffee scene.  Daniel had just come back from Puerto Rico doing some research on the soil there.  Being from Puerto Rican descent I found this very interesting.  The main gist is that P.R. has a high market price for their coffee…somewhere around $3.oo so form the producers P.O.V. there is no reason to change practices.  When he asked them to pick ripe cherries for testing he got back a bag of very green and bright red cherries.

What I got from this subject was with enough education and investment into the P.R. coffee industry we can see some really nice high quality coffee coming from here within the next 10 years.  Another thing that interested me was the practice of par roasting coffee to be sent to P.R. due to the fact that the importation of green coffee is forbidden.  So the coffee is roasted for about five minutes and sent to P.R. where they add green beans along with the par roasted beans to their roasters and the product is often inconsistent.  There is most likely going to be another meeting at the end of January if you have any suggestions hit up Dan.

This was one of the most fun and educational coffee days I have had in a long time.  I thank Daniel for putting together the meeting and SCW for hosting.  I also want to thank all the Baristas I interacted with Y’all made my day even better!

Life is good.

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I am thoroughly enjoying my coffee life.  I started working in the coffee business only 5 years ago and have come a long way.  I started at Starbucks and learned a lot about coffee and customer service.  I never go there anymore but I can’t deny that without Starbucks I may have never entered this industry.

After two and a half years of  the same shit different day it became evident change was required.  My wife (fiancé at the time) suggested I apply at a local Olympia roaster Batdorf & Bronson, so I did.  My interview went very well, I consider myself a good interviewee and a few days later I got the job.  Thus started my two year relationship with B&B.

Working at B&B was refreshing.  Becoming the best Barista I could became my focus.  While there I learned to pull great shots of espresso, pour rad latte art, and delved deeper into the coffee world.  After almost two and a hlaf years I decided to try something new.  I became a dispatcher for 911, I quickly learned this was not the job for me.  I also learned that coffee has become the thing I am best at.

After resigning from my dispatcher job I applied at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company and a couple of weeks later started working there.  My coffee life has never been better.  I have learned sooooo much from working here in such a short time.  We have such great mentors here: Michael Elvin, Robbie Britt and of course Mrs.Sarah Dooley.  I have also learned a lot about roasting and production work, things I would have never learned at my former jobs.

Basically I LOVE LIFE, I LOVE COFFEE and I LOVE O.C.R.

 

Day trip to Portland

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    Yesterday my fiance and I decided to go to Portland.  We started the day off with a cupping at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company.  Brazil Serra Do Bone was on the table for us to try.  We used a Hario brew the coffee and it was great.  I really got a nice lime acidity right off the bat, the finish rich chocolate and slight floral flavor.  We pulled it as an espresso and it was completely different.  The mouth feel was light and the lime acidity really came through.  I normally don’t like my ‘spro too bright but this was nice. 

    Our first destination in Portland was Fabric World.  We looked it up on google maps on our way and decided to check it out.  The store had a limited selection and we didn’t find anything we wanted.  When we left the parking lot I noticed The Little Red Bicycle Cafe having read about it in a grass routes travel book we stopped for lunch.  The cafe was real;ly nice it is just the right size.  I really enjoyed the lighting they had.  Huevos Rancheros was the special of the day, we ordered it with their house made chorizo.  This was one of the best things I have eaten…ever.  The entire dish was soo fresh there was the right amount of cilantro and the little bits of pineapple were perfect.   I mentioned where I worked and had a nice conversation with the Barista Evan.  He told me all about the coffee they serve Courier Coffee Roasting Company.  I bought the Costa Rica Los Santos, Tarrazu.  It was really nice.  I got a lot of hazelnut from it and a nice light milk chocolate flavor.  I LOVE IT!  One of my new faves for sure.

  With our stomachs full we decided to head to Fabric Depot.  While we were eating at the L.R.B.C. a customer suggested we go there for cool printed fabric.  When we arrived at the store we thought it was big, then we went inside…….it’s the biggest fabric store I have ever been to.  We spent about an hour there and Angela found some really nice fabrics to use as table runners for the wedding.  After an hour od shopping for fabric I needed some espresso.  I really wanted to try Heart based on Jared’s recommendation.  The spot is really clean and minimal.  The Baristas play vinyl records on the stereo system and the roaster is in the lobby area.  I tried their Kenya as an espresso and was blown away.  It had a really great syrupy mouth feel and a nice lime acidity, it finished off with a tanginess that I compare to cream cheese.  They use a La Marzocco Mistral if you haven’t seen one of these before…..they are sexy.  On to the next one.

  A trip to Portland isn’t complete without a trip to Powell’s Books.  My favorite section is japanese culture and history.  They have a great variety of books on the Japanese society that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.  I picked up a book about an American Mafias boss that moved to Japan and tried his hand at organised crime.  After an hour or so it was time to head home.  I went to Portland for the first time a couple of years ago for my birthday and it has become one of my favorite cities.  This was one of my favorite visits.  My fiance and I enjoyed every part of our day.  Thanks Portland!