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.

_Panda