Online Store

While our website for the caffe is being rebuilt from the ground up, I have created an ebay store for the online purchase of our coffees. In the future we will have a seamless integration between website and e-commerce.

Just head to our website and click on the "SHOP caffe d'bolla"

Conventional Bulk Auto Drip or Americano: Why?

The question has been posed on the Specialty Coffee forums about whether to only offer Americanos or to offer brewed coffee.

For most operators, the term "brewed coffee" refers to conventional bulk auto drip coffee. And to this question I said that only "you" can decide. But is it necessary? The answer would be a definitive "no."

In an earlier post I commented on stealing a customer by offering our Americano as an improvement, not as a replacement.

Coffee is great, but conventional auto drip is not warranted for the best of coffees and is not the best method for highlighting the dynamic flavors of the coffee. Brewing methods such as Chemex, press pot, siphon, hand drip (Melitta)... are better methods -if done correctly- for coffee brewing because they require more attention to detail and the attention and focus translates more "love" into the cup.

We saw everyone doing "drip" and everywhere, and I mean everywhere we went it was from "not bad" to "yuck!". Nothing was excellent. Caffe Vivace in Seattle was the standard bearer for "we only do espresso" and that is the model used for the first year and a half until we began to offer Single Origin press to order coffee and now, Single Origin siphon brewed coffee.

The properly brewed Americano is superior in flavor and body to conventional drip. It's really not even a close contest, but because of the poor espresso of the vast majority of shops, their Americano will follow suit. It's not the drink, it's the quality of the beans and the barista, or PBTC, preparing it.

So if you're looking for a replacement for conventional drip, I don't know what to tell you. But if you're looking for something superior, try a fresh ground, fresh brewed Americano.

Killer B espresso

I've been toying with the idea for another espresso, and I decided to be traditionally untraditional. I've selected three excellent Brazilian coffees from the Cerrado Region, and roasted each separately at different levels, and then combined post roast.

Lots of smooth body. Complex chocolate, nut and spice notes, with a hint of cherry and pulped fruit.

Great in cappuccino.

Available in pound or half pound.

Hand-Roasted. Perfect Brewed. By the Cup.

After returning from an eight day trip of fun and exploration in Japan, once again, I am amazed by the level of quality in the independent shop hiding in the streets of Japan. For many shops, "hand-roasted" coffee is the norm, and although only a few shops have an offering list that goes beyond the norm, what they do with their coffee produces fantastic results.

My wife, Yiching, spent many hours searching out and locating good coffee houses for us to try and while there were not any outright disappointments, there were some revelations and quite a few winners. And they were winners for the same reason quality shops here are: Quality fresh roasted coffee, and an understanding and control of the brewing process.

I will make a longer post later regarding the various shops, but the winner of the trip was a small coffee bar called "Rivage" in Osaka. Fresh Roasted coffee, weighed and fresh ground for each cup, fresh brewed with precise timing and flame control using siphon (vacuum) brewers. Yiching and I had four cups between us, all were excellent. The thing that stuck out the most for me was the weighing of beans, and after tasting the cup (in comparison to other shops) knowing that the barista understood the proper grind to bring out the flavor, rather than just having a grinder and tossing the beans in and returning a poor result due to an incorrect grind. The more control over the cup, from bean to barista, the better the cup... and it's proved accurate everywhere I've been.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming changes in the caffe, and the continued challenge of making each cup better than the last.

Art and Science of Coffee

We have been fortunate to be highlighted again in a recent article on the Selective Echo.

We will soon be launching an online store, so keep your eyes peeled.

A New Look

We will be remodeling the caffe in three phases. Phase one consists of tearing down our existing roasting room and building a new roasting area in the back.

The new roasting area will be 16 feet in length and about 4'8" wide, with lots of glass. Two six by six foot windows and a glass front door inside a sleek stained-black wood frame will put a definite stamp on this upgrade, and make a great showcase for our new roaster.

I will post pictures as it progresses.

Framing should be up tomorrow. These guys are awesome.

Thoughts on Coffee Education

I've been thinking about how to best get "Joe Consumer" to understand the difference between what we're offering in terms of coffee and what others are offering. A simple solution not yet easily executed due to time and space issues would be a cupping class or a coffee tasting. Barring that, it's getting them to take that first sip, be it Americano, press pot coffee, latte or cappuccino without a thought of adulterating it with any foreign bovine substances or sweeteners, whether natural or artificial.

You can educate only so far with stories, perfect coffee descriptions, and beautiful pictures; the palate is the key to a lasting impression.

If Joe only knew what he was missing.