Saddle Up!

This afternoon a GEN-U-INE cowboy complete with chaps, grizzled weathered skin, authentic hat, and good-natured, if not a bit rough, charm.

He was in from Montana on a visit to the hospital at the University. He had black coffee written all over his worn boots. Well... I was wrong he had "twelve ounce latte with an extra shot" written all over his dark sunglasses.

He was hanging outside to wait for his friend who had "wandered up to the Subway to grab him a sandwich". He comes back in and says, "That was some damn fine coffee. I'll have another."

His friend, looking too much like Mad Jack from Grizzly Adams, showed up and they proceeded to ask about our mugs for sale. Well the Cowboy's eyes lit up when he spotted his prize. "I've looked all over Billings and Great Falls and couldn't find one of these." He brought his demitasse up to the counter and said, "now I have a proper espresso cup."

Awesome.

The Jesus Principle, Coffee, and the Truth of Recession

No, not the mythical religious icon....

Jesus, as is (hey-soos) [real name unknown] is a former veteran who's lost most touch with reality and is a semi-transient artist who has been coming to our caffe off and on since our opening year.

Much can be learned about the truth of recession and how it relates to discretionary, or luxury, spending when you examine Jesus.

Jesus does not have a lot of discretionary income, in fact, he has little income at all. He receives a monthly check from the government, but most of his time is spent walking about talking complete nonsense and occasionally selling hand drawn artwork at the park for about three to ten bucks a drawing.

Compare Jesus to the overspending Yuppie or general young idiot. You have someone with a livable income who has spent well outside their means. Luxury items to them may not be a big deal, but the house they couldn't afford is, as well as their other mis-management of money habits.

Jesus has a usual routine: He quietly mumbles his order, an Americano--16 ounce, and sometimes gets two while he sits out on the patio and draws, mumbles about people chasing him with electric griddles (I kid you not!), or both.

He could walk anywhere and get a cup for a buck fifty or less, but with his limited resources he comes here. And as someone else was standing in line asking about the Americano, he brazenly mumbled, "best coffee in the city".

Those who have less, spend it more thoughtfully, and actually they increase the luxury, but decrease the frequency. Recession. Bullshit. For those who have little money, spend wisely, like Jesus.

Testing Rwanda Kinunu Bourbon

I roasted a new coffee for the siphon coffee this morning. It's a 100% Bourbon from Rwanda. I haven't had Rwandan coffee before, but this is very good. It has some Kenyan elements coupled with African spice notes, somewhere between a good Sidamo and a Ugandan coffee.

At a City roast, this particular coffee has some really nice light sweet citrus flavors, and some lingering --- {side note, the cappuccino I'm having right now is fan-fucking-tastic}-- clove and sweet spice notes.

Testing new coffees is great.

I'm looking over...

...too many posts about Clover.

I see the whole Clover flap as "much ado about nothing". For those who consider themselves Third Wave or artisan or just about the coffee...
We've all positioned ourselves ahead of Starbucks of this world and it's a shame that some believe we need to "rediscover" our coffee roots. Isn't daily discovery and exploration of coffee what we preach. Whether you brew with press or Chemex or siphon or Melitta or even Clover...just keep doing what you're doing. And if you haven't been doing it, what are you waiting for?

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.