Jeez... a Facebook...

Well I caved... I now have a stupid freaking Facebook... let the poking and bumper sticking begin. Just thought I would let everyone know.

Hilarious Latte Art Video

This video almost made me cry it's so hilarious... All credit goes to Ian and the guys out at Amante Coffee in Boulder for this hilarious look at what happens when no one is at the counter...



The Video...

Rated R by the way... lots of swearing, but so worth it!


Little update on me:
Due to a financial hiccup I'll be in Michigan for a while longer, Chicago will have to wait for a couple months. If you would like to get together somewhere or come have coffee at my house or whatever shoot me an email or leave a comment on the page.

-Bry

And Independent Shops All Cried Together...

Announced a couple days ago: Starbucks has purchased The Coffee Equipment Company (makers of the Clover brewing machine). "...Uh... so?" going through your head? Let me first explain the Clover, maybe that will help. The Clover is a single cup brewer unlike any other. I'm sure everyone has some sort of idea what a single cup brewer would look like, now imagine one that can deliver perfect brewing temperature, in fact, you get to select the temperature to .1 degree! You also get to select the infusion (steep) time per coffee. You also get a machine that can whip all of this out in a matter of a couple dozen seconds. It simply is (was) the most revolutionary piece of brewing equipment to EVER hit the commercial market and now it has been snatched up by Starbucks. Here is an email I wrote to a list of friends about how I feel (note- the list is a bunch of home coffee roasters, hence the clarification on what this means for the "industry"):


I've been following this whole Clover thing very closely on a few different sites and I must say, after letting it settle for a couple days and letting my mind think clearly, it only gets worse for me.

The thing is, there are mostly home brewers/baristas on the list, therefore the Clover was never really intended for them/you. As someone in the industry, this sale makes me totally sick to the stomach. As soon as the independent shops had a piece of technology that really (REALLY) separated them from the chains, Starbucks had to go and steal that piece of technology and put it in their corner of the market. The Clover was the one thing that really set "indie" shops apart from their competition, the one thing that Starbucks will never have a chance to utilize... Oops, I guess we were wrong...

Now there is no way for "indie" shops to (probably) ever get their hands on a Clover again, and no way for the shops that do have them to easily get parts (again, probably). Starbucks has really snatched a valuable piece of equipment right out of the hands of the barista.

Now, there are positives to this. First off, if you are one of those companies that has a Clover, get ready for one of the best marketing campaigns (that you don't have to pay for) that you have seen in a while for a piece of coffee equipment. On the other hand, those shops are now also "just another shop with a Clover" to the untrained/uneducated customer. (We know better, but I doubt the masses will.) Secondly... Clovers do a really great job of pulling flavor out of a brew right? Doesn't that mean that indie shops' coffee is only going to taste better? Anyone get a chance to try a cup of 'Bux off of a Clover? They have been in "test" mode for a little while now in certain areas and all reports I hear say that they start out promising then fade to (da da da daaaa) jute... ash... carbon... etc. So unless they change their roasting practices, our carefully sourced, craft roasted coffee only starts to taste better and better to customers willing to search it out. Thirdly, in the same way that Starbucks get credit for bringing "specialty" drinks to the masses, they are now going to bring the $3 cup of brewed coffee to the masses.

However, even with these positives I now see things like,

"Oh, you don't even have a Clover? Well can I still get a cup of whatever I want?"

"Sure! We'll just prepare it in a French Press/Chemex for you. It will only take a couple of minutes."

"Oh, well I don't really have time for that, the Clover at Starbucks is so much faster... Hmm... Well... I guess never mind, I'll just take a cup of whatever you have brewed."

(Shop loses customer to Starbucks...)

To most customers out there, this is exactly the "commitment to improving quality" that Howard Schultz swore up and down he was going to acquire.

I don't know... I'm really, really messed up over this whole thing. I'm surprised it bothers me as much as it does, but it really does. When I first read it over on Barista Exchange (btw a really great read of the "industry/barista" side of the story can be found here.) I wanted to cry. I think about the great people like Intelligentsia, Cafe Grumpy, Stumptown, etc, etc (granted, I'm sure none of them are going to take a huge hit over this whole thing, but still...) that have poured so much effort into educating customers and the general public on how important and exciting the Clover was to bring out the best in a cup of coffee and how this was going to separate independents from Starbucks, and how now it's just all gone to hell... Now instead of explaining why the Clover is so exciting they/we are going to have to explain why our cup of Clover is better than their cup of Clover (which we do all the time anyway, but it's still so frustrating...). It takes all of the fun right out of the Clover.

What's next, Starbucks snatching up CoE lots? I think that independent shops just on the verge of "breaking wide open" (ie really making a footprint in their area) have a lot to worry/think about now. There is a whole new level of customer education that has to happen now.

Know what the worst part of this whole thing is?

"We are thrilled to be a part of Starbucks Coffee Company, given its brewed coffee heritage and passion for specialty coffees," Nosler said. "Personally, I'm delighted to unite our innovative technology with Starbucks' amazing influence from origin to consumer. Starbucks is uniquely positioned to change the way the world thinks about brewed coffee." -Zander Nosler, co-founder of The Coffee Equipment Company.

That's what we kids today call "selling out."

I can't talk/think about this anymore... it puts me in a really s***** mood...

-Bry

(Copied from email sent to "The Homeroast List" at Sweetmarias.com).

NaDean's Coffee Place Going Away Party

Wow, what a day.

It was certainly very emotional, lots of highs, lots of lows, but I definitely wouldn't have wanted it to go any other way.

I know I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone due to the fact that we did about a weeks worth of business in one single morning and I was on machine, but I really do appreciate everyone coming in. A lot of the time, even if I didn't get to talk to you, when your drink landed I knew exactly who it was for. I am really going to miss everyone from NaDean's (please keep in touch!).

After about 1:00 (I think) it finally started to cool down a little and I was able to snap some pictures and shoot some videos. There are also some videos from the after party later that night. If you missed it, well... we'll just let the videos speak for themselves.

Again, I can't say it enough, thank you everyone who has supported NaDean, NaDean's Coffee Place, myself, and good coffee in general over the course of the last two and a half (or so) years. We all really, truly appreciate you.

See you all on the "Third Thursday" thing when it gets up and running.


After Party Stuff:

For those of you NaDean's peeps who are on here to place orders and stuff just post a reply to this post or any others, I'll see them and get a hold of you... that's all for now...

Freshness

This will be the start of what I hope to be a few posts concerning different basic aspects of coffee. In this first post I will address freshness and the role it plays on coffee beans, my personal experience, and advice on how to store your beans to promote freshness.


General
Freshness, in my opinion, is the single most important and most overlooked aspect of coffee. People that I talk to are often fascinated that around 14 days after a coffee bean is roasted it goes stale. This shouldn't be a secret, it should be common knowledge. And in case you were wondering, if you don't see a date on the bag somewhere saying when the bean was roasted, you probably can assume that it is already past it's optimum time window. So as a general rule of thumb you can assume that if you are buying the coffee from a grocery store, it's already stale, and if you are buying your coffee from a shop that isn't putting the roasted date on the bag, then it is already stale also. For example, Starbucks beans found on the shelves of grocery stores are usually (depending on your location) about 2 months past when they were roasted.

"Yeah, but why is the coffee stale?"
As coffee sits after it roasts it begins to release CO2. The oils contained inside the bean begin to move toward the outer edges of the bean and when they are exposed to air, they begin to stale as well. It's this reason that you actually DO NOT want oil on your coffee beans. It isn't a sign of freshness, it's a sign of staleness and probably an overly roasted bean.

Storing the Beans
You can help slow the process of staling by sealing the beans inside of a glass mason jar or a bag with a one-way degassing valve, but this does not help prolong the life of the coffee outside of say 20 days or so. It is also NOT true that storing your coffee in the fridge or freezer will help prolong the life of the coffee. There are ways to store your roasted coffee in the freezer to help promote the life of the coffee, but it isn't as easy as people think. It's not simply throwing it in the freezer in whatever container you bought it in and pulling it out every morning to brew your pot of coffee. You need to vacuum seal the beans into tiny quantities and then pull those quantities out of the freezer and allow them to thaw as you need them. The reason for this is that continually taking the beans in and out of the freezer over and over as you use the beans causes them to dry out, losing all of the essential oils that give the coffee all of the flavor. You wouldn't go down to the farmers market and pick out a perfectly ripe tomato and then put it in the freezer would you? No, you would store it on the counter, away from heat and light and use it before it went bad. Coffee is also a perishable food and should be treated exactly the same way. Chances are there is a place very close to you that can sell you freshly roasted beans, with a "Roasted On" date on the bag. If that's the case, why not just buy your coffee in quantities that you know you will go through in about 10 days? It's easier than going through all of those crazy freezing techniques. If you don't have one of those places, you can get coffee from me easily. I roast coffee just about every day and I would be more than willing to sell you some coffee and send it to you every week in the mail.

Whole Bean vs. Ground
By the way, all of the 10-20 days things I have been talking about have been referring to WHOLE BEAN COFFEE. Ground coffee is a whole different world. Once coffee is ground it goes stale within a matter of just a couple minutes. Think of it like this: If the oils inside of a whole bean are able to pass through the shell and go stale within 10-20 days, break apart that shell into 100-150 pieces (depending on grind size, it could be way more) and you have accelerated that rate of deterioration by 100-150 times. Translation: if you don't grind your own coffee, you drink stale coffee. No fancy bag or "aroma lock" (that one is my favorite) is going to keep ground coffee fresh. It was probably stale before it went into the bag, can, whatever, and all it did was continue to slowly stale while it was in there. If you normally drink pre-ground coffee, start looking at different grinders available (which is a whole other story) and start grinding your own. One thing to think of when considering grinders, they are the most important piece of equipment in any setup, so don't skimp. Those $10 "grinders" aren't grinders at all, they are choppers and they will pulverize and destroy your coffee. Go out and get yourself a burr grinder at a minimum. It's not a big investment, and it will make a huge difference in how you wake up every day.

Start drinking fresh roasted, properly stored, fresh ground coffee and experience the difference it can make. I think you will be really surprised.