Fresh Pot

Yes. We made it through the holidays. The days are getting a little longer and you can almost see the sun for more than a couple of hours. Also, the Portland Trailblazers are doing well.

Our friend Nathan is also a Blazers fan and when he's not working, record hunting or sleeping, he's probably talking about the NBA. He also happens to run a collaborative 'zine called "Fake Your Own Death". A few months ago, he came to us with an idea for a Trailblazers themed art show. Katie and Morgan (our outgoing and incoming art curators) were into it. Nathan put the word out for submissions and lo and behold, an awesome Greg Oden portrait is hanging on our wall. Come check it out at the Fresh Pot on Mississippi before the month of January is over.

Also, our pals over at the Stumptown Roastery have just released a ton of new crop. We now have two new offerings from Burundi, five from Colombia, two from Rwanda and one from Kenya. Delicious. It's especially nice to have the Colombia La Piramide since that is the farm that Vin (FP owner) was able to visit last year.

Also, if you have time this Sunday evening (January 31), come on down to Mississippi Studios (just down the block from the shop) for an anniversary show for FP North. The cafe opened its doors during the first week of February in 2002. We've had a great run (8 years) so far and we'd like to have a beer with you. Three bands featuring FP staff will be there to entertain you. It's your chance to see us out from behind the counter.

Thanks!

I spent the rest of yesterday exploring Selva Negra. I was able to meet up with the owner of the farm, Mausi, for a tour. The farm is located on the side of a mountain at an altitude between 900-1600m, near to the city of Matagalpa. It is approximately 1500 acres, 500 for coffee, and 500 for vegetables, other agricultural products, and meat. The final 500 is kept as unspoiled forest. They even have Pumas running around one of the forested sections. Sadly, we did not see any.

This is by far the most sustainable place that I have ever been. Almost everything that is consumed on the farm and hotel is produced right here; from the vegetables and meat that the guests and workers eat, to the fertilizer that is used to grow it all. They even trap the methane gas let off from human waste and use it to cook with. Amazing!! Check out the link to learn more about their practices.

I was really amazed by the commitment the owners of Selva Negra have to their workers, both seasonal and permanent. It's one of those things that you hear about, but to actually see it in person you gain a much better understanding of the good that comes from it. Mausi was explaining to me how most of the people who show up for work on the farm have literally nothing. The farm provides all their workers with free health care. One of the programs that Selva Negra has in place is to provide workers, who have been with them for a few years, no interest loans so that they can buy their own property. This encourages complete sustainability as workers end up spending time at Selva Negra, learning about organics and sustainable farming practices, and then are able to open their own smaller farms around Matagalpa - growing their products in a very conscientious way.

Yesterday morning, I met up with the Seed to Cup crew for a little coffee cupping. Over the past few days they have been harvesting cherry and learning how to roast coffe. Yesterday, they had the chance to cup what they roasted, and discus their findings.

I spent the afternoon walking out in the coffee farm in search of ripe cherry with Stephen Vick from Sustainable Harvest. Red cherries were a little hard to find as the harvest here is just getting started. It will be in full swing by December. While wandering through spider webs and coffee plants we came across some lemon trees full of fruit that put meyer lemons to shame. The lemons were so good you good eat them right off the tree!

After about an hour of wandering and lots of green cherry we finally came across ripe coffee. The fruit was sweet and a little tangy, it tasted of watermelon with a hint of jalapeño jelly. To make the experience of eating my first cherry even better, I managed to pick my self a peaberry! One of the most interesting aspects of seeing the cherry in its raw state was the mucilage that covers the bean. This is another thing you always hear about it in training, but to actually experience it was great. I was amazed at how slimy and sweet the mucilage was. Tasting it, you really get an understanding of how its sugars can affect the bean. Fantastic!

Late last night we arrived in Montelimar. The sight where the actual Lets Talk Coffee event will be held. After a few glasses of rum and some late night organizing for the next morning's barista activities, it was time for bed. I'll take this opportunity to say that that Olga, my former roommate, who has spent the past year setting this event up, is absolutely fantastic.

We woke up this morning to blistering heat and humidity; it makes Florida in August feel nice. After a quick breakfast it was time to head over to the barista room to get set up. The program that we put on today gave people, mostly from producing countries, the chance to learn more about what we do ever day in the retail side of coffee. To put this on, Sustainable Harvest gathered a crew of top notch baristas from around the globe. With the exception of me and one other barista, all them of competed in last year's World Barista Championship. I felt truly honored to be able to work with such amazing baristas. Also on hand was Skip, the water guy from Cirqua to talk about the importance of water in brewing coffee.

We divided the group of about 60 people into 6 groups and sent them through the café gauntlet. They learned how to pull espresso from Michael Phillips the current United States Barista champion, steam milk, pour latte art, cup coffee, and taste coffee brewed with different types of water. I spent the day running the workshop on alternative brewing methods with my friend Mike Strumpf, from Allegro Coffee.

Mike and I were supposed to have siphon pots and a pour over bar to show the class. Unfortunately, these items were held up by the Nicaraguan customs. Ah, the joys of hosting international events. We were, however, able to explain about these methods and show the class first hand how wonderful French press coffee is.

Five days ago I received a call from the president of Sustainable harvest asking me if I wanted to take part in an event called let's Talk coffee, this year to be held in Nicaragua. At the time of the call I was already on a Vacation, visiting friends and family in Copenhagen and Sweden. My immediate instinct was to say yes! Before I committed, I figured I better check in with Vin and MB. The fresh pot, being amazing, said get your shifts covered and we will get you down there. Four days later and a little shift negation with my co-workers and I am here.

I arrived in Nicaragua around 7pm last night. A friendly Sustainable Harvest representative greeted me at the airport -after a little waiting around in the extremely well mopped and polished Managua airport- I was loaded into a van with Sevan from mystique coffee, a photographer from Portland (who just happens to be one of the people who produced the documentry, Ingredients. A must see film about food), and a girl from Green mountain coffee in Vermont. We had a very dark three-hour van ride up into the mountains to a hotel/ coffee farm called, Selva Negra. After all the traveling and bloody Mary's it was time for bed.

This morning I was woken up by the sound of geese honking on the lake outside my room, to bad it was 5am -who knew, there's a lake outside my room. I made my way down to the restaurant for breakfast and found the group I rolled up here with last night and a few stragglers from the seed to cup crew. Sadly I missed the people I was supposed to meet up with. Oh-well, they'll be back around noon. I think I will go explore.

So once a year, the city of Seattle is bombarded with a wave of hyper-caffeinated industry folk wandering around downtown, Capitol Hill and eventually - the convention center. Why, you ask? Coffee Fest. At it's most basic, CFest is a trade show that has all the pluses and minuses of any large gathering of people looking to buy or sell stuff. Beyond that, it's a great chance to rub elbows with all the goofy characters in the national coffee scene and to truly see that yes, sometimes we really do take things a touch too seriously...

The weekend is also the setting for a bunch of competitions. Some of them are informal affairs at local cafes, maybe after hours drink making sessions (jams) where the aim is to drink as much beer as espresso and pour your drink in the most ridiculous container possible. Others are sanctioned with sponsorships and prizes. Our man, Jason Walker will be at such an event. Yes, the man that brought you this:

And this:

Will try to bring home the bacon, latte-art wise. Good luck Mr. Walker!

If you're up in the Emerald City this week, be sure to keep an eye out for a gaggle of tattooed, messenger bag wearing, brown finger waving ne'er-do-wells - chances are, they'll make your coffee in the morning.

Change is in the air. We're happy to announce that all of our brewed coffee at the Hawthorne location is 100% Direct Trade from Stumptown. Also, after a series of incidents that would have made this journal proud, we have a new bagel purveyor at Hawthorne.

On a bittersweet note, our manager at the Hawthorne shop is leaving the fold for an awesome new post at Stumptown - wholesale account trainer. We're all going to miss Rita's smile behind the counter, but fortunately, we know where to find her. Thanks for everything!

Still catching up on blog posts - this one happened a few weeks ago. Once again, we managed to make the cut in the yearly lottery for the Hood to Coast Relay. This was our sixth go 'round and our third partnered with the crew at Stumptown. There was a lot of build up to this year. I had folks telling me that they wanted in a year in advance. Turns out, talk is cheap - when it came down to the last month we were scrambling to fill our spots.

One of our super duper regulars secured her spot in perpetuity - thanks Jill, and first-timers Morgan and Amber rose to the occasion, as well. Amber's rallying cry of "I got this" became a team mantra by the end.

There were a couple of hiccups - our van got lost in the deadly Gresham Triangle, but otherwise the race went off without a hitch. We had ample amounts of delicious coffee with us (although the combo of too little sleep and food with too much coffee can do strange things to a body).

We had some great hook-ups this year: sweet hoodies from our pal Adam at Golden Rule Design, van usage from the boys in the band, and homemade energy bars from our next door neighbors at Moxie. Thanks!

We also saw the triumphant return of Rita and Jason to the ranks of HTC volunteers (the folks who tell you where to turn on your run) and a new addition to the crew - Alex. Thanks guys!

It was an awesome, if painful, experience all around and hopefully, we can do it again next year.

Whoa, there's a lot of stuff to catch up on. This will be a quickie. Stumptown is rolling out a sh*t-ton of new crop. What that means for us is - it's cupping time!

We met in the backroom of the FP North to meet up with Skip and his crazy big batch of Latins to try out.

Skip also included a new version of the most excellent Ethiopia Mordecofe and lo and behold - the first ever Direct Trade Indonesian coffee from Stumpy - bonus, in a peaberry!
Last but not least, Stumptown has stepped up to the plate and delivered with a new decaf. The regular version of Honduras Finca El Puente has long been a staff favorite. Stumpy blew our little minds with the news of a decaffeinated version. Most decafs are like emaciated urchins crying out for more flavor and body. Not this one. It retains a bunch of sweetness and has the slightest tinge of raisin/caramel action. All in all, a nice cup of coffee for the caffeine sensitive crowd.

Well summer is just flying along. Last month, Vin took his first trip to origin with fellow coffee-folk, Skip, Steve, Aleco and Mike. They flew to Colombia and in addition to riding horses to exotic locations, chowing down delicious food, picking coffee cherries off the branch, they also had a chance to see the first stages of the bean to cup cycle. Next time you pick up a bag or sip a cup of Colombia la Esperanza you might imagine a group of excited Portlanders learning the ropes of (coffee) cherry picking.

After that, we jumped right into the start of summer with the annual Mississippi St. Fair. The FP on Mississippi has been around for every one and by all accounts, this was the largest. It was nice to see the block filled with folks that seemed to be having a good time. On the other hand, that level of crazy busy is not something to look forward to on a regular basis. There's a lot of development on that block and only time will tell what's to come...

Following that, we were all knocked on the head by the yearly summer heat-wave. Funny how this seems to happen every year (kinda like the 5 days of snow in the winter) but it always takes us by surprise. For our part, we made CWE like it was going out of style and our air conditioner only crapped out once. One easily recognizable consequence of the heat (and Portland's lack of preparation for it) is that the weirdo factor gets turned up significantly. As a native of Arizona I can attest to the truth behind that phenomenon - the heat does melt your brain.

Finally, the warm weather broke and we celebrated by heading over to Vin's house for our company BBQ. Our friends at Widmer Brewing kicked down a keg, so we set up in the backyard with two grills, ping-pong, a couple of tables for Euchre and some delicious apps from our neighbors - Moxie Rx. Which reminds me, have you ever thought to yourself, what can I do to make this chicken sausage more delectable? The answer my friend - wrap that sucker in prosciutto and call it a day. Thanks Morgan!

Next up, the end of August brings the pain with the Hood to Coast Relay. Wish us luck as we get stinky and sore with our friends and teammates from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

This is it. The time of year that everyone waits for - shorts, flip-flops and trips to the river. The gray skies are gone (for the most part), it's light out forever and for the first few weeks everyone has a healthy glow or possibly, a sunburn.

Every year we roll out the Cold Water Extract for summer. Iced coffee is one of those beverages that has an abundance of proponents and detractors - and from shop to shop the quality varies. We're pretty happy with our method, but from year to year, we tweak the recipe to make it better.

This summer we upped the ante. A few months ago, we contacted Stumptown with a question about a custom blend. As more and more shops add iced coffee to their menu, the brewing methods and ratios involved become less of a secret. A proprietary blend allows us to retain our own little niche and we can specify the flavors and body balance to our taste. Since coffee is a regional crop that goes in and out of season, it also helps to lock down a consistent supply of beans for the CWE recipe.

Skip, Steve and Jim from Stumptown were totally on board with the blend idea. We talked about the flavor profile and the nuances of the cold brew method. Blends were composed and fiddled with. A few weeks later, we had a winner. The managers kicked around a couple of names and Rita nailed it with her first effort - Hello Summer. Our Hello Summer blend has notes of deep chocolate, a slight berry tinge and sweetness with a touch of citrus. It's also chock full of caffeine. Seriously, we're all pretty heavy coffee users and most of us can only handle one serving of this brew. Got a bunch of stuff to do this afternoon? Grab a glass of Hello Summer and off you go.

Also on the new things tip, we're happy to get a nice new rotation of demitasse cups from our pals at Espresso Parts. We were a little sad to say goodbye to our celeste green 'spro cups but time and use made the decision a little easier.

The new cups are more of a sliced kiwi hue, the manufacturer chose to switch up their glaze a bit. We've had a bunch of nice comments from our customers about them. It certainly helps to have one of Katie's perfectly pulled ristretto shots resting inside.

Last but not least, our favorite pastry purveyor helped us out with a slick new case. It's custom built for our counter and it does a fantastic job of showing off the tastiest scones in Portland.