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.

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!

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.
Thanks Nuvrei!

That title is a George Jones reference for the country-phobic out there. This Sunday we had another cupping in the back office. Jason had it all set up and then we waited and waited and waited… It was looking like a two person job when Katie came in and joined up.

We cupped two coffees from Guatemala, one from Ethiopia, and finished up with the Blue Batak from Sumatra. The Pacamara was a little flat, but the day was saved by the utter deliciousness of the Wondo. As for the Blue Batak, well there are some definite fans of Indonesian coffee on the staff, but I’m not one of them.

Anyway, it was a nice way to ring in the afternoon and I had a little extra energy for the gym in the afternoon. Maybe next time, a few more FPers will show up…

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard recently, “I want to go the the 2009 United States Barista Championship, I want to watch, but I just can’t make it to the convention center. If only there were some way to stream the competition and watch at home.” Fret not friends. The future is now: stream me!

However, if you are able to attend in person I would highly recommend it. Not only is it exciting to see the competition in person, but the convention center is also host to the 53rd Annual Portland Roadster Show as well as the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention. This all makes for a strange and enjoyable mix of convention goers (it’s probably a dream come true for this guy). Personally, I’m pretty intrigued by the roadster show mostly because the poster seems to suggest that Wolfman Jack, the famed DJ, will be there. I could see him attending these kinds of conventions save for complicating factor of him being dead for thirteen years.
Our boy Alex–A1–Pond is going on sometime around eleven tomorrow. Come join me in cheering Alex on followed by some Wolfman Jack zombie hunting.

The United States Barista Championship is in town this week. You’ll know it by the heavy concentration of tattoos, messenger bags, custom espresso tampers and over-caffeinated strangers walking around sections of North and Southeast Portland. The competition starts Thursday, March 5 at the Oregon Convention Center and continues each day until the final round on Sunday. It’s free to the public and as an added bonus, various roasters / baristas will be showing their stuff behind the “4th Machine” – basically, a rotating array of coffee that anyone can partake in.
Our own Alex Pond will be representing the Northwest Region on Saturday – his time has not been scheduled yet… He’s been working overtime at the American Barista and Coffee School honing his presentation for the judges.

The lineup this year looks like a bunch of heavy hitters, this could be as epic as Daniel-san making his way through the tournament! Except without the weird mustaches and Elisabeth Shue.

Let’s go A1!