Just a couple things before the weekend ends…
The Alex Pond celebrity train keeps on rolling. Check out this article from Thursday’s Oregonian – it was scheduled to run a few weeks ago but the perfect storm that was the Sam Adams media feeding frenzy took center stage. Anyhoo, once again – well done Alex! Be sure to check out the March edition of the Portland Monthly (conveniently hitting stands around the time of USBC) for more bits of A1.
On Friday we got special treat from our pals at Stumptown. Steve was coming back from the Seattle roasting facility with two bags of coffee – the Colombia Finca La Cristalina and the cherry on top – Panama Esmeralda Especial Batch #3 Peaberry!

This is a truly exceptional (and expensive) coffee and it’s tough to describe how good it is unless you’re lucky enough to taste it. The first sip is reminiscent of high quality black tea with an extremely well balanced body. As it cools, a little fruit comes out (it reminds me of some long forgotten flavor of Bubblicious Bubble Gum) with hints of chocolate. I made a couple presses of it and then poured cups for staff and customers. After making myself a cup, we had a rush and by the time I returned to mug, the coffee was completely cold. It didn’t matter – this is one coffee that I could drink cold and still be happy. Thanks Steve!
Last but not least, is a little something by the late, great Steve Marriott of the Small Faces and later, Humble Pie. Be sure to check out the end of the performance for the underwhelming endorsement of “Whispering” Bob Harris.

Hey folks – we have a couple co-workers running around Costa Rica right now. Kristi and Katie are taking a vacation and stopping in on some farms along the way. Thanks to Aleco from Stumptown and Tim O’Brien from Cafetin Coffee for hosting, feeding, cupping and transporting… The rest of this entry is from an email we received from our two explorers this afternoon.
“Dear Friends,
We made it! We arrived in CR Tuesday night and were whisked away early the next morning by Aleco (Stumptown) and Juan Ramon (Brumas del Zurqui). We spent 7 hours driving in/around/through the Central Valley visiting farms, mills and washing stations. 7 hours of unpaved clay/dirt roads so bumpy my abs are sore from trying not to bang my head on the window or get whiplash!
This place is insanely gorgeous. The valley is a giant bowl filled with coffee plants and banana trees, along with hundreds of other plants and trees. We saw Don Mayo, Cafetin Typica and Montes de Oro, as well as a few other places. We stayed last night at Montes de Oro in the “rustic” cabin they have for visitors. The cabin was nicer than either of our houses with two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, living room and a wrap-around porch overlooking the town of San Pablo and the surrounding valley.
Today we are back in San Jose at Exclusive Coffees cupping, so far, 40 coffees from the region. My senses are overwhelmed!
We have been learning so much about this process! Seeing the hills lined with plants, eating a coffee cherry right off the plant, seeing each step of the washing process, walking on the patios…every part of it makes so much more sense when you get to experience it first hand. Meeting the owners, managers and workers literally closes the circle for us.
After tonight Kristi and I are on our own. Aleco is going on to Panama! We wish we could go too, but it’s all driving and work and we are supposed to be on vacation! So, we are planning to go to Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde Cloud Forest for a few days, then on to the Carribean Coast to chill Rastafari style.
Hope the snow is already gone! We will be back before you know it. Thanks to you all for making this a reality for us. Everybody, you got to get here some time!
See you soon, xo
Katie and Kristi”
Awesome. They better take a bunch of photos…

We had a little party for Alex at Mississippi on Sunday to celebrate his big win. This wasn’t just time for Alex to bask in the lime light though, he was put to work. He toiled away on the bar making his signature drink for everyone to taste. It’s quite delicious! I heard someone came into the shop the other day looking to order the drink, thinking that it’s now on the menu. If I thought people would be willing to drop ten or so dollars for a four ounce coffee drink it might just be on there.

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Holy cow. What a nutty weekend – first, let me just give a huge round of applause to Alex for his win. He put in a ton of time and energy over the past few months and it was so huge to see him succeed. That being said, it’s always nice to see a big crowd of coffee-folk gathered together.

This was the first time Tacoma hosted the NWRBC and when I first heard the location and date, I was honestly underwhelmed. Usually, the barista comps are held in conjunction with the big regional coffee trade show – Coffee Fest. That way, there’s kind of a guaranteed crowd crossover effect.
What I didn’t realize though, is that Tacoma is awesome. It has a completely different vibe than Portland or Seattle. When I took a stroll through downtown the first image that popped into my head was Baltimore. There’s a ton of beautiful old brick buildings that are in various stages of rehab or disrepair. The surrounding neighborhoods had grand houses in the Craftsman style that rival anything in the Irvington or Laurelhurst sections in Portland. I had a great little breakfast at a neighborhood cafe the morning of the finals and later a delicious Americano at a local Stumptown account. This town just oozes potential.
Back to the competition…
Due to the weather madness, Alex had to find a detour up to Tacoma, which he did – 440 miles and 10 hours later. The organizers had adjusted the line-up to accommodate the stragglers so Alex was in a group of folks primarily from Oregon. I found him backstage with Jen from Stumptown and Stephen from Sustainable Harvest – they were offering support and suggestions, as both have competed (and won) before. Alex was pretty calm and took everything they said in stride.

Here’s his start of the first round…

Alex at the NWRBC – Day 1, Pt. 1 from Michael Brooks on Vimeo.
I asked him how he felt afterward and he thought it went well. His goal for this competition was just to make it to the next round. Thirty minutes later, the standings were announced and Alex was on tap for the following day.
That night, we attended a barista party, yep, that’s what I said. It was held in a giant antiques showroom. Beer, bands and skeeball were provided.

The finals were held on Sunday. Alex was fourth in the rotation, which meant that he would work on the same machine from the previous day. During round one, he mentioned that the wand pressure on that rig was a little weak. Since he knew the machine’s limitations before the competition, I felt he had a slight advantage…

Before Alex hit the floor, a surprise Stumptown contingent rolled into town. Duane, Matt, Steve and Aleco dropped in to cheer for all three Stumpy accounts (FP, Albina, and Lava Java).

To quote Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest, Alex’s routine was “smooth like butter”. When it was all over, I ran into Jodi from Zoka Roasters and caught up on mutual friends. We tried to lay odds on the winner, but all the presentations were so good that it was too tough to call. About an hour later, Chris Baca from Ritual Coffee Roasters called the final six onstage for the results. Jay from Dillanos Rosters was there to introduce the sponsors, as well as, a local high school student responsible for the trophies…
Baca was visibly nervous as he told the crowd that he was rooting for all six and he didn’t want to give anyone bad news. He called out Robbie from Zoka, then Kevin from Albina Press and then… Alex. I started yelling and texting as fast as I could to Vin and the other managers. It was so huge for Alex since it was only his second competition.

Alex at the NWRBC – Day 2, Pt. 2 from Michael Brooks on Vimeo.
It took a while to say hello and congratulate all the other competitors and by the time we headed out it was late in the afternoon. Alex had gone the whole day without eating so we skeedaddled across the street to a pub for a celebratory late lunch. Once we were seated, a woman came up and bought Alex a drink – he was now a coffee celebrity! We sat down with Stephen (Sustainable Harvest), Jen (Stumptown) and Alex B. (Coffee Plant) and discussed the win and strategy for the USBC in March.
It was good weekend. Thanks to everyone involved and congrats to all the NWRBC competitors and Alex in particular. See you in March.

i’m really happy to announce that beginning tomorrow the fresh pot on hawthorne will be selling special coffee cakes and granola! the coffee cakes come in apple or blueberry; they are buttery and JUST sweet enough. we’re super excited about the granola, which we’ll be serving with vanilla yogurt. two other awesome points of interest- the cakes and granola are gluten free and delivered by bike messenger. don’t fret, we still have all the decadent pastries from nuvrei, kettleman bagels, as well as vegan cookies and muffins from sweetpea bakery. hope to see you soon!

We are very proud to announce that our own Alex Pond–A1 to us–has taken first place at the Northwest Regional Barista Competition in Tacoma, WA. He came out on top of strong competition from Kevin of the Albina Press and Robbie of Zoka Coffee in Seattle. Alex is on the far right of the photo and though he is the smallest, you will notice that his trophy is the biggest.

It was starting to look like the competition might not even take place after all the flooding. For a day or so there the only way to get into Seattle was by plane. Tacoma actually declared a state of emergency. Because of the shut down of I-5 Alex had to make a ridiculous trek all the way to Yakima just to circle back to the only open mountain pass at the time. But, he finally made it and once he did he kicked ass.
Next up is the US Barista Competition March 5-8 here in Portland. Alex will be up against the best from all around the country. Our boy ain’t just regional, he’s going national!
Congratulations Alex!
Stay tuned for a complete rundown of the competition from Michael Brooks who was in Tacoma.

With the hectic atmosphere of the holidays and snowpocalypse finally(!) out of the way, life is beginning to return to normal here in Portland. I have chosen to usher in 2009 with an art show that will be a welcome change to the over-stimulation of the holidays. Stop by the Hawthorne cafe and take a good long look at the work of January’s featured artist, Zoe Chronis. Zoe’s drawings are at once minimalist and intricate, contrasting stark, empty space with flowing, delicate lines. Take care to note the attention to detail that Zoe has incorporated into her drawings – the textures and flow created with a simple manipulation of a pen stroke. Here is a sneak peek of one of the drawings on display, this one nearly befitting of a wallpaper.

Here is a statement from Zoe about the inspiration for her drawings:
“My works on paper consider abstract drawing as a tension between
familiar and unfamiliar images. Their enigmatic content reflects my
experience of reality: ambiguous, unresolved, and multivalent. ”
Stop by the shop to see the six pieces Zoe has on display. Prices range from $100-$200. Send an email hawthorneart@thefreshpot.com for purchase information or to find out how to display your art in the cafe.
See you in February!
Lindsey – Hawthorne Art Curator

Wow. What are a wacky couple of weeks we’ve been having here at the cafe. With the ongoing recession, political corruption scandals, arctic blast and up and down fortunes of the Portland Trailblazers, you might miss that the holidays are here, too. Two weeks ago, we had a special event in the back office at the Fresh Pot on Mississippi – a blind coffee cupping. Our staff with assistance from Stumptown Coffee Roasters had been building towards this for a couple months. The day finally arrived and along with Skip (our wholesale rep and FP associate – if the cafe was a Mason’s club, he would be the past-president – but I digress), we had two special guests in the guise of Jim and Jen (head of quality control and wholesale trainer for Stumpy, respectively). As an aside, if I ever use that many parenthetical quotations again, please call the University of Arizona English Department and turn me in. Turn me in to what? Why did I end that sentence with a preposition? Blogging is hard!
Anyway, the cupping was pretty awesome. It consisted of two rounds with three groups of coffee at each stop. The main gist was to spot the odd man out taste-wise. So say we have a three cups of coffee, two of them are from somewhere in Latin America and one is from Indonesia. Hopefully, with our cupping history and our palates we can tell the difference. Writing down tasting notes is especially helpful as most of these coffees are in regular rotation at both shops and with so much variety it’s necessary to keep a few descriptions in your head when we’re talking coffee with customers. We had a pretty big turnout for a Tuesday morning – about ten FPers came to compete. Skip hooked us up with some terrific prizes for the top finishers – Stumptown T-shirts and high–end coffee. It was a really fun event and the next one should be even better. Check the pix from our co-worker Seth at the table.
Next up, the FP holiday party at Biwa…