New year, new shit. Jim is now in the thick of his training for the GLRBC. We've built an espresso blend from scratch using some greens from sweet marias and some of our own. For Jim's setup, sig drink, and drinkware choices, he's taking a simple, traditional approach. The water he's selected is amazing. The milk he's using is sweet and from a family owned dairy/petting farm. I'm actually suprised how sweet the milk still is this time of year as most of the pastures are dying right now. We are still ironing out the ratios and presentation for the sig drink, but i think the simplicity will do well.
As for the blend, I don't know if Jim wants me to let out all the coffees. I will say this. We have built this blend 100% from scratch. It involed many test batches, SOS tasting, graphs, equations, many many trial blends, tremor-like caffiene highs, blew out palletes, and a stubborn Sumatran. Most of the trail blends tasted disturbingly like the Five Country from Counter Culture, which were trying to get away from. In the end, we were slurping down nicely blanced shots with earthy, spicy undertones and a clean fruit snap right in the center of the tounge. Long, ultra-complex finish with phases ranging from orange peel, caramel, and market spice. It's holding really well in milk and makes for a really complex macchiatto. The blend will be available for a limited time at the cafe after the comp. We will be basing our house espresso blend off of it, but that won't be on tap until later in the month.
This whole experience has gotten me really excited about my job again. This is a great chance for me to compete vicariously through Jim. Whether he places or not, I'm really glad he's doing this. And I'm very thankful for the chance to be a part of it.
Good Luck to all at the GLRBC, we'll see you there!

Josh and Zak inspect the greens at the round table.

I’m constantly charmed by the glorious baristas of Behemoth. It’s as if they were put on this earth to humor me and keep me from getting too depressed about my various failures in coffee. Behemoth will be roasting my espresso for the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition. This is a HUGE deal for me.

It’s local, it’s a collaboration, it’s totally hands-on, and it’s a great exercise for all involved. We’ve now roasted four origins. The plan is to cup them separately, try them as single origin shots, and eventually blend them.

Our time is very limited, and we only have enough beans for two trial batches. In spite of this, I’m confident that the right people are on the job. Sometimes I wonder if Zak is more excited about this than I am. Whatever. What we lack in time / funding / experience / talent / knowledge / passion / etc. will be made up for in enthusiasm, right?

They’ve even offered to mock-judge a run of my routine. The thought of this makes me nervous to the point of being ill… but hey, isn’t that what the comp is all about?

Thank you Uglies for being so nice to me! And thanks for the great shot this morning Erin and/or Melissa.

-JIm
(an Ann Arbor barista)

Open Late, ugh....
All this week we've been open until 2am in an act of sympathy for the poor suckers studying for finals. The real kicker is that me, Erin, and Melissa are pulling the extra shifts, on top of our 8-10hr daily bar shifts. So this is my fourth day of being on bar for about 15 hours a day. It hasn't been too bad, we've been chugging french presses to the point of kidney pain. And I've gotten a lot done with the espresso blend. I've modified my roast profiles for the Brasil Sul de Minas Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon, the Ethiopian MAO Harrar, and the Honduran Marcala in an atempt to come closer to a flat brew temp. Tacy's posts have been haunting me....

In the Media

Commentary by Josh Longsdorf

"It's not just a 'cuppa Joe' any more" headlined a local paper recently followed by a smaller headline "Imported beans, sculpted froth to mark newest area coffee house". The article was about a new drive thru coffee location opening in flint. The owner promised in the article to out-starbuck Starbucks. Whether or not he can do it remains to be unseen however he does go on to say that he promises "froth" that can be sculpted to the customers like. He also uses the whole article to attack Starbucks with sayings such as "Starbucks just isn't gourmet enough". Now I've said it before and I will continue to say it till I die or starbucks does. The problem in this industry is not Starbucks it is the indies that offer below par coffee and drinks to their customers. At least I can be sure that if a new customer goes in to a Starbucks for the first time they are getting the same consistent coffee as the person before. Who knows what they will get at the indie maybe something that may make them never want to try coffee again. Now this new location featured in the article is going to be a drive-thru only location, at least to start. I can only assume to keep up with that kind of volume they will be using an automatic, maybe a semi-automatic if they are fast. The owner of this new location goes on to state that their shots are pulled between 18-24 seconds which is the proper way to pull a shot. Sounds like consistency to me. I guess the thing that bothered me was that the guy constantly stated how is the end all and be all of coffee for the area when I know there are at least two other shops that can at least promise me consistent shots.
While I'm on the subject of how the industry is portrayed I would also like to take a shot at the bigger names that have recently made the national media. Now I'm not saying that the articles haven't been interesting but could we get just one good looking picture of a latte for once. I mean for the most part just about any barista reading this could pour a better looking rosetta with a blind fold on. Heck I've seen better looking lattes come out of Starbucks.
So if you've taken the time to read this then you are probably guessing I'm bitter. DING DING DING!!! We have a winner! I know I could have just skipped to the point but then you would have nothing to laugh about (mainly me), so here it is. The media is the largest opportunity that the non-coffee drinkers of the world get to learn about our industry. So if you are an indie new or old and someone is doing an article on you, don't attack Starbucks. Instead go in to detail about the quality of drink you can offer and how that separates you from the below par shops and by detail I mean more than sculptable froth. As to you bigger names, when you get the chance to pour a latte for the media have one of your star baristas pour it so that I don't have to look at a Mongoloid rosetta while reading the article.

It has recently come to my attention that we actually have a few readers. Not only that, but readers of the.....caffeinated persuasion...
For this reason, I feel as though we should maybe think about posting things that are at least semi-coffee related. So this is my vow to at least mention coffee in every post. Starting now.
We've been doing some "in-depth" horsing around with the construction of an espresso blend. Some of the new coffees we have in have been quite pleasant as shots, so we thought we'd give it a go. The first lego was the Brasil Sul de Minas Yellow Bourbon natural process I've been having pretty good luck with. We've all been drinking test batches of it for the last week and the more recent profile has proved to be the winner. So we started playing around with the brew temps on the Synesso, zeroed in on 199.5F, and out came some amazing shots. A rich brownie batter-ish chocolate was the first thing that hit me, a soft, smooth texture. Vanilla pipe tobacco in the middle with little notes of sugary lemon. Clean, slightly almondy finish with subtle hints of lemon. A little too smooth to be by itself, but a great base. It held well in milk, and it was good.
We started running some shots of Organic Colombian Popayan to see if we like it better as a base than the Brasil. The Colombian was..... interesting as a SOS. It reminded me of Counter Culture's Five Country Espresso. It had that earthy, cyprus taste to it. Like the forest smells after it rains. We played around with temps for awhile to see what else we could get out of it. Leathery at higher temps, salty and sunflowery at lower temps, but always with the musty cyprus taste. Right before giving up on it, Josh pulls one at 200.5F. Bingo. The dominating cypruss taste had turned more towards a light rose tone, good body, and lush orange soda middle notes, seriously, orange soda. Not much of a finish, but good enough qualities for us to throw it in the blend.
With the success of finding an awesome base coffee in the Brasil, and narrowing in on the quality acids in the Colombian, we hugged eachother and called it a night. I predict this blend taking us around a month to put together. I'll keep posting the progress. Next step, the Harrar MAO.
Quick side note, if you haven't checked out the experiments with brew temps on Chris's Godshot blog, do it now.

Bastards........
A big fat buying group made up of the "coffee illuminati" has snatched up a lot of #1, (Bolivia COE). With an average score of 93.52, and boasting a score of 100 from Geoff Watts of Intelly, this coffee gives me action in the pants. The buying group included the folks from Victrola, Paradise Roasters, Intelly, Coffee Klatch, Gimme!, Barefoot, Sweet Marias, PTs, and Terroir. I'm not sure who got what or if all of these shops ended up being involved in the winning bid. Apparently, there are some small roasteries in Japan who are also getting a piece of the action. The ending bid was 12.55/lb. I was kinda suprised that it didn't go for more, but maybe people learned their lesson from the Esmeralda. (not saying the Esmeralda wasn't great, but for $20 a pound, that coffee should have granted wishes) So congrats to all who bagged some #1, I hate you all. Except Victrola, you're cool.

Update: Miguel from Paradise drops some science in the comment section.
Retraction: Paradise is also cool.

(photo by Miguel of Paradise Roasters)

Welcome to volume two of "know your barista"! This is Sierra. Sierra is prime example of barista poaching as we stole her from a cafe across town that we just don't like much. Sierra spends most of her free time reading to deaf children and hosting impromptu open-mics at various supermarkets and check cashing locals. If you'd like to visit Sierra and bare witness to her soul shattering barista skills, stop by during the day. At night, she's busy eating brains.

Okay, three things. One, we're getting new and exciting coffees in this weekend! A Colombian Popayan, Brasil Sul de Minas Yellow Bourbon, Ethiopian Harrar Horse, and a Honduran Marcala. Test roasting will be taking place all weekend so if you have an itchy cupping finger, stop by.
Two, we are looking for a little help around the shop so if you think a superstar barista lurks somewhere in your soul, stop by.
Three, thank you Jim for the insightful and kind coffee related post. I am sure that both of our readers will find it interesting.