In the Cups

Thanks to everyone who showed up Saturday evening for the cupping workshop. It was the first one of the year but ran pretty smoothly. The darling of the cups was the Kenya, Rioki from the Kiambu region, garnering despcriptors like blackberry and gingerbread cookie and a whole bunch more I can't remember anymore.

Coincidentally, it was first of six coffees we cupped. Hmmm. Anyway, thanks to Jake (and his wife) for the great photos!

Next month's workshop is up in the air, either another cupping or a Le Nez du Café workshop or some combination of the two. Anyone with ideas, drop me a line.

This Week's Coffee

Here's what we'll be brewing this week, starting today (Monday):

ESPRESSO
Finishing up the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, N. Italian roast
Special George Howell Espresso Venezia, N. Italian roast
Brazil Daterra, Cerrado, S. Italian roast
Back to the Ethiopian

BREW/PRESS
Sumatra Mandheling, Lintong
India, Elkhill, Coorg
Costa Rica, La Minita, Tarrazu
Guatemala, El Injerto, Huehuetenango
Rwanda, Sovu, Maraba
Brazil, Daterra Special Reserve, Cerrado

The week finishes with our cupping. See the previous post for what will be on the table.

RSSed!

For those of you interested in such things, I managed to get this site running with an RSS feed. That means you can "subscribe" to this website through your browser or email program and every time I update the site, you'll be the first to know about it! It gives me a reason to keep the site up to date. From now on I'll do my best to keep you posted on events like workshops, guest espressos, events, specials and so on.

Just click the link that says "subscribe to posts" and your browser should do the rest. Or copy the web address it takes you to into your mail program. Or whatever. If you have any problems just let me know.

April's Cupping Details

Our Saturday the 21st cupping will be at 6:30 PM at our shop in Haywood Mall. Advanced reservations are required (so we know how many people are planning on coming) and a $15 fee is also required (so we can actually buy the coffee). But you'll get to take some home with you!

The Coffee's we will be exploring are:

• Maria Santos' Los Sauces, Cauca, Colombia
• Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga
• Mira Valle, Francisco Morazan, Honduras
• Aged Sumatra Mandheling, Vintage 2002, Indonesia
• Elkhill Estate, Coorg, India
• Rioki, Kiambu, Kenya

It should only take an hour or two to complete, compared to our marathons of three hours last year. To sign up contact me or stop by the shop.

April Showers

Of coffee! This month we are devoting the entire third week to different coffees. We'll have a couple of espresso to play around with as well as a few different origins to sample. To finish the week off, Saturday the 21st, we will host a cupping. Details will be forthcoming as I decide which roaster to go with. Terroir is absolutely awesome and they have a few new coffees out I want to try, but nothing is decided. So, if anyone out there has suggestions or wants to register, just drop me a line.

Society of Refined Nostrils

I just wanted to thank everyone that showed up for our Le Nez du Café workshop on Saturday. It proved to be quite a challenge figuring out the difference between Coriander Seed and Clove-like and Coffee Blossom and Coffee Pulp and Tea Rose/Redcurrant and Blackcurrant-like and ... and ....

Uh, my nose was a little stuffy, from all the Spring pollen you know, so my poor showing is perfectly understandable. It gives me something to work on for the next month or two.

Sorry there are no photos but no one seemed to know how to use our camera. Hopefully, we'll have that bug worked out for April's workshop, which should be a cupping. Details on that later.