June Wrap

I just wanted to thank every one (especially the people that helped make the event affordable and brought a bag of coffee home with them) that turned out for the weekend's tasting. Six of ten reservations showed up and one brought a friend. Two people turned out to be from other coffee shops - including our competition from upstairs!

Telling ...

but good coffee and conversation was had by all. It was interesting (for me at least) to talk about what made the final coffee in the tasting different from the rest. It was commodity coffee that, even though it didn't taste so bad, was a typical example of coffee produced without regard for or consideration of the person who spent the most time with it, the farmer. It was so interesting to me because we usually associate bad taste with cheap beans but this particular coffee showed that looks - or tastes - can be deceiving. Good can actually be bad.

Anyway, I guess we can now officially add "tasting" to our official line up of workshops.

On a Posting Roll ...

We happened to luck into a veritable cornucopia of coffee this weekend. On tap - or available for French press - throughout the weekend will be no less than 11 coffees! Some of them are in such small quantities that we'll only get a single airpot from them, so it's kind of pot luck (bad pun, sorry) what you will get when you stop by.

Some of the coffee we will be brewing this weekend are:

Rwanda - Zirikana, Byumba
Colombia - Tres Santos, Cauca
Bolivia - Anjilanaka, Caranavi
Ethiopia - Addis Ketema, Yirgacheffe (2 roast styles)
India - Elkhill, Coorg
Brazil - Daterra, Cerrado (North Italian roast)
Costa Rica - La Lapa, Central
Gautemala - La Providencia, Huehuetenango
Zimbabwe - Crake Valley, Vumba
Brazil - Daterra, Cerrado (Special Reserve)

June's Tasting

We have slated for this Saturday's tasting the following coffee from Intelligentsia:

Ethiopia - Yirgacheffe
El Salvador - Los Inmortales
Kenya - Kita Oro, Auction Lot
Bolivia - Anjilanaka, Direct Trade, Organic
Brazil - Fazenda Vista Alegre, Natrual Dry

That may not take us all the way around the world (I had also tried to get the Sumatra - Lake Tawar but it was out of season) but it should be illustrative of the range of tastes found in coffee.

We look forward to seeing you Saturday evening!

This Week's Coffee

I've got Black Cat being delivered personally by the Intelligentsia rep out of Atlanta today and for the rest of the week we will be serving that and some Kid O, expected in the more traditional manner (UPS) tomorrow.

... hand delivered from Atlanta ... that is one serious coffee company ...

More a little later on the coffee we'll be using for this month's tasting.

Good Riddance to May!

Now that May is finally gone we can start June with the formal announcement of our Summer of Espresso! Every third week of the month (or thereabouts) we will bring in an espresso or two from the larger roasters around the country, several of which I'm confident will be making their first-ever appearance in Greenville. Most of the really well-known espresso in America comes in blends and so most of our attention will be focused there but if anyone knows of an exceptional S.O. espresso drop a line and let me know.

The first two we will be submitting for your approval are Intelligenstia's Black Cat and Kid O's Organic Espresso. These are two very well known blends from the juggernaut (that's the word of the month, btw) of specialty coffee hailing from Chicago.

Finishing off that same week will be a coffee tasting. We have yet to decide the origins but, since we have Intellegenstia on the block for espresso, we'll probably use their coffee for the tasting as well. We might even cup the different components of Black Cat ... if they'll give them up.

More details as I get them.