Remember economics? It applies to coffee as well.  Here’s a quick review.  If there is more supply then demand, there is a surplus of coffee.  When supply equals demand, there is a balance.  If demand exceeds supply, there is a deficit of coffee.  Currently, the industry has been operating on a balance/deficit ratio.  Prices are going up, however, which means demand is outpacing supply.  Where will we get the coffee to service the demand?  It’s good news for our farmers because they are getting paid more money for their work, but it also means higher prices for the consumer.

I bring this up because when the scales tip and coffee prices react upward, we have to do something about it.  We, as an industry, have been talking about fair wages for farmers, pricing coffee for what it’s worth, and the value retailers bring to the coffee chain, but when the talk becomes reality, how will we react?

There are some really smart people that are working on this problem through the Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative.  This group was born from a 2009 SCAA Symposium to discuss supply issues and potential solutions.  They met in Texas October 27-29^th.

There is some interesting reading on the website under the Literature tab.  It’s a lot of research, papers, and presentations about the issue and incredibly thought provoking.

The Pour-Over Bar is up and running.  The staff has been trained and we are ready.

One customer described the coffee like a delicate wine.  She said most of us drink wine to complement food, relax, and enjoy ourselves.  When you have a really good wine, you take notice.  When you have a pour-over, it’s like a fine wine….you take notice.

We’ve been running the numbers and we’re extracting in the pocket at the 20% range.  It makes for some tasty brews.  Come in and try one.  Through the month of November, all pour-over’s are $2.25.  After that, you’ll see a price differential for better coffees.

Sit down and enjoy…Its worth the wait!

Roast’s beautiful pour-over bar is in.  Hand crafted by none other then Brew-Wright Fabrication!  We are on the cusp of rolling-out the pour-over bar program and though we would offer a few details on the process.

It’s a big endeavor because, as coffee brewing methods go, this one takes a little time.  It’s a manual process, a ritual that focuses on details.  If done correctly, the result will be a properly extracted cup of coffee in about 4 minutes.  Done poorly, you will have an under extracted mess.

Essentially, the pour-over bar is coffee made with a filtered cone.  Ground fresh and made to order.  The technique to this method is essential to create a better cup of coffee.

Here is the method we will be training the staff on;

–Rinse the paper filter: paper filters taste like paper.  By rinsing the filter, you wash the filter’s off-tasting flavors.  This will also help the filter attach to the Hario’s V60 edges better.

–The Formula: we will be offering the pour-over in two sizes…an 8oz and 12oz.  The formula for a 12oz size is 24 grams of coffee for 390 grams of water.  For an 8oz, 16 grams of coffee for 260 grams of water.  Weight and grind the coffee fresh to order.  Add the ground coffee to the filter and settle the grounds evenly.

–Pre-wet the coffee: ground coffee releases carbon dioxide (CO2).  While CO2 is being released, the gas expels water.  During the pre-wetting stage, the coffee is being prepared to accept water.  Fully wet the coffee with ~50 grams of water and wait 30 seconds for it to bloom.

–Add the remaining water:  start in the center of the grounds and move outwards in a circular pattern.  The key here is not pouring the water faster then the height of the grounds.  This is difficult and takes practice.  It’s ok to stop pouring as long as there is water in the grounds.  However, if the pour is too fast, the water will get pushed to the edge of the filter and not brew the coffee.  Read: under extracted coffee!

Not many cafes in Milwaukee have attempted this.  Surprisingly, we may be the first to roll out a full pull-over bar in a cafe.  Granted, Anodyne used the pour-over process at farmers markets to serve their coffee.  Alterra has a pour-over bar at the Prospect location.  Other then the city’s majors, I don’t know any independents who offers a pour over bar.  Please let me know if I’m wrong.

The pour-over bar is the first step in our ongoing plan for 2011.  Extraction will continue to be on the forefront.  Fully understanding extraction will allow us to develop a program for a guest espresso/featured roaster.  Yes, I did say that and yes, it is in the works.

Roast is on the move!  We are gearing up to due some great things in the coming months and upcoming year.  We are developing a plan to improve the café and our coffee offerings.  In other words, we are strengthen our core and investing in our future!

Day two of the espresso blend challenge. We pulled 14 espressos over a two-hour period and explored coffees from seven different countries. It’s a deadening process on the palette, but the end result will be a great espresso blend.

We tried 50/50 blends of:

Brazil Cerrado and FTO Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe Koke Co-op

Sulawesi Toraja Grade 1 and Rwanda Coopac Western Province

Washed Nicaragua Los Milagros Microlot and Sulawesi Toraja Grade 1

Rwanda Coopac Western Province Washed and Nicaragua Los Milagros Microlot

Costa Rica Brurras Del Zuroui Honey Process and Guatemala Huehuetentenago Finca El Injerto

The idea is to create a starting point. Our process was similar to the other night where we logged dose, brew temp, brew time, total volume, brew ratio, and detailed each blend with notes. What’s interesting to me is the methods and techniques we use dictates the way the coffees are being pulled. For example, we could adjust all the parameters above and create a total different flavor profile.

So how do you know that you aren’t eliminating a great blend based on the parameters being use? The answer is that you don’t. You don’t know if you’re missing the true taste components of the coffees. If the blend isn’t even hitting on a basic level, it’s time to move on. If the blend shows promise, explore it some more. Adjust variables and see where the coffee takes you. That is the easiest way to manipulate the flavor of the coffee.

The blends we tried had some winners and some totally missed the target completely. It’s part of the process. Our job is to work with the winners and develop a great blend.

Off to pull some more shots…

One of our good friends, Ali Carlucci, is a graduate student in the architecture program at UW-M. She has been a Roast regular for quite some time and has watch intently as the cafe has transformed over the years.

This past summer, I was planning and installing some new interior design work. I was doing the work in stages while she was offering advice, encouragement, and suggestions. She asked if she could help with an installation I had planned to lower the height of the ceiling behind the bar. I said absolutely, when the plans were developed…

As time passed, she came to me with a proposal: for her and her classmates to do the schematic design, material sourcing, and installation of said bar ceiling. I was blown away. Think about it: Microcosm Studio 815 of the Architecture department will be doing a custom crafted interior installation behind the bar! It’ll be pretty rad, if you ask me.

What makes this proposal strangely unexpected is that it paralleling conversations I’m having with an Architect discussing ways we could solve the identity issue facing the interior design. Over the past seven years, I’ve been adding, building, and remodeling without a particular plan in place. The work has been a reaction to what I thought needed to be done to solve a particular problem. The result has been a better Roast, however, many styles are competing against each other at the cost of a unified design.

The image I have in my mind to describe the competing styles is a simple bell curve. At the core of the bell is what Roast represents. The outliers are the parts that can be cleaned up. The goal is 1) develop an overall plan for the design of Roast and 2) to have an unbiased, unemotional evaluation of the design and clean up the outliers. In other words, plan the work, work the plan.

Cordell (the architect), the architectural installation team, and myself have a lot of work to do. It’s fun and work that I think will be very beneficial to the identity of Roast.

23 shots of espresso, eight single origin coffees, three friends, and one Wednesday night. It was a massive undertaking, but a process we have done before. All in a quest to develop a new espresso blend for Roast.

In order to pull off this feat, we had discussed our criteria for evaluation. The dose, brew temp, brew time, total volume, and brew ratio were all logged along with copious notes detailing the best shot, the typical characteristics of the coffee, and overall thoughts. We narrowed the eight coffees down to the best SO.

Organic Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe

Rwanda Coopac Western Province, Washed

Nicaragua Los Milagros Microlot

Sulawesi Toraja, Grade 1

Our espresso blend will consist of some or all of these coffees. Only time will tell what the components of our next espresso blend will be.

Stay tuned…

Pour-over bars are all the rage.  Manual brew methods are taking the coffee industry by storm.  It’s interesting to follow the progression of how this came to be.  I wish I had time to research and map out a time line to document the manual brew method phenomenon.  Here is my quick attempt at illustrating this:

Clover, a single brew coffee maker, hits the market.  3^rd wave coffee professional embrace Clover and help develop, tweak, and improve the machine.

Barista Competitions and Jams are building momentum.  More people then ever are entering Barista Competitions and raising the bar on drink preparation.  Technique and sensory evaluation are the focus, but signature drinks becomes a way to demonstrate creativity and alternative brew methods.

Barista Competitors are becoming Rock Stars.  Bloggers and online forums are hailing the barista craft.  Competitors are gaining more recognition as professionals and become roll models for the younger generation.

Equipment manufactures are working with Barista Champions helping develop machines more closely aliened with the wants and needs of the Barista community.

Clover sells to Starbucks.  Indies are pissed and pull out old manual brewing devices like French Presses, pour-overs, Chemex’s, Siphon brewers, and the like.

Extract MoJo hits the market.  Helps Barista focus on Extraction based on SCAA Golden Cup Standards.

Pour over bars begin appearing in coffee shops as a way to highlight individual coffees.

Roast is first and foremost a coffee bar.  We excel at brewing coffee and espresso preparation.  Our core product is dependent on the way we present it to our customers.  It seems like an obvious progression to add a pour over bar to the Roast lineup and it only seemed natural to contact our friend, Eric, to design our pour-over station.

Eric is a partner in a company in Michigan called Brew-Wright Fabrication.  He’s designed and built some really cool bars for some of the top independent coffee shops in the country.  Most indies make their own pour over bar, but we felt that it was important to have one custom built.  Eric certainly didn’t let us down.

Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out our new coffee bar program.  Coffee will be ground fresh and made to order.  It will highlight new flavors and nuances in coffee.  You, too, will help progress the Good Coffee Movement.

Great coffee is the reward!

I spent the last few weeks espresso training with the Roast staff. We have a solid foundation for the standards, methods, and techniques we use, but it’s important to verify that what we are doing is consistent with how we do it.

To be honest, I consider Roast as a solid ‘B’ café. We make great coffee. We have a good vibe. We do many things consistently. But we do lack some of the details that the A-Team coffee companies have. We try hard to provide a solid education where a person can learn the barista craft in a serious and professional manner. Our employee’s are given the freedom and space to explore coffee, test theories, pull SO shots, participate in Barista Jams, and learn the craft. A few of our past employees have even moved to the A-Team employers to progress in their coffee careers. These former employees are in positions with some of the biggest names in the coffee industry. This simple fact makes us smile.

Training has always been important at Roast, but it’s sure time we take it to the next level. The Roast’s Espresso Training program is based from the World Barista Competition score sheets. I judged the Southeast Regional Barista Competition in Atlanta this past year and understand what is involved with scoring. Credit is due to the person or persons who created the score sheets. A lot of the work has been done with identifying what is important in terms of technical and sensory evaluation. I’ve adopted some of the protocols that are used in the scoring sheets and created a Roast Espresso Training Program.

Where I’ve been stuck is creating the method for tracking and monitoring employee progress. To me, it’s important to have a form that is clear and concise so my employees know what they are being evaluated on. I feel we have created a form that solves this problem and has proved to work during the training session.

I happy to say I’m excited about the stable of Roasties we have. We have some very tenured employees who do great work. There is some work left to do, but at least we have the understanding on what needs to be done.

Next time you have an espresso based drink, stop and taste the difference between our drinks and another coffee company’s interpretation. You’ll taste the Roast difference.

Enjoy!

Throughout the year, we donate to many worthy causes at UW-M and throughout the community. We like to do this because it showcases what UWM, our neighborhood, and metro Milwaukee has to offer. We are very fortunate to have an urban university that excels in so many disciplines.

Here are some of the organizations we’ve donated to this semester:

UW-Milwaukee Open House
Center for Urban Initiatives and Research
Relevant Instruction for Successful Employment
UW-Milwaukee Center for Volunteerism & Student Leadership

All are great organizations and we appreciate the opportunity to help in any way we can. If your organization is looking for donations, Ryan Mason is the guy you need to talk with.

I realize the past few posts have pretty been technical in nature. Geeky stuff, actually, but in my 12 years in this industry, I can recall two occasions when I’ve been this excited about coffee. I won’t go into detail about the first, but the second ‘ah ha’ moment has been ExTrAcTiOn. Essentially, extraction gives us a basis to qualitatively judge roaster to roaster.

Understanding extraction has allowed us to improve the products we serve. We’ve tweaked our methods to achieve a taste that is marked by a standard…a standard that is recognized by the coffee industry.

I believe, we as consumers, compromise without even knowing. Coffee should be fresh. Coffee should be local. Coffee should be relationship driven. There are many great companies out there that do this. We hope we can be added to the list. We do this everyday at Roast…rain or shine…because we believe in what we do and how we do it.

All to achieve a better cup of coffee