Killing Myself By The Numbers

Losing my mind in a sea of numbers.

Sometime today I started to lose it. Calculating the various details and expenses of each menu item was starting to get to me. All around me a cacophony of activity carried on. Prepping, cooking, washing, cleaning, the clomp clomp clomp of people going up and down the stairs, the acrid aroma of roasting garlic, footsteps above my head signaling the continuous stream of guests coming and going, the high-pitched squeal of the espresso grinders, the dull clunk of portafilters hitting the knockbox and I'm sitting there trying to figure out just how much that teaspoon of piquin pepper adds to the cost of the terrine.

Somewhere out there sits a smug, crisply pressed white jacketed chef with a binder filled with perfectly calculated menu item costs. Each item is perfectly accounted for, by ingredient, to the gram, to arrive at a precise and logical menu price. Someday, I would like to meet this person and slap him with my HAACP binder (presuming that I someday actually finish writing it).

It's been a busy week. Tomorrow, after two years of thinking about it, we're launching a food menu at Spro Hampden. Nothing too fancy or out of control, just some nice and solid items composed of fresh, local and healthy ingredients. Since Cynthia decided to close Soup's On across the street, Lauren has decided to come join us and bring forth our vision of food for the people.

Longtime readers of this blog might be expecting a menu heavily laden with fattening meats and cheeses and gobs of Mexican dishes. This outing is a bit more delicate than that. Light and fresh items that are thoughtfully sourced without being too precious or pretentious.

It's been a hectic day of calculating costs, sampling menu items and rushing to get everything done and prepped before the 7pm menu tasting with the entire Spro Hampden staff. Add a big bottle of Belgian ale, an assortment of chicken salad sandwiches and the entire menu and it makes for a nice evening before tomorrow's storm.

Menu starts tomorrow at 11am.

La Marzocco On Tour

Scott and Jordan sporting hats they found at Dreamland.

It's always nice to have visitors from the coffee industry. This morning, on to New York for the next leg of their East Coast Strada Tour, Chris, Jordan and Brian stopped by for a coffee and a brief hang, as well as an inspection of our trusty 3 group "Blackwell" Linea.

Strada-ling DC

Scott and The Boys latest album cover art.

I'm in DC for the day to hang with friends and take the La Marzocco Strada EP espresso machine technicians course, ostensibly one of the final hurdles before La Marzocco will allow me to have one of the new machines for Spro Hampden.

For as advanced and high-tech as the Strada EP really is, it's actually quite simple, and seemingly easy, to service. Pump rebuilds, firmware updates, potentiometer replacements all seem so much simpler than the Linea or GB5 series of machines. It's also vastly different than its sister MP version, with the MP being closer to a GB5 than the EP.


Inside the Strada EP paddle.

After an afternoon with Chris and the rest of the guys jockeying for a new Strada EP, I headed over with Rashid to check out his place, Filter. I had heard quite a lot about Filter from other baristas and chef Mark Furstenburg. Actually, it was really Mark's recommendation that made Filter the first on my list of coffee shops to visit in Washington DC and it just so happened that Rashid was taking the tech class as well.

Breaking away from the typical coffee supplier of the area, Rashid has decided to go with Annapolis' Pronto Coffee, who just so happens to buy some coffees from the same source I buy coffees - meaning they've got great coffees and I was interested to see their interpretation of the Ardi Ethiopia. Fruity, round and lovely. Paired that with a Hawthorne Bakery blueberry muffin and it was indeed a treat.


A little Ethiopian Ardi at Filter.

Filter itself is a smaller shop with seating for about 13 on the inside and a few more chairs (and lots of stoops) outside. At 4pm on a Wednesday, the place was full and humming along - one of the better reasons to investigate opening a shop in DC. Filled with colors of orange and brown, the space gives off a warm feeling and everyone seemed happily running along drinking coffee, eating pastries and surfing the internet on the free wi-fi.

For drink making, there's a La Marzocco GB5, a row of pourover brewers, a large hot water tower and a bunch of french presses for making coffee during the "busy morning rush".


Frisee Salad and Frites at Bistrot du Coin.

After departing Filter and not having eaten since my breakfast at Chick-Fil-A many hours before, I headed over to Bistrot du Coin for a little mid-afternoon meal. I've been to du Coin before and found it to be decent, in spite of some of my friends constantly raving about it.

I had the frisee salad and a side of frites. The salad was good but was a bit light on the acidity which would have popped it and really make it stand out. The frites were decent enough but slightly limp and didn't have that crisp that I really enjoy in a well-made frite. Numerous menu offerings such as blanquette du veau, curry mussels, steak tartare and the onglet made me wish for a phalanx of friends to order en masse for a sampling, which just means I will have to return at a later date.


It's Julie's last week as a District resident.

From there it was back to the La Marzocco event, this time it was for anyone interested in learning more about the Strada EP. I got to hang a bit with Samuel Demisse and see Julie Housh before she left DC and moves to the West Coast. Otherwise, I only hung out for less than an hour before heading off to dinner.

Soup's Off

Ciao Soups On!

It's been coming for the past two weeks. I heard about it first through twitter. Soup's On, that venerable Hampden soup joint across from Spro, was closing.

Known for using fresh, local ingredients, Cynthia and her team have been making great soups, salads and sandwiches for several years now and would be one of the few places that I would buy lunch from on a regular basis because it's difficult to find really great quality food in the world.


Our Spro Send Off Kit: Iced Lattes and a bottle of Cava.

But now all of that is over and we spend the final few hours at the Soup's On Closing Down Party - where Spike noted that it's the only restaurant closing party he's ever been invited. Wine, beer, agua frescas, chips, dip, guacamole and their signature tuna fish sandwiches, along with a healthy stack of Courtney's cookies, were all on offer and many stayed into the night and way past the 7pm official closing time.

Hopefully someone will soon open another nice eatery nearby where I can have lunch!


Cynthia, Mary, Courtney and Justino - The Soups On Crew.



A stack of their famous tuna sandwiches. I ate as much as I could. For the last time.






Memo's crew pulls down the signage.



A crowd gathers.



Facing Future.

Handmade Totalmente

Two bottles of Gahara Vanilla Syrup starting their journey.

So far, 2011 has been a busy year. I've been back and forth to Central and South America, as well as southern North America several times. My times at home have been short and it wasn't until last month when I actually had time to slow down and return to my roots, so to speak.

In May, I was home for 22 days. Time to slow down. Time to focus. Time to work. Time to re-connect with my baristas and get back to what we do best. People think I'm lucky because I am given the opportunity to travel. I think I'm lucky because I return to a great team focused on making fantastic products for our guests.

For the past couple of days, after recovering from the haze that was the World Barista Championship in Bogota, Colombia, I've been working in the bowels of Spro working with ingredients, tasting coffees and whipping up new batches of handmade this and that. I've been back on the farmers market circuit seeing what's new and available, and planning new menu items for the heat of summer.

It brings me back to the aspect of barista that I like the most: preparing everything handmade. I'm happy to say that nothing at Spro is commercially processed. We prepare everything in-house or work with purveyors who share our same passion for doing things "the hard way." From making the coffees individually to order to the handmade syrups to the traditionally made agua fresca to the quirky take on classic sorbets whipped up in the PacoJet. Everything is sourced thoughtfully and carefully. Everything is tasted and vetted before we present it to our guests.

I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to travel the world, work with baristas and judge barista competitions. I meet wonderful people and make incredible friends. But at the end of the day, I find myself inspired most by the very people I work day in and day out - the team at Spro.

Camping Out

According to Harold Camping, Christian radio rock star, evangelist and foreseer of the Apocalypse, The End Of The World starts tomorrow at sunrise just off the coast of Australia.

From what I've gathered, a series of earthquakes will begin on Kirimati Island and spread across the planet as the sun advances and the planet is shaken. For us East Coasters, expect our earthquake to begin around 6pm.

Approximately 3% (or 200 million) of the world's population will ascend into heaven for The Rapture.

A five month period of pain and suffering will be followed by the actual End Of The World on October 21, 2011.

In other words, it's going to be Bad - with a capital "B".

To help the nation prepare for the Second Coming, Judgement Day and all the terrible things that accompany this event, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have prepared this website. While it may be a bit too late to run out to buy some of the items, at least you can fill your bathtub with water right now.

As for myself, I've got a freezer full of meats, a wood pellet smoker, lots of charcoal and my handy dandy Nerf weapons cache to ensure safety - and I even have a fresh tank of gas in the Land Rover, just in case I need to break for the hills. Which does mean that I fully expect not to be part of that 200 million being sent to Heaven - much to the delight of the former SCAA President and his cronies.

As the earthquakes spread across the planet tomorrow and people start ascending into Heaven, make no mistake about it, Mass Hysteria will feature prominently in the news. Expect crying, stamping of feet, cars burning, rioting and general pandemonium. Of course, it should go without saying, Spro Coffee will be open for business as usual.

To Note: the library of Spro Towson may be open, depending on the county government, but if it is, the library also serves as a disaster shelter. Spro Hampden simply doesn't close, operating every day in 2010 except for Thanksgiving (yes, we were open Christmas - yet another reason why I will be excluded from The Rapture).

Another reason why I will be excluded from The Rapture is that I'm secretly hoping that The Rapture isn't just about the poor and downtrodden (who will inherit the Earth). I'm hoping that that rich family with the big house, extensive French wine collection and four car garage were devout Christians because I want to move in. Afterall, if I'm damned and going to be obliterated in five months, I want to live in style. And it would be a sin to leave that Ferrari 599 in their garage forlorn and lonely.

Sadly, 200 million people (from a planet of 4 billion) really isn't a lot of people. But maybe with the hysteria going on, people will stay home and I'll have the roads to myself. Of course, the government will probably impose martial law and I'll be forced to stay home anyway. Remember late September 2001? It will probably be worse. Good thing I have some ribs stashed away in the freezer.

Do I really believe that this will all happen tomorrow? That's silly. Though there is part of me that thinks I should have blown my fortune on hookers and booze, just in case.

Of course, if I walk out of the house tomorrow to see millions of people rising into the Heavens, I'm going to feel pretty darn stupid...

The Modernist Conundrum

Oh, my! 46.3 pounds...

A couple of weeks ago, I come home to find a large and heavy box downstairs at Spro Hampden. It's big and nearly fifty pounds. Goodness. Then I noticed the label. It's the book I've been waiting for since 2009.

The Modernist Cuisine

During the 2009 StarChefs Conference, I attended a presentation by Nathan Myrhvold and Chris Young that was out of this world. These were some crazy guys talking about some crazy things. They were working on what must be the seminal tome on cooking in the 21st Century. As Escoffier was to the 19th Century, Myrhvold is to the 21st. And it's massive.


Getting into the packaging.

For two weeks, the box has been sitting on a chair downstairs at Spro. It didn't move. Too darn heavy. I wanted to figure out where to put it. How to transport it. Really, I didn't want to carry it up the stairs. Then it started to rain. Lazy. I'm not going to carry that in the rain. Why? Because I knew that I had to get the thing out of its box.

The box is something else. First of all, there are five tomes placed in a clear acrylic slide cover that is wrapped in heavy paper. The wrapped tomes and case are held in a corrugated padded box with a separately cardboard covered sixth volume, the bound and waterproof recipe book. These are all corrugated padded and then that box is placed in a larger box that is suspended within. Just like the books themselves, the packaging is off the hook.


At home with the PolyScience circulator for scale.

Finally today I brought the tomes home. Took them out of their box like the Ark of the Covenant, huffed them up the stairs and into the kitchen at home. Then, more conundrums: where to put the darn thing.

Nothing short of massive can accurately describe these tomes. Until now, the largest culinary book I own is the first edition of Heston Blumenthal's The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, along with Gordon Ramsay's ***Chef and Gisslen's Professional Cooking, Second Edition. Now, those pale in comparison.


Alongside Blumenthal, Ramsay and Gisslen.

Since I've only just gotten the tomes home, I haven't had the opportunity to really get into them. But the first flip throughs are exciting. Illustrations galore. And lots of information without being too technical or too geeky. My first thought: accessible.

From my understanding, the first run is sold out. Hopefully, there will be additional runs because I hear from some friends that they are unable to obtain copies. The font size is pretty large so I'm guessing that it's scaled to shrink into a smaller format size. I ordered my copy from Amazon back in December and I waited four months so your mileage may vary.

But, if you can score yourself a copy, it's going to be worth every penny.

Coffee Obsessive

I'm currently stuck in Mexico City after a mechanical problem with the airplane forced a two-hour delay, missing my window to connect on a flight back home to Baltimore. Granted, if I'm going to be "stuck" anywhere, Mexico City is about as ideal as it gets.

To my own surprise, this blog was mentioned in the article about me and my little company, Spro Coffee, in Baltimore. For those of you visiting us from the Washington Post: welcome.

I first was introduced to Martha Thomas about nine months ago in June 2010 where I received a phone call during my trip to London for the World Barista Championship. That's where the article you read in the Post all started. Over the next nine months, Martha and I would chat on a regular basis regarding the article and she came in several times to see just how we do what we do in our little shop in Hampden.

Martha joined us for a cupping with Joan & Ralph Gaston of Rusty's Hawaiian Ka'u Coffee where we sampled a range of coffees, including samples grown by Lorie Obra (Joan's Mom) - who is an amazing scientist turned coffee farmer on the Big Island. Martha later joined us in a demonstration on how we select a brewing method that "pairs" with a particular coffee. It seems that in the translation of the article, a little bit of both events were mixed together.

As with any article written over a long period of time, some details may have been a little jumbled with the passage of time. I wanted to take a moment to clarify some of the details:

- A visit to Anthony Rue's Volta Coffee & Tea in July 2009 was instrumental to the direction we decided to take Spro Hampden. Had it not been for Anthony, our approach of multiple brew methods throughout the day might not have happened. If anything, we might have ended up "cheating" like many shops in the country by batch brewing coffee during the morning "rush" instead of taking the time to prepare each cup by hand.

- Much of what we do is inspired by others. Almost nothing is truly original. From Ichiro Sekuguchi of Tokyo's Cafe de L'ambre to John Sanders of Origins Organic Coffee, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen, Aki & Alex from Ideas In Food, and fellow baristas like John Lewis - all and more have had an impact on me and the way we approach and present our coffees.

- In the article I'm quoted as saying: "We have no loyalty to any one roaster." Honestly, I don't think I ever said that - especially since loyalty is something central to what we do and own approach to doing things. As a company, we're very loyal to our vendors. We maintain long-term relationships with all our vendors. A great example of this is Origins Organic Coffee. We've been buying their coffee since 2004.

What I did say is that we do not maintain roaster exclusivity with any one roaster. In the coffee business, the typical model is for a retail shop (like Spro) to purchase all their coffees from one coffee roaster. It's a limited way of doing business that is slowly eroding in these modern times (although one of our original six roasters, Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, NC recently told us that they would no longer sell to Spro for three reasons, one of which was that they were returning to the roaster exclusivity model).

Roaster exclusivity is simply ludicrous. It's akin to walking into your local pub and only finding one brand of beer or alcohol. We are unable to do business with companies that insist on roaster exclusivity and we're very appreciative of the companies who started with us and believed in supporting our approach - and those companies are:

Origins Organic Coffee - Vancouver, BC
Barefoot Coffee - San Jose, CA
Ecco Caffe - Santa Rosa, CA
Stumptown Coffee - Portland, OR & New York City
Intelligentsia Coffee - Chicago, IL

- In the article, Ryan Jensen (owner of Peregrine Espresso in Washington DC) cautions about claims of singularity. While our model of multiple roasters, multiple coffees paired to multiple brewing methods, made by hand, day-in and day-out, is still the only one in the industry, I certainly hope that this anomaly is short-lived.

Seriously, Spro Hampden can only make so many coffees per day and we can only impact a small segment of the coffee drinking public. For our notion of quality coffee prepared without compromise to be tasted by the larger public, more shops have to take our approach. We cannot and do not want to be the only kid on the block serving our kind of coffee.

However, to do what we do takes a certain level of commitment and skill. Ryan Jensen has both of those and with his opening of a second Peregrine in the coming months, I'm hoping we'll see a more in-depth approach to their coffee program - because I think he's the best coffee operator in The District.

- The article mentions my judging experience. While I have judged barista competitions across North America, Central & South America, as well as Africa, I have not judged a competition in England. My visit to London last summer ended up with me as a spokesperson for Reg Barber Enterprises during the World Barista Championship.

From 2004-2007, I served as a volunteer director on the Executive Council of the Barista Guild of America. I have also served as a volunteer for the United States Barista Championship regional competitions and as a volunteer trainer for the Specialty Coffee Association of America. And in three weeks, I will serve again as a volunteer panelist speaking on multiple brewing methods in a cafe environment at the SCAA's annual trade show in Houston. I will be one on a panel with Anthony Rue (Volta), John Piquet (Caffe D'Bolla), Kyle Glanville (Intelligentsia) and Tracy Allen (moderator).

So, despite my criticism of the SCAA, I'm still willing to support and help out when I feel that I can lend something of value.

Well, that's about all I have. It's humbling to be written about in the Washington Post and I'm truly honored, but much of the credit goes to the people around me. My staff of baristas are some of the best baristas I've ever known and worked with, they ply our craft with humility and honesty in an unassuming manner absent of pretense and condescension. My non-coffee friends and family keep me grounded. My mentor, John Sanders, who has been instrumental in my learning of coffee and sense of duty to get involved in our industry. And many thanks to my friends in and around the business, without whom I never would have done what we do.

And of course, thanks to Martha Thomas for noticing and taking interest in what we do to take it to the Post. She's been fun and easy to work with and I wish her the best in her writing career. Same goes to the editors, staff and Marvin the photographer from the Post. Always professional and always easy to work with.

Thanks to all of them and thanks also to you for reading the Washington Post article and then this lengthy blog post (btw, I write about more than just coffee here). I hope you'll find your way to visit our little shop in Baltimore (or at least your local specialty coffee purveyor) where we look forward to making you a cup of coffee in a manner we hope you will enjoy.

Best regards,

Jay
Mexico City
6 Abril 2011

Pissing Off The "Gods" Of Coffee

I received a rather interesting phone call today.

It was an industry friend calling to tell me that the coffee company he works for no longer will sell my company coffee.

Turns out that the company he works for is unhappy with the way we have been representing their coffee at The Spro. The company? Counter Culture Coffee.

Evidently, there are three reasons why they no longer will sell to us:

1 - They are unhappy that we started serving the Aida's Grand Reserve in February.

2 - They say Aida Batlle (the producer) is unhappy that we are serving her coffee.

3 - I have made disparaging remarks about Peter Giuliano (SCAA President and CCC owner).

There were a couple of other minor issues that were also included in the discussion (I'll go into those later).

For sure, Numbers One and Three are all true. We started serving the AGR on Valentine's Day after freeze storing it since we received the coffee in late September/early October. And I have been very critical of Peter Giuliano (as the SCAA President) of late - especially with the recent discussion on Barista Exchange (sorry, I just put the link to the thread, you'll have to scroll through to see the action - it's quite entertaining, maybe).

As for Number Two, I can only guess. We released the AGR the day that I left for El Salvador to volunteer my time judging their national barista championship, and I even sent a message to Aida that I was going to be in San Salvador and if she might have time to meet up for a visit. She said she was busy at the farm and that it wouldn't be possible. I figured that if she had a problem she would have said so - or maybe not.

To be honest, I'm actually surprised it took this long for Peter Giuliano to pull this one. I expected this to come much earlier since I have been quite critical of his handling of SCAA affairs over the past year or so.

Quite seriously, I don't really have a problem with this. It's what I expected and seems to be par for the course (you know, agree with us, or else). To my mind, any and every company has a right to sell (or stop selling) to any outfit it desires. They want to sell to us - cool. They don't want to sell to us - that's cool too.

Some of the other tertiary issues that were presented as reasons why Counter Culture no longer will to sell to us are that: a) CCC is moving away from the multiple roaster model and only wants to pursue the roaster exclusivity model (which is something Spro does not do), and b) we don't buy enough coffee.

"A" is a curious reason since a year ago they said that they wanted to pursue the multiple (non exclusive) roaster model. Maybe they've really changed their minds. Afterall, when a client uses multiple roasters, they're not buying all their coffee from one roaster and it's less profitable to that roaster. So note to those of you planning on opening a multiple roaster coffeeshop: Counter Culture is not interested in that model.

Of course, with Spro they don't have all the extra expenses of the exclusivity model. We don't ask or expect barista training, machine service or all the extras that roasters usually have to provide on a somewhat complimentary level. They simply sell us coffee at the price specified and we pay. We don't ask for anything extra or anything else - just quality coffee, at any price. In fact, the only time we take of their customer service rep is when he comes in to hang out, have a coffee and chat. We're very "low maintenance" - partly because we prefer it that way and also because we respect that with exclusivity comes those service "perks".

As to "B", I guess we don't buy "enough" coffee. From the opening of Spro Hampden through this week, we've only purchased about 400 pounds of coffee from Counter Culture, at a total revenue of just under $3,300.00 (at least that's according to our QuickBooks report).

Honestly, I can admit that it's not much. We're not the 300 pound per week account that roasters dream of claiming. We're a small coffee shop with a heavy focus on delivering a variety of quality coffees to a burgeoning coffee clientele. We source coffees from multiple roasters and brew each cup of coffee one-at-a-time.

But since they said that they're basing their decision to not sell to us based on the AGR that we offered starting on Valentine's Day, I thought I would have a statistical look at the numbers.

For the AGR, we purchased one eight ounce tin for a landed price of $26.95 - that's $17.95 for the coffee and $9.00 for shipping. This translates into .008281% of the money we've spent or .000152% of the poundage we've purchased over the past year with Counter Culture. Surely, for even a small company purchasing a small amount (read: not "enough") of coffee these percentages are a microscopic reason to tell us to piss off.

So, less than one percent of our purchases and less than one percent of our purchased weight in coffee and we're not representing their coffee properly? Curious.

Makes one kind of wonder if they hold such a hardline on their accounts that brew the coffee in airpots and let them sit around for who knows how long. Or the accounts with bagged coffee sitting around for a bit of time. I can only guess that those coffees account for more than one percent of those account purchases...

The interesting thing is that even during this period where I have been critical of Peter Giuliano, I had thought about discontinuing our purchasing from Counter Culture based on those criticisms. However to me, agreement is not a prerequisite for a relationship or doing business. Counter Culture offers some fine coffees that my staff was excited about and we continued purchasing their coffee because we felt that we could offer them to our clientele in a thoughtful and engaging manner. I would not allow my personal thoughts regarding their owner to cloud our way of doing business. It wouldn't be professional and would just be childish.

Besides, there's lots of great people working for the company and it would be just wrong to cast doubt on any of them merely based on my criticisms of their boss or his desire to get rid of me based on the reasons above. I like all of them and wish them the best - though I do suspect that I'm persona non grata at Counter Culture events now.

In the end, I'm more amused than anything else. Disagree and criticize the President of the SCAA and get told by his company to piss off?

I'm only surprised that it didn't happen sooner.

A Quiet Life

Jeremy, Devlin and Martin manning the bar.

I'm sitting here in the main room at Spro watching the action. The tables in the front are filled, one table (of two) in the back are filled and a steady stream of guests come in and out as the morning gets busier.

What I notice most is the happy banter of friends from the tables. Everything else is quiet. The three baristas working the bar (Jeremy, Devlin & Martin) work quietly and efficiently. They greet customers, answer questions and quietly communicate amongst each other. Their movements are calculated and anticipatory of each other. Without realizing it, their dance has begun and it's a brilliant moment.

As the guest count increases, they must keep track not only of the guests standing in front of them waiting for their orders but they're also keeping track of which guest receives what item wherever they decided to sit.

For me it's actually thrilling to watch. It's a ballet. The quiet concentration, the focus, the passion. Amazing and I'm very proud of their work.

Hours pass and the intensity remains. The service level is friendly and welcoming. Comfortable without being overtly familiar.

It's really what I always hoped for at Spro.

Hampden Kitchen

Ready for operation.

Intelligent v60???

Head-to-Head brewing: Intelli on the left, Spro on the right.

From what I've been told, the Fabulous LaTourell was in the house last Sunday while I was in Italy. He came by for a visit and brought along some lovely coffees from Intelligentsia and Coffee Collective for us to sample, and he offered a tutorial in v60 brewing: Intelli Style.

I've been a little critical lately of the way the v60 drip brewer has been implemented industry wide and I'm sure there's a little bit of a challenge to that position with David's visit. It's all good.


Spro Method grinds.

I'm not the sort of chap who really believes too much in his own dogma, so I'm willing to try other methodologies to see what kind of improvements to our product line we can deliver to our customers. Jeremy was working that day and was the beneficiary of the Intelligentsia tutorial.

With that in mind, we set off to do side-by-side brews with the v60 and see if one method was indeed "better" than the other. For this brew test, we used Stumptown's Colombia El Jordan, roasted on November 30, 2010 in New York City.

According to Stumptown's card: "Warm aromatics of nutmeg and cinnamon segue into mouth-watering flavors of satsuma orange and ripe blackberry which finish with notes of honey and brown sugar."

For this brew test, the coffee was ground using a Compak R80 grinder at the "30" grind setting and we used 24 grams of coffee to make a 12z cup.

According to Jeremy, the method prescribed by Intelligentsia is a finer grind with a 2z initial pour of water for a one minute bloom before adding an additional 12z of water and allowing it to flow naturally through the brewer. Total brew time for our test: two minutes and thirty seconds. Jeremy used a scale to measure the water volume.

On my side of the bar, I used the TruBru brewing stand and free poured the water. Starting off with roughly two ounces of water and a bloom time of 45 seconds, I then slow poured the water into the v60 brewer to control the flow rate with a target time betweem 3:30 and 4:00. Actual brew flow time for this test: 4:53 - I ended up pouring a bit slower than my target.


Intelli Method grinds.

In a side-by-side comparison, the Intelli Method produced a cup that was brighter and highlighted with bitter notes. The Spro Method demonstrated a cup with strong cocoa notes and no bitter/bright tones. For these variations, we preferred the Spro Method over the Intelli Method.

But David had told Jeremy that their method performed best at grinds finer than the typical drip setting, so we readjusted the grind to "25" and used up the last of the El Jordan to make an 8z cup, using the same Intelli Methodology and a finish brew time of two minutes.

Where the "30" cup of Intelli was bitter and acidic, the "25" setting dropped the bitters and really punched through with a nice acidity that was very reminiscent of citrus fruits. A nice cup but also a drastically different cup than the Spro Method.


The Three Finished Brews: Intelli "25", Intelli "30" and Spro "30".

Being someone who prefers chocolate and fruit toned coffees, I would prefer the Spro Method cup of the El Jordan, but this in no way dismisses the Intelli "25" brew. The Intelli "30" was definitely the least liked of the three, the remaining two were both good but quite different.

Here I think it is the difference that introduces the conundrum. So many of us in the business are hell-bent on demonstrating who/which is "right" and that others are "wrong." These two methods produced dramatically different results from exactly the same coffee. Both were tasty cups of coffee, so can either of them be truly "wrong"? I don't think so.

For me, this highlights something I've been thinking more about with the latest push in the industry for conformity and adherence to "acceptably right" brewing methods and refractometer readings - and that is, I want to find differences when I go to different coffee places. The fact that the Intelli Method and Spro Method produce dramatically different results in the cup from the same coffee is a desirable condition.

Both coffees were good and tasty, but were very different. This is to be celebrated because I would hope that our interpretation of the coffee is different than Intelligentsia's interpretation. I would find it a sad condition to travel all the way to Chicago or Los Angeles just to have a cup of the same old, same old coffee I can have at home. That would mean there is little to no difference between shops and that we have homogenous products. That would suck.

There's still more testing that can be done before anyone can draw any sort of conclusion but I'm enjoying drinking my rethinking on v60 brewing methods.

Testing 1, 2, 3

The Sensory Practical Test at Spro.

It's been a year since the people who became the baristas of Spro Hampden started and a new group of recruits is working to join their ranks. Time for a little barista testing to see just how everyone is doing and to ensure their sensory taste skills are still up to scratch.

Borrowing elements from the Q Grader and WBC Judges Certification programs, the new battery of tests pits the baristas (and candidates) against an array of written and sensory tests. A 50 question, multiple choice, fill in the blank and True/False tests starts off the day with coffee triangulation and coffee identification following.

From there, it's back to practical evaluations. Shot pulling, milk steaming, waste monitoring and even latte art design all come into review. For some it may seem tough, but while the tests are designed to be challenging, they should be relatively easy for the workaday barista at Spro who is constantly tasting and evaluating coffee as part of their daily routine.

That Picture Makes No Sense

Rebecca doing lighting tests.

Quite some time ago, I received this in the commentaries:

"the picture on the front page makes no sense and says nothing about your business. maybe it's hilarious to you and your baristas but it does nothing to entice anyone to visit your coffee shops."

Seems that every once in a while I manage to hit some nerve somewhere with people that they just want to rise up in arms and burn me in effigy. Obviously, this person is upset.

Truth be told, the whiner is actually referring to this image on Spro Coffee's website. It's a group photo of the entire company (December 2009) in a mock male strip club (the Chippendale's dancers are also our baristas).

I guess I could be more understanding of the outrage if we were a bunch of guys ogling women, but if you want to make it sinister, it could be said that we're objectifying men and empowering the women. But it has nothing to do with any of that foolishness.


Devlin and Jeremy prepare themselves while Mia watches.

The company photo shoots are fun. Not serious. And they don't usually have anything directly to do with coffee. What does it say about our business? That we're fun, personable and don't take it too seriously. We make coffee, not religion.

I do have to wonder about the "enticing people to come to our coffee shop" thing. Clearly, this person is turned off by our not serious enough photo shoots. The person said so and, I presume, has chosen not to visit us. That would be a shame. But if one cannot relax a bit and not take themselves so seriously then perhaps our little shops are not the right fit for that person.

I'm afraid that person might be a bit too stodgy for our merry crew of baristas.


The Haus of Spro - (not the final image).

As our crew has been changing, the time came for another quick photo shoot. One that we could shoot relatively easily and before everyone started going on tour. This time, a Lady Gaga inspired shoot would be our target.

Gather the crew in the midst of the shift change, do a quick rehearsal, run outside and shoot some lighting tests, herd the group into the middle of street, make sure no one gets run over and start firing.

Click, click, click and another dozen or so shots later, the shoot was in the bag, the baristas went home (or back to making coffee) and a new, not serious enough, image was ready for the website.

So for those of you waiting for a serious photo from the Baristas of Spro, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a while longer.

You can see the final image here.

Spro Report, October 2010

Sales numbers are in for October 2010 and I thought I would share some statistics with the readership. Since Spro Hampden's coffee program is unique in the industry I was wondering how it might compare to other coffee programs out there.

The first two numbers comprise total coffee sales for October and the breakdown between brew bar and espresso-based beverages. Brewed Coffee totals include all coffees brewed via Vac Pot, Chemex, Pour Over, Eva Solo, Abid Clever, Aeropress, French Press and Cold Drip Tower for iced coffee.

TOTAL COFFEE SALES
Brewed Coffee - 44.3%
Espresso Drinks - 55.6%

These next figures are a breakdown of the various beverages made on the espresso bar with espresso coffee as a base component. These figures are the percentages of the 55.6% that comprises part of the Total Coffee Sales for October.

ESPRESSO DRINKS
Latte - 31.5%
Cappuccino - 22.2%
Americano - 13%
Mocha - 9%
Espresso - 7.3%
Macchiato - 3.9%

As a side note, during the month of October 2010, these are the coffees that we served on the brew bar:

Amaro Gayo, Ethiopia, custom roast - 14.9%
Benavente, Guatemala, Stumptown NYC - 13.3%
Finca El Injerto, Stumptown - 1.0%
Finca La Tinta, Honduras, Ecco Caffe - 5.7%
Finca Lerida, Panama, Origins Organic - 4.4%
Finca Mauritania, El Salvador, Counter Culture - 1.4%
Karumandi Peaberry, Kenya, Barefoot Coffee - 10.2%
La Laguna - 1.6%
La Pira Dry Cherry, Costa Rica, Barefoot Coffee - 5.9%
Mordecofe, Ethiopia, Stumptown - 0.7%
Ruvuma, Tanzania, Callao Coffee - 1.9%
Santa Barbara Estates, Brazil, Tim Wendelboe - 0.9%
Sidama Silcho, Ethiopia, Intelligentsia - 1.2%
Thiriku, Kenya, Counter Culture - 2.3%
Yirgacheffe Natural, Ethiopia, Origins Organic - 15.1%
Decaf Valle del Santuario, Peru, Counter Culture - 4.4%

Throughout October, seventeen coffees (one missed inclusion in these stats) were offered to our guests in addition to our standard Hines Espresso from Origins Organic Coffee of Vancouver, BC. Guest espressos finding their way into our hoppers during the month of October included E-27, Apollo and Toscano from Counter Culture and the single origin El Tambor Guatemala from Ecco Caffe.

Paper or Cloth?

The untouched virgin.

Last month, I picked up a couple of Hario cloth filters for the V60 pourover brewer. The idea is that the cloth will reduce our brew paper waste. They're nice looking and come with 1, 2 and 3 cup embroidered markings.

It's still early in the testing phase and I'm not sure if the cloth will actually make it to production but I'd be interested to hear test results from the rest of you out there.



Head to head brew testing.

Garden Watch: September

Not too great but not too bad...

Vacuum Cold Brew

Jeremy and Linsday prepare the coffee.

Some discussions the other day over the internet prompted me to ponder the potential for vacuum brewing cold coffee. If marinades could be infused into proteins, pickling juice into vegetables and compression to fruits, what possibilities would vac bagging coffee yield? Could it lead to properly extracted cold coffee in a short time period?

With that in mind, we gathered the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Origins Organic Coffee that we're brewing at Spro in the cold brew tower. It's become our de facto standard iced coffee this summer with a crisp fresh flavor profile featuring notes of citrus and a reassuring familiar taste of "coffee." It's light and easy to drink and has been the panacea in Hampden for our hot Baltimore summer.


Ready for the chamber vacuum.

For this initial test, we chose relatively simple parameters: 48 grams coffee, 24 ounces cold water, vac bag at 31 mbar and just wait.

Initially, I was planning on leaving the bagged coffee overnight and then pull it out to see the effect. The concern there was that if I was going to let it steep overnight, then it doesn't really offer much of an advantage over the brew tower or other long-term brew methods.


Water temp 70.3F but I it feels cooler.

Instead, I opted to let the bag steep for ten minutes and then pull a sample. While the thermometer shown displays 70.3F I'm hard pressed to believe its accuracy because it was pretty cool to the touch.

Perhaps I should note that while it is possible to bag water and coffee with a Food Saver type of vacuum sealer, it is difficult and chances are that you won't get the proper flush of air from the bag, nor will you be able to set the vac pressure. A proper chamber vac allows greater control of the vacuum environment as well as a complete vacuum being set over the liquid.


Filtering the coffee with Hario V60 and AeroPress.

After ten minutes it was time to cut the bag open and give it a taste. However, the coffee needed to be filtered and we tried two different filtration methods: simple paper filter in a V60 Pourover and a pressurized filtration through an AeroPress.

The problem with pouring out steeped coffee are the sediments which gather in the filter. Normally, these are dispersed throughout the coffee bed, but lacking the coarse ground coffee, the fine sediment clogs the paper filters. The pressure from the AeroPress only improved filtration speed slightly.


V60 and AeroPress filtered with the brew tower control sample.

The results themselves were less than stellar but proved insightful. At ten minutes under pressure, the coffee had been extracted but was still underextracted. The color variations in the samples above demonstrate this. The flavor show hints of the tower brew but was very faint.

No conclusions as there's still much to be tested and tried, but it's a good start. Some thoughts were to go with hotter (100F) water or longer times. In the coming weeks we'll sample more and see how it goes.

Living The LB Loca

Bex, Martin, Jeremy, Lindsay and Devlin ponder the meaning of hot water.

Received a message the other day that Ben and Andrew were going to be in town for a day and perhaps we might be interested in having a look see at their LB-1 Water Delivery System prototype.

As you'll see in the photos, this iteration of the LB-1 is a bit more industrial looking with design cues that reminds me of the Slayer espresso machine. Large, brushed metal panels, polymer ribs and a style that looks chunky while remaining quite svelte. Spro Hampden is a muted space with cream colored walls, mahogany cabinetry and dark granite countertops but the LB-1's industrial look surprisingly did not look out of place on the brew bar.

The model we played with today is the second generation prototype. Being a prototype, there are some kinks to work out and who knows what the final production model will look like and feature. This one however sports large brush metal side panels and drip tray. The unit is essentially two pieces: the main body and the drip tray. Assembly is surprisingly easy and the unit lightweight and low-profile.

One of the ideals behind the unit is to make it easy for an existing shop to add a by-the-cup brewing device. All the LB-1 needs is a standard water line and a 125v 15a socket and you're good to go. Tapping a T off the hand sink water line took a couple of minutes, plug it in and we were ready to rock and roll.


Andrew and Ben talking the points.

Unlike hot water boilers in the coffee industry today, the LB-1 heats water on demand and we were pulling at temperature water essentially the moment the machine was powered on. Impressive.

Somewhere in the sleek casing of the LB-1 is the heating device, which will either run cold line water through the system or heated water to a tenth of a degree. Simply turn the dial, select the temperature and squeeze the nozzle-mounted button and away it goes. A full screen menu allows you to brew manually or select preset brewing profiles.

Beyond simply controlling water temperature, the LB-1 also allows you to control water flow rate from a trickle to 11 ounces per minute. I've been told there is potential to increase the flow rate but that would also require a power increase. The unit does not allow the operator to set a flow rate faster than the machine can heat the water accurately.

The cell phone import screen is bright, crisp and clear and is hands-down the current best control screen in the coffee brewing marketplace. If only other manufacturers would get into 2007 with GUI screens, then we might have something to get excited about.


Up close and brewing.

The LB-1 GUI is relatively simple and straightforward. A press of the main knob selects the menu options from Presets to parameters and then a twist of the knob inputs the values. A separate, mechanical knob controls the water flow rate - which is displayed on the screen.

A separate button controls additional timer and flow calculation functions but the button had been damaged in transit from Boston and wasn't operative today.

Currently, the presets are limited to straight time and flow. Brewing complexities such as 30 seconds, 2 ounces, stop, then flow 11 ounces for 3 minutes 30 seconds are not possible at this time. It would be a nice feature if the software allowed for complex brewing parameters at varying intervals. Ideally, a barista would be able to select from a menu of presets that are operator labeled. Then you could program the unit with parameters for methods like: "V60", "Clever", "Chemex", etc.


Devlin and Bex work the V60 pour overs.

During one of the tests, I was able to approximate a pseudo-complex brew by programming the unit to flow at a rate of 3.4 ounces per minute, which would result in a brew time of roughly 4 minutes for 12.8 ounces of water into a Beehouse pourover. It worked well enough and lent a good idea the potential for the unit.

The actual brewing is actuated by a button on the control nozzle. Click it once and the unit starts to brew either in manual mode (click once to start and again to stop) or preset mode (click once to start the preset and the unit stops according to the set parameters), hold the button down and it flows on demand - meaning that the flow stops when you release the button.

It's a good idea and works pretty decently but the prototype button demonstrated some difficulty knowing when to start and stop when wet. The nozzle features a nice, ergonomic contour but those used to using a Hario Buono (or similar) kettle will notice right away this prototype's need for a more refined nozzle tip. It's shape means the water stream droops and is a bit messy.

Dispersion of water across the coffee bed is achieved by manually maneuvering the nozzle around and saturating the coffee. This is where we started to see that the unit needs to be "higher" in clearance. Stack a scale, ceramic cup and V60 pourover on the drip tray and you're snaking your hand into the clearance between the lip of the V60 and the bottom edge of the LB-1's top. Want to brew a double 24z Chemex with the unit? Not going to happen - not enough clearance.

Though I should note that the necessity of a scale will probably not be an issue since the unit measures water volume - negating the need for a scale to weigh dispensed water.


Comparative Chemex Brewing.

While we're used to pouring water over the coffee bed by hand, I'm wondering if there is a way to create some sort of "showerhead" that will disperse the water over the coffee bed evenly. As we were brewing, I noticed different patterns in the "crema" of the brewing methods, as well as the way the coffee rested on the filters as the coffee drained through.

Our first test brew was to pit hand brewed V60 pour over of Barefoot Coffee's San Jose Rojo versus the LB-1. One of the potential problems we face in the current state of by-the-cup brewing is the constant loss of water temperature throughout the brew cycle. The LB-1 delivered water at a constant 92C for this test and the LB-1 brew was the everyone's choice as "better" than the hand-brewed.

With that in mind, it's easy to think that the LB-1's flat temperature profile is the trump card, but I'm not so sure about that. Differences in agitation, water temperature and flow rate may have skewed the results. One of the biggest concerns I have with the Hario V60 is probably the reason why baristas nationwide seem to prefer it: it can brew coffee faster than the Beehouse.

The V60's large orifice and turbofan design means that you can brew a 12z cup of coffee in under two minutes. The restricted orifices of the Beehouse forces a longer brew time. Certainly an argument can be made that a skilled barista will time their V60 brew out to 3-4 minutes, but the pressure a line can too easily translate into fast brews.


Presetting Beehouse brew parameters.

The difference in taste between the two cups was dramatic and I have to admit that it was the first time I have ever thought that the Extract Mojo would have come in handy. It would have been helpful to test the brews and see the differences in solids extraction.

Before anything definitive can be stated, it's going to require more thorough investigation and testing with the unit, but the results so far are at the very minimum "interesting" if not outright "promising."

Bringing the LB-1 into a working service environment proved useful in a number of ways. Not only were we able to "play" with the machine but we were also able to brew coffees for customers under the pressure of a surprisingly peppy afternoon service.


Letting it flow at 3.4 ounces per minute.

While we only had the machine on the brew station for a couple of hours, some thoughts come to mind specifically for service at Spro. Since my experience with the LB-1 at SCAA Anaheim and the Uber Boiler at LM Out of the Box, I've been a bit skeptical about the applicability of these brewing units in our service environment.

First off is cost. At just under six thousand dollars and a boiler that takes 4 minutes 16 seconds to recover after dispensing only twenty percent of it's capacity and rendering the unit useless during the recovery period, the Marco Uber Boiler can prove to be a customer killer. It's simply an eternity in the heat of service for a machine to be down for that long - and since it's unlikely that a barista will recharge the system after only using a liter's worth of water, chances are that the barista will run the boiler down to 10% capacity before recharging. And if 20% took just over four minutes, I cringe to think how long 90% will take to recover.

Here the LB-1 has an edge. Current estimates project the LB-1's MSRP to be roughly half that of the Uber Boiler. Add the on-demand water feature with no recovery time and the LB-1 has another edge over the Marco. Smaller footprint and lower power requirements both best the Uber Boiler again.

But this really isn't about the LB-1 beating the Uber. Compared to a Fetco FWB-5, they're both expensive and a considerable investment. Neither can match the flow rate of the Fetco (or any standard water tower, for that matter), but they do offer greater control.


Ben and Andrew with Matt from Gizmodo.

One of the biggest problems with either the LB-1 or the Uber is that they can only brew one coffee at a time. If you're a shop offering only by-the-cup brewing, you could be screwed. The pundits will tell you that it's easy to overcome by purchasing more units. At six thousand dollars a pop for each Uber Boiler, that's craziness. Not everyone has Intelligentsia kind of money.

And where counter space is a premium (read: every shop I know), does anyone really have the space to drop two or more Uber Boilers into their operations? Consider that the Uber demands not only the counter space but the cabinet space below it as well.

In these situations, the LB-1 might have the edge as well. It's sort-of modular design means that they can design a multiple head drip tray and you simply bolt the additional brew units into place. It could be narrower saving counter space and since it's completely tabletop you don't lose cabinet space below. While cost is always a factor, the theory is that you could get two LB-1s for the price of one Uber Boiler. I don't know if that's really a bargain but it sounds pretty good.

The concern here is whether or not these kinds of brewers can keep up with service. In an environment where one (or two) brew methods are utilized, this can be a considerable problem.

Let's say that your shop offers all coffees brewed with a V60 pourover, and let's say your brew time per cup is four minutes. We'll presume that each cup is brewed to order using either the LB-1 or the Uber Boiler. Now let's say that there are ten people in line who want a brewed coffee. My first thought is: you're screwed.

The simple math says that tenth person is line is going to have to wait 40 minutes for his coffee. God help him if anyone in line orders more than one cup. Add two brewers and his wait is cut to twenty minutes. Tell someone in line that they're going to have to wait twenty minutes for their cup and chances are they're going to walk out the door.

Even if you don't say anything and they do wait, you'll quickly get the reputation that it takes a long time to make their coffee at your shop. At least Starbucks has coffee on demand.

At Spro Hampden, this potential problem is mitigated by the fact that we offer seven different brewing methods, with only a few of them that can take advantage of the LB-1 or Uber Boiler. Methods such as French Press, AeroPress and Vac Pot have no use for those kinds of boilers and take the pressure off both the boiler and the barista.

Our mix of brew methods lends itself well to the notion of placing one of these water delivery systems on the brew bar. However, in our situation, it does not replace the existing hot water tower. At least the LB-1 looks good and fits comfortably on our brew bar.

That said, the LB-1 is still in the prototype stage and there's so much more to develop and refine before the unit is ready for public release. One of the things I'm most intrigued about the LB-1 is its ability to deliver consistent water temperature. Our community has always discussed the "need" for temperature stability but it's been pretty much non-existent until now. Initial tests prove interesting and I look forward to playing around more with the LB-1 to see just where it might be able to take us.

Hampden Hangin'

On the street with Kim from Frill and Jack "The Nose".