Egging It On

The sous vide versus the pan stirred.

A bit of time ago, I attempted to recreate Alex and Aki's Scrambled Eggs and met with disaster. After some coaching from Alex and a water bath running a 48 hour short rib run, I decided to try the egg thing once more.

This time I decided to forgo the problem of the eggs solidifying in the ISI Whip Charger and just vac bagged the mixture of eggs, butter and sour cream. This way, if the eggs solidified, I wouldn't have such a task cleaning out the whip charger - just toss the bag and it would be done.


62C not looking too promising.

After an hour of cooking in 62C water, the eggs were not looking too promising. They seemed cooked but the texture looked like coagulated broken milk in coffee. To say that it didn't look appetizing would be an overstatement and the thought of salmonella or some kind of other food poisoning due to improper handling came to mind.

But since I'm an intrepid kind of chap, who's too foolish to heed his own cautions about food poisoning, I thought I would still give it a try. Afterall, I spent the past hour waiting for this thing to cook.


Scrambled Egg Foam - not quite the result I was looking for.

I should note here that under other circumstances, like me giving you advice on the preparation of this dish, I would tell you to quickly throw the bagged eggs in the trash and start again with a different approach. Under no circumstances would I ever recommend to anyone that they attempt to consume this potentially hazardous/lethal product.

But it was breakfast time and I was a bit on the hungry side, so full speed ahead as I toast to Living Fast and Dying Young.


Scrambled Eggs and Scrambled Egg Foam. Could be an Eggs Two Ways kind of dish...

Happily, as evidenced by my writing of this post, I was not debilitated, poisoned or killed due to my reckless nonchalance with the eggs. After yet another phone call with Alex, I realized my error. Since I hadn't consulted either my own notes or the previous blog entry, I didn't realize that 62C is simply too cool to cook the eggs properly. I had just gone gonzo and winged it - which could have resulted in my being sent to the hospital. Not smart.

Since Hope Springs Eternal, I lived another day to try more of this sous vide eggery foolishness and proceeded to heed Alex's recommendations of cooking the eggs for 25 minutes at 75C.


Scrambled Huevos Otra Vez!

Into the bath went two eggs, two tablespoons of butter and a dollop of sour cream. Wait, wait, wait and then it was time.

Pulling the bag from the bath and already I could see something different. It looked much better than the 62C eggs but still kinda was separate from the eggs and the cream. In spots, the eggs had clotted together. This was remedied by a thorough mixing of the ingredients by mushing the bag over and over again until the mix had combined.


Looking promising in the bag.

From there, it was just a matter of cutting open the bag, seasoning with salt and then layering over a piece of toasted Struan bread from Atwater's Bakery. Lovely.

Perhaps a topping of dill would suffice but I'm thinking that maybe shavings of bacon instead of the slices shown below might make for a fun presentation. Imagine someone coming to the table with a hunk of bacon and shaving slices/pieces of bacon over the eggs. Fun!


Success!


Sous Vide Scrambled Eggs on Struan bread with applewood smoked bacon, and Kenya Gaturiri from Stumptown Coffee.

Scale To Measure

The Scales of The Spro: Pelouze Postal Scale, Ohaus CL Scale, CAS digital scale and IKEA scale, along with some of the brewing methods we'll be employing.

I don't know how it is for most of you, but I always seem to find details that I just never gave too much consideration towards giving me serious obstacles. Take scales, for instance.

Scales seem so ubiquitous in what we do that I don't really think too much about them. Yes, they're necessary and yes, we've had all the scales we needed at Towson, so I never really put that much thought into them. But now with the impending opening of project hampden and its' multiple brewing methods, the need for really great scales has suddenly come into focus.

Aside from our main scale in Towson, we've gotten by with small kitchen scales, postal scales and whatever we've had at hand. Now that our brewing is more focused and serious, these stand-by scales have started to show their weaknesses. From the ergonomics to the length of time the scale stays on to the shape and space, all of it takes a toll and needs reckoning.

Where once was a void that I didn't have to worry about suddenly has become a kink in our system that's growing more desperate with each passing day.

This week, a new scale showed up at The Spro, the Ohaus CL Series Scale. It's a laboratory scale that is either battery or wall socket powered. It's small form factor means we can set up several brews side by side and its' design allows the scales to be stacked on top of each other for greater storage capability. Plus, the scale stays active for four minutes, much more generous than the 25 seconds other scales allow during moments of inactivity.

Initial impressions from our baristas has been quite positive for the Ohaus CL and I'm thinking that it might just be the one we're going to go with - thank goodness it doesn't cost an arm and a leg!

Hola Managua!

Dons Octavio, Julio and Dona Rouki explore the sushi boat at the Barcelo Resort.

I've landed in Managua where our host, Julio Peralta, has informed us that, once again, we're expecting: A) Riots, B) Revolution and maybe even C) Civil War.

When we were here last November, the elections had just passed, tensions were high and protests closed parts of the city around us, always threatening to escalate into something I hadn't experienced before. Turns out that the supreme court has decided that it's constitutional for the current president to seek re-election and that has the opposition a bit upset and ready to protest.

Interestingly enough, protests of this nature don't happen spontaneously and just erupt. Seems like they are well planned out so that the local citizens can prepare alternate travel routes or stock up on supplies. The protest is scheduled for Saturday outside of the mall where the barista championship will be held. Because of this, they've decided to cut the schedule short with the championship on Thursday and Friday so that on Saturday we can either head for the hills or watch Managua burn from our hotel vista. Either way, it beats another lazy afternoon in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, the hotel seems to have lost Scott Conary at the airport and Jose is scheduled to arrive the next evening. All in all, it just seems like another day for the traveling barista judges. Happily, the hotel pool is refreshing and there's lots of fresh fruit juices here in Central America.

Convenient! Arrive E11 Depart E10

Waiting To Be F24

Whole Foods Aged Coffees

Oh look: Roasted on October 2, 2009.

I'm driving around Baltimore seeking out coffee from local roasters and it's days like this that I really start to feel that "Smalltimore" is really "Sprawltimore" as there is no concentration of coffee roasters in one part of the city.

First, it's down to Highlandtown to pick up a coffee from Higher Grounds where the coffee had to be roasted that morning because it's still warm in my hands. Then, after a little sleuthing, it's over to Greektown where I've found the roast facility for Bluebird Coffee in an industrial complex that is both scary and the perfect movie location. Sadly, Bluebird is closed and it doesn't look like they keep any sort of regular hours making it near impossible to plan a visit for coffee.


And here's one from September...

However, Bluebird's website states that I can buy their coffee at the Whole Foods in Mount Washington, so off I go. Now, some of you in Baltimore may be asking "what about Zeke's?" that now famous, nearly ubiquitous Baltimore coffee roaster. Zeke's is located way over in Lauraville, which is a bit of a pain in the butt to drive to and since they're still at the Towson Farmer's Market on Thursday, I'll just go there.

My intent really is to go to the roasters themselves and ask them, much like I asked the girl at Higher Grounds, which coffee are they most excited about this week? Which coffee best exemplifies what they do? Whatever that coffee is (as long as it's not a blend or flavored), I'll take it. It's why I drove down to Highlandtown and Greektown and why I'll wait for the Zeke's guy to set up his booth in Towson.

Then there's the well-known Baltimore Coffee & Tea in Timonium. I've been going there for miscellaneous odds and ends for years but I fear going there because every time I leave I smell like chemical flavoring. In the showroom, they leave their coffees in open-topped barrels for all to see and they have a sea of flavored coffees, filling the space with the noxious aromas of inter-mingling hazelnut, peppermint and whatever ungodly chemical concoction people like having their coffee sprayed with. If only they had cap hop service...


Wow. May. Wow.

Figuring that I might as well go for it, I reluctantly head to Whole Foods. To be honest, in spite of my penchant for quality, I almost never shop at Whole Foods. I much prefer what's fresh and in-season at the farmer's markets to the rabidly overpriced, rich white suburbanite and sanitized experience that is Whole Foods. That's not to say that the stuff they sell isn't of decent quality but I have to be in a real pinch to go there.

And here's the reason why. Lameness. White Suburban Lameness. A visit to their coffee rack and they've got a selection of local roasters like Mayorga (DC), One Village (Philadelphia), Higher Grounds and Bluebird. On Bluebird's website they list a selection of single-origin coffees but at Whole Foods all they offer is blends.

Blends. The choice of Lame Suburban America, which really isn't a choice. Hell, I don't think these people can tell the difference between Dodge Podge and Shorebird blends. Arrgh - I'm not going to get into it but there are no single-origin coffees to choose from.

I'm about to consider a blend when I spot the roast date on the bag of Santa Lucia Estate Coffee: October 2. Please tell me that's October 2, 2009 and not earlier. It's the middle of November. That coffee is dead. I decide to check the other bags of coffee and it only gets worse. September 19th on a bag of Bluebird but the one that takes the cake and breaks the back is the bag of Higher Grounds Coffee dated May 2nd. I left empty-handed.

Glad that I went down to Highlandtown for my bag of Higher Grounds...

Letting Your Chickens Run Loose

Kevin Shaar - from the Barista Del Mundo episode "The Wife Works In Town"

I just read an article that forecasts difficult times ahead for farmers and those of us who prefer thoughtfully produced food. Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia and featured prominently in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma relates difficulties he's faced with neighbors, suppliers and even the government regarding his decision to raise farm animals humanely, feed them natural food, and raise them naturally.

A critic of Salatin's, who refused to sell him sawdust, criticized him stating:
"You let your chickens run loose. You abuse your cows because you don't vaccinate them. You don't want your cows taking antibiotics. I hate everything you stand for."

Wow. My first reaction was to compare Salatin's experience with that of our local farmers, such as David Smith of Springfield Farm, whose desire to build a farm store on his farms' property has been met with tremendous resistance and outright hostility by his neighbors - mostly ex-suburbanites who moved to Rural Maryland seeking the idyllic "farm life" but who would rather live near places that look like a farm rather than a real, working farm.

The problem we face here is that while we have farmers such as Joel Salatin, David Smith, Edwin Shank (The Family Cow Farm) and many others in each locale, we collectively face the industrial agriculture behemoth that is Purdue, ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland - industrial corporations whose purpose is to provide as much food as possible at the lowest price and greatest profit margin. This has led to the confinement method of raising animals that most of our nation eats.

And, like any conglomerate, these corporations would prefer that all of us consume their products and not turn to small, local farmers like Smith, Salatin and Shank - who collectively, are a potential threat to their profitability.

Which makes it increasingly likely that these conglomerates will turn their machinery against us and begin spinning hype in the manner of the sawdust supplier above. That these natural methods of farming are actually "bad" for us and threaten our way of life.

A great example of the industrial agricultural machine and how it treats our American farmers was most apparent during our visit to Wisconsin in the Spring of 2008 when we visited Kevin Shaar and his family on their dairy farm. At the time, Kevin was 29 years old and had worked his farm for fifteen years. They owned a herd of mostly Holstein dairy cows (most milk production per day) with a few Jersey and Guernsey cows thrown in for good measure. Milk production is measured in pounds and for every 100 pounds Kevin and Mary produced the local dairy would pay them the commercial rate of seventeen dollars.

Span that out over a thousand pounds and they're being paid $170 per thousand pounds of milk, or $1,700 per ten thousand pounds of milk. Not too bad for a couple of days work, right?

Back then the price for a gallon of milk had doubled at the grocery store, Kevin's cost for feed had rocketed from $80 per bag to $200 per bag. His cost for fertilizer per ton had tripled, the cost of fuel hovered over five dollars per gallon and his price per one hundred pounds of milk had fallen from $20 to $17 per hundred pounds.

When I asked him if it was "sustainable", Kevin said that they needed to make over $20 per pound of milk in order to break even - meaning that for every pound of milk they delivered to the dairy, they were getting screwed and losing money. Perhaps a government can operate at a deficit, but real people cannot. Kevin's situation isn't an isolated one and is the classic example of how our industrial agricultural system has gone wrong.

It's ironic in the coffee business that so many of my colleagues give so much lip service to "the farmer" and getting the coffee farmer more yet so proudly champion the American industrial agricultural system that sticks our own American farmers in the neck.

The situation here underscores that we need to remain vigilant about our food supply and educate those around us about the benefits of natural farming practices. Letting chickens and cows roam on pasture and letting pigs forage is not a "bad" thing. It's what they were meant to do and that needs to be celebrated, not destroyed.

Let Them Eat Bread!

Damage. Done.

Today was baked goods day and I'm feeling slightly ill.

I spent the morning driving around the city picking up various baked goodies for evaluation this afternoon with Ilenia, Lamarie, Rebecca, Jeremy and Joy. Baguettes, croissants, conchas and more - all piled up with butter, butter and more butter.

First stop: Patisserie Poupon to pickup some croissants, almond croissant, chocolate croissant, chocolate chip cookies, brioche, walnut tart and apple tart.

From there I headed down to Fell's Point to pick up a baguette, croissant and almond croissant at Bonaparte Bakery, then over to eastern Baltimore's Pastelleria Vargas for some fresh out of the oven conchas.

With the truck filling up with buttery goodness, it was back to Hampden and across the street to Puffs & Pastries, where I planned to put Anisha's croissants head-to-head with Poupon and Bonaparte's, but she only had some over-proofed nuggets that they were about to discard. I tried one and even though it was yeasty, the butter still tasted good and I swiped a couple to use as a comparison.

Last stop: Woodberry Kitchen where Spike, Isaiah and I have been discussing the possibility of them baking baguettes for us. The baguettes Bev and Isaiah are producing are more like batards but the crust covering the bread is baked to deep golden perfection. It just looks intoxicating.

The question facing our crew was simple: which tastes best? The baguette would be tasted three different ways: plain, with butter (Trickling Springs Salted) and warmed strips dipped in hot chocolate (for a proposed Chocolat Chaud & Baguette breakfast offering). The majority of the crew loved the Woodberry baguette over the Bonaparte, except in the chocolate category where they felt the Bonaparte demonstrated the sweet complexity of the chocolate better. But plain or with butter, it was the Woodberry batard that won hands down.

In the croissant competition, the surprising votes went to the Puffs & Pastry sort-of baked in a jumble 'til golden thing-a-ma-bob. In a flat out taste challenge, it beat the rest- though some of them did note that they liked it better because it was so different than the regular croissant, which some of them found to be too plain (the notion of croissant, that is).

Almond Croissant - the majority chose the Bonaparte over the Poupon. More complex and subtle in flavor than the bold and astringent-finishing almond croissant from Poupon. There's something about their almond paste that ends sharply.

The rest of the samples didn't have challengers and were more to explore flavors and the possibilities. All of them liked the Vargas concha - which is something I'm dying to bring to the menu, whether brought in by a bakery like Vargas or Hermanos Navarro, or baked in-house.

What they didn't really get into was the apple tart from Poupon. They just didn't like it.

Oh well. Time for more exploration.

The Saturday Cup Continues

The sunlight flows as the morning cupping gets underway.

We're back at the Towson espresso bar cupping coffees. This time we're cupping a couple of selections from Greencastle Coffee Roasters, whom we found after yesterday's lunch in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, a selection from Starbucks and a surprise reappearance of Aida's Grand Reserve from Counter Culture.

In support of our cupping efforts, I've decided to create a blog that will chronicle our cuppings and coffee tastings. Originally, we were compiling these notes in a separate database then realized that it would be better to share our thoughts candidly. The site is open for all to see: staff, friends, roasters, vendors, customers - whomever.

thecup.jaylovesyou.com

On the new website you'll find cupping notes for the past few sessions, back to our visit to the Counter Culture Training Center in Washington, D.C. However, I just decided to change the format with the 11/7 cupping. Now you'll get to see all of our tasting notes verbatim on a per coffee basis. From the flavors and aromas detected, to their likes and dislikes about the coffee, to their descriptions of the coffees and my thoughts on the coffee as well.

There are some brutally honest comments within the notes and if you're easily offended, I recommend reading The Coffee Review. The notes you will be reading are the exact notes that we will be using to evaluate the coffees and determine which of them we will order for service to our customers.

The Aida's Grand Reserve that hit the table today was a bit of a curve ball. It is the same bag of coffee from the DC cupping over a week ago - a coffee that many of them raved about. The coffee was kept in the bag at room temperature, with no method of preserving it beyond squeezing the air out of the bag. Did the coffee maintain its' zenith of dazzle or fizzle out completely? Find out now!

Touring The Family Cow Farm

The intrepid barista candidates of project hampden cross the vast expanses on a milkquest.

Crossing the soon-to-be-frozen tundra of the "west 40" pasturelands, I wondered just how we got here. Sure, the jokers of the group will suggest that we got there by car (minivan, to be accurate), but just how did we get here - visiting Edwin Shank and his collection of over two hundred cattle, several cats and an untold number of chickens?

It wasn't too long ago that I didn't even think about the milk we were using. It was whole or skim. Needed more? A quick call before midnight to the local distributor and a shipment would be delivered the next morning. Short by a gallon? No problem, they'll send a big truck to deliver it tomorrow.

Reflecting back it's amazing how little thought we put into what we consume. Whatever is there and readily available will suffice, especially if it's cheap. Cheap is good. Cheap is easy. Cheap leaves me with a little more cash to buy a new iPod.

Trudging across the uneven terrain with the cold, frigid air blasting across my face, I realized that this is where we belonged. Here, visiting the piko, or source of what we do.

I've starting using a phrase to describe what we do: Simple, but not easy.

Making coffee is simple. Very simple. Simply add hot water to ground coffee, wait a few minutes and et voila! It's done. But doing well and doing it thoughtfully is anything but easy. It's still simple, but it's very, very hard. Hence our trekking the two hours by car, into the Mennonite wildlands of Pennsylvania to visit a few cows chomping on grass in the middle of cold field, surrounded by cow pies.

It's too easy for a "barista" to sit at home and memorize details about the products they use. Grass-fed, hormone free, antibiotic free, organic, free-range, jersey, holstein, guernsey - blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Any monkey can sit around the house reciting spoon-fed information about anything. It's a whole 'nother thing to experience it and see it firsthand. It's how I learned about the products we use and it's how I want to impart our crew with their knowledge.

Having visited the farm, met the farmer, frolicked with the cows, toured the creamery and tasted the milks, I think it gives our crew a depth and understanding greater than merely reciting the label on a box of Horizon Organic Milk.

Adios Chemex 24

Kimmy and Lindsay working out the kinks.

It's been a long time coming and something I knew I should have done last week.

Today, I issued the order to kill our Chemex 24 Program. What we had once envisioned as the way to Chemex brew two servings of coffee at once had turned into a wild goose chase of poor quality, watery brews that just didn't satisfy. Different grind settings, pour amounts, pour times, brew times, stirring and more all resulted in just unsatisfactory coffee from a device that under 8 ounce and 12 ounce servings produced stellar results (depending on the coffee, of course).

We were a bit disappointed since Lindsay and Kimmy have been working so hard trying to make it work. Thanks though to Aaron Ultimo of Phildelphia's Ultimo Coffee for a Hail Mary phone call the other day in a desperate attempt to keep the Chemex 24 Program alive.

Farewell Chemex 24. Hello Chemex 12...

They Will Be...

project hampden: ready and waiting...

Over the past ten years, I've built out three shops (the original Jays Shave Ice, the second Jays Shave Ice and the Spro Espresso Bar) - well, four if you count the refit of JSI One to open the OnoGrill, and project hampden has by far been the most difficult. From interior designer lameness to contractor flakiness to city permitting delays to phone line problems - if there was a hurdle to be made, it popped up somewhere along the way. Nothing is simple. Nothing is easy.

When we started to get the ball rolling at the end of May, I figured two months would be ample time to get things off the ground, and with any luck, we could open August 1st. Under that plan, I would hire a crew of baristas by the end of June, train all through July, open August 1st and operate for about a month before I had to jet off to host the Western Canadian Regional Barista Competition and instruct at the Expo Especiales in Ibague, Colombia. We would be rolling, I would fulfill my commitments and all would be well in the world.

Once upon a time, a good friend asked me if I thought he should go into business for himself. I told him no. No because he wanted too many guarantees. He wanted everything to be planned out. He wanted his eyes dotted and his tees crossed. I told him "no" because no matter how much you plan, it all goes to hell and then what are you gonna do? You're up to your teeth in the muck and there's no turning back. Screwed or swim. Better to be a salaried employee working the grind for The Man than to actually try to be "The Man." Too many variables. Too much risk.

Ask anyone in business and they'll tell you - you could write the best business plan in the history of the world, but it all gets chucked out the window the day you start business. The plan and the reality can diverge greatly and may never meet.

Which has been the case with project hampden. It's gone off the rails, full speed ahead, quite a number of times. Delay, delay, delay - that just seems to be the Order of the Day. The key is remain flexible and go with the flow. I could gnash my teeth, curse the Gods of Kobol and rant and rave about the house, but it does little good. I could get on the phone and scream bloody hell to the bureaucrats in City Hall, but it would do nothing more than cause them to like me less and delay the project further. My friend asking about business likes to throw in my face some of the stances I've taken in the past but fails to realize that this is why I said he wasn't ready for business: business takes flexibility and very thick skin.

Very thick skin because everyone and your mother (including my own) will cast their questions at you. They think you're crazy. That you're going to go down in a ball of flames. That this idea will never work and why don't you just follow Starbucks. Better yet, go work for Starbucks. Truth is, I'm a raving lunatic who is wholly unsuitable for employment - that's why I have to run my own company: no one will hire me.

But one of the most difficult parts of project hampden has been conveying my vision and sensibility for the project. I'm in the "coffee business" and everyone "knows" what a good coffeeshop is all about. It's all about Free Wi-Fi, couches, earth tones, walnut cabinets and either the Starbucks or "indie" coffeehouse design. What "coffeeshop" isn't about is refinement, luxury and fine dining. Hell, it's barely about hospitality much less fine dining and finesse.

Because of this, I've heard all kinds of "suggestions" from flourescent lights illuminating the awning to more calls for free wi-fi to more syrups to interior design proposals that looked like they sat in the Roland Park Starbucks and took notes. Lots of average to mediocre "suggestions" that it's maddening.

Then tell these same people that you're looking do something refined and with finesse and they think you're an insane lunatic who's unsuitable for employment elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the delays keep pushing the opening further back. From October 1st to November 1st to "sometime before the end of 2009." Each day delivers another obstacle, another delay. But, truth be told, it's a good thing. Truth be told: even if project hampden were completed, equipped and fully-stocked today, we wouldn't be ready to open tomorrow. In fact, we couldn't open tomorrow even if I wanted to and our bank account demanded it.

For the past month, our crew of barista candidates have been busy learning the basics of our craft. They've been cupping, tasting and practicing brew methods and slowly learning the finer points of espresso making, but they're not ready yet. Like fine wine, they need time to mature. To hone their skills, develop greater command over the techniques and develop a flow. They need to "feel it" and roll with it. To paraphrase Jon Lewis: they need to Let It Flow.

Right now, they're like Luke Skywalker on Dagoba with Yoda: learning and exploring, yet not ready to take on Darth Vader. But soon, they will be.

They will be. Sometime before the end of 2009...

Eye of the Cam

Way back in February of 2008, I took the EuroStar from Paris to London to visit James Hoffmann and Stephen Morrissey. Upon my arrival in London, I was immediately chastised by both of them for using my iPhone to shoot images for this blog. Perhaps chastise is too light a word, beaten with a lorry is probably more appropriate and I switched from the iPhone to other cameras almost immediately.

Of course, back then I was shooting with a Canon EOS RebelXT that wasn't suitable for everyday shooting or a piece of crap Nikon LiteTouch point and shoot. That camera was the worst camera I ever owned. It couldn't lock focus, had terrible low light latitude and just was too damn slow in all aspects.

Since that time, I've acquired both a Canon G9 and Canon SD790is, which in addition to the Rebel is what has been fueling this blogs' images for the past couple of years.

Well, everything has gone to hell. A few months ago, the RebelXT decided to stop focusing so I sent that back to Canon CPS for a rebuild and haven't picked it up. Then, within a weeks' time both the screen on the SD790 broke, rendering it useless and the G9 just crapped out completely.

That G9 really is a pain in the butt because it freaked out and froze last October while visiting the Trinity Nuclear Site in New Mexico, forcing me to buy the SD790. Lame.

So at the moment, I am without a camera hence the iPhone images. Apologies, I am working on sourcing a new camera while I decide what to do about the G9.

Meanwhile I'm looking for a pocket-sized point and shoot with good resolution, good low light performance and quick focusing.

Better pictures will return because I don't like being bludgeoned by a lorry...

Trick Or Treat, Hon

Joy pours the first press of coffee brewed at project hampden while Jeremy, Rebecca and Kimmy wait to start the vacuum pot and Chemex brews.

Tonight, the very first cup of coffee was brewed at project hampden. A milestone.

With neighbors Ma Petite Shoe hosting the annual Hampden Halloween Costume Contest across the street, what better way to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood than by passing out candies for the children and coffee for the parents? With a bag of the Fazenda San Antonio Brazil from Hines/Origins Organic Coffee in tow, we lugged down to Hampden a setup to brew French Press, Chemex and Vac Pot for our soon-to-be customers.

Truth be told, I originally was only going to do french press at the event. It was our baristas who pushed for multiple brew methods to show off what we were going to be doing when we open. So, along came the Chemex and Vac Pot.


This Is It - Live.

As our team has been getting more comfortable with our methods and practices, I've been stepping back a little to let them run with things. They decided the equipment to bring, they setup and tore down and they did all the brewing and all of the talking. I just kinda hovered in the background in my Wranglers and cowboy boots doing my best Garth Brooks impression.

I have to say: I'm impressed. And proud. Our team greeted the people, talked with them about the coffee and the brew methods and were generally engaging. In essence, they were the kind of baristas that I hoped they would be - and not the typical, chip on the shoulder, pretentious, arrogant, hipster barista you typically find in the "Third Wave."

To be expected, there were a couple of missteps. Maybe a miscue in the brew or a lazy comment, but those were quickly corrected and we soldiered on. It was their first time in the field and I was impressed with their ability to engage the customer and really surprised at how passionately they spoke about the coffee and the brew methods.


More brewing coffee at dusk.

Their choice to bring the additional brew methods was colossal. One coffee three different ways. Now the future customer could taste the difference between methods. No place in Baltimore affords this luxury. Some took the coffee to go. Others stayed and lingered to chat. Some stayed and tried all three brews. Kids came and went. Spiderman, Batman, Scooby, Velma, Parrots, Michael Jackson, Butchers and more. Only two people asked for sugar and cream. Two. Out of maybe a hundred or so served? Not bad.

Most people tried the coffee as is, meaning black. In Towson, perhaps 25% of our customers drink coffee black. Tonight, about 98% of those who came to see us drank it black. I can only guess that it's due to their seeing our crew brewing the coffees, talking about the coffees, engaging the people and developing rapport. Developing comfort and trust with the customer, leading them to giving it a try without sugar and cream.

It's something that I stressed early on. Getting the customer to relax and trust us is key. With that trust, they'll give it a try. That's when we have to deliver - to bolster that trust given us.

It was just a tiny, first step tonight in front of project hampden. But I think it was a great step forward.

Congratulations to Kimmy, Jeremy, Rebecca, Joy and Stephanie for a job well done.

Production Cupping at Spro

The team digs into the morning cupping session.

It's Saturday morning and that's come to mean more training and more cupping. Though this time the cupping is a bit different.

After spending the past few weeks learning how to cup coffees and exploring tastes and their palates, it's time to turn the team loose and start selecting the coffees we will order for the opening of project hampden.

Today we're cupping thirteen coffees from Counter Culture, Stumptown and Ecco Caffe. The program for deciding the coffees goes something like this: 1) cup and taste the coffees and generate flavor notes, 2) develop written descriptions for the coffees, 3) select the coffees for service, and 4) test and determine the "default" brewing method for that coffee.

It's a relatively simple process but, as with most simple things, it's rather laborious and difficult to do. In other words: it's simple, but it ain't easy!

The coffees cupped today (and over the next few days) are as follows:

1 - Shakisso Sidamo, Ethiopia, Counter Culture
2 - Konga Reserve Lot, Kenya, Ecco Caffe
3 - Finca Kilimanjaro, El Salvador, Counter Culture
4 - Finca El Puente, Honduras, Counter Culture
5 - Santa Terezinha, Brazil, Ecco Caffe
6 - Carmen Estate, Panama, Stumptown NYC
7 - La Guatuza, Nicaragua, Ecco Caffe
8 - Gichathaini Reserve, Kenya, Ecco Caffe
9 - La Golondrina, Colombia, Counter Culture
10-Mordecofe, Ethiopia, Stumptown NYC
11-Finca El Injerto Bourbon, Guatemala, Stumptown NYC
12-2009 Holiday Blend Vienna Melange, Colombia, Counter Culture
13-Guayabo, El Salvador, Ecco Caffe

Quite a bit of coffees but there's still more to sample before determining our opening day mix.

DC Cafe Crawl

Alex Brown leads the Friday Cupping at Counter Culture.

The first stop on our DC Cafe Crawl was to the Counter Culture Training Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC where customer service rep Alex Brown holds weekly cuppings on Fridays at 10am.

After nearly a month of learning and cupping coffees, and the ever-impending opening of project hampden, I figured it was time to really give the crew a plunge into cupping outside of our little World of Spro. It's one thing to taste and cup coffees in your home environment, but how would they manage outside our world? How would they manage at the lab of one of our roasters, amongst industry peers and colleagues? It was time to sink or swim.

Also attending the cupping were the lead barista and sommelier from the soon-to-open Liberty Grill, as well as an assortment of other baristas and a couple of coffee enthusiasts.

I'm happy to say that our crew performed admirably. With a grasp of the basic protocols, they were able not only to cup to industry accepted practices but also pitched in to handle some of the rudimentary functions of cuppings like filling the cups, skimming the tops and clearing down afterwards.

As anyone who's attending cuppings knows, there's a level of stress involved when discussing the flavors. Did you get them "correct"? Were you on "the money"? Or are you some sort of weirdo who can't or doesn't taste what everyone else does? Normal concerns that are typical with anyone just starting in the practices of cupping.


Clever brewing at Counter Culture.

Happily, our crew joined in the conversation with their tasting notes and identified lots of great characteristics and really added to the discussion. The three coffees we cupped were the Finca El Puente from Honduras, Gayo from Sumatra and Aida's Grand Reserve from El Salvador. Here are some of the descriptions;

Lamarie on the Finca El Puente:
"This fresh, medium-bodied coffee surrounds you with a campfire swirl filled with sweet embedded flavors of vanilla, tobacco and toasted almonds. Finca El Puente's brightness will leave your tongue lingering with a smooth and creamy citrus that blends perfectly for any occasion."

Rebecca on the Gayo:
"This rich and savory cup of coffee is for those who take pleasure in the bittersweet taste of dark chocolate. Filled with a strong, full-bodies flavor of nuts, wood and childhood s'mores, leaving you with an aftertaste of warming spices."

And the Group on Aida's Grand Reserve:
" This unique and complex cup of coffee has an abundance of fragrances including grape, vanilla and cinnamon. The aroma is a pleasant sweet smell with hints of nutmeg. After tasting this delicious and fruity cup of coffee, you'll be left with a cornucopia of flavors that linger on your palate wanting more."

For lunch, we enjoyed a selection of Julia's Empanadas on the rooftop garden overlooking the District.


Hanging at Chinatown Coffee.

From there, we made our day down to 5th and H Streets to visit the very new Chinatown Coffee. Many of you know of the fallout between old friend Nick Cho and myself - some of whom have likened it to the split between Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, so I decided to fire off an email to Nick before we decided to visit Chinatown. I told him that I didn't want to spring a visit on him and to let me know if it would be uncomfortable for him and his crew if I showed up there. Never did get a response, but I guess that's to be expected. He's got other pressing problems to worry about.

There's only one reason I want to check out Chinatown: the Clever Abid brewer. As far as I know, they were the first shop in the nation to incorporate the Clever (not clover) brewer. Basically, the Clever is a full-immersion brewer with Melitta filter. Simply fill the unit with coffee and hot water, wait three minutes or so, then set the cup-actuated brewing device on the top of a cup and it filters the coffee as it passes into the cup. Clever! I ordered a Kenyan from Intelligentsia on the Clever. Pretty tasty.

Chinatown is a long, deep and narrow space. Black, concrete, orange and fluorescent lighting fill the space. The layout is big and spacious but narrows and feels claustrophobic on the customer side by the espresso machines. The female barista at the register seemed more surprised about our arrival with a "where did you all come from?" So much for "hello, how are you?"

The crew at Chinatown is decidedly murky coffee. If you're a fan of murky and their methods and service, then you too will be a fan of Chinatown. We enjoyed our drinks, the cortados were nicely done but the female customer huffing and puffing because the girls were taking pictures in her vicinity made me chuckle. Here's yet another "customer" camping out all day on her computer, taking up real estate, sucking down electricity and consuming bandwith with a nearly empty cup on the side that looks two hours cold, huffing and puffing.

It's people like her that are the reason we will not have Wi-Fi, Internet or electricity at project hampden.


Jeremy and Jenny sample one of Peregrine's signature drinks.

From there, we piled back into VanSpro and headed past the Capitol and up The Hill to the now legendary Peregrine Espresso.

I openly admit that I had not been to Peregrine in the 14 months they had been open. Many of my friends had encouraged me to go, but I couldn't. I had to stay away.

Don't get me wrong, Peregrine owners Ryan and Jill Jensen are great people whom I consider friends. I have to ill-will towards them and always look forward to seeing them again. The truth is that back in early 2008, I led a small investment group in a campaign to put a coffee shop in the same space after murky coffee had been seized by the DC Government for tax evasion. Without knowing that we were bidding against Ryan and Jill, it was a heated battle and a personal one for myself. In the end, Ryan and Jill won the space and put in a great coffee joint. For me, I was a bit burned because had the property owners been upfront about who they wanted instead of asking our group to jump through many hoops, we wouldn't have wasted so much time and effort on the project. It left a distaste for their practices and I felt no compulsion to return.

It's been many months to soothe my senses and I wanted to visit Peregrine because I've been hearing that they're simply the best coffee place in Washington DC. Walk into the shop and it's immediately apparent that while Ryan may have come from a murky lineage, he's shed the murky vibe and gone for a place with clean design, bright, shiny and filled with passionate and friendly baristas.

In fact, it was the friendliness of the staff that our crew noticed the most about the place. Add to that a daily selection of signature drinks for the customers to try and you've got a winner.

Even though he wasn't there when we arrived, Ryan soon appeared after making a delivery and regaled our crew with Peregrine stories and philosophies on our craft and coffee. It was a good way to spend our afternoon.


Barista Champion and Peregrine principal Ryan Jensen busts out science to the Spro crew.

Originally, I wanted us to visit a couple of other places like Tryst and Big Bear but since David was out of town and Lana was no longer with Big Bear, it didn't make any sense to visit unless we could meet with the people that made those places. That's especially true in the case of Lana who built not only Big Bear but resuscitated its' Bloomingdale neighborhood in the process. Quite simply, Big Bear isn't "Big Bear" without Lana.

Moving right along, we headed out to the NorthEast Badlands along H Street to Sova Espresso & Wine. I had been hearing about the opening of Sova for what seemed like years from owner Frank, who spent a bit of time in the murky coffee scene learning about coffee, and was excited to check the place out.


Lamarie, Lindsay and Kimmy chillin' at Sova.

But sadly, I have to write that I was disappointed. Maybe it's because of the hype, but Sova did not live up to my expectations. Listening to Frank regale me with his plans for a place that would be part of the NorthEast revival, visiting the Sova website and just the general feel of its' reputation and I was looking forward to a very slick, clean, hip and modern espresso and wine bar. I was expecting something that I hadn't seen before. Visit the website and it looks very slick. Visit Sova itself and it comes across as just another coffee house - like a fancier murky Arlington. I was disappointed. It was hyped so much in my mind that perhaps no place could live up to that expectation.

Of course, it didn't help much when we rolled into the place and the one barista was busy on the telephone. Too busy to acknowledge that ten people had just rolled into her shop. Not a very good sign. On a positive note, at least when she finished her phone call she didn't give the same gasping expression that the barista at Chinatown gave us. This one, when off the phone, was at least a bit more accommodating.

Much to my chagrin, some of our crew decided they wanted to try a couple of drinks out of the ordinary for us (though more ordinary for most): a mocha and white mocha. I wondered how they would like them. Others went with cappuccinos and I went for the Fetco brewed Nicaragua.

At one point though, I think it was Becks who asked for the brewed Kenya featured on the wallboard menu, only to be told that "someone" had forgotten to change the sign since that was yesterday's brew. Perhaps not a big deal at 7am, but not to have noticed all day long (or worse pretended not to notice) that the sign needed to be changed - it was 3pm.

In spite of the fact that I was disappointed that Sova looked more like a fancy murky arlington than a slick and modern wine bar, we made our way into the back lounge where we enjoyed our final coffees of the day amidst convivial conversation. Drinks were passed around and some noted how they no longer found the mocha/white mocha to their liking. Too sweet.

Hmmm, a mocha now tastes "too sweet"? That's the kind of barista talk that makes me proud...

Barista Road Trip

In the van zooming down the highway at 110mph.

Way back in May, when I first started envisioning training our new baristas, I imagined a two week session of classroom and hands-on workshops where the team would gather on a daily basis and learn the barista craft. Instead, design delays, building delays, permit delays and more delays than I've ever encountered previously, kept pushing everything back until I could wait no longer before hiring the people that would comprise the first barista crew for project hampden.

The first training session started on October 3rd and it's turned out to be group sessions on Saturdays, then smaller, intensive sessions during the week. This has allowed us to discuss common issues as a group, while spending focused time individually to work on skills. Not what I had originally envisioned, but much better than the old espresso workshops I used to teach at the SCAA - those were just madhouses.

And I think the quality of the training is much improved over those days instructing at the SCAA. Back then, I was really just a neophyte, with a year or two of experience. I didn't/couldn't have much depth or understanding of our craft. Today, I feel very different. I've had six years experience as a barista and ten years experience in the field. My understanding of the nuances is much better and I'm better at communicating to our crew what I want.

As such, these training sessions have been a lot of fun and I haven't experienced the frustration I experienced in the past when training baristas. Not to say that the other baristas were worse, because they're not. I think part of the difficulty was that those were all intense, one-on-one sessions, which puts tremendous pressure on everyone. Those sessions were intense and I limited them to two hours per day because I couldn't take more of it - and I'm sure the barista couldn't take more as well.

These sessions have been much longer (up to six hours) but they feel easier, more relaxed and I think the quality of instruction on my part is better. For this group, I've gone outside the box. I've tried to push it beyond what I was comfortable with. Let's give these new barista candidates greater information and control over the tasks at hand. Rather than just tell them about the coffees, let them taste and experience it for themselves. Rather than dictate specifications, let them test and hammer it out. Four weeks of training and no one has completed the espresso requirement. That's major.

Major because espresso has traditionally been our focus. It's what their predecessors spent the most time training. It's still paramount to our program but I've been pushing them towards understanding the flavors of coffee. Week after week after week, it's been cupping, cupping, cupping. They've cupped, tasted, brewed, tasted, tested, tasted and tasted coffee some more. Time to put them to the test.

Sadly, as much as I like my city, Baltimore is very much a cocoon. Six years into coffee and there still isn't another coffeeshop that pushes the envelope of coffee. Sure, there's the fabled Woodberry Kitchen and the ever-striving Atwater's Belvedere Square, but we still don't have a core of places like many cities enjoy. And if you're a barista who wants to see and experience other similar-minded coffeeshops, you have to go elsewhere.

With that in mind, we loaded into VanSpro for a road trip to Washington D.C.

First stop: the Counter Culture Coffee training lab in Adams Morgan for their weekly 10am cupping.

Too Black, Too Strong

"It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep."
- Malcolm X

(It's Going To Be) Late Night Mah Jong

Just after 11pm at the mah jong table - the night is still young...

My cousins from San Francisco decided that they would do a weekend trip to Washington DC and stay overnight at the house. Evidently, this means serious mah jong. For money.

Now, I've played quite a bit of mah jong, but these were usually friendly games where we didn't know all the rules. My cousin knows the rules and, obviously, plays quite a bit for money. With specific payout rules for bunot, escalera, doble, secreto and the number of games you've already won as multipliers, even a one dollar game escalates wildly. Good thing I didn't push for a twenty dollar game.

Luckily, I didn't lose money. I made seventy-five cents!

I Must Be Desperate

The Aricha Natural brews away.

With this new tide of seasonality in coffee brings scarcity of the coffees I seem to enjoy most: Africans. While I know quite a number of people detest or despise the fruity natural process of East African coffees, I tend to like them Stumptown's 2003 lot of Ethiopia Harrar and Caffe D'Bolla's 2009 lot of Bonko Black Sun were particularly memorable coffees for me.

Lately, it's been non-stop Indonesian and Central American coffees. Non-stop. One after the other. Over and over again. I'm awash in earthy and bright coffees. And I'm getting tired of it.

Yes, this movement towards seasonality is a good thing, but while I've been able to process and put down foodstuffs like corn and preserves, this whole seasonal coffee thing is still new and storing coffees for the lean times hasn't come to fruition (yet).

Meanwhile, the parade of Central American and Indonesian coffees continues and I'm starting to drag. I need variety and I'm starting to despise this whole seasonality thing. At least when it comes to corn in February, I've got frozen stock from the height of summer to enjoy.

Desperate for some relief, I dug into the deep recesses of the freezer at The Spro looking for something, anything that would offer me a respite. Even that Target Archer Foods brand 2009 CoE El Porvenir was looking tempting. But lo and behold, tucked into a deep corner of the freezer was a little black bag with the green "TW" logo of that Swedish barista champion cum coffee roaster Tim Wendelboe.

Tim had given me this bag back in April while attending the SCAA conference in Atlanta. It was a bag of his Aricha Natural and there was just a little bit left. Maybe I could get a small press pot out of it and onto the scale it went.

Six grams.

Ugh, six grams. Six. Grams. That's not even enough to make an eight ounce cup. Crap, I'm doomed. Maybe I should toss it. Oh no, one whiff of the berry explosion and I had to have it. Six grams be damned, I'm gonna drink it all.

After a quick (and careful) calculation, I determined that six grams would produce 3.3 ounces of coffee. Should I run it through the pour over? Ugh, no. French press is my preferred method of brewing and french press it would be.

In the end, I had about half a cappuccino cup of the Aricha Natural. Delicious and beautiful - even after all this time in frozen storage. Thank you Tim Wendelboe and may I have some more, please?

Loving Your Chemex

Multiple brew samples from today's Chemex run.

In spite of a fellow up north's encouragement for the industry to hate their Chemex brewers, we've decided to embrace it and bring it into our fold. Barista Candidates K. Eliot and Lindsay have been busy testing and developing chemex brew standards and the results have been surprising.

It seems that the Chemex is a finicky beast indeed. Just a couple of seconds too long during a step and it all goes to hell. The barista is under the gun to brew the Chemex within parameters or face a difficult tasting cup of coffee. Because of its' inherent difficulties, I can see why the guy from up north would encourage people to abandon it, but I'm finding this to be an exciting reason why we need to forge ahead with exploring Chemex and implementing it for production.

The more difficult it is, then the greater the accomplishment should we be able to execute it successfully.

Elation Over at Serendipity 3

Drinking monster "Frozen Hot Chocolates" at Serendipity 3, Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

It wasn't until Verna and I were sitting on the veranda outside of Seredipity 3 with the sun on my face that it hit me: freedom.

I was free, and I didn't know what to do with myself.

Unlike employment, running your own business is a 24/7/365 affair. The weight of business is always with you. Even on weekends at home, there's something to be done. There's always something on the mind. It's relentless and exhausting. And it's only something that owners know and feel. When you have a job, you go home and it's pretty much out of mind. When it's your company, there is no escape.

Which is why moments like these are rare. Usually when I'm away, there's some sort of issue that still needs addressing. There's still something on the mind. I haven't taken a real "vacation" in years - no matter where in the world I've gone. A "vacation" meaning a trip void of concern, thought or worry about business.

That's why it hit me so hard sitting there in the sunlight. All of a sudden, I felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from my chest. I was released. I was free. I literally floated.

The feeling itself is difficult to describe. Elation comes close. A burden gone kinda tells the story. No worries. No troubles. No thoughts. Just pleasure. Pure, unadulterated pleasure. Nothing to do, nothing to think about, nothing to worry. Amazing. I hoped it would last forever.

It was right about then when Arianna called with scheduling issues. Elation over.

La Reve Onstage at Bite of Las Vegas

To Vegas!

Frito Pie & Tamale at DIA

This is the Off Season?

Cupping The Barefoot

Jeremy, Ilenia, Lamarie and Nikki cup samples from Barefoot Coffee.

As we grind closer to the opening of project hampden, the crazies at Barefoot Coffee were excited to send us some samples. I've known Andy Newbom, owner of Barefooot, since I really started getting into the business in 2004. He's a crazy guy with whom I haven't always seen eye-to-eye with (mainly when we served on the Barista Guild of America's Executive Council). Regardless I've always liked the guy and have always respected his passion and the company he's worked so hard to create, which is why it's now an honor to work with Barefoot for project hampden.

If you ever have the chance to visit their original cafe in Santa Clarita, I think you'll find a remarkable place. Dab smack in the middle of a very suburban strip mall is Barefoot - an urban oasis of bohemian coffee amongst soccer moms and technology wizards. The first time I visited in 2004, Andy was just getting started and it wasn't too radically different than most Third Wave shops at the time. When I stopped by again last December, I was amazed at the transformation. That it was possible to create an urban oasis in the middle of suburban hell.

When I went to visit Barefoot again during my brief four-hour stopover in San Francisco this past August (on the way home from the Western Canadian Regionals), I found Andy and company in a mission-style mansion not too far from downtown Santa Clara where everything was churning along. Since it's forty minutes each way, I only had about fifteen minutes to stop in for a chat and a quick tour. After meeting much of the crew and chilling with Andy, I was on my way back to SFO.

Like I said, Andy is a crazy guy. To my mind, there is no one coffee professional in our generation crazier than Andy Newbom. The guy is completely psycho about coffee and creating a rock culture of passionate coffee people. Which should have prepared me for the day that our Barefoot account rep Tony Serrano came-a-calling.

There was Tony, on the phone and just as crazy passionate about coffee as Andy. He was hyper excited about coffee and working with us, which in turn made me even more excited about working with them. Speaking through the phone, across America, in a high-speed, rapid-fire staccato about sending us an assortment of coffees to try. I was so swept up in his enthusiasm, how could anyone say no?

Not that I wanted to say "no" but I wasn't sure if now was the right time to start bringing in coffees for operational evaluation. We don't have a firm opening day yet.

Needless to say, the coffees started arriving and we started cupping. Many of the roasters we work with provide tasting notes with their coffees and Barefoot does the same. However, I think it's important for our baristas to know the coffees so, instead of memorizing the note cards and giving rote recitations of the descriptions, I have them cup the coffees, identify the characteristics and develop a description of the coffee based on their own tasting notes.

I tend to withhold the roasters' tasting notes until they are finished with the descriptions so as not to color their interpretations of the coffees. And while the differences can be starkly different, the commonalities are what I find most interesting. Here's Ilenia's description of Barefoot's Sumatra Gayoland Water Processed Decaf Coffee:

Barefoot Coffee's Sumatra Gayoland Decaf delivers a delicious cup of coffee with milk chocolate flavors and hints of fresh-cut honeysuckle. This crisp, yet thick but never heavy cup leaves a lasting aftertaste that will leave a spritely punch of rich, dark chocolate notes."

Now, here's Barefoot's description:

"Deep and earthy, heavy body and low bass notes heavy chocolate, rich nuttiness, loamy power creamy cherimoya and hints of tropicals."

The Brew Challenge

Writing their cupping notes on the 8 Estrellas.

Training continues in Towson for our new group of baristas. This weekend's exercise was to cup a coffee, identify its' components, develop a unified description of the coffee, then pinpoint that coffee's preferred brew method.

All of these steps are going to be an integral part of the barista's work. Our baristas need to taste the coffee, identify the flavors and discuss those with interested customers. They also need to understand why a particular brew method has been selected as our "default" choice for that coffee.

Let's say a customer walks in and wants to try the Aida's Grand Reserve. Our baristas have cupped that coffee and identified a brew method that we feel best exemplifies the flavor of that coffee. Of course, our customers have the prerogative to choose any of the brew methods available to them, but we will offer a brew method of our choice for that coffee for those who don't want to ponder aeropress, french press, chemex or eva solo.


Writing descriptions based on their cupping notes.

We started off by group cupping a lot of the Bolivian 8 Estrellas coffee from Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London. James and Anette were kind enough to share some of this coffee with us and I let our candidates loose on the cupping table. It was their second formal cupping and I think they're starting to get the hang of things.

When it comes to cuppings with people who are not very experienced, I tend to encourage them to describe the coffee in whatever way they can. I encourage colors, music, rock bands, seasons, whatever. The important thing for me is that they're expressing the characteristics in one way or another. This starts the dialogue necessary for them to develop their palates. Those "eureka" moments when they equate what they've tasted to a description.

And while the cupping itself is done in silence, the discussion afterwards can take a life of its' own. The 8 Estrellas garnered such descriptions as: woody, chocolate, yogurt, sweet earth, yellow, vanilla tobacco, maple syrup, cinnamon, syrupy, mahogany, wet leaves, slight tart, cider, autumn, heavy, wet chalk, semi-sweet chocolate, orange, peppermint patty and caramel.


Tasting the second round of brews.

Once the discussion was complete, the candidates were each tasked with writing a brief and concise paragraph describing the coffee in under four sentences. And while I was pleasantly surprised that all of them were well-written and conveyed the coffee accurately, only one could remain. So, after a couple of elimination rounds, the group collectively decided the final description:

"8 Estrellas is an aromatic coffee with a complex, smoky, yet tangy fragrance. Its' low acidity allows for a sweet balanced flavor concentrated on notes of autumn. A woodsy and full body leaves a pleasant aftertaste of semi-sweet chocolate and caramel."

I had cupped this coffee previously when it first arrived and this is the description I wrote for the coffee:

"...very sweet with strong notes of caramel. Rich and full with a light acidity. Chocolate, vanilla and toffee notes."

After reading the previous description to the group, they were pleased that they could taste very similar notes in their cupping. But the point I wanted to make was yet to come: that description was written on April 24, 2009. Nearly six months ago.

Between myself and one of the coffee growers I deal with, we've been freezing roasted coffee for over ten years now. While many in the business will argue until they are blue in the face that freezing is destructive to coffee, the unscientific tests I've conducted over the years don't support that destruction.

By now (presuming they're reading this), James and Anette are probably cringing at the fact that I've taken one of their wonderful coffees and subjected it to freezing. Rest assured, the coffee is still delicious.


White board filled with tasting notes, the final description, the brew vote tally and the blue notes are from an "identify the ingredients" challenge where they had to taste and identify the ingredients in a hot sauce.

After lunch, the crew regrouped and broke off into two person teams. The task at hand was to take the description and create hand brewed coffees as close to the description as possible. Thirty minutes to brew up to three attempts and bring the best example to the judging table.

The Spro isn't really a small space. As far as espresso bars go, it's pretty spacious. Over twenty-eight feet of linear bar space and a twenty-five foot aisle that's three feet wide with a back counter that's twenty feet long, which is ample for up to four baristas, but when you start cramming ten baristas, plus the actual working shift baristas, it starts to get really claustrophobic behind the bar.

As the girls broke off to prepare examples of Chemex, Aeropress, Eva Solo, Syphon, French Press and Pourover, I started to feel like Gordon Ramsay in the television show Hell's Kitchen during one of the challenges, barking out the remaining time and putting the pressure on. Three attempts at a brew but only one can be brought to the table. Definitely stressful.

With time running out, the girls were doing a good job brewing, tasting and evaluating their coffee, making adjustments and doing it again. As the clock ticked down the drinks started coming out from behind the bar to the judging table.

As we gathered around and started tasting, it became apparent that there were no cut and dry winners in the challenge. No one coffee exemplified what we had tasted in the cup. Back to the brew!

Round Two of the brewing challenge had the teams work up two more brews in twenty minutes, bringing their best back to the judges table. This time, the tastings revealed a distinct winner: french press, with the Chemex and Syphon in 2nd and 3rd. Sadly, neither the Aeropress, Eva Solo or Pourover had any supporters with the 8 Estrellas.

In the real world, a group of baristas will do exactly what we did today: cup the coffee, develop a description and prove the default brewing method for the coffee. Had this been an actual production coffee, the default brew would be french press. Rest assured that the new Spro will not be serving six month old frozen coffee.

ph: A Calm Before The Storm

Training Baristas

Ilenia and Rebecca work out details on the Syphon.

I don't think that in the ten years I've been in business have we hired such a large staff all at once. Even in the heyday of Jay's Shave Ice, where our ranks swelled to twenty-five, I don't think we brought on so many people at the same time. With only a few weeks to go and my time split between overseeing the buildout and running the company, finding the time to bring everyone up to speed is proving itself to be quite the challenge.

Training to be a Barista for the new Spro is not easy. There's a lot to learn about procedures, philosophy, service methods - and that doesn't include coffee knowledge or brewing skills. It's a challenge all the way around. For the new barista candidates, I push on them tough and high standards. I'm expecting and demanding their best. The first round is easy because they're just learning the ropes and receiving the technical details. As the rounds progress, I become tougher and more demanding. I want them to excel. I'm not interested in producing baristas and coffee that's "good enough" for Baltimore. I'm intent on producing baristas and coffee that will be nationally notable.


Lindsay and Kimmy ponder the mysteries of the Chemex.

Maybe that sounds egotistical, and since I don't like to lie - perhaps it is egotistical. I want us to excel. I don't want us to be just another coffee house. If that's the case, then I might as well screw off and go back to making movies - at least then I'll be making wild amounts of money while stabbing myself in the neck waiting for The Lord to call me to Pasture.

Personally speaking, I think the field of candidates we have today is a great one. Lots of energy, enthusiasm and potential. I'm excited and enthused that we have such a great group of people. Back in the day of Jays Shave Ice, I used to do personality tests as part of the hiring process and I found it really quite interesting that most of our people back then fell into a couple of personality profiles. While I'm not doing personality tests at The Spro, I've noticed a lot of similarities in interests and lifestyles amongst the new candidates.


Bonnie addresses the finer points of Japanese-style cold brewing.

Of course, what I'm planning for Hampden is going to be something a bit different than what the new candidates or most people think a coffee house is about. Our plan is to take things further, to refine and finesse what we do - and, to borrow a term from my barista class in Colombia, do things with Eleganza.

There's a lot to learn and I'm excited for them. It reminds me of the time I spent in Seattle with The Two Johns and Bronwen, learning all I could about coffee and the craft of Barista. Those were fun and heady times and I remember them fondly. While my experience was more casual absorption these candidates are learning our ways in a more structured setting. One that I hope has been successfully designed to build upon each other resulting in a Barista that understands not only coffee and brewing but also service and customer interaction.

For me, it's been a tremendous learning experience as well. Unlike the relatively unstructured nature of training a solo barista one-on-one. Doing a large group has forced me to think about the progression of learning, the structure and how to present the material in a manner that is accessible.

Give us a few weeks then come visit and join us for a coffee.

First Fire

Attempting to force myself to believe that the heat of fire will cleanse my soul.

I seem to be having a rough (read: shitty) week that seems to compound itself. Yesterday was probably the worst when it became difficult to contain my mood. Today was better since I was able to conceal my thoughts better from those around me.

In an attempt to soothe my soul, I headed over to Bud's house for an evening of raging fires and a big cigar. Here in Baltimore, autumn is looming on the horizon with the leaves slowly turning ochre and the weather teasingly crispy in the evening. It's not cold per se, but it's pretending.

The nice thing about the colder weather are the raging fires at Bud's house while smoking cigars. It's not the dead of winter when it's too cold to do anything outside but it is crispy enough to build fires. Happily, Bud is well equipped for raging fires with piles upon piles of dried firewood. Big fire, tasty cigar and good conversation amongst friends is a recipe for a good evening.

Too bad the evenings' niceties wasn't enough to quell my anxiety.

Spro Swag

A VWR branded PolyScience immersion circulator, Mahlkonig VTA6S, Bunn tower, Tru Bru and a bunch of other gadgets.

One of the best things about opening a new place is the massing of equipment that precedes the opening. Suddenly, there's a need and resources (supposed financing) to buy aplenty. From benign under mounted stainless steel sinks to big, honking grinders, it's fun and exciting - even though it may threaten the company's bottom line.

Meanwhile, the garage is full of equipment waiting to move to project hampden and The Spro of Towson is slowly filling up with equipment that has nowhere else to go.

Here are some of the equipment highlights for project hampden:

Mahlkonig VTA6S
Compak K10 WBC
Compak R80
Bunn G1
PolyScience Immersion Circulators
Brew Towers
Randell FX Refrigeration
Tru Bru
Chemex
Aeropress
Clever
Eva Solo
La Marzocco (duh, of course!)
Liquid Nitrogen Dewars
PacoJet
C-Vap
Multivac C200
Sodir SEM60
Hines
Stumptown
Intelligentsia
Ecco Caffe
Barefoot
Counter Culture

ph: Just Another Day at Permits

project hampden: at Night