Daniel's Coffee Blog

NYCS Event This Thursday

My good friend and coffee colleague, Willem Boot, is in New York this week and we're throwing a little coffee event together. Join Willem and me, and the rest of your co-Coffee Societals, this Thursday, July 2nd, at 7 pm at Ost Café in the East Village. We'll be tasting some fresh-crop Central American coffees and discussing the quality coffee movement in general.

For those of you who don't know him, Willem Boot is one of the world's leading specialty coffee experts. He grew up helping his father run a coffee roasting company in his home country of Holland, and has since worked in just about every capacity in the coffee industry, from roasting to cupping to quality-development at origin. Willem is a regular judge at international coffee competitions; he has led projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia to help farmers improve their coffee and find markets for their product; his intensive roasting and cupping seminars at his laboratory in the Bay Area, where he lives, have helped countless specialty roasters (some quite famous) get their start; he is one of the founders of the Common River project helping Ethiopian coffee farmers and orphans in Aleta Wondo, Ethiopia; and he even is a coffee farmer himself, with two small farm in the Boquete region of Panama! I can tell you from personal experience that Willem is a goldmine of knowledge about coffee, a great speaker, and a fun guy, too!

And if you haven't been to Ost yet, you are really missing out. They've been serving some of the best, most lovingly-prepared coffee in all of New York City since the start of 2009, in a beautiful, elegant environment. I like Ost so much that I sling shifts there many Sundays just to soak up the atmosphere and the coffee love. The Ostians, Alex, Aaron, and Kat, are being kind enough to close business early for us and our dorky ways, so let's show them a great Coffee Society turnout and really pack the place!

JULY 2nd, 7 pm Ost Café Corner of 12th and Avenue A, in the East Village

Please RSVP to newyorkcoffeesociety@gmail.com if you plan on coming, and as always, feel free to bring a friend.

NYCS Event this Saturday, June 6

My friend David Latourell just came back from a week in Scandinavia and he brought back some treats for us. David's friends with just about all the top coffee people in Copenhagen, which just might be the top coffee city in the world. So these roasters, taster's champions and World Barista Champions sent him back to New York City arms laden with all kinds of beautiful beans.

The New York Coffee Society will be tasting these coffees (including 3 espressos!) on Saturday, June 6, at 2 pm in Soho. The location is Intelligentsia Coffee's cool little shiny white coffee laboratory on Broadway just south of Houston.

The address is 594 Broadway, Suite 909A

Just take the elevators on the right side of the lobby on up to the 9th floor and follow the smell of coffee!

This event is open to amateurs and professionals alike; there is no charge, and as always it's a non-commercial event (no selling stuff or advertising allowed!). We'll be tasting two different roasts for the same natural-process Ethiopian coffee (from Bagersh), in addition to pulling shots on our GB-5/Robur-E set-up.

RSVP to newyorkcoffeesociety@gmail.com if you would like to come. We're going to cap it at around 20 people. As always, there's a high likelihood of tacos and/or beers happening afterwards for those who want to take the edge off the caffeine buzz.

Hope to see you there!

Big Thanks

I wanted to take a moment and thank the folks that put me in touch with the Today Show and point out some of the fantastic work they are doing.

First of all, my good friends at one of the Bay Area's top roasters: Equator Estates Coffee. Equator is a fantastic, very forward-looking, quality-oriented company. They're run by some of the most knowledgeable women in the coffee industry, and it's a very pro-woman and pro-environment company (not to mention pro-coffee!). I've been lucky enough to cup and hang out with Helen, Brooke, and Maria from Equator in the past, and they're always pushing the envelope of great, sustainable coffee. Looking forward to seeing you all in New York, Equator-ites!

Speaking of sustainable, the real force behind the Today Show appearance was the Organic Coffee Collaboration. My big blunder on the show was not to mention organic coffees. I've already excused myself in a couple of earlier posts about not getting to say what I wanted, but this was pretty inexcusable. The OCC does good work. There's a lot of confusion out there, it seems, about just what "organic" entails and how it effects people, the environment, and the quality of coffee. In coffee, thankfully, there is usually a direct corellation between sustainable practices and quality in the cup. Check out the OCC for lots more information (and more articulate) than I could hope to provide on this little blog.

Thanks OCC and Equator. Now ... if we could just get them to reserve 30 minutes to talk about these issues... or better yet.. A whole morning of just coffee! It is a morning-time show after all.

Today Show

I had a lot of fun at Rockefeller Center taping this segment for the Today Show yesterday. It aired today and I have to say it turned out better than I thought it would. Of course 3 and a half minutes is too short, but that's the nature of TV, I suppose. You'll see how it cuts off at the end right before I pour the latte. Which is ok, because it wasn't exactly the greatest latte I had ever made.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here's me on the Today Show... enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Daniel on the Today Show

Just a heads-up that I will be appearing on the Today Show on NBC this Friday, May 29th, making coffee for Kathie Lee Gifford and company. They say it should air sometime after 10:30 am, coast to coast.

So if you are home having a nice cup to yourself, tune in and watch me try to pack the 10 most important things you need to know about coffee into 3 minutes and 45 seconds!

My Theory of Teaching Coffee

From this post by alicorn on the fantastic Less Wrong

Most propositional knowledge (knowledge of facts) is pretty easy to come by (at least in principle). There is only one capital of Venezuela, and if you wish to learn the capital of Venezuela, Wikipedia will cooperatively inform you that it is Caracas. For propositional knowledge that Wikipedia knoweth not, there is the scientific method. Procedural knowledge - the knowledge of how to do something - is a different animal entirely. This is true not only with regard to the question of whether Wikipedia will be helpful, but also in the brain architecture at work: anterograde amnesiacs can often pick up new procedural skills while remaining unable to learn new propositional information

.

One complication in learning new procedures is that there are usually dozens, if not hundreds, of ways to do something. Little details - the sorts of things that sink into the subconscious with practice but are crucial to know for a beginner - are frequently omitted in casual descriptions. Often, it can be very difficult to break into a new procedurally-oriented field of knowledge because so much background information is required. While there may be acknowledged masters of the procedure, it is rarely the case that their methods are ideal for every situation and potential user, because the success of a procedure depends on a vast array of circumstantial factors.

I propose below a general strategy for acquiring new procedural knowledge. First, saturate by getting a diverse set of instructions from different sources. Then, distill by identifying what all or most of them have in common. Finally, improvise within the remaining search space to find something that works reliably for you and your circumstances.

You can't turn every casual coffee drinker into a World Barista Champion in three hours. And even a barista champion will lack knowledge about, say, the breakdown of organic acids over time. When I teach, my goal is to saturate people with general coffee knowledge, and then quickly narrow in on their specific circumstances.

A purely procedural class will give someone a very flimsy, robotic knowledge of one way to make coffee. A purely theoretical class will be interesting, but leave people at sea when they want to make a good cup. Start with theory, move on to procedures. And all times be fueling the session with cups of great coffee!

Latte Art Zoo

I just taught a latte art class at Intelly-NYC on Saturday.

We didn't get to zoo animals, though!

Espresso Tasting this Saturday

I have lots of tastings and classes with Intelligentsia coming up, but there's one in particular I'd like to mention on here.

An espresso tasting! This Saturday, May 9th, at 11:30 am. It's at Intelligentsia's pretty white training and education lab in Soho... 594 Broadway, Suite 909A (just south of Houston).

How often do you get to taste more than one espresso in the space of an hour? If you go to the right store, you might be able to get two espressos. Well, we are going to have four! I'll have the new iteration of the Black Cat on tap (now with Rwandan coffee!), plus some single origins, including the famous Bolivia Anjilanaka. Plus we might mix some of them up with milk and see how they do. I'll be pulling all the shots on our pretty La Marzocco... come check out our new GS-3, too!

You can sign up here. Also, while on that site, check out all the other cool classes I am teaching (for instance, there's a cupping on Thursday morning, at 10 am... you should come to that, too!).

Hope to see you on Saturday.

The Sense of Smell

"Smell is of all senses by far the most evocative: perhaps because we have no vocabulary for it — nothing but a few poverty-stricken approximations to describe the whole vast complexity of odor — and therefore the scent, unnamed and unnameable, remains pure of association; it cannot be called upon again and again, and blunted, by the use of a words; and so it strikes afresh every time, bringing with it all the circumstances of its first perception. This is particularly true when a considerable period of time has elapsed."

-Maturin, in Patrick O'Brian's Post Captain

2009 SCAA Show Highlights

Back in New York City after a long weekend in Atlanta. SCAA was, as usual, lots of faces, lots of parties, lots of interesting new concepts and machines, and way way way too much caffeine. Good times

I'd like to share some highlights and lowlights from my experience:

Highlights

1. Gwilym Davies' signature beverage. Gwilym is your new World Barista Champion. Of course, as a non-judge, I didn't get to taste his espresso. From everything I heard, and judging on the fact that he beat out the 50 best baristas in the entire world, I'm assuming it was positively fantastic. Roasted by these guys.

But, although again I didn't get to taste it, Gwilym's signature beverage was a sight behold. At the beginning of his competition time, he gave the four sensory judges each an envelope and told them to open it and follow the instructions therein. It was a mystery to the general audience what was going on. Then he made his espressos and cappuccinos. When sig-drink time came, he collected the envelopes and announced what four flavors the judges had selected. You see, each card contained four different flavor components, divided into four categories, and Gwilym had the judges choose their "favorite flavor component." Then he went to his tray of 16 different ingredients and selected the four named by the judges for the drink, and prepared the drink. Ballsy, entertaining, and presumably delicious.

In the first round, the choices were butter, hazelnuts, honey, and cherry. I didn't catch the combo in the final round. But all 16 were components he claims are in the espresso, and it's easy to believe him based on the scores he got. Every time I think baristas couldn't possibly come up with new innovations, the best prove me wrong. I have no idea how next year's champ will top this — that's why they are champs and I am not — but I'm already intrigued. Bravo, Gwilym!

2. Chris and M'lissa's wedding reception. Good friends and great people (and great coffee people) Chris Owens and M'lissa Muckerman were married recently, and they saved their big reception for the SCAA show. M'lissa used to run the show at Octane coffee in Atlanta, and that's where about 400 drunken happy baristas and assorted coffee folks descended on Friday night to toast them and dance the night away. At the end of the night there wasn't a single drop of booze left in the place (seriously), though they had started with a mighty inventory. Chris wore a tux and M'lissa a pretty dress, and everyone was smiles all around, spilling out into the parking lot and the streets of Atlanta. So great to see so many old friends! It's a tribute to how much everyone loves those two that it was such a great party. Also a good thing that my primary job the next day was to drink coffee.

Thanks Chris'n'M'liss! Congratulations!

3. Devin's shot of Black Cat. You get a ton of coffee at these events, of course. Some of it is good, some of it is great, and some of it makes you wonder what people were thinking (in a room full of 1000s of coffee experts, better bring your A-game!). I went in hoping to get a real transformative experience from some unknown coffee, but the best shot I had all weekend was actually a shot of Black Cat espresso made for me at the Intelligentsia booth by master LA barista, Devin Pedde. Perfect chocolate and caramel, touch of rich fruit, velvety smooth mouthfeel that stayed with me for an hour.

The other fantastic shot I had was at the Barista Guild of America cafe, a shot of Terroir Coffee's Daterra Reserve (a famous Brazilian grower, roasted by a famous Massachusettes coffee expert), pulled by fellow New York Stater Chris Ganger of Ithaca Coffee Company. Very clear and light for a Brazil, but with lots of sweetness and great aromatics. Nice job, Devin and Chris.

4. First Annual Taster's Championship. Won by another northeasterner (detect a pattern?), Ben Kaminsky of Barismo. This has been a long time coming. For all the attention given to barista competition, it's about time we had a national competition for tasters. The format is simple differentiation of triangulated coffees (pick which of the three is different from the other two), in as short a time as possible. Geoff Watts of Intelly made the top three, but Kaminsky pulled out the championship in the end. Now it's on to world's for him. Major props. If I have the balls I will compete next year myself.

5. Hartmann Honey from Gimme! Gabe Boscano of Gimme! Coffee gave me a small bag of Panamanian coffee from his latest batch on their restored Probat drum roaster. Gimme! has air-roasted from the start, and the drum-roaster is a new venture for them; Gabe's helping to drive that bus. I didn't technically taste this at the show, but rather brewed myself two pots this morning. It's very rich and sweet for a Panama, due in part to being "honey-processed" coffee (pulp dried right on the parchment instead of fermented off). I know this is a risky way to process coffee, but the Hartmann family did it perfectly, and the Gimme! crew roasted it perfectly. I'm already looking forward to drinking some more later today. Thanks, Gabe!

Lowlights

Just one here: JFK airport almost completely shut down on Monday due to a little blustery weather and heavy rain. That place is so damn busy, the slightest glitch seems to send it into total disarray. People were getting canceled and redirected all up and down the East Coast. My colleague David left very early Monday, ended up in Cincinatti somehow and barely made it home. My colleague Steve had to spend the night in Raleigh, NC, and then was delayed again on his morning flight. As for me, I was delayed several hours out of Atlanta, then circled over New Jersey for an hour or so before they sent us to Boston where we refueled, took off again, circled over Long Island for a while and then, at the last moment, they let us land at JFK 7 hours late. Oof...

But I'm back now. And luckily, the highlights (of which these five are only a small selection) vastly overpower the lowlights.