Daniel's World of Coffee

Water, Water, Water

There are so many factors that go into a good cup of coffee that sometimes we forget to pay attention to the main ingredient. No, not coffee. Water.

The water where you live will have a huge impact on the flavor of your coffee. The thing is, if you have lived where you do for a long while, you become inured to your own water. In New York City, the water (from the Hudson River aquifer) is actually quite mineral-heavy. This makes for water that is slightly soapy-tasting and smooth in mouthfeel. Lots of minerals can increase the extraction rate of coffee (that is, make it extract more fully more quickly).

Once I was doing a cupping in a country that shall not be named, and, having received a request for "bottled water" to do the cupping, the man who got the supplies brought in two huge containers of distilled water. Distilled water is basically pure H20, with nothing else inside. Might sound like a good thing, but it's not. If you don't believe me, you can try a little experiment at home. Make one pot of coffee with your tap water, one with some bottled spring water, and one with bottled distilled water. Just be careful to control your other variables, and you can learn a valuable lesson about how water affects taste.

I thought of this post while I was shaving this morning. I use an old-fashioned safety razor (like the baby in the picture) and badger's hair brush with real shaving soap. This method takes a little longer than a can of gel and plastic cartridge razors from the supermarket. But if you do it right, it gives you a much nicer shave. Part of the reason it gives you a better shave is that you are more in tune with the subtleties of the process. You can tell when the blade is sharp and when it needs replacing. You can feel a subtle but definite change in friction when you use a new shaving soap. It even feels different when I spent a lot of time outdoors the previous day versus staying indoors and making coffee.

Anyway, the big change I noticed recently is in the water. In the Seattle area, the water is much cleaner than in New York City. In a way, this makes it harsher. Without those softening minerals in it, it becomes crisp and almost — I know this sounds silly — dry. You notice it when you drink it, and you notice it when you make coffee with it. And you can notice it when you shave. When I pull the razor across my face, it tends to stick and tug more. Not so much that I cut myself, but enough that I feel a touch more raw at the end of the process. In New York, the water tends to add another lubricating layer to your face. In Seattle, it bounces off you like your were a duck.

The great thing about life, and about coffee, is that you will never, ever run out of things to pay attention to. That's the fun of it. There's actually a quality to the climate here that affects coffee quality, but that's another post for another day (anyone want to take a guess what it is?). I might be crazy for thinking about extraction rates when I shave, but I suspect I'm not the only one. Have you ever had an insight into coffee that came from an unexpected source? And what's your water like?

Event Report: Micro-lot El Salvador Cupping

Thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday's cupping at Think Coffee in Manhattan!

Graciano Cruz was unable to make the trip up from Panama at the last moment, which left everyone to deal with me. Somehow they endured, and we had a great cupping session with some really interesting and fantastic coffees on the table.

I've done a lot of events for/about/thanks-to El Salvador over the last few years. I've gotten to know the industry there so well that at times I think I begin to take it for granted. Or I assume that people know more about it than they do. I'm hoping to do another event featuring these great coffees in another week or two, in Seattle, and leading up to that event, I intend to write more about exactly why they are so great.

In the meantime, I can tell you we did one table of six washed bourbon coffees, and one table of six washed pacamaras and two natural coffees (one bourbon, one pacamara). The bourbons were very nice gems: sweet, medium-bodied, good acidity and clear as bells. But, as anyone who's cupped it before knows, the pacamaras were the real stars. There's such a unique, exotic edge to those coffees: a buttery mouthfeel and a peculiar herbaceous quality, on top of the chocolatey sweetness found in their bourbon cousins.

Of course, the other stand-outs were the natural coffees. People don't expect these flavor profiles from Central American coffees. I overheard a couple of people discussing how much they tasted like Ethiopians or Yemens, but cleaner. There's a lot of potential for natural-process coffees in Latin America in the coming years. Very, very few producers in Latin America understand how popular that flavor profile has become in the United States. The savvier ones are starting to get wind, and you get coffees like the ones we cupped yesterday (and reactions like the ones I witnessed). I want to feature the farms that are experimenting with this kind of processing on this blog, but first I want to get some more information from my friends in Central America.

Finally, a huge word of thanks to Think Coffee. If you ever want to see a really well-run coffee shop, stop by Think, get a table near the register and watch the baristas work their high-speed magic. Special thanks to Jason and especially Sarah, for allowing us to do the event and for their hard work and kindness.

Coffee of the Week: Espresso at Third Rail

(this week's header: experimental coffee hybrid seedlings in El Salvador)

I drink so many great cups of coffee every week, I thought it would be a fun idea to introduce a "Coffee of the Week" feature to the blog. Every week I will choose one memorable cup that I had and write it up here. This could be an espresso or cappuccino or cup of drip coffee at a coffee shop. It might be something I discovered on the cupping table. It could just be a nice cup I drank at home while watching the Seahawks administering a beatdown on the hated Rams.

I got this idea while having an espresso at Third Rail Coffee in Manhattan. So it's only right that said espresso be the inaugural World of Coffee, Coffee of the Week.

Saturday afternoon I stopped by this brand new shop on Sullivan Street near NYU. The owner, Humberto Ricardo, was one of the very earliest members of the New York Coffee Society. He and longtime New York City barista world fixture Dan Griffin have been working together a long time too, and Dan now helps out Humberto with Third Rail.

It's a small shop, but very well designed, with lots of light and beautiful small touches. They rotate in different coffees from different roasters for their brewed coffee offerings.

Humberto was in the shop when I stopped in, and he made me a dead-perfect shot of Black Cat espresso. As you know if you read this blog, I have practiced a lot with the Black Cat in the last year or so, and I've rarely made shots that were as spot-on as Humberto's. It was sweet, chocolately, nutty, slightly fruity, sweet, smooth, and oh yes, sweet. Color me very impressed.

Plus it came with the friendly faces and environment. A little perfect pick-me-up on a rainy Saturday afternoon in crowded New York City. That espresso is exactly the kind of thing that made me want to go into coffee in the first place. This week's Coffee of the Week! Thanks Humberto!

Photo by Liz Clayton:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/latteart/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Coffee Shop: An Ode to Ost

Today I worked what will be my last shift at Ost Café for a long time. I've never officially been an employee of Ost, but it feels like a place I can call home. I've done a lot of work in the coffee industry, but there are only actually four cafés I've ever been a regular barista at: Victrola, the now-defunct Lucky Dog in Seattle, Café Grumpy, and Jack's Coffee. But I feel like I should put Ost on that list, too.

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I only met the Osterizers because they had made the decision to use Intelligentsia coffee for their new store, and I was the man doing training for Intelligentsia. I did a training for them at Intelly's SoHo lab, and then another session on site at their 12th and Avenue A café.

I immediately took a liking to the folks who run this place. Alex, Aaron, Kat, and the people who work for them are all fantastic people. They are interesting, passionate, hard-working, and fun to be around. They know the perfect mixture of professionalism and friendliness that makes great coffee shops such wonderful things. And all the baristas I've worked with there — Steph, Dan, Michael, Anne, and the Jeffs — have been stellar.

I started pulling shifts at Ost on a lark, because I missed the honest hard work of pulling shots and doing dishes for 8 hours in a row (really!). I missed the cameraderie among the baristas, and the happy look on a customer's face when you give them a truly perfect cappuccino. After just a couple of shifts, I found myself going back just to see my friends. I always felt comfortable and welcome there.

I know the customers who frequent Ost must feel the same way, because the place has been an instant success. Not the kind of shop that relies on hype or internet chatter: it's the kind of place that people test out once and then immediately begin recommending to all their friends and neighbors.

Well, I'd like to generate my own little portion of hype and chatter for these folks. When people mention great cafés in New York City, there are a few that always get mentioned, and deservedly so. Café Grumpy, Ninth Street Espresso, Joe the Art of Coffee, and Gimme! Coffee are all wonderful and innovative companies that deserve to be right at the top of any discussion NYC coffee. I have friends and colleagues at all those stores. But I truly think that Ost needs to be included on that list of "first breath" places. The coffee is fantastic, the atmosphere is unique and lovely, and — and this is the most important part — the people are as nice as they come.

Thank you, Ost. It's been a pleasure to work with all of you. I'll be back someday soon to mess up your bar area while pulling shots and headbanging along to "Achilles' Last Stand," and then I will run across the street to Poppy's Deli for a turkey sandwich which I will then eat in the back room while looking at latfh.com.

Until then, the rest of you should check it out if you at all have the opportunity.

Event Announcement: Micro-lot Cupping in NYC

(this week's header: two Clovers at Cafe Grumpy in Manhattan, the first two such machines on the East Coast)

Dear Friends,

I'd like to invite you to a cupping of some high-quality micro-lot coffees in New York City. Recently, at the Northeast Roasters Retreat, coffee farmer and industry expert Graciano Cruz of Panama brought some fantastic, unique small-lot coffees from El Salvador. I led a cupping that went over very well with the folks who were able to make it to Vermont for the event.

Since then I have been looking for a venue to get more exposure for these unique coffees.

I thought you would be interested to know that Graciano Cruz is bringing more samples of those micro-lot El Salvadors we cupped, up from Central America, this time to New York City.

I'm hosting a cupping at Think Coffee's Manhattan lab, on Wednesday, September 16th, at 11:30 am. I'd love for you to attend. The coffees on the table will be similar in quality to the ones we tried in Vermont, with more varied flavor profiles. Bourbons, Pacamaras, and Bourbon-Pacas blends; varied processing, too. Graciano will also be presenting some dynamite A/V material on these producers and what we can expect from them in the 2009-10 harvest.

Think Coffee is at 248 Mercer Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues 3rd and 4th Streets in downtown Manhattan. Lots of great restaurants and sights to see in that area if you want to make a day of it. Just RSVP to me at daniel@coffeescholars.com.

Please also feel free to spread the word to any other quality-oriented roasters and coffee people and tell them to drop me a line if they feel like coming.

Hope to see you there!

(This event is specifically for coffee roasters and other coffee professionals. If you are an amateur or just a fan, and would like to attend, please drop me a private message at daniel@coffeescholars.com, and we can discuss!)

Coffee Shop: Ninth Street Espresso

Sometimes we are in such a frenzy to discover the next big thing that we miss the gems right in front of our faces. In the spirit of counting one's blessings and appreciating the tried-and-true, I paid a visit yesterday to the original super-specialty coffee shop of New York City, Ninth Street Espresso.

These days it seems a new specialty coffee shop pops up in New York City every week. I have a hard time keeping up with it all, and I do this stuff for a living. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely thrilled to witness the changes that have taken place in the last three years. But it wasn't so long ago that the only place to get a true American style super-specialty espresso beverage in the whole city was this little outpost in the East Village. Owner Ken Nye's been doing things righer and longer than just about anyone else you can name.

In fact, my traveling companion is a huge coffee lover, and she'd never even been to the original Ninth Street Espresso. There was a time that I made pilgramages out to this place, but lately I've been negligent, seeing as there are so many quality joints that aren't 50 city blocks off the closest subway line like Ninth Street is. But I realized I was cheating myself, and so both of us made the trek in the fine early September evening weather.

A few months ago, I actually got to see up close part of the development of Ninth Street's signature Alphabet City blend. When Ken Nye made the switch to Intelligentsia, Kyle Glanville and the boys out in Los Angeles sent us several candidate component beans, along with suggested blend percentages. David Latourell and I then spent time in the lab in SoHo pulling shots and tasting them and tweaking these blends. Ken himself then came in and directed us further and the end result was the return of "Alphabet City," a sweet, drinkable, chocolatey and nutty coffee that Ken likes to call "Snickers in a cup."

Yesterday evening I was an especially hard-to-please customer because I was just off a five hour day of tasting some pretty gnarly coffee. The last thing I needed was more coffee compounds on my tongue. But I have to tell you: my shot was sweet, drinkable, fruity, and chocolate candy-like. As was my friend's.

Afterwards, across the street drinking sangria at Esperanto, I remarked that it's amazing that such an intense beverage as espresso can be so smooth and drinkable when done right. But Ninth Street does it reliably right.

The shop on 9th and C has also, incidentally, undergone a minor remodel. The tables are long community tables now, and the whole place looks cleaner and crisper, with better lighting and paint. But the overall aesthetic is unchanged: simple black and white, no frills, no BS.

In fact, I can't think of a better description of Ninth Street than this picture of the machine area as seen from the customer's eye view. A simple, no-frills Marzocco, a classic grinder, a clean countertop, and their simple coffee cup logo. It embodies what this place is about: great espresso, clean and simple. I'll be sure to make the gap between my next visits much shorter.

The Barista Community

On Sunday I was working in a coffee shop in Manhattan. Four different people that work in coffee (but not at that shop) came by to say hello and have a little espresso or latte and talk business. There was someone from Stumptown, someone from Think, someone from Joe, someone I knew from Jack's, and someone opening a shop up in Connecticut (hi guys!).

Yesterday evening I was thinking how normal that seems to me, but also how extraordinary it seems to people outside the industry. Bartenders sometimes have a little unspoken club membership, but the barista community is different. It's hard to think of the "Bartender's Community." (Bartenders out there, please feel free to correct me... I tended bar myself for four years, but perhaps I was missing out... we might give each other a knowing nod and a price break, but that was about it).

Baristas, on the other hand, will use their days off to go biking around visiting various shops and roasteries. For fun. To meet people, to see friends, to try new coffees. It's pretty remarkable when you stop to think of it.

Sometimes the barista community can seem a little clubby. I suppose it is, from a certain perspective. People will reference this or that shop they went to or this or that famous coffee person they cupped with. But this is almost always done with enthusiasm, not snobbery. For a "club," the barista community is one of the most open I can think of. Basically all you need to do is care about coffee, be nice to people, and spend a little energy getting yourself out there.

I also can't think of any other professioinal group, off the top of my head, that is so prone to spontaneously organizing events for themselves. Ever go to a "structural engineers' jam" ... or a "lawyers' jam"? Such groups may have conventions, or get together after work for beers, but coffee people have these things too. On top of that, coffee people will spontaneously get together to trade tips, compete in good-natured contests, sample different brews, and just generally "dork out," as they say.

Exhibit A: Check out this cool event that just happened last Thursday at Counter Culture's New York Training Center (where I stole those photos from, btw). Fun!

Event Announcement: Crop to Cup on the Highline

My friend Taylor now serves his Crop to Cup coffee in (on?) New York City's newest park, the elevated train tracks on the West Side that have been converted into a long, skinny, walkable green park, the Highline.

This Sunday he's having a free coffee giveaway. Crop to Cup is a New York-based company that specializes in Ugandan coffee. Taylor and his partner got the idea for the business while living in Uganda a few years ago. If you haven't seen the Highline yet, here's your excuse....

Taylor's announcement: The “Crop to Cup Free for All” party is set for Sunday, to celebrate the recent launch of Crop to Cup Coffee Co.’s new café up on the Highline. This Sunday, August 16, from 4pm to 6pm, we will lock away our cash box and dish out free coffee and chocolate drinks to all. Revelers will be able to choose from our signature hot and iced coffees, iced chocolate (from our own homemade ganache) and hot or iced mochas (also made with our ganache). All dairy will be from our friends at Basis Farm to Chef and Battenkill Valley Creamery.

As always, Crop to Cup is your NYC-roasted source for the best in farmer-direct single origin coffees and trace-your-impact sustainability. By supporting family farmers in Uganda and elsewhere, as well as sustainability-focused dairy farms in our own backyard, we’re doing our very best to help reinvent the food system the world depends on.

So, please come join Crop to Cup and delicious farm products - from Uganda to Upstate - as we party it up at the super cool Highline park. Our new 29-day café (lasts until Sept 6) is the perfect spot to spend the afternoon, with amazing views of the river, spectacular architecture of the neighborhood’s old warehouse buildings, and of course the beautiful Highline park. Stay for the sunset – our west-facing view over the Hudson is the best in the city!

Details:

• What: “Crop to Cup Free for All” - Free Drinks for All!

• When: Sunday, August 16, 4pm to 6pm

• Where: Crop to Cup Coffee stand at the Highline Park, at the Chelsea Market Underpass (near the Highline’s 16th St entrance).

• Rain or Shine, as we’re sheltered by the Chelsea Market building

• Why? On a hot summer day you deserve a delicious freshly brewed iced coffee or iced chocolate! 1 free coffee or chocolate drink per person

We hope to see you there!

Late Summer Classes

After next week, I'll be taking a short break from teaching public classes. If you've been at all interested in taking a class during the summer, or if you'd like to come by and visit me and talk some coffee, I've got the following public coffee events/appearances planned for the next ten days. Next chance might not be till fall!

Friday, August 15. 10 am- 6 pm: I'll be making espresso at Ost Café in the East Village.

Tuesday, August 18. 11:30 am: Public cupping at Intelligentsia's Soho lab.

Tuesday, August 18. 2-5 pm: Espresso Enthusiasts in-depth barista class at Intelligentsia.

Wednesday, August 19. 4-5:30 pm: Home brewing class at Intelligentsia.

Saturday, August 22. 1-4 pm: Espresso Enthusiasts at Intelligentsia.

Sunday, August 23. 10 am- 6 pm: Making more coffee at Ost!

Please note that the Intelligentsia Soho classes require a sign-up which you can do through the links above, but you can expect a very thorough and professional session.

Coming to Ost for coffee only requires that you don't mind watching me rock out to Led Zeppelin in a backwards Seahawks hat while I make your macchiato.

Coffee Person: Mandy Aftel

Actually, Mandy Aftel is not a coffee person. She's a scent person. But coffee has scents (boy does it), and I met Mandy at a coffee event and well... let me explain.

A little while ago an old friend in the coffee business asked me if I could speak at an event at the New York Botanical Garden, and I happily accepted. All summer the NYBG has been hosting Edible Evenings, focusing on the intersection of plant life and food (a mighty big intersection, that). Last Thursday was their Coffee and Tea evening. I was to speak on coffee, and speaking on tea was Mandy Aftel.

Now, Mandy's not coffee person, as I said. But actually she's not necessarily a tea person either. What she loves more than anything though, and what she is expert in, are natural perfumes. The first time I spoke to her on the phone she gave me an impassioned speech on the evils of synthetic aromas until I admitted surrender and granted that, yes, natural perfumes are far superior. Naturally.

One beverage that gets perfumed constantly, of course, is tea. At the Botanical Garden event, Mandy passed around scent strips with synthetic and natural versions of different scents (jasmine, rose, etc). Then she passed around samples of different oolong teas, scented with different combinations of lovely scents like mint, jasmine, and turkish rose. It was a real eye-opener to smell the difference that naturally-derived perfume can make.

It was my first trip to the Botanical Garden (this is the big one up in the Bronx that is practically its own National Park, not the smaller but still lovely one in Brooklyn that I have visited several times). It's a lovely setting for events such as this one, or just a great place to wander around. I wish I had had more time to wander the the grounds... I guess I will just have to go back another lovely evening.

(Daniel giving his talk. photo by Maria Diaz.)

Of course, in coffee, we don't want any additives, natural or otherwise. Just coffee, heat, and water please. In my presentation, I spoke about the vast panoply of different aromas in coffee, and where they come from. My friend and colleague David Latourell was on the spot with some impeccable coffees from Honduras and Ethiopia for people to taste and smell.

It's important to remember that coffee is a seed. As a seed, it packs a ton of different organic compounds into a tiny package, to serve as nutrition for a growing plant. We're talking fats, acids, proteins, sugars, etc. That means that when you roast it up and brew it, there is more complexity in that little package than you can shake a flavor wheel at. I'd be interested to know what the total chemical complexity of tea is versus coffee before additives, given that tea is a leaf and coffee is a seed. I'm out of my element to speculate on that, but of course you won't be surprised if I say I wouldn't be surprised to learn that coffee is much more complex.

Being around Mandy Aftel for a couple of hours gets one thinking in these directions. She's done lots of interesting work with various chefs, perfumers, food scientists and yes, coffee people. I've got one of her Natural Perfume Wheels at my side as I type this. In one category, "Floral," she has four sub-groups: Heavy, Soft, Sharp, and Green. And within those groupings, reading from Heavy to Green, I see tuberose, ylang ylang, champa, jasmine, orange flower, orris, cassie, rose, mimosa, lotus, frangipani, marigold, kewda, osmanthus, davana, neroli, ginger lily, violet leaf, linden blossom, lavender absolute, and geranium.

I have a lot to learn. Thanks Mandy and NYBG.