Archive for May, 2005

Posted on May 31, 2005 - by deCadmus

Clouds

Clouds. Blue sky… and lovely clouds.

Posted on May 31, 2005 - by deCadmus

Pop-ups

Fun pop-up clouds today. Well… fun if you’re a weatherbug. And I am. I’m still trying to figure out how cloud systems and weather work in Vermont, as it’s sooo different from the weather in Kansas….

Posted on May 30, 2005 - by deCadmus

Memorial Day Lawn & Garden Report

Welcome to the Memorial Day Lawn and Garden Report. This is an azalea. Or maybe it’s a rhododendron. Herself says there’s hundreds of varieties of each… I just say, purty.
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Posted on May 30, 2005 - by deCadmus

Trip to Middlebury on a Studio Tour

Middlebury, Vermont. Home to more than its share of craftsman and artisans… and large wooden roosters. This weekend artists all over the state are throwing open the doors to their studios, affording a first-hand look at the art of… well, art itself.
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Posted on May 27, 2005 - by deCadmus

Does WiFi Hamper Community?

Lots of coffee houses have gotten aboard the WiFi bandwagon: when it’s offered freely it’s a proven draw, and a valuable benefit for coffee-shop customers. But does it have a negative impact on the community aspect of the coffee house? Seattle’s Victrola thinks so:

Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year “we noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe.” Before Wi-Fi, “People talked to each other, strangers met each other,” she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. “Those people co-existed with people having conversations,” said Strongin.

But “over the past year it seems that nobody talks to each other any more,” she said. On the weekends, 80 to 90 percent of tables and chairs are taken up by people using computers. Many laptop users occupy two or more seats by themselves, as well. Victrola isn’t on the way to anywhere; it’s in the middle of a vibrant stretch of shops and restaurants on Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave. It’s exactly the kind of place that you want to sit down in, not just breeze through.

There’s really two issues here. One is the obvious question of whether some number of customers are abusing a free service. The other, and arguably more thorny issue, is whether WiFi promotes solitary, insulating activity in a public space that’s better suited to building community.

PostScript: See also, Tonx on the brouhaha. And Slashdot.

Posted on May 27, 2005 - by deCadmus

George on George

George Howell is without question one of the most influential figures in the specialty coffee trade: founder of The Coffee Connection (swallowed by Starbucks in ‘94), co-founder of the Cup of Excellence auction system, and once again a purveyor of fine coffees through Terroir Coffees.

Now you can get his first-hand perspective on his coffee travels and his unique position in the trade.

Posted on May 27, 2005 - by deCadmus

New Crop Centrals!

It’s the most wonderful time of year for Central American coffees… The harvest was finishing up back in late January and February, the coffees have “rested” in their parchment for 60 to 90 days, and now (finally!) new crop beans are landing on our shores. And if you think I sound a little giddy about it, read Tom’s “Christmas in May” notes at SweetMarias.

What am I doing reading SweetMarias? After all, I’m sitting now just a hundred yards away from thousands of pounds of top-quality green coffees from all over the planet, sourced by the incomparable Lindsey Bolger and the fine folks on the Green Mountain coffee team. The simple answer is, I can’t help myself! There’s just so much diversity of flavor out there to be enjoyed… and I want it all.

So, yes, the UPS man will soon be making green deliveries to chez Cadmus. I’ll try not to embarrass myself (again) this year with my “The New Crop Coffees Are In” dance.

Posted on May 25, 2005 - by deCadmus

Health-Enhanced Coffees?

I’m trying to keep an open mind… really, I am. I’ve been pondering Kenneth Davids’ most recent coffee reviews, Health-Enhanced Coffees. And while I’m on-board with the idea that coffee is actually much more healthful than we might have ever realized I’m much more ambivalent about doctoring up a perfectly good cup with vitamins and medicinal what-have-you. You might say I’m finding the idea hard to swallow.

Happily enough, Kenneth himself seems of the same mind, and closes:

“…it’s hard not to conclude that if coffee is indeed as health-enhancing as it now appears to be, then we might be better off simply picking a good one, roasting it sensitively and enjoying it in its naked glory, without doing peculiar things to it like steaming it or roasting it in a sealed drum or adding things to it.”

Whew!

Category: Bloggle/Coffee

Posted on May 24, 2005 - by deCadmus

Geisha the Belle of the Ball Again

Hacienda La Esmeralda works its magic for the second year in a row.

In today’s “Best of Panama” Specialty Coffee online auction hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama, green specialty coffee beans from the Hacienda La Esmeralda estate sold to Volcafe Specialty Coffee, LLC for the extraordinary price of US$20.10 a pound. The winning bid is due to the high quality of this prize-winning coffee, which was sought by several bidders. In comparison, commercial-grade coffee currently trades in commodity markets for around US$1.20 a pound. Specialty coffee is defined as a coffee that has no defects and a distinctive flavor in the cup.

Hacienda La Esmeralda recently won first place at the SCAA’s Cupping Pavilion competition in April 2005 and first place at the Rainforest Alliance Cupping competition in 2004. Last year, coffee from Hacienda La Esmeralda set an online coffee auction record when it sold for US$21 dollars a pound.

Who, you might ask, is this buyer… this Volcafe? One of world’s largest coffee traders, Volcafe buys and sells some 15% of the planet’s coffee supply. All this goes to say that, it’s possible some of this year’s top auction lot may show up at a roaster near you… And if it does, you’ll pay dearly for it.

Posted on May 24, 2005 - by deCadmus

Geisha: A Coffee’s Cinderella Story

If you’re a coffee hound you’ve no doubt heard the Geisha story by now… A coffee grower in Panama finds a little-known and slightly mysterious coffee cultivar growing on his farm, takes it to auction and scores the highest price ever paid for green coffee. A one-in-a-lifetime Cinderella story, right? Maybe not.

The spectacular success of the Geisha at auction is a celebrated event to be sure… but it’s discovery wasn’t entirely accidental. It was the result of a new farm owner’s systematic approach to learn just what his crop was made of. Selective sampling throughout the farm revealed that one far-flung corner was planted with a peculiar (for Panama, anyway) long-bean varietal with astonishing taste characteristics and aroma; sweet, intensely fragrant, and superbly balanced. It was overlooked — forgotten, really — because it was a low-yield variety in one of many growing regions that had been replanted with higher-yield coffee trees.

The Geisha story underlines one of the essential issues of specialty coffee today: whether to grow high-yielding cultivars for greater volume, or low-yield plants that produce higher — sometimes substantially higher — quality. We can only hope that growers are finally learning that quality rules.

Last year’s fairy tale coffee tree is now being cultivated by the thousands on farms all over Panama, but it will be perhaps another three years before we learn just how this variety produces outside of that tiny little corner of the Boquete valley. Meanwhile, farmers in neighboring countries — Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala — are clamoring for some of those golden beans. For now, Panama isn’t parting with them.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It could be that the Geisha is especially intolerant of disease or pests. It could be that, planted elsewhere, the cultivar is no more remarkable than any other Bourbon coffee. (Mind you, simply removing those latter-day high-yield hybrids and replanting with Bourbon would be a wonderful thing!)

Me, I’d like to think there could be other Cinderella beans sunning themselves on some remote mountain slope — in Panama or elsewhere — just waiting for someone to come along and whisk them to the ball.