Archive for May, 2007

Posted on May 30, 2007 - by deCadmus

The Coffee Phenom: Hacienda la Esmeralda Does It Again

US $130 a pound. Green. Wowsers.

La Esmeralda has done it again… not only winning the Best of Panama competition four years in a row, but thrashing the competition in a bidding war that drove its price to dizzying heights, topping all other competition lots by a factor of 10. If you’ll recall, this coffee is the entirely unique and stunning Gesha cultivar that was discovered on the Esmeralda farm just a few years ago.

Congrats to the winning group… an alliance of 49th Parallel Roasters, Coffee Klatch Roasting, Groundwork Coffee Company, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, The Roasterie, Willoughby’s (Roastmasters.com) and Zoka Coffee Roasters.
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Posted on May 28, 2007 - by deCadmus

What I Did With My Memorial Day Weekend

I know, I know… a crawfish boil isn’t a native Vermont tradition. And having mudbugs flown in live from Louisiana isn’t exactly in the spirit of that whole eatin’ locally thing. But sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

Whooee. A good time, y’all. I guarontee.

Posted on May 27, 2007 - by deCadmus

The Observer: What’s the Hidden Cost of a £2 Latte?

The Observer today features a weighty article on the filmmakers of Black Gold, some of the larger players in the coffee trade, and the challenges facing consumers who seek absolution in their coffee cup.

“There are few products of capitalism more pertinent than coffee, the world’s most popular drink, with more than two billion cups drunk every day. And there are few products more economically complex. The final price of a cup of coffee in the West will have absorbed the costs of insurance, taxes, transport, processing, packaging, marketing, storage and much more. But of the £2 charged for a cappuccino in a British coffee shop, an average farmer gets less than 2p.

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Posted on May 25, 2007 - by deCadmus

From the Bloggle Archives: The Legend of Kaldi

So little time, so many things to do… in lieu of continued empty space where new posts should be, here’s a classic from the Bloggle’s Coffee History Series: The Legend of Kaldi –

Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Ethiopia � or maybe Abyssinia, it was a very long time ago, after all � there lived a young goatherd named Kaldi. By all accounts [and there are many, as the story has been retold many, many times] Kaldi was a very responsible young man, and not one to do foolish things.

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Posted on May 16, 2007 - by deCadmus

Waxing Nostalgic: The FreshRoast Coffee Roaster

All this talk of home-roasters and roasting in one’s very own kitchen has got me waxing nostalgic. And so I dug around the roasting bench in the garage and excavated my very first coffee roaster — the FreshRoast — and after a bit of dusting and inspecting to make sure that all was in apparent working order, I started roasting coffee. The neurotic golden retriever — a creature who’s memory is clearly better than I’ve had any reason to believe — ran for cover. Fortunately (at least so far as the dog is concerned) while I did fill the house with the aroma of roasting coffee, I did not set off the smoke alarms. Honestly, when you’re roasting about 2 ounces of coffee at a time, you’d have to really throw yourself into it and put some serious dark on those beans to create a lot of smoke. (more…)

Posted on May 14, 2007 - by deCadmus

Banished Home-Roaster? Meet the Behmor.

In Vermont, it’s said, there’s nine months of winter and three months’ rough sledding. While that’s fine for skiing and snowmobiling and such, it can put a real damper on the aspirations of the dedicated home coffee roaster, banished to the garage or the wide open spaces beyond after that incident with the dark-roast batch that triggered the smoke alarms at midnight.

It’s little surprise, then, that home roasters everywhere — in wintry places, especially — find themselves drawn like so many moths to the flame of a coffee roaster due to hit retailers soon… the Behmor 1600. Its spec sheet is promising: batches of up to one pound, a number of programmed roast profiles and the ability to tweak them on-the-fly at roast-time, quiet operation so you can hear the audible cues of roast progression, and built-in smoke abatement technology. (more…)

Posted on May 13, 2007 - by deCadmus

A message to my wife (from her daughter)

Posted on May 12, 2007 - by deCadmus

More Voices, More Views, More Coffee

Some updating to ye ol’ Blogroll is somewhat overdue, at least so far as the college of coffee blogs goes. There’s lots of interesting new voices out there — folks who are pushing the envelope on roasting, brewing, pulling shots and delivering an over-the-top customer experience — and at the same time making some of the old-guard “coffee men” raise their eyebrows, first in alarm, and then in appreciation for what they find in their cup.

• Stephen Morrissey is barista trainer at Bewleys Coffee Co in Dublin Ireland, and his site — Flying Thud — documents his adventures in coffee. Lots of espresso porn, of course, but he’s also a fan of the drip. His posts will make you pine for European coffee shops you’ve never been to.
• Barrett Jones is a Canadian national barista champ and until recently worked the bar at Vancouver’s most excellent Caffe Artigiano. His site — Dwell Time — offers a glimpse of the extraordinary Vancouver coffee scene.
• Stephen Leighton’s blog — Has Bean — offers the perspective of a coffee guy who sources and roasts some fairly stupendous coffees, which sadly I know by reputation, only. (The reputation is certainly deserved: UKBC winner James Hoffman poured his way to the top of competition with a Has Bean custom blend.) Stephen’s been known to drop by here from time to time to offer an insightful comment or two.
• And last but not least — Barismo — a Boston based group blog contributed to by Jaime, Ben, Ben and Silas. Their writing spans coffee roasting, cupping and delivering a top-tier coffee experience in the coffee house. Oh! And they have a shiny cool tamper design.

Go visit one and all. Frequently. Maybe they’ll each get the hint to post more often.

Posted on May 12, 2007 - by deCadmus

Today: Celebrate a world event you never heard of!

You’ve been counting the days and it’s finally here… today is World Fair Trade Day!

What? Whatd’ya mean you never heard of it? Why it’s… it’s Big! It’s HUGE! It’s on everybody’s calendar, right? No? Well… I hear it’s big in Japan.

I guess it’s understandable you’ve never heard of it. Heck, until just a week or three ago even TransFair USA was a little confused about just where to find it on the calendar. And even today TransFair sends visitors seeking resources about World Fair Trade Day to a third-party web site that offers little more than empty pages and empty promises of world-changing stuff to come.

Really, now… that’s just embarrassing.

Despite the apparent cone of silence surrounding the day, there are about 50 events in honor of World Fair Trade Day in the US and Canada… perhaps you can find one near you. (Yo, Vermonters, there’s an event at the Brattleboro Farmers’ Market if you’re so inclined.)

Oh! And while on the subject of upcoming events, don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day. I bet *that* one’s on your calendar!

Posted on May 11, 2007 - by deCadmus

Three Years on the Commons

Three years ago today I adopted a Creative Commons license for Bloggle.

I’m pleased to note I’ve finally adopted a Creative Commons license for the content that is Bloggle. That is to say, I’ve chosen to reserve some rights… a refreshing change, I think, to an increasingly wacky copyright system.

Since that time, articles I’ve written for Bloggle have been widely syndicated, reprinted, posted above counter-tops in coffee shops, emailed and otherwise freely shared. Chances are you’re reading this on something other than my web site right now, maybe Google, or NetVibes, or Bloglines or some other kind of feed aggregator.

That’s pretty spiffy. More, it’s probably the driving reason why Bloggle’s audience is now some 600% greater than it was three years ago, despite the fact that I’ve sometimes not updated the site for, er… extended periods of time. [Sorry.]

Thanks for your continued readership. Nice to have you along for the ride…