Posts Tagged ‘Coffee House’

Posted on April 27, 2005 - by deCadmus

How to Find a Great Coffee House

…and avoid the rest.

My recent trip to Seattle offered one sublime coffee experience after another. The place has a finely developed coffee culture that’s grown far beyond Starbucks’ 98 coffee houses. The weather, the food, the sound [both Puget and garage-band] the scene and the people have commingled into a fertile breeding ground for hundreds of independent coffee houses, each intent on producing the best coffee, period.

Just the same, the emerald city doesn’t have a lock on fine coffee and espresso… Matter of fact, most of the baristas who’s efforts I sampled hailed from somewhere else. More than ever, it’s not so much where you are, but who’s behind the counter that determines whether you’ll be shamelessly licking the demitasse for every last drop, or stunned into bitter silence by a beverage perhaps better used as a paint solvent.

The good news: this far-flung coffee culture is rising. The bad news: it remains seemingly random. So how, then, can the hapless coffee-hound sniff out a good coffee house? Well, it doesn’t hurt to follow your nose… Failing that, try the usual sources, or new and interesting sources for leads. And when you’ve got a prospect or two mapped out, here’s a few things to keep in mind…

A good coffee house is a busy place. If you walk in to a shop that’s quiet as a tomb and as densely populated, think twice. So maybe they’re having a brief ebb in the tide of caffeine-crazed humanity that regularly rushes in upon their door. Maybe not. Take a moment and look around…

• If you see a white crust of month-old milk on steam wands… walk away.
• If you see the portafilter anywhere but locked into its group… walk away.
• If you see a tub of pre-ground espresso… walk away.
• If you see oily beans clinging to the sides of a dusty grinder’s hopper… walk away.
• If the barista looks less interested than you in being there… walk away.

Got any tips you want to share?

Tomorrow… signs to look for when you place your coffee order, and, the proper care and feeding of a professional barista.

Posted on July 14, 2004 - by deCadmus

Coffee History Series: Drink of Patriots

It’s December 16th, 1773 on Union Street, in Boston’s north end. Here, in the heart of the city’s financial district, stands an imposing two-story building. Above its door swings a copper dragon, long since turned green in Boston’s salt air. This is the Green Dragon Tavern & Coffee House – meeting hall, gathering place, lodge house – and crucible for the American Revolution.

All evening long patrons have been entering under the sign of the dragon, and “Mohawks� – rebels carrying hatchets and clubs, faces painted with coal dust – have been furtively slipping out the back door into the night, en route to Griffin’s wharf. Tomorrow three shiploads of tea – despised both for its outrageous tax burden, and the monopoly granted the East India Tea Company by the British Parliament – are to be offloaded under the watchful eyes and guns of the British Admiral.

For weeks, patrons of the Green Dragon have been discussing tea, taxes and tyranny over their cups of coffee and rum. With passionate arguments led by Joseph Warren and Paul Revere, noted Sons of Liberty, the conversation becomes earnest… and swings from impassioned debate to a call for action.

Tonight, at Griffin’s wharf, the Mohawks answer that call. Boston Harbor becomes the largest teacup ever known as the entire tea consignment – all 90,000 pounds – is tossed overboard. Two thousand colonists watch as 150 Mohawks – men they know, despite their thin disguises, as pillars of their community – heave scores of smashed tea trunks into the harbor. In the morning, in a spectacular showing of fraternity, not one of the spectators would recall a single face.

It’s a defining event. In the years to follow, drinking tea in the American colonies would mark you as a British loyalist. Coffee – untaxed, and not subject to British monopoly – becomes on this fateful night in December, the drink of patriots.

Posted on July 7, 2004 - by deCadmus

Coffee History Series: Penny Universities

Coffee made its introduction to Europe in the early 17th century as medicine for what ails you… whether your ailment include headaches, consumption, dropsy, gout, scurvy or any number of sundry and unmentionable maladies.

First offered by apothecaries in Venice and street vendors in Milan, coffee found footing in Vienna by way of a failed Ottoman invasion, and found the fancy of Germany’s upper crust: it inspired Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata, and obsessed Ludvig van Beethoven, who was rumored to grind precisely 60 beans for each aromatic cup. [A recipe that makes a very good cup... even if it's preparation is a wee bit time-intensive.]

It was in London, however, where coffee — and coffee houses — became the rage. The first London coffee house opened at Oxford University in 1650, and by 1700 more than 2000 coffeehouses dotted the London landscape. Early coffeehouses served more than coffee; they also served as hotbeds of conversation, politics and commerce. One coffeehouse might serve as a gathering place for physicians, another for actors, or musicians, or lawyers or clergy. These gathering places became known as Penny Universities… for the price of a cup of coffee, one could sit for hours and participate in the discourse of the day.

Or, one could conduct his business of the day — and a great many did. Mr. Edward Lloyd’s coffee house catered largely to merchants and sailors of the day, as well as the underwriters who met over coffee to offer insurance. In time, Lloyd’s Coffee House became Lloyd’s of London, the storied insurance company. Likewise, other coffeehouses — centers for news, currency and futures markets — became newspapers, banks, and stock exchanges, many of which thrive still today.

Behold, the power of coffee!

Posted on May 14, 2004 - by deCadmus

Battle of the Coffee Icons

When icons do battle, it’s epic stuff… Godzilla and Mothra. Kirk and Kahn. IBM and Apple. Juan and the Mermaid?

The Colombian Coffee Federation - that even sounds epic! - fronted by the fictional Juan Valdez, is preparing for battle with the Siren of Seattle. The Seattle Times calls it thisaway:

Long before Starbucks hit the mainstream, Valdez was the face of coffee to many Americans, leading his mule through coffee fields and grocery-store aisles on TV ads sponsored by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia.

Now, the federation is looking to parlay Valdez’s familiar image into a global chain of high-end coffee shops. Ten Juan Valdez stores are up and running in Colombia, and federation chief Gabriel Silva told Reuters this week that the chain will open at least eight U.S. stores later this year.

It’s a bold move for the Colombian group… and the logic is eminently clear: why settle for pennies per pound for green coffee beans when the beverage business gets dollars per cup?

The upside is huge, but so’s the risk. Does Juan still carry the iconic power he held while Mrs. Olson was hawking Folgers, and Mr. Coffee was the state-of-the-art of brewing tech? Can any coffee house stand on the one leg of a single origin, ’specially one that’s the very definition of mild, unassuming coffee? We’ll see soon enough.

Bonus question: What was Juan’s mule’s name? [Look in the comments, below, for the answer!]