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What is specialty coffee? Do you know?

What is specialty coffee? Do you know?



Specialty Coffee

by Ric Rhinehart





In a 1998 article for the Specialty Coffee Chronicle Don Holly wrote the following as he grappled with the question of defining specialty coffee: “My understanding of the origin of the term ‘specialty coffee’ is that it was first coined by Erna Knutsen, of Knutsen Coffee Ltd., in a speech to the delegates of an international coffee conference in Montreuil, France, in 1978. In essence, the… Continue

Added by Spyridon Gkinnis on December 24, 2009 at 7:13pm — 1 Comment

"No Brainer" first shot and other meanderings

Yesterday evening after about an hour dialing in the PID's for the brew boilers pulled the first shots on our Roastery Cafe's new Linea 4AV (new as in newly rebuilt from the chasis up with dual brew PID). No brainer cuz have up to manual functionality only, Friday electronic controls and brain go back in. Somewhat surprisingly first shot was quite decent. Somewhat surprising since no dial in the grind shot on the Major, simply adjust the grinds by feel between the fingers before grinding… Continue

Added by Mike McGinness on December 24, 2009 at 8:09am — No Comments

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

People often ask me how many times I see a movie before reviewing it, and with rare exceptions the answer is "Just once." But a week and a half after I saw Sherlock Holmes, I found that the film had all but disappeared from my mind, and so I went back to see it a second time. I don't think it was just the usual clutter of holiday releases that caused the memory of this… Continue

Added by Alex Lens on December 24, 2009 at 4:42am — No Comments

Close to opening...

Well just when I thought things weren't going to work out then ended up working out after all. I finally got all the plumbing and electrical done, I was putting the sheet rock up last night and mudding and taping (always fun) and even installed 1 of the 3 LCD tv's in the main dining area. Carpeted the lounge area to get ready for the furniture which they tried to deliver yesterday and wouldn't fit!! So now I have to go and pick out new furniture, that sucks. I am getting very excited to share… Continue

Added by Java Gem Coffee Drive Thru on December 23, 2009 at 7:02am — No Comments

Coffee Shop Name

I've been playing around with different name possibilities and logos for a while now.



On one hand, I do wish that I had the name figured out as one less 'to do' on an already infinitely long list. On the other hand, I'm comforted by the fact that I'm not going to settle for a sub-par name that doesn't capture the essence of the business I'm making plans to create and that when the name finally does come to be, it will be 'the one' much in the same way that I knew my wife was 'the… Continue

Added by Mike M on December 23, 2009 at 3:13am — No Comments

Road Trip Coffee Addiction Are We There Yet?

Drugs We Never Close



The first thing I notice is the TV antenna. It's affixed to that skinny mast. There's no rotor. Its pointing like a compass toward civilization. This image is testimony that although cable has yet to arrive on scene, drugs have made themselves at home here at 45 Main Street USA where "we never close."



I snapped the picture via Blackberry while visiting this anonymous… Continue

Added by Pat Riggs on December 22, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

2800 Miles Later

http://thatcoffeeguy.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/2800-miles-later/

Added by Bryan Wray on December 22, 2009 at 12:04am — No Comments

Climbing and Coffee

So I have noticed a theme where I am residing. The rock climbing gyms in my area are starting to steer towards selling coffee beans or something along those lines. The gym that I am a very loyal patron to has started selling beans from a company called Coffee AM and the new gym being built in Atlanta (right down the road) will have an entire floor devoted to a coffee shop, yoga center and weight lifting gym. I worked at a small coffee house in my immediate area whose target market was cyclists.… Continue

Added by Gabe Windham on December 21, 2009 at 8:29pm — No Comments

Business Plan - Blank Canvas

Today I reached the point in my coffee education where I felt ready to begin developing the first iteration of my business plan.



The problem is that I have endless ideas, some of which I have formally developed in a binder, and am only now starting to figure out how to transcribe and articulate those ideas in the form of a business plan. Much easier said than done..



I once read about a clock-maker, or 'timepiece' maker, who was renowned for his artistic brilliance and… Continue

Added by Mike M on December 19, 2009 at 11:28pm — 11 Comments

Jumped one of the last hurdles...

Bruce, my health inspector (both for my existing downtown Paradise Cafe and now soon to open Roastery Coffeehouse) stopped by this afternoon to look the place over. He said all looks good and approved the pre-open plan. Now just a few (hundred, or is it thousand:-) remaining things to do before the actual final pre-open inspection sometime before NY Day Grand Opening Party... Drive fast (and safe) Bry! :-)

Added by Mike McGinness on December 15, 2009 at 5:00pm — 4 Comments

The Roaster is here!

The gas fitter was in today and tomorrow the venting goes in. Bean order is placed. Nervous! Excited!
Hoping to be running our beans for the New Year...Expecting hiccups.

Added by Stickman on December 14, 2009 at 5:43pm — 3 Comments

Coffee is a Four Minute Novel

Customer Number Nine at Blue Bottle



Brewing coffee is a four minute novel.



Pulling a shot of espresso is a mere fraction of that.



You grind, you heat, coffee blooms, and then it dies. The novel, the ceremony, takes on the seriousness of a game.



For example, coffee is like a game of pinball. Pinball, like brewing coffee, is random, encased in glass, and an event, once the ball is launched, almost entirely… Continue

Added by Pat Riggs on December 13, 2009 at 1:04pm — 1 Comment

Seed Prep Theory

So it has been quite a while since I've posted here. My http://journal.youngtreecoffee.com/ receives most of my blogging attention. I think this is new idea might actually hold some weight. Live links and pictures can be found on my blog listed above.



On my last trip to the farm I spent a lot of time watching coffee dry. When I had full-time employment obligations in the US I was not able to spend as much time as I… Continue

Added by byron on December 12, 2009 at 7:53am — 1 Comment

Hard Work for Hard Times

So I am currently working at a shop I started out at in January of 2009. I left in March of 2009 to go work with another shop, Cafe:ine, which I value very much. Upon returning to Cafe:ine, I began to see a lot of the flaws with the company and began to pick up on the issues we were having and how they were being dealt with. Our location was very difficult to get to, our target market was extremely small (cyclists), we changed ideas for the store quite frequently, disallowing our current ideas… Continue

Added by Gabe Windham on December 10, 2009 at 5:15pm — No Comments

Honey Coffee

Pan roasted some honey coffee from Panama this morning.
Anyone know much about this new "honey" processing? It creates quite the sweet and rounded cup thus far, even from last year's crop.

Added by Michelle on December 8, 2009 at 7:46pm — 8 Comments

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