Even though they are somewhat late the new centrals are starting to hit our cupping table now. Due to some technical glicks I haven't been able to let you know about them, but i'll have some pics up soon. We tasted about 8 different El Salvadoran coffees that day from different regions with friends from the industry. A lot of great coffees on the table that day. Spicy, tobacco, hints of fruit. Great stuff in the dry and wet grounds. Colombian coffees are an issues this year. Production and striking workers are creating a shortage. We have secured enough of our Mesa De Los Santos to satisfy our needs for now. Check out the farm at their website www.cafemesadelossantos.com. They really are a progressive farm for the environment, employee and coffee. This is why we have had such a long relationship with them. If you are a frequent visitor to our Cedar Hills shop you can now purchase coffee online and have it delivered with our regular Thursday delivery to the shop. A great big thank you to Yolonda for being our first customer of that program. I hope that French Roast creates a great weekend morning with the paper.

The warm weather is coming and if you are like me you had to shed your jacket or sweater for your walk/ride home from work.  If you are thinking of having a nice cold fountian style drink as a benefit for your customers and staff now is the time to plan.  World Cup Coffee service can place these units inside your office so you can have just a splash of a beverage or a big tanker cup full.  The luxuory of not being limited to the 12 ounce can is a benefit shouted out by many of our customers.  You also don't have to deal with returning the recycling of the cans.  Contact our office service team to discuss the possibilities of one of these units inside your office.  We offer a line of Coke and Pepsi products in Diet and Caffeine free.  We also offer Gatorade, Orange, Root Beer as additional selections.  Just think how nice it will be to sit at your desk on that 90 degree day with a cold soda in your hand. 

Justin, Parker and I cupped four coffees today.  We cupped current crop Costa Rica La Luna.  We are excited to see this coffee come back and are no doubt going to offer it again.  Its flavors are great with a surprising nuttiness and aroma that makes you think of a Washed Brazil.  However, once you taste the brilliant acidity that our roaster produces in this coffee you know why we like it and are glad to see the new crop come in. 

The other coffee I'll write about is the Sumatran Tabu Jamu.  Another coffee that we are glad to be back this year.  This is a coffee Justin discovered last year.  I really think he just liked to say Tabu Jamu, but once we cupped it last year we were talking more about the coffee than its name.  This year there is a noticible berry taste backed up by what Parker called cooked beets.  There is a great lingering flavor that coated the top of my tounge with this coffee.  In other words it has a great body and flavor that will work great as an origin coffee.

More centrals will be coming soon.  The crops are late this year but so far we have some good quality.

I got a new toy to play with for our brewing experiments.  A Yama 5 cup vacuum brewer.  A great way to brew a cup of coffee!  There is much you can play with and it competes well with a french press brew.  We did an experiment with our Colombian Valle De Tanza.  We did a brew with the vacuum and a drip brew to see the difference.  What we found out is there is a great learning curve to vacuum brewing.  Patience is key because it you have to dedicate a good 15-20 min for the brew.  The final result was an unsatisfactory brew in the vacuum because we feel we turned the flame off too early and the coffee didn't steep long enough.  Therefore the flavor experiment will be determined when we get a better brew from the vacuum.  The drip brew was great.  Nutty with caramel notes and good body.

The top picture is the beginning of the steeping process.  Water below boils from a butane burner and forces the water up into the bed of grounds.  Then at a time set by the brewmaster the flame is turned off and the lower globe cools to create a vacuum to pull the brewed coffee into the lower bowl.  A cloth filter keeps the grounds from entering the lower globe.  We used 1.2 ounces for the grounds on a french press grind.  Our steep time was only 2 min. and this was becasue we turned the flame off too early.  The vacuum to the lower bowl starts in about 20 seconds.  Keep the flame hot for about 3 minutes once the upper globe is full to maintain the steeping process.  We'll let you know the results of the next brew.

Here is a link to some other good experiments and info on vacuum brewing.  www.coffeed.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1983

Until then its time for a bagel.

After being down two weeks with a cold I finally made it back to the cupping table.  When you cup on a daily basis and all of a sudden you stop because of a cold its like missing an old friend.  Your day doesn't start out right and you can't wait to get back.  So today we cupped our Puddle Jumper Espresso in a water quench experiment set up by Justin & Parker.  We did a roast with a 10 and 15 second water quench.  (Water Quench happens at the end of the roasting cycle to stop the roasting process)  Quite a difference.  The body of of the 10 second quench was thick and velvety and there was a noticible increase in sweetness. The flavor had a chocolate tangerine going on.  The 15 second, while still quite a great coffee, was a little more muted in the cup and the body wasn't as smooth.  Now we'll have to pull some shots and see the results.