December '10 revisited

So you might be asking yourself, what was Grouchy John up to last month? I'm more than happy to tell you but more importantly if you are asking yourself that question you really need to get a life.

The month started off with another First Friday event. This was the second one we did and we were a little more prepared for all the in's and out's of what to do. For instance during our first outing we almost failed our Health Inspection but on this one we passed with flying colors. Also we added some new equipment to our inventory. We bought a Bunn pour over coffee brewer (instead of using a 15 year old Mr. Coffee). This required us to purchase a new generator to run it because last month we were barely able to run all the equipment we had on the single generator we had. So for that alone it is well worth it. We also added a new ice chest, more steam pitchers/spoons/shot glasses, a hand wash station, and expanded our drink menu. We now offer Chai Tea Lattes, Salted Caramel Lattes, and for the holiday season Eggnog Lattes.  All around it was a great night and I thank everyone who came out to support us.

The setup for First Friday

We also worked a the Berkley Bunker Holiday Extravaganza which was a total bust.  There was something like 50 vendors there but no one came to shop.  Ninety percent of the coffee we sold went to the other vendors.  I blame the organizer of the event as it was her responsibility to make sure that it was promoted correctly.  That will be the last time we do a craft fair unless it has some proven customer traffic.

Grouchy John at the Berkley Bunker Holiday Extravaganza 

I have also been serving coffee and espresso at the events my family has.  So I served at our Xmas dinner and also at a party we had for all the December birthdays.  I love getting together with my family and now with this coffee thing they keep me constantly busy making drinks.  I can't complain though because what they don't know is that I'm using them as my quality control and also experimenting on them with new any new drinks I want to try out.

Grouchy John being grouchy over Xmas

With almost 3 months into this gig and gaining experience and knowledge by the day I've decided that the best way to proceed is to become a mobile coffee vendor.  Originally I just wanted to travel to different events around town, setup, sell coffee and then leave.  Unfortunately there are just not enough events to make this profitable.  I figured I would need to do 3 or 4 events a week to be able to make money when in reality there are only maybe 3 or 4 events a month that come up to work.  So being mobile and having the ability to work out of a trailer or a truck will allow me to go to any business or event to sell my awesome drinks 7 days a week.  So the next few weeks are going to be filled with finding a vehicle or trailer that meets my needs and getting it approved to go out on the road.  In the meantime I'm still looking for events that we can work at.

Other things that happened:
- Meet with an accountant
- Bought a new espresso machine and grinder
- Opened business bank accounts
- Read a lot about health requirements, mobile vending, and the coffee business

Lessons learned:
- Pre-ground espresso does not extract the same 4 hours after it was ground.
- If you run extension cords on the sidewalk people will trip over them and you will lose power in the middle of a shot
- Only ice cream vendors can serve Hot Chocolate at First Friday
- My family rocks

Events coming up:
1/6/11 - Winterland Exhibition at SPACE studios 6-9pm
1/7/11 - First Friday on Casino Center between Colorado and California 6-10pm

Seattle Coffee Shops

First off let me apologize for a somewhat misleading title of this blog post. Although this post is about the coffee shops I visited while in Seattle, I was only able to go to two of them. So it's not as comprehensive as I would like it to be but the two I visited left a lasting impression.

Secondly, I know that Starbucks started in Seattle but I couldn't believe how many there are in the downtown area. I thought Seattle was suppose to be the top of the Coffee Culture food chain in the USA, but with so many Starbucks in such a small area I was beginning to have my doubts. But not to worry those doubts were put to rest once I got out of the downtown area.


So the first coffee shop I visited was Caffe Vita in Capitol Hill. Since I've heard good things about Caffe Vita and also liked their booth at Coffeefest, this place was on the top of my list to visit.  As I made the 2 mile hike from my hotel downtown to the Capitol Hill area my faith in Seattle as the center of all things coffee in the US was restored as I must have passed a dozen independent coffee shops with about half of those roasting their own beans.  My first impression of Caffe Vita was not a good one. It's a kind of dark and rustic place which too me didn't seem very inviting. Add to that the Barista put my small cappuccino in a to go cup without asking if that is what I wanted. With two strikes against it I took my to go cup of cappuccino and sat at one of the tables. There were a handful of people working furiously on their laptops in the cafe, which showed they had free wi-fi and didn't mind people hanging out.  I did also like how there was plenty of room and nice sized tables for people to work at and that there was also a upstairs area for even more room. As waited for my cappuccino to cool down a little I took in the decor again and started to see things I didn't notice initially. Like the art (see below) on the walls or the huge window that lets you see their gigantic roasting machine in the back of the building or the display case with Coffee Cups from other shops from around the world.

So with feeling a little better about this place I tried the cappuccino.  I was happy that it was well made and tasted good. And although the customer service given by the Barista sucked (also had a hard time buying some coffee as leaving), the coffee was good enough that I would give Caffe Vita a second chance and also my recommendation to others.

My next, second, and final stop was at Stumptown Coffee which was more to my liking.  It was a smaller shop then Caffe Vita but was better lit and more inviting.  Walking up to the counter to order I couldn't help but notice the beautiful La Marzocco Mistral machine that they use.

The staff here was very friendly and pegged me instantly as a vistor attending Coffeefest.  They not only made me a the best cappuccino I had that day but also offered advice about other coffee shops in the area to try out, some advice on the the different beans they offered for sale, and just some random chit chat.  This was a throughly enjoyable coffee shop experience and I highly recommend Stumptown Coffee to anyone who might ever be in the area.

One a final note, I know that a lot of other blogs that review coffee shops have straight espresso in order to determine the quality of beans, skill of the Barista, and taste of the drink.  And one day I might do that, but for now I'm going to stick with cappuccino's and tell you wether I liked them or not.  The coffee shop experience is so much more to me then how well made the espresso is and besides I'm just not the pretentious.

Coffeefest Recap Part III - The Seminars

For Part II of my Coffeefest Recap go here.

I was only able to attend a few of the seminars that were being held during Coffeefest because I was only there for 2 of the 3 days of the conference.  Which is why it is good that the organizers of Coffeefest had the foresight to have their most popular seminars held multiple times during the 3 days.  Most of the seminars I attended were very informative and led by people in the industry who were well versed in the subject matter.  Each seminar was held to just under an hour which seemed to be enough time to cover the subject matter and still have time left for some Q&A.  Since I'm looking to start my coffee business I focused on subjects that pertain to that, but they had seminars that covered everything from Latte Art to Espresso Machine maintenance to Roasting to Water quality to...you get the idea.  So with that here is a summary of the seminars that I attended:

Real Numbers from Someone who Operates a Successful Coffee Company 
The instructor of this seminar was Wes Herman the owner of Woods Coffee.  Woods Coffee started in 2002 and now has 9 stores in the Seattle area.  This seminar covered some of the costs associated with starting a coffee shop and the general monthly operating percentages that should be followed for things such as Cost of Goods, Labor, Occupancy Cost, Store operating, General Costs, and Net profit.  I found this class to be informative and liked that it was led by someone who can bring real world experience to newbies like me.

Opening a new Cafe?
This seminar was led by Tom Palm who has helped open over 700 cafes in his career.  He covered a lot of what to pay attention to during a build out of a new cafe, such building and health codes, building the menu, designing a proper floor plan, how much does it cost and how long will it take.  This seminar was definitely worth the time and made me aware of how important it is to pay attention to building and health codes.

Tea 101
This seminar was held by the owner of Maya Tea Company out of Tucson AZ.  This covered all the basics of Tea.  I found out where tea comes from, the different types of tea, how to correctly brew tea, and how tea can enhance the product offering in Coffee shops.  I found it very informative and made me very thirsty.

A Fresh Marketing Strategy for this Economy
This seminar was put on by Burce Milletto who is the President of Bellissimo Coffee Info Group and also one of the owners of Water Avenue Coffee.  Although billed as a seminar that will teach new marketing strategies, I did not learn anything new.  I'm sure there are people who did find value in the presentation(as this seminar was packed), but when your new marketing strategies are to use Facebook and Twitter, build your brand, and know your customer, it's really not that new anymore.

As I said above, for the most part all of the seminars were very informative and I learned a lot.

Coffeefest Recap Part II - The Show Floor

You can read the first part of my Coffeefest Recap here

Espresso to the Rescue

So with the Barista Training complete, it was time to hit the show floor and see what this whole Coffeefest thing was all about. I've been to a lot of trade shows in my time, some smaller and some larger then Coffeefest, but none as much fun. Of course a lot of my excitement could have been fueled by the dozen or so shots of espresso I had at the Barista training. And this just continued on the show floor as every other booth was serving either espresso, or lattes, or cappuccinos, or sort of caffeinated drink or food. There were all types of vendors there, from Roasters to Espresso Machine Makers to Bakers to Coffee Shops to Tea Suppliers to Gelato Makers to General Part Suppliers to pretty much anything to do with coffee that you can think of.  There was even an old ambulance that was converted to a mobile Espresso truck for sale there (picture to the right).

One of my favorite booths was the Cafe Vita booth where they were doing some very tasty pour overs using Coava's new Kone Coffee Filter.

They were also pulling some amazing shots from this manual espresso machine, which I found to be quite a visual experience.  I'm sure this is probably old hat to most in the coffee industry but I've never seen anything like it before.

I also enjoyed my time at the La Marzocco booth where I got to have some hands on with a 3 group Linea espresso machine with a automatic shot timer embedded in it (which came in very handy).

Other booths I really enjoyed were the Dippin Dots booth, the Seattle's Favorite Gourmet Cookies booth, the Synesso booth, and the Dillanos Coffee Roasters booth.

Everyone I talked to was very friendly, helpful, and patient with all my questions no matter how stupid they were.  I just wish I had more time to spend at each booth as there was just so much to see and learn.  So far Coffeefest has far exceeded any expectations I had and I still haven't even been to a lot of the classes I want to attend (that will be Part III).

Coffeefest Recap Part I - Barista training

I first came across Coffeefest a few months ago when just browsing the net about different coffee subjects.  There are 4 Coffeefest trade shows every year that bring together all aspects of the speciality coffee industry into one place.   This was the last one for 2010 and it was held in Seattle at the end of October.  Although it was still months away, I was intrigued.  It sounded like fun and would be very informative for me.  However I really didn't plan on ever going, just because of the cost of the trip didn't seem prudent at the time.  But as the date got closer and closer I slowly changed my mind and with a week to go I pulled the trigger and purchased a ticket and booked the travel.  I also signed up for a Barista training course that was advertised as a course for all levels that will teach the basics of making espresso and espresso based drinks.  The class consisted of about 16 people and was conducted by one of the owners of Coda Coffee (a Denver based coffee roaster).  It was about 1 hour of lecture and 3 hours of hands on training.  The lecture covered all the basics in making espresso and frothing milk, but what I was really there for was the hands on portion.  There were two espresso machines so the class was split in two for the hands on.  As this was the first time I would be using a commercial grade espresso machine and I was super excited.  We were using a Nuova Simonelli Espresso Machine:

This machine has two groupheads with a push pull steam system, that was pure awesomeness!!!  It took my group about 10 shots before we dialed in the correct grind size to start pulling good shots.  We each took our turn and with the guidance of the instructor I was very happy with taste of the espresso I was making.  After everyone had about an hour with the machine making straight espresso we moved on to how to properly steam and froth milk.  I loved the push pull system on the Simonelli.  Instead of the turning a knob to get steam like most espresso machines (including my  La Pasquini Livia 90), the Simonelli has a lever that when pulled down delivers a full blast of steam.  This made it very easy to learn the proper steaming and frothing techniques.  Now it was time to put everything together and make some drinks.  I made several Latte's and Cappuccino's during the last 30 minutes of the class and by the end I felt I was making some very tasty drinks.

Coming to Coffeefest I was happy with my self taught Barista skills and was worried that this class would show serious flaws with those skills.  However this class not only improved the skills I already had but also taught me several new ones that were much needed.

Learning how to pull a shot on a La Pavoni

A few weeks ago I borrowed Sister #2's La Pavoni espresso machine.  Keep in mind up till this point I've only been reading about the in's and out's of making espresso, but now I finally have the equipment to apply that knowledge.  The La Pavoni is manual espresso machine which means that it does not contain a automatic pumping system which pumps the water through the portafilter.  Instead it has a lever attached to front of the machine that you manually raise to allow water into the group head and then lower to push the water through the grounds in the portafilter.  This design gives a barista the ability to better control the shot by applying more or less pressure on the lever when pulling the shot.  It is a learning process to determine the correct grind size and tamp pressure so that when you pull the lever it has some resistance when pulling down but not so much your going to rip the group head off the machine and not so little that lever has no resistance whatsoever.  What you need to do is find a nice balance where you have enough resistance for a steady pull for about 20 seconds.

My process:
1) Fill water reservoir with filtered water
2) Power on machine and make sure the heat switch is set on high.  Make sure the steam knob is closed.
3) Once you hear steam escaping from the pressure release valve open the steam knob to release any false pressure (about 5-10 seconds).
4) Close the steam knob
5) Once pressure builds back up and you hear steam coming from the pressure release valve set the heat switch to low.
6) Grind the coffee, pack the portfilter, tamp, and put portfilter on group head.
7) Pull lever up slowly so that it takes about 5 seconds to get the the top.
8) Once at the top you can hear the water filling the piston in the group head. Wait about 5 seconds for pre-infusion.
9) Start to pull down on the lever. You want steady resistance and a good flow coming out of the portafilter. Ideally from top to bottom should take 20 seconds.


Words of caution
If there is too much resistance (as in you have to use both arms to pull down the lever) stop immediately, turn the machine off, and open the steam knob to let the pressure. Once all the pressure is releases, lower the lever, slowly take off the portafilter and start all over put with a coarser grind or easier tamp.

Also when taking the portfilter off the group head do it slowly to make sure all the pressure is released properly or you will have hot coffee grounds all over the place (happened to me twice).

The La Pavoni I am using to does not have a good temperature regulator so it just keeps heating the water and after about 4 or 5 shots I have to turn it off to let it cool down.  Also the whole thing is made of brass and gets very hot, so watch where you put your hands when operating it.

Summary
I really liked learning how to pull shots on the La Pavoni and it gave me perspective that a semi-automatic machine could not.  The more I use it the better I'm getting and the shots are tasting better and better.  However I seem to pull a bad shot for every 3 or 4 good ones.  It seems to be because my tamp gets harder and harder the more shots I pull, but that's a personal issue.  Other then that it's a great machine that I would recommend to anyone who loves espresso and wants to learn the craft.

Coffee Shop Review - Sambalatte

I heard about Sambalatte about 2 months ago.  At that time it was still not open but they had a teaser Youtube video of the layout of the store that intrigued me.  From the short clip you can tell this unlike any other coffee shop that Las Vegas has seen.  It's located in the Boca Park shopping complex in Summerlin and has been open about a month now.  It's a two story store with the lower floor containing several tables and a few lounge chairs in a very lounge type setting.  The second floor contains more seating and a small library of books.  The decor is beyond your typical Starbucks or Coffe Bean and strives to be upscale but casual at the same time.

However their focus on the decor did not take away from the quality of the coffee that they serve.  They use beans from Colorado Roasters in Boulder City and serve everything freshly ground.  They only brew coffee one cup at a time and use either a siphon pot or a pour over into the cup.  This gives them the ability to offer beans from many different regions and you are secure in the knowledge that the cup of coffee you are drinking was not sitting in a brew pot for an hour.  They also serve pastries, sandwiches, smoothies, and gelato.  All of which looked really good.

Overcome with the amount of choices offered I only ordered a cappuccino because I figured if I didn't like the way that was made it would be waste of time to try anything else.  After ordering I sat at a table to take in the decor and watch the barista prepare my drink.  I was very happy too see that she knew her way around an espresso machine.  The cappuccino was served on a tray with a glass of water and a little biscuit (very posh).  The cappuccino was well made and tasted good.

Overall I am very impressed by Sambalatte and look forward to my next visit to try more of what they have to offer.  I just wish they weren't located all the way across town.