Governor Ritter Stops in BV

We’re taking some Trailhead Blend coffee down to our meeting with Governor Ritter this morning. There should be 20-50 people gathering at South Main for a kickoff of some sort. If you’re in town, come one by.

From Lee Hart of Collegiate Peaks Geotourism writes in her article, “Gov. Ritter to kick off locally founded geotourism initiative”:

Gov. Bill Ritter will cut the green ribbon signaling the public launch of TravelGreenColorado.com, a tourism initiative of Collegiate Peaks Geotourism (CPG). Ritter will meet with supporters of geotourism at the community park at South Main, riverside in Buena Vista.

The public is invited to the event which starts at 9:30 a.m. with coffee, hosted by Buena Vista Roastery. Before cutting the ribbon, Ritter will talk about the importance of tourism and geotourism to the area. As sustainability is a key tenet of geotourism, attendees are encouraged to arrive at the event by foot or bike. If the weather turns bad, ceremonies will be moved indoors at Eddlyline Restaurant and Brewpub.

The rest of the post is found at the Salida Citizen.

Latte Art: 6 Steps

Making a proper espresso with the right color and amount of crema can be difficult; latte art can be even more so. Here are some steps given in a Wikihow post to make great latte art. YouTube has a thousand videos of making all sorts of variations to the latte. My favorite may be the triple tulip or the dragon. Latte art refers to the patterns in the foam that tops a latte. We will be practicing today at the Roastery in Buena Vista.

1. Pour enough milk for one cup into the steam pitcher. Put the steam wand at the bottom of the pitcher. Turn on the steam, and slowly raise the wand until it is near the top of the milk. Lower the pitcher as the milk rises so the steam wand stays 1 cm away from the top of the milk. The milk should not stretch too much nor should there be any big bubbles. Create a smooth, velvety milk as opposed the foam that sits atop most espresso drinks.
2. Allow the milk to reach 80 ºF (27 ºC), then place the steam wand on the side of the pitcher, deep into the milk, positioning the pitcher to spin counterclockwise. Keep doing this motion until the milk heats to 150 ºF to 160 ºF (65 ºC - 70 ºC). Shut the steam and remove the steam wand and thermometer from the milk. Clean the steam wand with a wet cloth.
3. Vigorously swirl the milk. If you see any bubbles, pound the pitcher on the counter several times and go back to swirling the milk for 20 to 30 seconds. Do this even while the espresso is pouring.
4. Start pouring the milk into the espresso. To create a flower pattern, pour the milk into the bottom part of the cup, about an inch (2 cm - 3 cm) away from the bottom. Once the cup is about half filled, shake the pitcher back and forth while slowly moving it backwards. The flower design will move forward, filling the cup. Do this with a shaking motion originating at the wrist instead of moving your hand back and forth.
5. Once the foam reaches the top, pour the milk up the center of the pattern you created. Use a minimal amount of milk to avoid sinking the flower pattern.
6. Embellish the design using stencils, powder, and milk foam. This step is optional, as many prefer to limit their latte art to “free form” methods, but you may want to experiment with the possibilities added by “etching.”

To see the full post, including a video on making latte art, visit Wikihow.

McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and Caribou Together at last

A few years ago I began to understand the difference between foaming brands of milk and how a Brazilian versus a Ugandan bean affects a shot of espresso. Prior to developing roast profiling, my palate, and my barista skills, a cup of coffee was either good or bad. McDonalds had cheap, bad coffee, but it made sense to get a cup with some Egg McMuffin. Unless there was a Starbucks nearby where I could pay a little more for some foamed milk. Starbucks was still bad coffee, but fancier and the atmosphere much more enticing. Even the drip was bad, only stronger. Dunkin Donuts had donuts as far as I was concerned. Caribou was absent in my life because I live out west and saw Caribou only in an airport where I was not going to pay that much for a cup of coffee. That’s the run down of how I interacted with these companies. There was nary a sentence when I would ever see them grouped together. Now, it seems like they are sparing for attention and customers and I have a hard time separating one from the other in my thought. These entities are evermore neighbors in common news stories. Erin Rigik’s The Coffee Battle Brews is an example that outlines the extreme competition among the conglomerates.

It brings up the question of the qualification of a specialty coffee. When I buy spcialty coffee as green Arabica beans, those beans have to cup out at an 80 or above and have 8 defects or fewer. That’s the technical qualification of a specialty coffee. We micro-roast the beans in batches of no larger than 25 pounds. Most of the time, we will roast 8 to 15 pounds, depending on the day’s demand. There is no automation in the process, no computer to adjust airflow, no graphs to follow as we roast. We roast with art, subtly changing airflow and regulating heat as wind shifts or the barometric pressure changes. Our roaster is turned on for 8 hours or so on a roasting day. We do not run a roaster 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with back up machines under maintenance programs. Our roasters do not roast a full bag of green at a time, nor do we let the computer track the profile and load, dump or cool the beans on its own. Are these companies that can charge 99 cents for a latte and roast such fantastical amounts of coffee really specialty coffee companies? I think they are, technically. At least Starbucks and Caribou. I don’t know enough about the others. Still, knowing about the number of coffee beans that runs through a roaster each day and the true art that must be involved in roasting, I question the technical requirements for being ’specialty’. It seems like there may be a new standard developing that excludes these groups, and includes the many small high-quality and great tasting roasters out there.

FIBArk, CKS, Music, etc.

It’s the annual FIBArk event, and it starts today with a wildwater demonstration for the Ride the Rockies bike tour cruising through the county. The cyclists will be in Salida today and Buena Vista tomorrow, the 17th. But that is just the start of a lot of activity. The 2009 Schedule of Events will show you just what you want to do. Highlights for me include the 26 Mile downriver kayak race, the Pine Creek extreme race and the Hooligan Race.

Colorado Kayak Supply will have an in store sale in Buena Vista. And the BV Roastery will be open Saturday and Sunday mornings. We have to close to go race or watch the freestyle competition and grab a funnel cake. The Roastery is located just behind Mother’s on E Main in BV. The Bongo Billy’s Salida Cafe is just up river from the Salida play hole, so make a visit. Try out their Certified Organic, Fair Trade High Country Espresso.

Check out the fun. Go camping. Paddle. Pick up some coffee.

Juxtaposing Coffee and Tea

Some clever people have been playing with teas, and coffees, in their French Press. What they have come up with are some recipes that I may try one day, but will probably not become part of my staple. Not out of distaste, but  because I have other drink favorites and enjoy the natural nuances from our coffee at the Buena Vista Roastery, like the citrus and jasmine in our Organic Ethiopian Idido Misty Valley. I think the idea the post at Lifehacker describes, using tea as an alternative to the artificial flavorings typically found in coffees, is a great alternative to the concoctions people may currently use - if you are going to flavor coffee. Brew loose leaf tea and coffee in a 1:4 ratio together in the French press. Viola! you have a flavored coffee. We at the Roastery brewed up both some chicory root and then some ground cocoa nibs with our Panama Boquete, both interesting drinks. Some people have commented on the Lifehacker post other recipes, like brewing with pepper. Still, nothing beats a properly brewed new crop of organic coffee.

9 Reasons to Drink More Coffee

This morning, Yahoo has a blog post called, “9 Reasons to Drink More Coffee“, by Lucy Danziger, the SELF Editor-in-Chief. In the post, she proclaims that research shows that coffee can be healthy for you. Not too bad. She gives 9 reasons why and extrapolates in her post, which I don’t do here.

1. It helps you shed pounds
2. It powers your workouts
3. It helps you wake refreshed
4. It can ward off illness
5. It can ease muscle cramps
6. It makes cardio feel like a cinch
7. It helps you get what you want
8. It may fight breast cancer
9. It improves recall.

Sound like a cup of Joe would be pretty good about now. Of course, my cynical side tells me that without getting into the studies, I don’t know the what extent caffeine actually contributes to these 9 and what impact other variables may have. And when you see our Cosmic Love Blend offered at the Buena Vista Roastery, don’t think there is another benefit from coffee. It’s just a really good and unique blend. There’s nothing to read into the name.

A guest contribution by Claire Webber…

Green Coffee Anyone?

Over 400 million cups of coffee are drunk every day in America, so you can see how going green on your coffee habits could make a huge difference to the environment. Green coffee (not to be confused with the other beverage green tea) includes beans that have been shade grown to preserve natural rain forests and the wildlife that they provide a home to, that are grown using organic methods without the use of fertilizers and harmful chemicals, and that are marketed using fair trade practices that ensure that the farmers get their rightful share of the profits. Going a step further, we can include green coffee to mean coffee that is roasted using eco-friendly methods and that is drunk with the minimum amount of cups, stirrers and lids. more…

The Problem with Carbon Neutral

Teak Tree Plantation

I was searching the Internet for a little more information on some particulars of Guatemalan estate coffees yesterday when I came across a site that would happily make our Roastery ‘carbon neutral’. All I needed to do was tell them how many employees we had and our estimated electric/natural gas use and, after the online calculator whirred a bit, pay them a corresponding amount of money to plant trees in the developing world. We would be ‘carbon neutral’ and be able to place the Carbon Neutral Seal of Approval on our propaganda. And I would sleep very soundly once again.

The problem, as I see it, crops up. more…

Reminder: Paddlefest 2009

As I wrote back in March, ’tis the season, once again. The mighty Arkansas River is rising, the waters turning chocolate. Our big kickoff to river season is Paddlefest, May 22-25, 2009. This what the folk at Colorado Kayak Supply have to say,

Come to Buena Vista, Colorado for huge kickoff party to celebrate the start of the summer whitewater boating season. Join us for an action-packed weekend of fun and educational activities for paddlers of all ages and abilities. Kayakers from beginners to aspiring competitors can rub elbows with paddling manufacturers, top pro kayakers, and other industry pros during a weekend chock full of education, entertainment, gear shopping and camaraderie.

Join a pro kayaker for a freestyle clinic, take a guided tour on the river, participate in a ‘how to’ clinic, show off your skills in a fun kayak competition in the new river park or relax and watch live music and videos. The entire weekend will also promote awareness and raise funds for American Whitewater, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to conserving and restoring America’s whitewater resources.  We hope to see you all there.

The Buena Vista Roastery will be open across the street from CKS, bright and early Saturday morning and all day Friday roasting beans and slinging espressos.

Specialty Coffee in Salida

Java Girl has recently posted a bit about specialty coffee in her post, Getting Started with Specialty Coffee, specifically ordering at Bongo Billy’s Salida Cafe. The BV Roastery roasts all the coffee for Bongo Billy’s, so it’s great to see mention of some of the cafes that carry the coffee, particularly a Bongo Billy’s. As any branding expert will tell you, the coffee doesn’t make the cafe. It is certainly an essential component of the experience, but 20% of the quality is the extraction of the treasures inside the bean - the grind, the tamp of the espresso, and the temperature of the brew or espresso water, its filtration, etc. Then, there is the location, the facade, the interior, the waitstaff, the barista, the foam, etc. I’m glad to read some good notes on the Bongo Billy’s Salida Cafe. Thanks Java Girl.