Coava Is So Hot Right Now

Congratulations to Devin Chapman of Coava Coffee Roasters for winning both the Regional Barista and Brewers Cup awards for the Northwest! We’ve had the pleasure of experiencing his expertise a few times while visiting Portland and can’t be more happy for him. It’s actually a repeat victory for him in the Brewer’s Cup.

Devin works with Coava, which has been making its mark in the coffee scene for a few years now. I remember Red E serving us some of Coava’s beans back around 2009 when (I think) Coava were still a home roasting operation. Then we were pleasantly surprised after moving to Oakland to find that Local 123 in Berkeley carried Coava. In fact, they even used Coava’s own aluminum Kone filters. Local 123 has since consolidated to a Four Barrel account, but Coava isn’t going anywhere.

If you’re ever in Portland, check out Coava’s shop on Grand Ave at Main. It’s quite a unique space, sharing the floor with Bamboo Revolution’s show room!

SW Barista Championship

Who wants to go to Santa Cruz this month? We are excited to go!

Stumptown.com And A Little Ranting

If you’re not familiar with Stumptown Coffee Roasters, then it’s time you get an introduction. They’re arguably the king of third wave coffee in the Northwest – definitely in Portland. They were at the forefront of the recent movement towards directly sourced, high quality coffee being roasted in small batches to highlight its natural flavors. They’ve expanded to New York and are even looking at some mass market ventures, so their brand may be drifting from the local, small batch roasters Portlanders are fond of. Still, they have undeniable experience and polish.

If you’re looking for a roaster or website that provides content and production values worthy of the coffee, Stumptown.com is your place to start. They have excellent brewing guides, information on varietals, videos from the farms, and informative blog posts. Of course, that’s not the only good source, but we can address those another day.

Postcard advertising Stumptown Coffee Roasters

This post was really just to point you to a helpful site, but allow me rant a little.

You may think that San Francisco producers – Four Barrel, Ritual, Blue Bottle (though they really belong to Oakland) – represent the best coffee in the world (the owner of Ritual unabashedly claimed such on a recent NPR interview). That might be true, but let’s not neglect the pioneers and competitors. Stumptown is one of those roasters who has been at it for a long time (since 1999) and has been doing it very well. They’ve moved on to noticeably different levels of scale, production and professionalism. I’m not going to posit whether it’s for better or for worse, because the product will unavoidable change along with the company. But, if nothing else, there’s a large and growing crowd of high quality roasters and baristas in Portland rising up in their wake.

Funny, I was never really a big fan of Stumptown. Maybe I had just grown weary of Hair Bender‘s former dominance in the Portland area. But you have to appreciate what they did for coffee standards in the NW and the U.S. as a whole. Enjoy the website.

-Donovan

chemex tips

Here’s an excellent quick video on Chemex use. If you have one or are interested in using a Chemex, watch and improve your use. I always learn something new when I watch things like this, or am just reminded to keep doing all the little steps that I skip sometimes.

Verve is the Word

I think my dream of being a full time barista is becoming that much more compelling after reading Colby Barr’s interview from SF Weekly. Sometimes being a therapist is not so fun.  The clear boundaries and results of good espresso feels so refreshing. Can I say I love that Colby is quoted saying that it’s a parent’s job to teach a person to be nice, not an employer?

Seriously though, these people (Verve Coffee Roaster) pull a mean espresso, roast amazing beans for our home brewing, and consistently impress us with their genuine kindness each time we’re in their store. My take away: you can really tell when a company invests in training and hiring kind people.  Go visit Modern Coffee or Bica for a taste test or to buy your own beans. Or go visit one of their three cafes in Santa Cruz. I hear it’s going to be great weather there this Saturday.

 

 

Today’s cup

One of my favorites

bica

I really enjoyed this thoughtful blog post today by one of my favorite current places, Bica.  They carry several awesome espresso choices at all times and just added Intelly to the list.  Mmm.

The Value of an Espresso

I just came across this story and had to share it with you. We pass so many people over the course of a single day. How often do you pause to wonder where they’re all going? What about where they’ve been? Do you ever stop to ask? After reading this little story, I think I will!

Coffee with Avner

New Faces On College Ave

Some of you Oaklanders may be wondering what’s going on with Peaberry’s Coffee & Tea on College Ave. The old Peaberry’s sign has been replaced! The short story is that the longtime owner, Lynn Mallard, has sold her beloved coffee business to pursue other interests. But don’t let that disappoint you.

New sign in front of Peaberry's. Source: Highwire's Facebook profile.

Lynn sold her company to three veterans who will be reopening the shop on Weds, Oct 26 as Highwire Coffee Roasters. We are very excited to see that fresh coffee passion and expertise that they bring to the area. You may actually recognize Robert Myers as cofounder of Modern Coffee. You tea drinkers can also rest assured that Rich Avella will tend to your fine tastes. And, of course, there will be expert sourcing and roasting under Eric Hashimoto.

Rich Avella, Robert Meyers and Eric Hashimoto. Photo by Ali Roth. Source: East Bay Express.

They hope to make this a gentle transition that honors the loyalty of Peaberry’s existing patrons. But you may have already noticed some changes. They’ll be bringing in pastries from Starter Bakery (something to be very excited about) and upgrading the tools and training on bar (look forward to seeing a shiny La Marzocco Strada and possibly Koava Kones in Chemexes). But most exciting of all, several sources indicate that their roasts promise to be less extreme, exploring the middle ground between the light single-origin roasts of the likes of Ritual and Four Barrel and the super dark roasts of Peat’s.

So when can you taste this goodness? The shop will be closed Monday and Tuesday for renovation, but they’ll have a cart out front with drip coffee for $1 while supplies last. Be sure to come back Weds to see the grand unveiling. There’s also rumor of a limited storefront coming to their roastery in Emeryville.

Check out Highwire on Facebook or Twitter.

Santa Cruz’s Little Coffee Powerhouse

This weekend we packed up the family and headed for Santa Cruz. There’s nothing quite like sitting on the beach watching a surfing contest to make me feel away from the regular routine! Our daughter Eva also happens to love the beach, so it was well worth the drive. But our real motive for the trip, if you haven’t already guessed, involved espresso.

Aerial view of the surfers from Lighthouse Point Park

Santa Cruz is the home of Verve Coffee Roasters. This group is quickly growing both in size and reputation. Their baristas have actually won several awards lately. We’ve been enjoying their beans in Oakland at Bica and Modern Coffee, but it was time for us to have the authentic Verve experience.

You can see a handsome row of young trophies on display at their 41st Ave. location (off of Portola Dr). The space isn’t particularly big, but it’s nice. Something about the setting and atmosphere reminds me of our favorite shop in Palm Springs. Very relaxing! The staff was professional and personable. The espresso was great. And they had amazing pastries. The cookie was so good I actually regret not taking a picture of it! It had chocolate, caramel and pretzels – the perfect mix of sweet and salty, which is always a winner next to espresso.

Emily loved the canvas planters at the 41st Ave location

In the midst of this now blissful state, I also overheard one of the baristas mention that their new roastery is open. Of all the weekends to visit Santa Cruz, we had chosen the first weekend since its opening on Sept. 20th. How fortuitous! So we headed without haste to the long-awaited* roastery of Santa Cruz. Yelp told us that the roastery had closed 40 minutes prior at 3:00 pm, but that wasn’t going to discourage us!

We pulled up to the freshly renovated warehouse at 104 Bronson Ave at 4 pm to see that they were just packing in the chairs. The two ladies behind the bar were very accommodating, even offering us a free coffee and pastry. One of their trainers also showed up and invited us to their open house on Oct 8th. Besides the obvious storage and roasting space, their new site has a coffee bar and space for offices and training. It’s not as comfortable for customers as the caffe, but it’s worth checking out at least once.

Eva leading the charge into Verve's new roastery

 

Coffee bar inside Verve's new roastery

Being in Santa Cruz for an afternoon is a welcome change of pace. Besides that, it was nice to see the personalities behind the Verve brand. They have an easygoing nature that you might expect from a beach town like Santa Cruz, which is also refreshing.

There’s only one unsolved mystery from our trip. I thought someone mentioned that Verve has an even newer and larger location (besides the roastery) nearby, but I’m not able to locate it now. Maybe I was mistaken? One of you readers (I’m assuming there’s at least two of you) will have to pick up the torch and let me know.

* Verve announced that they were opening a new space for roasting some months ago. But by long-awaited, we don’t mean overdue. The “long-awaited and overdue” title firmly belongs to Awaken Cafe until an opened space at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza completes their year-long+ saga.