Listen To Your Momma!
September 8, 2007 at 4:20 pm | In Coffee, Indianapolis, Kenneth Davids, Specialty Coffee, Stanton Coffee, cup of excellence | Leave a Comment
You know you’re in trouble when your Mom says “I’ve been looking at your blog for updates, and see nothings changed.”
I say, “Yeah Mom, but I talk to you usually once a week. What do you need to know on my Blog that I haven’t already told you?”
Well, with that being said; she’s right. I have all the valid excuses it the world. So let me share.
As most of you noticed our website is under construction and changing daily. We are slowly implementing our products. It is up and running and you can place an order on it. Our biggest hold up is getting the products graphic images to fill its box. These take a lot more time than I realize. Every image needs to be developed to fit correctly, correct resolution for the web and plenty of other stuff.
We are still working with our graphic designers to find that company logo that suits us. So the logo you see on the website now will even be changing again. It was one I actually developed. However, I have been told the star images have been way overdone. So I said how about flames! Flames are racy. Zoom.Zoom! You know me and my racing history. I’ve seen some roasters use flames, but not too much. I still want ours to be unique. The designers are worried about us looking too much like a Hot Sauce product. I’m just pulling my hair out about this. But as I know these processes take time. Of course we all want instant satisfaction and gratification.
We have a few projects that are in the works, but legal stuff has to be finalized before we can talk about it. I know its hard not to keep a secret that you want everyone to talk about. Arrg! The mental frustration.
So let’s talk about the things we can. As I’ve stated before, summer is suppose to be our slow time. Right?
We tied for first in the 2007 Karnataka Plantation Espresso Challenge. This challenge was to feature the use of Indian coffees. The minimum requirements were to utilize at least 70% of the issued Indian coffees. We submitted six entries. All were unique in composition, roast levels and coffees that would compliment an espresso extraction. I know I was really tweaked after tasting and manipulating the blends for this event. It was actually one of the blends that I really thought stood out to my pallet. Apparently the Judges pallet too! The coffee that really stood out to me in my cuppings was the Dewan Estate Coffee. I really enjoyed the Dewan Estate coffee; its is made up of the SLN 795 and SLN 9 cultivars which I always seem to gravitate toward in my cuppings. Four of my six entries consisted of a majority of these fantastic coffees. My blend was 100% Indian coffees. It consisted of the Dewan Estate, Mallali Estate, and Thogarihunkal Estate coffees. Each had its unique roast level were showcase itself for espresso extraction. We are trying to see if these coffees are still available to sell online and to our customers for a limited offering.
Speaking of limited offerings, we just received our Cup Of Excellence Coffee. I did a sample roast on Thursday. All I can say at the moment is Sweet! The coffee is so sweet; it’s perfect just black. I still need to do a few more roasts to find the profile that will showcase this excellent coffee. Look for it to appear on our website soon. Remember this is very limited, so act quick before it’s all gone.
Oh! One more thing before I forget. We are now officially able to utilize the Fair Trade Certified label from TransFair USA. We are committed to give the farmer his fair share and profit. We want them to succeed. Without them great coffees may never be grown. This is also a reason we also seek out Direct Trade relationships with farmers. We want to get these great coffees and offer them to you. In the process this will allow the farmer to have more money to do the maintenance and upgrade all aspects of their farm and still have an excellent standard of living. Look for more of these coffees to be offered soon.
Till next time…. Drink Up!
My Coffee Fest Chicago Diary 2007 Coffee Fest day…
March 1, 2007 at 7:19 pm | In Chicago, Coffee, Coffee Fest, Indianapolis, Specialty Coffee, Stanton Coffee | Leave a CommentMy Coffee Fest Chicago Diary 2007
Coffee Fest day #1
I feel like I just competed in a Marathon. Coffee Fest was 3 days of non stop action (4 including set up). It was fantastic to see what was new in coffee culture and to meet our fellow independent coffee owners.
We went to Chicago a day early so we could set up our booth. I’m glad we had the extra time – the show floor was a madhouse of forklifts, electricians, decorators and exhibitors. Our booth was designed to be a “do – it yourself”. So, we carried everything up from the garage – the escalators and elevators weren’t turned on. It took a little longer than we anticipated assembling everything and making sure it looked “just right”.
The folks at Bunn provided the brewing equipment you see in our booth – the Axiom brewer was sweet. It has a ton of brewing features. Yet, it was so simple to set up and I had it up and running in 5 minutes. We weren’t able to check the brew yet because the water jugs hadn’t been delivered since it was getting close to 5pm it looked like that would be an early morning project.
Day #2
I tossed and turned all night thinking about everything that needed to be done I hoped I hadn’t forgotten anything. Mary and I got to the show floor early. The first order of business was to finish setting up the brewing and grinding equipment.
I adjusted the amount of water flow for the Axiom to help achieve the “Perfect Cup” or Gold Cup Standard. I then setoff to adjust the proper grind on the Bunn LPG-2E grinder. Simple and super easy to set up, just a twist of the adjustment key and we were dialed in. This would be a nice grinder to use in a restaurant or café. It has two hoppers so you can do a decaf and a regular. It’s dummy proof for the employees. They can’t accidentally change the grind setting.
Once I achieved the proper bean weight to water ratio – I checked it with our scale to ensure this. Our delicious brew of Savona came to life. Smooth and Chocolaty with a touch of acidic zip to tempt the tip of my tongue.
The second order of business was getting that first good pot of coffee brewed into Mary’s hands. She’s almost as bad as I am if hadn’t had a cup early in the morning. She got a little calmer when she sipped her first tasted the Savona, The calming factor of it all coming together was settling in. After she slowly downed that first cup, it seemed like she broke a world record on her second cup. Thank goodness the Insulair cups she was using were very sturdy. Barista Works gave us a case of cups to use for samples at our booth. It was a really upscale looking cup. It definitely got a second look from the folks who stopped by our booth to try our coffee.
The exhibits opened at noon and the rest of the afternoon went by in a blur. It was really great meeting everyone who stopped by our booth. I brewed a lot of coffee and enjoyed talking the biz with seasoned owners and people just starting out.
Day #3
Wow, I woke up this morning in a ball of pain – I think everything was finally catching up with me. Luckily Mary brought a full bottle of Ibuprophin. First order of business was getting to the exhibit floor and brewing up a batch of coffee. Did I mention the water was provided by Cirqua? They are the top water filtration and customized water companies in the business. I was really impressed with the quality of the water they were able to provide us even at the trade show – props all the way to David Beemans’ group. It definitely enhanced our coffee. Good water is one of the basics of brewing a consistently excellent cup of coffee. We continually battled the water problem in Indianapolis. This is a system that I would recommend if I was setting up a retail coffee business.
Today we had help in our booth. Our friend Mary Anne, Rew and Meade showed up. We took turns working the booth and being “walking billboards”. A lot of people came up and said they could see our Safety Green t-shirts from across the exhibit floor. Good!! We wanted to be noticed. We were surprised later when my brother-in-law Tim and his girlfriend Dorie stopped by. They flew in from DC to help us with the show. Mary gave them some t-shirts and sent them out on the show floor.
It was another super busy day. We handed out a ton of Torani, Big Train, Cappuccine and our samples of coffee. It was fun talking to people and explaining our “coffee philosophy”. We are proud to be a “fresh roaster”. This basically means we don’t roast the coffee until you order it. Nothing is pulled off the shelf – so our customers get the freshest coffee available. We weren’t quite as exhausted at the end of the day – it definitely was nice to have some help in the booth.
Day #4
Time Flies! I can’t believe this is the last day of Coffee Fest. We took it easy today – went to the Billy Goat Tavern (Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Cheezborger. Pepsi No Coke!) for a “pre-show” lunch with Tim and Dorie. They are going to help us today. It was a little slower today at the booth. I think a lot of people were concerned about the winter storm warnings and either stayed home or left early. In a way it was nice. We were able to spend a little more time talking to people who stopped by our booth. We met a lot of baristas and a lot of really nice people. It is so energizing to be around them hearing what they have to share. Their passion for good coffee really gave me hope on the growth of the Specialty Coffee industry.
4 pm came way too soon. Tim and Dorie were real troopers and stuck around and helped us pack up or booth. It was a lot easier carrying the boxes downstairs this time around. We got home around 10 pm to find out Mary’s parents in Iowa were without electricity and had gone to her Aunt Irene’s to stay until the power could be restored. I guess the storm was a little harsher than we realized. Guess we got luck in Chicago.
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