Arizona Coffee

Beginning tomorrow I’m excited to bring you a month of coffee trivia! Every morning I’ll be posting a new fact about our favorite drink. From the obscure to the obvious — every day in February.

Hi folks, I wanted to tell you about three things I liked on the CoffeeGeek site.

1. The CoffeeGeek Podcast — I’ve been listening to this for a few months now. At times he starts to ramble on and on however the news is always interesting. You can get the audio through iTunes (that’s how I listen) and if you’re less sophisticated (with technology at least) you can download mp3s from their homepage. Look for them in the middle of the page.
2. Speaking of CoffeeGeek. Check out some of the cool photos they post.
3. There’s a new magazine launching which talks about drinks of all sorts including coffee. Preview is up at their web site: Imbibe Magazine.

Continuing my quest to be the definitive guide to coffee in Arizona I have news of a new coffee shop in Tucson. It’s called The Coffee Vein and it’s at 1545 N. Stone Ave just north of PCC. Here’s a map.

• Photo of the establishment — looks really classy
• It looks like her first employee is an avid CoffeeGeek.com poster and he posted an announcement on their forums
• The Arizona Daily Star has the full scoop including some background into the owners
• I don’t think they have a web site yet
• Opened on Dec. 17

From everything I’ve read this place sounds really good. I’m interested to try this drink they call the White Cell (2 shots espresso with vanilla condensed milk). It sounds similar to the Spanish Latte at La Grande Orange.

Next time I’m in Tucson I’m planning to stop in. If you’ve visited please leave a comment.

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There’s a recipe for Orange Cardamom Coffee in the Arizona Republic (January 25, 2006). It sounds really good AND it looks good, too. I wondered if anyone had tried it?

Seeds from 2 cardamom pods
1/2 cup whole coffee beans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups cold water
6 ounces Grand Marnier (optional)
Whipped cream for garnish
Grated orange zest for garnish
Special equipment: coffee grinder

Grind the cardamom seeds and coffee beans together in a coffee grinder. Using a standard coffeemaker, spoon the coffee-cardamom mixture into a coffee filter. Sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg on top of the coffee grounds. Pour cold water into the coffeemaker and brew.

Divide the coffee and Grand Marnier, if desired, among four mugs and stir. Top each with a dollop of whipped cream, sprinkle with orange zest and serve.

Makes four servings.

Hello folks. It’s Friday and I hope you have a great weekend! We’re working on some new projects for Arizona Coffee which we hope to announce soon. Meanwhile, I wanted to post a new link to the coffee section of Slashfood. They have some good content up there.

I’ve been searching Google and Yahoo! for Arizona + Coffee Shops and finding some gems plus a few places I haven’t heard about before.

Anyone want to scout out a few locations for me and report back?

1. Roma Coffee Company — All I know about this places is from this Yahoo! listing.
2. Jacquee’s Espresso — Appears to be a sandwich bar / espresso lounge.
3. Coffee Cupboard of Phoenix — Sounds interesting…

Irene Müller from Germany took some high speed photos of milk splashing into coffee and they’re really cool. Without further ado, check out the Milk meets Coffee Photo Gallery. If you’re a photography nut you can read about the process here.

Hat tip: shades*of*grey

Besides the awesome new design here at Arizona Coffee (more about that later), I recently added two new content pages.

1. An updated “Master List” of coffee shops in Arizona, leaning towards the independent shops
2. A new list of coffee roasters who roast in AZ

2006 Goals: Update to include maps, wi-fi listings (for now reference this page), and individual Arizona Coffee reviews and photos in addition to expanding the accessibility of archives.

Lux Coffee Bar on Central is under new ownership as of October 2005. I’ve heard from several people including Juli who kindly left a comment in this post that the new owners (Jeff and Tara Fischer) have made many changes for the better. That’s really great news and I’m anxious to get back over there and see for myself.

Why are the logos of coffee shops so very dull? I don’t mean to harp on small businesses or even the big chains, however Starbucks, Coffee Plantation, and even The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (three of the big chains that come to mind) have the most monotone logos you can conjure up. I’m also noticing a huge trend in this business: Logos are predominantly circular (I think trying to follow the lead of Starbucks).

I think there is a place for all types of logos (think Starbucks with two colors) and at the same time, I really love logos with depth and character. Some of these logos really capture my attention. Just look at them! They’re beautiful works of art. Completely original and lending character and personality to their establishments.

If you found this topic interesting, you might find my post on Coffee Patterns to be a good read.

Know of any good coffee shop logos I might have missed?

You’ve always wondered. Now you can find out. Learn about the various ways to decaffeinate coffee.

Someone asked me today if I have an email newsletter for Arizona Coffee. What do you think? Would you subscribe? I’d like to do it and I’d like to have a sponsor or company to partner with for the first few issues before I put the time into something like that. Post a comment if you’re interested in helping out or would subscribe.

I just came across Roadside Peek which has a page up showing old coffee shops from Arizona. Some of the coffee houses are just old roadside diners, but there is one from Globe that is neat. The rest of the site is interesting and especially some of the other coffee shop photos.

Does anybody remember the coffee shop in Prescott that closed a few years ago? It was in an old hotel and they closed it for some reason. My friend took me there and we had a good cappucino one day. I was sorry to hear it closed.

How many espresso shots have you consumed in a single drink? What’s the highest number all at once?

Update: Just went to good o’le Starbucks and had 8 shots of espresso!!!!!!!! I dare you to top that! We had the first four shots hot and with 4 pumps of white chocolate syrup and a little bit of milk. The barista thought we wanted White Chocolate Mocha’s, so we had to correct them. The second round was spur of the moment and we got them over ice. Good stuff!

Bitter Brew is a short story about a couple that opened their own coffee shop in New York City and closed it within just 6 months.

The failure of a small cafe is not a question of competence. It is a sad given. The logistics of a food establishment that seats between 20 and 25 people (which roughly corresponds to the definition of “cozy”) are such that the place will stay afloat—barely—as long as its owners spend all of their time on the job. There is a golden rule, long cherished by restaurateurs, for determining whether a business is viable. Rent should take up no more than 25 percent of your revenue, another 25 percent should go toward payroll, and 35 percent should go toward the product. The remaining 15 percent is what you take home. There’s an even more elegant version of that rule: Make your rent in four days to be profitable, a week to break even. If you haven’t hit the latter mark in a month, close.

I wonder how typical this story is of most independent coffee shop startups. It’s something I think most consumers don’t think about: that the person on the other side of the counter might not be making any money.