Arizona Coffee

Until the late 1800′s, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stove-top frying pans were favored.

“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love” – Turkish Proverb

Until the 18th century coffee was almost always boiled.

Those British are sophisticated people, in almost everything except their choice of coffee. They still drink instant ten-to-one over fresh brewed.

The history of the word cappuccino exemplifies how words can develop new senses because of resemblances that the original coiners of the terms might not have dreamed possible. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccio, “hood,” that was worn as part of the order’s habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin (now capucin), from which came English Capuchin. The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey with a tuft of black cowl-like hair. In Italian cappuccino went on to develop another sense, “espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream,” so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948.

I rarely post personal notes here at Arizona Coffee however just for once I figured a personal update would be in order to let everybody know I’m still alive and haven’t given up on all of my side projects.

Arizona Coffee is one of them. Despite the fact that it’s the one thing that really excites me some days, it isn’t my bread and butter so I tend to push it to the evenings and weekends.

Evenings and weekends which have been scarce the last few weeks.

That should all change soon and all of the projects I’ve spoke with you folks about should take place and I’ll be getting more info about those put together very soon.

One more note before I sign off for the evening: I recently participated in an interview with another blog and to my great surprise (good or bad) the interview was recorded. I’ll post a link once it goes live (it is being edited for clarity). This gave me the idea to do some interviews (with choice of either written or written and audio mp3 delivery). The interview could be conducted anywhere but I would most likely come out to your coffee shop or roastery and conduct the interview and keep it short and sweet. Then with some editing and cleanup we could have a really cool interview.

So who’s first up?! Could be some good publicity and I’d add a section to the site called “Interviews” and we could have a picture with link to your site.

Starbucks Gossip had a post last week asking why the music was suddenly louder at Starbucks. The writer had noticed a trend where music was so loud he couldn’t even think. His theory being it was a move to distract and drive away laptop users.

Critics said it was just that he was closer to the speakers than usual, or that the audio was louder on that particular day (the barista’s can adjust the volume).

I have a different theory. They just started playing live music from XM Radio — their own Hear Music channel in fact — some good stuff. Ok, so my theory is that because the barista’s don’t have to listen to the SAME music day and night anymore (it’s actually chosen by a DJ now, not just a CD that plays over and over again) they have an interest in the music and thus they play it louder.

I know from friends who used to work at Starbucks that the music dragged on and on in endless loops. So this must be a nice variation.

The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the “Boston Tea Party,” resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom.

The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 or 20 years.

The average annual coffee consumption of the American adult is 26.7 gallons, or over 400 cups.

For my birthday I visited a restaurant called The Rose in Prescott and for dessert my parents and I decided to try two kinds of dessert. One was a walnut sort of cake which simply tasted amazing. Somewhere between a pecan pie and a butter cake. It was served warm with vanilla ice cream and it had a thin crust somewhat similar to a pecan tart yet served extra soft which made it melt in your mouth.

The next cake was chocolate and served warm with chocolate sauce and a homemade espresso ice cream. Apparently they make it at the restaurant. I was impressed as the flavor of an espresso shot came through and didn’t taste much different than, well, espresso.

If you have ever tried coffee or mocha ice cream this was very much better. There was less burnt coffee taste and more espresso crema you might say and it tasted fresh — perhaps made within a few hours. Quite good and worth trying if you need a good dinner in Prescott.

Scandinavia has the world’s highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4 pounds. Italy has an annual consumption per capita of only 10 pounds.

People are saying that the speech Howard Schultz gave at the 2006 Starbucks Shareholders Meeting was very good. I found a link to the speach and you can download an mp3 as well. Check out Brand Autopsy.

On a trip up to Prescott just the other day I wrote down the names of a few coffee shops. I didn’t get to try any of them (too bad!) and figured I’d post a list for my next trip.

• Cuppers Coffee Shop — This joint looks classy
• Yellow Leaf Coffee Co. — Looks like a drive thru
• Prescott Coffee Roaster & Coffee — Appears to be a certified coffee house

Roasted coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavor within two weeks. Ground coffee begins to lose its flavor in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins to lose flavor within minutes.