Arizona Coffee

Did you know that Google launched a search engine for the USPTO? I have been searching around looking at the various coffee inventions, and stumbled across this one from 1934.

There are a bunch of other interesting ones as well.

I’m pleased to announce our newest sponsor, the Lost Dutchman Coffee Roasters.

Victor Kessler is the owner of Lost Dutchman, and we met at the Arizona Barista Jam. They have a micro-roastery located in Tempe and have been in business a couple of years. They roast and sell coffee wholesale in Tempe and on the internet. They also provided a wide variety of coffee accessories (available through their web site).

Thank you for your support, Victor.

www.lostdutchmanroasters.com
Toll-free: 1-800-536-4790
Local: 623-217-1304

Despite my best judgment, I’ve gone and made a MySpace profile for Arizona Coffee fans. You can invite me as a friend at myspace.com/arizonacoffeefans. Maybe some day the look and feel of that page will be cool, but until then…

Here’s a fun trivia tidbit from Brasil in 1932 — There was apparently an oversupply of coffee beans at the time, and to compensate they used the extras as fuel for locomotives. With a picture.

Black Gold is a limited release movie about the coffee industry. It actually looks rather boring if you ask me.

Coffee Pot Alarm Clock. I would never use this.

Starbucks wants to kill “Charbucks” brand. The rest of the story is here.

The MugMouse. What is the point?

Coffee OK during pregnancy, study says.

We have a lot of new readers on Arizona Coffee, so I wanted to take a moment to explain some of the great things we have on Arizona Coffee!

1. You can go to either www.arizonacoffee.com or www.arizona-coffee.com and access this site, why is the dash the default? Because when I set it up I didn’t expect this site to become what it has today. I did the dash for search engine reasons. Yahoo actually picks up dashes a bit more than Google and dissects the words. That was my intention anyways. I might switch that around at some point, but it’s complex to do that and also retain links.
2. Their is a list of coffee shops accessible from the buttons at the top. It is updated frequently, and lists locations with free WiFi.
3. There is also a list of coffee roasters.
4. The Forum is sometimes more active than the homepage, and a lot of fun!
5. There’s an email newsletter.
6. All of the archives going back to March 2005 are on the Archives page.
7. There is an occasional podcast, which requires a lot more work than videos (so expect more videos than audio). A lot of generous people contribute to this site. I get emails almost every day from shop owners, baristas, and people looking for coffee shops. The most common email is people asking me for suggestions for places to have meetings with about 15 people. I usually suggest that they go to La Madeleine.
8. This site is run by Chris Tingom, a web designer in Phoenix. I don’t own a coffee bar, and don’t plan to start one. Although about 5 people have asked me to start one with them.
9. This site is #1 in results for the phrase Arizona Coffee on all of the major search engines.
10. I like to stir up crazy ideas.
11. This site received 5,606 visits this month, and 14,330 page views.

I halfway expected Daniel Boone to meet me at the door when I first made my way over to Cabin Coffee Espresso yesterday. Despite the name, Cabin Coffee is situated in a fairly new shopping center at 67th Ave. & Happy Valley Rd. and is currently making other coffee shops look bad. I was highly impressed.

Cabin Coffee has been open for about 2 years now, and several of their team attended and participated in the Arizona Barista Jam.

I had a latte and it was great. I’d definately have another. They grind per shot, and are even using Rocket Coffee Roasters for their coffee. The latte art is a great touch. I am sure they’ve been practicing latte art quite a bit in the past few months. In Tucson, one of their baristas, Jessica, took home first prize in the latte art contest.

Since it was lunch time, and I was hungry, I decided to try the tomato mozzarella sandwich they had on the menu. It was really quite excellent. The ingredients were all fresh, and it came with a side salad with vinaigrette dressing. The cool thing was that it came with two green olives and a Pepperoncini. It’s almost as if they knew I was coming. Those things are my favorite. This was a rather nice touch.

The interior of Cabin Coffee is designed to look like a cabin. Watch the video and you can see how it is set up. They have a fireplace with cozy leather ottoman chairs surrounding it.

Overall: If I lived nearby I’d be there every week. Since I’m about 45 minutes away, I have to wait for my client to set up meetings on the west side of town.

Cabin Coffee is a high quality establishment, that obviously cares about serving a quality coffee beverage, and also cares about good food. It’s not often that I get to visit a coffee shop that is working hard to improve quality like Cabin Coffee. I know they’re also working with Red Rock Foods, which can only mean good things. Five stars.

Cabin Coffee Espresso
6525 W Happy Valley Rd. #C104
Glendale, AZ 85310
Directions: Southeast corner at 67th Ave. & Happy Valley Rd. (Map)
www.mycabincoffee.com
Phone: (623) 939-8343

Do you have a cutoff hour in the day when you stop drinking coffee (or anything with caffeine)? I know a lot of people who can’t drink the stuff at night, for fear of being awake all night long.

What about you? Does the stuff affect you? Personally, it doesn’t. I can drink coffee and espresso late at night and have no trouble falling asleep. Just curious.

Here’s a fun video I captured of Jason Haeger while at the Arizona Barista Jam.

Check out this awesome Krups Nescafe Dolce Gusto tv ad featuring James Brown music.

Photo: Coffee with a “drop” of milk, an oldie but goodie.

Photo: Squeezing a coffee berry in Hawaii reveals the bean inside the membrane.

Coffee basics: The two most popular types of coffee beans are Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (robusta). Compared to arabica, robusta tends to be bitter and has little flavor, with a telltale “burnt rubber” or “wet cardboard” aroma and flavor. Good quality robustas are used in some espresso blends to provide a better “crema” (foamy head), and to lower the ingredient cost. There’s a bunch more at the Wikipedia.

John from Mokarabia Coffee Bar at Verrado emailed me to let me know a bit more about their coffee shop and location. I’ll pass on the information here. I am not sure if they are open yet, I think they officially open on the 24th.

I am the owner of the Mokarabia Coffee Bar at Verrado. We are the first US location – the concept is authentic Italian – designed and built in Italy and shipped and re-assembled here. We plan more openings around the USA in the coming years.

How to get there: Take I-10 West to exit 120, Verrado Way. Exit and go right or north for 2 miles. You will pass construction and go through the first 4-way stop and continue on to the second 4-way stop, Main Street. Turn right on Main Street and Mokarabia Coffee Bar is on the right in the middle of the block. Allow 45 minutes to an hour from Central Phoenix. There is always a traffic slowdown before Dysart Road as I-10 goes from 3 lanes to 2 lanes. When you get past the bottleneck, traffic speed picks up again.

www.mokarabia-verrado.com

I have some good news, almost all of the spots for advertising are sold out. We have a healthy mix of coffee roasters, coffee shops, and suppliers of equipment and supplies. Look for their ads to begin appearing shortly (awaiting artwork).

If you’re interested in having the last ad spot, now is the time to email me. Today is the last day to get in on the new deal.

Thank you to all of the new sponsors of Arizona Coffee. Your support is valued.

Here’s an idea. I could create a list of baristas that are interested in being available for special events. Sort of a “crew list” for the barista world. If people were throwing a party or catering an event and wanted to have a barista available to prepare drinks, this could be a list that people reference.

The problem is equipment and supplies. But imagine for a minute that that was available. Would you be interested?

I took a bunch of great photos last week at the Barista Jam. Here are the best shots for your viewing pleasure.

Larry Jones (Rocket Coffee), Jason Haeger (from Lubbock, Texas), and Gene A. Lemos (Vaneli’s) talk about proper espresso extraction.

Jason Haeger.

Jason Haeger takes a photo.

Trevino prepares a drink.

A latte art demonstration by Reid Hickman, an expert barista from Zoka

Closeup of Reid Hickman.

Reid Hickman’s latte art.

Reid Hickman’s latte art.

Reid Hickman’s latte art.

The Latte Art Contest.

Judging the Latte Art Competition.

Jessica, the winner of the Latte Art Contest (from Cabin Coffee).

An awesome photo.

A clover machine.

Steven pouring a latte for the Latte Art Contest.

A latte poured by Steven.

Tamping.

Practice sessions.

More practice.

Even more practice.

Gene Lemos from Vaneli’s does a presentation showing the different kinds of home espresso machines.

That wraps it up!

I visited The Coffee Buzz in Ahwatukee last weekend. It’s a coffee shop that has been open since October of 2005, and appears to be doing quite well. They offer free WiFi as well as a full breakfast and lunch menu. I took this video on my visit. The Coffee Buzz is a satelite location for Tilt Gallery, which is an art gallery in downtown Phoenix.

The Coffee Buzz
4804 E. Chandler Blvd. #110
Ahwatukee, AZ 85048

Where: The Northeast Corner of Chandler Blvd. & 48th St.

While in Tucson for the Arizona Barista Jam I took some time to talk with Bill from Espresso Wrench. My video interview ends rather abruptly because my camera ran out of space. It’s still a good interview, and Bill’s experience at espresso machine repair and maintenance shines through. Espresso Wrench would be a good asset to any shop. Bill has a good reputation among coffee shop owners and baristas.

Espresso Wrench
Phone: (520) 722-9100
E-Mail: info@espressowrench.com
www.espressowrench.com