Arizona Coffee

I was watching The Tonight Show and Jay Leno featured some $1 store items. Check this out. Deepresso — for when you are really depressed and need coffee.

By the way, I have some reviews in the works. I’m just not done with them! Coming soon!

Here’s an idea: Meet new friends by starting a Meetup group. You can create a group of your own for a nominal annual fee. Just go to www.meetup.com and begin. If you manage a coffee shop a weekly or monthly meet up at your coffee shop is a great way to bring in new customers.

There are often whole groups that are unused with plenty of members ready to join. The reason is because without a group manager a group doesn’t have anyone to coordinate events.

Click here to see Meetups in Phoenix: http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/az/phoenix/

I posted about Kitchen Nightmares a few weeks ago. But wanted to post again to let you all know you can watch the episodes for free online. I think if you own a coffee shop or a restaurant, you could learn a lot by watching.

http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Kitchen+Nightmares

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know that the Arizona Coffee 3rd Birthday Party has been delayed a little bit. Just a bit too much going on to pull it all together this weekend. A new date will be announced soon with the location.

“Behind that morning cup of coffee, there are 140 liters of water that was consumed to grow, produce, package and ship the beans.”

Source: Scientist who invented “virtual water” wins prize

The company that makes the Clover has been acquired by Starbucks. Discuss!

Two people emailed me today to let me know about a new coffee shop in Miami, AZ.

Douglas Montoya wrote:

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a great coffee shop in Miami now called Creekside Coffee & More! It is located behind the old bank, which is now a bookstore. Its a great place to sit and read. The Sophies Mojo is the best drink I’ve had in a while.

MARLENE TIEDE wrote:

We have introduced a cozy coffee shop, with wireless internet service available, adjacent to our bookstore in the historic mining town of Miami, AZ. We are open 7 days a week from 9-5. We serve a wide range of specialty coffee drinks made with fresh-roasted beans provided by Echo Espresso of Phoenix. Please come visit us!

http://thebookbank.blogspot.com

I am pleased to introduce BuzzMug, the newest sponsor of this web site. BuzzMug is a retailer of fine coffees from Prescott Coffee Roasters, has a huge selection of Travel Mugs, Ceramic Mug, coffee grinders, t-shirts, and much more available for sale. Thank you for your support!

BuzzMug, LLC
Chino Valley, AZ
Phone: (866) 790-6166
www.buzzmug.com

Fair Trade Cafe is hosting an event on March 30th at their coffee house. The event costs $125 per person and is geared towards consumers interested in learning the basics of coffee, and seeing and sampling various roasts and blends.

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Congratulations to the Copper Star Coffee team for making it onto 550 KFYI’s news broadcast this morning. They said you were giving away free Powerball tickets to the first 100 customers. Excellent PR move.

I am pleased to announce that Daily Buzz Coffeehouse is a new sponsor on Arizona Coffee. For those not in the know, Daily Buzz Coffeehouse is a brand new coffee house located in Queen Creek, AZ. Thank you for your support!

Daily Buzz Coffeehouse
22721 S. Ellsworth Rd.
Queen Creek, AZ 85242
(in the new Village Shops at Queen Creek)
www.dailybuzz.com

Word on the street is that Daily Buzz Coffeehouse has opened in Queen Creek, AZ. After a soft launch on Friday, Daily Buzz is open for business starting today (6:00 AM until 4:00 PM daily).

They have lots of photos and a news blog on their MySpace page.

Also of note, Daily Buzz is the first coffee house that I know of to fully adopt the use of Twitter. They have a Twitter page set up at http://twitter.com/DailyBuzz and they’re using it to share news about daily happenings at Daily Buzz.

Daily Buzz has free wireless internet, plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, and more. I’ll be visiting Daily Buzz later this week and will share some photos and tell you about the coffee then.

Daily Buzz Coffeehouse
22721 S. Ellsworth Rd.
Queen Creek, AZ 85242
(in the new Village Shops at Queen Creek)
www.dailybuzz.com

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Mike Trevino wrote today with some sad news.

I’m sure you remember Edwin Martinez of the Finca Vista Hermosa and his Seed to Cup presentation at the Jam. Many of us felt that he was the best thing about our Jam. He brought us closer to the bean’s origins. He put a face on the people that make the coffee for Finca Vista Hermosa.

Carlos, the manager we got to know in Edwin’s presentation, and his son were killed. The details are here, along with a Paypal donation to help Carlos’ wife and remaining 11 children.

Perhaps you could do something on AZcoffee.com to help. I also have to thank Arron of Browncoffee.com for informing us of this tragedy.

Read more:

• http://fincavistahermosa.wordpress.com
• http://www.fincavistahermosa.com

Now here’s a really cool mug. It changes color from black to white when you pour hot drinks into it. It’s available for pre-order because the last mug sold out so quickly.

I’m pleased to be able to bring you an interview with the winner of the SWRBC. Jason Calhoon lives in Tucson, AZ and will be representing Arizona at the USBC this May.

Chris Tingom: Thanks for being willing to answer some questions! First of all, can you tell us about yourself?

Jason Calhoon: My name is Jason Calhoon and I was born and raised in Tucson. I have been researching the coffee industry for about 5 years now. My research became more serious for the last 2. I attended the American Barista and Coffee school in Portland last June for a week. I knew that I wanted to get into the coffee industry, so I wanted to learn everything I could.

Do you work at a coffee shop in Tucson?

I do not currently work at a shop nor have I ever worked at a Independent shop.

Did you prepare a signature drink in Las Vegas? Can you tell us about it?

In Las Vegas I used PT’S new espresso blend XV. It is their competition blend that they came up with and I really fell in love with it. I also enjoy Stumptown and Intelligentsia coffee. I actually didn’t decide to go to Vegas till Sunday evening around 8pm when I finally booked my hotel and flight. I flew out Monday around 2pm.

I arrived in Vegas and headed to the convention center to try to get supplies for the competition. Everyone was still setting up their booths and no one was around to talk to so I headed to the hotel. The next day was first day of the competition, so I got up early and headed down there to find some supplies. I came across Jeff Taylor of PT’S coffee and he hooked me up with 5 pounds of their XV blend.

For my signature drink, I started walking around looking for something to make at the last minute. I came up with a drink that consisted of a little dark chocolate in bottom of cup. I then extracted espresso on top of the chocolate and the steamed milk on top of that. I then top the drink off with a couple drops of blood Orange syrup. It was like a Orange mocha macchiato. It came out good, not as good as I would have liked but hey I put it together in 20 minutes.

Are you planning to make the trip to Minneapolis for the Barista Championship?

I plan on practicing a lot before I head to Minnesota. I also might go to Kansas and train at PT’S but I’m not sure yet. Winning has been awesome but very nerve racking knowing I’ve gotta get cracking for the championships.

Thank you Jason for answering a few questions!

Note: Jason uploaded a bunch of photos to his Flickr profile. All photos above are from Jason Calhoon. PT’s Coffee Roasters can be found at www.ptscoffee.com.