Arizona Coffee

Tomas sent me a link to this beautiful gallery of paintings of disposable coffee cups. Sweet idea!

The June 28th Latte Art Throwdown was a ton of fun. Todd Welfelt and I judged and 6 baristas joined in the competition. I’m including the results below and if you want to see all of the photos from Sunday, see my Flickr profile.

1st: Steve Kraus

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I wanted to make a couple of observations about judging and scoring latte art contests. We’ve done about half a dozen latte art contests in Arizona over the last 6 months and I’ve been involved with a bunch of them. They’re really fantastic and a great way to encourage practice.

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This Sunday at 5 pm! Baristas from all over the valley, and even the state will be converging in a battle of wits, brains, crema, and frothing… in order to pour beautiful latte art.

Come on over and compete, or just watch and taste the free samples after the judges have made their notes.

When: Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 5 pm
Where: Press Coffee Food and Wine
Judges: Todd Welfelt and Chris Tingom

To compete please RSVP to Press Coffee and bring $5 entry fee (goes towards the award). Baristas will need to create two lattes in 5 minutes (including clean up). Please arrive early if you wish to practice on the espresso machine.

Press Coffee Food and Wine
5410 E. High St.
Suite 115
Phoenix, AZ 85054
Phone: (480) 419-6221

On a recent trip to Cave Creek I stopped in at the new Firecreek Coffee. I had two goals: One, get some shots of the coffee and second I had a meeting with a friend. They roast their own coffee up there, and all of the baristas and owners recently travelled to Coffee Fest in Las Vegas. Kudos for them for taking the entire team.

Double Macchiato (sorry, this photo was taken after a sip).

Cappuccino.

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Last night the folks at Alltop added Arizona Coffee as a resource on their coffee directory at coffee.alltop.com.

It’s a great resource and some of the other sites are really good. If you have a moment, take a look!

The third shop I took my parents to on a tour of coffee shops in Phoenix was Lola Coffee. I have to give credit to the owner, Daniel Wayne, for remembering my name and recognizing me when I walked in.

My cappuccino.

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The second shop I took my parents to was Lux. I ordered two cappuccinos, a Dr Lux, a brownie, and a mocha. We couldn’t finish all of the drinks! One thing that Lux doesn’t lack is customers. It’s hard to find an empty seat.

The Lux outdoor signage.

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About a month ago I took my folks on an espresso tour of just a few of the shops in Phoenix. One of them was Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe and here are some photos from that visit. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the cappuccino quality at Cartel.

Seating area in Cartel.

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Tom Maegdlin from Press Coffee sent in these photos of latte art poured by Press Coffee baristas. It’s apparent that they’re practicing for the next Latte Art Throwdown on June 28th!

Rosetta by Tom Maegdlin

Dante Engram pouring a latte

Rosetta by Dante Engram

Press Coffee Food and Wine
5410 E. High St.
Suite 115
Phoenix, AZ 85054
Phone: (480) 419-6221

I’m pleased to introduce our newest sponsor, Firecreek Coffee Company. If you need coffee bar design and build out, or equipment and training, or fresh roasted coffee. Give Firecreek Coffee Company a call or visit their great coffee shop in Cave Creek.

Thank you for your support!

Firecreek Coffee Company
6501 E Cave Creek Rd.
Cabin #8
Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Phone: (480) 437-9999

I tried a double shot of espresso this week at Fair Trade Cafe and also had a mocha. Both pictured below. The espresso was blah.

Coffee Fest is this weekend. I know there are a few people from Arizona driving to Las Vegas for the fun. If you are, please report back!

Coffee Mania in Show Low was just purchased by two women named Trish and Rainie. They have set up a Facebook profile to keep up to date with customers.

Trish and Rainie are very excited to take over Coffee Mania. Trish began working in food service with her father when she was 16. Rainie began working in her parent’s restaurant at the age of 9 and went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management. We are looking forward to expanding our horizons into the coffee and tea segment of food service. It is our privilege to provide a good start to the day for all our customers with some wonderful coffee or tea and a homemade pastry. We offer a wide variety of coffees and teas from around the world. We love to make gift baskets for that special person or occasion.

Trish Shaffery
Coffee Mania

Thanks to Eric for this tip.

Coffee Mania
1131 E Deuce of Clubs
Show Low, AZ 85901
Phone: (928) 532-7727

Mark your calendars! Press Coffee is hosting another Latte Art Throwdown on Sunday, June 28, 2009. The event will begin at 5 pm and will be judged by Chris Tingom and Todd Welfelt (as before). More details as the event approaches. Most likely the same format as last time with two drinks and a $5 buy in to compete.