The Riviera Coffee Company is a gourmet coffee roaster that specializes in small-batch custom roasting. They are also a wholesale distribution company selling coffee, gourmet beverages and mixes, and other products. They also sell and service equipment.

Thank you for your support!

Riviera Coffee Company
6700 W Chicago St. #10
Chandler, AZ 85226
Phone: (480) 802-8077
Fax: (480) 802-8088

[w]e opened a new coffee shop in NW Tucson – San Giorgi’s Coffee. We are an independent family owned coffee shop which features organic coffee and tea as well as a selection of organic pastries. Our beans are roasted fresh in Tucson and we also offer free wifi. Our hours are M-Sat 6am-8pm, Sun 7am-7pm. We will be featuring live music on a regular basis as well.

You can check them out on their web site, or visit their store.

San Giorgi’s Coffee
6435 N Thornydale Rd #169
Tucson, AZ 85741
Phone: (520) 544-3069

The Lost Dutchman Coffee Company has been a long time contributor to Arizona Coffee, and they are both a local coffee roaster to Tempe, AZ as well as a seller and distributor of green coffee beans. They also sell a variety of equipment for the home roaster.

Before doing that, I wanted to find out what you think? You as a reader will still have a choice in the matter (I’ll keep the commenting system, in addition to Facebook commenting), and when you leave a comment here on the site it wouldn’t appear on Facebook (unless you chose to do that).

Thoughts?

Press Coffee is hosting the first latte art competition of 2012 among Arizona coffee houses, and this looks like a great event. Press Coffee has a wonderful environment for a competition like this with lots of counter space, and good visibility.

The competition begins at 7:30 pm – baristas should arrive an hour early. For questions or to RSVP, you should contact Alex Mason.

This location has a beautiful 3-group Synesso espresso machine, which is absolutely awesome.

Latte art throwdowns have become a pretty big thing in Arizona over the last 3-4 years. It seems that every major coffee shop has been hosting them. The most recent one that I attended at Urban Beans, in November, must have had 75 attendees.

Press Coffee Roasters (at Scottsdale Quarter)
15279 N. Scottsdale Rd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Twitter: @PressCoffee

“My boss won’t let me make espressos,” says the barista. “I need a year more, maybe two, before he’s ready to let customers drink my shots undiluted by milk. And I’ll need another whole year of practice after that if I want to be able to froth milk for cappuccinos.”

From an interesting WSJ article about how the recession has impacted Japan.

But that happened this week.

Lola Coffee has sold its uptown location on Central Ave. to its barista, Tiffany. They made the announcement on Facebook. Not much is known except the new name — Citizen Espresso Bar. It already has a Facebook and Yelp profile. One exciting change: expanded hours (Mon – Sun: 7am to 8pm).

Citizen Espresso Bar will continue to serve coffee from Lola Coffee but will be adding an in-house baker.

Citizen Espresso Bar
4700 N Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Phone: (602) 265-5652

Looking for barista with training preferably, if no experience knowledge and interest in the industry is important. Employee will need to think on feet and be able to work in a traditional coffee shop as well as non-traditional climate. Ability to work amongst musicians is important. Prior Experience, resume, cover sheet, and references are required.

Compensation/Hours: Start at 10 hours per week, with potential to go 40 if your work is good.

Contact Email: loficoffee@gmail.com

Location: Lo Fi Coffee, 105 W. Main St Mesa, AZ 85201, http://www.loficoffee.com

Equipment: Super Automatic Nuova Simonelli, Mazzer Grinders, Fetco Grinders, Minor baking required.

The job description:

Part time work of 10 hours/week to start with. Looking for an extremely coffee oriented person for our business that knows how to work on and update web sites using standard HTML code. Secondary duties (to start with) will be to roast coffee on various equipment including Ambex and Probat roasters as well as equipment maintenance.

Some roasting experience is helpful, but not required as we are willing to train the right type of individual. Green coffee sourcing and cupping experience also helpful, but not required (will train). Please email contact information to info1@lostdutchmancoffee.com.

The wrong assumption that underpins superautomatic espresso machines is that the critical variables in espresso coffee making can be standardized and controlled. They can go close, but superautomatic espresso machines cannot control some of the finer nuances that are necessary for quality espresso coffee making. Control and adjustment of these nuances typically requires the expert ‘eye’ and judgement of a skilled barista.

View the full answer on Quora.

Echo Coffee
2902 North 68th St.
Suite 135
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Phone: (480) 422-4081
Twitter: @EchoCoffeeAZ

Thanks to Dana Desonie for emailing to let me know about Café de Doña Ella. From the web site:

Café de Doña Ella is an effort to bring you the best quality coffee, from the Highlands of El Salvador. It is farmed and processed by Manuel Alberto Santana-Bendix, a resident of Flagstaff who also owns his family’s small coffee farm in El Salvador (Finca Grano de Oro). On the farm he grows the Borbón (Bourbon) variety of Coffea arabica, arguably the best variety of coffee trees.

In 2004, his coffee was one of the winners in a Cup of Excellence. You can purchase his coffee in Flagstaff. To learn more, visit his web site at cafededonaella.com.

Arizona Coffee has 6,676 followers on Twitter (up from 5,800 last year). Facebook is still a fraction of what is on Twitter, but I like the photo album aspect on Facebook. We have 527 fans on Facebook (up from 337 a year ago).

So without further ado, here’s the best posts from this year:

January

• The green paint is gone at Scottsdale Quarter — Press Coffee Roasters had just opened their 2nd store, and we visited and took some pictures
• Best menu board design? — Sparked an interesting discussion about menu board design

February

• A Visit to Dutch Bros. — My interview with the owner of the AZ locations of this franchise

March

• Arizona Traveler: Los Angeles — A handy list (in the comments) of some coffee shops to visit in LA

April

• Vinyl Rush, a coffee bar and cafe opens in Mesa — Photos submitted by a reader
• Copper Star Coffee celebrates five years — A Phoenix gem… how has it been 5 years already?

May

• A Visit to Carmel’s Coffee — A new coffee shop on Camelback Rd.
• Brian Clemens is your Southwest Regional Representative — Includes an interview (copied from another site) with Brian

June

• An encounter with a customer
• Intelligentsia’s Venice Beach — A visit to a coffee house in LA

July

• A Door with Character — The upcoming Mulch Coffee location

August

• Baby Arizona Coffee — My new baby girl, now 4 months old
• Do you check-in? — A discussion about location social networks, a whopping 48% of you ‘check in’
• The inventive coffee shop — Reinventing your coffee shop

September

• Lux Central: My first visit and some camera phone photos — Some thoughts on Lux Central
• Daniel Suh knows latte art — Thoughts after the SWLAC
• Latte Art from SWLAC — The definitive latte art contest for Arizona

October

• Who is your favorite barista? — 92 comments (some people thought it was a contest)
• Coffee Wizard in Tempe — Brand new coffee shop on University
• Results from Urban Beans Latte Throwdown — A really fun event
• Poll: How often do you make coffee at home? — 73% of Arizona Coffee readers make coffee at home every day
• Arizona Cold Brew — In which I ponder why nobody sells iced toddy by the gallon

November

• Mulch Coffee at the Old Town Farmers Market serves a smooth iced coffee — A Scottsdale gem opens

December

• Interesting Home-Espresso Machine on Kickstarter — I am seriously considering ordering one of these, but they won’t ship until December 2012

In case you are curious, you can browse my “Best of” posts from previous years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

I’d like to give a warm shout out to all of my sponsors this year, especially:

• The Coffee Bump
• Ground Control Coffee
• Cortez Coffee Company
• Firecreek Coffee Company
• Coffee Bean Corral
• The Roastery of Cave Creek
• Service Associates
• Canyon Oats
• The Drawing Board Signs

Have a Happy New Year! — Chris Tingom

Stumptown rolled out an on-tap version of their Stumptown Cold Brew. It’s pulled from an actual beer tap, with a wooden tap handle, and served tall in a pint glass with ice.

Also, Sprudge notes that Stumptown is experimenting with a slow-bar concept… something I recall Cartel is planning to implement as well.

I haven’t had a chance to take photos of the actual biscotti product, but they look exactly like in the packaging photo. They’re a dry biscotti, so they’re not moist. My favorite so far is the espresso-flavor. It’s not overpowering in any way. You can purchase them at Sprouts in Phoenix, but I am unaware of any coffee shops that sell them. The product name is genius… biscotea / biscoffee. So smart.

Let’s play guess the location. Anybody know which coffee shop has these lights?

View the listing on Kickstarter.

DCILY has also done a short write-up about it, that is interesting. They also answered questions.

Here is a list of coffee roasters in Arizona that would love your business this year.

Phoenix Area

• Café Cortez Coffee Company
• Cave Creek Coffee Company
• Coffee Reserve Brands
• Echo Espresso
• Espressions Coffee Roastery
• Ground Control
• Highland Coffee Roaster
• Lost Dutchman Coffee Roasters
• Magic Beanz Gourmet Coffee
• Matador Coffee Roasting Company
• Momentto Coffee Company
• Passport Coffee
• Press Coffee Roasters
• Riviera Coffee Company
• RoasterX
• Village Coffee Roastery
• Cave Creek Coffee Roastery
• Firecreek Coffee Roastery
• Cartel Coffee Lab
• Xanadu Coffee Co.
• Xtreme Bean Coffee Company

Tucson and Southern Arizona

• Bisbee Coffee Company
• Adventure Coffee Roasting
• Arbuckle Coffee Roasters
• Caffe Luce
• Capulin Coffee
• Gadsden Coffees
• Old Bisbee Roasters
• Raging Sage Coffee
• Cafe Aqui

Northern Arizona

• Joshua Tree Coffee Company
• Late for the Train
• Macy’s
• Prescott Coffee Roasters
• Sedona Coffee Roasters
• Single Speed Coffee Roaster

Week #50 – Coffee

Source: 52 Infographics in 52 Weeks

I am wondering if you have ever had posts or articles or advise columns on “how to become a barista.” etc. I would LOVE to work in a coffee house, but lack the experience. I am wondering if there are any resources for learning/training/breaking into the industry.

I can’t think of any articles written on this site that specifically address this topic, and so figured it would be a great question to pose to the community. What tips do you have?