Aldo Coffee Company

Watching and Waiting

We're waiting to learn if we'll be the proud owners of some new crop Hacienda Esmeralda green coffee.  We've got a proxy at today's auction, which is still going on (live). 

Two years ago a Hacienda Esmeralda fetched $50.25/lb. at the Best of Panama auction.  And last year, it fetched $130/lb at the BoP.

Without getting too complicated about this year's new auction process, the Peterson family, which owns the Hacienda la Esmeralda coffee plantation, took itself out of the 2008 Best of Panama competition in order to do a separate auction of their own coffees.  As HlE had won the Best of Panama each of the past four years, the Peterson's decision to hold their own auction was lauded as it allowed other coffees from other producers to fetch higher prices in this year's Best of Panama, which was held on April 17.

We already know we're not going to get coffee from any of the more expensive batches as we went in with a fixed ceiling on what we'd bid.  Prices for the top six lots (Batches 1-4) currenly range from $28.00 to $71.25 per pound of green (unroasted) coffee.  Other lots are still fetching bids in the $6-$12 range.  Of note, one bidder (#583) is trying awfully hard to lock up batches 1-3, so far at a cost of $72,000!

But as everything coming out the plantation has been very good, it becomes a matter of degree as to just how phenomenal the coffee will be.  Unfortunately, we were aiming at Batches 8-9, which were harvested "South of the Creek" and which have cupped very well, but those are already above our ceiling.  We may still end up with something from Batch 5 (Hoguera and Frente Poldo) but the competition for each of the lots 103 being auctioned has been intense, so we're not going to learn if we succeeded or not for a little while yet.

If You're Still Wondering What's the Difference Between a Great Dedicated Barista and PBTC...

Somewhere in the middle of a discussion about whether future barista competitions should use a standardized sponsored grinder vs. the current "bring your own" option, a discussion on "what's a real barista" broke out. 

It might seem testy, but only if you didn't watch the end of last night's Pens/Flyers game.

Best quote:
Chris Baca (WRBC winner, 4th USBC):
"I hope I'm not thrown in here...I'm down for the little guy. I feel like I am the little guy; the grinders I've used for competition were purchased by me, not my company. I drive a beat down bucket and generally don't eat/go out at all so I can scrape together cash to get my beloved coffee toys. I do get support from my company in many ways though and it's tough to say, but the big money will always be at the top. A few underdogs will pop up here and there but if you look back the top spots are consistenly dominated by big companies who can afford to dump tons of money and time into the competition. Do I get jealous of the people with more resources than me? Sure. Do I have more resources than the really small guys? Sure. But it is what it is and standardizing the comp grinder wont change any of that."

That's true love.

Switching to Feeburner - Index.rdf Feed Will Be Disabled Shortly

This is long overdue, but for us to get a better handle on site traffic, we're moving our Atom feed over to Feedburner. 

We'll be disabling the index.rdf feed as of this Friday.  If you currently receive the index.rdf feed, please note this change and sign up for the Atom feed through Feedburner at http://feeds.feedburner.com/aldocoffee.  If you're already receiving the Atom feed (atom.xml), no need to do anything.

Apologies for any inconvenience and thanks.

If you're not receiving Aldo Coffee news via your RSS reader (Bloglines, MyYahoo!, Google, etc.), ask Rich how to set you up next time you're in the shop.  It's a great way to follow Aldo Coffee news without needing to visit the blog.  Each post will be sent directly to your personal reader.

Sad News: The Vault Closes

UPDATE:  The owners of The Vault say they are looking for a new staff and plan to reopen as soon as they've found enough baristas to make a second go at it.

One of our favorite local coffee haunts is no more (or maybe not, see above update).  We learned that the crew at The Vault Coffee & Tea Bar in Brighton Heights packed in it on Saturday, May 10.  Brad (a.k.a. "The Clown Prince of Coffee") and partner in crime Drew stopped by this afternoon to break the news.

Back to Black (Cat)

The Finca Matalapa Espresso is finished, so it's back to Black Cat only on the bar today. We will miss it, tearfully.

3rd Place "Roaster's Choice" Coffee On Bar

We have a couple of pounds of Kenya AA Jambo Estate from The Roasterie.  This coffee took third place in last week's "Roaster's Choice" competition at the Specialty Coffee convention.  It'll be available as press pot brew starting today.

The Finca Matalapa Espresso is down to the last pound and we expect it to be gone by close tonight. Today it seems to have acquired a hint of salt, or as Kyle Glanville might put it, "What was lime mousse is now margarita!"  It's remains one of the most well-balanced shots of single origin espresso we've ever had.

The USBC Champion's Espresso On Bar Right Now

Finca Matalapa El Salvador roasted for espresso.  As used by Kyle Glanville on Monday to win the United States Barista Championship. 

As far as we know, the competition Matalapa is not a roast that Intelligentsia plans to make available this year to customers.  So it might be the one and only time locals will get to taste it.

This bag we have is currently in the same sweet spot (days off roast) that Kyle used to win the USBC.  Not saying the shots are going to be the same as Kyle's, but John's been pulling them yesterday and today and they are lusciously different than Black Cat - as a double 1.5oz, they're remarkably well balanced for a single origin, offering a bit of lime mousse and butterscotch with a velvety mouthfeel that slides into a sort of plum wine/tamarind finish, especially as it cools.

It's also very different from the drip roasted Matalapa which is more reminiscent of tree fruit (apple/pear/fig).  We have the drip roast on sale for home brewing.

We only came back with two pounds and about a quarter of it went to dialing it in, so we should have it for a couple of days.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity-Jig

Just got home, picked up the dog, noticed the grass is up another six inches and while we're happy to be home, there's a bit of pining for the community we left in Minneapolis.

If there were one thing we wish we could make happen, it would be for everyone who's ever said, "What's the big deal, it's just coffee," to sit at the judges table at the USBC or at the cupping table for "Coffee of the Year" or "Roaster's Choice" competitions and experience for themselves the best our industry has to offer. 

Not to mention the increasing awareness (and thankfully, demand) for sustainable coffees as well as the worldwide community that is doing all it can to support sustainability while at the same time, working to bring even better quality to your cup.

We know the good people reading this post aren't the ones saying or thinking, "It's just coffee."  But y'all have friends and colleagues who do.  You know where to send them to change their minds.

Congrats again to new USBC champion barista Kyle Glanville of Intelligentsia, who not only impressed the judges and audience with his skills, but who is also just one of the most unassuming, friendliest baristas working the trade today.

More to come in the days ahead on what we learned.  But for now it's back to the shop to make sure everything is in one piece ;-)

Belle did not make it to the finals either.  But she gave a solid performance which you can watch again and again.  It was the toughest year yet to make it in - even former national champs and many regional champs were lapped by the talents of five California kids and The Pete from KC.  Congrats to everyone for raising the bar for our trade yet again.

USBC Semi-Final Day

Sadly, neither John nor Sonja made it through the prelims.  Both gave good performances and finished under time.  But "good" isn't enough here.  And maybe "great" isn't even enough given what we've seen the past two days.

We were surprised at some of the people who didn't make the semis.  Of the performances we watched we thought Clancy Rose from Austin and hometown favorite Peter Middlecamp were shoo-ins.  Both really understood their coffees and presented with a passion that was as good or better than anyone else on stage.  Both kept neat stations and both had what seemed like creative and well presented signature drinks. 

But you can't taste the coffee from the cheap seats.  We're guessing that in both cases it must've been an off day for the coffee that kept them out of the semis.  We hope that they're not discouraged as from our angle, both are major credits to the trade.

The semis will begin in about an hour.  Belle is going 16th out of the 25 remaining, which means somewhere between 1-1:30pm 2-2:30 Pittsburgh time we believe.  You can follow her performance (and everyone else's) on the live blog feed.