Espresso espresso espresso this Saturday!
The event is coming together. A few teaser coffees to give you an idea of what is already prepped to be served during the day.

Espresso already confirmed:

Single Origin Shots-
Panama Esmeralda Gesha
K1 - Special prep Kenya air freighted from origin
Brazil Moreninha Formosa

Blends-
Taiwan Barista Competition Blend
Costa Rica Las Lajas 'Miel' 40%
Brazil Moreninha Formosa (African Raised Bed) 60%

'Arabian Wine' Yirg Blend
40% Konga Coop Yirgacheffe WP
60% Biloya Yirgacheffe DP

May add two more to that list but it's undecided as to which coffees. Possibly a Guat CoE or Rwanda GC. Vac pot list will happen later but no teasers unless you are already signed up. No need to register for tasting the espresso but show up at Simon's [where:1736 mass Ave Cambridge] early before the offerings are gone.

Labels: events

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 5:22 PM 5 Comments

  Events: Syphon Brewing and $3 espresso day

Labels: arlington, cambridge, events, Simon Hsieh

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 6:42 PM 4 Comments

  We're Moving To Block 11

[UPDATE]:
Tenative Schedule
Bob Weeks of Redeyeroasters Hingham, MA
John Mahoney of Atomic Cafe Beverly, MA
Simon Yu of Simon's Coffee Shop Cambridge, MA Presenting Terroir Coffee
OR tenatively Jennifer Howell of Terroir Coffee Acton, MA
Ben Chen presenting coffees by Simon Hsieh of 4Arts Zero-Defect Coffees of Taiwan

The theme is local roasters with the exception of our good buddy Simon who as a friend, gets an honorary MA designation so we can brew vacpot with his method. The goal is to build community awareness of the potential in coffee by sampling some interesting brews from local roasters.

[UPDATE]:
A big thanks to John at Atomic for showing up and bringing his Kenya Deep River Peaberry, Guat CoE, and Colombia CoE. Special thanks to Jen at Bloc 11 for hosting us. A tremendous thanks to Simon Yu for continuously supporting our events and footing the bill on the Terroir coffees. Thanks to Peter for sending the Colombia coffee. A big thanks to Josh for the home roasts. A thanks to Ben Chen for his home roasts, particularly the Rwanda. Big appreciations go out to Simon Hsieh for what were the coffees that capped the night in style as the Esmeralda Gr 0 floored the crowd. Last but not least, a hearty thanks to everyone who showed up. It was a good sized lively crowd of people we appreciated greatly on such short notice.

Labels: block 11, cupping, events

  ¶ Ben Kaminsky 3:49 PM 0 Comments

  The Coffee Tasting Is On! [UPDATE]

Ok, so pardon the short notice, but you should have known it was coming! We're partnering up with some folks in Cambridge for a night of educational coffee cupping, featuring roasters both local and international (we're literally flying coffees in for this one). A few home roasting enthusiasts will even be going side-by-side with the big guys in the tasting, so we'll let you decide which you enjoy most. It's going down this Sunday. Oh yeah, and it's FREE!

Sunday, November 18th, at 5pm

[UPDATE]: We're currently seeking a new venue for the event due to demand, so we will almost certainly not be at Hi-Rise this Sunday. More info soon.

[UPDATE]:New location found, details to follow:
Bloc 11 Cafe
11 Bow St
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 623-0000

Labels: events

  ¶ Ben Kaminsky 1:30 AM 3 Comments

  Coffee tasting at Hi Rise

October 20th at 5pm
Hi-Rise Bread Company
[where: 208 Concord Ave Cambridge, MA 02138-1335]

Coffee cupping event. Free to the public. Coffees from local roasters, vac pot, pour over, and other brew methods just for fun. Sorry, no espresso planned at this time.

Should be good fun. Hopefully some local roasters will come in to present their own coffees on this stage. Hi Rise has a great community following and really is a solid place to have events like this. I am really looking forward to it.

Date and time subject ot change so keep tabs on us.

Labels: cambridge, events, hi rise bakery

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 4:51 PM 6 Comments

  This has nothing to do with coffee

Labels: cambridge, events

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 9:56 PM 5 Comments

  The long overdue event post.
A special thanks to the roasters who provided coffees for our tasting event. The event was hectic but I think everyone enjoyed it. It was about as many as we could handle in that small space. A special thanks to Miguel Meza for working to overnight the coffees to us to get us the Kenya in time for the event. It was above and beyond what anyone could ask for. We have come to expect that kind of standup service from Miguel based on what we have seen in the past. The washed Sidamo was a good pick for vac pot and really worked well in that method. A hearty thanks to Steve Ford for expediting the coffees to our event and for providing the coffees to the Bellingham Jam which we ended up brewing in vacpot at that event. We ended up pushing the espresso on people at that event if not simply for our affection for Andrew and Co. but that it was a damn good roast too. A big thanks to John and Adam at Atomic Cafe for the CoE coffees they offered at the event. I will be looking forward to an event at their new Salem warehouse and a chance to cup some coffees with them. I hope they will keep us in the loop on that! Some of us will probably drop in unexpectedly at a later date. A big thanks to Bob Weeks of Redeye for making the trip in to visit and bringing the coffees for the event. I hope to drop in soon and visit the roasterie setup in the future to see how things are done in Framingham Hingham.

Also, a thank you to Simon for hosting the event and providing the Terroir Coffee on his dime. Since we were unable to get donated coffees for the event from them, Simon was generous enough to provide off the shelf on the spot. Simon was happy with the particpation of everyone who came and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Simon and I cupped all the coffees just before the event so we didn't miss out.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and I hope it will inspire some brave souls to organize a home user meetup or espresso throwdown. Maybe just a simple cupping or dare I even mention tea.

For those who missed it, there may not be another soon but we will let you know what we know. Maybe our buddy Andrew at North Hampton might be lured to host a small event even if only of house coffees or simply a geek together coffee deal. Ideas welcome, locations even more welcome.
Take care-

Labels: events

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 6:23 PM 1 Comments

  Bellingham Barista Jam

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
The whole purpose of The Bellingham Barista Jam was to meet, talk and of course taste coffee. I am sure everyone had different highlights of this event, but like Edwin says, coffee is about the relationships of the people involved from grower to consumer. This statement was especially important and relevant on this occasion.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
The event kicked off at about nine with us demoing the vac pot while others got their stations set up. Jaime ran the show, demonstrating the intricacies in technique of this wonderful method of brewing coffee. Kaminsky and Jaime continued to demo the vac pot for the next hour and a half while we watched and tasted. Unfortunately, the coffee we had arranged have sent to us from Simon Hsieh for the event did not arrive in time, so we were only able to brew the Ecco Reserve. Thanks to the generosity of Ecco Caffe and the vac pot alchemy of Jaime and Ben, we were able to show our peers a little of what we are about.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
Zander and the clover were showing their stuff off across the way and I got to play around a little bit with what is probably the coolest coffee making machine out there. I also totally scored a clover t-shirt, which is amazing.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
I got to pull my first shot on the Synesso. As Ben said, "It's not bad for your first shot ever on the Synesso." Bronwen only had to look at it before dumping it down the drain. Oh well, guess I am not quite WBC quality yet. After several tries, Bronwin showed us how it is done with the Ecco Reserve, chocolate and caramel.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
One of my favorite things at the event was the Victrola tasting. Keith and Justin set up the first round with only Colombian coffee. There were about nine different Colombians mostly COE lots from the last auction and two that were not COE. It was set up as a blind tasting in which we had to decide which coffees were COE lots and what numbers they were as well as which were the two that were not COE coffees. We all picked out the number one COE and the defective coffee that had to be sent back. The second part of the tasting was all Victrola offerings. I have to say, I was surprised with the Lake Tawar I tasted. It was definitely the best Sumatra I have ever had, but then again I really don't like Sumatras. Many thanks to Keith, Justin and Victrola for setting up an awesome tasting.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
Edwin gave an awesome presentation about just what it means to get his coffee to the roaster. He had a full slide show with pictures of coffee trees growing and being picked. He showed us photos of processing the coffee, all the machines involved and every step along the way and in between. He showed us photos of the port where the coffee is exported and photos of the coffee getting there. Most importantly though, he showed us photos of the people involved with making this all possible. Many of the people he showed us photos of are good friends or family. Along the way he narrated this slide show and connected us to those people through his words and pictures.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
The guys from espresso parts had a table set up with an array of cool tampers, including the Barismo spec tamper at its trade show debut. As soon as someone would ask about it, they would explain it a little bit and then point across the way to our table.
photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
Things continued with plenty of time for everyone to chat and taste and try out the different machines. Gabe was taking plenty of photos and really showing off his skill as a photographer. He seemed to be where ever something interesting was going on and didn't miss too much.

photo courtesy of Gabe Rodriguez
Kaminsky and I got to talk to Robert from Coffeed. We had an interesting Yirg conversation about all the difficulty in getting a good Yirg to this country unharmed. He had a few good stories to tell about how easily a great yirg can be ruined in transit. I am glad we got to talk, he has a lot of good stuff to say.
This event was all about coffee. Or rather, it was all about coffee and people. There were People from different places and many people from Belllingham all brought together by coffee, with the help of Edwin and Richard. It was great to meet so many awesome people. I really enjoyed myself on this trip and enjoyed seeing everyone do their thing. It was great to see how connected everyone in Bellingham is to one another and how accepting they are of us.

Labels: events

  ¶ Silas Moulton 2:42 AM 3 Comments

  Reminder: Cupping Event This Saturday At 6pm

Labels: events

  ¶ Ben Kaminsky 12:23 AM 9 Comments

  The B-Ham Jam
Bellingham, WA: The Barista Jam
Event's from 9 AM to 3 PM, though if anyone wants to volunteer they are welcome - they'll be starting setup at 8 AM and need to be out by 5 PM. Ten bucks gets you in, and you get to keep five of those bucks if you present BGA or Roaster's Guild membership at the door.

Any questions can be forwarded to bhambjam@gmail.com

Confirmed exhibitions from La Marzocco, Synesso, Nuova Simonelli, and Espressoparts - Possible Clover. Coffees (including but not limited to) 49th Parallel, Hines, Victrola, and Ecco - chances are good that some Victrola peeps will be running our extra-fancy cupping plaza (you'll understand when you see it). A possible showing of Black Gold and afterparty.

FROM I-5 SOUTH: take the Lakeway exit (number 253). At the stopsign at the end of the offramp, take a right. You'll run into Lakeway Drive - take a right onto Lakeway.

FROM I-5 NORTH: take the Lakeway exit (number 253). Take a right onto Lakeway Drive.

ONCE YOU'RE ON LAKEWAY DRIVE: travel a few blocks; at a big intersection, Lakeway will turn into Holly Street. Keep going on Holly down the hill - this will take you into downtown Bellingham. Take a left onto Railroad (you'll see a Starbucks on that corner). Once you're on Railroad, the Depot Market Square is just two blocks away on the left. It's a big gray building. Feel free to use the covered parking lot; it's free!

Boston barista contingent of Silas, Judson, Kaminsky, and Jaime(me) will be attending this great event this weekend. Any west coast peeps out there must come and join us. Rumor is that Simon in Taiwan will have coffees shipped to this event as well as some of us Barismo guys enlisted to run vac pots at the cupping station. We will see. Should be interesting.

Labels: events

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 6:07 PM 2 Comments

  Informal Tea Cupping
If you happen to be around Simon's in Cambridge MA Saturday Apr. 7th after 5pm, drop by and say Hi and taste some teas. Silas and I will be tasting a few teas with friends. Short notice cause it's informal like that!

Labels: events

  ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 12:44 AM 0 Comments

  Upcoming Event: An Introduction to Coffee Cupping

Labels: events

  ¶ Ben Kaminsky 10:48 PM 6 Comments