Coffee Enema Anyone?

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of finding out exactly where my coffee was going once it left my shop.  After the volunteered info that the coffee I was roasting was actually being consumed by one of my customers through the "non-traditional end" for a colon cleanse, I began to wonder what the procedure entailed.  Colon cleansing was thought to have started with the Ancient Egyptians and has since been credited and dis-credited through the decades.  In the early 1900s coffee was added to the mix and has been used by some as a sub for the usual saline solution ever since. 

So why coffee?  Well aside from you being extra hip because you used coffee instead of totally un-hip saline, people do believe coffee is a better alternative.  Supposedly coffee goes right to the liver and creates a strong toxin avenger.  It then helps the liver to create more bile which carries most of the toxins to the small intestines and out of your body.  This cleans the liver and allows it to process the incoming toxins faster so they do not sit there just being toxic in your body.  Sounds pretty cool right?

But wait....before you run to Bean Traders to get that half bag of low-acidity Brazil Oberon.....you must understand there is also a big risk with any colon cleanse especially coffee.  Do I need to mention the coffee should be completely cooled before you start?

Here are some more risks.

Still interested in using our coffee in more than one way?  This is a good article to start you on that journey.




When I looked up "Coffee Enema" pics...wow!
 Really TMI in that picture category...but I liked this one.
http://haternation.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/coffee-enema1a.jpg?w=450

 DC

Thoughts about SB closing

When we opened 11 years ago September, we were the only coffee shop in Southeast Durham.  It's crazy to think about how different this area was at that time....loads of woods....no huge mall....about 3 less strip malls...you get the idea.  The SoDu community was pretty happy we were giving them a coffeeshop, and we were happy to do it (selfishly we were really happy just to be able to drink a decent cup of coffee ourselves). 

Now.....years later.....there are 4 Starbucks....1 Dunkin Donuts.....and at least 3 local cafe/coffee shops that have come and gone.  This is all within a mile of us! 

6 months after we opened, Starbucks opened its first location right across the street from us and a lot of our customers were angry and nervous that we would not survive.  That first month they opened we were inundated with the never ending question "Are you guys scared you will go out of business?".  Each time we answered the standard: "no...not so much".  Most of the time this sufficed...the remaining times we had to listen to all the reasons we should be nervous and all the reasons why said customer felt awful for us.  It really was coming from a good place, but it was hard to hear a list of reasons why someone might think your business will tank....and even harder that people didn't have more faith in our survival.

Our thought was, still is, and always will be: 

1) Never look at the guy(gal) next to you to measure your success
2) Keep focused on your vision and do not let people or other companies scare you into changing it
3) Keep on the pulse of your industry and be flexible and progressive while staying true to what made people love you
4) No matter how great everyone says you are or how many awards you receive, the minute you stop striving to be the best, you suck
5) Your customers are the heartbeat of your business......always take care of your heart!

So now, all these years later, the place across the street is closing its doors for good this Sunday.  And while you may think we are doing cartwheels in the back room...a part of us will  always ache at the closing of a business.  It is hard to explain, but it doesn't necessarily feel good to rejoice in someone elses downfall...major chain store or not.

With all of that said, we were surprised, but not so much so about the closing.  We had heard about a year ago from a pretty reliable source that the SB across the street was one of their smallest volume stores in the area.  We joked at the time that we probably played a big part in that and it's hard to compete with our delicious bean!  Honestly though, we don't care to speculate about the closing or why.

 Our hope going forward is that we can turn some people on to our product.  Do we think we will get everyone?  NO...not even close.  We will get a small amount of people that may have heard we were across the street but never bothered to try us....who now try us because they do not want to change their morning routine drastically so they just come across the street...and then like our atmosphere/product so they stay.  The rest of the people who know that we are here and never tried us will most likely do McDonalds or Dunkin, because they just like Chain Store coffee and the atmosphere that caters to that...which is totally fine, we are not trying to fit square pegs into round holes...people should go where they are comfortable so there is no friction. 

Then there are the people who have no idea we are even here. We have never had visibility from the road (we love our strip with all the trees..but it definitely lets NO ONE know we are here) and you can see the Starbucks loud and clear.  Again, some of them won't care because they like a different genre....but we are most excited about the people who had no idea we are here...thought they were stuck with a certain coffee and then now that said coffee is gone they are forced to investigate other options...find us... and feel blessed to find the perfect coffee shop for them.

And lastly, if you happen to hear your neighbor...co-worker.....etc moaning about their go-to coffee shop closing, tell them to drink some bean!

You might change their life as they know it :)

Would You Drink Your Coffee from a Toilet?

I usually drink my coffee out of a 12oz glass mug...it is nothing fancy....which is what I like.  I understand a fun mug might make a person feel a little extra happy drinking their morning joe, but I will never understand these mug genres:

Impractical Mug

Although this flip top mug aesthetically is pretty cool.....

I appreciate the place to keep my cookies...but I fail to pay attention just once and drink from the wrong side.....

If I actually keep up with the spoon (which would be lost or broken by weeks end)...I do what with it after I have stirred my coffee?  Pocket perhaps?  Or do I put it back in the cup and drink my coffee with a spoon sticking out of my cup...

Pretty cool artistically...but I already have a hard time with my coffee spilling out and my cup doesn't lean to one side..

Wordy Mug

Coffee mugs are like bumper stickers...keep it short and written in a font size that's reasonable..

Creepy Mug

As a father I feel very uncomfortable picking up a baby by one arm.....but even if the handle was standard I don't think it would change my initial cringe....

After watching a "Caught on Camera" special a few years ago, this is really the last thing I want to think about when I am drinking my hopefully untainted coffee...

A-hole Mug

Yea...I'm gonna kiss you cause you told me to on your mug...and especially since you're loaded..

No office mate...really...you don't look like an total a-hole for drinking your coffee out of a toilet..

Latte Art...In Your Mouth

Yes...this Barista is pouring latte art in his mouth.  He was stepping up to a challenge from a fellow Barista.

Coffee in Any Language

Coffee (English)                 

Café (French)        

Kafe (Creole)  

Kahve (Turkish)            

Kawa (Polish)

Kofe (Russian)                     

Koohii (Japanese) 

Caffe (Italian)  

      

Kopi  (Indonesian)          

Koffie  (Dutch)

                                                                                       

5 Interesting Coffee facts

Coffee and it's history is quite layered, complex, and very interesting...just like a good cup of liquid personality.  Here are 5 things that may perk your interest:

1) Since every great thing has a legend of how it began, coffee has it's own mythical story.  The legend is of Kaldi an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed his goats dancing around and acting strangely excited one day.  Upon investigation he noticed the goats were eating strange red berries growing on shrubs near the animals grazing grounds.  He ate one of the berries and felt re-charged, energized and giddy.  He told everyone he knew...they told others...and it went viral....but in 800 AD style.  Once the Monks got word of the magical fruit, they discovered that the beans could be roasted and brewed to help keep them alert on their spiritual journey. 


2) Coffee was considered so important to a person's quality of life in Turkey, that a woman was legally allowed to divorce her husband if  he did not supply her with enough coffee.  That sounds like the law my wife also lives by.


3) Coffee is the second most traded commodity next to petroleum.  It is a 60+ billion dollar a year industry!


4) Americans, Germans, and the French account for almost 2/3 of the world's coffee consumption.  Something we can all agree on.


5) The term Americano is from WWII when American GIs asked for hot water to dilute their strong espresso "coffee".

see you in the am

DC

Love and Coffee

Today is the national day of love...aka Valentines Day and although I was on the verge of hitting "Post" on my part 2 of WTF Coffeeshop Moments I felt it was more romantic of me to post some love stuff. 

I realize every year there is some controversy over the commercialism of this day, but let's get real...if you have a spouse (especially a wife) you are probably doing at least one sweet gesture just to say "Happy Valentine love". Be it bringing that special someone coffee in bed, buying them a coffee card from their favorite place, or taking your love to have coffee and dessert after a special Valentine's night out, coffee is a player on Valentine's day....roses and chocolate are by no means nervous they are losing their grip, but coffee is a contender for the less traditional crowd. 

And aside from coffee being a player...it is the actual object of a whole lot of people's desires.  Just on Facebook there are hundreds of pages centered around the love of coffee...and thousands upon thousands of videos and other social media professions.....not even half the number of pages professing the love of our red flower friends.....take that roses!  Check out this sampler of 40 songs that mention coffee:

The main reason for my change of heart though, is I actually met my wife at a coffeeshop when I was 15...crushed from afar until 18.....then re-connected again at that same shop when I was 20..asked her out and 10 years (2 children) and a lot of coffee later...we still are on this journey together. 




Happy Valentine's Day all!

Coffee Slang

Java....Joe....Drip....Mud....Liquid Personality....Black Gold.....Mother's Little Helper....Rocket Fuel....Brain Juice....Leaded (caffeinated).....Unleaded (decaffeinated).....Morning Sanity.....Nectar of the Gods

see you in the am
DC

Espresso

I started my love affair with espresso 16 years ago when I was 15 years of age.  That is also the year my future wife (who was a Barista at the coffeeshop) served me my first cold-brewed espresso ice coffee.  I soon after learned that espresso wasn't a type of bean, but a blend of a variety of coffee beans that is chosen to produce a thick, rich, tasty shot when concentrated.  Espresso can also be used to describe your brewing method.  Some roasters use as little as 2 beans in their blends or as many as 6.  I used a special 5 bean blend for 9 years that my friend and coffee mentor Bruce of Coffeeworks gave me when I roasted for him in 1999.  Bruce worked at Joffreys, one of the 3rd Wave Coffee pioneers, before opening Coffeeworks in Charlotte, NC in 1991.  When we opened Bean Traders in 2000, Bruce gave us his best wishes and blessing to use his secret espresso recipe.  Over the years we have had people from all over the world try our espresso, and overwhelmingly the response was the same: it was a favorite.  A couple of years ago, quite by accident, I tweaked the recipe.  I ran out of the green coffee of one of our espresso blend beans and had to improvise with what I thought might be an unnoticeable difference.  Immediately we were getting more and more compliments...even our loyal espresso drinkers were asking how we managed to make our espresso better. 

We never went back to the old recipe and now I feel good knowing that one day I might be able to pass along my very own secret recipe to the next generation roaster.  The experience really taught me that the art of coffee is a constant moving ever changing world and to not be afraid to move with it even though you have something that works.  You can always have a better product and you will never know that until you try something different.  We have always had that philosophy in-store with design, product, and beverage, but I never thought to move it further to roasting. 

When I choose my first caffeine in-take of the day, I usually start with a double shot of espresso.  It hits me fast and then allows me to drink my black regular coffee without desperation.  If you want a great double shot to start your day without leaving the house, remember espresso can be just as enjoyable to drink at home as well as your favorite coffeeshop.  Of course I know a lot goes with going to the coffeeshop besides the espresso (atmosphere, friends, great Baristas, getting out of the house, etc) but if you want to stay at home from time to time, here are my suggestions for achieving great espresso at home:

1) Buy your espresso fresh from a local roaster or via internet from a micro-roaster who roasts to order.

2) Grind your espresso fine enough to extract all of the flavor, but not too fine that the espresso becomes a muddy consistency that is not penetrable.  If your espresso grinds feel like baby powder, it is too fine....if it feels like bigger grains of sand, it is too coarse.

3) Make sure to store your coffee properly.  If possible buy whole bean and grind as you need.  Whole bean or ground coffee should be kept in an air-tight container, at room temp, and away from direct sunlight and humid conditions.  And contrary to popular belief...do not freeze...and the fridge is the death of your bean.

4) Getting a proper machine is key.  If you are drinking straight espresso, a stove top maker is great.  A Mr. Moka or Moka Express is fine, but if you want a flashy version go for it.  The options are plenty this day and age, and for the most part the stovetop makers are usually the same internally.  If you want to make cappuccinos or lattes as well, there is a plethora of options out there.  My advice is to get a pump machine which is more powerful so easier to get better shots than its weak brother steam driven.  Do your homework and read reviews and you should be able to find your fit.

5) Keep said pump machine clean. Wipe down your machine after every use..it's the least you can do since it serves you your morning sanity.  Every time you use your steam wand, you should purge it before and after steaming your milk and always wipe excess milk off wand with damp towel every time.  Backflushing is utmost important and should be done 1-2 times a week for a home machine.

6) Using water that has no distinct smell or taste is extremely important. If you filter your water..great...if not, it could taint your beverage.  Countless times people have asked me why their shots taste funny or sour at home and I advise to use a clean tasting water like LeBleu and problem solved.  Who knew tap water had such flavor. 

7) Proper tamping (after instructions 1-6 are accomplished) is the finishing move on great espresso.  First, use an actual tamper and tamp it proper.  Make sure you extract your shot in a warm porcelain espresso cup / mug and that the extraction time is 20-30 seconds.  If your shot brews nice and has crema (the layer of foam on your espresso), a nice crema.....your espresso task is accomplished my friend.  Tip one back for me.

see you in the am
DC