Espresso Jell-O Shots? hmm….

Yesterday, following an hour at Boyd Coffee (still a family-owned company after 112 years), I decided to take the scenic route back into the city. Instead of taking I-84, I drove west along Sandy Boulevard through Parkrose toward the Hollywood district. Not quite coincidentally, I ended up at Case Study, a café that keeps pulling me in, partly because I never know what new beverage might be available to try. The last time I stopped in, I tried the shakerato. Yesterday, I was planning to just have a glass of ice-brewed Geisha (from Panama), but Ricky, the barista always creating new things, insisted I try the Jell-O shot too.

It was, in a word, interesting.

The concoction was a small cup of espresso-flavored gelatin (slightly larger than a shot glass) with whipped cream on top. Case Study makes the base with unflavored gelatin, espresso and a little sugar. Each of the cups contains approximately the equivalent of a shot of espresso (in this case, a single-origin from Guatemala). To serve it, they add the whipped cream and create a confection that is somewhere between a chilled vanilla latte and a coffee aspic.

The thing that stood out most about the Jell-O shot was the texture. The gelatin was chewy and buttery. Normally when I think of Jell-O, I imagine something light, but the shot was rich and heavy. You could split one with a friend and be satisfied.

If you are a big fan of Jell-O, the espresso Jell-O shot is worth a try. I recommend you don’t wash it down with iced coffee, though—especially if you have a relatively empty stomach. The caffeine/sugar combination of the two together packs nearly as much punch as Marlen Esparza. 

Tales from Bostonia

We spent a few days in Boston last week, and the trip reinforced my belief that Portlanders are very spoiled by the amount of high-quality coffee available to us.

The first thing you notice when you drive around Boston (rather, the first thing I notice) is the presence of Dunkin’ Donuts shops everywhere. There are even more Dunkin’ Donuts than Starbucks. Apparently, Massachusettsans (or their less-polite fellow citizens) like bad coffee. Dunkin’ tried to establish itself in Portland a few years back, but the city’s coffee connoisseurs ignored the company, so it left town.

But Boston is not Portland, and Dunkin’ Donuts has a special place in the hearts of New Englanders. The chain was founded in 1950 in Quincy (pronounced quin-zee), Massachusetts, a few miles south of Boston. From the original shop, the business has grown to approximately 7,000 stores in the US alone (10,000+ around the world). Earlier this year, Dunkin’ announced it wants to double the number of US stores in the next two decades (a sign of the impending apocalypse?). The success of the business is unquestionable. The quality of the coffee, on the other hand…..

Give it a shot

Trying to keep an open mind, I stopped in at a Dunkin’ Donuts one morning and ordered a small coffee. The server asked if I wanted it “regular,” which, in Massachusetts, really means “with milk and sugar.” I said yes.

The coffee, unfortunately, met my expectations. It tasted like lightly-sweetened water. Bleh. It puzzles me that Dunkin’s coffee is so popular, but there is more behind the company’s success than just coffee.

In Boston, drinking DD coffee is almost a badge of honor, a symbol of loyalty toward the place New Englanders call home. People drink Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee, not because it is high quality, but because it communicates something about their values. They identify with Dunkin’s working class, egalitarian American ideals (“America runs on Dunkin’”). In other words, Dunkin’ serves the common coffee drinker.

When I worked for Starbucks in Boston, customers would occasionally come into the store and grumble about the cup sizes, saying something like, “I just want a large. I don’t speak Italian, or whatever that is,” implying that Starbucks’ use of a foreign language was elite West Coast snobbery (I wonder what the customer would think of this post). In the least snarky voice I could summon, I would reply, “That’s okay, we speak English here too.” (Hopefully, they detected some sarcasm, but not too much.)

The marketing/branding lesson in the story is that it takes more than just a quality product to be successful. You have to have something that resonates with your customers’ values.  

Hope for future coffee snobs

Given Dunkin’s history in the Northeast, it would be a challenge to separate New Englanders from their DD coffee, but people are building a better coffee scene in the “Hub of the Universe.”

Thanks to some enterprising Bostonians, it is possible these days to find good coffee with a little effort. One shop providing better beverages is Thinking Cup, a café across from Boston Common that serves Stumptown coffee. The shot of Hair Bender they served me was not quite what you would get from Albina Press (where I’m sitting as I write this), but it was tasty.

Other quality cafés are popping up around the Boston metro area too. Unlike five years ago, when DD or Starbucks was about all you could find (in addition to the Italian coffees in the North End), these days you can find Stumptown, Counter Culture, Intelligentsia and George Howell coffee if you know where to look. That’s a significant improvement, and I expect to see the trend continue in the future. Boston will be hosting the 2013 Specialty Coffee Association of America Event, which means that the pressure will be on for Boston cafés to show off their best stuff. Boston might not be ready to take the title of America’s Best Coffee City from Portland, but it is heading in the right direction.

West Coast comforts

What does a Portlandian do when he visits Boston?

One guess....

A taste of. . .

When I first started learning about coffee, I listened in awe as people led cuppings, talking about “bright acidity” or “earthiness.” At first, I did not have a clue about what they were saying. Over time, though, the tasting vocabulary began to make more sense and I enjoyed the challenge of distinguishing the various taste elements in a coffee. I became what you might call a “coffee nerd,” one of many in the industry.

Coffee is not the only beverage with highly-enthusiastic tasters. Wednesday evening, Marcus Young of Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters and Minott Kerr from Sterling Coffee Roasters organized an event that brought a wide variety of beverage companies together for an evening of tasting. Hosted by the American Barista and Coffee School, the Taste : Industry workshop was an opportunity to meet beverage professionals and learn how they talk about taste in their particular industry. We had the opportunity to sample coffee, coffee liqueur, bourbon, Scotch, pear brandy, hard cider, beer and wine.

Marcus Young explains the evening's activities

For me, the highlight of the night was the cider.  Jennie Dorsey, a former Portland barista who now works as a rep for Tieton Cider Works, took us on a short tour of four cider-making countries: Spain (Basque Country), France, England and the United States.

Each country has its own unique traditions for producing cider, and the four we tried were very distinct. The Basque cider was rough around the edges, with a savory tartness similar to green olives. The French cider had a strong sulfur aroma and tasted cheesy, like a strong brie. The English cider was bitter and sharp, while the American cider was more refined and sweet like sparkling butterscotch.  Explaining the differences, Dorsey talked about how our sense of taste is influenced by culture in addition to our physiology. For example, she said many of the flavors in the Basque cider would be considered “defects” if they showed up in an American cider.

Jennie Dorsey (center) shared her cider knowledge

A couple tables down from the cider, Erika Degens from Stone Barn Brandy Works gave out samples of her Red Wing Roast coffee liqueur. Consisting of pinot noir brandy, a pear/apple spirit, spices and Yemeni and El Salvador coffees, the liqueur was lightly sweet and very complex. You would never confuse it with Kahlua.

Erika Degens of Stone Barn Brandyworks

At the Migration Brewing table, I learned how adding oats to the malt of a beer gives it body without changing the color. I also learned that IPA is the abbreviation for  India Pale Ale. In the days of the empire, before refrigeration was invented, the British used to export beer to India. To preserve the beer on the long sea journey, brewers would add extra hops to the barrels. The hops acted as a natural preservative and gave the ales extra bitterness. Beer drinkers became accustomed to the taste of the hops, and the hoppy beers became a whole new category to serve the market.  

Other bits of trivia I learned during the event: 

• When Scotch whisky spends time in American oak barrels, it turns a deep golden color. Aging in Spanish oak gives the whisky a darker amber color.
• Oak imparts vanilla and caramel flavors into whisky.
• A whisky blend like Johnnie Walker can be comprised of 30 or more different single-malt whiskies.
• Anything over 80 proof burns (drink slowly!).
• When you taste coffee and wine, you’re not supposed to swallow, but with whisky you do.
• The Williams pear is another name for a Bartlett pear.
• Pear brandy smells sweet and innocent, but it is neither.

In addition to tasting a lot of new things and catching up with some coffee industry friends, I also met Hanna Neuschwander, who told me about her book coming out in August, Left Coast Roast, a guide to more than 50 coffee roasters on the West Coast. It sounded like a fun project (and a good reminder to get back to work on my own book!).  

The Taste : Industry workshop was an excellent gathering, all in the name of “education.” Thanks to all the sponsors and the organizers. I am certainly looking forward to the next one.  

Coffee alchemy – the shakerato

Today, after a quick lunch at Pizza Nostra (Northeast 48^th and Fremont – I highly recommend the pepperoni), I pedaled down through the morass of construction on Sandy Boulevard and stopped in at Case Study.

Unsure of what to order and feeling adventurous, I asked Ricky, the barista, for a recommendation. Case Study always has lots of interesting things going on – they bring in a wide variety of different coffees, some of which are very high-end. They like to experiment with different beverages and presentations too. One time they served me an espresso paired with slices of green apple and a small vial of honey. As a barista competition judge, I appreciate the creativity.

For this visit, Ricky recommended a “shakerato.”

“A what?” I asked.

“A shakerato. It’s espresso and a little bit of sugar, shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker. The result is…magical,” he assured me.

Espresso on ice? Not something I would normally order, but why not? It is summer after all (though it has often felt like Junuary) and I’ve had plenty of cold-brew lately.

The shakerato had several characteristics of a quality beverage. First, it was visually interesting. In the clear glass, I could see a thick caramel foam resting heavily on the  espresso beneath. It looked like a sampler of freshly-poured Guinness, though the taste was nothing like the famous Irish stout. The beverage was sweet and fruity, reminding me of white grape juice. The coffee flavor was fairly muted and the foam’s texture was light and silky. Overall, the beverage was very unique.  There is also a latte version of the shakerato that sounds interesting, but that will have to wait for another day.

Shake it...In addition to the shakerato, this summer Case Study is also cold-brewing a Geisha varietal from Colombia that is tasty. Like I said, they are always trying out new beverages, in addition to their traditional coffee lineup. When construction on Sandy ends, which should be soon, you will be able to roll in on the smooth new street and indulge your inner coffee adventurer.

Sterling Coffee moved! (but not too far)

Trader Joe’s decision to expand in Northwest Portland was good news for fans of the quirky supermarket, but the expansion pushed Sterling Coffee out of its space. Fortunately for fans of the coffee kiosk, Adam McGovern and Aric Miller, Sterling’s owners, found a new spot to set up shop. This week, Sterling moved around the corner from its original location into M Bar, a petite public house on Northwest 21^st.

M Bar aficionados need not fret. M Bar did not disappear. Rather, the two beverage purveyors are joining forces. The space will be Sterling in the mornings and afternoons, and M Bar in the evenings. Sterling redecorated the bar to reflect its 19^th century style. The new location gives customers a place to sit and enjoy—dare I say it?—“sterling” coffee without facing the traffic or the rain*. In a new twist, Sterling’s sharply-dressed baristas serve espressos in shapely snifters that send coffee aromas directly to your olfactory receptors. This is common in barista competitions, but it is the first time I’ve seen it in a café setting. Could coffee cocktails be next? We’ll have to wait and see.

Elegant espresso

Upcoming Event

On Sunday, June 17^th, Sterling and M Bar are celebrating their new partnership with a public party billed as “the marriage of Sterling Coffee Roasters & M Bar.” Coffeehouse Northwest will be closed so that all Sterling Coffee family and friends can gather and witness the event. A live band playing Cuban music is scheduled for the reception. The party, open to everyone, runs from 8am-4:30pm.

Vitals

Location: 417 NW 21^st Ave, Portland, OR  97210
Hours: 7am-4:30pm Monday-Friday

*just because you dare, doesn’t mean you should

A bad omen? (Crow 1, Will 0)

On my way to the bus stop the other day, I was walking down the street (some of the streets in my neighborhood lack sidewalks) when a crow flew up and landed on the branch of an old maple tree hanging over the street. 

The crow was perched directly over where I was walking, so I proceeded with caution. It always makes me nervous to walk underneath birds sitting above me.

It’s not that I have some kind of bird phobia. After all, if you live long enough, you’ll probably get sh-t on at some point in your life, and you’ll find that you won’t die from it. Still, it’s no fun to walk around with splattered clothes.

Fortunately, I was granted safe passage below the branch. Or so I thought. This is where the story gets weird.

I hadn’t walked another ten yards when suddenly—whack! Something crashed onto my head. The object was not sharp, but it wasn’t dull either. At first, as I stumbled forward, I thought a branch had fallen on me. But a whoosh of air from the wings of the crow that had just dive-bombed my head told another story.

That’s right—the crow I had walked past decided it didn’t like what it saw, and it came after me. After strafing my noggin, it floated onto an overhead wire and sat next to another crow, cawing as if to mock me .

If I’d had a shotgun, that would have been the end of said crow. 

But I didn’t, so all I could do to retaliate was weakly toss a rain-soaked fir cone at the offending bird. The crow flew off, and I walked away wondering what the hell just happened. I checked my head a couple times, for blood or any other wet liquids, thankfully detecting neither.

I have no idea why the crow decided to hit me. Unless it was omniscient, it couldn’t have detected any bad thoughts from me. Maybe it just didn’t like the way I walked. Whatever the reason, I’m just glad it wasn’t the beginning of this.