Nailing the Hair Bender at Coffee Division

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Recently, when I visited Coffee Division, in Southeast Portland, I had the best shot of Stumptown’s Hair Bender I have ever drunk. As a general rule, I avoid using superlatives (especially with Hair Bender, with which I have a complicated relationship), but in this case, the shot deserved it. The barista nailed it. The first sip was bright and tangy, as expected. The bold acidity quickly mellowed out into a caramel-berry-chocolate silk finish. It was smooth, and reminded me why so many Portlanders swear by Stumptown coffee.

The barista who made my expectation-exceeding shot was Chris Larson, the new owner of the café. If you live near Mississippi or Hawthorne, you might recognize Larson from Fresh Pot, where he worked for several years before getting out of coffee for a while.

A few months ago, he decided to get back into coffee, so he opened Coffee Division—with a mission.

“I started the coffee shop because I wanted to share my knowledge of coffee with others and feel like I was a part of something bigger,” he told me.

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Rain and shine at the Rain or Shine

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On a recent trip to Mount Tabor, I drove by the intersection of SE 60^th and Division, where new signs in the window of the corner café caught my eye. Having previously visited and written about Gigibar (the café that used to be there), I decided to go back and learn the story behind the new café, the Rain or Shine Coffee House. When I got there, the February March April May June showers had returned and it was pouring outside.

The first thing I noticed as I walked into the café was the brightness of the space. New hanging globe lamps added to the café’s light, airy feel. Fresh-cut flowers sat on several tables, adding life to the room. Watercolor paintings of flora, fauna and white-washed cities hung on the wall, making me wish I was somewhere on the Mediterranean. Then again, maybe that was just the weather.

A new sign for a new cafe

The new owners, Molly Boyl and Claire Teasdale, went to school together at the University of Oregon. Claire had previously worked in a coffee shop in Eugene, and although Molly did not have much experience with coffee, she said she has enjoyed learning about it. When I was there, the Rain or Shine had only been open for ten days, so they were still getting their routine down.

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Clover-brewing at River Maiden Coffee, Vantucky, Washington

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My recent search for new and improved coffee experiences took me to River Maiden Coffee in Vancouver, Washington. River Maiden is a coffee shop that plays up Vancouver’s “second city” status with its “Vantucky Strikes Back” logo on cups and shirts. It also has “The Couve Abides” cups and shirts that fans of The Big Lebowski would appreciate.

River Maiden Coffee House

In addition to having an appreciation of pop culture, River Maiden is also one of very few independent (i.e., non-Starbucks) coffee shops in the world to have the Clover brewing machine.

The Clover is a machine that combines the brewing principles of a French press and a vacuum pot. It was designed by a couple of coffee-loving Stanford engineers, who proceeded to build a company around it. Starbucks executives were so impressed by the machine that they decided to buy the whole company. These days, if you want to try some Clover coffee, you either have to go to Starbucks or find one of the indies that had one before Starbucks bought them all. [An interesting side note: When the Clovers first came out, Stumptown had several, but then sold them all when managers heard Starbucks had bought Clover. The rumor was that Stumptown did not want to have any dealings with “corporate” Starbucks.]

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Kobos Coffee (Part 1) – Helping write PDX coffee history

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[Note: This is part one of a two-part article. You can find part two here]

If you were to write a history of the Portland coffee scene, the story would not be complete without a visit to Kobos Coffee. Founded in 1973 by David and Susan Kobos, Kobos Coffee was one of the first companies in the area to roast its own coffee, and has since grown into one of the largest coffee roasters in Portland.

Without knowing any of the company’s history, the first time I went to Kobos, I was surprised to walk into the company’s Vaughn Street café and be surrounded by what looked like the kitchen department at Macy’s. In addition to lots of coffee paraphernalia and an espresso bar, there was lots of brightly-lit and brightly-colored kitchen gadgetry, including dishes, linens and other housewares.

Inside the store at Kobos' Vaughn St. Café

I wanted to find out what the story was, so after “meeting” Kobos’ Kevin Dibble in Twitterspace, we arranged a time to meet and talk about the company’s operations. When I arrived at the store, Kevin, who is also one of Kobos’ roasters, greeted me and took me back to the offices. He introduced me to Brian Dibble, his father and co-owner of Kobos. Together, they led me through the roasting plant and told me about the company’s operations.

Our first stop on the tour was the coffee warehouse. It was spacious, with pallets piled up with large burlap sacks full of green coffee beans. Brian said that there were about twenty different origins and varieties represented in the warehouse. He said that Kobos roasts about 40,000 pounds of coffee each month. That’s a lot of coffee, and it goes to a lot of different places.

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Sweet and spicy

This weather, in the present-day vernacular, is getting “ridiculous.” It’s May. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of the cold. So far this year, we’ve been teased with the occasional nice day, but our expectant hearts are then dashed to the ground by the next untimely cold front. It’s time for some heat.

Speaking of heat, that’s what I found today when I tried a “Toddy Diablo.”

The time: 3:00pm.

The place: First Cup, on Woodstock.

If you were to have a “throw down” between the coffee shops on Woodstock, First Cup would probably win. The shop is pretty small, so it gets a little cramped sometimes. It is a place for Reedies to hang out and there are often lots of students coming in and out. The atmosphere is welcoming, if you can find a seat. They serve Stumptown coffee, with Hair Bender available every day as one of the two brewed coffees and also as the espresso.

Since summer is supposedly approaching, cafés are pulling out their warm-weather drinks more these days, including cold-brewed coffee. Today, First Cup was advertising a “Toddy Diablo,” a “cold-pressed coffee with a house-made chile syrup” (toddy is the term for cold-brewed coffee that cool Portland cafés use—there’s no whisky in it). A couple months ago, I tried my first cold-brew coffee at Case Study. That was a memorable first time, and I have been a fan of the cold brew ever since.

I asked the barista what she thought of the Diablo. A sly grin came to her face when she told me, as if it were a secret between us, that the drink was really good. Devilishly good, perhaps?

She described it as spicy, not like habanero peppers, but more of a smoky, slow burn. Would I like to try it?

Yes, please.

The first sip of the drink was revealing—not quite like I expected. Instead of raw heat, the coffee had a hint of sweetness. Sweet and then hot. The barista later told me that the sugar gives the spice something to hold onto and is better than using only pepper in the syrup. As you swallow, the pepper warms your mouth, with the heat slowly moving to the back of your throat and downward, until you feel a slow simmering in your chest. The aftertaste is a touch smoky, like smoldering wood chips. It reminds you of drinking coffee prepared over a campfire.

Like my first iced coffee, the Diablo was another memorable first time. It’s not something you would drink every day, but for those days when you are looking for something different, when you need something to spice up your coffee palate and shake off the erratic Portland spring weather, try the Diablo at First Cup. If you dare.

Caffe Trieste (SFO) - not just a café

What is it that makes a café a “local place,” or even what I would call a “neighborhood institution?” In my previous post about Xpression Coffeehouse, I wrote about how the owners want to make their café a place where the neighborhood gets together. But how does a café reach that goal? There may not be a single answer to that question, but I do know that some places are successful while others are not.

Last week, I visited the original Caffe Trieste in San Francisco, and it is a place that definitely has “it.” The café is the proverbial place “where everybody knows your name.” Although no one knew my name when I was in there, I was confident that after a few visits, many of them would.

Having great coffee is not the only way to become a neighborhood café. The first day I went to Trieste, in fact, I thought my espresso was barely drinkable. If I were going to base my experience solely on the coffee, I would not have gone back the second time. However, my pastry was excellent (it tasted a lot like a chocolate chip cookie) and the environment was fun, interesting, and full of character and quirk. I wanted to go back.

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Xpression Coffeehouse - jazz and java

The other day, I went searching for a different café in Southwest Portland. I had a couple hours to kill before I picked my daughter up at preschool, and although there are a couple cafés fairly close to the school, I have not been overly excited by either of them. I knew there was another coffee shop in the area I wanted to try out, so I went looking for it. It wasn’t easy to find, though, and I was about to give up when I glanced over and saw the sign for Xpression Coffeehouse to my right.  It turned out to be a nice discovery.

As I entered the café, the first thing I noticed was that it felt very welcoming. Soft jazz music was playing and a strong scent of coffee filled the air. The barista greeted me as I came up to the counter. She was working on a drink for the person in front of me and said she would be right with me. I waited, listening to the music that was playing, reading the information screen located behind the register. I was surprised to read that the music was original and composed specifically for the café.

“That’s one way to get around the music-industrial complex,” I thought, recalling an article I had recently read discussing coffee shops and music copyright issues.

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