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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#Trust30 Day 14 - Ambition

[Yes, there are a lot of these #Trust30 posts...here's why].

When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name; the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The world buzzes about goals and visions. Focus. Create a vivid picture of exactly where you want to go. Dream big, then don’t let anything or anyone stop you. The problem, as Daniel Gilbert wrote in Stumbling Upon Happiness, is that we’re horrible at forecasting how we’ll really feel 10 or 20 years from now – once we’ve gotten what we dreamed of. Often, we get there only to say, “That’s not what I thought it would be,” and ask, “What now?” Ambition is good. Blind ambition is not. It blocks out not only distraction, but the many opportunities that might take you off course but that may also lead you in a new direction. Consistent daily action is only a virtue when bundled with a willingness to remain open to the unknown. In this exercise, look at your current quest and ask, “What alternative opportunities, interpretations and paths am I not seeing?” They’re always there, but you’ve got to choose to see them.” - Jonathan Fields

The author’s prompt does not quite fit my situation. I do not have a “blind ambition” that causes me to miss opportunities that I would otherwise see. Rather, I am too open to possibilities, and the reluctance to choose a more focused approach to life is creating challenges for me. There are too many distractions in my world, not too few.

However, even though the prompt is not perfect for my situation,  I am still willing to sit down and think about the ‘alternate paths’ I might not be seeing. Some of these could be:

1. Writing for a magazine or other publication
2. Start an international coffee newsletter, to combine my interests in coffee, travel, writing, business, economics and storytelling
3. Turn this site into more of a demonstration of my capabilities and let people know how they can hire me (building logos, graphics, creating presentations, speaking, editing videos, etc.)
4. Try to find a “normal” job that allows me to travel and write about those travels when not working for the company
5. Contracting with a company to write/oversee its newsletters, either internal or external

One alternative (#2 above) for what I am doing would be to create a newsletter for the coffee industry that is different from the coffee trade magazines. [side note: If you are someone who is in the coffee industry, is there some type of information out there that you are missing that you would like to have available? My crack team of researchers could start working on finding it.] I heard a marketing professor say one time that to be successful, you have to find a problem and be the solution to that problem. In other words, you find someone with a headache and then be the aspirin.

My current ‘quest’ is to make a living out of writing and other creative activities. I would like to turn Caffeinated PDX into a more important and useful site for visitors, but that is going to require some changes (and, eventually, some assistance). The blog is going to have to have a stronger message to attract more people and it also will need to grow outside the Portland area.

In essence, the current Caffeinated PDX is a first draft for the project it will eventually become. During the last several months, I have learned a lot about coffee, writing, blogging and social media. I continually remind myself that it takes time to build something successful, and that even on the days when it seems like my progress goes backwards, I am learning things that will be valuable in the long run. At some point, I will find the right mix of message and utility, and then use my “not so blind” ambition to make it work.

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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2011 World Barista Championship - Alejandro Mendez, Campeón!

This past weekend, the 2011 World Barista Championships took place in Bogotá, Colombia. For the first time ever, a competitor from a coffee-growing country won first place. El Salvador’s Alejandro Mendez won the competition, beating out the US’ Pete Licata, who finished second after having the highest score in the semi-finals.

Mendez put on an impressive display of coffee knowledge, enthusiasm and creativity. For his signature beverage, Mendez combined flavors from all parts of the coffee plant. He made an infusion from dried coffee flowers (that he had collected himself), one from the mucilage (the fruit pulp), another from the cascara (dried skin from the coffee fruit) and combined all of them with an espresso made from the roasted coffee beans. His goal was to give the judges the entire flavor of the coffee tree. The commentators (yes, the broadcast has commentators, much like golf) thought that this was the first time anyone had combined all of these elements into a beverage (you can see the video here. Mendez’ finals performance starts at about 1:30 into the video and lasts 15 minutes).

If you watch the video of the performance, you will notice Mendez’ deep knowledge of the coffee, his attention to detail and his willingness to try unconventional techniques. Mendez tells the story of how he tested his espresso at the same altitude as Bogota and found that 14 days post-roast was the best day to use it for the competition. He also made a very bold move when he had the judges strain off the crema from the espressos before they drank them. Personally, I question whether this should be allowed, because the crema is an integral part of the espresso experience. However, the judges allowed it, and it certainly helped to make his performance memorable.

Mendez’ win is more impressive because he was competing in English, which did not appear to be his first language. Imagine if the other competitors had to learn the language of the host country in order to compete—that would make it much more challenging. That is what the competitors from non-English-speaking countries have had to do for years.

The 2011 competition was the first time the championships have been held in a coffee-growing country (excluding the small amount of coffee that is grown in Hawaii), which was a big deal for the coffee industry. One of the biggest social issues involved with coffee production/consumption is the fact that for years, coffee producers in developing countries have not benefited from the increase in value of coffee as it was roasted, brewed and sold to customers at high markups.

Coffee-importing countries placed tariffs and quotas on roasted coffee in order to protect their own roasters, which hampered the development of a roasting industry in coffee-growing regions. The system led to much of the value of the coffee crop leaving poorer countries and moving to richer countries.

Today, the specialty coffee industry is trying to make the distribution of the value of the coffee more equitable, and by holding the barista championship in Colombia, the SCAA/SCAE has raised awareness about coffee production and demonstrated its respect for the coffee-growing countries. Hopefully, it will not be another decade before the competition is held in one of these countries, nor will it be surprising when a barista from El Salvador, Colombia, Rwanda or any other coffee producer brings home the top prize.

Congratulations to Alejandro Mendez, the 2011 World Barista Champion.

[If you want  a more complete 2011 WBC wrap-up, complete with lots of photos, visit Barista Magazine’s blog here.]

Caffeinated links for June 3, 2011

Here are the links for the week. They come with lots of sunshine and warm weather (hooray!), so enjoy:

From the legal department: a woman is suing Dunkin’ Donuts for putting sugar in her coffee. A legal liaison for DD was quoted as saying: "If you fail to request a sugar substitute, we can't read your mind. We sell doughnuts, not crystal balls." Ouch. link

Groupon, who filed paperwork this week for a $750 million IPO, had better look out. Google Offers debuted this week with a successful sale of over 1600 $10-vouchers (at a price of $3) for Portland’s own Floyd’s Coffee. Floyd’s is known for having outlets at all its tables, as well as serving Stumptown Coffee. link

Speaking of Stumptown—in case you missed it, here’s the NY Times article about the PDX-based coffee roaster’s expansion plans. link

On the same day that he published the rumor about Stumptown’s alleged sale to TSG, La Colombe’s Todd Carmichael was the subject of a feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer. La Colombe is investing in the revival of the Hatian coffee industry. link

In a contrarian move, Nectar of Life is lowering the prices for its Coffee of the Month club. link

McDonald’s, the coffee giant (what, you didn’t know?), is apologizing to Australians for the sorry state of the coffee the chain serves and is promising to do better. link

Another one from the legal department: Peet’s is being sued by Aegis, its development partner for the New York City market, who claims that Peet’s is trying to cut it out of the deals it had secured for the coffee company. link

Sumitomo Metal is going to buy used coffee grounds to fuel one of its power plants in Japan. The company isn’t going to use a lot, mixing 1% coffee with 99% coal, but it’s a start. link

Coffee juice, anyone? Coffee fruit flavor might be the next new fad in the cold beverage market. link

And finally:

Beginning August 1^st, if you visit the Oregon Convention Center, you will be able to drink coffee at Portland Roasting Coffee’s first signature café. The venue dropped Starbucks and switched to the Portland company because of Portland Roasting’s commitment to sustainability. link

Coffee, Rumor and Innuendo

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Last Friday, I posted a link to what I said was a sign of the impending rapture—that Stumptown Coffee was in negotiations to be bought out by Starbucks. There was absolutely no truth to the rumor whatsoever, so you can imagine the surprise I felt today when I went online to read the latest coffee news and one of the first things to come up was a story claiming that Stumptown had been sold (though not to Starbucks).

Todd Carmichael, the founder of LaCombe Torrefaction, an East Coast-based coffee company, wrote an article for Esquire that Stumptown’s Duane Sorenson had “sold his life’s work to the highest bidder.” Needless to say, this caused quite a stir in the coffee blogosphere and Twittersphere. Could it really be that Stumptown, Portland’s most famous coffee company who seemed to be everything but corporate, could be ‘selling out?’ What would that mean for Portlanders who cannot stand the idea of supporting a “corporate” coffee company? The idea seemed an anathema to many people.

There were several reasons to be skeptical about the article’s accuracy. Carmichael likes to make fun of the hipster coffee culture, as evidenced by this article, so it is not surprising that he took a shot at Stumptown. Also, the tone of the article and lack of evidence in it, lead one to believe that Carmichael, whose company is a direct competitor to Stumptown, does not like the fact that Stumptown is expanding on the East Coast and was looking for a way to give his rival some bad publicity among the anti-corporate crowd.

In response to the news, Willamette Weekly dug up a document showing that Stumptown Coffee Corporation, which is a separate entity from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, did apply for an  amendment to authority with the Oregon Secretary of State at the end of April. The new agent for the company is Alexander Panos, a managing director at TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm based in New York. In other words, there was a small bit of evidence behind the rumors.

However, the document does not address any questions about any relationship between Stumptown and TSG. It is impossible to tell from that document what Stumptown’s plans are, and Carmichael’s speculation is premature, unless he has other information. Esquire, if it wants to be taken seriously, needs to make sure there is more evidence before an article like this is published, especially when the author has a financial stake in a rival company.

Update: In the latest news this afternoon, also from the Willamette Weekly, Stumptown responded to the article, saying that it did open itself up to some outside investment to help fund its expansion, but that Duane Sorenson, Stumptown’s founder, is still in charge. Therefore, Portlanders can relax—Stumptown has not sold out. You do not have to worry about losing another local chain to corporate America.

Update 2 (June 2): Stumptown did allow for some investment by Panos (Sorenson still controls the company) and the plan is to expand into Chicago and San Francisco. The NY Times has the story here.

Update 3 (June 6): Willamette Weekly is today reporting that Stumptown sold 90% of the company to TSG, though it seems like the source is Carmichael. It's hard to know what to believe. . . You can read the story here.

My question is, if Stumptown had sold out, so what? It is Sorenson’s company, after all, and the last time I checked, we still live in the USA, where capitalism is the economic system. If someone wants to build a company and sell it so that he or she can fulfill other dreams, that should be his or her right. There is nothing especially noble about starting a company and staying with it until you die. Times and people change—we have to accept it. Unless, of course, the news is just a rumor or a blogger’s attempt to be funny.

Coffee highlights of the week plus links

[Note: I just made two corrections to this article. The first was the spelling of the name of the espresso at Oblique. I changed Derailer to the proper Dérailleur. I also had written that Oblique's owner was Jim Chandler. It is not. His name is John. Sorry for the mistakes!]

I tried two different coffees this week that were worth mentioning. The first was an espresso of the Dérailleur Blend at Oblique Coffee. The shot was balanced, chocolaty and super smooth—almost silky. It went down very easy, without any sugar. John Chandler, Oblique’s owner, said that since the weather had become warmer, his espresso machine seemed to really be “dialed in” and was pulling great shots. I’m not sure why that is true, but I would have to agree with him.

The second noteworthy coffee was a cup of Stumptown’s Kenya Gatomboya, brewed on a Clover (normally, you only find Clovers at Starbucks, but Vancouver’s River Maiden Coffee still has one from the early days). Stumptown just released the Gatomboya this week, and the early reviews have been good. The flavors that came through were cherry and butterscotch. Tasty!

Here’s some links to get you through the weekend:

You can no longer get cannabis in the coffee shops of Amsterdam (link), but you can still get coffee in the cannabis shops of Portland. link

Portland Roasting Coffee made it into an article in Sustainable Business Oregon. link

Instead of me discussing rising coffee prices, I’ll let an article at Salon.com do it. link

CNN Money has another analysis of prices that says pretty much the same thing: in the near future they’re only going UP. link

In the other Portland (PWM) this week, Dunkin’ Donuts was selling iced coffee to help support cancer research. link

Time magazine asks if you would hang out in a Subway café. My response? An emphatic no. link

Howard Schultz was in Vancouver, B.C., this week, talking about his company, coffee prices and a multitude of other things. link

You might have heard of a CSA for vegetables, but have you ever heard of one for coffee? link

There’s a movement underway to rid Seattle of disposable coffee cups (yeah, right). link

Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend. Summer is (reportedly) here! #whenits55andrainingthatsnotreallysummer