Chasing the Black Cat (Red E Café)

In multiple conversations with people around Portland, I have been told that one of the best espresso blends on the market is Black Cat—an espresso blend from Chicago-based Intelligentsia. In hushed tones, people discretely tell me that it might be better than Stumptown’s Hair Bender blend. It can be hard for a Portlander to admit that there is an outsider’s coffee that beats the hometown hero, but many do say they love Black Cat.

Since I heard about it so much, I knew I had to try it. The trouble was that Intelligentsia doesn’t have a café in Portland, at least not under its own name, so Black Cat is hard to find. Asking around, I was told that Crema used to have it, Barista has it some of the time and that Red E is the only café in town that consistently carries it. I hadn’t been able to make it to Red E yet, and  my Black Cat dreams kept getting stronger and stronger until I finally went to North Killingsworth to find the Red E and its magical brew.

Ready for the Red E

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Higher Coffee Prices Coming?

It looks like you might have to pay more for your morning fix pretty soon (Starbuckians have already felt the pain). The price of coffee hit a new 13-year high today. Arabica (the highest-quality coffee) bean prices keep rising, due to fears about the upcoming crops in Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil. As you can see from the chart below, coffee prices, up 48% over prices a year ago, are about double what they were five years ago.

Figure 1. From the Financial Times. Prices have been volatile, but mostly rising

If you look back a little farther (Figure 2), you can see that coffee prices are not the highest they have ever been. Coffee prices spiked sharply in 1994 and 1997 due to supply problems (weather events in South America). Fortunately for coffee drinkers around the world, after each price spike there was a fairly rapid drop. This time, however, the increase in prices has been more gradual, possibly reflecting a more stable trend. It’s something to watch over the next couple years.

Figure 2. Headed for a new high?

(Note: If you want to play with the interactive chart, click on the Figure 2. Your browser will send you to the Financial Times page that looks like Figure 1. Click on the Interactive Chart link in the top left corner of the chart. A pop-up window with the interactive chart will appear and you can change the parameters and add trend lines to the chart.  It’s great fun if you’re an economics nerd like me.) 

Spella Caffè

When I left the house on my way to Spella Caffè, it was one of those crisp fall mornings when you can see your breath. It started out sunny, but before long a cold fog had rolled in and it looked like it was going to be one of those gray days that drive Portlanders to drink lots of coffee. Fortunately, we have lots of options to help us deal with the grayness. Spella is one such place. I had heard good things about it from a barista friend and wanted to see if he knew what he was talking about.

As I walked down through the city, I had visions of stopping in, having some espresso and sitting down for a while. When I got there, I found that to be impossible, since Spella doesn’t have any chairs. In fact, the café has barely enough room to stand up if there are more than five customers inside, which there were when I arrived.

Spella

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Eight Tips for Café Customers

A few days ago, I wrote about what makes a good café. Today I would like to talk about what it takes to be a good customer. As customers there are a few things we ought to do to help make the café experience a pleasure for everyone involved. I talked to some local baristas for ideas, and as a former barista I have my own insights too.

Everyone ought to work in the food service industry at least once in their lives. People would be a lot more reasonable and patient with each other if they did because they would realize how hard it is to keep people happy. Serving coffee is not as difficult as serving food, but baristas are still in the business of serving others, which is never easy. It is fun most of the time, but once in a while you have a customer who is a real pain. We would like to avoid that, so here are some things to remember when you go to a café:

1. Don’t talk on your phone while you are ordering. Tell the person you’re talking with you will call him or her back and put the phone down (unlike driving, using a hands-free device doesn’t count). Your conversation is not so important that it can’t wait 30 seconds. If it is that important, you shouldn’t be in line at the café in the first place. If you don’t stop talking when you get to the counter, you get decaf. No exceptions.
2. Have a little patience, please. You’re not the only one in the world who wants your coffee and the barista isn’t trying to make you wait any longer than necessary (unless of course, you violate rule #1).
3. If you like faster service, introduce yourself to the baristas and be predictable in what you order. If the baristas remember you and your drink, they will often start making it before you ever get to the counter.
4. Hand your money directly to the person at the register. Don’t toss it down on the counter. In addition to being rude, it slows down everyone’s service.
5. Leave a tip once in a while. You don’t have to leave a big tip—some change is fine—but baristas don’t make a lot of money and tips make a big difference to them (You’re also welcome to leave a big tip—we danced around the store one Christmas day after a woman left a $100 tip). Leaving tips won’t the hurt the quality of service you receive either.
6. If you need something and the barista is carrying a bunch of drinks to customers, wait until she is done delivering them before you stop her to explain your situation. Standing there with an armful of drinks gets tiring, and you don’t want her to spill them. This is something that customers do without realizing they are making their barista’s life difficult.
7. If you’re not going to buy anything from the café, but you still ask to use the bathroom, be polite about it. If you have to ask for a key to the bathroom, act appreciative when you get it (When you do get to use the bathroom, use it right. I’ve seen some pretty bad  results in café  bathrooms. Come on, people! Be civilized!)
8. If you are someone who camps at a café that has Wi-Fi, you ought to buy more than just one drink, especially if the café is crowded. Your presence at a table may discourage more customers from coming into the café. My personal rule is one drink every two hours.

These are just a few things that can make your trip to the café more pleasant for everyone. I’m sure some of you could think of a few more. Feel free to share them. The most important thing to remember is that the person behind the counter works in the ‘service’ industry and not the ‘servant’ industry. If you can’t remember to treat people with dignity and respect, stay home and make your own coffee. Everyone will be happier that way.

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Starbucks in the News

Starbucks has been in the news a lot this last month. I don’t want to be accused of advertising for the company, but with 16,000 stores worldwide, the Seattle-based coffee giant is probably the most important coffee chain in the world. To ignore it would be doing you a disservice. After all, many cafés watch what Starbucks does very closely and then try to mimic or improve upon it. What starts in Starbucks may later be seen at your favorite local café.

VIA

At the beginning of the month, Starbucks released its flavored VIA instant coffee (available in vanilla, caramel, cinnamon spice and mocha). Yes, that’s right, the company who rose to prominence by educating customers about high-quality whole-bean coffee, now sells flavored instant coffee. Am I the only one who winces when he walks down the bulk coffee isle at the grocery store and gets a whiff of the caramel-flavored coffee sitting on the shelf? Some of those aromas are so strong they make my stomach queasy. The flavored VIA had better be nothing like those coffees. When I try it, I will let you know.

Mind you, I am not anti-instant coffee. If people want to drink instant coffee, that’s their business. One of the things one of our professors in business school told us was that if your product saves people money or if it saves them time, you have a winner. VIA does both. It’s cheaper than going to Starbucks to buy a mocha every day and drinking VIA is a lot quicker than stopping at a Starbucks too. In addition, as reported by the company, sixty percent of its customers drink flavored coffee and eleven percent of American households buy it. Maybe the company is onto something. 

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Cupping at Portland Roasting (No, it's not like spooning)

Thursday morning I had the pleasure of visiting Portland Roasting Company (PRC) to take part in the company’s “Cupping for the People.” This is a free event that PRC puts on once a month to educate people about its coffee and roasting operations. I tried to go last month, but the class was already full, so I had to wait. The wait was worth it and I had another great day of coffee education.

Nathanael May, PRC’s coffee educator and trainer, was our guide for the day. Only three of us were there to participate—apparently several people had cancelled. It was their loss, as we had a very interesting and tasty morning. The first thing we did was take a tour of the warehouse and roasting facility. PRC is located in the building of a former bulk popcorn producer (I didn’t know such companies existed, but then again, maybe they don’t, which could be why PRC has this space).

Nathanael explained that the facility was a good fit because it included both food storage and production areas. As we passed through the warehouse, we could see that here were hundreds of boxes of Muin syrups on the shelf (PRC is the nationwide distributor for the syrup maker). At the back of the warehouse, there were large jute sacks of coffee piled high, each bearing the name of a country or growing region. Coffees from Asia, Central and South America and Africa were all present .

In addition to the regular coffees, there was also a small section of coffee that was labeled “Swiss Water”. Contrary to what you might think, Swiss Water is not some exotic coffee from northern Europe. Rather, it is the name of the method that Portland Roasting uses to decaffeinate its coffee.

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Coffee Snobbery?

Today in the Oregonian’s A&E section, there was an article titled “Non-Foodie's Food Guide.” The article had a tone that mocked Portland’s “foodies,” people who have a reputation for eating only local, organic foods at non-chain restaurants. The article implied that foodies don’t go to the same places where ‘normal’ eaters go.

In addition to food, the article talks about coffee too, comparing some of the more well-known Portland roasters (like Stumptown) to Dutch Bros Coffee, a Grants Pass-based chain. The author implies that Dutch Bros. comparable coffee and more friendly service than Stumptown. One of the Dutch Bros. franchise owners is quoted as saying “We’re trying to be a blue-collar stop. We call our big coffee a ‘large.’” (That quote reminded me of my time working at Starbucks. Once in a while, people would come into Starbucks and tell me they wanted a medium coffee but they didn’t “know how to say grande, or whatever you say here.” I used to smile and explain that I understood English too.)

The piece has received a lot of attention and comments from readers today. On one side, there are people that say “That’s right! Foodies are rich snobs who eat overpriced food and drink overrated coffee!” and there are others that say “Why would anyone go to the chains? Their stuff is garbage!” The third type of comments are those that ask “Who cares? Most of us like to go wherever we can get good food and drink at prices we can afford, and by writing this article the Oregonian is just trying to create conflict where there really is none.” I agree with the  third type of comments.

However, I can imagine some of you thinking when I write about a coffee’s fruit notes and smooth finishes, it seems pretty ridiculous. In some ways I agree, but it’s not that bad if you think about coffee like if it were music. I’ll try to explain what I mean:

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