Hamptons Lane’s Coffee Quiz – What’s Your Style?

If you enjoy regularly trying new coffees, but lack the time to search high and wide for new roasters, one option you have is to sign up for a coffee subscriptions service, and let someone else find the coffees for you. One relatively new company that provides this service is Hamptons Lane.* But how do the people at Hamptons Lane know which coffees to send you?

When you first visit the company’s site, you are encouraged to take a short survey about what types of foods/beverages you like. Based on your answers, the company assigns you a profile and sends you a sampler box with four different coffees that it thinks you will like. After the first month, you can continue to receive the samplers or pick the coffees you want, delivered to your door. I haven’t seen any Portland roasters on the site yet, but there are several from the West Coast.

The survey is kind of fun to take, and while I’m not sure how accurate it will be for everybody, this is the profile it assigned me:

Can't argue with that...

*I profiled another company that provides coffee subscriptions, Misto Box, several months ago. Since then, its owners went on ABC’s Shark Tank and received $75,000 from Mark Cuban to fund the company’s growth. 

Cupping Guatemala at Water Avenue

After three weeks away for harvest, I returned to Portland last Thursday evening. To my dismay, the bus pulled into town in the middle of a big rainstorm. Ugh, I thought, not already—September is way too early for the gray season to return. (Fortunately, the sun has since come back and it appears summer will linger for a few more weeks.) Worries about winter weather notwithstanding, my mood was lightened considerably Friday morning by attending a cupping at Water Avenue Coffee. Brandon Smyth, Water Avenue’s co-owner and head roaster, recently returned from a buying trip to Guatemala, and he shared some of his new discoveries with a group that included Jannie Huang and Chelsea Broussard, both from Little Green Pickle, Zachary Carlsen, from Sprudge.com, Fabiola, from Not Just Baked, and someone from Imbibe (I didn’t catch her name).The table, ready to cup. Photo courtesy Chelsea Broussard, Little Green Pickle.

Brandon put several cups of five different coffees on the table and walked us through each of them. The first coffee we slurped was a yellow maracaturra variety from Finca San Jorge, run by Tulio Osberto Lemus Pinedo and his son, Tulio. The maracaturra is a cross between the maragogype and caturra varieties. When Smyth visited the farm, he noticed the maracaturra growing by itself in one area and convinced Tulio to separate it out from the rest of his coffees. Finca San Jorge only produced 600lbs. of maracaturra beans this year, and Smyth bought the entire lot, recognizing its potential.

The maracaturra stood out for its sweetness, both in aroma and in pre-roast sugar content. Brandon told me that a quality green coffee typically has a sugar content around 25%, as measured by a brix meter. The maracaturra ran about 30%, a significantly higher number. Brewed, the maracaturra was sweet and syrupy, with a very mellow acidity and heavy body.

Next, we cupped a yellow caturra, also from Finca San Jorge. Smyth described it as more of a “coffee” coffee, with flavors most people associate with coffee, including lots of chocolate notes. One of the cups especially stood out for its dry fragrance, full of sweet brown sugar and raisin notes.

The star of the table was the third coffee, a red caturra from Finca Santa Isabel, owned by the Valdez family, in the Cobán region. The coffee, which Smyth scored at 90+ points (very high), had the brightness and complexity of a Kenyan coffee, with rich fruit notes that reminded me of pie cherries and rhubarb. According to Brandon, coffees from Cobán are not usually this good—there must have been something that happened with the weather, or maybe the perfect fermentation conditions that turned the coffee into something almost magical.

Our fourth coffee was a red bourbon from Finca Huixoc in Huehuetenango. Finca Huixoc won awards at the Cup of Excellence in both 2006 and 2009. The coffee was a little earthier than I expected. Smyth said it was the coffee’s first roast, and he was still in the process of nailing it down.

The fifth and final coffee had an interesting twist. First, it was from El Salvador (Finca Manzano) instead of Guatemala. Second, before the coffee was roasted, the beans had been allowed to age for a couple months inside an oak barrel that previously held pinot noir wine. Aging inside the barrel gave the coffee a distinct, winy aroma and cherry flavor. The resulting coffee was quite interesting to cup, and its uniqueness would make an interesting topic of conversation if you served it at a dinner party. 

Friday’s cupping, in addition to being a nice ‘welcome back’ to Portland coffee, taught me a few things about the differences within a country. Often, we hear the name of a coffee origin—Colombian, Guatemalan, Costa Rican, etc.—and immediately make assumptions about how the coffees should taste. This cupping, however, demonstrated the limitations of that way of thinking. Within a country, region, or even farm, the coffees produced can be quite distinctive, and the different types of coffee varieties also contribute to these differences. Lesson learned. 

The Portland Coffee Book

For the last few months, the frequency of posts on Caffeinated PDX has been kind of slow, because I have been putting my energies into writing a book (working title: Are You Serious? It’s Just Coffee…Right?  Why Portland’s Third Wave Coffee Scene is Way More than ‘Just Coffee’). I am happy to report that I finished the manuscript in the middle of August, and am now working with Indigo Editing and Publications to get it ready for publishing. It is exciting to have someone to collaborate with on the project, and I am looking forward to releasing the book early next year.

Originally, the plan was to publish it just before Christmas, but in the book industry, the two main seasons for book releases are spring and fall. To have the book ready for November would compromise quality, so I decided to wait instead of rushing out a poor-quality book.Today's post fueled by shots of espresso at Albina Press Hawthorne

Despite the wait, I am excited to share the book with you. Part guidebook, part history of Portland coffee, and part personal memoir, Are You Serious? includes many profiles of the people and companies that make Portland’s coffee special. Inside, I give a brief history of coffee, then delve into the Portland coffee story, putting it in context with what has happened in the specialty coffee industry over the last decade and a half. Mixed in are several personal stories of how I became a coffee nerd. Some the stories included are edited versions of past blog posts, but most of the information is new. Over the last year, I interviewed a wide variety of coffee roasters, café owners, baristas, and other coffee people around the area, to hear their stories and discover why Portland coffee is so highly regarded around the country.

The specialty coffee industry is exploding, with new roasters and cafés popping up every day in cities all over the U.S. The entire coffee industry has undergone some big changes over the last fifteen years, and while every city is unique, we can better understand these changes by taking a look at what has happened in Portland. I especially recommend Are You Serious? for anyone who wants to understand specialty coffee and for people who want to know Portland better. If you like Portland or its coffee, the book should be a treat to read.

Why did I decide to write a book? I’ve asked myself that question more than once. Overall, though, the writing experience has been a good one. Once I learned a little bit about coffee—peeked behind the curtain, so to speak—I found it interesting enough to keep learning a little more, which led to more discoveries, and so on. Soon, coffee was nearly an obsession. (I say ‘nearly’ because I’m still mostly on the sidelines of the industry—the people who actually work in coffee are the ones obsessed with coffee. I just tried to capture their passion and help others understand it.) In addition, writing a book fits my personality. I enjoy delving deeply into things and focusing on them. The subject of coffee provides many avenues to do that. Finally, I admit that part of the reason I’m publishing the book is for the sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

Over the next few months I will keep you up to date on the book’s progress. When it’s ready to go, I’ll be sure to let you know that too. If you are interested in helping spread the word about the book, drop me a line and we’ll talk more about how you can do that.

Also, you will soon see some changes to the Caffeinated PDX website, to make it more reader-friendly and better organized. I may broaden the scope of topics a bit too, while keeping coffee as the primary subject. Since the bulk of work on the book is finished, I plan to post here more frequently—generally twice a week, as long as I can find interesting things to write about. (I am always looking for article ideas, so feel free to send them in.) September’s articles will include a post about a cupping Guatemalan coffees at Water Avenue, as well as the story of Nossa Familia extending the ‘familia’ into countries besides Brazil.

To get those stories out, I must get back to writing. Happy Monday. 

Opening (Very) Soon - Ristretto Couch

Two weeks ago, Ryan Cross, Ristretto’s director of wholesale, led me on a quick tour of the company’s new café, at Northeast Couch and 6^th. As you can see below, the space wasn’t quite finished, but it should be opening any day now.

The view from the front doorAnd from behind the bar

The most unique feature of the shop will be its Steampunk brewer. Built by Alpha Dominche, a company based in Utah, the brewer made its public debut at the SCAA 2012 Event in Portland. It is a programmable brewing system that looks kind of like a cross between a French press, a Clover, and a four-group La Marzocco Linea. The Steampunk can simultaneously brew four different coffees (or teas), each to their own (programmable) specific brewing parameters. It will be the centerpiece of the café’s unofficial ‘slow bar’, where customers can get individually brewed coffees to order.

The Steampunk is headed for the spot on the bar framed by the scaffolding and the ladder

Ristretto is the first company in the Pacific Northwest to get a Steampunk, and I was hoping to snag a couple of photos. Unfortunately, it happened to be at Accelerated Development’s workshop, where workers were building a custom countertop for it. Next time…

One last perspective

The Art of Espresso Machines – the Van Der Westen Spirit

There´s the art of espresso, and then there's the art of the espresso machine. I stopped in at Heart last week and saw this sitting on the bar:

The machine, called the Spirit, was manufactured by Kees Van Der Westen, a Dutch industrial designer who spent several years building espresso machines in his spare time before working at La Marzocco, where he helped develop the Mistral. The barista said the look was patterned after the cockpit of a World War II bomber. It catches your eye in the same way walking by a chromed out Harley-Davidson, and it complements Heart’s minimal, early industrial space well.

This is what it looks like from the barista’s perspective (photo from manufacturer's website - click to see more): 

Packed with technology, the machine also pulls consistently good shots.

Very cool. 

Os Cafés do Brasil em Portland (Brazilian Coffees in Portland)

After watching Brazil destroy Spain in the final of the Confederations Cup this afternoon (3-0), I thought it would be a good time to give a shout out to Portland’s Brazilian coffee company, Nossa Familia. I stopped by there last week for a visit to the company’s (fairly) new walk-in espresso bar, on Northwest 13^th Avenue, across from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). Last fall, Nossa Familia held a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the new addition, and as promised, the café brings a touch of Brazil to downtown Portland, offering single-family Brazilian coffees and treats like pão de queijo (bite-sized cheese bread).

The shop had two espressos available on grind as well as a couple of different brewed coffee options. I chose an espresso of Ernesto’s Blend. It was very creamy, with a viscous mouthfeel that lingered on the palate, sweet at first, with hints of raisin and almond, and a black tea finish.

For most people, the shop will be an in-and-out stop, as seating is quite limited. Curious customers can sit next to the interior windows and watch what’s happening inside the roastery. When the weather is warm and sunny, a couple of tables on the loading dock make a nice spot to sit and enjoy a Pearl District afternoon.

Vitals
Address: 811 Northwest 13th, Portland, OR 97209 (map)
Hours: Monday-Friday: 7am-4pm
            Saturday: 8am-4pm 
            Sunday: Closed
Website: familyroast.com

One more thing…

Not everything at Nossa Familia’s espresso bar was Brazilian. As I was leaving the shop, I picked up something called a Rip Van Wafel, a small snack imported from Holland. After trying it, my question is, how has this not caught on in the US?

Rip van Yum

The Wafel consists of two thin, crispy waffle wafers sandwiched around a very thin layer of caramel. The directions tell you to warm it up by resting it on top of a mug of coffee, to melt the caramel and give it a hint of coffee flavor. Dipping or eating them plain work too, and they are tasty.

Tough to resist

Stumptown and single-origin espressos

Change is not easy (one could call me Mr. Inertia) and it is not always good, but it is inevitable. I had a conversation the other day with a café owner who had purchased an operating café from someone instead of starting a new one from scratch. The café, located in a residential area, came with a solid group of regulars who had patronized the shop for several years. When the new owner took over, he changed a few things, partly for the health of the business, and also because he had his own ideas for how a café should run. When he switched brew methods (to a pourover) and started charging for refills (fifty cents!), long-time customers pushed back. How dare he change their routine! Eventually, the regulars came around, but it took several months.

Since change can be disruptive, I was somewhat surprised when I heard that Stumptown, Portland’s most influential third wave coffee roaster, was now serving single-origin espresso in its cafés. Selling s-o espressos is not a new thing. Third wave cafés have been pulling single-origin espresso shots for years. Many offer an espresso blend alongside a single origin, while others serve strictly s-o espressos. The rise of barista competitions, where baristas highlight the farms and farmers who grow their coffees, helped push s-o espressos into the café setting.

While other cafés (including several Stumptown wholesale accounts) moved into selling single-origin espressos, Stumptown’s own shops only offered Hair Bender, the company’s espresso blend. Hair Bender is one of the company’s biggest success stories. The blend’s unique profile, with distinct lemon and chocolate flavors layered throughout the cup, stood out against the dark-roasted blends so common in the Pacific Northwest and changed perceptions of what espresso should taste like. It formed the foundation for the company to grow on. Without Hair Bender, Stumptown would likely be a much smaller, regional roaster instead of the international brand it is today.

To see how Stumptown would present its new espresso, I went to the original Stumptown café, on Southeast Division, and ordered one. Stumptown’s Costa Rica Montes de Oro, currently on grind, is the first of what is to be a rotating single-origin espresso in its cafés. The first sip seemed like it was going to be sharp, but the texture quickly rounded into something that felt very smooth on the palate. The Montes de Oro had a muted acidity, with notes of cherry and almond and just a hint of lemon. Stumptown’s foray into single-origin espressos was a nice entry into the new space.  

In a way, the addition of single-origin espresso to the menu was coming full circle for Stumptown. The company that pioneered the third wave in Portland was borrowing some tricks from the companies following in its footsteps.  The more success you have, the more you have to lose, so it was refreshing to see Stumptown, one of the most successful Portland coffee companies, try something new. The change was not huge, but it showed that Stumptown is willing to experiment with new things and, when it does, to execute very well.

The question is, what’s next?