One stiff shot of cold-brew, neat, from Heart Roasters

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After starting out with a shot of Heart’s Brazil Daterra espresso this morning, I went back to try some of the café’s iced coffee (‘tis the season, after all—despite the rain).

Heart uses a cold-brew process to make its iced coffee, and today’s offering was from the Kochere region of Ethiopia. Normally when you order a cold-brew, the barista takes some of the coffee concentrate and cuts it with water and ice to make it the right strength for sipping. I find that as the ice melts, you lose some of the rich chocolate notes and taste more of the acidity on the margins. For some time now, I have been planning to try the concentrate without mixing it to see if the drink holds its flavors better, and today seemed like a good time to do it.

Apparently, drinking cold brew straight up is not very common, because the barista had a hard time understanding what I was ordering. Granted, I asked for it in a clumsy manner, since there is no actual name for what I wanted to try. With a little persistence, though, we made it to the same page, and he gave me a glass of the potent concoction.

Short but strong

You would expect a drink that is normally diluted by half to be quite strong, and it was. Inhaling deeply over the glass of mahogany liquid, I could smell a sweetness similar to blackstrap molasses. The richness of the drink came through in its aroma.

When coffee brewed this way hits your tongue, the first impression it gives you is that it is going to be sour or bitter, but then it mellows out quickly into a mouthful of silkiness. The Ethiopian coffee had hints of bittersweet chocolate and pink grapefruit, with a body that lingered, filling my entire mouth with a pleasant satisfaction.

Drinking iced coffee this way is a little like drinking a shot of whiskey—strong up front, with a mellow finish. If you can figure out how to order one, you will probably want to drink it slow. It is a concentrate, so the caffeine per ounce must be pretty high.  

As an everyday drink, a cold-brew “neat” might be a little strong (knock-you-on-your-a$$ strong, really). I wouldn’t order it every time I decide to drink a cold-brewed coffee, but I do foresee ordering it from time to time when I am looking for something a little different.

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Coffee(ish) Links for July8

It’s been a slow week around here for posting articles. I have had my head buried in a couple other projects, including learning everything I can about cold coffee, a summertime favorite.

Speaking of summer, it came and left this week. Hope you enjoyed it.

The biggest coffee news of the week in the Portland area was the fireworks-caused fire that caused thousands of dollars of damage to Barista (the café) on Alberta Street. http://bit.ly/pnjMNB The fire didn’t keep the shop closed for long, thanks to Stumptown, who loaned Barista its mobile coffee cart until the café is repaired (photo here).

This New York Times article discusses the growing market for iced coffee. Stumptown gets a mention for its new “stubbies”. http://nyti.ms/nYo8Dy

Investors in the stock market know the difficulties of trying to pick the correct companies for investing. An article from CNBC yesterday presents the arguments for and against buying Starbucks stock. One of the analysts interviewed was quoted as saying that “Starbucks needs to clearly define their long-term vision ‘to become a food conglomerate rather than merely coffee.’” Hmm... http://bit.ly/pbyihq

Is the use of the internet for news taking us back in time? The Economist compares interactive online news with the coffee shops of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. http://econ.st/pLH1Bc

When you go to a coffee shop, do you notice the art on the walls? Apparently, some coffee shop art in San Francisco has stirred quite a debate over what should and should not go up on the walls of a café. http://bit.ly/p2MZAA

Speaking of coffee shop art, I saw this not too long ago on a café wall around town. Rubber chicken art.

Let the debate commence.

From nuts to fruits: learning how to taste at Ristretto Roasters

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Last weekend, after stopping by Overland Park to listen to Leaves Russell perform at the Organic Brewers Festival, I made my way over to Ristretto Roasters café on North Williams Ave., to have some coffee with Jinsu Lee, a South Korean coffee aficionado who has also explored many different cafés around Portland (he provided the photos for this post). We like to get together once in a while to talk about coffee and what the future of the coffee industry might be, especially in South Korea, where specialty coffee is just beginning to take off.

When I got to the café, Jinsu was already sitting at a back table with a group of people.  He waved me over and introduced me to the group—Ryan, Rachel, Hank and Steve (all Ristretto employees) and told me that they had invited us to join them. Unknowingly, we had stumbled upon Ristretto’s weekly Sunday public coffee event.

Each Sunday afternoon at 2:30, Ristretto hosts some kind of event to help educate customers about coffee. Often these are coffee cuppings, but last Sunday’s was a little different. Instead of tasting different coffees, the plan was to taste several different foods as a way to develop and map out our palates. Steve, who is a trainer for Ristretto, led us through the exercise.

Preparing to taste. Photo courtesy Jinsu Lee

Developing a discerning palate is very important for people who work in the coffee industry (especially for coffee buyers and roasters), who need to be sure that they are producing a consistent, high-quality product. It is a skill that takes time to develop. I once heard a café owner tell a group that he and his business partner cupped coffee every single morning for three years. As you can imagine, he felt pretty confident in his ability to detect all of the subtleties and imperfections that are present in a cup of coffee.

If you have read many of my café posts, you know that I try to describe the flavors in each of the coffees. I have mentioned several times that a coffee has hints of berries in it, or some kind of citrus, chocolate or cherries. Two of the more interesting coffees I tried to describe came from Ristretto’s cafés (you can read them here and here). On coffee packages and in conversations with baristas, flavors like dates, honey, leather, tamarind, bergamot, carrots, plums and peaches have also been used. All of these descriptions are somewhat subjective, since we all taste things differently.

A more experienced coffee taster uses less subjective language and describes coffee in terms like acidity, body, sweetness and balance, breaking the coffee down into the responses they cause in our mouth.

The tasting lineup. Photo courtesy Jinsu Lee

Steve’s goal was to teach us to think about tasting in a more methodical way. As we tasted the foods, our assignment was to concentrate on how they felt and where they affected our mouths, tongues and throats. We tasted 10 different foods: almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, avocados, red delicious apples, Granny Smith apples, lemons and limes.

We started out with the least acidic food, the almonds, and then moved step by step toward the most acidic, the limes. Apparently, if you were to start with the limes, the acidity would overload your palate at the beginning and make it much harder to taste the other foods.

Of the three nuts, the almonds were the driest. They were a little bit sweet, affecting the front end of my tongue as I ground them up between my teeth (Speaking of grinding up the almonds, it was kind of amusing to sit there and watch everyone working the foods around their mouths, their faces reflecting a deep concentration as they tried discern all of the tastes and textures. I’m sure I had a funny look on my face too).

The hazelnuts were distinctly sweeter and had more oils in them than the almonds. The Brazil nuts had a little bit of a sandy (mineral) flavor, and were the oiliest of all, leaving a light coating on the inside of my mouth. Steve told us that the difference between the Brazil nuts and the almonds was analogous to the difference between coffees with a lot of body and those without it.

We discussed body some more as we moved into the chocolates. We started with the milk chocolate, which was very sweet and creamy. It had lots of body. The dark chocolate, in contrast, was only a little bit sweet, and it dried out my mouth as I chewed it. Our guide told us that the drying effect came from the tannins in the cocoa. He said it was like a dry wine, where the wine is fermented with the skins still on the grapes. This leaves more of the tannins in the wine, giving the wine that mouth-drying feel.

After the dark chocolate came the avocado. The avocado was another demonstration of something with a lot of body. The oils in the avocado coated our mouths as we swished the slimy fruit around inside them.

The two apples followed the avocado. This was the beginning of the acidity phase of the tasting. The light acidity of the red delicious apple is similar to (though sweeter than) some of the berry or stone fruit acidity that some coffees have. It stays more towards the front of your tongue. The Granny Smith apples are a bit more tart, so as soon as you chew them up, the acidity moves up the sides of your tongue.

When we got to the lemons, everyone prepared to pucker up. We bit enthusiastically into the chunks of raw lemon and WHAM! Faces around the table tightened up as the lemon juice hit our taste buds. The lime had a similar affect. Its acidity grabbed the middle of my tongue, then as I swallowed, it latched onto the back of my throat and lingered. The lime was so acidic that it kind of burned and almost tasted salty. Jinsu quipped that we could have used some tequila to go with it, a statement that was greeted with a nod of agreement from everyone.

After we finished tasting, we sat around for a while and talked about coffee, because that’s what coffee people do when they get together, especially after going through a tasting exercise like this one. We concluded that Portland is a great city to learn about coffee, because cafés like Ristretto are always trying to educate their customers on the finer points of the beverage.

If you are looking for something to do on a Sunday afternoon, I recommend that you stop by Ristretto and check out what they are sharing that day. You might get to try or taste something you’ve never had before, or you might just get to hang around with a bunch of coffee enthusiasts. Either way, you should have a good afternoon at one of Portland’s best cafés.

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I Miss the Mob - a lesson in entrepreneurship

The cover of Anything You Want, Derek Sivers' new bookTweet

Today I came across a video that I thought you might enjoy. To give you a little background, Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, has just written a new book about entrepreneurship that is being published by the Domino Project. CD Baby is a company that helps independent musicians manage their music sales. Anyone can upload their songs to the company’s servers, and CD Baby will managed the distribution of that music, either as a CD or as a digital download. Sivers founded the company in 1997, and it became very successful, selling millions of albums.  He sold the company a couple years ago and has since moved on to start new ventures to help more aspiring musicians.

I hope to read his book sometime, but today I wanted to share with you a video that he put on the site promoting his book. It has a pretty funny take on the differences between entrepreneurs who are in business because they love what they do and professional businesspeople who are only in business to make money.

The video is relevant to Portland, a city that has not yet lost its fun spirit. In my discussions with roasters, baristas and café owners, many of them have told me that while making money is important to them, they are happy to be doing something that they enjoy.

Thanks to all who realize that there is more to business than just dollars and cents. You help keep Portland interesting. 

Sitting down with Mr. Sustainability – An interview with Mark Stell, Portland Roasting Coffee

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In an era when it is trendy to be “green,” there are a lot of companies that like to promote their environmental credentials. If you walk down the aisles at the supermarket, you can see hundreds of products lining the shelf that are “natural,” “green,” or “earth-friendly.” Companies know that they are expected to care about the environment. They create CSR (corporate social responsibility) departments and cobble together a  few initiatives to make themselves appear more earth-friendly. Sometimes the claims are exaggerated or misleading (can you tell me exactly what “natural” means?), and sometimes the initiatives are meant to overshadow other, less environmentally friendly parts of the company (BP becoming “Beyond Petroleum,” for example). In these cases, there is nothing like a good “greenwashing” to clean up the company’s image.

Not all companies are just paying lip service to being green, however, and it is encouraging when you come across a company that strives to live up to its environmental claims. Portland Roasting Coffee is a company that backs up its green talk with actions.

I recently sat down with Mark Stell, Portland Roasting’s co-founder and managing partner, to talk coffee. Stell told me the story of how he got into the coffee business and also about the some of the projects that Portland Roasting is working on.

The first time I heard Stell speak was when he visited our sustainability class for the MIM program at Portland State University (PSU). One of the topics of that class was the triple bottom line,  where companies strive to make a profit while including social and environmental criteria in their accounting of success.

Stell told us how his company was using the triple bottom to drive company decisions. He described some of Portland Roasting’s development projects such as building wells and other water projects in the communities where the company sources its coffees. He admitted that sometimes his company should focus more on the economics, but was firm in his belief that environmental and social consequences were just as important.

Inspired to Action

We met in a conference room at Portland Roasting’s Inner Southeast Portland headquarters. Stell began by telling me about his introduction into the coffee industry.

Originally from Wisconsin, he was studying marketing at PSU when he had a life-changing experience at the United Nation’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

“I was in Rio in ’92 as a student delegate for Portland State,” he said. “While we were there, all of these speakers kept coming up to the stage and telling us how their lives were being affected by global warming. It was a powerful moment. You never want to forget how you feel at times like those.”

Attending the summit was a watershed moment in Stell’s life, and he decided to act based on his new awareness of problems including poverty and global warming. When he got back to Portland, Stell looked for a job with a local coffee roaster. He chose to work in coffee for a very specific reason.

“Coffee is an industry where you can really make a difference. It is unique in that it is so far-reaching. There are millions of people involved in its production, and it also covers issues like poverty and equity between developed and developing countries.”

At the time, he did not even like coffee, though his distaste for the beverage did not last long.

“After six months I was completely hooked. I loved it,” he said.

After a short stint at the local roaster, Stell decided it was time to move on. He and his business partner, Todd Plummer, started Abruzzi Caffè, a roastery/café in Northwest Portland. After a couple years, they sold the business and started Portland Roasting.

Since its founding in 1996, Portland Roasting has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, the company roasts about 900,000 pounds of coffee each year. Much of its coffee is sold in cafés, supermarkets, hotels and universities. Portland Roasting also sells a substantial amount in Japan.

Portland Roasting recently announced that it would be opening its own retail cafés in the Oregon Convention Center, just a few blocks away from PRC headquarters. The company will have two cafés in the building, giving the company an opportunity to showcase its products and mission. The first one is set to open in August.

Leading in Sustainability

One of Portland Roasting’s accomplishments that Stell is most proud of is receiving the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Sustainability Award in 2005 for the company’s Farm-Friendly Direct Program. In the program, Portland Roasting pays above-market prices for the coffee and the premiums are used for community projects such as building schools or water purification facilities in the communities where coffee is grown.

In addition to investing in communities abroad, Portland Roasting has also undertaken several sustainability initiatives closer to home. These include implementing recycling programs, contracting with B-Line (a bicycle delivery service) to deliver its coffees, using biodiesel-powered vehicles, purchasing wind-generated electricity and contracting with Trees for the Future to plant trees to offset the company’s carbon dioxide emissions.

One of the biggest initiatives that employees undertake each year is putting together annual Walk for Water. The three-year-old event is overseen by Portland Global Initiatives, a non-profit that Stell founded to raise money for water-related projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Portland Roasting works in conjunction with a capstone class at PSU to organize and promote the event, which in 2011 raised more than $30,000.

Coffee Economics

In addition to the sustainability issues, Stell also keeps a close eye on Portland Roasting’s financial position. We talked about how the recent run-up in prices has affected the company.

“It’s been tough,” he told me. “We’ve had to raise our prices three times in the last year. I know it’s been hard on our customers.”

PRC’s long-standing relationships with its growers has helped the company weather the recent price increases.

“I tell [our customers] that it could be even higher if we didn’t have these relationships. Some of our growers have been helping us out, charging lower prices than they could have, because we have been good to them over the years. Most of our growers stayed with us. There was one group who decided they had to go for the money. You hope for loyalty in return for working with someone for a while, but it doesn’t always work out. It’s sad to see that happen, but I understand why it did.”

Stell sees quite a bit of uncertainty in the future of coffee prices.

“There’s going to be a lot more competition for high-quality beans. I see that as being a major challenge. As China comes into the market, it could become harder and harder to get the best beans, so there might be more of a price differentiation between coffees, much like there is between wines. I hope that coffee still remains a beverage that everyone can afford. We’ll see what happens.”

START-ing a New Movement

In addition to his duties at Portland Roasting, Stell also sits on the SCAA’s sustainability council. He helped spearhead the effort to create the recently-released START (Sustainability Tracking and Reporting Tool) application, an online program that helps companies monitor their environmental impact.

The START project, which has taken six years to complete, was undertaken with the United Nations’ Millennium Development goals in mind. The SCAA still needs to raise a few thousand dollars to finish paying for the program’s development, but once enough companies sign up, the program will be self-sustaining.

There are several goals for START. One is to make it affordable for companies to monitor their social and environmental impacts so that they can improve them. Normally, software to do this would cost a company tens of thousands of dollars, but START is available for $150/year to participants in the program.

Another goal is to help the entire coffee industry understand its overall impact. The data that the program collects will be compiled, allowing the SCAA to release it to the public (without releasing individual companies’ data). The data will help companies see where they are in relation to industry benchmarks.

One of START’s key benefits is that it provides a forum for sharing information about development projects. The plan is for START to help companies interested in development projects to collaborate with each other. For example, if a project is too large for a single roaster to undertake, the project can be posted to START.

In addition, Stell said, START helps coffee-growing communities share their needs.

“If I’m in a community that needs help building a school, I can post it on the site so that companies that are looking for projects can work together. It’s creating a community for development.”

START also includes a certification system for companies participating in the program. To receive the certification, companies must add a certain amount of data to the START system, demonstrating that they are closely monitoring their carbon footprint and social impact. The SCAA hopes that consumers will gravitate towards companies with this certification, much like they do with Fair Trade.

More Than Hot Air

As a company, it is much easier to talk about being green than it is to actually do it. Many companies try to make you believe that they are working to help the environment, putting in as little effort as they can to build their green image. Portland Roasting Coffee, on the other hand, led by its passionate founder Mark Stell, is leading the coffee industry toward a more sustainable future, something that is not just a bunch of “greenwash.”

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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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Brews to Bikes (book review)

When the news about the Stumptown sale to TSG  broke in Portland, the reaction was telling. In a place like San Francisco or Boston, the news would have been greeted with cheers that a local company made it big. In Portland, however, the news was met with many groans and promises to find another source for coffee. Not everyone was upset, of course, but it was a big shock to the city that Stumptown—Stumptown!—would become part of a larger conglomerate, ceding any control to some distant private equity firm.

To understand the reason people were upset, it helps to understand the culture of Portland. Portland is famous for its high quality of life and its weirdness, but not for having a business-friendly culture. The city has even been mocked in the show Portlandia for being a place “where young people go to retire.” Many would say that Portland has an anti-corporate mentality.

While there is some truth behind this image of the city, it is far from complete. Charles Heying, a professor of urban studies at Portland State University, demonstrates this when he takes a closer look at how the creative class is adding to the Portland economy in his new book, Brews to Bikes: Portland’s Artisan Economy. Heying compares Portland’s artisanal economy, where business owners produce unique, high-quality products in small batches or single pieces, with the typical “Fordist” (industrial) economy, where mass production is king and variations in the products are frowned upon. Heying and his team of student researchers describe how Portland’s artisans are making large contributions to the city’s economy, making it unique among cities.

The book takes an in-depth look at more artisan industries than you might have ever known existed in Portland. It describes Portland’s more famous artisan industries—beer, food (farmer’s markets to food carts), fashion (more than just flannel) and bike building, but also looks at other growing industries, like coffee, leather, music, and colored glass.  It also discusses how the artisans fit into the larger economic picture.

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