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.

Click to read more ...

Coffee Capsules--Sustainable?

One of the things I talked to Brandon about the other day was the issue of sustainability in the coffee industry. I don’t want to try to tackle the entire issue yet—it is a very complex issue and to discuss all of the challenges of making the industry economically, environmentally and socially sustainable would take an entire book—but I would like to start a discussion about a part of the industry that is growing very quickly: single-serve coffee and espresso capsules.

There was an article in the New York Times in early August that featured Green Mountain Coffee and its K-Cups, plastic and tinfoil cups that are designed to make one cup of coffee and then be thrown away. According to the article, Green Mountain will sell nearly three billion of these capsules next year and it expects to sell many more in the future. The single-serve coffee industry has been growing around 30 percent each year for the last decade and industry experts expect this to continue.

The growth of the industry (and its future potential) has caused some battles between firms, as companies try to stake out territory in the single-serve market. Nestlé, one of the pioneers in this technology, recently sued Sara Lee in an effort to protect its market dominance.

Since there is nothing to suggest that the market is going to slow down anytime soon, I want to ask you:

1) Do you ever use any of these single-serve type coffee makers (Nespresso, K-Cups, Illy espresso capsules, etc.) and if so, what kind?

2) How does the coffee compare to what you get at your favorite coffee shop? 

3) What do you think about the impact that the capsules (a majority of which are non-recyclable and non-compostable) have on the environment?

Just curious to know what you might be thinking. . .

Two Observations about PDX

After a 24-hour voyage, I made it back in Portland on Friday evening. I have a few more stories about China to share with you over the next couple days, but I will also be looking for other adventures around the Pacific Northwest. More on that in the future. For now, these are my first two impressions about Portland: it has better air and is much more polite than Beijing.

The best thing about arriving back in Portland, other than seeing friends and family, is that I can breathe easily again. You cannot see the air in Portland, and that is a wonderful thing. I enjoyed my run yesterday morning because when I took a deep breath, my lungs did not feel like they were under siege. If you breathe the air here all the time, you might not realize that Portland air has a smooth, velvety finish, similar to a fine whisky. Beijing air is more like a cheap bottle of convenience-store gut-rot. It makes you cough and sputter if you try to breathe too deeply.

A common sight, until the rainy season. . .

Click to read more ...