Let’s talk bananas for a second.
A great snack, portable, and –most of all– fresh. At least when it’s this color. And when you buy them at the store, you don’t ask the produce clerk to peel them for you, right?
Because what will happen to that banana? The fruit will get soggy first, then turn to mush, then, if you let it sit around long enough, will turn to a liquid goo that is just, well, disgusting. Sure, if you were to taste said goo, the flavor would remind you that it was a banana at one time. But we have standards. We’re not going to taste that goo!
Yet on a daily basis we get asked to grind that bag of coffee. Sure, we’ll do it, but it’s the equivalent of asking your produce clerk to peel that banana for you.
FACT: Coffee is an organic product that has a shelf life: 14 days from the roast date. When kept in whole bean form.
ANOTHER FACT: Ground coffee loses half — yes, HALF — its flavor within an hour of being ground. The rest of that flavor is gone in 24 hours.
We get asked on occasion how someone can make a better cup of coffee at home. The number one answer is that a good burr grinder is necessary. Sure, it may set you back 50 bucks, but you’ll notice a difference immediately. And trust us, fifty bucks is the cheapest way out of your coffee doldrums. You want to spend more? You definitely can. But start here.
We’ve said in the past in another blog post that even a $15 Wal-Mart special blade grinder is better than having us grind your coffee, and we continue to stand behind that thought. However, dropping the extra $35 smackers will make that much more of a difference.
Try it out for yourself, then go to your local produce clerk and thank ‘em for not peeling your bananas. You’ll understand it, even if he thinks you’re one of them.
Recently, I was invited to be a guest on the Rubber Dollar Radio Show. We talked about all things R&R plus Aaron (the host) threw in a few pointers on how to “stretch” your dollar in today’s rough economy.
One question threw me for a loop. Near the end of the show, Aaron asked me ways that I save a dollar. After a few seconds pause (an eternity in radio time!), the hosts jumped in and spared me the “anguish” of answering that question.
That show aired a few weeks ago, and I’ve just now figured how to answer it.
To all our valued guests of our store,
This morning, I noticed a problem with one of our glass coffee roasting chambers:
The edge of our one pound roasting chamber.
What you are looking at is the bottom of our one pound roasting chamber. Those little clear divots were not there earlier! Upon further inspection, I found that those divots were on the inside of the chamber and is actually missing bits of glass!
Obviously, this is not a good situation for anyone. I have been working with our roaster manufacturer to get a better idea as to how this could have happened. When I know more, you will know more. I do believe that it is a glass fatigue issue more than a maintenance issue, though.
I am unsure as to when this actually happened. I know for certain that the roaster was intact on the 21st of this month (Wednesday) . I have roasted quite a bit since then, however.
I want to make one thing about this perfectly clear:
Typical coffee brewing methods will eliminate any risk of glass contamination. The filters will grab any glass present. There is nothing to fear if you have drank any of our coffee within the last two days, either in our store or at home.
- The coffee we brew in the store is from earlier batches (still within our 10 day off-roast rule, of course!) so I know that we have not had any issues with any in-store coffees.
- I have thrown away over 50 pounds of coffee that I just cannot be certain of. This is the majority of the coffee I have roasted in the last few days.
- All wholesale clients have been contacted. None of the wholesale clients are using any coffee roasted past the 21st.
If you have purchased whole bean coffee from our store within the last two days, we are offering a voluntary recall of the coffee. Feel free to bring the coffee back in and we will replace it or refund your money. Again, this applies only to coffees with the Roasted On date of 9/22 or 9/23.
To be safe, all coffees active in the store are ones roasted today. That roasting chamber will not be used in our store again and we are awaiting a replacement. All whole bean sales today will be handled by taking a name and number.
Realistically, we have control over the vast majority of coffees affected by this recall. We do, however, have a few pounds sold that we want back.
I cannot tell you how deeply sorry I am that this happened. We pride ourselves on quality and the best experience we can offer, and this obviously goes completely against that philosophy. I hope everyone who reads this understands that I am embarrassed to have to write this and am fully committed to ensuring this does not happen again.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly at the shop, 719-494-8300 or by email: info@rnrcoffeecafe.com .
Thank you,
Ryan Wanner
Owner/Roast Master
R&R Coffee Cafe/Golden Pine Coffee Roasters
Light. Medium. Dark. French.
These four roast levels have pretty much been the lay of the land when it comes to coffee. For quite some time. Is this a bad thing?
Short Answer: Yes.
Let’s look at it from a craft beer perspective.
You can’t just go into a bar and order a pint of a Lager, Amber, or Stout anymore. Now, you’ve got a myraid of choices, barley, hops, and aging to choose from: not to mention many “new” types of beers.
The coffee world is no different, it’s just taking a while for the terminology to catch up.
You may have noticed it with the fact that we are showcasing specific estates of coffees: not just specific regions of coffee growing countries. You may have noticed it with the fact that we’re showcasing different processing styles. The same coffee processed differently in the mill will have a noticeably different taste. You may have noticed it with the brewing method. Take a taste sample of an airpot brew then try it in the pourover: night and day difference.
So in order to continue to better represent all that is good in our coffee offerings, we’ll start using more of the terminology in the roasting world when it comes to roast level.
So let’s take a look at this fancy-dancy infographic I whipped up:
The "Standard" Roast Levels vs. What we're doing here
A few extra options leads to many different variations on the coffee, both in taste and roast time.
Now, if you’re thinking “WHY?” let me say this: we want to make for you the best coffee possible. We want you to get the best coffee for you. Getting a few extra degrees on roast level allows us to match you to your (new) favorite coffee.
Part 2 of this post:
Now, before you start going off the handle when you realize we usually don’t roast past the Full City+ level here, we need to clarify one thing.
Properly roasted and brewed “Light Roast” coffees are just as pleasing to the palate than a “Dark Roast” coffee–in fact, many times they’re better.
In other words: “Dark Roasts” are not better than “Light Roasts.” Sacrilege, I know.
So our next minor coffee label revision is going to introduce some new “sliders” to the label.
Roast Level, Acidity, Mouthfeel, and Aftertaste Sliders
Roast Level: I think we’ve talked this one up a bit here…
Acidity: The “pop” that a coffee gives you on your palate. Kenya coffees, for example, would have an extremely high acidity count. Our India Monsooned Malabar? No acidity at all.
Mouthfeel: How the coffee behaves in your mouth. Is the coffee syrupy? (Think our Honduras) High mouthfeel. Tea-like? (Like our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe) Low mouthfeel.
Aftertaste: Sometimes you just have that coffee that seems to go on forever in your mouth. And not in that bad “I need a glass of water NOW!” aftertaste. So if the coffee is one that likes to hang out for a while it’ll rate really high. No real aftertaste? (remember our El Salvador Santa Sofia?) Low scale.
All of these changes to our labels are all designed for one reason: to get the coffee you want into your hands.
I’m always interested in hearing your thoughts about this or any other issue pertaining to our current operations of our store. (Yes, Truth, even yours…) So please, comment away!
And thanks for continuing to make R&R Black Forest’s Community Coffee Cafe!
Ask any coffee roaster in the world, and they’ll all say that those three words are the worst three words that you can ever hear.
That’s like saying:
- “It’s just hamburger” when comparing McDonalds to Ranch Foods Direct/Callicrate Beef
- “It’s just a steak” when comparing Texas Roadhouse to MacKenzies
- “It’s just a hotel” when comparing some no-tell Motel to The Broadmoor
- “It’s just wine” when comparing Boone’s Farm to a well-aged German Riesling
- “It’s just a car” when comparing a Yugo to a Rolls Royce
I can go on and on and on…
Yes, you can say that you’ll get your morning kick with whatever type of coffee you get. You can say similar to everything I’ve posted above.
Let me share with you some of the comments that we have heard in our store over the last few weeks, and why I’m bristling a little bit more than usual…
“I can get a can of Folgers at Safeway for less than your half a pound!” Yes, you can. I won’t deny that. However, you are drinking a sub-par product. Firstly, Folgers (and the majority of the supermarket canned coffee) is made primarily with the robusta coffee bean. Good specialty coffee roasters do not use robusta, we use arabica.
Robusta coffee is a lower-altitude grown variety of coffee. It’s more abundant than arabica, tastes more “astringent” than arabica, and is much more lower priced than arabica. This is why you can get the cans for cheap. Just remember the old adage…
You get what you pay for.
Next, your coffees you get at your local neighborhood grocer can not be fresh. It’s a logistical and transport impossibility to get coffees to the stores within the time frame that you have until the coffee is considered stale. Remember, coffee is an organic product. Just as a banana, head of lettuce, or the like, you have a very limited shelf life before your coffee is stale. If your coffees are really oily (as most of the supermarket coffees are), your coffee is stale. Period.
Coffee is considered stale 14 days off the roast.
Yup. That’s it. If you get the coffee ground, you have 24 hours –yes, that’s not a typ0– until it is stale. Do you get that upset stomach / acid reflux issue when you drink a cup of coffee? It’s from the oils. The oils in the coffee go rancid. It’s similar to drinking week-old expired milk. What do you expect to happen?!?
“Your price for two half pounds is way more than the pound price!” Yup. We roast in one-pound increments. That means for two half pounds, we use the same amount of energy, but we double the packaging, double the ink used to print the label, double the labels themselves, and double the labor. Of course it’ll be more.
“I. Just. Want. Coffee.” (angry tone, accompanied by a serious glare) Whoops. We should never hear that here. We try to read everyone who walks in the door and explain our style appropriately. 6:30 in the morning isn’t a time to go into how the varietal of coffee will impact the flavor. We should have gotten out of the way and allowed you to wake up a bit!
“Wow your coffee is expensive!” Well, to a point. Yes, again, it’s more than a can of Folgers. It’s probably more than some of the roasters in town. But here’s the deal: we are sourcing specific coffees from specific farms. We are as close to working directly with the farmers as we can be without actually working with them. Getting this specific can and usually does end up costing more. On the upside, I recently saw a review of a coffee we carry here. For an 8.8oz bag of the coffee from a “big name” micro-roaster in Portland, the price is $12. For a pound of the same coffee from your small-fry roaster here in Black Forest? $14.25. Just sayin’.
Bottom line (since I’ve gone on waaaaay too long here…): Our goal as a coffee cafe in Black Forest is to give you the best quality product –be it coffee, breakfast, or baked goods– at a price you and we can afford. We are not trying to be coffee snobs up here nor do we want to be characterized as one of those “Third Wave” coffee bars that look down on everyone because we know more about coffee. If you are looking for “just a coffee” we hope that our airpots will satisfy. If you are looking for more in depth information about that cuppa, we can help you. If you are looking for a true coffee experience with a fantastic coffee hand-brewed in the syphon to exacting specifications and with all the knowledge we can muster, we can gladly help. Heck, if you’re having problems with your Mr. Coffee and want some advice, we are here. Can you get cheaper? Yes. Will you get smiling faces willing to help brew the best cup of freshly roasted coffee possible when going the cheaper route? Probably not.
Come savor coffee with us. We won’t steer you wrong. If you want to, you may even end up leaving with a new tidbit of information about coffee–only if you want to.
So as you may or may not have known, when we purchased our store from the previous owners, they had implemented drive-thru service via a window in the back of the building. Because of the previous owner’s claims of 33% of their traffic was generated through the drive-up (which is a grumble that deserves comment in a forum other than this…), we decided to keep it open. The drive up room, a 6 foot by 6 foot addition to the building, also housed our roasting operations, my office, and storage for our bottled beverages.
After three years, a funny thing has happened. The volume of coffee we roast here has increased to the point where we are pressed for space. (A good problem, I know!) So we have had to make a decision:
As of today, our drive through is permanently closed.
Again, we’re looking at a 6×6 space that now houses our roasters, green coffee beans, roasted coffee beans, coffee bean bags, the roasters, my office, storage for bottled beverages, and all our paperwork. At first, we could make it all happen, but things are just moving forward too much to stop this from happening.
Recently we’ve had the drive through closed on our roasting days, but that inconsistency isn’t helping our cause at all.
I would like to bring up a few other points here so everyone understands our stance on this, too:
- Of course we enjoy seeing regular drive-up guests. All our opening baristas can tell you the names of almost every drive-up guest from the morning. We don’t want to lose their business, but we need the space.
- No matter how we worded it, we always had issues with the timing on drive up orders. Our policy was that your drive-up drink order was placed in line with every other drink: no priority queuing. This led to static when guests expected speedier service when using the drive through. Our rule is to never let anyone leave angry, and it was a tough rule to follow when the drive up guest couldn’t see where their drink was in line.
- We have had feedback that we should allow call-ahead orders to still use the drive up. Problem there is that the majority of our drive up use is from call-ins! We also can’t police who has and has not called in, nor can we be selective if we get a line of cars queued up.
- Our inside volume of our shop is enough to keep us hopping: adding a 4-car line at the drive up was driving our speed of service and quality of product to unacceptable levels. Because the drive up volume was such hit-and-miss, we could not justify keeping extra staff on hand “just in case.”
- Look at our name, too! R&R stands for Rest and Relaxation! It is in our concept to come in, get a cuppa, pastry and breakfast, sit back and relax. The drive up didn’t really match that concept.
- Our drive up traffic has consistently stayed at 7% since day one. By keeping the drive up open, we cripple 55% of our business simply because we cannot keep up on drive up orders plus coffee for the store.
Long story short, we value all our drive-up guests and we don’t want to lose their business, of course. We hope that they all understand our predicament and are willing to pop in and say hi still. We understand if they don’t. Once we are in a space where we can have the roasters in the store but not in the way of the drive up, we will consider reopening it.
Thank you for understanding, and if you have any comments or concerns about this or anything, I hope you come forward and tell us.
Our former baker and an old regular having fun at our drive up window. This was taken just before we opened up R&R.
Iced coffee, Chemex Style
Okay, so 80-degree plus weather may not be beneficial to downing a cup of high-temp high test. We understand that.
So here’s what we propose:
ICED COFFEE.
Now, before you start scoffing at the notion, let me say that we’re not talking stale room-temperature coffee poured over ice or yesterday’s coffee that’s been refrigerated. That’s just nasty, and since we’re anti-nasty drinks around here, we thought we’d share the secret to our killer iced coffees. What we’re talking about here is coffee that is brewed specifically to be poured over ice. What a concept!
Obviously, you can swing by and have us make you a cup of your coffee. That’s beneficial to both of us. But, if you feel the need to brew it at home, let’s give you some ideas…
For your Mr. Coffee (or variation thereof)
- You want to use double the dosage of coffee that you usually would. Now, if you’re used to making the maximum of coffee per pot, there will be a problem here. So, just scale back. For a 12-cup pot, you’ll only be able to get 6 cups of iced coffee concentrate. Fill the coffee maker with 12 heaping tablespoons of your freshly ground R&R joe, add 6 cups of water to the brewer. Follow all the hints on our Tips for Best Brew page, and let your coffee go.
- Once the coffee concentrate is finished brewing, you want to pour that over ice. You want to use the same amount of ice as you did water. Here’s where math starts. One “cup” of water (the coffee maker’s cup is about 5-6oz of liquid) is about 3oz of ice. So for this example you’ll need 18oz of ice. (give or take: this will depend on your tastes)
- Stir your concoction until the majority of ice is melted.
- Get a glass, add ice.
- Pour
- Add cream and sugar if you need it (and brewing coffee this way tends to not need a lot of fussing with)
- Enjoy!
Toddy Cold Brew
We brew the Toddy here, and you can brew it at home, too! The Toddy cold brew system does a great job of slow brewing a whole batch of coffee concentrate. Here’s our steps using our coffee.
- Because our coffee is so fresh, it has a tendency to “bloom” right out of the brewer when you use the whole pound. So we’ve figured out the best math using 3/4 of the pound…
- Place the filter and stopper in the brewer basket.
- Add one cup of water.
- Grind the coffee at the coarsest setting possible, then add half the grind to the brewer basket.
- Add 4 cups of water, making sure you wet the grounds thoroughly.
- Wait five minutes for the coffee to absorb the water.
- Add the remaining grounds
- Add two more cups of water, again making sure the grounds are saturated.
- DON’T STIR THE MIX. Just use the back of a spoon to ensure the topmost grounds are wet.
- 12 hours later, remove the stopper from the brew basket and place over the glass decanter.
- When done, you have a killer coffee concentrate. For a great cup of iced coffee, use 2.5 oz in a 16oz pint glass. Add water and ice to the top and enjoy!
For Chemex Brewers (or any other slow brew method, actually)
For individual cup brewing here in the shop, we rely on the Chemex Coffee Maker. You can use any other pourover method you want, but we enjoy the consistency we get with the Chemex.
For a 16oz cup…
- Add 255 grams of ice to the brewer
- Get the filter wet with cold water, add to the brewer.
- Grind 32 grams of freshly ground R&R joe, add to filter
- Pour 255 grams of very hot water into the brewer following slow brew pouring methods.
- When done brewing, pour into glass with ice.
- Enjoy!
See, it’s not really that difficult to get your caffeine and cool down at the same time! Forget the stigma that iced coffee has: if brewed correctly, you’ll get an amazing cup each and every time!
Mmmmmmm.... iced coffee
See you soon at R&R!
So I’ve been in a low point with the coffees recently. Sure, we have some killer options available right now, but I haven’t been “WOW”ed by anything on the coffee side recently.
It felt like the coffee was just …. well…. there. Good, way better than the average even, but it still was missing something.
Then our coffee roasters decided that now would be a good time to completely start to fail in ways unheard of by the roaster manufacturer.
After some email and phone conversations, we decided that there was an airflow issue plaguing the roasters. Something they couldn’t entirely nail down at sea level, where the roasters are manufactured. Our 7444 feet was something new and slightly problematic. After modifying a roaster they had in the warehouse to allow for greater airflow, they sent it out to me to test.
The New Roaster in Action
Night. And. Day. Difference.
The old roaster configuration was scorching the beans dramatically, which changed the flavor. The new roaster? No scorching and no flavor degradation at all. All of our coffees are vibrant, flavorful, and jaw-droppingly amazing. Everything that made me want to be a roaster in the first place. It has completely reawakened me to the way coffee should be.
So if you were a little underwhelmed with your latest offerings from our store, I invite you to come back and try a cup of coffee the way we mean coffee to be. If you loved our coffee before, come back in and fall back in love. Didn’t think anything was wrong before? Try us now!
You’ll thank us.
I promise.
Last night (4/25/11) we participated in the Taste of Tri Lakes Cares. Tri Lakes Cares helps people get back on their feet after any number of reasons, and we felt it was only right to help with a fundraising benefit.
For the Taste, we had to come up with meals from a set list of items usually handed out from their food pantry:
- Instant Mashed Potato Flakes
- Canned Peaches
- Dried Pinto Beans
- Corn Flakes
- Dry Nonfat Milk
- Velveeta Cheese
When Carla and I sat down to talk recipes, we were stumped on how to make anything from this mix, especially one item. Yes, we were able to add any other ingredient that we needed. After much thought and deliberation, we decided that instead of one entree, we needed to come up with an entire meal. This way we could show that, yes, you can make some good meals using common products. We kept additional ingredients to what you would expect to see in a common pantry, and started banging away.
So what we ended up with for a menu:
- Baked Potato Soup
- Peachy Ranch Chicken
- Baked Beans
- Peach Cobbler
From what we could tell at the event, our meal was received pretty nicely, even though our baked beans were more … well… al dente than we would have preferred.
We would like to share those recipes with you now…
Well, friends, our winter dry spell of coffees has officially come to a close. We have received our new batch of coffees, sample roasted them, cupped them, and are ready to present you the offerings of many various countries:
First up, as per multiple requests, we are carrying a Tanzania Peaberry. More specifically, we are carrying the Nitin Estate Peaberry. The Nitin Estate is one of the top three highest estates in Tanzania, and they are perpetually fighting water shortages on the farm. The reason for the shortages? Elephants and Water Buffalos keep locating the estate’s underground water lines and dig them up so they can drink. I’m not making this up. In the cup, there’s a great citrus/orange tone that only intensifies as it cools. A slightly malty body will keep your tongue tingling, too. Roast Level: Full City, 15.95/lb
Next up is a quite fascinating specimen from Brazil, the Samambaia Yellow Bourbon Pulped Natural. This coffee comes from the Santo Antonito Estates, a co-op of 20 farmers. The Estates are located on 2150 hectares of land over 1150 meters above sea level. The Yellow Bourbon part describes the coffee cherries themselves: yup, yellow (as in the label picture above). Pulped Natural means most of the coffee fruits stay with the bean as it’s processed. With most Brazils, the flavor is forgettable. This one, well, not so much. Look for a sweet peach flavor throughout the cup. It’s a drier coffee (as in it’ll kinda dry out your mouth as you drink it). It really reminds me and our baristas of the flavor left in your mouth after drinking an iced green tea–plus peach. Completely unexpected, but delicious nonetheless. Roast Level: Full City, 13.95/lb
Heading back to the African Continent now! Next up is a great Ethiopia Harrar. Harrar coffees by nature demonstrate a great blueberry tone to the cup, and this one is no different. The blueberry aroma starts minutes off the roast and only intensifies as the bean degases and ages. The taste of the coffee keeps that blueberry tone but adds a golden raisin tone to the back of your palate. Wonderful, clean cup, too. Roast level: Full City, 14.25/lb
Decaf junkies rejoice! Our favorite decaf is back in stock and ready for your slurping! This Sidamo Decaf has a sweet berry and candylike flavor throughout the cup. Smooth, light acidity, and flavorful. Find another roaster that can say that about their decafs! As with all our decafs, it’s a Swiss Water Process decaf, so no chemicals were harmed in the making of your no-lead coffee. Roast Level: Full City, 16.95/lb
Still to come is another Ethiopia offering from a brand new distributor for us: Ninety Plus Coffee. Just you wait to see what we can do to up the quality yet again!
Thanks for hanging in there through the long winter season; let’s get drinking some coffee!