by Clayton Johnson | Mar 17, 2015 | Uncategorized |
5 Things We Love about BREW and other trends happening in our community If my last post was “a day in the life of” then this is my “compliments to the chef.” Take a bow Raleigh coffee scene. For those of you in hibernation, take to the streets! Winds are changing, and getting warmer. Joe Van Gogh just started production in Whole Foods along the southeast, Counter Culture Coffee is opening on the West Coast, more baristas from the Triangle competing more regularly, and new coffee shops opening. Among the winds changing, the atmosphere has seemed to follow. Shops kindle with conversation, friends flow in-and-out. This is where we’ve seen shops like BREW come into play. A little personal bias here as they’re one of your new RCC hubs but I find myself always looking to go back. Not long ago I used to sit at Jubala and talk shop. Tim Jones and Kyle Ramage would tell me how coffee comes from farm to cup. I would tell them what tasting notes I had and they would help me see what I was tasting. It shaped my passion for coffee and helped me appreciate every cup. Jubala has grown a lot since then though, and often lined out the door, so I’ve rekindled the flame with BREW. So this brings me to our first of five coffee trends that I love as a local coffee consumer: 1: Bar Service I urge you, next time you’re headed that way, go alone and sit at the bar. Before getting your laptop out, take a second to talk with the barista. Ask them what they...
by Clayton Johnson | Mar 13, 2015 | Uncategorized |
Coffee, Any Which Way You Like I found myself on the wrong side of the line the other day. Let’s rewind… This barista thinks I’m weird. My eyes bearing down on them like they’re a new hybrid species, like a Pugalien (pug alien), and to be fair, that would certainly capture my attention. It’s probably even weirder I know their name (just a habit of mine, #welcometomyworld). But I’m captured by their technique, the movement, the coffee. So I stood there, thinking about what I should order or what I may have made myself if I was in their shoes. I’m beginning to think how the day may shape my decision. Something like how slow starts call for an extra shot of espresso while fast paced mornings are just tea. No tea today! But my mind is fracturing, splitting a million different ways. I mean what even is a brevé? Is it good? How many shots.. how many can I get? Signs I shouldn’t have any, but I’m going for caffeine. I’m not sure if I’m proud or embarrassed of the next thing that poured out of my mouth.. “I’ll take my latte short, more at around 7oz. steamed at 150 degrees with my milk wet, not dry” (degree of frothiness, this case less). From this point, I think I broke the barista machine. After making 10 decafs, I think orders like these just stop registering. It’s reminding them of their first job at Starbucks (I don’t know if they worked there, just saying,) and it’s a nightmare. But, they plug it in the machine, swipe my card, move...
by Clayton Johnson | Mar 10, 2015 | Uncategorized |
Let’s talk green coffee. First, this is a vegetable post. Not those savory notes in your Ethiopian or Panama coffee, but peas and carrots. What I mean is this is a fundamental post, not what I would consider dessert. After establishing the basics though, we will be able to talk about that beautiful brown coffee as a crop, as a variety, as a commodity. Plus, if you’re like me, there’s a little nerd-ing out along the way. I want to focus on green coffee, the un-roasted nut. We’ll work through how it obtains it’s flavors, and get a little into varietals. Coffee is a complex interaction between families and regions, weather and water. With every specific journey, it says something a little different. So to start you on coffee’s story we’re considering origins and flavors. Though its easy for me to just jump right in, let’s start at the beginning and work our way from there. Coffee Arabica verses Coffee Robusta Take what you know about coffee and toss it. That caffeine-infused beverage you like to Instagram overly-filtered photos of is straight from the unfiltered earth. Coffee, or Coffea, is a classification of a plant with many types of species, some that we consume and some we don’t. What’s important, though, is that there are seeds resting within the center of a tiny cherry; seeds that are very important to us. Coffea arabica is the most widely produced and consumed species of coffee. Another species that may be familiar is Coffea canephora, known as Robusta. Robusta is majoritively commercial grade coffee based on its lower quality. FUN FACT: coffea...
by Clayton Johnson | Mar 4, 2015 | Uncategorized |
Let me start with a question: What gets you out of bed in the morning? It lies on the cusp of what it means to be human. Is it coffee? Is it your job? Perhaps your partner, or even kids. Ultimately, the answer should be passion, in whatever form. Luckily our passion bounces us out of bed. Spend any time in the specialty coffee industry and you’ll notice coffee drinkers, coffee roasters, baristas and enthusiasts alike are all united in a journey. Coffee wakes us up, gets us together, and pushes us forward. In our world, coffee is a simple pleasure, but an often needed one. It’s the little push in the morning to get our work done and, we work a little harder so we can play a little more. Yet somewhere along the way, coffee gets so infused in our lives, it begins to tell a story. It’s the story from farm to cup, but it’s also a story of community. This blog series is all about exposing those stories, whether it’s local news or international impacts on our favorite crop. We want to introduce you into our passion and spark some interest of your own. For those of you bouncing out of bed already, consider this kindlewood. Today, we’re starting with our story. Rewind a little bit. I met Joe as a budding enthusiast a couple years back… I was finishing up my associates degree at Wake Tech, living next to State’s campus. I had just joined Raleigh Coffee Club, a group where we tried a...
