It took me 10 shots before I could manage to pull a shot that looked even CLOSE! Frustrating. No matter how carefully I tamped, it still came out poorly. The grind was right, tamp was done very carefully, etc. The machine (brand new Simonelli Aurelia 3 group) seemed to be brewing really freaken hot… and I think that had a little something to do with it. I will measure the temp tomorrow to be sure. But compared to the results I was getting on the Marzocco that we modified with PID, there is NO comparison. Seriously, I would get a proper pour with vertually no effort.By the way, I love the ‘article’ you wrote Eric on naked filters!! It is so true. If it weren’t for the naked filter here on thise pours tonight I would never had known what was going on and how “off” the shots were! Very interesting for sure. Check out this little slide show:

The provocatively named “naked portafilter” is also appropriately named, because it reveals so much about your espresso shot . To those who are unfamiliar with this device, it is essentially a standard portafilter that has had its bottom cut away to reveal the portafilter basket.   As a result, the espresso extraction is not routed through or concealed by a pour spout. Instead, the pour can be viewed in all its dynamics and richness, as it develops, presses through and pulls away from the basket’s micro-screen.Recently, Jason Prefontaine and myself have been brewing & watching shots using a naked portafilter we jerry-rigged from a standard issue piece.  I think Jason may have made ours using a hacksaw or other tool, although you can buy these pre-cut and nicely finished, at least for LM machines. Anyway, this rough little device is a total arbiter of truth. It reveals for example how evenly we have tamped. If the tamp is uneven, even fractionally, you can see it. The coffee pour will tend to start and concentrate on one side of the basket, before spreading out. Brewing with a naked portafilter also reveals other truths like how hard the tamp was, when the extraction is TRULY complete, and if you are over-extracting from any point inside the basket. (Read the rest of this post)

I have been cupping a lot of really good and unique coffees lately as we are looking to expand our offerings to our clients. The most recent arrivals are the top 34 farms from Nicaragua who entered the Cup of Excellence (COE) competition (you can learn more about this at www.cupofexcellence.org) and we also have the top 18 farms from Guatemala who also entered the COE. I have yet to roast and cup these but will be soon.What I want to know is if you think our market is demanding this type of coffee. These are excellent coffees; however, will our clients and their customers appreciate it and able to market it? I really hope that they will and that they do. I personally think that the Western Canadian market is looking for something different and something special. I just don’t know if the COE’s are what they are looking for. I say this as the geographical regions available is: Colombian, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras and Brazil. These aren’t exactly NEW Coffees or something that our clients haven’t had before (excluding Bolivia and El Salvador). Do you think that they would purchase these geographical regions for a large premium over what they typically purchase them for? COE are auctioned off to roasters, and go for a LARGE premium. Last year Brazil’s top coffee sold for $13.20 US per lb GREEN.Let me know your thoughts as we are just about to begin our testing.

Ok, I’m not sure you’ve signed up for Crackbook, errrr - Facebook yet, but I have to say that I am totally addicted! Its great to get back into touch with old friend, but its also a great way to meet new people who are as into something as you are by joining a ‘group’.The most recent group I joined is called Espresso with Esprexifs, started by Mark Prince from Coffee Gee. Primarily its a photo group where you are asked to share your details about the espresso-based beverage you’re showing a picture of and you put as much detail as you can in the description, following the Exif Info model most digital cameras provide.What I love is this is a great way to learn new ideas and tricks on espresso brewing and milk texturing techniques from other people who REALLY love coffee. Check it out at:Espresso with EsprexifsThanks to Stephen Morrissey in London England for the pic.Jason

For the last 17 years we have been asking our customers questions like, “What is the single greatest challenge about running your coffee house”, and time and time again people say it is “STAFF”! They comment on how there is high turn over and then training their staff to be highly skilled at pulling shots and general coffee expertise is hard to keep up with. I know we offer our “Coffee Knowledge Seminars” and “Advanced Espresso” classes, but what if we did something like we saw when we went to Korea? Late one night we were taken to one of our customers, the “Coffee Acadamy” which exists simply to train professional barristas on espresso preparation! I was so impressed that they had this relatively large facility dedicated to educating professional barristas! Just today I was thinking of how we could serve customers here in town by organizing a ‘coffee university’ that churned-out hard-core coffee enthusiasts into our city so that our customers had a greater pool of trained barristas to draw on. It still bugs me how few good places there are to go for a good cappo in this city. But I certainly do understand the challange. Just a thought. What do you think? Just a thought. What do you think?Here is the “Coffee Acadamy” in Korea: (Read the rest of this post)

Recently we have been discussing the best way to contribute back to the developing world. As coffee suppliers it seems that there are two primary avenues–both revolving around green bean sourcing. One (fair trade) is socio-economic. The other (certified organic or other designation) is environmental. While I like both designations A LOT, since they speak to direct results in origin countries, they do lack something for me on a deeper more personal level. What is missing is the edge of direct involvement with the people and/or the environment of the place designated to receive aid.It seems that often we must gauge our understanding of the success of a program on how much is put into the program, how many dollars are invested, and not on what comes out–what is happening on the other side with the recipients of the aid–in effect the “customers”.One of the defining features of Fratello Coffee has been its commitment to Belo Ethiopia. This program is essentially the owners of this company directing and monitoring the results of an 8 year development plan in conjunction with CHFI. The Belo program is designed to direct assistance resources derived from the sale of roasted coffee in North America to this one particular community in Ethiopia. The funds are directed in a way that allows basic infrastructure, like sanitation and water supply, to be developed by the residents themselves. Other funding goes to basic education and literacy. While ten percent of all profits go to supporting these efforts, the ultimate success of the program is measured against particular objectives.Going forward we will present news from the efforts in Belo on this blog. Hopefully we will see progress and continuous improvement. We hope to show how aid money manifests as actual benefit to recipients themselves. Stay tuned.

Some of you might find this interesting (maybe not?), but I thought I would send this chart out for you to look at. As you will see, Canadian Food For The Hungry (the organization we have partnered together with in the sponsorship of Belo Ethiopia) has BY FAR the lowest amount of money going to administration. This was one of many reasons we chose to deal with them…as most of the money that the company distributes to them goes to those people who need it versus some huge administrative infrastructure. Check out some of the others out there!!? Crazy.

I guess this is the only attempt that I managed to keep an image of … Too bad its a bit off center.

Hey Joel,Whose your daddy! Bring it on. Lets see if you can trump this one!