Forum Poll
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Specialty Grade
I’ve been wondering.
There are a LOT of roasters in our state. A lot of them claim to be “high quality” “premium” or “gourmet”.. but how many are actually roasting strictly Specialty Grade coffee?
This may not appear to be important, but the description of this site specifically states: Specialty Coffee in the Lone Star State.
Not just “coffee”… but a specific grade of coffee.
So what should we do with the roasters list? What should we do with the shop list?
How do we know who is using Specialty Grade coffee and who is not from a mere link?
Usually, seeing a little tag that says “SCAA Member” is a good indicator, but not all of them have that.So, roasters, retailers, if you are roasting and retailing nothing short of Specialty Grade, we want to know.
I think it would be a good idea to keep the list as it is, but to differentiate the Specialty Grade coffee folks from the Premium or lower grade institutions. It makes a big difference.
Texas Coffee People Logo Contest
I think it’s about time that we have a logo to help promote the Specialty Coffee Community growth and development in our little section of the US of A.
I’ve tossed around different ideas, and thought about asking a few graphic designers to make one up, but I I thought the suggestion of having a logo contest was a better idea.
So it’s official.
The prize is to be determined, but there will definitely be something in-store for the winner.
So, post them up. There will be a poll to determine the winner.
Entries must be in by April 25th. That’s a whole month to find the time to work on something and get it in.
Click here to sign up.
Good luck! I look forward to seeing the results.
TX-Coffee.com
Yup.. the domain name has officially switched. Update your links, kids. txcp.wordpress.com will still function as a redirect to tx-coffee.com.
www.tx-coffee.com or http://tx-coffee.com Should work equally well. The feed URL has changed along with it. The link on the sidebar is updated, so it’s a quick click away from updating your info.
“Summer Time.. and the livin’s easy..”
That is, of course, unless you’re a barista in Texas. As the weather outside warms up, fewer people are ordering the drinks we love. Hot coffee, it appears, does not agree with hot weather in the minds of most coffee patrons.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean people don’t still order coffee in other forms.
So what’s your cold coffee drink of choice during the warmer months? I know that there is a growing army of customers assigning a coffee frappe with the general term “coffee” when the temperature rises above 75F. But I’m a purist. I know there are others reading this who are like me.
So what do you go for to cool you down while still getting some coffee into your diet?
For me, it’s an iced Americano. Incidentally, it was the same last year. It’s nice to see some consistency in my life..
Post ‘em up.
“Summer Time.. and the livin’s easy..”
That is, of course, unless you’re a barista in Texas. As the weather outside warms up, fewer people are ordering the drinks we love. Hot coffee, it appears, does not agree with hot weather in the minds of most coffee patrons.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean people don’t still order coffee in other forms.
So what’s your cold coffee drink of choice during the warmer months? I know that there is a growing army of customers assigning a coffee frappe with the general term “coffee” when the temperature rises above 75F. But I’m a purist. I know there are others reading this who are like me.
So what do you go for to cool you down while still getting some coffee into your diet?
For me, it’s an iced Americano. Incidentally, it was the same last year. It’s nice to see some consistency in my life..
Post ‘em up.
“Summer Time.. and the livin’s easy..”
That is, of course, unless you’re a barista in Texas. As the weather outside warms up, fewer people are ordering the drinks we love. Hot coffee, it appears, does not agree with hot weather in the minds of most coffee patrons.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean people don’t still order coffee in other forms.
So what’s your cold coffee drink of choice during the warmer months? I know that there is a growing army of customers assigning a coffee frappe with the general term “coffee” when the temperature rises above 75F. But I’m a purist. I know there are others reading this who are like me.
So what do you go for to cool you down while still getting some coffee into your diet?
For me, it’s an iced Americano. Incidentally, it was the same last year. It’s nice to see some consistency in my life..
Post ‘em up.
“Summer Time.. and the livin’s easy..”
That is, of course, unless you’re a barista in Texas. As the weather outside warms up, fewer people are ordering the drinks we love. Hot coffee, it appears, does not agree with hot weather in the minds of most coffee patrons.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean people don’t still order coffee in other forms.
So what’s your cold coffee drink of choice during the warmer months? I know that there is a growing army of customers assigning a coffee frappe with the general term “coffee” when the temperature rises above 75F. But I’m a purist. I know there are others reading this who are like me.
So what do you go for to cool you down while still getting some coffee into your diet?
For me, it’s an iced Americano. Incidentally, it was the same last year. It’s nice to see some consistency in my life..
Post ‘em up.
Austin Trip
So, I had a solid 5 days off, so I and a certain someone else went on a trip to Austin… you know, to get the heck out of Lubbock for awhile.
It just so happened, not planned, that our trip was right smack in the middle of SXSW. It appeared that the entire city was stricken with a plague of hipsters. More than usual, and they all looked more uniform than usual as well.
We decided to see what we could catch, since we hadn’t planned for it, and we didn’t have “tickets” (wristbands), so we head to S. Congress, take a few minutes trying to find a place to park, and then start wondering around.
We spent way too much time at the S. Congress location of Jo’s Coffee. We caught The Octopus Project pretty randomly, and I’m glad we did. They were awesome.
I insisted that we make a trip to the much-hyped Caffe Medici. My insisting was well-received, so the visit was set. I thought it kind of humorous that the sign is the exact same picture as what you see on their website. Inside, there is a wall of bags of Cuvee coffee. The menu is minimalist in nature. There is a shiny red LM FB-80 that’s pretty hard to ignore right as you walk in. I saw Dan who was good enough to say “hi” when I didn’t recognize him right off. Apparently, they do barbecue night once a week, and I happened to catch the day… Dan was a wreck. I thought the place looked nice. I dig the black and white photos all over the place. Nice touch.
Later that night, we went to 6th. It seemed that every single venue was a place for a SXSW-related event. Which was cool. But the pedestrian traffic was ridiculous. We caught this band neither of us had ever heard of, but that totally blew us both away. They were incredibly good. They were called Alpha Rev.
Last day, time to leave. We stopped by a shop that looked like it had just opened not long before called Dominican Joe. The outside looked very cool, inviting, all that fun stuff. The inside, personally, looked a little unfinished and underfunded. We got a Mocha and an Americano, both of which were served in what looked like domestic serve wear cups in a pastel brown/gray color you would expect to find in your neighbor’s kitchen. They are doing good things for sustenanc in coffee. I’d call it direct trade, but that’s a trademarked title.
Overall, it was a much-needed trip away from this flat wasteland. Even if I didn’t have a decent espresso every morning like I normally would.
We really should take more of these.
And Now, for Something Completely Different
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myl33ZLkhB8]
Indirectly
Hi Aaron. Welcome back from Guatemala. i know. i’m sorry i’ve been a flake since my return from guatemala and my visit with edwin at his family’s finca vista hermosa. in my defense, i haven’t been doing much blogging on any of my sites since returning. maybe that’s a sign of increased business keeping me away from the monitor. or maybe i’m just lazy.
at any rate, i wanted to toss a topic into the texas realm that are on my plate of late. it’s a little “discussion” going on over at coffeed over this so called phenomenon of “Direct Trade.” if you’re not familiar with the basic arguments of it, swing over here first for a primer. now, don’t get me wrong, i am a huge proponent of the concept of purchasing coffee as close to the source as possible, as i clearly stated in my posts in the first linked discussion. but i have a couple of issues that stick a bit in my craw. (i can use that term in a texas blogpost, right?)
first is the notion of trademarking the term “direct trade” as has been done by a certain specialty coffee roaster a bit north of us all here in texas. what’s up with that? does anyone hope to profit from that name? or if not, does anyone believe that by trademarking it the name will somehow help coffee producers in any way, shape or form? i don’t get the point of trademarking a name just to be the ones with the rights to it if there is really no inherent benefit to it from a cup quality standpoint. maybe it’s just money.
second, there’s the idea of transparency that comes hand in glove with this phenomenon. while some of the companies that are doing a lot of direct work with coffee farmers are doing phenomenal work in the area of giving out tons of great stories and information that is both romantic and educational, there are, as i have tried to point out in my coffeed posts, some gaps in the record, if you will that need more clarification than the leading d.t. proponents seem willing to share with the general buying public. the strategy seems to be one of writing up so much information that some of the key pieces that should be baldly clear get–in my opinion–conspicuously lost in the shuffle.
here’s the great example. i began to inquire about a segment of d.t. that needs some clarification because i couldn’t find any real information perusing the websites of two (and the other, here) of the industry’s stalwarts in the d.t. area. (for the record, both are organizations i respect greatly.) the subject has to do with marketing and creating names for blends of coffees a roaster/retailer carries. the topic first came up while i was in guatemala at the dinner table, where a couple was in an animated discussion with jaime about what they were calling a “mark of origin.” i sat down with my plate and started to listen to these groups discuss how one of these companies above had created a fictitious name for a coffee they were selling that was actually a blend of many different coffees from around a particular country. no big deal, right? well, the issue was that the marketing behind the coffee (they had a t-shirt made up for it and lots of webinfo) made it appear, at least to the people at the table, that the company was marketing a coffee from what looked like a single farm, or at the very least, from a single co-op. there was nothing anywhere on the packaging and labeling of the coffee that indicated that this bag was indeed comprised of coffees from over three dozen farms scattered across a country the size of, well, colombia. we had some long discussions about it that evening; voices were raised on both sides about a company’s right to do what they please with their products; about deceptive marketing practices; about how it’s cool to perhaps not label the bags as a blend for space’s sake but that why in the ocean of information that can be put on the website was the fact that this was a blend not mentioned online and how in fact the word “blend” didn’t even appear anywhere in the info pages for this coffee. and so forth.
so, being ever the instigator i am, i decided to bring it up on coffeed. why do we find very little if any indication that this coffee is actually a blend? what is the idea behind a fictitiously fabricated name for a blend of coffees known as a “mark of origin” (which the two companies above prefer to call “I-marks” and “Roaster’s Marks,” respectively)? why create a fake name? why not say it’s a blend? how does this square with the idea of transparency? aren’t we risking obfuscating instead of educating the masses? is it really that hard to identify these coffees differently that honestly captures what is happening but that is still done in a marketable way? and what of the farmers who toiled hard on these coffees (and were,to be sure, compensated well for their labors), only to have them slip behind the anonymity of a false name created by the roaster just to sell more coffee? didn’t that fly in the face of the whole direct trade ethos?
these were questions i floated to the forum and got many lengthy and educational responses in return about the history of the roaster’s mark, the greatness of all the web information about how these companies went to this country to get coffee, how so many other names we label our coffees are also not precise (as though this were some justification), why it’s not evil and the like. what i didn’t get was a direct answer on why it was necessary to create a fake name when we’re trying to be precise and direct. why is a fake name, not an imprecise or outdated name, mind you, but a fake, fabricated name, created by a wealthy north american company to sell more coffee from a not wealthy group of latin american farmers, is necessary and beneficial to any of the farmers under whose banner they reside.
part of the response was that there is some recognition for the farmers who provide exceptional coffees to the group by getting “micro lot” status under the roaster’s mark. but i think from a theoretical perspective this is an even worse and insensitive offense to these hard working farmers, who are struggling to break the cycle of anonymity that keeps coffee prices low and ensures the greatest profits go to the retailers. to create a false name, let’s say it’s called, “Perro Grande,” under which you gather all these coffees, then decide to “honor” one of the best of the blend by giving that farmer “Perro Grande Especial” status is gratuitous at best and seems to me to smack of slapping a north american band-aid (the one where we think money solves everything) on a latin american problem (the one where they know that getting name recognition for themselves solves everything). the farmer’s name is not Perro Grande. his farm is not called Perro Grande, nor is his co-op, dry mill, coyote’s business, the exporter’s, the shipyard or anything at all. IT’S A FAKE NAME WITH NO CONNECTION TO THE PEOPLE OR THE COFFEE! it’s like being called the juan valdez of el salvador or something. he doesn’t even exist! so then what? the whole world buys this Perro Grande coffee and the farmers (including the micro lot farmer) gets what? recognition that will bring more buyers bidding with higher prices to his door? even if you mention his name and his farm’s name, he will now forever be associated with Perro Grande, which in turn will ever be associated with the company that created this marketing phenomenon, ensuring the farmers will ever be in the thrall of…the sole company that decided to trade directly with him in the first place.
so i’ve preached a seriously long missive that risks me sounding like i hate the direct trade concept and two of the companies i respect who practice it well. but i wanted to get that out there and off my chest and i’m hoping we can spark some discussion here on txcp.
i guess the only thing that really got me, after reviewing all the posts that have been posted so far is that no one really defending their practices bothered to acknowledge what i was saying about labeling it fairly as a blend or that they perhaps could have some culpability for creating confusion among the buying public. they mostly just wanted to share with everyone how much they were doing and not back down. but that’s okay. it’s been informative, at least.
LET ME ALSO SAY FOR THE RECORD that brown is not perfect and does not practice direct trade enough (yet) or have all its so called ducks in a row with regards to imprecise labeling designations…i still use size grades like “AA” and people groups (not actual geographic indicators) such as “Mandheling.” but i think it’s still worthy of discussion.
super long post. i’m done. discuss, texas.
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