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The Texas Coffee Think Tank: Initiation
John Johnson of JP’s Java in Austin, TX decided to put together a regularly scheduled get-together where professionals in the coffee community could get together and share their expertise on a variety of topics relevant to the specialty coffee industry in Texas.
He called it the Texas Coffee Think Tank, and its first encarnation just occured on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007. I was invited, but Austin isn’t so close, and I had a training session today. Let alone the costs and time demands.. which is a topic that is neither here nor there, so I shall continue.
Since I am a part of the official think tank, regardless of my ability to attend, I received an email, as did everyone else in the think tank, that recaps and summarizes the event. Thanks to John Johnson for filling us(me?) in.
He writes:
Okay,
So first meeting down. Aaron put together a fun and very informative cupping. I think we can all definitively say that the age of the bean, and the way in which it has been stored greatly effects the final flavor, even when they are from the same year and same crop. After lunch we discussed the future workings of these meetings or events. It looks like the host will pick the day and the subject for presentation, and sometimes we will taste multiple coffees from the same region just for the fun of it. I’ll work on a neat map we can stick pins in. Michael V. has taken over the month of October. If anyone would like to schedule an event, or maybe just an hour of tasting some coffees in September that would be great. I think its important that we do something each month, even if its very small, to keep up momentum. Also Jason (via satellite) pointed out that we should probably take pictures. Anyone interested in doing that in the future?
So, there you have it. I can say that good things are happening here in the panhandle, and it seems like South Central TX can take care of itself. Three cheers for JP’s, Medici, Cuvee, and The Brown Coffee Co for fighting the good fight and spreading the gospel of quality coffee in their neck of the woods of our great state of Texas.
I’d like to take a month on sometime in the future. Time is an issue, as is cost. We’ll see.
Hopefully next time we’ll have some pictures to show the world what great things are happening here in TX.
New Forum Feature
I have added an “Announcements” forum.
This is a catch-all for announcements of all kind. Be it a grand opening, re-opening, “free espresso Friday”, a sale, a 2-for-1, or even a local jam, get-together, cupping, tasting, or small-scale barista or latte art competitions.
All retailers, roasters, vendors, parts suppliers, consumers, etc.. are welcome to post their announcements.
Consider this a way to help promote specialty coffee. It’s a way for businesses to get the word out to their potential customers.
I just thought I’d share.
huehue to go
so in just another day i’ll be off to guatemala and the highlands of huehuetenango for two weeks to visit edwin martinez’ finca vista hermosa. not to brag or anything, but it is going to be one slammin’ trip. some of you may remember edwin from our november barista jam at ruta maya here in san antonio. edwin has become more than a professional colleague. i feel privileged to call him a friend and i have immense respect for the things he and his family are doing with coffee of course, but also in being an amazing part of their community. edwin says that while it’s not uncommon for many coffee plantations in their area to have to search for labor during the critical harvest season (going on now in guatemala), at fvh they have workers lining up to help. why? basically, because they care.
now, you can talk all you want about fair trade this and certified that; but when you’re doing the stuff–really doing good and right by your workers as they are at fvh–then you don’t need some third party bureacracy to stamp a label on your coffee just so americans can feel good about themselves. edwin, his family and all the workers who are associated with fvh have had a great thing going down there for three generations and i cannot wait to experience it firsthand and to pay my respects and say thank you to the people who surely spend blood, sweat and tears to care for the coffee they produce. our trip will be all about learning as much as we, the last people in the coffee chain, can about the first people in the coffee chain.
i will be doing my best to blog regularly about the trip here and/or at my other coffee blog.
when i return there will definitely be plenty of things to share with you about some projects and experiments we began and conducted there. very, very cool stuff that’s out there on the bleeding edge of the specialty super-premium coffee movement. won’t get into it all here and now, but some of the stuff the projects include are: freezers, g.p.s. equipment, tons of hiking, tons of note taking, at least one article (hopefully two) in one or another of our beloved trade zines and tons and tons of pictures.
i’m humbled and honored to have such a great opportunity, and i’m hyper proud to plant the proverbial texas flag in the midst of all this hoopla. i don’t consider myself to be anything special in all of this. i’m just glad to have the chance to be there and i hope this will be another small stone in the coffee edifice we’re building here in the lone star state.
and oh yeah, i want to put out there before i go that i’ve really been thinking long and often about the next texas barista jam. something magnanimous. something difficult and challenging and inspiring. something never before seen in texas. i’m thinking late march or early april. who’s down?
catch y’all soon.
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