God in A Cup of Coffee

After my last blog post in which I suggested that there is no  US Coffee Capital because no city currently has a sufficient critical mass of superb cafes or restaurants serving superb coffee, I got an email from 2008 World Barista Champion Stephen Morrissey, agreeing in general and adding these thoughts:

” I guess my only point would be that from my experience,  America probably has the highest amount of truly quality focused cafes in the world.

Although in saying that, I think their percentage of good cafes versus bad cafes is probably the same as many other countries. If we say that 1 or 2% of Irish Cafes do a good job, that equates to around 5 cafes. The same percentage for the US probably comes to around 200, though that number might be a bit generous.

(And just to clarify, by good I mean grind fresh, clean their machine, extract well, own a decent knowledge of whats in the hopper and don’t become too complacent in their skills)

But yeah, a long way to go…”

 Based on my observations of the specialty industry, both as a journalist and as a consumer , I think Stephen nailed it.

A book reviewer in LA wrote nice things about my book, but criticized me for not recognizing that LA is the center of the US  specialty coffee culture.

Do I believe that LA is the center of the specialty coffee culture in the US?

No, I don’t.

There  is cool coffee stuff happening in LA, as there is in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, and even my not-so-fashion-forward hometown of Washington, DC.    But possessing a few great cafes and a dozen or two restaurants where the chef “gets it” about coffee , doesn’t make LA or any city the center of the specialty coffee industry in the United State.

I won’t be ready to declare a specialty coffee capital until a town emerges where the chef of every bistro, boite and joint feels compelled to give as much attention to the coffee as he or she gives to the wine service……

OK, enough opining about the industry. What did I think of the coffee I drank  in LA last week?

Doing a coffee tasting at the LA Times (more book promoting) with Intelligentsia barista competitor and sales rep Nick Griffith, I had a chance to taste Intelli’s El Salvador microlot brewed in a classic drip pot.  These beans were outstanding, with a plummy sweetness, lots of body and a nice citrus finish.

Visiting Intelli’s Silver Lake cafe, I tried two other coffees. A beautiful  Guatemalan microlot (I have a weakness for Central American coffees) and a perfectly executed cappuccino made with Intelli’s Black Cat blend. (in case you are wondering, the lines at the Silver Lake store are long, and Intelli’s baristas are well trained, friendly and fast.)

I visited  LA Mill, the swish coffee/tea/food/dessert emporium a mile down the road from Intelligentsia in Silver Lake where the wait staff will brew  coffee in a siphon vacuum pot at your table–Seattle food writer Jonathan Kaufman told me he and a friend paid $60 bucks for their beautifully executed siphon coffee at LA Mill felt the experience was worth the price.

Me, I ordered cheap.   I ordered LA Mills  Ethiopian Koratie Dry Process,  brewed in a Clover, price $4.50.  I am not a huge huge fan of dry process (natural) coffees, and  I thought the Koratie tasted faintly musty:  still the bright notes were bright and the coffee had a nice stone fruit  thing going on.  The LA Mill coffee , however, could not hold a candle to the LA Mill chocolate chip cookie.  If I were cupping the coffee, I would have given it an 80.  If I were cupping the cookie, I would have given it a 95.  (My frisee and lardon salad was excellent, too, dressed with a coffee vinaigrette.)

 I drank a cappuccino at Luxe Cafe in Santa Monica.  Not memorable.

I tasted a brewed coffee and a cappuccino at Groundwork in Venice.  Pretty bad.

I  drank brewed coffee from the Austrian roaster Julius Meinl at the Austrian-themed 3 Square Cafe and Bakery in Venice.  The food at this Austrian-themed restaurant was memorable; the coffee, was of the sort that makes me ask, what was the chef thinking?  (You can buy Julius Meinl coffee at the Cafe.  The packaging is nice.)

 At the French bistro Annisette in Santa Monica, the coffee was from Illy and after an excellent meal, we skipped it.

As I say, I am not ready to declare Los Angeles the specialty coffee capital of the country. No doubt about it, though: Intelligentsia showing up on the West Coast has been a boon to the city’s coffee scene.

FYI, Intelligentsia’s second Los Angeles cafe, on Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice is slated to open late in January or there abouts.

I just got back from Los Angeles where I was promoting my book, including giving a coffee book talk at Google in Santa Monica where the young tech talent loves coffee –the Google “kids” have their own Clover machine.  The book talk went pretty well, I think, but not so well that I am looking forward to it downloading on Youtube, which it apparently will.  (One of the benefits or punishments of speaking at Google is having your doppleganger cast out into cyberspac.

The LA trip gave me a chance to catch up with some long lost coffee guys, take in the ne plus ultra scene at LA Mill and visit Intelligentsia’s wildly busy Silver Lake cafe–last time I saw the Intelli store, it was under construction and had not yet opened.

I also got to take in a bit of youth culture street theater.  On Saturday afternoon in Silver Lake near  Intelligentsia, some 60 or 70s costumed young santas affiliated with the santacom movement played instruments, drank beer and paraded around in the Saturday sunshine.  The event  exuded more good humor than hipster disdain–that  sunshine  good for mood.

The pro-humor, anti-materialist, screw sentimentality santcon.com movement  is staging events in several dozen cities this month, many of them took place on Saturday.  So while I was getting a charge out of the alternative santas in LA, back at my home town of Washington, DC santacon partiers were gathering at the White House making amusing puns:

 My favorite santacon santa guy, though, was the one I saw when I was driving.  He was a skinny Ichabod Crane kindofa guy in a red suit, perched high on a  unicycle, carrying his santa hat in his hand, peddling like crazy down Venice Boulevard.  Stupid me left her camera in the hotel.

On Saturday I met up with coffee consultant Trish Rothgeb (Trish at Peregrine)

for a visit to  Peregrine Espresso, the sleek new cafe owned and operated by Ryan and Jill  Jensen at 660 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, on the site of the now defunct Capital Hill Murky Coffee.

Owner Ryan Jensen at Peregrine

(Me at Peregrine. )

 Peregrine serves beautifully executed, excellent-tasting coffee and espresso.  The menu is elegantly short–just a few coffees are available at a time and the adulterants are kept to a minimum.  The pastries are fresh.  The design is pleasingly simple–pale walls, clean lines, nice art, and the Capital Hill locals appear to be grateful.  No sign of a recession in this shop.

(Skip the following paragraph if you are not interested in coffee “begats” :  Ryan Jensen, it should be noted, is a former Murky manager and a one time Counter Culture employee –Peregrine serves Counter Culture, as did/does Murky–Murky in Virginia still lives.  Trish Rothgeb, formerly of Zoka in Seattle,  teaches cupping at the SCAA cupping lab in Long Beach, CA in association with Vermont-based coffee consultant Mane Alves.)

Ok.  I admit it.  I got this story about profits at Starbucks sliding 97 percent in the fourth quarter from the Drudge Repor (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081110/earns_starbucks.html?.v=6).  Note that Starbucks, even with its current problems, did manage to eke out a one cent per share profit this quarter and a fairly significant profit for the year.

The story came from the Associated Press and was written by Lauren Shepherd, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Fewer U.S. customers and venti-sized costs for closing poorly performing stores led to lower sales and profit in the fourth quarter at Starbucks Corp., the company said Monday.
The quarter’s results came at the end of a transition year for the coffee retailer, in which former Chief Executive Howard Schultz took back the reins of the company to again fill the CEO and chairman posts.

Seattle-based Starbucks said profit in the quarter fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share. The coffee retailer earned 10 cents per share when the costs from closing about 600 stores in the U.S. and 61 locations in Australia are excluded.

Analysts expected profit of 13 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Starbucks began shutting the U.S. and Australian stores this summer as part of its nearly yearlong campaign to reverse slowing sales and falling profits at the company. Besides closing the stores, Starbucks has cut more than 1,000 positions — many of which were unfilled — and introduced a slew of new products, including Vivanno smoothie drinks and breakfast pastries.

The company also replaced aging espresso makers, launched new single-cup Clover brewing machines in some markets, retrained baristas and began a loyalty card program to offer customers more value for their cup.

But all the changes did little to boost sales in the fourth quarter, particularly in the U.S, where the turmoil in the economy took a gulp out of consumer spending.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $2.52 billion from $2.44 billion. Analysts expected sales of $2.58 billion. Same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, dropped 8 percent in the U.S. as fewer customers came into the stores. Those that did also spent less, the company said. Same-store sales were flat overseas.

On a conference call with analysts, Schultz said the company was doing what it needed to get back on track.

“The fourth quarter may have represented a bottoming-out milestone for our company,” Schultz said, echoing comments he made at a leadership conference in New Orleans at end of last month.

He added that sales have improved somewhat in the past few weeks and noted that unlike other “premium” retail chains, same-store sales declines were not in the double-digits in October.

Many restaurant companies have reported steep drops in same-store sales during the month as consumers became ever more anxious about the state of the economy. Ruth’s Hospitality Inc., which operates Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, reported its same-store sales fell 15 percent, for example.

Schultz said the company’s new breakfast items — meant to entice healthy eaters to try a pastry with their latte — have been successful and that its customer loyalty card program has tapped into consumers’ desire for value.

The card program offers discounts and freebies, including free refills on drip coffee. A new “gold card” program gives customers a 10 percent discount on all purchases. That card costs $25.

For the full 2008 fiscal year, Starbucks earned $315.5 million, or 43 cents per share, down from $672.6 million, or 87 cents per share, in 2007. Revenue rose to $10.38 billion from $9.41 billion.

Starbucks said it expects 2009 profit excluding one-time costs of between 71 cents and 90 cents per share depending on how steeply same-store sales decline during the year. Analysts predict profit of 87 cents per share for the year.

The company also cut its prediction for international store openings to about 700 net new stores during the fiscal 2009 year, down from its earlier estimate of about 900 net new stores. In the U.S., the company said it will close about 225 stores and open 205 new ones.

Shares fell 42 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $9.78 in electronic after-hours trading after dipping 35 cents, or 3.3 percent, to close at $10.20.”

……

Am I embarrassed to be outed reading the Drudge Report?  Sort of.  Thing is, I am being corrupted by my son who lives in Austin, Texas.  He sent me the link to a story this morning from the Washington Post online and when I asked how he had ferreted out this tale of man’s inhumanity, he ‘fessed up to the source.  So I checked out the Drudge Report this morning and found this story about Starbucks.

I read in this morning’s NY Times that Howard Schultz has hired back Starbuck’s president of global development, Arthur Rubinfeld, who is guiding “a renovation of Starbuck’s stores and refocusing on the urban markets that gave the company its illustrious start.”

OK, I get it.  Real estate counts. But what, I would like to know, are Misters Schultz and Rubinfeld doing about Starbucks still unresolved dueling missions?

Last week in Seattle, I met reporter Rebecca Denn at the Starbucks on Queen Anne Avenue  –this Starbucks boasts a Clover, and I ordered a Tanzanian Blackburn Estate, which tasted, well, somewhat brighter than it might have otherwise.  The Clover was on one end of the bar.   At the other end was the usual cluster of plastic wrapped foods.    Lots of busy signage.   The two ends of the bar seemed to have no relation to one another.  Is Starbucks the purveyor of fast food or the purveyor of high end specialty coffee lovingly brewed one cup at a time?  The architecture and lay out of the store raise that question and offer no answer.

I have never met David Schomer, but I did worship at the altar of his perfect espresso yesterday.  My nephew John  and his girlfriend Ellen  drove up from Portland to hang out with me in Seattle.  The three of us stopped into the new Espresso Vivace on Broadway in the mid-afternoon.  We drank cappuccinos  and I am here to report that the Godshot is not dead.  The syrupy sweetness of the coffee, the cashmere quality of the milk foam makes me think of luxurious  hotel linens, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.  We liked the capps, I mean we really liked them, although they did seem to pack an intense caffeine wallop.  I am not sure if the caffeine hit was related to our overstimulated neurological states or to the nature and density of the coffee.  Former Vida coffee buyer Andrew Daday of Claudio Corallo Chocolates suggested to me that the syrupy texture of the espresso shot may be related to Schomer’s using  Robusta in his espresso blend, as the Italians do.  In which case, I finally get it about the Italians and Robusta.  Because in terms of texture, density and sweetness, this was a memorable shot.  And the milk!

….At 6pm, we went to the Stumptown Roastery over on 12th and Madison, where owner Duane Sorenson, operation’s chief Matt Lounsbury and buyer Aleco Chigounis hosted an event introducing two of their Guatemalan producers to customers and members of the local coffee community. As at all Stumptown events there was yummy food and delicious coffee.  The Cup of Excellence winner from Finca El Injerto — “like sweet buttery French Toast”, Aleco said.– was a particular standout.  It had a surprising African style acidity  along with the sweetness.

  Luis Pedro of Finca Santa Cruz in Antiqua and Arturo Aguirre Jr. of Finca El Injerto in Huehuetenango met, mingled, spoke, showed pictures of their operations and took questions. It struck me that Luis Pedro might have felt a little bit like Cinderella when Aleco talked about Finca El Injerto as Stumptown’s most important supplier.  But as a middle sister, maybe I am overly sensitive to this sort of thing, and I think the relationship between Luis Pedro and Stumptown is an emerging one.   I had met Arturo Aguire a year and a half ago in Portland after the SCAA conference, and he had told me then that Stumptown was more than a buyer to him–that Duane and Company had become his mentors and teachers, opening up his understanding of the coffee market and helping him  imagine new ways of operating his business and selling coffee, including roasting his own for the domestic market.  His broader understanding of the environmental issues, for example, has led to Finca El Injerto using the farm’s impressively clean water supply to raise and sell trout, a product line that Arturo noted wryly is easier to grow than coffee.

The most telling comment, though, came from Luis Pedro, who reported that because of rapidly rising energy, labor and production costs, the current $1.10 a pound commodity price for coffee is leaving farmers worse off than they were ten years ago when C grade coffee was selling for 50 cents a pound!

After Stumptown, I let my overwrought brain chill out in a cocktail glass.  My nephew and his girlfriend, Traca Savadogo, Andrew Daday and I, later joined by “Oyster Bill” Whitbeck of geoduck fame, that’s the world’s largest digging clam and it is pronounced gooeyduck, went over to Union …where chef Ethan Stowell prepared a feast of small plates that left us blissed out and floating…

After one day in Seattle, I am a little bit of an overstimulated coffee writer nutcase.  Short on sleep, full of impressions, blown away by the city, its public art, natural setting,  coffee culture, culinary consciousness, western friendliness and lack of pretense.

 Local foodie maven Traca Savadogo took me under her wing, drove me around, introduced me to everyone who is everyone in foodie Seattle.  Traca is one of those natural born connectors with a genius for knowing the most interesting people and a hunger to introduce them  to each other.  (You can imagine her in Paris in the 1920s, hanging out with Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Anais Nin, Hemingway.) How lucky for me to have become one of her projects.  Traca, with the help of my friend, Michael Weisberg, the Wiley publicist planned an amazing day for me yesterday–and the fun continues for two more days.

 I took a million pictures, but forgot –I am so hopelessly 20the century–to bring the download cable.  I will add more photos when I get back to the East Coast, but in the meantime, Traca emailed me a couple of pictures that hit some of the highlights of our Sunday in Seattle:

Here I am at Stickman Coffee in the uber cool Fremont neighborhood, where the public art includes a huge statue of Lenin imported from the former Soviet Union.  The statue is a cause for conversation in Seattle, not an inducement for violent revolution.  Anyway, former US latte art champion and all round coffee guy Dismas Smith owns Stickman.  Dismas and events impressario Kim Ricketts who organizes, among other thing, Michael Hebb’s one pot dinners are drinking coffee at the cafe.

Here I am eating smoked salmon at the Ballard Market–note the Seattle-centric sign: Friends don’t let friends eat farmed Salmon.  Words, my darlings to live by:

 …At the end of the day I joined nine Seattle food bloggers at another cool cafe, Muse Coffee Company on Tenth Avenue,  owned by Brent Martin, located in the Queen Anne neighborhood.  Blogger Keren Brown (www.franticfoodie.blogspot.com) organized the event that intimidated me a little–nine bloggers and me.  A coffee gang bang with me as the, well, star or the victim, depending on your point of view.   But it turned out to be a great conversation and a great time.  Keren is the pregnant one!

On Tuesday evening, October 21  in Seattle I am joining Michael Hebb to talk about coffee at one of his famed one pot dinners.  If you’re in Seattle, I hope you will join us.

Here’s some of the information from Michael Hebb’s website:

  one pot + god in a cup + caffe vita = oct. 21

…michaele weissman’s critically acclaimed new book “god in a cup” hit bookshelves this summer – an elegant and carefully researched ode to the new frontier of coffee – she headed off to farms in east africa and
central america with the folks from intelligentsia and counter culture,
.. lost much sleep decoding the
mystery behind the panamanian coffee that cost about as much as diamonds.

michaele and i have much to discuss – since my travels with caffe vita
have been equally far flung. expect a casual evening of deep pots of
food, conversation, and coffee – the talented scott emerick of cremant
fame is going to be joining me in the kitchen to cook a couple dishes i
prepared with guatemalan coffee farmers on a recent vita/one pot
excursion – and vita will be serving forth farm direct coffee from the
very same guatemalan farm.

yet again we have the talented kim ricketts to thank for making this
evening possible.

october 21st. caffe vita’s private capitol hill loft. 6pm. $40/person.
byow.

email: hebberoy@gmail.com to reserve your seat.

I am traveling to Seattle on Saturday for five days—it will be my first visit ever to that coffee-centric city, and I am excited to be going.

I will be staying in what I think of as the coffee district, the Capitol Hill neighborhood where Vita, Stumptown,Victrola ,Vivace are located and I will be taking part in a Michael Hebb dinner on Tuesday.

The Wiley publicist Michael Weisberg (no relation, but lots of amusing confusion) and Seattle foodie Traca Savadogo have arranged an amazing itinerary for me on Sunday, that includes drinking coffee at Stickman, touring Theos Chocolate Factory, visiting the famed Ballard Farmer’s Market, stopping by Claudio Corallo’s shop to meet Andrew Daday, former buyer for Cafe Vita and Lighthouse Roasters, drinking Cuban coffee at  El Diablo, touring the Pike Place Market, visiting the first Starbucks store, and meeting with a group of local food bloggers.

And that’s just on Sunday!  My reporting style is more go-slow-and- soak-up-the-details than wham-bam-thankyoumam.  So I tend to think Monday and Tuesday will be  spent doubling back to visit the places I missed on Sunday.  I am also hoping to sample the $8 small plates at Ethan Stowell’s Union–visiting reporters pay their own way, and bar food fits more comfortably in the budget.

 More about my trip later in the week.  I will be blogging from Seattle.