What's the Single Best Way to Make Coffee?

BY OLIVER STRAND
Published: October 2, 2011
The New York Times

Grinding beans with a burr grinder just before you prepare your coffee is the single most important step to making a better cup. Because coffee degrades rapidly when exposed to oxygen, mediocre beans just out of the grinder have much more flavor than even fantastic beans that were ground up yesterday. (As for the beans you ground last week, it's time to add them to the compost heap.) A decent burr grinder doesn't come cheap, though. The entry point is about $100, and if you want a better engine or more settings, you can easily spend $300. But like investing in a chef 's knife, it's a one-time expense you won't regret. Its beauty is that it crushes the beans into particles of a consistent size, unlike a blade grinder, which whirs some of the coffee into powder and some into chunks. And consistency is incredibly important to coffee's taste: a blade grinder is very likely to produce grinds that lead to uneven extraction, which results in bitter flavors.The beans you grind are also important, of course. You should be drinking the ones that are in season and therefore the freshest -- right now, that means the beans from South America. It's important to remember that shopping for coffee beans is like buying fish: ask for what has just come in. It makes a big difference.

Coffee May Help Women Lower Depression Risk

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
Wall Street Journal
September 26, 2011

In what might be good news for coffee drinkers, a new study found that women who regularly consume the caffeinated beverage are less likely to suffer depression.

Four or more cups a day lowers depression risk even further, by 20%.
Women who had two to three cups of coffee a day had about a 15% lower risk of developing depression during a 10-year period than women who had only one cup of coffee or less per week. Consuming four or more cups a day reduced the risk of depression even more, by 20%.

The study, by Harvard University researchers, analyzed health data of more than 50,000 women who were part of the Nurses' Health Study, a federally funded effort that has followed thousands of registered nurses for decades to assess risk factors for cancer and other diseases.

The Harvard research, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is believed to be the first study specifically looking at depression and caffeine consumption in women. The study was primarily funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers said the study doesn't prove that caffeine or caffeinated coffee reduces the risk of depression, but it suggests caffeine has a "protective effect." Alberto Ascherio, one of the study's authors and a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, said researchers decided to look at depression after smaller studies suggested a decreased risk of suicide among women who were regular coffee drinkers.

Depression is a chronic health problem that affects twice as many women as men. At least 20% of women develop depression at some point in their lives, the researchers said. Caffeine, most often in the form of coffee, is considered the world's most consumed central nervous system stimulant that temporarily boosts alertness and often improves people's moods.

Numerous studies previously have looked at the health effects of coffee. Scientists generally have concluded that for most adults moderate doses of caffeine, or the equivalent of about two to four cups of coffee a day, aren't considered harmful. But too much caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness, stomach upset and a rapid heartbeat.
In the latest study, researchers in 1996 identified 50,739 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study who were free of depression. The average age was 63 at the study's onset. Over a 10-year period, 2,607 of the women developed depression.
Researchers measured caffeine consumption by analyzing a series of questionnaires the women completed between May 1980 and April 2004. The surveys asked about the types of coffee, tea, soda and other liquids that were consumed over the preceding 12 months. Women were also asked about their consumption of chocolate, which also contains caffeine.

Dr. Ascherio said most of the caffeine the women consumed came from regular coffee. He said researchers also looked at total caffeine consumption, including from other sources, and found results similar to those for coffee consumption. No association was found between intake of decaffeinated coffee and depression risk, he said.

Ristretto | On the Rocks

by Oliver Strand
New York Times Blog
June 10, 2011, 4:15 pm



I became hooked on cold-brew coffee after working a construction job in New Orleans more than 10 years ago. It was strictly a regional thing then, everywhere in the Big Easy and nearly impossible to find elsewhere — you could find cold-brew concentrate in the supermarket, but most of the people I knew were given mayo jars full of the dark, dense liquid by an aunt or a grandmother. In the following years, I became a proselytizer for cold-brew coffee, gaining converts for a steep-and-strain method that seemed counterintuitive until you tried it.

The coffee started to catch on in New York in 2007; by last summer, it had become regular fare at almost all of the coffee shops I frequent — it seemed everybody had fallen for the clean, clear flavors of iced coffee that wasn’t traumatized by hot water. But in coffee circles, no conversation is closed. When I mentioned cold brew to Counter Culture Coffee’s Peter Giuliano, he told me that he only used the “Japanese iced method,” in which you brew hot coffee directly onto ice. With characteristic diplomacy, Giuliano told me I had it all wrong.

George Howell, of George Howell Coffee, was more direct. Brewing onto ice is “the only way to do it,” he said. “It’s fresh! There’s none of that oxidized flavor [of cold brew]. You want to know what [cold brew] is like? Open up a bottle and pour a glass of wine and let it sit around.” Cold brew is for “simplified Merlot drinkers,” Howell said. “But the Japanese iced expresses terroir beautifully.”
Got it.

The iced method isn’t complicated. Basically, you prepare brewed coffee as you normally would, only you use half hot water, half ice you put in the bottom of the vessel. The hot, fresh coffee drips directly onto ice so that it’s cool and ready to drink right away.

My simplified instructions are below. (Coffee fanatics measure liquids by weight — these days, a digital scale is standard gear — but while most use grams, I prefer ounces because the low-scoring numbers are easier to track.) If you want to go deeper, Counter Culture’s recipe is here, George Howell’s is here, and Square Mile’s James Hoffman’s thoughtful and complicated take on it is here. Everybody’s is different, and everybody’s is right. Chances are you can make it with the coffee gear you already own, or you could get a Hario kit here.

Is it vastly superior? I’m not convinced. And I’m not giving up cold-brew coffee — opening the fridge to find a jar of concentrate is as much a part of summer as a nectarine or a Carvelanche. But I appreciate that the iced method is simple and quick, tasty, easy to master. It’s another addition to the repertory.

Iced Method Coffee
1 ounce fresh-ground coffee
7 ounces ice
8 ounces water heated to 200 degrees, plus extra for rinsing filter.

Place a filter in a Chemex (or any filter brew system) and rinse filter with at least four ounces hot water. Remove filter, discard water, place Chemex on a kitchen scale and add 7 ounces of ice.
Replace filter, add coffee and slowly add 1 ounce of water heated to 200 degrees, until the grounds are saturated. Let the grounds “bloom” then deflate, which might take up to 1 minute.
Reset scale to zero and add remaining 7 ounces of water heated to 200 degrees, in a slow, steady stream. Drink immediately.

(image taken by Oliver Strand)

Stumptown Expands With the Help of a Powerful Investor

Matthew Peyton for The New York TimesStylish baristas at the Stumptown Coffee Roasters cafe at the Ace Hotel.

By OLIVER STRAND
Originally published in NYTimes' blog, June 2, 2011, 2:22 pm

It looks like a big year for Stumptown Coffee Roasters. The Portland, Ore., company, known for getting some of the finest coffee in the world and serving it with rock ‘n’ roll flair, plans to open two coffee bars in Brooklyn, add a bottling facility to its roaster in Red Hook for its cold-brewed coffee and, Duane Sorenson, Stumptown’s founder, says the company will try to open roasters in Chicago and San Francisco.

All of this is possible because of an investment from TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm that has invested in several successful brands, selling its stake in Vitaminwater for $677 million in 2006.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters is one of a small number of independent companies that set the standard for coffee roasting over the past decade. Its connection to TSG was first made public on Tuesday by Todd Carmichael in a posting on Esquire.com’s “Eat Like a Man” blog. In a piece titled “The End of Stumptown, America’s Hippest Coffee Brand,” Mr. Carmichael wrote: “Duane Sorenson, the founder of Stumptown, the Che Guevara of the rock-star barista movement, sold his life’s work to the highest bidder.” Mr. Carmichael is the founder of the coffee company La Colombe Torrefaction.

The post didn’t name TSG, but the next day, Ben Waterhouse of Willamette Week in Portland reported that Stumptown Coffee Corp., a new company that registered with the State of Oregon on April 28, listed Alexander S. Panos as president and secretary. Mr. Panos is TSG’s managing director.

Both Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Panos said the coffee roaster was not sold.

“I still own Stumptown,” Mr. Sorenson said in a telephone interview. “I’m still in control of Stumptown, the only thing that’s changed is that I brought in an investor, a buddy of mine, who brought in some money so that I can do the things I want to do.”

The two cafes in Brooklyn, which are expected to open this fall; the bottling facility, the company’s first outside Portland; and the two roasters would require a considerable investment.

Mr. Panos said he shared Mr. Sorenson’s vision. “If you’re Duane and you want to bring great coffee to San Francisco, how’s he going to do it?” he said. “Most of these companies don’t get past their home market. The fact that Duane came to New York is miraculous. He did it by his boot straps.”

Still, bloggers, coffee writers and denizens of social media expressed dismay that Stumptown, which has a devout following, would take on an investment partner known for scaling up – and selling – successful companies. The assurances the Mr. Sorenson was still in charge seemed to have cooled some tempers.

Mr. Panos said in a telephone interview that he was not, in fact, an officer of Stumptown Coffee Roasters and was listed as such only for filing purposes.

“Duane runs the show, no ifs, ands, or buts,” he said. “He controls the company. I’m just an investor.”

In filings in Oregon, he is named the president and secretary of Stumptown Coffee Corp., and as the authorized representative of its two subsidiaries, Stumptown Coffee and Stumptown Coffee Roasters Inc. Mr. Panos also said that he had no involvement with an entity registered in Delaware as Stumptown Coffee Corp. on April 11, even though it was originally listed under the name TSG Coffee Corp.

“We can’t disclose the structure of the investment,” Mr. Panos said. “What I can say is that Duane controls the company.”

What’s certain is that there will be more Stumptowns, and soon.

“Getting some money to grow your business is not evil,” Mr. Panos said.

Ristretto - Brains and Baristas

By OLIVER STRAND
The New York Times

March 3, 2011

Brian W. Jones Michael Phillips, the 2010 World Barista Champion (Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, Chicago) and Oda Misje Haug (Kaffemisjonen, Norway.)

The TED conferences taking place this week in California are famous for their brainy presentations (held by futurists, technologists, the odd “paper-cutter artist”) and a rapt audience (a Comic-Con of early adopters and outliers), where a biomedical engineer might cede the stage to an artist who “reshapes urban airspace” while Bill Gates takes notes. Soon, TED could be known for its coffee, too.

This year the TED conferences are outfitted with seven coffee bars staffed by a roster of international all-star baristas, more than 40 in all, that include World Barista Champions and baristas with cult followings in their hometowns of Oslo and Sydney, Guatemala City and Montreal. They should be professional rivals – the baristas work for different coffee shops and roasters – but they’re at TED under the auspices of Coffee Common, a newly-minted organization with the unapologetically idealistic purpose to create “a community with shared values.” Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, and Stumptown Coffee Roasters might duke it out for wholesale accounts in New York City, but at TED they’re all on the same side.

So you have Counter Culture’s Peter Giulliano praising MadCap Coffee Company, an upstart roaster from Grand Rapids, Mich., that was founded in 2008. (He writes in a Tumblr post that MadCap is “young and fearless.”) Or Stephen Morrissey of Intelligentsia, a former World Barista Champion, preparing Terroir Select Coffee’s Mamuto (from Kenya) in the morning and Ritual Coffee Roaster’s La Orquidea (from Colombia) in the afternoon.

Coffee Common is associated with Alex Bogusky’s Common (motto: “Collaboration is the new competition”), a community that sees fast prototyping, social ventures and better branding as a path to an improved, more entrepreneurial future. Big ideas. Maybe the appeal of Coffee Common at TED is more basic. As Laurel Touby, the founder of Media Bistro, tweeted: “Long Beach, where #TED2011 is happening, is not known for the coffee. Thankfully, there’s a thing called @coffeecommon here to save us.”

originally published on March 3, 2011 in the New York Times

First-Class Reading on American Airlines

http://tinyurl.com/26l2thy

Coffee Talk

Hacienda La Esmeralda

By OLIVER STRAND

In Ristretto, Oliver Strand, the curator of the Times Topics coffee page, explores the world of coffee gadgets, coffee beans and why it’s never been easier to get a perfect shot of espresso.

Last week’s online auction of the 2010 crop from Hacienda la Esmeralda was an exercise in tedium, eight hours of proxy bidding that kept coffee buyers in Oslo and Tokyo glued to their iPhones well past their bedtimes. (As one successful bidder noted, it takes less time to buy a Picasso.)

It seems you’ll spend the day staring at a page that bears a separated-at-birth resemblance to New York’s alternate-side parking calendar when you’re in the running for a lot of the Geisha cultivated by Hacienda la Esmeralda. Simply put, it’s the best coffee in the world.

As opinions go, it’s as close to a consensus as you’ll find in coffee. The Geisha plants produce coffee so delicate, layered and lively it brings to mind honeysuckle, sugary citrus peels and white peach. Duane Sorensen of Stumptown Coffee Roasters said in an e-mail message that it reminded him of “fresh-squeezed orange juice, bergamot, nutmeg and Champagne.” Today it bewitches and bewilders buyers much as it did in 2004, when it appeared seemingly out of nowhere to take top honors at the Best of Panama auction.

That year, the coffee went for $21 per pound when other premium beans sold for $1.25 to $2.50 per pound. In 2007, the coffee went for $130 per pound. On May 25, that record was shattered when a 400-pound lot went for $170 per pound. Irrational exuberance? Perhaps. Though Geisha isn’t a novelty: unlike civet coffee, it commands its price because of how it tastes, not because it came out of a cat’s digestive tract.
The results of last week’s auction weren’t as dramatic, but in many ways they were more interesting. The bidding topped out at $36.50 per pound, and the overall results were the strongest since 2008, when Hacienda la Esmeralda held its first solitary auction and started designating coffees, especially the so-called Mario lots, according to a system that brings to mind Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Both Hacienda la Esmeralda and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (usually shortened to DRC) are small and serious family businesses with limited productions and cult followings. They also share a certain aloofness, though it’s hard to match the Skull-and-Bones-like method DRC uses for allocating wine, which can cost as much as $3,000 per bottle: They choose you, and if your numbered bottles show up at auction, you won’t hear from them again.

Usually, a vineyard will put its best wine under one name and the rest under a second label. Yet despite its tiny size, DRC produces six pinot noirs (plus one chardonnay). A bottle of Romanée-Conti, the most important label, might be one of the most desired objects in the world, the remaining five pinot noirs are nearly as prized. The message is simple: Every DRC wine has a distinct character, and every one is exceptional.
This year, Hacienda la Esmeralda offered 78 lots divided into seven designations: Mario Carnaval, Mario San José, Mario Enero, Barú, Caballeriza, Naranjo and Colgá. The most prestigious are the Mario designations, which are all from the same part of the finca but harvested at different times: Mario Carnaval in February, Mario San José in March and Mario Enero in January.

Mario Carnaval commanded the highest prices, followed by Mario Enero. But the four lots of Caballeriza were close behind, followed by Mario San José. Even Colgá, the least-expensive designation, went for $20 per pound and up. Every Geisha is distinct and exceptional.

And most of it is heading to Asia. It’s coffee’s eastward march, with Japan, Korea and Taiwan accounting for 42 of the 78 lots, or 54 percent of the total. Japanese bidders snatched up 32 lots, the most of any nation. Needless to say, the record-breaking lot of $170.20-per-pound Geisha is also going to Japan. The United States followed with 18. Norway, the Netherlands and Britain seem to have a taste for Geisha, as do Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Canada. Italy and France? Nope.
The coffee is in transit now, and it should arrive in the United States by late June.

Expect to see it offered shortly after. Some of the roasters with winning bids include George Howell Coffee Company, Klatch Roasting, PT’s Coffee Roasting Company and Stumptown Coffee Roasters. If you D.I.Y., Sweet Maria’s, which sells green beans to home roasters, was in on two lots of Mario Carnaval and one lot of Mario Enero.
Counter Culture Coffee won a lot of Mario San José and will start roasting the week of its arrival. It will cost about $35 for an 8-ounce tin. Most likely, the supply will be exhausted by the end of July, a reminder that coffee is a seasonal product.
“Every so often we think to ourselves, ‘Are we rewarding this coffee because it’s excellent, or are we rewarding it because it’s weird?’ ” Peter Giuliano, the coffee buyer for Counter Culture Coffee and one of its co-owners, told me by phone, explaining that the “hyper-floral” Geisha is basically a Panamanian coffee that tastes like it’s from Ethiopia. “Then we put it up against the best coffees, and we think that it’s justly celebrated.”

Counter Culture Coffee wants everybody to celebrate. The company will include the Mario San José in its Friday noontime cuppings, which are free and open to the public (the New York training center is located in Chelsea, at 37 West 26th Street).

“If you taste coffee consciously, you can get what’s special about this coffee,” Giuliano said. “This is for people who learned enough about coffee to know what their preferences are, and who can identify flavors like fruit or chocolate. But you don’t need to know a lot about coffee to get it. All the flavors are there, and you can really taste it. The cool thing about this coffee is it delivers.”

This post originally appeared in Ristretto May 26, 2010, a regular New York Times T Magazine feature written by Oliver Strand.

Cafe Grumpy Serves $12 Cup Of Coffee

First Posted: 05- 3-10 10:23 AM, Updated: 05- 3-10 10:41 AM, Huffpost
Jeffrey Davidow, New York News

With a $12 cup of coffee, Cafe Grumpy may make its customers, well, grumpy.

But for those caffeine connoisseurs, the Greenpoint coffee joint has just what you're looking for.

Made from handpicked Ethiopian beans, the coffee costs so much due to the long development and processing time.

"There are flavors you would expect in a really nice glass of wine -- it's a cacophony of nuances," Steve Holt, vice president of Ninety Plus Coffee, the company distributing the beans, told the New York Post. "You detect flavors of apricot, pineapple, bergamot, kiwi and lime. The deeper tones are levels of chocolate, and the finish is super clean."


- Cafe Grumpy, recently purchased by Intelligentsia started by serving freshly roasted coffees from all over the country. Their select list were the same "third wave" roasters found in gift subscriptions like Citizen Bean.- cb

Tips from Verve on Espesso Drinking

The Most Important Drink of Your Day

excerpt from Oliver Strand's top ten espresso places
published by GQ.





You like coffee. It makes you feel happy in the morning; it isn't illegal. And your relationship with it has evolved since the days when burnt library drip got you through finals. You're a macchiato man now. A devotee of the 4 p.m. barista-made espresso. You're practically Italian in your coffee-drinking habits. So why, every morning, do you pay $4.79 for a watery latte that was lovelessly made on a push-button machine that could be safely operated by a 4-year-old? One probably brewed with beans that were put through a grinder weeks ago? In case you haven't heard, we're living in a Golden Age of Coffee. (Note: Please don't actually go around calling it that.) Thanks to a new generation of purveyors bent on returning craft and artistry to the beverage—like Ninth Street Espresso in New York (the espresso comes only in triple-shot form) and Stumptown in Portland, Oregon (thirty-five different brews; Prouvé chairs in which to enjoy it)—there's now a wealth of coffee in America so rich and flavorful it'll remind you why you originally fell in love with the stuff. Here are the ten best places to get your daily fix.

Oliver Strand explores his choice of the ten best places for espresso in this great article originally published by GQ on October 19, 2009. Citizen Bean subscribers will recognize most of these great roasters.

For the entire article on GQ we encourage you to visit http://tinyurl.com/yaanwcs

Not the coffee?

An internal memo from Starbucks about another new unbranded ("stealth" location) surfaced on the internet last night. It is very sad and quite revealing. Their assessment of themselves - a bit weak. We give them a lot of credit for elevating the awareness of specialty coffee. It is a shame they don't see the forest through the trees.


Rubinfeld’s memo follows (in its entirety):
To: All Starbucks Partners
Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Re: Message from Arthur Rubinfeld - Global Store Design Update
Dear Partners,

With the recent announcement of our new global design strategy and the unveiling of our innovative concepts in Seattle and Paris, we’re off to a strong start in transforming the Starbucks store experience. We’re looking forward to building and renovating stores around the world with an amplified focus on coffee heritage, local relevance and sustainability.

In the process, we’re looking to sharpen our focus, challenge our own assumptions and stimulate new ideas — while staying true to Starbucks mission and core values.

The level of energy generated by our 1st Avenue & Pike Street, University Village (both in Seattle) and Paris Disney Village stores has been tremendously exciting. And the global attention and buzz surrounding the opening of 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea in Seattle is truly a reflection of Starbucks iconic cultural significance. It’s also a reminder that we need to be very clear with our intentions.

As part of our plan to further expand upon these new design concepts, we are pleased to announce our next location in Seattle. A new coffeehouse, in the mercantile style of 15th Avenue, will open this fall at 700 Broadway East (in the Capitol Hill neighborhood) and be called “Roy Street Coffee & Tea.”

As you can tell, the naming of these mercantile coffeehouses is based on their respective street or neighborhood name. We openly place a byline — “Inspired by Starbucks” — on the front door and in various interior locations to honor our rich heritage.

By introducing fresh design ideas that celebrate local materials and incorporate reused and recycled elements, we’re bringing a new layer of creativity and design innovation to our business. As customers visit our stores, we hope they’ll feel a deeper connection to coffee, an enhanced sense of community and a greater level of commitment to environmental consciousness. In short, we hope they’ll be inspired.

I’d like to share a video posted on starbucks.com that highlights the collaboration between our design team and local artists and craftsmen. Please check it out and pass it along.

More information on our global design strategy can be found via the links below:

June 25 announcement

Fact sheets and photos for 1st Avenue & Pike Street, University Village and Paris Disney Village

Fact sheet for 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea

Website for 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea

Please take some time to preview our new store designs in person — or virtually — if you haven’t already. Thank you for your support.

Best,

Arthur Rubinfeld
president, Global Development

Originally posted by Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)Starbucks to open second ‘stealth’ coffee shop - by Greg Lamm http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/08/24/daily39.html

7 Good Reasons To Drink Coffee

Do you have a caffeine-hater in your life? You know the type – they’re always telling you what’s bad for your health. Here’s a list of some good reasons to drink coffee. Memorize this list – so the next time you encounter your favorite coffee-hater you can pull out one of these babies. While you’re at it you can add the words “from a peer-reviewed scientific journal” — that’ll really get your pet coffee-hater frothing at the mouth.

1. Cut the Pain
Two cups of coffee can cut post-workout muscle pain by up to 48%. From the Journal of Pain, March 2007 .

2. Increase your fiber intake
A cup of brewed coffee represents a contribution of up to 1.8 grams of fiber of the recommended intake of 20-38 grams. From the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry .

3. Protection against cirrhosis of the liver
Of course you could just cut down on the alcohol intake. From the Archives of Internal Medicine.

4. Lowered risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Those who consumed 6 or more cups per day had a 22% lower risk of diabetes. From the Archives of Internal Medicine .

5. Lowered risk of Alzheimer’s disease
There is considerable evidence that caffeine may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. From the European Journal of Neurology.

6. Reduces suicide risk
10 year study of 86,000 female nurses show a reduced risk of suicide in the coffee drinkers. From the Archives of Internal Medicine.

7. Protection against Parkinson’s
People with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to be smokers and coffee drinkers than their healthy siblings. Just make sure you don’t get lung cancer on the way. From the Archives of Neurology.

Recent research has also shown that coffee may boost a woman’s sex drive. The fact that it’s only been tested on rats somehow takes the shine off. UPDATE: Yet another reason: Risk for developing gout (in men) decreases with increasing coffee consumption. This is a large study of over 50,000 men (link). UPDATE: Coffee protects against eyelid spasm (can lead to blindness).

Special thanks to Energy Fiend for this post on April 30, 2007

Power To The People

By Sharon Festinger

COFFEE CLUB CITIZEN BEAN FOCUSES ON BEAN VARIETIES, TERRIOR.

Bringing high quality selections to the general public at reasonable prices was one of the wine industry’s biggest achievements in the 20th century.

Now, coffee lovers can get in on the action too with Citizen Bean, a $20 a month artisanal coffee club based in San Francisco that offers quality brew with character…and conscience. Club members receive a monthly pound of sustainable, artisan-roasted U.S. coffee that’s fair trade, shade grown or organic, if not all three. The socially responsible little bundle is also accompanied by hand-wrapped goodies and unique finds, like complementary food samples to pair with the Joe or coffee accessories to help make it (think organic chocolate or French sugar, brew timers or coffee spoons).

But blasé beanophiles need not apply: the company takes the product seriously, educating members on a different bean varieties and their unique nuances and complexities, and working with small-batch roasters whose priorities are quality and freshness without sacrificing the environment. CB’s roasters go beyond the minimum certification requirement so the growers get at least their due. (you might call this fairer trade.) To add to this mix, beans are shipped within two days of roasting, which means they haven’t been going stale while waiting their fate in the grinder. For information, go to www.citizenbean.com

- Sharon Festinger

(Originally published March 2008)

doma doing it!

the art of roasting as seen through the eyes of doma roasting co.




A great new website of theirs just launched at http://domacoffee.com