Black Apron Exclusive: Colombia Nariño El Tambo
January 16, 2008
I recently swung by my local Starbucks and picked up this Black Apron Exclusive because we plan to start regularly reviewing the best they have to offer. I have to preface my thoughts with the fact that I am not a huge fan of South American coffees. They are good, but in my opinion, mostly forgettable. The most noteworthy aspect of Starbucks’ Columbia Nariño El Tambo, is that it is not charred to a crisp like most of their daily fare. This holds true for most Black Apron Exclusives. However, after reading the description from Starbucks’ website,
Colombia Nariño El Tambo is juicy, with intriguing floral notes and a citrus complexity. It also has a remarkable chocolaty sweetness rarely found in Nariño region coffees, which are typically known for their signature nutty flavor.
I believe they roasted the delicate floral notes out of the lots they sold to the public. There is a delicate citrus note in the aroma and the flavor as it hits your tongue, but the sweetness is more aptly describes as a molasses, or light brown sugar sweetness. Overall, very smooth with a dense mouthfeel and a subtle sweet finish. It is not that unlike my latest favorite from Sweet Maria’s, the India Mallali Estate “Tree-Dried Natural.”
The Colombia Nariño El Tambo is a decent offering and a nice change of pace from what Starbucks typically has to offer. However, for only a few dollars more than the price of the 8oz. Black Apron Exclusive you could pick up a pound of green India Mallali Estate “Tree-Dried Natural” and a popcorn popper and have a better cup of coffee.
California Cops Giving Out Coffee Instead of Tickets
December 18, 2007
Traffic cops in Rancho Cordova, CA are pulling over motorists with a holiday surprise. Instead of a tickets, the cops are giving good drivers gift cards from the Coffee-Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Local businesses donated money to fund the holiday treat that the police hope will promote goodwill between traffic cops and drivers. Personally, my stomach does a back flip then falls through the floor every time I see the flashing lights in my rear view mirror, so how could the relief of a false-alarm coupled with free coffee not produce good cheer?
Stale coffee is serious business!
November 28, 2007
Check out this Chase & Sanborn ad from 1952.
Roasting Coffee in A Bread Machine
November 19, 2007
Continuing our foray into roasting, we now explore roasting coffee in a bread machine using a heat gun as our heating element. We already posted about roasting in a popcorn popper, which will yield good coffee and is a cheap way to get into roasting your own coffee. But in the popcorn popper you lack the ability to control the temperature so you cannot vary your roasting profile to tweak the flavors of all your different coffees. You are also limited to 6-8oz. of coffee per roast in the popcorn popper. Roasting in a bread machine is a little more expensive but gives you much greater control over your roast and allows you to roast significantly larger amounts of coffee. Read more
The New, Improved Perk-O-Late!
October 18, 2007
As you can see, Perk-O-Late has undergone a bit of a face lift. We are growing quickly and have a variety of things we plan on incorporating, including videos and product reviews. This new site design should accommodate those additions nicely.Here’s a quick run-down of how the new Perk-O-Late is organized: the latest and featured posts will always appear in the main section on the left, and our sections on Brewing, Roasting and Reviews will always be available in the center column. As you can see, the featured video will be viewable in the upper right of the page.
We have been experimenting with a variety of roasting techniques that we are excited to share, and we’re getting some amazing results! We plan to post videos of our roasting experiments in the coming days and weeks.
As always, thanks for reading (if you’re reading via our feed, come check out the new site!). We welcome your comments and questions, don’t hesitate to drop us a line!
Café-based Learning From Thai Coffee Chain
October 5, 2007
True Coffee, one of Thailand’s most successful internet coffee shops, is partnering with Assumption University of Thailand to create a one of a kind cafe-based learning center. The “Learning House” offers lessons in “Quick Chinese”, “World Class English”, and provides access to an extensive digital library. Kamol Kitsawad, Registrar at Assumption University, spoke about the university’s motivation for pursuing the project,
“It’s a university’s mission to disseminate knowledge to the public, not just students. Also it’s a good chance to mix academic knowledge with cyber technology. I believe it also creates a different learning atmosphere…”
The language courses are about three months in length and cost about 4,800 THB, or $152. The digital library has an annual fee of 2,000THB, or about sixty-three US Dollars. All of the Learning House programs are only accessible from True Coffee and are available to the public, not just university students.
Check out the full story at The Nation and if your in Thailand or plan on visiting, please drop us a line about your experience in True Coffee, we are interested in learning more about it.
Coffee Prices Soar Due to Shortage
September 27, 2007
Auction prices on the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) rose, on average, $9/50kg as buyers rallied on quality lots after a glut of sub-par coffee resulting from cold spells and isolated bouts of Coffee Berry Disease (CBD). Prices peaked at $136.91/50kg on Tuesday. Overall, crop estimates are down from 58,658 tons to 53,693. The 10% decrease in crop yields coupled with growing global demand is expected to maintain the higher prices in the near to mid-term. According to Daniel Mbithi, an official on hand at the auction on Tuesday:
“The markets are intertwined and the latest developments on both sides are quite impressive. The overriding factor is demand and we expect this to stay on a little,”
So with increasing global demand out pacing production the shortage in Kenya this year only exacerbates the bigger issue.
Read the full article at All Africa Here.
Pan Roasting Coffee - Part 2
September 27, 2007
Our first try at pan roasting was a complete bust, but we had a few tweaks in mind that we thought would be crucial to improving the quality of our pan roasted coffee. Read more
Pan Roasting Coffee - Part 1
September 20, 2007
There are certainly many sophisticated methods to roast coffee. Yet, you really only need coffee beans, a heat source and something to contain it.
Stuff you need to get started:
- Cast iron skillet
- Grill
- Cooling tray or wire screen and a hair dryer with a “cool” setting
Continue reading and see more pictures after the break. Be sure to check out all the pictures at full size by clicking. Read more
Africa: Kenya and Ethiopia Making Major Strides
September 13, 2007
Kenya — The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the branch of the World Bank responsible for private lending, is investing a little over $210,000 in educational programs to increase the knowledge base of local coffee farmers and roasters. The 5 day training seminar will teach the basics of cupping and quality control. The goal is to bolster local coffee producers’ understanding about the quality of their product as well as provide the tools they need in order to demand higher prices on the open market. As Dr Peter K Michori, chairman Coffee Board of Kenya, puts it:
“When Kenya coffee is subjected to specialty grade assessment methods and certified, it will fetch better prices in the international market …”
Ethiopia — Dozens of European and American roasting and distribution companies have finally agreed to use Ethiopia’s specialty coffee trademark. Chief among US companies was The Coffee Co. that shall not be named, which had earlier filed suit to prevent the country from protecting its own property rights. Now the struggling African country will bear a greater responsibility for the logistics of its primary export. However, with a renewed sense of pride and ownership the coffee can only get better.
