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In order to make every drink we serve as good as it can possibly be we have changed the way we pull shots for milk drinks and Americanos at Phil & Sebastian. We now pull smaller and shorter espresso shots for all of our milk based drinks and Americanos. Our new target parameter for these shots is a 25g output +/‐3g.
Over the past few years, you may have noticed a Costa Rican coffee called “Manuel Arce” on our menu. We have been working with Manuel “Macho” Arce for the past three harvests. Macho is a committed coffee producer from the Llano Bonito de Naranjo sub region of the West Valley of Costa Rica. Macho does not process his coffee at his farm, instead he has partnered with the famous Helsar de Zarcero mill. Helsar works with a select number of coffee producers in the area and is known for producing some of the best quality in Costa Rica. We also have been working for the past three harvests with Helsar, specifically Ricardo Perez, who is one of the owners.
Baristas from all around the US came to Topeka to compete in this event. Each barista was randomly placed on a team that competed in three separate scored events, each event would be considered in the overall Championship evaluation. This was a mix of some of the main coffee competitions in the industry, and differed from the official World Barista Championships by being a team competition, as well as the incorporation of multiple scoring events. I thoroughly enjoyed the novelty and integration of industry relevant skills that this competition had.
In this year’s Regional Prairie Barista Competition, our top baristas placed first and second giving them the opportunity to represent the prairies in the 2012 Canadian National Barista Competition held in Toronto, Ontario. Ben Put and Jeremy Ho are no new comers to the National Competition and are, in fact, competing for their third year in a row. After placing in the top four in both 2010 and 2011, we believe these veterans are now top contenders for the gold. After watching them compete each year, we wanted to understand our barista superstars a little better. By asking them a few questions as they geared-up for the big day, we were able to share their personal coffee stories here for you. In return, we ask that you cheer these boys on by coming to the cafe to watch the competition steamed live!
I find myself with some extra time in Bogota, so I thought I would try to articulate some of my present observations on coffee production here in Colombia.
While I tried my best to make this post readable by all audiences, in the end, its content is considerably more advanced than our usual blog entries, as I wanted to properly present the complexity of the situation in Colombia.
At the end of a great day spent with the Petersons at Esmeralda, we took the up-and-down 90-minute drive from Boquete to Volcan to visit a good friend, Carlos Aguirre from Carmen Estate.
After spending a good deal of time in the moderate climates of Costa Rica and Guatemala (due to the altitude), arriving in Panama City was a bit of a shock. It was extremely humid and hot.
After visiting the West Valley, I returned to the exclusive office for a day of cupping—about 50 or so coffees from West Valley and Tarrazú.
My 2nd day in Costa involved more cupping at the Exclusive office with 5 great folks from Maruyama, including the current Barista Champion of Japan, Mie Nakahara.
The title of this post may imply that I will studiously post everyday of this 25-day origin trip. I’m not sure I can commit to that, but I’ll certainly try to relay the interesting goings on here.
Recently, we had Telus TV visit us at the roasterie to interview Phil about the process of coffee from the green bean to the cup.
We arrived to the West Valley town of Naranjo in the early afternoon, at which time we had to remind Francisco that normal people tend to eat a few meals a day, so we stopped for lunch at a local “soda”, a Costa Rican name for an informal eatery where we enjoyed some nice tacos. The more time we spent we Francisco the more we liked him – he’s so animated and passionate about his cause, it was refreshing and exciting to hear him talk.
