Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

In addition to An Obsessive’s Guide to Coffee, Food & Wine Magazine‘s March 2006 issue also put forth a taste test to list their Top 12 boutique roasters: Taste Test | Food & Wine.

It’s a tight list, but all are great roasters.

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Yesterday the USA Today published a story about two brothers from Medford, OR who built a business upon solar-powered coffee roasting: USATODAY.com – Coffee fans buzzing about solar-powered roaster.

As if the organic, Fair Trade angle wasn’t enough … cafés may soon have to outdo each other’s environmental correctness with how their bean roasts are powered. All things considered, it’s high time that someone tapped into the fitness center market and powered a Mocha Java roast off of all their elliptical trainers.

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Coffee experienced a 42% price jump over the past year — largely due to limited supply (civil war, drought, and hurricanes all had an effect) despite high consumer demands. However, coffee production around the world is on the rise, and there’s some question as to whether production will outstrip demand in the coming year: ‘Coffee price threatened by surging output’.

Meanwhile, growers will feel the pressure to raise production in the hope of generating more revenue. Costs of coffee production are rising due to rising fuel costs combined with a weaker dollar.

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If it weren’t for its own BART station, even fewer SF residents would know where Glen Park is. But a local neighborhood coffee shop, Cafe Bello, has quietly been making its mark as one of the premiere coffee destinations in the city. It’s just that few locals know it — let alone do they know where to find it.

A short walk north of the Glen Park BART station, Cafe Bello opened in 2004 as a replacement for the former “Cafe ?” — which closed due to rising neighborhood rents. Whereas Cafe ? bought fully into the Illy caffè system, Josh, the owner of Cafe Bello, swears by Mr. Espresso beans as producing the best crema.

This quiet café has several indoor tables, window counter seating among several stools, and an outdoor sidewalk bench. They sell pastries, teas, gelato, and bulk coffee beans, but the emphasis is on their coffee beverages. Using their two-group, Mr. Espresso Rancilio Epoca, they often produce a solid crema: a dark brown emulsion that hangs on top and clings to the sides of the Mr. Espresso logo IPA or Nuova Point cups. They fill the cup close to the rim, but it’s more of a true doppio rather than an overextracted single.

The flavor can vary depending on the barista and other quality control factors. At its worst, it’s merely good — sometimes missing a little something in flavor depth and brightness when compared to it’s encouraging crema. At its best it can be very good — richer, more pungent, and with a flavor edge of cloves. Consistently there is a mellow background mixture of additional flavors: slightly sweet of vanilla, a hint of cardamom, and even some turpeny sensations.

Speaking of consistency, it’s one of the kinks they haven’t quite worked out yet with the rotation of baristas. Some pull shots with a sketchier crema with larger bubbles suspended in it. Other baristas, like the most recent one reviewed here from last week, have been personally trained by Josh and are among SF’s finest. Because of this variance, this is the Vegas of quality espresso. But on its worst days it’s still quite good. And when it comes to milk-based drinks, Josh isn’t half bad at latte art either.

Cafe Bello is one of the rare Bay Area coffee shops that serves vaccum-brewed coffee — arguably the best way to brew coffee this side of espresso. Better than French press, and certainly better than filter. For $3.50, you can get a show and a monster mug of vacuum-brewed coffee (and if you want the home version, you can buy your own vacuum pot here for $120).

For those who haven’t witnessed vac pot brewing before, it looks a lot like a science experiment. But the spectacle and the clean, robust flavor are well worth the wait. Cafe Bello tends to serve vacuum-brewed coffee only in the afternoons due to the additional process required, which the morning crush makes difficult. But sometimes Josh is in a generous mood of morning showmanship.

For the continual fight against coffee bean oxidation, Josh is also currently in the process of setting up coffee roasting on the Cafe Bello premises. He recently bought a 1-lb batch airflow roaster from Monster Coffee near Seattle. It may not earn him bragging rights with the likes of Blue Bottle Coffee and Ritual Roasters, who lately seem to thumb their noses at anything less than an antique PROBAT roaster, but an in-house supply of fresh roasted coffee stands to improve Cafe Bello’s espresso even more.

Read the updated review.

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A little Frog Hollow Farm espresso history…

Frog Hollow Farm first appeared in San Francisco at the opening of the Embarcadero’s revitalized Ferry Building in October of 2003. While their core business is seasonal fruits, they took an aggressive leap forward towards producing some of the most serious espresso in the city at the time.

The first thing they did right was hook up with James Freeman of Blue Bottle Coffee. At the time, James wasn’t the food magazine posterboy that he’s become today. But James was locally famous for his coffee at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. He roasted small batches out of Oakland and put a freshness date on the bags he sold, sticking to his policy of never selling roasts more than 48 hours old.

James ultimately opened a Blue Bottle Coffee cart service on weekends at the Ferry Building farmer’s market that developed long lines and a loyal following. But he also consulted for the espresso at Frog Hollow Farm. He trained the Frog Hollow Farm staff with precise barista skills; they pre-heated their cups, timed their shots, and maintained a great standard of excellence. He convinced Frog Hollow Farms to invest in a bright red La Marzocco FB70 — an almost de-facto standard at North America’s best espresso bars. He supplied them with his Blue Bottle Coffee beans — and even allowed Frog Hollow Farms to sell his beans directly to the public.

The results were excellent. CoffeeRatings.com rated Frog Hollow Farm as the #1 espresso in San Francisco throughout most of 2004 — ranked even higher than James’ own weekend cart service next door. But it was perhaps too successful, as James seemed to have designs of his own for a regular presence in SF. Blue Bottle Coffee opened a rough storefront in a Hayes Valley alleyway in the spring of 2005. Meanwhile, Frog Hollow Farm lost their supply of Blue Bottle Coffee beans and turned instead to the McLaughlin Coffee Company.

Since the coffee bean switch in the summer of 2005, the espresso at Frog Hollow Farm has suffered. Their baristas have lost their edge and today seem much less skilled. The espresso has lost a richness and color in its crema and a boldness to its flavor. I’ve returned almost every other month in the hopes of their espresso returning to its former greatness, but each time I’ve found it to be worse off than before. My most recent visit there last weekend was the final confirmation I needed that they were on a permanent downward trend, resulting in their current ranking: tied for 79th place.

Frog Hollow Farm today

While a drop from 1st to 79th is a real fall from grace, the fact remains that the espresso here is better than most in San Francisco. However, while it was once a no brainer to get your espresso here instead of the nearby Peet’s Coffee, today it is something of a toss up.

Frog Hollow Farm is essentially a counter way in the back of the Ferry Building. They offer good galettes, killer Scharffenberger brownies, and other decent bakery items from their pastry chef to complement your espresso. But there isn’t much of a place to sit: there are just a few tables placed just outside in the back of the Ferry Building (or sometimes in the hallway).

But it’s not all “to go”: they do serve espresso as a doppio in a thick-walled, traditional Italian brown Nuova Point cup (which they unfortunately sometimes forgo for paper cups on busy weekends). It has a decent, medium brown crema that’s tended to run a bit on the yellowish/pale side lately. Surprisingly, the change in crema hasn’t coincided with a sourness to its flavor. It has more of a typical tobacco-like flavor that’s sometimes a touch watery, and it’s served at a reasonably lukewarm (not hot) temperature.

For milk-based espresso drinks, they don’t produce terribly good microfoam — the bubbles tend to be larger and erratic. They also lack real cups for large-format espresso drinks.

Read the updated review.

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Don’t ask why, but DailyIndia.com is on a roll with new articles about espresso. Today’s special?: A Guide to Espresso Machines.

This brief article covers the history of the espresso machine: from its invention by Luigi Bezzera to its original manufacture by Desiderio Pavoni, father of La Pavoni. It also touches on the basic steps, or “recipe”, for making a good espresso.

Now if it were only that simple…

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It took a moment for me to dig up an online version, but here it is. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the March 2006 issue of Food & Wine Magazine has a special report on coffee: An Obsessive’s Guide to Coffee | Food & Wine.

The editors apparently “spent 410 man-hours tasting 157 coffees and testing 67 coffeemakers (not to mention 10 grinders) to find the best of the best.” However, as this writer can tell you with ample first-hand evidence, that’s just scratching the surface.

Take their Top U.S. Coffee Bars list. It includes a number of the “usual suspects”. But there are many conspicuous absences. They include Ritual Roasters in their raves. Yet they fail to even mention Ritual’s root inspiration and idols: Stumptown Coffee of Portland, OR (though they do mention their coffee, but not the café, in the print version of the article).

I sense that they never veered off the beaten path in major U.S. cities. Honolulu Coffee Company? Never heard of it. This explains other notable omissions, even for just the Bay Area, such as Barefoot Roasters of San Jose and Flying Goat of Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. And while Metropolis Coffee Company in Chicago makes a very good espresso, they aren’t in the same class as Café Organica right here in San Francisco proper.

And before you attempt to make the argument that their list weights a café’s ambiance, Blue Bottle Coffee on Linden St. has the ambiance of a garage sale.

Some of the other categories where they list their favorites include: The Best Drip Machines, Go-To Grinders (my Mazzer Mini thanks them for the honor), and The Best Espresso Machines.

I’m glad to see that F&W sought out 1st-line Equipment for some of their espresso equipment. It still disappoints me that so-called gourmet shops, such as Williams-Sonoma, consider themselves to be purveyors of “high end” home espresso equipment, and yet they sell nothing I would consider buying for myself.

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Today Krups issued a recall for a not inexpensive line of espresso makers: Krups Orchestro Espresso Makers Recalled.

The reason for the recall? Apparently, these machines run the risk of spontaneously bursting into flames. However, the company has not issued a recall on the basis of these machines spontaneously producing good espresso. Probably because there is little, if any, risk of that ever happening with a Krups machine.

Many first-time home espresso machine buyers have a Krups story to tell. My first espresso machine story also involves a Krups. But rather than buying one, it was a gift from a friend who held a “house cooling” party to rid himself of all his 110-volt appliances before moving to London. Fortunate for him, he was living over 5,000 miles away from having to hear me complain about the ashy-liquid-producing doorstop he left in my kitchen.

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William Dupree, owner of a small business consultancy, published an article today on DailyIndia.com (of all places) about the marketing strategy he developed for a new 3,000 sq ft coffee shop that opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village: A Unique Marketing Spin for a Coffee Shop.

Even though the article does not reveal the name of the coffee shop, it’s pretty clear it’s not the much-heralded Ninth Street Espresso. So how could such a business compete?

The author conducted research on successful coffee shops and discovered that they derived the majority of their revenue, and even more of their profits, from espresso-based drinks. His research even showed that the coffee shops with the best tasting espresso did five to ten times the business of shops with average tasting espresso.

The moral of the story?: quality espresso pays off.

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Oh those crazy Brits. You can’t tell them they’re Europeans, and their coffee habits prove it. In a press release from Lavazza, apparently 36 percent of Londoners prefer instant coffee — with as few as four precent preferring espresso: Despite Continental Influences Brits still Reaching for Instant Coffee

Lavazza sees this as both criminal and a marketing opportunity. So they’ve devised what they call the “First Class Espresso Experience” campaign.

The press release also goes on to state how Italians would never drink a milk-based espresso drink after 11am (unthinkable!). It even confirms what I wrote here yesterday — about a properly made espresso having less caffeine than most other forms of coffee due to the reduced exposure to water.

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