Cuvee Coffee

I am fairly new the the social networking phenomenon and probably would not even be involved if it weren’t for PR guy extraordinaire, Petri Darby of Darby Darnit. He set up our Cuvee Facebook page and then introduced us to Twitter which is where this story begins. Yesterday, I got a Twitter from Saint Arnold Brewery that they were having a “Tweet Up” at 6:30. Clancy and I have been talking about going down for a brewery tour for about a year, but just never made the time to do it so we decided last night. Dan is in town so we all headed down not knowing exactly what to expect. We were very happy to find out that you just walk in the brewery and they have picnic tables and a bar over on one wall. Then you just walk up to the bar and they give you a beer…free! They had all of their standard offerings on tap so Dan got an Amber and Clancy and I went with the IPA. We sat down to chat and drank a couple beers. It was really cool. You could tell who the seasoned patrons were as they showed up with pizza, fruit, cheese and cold cuts, playing cards…all sorts of stuff. It was a really great social event. We met a few people who had heard of Cuvee or were just interested in coffee and chatted for a couple hours. At one point I went into the office to use the rest room and there were a couple guys (that looked like they worked there) chatting in the hall. I introduced myself to thank them for their hospitality and one of them was the founder, Brock. I had heard about Brock and his story of building Saint Arnold from a couple different people and had him on my list as a successful entrepreneur that I should contact one day. If nothing more than to hear his story and hopefully learn something from his success. I was really happy to find out that he was very cool and open to the idea of getting together and talking shop sometime. Both of our companies are in the middle of relocating so we agreed that we would reconnect in March sometime. Anyway, the moral of this story is that Saint Arnold is a very cool place with some tasty beers and some really great people that I would have never met if it weren’t for the social networking.

Cheers to the folks a Saint Arnold for a great evening!

Silence and I (Dan), have recently been working through some hypothesis about espresso extraction in order to better understand how to communicate this with our barista students. It is actually one of my favorite things to do, take apart something you feel you have a good understanding of, and construct an entirely new way to view, and communicate the ideas with someone. Personally I think it is invaluable especially as a teacher, because I find the more ways you can communicate something to someone the more chance they have of grasping it. It can be increasingly important with something like espresso, because of the steep learning curve, and how few people have very much knowledge or experience with it before they come into our classes. That said, let's dive into the interesting part!

So the ideas we have come up with so far and started testing, is that espresso, like drip coffee has a desirable amount of extraction that can be measured in total dissolved solids, or in percent extraction. Really if we wanted to universalize this, percent extraction would be a better measure since it would be more consistent across volumes of water used to brew espresso. This idea led us to postulate that espresso extraction has a curve, and that depending on how you assemble the variables of espresso (grind, dose, tamp) you can alter this curve. We haven't gotten as far as we would like yet, and have only scratched the surface really, of where this can be taken. It is true however that it has already been valuable, and has been especially useful on helping some of the barista's that I work with to re-examine the extraction process. This has been especially true when pointing out to them the relationship between; time, volume, color, and taste in their brewed espresso. Hopefully it too gave them a guiding post, on how to adjust the variables of their technique to achieve the goals.

Anyway Silence and I are interested to hear any feedback, so let it roll in the comments section!

There have been lots of articles about the health benefits of coffee lately, but nothing like this. My next door neighbor when I lived in Houston, Mike Lancon stopped into the office last Friday. We had not seen each other in a while so Clancy made him several drinks and we basically just caught up. His phone was ringing a lot and he knew he needed to get into the office, but we were having a good time so he stayed about 15 minutes longer than he planned. He called me later that night to tell me that when he pulled up to his office, everyone was standing outside and it was on fire! The fire started just 10 minutes before he got there. His company makes custom cabinets and the stuff they spray the cabinets with is very flammable. One of the heaters in the finishing room sparked and the place instantly ignited. All of the finish spray and wood for cabinets created a fire that spread so fast, no one was able to call 911 from the office. Everyone ran out and fortunately no one was injured, but Mike said that if he had been in the office, he would have been in the finishing room (where the fire started) looking over his samples that were sprayed earlier that morning. When it was all said and done, there were 17 fire trucks there and because of the wood and chemicals, all they could do was contain the fire so it did not spread.

I am really happy that Mike stopped by that morning and even more happy that we had lots to talk about and catch up on. In summary, drink coffee often. I could save your life!

The 2008 SCRBC brought 20 competitors from 3 states and the competition was fierce. The skill level was much higher than 2007 according to some of the experienced judges. When the dust settled, the top 6 finalists battled hard, but in the end our own Clancy Rose, rose to the challenge (how bout that play on words). As a company we were very proud to have 4 of the 6 finalists (and all of the Texas boys) using our coffee. Andrew used the Meritage, Patrick used Espresso Medici, Lorenzo used a blend of the Moreninha Formosa and Cerro Las Ranas and Clancy used the Costa Helsar as a single origin. Patrick and Clancy swapped spots from last year (Patrick took first and Clancy second). What does that say about those two? Maybe that they are the real deal and not just a fluke!

It was a lot of fun to help Clancy prepare and test the coffee many different ways. One of thing that was very interesting is that we found the coffee really had the best flavor characteristics on day 7 (from the roaster). So we roasted this coffee 7 days prior to Clancy's first performance, then anticipating that he might make finals, 7 days prior to the last day. I don't know if that is what some call really geeking out, but it seemed to work.

Dan Streetman did an outstanding job as the MC and kept our crowd of onlookers entertained and interested. I even hear that he collected a few phone numbers from some of the ladies in the audience. Of course in typical Streetman fashion, he spilled coffee on himself then ran his pants through the washing machine with the numbers in the pocket so now all those women probably think he is a turd!

In summary, this event was a true testament to the years of hard work that the Cuvee team has put into building awareness and a coffee community/culture in our great state! We are already looking forward to next year’s event and the planning has begun. Hope to see you in Austin for 2009 SCRBC.

A local man recently clenched the an esteemed title for his artistic skills. His canvas: a cup of coffee.

Competition barista and head coffee roaster at Cuvée Coffee in Spring Clancy Rose won the Ultimate Barista Challenge in the latte art category at the Texas Restaurant Association’s Southwest Foodservice Expo held at the George R. Brown Convention Center June 22.

The Ultimate Barista Challenge, coordinated at major food and restaurant events all over the world, features professional baristas who duel against each other at espresso stations.

“Their goal is more of an Iron Chef-type of competition that goes around to different cities,” Rose said.

For the competition, baristas compete in one or more of four categories, including latte art, frappe, blended brew, and espresso cocktails. They have 10 minutes to prepare several specialty espresso drinks for a panel of judges comprised of coffee specialists, trainers, food writers, chefs and sommeliers.

“You’re encouraged to be creative with the additional ingredients,” Rose said. “Half of your points come from visual appearance, and half come from the taste of each beverage.”

The winner in each category secures the right to challenge one of the reigning international champions, and if successful, earns the title of “Ultimate Barista.”

Before this event, there were only four national, and seven international Ultimate Baristas, so Rose said a bit of mental preparation was necessary prior to the competition.

“Because of the latte art, there’s a degree of having to calm yourself down because it can be pretty nerve racking,” he said. “I was just a little more shaky than usual because I’ve never done the ultimate barista challenge.”

After edging out the competition, Rose challenged and successfully defeated one of the champions and became an Ultimate Barista. He now will travel to various food, restaurant, and coffee conferences and trade shows around the world to compete against others seeking to rise to the same rank.

“Being a barista for four years in Austin and for me as a competitor, it’s an enormous accomplishment and it’s also going to give me the opportunity to travel,” Rose said of his latte art title.

Before joining Cuvee Coffee, Rose worked as a barista at Austin’s Caffe Medici and also served as assistant manager for Texas EXpresso in the University of Texas Alumni Center.

He placed second at the 2007 SCAA South Central Regional Barista Competition. Rose also provided freelance barista training and produced online barista training videos.

The Ultimate Barista and others at Cuvee provide twice monthly training seminars for budding coffee entrepreneurs and home enthusiasts. He is scheduled to participate in several barista competitions in 2008, including the United States Barista Championship.