Cuvee Coffee

Clancy and Dan spent the week in Portland Oregon, for the 2009 United States Barista Championship.

Clancy as the South Central Champion had a bye into the semi-finals round and rocked the house with a solid performance. Everyone loved Clancy's edgy music choices of Journey, and Eminem. He also must have impressed the judges, as he was the competitor with the highest score using a Mahlkonig K30, which won him a free grinder. Nice work Clancy! You might have also bumped into Clancy on the coffeehouse bike tour, at Coffeehouse Northwest where he was rocking his single origin Costa Rica Helsar de Zacerro for espresso, which he used during competition.

Not too mention at all of the parties! Portland was a great city, and the coffee folks there did a great job hosting us all. It was so much fun to see so many familiar faces, and to make some new friends. The Barista Prom was the one event everyone kept talking about, and it definitely left a lasting impression. I'm not sure if I am more afraid of the 80's or the Barista communities stunning ability to recreate it!

Dan spent the week judging and enjoyed seeing some new approaches that the competitors took towards the Barista competition format. It was also great to work with such a talented pool of coffee professionals. It was especially humbling to have the privilege of judging the finals round. The 6 guys who were in the finals were very talented, and had worked so hard. It was fun just getting to see their passion on stage, not too mention taste their drinks.

All in all Portland was a great trip.... even the red-eye Sunday night so we could make it back to work on Monday morning!

To follow up on Mike's last post I wanted to bring a little attention to a recent Associated Press article that followed the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition. You can find the article at:

link to associated press article

The article's focus seems to echo much of what Mike was saying in our last post, and I thought it was rather timely, I also can not be happy enough that the regional barista competitions are getting more and more attention. While Clancy Rose, our roaster and reigning South Central Barista Champ, would never admit this they all deserve much more credit, because it is a very big deal. Not to mention how hard all of these guys and girls have worked to gain this prestige.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, what does a barista competition have to do with my cafe? Well, the article points out that it is a great way to get positive public sentiment, and marketing power. It also engages your staff with their jobs, in a new and exciting way, which will hopefully spark their passion and creativity, and be a pathway for education. I was talking just this week with a friend who mentioned that he had noticed the quality of coffee where he was from dramatically improve as the barista competitions brought more awareness about how special coffee can be.

I just read a blurb in the Business Journal about how Starbucks in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is addressing the current economic situation (read here http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2009/02/09/daily11.html?ana=e_du_pub) In a nutshell, it says they are lumping more products into the price...get more for the same price (or slightly more). As the article says the "value size" proposition. So what now? Are consumers going to eat more muffins in the morning, get fat then file a law suit? All kidding aside, this just seems like the wrong value equation to me. I know everyone has their own. And maybe mine is just weighted to heavily towards quality, but I have facts to back up my beliefs. We have different types of customers. Most of our customers follow the business model of quality over quantity. Their menu board is not crowded with 50 different items. They don't serve 20 or 32 ounce (excuse me while I become lactose intolerant) lattes. Our most successful customers focus on traditional cappuccino...a 6 - 8 ounce drink as their bread and butter. They work hard to make that beverage exceptional and guess what; they sell a lot of them. I don't see a change in the volume of their orders. Our customers that follow a different model, on the other hand, might be buying less coffee now or might be paying their bills a little slower. I'm just sayin' there might be a connection.

My theory is that people are still going to spend money on affordable luxuries like coffee. They might pass on the $75 per person dinner or the $100 bottle of wine, but the $4 coffee is not in the same luxury category. The difference is that although they are going to spend that money on coffee, they are going to stop spending it on average coffee and will start to make darn sure they get exceptional coffee in stead.

As far as Cuvee Coffee goes, we are taking this opportunity to step up our game to a whole new level. We are spending money on expanding and improving. We are going to source the best coffee (not the best we can find, the best in the world) and we are going to pay more for that coffee than we ever have. You tell me, as the price of green coffee drops but we offer premiums for the highest quality, who are our coffee farmer partners going to appreciate? Who is really going to have a positive impact in their lives (and their family and the people that work for them)? Who is going to provide them that well deserved reward for all their hard work? Who is going to encourage and inspire them to keep improving on quality? I suspect it is not the one looking to get more coffee for a lower price or the "value size"

Mike Funk of course!

I had the distinct pleasure of working with his crew at Fire Creek Coffee Company last week in Cave Creek, Arizona, which is just north of Phoenix. It is a beautiful little town, and the folks at Fire Creek definitely showed me a good time. Mike was even kind enough to introduce me to his own signature concoction "Frescaritas", while not coffee based this beautiful mixture of Tequila, Fresca, Triple sec, lime juice and salt is definitely going into my repertoire.

My three day trip wasn't all pleasure though, myself and the Fire Creek crew dove heavily into espresso preparation, and even started pouring some basic latte art. The crew was highly enthusiastic, and were all quick learners. I think Mike is going to build something very special there in the desert. His commitment to quality and his interest to set himself apart will definitely get him noticed. We even had to sample 4 kinds of milk and 10 kinds of chocolate, in order to side which was worthy to be served to their customers. Mike also roasts in house, and his espresso blend was unique, and I was definitely impressed. Overall it was a really exciting, and it is always great to be reminded why I love being in this business. I truly enjoy sharing my knowledge and working with great people. Thanks Mr. Funk for giving me the opportunity!

declared the barista with enthusiasm as he set down this impressive piece of latte art. No doubt he has a considerable amount of skill at latte art, but I guess we will have to excuse his inability to count due to his enthusiasm....

More importantly this picture demonstrates my gaining some proficiency with a technique Silence has been pushing me to work on. What he calls "push the milk". Allowing the milk flowing out of the pitcher to push the design outward, and filling the entire cup. Whereas my designs had tended to be more petite. See example below.

The point being, if you want to enlarge your design you should pour more milk as your design begins and allow the flow to "push" it outward as it fills the cup.