A Cupping, Some Roasting, and Ethiopian Harrar.

Author: george Posted: May 25, 2008

Me:  ”Spencer, how’s it going?  It’s George - I’m working on making profiles for our coffee’s and was wondering if you had some sort of description of them?”

Spencer:  ”Why don’t we do a cupping and see what we find for ourselves?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Spencer is the man. 

I arrived at JJ Main to find out Spencer was running a little late.  No worries - now there is time for another espresso.  (My 4th double of the day - it’s about 12:30.)  Grady pulled it while another barista and I were watching from the side.  It dropped beautifully right away, causing Grady to wave his hand at the espresso machine with that, “get out of here/ain’t got nothing on me” type attitude.  

Needless to say, both Grady and the espresso delivered.  Like Spencer, Grady is also the man.  

My dad arrived just before Spencer and when all was ready, the cupping began.  

 

The whole ritual of cupping is probably the most romantic thing ever.  It’s ‘the Notebook’ of the coffee world for sure.

We cupped 4 different coffees at a time - the darks first, then the mediums.  The darks were nice.  I’m a lover of the mediums though - the Kenyan aa really shone through and was definitely my favorite.  I ended up picking Organic Peru as my dark of choice, which is funny because, as a brewed coffee I usually don’t like it too much.  Anyone notice the bottle of sparkling water in the background above?

After the cupping I joined Grady and Spencer and went next door to what they said was an extremely important part of the daily life at JJ Main:  Helen’s Pizza.

At Helen’s Spencer asked if I wanted to go Commercial to roast some samples with him.  Heck yes I did!

 

We had a few Kenyan samples to roast, including a Peaberry, some Nicaraguan, and some of the highly coveted Ethiopian Harrar that is taking the coffee community by storm right now.  If you haven’t tried it yet, you absolutely need to.  It is out of controllably awesome.  If you are reading this and are one of those people who have not experienced it, come to crema and we will have it on the press together.  I’m serious.

Spencer had a small sample remaining of a really rare Harrar and decided to share some of it with me.  He likes to put less coffee in the press than normal.  It was so so good - I plan to experiment with french press dosage throughout the week.

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On an end note, in the middle of all the roasting and coffee drinking a customer saw my camera and struck a pose.  Enjoy.

 

Posted in:   Comments: (5)

5 Responses to “A Cupping, Some Roasting, and Ethiopian Harrar.”

  1. 05/25/08 at 9:59 pm J says:

    take that Kenya AA and stick ‘er through the portafilters…

    …tomato soup I swear.

    Guess I rolled into work too late that day, all the cupping elements sat there on the table in a disheveled mess.

  2. 05/26/08 at 10:27 am John says:

    Good post, double good post for saying “Heck yes I did!” haha, nice.

  3. 05/26/08 at 4:59 pm chris says:

    HECK YES it is. That customer is so FTW

  4. 05/30/08 at 12:04 am george says:

    @ J

    It’s funny you say that, I am planning to shoot some of the Harrar as an espresso and see what happens - I’ll keep you updated. In the press last night we definitely all tasted tomato soup in the Kenyan, haven’t tried it through the synesso yet though.

  5. 05/30/08 at 3:36 am J says:

    the Harrar is far less exciting as a straight shot. Keep it in a press, same with the Kenyan. The only reason I end up tasting it so often is we have a customer who swears it’s the ONLY way to drink his latte, well with vanilla and honey as well.

    of course.

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