Portland - Coffee

While I'm sure that some folks (especially those in Seattle and in Chicago) would argue, I think most of us would agree that Portland has had a special role in the high end of (what I'd call artisan) coffee in the US.

Many of us would argue that Portland was the driving force for artisan coffee over the past 5 or more years.

I've always wondered, "why Portland?"

I mean.... it's kind of weird for such an obscure town to have such an out-of-scale impact.

I've run through all sorts of theories - but in retrospect I think I was simply too close to the situation to see the realities.

Now that I've been gone from Portland and gone from coffee for a while - I think I have more perspective. And a recent trip up there (I think) has kind of proven the point.

I think I'm starting to figure it out.

So... why Portland.

To explain I'm going to tell a couple of stories first.

The first night I was there we were wrapping up late dinner at Biwa and it was suggest we go check out Tommy Habetz' new place Bunk Bar. Tommy is a bad-ass cook and chef who's run a couple of my favorite kitchens in Portland. He's the kind of guy who pretty much could be cooking anywhere and doing anything. When I asked a little more about Bunk Bar I was told that it's a bar where they have a walk up window that sells sandwiches. A little confused but intrigued I said this sounded good and off we went. Late night, bar, waterfront, packed with a mix of hipsters and folks just out drinking... you can imagine the scene. And sure enough, walk up window with a sandwich menu. But OMFG the sandwich. Pork Belly Lettuce and Tomato. The sort of BLT that the gods eat when they're hanging out on Mt Olympus. A sort of Elizabethan ideal of the BLT.

The second day I was there we decided to grab a beer after lunch and went by Apex. Apex is a beer bar. And that's all. It's clean and airy and open. Their beer menu is insane - some sort of madman is curating that list because it's just not normal. Your average person (someone who is not a beer fanatic) would be entirely confused and might not even realize that the place was serving beer. There were beers from everywhere - including a beer from the Bay Area that I can't find on tap here. In San Francisco. The lines were clean, the bartender knowledgable - and the beer was about 2/3 or 1/2 what I'd pay for it here.

These are both successful businesses.

As are other places in Portland like Pok Pok (incredible thai food without the usual standards like Pad Thai and with half the seating outside in a shed) and Le Pigeon (where they're likely to play Ramones in the dining room and serve the best beef bourguignon in the US).

These are places that do things that seem crazy at a business level. That make no sense. That violate some of the things we assume are business rules. And yet they're successful.

It's clear there is a pattern here.

Things are working in Portland that we all think shouldn't work.

So the question becomes... is Portland just different? Do the rules not apply to Portland? Or are we wrong about the rules?

This last trip made me realize something.

Some of these crazy ideas fail - even in Portland.

But Portland is the kind of safe place where you can still try the crazy ideas. Portland is the place that says "rules are bullshit - do what you want to."

The people in Portland don't judge if the idea is crazy - they just try it and see if they like it. They've got a sort of indy / DIY thing going on that's deeply embedded in the culture there.

So there is a kind of "why the fuck not" attitude there that allows (and even encourages) people to try crazy shit.

Plus... it's cheap there so there isn't so much financial risk.

But... none of this says that the rules simply don't apply to Portland.

It's simply that Portland is a really great petri dish.

So from this - it's hard not to conclude that, in fact, the rules do apply to Portland and Portland is where we're figuring out that some of what we think are rules are lies.

And that is why Portland is so important to coffee in the US. Because 10 years ago all of us in coffee were following the rules. And the rules were 75% lies. But we didn't know that. We were blind. But there were some crazy people in Portland who either didn't know the rules or didn't care about the rules. And now we all know that most of those rules were bullshit. And freed from those rules - coffee in the US has exploded.

It's no shock that the paid shills for traditional coffee are out in force saying that what we're all doing is wrong (and evil). Just as it's no shock that we're angry at them for lying to us for so long.

And for that... we own a debt of gratitude not just for all the people who've ignored these rules - but also to that crazy petri dish that we call Portland for allowing us to experiment and discover.

Personally... I can't wait to see what Portland spits out next!!!

Portland (intro)

I'm just back from Portland OR and it's clear I need to post about it.

Less about the coffee, however, and more about the place / people / culture / market.

I need to formulate my thoughts and then will write something up.

I will - however - say this much (as a teaser)...

Apex is one of my favorite beer bars in the world.

The Pork Belly Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich at Bunk Bar is sick.

To understand why coffee in Portland is what it is, you need to understand the weird mix of DiY/indy and taste/flavor and passion/craziness that drives people who create places like Apex and Bunk Bar (and Pok Pok and Le Pigeon and and and). And you need to understand the people in Portland and why the support these lovely lunatics.

Let me ponder and expect something odd soon.

Anfim (at home - v Robur)

So... as if it were not absurd enough for me to have done a review of the Robur grinder at home (see here for final conclusions) now I'm going to spend some time sharing thoughts on the Anfim Super Caimano (modified).

This is the new v2.0 modified Super Caimano (digital timer, cooling fan, some changes to things like the number of adjustments available for the grind, slower speed motor, purge button).

I've been using it for about a week now, and have some initial conclusions. I'll break these down into three sections. First - the grinder. Second - the grinder at home. Third - the grinder vs the Robur.

The Grinder

For someone (like me) used to Mazzer grinders, the Anfim takes some getting used to. It's a stepped adjustment grinder. It's much smaller than the Robur. The doser feels "weird" at first. Figuring out the whole digital timer thing seemed fiddly and tweedly at first.

Once you get used to it - you start to see the strong points of the grinder (and the weaknesses start to emerge as well).

The primary weakness of this grinder is stability on the counter. The grinder "walks" across the counter when dosing (and no joke we're talking about something like 6 to 8 inches of travel). This is obviously a major issue. You can work around it by wedging the grinder in place or by extending a finger from the hand holding the portafilter to brace against the fork. Now... all this being said, I'm told that there is a retrofit for the grinder that adds different feet to it and makes it very stable and fixed in place.

The secondary weakness is the stepped adjustment. While there are now a ton of steps, changing from one step to the other is still an est 3s change in a shot. Again, you can work around this by changing dose when you change grind - but I'd love a worm-drive non-stepped adjustment!

The final weakness is the throat from the burrs to the doser. A lot of coffee gets trapped in here. The grinder ships with a small brush to help clean this - and the new purge button allows you to purge stale coffee - but it's still a PITA. Out of curiosity I measured total grinds trapped in the Anfim and compared to the Robur. What is interesting is that they're roughly equal. It's just that you don't see all the grinds with the Robur (whereas you do with the Anfim).

In terms of the strengths of this grinder...

First (and foremost) is the quality of the grind. The Anfim produces a fantastic output. Shots were incredibly transparent and lacked any muddiness. Shots were sweet and very aromatic. The Anfim's grind quality is at least on par with if not better than the Alinox (IMHO).

Second, the Anfim doser is massively superior to other dosers I've used. Drop is clean and centered. Combined with the quality of the grind, this makes distribution ridiculously easy.

Third, once you get the timer dialed in your waste goes down dramatically. I set it to give me a tiny bit more coffee than I need, but that's largely 'cause I'm a control freak. I could see wasting only a tiny amount of coffee if I didn't do this.

The Grinder at Home

It's just a silly idea.

Really.

Between the amount of coffee trapped in the grinder and the challenges of dialing in the dose timer and grind (and their interaction) and the fact that you really cannot use it in a single dose manner this grinder is arguably as poorly suited (if not more poorly suited) for home use than the Robur.

The Grinder vs the Robur

First... this is kind of an unfair comparison as the Robur costs a lot more than the Anfim. And it's kind of a silly comparison because they have such different approaches to solving the problem.

That said... my thoughts...

1. If I were running a high volume coffee bar I'd use the Robur as my workhorse grinder.

2. If I were running a high volume coffee bar with a blend and a single origin espresso, however, I'd use the Anfim for the single origin espresso.

3. The shots from the Anfim to me had better clarity, better sweetness and better aromatics than from the Robur. I'd never really noticed the muddy stuff going on with shots from the Robur before - but now I taste them consistently. The Robur produced shots that had more low end body than the shots from the Anfim showed.

4. If I were running a lower volume, high touch ("luxury") coffee bar - especially if I were serving expensive coffees - I'd use the Anfim.

At the end of the day... I like the taste of the shots from the Anfim more than the shots from the Robur.

Time... perspective

I should have done this earlier, but before it's too late (I hope) I'm going to take a little time off from participation in the various coffee websites etc.

My frustrations have recently spilled over and been communicated in manners that were not productive and I need to step away to gain some perspective. My hope is this will allow me to re-engage in a manner that is more productive and respectful (for all involved).

the torture never stops

Really Salon?

Really?!?!?!

I could see The Atlantic falling for this shit - they're practically paid coverage at this point - but honestly I expected better from you.

What "true" Espresso is, and How Americans Ruin It

Rather than going through the two or three dozen specific fails in this piece - I'll simply point the readers to my comments on the two previous pieces in the series (by which I refer to Illy's 2 "paid" pieces in The Atlantic here, and here). And then I'll make two "meta" comments.

First... Salon... you know better. You should have talked to a couple folks on the "other side of the table." This looks like chumming for attention now. Come on. Don't be pathetic.

Second... I guess this means that speciality coffee in the US has grown up. We now have one of the largest espresso companies in the world investing money on a media and PR tour hoping to counter-market against the growth of these new competitors. Congrats. I guess.

Update: If you're interested in this topic, you should read James Hoffman's post on the subject (and participate in the conversation about it).

Abroad

A few weeks ago I had the chance to spend almost a week abroad - in Paris, London and Amsterdam. While much of the trip was dedicated to vacation activities in general (and eating amazing food in particular), some of the trip was intended to be about experiencing coffee. In particular I was looking forward to hitting up Penny University in London and Stumptown in Amsterdam. In both cases, I was going to be sneaking in under the wire - as both of these businesses were pop-ups (and would be closing soon after my visit).

What I experienced was both very much expected - and yet also a total surprise.

Paris

Rather than going into detail I'll simply sum it up with a heartfelt plea to quality coffee roasters and coffee bars.... Please open a location in Paris. Please for the love of god, give the poor people in Paris decent coffee.

Paris is one of the greatest if not in fact the greatest food city in the world. Paris is a great walking city and the people understand that quality costs money. And yet I've had better coffee in small mountain towns in the US than I've found in Paris. The coffee at the airport in Pisa is better.

Please. Paris deserves better.

London

We took the Eurostar train from Paris to London. In looking at the schedule I'd figured out that would would arrive into London about 1 hour before Penny Lane closed - forever. We were arriving on the last day they served coffee. So the extra 35 minutes spent in the boarding and security process in Paris - resulting in a departure time a half hour late - caused me some stress. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we rushed out, grabbed a cab and literally ducked under the closing garage door into Penny University. Whew...

In talking about Penny University I'm going to divide my thoughts into three different areas. First, I'll share my opinions on the place and the experience. Second, I'll talk about what I think we should learn from Penny University. Third, I'll talk about the coffee (and some implications).

I'd seen pictures. I'd read blog posts. I thought I had the idea. But the reality was different than I'd predicted. First, the neighborhood and the building set the stage far better than expected. There was a sense of seriousness and focus and energy that started before entering the space. Inside it was like some sort of hipster coffee lab spa underground mens club. There was a sense of ceremony and o a sense of reverence that I really liked -- largely because none of the ceremony or reverence was directed at the people who worked there. Instead, it was clear that this was about the customer - and the coffee. About making the introduction, facilitating the discussion but at the end of the day letting the customer and the coffee have the relationship. That's very important and very unique. In talking with Tim and James and everyone, it became clear that working at Penny University had turned out to be incredibly challenging. "Like doing your 15 minute barista competition performance but having to keep doing it all day" as it was expressed to be at one point. Being able to do those introductions and do that facilitation - being able to provide that level of customer service and assistance - and doing so in a manner where you really engage with each customer over a period of time (as opposed to "fake smile is that for here or to go it'll be $3.50 thank you") - is clearly exhausting. I can only barely imagine - and even then it scares me. But as a customer... it was a truly incredible experience.

I fear a lot of people are going to treat the Penny University experience either as a model to strictly follow or some sort of mythical icon to strive for. I think it would be far wiser to simply learn from the experience. Now... to be honest, until James and Tim post up their own learnings from doing this - my comments are only slightly grounded in reality (a couple half drunken exhausted conversations is what this is based on) and are far inferior to anything they might come up with. Given that I'm rarely unwilling to share my opinion.... here goes. There is a segment of the buying public who is dying for an experience like this. The good news is that they are also for the most part the people who not only can pay for such an experience but really don't care that much about the cost. The bad news is that it's a very small segment of the market. That last statement has just slammed the door in the mind of many coffee professionals - who think "if it doesn't have enough volume you can't make money in retail." That's bullshit. This, to me, is the biggest thing to learn from Penny University. As with any other type of business, there are generally two ways to make money in retail coffee. You can sell a whole ton of it and make a little money with each transaction - or you can sell very little of it and make a ton of money on each transaction. The former describes nearly all coffee businesses in the world. The latter was something that existed largely just in theory for me prior to seeing Penny University. This is what we need to learn -- you can make money doing a very high touch experience offered to a small but discriminating customer base when you charge a high premium and plan your operations accordingly. Basically, there is such a thing as luxury coffee. Sure... just like you wouldn't open a Vuitton boutique in Fayetteville, WV there are specific locations and markets that are best suited for a business of this type. The big question for me is.... what form is this luxury coffee going to take? I know all the characteristics of a luxury business, a luxury brand, a luxury experience... but I still can't guess what this is going to end up looking like. What I can say is that Penny University has shown that it is, in fact, possible.

The coffee was beautiful at Penny University. That being said... I love the Square Mile coffees, so this wasn't a huge shock. And the reality is that the Chemex of Tegu I had wasn't objectively better than the same Tegu I'd cupped a couple of weeks prior. But subjectively? Much better. The experience elevated the coffee (or perhaps for the first time the experience didn't damage the perception of the coffee but instead lived up to it). I also realized something interesting about the Square Mile coffees as a result. I've noticed an evolution in the coffees over time - and I don't know if it was conscious or not - but my theory is that Penny University (and in particular the range of brew methods and tight interaction with customers about the coffees) created a beneficial feedback loop which resulted in the changes in these coffees. If this is true - it's got some very interesting implications for roasters who want to emulate this kind of approach.

Thanks to Tim. Thanks to James. Thanks to Tobias. You guys rocked it.

Other than Penny University - the coffee I had in London ranged from mediocre to world class (by my standards). The two worst shots I had were both marginally drinkable (on par with a slightly below average shot from a decent coffee bar in the US). The best shot was served to me by Gwilym. It was at Prufrock @ Present and was a shot of the Square Mile Summer Espresso. It was quite literally breath-taking. In fact... I think I simply wandered somewhat shell-shocked from the business without even commenting to Gwilym (or thanking him). I might still have had the demi in my hand for all I know. It was one of the top 5 shots of espresso in my life. Thank you Gwilym. Thank you Anette. Thank you James. In general, I would say that the coffee is slightly better than the coffee in San Francisco. It seems like the biggest weakness in London is on the roasting side. There were a ton of shops that seemed to know how to pull decent to good shots (far far more than what we have in SF). But the vast majority of these shops serve Square Mile. That's great in the sense that I like their coffee. But it's bad in that there is no range as a result. There is no competitive play. And that hurts coffee in London IMHO.

Amsterdam

I arrived at Stumptown to discover that the espresso machine had broken down just prior to my visit - and to discover that I was hitting the coffee bar on the second to last day. Feeling a bit like some sort of coffee Angel of Death - I tried to help diagnose the problem with the machine. After several experiments we actually managed to get the machine back on line at the right temp. And as a result... my visit to Amsterdam started off with a lovely shot of Hairbender.

After the first couple of hours in Amsterdam the Stumptown pop-up suddenly made sense to me in many new ways - while also clearly not making sense in a few new ways. I'd never spent real time in Amsterdam - especially not in the area Stumptown was located in. That part of Amsterdam on a sunny summer afternoon is stunning and wonderful. Everything - from the design sensibility to the cultural values; from the pace of life to the street culture; from the beer cafes to the coffeeshops -- it all says "a coffee bar like Stumptown will fit RIGHT in here." And then I ate some food. And then I had coffee at a different coffee bar. And then I tried dinner at what was said to be a very good restaurant. And I saw the problem. While Amsterdam is culturally a great fit for a Stumptown location - there is an enormous disconnect under it all. Stumptown is about flavour as well as experience and values. The food and coffee in Amsterdam make it clear that flavour is far far lower in importance.

I think there is something important to learn from this. I think that a coffee business that is about experience and values (and who has a great match-up with Dutch values and culture) would do incredibly well in Amsterdam. But I think a business that is first and foremost about taste is going to struggle.

Summing up

I think we're about to see a radical change in coffee in Europe. It's already started in London - where the coffee has progressed more in the last 5 years than I could have believed possible. I think that it's possible to see the same changes occur in Paris and in numerous other European cities as well. Eventually, cities like Amsterdam will also likely become viable markets for change.

If I were going to start a new coffee business right now - I'd start it in Europe.

Heresy?

Yes... I admit it. I plead guilty.

I pulled shots of espresso using the Stumptown Panama Esmeralda Especial Mario Carnaval.

And I don't regret it.

Not for one minute.

I can hear you right now... "you pulled shots with a high grown, washed geisha?!?! one that is auction only?!?! and which sells for $75 for 12oz!!!!!!"

Yes.

And it was fucking glorious.

Initial impact is the aromatics. Orange blossom, bergamot, jasmine, grapefruit zest. As you sip there is a rapid double hit of flavours. First you get intense fruit - tangerine and navel orange and mandarin. Then this is followed immediately by intense orange blossom honey that coats the entire palate. The honey softens into papaya with lime and the inimitable moscato d'asti flavours. At the finish a lovely sweet cocoa note appears and the lingering aftertaste is droste orange and champagne and lime blossom.

It's not fair to rank this in terms of espressos I've had.

Instead I'm going to rank it as a coffee experience - against all coffee experiences.

It was in the top 5 coffee experiences in the last year for me (a year with a lot of great coffee experiences) and in the top 10 in my life.

So no... I have to regrets and I offer no remorse.

Should you be tempted to be as crazy / criminal as I may have been - here would be my suggestion for how to prepare this coffee as an espresso:

200f brew temp

19.5g dose (LM or Simonelli double basket)

very slow flow

95% brew ratio

1.25oz volume

29s extraction