happy holidays to all

to all the friends i love, to all the friends i miss...
to all the people who love coffee, and to all the pros who live it...

may your beans be fresh, your shots be honey thick and sweet and your milk like velveteen
may your roasts be on the dot, your customers overtip and your employees out-perform

happy holidays

it's possible that the holiday rush is winding down
craziness

i'm really proud of the baristas and all the employees of stumptown. this is the hardest time of year to work retail, everyone has been working ridiculous hours and business has been record-setting. in spite of this, in spite of the high level of stress and irritability of a percentage of customers this time of year, people have kept professional and kept having fun.
it's been awesome to watch.

i worked a great (partial) shift yesterday at the Belmont location. super fun. a great crew, fun customers... i had a really good time.

we sold out of the Panama Esmerelda. there is no more. it's amazing how many people have come in during the last two days looking for it.

mayhem!!

in the last week, there have been bits about Stumptown in all three major Portland newspapers. and this is the super busy pre-Christmas weekend -- traditionally a very busy weekend for whole bean sales. and thus... the perfect storm.

i don't have the numbers, but i think that yesterday was the busiest day in the history of the Stumptown cafes.

i worked at the downtown location and it was pretty sick. we sold a huge amount of coffee. the cool thing was that we sold very little French Roast and instead sold a ton of Cup of Excellence coffees. talk about a nice change!! in fact, i think we may have sold more of the amazing, rare and expensive Panama Esmerelda than we did French! super cool. i pulled shots for a while as well which was so much fun. i love being a barista - but working with great espresso (the Hairbender is so sweet) and a dream machine (LOVE the Mistral) and with other baristas who simply kick ass... dream come true.

without the caliber of staff we have, no way would we have survived yesterday. and that's a great feeling.

i'm going to work downtown again today, and Kyle Larson is going to be joining me for his "intro" (talk about tossed into the deep end). should be super fun.

oh... and the Dupont Avec Les Bon Voeux is on tap downtown. mmmm....