Coffee Brewing

Last month I finally got my act together and looked at a few of the monthly newsletters I get and decided to find something that I've wanted to do, but never make the time for.

So l decided to visit Tom's Flagship store in Venice for a free coffee brewing demonstration, brief video of one of the pourings. This was right on the heels of our My Life Simply Sweet event and the maiden voyage of the coffee tasting. So I was super jazzed about what to do next.

Guess what, I was the only one who showed up.  Seriously, I got a private brewing session for free. I love this store by the way. A few years ago my manager gifted all of us a gift certificate to Tom's. I love that he always gave a gift that gives back. The flagship store in Venice is cool.  It's got a cafe in the front with all their shoes, sunglasses spread on the side and in the back, now they also have there Marketplace merchandise. By the way they make more money on cafe sales then the merchandise, go figure. This store has been set up as a community place so coffee sales are ok with them.

At this location there is outdoor seating in the back, right next to places to try on the shoes. Plus a cool area for your dogs to chill, cause that's how we do in Venice. One afternoon when I went in and walked out back to the patio. It was like things were moving in slo-mo that day. Everyone was super quiet, and seriously looked like they were high. In the middle of that were a few suits, as in men dressed in suits, having a serious meeting, but all whispering. I was thinking what the...is going on. That didn't deter me, actually intrigued me.

So I made sure to show up for the brewing session. Tovara the manager at the store and coffee expert showed 3 ways to brew coffee using a few different pour over methods. I learned so much (rinse the filter, blooming the grounds, and there is an app to help you out so you know how long to bloom and brew). I can't wait to have a demonstration for a few friends. My favorite was the Chemex. For one, the coffee tasted great, and two, the Chemex is super cool and pretty to do the whole process. SB thinks I'm nuts and won't have the patience for it. It's all about the art people. ART!

So tonight is Coffee Tasting at Tom's Flagship store. This time I roped in a few friends to join me.  Should be a fun no matter what, time to enjoy.

Coffee Tasting #mylifesimplysweet

For our first Fall tasting event we decided we would do a coffee tasting. Stumptown Coffee Roasters gladly supplied a few of their amazing coffees for the tasting. If you haven't checked them out here in L.A. they just opened a store in Downtown, see my visit here. You'll love their coffee and the cool vibe of the place.

Mind you this was my first ever coffee tasting, which is surprising considering how much I love it. I asked around at local coffee roasters for the best way to go about this. Cupping is the method that most are doing, it's really for the experts. So I decided to use a French Press method. This way it's something that everyone can easily duplicate. I borrowed and bought a few French Presses for the occasion.

As I didn't want to make this too formal and stop the party flow, we discreetly mentioned to everyone that it was time do to the tasting if they were interested. We had an even mix of men and women who participated.  I supplied the coffee mugs from Anthropologie and typed up the instructions as follows: 

Tasting Instructions 

Step 1: Take a Cup and Piece of Paper

Step 2: Pour a little Coffee & Taste

Step 3: Write Down Notes Next to # 

Step 4: Pick Your Favorite

Step 5: Revelation of Brand (End of Night) 

Before the party I prepared the notes by staining this cute paper from Anna Rifle Paper Co. purchased from Anthropologie with a few coffee cup marks. Funny thing happened at the party a few of my friends sorted thru the papers to find a clean one, finally realizing that I purposely stained them. Oh I love you guys!

The other thing I did was make this a blind coffee tasting. I put #'s on all the French Presses and put the coffee in Paper Bags all numbered as well. This way if anyone moved a pot of coffee around we still knew which brand it was.  All together I had 7 coffee's to taste. In the future I think I'd pick 5 at the most. 

Here's the set-up: 

The last photo is the reveal. Gather everyone who tasted the coffee and made notes. One by one reveal what brand is in the bag. You can read a few coffee notes from the tasters and any notes you have from the brands yourself. It's up to you how formal you want this to be.

One of the great things during the tasting is it really stimulated conversation between everyone. It wasn't as easy as I thought to come up with descriptive words on what you were tasting. Maybe next time I'll put some adjectives or teaser words around to help that out. Maybe notes from the coffee roasters.

Another thing I learned, is you need something to cleanse your palate. Water maybe, well I had Acorn shaped sugar cookies to put out. Which warranted one comment on Coffee #6 "Good with Cookies."  Hmmm?

What brands of coffee did I use?  Los Angeles has quite a coffee scene these days with a few local coffee roasters and the newly opened Stumptown Coffee, based in Portland. My suggestion is use local coffee roasters and brands, make it easy for your guest to go out and buy their favorites.

So here's what we tasted and there was no clear winner. I expected that, it's like wine, it's what taste good to you.

#1 Handsome Coffee Roasters - Cristobal Fernandez

#2 Stumptown Coffee Roasters - Hair Bender

#3 Intelligentsia - Organic La Perla Oaxaca Mexico

#4 Handsome Coffee Roasters - Los Girasoles

#5 Groundwork - Black Gold

#6 Folgers (I had to throw in a basic less booszchee brand) 

#7 Stumptown Coffee Roasters - Holler Mountain

Throw in a basic coffee that you can get at your local grocery store. This makes for a fun evening and teasing. My fellow coffee snob and occasional blogger Roger happened to pick Folgers and well we can't stop teasing the poor man. Here's his notes:

We couldn't let people leave without trying Stumptown Coffee who was so kind as to supply us a few bags of coffee for the tasting. This meant we sent everyone home with a bag of beans. #mylifesimplysweet

Stumptown Open in Los Angeles

I am outside my one post per day. But I found out Stumptown Coffee Roasters opened up in Los Angeles yesterday.  Location is 806 S. Sante Fe, in Downtown LA.  I love this new space, can't say I am super glad it's in DTLA. Would love something closer to the Westside, cause as you all know it takes hours sometimes to go 10 miles here.

LA Times photographer was there today and there should be something online at LATIMES.com this afternoon about the opening. Great space, tall ceilings, amazing roasting machines.  It's all industrial with warm wood tones and that's just the decor. 

I need a these lamps AND I need a space where I could hang these too. 

On to the coffee. There are nice choices, I've already done a mini tasting of the coffee during my camping trip here. So I'm familiar with a few of the blends. I ordered a Latte, it was milky smooth, but I think I'll be moving back to Macchiato's, I'm not such a milk person these days, I just enjoy the jolt of the beans by themselves.

Oh and treats a Maple BACON scone. And yes there was a piece of bacon on top. I couldn't order it, GUILT, but I will when I go back when I feel less guilty.

I am going to call this image above the Stumptown Coffee Roasters Rolls Royce. It is a beautiful machine for brewing the espresso. 

Digging there logo and well I got so excited about drinking this I mixed the latte art with my raw sugar. Oh well. 

Products peeps, I love mugs, and tin camping mugs even more.  

Wish you were here enjoying a great

cup of coffee with me in this new #DTLA

Stumptown Coffee location.

Cheers Tanya. 

Mindless Monday

Remember the saying "Weekends were made for Michelob," well not so much. I actually don't like Michelob, and really not sure if they still make beer. I'll have to ask the beer snob in my house. And I just asked, he's sitting right next to me. and he said yes they still make it and he cringed,  He thought he was "high class" back in the day when he drank that Michelob Dry. Times have changed.

My weekends are marathon runs. Trying to be outside as much as possible, especially as I work from home, we all need to get outside of our daily environments.  This past weekend, and mine starts on Friday, was full of trying to get back into my regular routine. Well, it didn't really even start, I had one day of a sort of regular routine. In a few weeks I'll try again, cause it ain't going to happen in the next two weeks.

I did get to stop at my current favorite coffee place, Groundwork. Are you starting to see a coffee theme to this blog, I am. I love Groundwork and this sliver of a location is my favorite, the other one on Rose is much bigger, but I like the "one person" wide space on Main Street in Santa Monica. I usually get a Mocha, and that's unusual for me. But they make it so well, not to sweet and not to milky, just the right combo. This week I choose a Machiatto...i needed the jolt of espresso with just a dollop of milk. It was perfect start to the weekend. Hope your week is off to a great start. It's definitely cooler in LA today so that's a good thing. Enjoy this September day.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters

In a few months my fellow bloggers and I are doing an event that will include a coffee tasting.  The good folks at Stumptown Coffee Roasters have already agreed to submit there coffee for this tasting. This past Labor Day weekend we went camping a perfect place to try some new coffee. Thanks to Stumptown we had the opportunity to try some amazing coffees. I'm kicking myself for not purchasing the camping coffee mugs, they are perfect. They will be going in my camping kit for the next time.

The two we tried were Ethiopia Mordecofe (I kept calling this one Mordecai, as in the bible character) and Holler Mountain.

Incidentally my fellow coffee aficionado, Gita, also gifted Ethiopia Mordecofe to me on our last visit to San Jose. She's up in Seattle and has been bragging about Stumptown for a few months. We have our own little coffee exchange, I sent her a bag of Handsome Coffee Roaster beans she brought me Stumptown.

Ethiopia Mordecofe definitely has a fruity taste. Can I say, seriously, tasting coffee out in the woods, before everyone is awake, just opens all the senses. Aaron, as in the other half of Deborah at my.life.at.playtime loved this one. He's a tea snob and after I read the flavor notes, which include black tea, orange blossom and bergamot which converge (their word) with flavors of lime, peach and hops. I told him you like it cause it has flavors of black tea. This is a good cup of coffee that everyone enjoyed. I think Gita mixed it with some Handsome Coffee and said it was mind blowingly good.

The second bag we tried was Holler Mountain, I really liked this blend. It went perfect with french toast and bacon. The flavor notes are syrupy, with notes of blackberry, hazelnut and toffee. We brewed these coffees two different ways. We used a French Press above from Target (only $12) and brewed the other in old fashion percolator.

I can't wait till the official coffee tasting where we all can take notes on each coffee and pick our favorites. I figure it's like wine or art, it's subjective and really your taste.  Thanks to Stumptown for letting me try these coffee's before the big event. I might be slightly biased now to Stumptown, which isn't a bad thing, since they'll be opening in LA very soon.