Moab's Daily Grind
Last time I was in Moab I blogged about just about every coffee place in town. When I got home, I got an email from the owner of Moab's Daily Grind asking that next time I'm here, I come try their coffee and blog about their place.
Well, last night when I was at the Brewery, I met some people (some locals, some not) and one girl, Rachel, was asking where to get good coffee in town. I chuckled. The guy next to me, Will, who seemed like a great guy, informed us that if you wanted really HOT coffee, you should go to Wicked Brew. If you want something less hot, you should go to the Daily Grind. Interesting. He also asked (in reference to the Daily Grind), "Do you like chocolate and orange?" I'm not sure what that means.
So I went there this morning. It's a drive-through. The girl working was cute and informative. I ordered an americano. She said they use Colorado Legacy coffee from Grand Junction and pull it through a Rancilio 2-group, using what looked like a Mazzer-type grinder. I watched the pour.
Not too long ago, Joe brought a couple coffees to me to try. One was a week-old espresso blend from Espresso Vivace (owned by David Schomer, who is one of the people who influenced me in my learning) and the other was a year-old bag of the same. An experiment. The fresh stuff was good. Spicy, nutty, a little acidic, a little punchy, but totally drinkable. The old stuff poured out of the machine like water out of a hydrant. There was no controlling this stuff. I tightened the grind down to slow the pour, but there just was no oil or crema or anything to impede the force of the water through the grouphead. And it tasted terrible.
The pour at the Daily Grind also poured like water and it had about 2mm of crema on top. It clearly wasn't a year old, but it was old. Stale. Rancid. It didn't taste nearly as bad as Schomer's year-old espresso, but it just tastes flat, boring, sour, weak, Folger-ish.
So that's that. They did have a cute little monkey sticker over the hole, like the very popular DoubleShot icon stickers that keep coffee from sloshing all over your console. So that was a bonus. And did I mention the girl barista was cute?
Well, last night when I was at the Brewery, I met some people (some locals, some not) and one girl, Rachel, was asking where to get good coffee in town. I chuckled. The guy next to me, Will, who seemed like a great guy, informed us that if you wanted really HOT coffee, you should go to Wicked Brew. If you want something less hot, you should go to the Daily Grind. Interesting. He also asked (in reference to the Daily Grind), "Do you like chocolate and orange?" I'm not sure what that means.
So I went there this morning. It's a drive-through. The girl working was cute and informative. I ordered an americano. She said they use Colorado Legacy coffee from Grand Junction and pull it through a Rancilio 2-group, using what looked like a Mazzer-type grinder. I watched the pour.
Not too long ago, Joe brought a couple coffees to me to try. One was a week-old espresso blend from Espresso Vivace (owned by David Schomer, who is one of the people who influenced me in my learning) and the other was a year-old bag of the same. An experiment. The fresh stuff was good. Spicy, nutty, a little acidic, a little punchy, but totally drinkable. The old stuff poured out of the machine like water out of a hydrant. There was no controlling this stuff. I tightened the grind down to slow the pour, but there just was no oil or crema or anything to impede the force of the water through the grouphead. And it tasted terrible.
The pour at the Daily Grind also poured like water and it had about 2mm of crema on top. It clearly wasn't a year old, but it was old. Stale. Rancid. It didn't taste nearly as bad as Schomer's year-old espresso, but it just tastes flat, boring, sour, weak, Folger-ish.
So that's that. They did have a cute little monkey sticker over the hole, like the very popular DoubleShot icon stickers that keep coffee from sloshing all over your console. So that was a bonus. And did I mention the girl barista was cute?
posted by Brian at 9:40 AM
2 Comments:
Brian, thank you so much for your blog, it was nice to finally get some outside opinion on the quality and service of our coffee shop (even if it wasn't too positive). We have since made improvements, including the purchase of a new espresso machine and other equipment. We are also ordering our espresso weekly rather than monthly as before (explains the "old" taste). We have also put several of our baristas through formal training. I would like to comment that the espresso we use is from Lighthouse Roasters. We only get our drip coffee from Colorado Legacy. The improvements must have paid off, because in the last year our business has tripled, and we get many, many compliments about the quality of our coffee. Our local clientele is firmly established. By the way, if it was me who was working, thanks for the "cute girl" comment. Carrie Alexander
Hey Carrie.
Thanks for posting on the blog. Not sure how you found my blog in the first place, but I'm glad you did. I'm somehow surprised that you are looking for criticism and trying to "fix" what you think can be better. That's fantastic.
I've never had Lighthouse coffee, but I hear really good things about it. Hopefully I'll get to try it at your place next time I'm in Moab; and hopefully that will be soon.
Might I make a suggestion? You should check out Novo Coffee (novocoffee.com). They are in Denver, owned by the Brodsky family. They do amazing work sourcing supergrade coffees- super high-end stuff. If nothing else, you might think about adding one of their coffees to your offerings each week as a special, more expensive drip coffee (or presspot). Make sure you're brewing it correctly; would be a shame to ruin such great coffee.
Anyway, I'd love to send you a couple bags of my coffee and see what you think- you can give me some reciprocal feedback.
Brian
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