Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sticker Challenge - ONGOING!

I challenged you to design a sticker that represents the DoubleShot and a few of you responded.  I like what I see thus far.  I have printed a few of the first two stickers:  one from Andrew Saliga and one from BJ Zorn.  
I'm still taking design submissions.  If I like your design, I'll print at least 100 stickers and give you a pound of coffee beans.  
I'm looking for variety in submissions.  If you can make it cool and graffiti-style by drawing it with a sharpie on an express mail sticker, then that's what you got.  Give it to me.  I might think it sucks, but I'd still like to see it.
I have a couple more stickers going to the printer soon.  I'll keep you updated.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Beef

I love beef.
Ever since I started buying my steaks at Harvard Meat Market, I haven't been able to enjoy steak from restaurants or the grocery store.  No matter how much I want a piece of beef, if I don't have time to go to HMM, I'm foregoing it until I can get the real thing.  It's that good.
For a long time I've understood that there are numerous factors that influence the taste of everything I eat and drink.  Learning about coffee has taught me that.  So when I think about beer, I think about the variability that must exist in the taste of the wheat, barley, hops, and many other ingredients.  Things that appear to be commodities are actually variable lots that industries strive to standardize.  Beef is the same.  It's much like coffee.  Where the cow is raised, what it eats, how it is treated, the breed of cow, how it is butchered, and what aging it goes through are some of the factors that influence the steak on your plate.
Yesterday I was driving back from a mountain bike race and I listened to a couple podcasts on the way.  The podcasts were from Food Philosophy, a podcast produced by a woman named Jennifer Iannolo.  I really enjoy the audio podcasts she does, and I think you'd like them to.  The one in particular I'm referring to now is number 83, entitled "What's Your Beef?"  She interviews a woman named Carrie Oliver from Oliver Ranch.  Carrie started something called the Artisan Beef Institute, which is an organization to educate people and try to understand the variety of flavors and textures in various types of cows and production methods.  The things she talked about made me really happy.  There are many parallels to coffee and what we do here at the DoubleShot.  If you have time, you should listen to the podcast.  I'm going to order an Artisan Steak Tasting kit from Carrie's website- consisting of four cuts of beef from four different farms and types of cow.  I can't wait.

Here are some links:

Imagine how good these steaks would be paired with the right coffees...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Twitter!

If you're a twitter person and you want to know the snippets of what is going on at the DoubleShot, we're finally on it.  You can find us here:  http://twitter.com/thedoubleshot
I didn't really know what twitter was and when I started doing some investigation, I read Lance Armstrong's twitter and he talks about going to eat dinner with friends and about getting out of the shower and being really tired and stuff.  And I don't care.  So I promise never to tell you that about myself.  Follow me!

We're having another latte art competition here May 7 at 7p.  If you want to compete, there's a $5 buy-in and we're going head-to-head, two people pour- one person steps down.  If you're a cheater, don't bother.  But if you're interested, go to the webpage and let me know:  http://www.doubleshotcoffee.com/LatteArt
Come watch.  Last time the house was packed and it was a great event.  If you can't make it, we'll be streaming live on the web.  Look at the page mentioned above.  Thanks to David Rechter for helping out with video and he also taught Isaiah how to pour a chicken.

One more thing.  The coffee I sourced in Colombia finally came in.  It's called Finca San Rafael.  Alfredo Correa is the farmer.  The coffee is fantastic.  Hear about it on the last AA Cafe podcast.

Any questions?

Friday, April 17, 2009

Fresh Quotes

A few quotes about coffee freshness from some people I respect:

"The bottom line? Freshly roasted coffee sold within a week of roasting is best."
-Espresso: Ultimate Coffee 2nd Edition - Kenneth Davids, page 83

"But roasted coffee begins to lose flavor after a week, ground coffee an hour after grinding, and brewed coffee in minutes, even seconds."
-Espresso: Ultimate Coffee 2nd Edition - Kenneth Davids, page 101

"The main point, regardless of what roast or origin you choose, is to get freshly roasted coffee at frequent intervals, buying only what you plan to use in the coming week or so. Otherwise, your coffee will get stale, no matter how great it was to start with."
-Uncommon Grounds - Mark Pendergrast, page 429

Schomer is the most straightforward of them. Chapter 10 of his book "Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques" is dedicated solely to freshness.

"Under ideal storage conditions, roasted whole bean coffee remains fresh for no more than ten days after roasting. Use it or lose it in ten days. That's the rule."

"Espresso made from beans over ten days old has less crema and creates a lighter density that is not heavy enough to hang from the spouts like it should. The espresso will suck in a bit off the bottom of the spout from surface tension."

-Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques, David C. Schomer, page 69

(Thanks to Matt Henthorn for looking these up.)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

DoubleShot Menu

I think a lot of people get the wrong idea of who we are because our menu is different.  I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I sometimes have to ask questions to figure out what customers are trying to order.  To me, it's simple.  I decided what drinks we are going to serve and I put them on the menu.  When you come in, you can look up there and see what we offer, what sizes are available, and decide what you want.  Of course, people are encouraged to ask questions and if someone shows interest in coffee, we are excited to tell them about it.  So to me, it seems easy and obvious.  If I walked into a sandwich shop, I wouldn't just walk up to the counter and say, "give me a BLT, but put an extra slice of bacon on it.  And american cheese."  If I don't look at the menu, I don't know if they even have a BLT.  If I haven't gotten the BLT there before I don't know how much bacon they usually put on it and putting cheese on it before I even try it the way they serve it seems a little presumptuous on my part.  I guess people are so used to going to nondescript, unoriginal "coffeeshops" that didn't put one bit of thought into their business and don't really care about their product, that customers think they're all the same.

So sometimes people walk in and say, "give me a macchiato."  We don't make macchiatos.  They're not on our menu.  Espresso?  Latte?  Cup of coffee?  We make those.  But we don't make every single drink there is to make.  That's not our shtick.  We make a few drinks really well.  
We have two sizes of hot drinks:  Small and Large.  10- and 16-ounce.  The small drink has two shots of espresso and the large has four.  We have one size of cold drink, 16-ounce.  We put four shots in iced lattes but only two shots in it if you ask for a flavored one.  We serve double espressos.  But not to go, only in a ceramic demitasse.  

You walk in and order an iced soy latte with an "extra shot"...  Sometimes we just make it the way we always make it without saying anything:  ice, soy milk, four shots of espresso.  Sometimes we ask for clarification such as, "how many shots did you want in it?"  Obviously this is a bit of a loaded question.  The answer is usually, "Uh, I don't know."  Or "Uhhhhh, two?"  Clearly these are people who haven't really been to the DoubleShot before.  The way we make coffee is the way we think it tastes best and we hope that people will like it the way we make it.  Notice I said "tastes best."  We're not trying to juice you up with a bunch of caffeine, but trying to give you a pleasurable coffee-drinking experience.  If people didn't go to crappy coffeeshops that put one shot in a 12-ounce latte and two in a 20-ounce, they wouldn't have to ask for an extra shot.  The extra shot thing is a ploy anyway.  They cheat you on espresso so you have to ask for an extra shot, which is an up-charge.  It ends up costing you way more than you'll pay for a superbly-crafter drink at the DoubleShot.  

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is we're trying to serve you great drinks.  We put them on the menu the way we think they are the greatest.  Give them a try that way.  If you want, after that politely ask us to modify.  We'll try to educate you and influence you to really think about the taste of the drink at that point, but keep in mind we work really hard to bring you outstanding coffees and hate to see them compromised.  

Wow, that got long and involved.  I was trying to explain our menu.
We don't do "shot in the dark" or "red eye" or "depth charge" or whatever you call it.  It's because we've spent a lot of time creating the espresso blend and we still spend time tweaking it to taste right.  Indiscriminately adding a random coffee to the mix will not make for a good drink; try an americano instead.  
We don't have frozen drinks.  No blender.  Only iced.

I'm sure there's more stuff we don't have, but I can't think of them right now (or have never heard of them).  I hope this answers your questions.  Do you have questions?

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Shelley Olds!



The DoubleShot must be doing something right. Superstar cyclist Shelley Olds has been drinking our coffee for the last couple years (not coincidentally, during her rise to stardom). I could see it in her the first time I saw her feet go around in circles- this girl is amazing.
The first year of Tulsa Tough I rode my bike over to the Friday night crits in the Blue Dome district and watched the girls warm up for their race. Somewhere in there I spotted Shelley Olds and I picked my winner. I watched her the whole race and cheered for her as she passed. And then I met her and her boyfriend Rob that night at the SoundPony.
I've been talking to Shelley and Rob and following Shelley's racing career since then. I know she's worked really hard and suffered her share of adversity, and she has overcome. If you meet her, you'll see what I'm talking about- she's a champion and I'm a big fan.

Last year she had three podium finishes at Tulsa Tough and was 2nd overall. She'll be back next month to lay some more wood.

Shelley was very excited to be able to race in the World Cup track races in 2008. Of course she raced hard and had some amazing performances. And was selected as the only woman from the US to race in the Track Cycling World Championships in Poland, which was last week. She narrowly avoided a crash in one race, which you can see video of here.
Shelley is the one who has her rear wheel kicked sideways by a dismounted rider sliding down the track. She wasn't so lucky in another race, where she unfortunately went down. I can't imagine what it's like to race with the fastest people in the world as hard as you can around a little track, with people taking more risk than usual because it's the biggest race of the year. Intense.
Anyway, there is a lot of info and pictures out there about Shelley. You should check out her site: ShelleyOlds.com
And Rob's site has links to a lot of Shelley-O pics.
I think the press link on Shelley's site is well worth the read. Stories, interviews and videos of Shelley that describe her personality and aspirations more than anything.

What does this all have to do with the DoubleShot? We're a sponsor of the great Shelley Olds. Check this out.

Just thought you'd like to know. Keep track of Shelley's racing, and be sure to come out and meet her at Tulsa Tough, May 29-31.