Dr. Suess visits Brewed

The thing is, I don’t write well, so I think, “What’s the use?”

Maybe folks will dig my blog, if i write like Dr. Seuss.

I’m here at Brewed Awakenings, a quiet Friday night.

Thinking a Sidamo press would hit the spot just right.

Lovely Brooke, she hooked me up, and served me with a smile.

I think, perhaps, i’ll grab a chair and stick around a while.

Chris is drinking something he invented on the spot,

Strawberry chocolate something, i’ll NOT have what he’s got.

Brooke said he should add some cream to see how it would taste -

It only changed the color, and the cream has gone to waste.

New coffee is available, we just restocked the shelf,

The  iPod song  just thanked me for letting it be itself.

Now we have some Elton John, a super-mix for you…

So far I’ve heard some Steppenwolf, Prince and Blondie, too.

What an awesome place to sit and study, drink and chat.

Come down to Brewed Awakenings, and you’ll be where it’s at.

The password is…

I’ve got a secret for you all.

Warm-up your winking eye, practice your secret knocks, and start spreading the word in a whisper:

The most caffeinated drink in town is back just in time for finals and long summer days!

We’re keeping this intense and delicious little gem underground, but here’s a little hint just between you and me—X marks the spot at Brewed Awakenings!

Journey of a Guitar String

If you stop into Brewed often, you know we sell local artisans’ goods. A popular seller is Jewelry by Natalie. Natalie is the younger sister of a former employee of ours. She is a very creative teenager with a great stylish eye.

I noticed in her recent batch of jewelry that she had hoop earrings. Hoop earrings are not anything we’ve ever received from Natalie, and honestly, I was a little underwhelmed. It wasn’t until the other morning that in the background I heard our Leta tell Nate that she was buying a pair of Natalie’s earrings that were made from guitar strings. Surely I was hearing her wrong…guitar strings! Usually our other local artisan jeweler, Carissa, does crazy things with guitar pics & the like.

Since I’m not a guitar player, like Leta, I would have never known that indeed these earrings were made from guitar strings. Thanks for the education on guitar strings, Leta.  And way to go Natalie for taking your creativity to another level!

So, you, too, can follow the journey of this guitar string from a guitar, to Natalie’s hands, to our shelves & onto lovely Leta’s lobes. You  may even want to buy yourself a pair.

Check them out below:

Drink it up!

Dear Customers,

We apologize for our lapse in blogging. This will be remedied starting today. We promise to be more fervent bloggers. Really. 

To make it up to you, we have started daily drink specials at Brewed(Our 1st Avenue location only!). 

Mocha Mondays: Buy a 16 oz Mocha and we will upgrade you to a 20 oz Mocha for FREE.

Toddy Tuesdays: Buy a 16 oz Toddy and we will upgrade you to a 20 oz Toddy for FREE.

Working Wednesdays: Present your work ID or business card when you buy lunch at Brewed and get the REFILL price on your brewed coffee.

Triple Thursday: Make your espresso drink a Triple Shot & we will make it a QUAD for no extra charge.

For Here Fridays: Come after 6pm with 3 or more people & get your order 10% off when you order FOR HERE.

Soda Saturdays: Happy Hour Pricing on all Italian Sodas all day long!

History

The last few months have gone by quickly. Here are some of the highlights:

We had another cupping where we focused on roast dates and freshness.

Meg & Josh attended the SCAA’s national trade show which featured the United States Barista Championships.

The trade show consists of strolling around the floor, checking out the latest gadgets, downin’ tons of ’spro, and catching up with friends.

We have talented artists at Brewed and two of them (Mona & Meg) went to work on our new “Happy Hour & French Press” menu board.

We are offering our favorite drinks at happy prices from 3 – 6 PM, Monday thru Friday. And we now have a plethora of stellar coffees to choose from off of our French Press menu! Now coffee geeks and freaks can have more of a “brew bar” experience.

Stay tuned for more exciting additions!

Coffee Happy Hour at Brewed

Take a break from your work or your studying and come to Brewed from 3 – 6 pm for our Happy Hour. We serve “Happy” drinks at “Happy” prices Monday through Friday.  This might be the perfect opportunity for you to try a new drink, like a Beatnik or a Cold Press Toddy.  These drinks will change from time to time, making it possible for you to try out as many drinks as you like(and save money while you are at it)!  

January Cupping

We recently hosted our third public cupping. Our topic was on the seasonality of coffee. Like always, Branden reached into his brain and pulled out interesting coffee information. Information that just might improve your coffee drinking life.

PT’s sent us green samples of all the coffee that we were cupping for the day which we compared to the roasted beans.

We wanted to choose coffees that recently went through their harvest season which is why two of our choices were coffees from Colombia. Colombia’s peak harvest time is between October and December. It can take somewhere between 1 to 4 months for that coffee to arrive stateside. Time diminishes the quality of coffee, even green coffee, so we wanted to try to cup coffees that were (hopefully) coming fresh off harvest.

The Colombia Huila El Palacio hammed it up and was the crowd favorite. We also cupped Colombia Narino Reserva Del Patron, El Salvador Los Planes Pacamara, and El Salvador El Molino Orange Bourbon.

It was friendly and jovial as usual. We are already tossing around ideas for next month’s cupping. If you are interested please feel free to contact me at jmarsceau@gmail.com

Public Cupping

Awhile ago we held our second public cupping. These events are educational, informative, and MINDBLOWING.

We are cupping 5 coffees today. They are: Costa Rica El Patio (C.O.E #20), Costa Rica Carrazal (C.O.E. #5), Panama Carmen Estate, Panama Elida Estate, and Ethiopia Sidamo Natural. Mis-education point #1: All coffee tastes the same so why the specifics? What’s the difference? I’ve gotten a few snide remarks from blowhards when asked to choose from a Sumatra Blue Batak or a Kenya AA Kieni. They smirk, they chuckle….”what’s the difference?har har har.” So one of our goals today with this cupping is to show that there are distinct differences in coffee. Comparing Sumatra Blue Batak to Kenya AA Kieni would be too easy so we decided to blow it open and show the differences that can be found within…the…..same….country. WHOA! Thus the reasoning behind cupping 2 different estate coffees from Panama and Costa Rica.

Not only are we learning about coffee we are also learning about the process and history of cupping. Branden is sort of our Coffee Phantom of the Opera and has a plethra of coffee knowledge and information. He also talks about what Cup of Excellence coffee is since two of our coffees featured today are C.O.E. awarded.

We had a good time, we got along marvelously and decided that the fun must go on….so went down the street and had a cheeseburger cupping at Xavier’s.

Our next cupping is scheduled for January 26th. You can e-mail jmarsceau@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like to attend.

COMPS & social events

Friday, Saturday and Sunday are competition days for the NWBC. I am judging on Friday and competing in the Millrock Latte Art competition on Saturday.

The Rambler and I are sensory judges. I’m a little nervous and anxious. The competitors put a lot of time, money and passion into their routines. As a judge it is important that I’m focused for their sake.

The first round goes by quickly. I judged three competitors and our team of sensory judges are consistent and calibrated and that is about good as you can get. The competition continues throughout the weekend but I am officially finished on Friday. I learned a lot from the experience and I am eager to judge again.

So next up for me is the Millrock Latte Art competition. The stakes have been raised and first prize is $5,000. There are 50 people from all over the country competing. This competition is a little different from past competitions. The judges will not be able to see who is pouring the designs that they will be judging. The goal is to take part of the human element out of the scores (just because “Brad Pitt” is pouring doesn’t mean “Brad Pitt” should be in the finals, unless he has a worthy pour…then by all means “Brad Pitt” should be in the finals). This is a good change for some of us who are coming from Nowhere City and are somewhat new to the scene. But you gotta put a good pour down to advance. Unfortunately my pour was not enough to get me into the finals. Bummer. First and second place went to two baristas from Vancouver and third place went to Justin Teisl of Milwaukee. Directly after the competition I got to hang with my old friend Betsie and her baby Ramona (and her other baby, Allen). It was great to see them and it helped clear the grey skies.

In the evenings Coffeefest is put on hold and invitations to parties are extended. Zoka and Stumptown are hosting the big parties of the weekend. There are large spreads of food, drinks and people mingling. There is also a traveling cash kitty going around for the winner of the Bring Your Own Vessel latte art competition. The Rambler throws down a nice design in a 1960’s vintage T.V. lamp…plugged in. Groovy. It’s enough to put him in second place and a chance for the cash prize at Stumptown. But how will he top it?

The next night is Stumptown’s party. It is packed and loud and eerily similar to a high school kegger….Hipsterville High School and you get the feeling that any moment now a pilot on WB will appear based on moments like this. Thankfully Betsie comes along to keep me grounded as well as the Rambler and his lovely lady Sarah. The Rambler brought a different vessel (rhymes with “rondom”) and it doesn’t get the kind of reaction we were expecting (I totally missed it). We went home and ate cold pizza and were lucky to escape with our dignity still in tact….

…well most of us. Just kidding Rambler! I thought it was brilliant, they were just h8ing on you.

But jokes and low-blows aside, I had tremendous experiences during my 4 day Coffeefest weekend. I learned and laughed and made good friends. Thanks so much to Keith (the Rambler!) and Sarah…..

…. for hosting me and hurry up and visit me in Iowa (you too Betsie)! Po’ Po’ Iowa where cappuccino and gas stations are synonymous. But we’re trying to change that.

The Wrangler Rides Into Seattle

It’s Coffeefest time and it’s happening in the CoffeeGeekdom known as Seattle. I’m here for a few reasons: 1) to Geek 2) to judge in the barista competition 3) to pour in the latte art competition 4) because I love coffee.

Coffeefest begins for me on Thursday…….Keith a.k.a “The Rambler” (head roaster at Victrola, host and friend of the wrangler’s), Mark (Victrola manager, barista and Dismas super-fan) and myself (po’ lil’ Iowa boy) head to Zoka Coffee Roasters to begin our grueling 10 hour highly caffeinated judger’s certification class.

There are several others taking this class, some who I even recognize. Past-posted Rita from the Albina Press is here!

Brent Fortune of Crema Bakery is leading the class and we get right into the rules and expectations of a SCAA judge.

Basically it goes down like this: 2 technical judges, 4 sensory judges and 1 head judge.
The tech judges are shadowing the competitor as he/she pulls espresso, builds capps, and creates a signature drink. The tech judges are observing technique (dosing, tamping, tapping, brewing), timing shots, checking for waste, and on and on.

The sensory judges are tasting the espresso, the capp’s, and the sig drinks that are being served by the competitor. Sensory judges are looking for color and persistency of crema in the espresso and a harmonious taste (sweet/acidic/bitter) and tactile (body/round/smooth) balance. In the capps they are looking for a visually correct capp with consistent and persistant foam and a harmonious balance of espresso and sweet milk. In the sig drink they are looking for a well-presented and creative drink. The espresso needs to maintain flavor in order to receive a high score.

The head judge oversees both sets of judges and participates as a “judge” in each category. Part of the head judge’s responsibility is making sure that all the judges are callibrated and consistent.

In the workshop we are served countless drinks (’spro & capps) and practice judging them. The SCAA brought in some stellar baristas to pull us shots and build capps. Some of them went through a mock presentation while we judged them. It was great preparation for upcoming days of judging.

At the end of of the day we were treated to a din-din. I was extremely tired and extremely buzzed at the same time. Along the way we stopped for vitamin water and totally, totally geeked over dinner and drink.

And that is day one in a nutshell……