Joe's Gets a Ferrari

Ok not really.

But Joe's did get a machine that was hand built by Italians, a La Marzocco 3 Group Linea Espresso Machine.

It was probably about a year ago that we realized we needed a new espresso machine. The machine we have used for our first 4 years has served us well but was beginning to show its age. And keeping it running was starting to cost us more than we felt it was worth. So the quest for a new machine began. I even posted about it way back in April. And I find it funny that the picture of a machine I threw in that post is the brand and model we ended up with.

The Linea is known for its power and its simplicity. It has two boiler tanks so the group heads and the steam wands have their own separate source of power. This means better shots and better milk.

The construction of the machine is very simple which means we will be able to do more troubleshooting ourselves.

Trivia Time Equals Free Stuff

Ok folks thought I would take a break from the usual posts to throw some trivia at you. And dare I say Google proof trivia.

The first person to email me or post the answers to the following 3 questions will receive a coupon for 1 menu item of your choice. Ready? Here goes...

1. Everyday Joe's uses two brands of syrups to flavor our drinks, what are they?

2. Everyday Joe's offers 28 different kinds of tea. Who is our tea supplier?

3. On the famous portrait wall at Everyday Joe's are there more guys or more girls?

You must answer all 3 correctly to win.

Random Before Pictures

Everyday Joe's R&D

(That is Research and Development for you non lab coat wearing folk.)

This week it has been trying out a new way to brew coffee. Cold brewing. The method involves slowly brewing coffee (12 hour brew time) using cold water to create a concentrate. This concentrate can then be used in many ways to create coffee drinks.

Why do this? This method is said to create a coffee that is free of oil and 67% less acid than most other coffee. People who like coffee but have heartburn issues seem to prefer this method since it removes the acid from the coffee. It also has less caffeine than more traditional methods of brewing coffee.

On the downside is the cost. It takes a lot of beans to make a carafe of concentrate. One pound of beans creates 48 ounces of concentrate. It is recommended to use a 1 ounce of concentrate to 3 ounces of water. Though in my testing that makes a weak cup of coffee. Seems a 1 to 1 is a better ratio.

So far I have tried just regular hot coffee. (3 ounces concentrate to 9 ounces hot water) And this morning tried a latte with it. (4 ounces concentrate to 8 ounces steamed milk.) The coffee was very smooth but leaning toward the bland side. Same goes for the latte. That is why I think the amounts need to be tweaked. Though I was still able to get good latte art out it even with no creme. (they say it can't be done.)

So if you stop by Joe's in the next couple of days and want to try a drink made from our cold brew experiment just let us know. We need some feedback to see if we want to make it part of the menu.

(you can read an article about the method here.)

French Press

Here at Everyday Joe's we brew all of our house coffee using a press pot. Or a french press as many know it. We do this because it is considered the best way to brew coffee.

Most people are used to a drip brewer. Ground coffee is placed in a paper filter and hot water is dripped over those grounds, extracting the coffee from the grounds then passing through the paper filter. That is the problem. The paper filter not only stops the grounds from ending up in your coffee cup it also stops the full flavor of the coffee from ending up in your coffee cup. The paper soaks up the natural oils from the coffee and in those oils is where a lot of taste is found.

The french press method involves immersing the coffee grounds in near boiling water for 4 minutes. This allows all of the flavor and oils contained in those grounds to be extracted fully. Then when the coffee is poured out of the press it passes through a metal screen to filter out the grounds but not the flavor or oils. For some this is a problem.

Often times when someone begins to pump themselves a cup of our house coffee they think there is something wrong with the coffee because of how it looks. Our coffee is richer and darker than the average coffee drinker is used to. And some of the finer grounds make it through the metal filter of the french press. Grounds in your cup equal flavor in your cup.

I know many of you do appreciate the french press brewing method. And you understand why Everyday Joe's goes to all the trouble of brewing all of our house coffee with a french press. To everyone else I suggest giving french press a chance.

Summer Time

It sure is summer time. And if no one has told you it is pretty hot these days. I guess these are what they call the dog days of summer or caniculares dies if your Roman. I guess that is where we get the term dog days of summer. (Sorry after I wrote "dog days" I had to look up where it came from.) And I am right these are indeed the dog days of summer. It starts in early July and goes to mid August.

And as I man the helm of the ship that is known as Everyday Joe's I experience something in the summer I have never experienced before. I've lived a fair number of places around the country and I have never experienced the summer time attitude I experience here in Fort Collins. It seems people check out and use summer as the excuse. Over and over I hear "it's summer" with a shrug of the shoulder. Maybe because we have a university in town everyone want to live the college lifestyle.

Either you know exactly what I am talking about and I don't need to explain further, or you have no idea and I have lost you as a reader already.

Joe's is defiantly different in the summer. It is a challenge to keep our large space cool. We do have a large swamp cooler on the roof but it can only do so much. It usually loses the battle around 1PM or so. Shades for our four large sky lights would help a lot in reducing the amount of heat the building collects. But I have no idea the logistics of installing those. An air conditioner would also do the trick. I imagine we would need a big one with a big price tag.

So in the mean time we well wait it out. Serving lots of iced lattes and Thai coffees. After all, "It's summer."

Google Ruined Trivia

Some of you readers know there has been mention of random trivia in the Joe's blog. I do want to do trivia but it is a challenge to find Google Proof trivia questions for a blog. If I put in a question all one needs to do is cut and paste it into your Google search bar and you will have the answer. Never fear though, I take this as a challenge. Google doesn't know everything. Not yet at least.

In other news... 144 S. Mason is sparkling! Last Saturday thanks to the help of many people who gave up their Saturday morning our building is nice and clean. Even the hanging lights and rafters got dusted. The bar area was completely emptied and cleaned. All the lights out front were replaced. (We've been having issues with them for some time.) Paint was touched up, cracks filled, couches scrubbed, carpet cleaned, and so much more was done. Thanks to everyone who helped!

Waves of Coffee

In my last post I made mention of something called the 3rd Wave. Now I will attempt to address the theory. It can be applied to many things, not just coffee, though the industry is trying to make it it's own.

1st Wave is consumption. My dad spent his whole life in the 1st wave. Coffee is just coffee. Something warm and caffeinated that one drinks on a daily basis because that is what you do.

2nd Wave is about enjoyment. This is when we as consumers start to put a little more thought into our coffee. Mostly this begins with exploring espresso drinks and the like. Basically moving beyond cream and sugar.

3rd Wave is about taking it one step further. The consumer starts to learn about coffee origins, brewing processes, and maybe even crop harvest times. Coffee geek would probably sum it up pretty good.

Those are the basics, though there are varying opinions and interpretations out there.

Most of the United States is in the 2nd Wave. Though there has been slow advancement into the 3rd wave, mostly in the Northwest. Here at Everyday Joe's we do our best to learn as much about coffee as possible. Our goal is to serve you the best cup of coffee in Fort Collins so the more we know the closer we will get to that goal. Though our first love is people. And we are careful never to put coffee before humans. I admit that can be tough at times, I've yet to have a cup of coffee talk back.

Good bye Portland, Hello Chicago

Since Everyday Joe's first opened we have been buying our coffee from Stumptown Coffee in Portland Oregon. Over the past month or so we have made the transition to a new roaster. Drum roll please...

Intelligentsia out of the great City of Chicago is Joe's new roaster!

Why the change is probably your first question. Well for many reasons. The biggest being support and vision alignment. I will now tell you how the two go together.

Stumptown's vision is for their coffee never to have to travel more than 45 minutes from its roaster. Those roasters are in Portland Oregon. There is no human way possible to get coffee from Portland to Fort Collins in less than 45 minutes. Joe's was the exception to their rule. Every week after they roasted it they would ship it to us via UPS ground. It would take 3 or 4 days to get here. And since we are all the way in Colorado we did not get much attention from them even though we bought coffee from them every single week for over 3 years. Stumptown is great, some of the best coffee on the planet but they simply do not desire to sell their coffee to anyone outside of Portland so they have not built a system to support anyone outside of Portland. I have done buying for a lot of companies in my life and not having support from such a big vendor of Joe's was very frustrating.

Currently Intelligentsia is the Roaster of the Year according to Roaster magazine. (Stumptown was 2006 Roaster of the Year.) That is what caused me to start talking with them. What I found in Intelligentsia is the same quality of coffee which a far superior support system. Intelligentsia is ready and willing to help a coffee retailer such as Joe's sell coffee and grow its business. And on top of that they ship their coffee via UPS 2nd Day Air. This means our coffee gets here faster and fresher. Not to mention a guarantee that UPS Ground does not offer.

All the past posts relating to Direct Trade are in relation to Intelligentsia. We will continue to educate you the coffee drinker on our new roaster, helping you move into the 3rd Wave.

3rd Wave? What the * is that? We'll get to that soon.

P.S. You have been drinking Intelligentsia Coffee for the past six weeks. And no one has said a word in relation to change in taste or quality.

Swiss Water

More changes coming from Everyday Joe's. This one is for our Decaf drinkers.

The most common way to remove caffeine from coffee is through the use of chemicals. Basically the beans are soaked in a chemical that absorbs the caffeine. Then the beans are removed from the chemical and the process starts again until about 99% of the caffeine is removed from the coffee bean. Methylene chloride or ethyl acetate are two of the common chemicals used.

Methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, is a volatile, colorless liquid with a chloroform-like odor. Methylene chloride is used in various industrial processes, in many different industries including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, paint remover manufacturing, and metal cleaning and degreasing. (Thanks OSHA) And some of you may know ethyl acetate is common in nail polish remover and it is also used in insect kill jars.

OK, before you freak out and throw that cup of decaf your drinking across the room in fear and disgust, know that it is safe. After the beans go through the decaffeinating process they are then roasted which is said to remove any remnants of the chemicals. And if that did not get every last molecule of chemicals out the coffee still needs to be brewed, which further "cleans" the coffee. So after the roasting and the brewing the coffee is considered safe for consumption. But there is a better way.

The most common name is "Swiss Water Processed" but others are "water processed" or "natural processed." Here is how it works... Green coffee beans are emerged in pure water that has been super saturated with coffee solids. The water naturally pulls the caffeine from the coffee beans. Then the water is passed through a carbon filter to remove the caffeine and the process is repeated. This is done for about 8 hours until the coffee is 99.9% caffeine free.

Like I mentioned before both methods are safe for consumption. But it is nice knowing that the decaf your drinking has only been through water and not chemicals. And it is also safer for the environment and the people who work to decaffeinate your coffee. That is why Everyday Joe's has decided to support the Swiss Water way of decaffeinating coffee.

Sustainable Social Practices

The Direct Trade talk continues. Sustainable Social Practices are another requirement of Direct Trade. But what does that mean? Well here goes...

This can be distilled to a single essence—is everyone involved in the production of coffee on a Direct Trade farm benefiting? Again, every farm is different. The roaster works with small growers who may farm 2 hectares of coffee and do all the work themselves. The roaster also will work with farms that might employ 300 people during the year. What matters most is that there are good living conditions and the opportunity for measurable economic growth. The roaster avoids trying to determine for the farmer what this really means and prefers to let them tell how things are working. But there are some tangibles to look at. On an medium-sized or single farm the roaster must know what the pickers are being paid, how that wage compares to both the legislated minimums and the average in the region, and whether the workers feel it is a good deal. Are there health services provided? Are there other community services such as education that are financed by earnings from the sale of coffee? On a small farm, the key question is whether or not the farmer is making a living from coffee and earning enough to invest in the health and education of the family. Is there economic progress? There is a big difference between subsistence and development.

That is the jist of it. It is just another step in leveling the playing field in the global economy. Hopefully this will happen more and more in all industries where the 1st world buys from the 3rd world.

This is an exciting direction for Everyday Joe's. One that will help us be better stewards of the gifts we have, both as a coffee shop and as a culture.

Healthy Environmental Practices

In our last post we talked about Direct Trade. One of the benefits mentioned about Direct Trade is the fact that farmers must use "Healthy Environmental Practices." So what exactly does that mean?

It means that the farmer is taking proactive measures to ensure the health of the ecosystem both on and around the farm. If the farm uses irrigation, are they recycling the water? What happens to the water used for de-pulping and fermentation? Is part of the farm being maintained as forest? If pesticide or herbicide is used at all, is it minimized and applied responsibly? These are the questions asked before a Direct Trade relationship is established with a grower. It is not dogmatic, because it is recognized that there are different realities on different farms, but it is essential that every Direct Trade farm is consciously following protocols that preserve the environment.

As mentioned before this is another example of how Direct Trade takes the idea of Fair Trade a bit further.

Direct Trade!

The few readers of this blog will be the first to hear about the new direction Everyday Joe's will be heading. Since we have been open we have been proud to carry Fair Trade coffee. Well we have found something that is better than Fair Trade, it is called Direct Trade.

First let us talk a bit about Fair Trade. Here is what the Fair Trade web site says, " TransFair USA is the only independent, third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. It works with importers and manufacturers in this country to document business practices, providing a reliable consumer guarantee that indicates what coffees, teas and chocolates have been purchased from producers according to international Fair Trade criteria. These criteria are established by Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), a consortium of Fair Trade groups in Japan, Canada, the US and 17 European countries. FLO makes annual inspection visits to producer groups on its Fair Trade Register to ensure that the benefits of Fair Trade relationships are reaching the farmers."

The basic idea is that the farmers get paid a fair price for their products and the buyer receives a high quality product. All this is done through a 3rd party between the seller and the buyer. You can read about until your heart's content at http://www.transfairusa.org/

Now we get to Direct Trade. With Direct Trade we take out the 3rd party and the transaction is between the grower and the roaster. This creates something that is better than Fair Trade. For example the price is set and paid to the farmer, not an exporter. And that price is at least 25% higher than fair trade prices.

The close relationship between the roaster and the grower holds the farmer even more accountable to healthy environmental practices and sustainable social practices.

The roaster visits with the farmer at least 3 times a year. Fair Trade on the other hand is only once a year. And with Direct Trade the roaster always visits at least once during harvest to insure quality. And all people involved in the trade must be open to transparent financial disclosure. So everyone knows what everyone is paying and being paid.

Everyday Joe's feels that Direct Trade is much better for everyone involved. And we will continue this discussion with our customers as we move in that direction. The bottom line is the coffee quality and taste will get better as well as the warm and fuzzy feeling we will have from knowing no one was exploited in the process.

Stay tuned. And as always feel free to ask questions.

Do we call it a grey area?

Hello again good people. I sometimes think how nice it would be if life was always black and white. But then again I now what happens when people try to deal with life in absolutes. Right now there is a discussion going on about 144 S. Mason. And the talk has to do with the bulletin board. In the tiny hallway that leads to our restrooms we have a bulletin board for the community to use. As of late the content of what goes up on that board as been in question.

The questions have to do with a coffee shop started by a Christian church having announcements about yoga, meditation, and the like up. As the steward of this space I take the questions very seriously and have not come to any conclusions yet. I also try my best to think objectively and not with my own personal beliefs.

But being that I am human and not a machine my personal ideas and beliefs are going to effect the thought process. I believe ignorance can be a huge factory in this area. And of course fear. The two almost always go together. I wonder if a person who is against yoga has ever taken a yoga class from one of the places that puts up a poster? What information are they basing their opinion of yoga on? The same questions could be applied to any of the posters that are up that often receive a knee jerk negative reaction.

Something else I have noticed here is that when people criticize the art or a poster it is always vague, rarely is it dealt with in specifics. So let me bring up a specific example. (If I dare.)

A few months ago we had an art show that had a painting of the Ying Yang. The main opponent of this piece claimed it should not hang because it is a Buddhist symbol. This is that ignorance thing I mentioned. The Ying Yang is not Buddhist, it is Taoism. Taoism is a form of Chinese philosophy. The Symbol represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents "everything", while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called "yin" (black) and "yang" (white), which cause everything to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other. And based on that the painting stayed up.

What about the rainbow? Readers of the Old Testament think it means something different than our culture thinks now. Can a church hang the colors of the rainbow?

I like the discussion and I like that people care enough to question what happens here. I just wish they would do their homework first. This is one topic I would love to have people chime in on.

And Just Like That

It is summer. I think that today is the official first day of summer in the world of Everyday Joe's Coffee House. Today the shop was dead. D-E-A-D. The early AM had a few students, those who had one final left today. But that was it. Even less of the county and business crowd. The first nice days of the season will always have that effect. Now begins the long slow season of summer.

I have to admit it is a sad day for me as well. So many friends leaving, some for good, some will return in August. And of course there will be new friends to be made in August. "There is a time for everything."

Let's Start With Some Art

I thought we should start this week's blog by looking at some art. Though this is just a glimpse, you will have to come down to 144 S. Mason to take a look for yourself. And the work of Deanne is much better live and in person. For you see her stuff is has a lot of depth to it. Little bits and pieces of beauty attached via nails and golf tees. As you can see I do not do a good job of explaining it, so just get down here and see for yourself. Better hurry though it will be gone at the end of the month.

The piece is called "Conversation" and is by Deanne Moulton. She can be contacted at deebo987@aol.com

And in other news... it is windy today. People do not want coffee on a windy day. Thursday is normally our busiest day of the week but today has been slow. That is always the case on a windy day. This might have something to do with the fact that most if not all people hate the wind. Why do you think so few people want to live in Wyoming?

After my last post about needing a new espresso machine I have been asked about donations. If your interested in donating to Everyday Joe's you can mail your donation to Timberline Church. We use Timberline for donations for accountability and book keeping purposes. Make the check out to them and put Everyday Joe's in the memo line. It is that simple. Here is the address:

Timberline Church
2908 S. Timberline Rd.
Fort Collins, CO 80525

So what am I missing? What do you dear reader want to know about Everyday Joe's? Fire away and I will do my best to answer.

Excuse Me Buddy, Can You Spare Ten Grand?

Everyday Joe's has a physical heart, we call it an espresso machine. That very special piece of machinary is key to what we do here. It is why people first start coming. It is the device by which we are able to create amazing espresso drinks.

When Joe's opened way back in 2003 the machine was donated to us by shop that had closed, Coffee Connection. The machine had seen many a morning of espresso pulling, we estimate it is around 15 or so years old. We sent it down to the shop and had it overhauled and tuned up. And it got us off the ground. Joe's was very thankful to have such a gift. But now we get to the phrase "nickel and dime to death."

The machine is begining to show its age. And we all fear the day that it just goes down. Hard to have a coffee shop without an espresso machine these days. So we have begun to talk about getting a new machine. Buying a new espresso machine is a lot like car shopping. Used vs. New, Top of the Line vs. Economy, etc etc. And if we decided to buy used it is very much "caveat empto" or buyer beware. Espresso machines are complex with many parts and buying used could come with any sort of hidden problem that the seller probably is not even aware of.

Buying new is always the best bet, except for price. A new quality espresso machine and the needed supplies to install it correctly will cost around $10,000. That is a lot of money. But when I think about how important the espresso machine is to Everyday Joe's, how key it is to keeping us open and keeping us in the community, I think that $10,000 is really not that much. And Everyday Joe's already has roughly $3,000 in the bank so we really only need $7,000 give or take a few hundred.

So thus begins my official quest to get Everyday Joe's a new espresso machine.

The Forgotten Trivia Questions

Amy pointed out that I have not been doing the trivia questions that I mentioned in past posts. Well in my last post, "A Sample For You," I made reference to a fine film. Be the first to name the film and win a free coffee drink (12oz) of your choosing.

Good luck contestants.

A Sample For You

Ok so here is a sample of the type of email I often get:

Hello,

I am in Pennsylvania and am wanting to start a non profit coffee house across the street from Faber College to impact the campus. I was wanting to get some more info on what you guys are doing or any tips in getting started.

John Blutarsky

To be honest I do not even know how to best reply to an email like that. That is a very big question they are asking. I have toyed with the idea of a form letter for these types of emails but then that seems a bit arogant. I do want to help other people and like the idea of more places like Joe's being created around the world. I suspect people do not realize what they are asking. And there is not a book to be found on starting a non profit coffee shop. (yet)

On to other news... The walls of Everyday Joe's are bare. They have been for 4 days now. And we who work here everyday all day hear about it constantly. "Where is the art?" people ask. People have grown to depend on it, to need it. I love it. The art here has become such a part of this place. It is noticed the instant it is gone.

Not to worry though. Art is on the way.

Best Non Profit in Fort Collins

Ok so we are tied with 10,000 Villages.

Just picked up the "Best Of" issue of the Rocky Mountain Chronicle and Everyday Joe's was tied with 10,000 Villages for best Non Profit. I have to admit I was a bit bummed to not get best coffee shop, that honor went to The Bean Cycle. But now that I think about it I think it is more important for us to be seen as the best non profit than it is for us to be seen as the best coffee shop. After all that is our real goal here. Sure we strive to make the best coffee around but more importantly we strive to be a community of loving people doing our part to take care of this place we call Fort Collins. So for Fort Collins to vote us "Best Non Profit" means we are recognized for doing that.