Coffee Confidential

On the plane from LAX to Hong Kong, I was perusing the various TV shows they had on demand. They had two episodes of a really cool series on coffee. It tours the world from coffee farms in Africa to drinking different kinds of coffee from Vietnam to Europe as well as barista and cupping competition. It was really cool. Unfortunately, it's only in Cantonese because its a Hong Kong TV show.

Intelligentsia Venice

So Blahblahben, Mr Bill, EspressoFrap and I made a trip out to Intelligentsia Venice a week or so back. The shop is located on Abbot-Kinney road, in the heart of Venice. It's surrounded by hipster botiques and cool cafe's, so we knew that we were in intelligentisa neighborhood. Parking in front of the store was difficult to come by, but fortunately, at Mr Bill's advice, we found plenty of parking in the back. The first pic is of from the rear entrace of the shop.

The layout of this place was a little bit confusing. There were numerous stations from which we can order our coffee from. We didnt know whether where to line up to begin the whole experience. We followed our herd mentality and got at the end of the longest queue that we could see (at the front of the building). Apparently, the pastry display is our starting point (see pic 3). From there, a traffic cop will direct you to the next available barista who will take your order. Since there were 4 of us in our group, we were all served by the same barista. We all had the Kenyan, while blahblahben had the Los Inmortales, El Salvador. They brewed our coffees in the Clover coffee makers (see pic 2), which are now owned by Starbucks. The one downside of the experience was that our barista got blahblahben's order wrong.

Inside the store, they sold their seasonal coffee offerings, of course. But in addition, they also sold various coffee wares: coffee makers, grinders, they even sold the toddy system, which is pretty neat (this is the cold brewing system).

Overall, the experience at Intelligentsia Venice was okay. a little bit confusing in terms of ordering, but coffee was good.

New Coffee Maker

Brewmatic (click here)

Duel of the Ethiopians.

So today we have on one side Intelligentsia's Kurimi, Ethiopa Yirgacheffe, and on the other the Counter Culture Ethiopa, Shakisso-Sidamo.

I did a taste review on the CC a few days ago. Today I have both of them, and will taste test them.

As was mentioned in the comments on the previous tasting, the CC has a very acidic/sour aftertaste that pops up. And it's been consistent. I tried modifying the grind size, the brew time, and the water temperature, and the after taste remained through it all.

The intelligentsia, on the first brew was totally devoid of the acidity of the CC. I'm going to need another cup or two to nail down the best grind/time/temp. The first cup was pretty mellow. All the way through. I think that there is a bit more flavor that can be extracted.

So for now the Intelli is getting the nod, just because I don't have a strong sour taste in my mouth for minutes after drinking it. And the fragrance of the Intelli is also better than the CC.

Count the Culture man, Counter the Culture.

So today is the first taste test of Counter Culture's Ethiopian Shakisso - Sidamo.

Opening the bag gave off a familiar strong, good coffee smell. It even made it through my somewhat stuffed up nose.

I'm back from a weekend with the family, where a nephew passed on his cold to me. So my taste buds are not 100%.


The roast is a medium roast like Intelli's. The grind smell was very good. And the cup itself is strong and well rounded. I'm not currently tasting all the little nuances, but upfront is a subtle organic earthy flavor, that develops into a strong fruity flavor and lingers with a kind of flowery glow. (Imagine a flavor like orchids smell, not sweet like honey suckle). At least that's what I get out of it.

Lawton may be able to fully flavor test it when he arrives.

So far I say it's a pretty good coffee.

The Story is in the Ville.

So I have a funny little story about ordering some coffee.

A few weeks back Lotto pointed me to a store called Storyville. They were going to donate a 1.00 a "bag" sold to a good charity for each "bag" sold in May. Up to 1 million dollars.

I took a peak around the website, and ended up trying to order 2 "bags". Their website is a travesty in design and flow. I'm guessing because it's totally done in flash. Anytime you want to hit the browsers back button to go back a page, it sends you all the way back to the original home page, and you have to start your flashing journey over again.

Back to the ordering. I submitted my order, and about 3 hours later the order screen came back, and said it was ordered. This was May 7th. I had forgotten about it until going over my banking statement on June 2nd, and I saw the charge from them, but I had no coffee to consume.

I called them up yesterday June the 8th, and they started checking into what happened. They discovered that yes, they got the money, but no they did not get an address, email or any other type of information about where the coffee should be shipped.

They apologized and offered to either ship the coffee or refund the charges. I of course chose "ship it".

Now I have "bag" above, because they really don't openly tell you how much coffee you are getting for the money. As it turns out, they don't sell pounds of coffee, they sell 12 ounce "bags".

Lotto mentioned that Eric has had their coffee, so I'm hoping he can pipe up with information about the quality and taste etc.

Hotel Rwanda

Zirikana, Rwanda. This is the stuff that dreams are made of. When old grandpas sit their grandchildren on their laps and tell them tales of the good times, it usually includes a reference to this coffee. Opening this bag brought ooohs and ahhhs from Mr Bill and I. grinding these beans brought out their smell even more. The door to our office is usually closed when we use the grinder (to minimize noise). I wanted to keep the door closed even after grinding to wallow in the sweet smell of freshly ground coffee even more. Ok, i need to go now and drink my coffee...

Venice Intelligentsia Now Open

Looks like the wait is over for you Mr Bill. They open today at noon.

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/locations/view/Venice+Coffeebar

I think a perfect day would be Intelligentsia in the morning, Father's Office for some craft brews, then hitting the Kogi taco truck at the Brig for some late night grub, and maybe back to Intelligentsia to sober up.

register your starbucks card

Thanks to blahblahben's advice, i've registered my starbucks coffee card via starbucks.com/card. You're not only opening your inbox to a case of starbucks spam, but whenever you use the card for a purchase, you're entitled to a bunch of benefits! For example, free steamed soy milk! what is normally a $0.55 indulgence, is now a free add on that masks that overly roasted starbucks flavor. Membership has it's privileges.

You may say that im not true to my coffee geek form by going to starbucks. But im working remotely from our office in Pasadena, and our stash of Intelligentsia is back at the mothership in El Segundo. Im just drinking this stuff because it's 3:00pm, and I had L&L Hawaiian food for lunch.

Review of Pulped Natural El Machete, Panama

That is the current coffee in the grinder at the office. The label says "The pulped natural El Machete fills the mouth with fig and dark berry notes. The finish resides in sweet cocoa."

They are right on with the finish. It tastes almost exactly like I was drinking a cup of non-sweetened high quality cocoa. It's pretty good. I'm still trying to find the berry notes at the beginning. For me there is a mellow almost honeydew melon like beginning to it. It's very smooth all the way through.

As is always the case with the Aeropress, it took a couple cups to find the best brew process.

I stir this with the paddle for 25-30 seconds, and let it brew for about 90. Seems to give me the best cup.

Intelligentsia Cafe - Venice, or lack thereof.

So, being a huge intelligentsia coffee fan, who has never actually had their coffee at one of their shops, I was overjoyed to learn they were going to open a new shop less than 2 miles from my home.

The first press release on their main website said they would be opening may 15th, with a "grand opening" party on the 22nd.

I was following their website daily up to the 15th, trying to get an idea if the opening was really going to happen. Up until the night of the 14th, it looked like it was.

I checked one last time before heading off to get some sleep, and the site had been updated saying they weren't ready to open it yet. BUMMER!

I continue monitoring the site through the next week. The site had been updated to say they were going to open on the 22nd. I checked the site on the 21st, and it said all things were good to go for the grand opening party, 8:00pm to 1:00am.

Being a true geek, I didn't feel like trying to compete with throngs of other people on opening night, so I put off going to it until Saturday morning. Website says they open up at 7:00 am on Saturdays.

I head down to the area of the shop, never having been to that area of town before, and I can't find the intelligentsia logo anywhere on the storefronts in that area. I do wander past a closed shop that has an unlit coffee cup decoration on the building above a door with no store name or decoration, that looks like one of the pictures on the website. But no lights are on, and no sign of life was to be found.

Frustrated I head down the street 2 blocks to a coffee shop that is open, but the coffee was really bad.

I come back the next afternoon and park a few blocks away and have a printed map of where the shop is supposed to be, and yes it was the place with the unlit coffee cup logo above it. Still nothing on the storefront, but looking through the place out the back window I see Intelligentsia trucks parked. With hopes high and enthusiasm rising, I head around back. There is a parking area behind with a door with the intelligentsia logo above it, and there was a person inside.
The place looked like a tornado had swept through a coffee shop and dumped the remains in this spot.

Apparently they were still working on getting everything setup and ready to go, and were nowhere near ready to really be open.

It's now June 4th, and still no open coffee shop near me. At least the website has been updated to say "Open in June". A step in the right direction.

But man, I sure wish they were actually open. I would have gladly been spending lots of money at their shop, instead of continuing to find other local coffee places to get good beans at.

However even though they are not open, I have continued to buy their beans online, and continue to patiently wait for them to really open up the shop near me.

I think I might be addicted to good coffee, what do you think?

Brew Method

Mr Bill and I use the Aeropress for all of our in-office (and at home) brews. One of our initial gripes with this wonderful device was brew time. As Eric demonstrated in a prior post, brewing via the conventional method sufficed, but you had to plunge the coffee within a few seconds, otherwise the brew would start to leak through the filter.

Above, Mr Bill demonstrates the Inverse brewing method. We've have been using this method for a few months now, and it's been great! Brewing coffee with this method allows for longer brewing time, and depending on the coffee used, can improve the flavor as well.
1) This method starts with inverting the aeropress and adding the grounds.
2) After the hot water has been added, use paddle to stir the coffee. Steep time varies from about 30 seconds to a few minutes.
3) Plunge into cup
4) Once plunged, we empty the grounds to a collection bag, which I take home every week to add to my compost bin at home. More on this later.

Geek coffee mug

Every true coffee geek has to get one of these mugs - a Sun java mug.

Chocolaty Goodness

Like my fellow enthusiasts my journey to bean obsession started with Jones. Unlike them however I have yet to try Intelligentsia. I am finishing my last bag from Jones, and will soon join my fellow geeks in coffee heaven with the perfect cup of morning brew achieved through the best beans and ingenious instrumentation.

My morning is usually met with "chocolaty goodness", the soupy concoction of water and freshly ground beans that awakens the senses and invokes feelings of morning bliss. This brew is achieved by the best invention ever: The Aeropress Coffee Maker by Aerobie (images attached). This contraption looks a bit questionable due to it's bong-like attributes, but the only thing bubbling in this tube is an awesome brew of coffee.

The grounds are placed in a beaker-like tube with a filter at the bottom, mixed with water, stirred and a foamy, soupy chocolaty goodness is the result. The plunger is then placed in the tube and manual pressure forces the concoction into my coffee cup, completing a condensed "espresso" that can be added with water or whatever combination of dairy product and sugar. I prefer water, straight black. And there you have it, the perfect cup to start my day.

What we're currently drinking

We currently have the Zirikana - Rwanda, Agua Preta - Brazil, and Pulped Natural El Machete - Panama. All of which are roasted from Intelligentsia coffee.

What can i say? Intelligentsia is one of my favorite roasters. They roast their coffees to black perfection. We're currently consuming the last of the Agua Preta. Grown at 1200M, this Yellow Catuai bean has notes of brown sugar and caramel at the start of the cup. A subtle acidity allows fudge flavors to blossom before the buttery finish. This was grown at the Fazenda Tijuco Preto, in the Carmo De Minas area of Brazil (NW of Rio de Janeiro).

This stuff is pretty good. When we grind this stuff, it fills the office with a sweet, chocolaty smell. I cant quite taste the brown sugar or the caramel, but it's definitely got good flavor. Not quite that smooth, as i can taste the slight acidity. It's not one of my favorites roasts, but it's pretty high on my list.

History and best beans we've discovered so far.

This all started when Lotto mentioned there was a good roaster near where he lived. The name is Jone's Coffee Roasters. He brought in a pound or two, and we were on the quest for good coffee.

At this point Jones was really good. Some of the best I'd had.

Soon after, Lotto mentioned there was a place called Intelligentsia, that had good coffee. He followed that statement up by buying some beans.

That was a mistake. The coffee was really good. Jone's is good, but Intelligentsia was even better.

On a whim I ordered some Cruz Del Sur beans from them. From the moment I opened the bag, it was incredible. The assault on the nose was strong and very full. It got even better after the beans were ground. The smell was stronger and more developed, and continued through the brew and consumption. It was the most perfect coffee I've ever had.

They (Intelligentsia) no longer have Cruz Del Sur beans, but it is the golden standard by which I judge all beans.

So if I talk a little bit about intelligentsia coffee, you'll understand why.

Mr Bill

Welcome

Welcome to Geek Beans! The purpose of this blog is to document, review, and promote coffee, coffee beans, brewing methods, and all things related to the consumption of coffee.

Who we are: IT guys who consume large quantities out of necessity.

Enjoy!