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Archive for the ‘Coffee Education’ Category

COFFEE TIP FOR THE MONTH: KEURIG Brewers – Trend or Fad?

14 Jan

By: Joe Lloyd

How many of you bought or received a KEURIG Coffee Brewer this last holiday season? If you said, “Yes”, you’re not alone. In the past 24 months over 3.5 million people are using KEURIG coffee brewers for their early morning jolt.  Personally I drink more than one cup of coffee in the morning so a KEURIG is not for me. But for those people who prefer one cup of “Joe” from home, it’s not a bad option.

Here is my grind (no pun intended) with the KEURIG – it’s not so much the process of the brewer itself, but rather, the pre-packaged K-CUPS they sell you to use with the brewer. I am around fresh coffee all day long and have grown accustomed and addicted to the quality taste and aroma that fresh ground coffee offers. When I opened a K-CUP for the first time and performed my ritual of sniffing the coffee in hopes of taking in the golden aroma of freshly ground coffee, I was taken aback by how stale and pungent the coffee smelled! I was equally disappointed by the taste.

So I did a little research. I found out that prepackaged K-CUP coffee is roasted, ground and then packaged up to 3 to 5 months before it ever reaches you the consumer.  No matter how the manufacturer packages those little K-CUPS, by the time that first month rolls around the coffee will have lost a significant amount its freshness, quality taste and aroma.

But don’t throw your new KEURIG away quite yet – there is hope! KEURIG sells a reusable coffee filter that acts just like a pre package K-CUP called “My K- CUP”. This  single cup re-usable filter allows you to use your own ground coffee from Durango Joe’s Coffee in your new KEURIG Brewer!  I encourage all of you who have a KEURIG to buy a reusable coffee filter and keep the coffee FRESH!  You don’t have to sacrifice freshness and quality taste because you are using a KEURIG.  Don’t be fooled by creative ads and fancy coffee labels that try and make you believe that just because it comes from Green Mountain Coffee or a number of other well-known brands that it is fresh and high in quality. Most all stores that sell the KEURIG Coffee Brewer will have the reusable “My K-Cups” filters available for purchase. And of course you can get them at anyone of your Durango Joe’s locations, we carry the EkoBrew styles, and highly recommend them!

The bottom line is coffee is always best when it’s freshly ground and then immediately brewed. Several great “ways” to brew coffee using your own freshly ground coffee are; “Pour Over” method, traditional “Drip Brew” style, “French Press” and the “KEURIG” single cup, each method dependent on good quality, freshly ground coffee.  Enjoy the New Year and whether or not the KEURIG is a here to stay or if it’s just a fad, when brewing from home, go FRESH!

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

When it comes to coffee, flavor is what matters.

27 Nov

by Joe Lloyd

As we move into the Winter season. our management team at Durango Joe’s Coffee decided to highlight a very unique coffee. We feel that this particular coffee brings out all the Holiday flavors and at the same time offers our customers an outstanding coffee that is second to none.

Our “Taste for the Holidays” coffee comes to us from the Rio Azul Cooperative in Jaceltenango, Guatemala. For the complete story behind this wonderful coffee refer to my Nov, 16 blog entitled The Story Behind the Rio Azul-Guatemalan Coffee.

 

The Rio Azul Flavor Profile: Medium/Dark Roast. Floral aroma; rich chocolate and hazelnut flavors with the slightest hints of cinnamon and mango; lingering dark chocolate aftertaste.

What does that profile mean? Well, it should describe that you’ll immediately notice an initial heavy aroma, after sipping you’ll taste hints of rich chocolate, hazelnut and cinnamon flavors throughout this full bodied medium roast. Most people note a lingering dark chocolate after taste and even a trace of mango.

Tasting the subtle differences in coffee can be a little difficult, but with a little practice, the nutty, fruity, chocolaty and floral flavors in coffee can be found. Flavor profiles, or the subtle differences in coffee, describe the unique components between coffees from different origins. For example our Las Lajas from Costa Rica is noted much more for it’s lively floral and citrus notes.

While drinking the Rio Azul coffee, pay close attention to the subtle flavors you taste and aromas you smell. It is important to distribute the coffee over the tongue all at once. This ensures the coffee hits the taste buds all at the same time. Temperature affects the profile of coffee as well. The colder coffee becomes, the more pronounced the flavors.

The most important part is to have fun getting to know your own taste buds and exploring the unique complexities that all our Durango Joe’s coffees have to offer. If you don’t live in Durango you still can enjoy all our great coffee by going on-line at www.durangojoes.com and placing an order for some of the greatest tasting coffee you’ll ever taste.

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Coffee Reviews, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

“COFFEE ROASTER OF THE YEAR”

17 Nov

by Joe Lloyd

Phil Beattie, Director of Coffee

I find that owning a coffee business is a very challenging endeavor.  Every detail needs your full attention; from making sure you have the right people on your team, to capturing the perfect ambiance, to creating a brand people will never forget, to offering the right drink choices that your customers love, and above all ensuring your quality of coffee is the VERY BEST.  In order to be successful all these working parts must come together every time we open our doors to the public; which happens to be 7 days a week 364 days a year.

As I mentioned, just one of the many parts to experiencing success is making sure you are serving outstanding coffee.  Having coffee roasted to perfection then brewed to perfection is a winning combination every time.

The coffee industry is highly competitive and it continually changes as we learn more and more about the wonderful complexities that we find in coffee. That is why it is so important that our coffee roaster is a perfectionist and goes above and beyond to make sure the integrity of coffee is preserved during the roasting stages.

Just recently the company that roasts all Durango Joe’s coffee was named, “Roaster of the Year”. Dillanos Coffee Roasters has been a proud of partner of the Durango Joe’s family for over two years now.  As the owner of Durango Joe’s Coffee this award only confirms what I already know and that is, we serve up some of the best roasted coffee in the country!  I am very proud of Dillanos Coffee Roasters.  I know how hard they work and how much they care about making sure their valued customers get the very best.  Congratulations to Dave, Chris, Keith, Phil and the entire Dillanos team!

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

The Story Behind the Rio Azul-Guatemalan Coffee

16 Nov

Durango Joe’s “UNITY PROJECT COFFEE”

Over this Holiday Season Durango Joe’s will be featuring the Rio Azul in all our cafes and on-line at www.durangojoes.com.  HAPPY HOLIDAY’S


The story surrounding this very high end coffee begins in the northern areas of Guatemala surrounding the Huehuetenango region which have long been a source of great tasting coffees, and the Rio Azul is no exception. This small cooperative has been Fair Trade certified for over ten years, but even with this certification they came upon hard times in the early 2000’s.

With membership numbers plummeting to critical points, Ramon Delgado took the reigns as Managing Director of the cooperative. On a chance meeting in Antigua he crossed paths with Phil Beattie, Durango Joe’s Master Roaster. At the time the Unity Project was in it’s conception phase and the Rio Azul situation provided a blueprint for how the program could assist the estates and cooperatives that it works with.

Rio Azul is a relatively small cooperative with just over 150 members. In the infancy of this relationship it was discussed with the cooperatives board of directors what the largest challenges members faced, it was unanimously decided that the funds to acquire decent medical attention were. So an initiative was set in motion to address this issue. Meetings were held with a local doctor who was willing to take on the issue, and the Unity Project provided a grant of $5000 dollars per year which gave each member the opportunity to have medical, vision, and dental attention from the local doctor.

This relationship has continued to blossom over the years, with the support of the Unity Project the cooperative has been able to increase the number of Certified Organic producer’s in the cooperative which helps the local ecosystem. In addition they have implemented a water filtration system at the wet mill which better preserves the integrity of the local water supplies.

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

Durango Joe’s Legendary Coffee Video

21 Oct

By Joe Lloyd

Here is a video we did about how the legend was started.

Legendary Story

Hope you enjoy, and be sure to let us know what you think.

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

What is the Unity Project?

05 Oct

As a coffee shop owner and operator my desire is to go beyond just serving coffee to people.  At the end of the day it comes down to treating people right and making a difference in someone’s day by sharing with them a smile, a warm greeting and of course a great tasting cup of coffee.  Our valued customers are just one of many people we strive to treat right.  Our management team, our team members, our vendors, and last but not least the farmers who grow our coffee.

That’s why Durango Joe’s has created the UNITY PROJECT.

What is the Unity Project?

It’s all about creating transparent, sustainable relationship with individual farms and cooperatives around the world,  which ensures that everyone benefits from the success of the specialty coffee industry.  It is imperative to the mission of Durango Joe’s Coffee that the farmers and cooperatives that we have direct relationship with receive the highest possible compensation for their superb quality coffee that  we enjoy each and every day.

The Durango Joe’s Unity Project has two objectives; promoting great coffees, and supplying sustainable futures to the amazing people who grow them.

Coffee is a unique beverage that unites the globe through a very complex process that includes over 150 steps from the tree to the steaming cup. Much like wine, coffee starts on quiet hillsides where the ideal soil, climate, and meticulous care from the farmer culminates in the finest beans that, when roasted and brewed, bring us such pleasure.

Did you know that one coffee tree only produces approximately one pound of coffee per year? This fragile tree must be pruned, fertilized and tended throughout the year before finally producing hundreds of small cherries that encapsulate two small coffee beans full of flavor waiting to be released. Such a huge amount of work goes into creating this coffee, and yet the ones who spend the year nurturing the tree, in the traditional coffee market, often partake in a very small fraction of what the consumer pays for this coffee, sometimes not enough to sustain their family.

The Durango Joe’s Unity Project brings balance and traceability to this equation. It starts with traveling the globe to find the finest coffees, then bringing the story of the farmers who grew this coffee to the person drinking this cup of coffee.

Our roaster works directly with the farmers to negotiate prices that are well above Fair Trade minimums. We also work with our importing and exporting partners to provide pre-harvest financing where it is necessary, and conduct special education, health, and environmental projects.

The Unity Project’s long term relationships with our growing partners provides them with stability in the volatile coffee market, and provides them with the peace of mind that there will be someone there next year ready to pay a fair price for their amazing coffee.

So the next time you order any one of Durango Joe’s amazing coffee’s just remember that you are helping make a difference.  The Unity Project is all about connecting people, you and  the amazing farmers who produce the coffee we have come to love and enjoy each and everyday.

 
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Posted in Coffee Education, Weekly posts from Joe Lloyd

 

Face to Face with our Costa Rican Coffee Farm

31 Aug

One World. One Mission. One Harvest.Published by: Dillano’s Coffee Roasters

Las Lajas-Costa Rican

A Family Farm

Click here to watch a video about the Las Lajas, A Family FarmIn the Central Valley of Costa Rica, on the slopes of the Poas Volcano, is a small family estate that grows the finest organic coffee in the country. Las Lajas is owned and operated by Oscar and Francisca Chacon and their family. Las Lajas has been operated by the Chacon family for more than 80 years, with the third generation of coffee farmers being raised on the farm right now.

Las Lajas, A Family FarmThis farm is located at around 1200 meters elevation, and is one of a small hand full of Certified Organic Coffee farms in Costa Rica. Because of the premium that is paid for coffees from Costa Rica, it is rare to find farmers willing to sacrifice yield to follow organic growing procedures, but the Chacon’s have been growing organically for nearly 30 years.

ILas Lajas, A Family Farmn 1980 after the tragic loss of their father due to pesticide caused illness, Oscar and Francisca made the daring decision to do what their hearts told them was best for their family and start growing organically. This decision was a difficult one to make because at the time there was no premium paid for organics, but the concern for their family’s health would not allow the continuing use of chemicals.

Through the years the Chacon’s have not only paid attention to responsible growing practices but they have also placed great emphasis on producing a coffee of the highest quality. Recently, their attention to detail and their dedication to properly carrying out the many meticulous steps to producing an amazing tasting coffee have earned them international attention.

Las Lajas, A Family FarmIn 2008 and 2009 the Chacon’s submitted their coffees into a competition called Cup of Excellence. In this competition coffees from across Costa Rica are assessed for their cup quality and uniqueness of flavor. The Chacon’s placed in the top 25 out of over 600 coffees two years in a row. In addition their coffee was the highest ranked organic coffee in the country.

The Las Lajas is available at all of our locations to purchase in whole bean 12 oz. bags. It is also on rotation with our other Unity Project coffees on tap in each sit-down location. So please enjoy the fine cup of coffee that the Chacon family has been perfecting for 80 years with us!

 
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Posted in Coffee Education