Aldo Coffee Company

Barista Jamming

This coming Sunday night we'll be closed to the public while we're hosting a get-together of local baristas. 

These types of get-togethers, often called "jams", bring together dedicated coffee professionals to share techniques and compare thoughts on coffee and espresso preparation.

Up in the Pacific Northwest barista jams happen with regularity.  Jams have popped up in many other locales as well, from Arizona to Texas to Chicago to New York.  There have even been jams in Easton and Philly on the other side of PA.  But there's never been one here in Pittsburgh until now.

Rare Sports Commentary: UConn vs. WVU

Hardcore Pitt fans may think otherwise (and let's face facts, this IS a Big East city, not Big 11), but this afternoon's game at 3:30 (on HDTV here) is a really big deal for the Conference. 

Assuming West Virginia wins (and wins fairly convincingly), they're all but guaranteed a spot in the National Championship game based on LSU's loss last night and the fact that either Kansas or Mizzou has to lose today as they play each other.  WVU should move up to #2 with the winner of Kansas/Mizzou as #1.

Having WVU play in the National Championship will help all Big East teams with recruiting and will force all those "Big East is no longer a major conference" twits to finally shut up.  And Pitt may be one of the larger beneficiaries.

Because You Can Never Have Enough Coffee Stuff

We're still waiting on a couple of items, but for the most part, we've got everything for the coffee lovers on your shopping list this Christmas. 

You'll find many of the highest quality brewers on the market right here: Chemex, Eva Solo, Bodum presses, Technivorm Moccamasters and much more.

While we don't recommend buying coffee to give until a day or two before you give it, there are plenty of great coffees to take as host/hostess gifts to holiday parties, including the Kenya Chema Auction Lot that we've been turning people onto all week.  We ran out of French Roast on Tuesday, so we've offered the Kenyan and people who formerly drank only the darkest of roasts are falling in love with the nuances and fruits of this medium-dark roasted favorite.

Plus we've got El Cuervo from Huehuetenango, Guatemala for the first time in two years.

If you're looking for espresso machines, visit Todd and Mike at Espresso d'Milan.

And if you're undecided on what to buy... why not an Aldo Coffee Co. gift card? 

Happy Thanksgiving. We're Open Until We're Not.

Mel and Rich will open around 8-ish, coffee/espresso/ hot beverages, bagels and sfogliatelle only.  If nobody shows up, we'll leave by 10-ish.  If folks do show up, we'll hang till around 1-ish noon.  So if you're feeling coffee-ish, stop by.

Meantime, beware of falling birds.

To everyone who's dropped in this morning... Thanks for making our day!!!

How to Do It Right

On Monday, Sean comes in to gift us with a couple pounds of Ecco Reserve Northern Italian Roast that was one week off roast.  We'd heard tons of good things about this blend, but have never tried it ourselves. 

So JC fires some up on the Linea and it's... OK.  He fires some up on the Cimbali Jr. and it's... OK.  Some temp surfing, dosing and tamping experiments lead to more shots on both machines to the point where both we've burned through one of the two pounds. 

John and I and anyone else in range who drinks 'em straight had had so many sips from so many cups we were becoming espresso stupid.  We were getting "OK" and sometimes not even that.  But not "great".  And we knew this blend was capable of great, so it had to be us.

Raising the white flag, we call Ecco's customer service number fully expecting to be put on hold until someone could be found to answer our questions. 

A Venti In a Paper Cup? Mere Child's Play! Introducing the Duecento.

This size drink offered in ceramic cups to stay only.

(It's really a planter Melanie picked up on sale.  But we wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some chain offered this size.  Although you'd also need a two-gallon pitcher to steam the milk.)

Local Barista Gets Into Economist

We were following a link to a story on coffee brewing from the Economist and lo and behold, there's a photo of Pittsburgh's own Luke Shaffer standing behind his shop's Clover. 

Unfortunately the photo didn't have a caption there was no mention of 21st Street Coffee in the article.  So we're not sure Luke even knows about the photo yet... but as they get our RSS feed, guess he knows now!  (well, it didn't take Luke very long to find out after all... just minutes in fact!)

Monkey Brew

We're not planning on serving this, but we had to share this story from Reuters since it's the strangest thing we've heard of since kopi luwak.

Monkey-chewed beans fetching $56/lb. in Taiwan (with video goodness).

Tasting Peru

Bill Szep brought us some organic Peru beans he roasted late last week.  We don't get a lot of Peru here and tell you the truth, it's been so long, there was no memory of what we tasted last time we tried any Peru.

Perfect opportunity for finding out.  We broke out the Yama vacuum brewer and also did a press pot.  With the Yama, using a 30g of semi-coarse grinds for 360ml of water we got some beef broth and tomato tastes as well as some tamarind-like flavors residing between sour and savory.  The coffee definitely benefitted from cooling as it was a bit sharp right off the heat.  Belle and John felt it was aggressive and syrupy.  Rich simply found it quite lush.  We will try to revisit at a lower dose (the Taiwanese instructions call for 10g while Sweet Maria's calls for 7g).  Maybe we'll put it in the mix with the tasting this afternoon (still two seats left - call us if interested!)

Our Milk Supplier Wins More Awards

Turner Dairies, our milk supplier - and the milk supplier favored by just about every quality-focused coffeeshop in town - added to their trophy case this month, taking "First Place, White Milk" at the recently completed World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI. 

Turner also won the award in 2004 and 2005.  They've won other awards as well.  And, as they use milk from local farmers and their product is rBST-free, it's a good fit for shops that want to promote local food sources.

It goes without saying (but maybe it isn't said enough) that if the coffeehouse you choose is going to invest in great beans, great equipment and great training, it follows they should have great milk if they truly want to be proud of their cappuccinos and lattes. 

We're proud of ours.  Thanks Turner Dairies!