Aldo Coffee Company

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo All Week with Our Guest Coffee: Mexican Altura from Chiapas

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo all week long with our featured guest coffee:  Mexican Altura from The Roasterie in Kansas City. 

We'll be featuring Mexican Altura each evening from 5-8pm for a "Cinco de Mayo Happy Hour".  Enjoy a cup with our special cannoli of the week - Cinnamon Dulce de Leche.

Altura literally means "high altitude".  Danny O'Neill, "Bean Baron" at The Roasterie, calls this the best coffee available from Mexico.  Kenneth Davids of CoffeeReview.com gave it a score of 89.

Origin: Sierra Madre Mountains, southeastern Chiapas State, Mexico
Notes: Altura is a grading term applied to Mexico coffees that are high-grown; here it is used by The Roasterie to label a Mexico coffee produced by small holders in the Sierra Madre region of Chiapas, one of the regions ravaged by Hurricane Stan in late 2005. The Roasterie is a leading, quality-oriented specialty roaster that emphasizes its commitment to "air roasting," a technology utilizing a column of hot air rather than the conventional turning drum to agitate the roasting beans.
Blind Assessment: Mild, pleasingly sweet fermented fruit notes complicate aroma and cup and read as chocolate, red wine, cedary cherries, perhaps with a hint of sweet herb. The acidity is low-toned and balanced, the mouthfeel roundly smooth. The finish is clean but slightly thin.
Who should drink it:Those who enjoy the sweet, giddily wine-like flavor of slightly fermented fruit.

Who says you have to wait until five o'clock and settle for drinking those lame Coronas this week* just to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  Stop in and enjoy a cup or two of Mexican Altura. 

Trust us, you'll leave saying, <<¡Lo gusto!>>

*Having lived a year in Mexico I can assure you actual Mexicans usually prefer Modelo or other brands to Corona.  After all, if it was good beer you wouldn't need that lime would you?

Cannoli Forensics

A customer came in today to return a cannoli she bought two days ago.  It was dry, she said. 

When it's your money, the only opinion that matters is yours.  So we refunded her money and took the half eaten shell and filling she'd brought in.  We knew it was ours because of the color and texture.

Rather than freak out, we took a look at possible causes for the excess "dryness".  And it turns out she may have been onto something.  For whatever reason earlier in the week somebody took it upon themselves to start packing cannoli filling into the pastry bags until they were virtually bursting.  It was "more convenient than having to refill the bags all the time." 

Hey, we're all for process when it improves the customer experience.  But this didn't.  The effect of increasing the cream volume in the pastry bags is that more cannoli cream gets exposed to the air, thus it dries out quicker.  As we use a recipe that's drier than most to begin with, the result is probably something that's more like cannoli caulk than cannoli cream. 

Up until now it's been our unwritten rule of thumb that no more than a cup goes into a pastry bag at a time.  Now it's our written rule.  Call it a learning experience.

Our Naked Portafilter Has Arrived

We've officially joined the fraternity of coffeehouses that can create "espresso porn".

Our shiny new naked portafilter arrived from Espresso Parts yesterday afternoon.  After unwrapping, cleaning and sterilizing it last night, we were ready to give it its maiden voyage this morning.  Belle had the honors while we went scrambling for the camera.

While some swear that the taste and mouthfeel of Black Cat shots pulled by the naked portafilter are richer in body and smoother in taste, we did not experience a discernable difference in body or taste during our quick trials this morning.  Which is not to say there wasn't - we were a bit pressed for time and Belle admitted the first shot we pulled with the naked wasn't one of her best (although the second try seemed dead on).

Regardless if it improves taste or not, we are not intending on using the naked portafilter as a matter of course.  We still have a lot of training to do with - and that's why we have it - for training. 

Using the naked portafilter exposes many flaws that might otherwise go unnoticed.  In conjunction with examing spent pucks, being able to see the shot develop allows us to identify problems with tamping consistency, channelling, screen clogs and in some cases mechanical problems.  In other words, using the naked portafilter as a training tool will enable us to further improve our quality standards.

And it makes for great photos.  Which means that in addition to upgrading our espresso skills, we're going to need a better camera.  Or at least a better photographer ==:-0

Ron Freeman Tonight - Aldo Goes Country... Sorta

UPDATE:  Ron has car problems and can't make it down.  We're hoping to reschedule, possibly even this coming Friday as we now have that as an open date. 

Our music heads in a decidedly different direction this evening as Ron Freeman takes the stage.

Ron is from Erie and plays somewhere in the territory between Willie Nelson, Conor Oberst and New Order, if you put your money on this reviewer.

Here's a sample lyric:

Your family’s broke and cigarette smoke is filling up your lungs
You’re thinking about eternity, but you’d settle for being young
Your time has come, your time has come.

We're looking forward to it.  Hope you are too. 

Ron Freeman, 8:00pm-9:30pm tonight, $2 suggested contribution.

The Aldo Coffee Modeling School

In search of a redhead, Salon Vivace tapped our Petra for some hair modeling duty on Monday night.

That's the third modeling gig our crew has done this year (Three Amigas pajama modeling, Cara's Pittsburgh Today segment).

So not only can our baristi serve a mean demitasse, turns out some of them can vamp, too.

Now we're waiting to see what kinds of modeling gigs Steve and Frank can get ;-)

P.S.  We also catered the Salon Vivace event.  Mostly bruschettas and crostini (canape and dessert) plus cannoli and cookies.  If you're interested in talking to us about catering an event, let us know.  We're flexible and can work around just about any theme you have.  Well, except for Norwegian smorgsabord, sushi or Mongolian barbecue.

Even a Parking Ticket Can't Kill a Good Cup

We had a surprise visit from former Zoka and Blue Bottle barista/roaster/coffee geek Jon Ferguson yesterday.  Jon's been visiting State College and decided to stop by on the way from Pittsburgh International.

We don't get many third wave West Coasties out this way, so it's always a pleasure to pick their brains and see if we're in the ballpark with our offerings. 

The Importance of Connecting With Origin

Jim Hoffman is the reigning barista champion in the United Kingdom.

Last week he took a trip to El Salvador to visit plantations that are providing him with the beans he'll be using in the upcoming World Barista Championships in Bern.

If you want a look at the kind of trip just about every caring barista dreams of, Jim's blog provides it.  While most working stiffs  desire a vacation at a fine resort or ski slope or Disney, the ultimate barista trip is connecting to origin. 

We're all looking at this and thinking to ourselves... damn.

Some particularly amazing excerpts from Jim's trip diary:

Have Blackberry, Will Find Caffeine

Our old friend (well, not OLD, but a friend) Sue points us to a GPS application those of you with Blackberries may find very handy:

Caffeine Finder.

Soul Cafe This Afternoon

The Rev. Terry Timm hosts another afternoon of music and friendship from 4-6pm today. 

Once a month Aldo Coffee Co. stays open late on a Sunday.  We turn the store over to Terry and his flock for "Soul Cafe".  Our store becomes their "church" for two hours.  Soul Cafe features live music, good thoughts, and yes, coffee.  Belle and Frank are behind the bar.

Terry being Terry, everyone's welcome to join in. 

Laren & Joe, Part II

In the 16 months we've been open we've had some 40 or so acts play here, almost all of whom have a CD over on CD Baby or other music sites.  We also get a lot of samples sent to us from aspiring artists.

To date, only three of these artists have ever made the rotation in our car CD:  Craig Carothers, Ken Karsh and now, Laren & Joe (that's their CD with Lushwell pictured).