Aldo Coffee Company

Aldo Coffee Nominated for Best Coffeehouse on AOL CityGuide

Here's the list of nominees in alpha order:

1.  61C
2.  Affogato
3.  Aldo Coffee Co.
4.  Crazy Mocha
5.  Donna Lisa's
6.  Eat Unique (formerly Craig St. Coffee)
7.  Kiva Han
8.  Sister's SpecialTeas Cafe
9.  The Quiet Storm
10. The Vault

You don't need to be an AOL member to vote (thank goodness).

That said, we're not expecting anyone to vote for us who hasn't actually been here and tried a Black Cat espresso, cappuccino, macchiato or latte or one of the many award-winning blends or single origin coffees that we've featured this past year. 

But, if you have been here and enjoyed the experience, we certainly would appreciate your vote.

While you're at it, local favorite Il Pizzaiolo and it's wine bar Enotria are also nominated in the Best Pizza and Best Wine Bar categories, respectively.

Canadian Baristas Blow Into Town Bringing Warmth and Good Times

We had some visiting baristas from Vancouver last night and this morning.  Lindsay (ex-Artigiano) and Matt (ex-Elysian Room) came down from Toronto and made Pittsburgh and Aldo Coffee the first stop on a six-state, 12 shop tour.

It's pretty rare that barista pros from the Pacific Northwest find their way to Pittsburgh.  We've had a couple since opening (Chrissy from Dog River and an ex-Zoka), but none that we hosted overnight. 

The extended visit presented a terrific opportunity for us to compare notes on our cities' respective cafe cultures, the differences between East and West coast "styles" of capps and macchiatos, equipment mods, theory and other coffee geekiness.  Plus the two offered suggestions on some things in the shop itself that work in the PNW that might work for us.

Andi and Lois got to see Lindsay, the 2005 Millrock Seattle winner, pull off some exceptionally detailed artwork, including an etched snowman she's been working on.

It wasn't ALL coffee, however.  We took Matt and Lindsay to Il Pizzaiolo for some Peronis, wine and Neapolitan pizzas.  This morning, after putting them to work in the shop for awhile, we showed them the Strip, including stops at La Prima and Intermezzo, culminating in the two of them enjoying a kielbasa and cheese sandwich at Primanti's, which they enjoyed fully.

From here, Lindsay and Matt are headed to a "who's who" of Northeast coffeehouses:  murky coffee (Arlington), Spro (Jay Caragay's new MD shop), Chestnut Hill (Philly), the New York City Four, and stops in Hartford, Boston and perhaps Ithaca.

Have a nice trip - wish we were going too!

On a More Serious Thanksgiving Note

While it's fun to poke at our bizarre culture and its Unturkeys, today is a day to remember that there are far too many people out there who don't have the opportunity to decide whether they want to be a ovo-lacto-vegetarian, a vegan or a basic carnivore.

They're just worried about having something to eat, period.

Give what you can in time, money or kind to organizations best suited to help.

And, as David Armano over at the wonderful marketing blog Logic + Emotion notes, why not take the opportunity to chat someone up who's less fortunate than you.  Both of you will probably feel better. 

We go down to the Strip at least once a week to resupply.  Most times, on our return back to through the Ft. Pitt Tunnel, we usually give our change to a guy who lives and sleeps at the entrance to the Ft. Pitt bridge entrance ramp.  Maybe you've passed by him. We don't know his name yet - he told us once, but it was too noisy to hear him clearly.  Still, whenever traffic flow allows, we ask how he's doing and have a few seconds of conversation.

No matter how miserable it is outside and no matter how many hundreds of cars have passed by without acknowledging his presence, he's always got a smile for us and is appreciative of whatever we can give.

We hope he's warm today and gets something to eat.  As David Armano said, "Thank you."

Soy Vey, It's Thanksgiving!

We stopped into Whole Foods this week on our way back from Highland Park.  In the frozen food aisle we saw this.

It's difficult for us to wrap our arms around exactly what type of person buys this sort of thing.  We fully understand the lure of vegetarianism (well, OK, Rich more than Melanie).  We've gone without meat for substantial periods and still cook up veggie recipes quite often because we've got a lot of good ones - there are tons of fantastic veggie recipes we can call up from almost any culture on Earth that are delicious.  So yes, meals without meat are pretty easy to enjoy (cheese is another story, you aren't taking our cheese away, ever). 

We think we sort of understand vegans, but less from the "nothing with a face" standpoint than from a revolt against industrialized foods. We don't have our particular set of tooth shapes by accident.  (That argument about not using honey... really do the bees care?). 

However, what still escapes us is that there are vegans who feel the need to eat things that look and taste like meat.  Asian cultures have been perfecting soy for thousands of years.  And they do a nice job with it.  Most carnivores would be sated with a plate of good fried tofu in a black bean or Szechuan garlic sauce (although they'd be loathe to admit it).

Still, despite several millenia of development, this wasn't good enough for Americans.  No.  We had to turn tofu into some sort of ersatz poultry.

Why couldn't the manufacturer of this thing have used their ingenuity to come up with a better pair of ersatz leather shoes?

Anyway, we're too chicken (pun intended) to try one of these concoctions.  Besides, iIf we were vegans, we'd just go down to Hong Kong in Dormont for Chinese and let Ray and Dave whip something delicious together. 

Since we don't have our own review, we'll refer to this carnivore's Torfurky report.

That said, here's what seems to be one of the more popular tofu turkey recipes out there.  Lots of positive comments on it (as well as some less than gracious ones).

And here's another recipe for tofu turkey (as well as raccoon on a stick), with different results.

Btw, the main reason we haven't done anything with tofu yet in the shop is that we've never seen soy on a trattoria or paninoteca menu in Italy.  If you do see a panini with tofu in your travels, send us a photo of the menu.  Better yet, ask to keep the menu.  And it must be an Italian menu from Italy, not San Fran or Philly - gotta be the real deal. 

This Week's Specials: What's the Difference Between a Sony PlayStation 3 and a Bag of Hacienda Esmeralda?

Eventually the prices for both go down.  But nobody gets shot over the Esmeralda.

Hacienda La Esmeralda, the astounding lemon-citrusy coffee that everyone oooooh'd and aaaaaah'd about this summer at $100 per lb. has just been rereleased by Intelligentsia for a mere $60 per pound.  The price difference is due to the fact that this coffee is not from the same bags that were in the original auction lot, however, the beans are from the same plantation.

If you're interested in getting some you can buy it direct from Intelligentsia's website for $29.95 per half pound bag plus shipping. 

A better option might be to ask us to order some for you by 10am Friday and we'll have it here for you next Thursday for $31.95 per half pound bag - which is usually cheaper when you factor the shipping.  They only roast it on Mondays, and we've got to call our order in by late morning on Friday.

We'll have some Esmeralda in the store off and on throughout the holidays for brewing press pots - this time it'll be $5 for the whole pot, not per cup.

But we're not getting any Esmeralda for the store this week. 

Rather, we've got some coffees that complement the holiday season - perfect for your Thanksgiving get togethers:

1. Los Delirios (Nicaragua) - the first certified organic coffee ever to win a Cup of Excellence competition .  The Los Delirios produces a cup that starts with cherries up front, moves to undertones of maple and apricot and finishes with chocolate and spice notes.

2.  Los Inmortales El Salvador Micro Lot: Borbollon Reserve - A balanced cup with steady undertones of chocolate throughout finishing with wine grapes, apple cider and sweet spices.

3.  The 2006 "Celebration Blend", which is on The Chicagoist's list of things to love about winter in the Windy City.   It's a blend of Direct Trade coffees that starts with rounded chocolate and hazelnut and finishes with a cranberry-like tartness (we haven't used this year's batch for espresso yet, but previous years' Celebration Blends made for decent shots).

What's turkey without some great after dinner coffee?  Gotta counter all that tryptophane.

Hache: The Kenny of Coffees?

I (Rich) am up late working on a mind-numbingly detailed project for our other business.  I wanted some coffee, but didn't want a full dose of caffeine, only a little.  So I figured I'd be pragmatic about things and just cut some our house decaf with whatever the oldest full caf coffee was we had lying aournd the house.  Just enough buzz to keep me going a couple hours more.

Turns out we had some seven-week old Hache from Novo Roasters that I'd stuffed into a baggy and brought home after we thought it was too old to serve in the shop.  Hadn't touched it in about a month.

I figured two parts decaf to one part Hache should provide the desired kick.

What I didn't count on was something that smelled interesting enough for me to take a sip of it black.  I never drink decaf black.  But this tasted great. 

The tea-like floral qualities of the Hache were still very present as was most of the natural sweetness we remembered from October.  These qualities meshed well with the decaf's somewhat fuller body, while sublimating the decaf's acidity. 

The aftertaste lingered quite some time, in that characteristic astringency that the SCAA terms "winey".  The chocolate finish wasn't there.  Instead the finish was more like a vague lemon curd sensation, very smooth with a bit of tartness somewhere between a grapefruit and maraschino cherry - it seemed a bit of a moving target.  Then again, it's pretty late to find clarity.

Like South Park's Kenny, apparently whenever you think the Hache is dead, it shows some life - in this case more than some coffees we've had seven days post roast, let alone seven weeks.

That such a small quantity of the Hache could transform the decaf into such a tasty cup was surprising.  Guess we'll have to get more.

Taiwan On

We're getting a ton of hits from this site today. 

It's a Taiwan domain.  We imagine they must've posted something about us and linked here.  But we have no idea if what they're saying is good or bad or indifferent.

If you're browsing in Taiwanese, please let us know what they're saying.  Thanks.

Hacking Your Senseo

Was updating our lens on Squidoo and wanted to see what other coffee lenses were out there.  Turns out the highest ranked coffee lens is titled "Hacking Your Senseo".

It also happens that we have a Senseo.  We got it free for taking part in a customer survey and trial (we think because we attended CoffeeFest, but we're not sure). 

We used the Senseo a handful of times to give it a fair shake.  It was convenient, but we weren't crazy about the product.  While we thought about doing some of the tricks on "Hacking" to see how they might improve the cup, we decided we'll just stick with our press pot, drip maker, Moka pot and Aeropress for now. 

Since we weren't going to use it, we offered to send the unit back to the Senseo folks, but they never responded. 

So, if you'd like to claim our Senseo as your own so you can starting hacking it, come in and make us an offer - we'll trade for just about anything. 

Progress in Pittsburgh Coffee Scene

Couple of things worth mentioning that we learned today:

1) A certain coffeehouse in Highland Park that's been featuring Batdorf & Bronson's Dancing Goats espresso blend is actually going to shut down early on November 20 for employee training. 

Other than our shop, we've never seen or heard of such a thing for training anywhere in Pittsburgh.

That other shops are starting to pay attention to training is excellent news for the metro area. 

It'll be an improvement.  This shop has been consistently voted by AOLers as one of top ten in Pittsburgh.  We assume it will get even better.  Word has it they're dumping the big bell pitchers and going to smaller, spouted pitchers and will be trained on new techniques for distribution, tamping and extraction. 

Do we smell updosing coming to Highland Park?  Latte art perhaps?

Also was cool to meet Antonio - only the second barista we've met in Pittsburgh outside our circle of 61c/Intermezzo/Simpatico who actually knows what a barista jam is.

2) Peter Guiliano of Counter Culture Coffee is going to have a talk in conjunction with the second screening of Black Gold on December 10. 

This is utterly fantastic news.  We've corresponded with Peter online, but have yet to meet.  Peter is thisclose to Intelligentsia's Geoff Watts philosophically (and they've traveled together to origin frequently), so the story of Intellly's "Direct Trade" program is also close to Peter's own program.  It's important that Peter gets out "our" side of the story as it relates to compensating coffee farmers.  What Peter and Geoff (and others like them) are doing is working, and will benefit both farmers and consumers even more than the current Fair Trade Certifcation as administered by TransfairUSA.

Things are looking up - it seems Pittsburgh is starting to awaken to better coffee.

Some Coffee History You Probably Didn't Know, But Need To

Jamie VanSchyndel - whom we're now rechristening as the "East Coast 'Spro Savant" - just put out a great post that quickly summarizes why dark roasts became popular - and why that's not always your best choice for coffee, and especially, espresso.

An excerpt:

In Northern Italy (and the Scandanavian countries) they source better grade beans and roast much lighter than we generaly do. (There are a handful of exceptions tho) They historicaly have wealth in Northern Italy and therefore the customers can pay more for better quality. In the South, the roasts are darker because they were economicaly forced to use poorer quality beans and needed to roast over the defects. Hence the Northern Italian(very light) and South Italian(darker) roasts in espresso. The poorer areas roasted the coffee darker because they had to.

Jaime is quite obsessed over coffee.  Sometimes scarily so.  While we know more than than the average bear, Jaime is about 10 parsecs ahead of us when it comes to science and theory of espresso extraction, most notably his work on extracting lighter roasts at lower temperatures.  If you're at all curious about what you can do with coffee/espresso (or tea), add Jaime's "Barismo" blog to your must-reads.