Aldo Coffee Company

Bourdain, Good Food and Pittsburgh - Is Anybody Listening?

Anthony Bourdain is lecturing up at CMU as we post this. We didn't have tickets but we're pretty sure it's worth the ticket. He spoke in Upper St. Clair last December to favorable response.  Sellouts both times. 

Which means that Bourdain has spoken in front of about 3,500 Pittsburghers in the past four months, talking about what is good food and what is not.

But is anyone listening.  And if so, how come they're not sharing their thoughts? 

Schools for Schools Benefits - Mt. Lebo Helping Uganda

Aldo Coffee will host three benefit performances by Mt. Lebo High students over the next six weeks: this Friday 4/4, then again on 4/18 and 5/9.  Performances will feature a student guitarist and will begin at 8pm each of the three nights.

We hope you will support our local students in this effort.

The performances are to benefit "Schools for Schools", a program organized by Invisible Children where schools in wealthier countries help schools in Northern Uganda, which has been ravaged by armed conflict for decades.  A two-minute video explaining the program makes a strong case for why this effort is worthy of your contributions.

Saturday Afternoon Testosterone

A rare scheduling coincidence has Frank and John on the same shift this afternoon with Rich in the kitchen.

Five hours.  All guys. Expect playing with power tools and fire. 

Consider yourself warned ;-)

Belle In Today's P-G

In the South section.  The Belle of Baristas.

Good beans.  Good baristas.  We got 'em.

Btw, if you ever want to taste Belle's competition signature drink for yourself, just ask her when she's on shift.  It's $3.00 and is served in a martini glass.

Scott Rao Jumps Into the Lead for Our 2008 Awesomest Person of the Year

In a post last week we mentioned leaving our camera at the Easton Jam.  We also were expecting the return of a book we bought while at the Jam that was left in the hotel room because of a hurried exit (the manager acknowledged having both at one point, so we're not exactly sure what's going on...).

Anyway, lots of folks in the industry read this blog or get the feed.  And one of those folks happens to be Scott Rao.  Who happens to be the author of the book we lost, titled, "The Professional Barista's Handbook".

Easter Sunday Hours

Happy Easter to all celebrating.   We are open on Easter Sunday with shortened hours, from 8:30 am - 1:30 pm.

No Pictures. You'll Just Have to Imagine.Now With Pictures

Edited at 1pm:  We're still without camera, but Chris emailed us a photo he took this morning, which is at left, so you no longer have to imagine what these look like.

Melanie has three sets of "Easter-y" cupcakes out for sale - a tray of brightly decorated jellybean studded white cupcakes and two trays of special marshmallow creme-filled chocolate beauties with PEEPS on top, well.

Yes, peeps.  You know you want one.

It is really starting to grate on us that the Easton Quality Inn isn't getting back to us regarding our camera they admit was taken from their manager's office (not to mention our copy of Scott Rao's new book).  It's been two weeks...

How Starbucks Just Ruined the Re-Launch of a Marketing Career

Best laid plans yada yada yada...

At the risk of sounding self-serving (or perhaps sour-grapey in cuppers' terms), for the record, last week we had a brainstorm resulting in an idea that to the best of our knowledge has never been attempted:  Subscription Coffee. 

The point was to seeing whether coffee lovers would buy - in advance - a year's worth of great varietal coffees brewed on a Clover.  Like our AM Aldo card, except on a much larger scale and not limited to a certain time of day.

Subscribers would front a membership fee and get about double the value of their investment in coffee and other benefits over the course of their year-long membership.  We'd collect enough in advance so that buying an $11,000 Clover brewer wouldn't get in the way of  necessary expenses.  Everybody wins.

The Ultimate Irish Coffee Recipe

Courtesy of Doug Cadmus over at Bloggle. Enjoy responsibly!

Locally Roasted Coffee Makes Its Debut

When you come into the shop this week you'll see more than just the usual orange bags of Intelligentsia coffees.  We're now featuring a couple of locally-roasted coffees from Jakes Java in Peters Twp.  You'll see these on the shelf in black zipper-lock bags (we're without a camera at the moment, so you'll have to come in and see them for yourself).

We're currently offering two coffees from Jakes Java:

Ethiopia Harrar "Blue Sun" - we continually get requests for Harrar and as Intelligentsia has not offered one in awhile, we felt this was a good place to introduce a local roastery.  The Blue Sun has the distinctive blueberry notes of most good natural processed Harrars, complimented with plum and chocolate notes.  We will also be featuring the Harrar by the cup all this week.

Colombia "Excelso EP" Swiss Water Decaf - while we continue to enjoy and serve Decaf Black Cat, we have been searching for another decaf drip for some time (we were even thinking of roasting our own). This Colombian Excelso EP offers a traditional balanced and clean cup typical of a good Colombian.  We will be phasing out the Intelligentsia decaf in favor of the Excelso EP over the next week both behind the bar as well as on the retail racks.

No, we're not replacing Black Cat espresso blend or any of the varietals we get from Intelligentsia.  We are fully committed to the Direct Trade model and the delicious coffees that result.  Intelligentsia is and will continue to be a huge part of our success.

However, working with Carl and Kevin at Jakes Java gives us an opportunity to support an upcoming local business as well as plug a gaping hole in our offerings (Harrar) and provide what we believe is a better option for decaf drip.