Aldo Coffee Company

Jakes Java Video

The P-G went down to Carl's place for a video shoot.  We use the Cerrado for the chocolate notes in the Esmeralda blend (Carl/Jake's also roasts our Esmeralda and decaf).

Affordable Luxuries: Few and Far Between, But Good Coffee Is One.

China says "spend more, not less" to get coffee worth enjoying.

Refills and Go-Cups

We seem to be getting more requests for our $1 refill lately.  However, we need to reiterate how this works:

One-time per visit $1.00 refill for customers who purchased their first drink in a ceramic cup "for here" (small or medium).

• We do not refill go-cups for $1.00.
• We do not refill coffee cups from another store.
• The coffee you made at home and put in your travel mug does not count as your first drink.

Also, if you're going to drink your coffee in the cafe, we'd really appreciate it if you ordered in ceramic.  We're not going to stop you from ordering in a go-cup.  We just wish you didn't.  If you order in ceramic and still have coffee you'd like to finish by the time you want to leave, we'll happily put that into a go-cup for you.  But having tables of people with coffee in go-cups makes the atmosphere look like McDonalds.  And that's certainly not where we want to be. 

Not to mention that other than perhaps the French Roast, all of our coffees actually taste better once they've cooled down a bit.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Spring = New Lunch Menu

We've been seeing specials on arugula and strawberries lately. 

We know those items are not quite in season yet, but we spent the weekend sowing our arugula and herbs for planting in six weeks and just got antsy about changing the menu.

We might even throw a berry bush in the back this year.

Lee Robinson & Tom Reilly This Afternoon 2-4pm

Sunday, 3/22.  Free show.

Changes in Late Afternoon Coffee

We started this over the weekend - after 4pm we will no longer brew airpots of French Roast or Decaf.  We simply throw out too much of this late afternoon coffee.  It's a huge waste.

You can order an Americano made with Black Cat or Decaf Black Cat.  You may even enjoy the taste more.

We will continue brewing our Central American blend up until closing.

Economics

Had an oddly disturbing exchange with a customer on Friday.  Guy ordered a traditional cappuccino.  After he's done drinking it, he comes up to the counter and asks us to fill the 6 ounce cup with French Roast.

For free.

Obviously we don't do this.  We offered to fill it for 50 cents, or half our price for in-store refills in 12 ounce ceramic cups.

Guy points to his face and says we won't be seeing it again, adding that we don't respect the customer and that the staff at Coffee Tree does this for him all the time.

We're scratching our heads trying to understand how not giving away free product to a guy we've never seen before was disrespectful to anyone.  In our world it would be more disrespectful to not bother learning our trade and charging premium prices for crummy coffee and espresso drinks, which is all-too common in these parts.

But humor us for a moment and let's take a closer look at what the guy was asking for.  In a good month, we (the owners) get to take about 10% out of the business.  Our cost of goods for the free French Roast the guy was asking for equalled 11% of the gross profit margin of his cappuccino.  In other words, he was asking us to give up our income (plus some) on his behalf and labeling our unwillingness to do so as disrespectful.

Leaves us wondering what kind of business this guy is in and what he's willing to give away on a daily basis.

EspressOprah

UPDATE:  Mike's appearance on Oprah was postponed and will happen at a later date.  Once we know, we'll post about it.

Baristadom hits the big time as newly crowned USBC champ Mike Phillips is scheduled to be on Oprah this Friday.  We expect to be tuning in here at the shop, WTAE, 4pm.

FWIW, we've tossed some of our own stock of Bolivia Anjilinaka into the GJ grinder here and have been experimenting with shots.  It's not exactly the same roast profile of Anjilinaka Mike used to win the USBC, but it does deliver some interesting flavors.  If you want some, tell your barista.  It is finicky, so might take a couple of tries to get a good one off.

More TV time: Tazza d'Oro on WQED tomorrow, 7:30pm.

The Coffee Shop

Yung Joc f. Gorilla Zoe "Coffee Shop" music video

We're too dumb to figure out what's in the shoeboxes, but "Chromalicious" sounds like a great drink. Thanks to @RoastersClub for the linkage.

Google Soup

Our original business plan never included soup.  We added soup in late 2005.  Today, while people from outside walking distance still come here for the coffee, many within walking distance come for the soup.

From a culinary standpoint, the soups we serve are the antithesis to what we do with coffee.  While our espresso and coffee brewing standards demand precision and control over every element, soup is chaotic - at least in our kitchen.  We rarely attempt "demanding" soups (although we've tried our hand at some fairly sophisticated ones with good results).

Most of what we do is in the country/peasant soup vein.  Simple, honest, healthy and more delicious than what the recipes would suggest.  The soup we have today, for instance is a good example.  Potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, mushroom stock, onion, butter, dill.  Sounds pretty simple and somewhat bland.  But it's not.  It's a Russian recipe and the dill makes this soup interesting without making it taste like dill.