Aldo Coffee Company

It's Officially Shakerato Season

With the warmer weather, we're calling May 1 as our official start of Shakerato Season.  The warming, rich Bicerin is out, the cool, refreshing Shakerato is in.

Right now there are two we're offering:
1. Straight Shock: a double espresso shaken in a mixing cup filled with ice.  The espresso does not dilute, but pours out a bit sweeter, without bitterness, and a nice frothy head on top.
2. Buca Blast: our house anise simple syrup shaken on ice with the espresso, adds a refreshing note of sweet licorice to your espresso - similar to a cold 'Buca chaser.

We're going to add one or two more.  We're working on something we'll introduce on Mother's Day.

All Shakeratos are served cold in a martini glass for enjoyment in the shop or on our patio.

The Macchiato: Or How to Make Enemies in the Barista Community

For all the crap top baristas have given Starbucks for perverting the term "macchiato" by calling their big caramel calorie bombs by that name, it's not like a lot of "third wave" baristas are helping.

Wikipedia:  "Macchiato" simply means "marked" or "stained," and in the case of caffè macchiato, this means literally "espresso stained/marked with milk." Traditionally it is made with one shot of espresso, and the small amount of added milk was the "stain." However, later the "mark" or "stain" came to refer to the foamed milk that was put on top to indicate the beverage has a little milk in it (usually about a teaspoon [in fact, the Portuguese word for a macchiato is "pingo," which means "drop"]). The reason was for the baristas to show the serving waiters the difference between an espresso and an espresso with a little milk in it; the latter was marked.

With the advent and popularity of ristretto shots, odds are many cafes where you'd order a macchiato will give you two shots, since they're smaller in volume (each shot is around 0.5-0.75oz, so that's 1.0-1.5 oz total espresso for a double ristretto, or roughly the same as a standard shot*).  That's not the problem.

The problem is when the milk volume far exceeds the "one tablespoon" (0.33oz) of the classic drink.  And how that milk is steamed.  A traditional, classic macchiato has a ratio of 4-5 parts espresso to 1 part milk.

Too often we see photos posted from top cafes and baristas of macchiatos that are nothing more than miniature lattes - about a 1:1 ratio of milk to espresso with the milk steamed latte-style so the barista can show off their rosettas pouring skills. 

Once you start featuring the milk as much or more than the espresso, you've got a different drink.  Many shops correctly call this a "latte piccolo" (which we can do on request - it's not on the menu - and nobody has ever asked for one.) 

The Importance of Grind

Read any coffee aficianado blog or forum and you'll run across lots of commentary regarding the importance of a proper grind to get the best flavor from the whole beans you've purchased. 

While these comments are most often seen as grind relates to espresso, it's equally important for drip methods.

To illustrate what can happen when an improper grind is used, I'll offer myself as an example.

This morning I (Rich) was personally guilty of user error.  A couple of days ago, Michael Hoffman stopped by with a couple of small baggies of two coffees he picked up at Verve in San Francisco.  There was less than 100g in each baggie, so we decided yesterday to brew up the Ethiopia Worka Wondo in a Cafe Solo, which used up 62g.  The coffee was candy - ripe, sweet red fruits, lots of body, mild acidity.  Delicious.

This morning, before his shift, Frank asked if he could have a cup with the rest of the beans.  There was 24g left, so I thought we could do a short press pot of around 13 ounces.  I thought I had changed the grind setting to coarse, but once I saw what was coming out, it was obvious I hadn't.  It was a flat bottom filter grind.

We decided we'd see if we could salvage it by doing a 12 oz manual pourover as there was no choice but to use paper as a filter medium because of the finer grind.  But even our pourover method would call for a coarser grind that what was in the filter.  Given it was all that was left of the coffee, we brewed it anyway.  Had it been for a customer, we would've said, "sorry, can we make you something else?".  But it was Frank, so we made it an educational opportunity.

The resulting cup from the finer grind was grapefruit up front, higher acidity, more earthy, less balanced.  Not so delicious.

If you buy a coffee based on the flavors you experienced at your favorite coffeehouse and find you're not getting the same flavors at home, it could very well be your grind (or your dose or your water, but those are different posts for a different day).  If you're not satisfied with what you're brewing at home, ask your favorite barista for how they dose and grind at the shop.

We stopped carrying grinders here a couple of years ago.  They're just too expensive for us to carry the ones we'd recommend.  But if you really like coffee, you should consider investing a decent burr grinder, available from numerous sources.

For those interested in drip brew methods, you'll find links to both press pot and Chemex brewing methods in the right sidebar that we posted a few months ago.  Both videos are from former World Barista Champion James Hoffman.  James' suggested methods work very well, although you need a gram scale to follow along - but if you're serious about food as well as coffee, you likely already already own one.

Coffee Dogma

There were many enlightening moments from last weekend's World Barista Championships, from the "almost reluctant" participation of the winner, to the increasing excellence and maturity of the barista presentations from coffee-growing countries (particularly Central America), to the technical wizardry that we've already remarked on ad naseum.

A week later, the thing that's sticking out in our mind is how many of us buy into a set of parameters for roasting and brewing that may be well-founded, but can be proved otherwise in the hands of a skilled barista. 

We're as guilty as anyone in buying into dogma.  But you have to start somewhere, so going with commonly-held perceptions on espresso and coffee brewing is as good a place to start as any. 

We've talked about the importance of coffee freshness quite often on this site over the past four-plus years.  Anything we brew on bar at Aldo Coffee is less than 14 days old, and often less than that.  Retail coffee that's pushing three weeks off roast ends up in the 20% off bin.  The handful of bags each year that go over a month without being sold are given to churches and charities (still beats the stuff in a can by miles).

Freshness is what we were taught.  And it is important if you're looking to get the flavors and mouthfeel from the beans we sell.

But we're not Attila Molnar, the Hungarian Barista Champion who finished sixth in the WBC.

Take It Away. Please.

UPDATE: As of this morning at 9:30am all the samples were taken. 

Given only one sample was taken yesterday, we can only assume our early Saturday customers should bring their loved ones in for some coffee edumacation ;-)

Warmer Weather Means the Soup Rule Is In Play

Rich forgot his own kitchen rule of "No soup when the temperature is over 70F".

It was a lovely creamy asparagus with flash sauteed tips as garnish.  Not a single order until Dorothy came downstairs at 4pm because we guilted her into a cup.  Bless her heart for ordering one.

We hate wasting anything so expect to see that soup again slightly modified sometime next week.  On a cooler day.

Anyway, the "soup rule" is now officially in play.  We may make exceptions for Saturdays if we've got a spicier soup ready to go - and tomorrow we will be doing another batch of the (apparently very popular) Chilaquiles soup.  But for weekdays, temps over 70F means no soup.  Check the Twitter box if you're not sure.  If there's no soup in the Twitter box, we're not serving any that day.

Coffee Day

For some baristas, getting in a new shipment of coffees is exciting for  the aroma and taste expectations of fresh coffee.

We get to experience that every Thursday afternoon.

For other baristas, it's all about what else is in the box. 

Like bubble wrap.

Lauren loves Thursdays.

The Esmeraldo Project

As followers of this blog know, we participated in our first coffee auction last year with Jake's Java, splitting a  300 lb shipment of Lot 5 of the esteemed Hacienda La Esmeralda (although our purchase was, as Tom at Sweet Maria's put it, "the cheap lot".)

Cheap was and is relative.  It's still a stellar coffee and one that's twice as expensive as anything else we sell.

It arrived in late June. After originally trying to sell it as whole bean, getting a few bites early on from curious coffee fans, then not much else, we thought about what else we could do with it.  After all, we owned 100 lbs of it and had managed to sell only about 10 lbs of retail whole bean and another 30 lbs in drip/single cup.  The leaves were turning. This was not what we expected.

The challenge was that we were interested in lighter roasts that showed off the coffee's uniqueness.  But that was a roast profile that didn't thrill much of our customer base.  At $23 for a 12 ounce bag, they didn't want something that tasted like Earl Grey tea and lemon.  They wanted a premium coffee that tasted more like coffee.  Roasting darker muted the characteristics that warranted the high price in the first place.  It just didn't make sense to us.

But we still had a lot of coffee to sell.

There's Ham, and There's Ham

Apologies for the cell phone photo and greenish background, but it's good enough to deliver the point... which is, both of these pieces of meat are called "Black Forest Ham".

The slice on the left, which is what we've been using, is from McGinness Bros.  The pale-looking thing on the right is Dietz & Watson brand black forest ham.

About the only thing these two meats have in common is that they come from a pig.

Thus is the danger of sending someone else to do your shopping.  Had to use some of the D&W stuff today as it was what our emergency shopper bought at Giant Eagle yesterday and it was all we had.

Lesson learned:  Always be specific if you want to get what you really want.  We'll get more of the "real" black forest in time for tomorrow's lunch.

Bathroom Door