Aldo Coffee Company

Considering New Hours

We're having discussions on staying open later two or three nights a week (either Fri/Sat or Thus/Fri/Sat until 8pm) and going back to a later Sunday close.

The challenge is that Clara is going to South Africa for three weeks at the end of February, which would really stretch us out a bit too far schedule-wise.  Plus we've got a barista competition to attend in NYC in mid-March. So that's four consecutive Fridays and Saturdays where we'd be short staffed.  We'd hate to start offering later hours for February then have to go back to an earlier close just one month later.  That gets confusing.

The other challenge is, if we're open late from Thurs-Sat, when do we get our roasting in for the weekend? The roaster makes a lot of noise, plus it's hard to do that and man the counter simultaneously.

We'll be looking to see if one of our alumni might be willing to step in and take some weekend shifts, which would mean we could do this sooner than later.

Coffee Prices Will Be Going Up

Our primary supplier for our green coffees posted some thoughts on the increased demand/prices for high-end ethically-sourced green coffees.  It's unavoidable.

For now we're OK as prices are stable on the Ethiopia, Sulawesi and El Salvador coffees in our current rotation. We'll continue to order those for as long as they're available. But there's no telling what the future will bring. 

We'll try to ease the pain as much as possible. What we won't do is back off of our principles and start selling coffees we can't trace back to the farm and that don't meet our quality standards.  We already pay more for green coffee than any roaster in the region because of those principles, but we feel it's worth it. And our customers seem to agree with that.

We will be increasing the price of 20 ounce drip in the near future. Not because of the recent price hikes in the market, but because that size has been woefully underpriced for six years. It's gonna go bump up at least 25 cents (you can do the math at home - if a 12oz is $1.75 and a 16oz is $2.25, how can a 20oz be $2.50?)  The 12oz and 16oz sizes will remain as currently priced until we learn what our product costs are going to be.

UPDATE: Max Nicholas-Furmer of Royal Coffee adds to the conversation with even more news you're not going to like.

Backing Off to "Something Better"

We've recently made a change is our philosophy at the store. We're no longer offering any single origins via batch brewed airpots.  If you wish to experience one of our single origins, they're available via custom-brewed Clevers or press pots.

For the "just coffee", "dark roast", "not too acidic", "whatever is ready" crowd, we have a blend we brew in airpots all day long.

For now it's working name is, "Just the House Blend, Winter Mix".

It's very good.  We've been getting a ton of compliments since we started offering it. 

So why the change?

Hopefully every one of you reading this doesn't eat a diet of only the same stuff you did as a kid. Or even the same stuff you were eating 10 years ago. 

That's normal. That's a sign of maturity. That's evolution.

Certainly there's a place for our "comfort foods" - the things that bring back memories of mom's cooking or a particular memory.  But eating only comfort foods is neither healthy mentally nor physically. Not to mention terrifically boring.  It would be like reaching 40 and deciding you're simply not going to try to learn anything new.  

How does this relate to a "coffee blend" - a concept that in progressive coffee circles is as outdated as a desktop computer or Jay Leno.  Wouldn't a coffee blend by definition be frowned upon as a mere comfort food for those who don't want to take risks?

Not this one.

Slow Food & Coffee Monday Night

Looks like there are a couple dozen Slow Food folks who are going to soak up the charms of guest speaker Jay Caragay and the Colombian street food we'll be preparing.

We'll take six additional reservations. You can leave a comment or email us and we'll confirm if you're one of the lucky half dozen by early afternoon.

The agenda is something like this:

6:30 Everyone arrives and is confronted with a coffee tasting of two roast levels of our Colombia Monserrate (city and full city+).

6:40 Rich does intro, explains the theme (coffee origins and importance of barista competitions, celebrating 2011 as being first time the World Barista Championship will be held in a producing country - Bogota, Colombia).

6:50-ish Colombian street food served including empanada, salchica and arepa accompanied by a blend of the Colombian Monserrate roasts brewed via Fetco.

7:15-ish Jay speaks about working with baristas in origin countries. Expect several divergent stories over the next 45 minutes.

7:45-ish Dessert of aborrajados and alfajores along with tasting of the Colombia Monserrate blend hand-brewed three ways - as a Chemex, as a press pot and as an Abid Clever.

8:15-ish We clean up, the rest of y'all find some bigger local food at Bistro19, Il Pizzaiolo, Little Tokyo, Sesame Inn, Molly's, Aladdins or whatever else fits your fancy on Washington Road.

An Interesting Week In Europe Could Be Yours

We would love to do this with our focus being food security and health coverage/subsidies and the role each plays in the bigger EU economic picture.

However, we have to work.

But if you meet the criteria, sounds like a fascinating week.

 

Slow Food Event Here Monday Jan 17

We're delighted to be hosting the Pittsburgh chapter of SlowFood here next Monday evening for some conversation about coffee.

There will be a coffee tasting and some finger foods prepared by us typical of what you might find in some of the coffee origin countries.

Our good friend Jay Caragay from Spro Coffee in Baltimore will be the guest speaker. Jay is recently back from a trip to Uganda and Rwanda where he helped put together and judge barista competitions. He'll be talking about working in origin countries to help them better understand how the fruits of their harvests are perceived, marketed and enjoyed by those in consuming countries, bringing the farmer one step closer to the consumer.

Tickets are $10 for SlowFood members, $12 for others. More information and tickets for Monday night's event can be found here.

Coming Soon...

UPDATE: Given the lack of interest from our local market, we've decided against investing further in a single cup brewing program. Please disregard the post that follows. It was a nice idea at the time and we really did want to move forward.

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Later this month, Coava Coffee is debuting this beauty of a drip system at a LaMarzocco event in Berkeley.

We've been waiting for something like this. Basically it does exactly what the Abid Clever does except (a) it's looks a helluva lot better and (b) doesn't use paper.

Coava introduced their steel Kone filter late last year to exceptional reviews. Designed to fit into the neck of a Chemex, the Kone does something the paper Chemex filters do not - give the coffee body without compromising much of the flavor articulation for which Chemex is noted.

With this new Kone filter holder, they've added the ability to steep the grounds, as with the Abid Clever.  You control steep time and flow with a simple knob. 

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Coffee Descriptors

On the left, ripe coffee cherries. On the right, a mix of everything from the coffee tree, both ripe and unripe.

The coffee on the left is what you get here at Aldo Coffee, whether from Intelligentsia or what we source and roast ourselves.  The coffee on the right is what you're served at most restaurants, diners and, unfortunately, a majority of local coffeeshops.

Our coffees cost more (and not nearly enough) because there is strict quality control in harvesting and processing.  It's the best of what's out there from any given farm or coop.

So let's say you're at the supermarket and there are two bins of tomatoes (or cantaloupes or oranges or bananas, etc.). One bin is full of ripe fruit, one is full of unripe fruit.

Do you choose to save a quarter and buy the unripe fruit, or do you pay the quarter and buy the ripe fruit?

More photos from Geoff Watts here.

Back to Regular Hours

Holidays are over. Back to work for you, back to regular hours for us.

Weekdays 6:30am-6:00pm, Saturday 7:30am-6:00pm, Sunday 8:30am-2:00pm.