Mulch Makes Their Move: Espresso on wheels, offered in and/or around their space.

Jason Calhoon of Mulch Coffee just poured a beautiful cappuccino made from Water Avenue espresso and Organic Valley milk, swagger intact.

Mulch Coffee saw fit to make it so you could sit down and sip one of the best cappuccinos out of anywhere in the country right in Old Town Scottsdale – every Saturday morning. Sooner rather than later, it will be every day.

They chose a good place to set up shop – the Old Town Farmers Market couldn’t get more adoration from valley locals; the competition is stiff but boasts a friendly attitude and a lot of vegetables. Of course, no one takes the silent credo of stiff competition to heart more than Scottsdale dog owners – for perfectly groomed and mannered pups, Saturday morning at the market is show time.

The market vendors are a bit less flashy than the dogs and their owners, but they set the bar high for quality. Some markets don’t have raw honey from The Health Foodie, a sourcer that pays attention to the whole honey bee chain, or every root vegetable under the sun plucked from the soil at Blue Sky Farms, or those buttery croissants that would feel at home in Paris but Essence Bakery brings with them from Tempe – to which I remain faithful – though I dare you to challenge me with a pastry tour in France.

Up until very recently the farmers market in Old Town Scottsdale didn’t have a solid coffee option, either. And as early as 8 o’clock in the morning, entering the bitter cold of Scottsdale’s winter season, marketeers deserved coffee that tasted good and was brewed fresh.

When Mulch Coffee opened up shop at the market just a few weekends ago they brought high quality coffee grown by families in countries ranging from Ethiopia to Kenya and Colombia to Guatemala that kept customers on their toes. The coffee is roasted lightly and in small batches by a smart company out of Portland called Water Avenue. All together it was a world of coffee that Scottsdale hardly knew existed prior to Mulch, but the marketeers caught on quickly. As for presentation: Brian Clemens and Jason Calhoon brewed cup by cup to each customer, by v60 or Aeropress pour-overs (as well as offering a delicious, single origin cold-brewed iced coffee) with a smile and some conversation – be it about the coffee itself or the Sun Devils football game the night before (they probably lost).

Mulch suddenly outgrew their space and as of last Saturday they’re permanently across the street from the market, in front of the space they’ll be moving into in early 2012, right next to Old Town’s The Mission restaurant. Now the Mulch operation is decked out with a coffee cart that dons refrigeration for their Organic Valley milk and ample wooden counter-tops for pour-over coffee brewing – not to mention a world-class La Marzocco espresso machine and grinder that line up in front of the owner-baristas who work wonders behind it. They’re friendly too, so you won’t think twice about ordering that top-notch cappuccino.

This Saturday the guys at Mulch will be sweetening the deal by getting a bit more handsome – Handsome Coffee that is, a roaster out of Los Angeles that the reigning World Barista Champion, Mike Phillips, calls home. Their roaster, Chris Owens, knows all too well how to roast a coffee bean, having originally roasted for Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco – a personal favorite of mine. Handsome, as you may have read, is quickly becoming a favorite as well.

After Saturday the Mulch guys will be out in front of their space on Sunday as well, and then a two week break for the holidays will take it’s course. Shortly after that, however, you’ll see them quite a bit more often. Whether it’s in the form of their cart and some seating outside their space or if they’ll be inviting you inside their doors, at this point, is beyond me. Count on this: nearly daily operation as they move closer to the grand opening of their coffee concept – which at that point you’ll be able to visit them as often as your heart (and palette) desires.

P.S. It’s a safe bet that you’ll be able to find out where they are and when on their Twitter.

Setting up before the Farmer's Market opens, Brian Clemens of Mulch Coffee is setting the espresso dial to delicious outside of the coffee bar's storefront.

On A Sweeter Note: Cartel Coffee Lab’s New Espresso

(What's left) of a ristretto shot of Black Market Espresso. Specs: Single origin, 100% Red Bourbon. El Salvador. Batman in the corner.

You could talk to an espresso pro whose cup of knowledge runneth over, or just the coffee bar regular whose first move is to order a shot, and they’ll always arrive at the same consensus; a great shot appears reddish brown in color. It doesn’t work inversely, though; just because it’s reddish brown doesn’t mean it tastes exceptional. But one thing is for sure: blondes (typically tasting sour) need not be served.

Cartel Coffee Lab, as of last week, is now donning a fresh new espresso blend (and a promo video) – “blend” being an outdated term, though, as many shops are serving single origin coffee in place or in addition to their regular espresso. Cartel’s new stuff is 100% red bourbon; a single varietal of coffee grown on a single, family-owned coffee farm in El Salvador. Taking a sip of the new espresso tastes a lot like biting into a maraschino cherry that’s been sitting on your sundae, drizzled in chocolate. It’s sweet and smooth, familiar, and is followed with a dry, chocolate syrup body that coats your mouth. The shot is none other than red and brown in color, which brings to memory the chocolate-covered cherry, so it coordinates nicely.

If you ask your barista to throw four ounces of steamed milk and foam in a cup on top of a shot then you’ll most likely tastes something a little different. The foam will have spice and the body of the steamed drink, to me, tastes like semi-sweet chocolate; the maraschino cherry being gone for the most part. Just a few days ago a Cartel barista described the cappuccinos as tasting like buttery flapjack pancakes (no sausage or eggs) – a romantic description that shows off how much espresso can change the farther it gets from the roast date.

I’ve heard this espresso won’t be a Cartel fixture for long – not a ton of the green coffee was bought in the first place. But I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, whether it’s a weekday with their barista Seth or on weekends with Ashley, with visits that are even sweeter now than usual. Espresso can do that.

And since their video is enjoyable, and now famous, here it is:

Something Handsome Arrived

“Where did October go?” – A classmate of mine.

I can’t lie to you; November did not creep up on me. Even creepy Halloween costumes didn’t creep up on me. I’ve been counting the days (and too inconsistently the hours) since the calendar struck October. It feels like the month was born with a finish line and and for most the only goal is getting to Halloween, a holiday I love, though I’m bittersweet about despite accruing piles of sugary milk chocolate and hard candy year in and year out. The milk chocolate, specifically, has always gotten under my skin – like that year I dressed up as Wolverine and, persistently, kept poking myself trying to open up candy bars with my adamantium claws.

You see, I’m a 35% cocoa and above kind of guy who dreams of a trip to Brooklyn where the Mast Brothers make chocolate bars from scratch (they visit some of their farmers, too) and where a special Madagascan chocolate blend walks its way over to Stumptown Coffee inside Manhattan’s Ace Hotel and makes friends with their milk and espresso.

Now that I’ve successfully weaved coffee into my story – getting to my point.

I’d found a reason to treasure my day-to-day countdown in the later half of October.  Midday the 21st I received a package in the mail; one of those cushiony white envelopes containing a rectangular object the size of my hand. A brick of cheese? Couldn’t be. But its distinct rattling sound and characteristic lightness gave it away.

I had a new bag of coffee. I skipped reading the sender’s address (adding to the mystery of the moment) and ripped open the envelope to reveal something much more exciting than a fine brick of cheese and more satisfying than the last chapter of a Hardy Boys novel.

A bag of Handsome roasted coffee, which I expressed over on my Twitter, saying: “I JUST GOT SOMETHING SO DAMN COOL IN THE MAIL.”

It was eight ounces of their highly anticipated Ruthagati AA coffee from Kenya, an “adventurous” choice, that came dressed like a candy bar in their new deep brown and caramel colored packaging.

Mathira, East District; Kenya Ruthagati AA coffee roasted by Handsome Coffee Roasters out of Los Angeles.

I documented the moment with photos of the packaging and then proceeded to brew up the coffee using a V60. The cup was crisp and popped like only a coffee 1-5 days out from roast could. The first thing I noticed was a palpable juiciness – the kind where you can tell your mouth is watering even though its full of coffee. The Handsome guys’ own flavor notes describe “juicy goodness.” Check. I suppose it wouldn’t be enough for me to stop right there and tell you it was a damn good cup of coffee?  Can’t I just tell you to click and buy immediately? Fine, because this is the internet I’ll go ahead and talk flavor breakdown.

Here’s what I tasted: citrus like the first spritz you taste of a lemon or an orange. But the taste was sweeter than that, and not like a sugary lemonade, but much more natural like a solid, tangy fruit. Similarly, I can’t help but to remember back to a cup of Kenyan coffee I had in San Francisco that I thought tasted very accurately like the “lemon candy” descriptor written on the menu. The pure citrus flavor in the San Francisco cup was very good. This one from Handsome, however, was quite a bit more complex. They seemed to have it very right with their own description of passion fruit and nectarines. It’s far too bold to peg all Kenyans with the same flavor notes, but we can all agree the best ones are all superbly, complexly juicy.

Flavor evaluation aside, I just sat, got comfy and sipped happily on one of the better Kenyans I’d had this season. I brewed Handsome’s Ruthagati multiple times each day (alternating between V60 and paper/disk aeropress brew methods, and once on the chemex with a friend) for the next 11 days until I ran out on November 1st; a perfect 14 days past roast. I wish more roasters sold 8oz bags but, as it turns out, Handsome sells only 12 ounce bags of their Ruthagati online.

Or perhaps I should just stick with the 12 ounce bags and have friends over for coffee more often.

I hear from Jesse at Handsome that the Ruthagati tastes great as espresso, too. And I hear from their Twitter account that the supply is selling out fast.

My consensus: Handsome hits 3/3 with me. The first was their espresso in a cappuccino at CoffeeBar in Los Angeles; second was a bag of their La Providencia (currently a part of their espresso blend) I’d been brewing a few weeks ago. Assuming you’ve been narrowing in on a Kenyan to start African coffee season out right, try an excellent Ruthagati AA coffee from Kenya, roasted excellently by Handsome. Brag to your friends, but don’t forget to invite them over afterwards. Tote around a bag and you’ll be the most popular guy at those coffee brewing parties you go to.

I’m sad to see the “Ruth” go. It’s nice, though, that a bag of Water Avenue’s coffee from the same continent; an Ethiopia Limu Kossa has landed in my lap. So far it’s crisp and tasty.

Ethiopia Limu Kossa roasted by Water Avenue in Portland, OR.

P.S. I’m not a “coffee reviewer” – nor do I drink coffee with the sole purpose of identifying notes. Sometimes I just enjoy a coffee enough that I feel I’d like to write about it.

Cali-Hospitality: Coffee Crawling Across Two Cities

From lunchtime to lunchtime, with almost exactly 24 hours to spend in the City by The Bay, the race to drink San Francisco’s finest coffee was on.
But the finish line, which in our case were delicious olive-oil drenched sandwiches, wasn’t the destination. My buddy Alex, who has a definite eye for design, and I treated coffee shops with the same tourist-driven attitude as any other San Francisco landmark we’d hit; the Fisherman’s Wharf, a drive down Lombard Street, the Golden Gate Bridge (not actually golden, by the way), and a concert at the Warfield Theatre.
But as far as being tourists goes we were the tortoises amongst the hares. There was no amount of relaxation that couldn’t be achieved at each and every stop. (Minimal) Time spent on photography and social media was merely a means to create a digital catalogue to look back on.
Not to mention we had taken our time getting to Everyone’s Favorite City – driving from Phoenix, Ariz., spending a morning on the way up and a full day on the way down in Los Angeles.
…
..
.
//Cognoscenti Cafe Los Angeles, CA//
A grey little box-of-a-place where you could successfully spend now to forever called Proof Bakery dedicates one of its four corners to this coffee bar operation. What perhaps could have been space designed to showcase just a few additional pastries or sandwiches is home to two group-heads worth of espresso machines and some pour-over brew counter space. During my visit they were happily pulling Handsome Roaster espresso and brewing coffees fromCoava, Four Barrel, Ecco and Heart. Heart Roaster’s Kenya Gichatha-ini, which we drank on cool marble-topped tables, was impeccably brewed by their barista and my favorite cup of coffee I drank all trip.
A retired New York City Joe barista was there to offer us sound highway driving advice.
Proof Bakery’s sandwiches (mine was bacon, goat cheese, fig jam, arugula between sea salted bread) were perfect for the road.
A note from Alex: Bare, slate grey walls. What could theoretically use decoration offers contrast to their colorful foods and pastries – a blueberry scone and a dark chocolate croissant for us.
…
..
.
//Ritual Coffee Roasters San Francisco, CA//
(above) Photo credit: Alex Devine
Freshly hitting the 5-year mark and escaping shop toddler-dom, as far as I’m concerned Ritual is officially a San Francisco and American staple. I got my first taste of Ritual from the Hope and Union Cafe in Charleston, SC and it’s been a personal favorite of mine ever since. Their baristas and bean sourcer, fresh off a public cupping, loved conversation and made me a cappuccino in a tulip-shaped cup (photographed above) - a first for me. I also tried their Las Manos coffee from Honduras, which I’d heard great things about on Twitter; it didn’t disappoint!
A note from Alex: Shop seating that stretches on for miles, filled with other busy-bodies, is a college kid’s dream.
…
..
.
//Four Barrel San Francisco, CA//
Enough great things couldn’t be said about this beehive of a shop that serves some up some of the sweetest coffee around to a never-ending line of customers. Two “fast-bar” baristas plug away at two parallel state-of-the-art espresso machines and one other mans the “slow bar” - a section dedicated to the slower art of hand-brewing great coffee one cup at a time. With all this action, this coffee shop was alive and literally buzzing with the sound of community and conversation.
You see, Four Barrel doesn’t have wi-fi. Or electrical outlets. Or lazy leather couches. It gets it’s coziness from families, friends, and great tasting coffee.
Beware: the locals might shoot you envious looks if you bring your own box of half-a-dozen Dynamo Donuts beyond Four Barrel’s own Dynamo Donut selection. I wish I’d taken photos during the pickup – Dynamo might have deserved its own blurb here, what with it wielding a La Marzocco Linea machine slinging Four Barrel spro’. A donut breakfast is usually only a ritual for trips to my Dad’s in Vegas, but from Dynamo I enjoyed cornmeal blueberry, strawberry earl grey, spiced chocolate, lemon pistachio, and maple apple bacon donuts. Gladly.
A note from Alex: Lower than average, small, rectangular, wooden tables offer just enough surface area to accomodate a couple cups of coffee and your phone or notebook. Combined with some music and the hum of surrounding customers, the designer’s intention is to bring you closer to your company you’re visiting with.
Also… Four Barrel does have a wholesale account with Giant Coffee in Mid-Town Phoenix, Ariz., a mere minutes from the downtown ASU campus. They faithfully pull Friendo Blendo espresso and carry the rest of Four Barrel’s seasonal single-origin coffees. 
…
..
.
//Sightglass Coffee San Francisco, CA//
Metal, wood and glass from head to toe, Sightglass successfully (almost nonchalantly) pulls off sticking just a bar, a roaster, and selective seating inside of a giant, high-ceilinged warehouse. Having too much empty space looks like part of the design, for once. I’d been wanting to visit since I first saw they were hiring maybe half a year ago, and since then they’ve opened up their shop to the public. Oliver Strand gave us our first look at the new space for his blog called Ristretto in the New York Times and I immediately recognized some of the baristas from his photography. Here, I took my own stab at cataloguing this beautiful space as well. My cappuccino was excellently textured and the taste was balanced – their Owl’s Howl blend being comprised of three cultivars from three different countries. I also tried a cup of their Kenyan coffee – they say it’s flavor tastes like lemon candies. And they’re absolutely correct.

Fun Fact: One of the original investors in Sightglass is Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter. Jack Dorsey also started Square (ever paid for lunch of coffee at some place via iPad?), and Sightglass was one of the first businesses to do Square’s beta testing.

A note from Alex: Unlike the square bar and seating designs we’re used to in most every shop, the bars and seating incorporate curves – keeping it fresh.

And as for lunch… From all the running around we’d done between driving the Golden Gate Bridge, picking up donuts, Four Barrel, and Sightglass, we were hungry. The locals all know about Tartine Bakery (they’ve got nation-wide following and a book dedicated to their story and their bread) and so we checked it out and paid our tourism dues by waiting in it’s line out the door. My sheep’s cheese, almond, lemon, sage and olive oil sandwich between two of slices of their bread was too juicy and incredible for words. Though, I may try to eventually…
…
..
.
//Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Venice, Silverlake, and Pasadena, CA//
(above) Photo credit: Alex Devine
(above) Photo credit: Alex Devine
If Square Mile Coffee in London is the Manchester United of the coffee world, then Intelligentsia is certainly America’s winningest team – the New York Yankees. Though, they do hail from Chicago – starting their Los Angeles roasting operation and planting their first shop in LA’s suburb, the hip Silverlake, Calif., just a few years ago.
The hospitality and attention to detail in Venice was beyond my expectations. Our baristas were the manager Melissa and Jaymie, who prepared Alex and me two cappuccinos to start. Their Black Cat espresso was delicious,though I’m favoring single-origin espresso lately and so my cappuccino made with their Nicaraguan was right up my alley. I later had a single-origin Kenyan cappuccino at their Pasadena location, and while some would say the fruity Kenyan flavors can’t cut through milk, I tasted no problem whatsoever. Just berries and cream.
A note from Alex: The collaboration amongst baristas within each Intelligentsia is impressive. Also, their Pasadena location fills all necessities for a long visit; coffee, food and beer. It’s feels like a bar.
…
..
.
//Coffee Bar Los Angeles, CA//
Coffee Bar is just that: a coffee bar. Part of only a small group of shops across the nation with a plan to be consistently rotating coffee in and out from different roasters across the nation, Coffee Bar also incorporates the classic bar design; a network of bars and stools that focus on barista-customer interaction. I drank a cappuccino made with Handsome Roaster (they have a new site up) espresso that might have been the best all trip. Scottsdale needs one of these. 
A note from Alex: Scottsdale and Phoenix are in desperate need of a coffee bar. But who? And when? And where?

Diver-Sipping: Espresso Diversity and Cappuccino Sipping

Specs: 6oz combination of Black Market Espresso (Cartel Coffee Lab, Tempe) and steamed Clover milk, tulip design

Yesterday morning I woke up and, as soon as I could persuade nature and bike-riding physics to see fit, I was drinking a cappuccino.
It was crafted from an excellent barista, and the drink itself forced nature’s hand as well – for I felt that it need not be ranked in my life amongst other cappuccinos, nor against perfections of coffee-crafting my mind could conjure.
It was perfect in it’s own respect.
You see, at this level of craft where quality and skill shake hands, I realized that never again will I have a cappuccino that tastes quite like this (since espresso has a wide range of variables the resulting flavor is not easily repeated; even by the most consistent barista).
But, when espresso is this tasty and is becoming increasingly easy to find, diversity becomes a blessing that I embrace. So, rather than risk over-analyzing my drink (which would only lead to letting it cool far too long between sips), I do something that seems revolutionary.
I simply sit and relish my first and last Seth Mills, Thursday the 8th of September, 2011 cappuccino.
Six ounces of tasty steamed milk and espresso: it was simply that good. All else yielded to my sense of taste and I came to a conclusion: it had never felt in such good taste to think so simply.
An (inspired) blog post ensued.