Good morning, Friends!
I'll be roasting this weekend on Sunday (May 31), then shipping and making local deliveries on Monday, June 1. Please have your orders in by Sunday morning to be included for this week.
The selections for this week are on the website for your browsing pleasure (www.freeportcoffee.com). And alternately, Bow Street Market has a good full selection now (10 different coffees), and you can always find our coffees at The Royal Bean.
Speaking of The Royal Bean, their one-year anniversary is June 20 - a very exciting milestone for Jim and his team of crack baristas. You'll be hearing more about their monthly calendar of special events to mark the ocassion, one of which will be a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony held in their parking lot. Definitely not something that's been done in Yarmouth before.
One of the more amusing phenomena in our culture right now is the knuckles bared battle between Starbucks and McDonalds over the turf of coffee-based beverages. The upstart McDonalds is seizing territory and market share from the Mermaid, which has fought back with's own splashy ad campain touting the perfection and realness of its coffees. Fundmentally, though, it is all about milk, as this comprises the majority of the "lattes" and "cappucinos" that are the subject of this skirmish.
In strict coffee terms, neither company's "lattes" or "cappucinos" adhere to the traditional receipes for making these drinks (a latte being a three to one ratio of steamed milk to espresso, and a cappucino, one-third espresso, one-third milk, and a third foam), but instead are really large cups of too-hot milk and small amounts of automatically-generated espresso. Buyer beware.
I have spoken here before about Ken Davids, one of the true coffee sages. His books on espresso and home roasting are must-haves for any home coffee library, and his Coffee Review site is the best available service and resouce for comprehensive reviews of great coffees. Ken's homepage article this week discusses his semi-scientific reviews of McCafe's new offerings versus those of Starbucks. The article is linked here:
Ken describes the experience of trying to order a shot of straight espresso in a McDonalds. I went through this when I visited a pilot McCafe location about a year ago. The saddest part of my interaction was that the counter person seemed to have no idea what was meant by the word "espresso." Sigh.
A great espresso made by the hands of a trained barista is a joy to behold. You get to watch art in action, as beans are ground to order, the shot tamped and the shot timed to perfection by a person, not a microprocessor. If you are having a cap or a latte, watch the barista draw art with the milk on top of your beverage (rather than the milk glopping out of a machine like a tired soft-serve ice cream machine at the end of a hot summer day). Craddle the well-rounded ceramic cup in your hands and behold the smell and visuals of the rich, red-brown crema. Then sip. Ahhhhhhhhhh. Smile, then repeat. When you have finished your beverage (and just before you order the next), see how the espresso has coated the walls of your cup, a sign that your coffee was made by hand using fresh beans.
And support your local independent cafe. They deserve it, and so do you.
Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!
Kent
