What makes me giggle about the Giggles Blend?

The Giggles Blend was my first creation of a coffee blend. Before Chazzano Coffee Roasters or Chazzano Cafe, there was the Giggles Blend. I have a strange sense of humor that I inherited from my mother, of blessed memory. My puerile, sophomoric, and extremely dry jokes would produce giggles from my wife. Hence the name. The creation of a blend is completely unscientific. The main questions when tasting a prospective blend are, "Is this blend special? Is the flavor profile different from any of the single origin coffees that I roast? Does it enrich your life?" When experiencing a blend, do you stop after a few sips and sigh while exclaiming "wow?" If the answer is no, then it's not right for you. Rarely do we dislike the taste of any of our experimental coffee blends. It's just that we have so many awesome coffees that the blend really needs to be so awesome that it literally changes your life.

The Giggles Blend has a syrupy mouthfeel with intense spicy aromatics, with the sweetness of nutmeg and cinnamon. It is a blend of four different coffees from Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Central America.  The Giggles Blend has a huge body when brewed in a Vacuum Syphon and intense cardamom, nutmeg, and peppery notes when brewed in a French Press.

What were my next two creations? Frank's Blend #1 and The Lunch Cafe Blend. 

Here is a partial list of the coffee blends that will change your life:

Jen's Blend

Klaire Bear's Tropical Summer Blend

Lisa Lisa Blend

Talia's Burrrr Blend

Tres Arias

Frank's Blend #2

Frank's Blend #3

Creamy Dreamy

Tre Monti Espresso Blend

Domani Blend

Jennifer's Peppermint Blend

Rachel's Wedding Blend

Winter Blend

Namaste Blend

To Grind or not to Grind, that is the question...

One common question at Chazzano Coffee Roasters is, "Should I grind the beans at home, or should we have you grind them?" I then ask, "How are you brewing the coffee?" And then, "What kind of grinder do you have, a burr or whirly blade?" Who should grind your fresh roasted coffee? The answers are found below.

Grind them at home if:

• You brew espresso. It is difficult to get an awesome shot if the espresso is not absolutely freshly ground immediately before extraction. Before you buy an expensive espresso machine, make sure you have a quality burr grinder.
• You enjoy the aroma of freshly ground coffee filling your home with the sweet smell of freshly roasted coffee and....
• You have a burr grinder that can grind the beans perfectly to the proper consistency for your particular brewing method.

Burr blades grind the coffee bean consistently and do not heat up the grounds. They are more expensive than the whirly blade grinders, but a great grinder is a must for a coffee fanatic.

Whirly blade grinders are cheaply priced, but you get what you pay for. The ground coffee is course on the top, fine on the bottom, and the grounds are warm to the touch. The warmth of the beans is a sign that they are cooking a bit, and therefore there is a chance for a change of flavor profile. Not good for espresso or French Press- not fine or coarse enough!

Let us grind your coffee if:

• You brew your coffee using either French Press, Pourover, or Drip and your pound of freshly roasted Chazzano Coffee is consumed within 1.5 weeks.
• You have a whirly blade grinder and the flavor of your coffee will be compromised if you grind it.
• You're unsure about how to properly grind your coffee at home and fear making a less than perfect cup of coffee.
• You live with a light sleeper and you don't want to wake them up.

"Is the coffee fresher if I grind it at home or if you grind it for me?" This question also gets asked with this one, "Do the beans need to degas for 1,2,3 days...or can you use them immediately?"

The interesting aspect about freshly roasted coffee is that the flavor profile changes constantly, not wildly, from the time that it is roasted until it's staling after 2 1/2  to 3 weeks. So, bring home a pound of freshly roasted Chazzano Coffee, brew it one way (French Press, Pourover, Espresso) for 7-10 days afterwards and you may enjoy a slightly different cup of coffee each day. The natural flavor components of the coffee continue to break down and morph into different combinations throughout its short, fresh life. Some coffee lovers experience a complete break down of flavor after just one week, others prefer their beans three days after roasting. Do the beans need to degas (expel carbon dioxide) for a few days after roasting? It depends on your palate. In my opinion, not with medium roasted coffee. There are some extremely light roasts that I've felt needed to "breathe" a bit before brewing, but that is rare. My advice is to use the coffee immediately unless you believe that the flavor is preferred after a certain number of days. If you have strong opinions either way, please comment below. Let's discuss it.

New Tea at Chazzano Coffee Roasters

When you look at the new item that came in the mail from Zen Tea Traders, you may be confused about what Chazzano Coffee is selling these days?!?!

Are you finished guessing? It's a Pu-er cake aged since 2004 from the Yunnan Province, in the town of Xishuangbanna (pronounced sig-song-banna). Xishuangbanna means "twelve thousand rice fields." (You'll rock the crossword puzzle in the Shanghai version of the New York Times.) This tea is grown on one of the six famous tea mountains in Xishuangbanna. These mountains provide excellent growing conditions for Pu-er and the soil quality helps with the unique taste profiles. Like the movie, "There's Something about Mary," the same could be said about the soil for various tea, coffee, and wine growing regions, "There's something about the soil." The reason that some Ethiopian coffees have notes of blueberries is that the same chemical that makes blueberries taste like blueberries is found in the soil in that region and when the coffee is roasted a certain way, those chemicals can be part of the aromatic signature of the coffee. The age of the tea, the terroir (region), the altitude grown, and brewing duration dictate the flavor profile.

Tea is crazy complicated and complex- the brewing times, the amount of steeps, and the temperature depend on the type of tea. For Pu-er, we brew it at boiling, eight different brewing  times.

Here is the schedule of steepings:

1st- 20 secs
2nd-30 seconds
3rd-60 seconds
4th-1 min 20 seconds
5th 2-minutes
6th-3 minutes
7th-4 minutes
8th-6 minutes

The tea is removed from the wrapping and we use the Pu-er knife to extract a small amount from the cake.

We brew our coffee and tea in French Presses because it looks great and it is easy to get the full extraction of the coffee/ tea flavor.

Here is the first steeping of the Pu-er tea.

Here are my cupping notes for this awesome tea, aged since 2004.

1st steep: sweet, with a melon ball finish
2nd steep: bold in back of palate, tremendous richness
3rd steep: sweeter, more mouthfeel in front
4th steep: creamy, no bite- very minty
5th steep: sweeter than the 4th, mint note remains
6th steep: light, light colored cup, sweet honeydew notes linger
7th steep: even more honeydew notes, very light body
8th steep: It reminds me of the 4th steep- creamy with no bite, but a bit of roughness in the middle of your palate.

Here is a map of the region where this tea was grown...

View Larger Map

Drinking for the Cycle

I'm not a big baseball fan. Truly, I am only interested in the hometown team because it's good for the local economy and for the self esteem of the particular town. If the hometown team is considered the underdog, even better. In addition, everything that I've learned about sports was learned from video games. Really. One of the most impressive feats in baseball is hitting for the cycle. It's when a hitter hits a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game. If they hit them in order, it's called a natural cycle. Regardless, it's an amazing achievement. While I was drinking a 4-cup French Press of Ethiopia Sidamo over a 3 hour period, I began to daydream about drinking for the cycle. 

You may know that we roast and sell 40 different single origin coffees. But did you know that we taste every coffee as a French press,  Iced, Vacuum syphon, Espresso, Pour-over. and Turkish? We also let it cool, sometimes accidentally, to see how it fares as cold coffee. During wintertime, how many cups of coffee were undrinkable after a few hours? The mark of a great coffee is when it improves after a few hours or morphs into a completely different flavor profile. I decided to coin drinking for the cycle or as I'm calling it-FIVEPT i.e. French Press, Iced, Vacuum Syphon, Espresso, Pour-over, and Turkish). 

For example, Sumatra Mandheling as a French Press is earthy, bold, chocolaty, with a syrupy mouthfeel, and floral notes of lavender and jasmine.
As an Iced Coffee, I have nothing nice to say about it.
The Vacuum Syphon of the Sumatra is fantastic. Syrupy and smooth notes of flowers and chocolate with no gritty mouthfeel.
Again, as an Espresso, I have nothing nice to say about it.
It is a tremendous pour-over with a boldness that grabs your palate; the chocolate reverberates across your tongue.

My next blog posts will include coffee tasting of different coffees Drinking for the Cycle. If you have some extra time this week, come by and say, "Hey, Frank, I'd like to drink for the cycle." That's 5 plus Turkish (FIVEPT) for $22/person. Plan on staying for 45 minutes.

Small Business, Big Life

One of my favorite books is titled, "Small Business, Big Life: Five Steps to Creating a Good Life with your Small Business." The basic teaching is that no one should ever start a small business in order to grow it into a big business. If you do, you're missing the point of starting your own business. You definitely don't want to buy yourself a job with longer hours and less pay. You should grow your business in a way that creates a huge life of leisure for you and your family. I have a dream of vacationing in Jerusalem every summer for four weeks. In fact, if I'm roasting coffee for 10 hours each day for 5 years, I'm a dope and a terrible businessman. In addition, I will also be a terrible father and husband. I am writing this post at 1:00a.m. on a Tuesday morning as I roast coffee. I speak from the experience of having a wonderful growing business about which I am passionate. However, I dream of a bigger life with the growth of Chazzano Coffee.

We didn't go strawberry picking, but this weekend was better.

I remembered this great book during one of the most wonderful weekends of recent memory. Many of you already know that I am an observant Jew. From Friday evening to Saturday evening, Chazzano Coffee Roasters shuts down.  There is no commerce, no use of money, no deliveries, no coffee roasting. My employees, according to Jewish Law (which I follow), may not do something for Chazzano Coffee that I am not allowed to do. If I'm not allowed to drive on the Sabbath, neither are my employees allowed to drive on the Sabbath for the company. An unique opportunity came about this Memorial Day Weekend 2012. The Sabbath was followed by two days of one of the biggest Jewish Holidays, Shavuot. Therefore, there were three straight days of spending time with my family. I was forced to spend time with my family for three full days.

As observant Jews who do not drive on the Sabbath or holidays, we are isolated synagogue-wise, because the nearest synagogue is 2.5 miles away. However, our favorite synagogue, Congregation Beth Shalom, is over 5 miles away. Do we drive and break Jewish law (for us) but join with our favorite Jewish community? On Friday evening, we had a candid discussion as a family: Should we drive to synagogue because of the distance? In the end, we decided yes and we went to sleep. It would have been the first time, ever, that we drove to synagogue.  But what is worse, staying home and not praying with your community or driving and being part of the community?

In the end, we walked. We walked 5 miles each way...for three days. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, the three kids, Lisa, and I walked a total of at least 30 miles. It will be one of our best memories. We were living the Big Life. We walked, complained, we talked, we complained. We told jokes, dreamed about building Chazzano Tower in that empty lot on Woodward Avenue. Every couple of miles, someone began to complain, and then cry. But we continued on each day because we did something that we didn't know that we could. Each morning, we woke up, ate a hearty breakfast, got dressed, and walked 5 miles to synagogue. We discussed our dreams, both awake and asleep. We ran, we ran after each other, we splashed water over our heads. We passed many Chazzano customers in the streets. We walked 1.5 miles up 9 mile rd., at least two miles up Woodward Avenue, and the remainder down Lincoln to the synagogue. We're healthier, happier, and a healthier family because of our 30 miles of walking. Small business, big life? Check. The Lanzkron-Tamarazo family enjoyed the Big Life, at least for the weekend. How do we keep the party going?

Frank, do you ever roast to an Italian Roast?

Last week, during a meeting at Chazzano Coffee Roasters, someone asked me, "Frank, do you ever roast to an Italian Roast?" Funny that they asked at that time, because I had forgotten that I was roasting coffee, the Nicaragua Jinotega specifically! I cooled down the beans at 473 degrees Fahrenheit, a true Italian Roast. There are some roasters that roast all of their coffees to a light, City or Cinnamon roast. The City Roast brings out everything that the bean offers, the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are other roasters who roast everything very dark to a French or Italian Roast because they either want to bring out the rich pungency of dark roasts or murder any of the taints that come from specialty or cheap commercial coffee. I tend to roast somewhere in between the two. For Kenya, a light roast brings out the apricot and apple notes. For Sumatra Mandheling, a dark Vienna/ French Roast brings out the earthy and chocolaty notes, while a medium Full City roasts brings out the floral, jasmine and lavender notes. I love roasting most of our coffees to a Full City roast where the fruit and chocolate join to produce a full bodied balanced flavor profile.

However, I never roast coffee to an Italian Roast on purpose. Let's review roast profiles. A City Roast is a light roast. Full City is a medium roast. Vienna is a dark roast without any oil (the flavor oils) on top of the beans. A French Roast is darker than Vienna and you'll see a lot of the flavor oils on the bean. Finally, an Italian Roast is roasted so dark that the oils have evaporated. So, how did the Italian Roast of the Nicaragua Jinotega Las Camelia taste? It depends. As a French Press, I wouldn't dare try it- it'll taste carbony, burnt, and the black licorice will kill you with its boldness. On the other hand, as a straight espresso shot or a macchiato- this roast should be on your bucket list. The black licorice melts into a caramelly sweetness- this will put hair on your chest- whether it's desirable or not. As a macchiato (stained with a dollop of cream) the licorice and caramel will just remind you of your favorite dessert. So the answer to "Do you ever roast to an Italian Roast?" is: "Why, yes I do, but only accidentally..."

Plum Market and Whole Foods Troy

Did you know that we give away our unsold coffee to homeless shelters 2.5 weeks after roasting? Truly, it is still great coffee compared to the outrageously old coffee on the shelves in many big box stores. However, the aroma begins to disappear after 3-4 weeks after roasting and life can be too short. You deserve fresh roasted coffee. That is why I was always hesitant to sell Chazzano Coffee in any market. Our first entrance in the specialty food market was Whole Foods Market in Troy. I haven't lost any sleep because it has sold quite well!  Now, our coffee is available on the shelves of Plum Market in West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills. Chazzano Coffee will be available in the Ann Arbor Plum Market very soon. If you shop in those specialty food markets, pick up a bag of fresh roasted Chazzano Coffee.

At Whole Foods Market in Troy, the following fresh roasted Chazzano Coffees are sold in 12oz. bags:

1. Ethiopia Harrar

2. Sumatra Mandheling FTO

3. Papua New Guinea FTO

4. Mexico Chiapas FTO

In Plum Market, in addition to the four listed above, the following Chazzano coffee is available in 8oz. bags:

5. Nicaragua Jinotega Las Camelia

6. Decaf Peru FTO SWP

7. Decaf Honduras FTO SWP

8. Peru FTO

All of Chazzano Coffee is Kosher and Kosher for Passover. If you or your family shops for Passover, pick up a bag after you stroll the Kosher for Passover aisle.

Honduras Finca Las Canas

A few years ago, Chuck Rabonowitz called me and told me that he had some Honduran beans from a friend's farm. He wanted me to roast them for him. I never say no- you never know whether that batch of beans will be the best coffee you've ever tasted. I am quite prejudiced against old coffee beans, though-that is, coffee that was picked 3 or more years ago. Most of the time, I find that older beans aren't stored properly with the proper humidity. They are either dried out or over fermented. Chuck told me that the beans were three years old. Great incredulity was kept private. I invited him to Chazzano and I roasted the beans. Shocking. The "old" beans were bursting with berry, specifically dark cherry, cinnamon and it was a lovely medium bodied coffee.

Carlos, the plantation owner, has a full-time job in the states and owns the farm in Honduras. It is extremely difficult to grow high quality coffee and to ship it to the states. There are so many crucial steps that occur months before you experience the coffee at Chazzano Coffee Roasters.
 1. Planting the coffee and ensuring that the soil quality remains high.

 2. Picking the best ripened coffee cherries.

3. Drying and processing:

4. Bagging, Shipping and delivering- If the coffee beans are not dried carefully, once they are bagged and shipped, the coffee beans will continue to ferment and the coffee will be unusable.

Chazzano Coffee Roasters has continued to roast the Honduras Finca Las Canas ever since I met Chuck, but now we have crazy fresh samples of the coffee just picked in November 2011! With my first cupping of the coffee, there are some notes of pomegranate with a leathery, smokey finish. I wonder how the coffee will change over the next 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Coffee beans are just organic matter.  As they break down, the different natural chemicals will change and produce different flavor profiles over time. I don't have enough of this coffee to sell it by the pound, but come in for a great cup of coffee from beans that were picked in November.

Here is Chuck, (on the right), the supplier of the Honduras Finca Las Canas with one of the coffee farmers:

Reflux and Decaffeinated Coffee

If you are someone who suffers from reflux and other issues when you drink coffee, there is a solution: decaffeinated coffee. Chazzano Coffee Roasters roasts only Fair Trade Organic, Swiss Water Process coffee. I've blogged elsewhere about the decaf process, but what is important to note is that you can drink with great joy a decaf soy latte, decaf double espresso, or a large cup of decaf in a French Press. Sadly, for those who are having issues with coffee, the main culprit is caffeine. According to the A.M.A. and other medical professionals, there are great medical benefits to regular coffee drinking. The caffeine is perfect for a quick intensive workout. The caffeine in coffee hits you immediately, unlike the caffeine in tea. In tea, you'll find a naturally occurring chemical that slows down the absorption of caffeine so that you stay alert for a longer time.

So, here are a few choices for those of you suffering from stomach related issues:

1. Drink awesome fresh roasted Chazzano Coffee Swiss Water Process decaf- you'll never know that it's decaf.
2. If you can tolerate some caffeine, many of my customers have told me that the Ethiopia Sidamo Cold Brew with a bit of cream is smooth on their digestive tracts.
3. Drink our fantastic fresh loose- leafed tea that has about 30mg of caffeine, compared to 130mg. of caffeine found in an equivalent cup of coffee.
4. Lastly, drink some of our naturally decaffeinated teas like Rooibos (from Zen Tea Traders) that will have you singing, as in, Good Coffee Makes You Sing.

Another fantastic mistake: The Mystic Blend

This week, we shut down the coffee roaster for a few hours and did some much needed maintenance. We replaced some parts before they failed and tuned it up so that it now roasts with a smile. However, we allowed too much space between the face of the roaster and the roasting drum. For 10 hours yesterday, about 5 lbs.beans dropped into a pan inside the roaster and accumulated all day long. There were so many orders to complete that I could not shut off the roaster, let it cool down and then fix the problem. I decided to place all of the beans that accumulated in the roaster pan into a bucket and Julie named it the "Mystic Blend." I roasted the full 5lbs today after fixing the roaster.

So, with mystery blends, there are two possible outcomes. One, it's horrible and barely palatable. Two, it's one of the best coffee blends I have ever tasted. The outcome was fortunately the latter of the two. Get it while it lasts because it tastes like a chocolate milk shake- notes of banana, chocolate, and milky cocoa creaminess. I call this a great mistake.

Return on Luck: ROL

What's Luck Got to do with it? This was the title of one of my favorite recent business articles found in the New York Times. It was cleverly written by Jim Collins and Morton T. Hansen.

The authors discuss and study a new metric, Return on Luck or ROL. Businesses talk about ROI, Return on Investment, but we don't talk about ROL because it's not discussed until you get lucky and you capitalize on that luck. 

Mr. Collins and Mr. Hansen write about people who are 10 times more successful than others in their same industry. They call them "10x-er"

For example, Bill Gates grew up lucky. He is the product of an upper middle class family and we went to a school that had one of the rare Teletype that was connected to a computer in the 60s and early 70s. Truly, he was born at the right time. 

But then...

• His friend, Paul Allen, saw an article in Popular Mechanics about the Altair computer.
• They then guessed that Basic would work well to make a personal computer out of the Altair

Then some luck again:

• Mr. Gates went to school at Harvard where they had a PDP-10 mainframe computer that Mr. Gates could test out the Basic program.

But then, he got a warm introduction to the Altair CEO- got hired, and spent several days programming, debugging, and installing Basic on the Altair. He seized the opportunity presented to him by luck and made the most of it.

These are some of the ways, in my opinion, to increase your ROL:

1. Do you have a well crafted 30 second commercial at your fingertips at all times that fit the situation? If I introduced you at the cafe to someone who needed your services, could you turn the intro into closed business? You must be well prepared for meeting anyone who is in your target market.
2. Bring business cards everywhere- If you are so successful that you don't need to carry business cards with you, then don't. It drives me absolutely mad (crazy) when someone who clearly needs and wants more customers, doesn't bring them whenever he/she leaves home or the office. 
3. Be highly visible and be credible when you're visible. Be a homerun king- hit it out of the park with every customer. 
4. When you receive a great warm introduction, be prepared for anything, but just be prepared.
5. Talk to everyone- You never know who and what they know.
6. Convert leads into closed business. When someone says, "Here's a lead," respond to them, "Thank you for the referral, but I don't want to mess it up- could you please call them and set-up an appointment for me to meet them." In that way, your referral partner must call the lead, toot your horn and explain your business to the lead, and then set-up an appointment. If they are not prepared to do that 

The authors conclude with this great advice:

Getting a high ROL requires throwing yourself at the luck event with ferocious intensity, disrupting your life and not letting up. Bill Gates didn’t just get a lucky break and cash in his chips. He kept pushing, driving, working — and sustained that effort for more than two decades. That’s not luck — that’s return on luck.

Do you have Espresso beans? It depends on what you mean.

We are often asked, "Do you have espresso beans?" or "I'm looking for an espresso roast." Any coffee varietal and any coffee roast profile(light to dark, city roast to French Roast) can be a great espresso if the following conditions are met: The coffee beans are fresh; the coffee is freshly ground prior to tamping that allows the coffee to be extracted between 25-30 seconds; the coffee is tamped down with about 30lbs. of pressure; the espresso machine heats the water to the proper temperature for that particular bean; 9 bars of water pressure is pushed through the puck of finely ground espresso; the portafilters and group heads are properly cleaned and finally, the espresso coffee produced has a tremendous aroma coming from its impressive crema, there is a balanced flavor profile with the proper degree of complexity, depth, mouthfeel, and interesting flavor notes.

Therefore, the best question to ask is: "What coffee would you recommend for espresso?"

Cooking with Chazzano Coffee

Here are a few products that use Chazzano Coffee in their ingredients:

1. Atwater Block Brewery, Vanilla Java Porter

2. Bacco Ristorante, Espresso Biscotti

3. BNektar Meadery, Ethiopia Harrar Mead, and a top-secret Mead TBD

4. Dave's Sweet Tooth, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Toffee

5. Royal Oak Brewery, Java Porter

6. Corden's Chocolate, Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans (Ethiopia Yirgacheffe)

The greatest part of working with these awesome companies is testing the products!

El Salvador Apaneca Elite

For the two coffee catering events, one at BNI-GRO in Pleasant Ridge and the other at Painting with a Twist in Ferndale, we are brewing fresh roasted french pressed El Salvador Apaneca Elite. I'm in a good mood. Business is booming. Life is good. Therefore, I'm serving a $36/lb. coffee for catering. What makes the Apaneca Elite so special? First, it's grown over 4500-5250 ft. above sea level. This is significant because plants grow and develop slower at higher altitudes. Therefore, coffee grown at high altitudes develop slower over a longer period of time and often produce exceptional flavor profiles with tremendous complexity. In addition, coffee grown over 4500 ft. above sea level are called SHB (Semi-hard Beans) and SHG (Strictly High Grown). Roasting them to a Vienna or French Roast often brings out great sweetness instead of rich pungency generally associated with dark roasted coffee. In other words, they don't burn or char very well. In addition, each coffee cherry is hand picked when they are at the peak of ripeness. Most coffees are sorted out later, but the coffee workers pick the ripest coffee cherries. Finally, (there's more?) they are sun dried until they read 12.5% of moisture and then they are set to rest a period of 60 days! This coffee is organic and fair trade. It is inspected and cleaned so lovingly that it's almost a shame to drink it. Yet, I must, with a great big smile on my face

A New Obsession-Turkish Coffee

Chazzano Coffee has gone to the dark side, but in a good way. We now serve Turkish coffee. We brew coffee at Chazzano Coffee Roasters in French Presses, Vacuum Syphon, Pourover, Espresso, Iced Pourover, and Toddy Cold Brew. We analyze the flavor profile when we brew coffee with the French Press- what is an ideal brew time? 2, 3, or 4 minutes? Well, it depends on the coffee and the notes that you wish to extract. Do you stir the coffee when it's brewing in the Vacuum Syphon brewer? It depends on whom you ask. We stir the coffee when it's brewing and when it's cooling down to fully extract the coffee flavor. We carefully cup every single coffee roasted at Chazzano Coffee to make sure that the particular brewing method brings out the best flavor profile.

However, Turkish coffee brewing is completely different from all of the other methods. I've been reluctant to tread on that path of Turkish coffee because there are so many different traditions of brewing Turkish coffee and they all reside in Detroit. For the Yemenite, Israeli, Chaldean, Albanian, and Greek and dozens more, the Turkish way is the only way. In addition, each tradition has different methods of brewing the coffee-sugar, cardamom, rose water, or pistachio grains. Some cultures boil the coffee 4 times, other 3 times. To stir or not to stir, that is also the question. I have finally found the courage to learn the art of Turkish coffee, despite the many acceptable ways to brew it.

I purchased an Ibrik (traditional Turkish coffee pot) and a butane burner. In all of the discussions about Turkish coffee, one question remains: What kind of coffee works best as Turkish? I have 40 different coffees and they're all fantastic, but what will work best as a slow boil, and quick boil 3 times? My first choice was Ethiopia Yirgacheffe because it has sweet notes of citrus and chocolate. You know my motto: Put sugar or cream in my freshly roasted coffee-what happens? G-d cries and an angel loses its wings. I was worried that black Turkish coffee wouldn't taste authentic. On the first try, it was the best cup of Turkish coffee, ever-smooth, with the usual grittiness, a fantastic aroma of citrus and chocolate. If you want an awesome cup of coffee, start with crazy fresh roasted coffee.

Kosher Coffee? Really?

If you are a regular customer of Chazzano Coffee, you probably know that you shouldn't bring food into the cafe and that I have a higher proportion of Jewish customers than other cafes. If you want an explanation about what kosher means concerning coffee, please keep reading. However, if you are now sitting on your porch in your pajamas, sipping some Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe, and noting how the lemony notes are dancing on your tongue, while the chocolate notes are covering your palate with a creamy euphoria, just put your tablet computer down, now...

According to the Jewish Bible, observant Jews do not mix meat and milk. No cheeseburgers, no veal cutlet parmigiano. There is a prohibition in the Torah (Jewish Bible), "Do not cook a kid (baby goat) in it's mother's milk." Over thousands of years, the Rabbis developed more laws to protect the basic sentiment of the law. Jews are also prohibited from eating anything from a pig or any fish that doesn't have scales and fins. No pork, no shellfish, no meat and milk on the same plate. Hey Frank! What does this have to do with coffee? I'm glad that you asked.

Chazzano Coffee Roasters is supervised by the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Metro Detroit. This Kosher authority is the highest authority in the land because they are the most strict. Judaism contains the concept of a slippery slope- if you cut corners, eventually you'll cut more than that. Traditional Judaism teaches us put a wall around the Torah and Jewish Law. Chazzano is considered Kosher, because we follow the following Jewish laws found in Jewish tradition.

*We are not open on the holiest days of the year including the Jewish Sabbath (from Friday night to Saturday night).

* All food brought into Chazzano Coffee has the highest level of kosher supervision by some Orthodox Jewish authority.

* We do not flavor our coffee, therefore there is no possibility that our coffee which is just a roasted seed from a coffee tree, has touched non-kosher food.

* All outside products made for Chazzano Coffee is supervised by an Orthodox Rabbi from the supervising kosher authority.

Why does an Italian-American Jew with a Jewish mother and Italian father keep Kosher?

It is a way to strengthen my communication with G-d.

Chazzano Coffee is certified Kosher and Kosher for Passover.

Good Coffee Makes You Sing.

Brewing Temperatures

Have you ever had an incredible cup of coffee at Chazzano Coffee Roasters, brought some beans home or to the office, opened the coffee bag, were astounded by the fantastic fragrance, ground it fresh, brewed it, and...it wasn't as fantastic as the coffee that you had at the cafe? Well, it could be your brewing temperature.

French press, drip, pourover, and vacuum syphon must all be brewed within the sweet spot of coffee brewing, between 195-205 degrees fahrenheit. If it's below 195 degrees, you will experience an under-extracted brew, and above 205 (near boiling), you'll experience an over-extracted brew.

Here are some hints to brew the best cup of coffee. For french press coffee, boil water and wait 30 seconds for the temperature to reach 200-205 degrees. For the usual cheap drip brewers, use this secret method. After you place the ground coffee in the brew basket, fully wet the grounds in the basket with hot water. This trick will help the coffee "bloom" and begin the flavor extraction process. When you turn the machine on and brew the coffee, the grounds will already have a head start. This will mitigate the usual lower brewing temperatures that make drip brewers my least favorite method of coffee brewing. In addition, make sure that the coffee is finely ground for the drip brewer.

Finally, enjoy the process. Enjoy life. Drink fantastic coffee.

La Nubes Andrea Costa Nicaragua Maragogype

You know that we have over 40 different single origin coffees available and another 15 blends. I look for the best specialty coffee available. Smart farmers sample different areas of their farms that may cup at a different level than the rest of the crop. Here's the problem: If a farmer has 50 hectares (2.471 acres) of coffee trees and discovers that 1/5th of the crop contains coffee that has a superior flavor profile, should the farmer seek to sell the portion of the crop at a higher price and possibly lower the quality of the entire crop? That's a tough question.

You've enjoyed some of our awesome microlots like Brazil Moreninha Formosa, Honduras Cup of Excellence, Yemen Mocca Sanani, and Honduras Finca Las Canas. We have now secured some incredible microlot coffees from Nicaragua. The first selection is an Andrea Castro Nicaragua Maragogype. They produced only 38 pounds of coffee and picked out (by hand) only the best beans for us! This is an extremely small offering, now, of 32 pounds. (Did you know that 32lbs. of unroasted coffee beans produces only 25.6 lbs. of roasted coffee.)

Maragogype is a large bean that is a mutation of a typica coffee tree. Each of the farms in the Las Nubes (The Clouds) Cooperative is managed by women. How cool is that?

Our 32 lbs. of coffee...

Just wait until you taste this coffee! It will become part of your bucket list.

We're One Year Old!

I'm roasting Costa Rica Tarrazu Santa Laura now. It's truly bringing a tear to my eyes, because it is the first coffee that I roasted 10 years ago. My wonderful mother-in-law always sends a nice check every October in honor of my birthday. Ten years ago, with that act of lovingkindness, I bought a small Fresh Roast Plus from thecoffeeproject.com, a great home roaster's site. After roasting a small 2-3 oz. portion of green coffee beans, I immediately ground them for French Press and tasted a coffee that was syrupy, chocolaty, and nutty. It was the best coffee ever-just like a fine glass of wine. Thus began my journey and my passion for coffee roasting.

I want to thank you, our loyal customers, for helping us to reach this one year anniversary. There is a blessing that Jews say when we reach a special moment in our lives - Praised are You, L-rd, our G-d, King of the Universe, who gives us life, who sustains us, and brings us to this (special) time.

Please come in today and tomorrow and say hello. If you find the coupon on the website, print it out, and we'll take 50% off of all of your purchases on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22). www.chazzanocoffee.com

Thank you,

Frank

Cupping Party on Monday, November 23 6:30 p.m.

Are you ready for an evening of great coffee tasting? We'll learn about the journey of coffee- from bean to cup. Take a tour of Chazzano Coffee Roasters. Slurp, sip, smile, and laugh your way through 4 different kinds of coffee from around the world. The cupping party begins at 6:30 p.m. sharp and concludes at 8:00 p.m. You must RSVP by Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. $8/person.

Warning: Do not eat spicy food before you arrive. It will ruin any chance for you to experience the 1500 possible taste profiles that coffee has to offer.