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

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...

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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?

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.

Rwanda Cup of Excellence Coffees

All of our coffee is specialty coffee. If you've taken a tour of our roasterie, I highlight the fact that there are very few defects, e.g. over-ripe, under-ripe, black, insect damaged, broken beans. In addition, our coffee is roasted to my version of perfection, and then ground and brewed perfectly. That's a short summary of specialty coffee. Although we roast and serve only specialty coffee, there are some extra special coffees- the Cup of Excellence Coffees.

Below is the description of Cup of Excellence from the Cup of Excellence website, 

The Cup of Excellence is a strict competition that selects the very best coffee produced in that country for that particular year . These winning coffees are chosen by a select group of national and international cuppers and are cupped at least five different times during the competition process. The final winners are awarded the prestigious Cup of Excellence® and sold to the highest bidder during an internet auction.

In a few weeks, I expect a delivery of two very special lots of Rwandan coffee. The first is Rwanda Kirorero Lot #11 which has notes of pear, citrus, lemon, with a tea like finish. The second selection is Rwanda Nyakizu Lot #19 which has fruity notes of Rhubarb, peach, strawberry, with tremendous brightness.

Last year, we devoured 66 lbs. of 2010 Cup of Excellence Honduras Finca Fernandez. It had glorious notes of banana, banana foster, vanilla, dark chocolate, pipe tobacco, citrus, currant- let's just say that it was like manna falling from heaven. Anything that you liked, you could taste it in the coffee.  I expect that the two lots of coffee from Rwanda will be equally spectacular.

Yemen Mocca Sanani and Why do the angels drink it?

There are about 100 lbs. of Yemen Mocca Sanani left in my holy green bean room. I'm beginning to miss it like you miss a dear friend who is about to leave town for 4 months. Before we say our farewells, I'd like to share some information about one of my favorite coffees that causes me to claim, "The angels drink Yemen Mocca Sanani."

Mocca (you say Mokha and I say Moka) was the main port for San'a, the capital of Yemen. Mokha was a famous port for coffee from the 15th to 17th centuries. Mocca Sanani also means from San'ai but originally was the name of the special arabica beans found in Yemen. Our Yemen Mocca Sanani has strong notes of chocolate which reminds us why many Americans order Cafe Mochas or Moccachino. These are often a combination of espresso, hot chocolate, and milk. Mocha used to be the port city of San'a, but they moved the city because of some sand bar issues. You should also know that there are some Ethiopian beans that are called Mocca Harrar because of their similar shape to the Mocca beans found in Yemen. It is believed that the Yemen coffee was brought over from Ethiopia Harrar region during the 6th century or earlier. Chocolate was never imported or exported in Mocha.

If you pay attention to what is happening in the world, Yemen and especially San'a are experiencing painful growing pains and the people are revolting in the city of San'a and elsewhere.



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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

Being Mindful

Find a teacher or spend time with people who are smarter than you.

The beginning of the 6 orders of the Jewish Book The Mishnah (commentary on the 5 books of Moses) teaches us to find for yourself a teacher (k'nei l'cha rav). Find someone who is smarter or wiser and figuratively sit at their feet. Professional singers have voice teachers throughout their career. Psychiatrists see psychiatrists. I have been blessed in my life to have many people, including my wife, Lisa, who have filled my life with wisdom. Recently, I have been introduced to Chef George Vutetakis, who wrote a brilliant book, The Vegetarian Guy (www.thevegetarianguy.com or twitter @thevegguy). Chef George owned the great Inn Season Restaurant in Royal Oak for 20 years.

The following is what I've begun to learn from Chef George:

Chef George discusses how your mood when you cook (or roast coffee) changes how the food tastes. I was discussing this with Melissa and Dave Bihl at my cafe while another lovely customer, Genevieve listened patiently. She then volunteered that her husband makes Love Toast every day for her. However, she knows when he's angry or upset, when the Love Toast doesn't taste the same. This is just a reminder that whatever we create, we need to do it with love, passion, and with a smile on our faces. I hope that every time that you walk into Chazzano Coffee Roasters that you feel that joy that we do...

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.

Nicaragua and Coffee Mathematics

The 32lbs. of Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes (the Clouds) from the Andrea Castro farm from the Matagalpa region will arrive tomorrow!

Why is this coffee so special? There are a plethora of reasons. When we cupped the coffee, we tasted notes of banana, peach, chocolate, marzipan, salsa, and much more. In short, it was like manna falling from the heavens. We also bought the entire crop of 38 lbs. The Andrea Costra farm is owned by women; the coffee is picked and sorted by women. The coffee is sun-dried or dry-processed/natural processed which helps bring out the crazy fruity notes . The coffee is strictly high grown (SHG) which means that it is grown above 1200 meters above sea level. It takes high grown coffee a longer time to develop, therefore increasing the tremendous flavor. Strictly high grown coffee beans and extremely fertile soil is a great formula for amazing coffee.

Why were women chosen to be the president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer of the Las Nubes Cooperative? They were believed to be more prudent! My 38 lbs. was so precious that they did not use machines to sort out the bad coffee beans, they didn't want the good coffee to be damaged.

Why did Andrea Castro have such a small crop of 38 lbs? Some coffee farmers are so poor that they cannot afford fertilizer for their crops. The lack of fertilizer causes farmers to produce lower yields. Andrea Castro works on other farms to help support her family and to help sustain her own farm. The partnership with Gold Mountain Coffee Roasters, Las Nubes, and Chazzano Coffee Roasters is allowing Andrea and other coop members to receive the highest return on their coffee. Chazzano Coffee is hoping to continue to help Andrea and other farmers of this coffee cooperative produce higher yields and bring more money home to their families.

Roasting Mathematics:

Did you know that every pound of coffee that we roast shrinks 20%? I need to roast about 1.2 lbs. of coffee to produce 1lb. of coffee. When I roast 132lbs. of coffee from those huge jute bags, it produces only 106 lbs. of roasted coffee. Therefore, the 32 lbs. of green beans from the Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes Andrea Castro farm will produce, after roasting, only 25.6 lbs. of roasted coffee!

Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes (Cooperative) Andrea Castro (farm) Matagalpa Region:

$40/lb.

Large cup of this coffee: $4.50

Small cup of this coffee: $3.25

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Mommy, where do coffee beans come from?

If you've taken a tour at Chazzano Coffee Roasters, you might have heard me talk about coffee cherries. You may have heard about my crazy hope that my coffee tree seedlings may produce coffee cherries. Above, you'll see the coffee cherries growing on Coast Three Coffee farm in El Salvador. There are two coffee beans in each cherry. The cherries are handpicked from the trees because it is highly impractical to machine pick coffee grown on mountainsides.

Then the coffee is milled and processed. Will it be dry processed or wet processed? How much water do you have around your farm? What is the preferred flavor profile for your particular coffee varietals? Below: The cherry and most of the outer layers of the coffee bean have been removed and the coffee beans are drying out in the sun.

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.

Guatemalan Trio

We (Frank, Klaire, and Talia) just cupped three coffees right now:

1. Guatemala FTO

2. Guatemala COMAL

3. Guatemala Finca Sabanetas

Guatemala FTO: This has tremendous acidity, creamy and milky mouthfeel, oatmeal and maple sweetness. When it cools down, there is an explosion of chocolate that takes over the fragrance and flavor.

Guatemala COMAL: This is a limited edition coffee that is a huge favorite at Chazzano Coffee. There is a pronounced honey sweetness, oak-like woodiness, chocolate bark, chocolate mousse smoothness. This is a crazy bright coffee where there is a great amount of dancing on your tongue.

Guatemala Finca Sabanetas: The fragrance while still hot has every winter spice imaginable: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. There is low acidity (brightness) in this Guatemalan. When it cools it you'll experience malted milk balls and licorice notes.

I just cupped the Guatemala FTO as an iced pourover. It has a Kahlua and milk syrupy sweetness. We're going to try a 12-hour Cold Brew of the Guatemala. Come in and try it tomorrow.