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.

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.

New Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes Andrea Castro

If you haven't read my last blog about this awesome and unique coffee, you should. I just cupped the Nicaragua Las Nubes and it is incredibly interesting. Here are the cupping notes:

As a Full City (medium) roast, you'll experience fruit forward notes, with a sweet scotch and winey finish.

The Vienna Roast (dark) is the most interesting: Cinnamon, French toast, chocolate, tremendous sweetness, maple syrup, and caramel.

I'm roasting this limited edition, never to be tasted again, coffee, fresh to order. I will custom roast your pound of coffee, either Full City, Vienna, or French Roast.

$40/lb. Whole Bean or Ground for French Press or Drip