Our staff writer Alex Bernson greets the new year with a look back at his favorite coffees of 2012.

Looking back on 2012, it was definitely a great year to be a coffee nerd / enthusiast / professional / what-have-you. The industry keeps growing, shops and roasters keep popping up or expanding, and there’s pretty much more information on the subject today than there ever has been in human history. But 2012 was also just a great time just to be a coffee drinker, and here’s some reasons why (with the clearly stated caveat that I’m making some pretty sweeping generalizations, and I know it, so don’t queen out).

Many of the Central American coffees I enjoyed in 2012 were bursting with complex acidity, yet unbelievably clean and at times startling in their depth. 2012 was the year that so many Western Hemisphere coffees challenged my preconceived notions and exceeded my expectations. Meanwhile, many of the coffees I enjoyed from Africa in 2012 harvests were full of delicate nuance, demanding and fascinating in their complexity, with big-time standouts coming out of the cooperatives in Kenya and the mish-mash of cooperatives and privately owned washing stations in Rwanda. Exceedingly light roasting definitely became a thing in North America this year, with exciting new takes on classic origin profiles. With a number of new micro-roasters entering the scene, and ever more multi-roaster shops opening up, more and more people were exposed to fantastic coffee being roasted by brands they hadn’t heard of before. At the same time, many established industry roasting leaders were able to clearly illustrate why their longstanding relationships, breadth of knowledge, and access to resources so often result in fantastic coffees. Smaller is not always better, but new brands are exciting; old school is not necessarily “right”, but there’s a reason why specialty roasters who do high volume are often able to outpace the little guys.

I do gotta be real though, I think 2012 was the year where under-developed roasts really became *a thing* in North America, and it’s a trend that needs to be put to bed. Light roasting can be great, and I do love that first sip that offers the promise of forward sweetness and delicate acidity, but unless a very narrow window of balance is hit just…right… that promise so often dissolves into sourness, starchiness and a soapy finish. No tea no shade; but I ran into this again and again, from roasters across many different styles and regions, throughout the balance of 2012.

But enough negativity. I’ve put together a list of some of my personal favorite coffees to celebrate this exciting year in coffee. The list isn’t meant to be comprehensive, and is certainly skewed to coffees I’ve had the privilege of working with in NYC at Sweetleaf and Craft Coffee, so if your favorite coffee didn’t make it, sound off in the comments below!

• Ritual Coffee Roasters (SFO) – Honduras Las Manos. This was my desert island coffee–I could’ve happily drank just ethis all year. Brewed, it was immensely pleasing in its balance, full of clean sugarcane low notes, with a deceptively complex golden raisin and mango acidity. As espresso, the rich sugarcane was accentuated yet still incredibly crisp, creating a syrupy shot with port-like depths.

• Ritual Coffee Roasters (SFO) – Guatemala Chuito. I feel bad putting Ritual on this list twice when there were so many amazing coffees this year, but like the Honduras Las Manos, this Chuito really exemplified how amazing Central American harvests, especially the Colombian and Guatemalan ones, were this year. Unbelievably clean, bursting with nuanced acidity, yet anchored with deep, sweet chocolate notes, this coffee was a true crowd pleaser.

• Stumptown Coffee Roasters (PDX / Seattle / NYC) – Guatemala El Injerto Geisha. I had the immense pleasure of tasting this coffee in a catalog cupping next to Stumptown’s other Injerto and Geisha offerings, and really made clear the common flavor notes coming from both farm and variety. Earl Grey flavors and delicate high acidity unlike any other Injertos, married to warm chocolate and cola low-notes missing in other Geishas. A nice reminder that in the often polarized discussion of variety and origin, both can be important.

• Heart Coffee Roasters (PDX)- Kenya Gaturiri Peaberry. Heart has been on the leading edge of light roasting in North America, and this crystal clear coffee was a great example of why this has people so excited. Rarely have I seen tasting notes on a bag be so on point, or a Kenya taste like this: “kiwi, currant, and molasses”. A vibrant acidity like many other Kenyas this year, but juicier, with an unexpectedly rich, heavy sweetness and body balancing out the light roast’s puckery finish.

• Counter Culture Coffee (Durham, NC) – Ethiopia Idido Washed. I’ve loved Counter Culture’s take on this coffee as a natural process in the past, and with African coffees being particularly clean and nuanced this year, it was really exciting to enjoy the Idido as a washed process. This coffee is precisely light and articulate, with a juicy acidity somewhere between orange and lemon and sweet aromatics that carried through the whole cup. Definitely a favorite.

• Kuma Coffee (Seattle)  – Sumatra Tano Batak. Kuma has been on peoples’ radar more and more, and this impressively clean and articulate coffee shows why. There has been an increasing quality focus in Sumatra, and this coffee demonstrates the potential of those efforts. Crisp red bell pepper and sweet cherry create a dominating acidity, over a rich leather base, finishing with stimulating black pepper and oolong notes.

• Caffe Ladro (Seattle) – Nicaragua Finca San Jose Java Nica. Caffe Ladro are Seattle coffee OGs, and it’s very exciting to see them move so strongly in a modern, specialty-focused direction. This new Java Nica variety was developed by the Mierisch family in Nicaragua, and has a wild profile reminiscent of a classic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe–syrupy black tea and white peach mid-notes, with a refreshing lemonade sweetness and delicate orange-blossom aromatics.

What made coffee so exciting for me this year is the promise of so much more potential knowledge and improvement. Some coffees on this list made me think that variety was the biggest determinant of flavor, others that it was origin or processing, others that it was roasting. In the end, the answer is clearly that they all have important roles to play, and it is so exciting to see continued experimentation and innovation in all areas.

What a great time to be a coffee lover! Here’s to more delicious cups in 2013.

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Spotted in the Wall Street Journal:

Next up on the Obama campaign’s motivational fundraising: Joe Biden.

The campaign has already offered up dinner with President Barack Obama, actor George Clooney and actress Sarah Jessica Parker as prizes for people who donate to the campaign and enter to win. On Thursday, the campaign offered coffee with the vice president“Want to have a cup of coffee sometime soon? I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about, but mainly I just want to say thanks for helping out,” read the email sent under Mr. Biden’s name.

The Biden solicitation promises airfare, hotel accommodations and coffee, but that’s not all. According to the fine print, winners also get snacks.

Yes, a lovely contest indeed, but did you know that “Amtrak Joe” frequents specialty coffee establishments all across the globe? There’s no telling where the job might take him!

Sippin’ in style at Third Rail Coffee, Manhattan.

Joe fits right in at the funky-chic Ritual trailer.

Between lunch at Little Bird and dinner at Urban Farmer, ol’ Joe stops in for a 5 oz. Americano at the Stumptown in Downtown Portland.

Peregrine’s 14th Street location is Joe’s daily stop in DC.

Sometimes diplomatic work take Joe Biden all the way to London, where he’s sure to hit up Prufrock Coffee for a nice espresso (or maybe even a flat white).

The United States and Japan share a warm political relationship, but it’s the fine cafes like Bear Pond Espresso that keep the Veep coming back.

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Ritual Coffee Roasters are looking for “an enthusiastic, coffee-loving Wholesale Director“. Just imagine…there you are, living in San Francisco, having lunch at Citizen’s Band, dinner at Bar Agricole, wines at Terroir…all this can be yours, PLUS a bonus day off of work each year when Ritual sends a school bus down to the Southwest Regional Barista Competition.

Learn more from Ritual’s job listing:

Ritual is seeking a qualified Wholesale Director to join our roastery team. The Wholesale Director will be responsible for identifying and working directly with potential wholesale partners as well as developing a marketing plan. The Wholesale Director will report to the owner/founder and work closely with wholesale customers as well as the rest of the wholesale team.

• Strong written and verbal communications skills
• Knowledge of coffee, the coffee industry, equipment a plus; interest in participating in further coffee education, coffee tastings essential
• Sales experience a plus; customer service experience essential
• Ability to work in an independent, self-directed environment while demonstrating a willingness to take strategic direction and work as part of a team
• Attention to detail in all aspects of work
• A passion for small business and quality products
• Fluency in QuickBooks is helpful, strong knowledge of Microsoft Office required
• A high degree of ethics and obsession with customer service and satisfaction
• A drivers license
• Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and In Design a plus
• A Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience.
• Ability to detect, reflect, and refract a keen sense of situational 21st century urbane irony.

Pay is $42-$55k annually, or roughly 6 months rent in Hayes Valley.

 
Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

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Percy Ramirez

There seems to be no limit to the kindness and genuine enjoyment of the barista craft exuded by Percy Ramirez, of Intelligentsia’s Pasadena cafe. This was Percy’s first performance in the USBC regional cycle; Mr. Ramirez has competed twice before (and enjoys dual eligibility) in Guatemala, where he lived until he was four. Percy competed using an Intelligentsia sourced-and-roasted offering from Finca Matalapa, El Salvador – it is not currently commercially available. We’ll add that meeting and having a chance to share some conversation with Mr. Ramirez was a personal highlight for both your Sprudge editors last weekend. In an industry full of all manner of characters, Percy Ramirez is truly one of the nice guys.

Charles Babinski

One of our sport’s (or whatever you want to call it) most electric performers, Charles Babinski of Intelligentsia Silverlake turned in two absolutely captivating performances over the SWRBC weekend. He’s dancing as he pulls shots; he’s mugging for the cameras;  he’s the perfectly devilish flirty barkeep. The audience is educated by Mr. Babinski seemingly by osmosis, as if knowledge could be transferred by charisma alone. Charles’ routine broke down walls between judges and the competitor, by acknowledging the often very different expectations a barista encounters from his or her customers in a cafe setting. He encouraged sharing, dialogue, and playfulness among the judges, while advocating passionately for the very special coffee he was privileged to serve – Intelligentsia’s Bolivia Takesi microlot, which is as of yet not commercially available. Mr. Babinski is a very special competitor, a barista’s barista, and his is one of our very favorite routines of this year’s competition cycle.

Lizzy Sampson

One of two competitors from Verve to reach the finals, Lizzy Sampson’s routine stood out for a couple of reasons: she was the only SWRBC finalist to compete with a blend, using Verve coffees sourced from Ethiopia, Sumatra and Guatemala; and her routine was the only one to speciically focus on traceability at origin. Watching her twice, we were blown away by some of the bigger questions she asked of the judges. It takes guts to openly admit – indeed, to spend time on such admissions from the ever-ticking 15 minute clock – that certain components in your competition coffee are less traceable than others. But the truth is, that’s often the truth, and we applaud Lizzy for acknowledging the complicated realities of many coffees from Ethiopia and Sumatra. For 15 minutes, Lizzy was able to compellingly argue that, while traceability in coffee sourcing is enormously important, so too is taste. Playing to a packed home crowd for both of her SWRBC performances, Lizzy Sampson and Verve were able to pull off an important, engaging pair of routines: the kind that makes you think.

Alfonso Portela

Hailing out of the burgeoning Central Valley specialty coffee scene in Sacramento, California, Alfonso Portela made heads turn on Selection Saturday at the SWRBC, earning a spot in the top six for himself and Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters. A first time competitor, Mr. Portela’s routine was a premiere example of friendly, warm customer service in the superchared barista competition environment. One of the joys for us covering the USBC cycle is to learn more about shops in emerging cities, of which the Sacramento-Modesto area is certainly one. Just as the routine from Camilla Ramos at the SERBC made us want to visit Panther Coffee in Miami, so too did Mr. Portela pique our interest w/r/t Chocolate Fish. Once an Ecco account, CF is now a small roastery in Downtown Sacramento with a pronounced New Zealand vibe. Mr. Portela competed using a coffee from Honduras that is not currently available via Chocolate Fish, but you can learn more about their other offerings here. 

As a last note on Fonzy’s performance, we present a hypothetical: pretend you’re taking a friend out for coffee, and that this friend is a civilian, entirely unconnected from the specialty coffee industry and with very little experience visiting nice cafes. If we could draft pick a barista to spend time with that friend from behind the bar, we’d have to consider Alfonso Portela. We hope this is the first of many competition successes for him and the crew at Chocolate Fish.

Kevin “Tex” Bohlin

Sometimes barista routines have a very disparate set of influences. In the case of Ritual Coffee’s “Tex” Bohlin, his 15 minutes on stage were a delightful melange, equal parts Guatemalan adventure and Hollywood picture, poured through a San Francisco filter. All coffees tell a story, but for Mr. Bohlin, the coffee WAS the story; watch the above interview to learn more about Tex’s work in Guatemala at Finca La Merced. (For the full experience, pull this song from the “Drive” soundtrack up in another tab.) You were a pleasure to watch, Tex.

Jared Truby

It sort of felt like destiny, for Jared Truby to win this year’s SWRBC. A seasoned competitor who has lived and worked for years as part of Verve Coffee Roasters, Mr. Truby’s routines were standing-room only affairs on the competition floor in Santa Cruz. He used a remarkable coffee, Verve’s Costa Rica Finale de Cosecha – we had a chance to write it up already here – and finished his routine with one of the more notably complex signature drinks we’ve seen all year, a multi-step experience involving cascara and molasses tea, vanilla cream espresso foam, and a re-imagined spherical coffee “cherry” made from apple and cherry juices. Mr. Truby never loses focus on stage, never breaks a sweat; he is a natural competitor, and he makes that which is most decidedly not easy look it. The first-round bye and the confidence he’ll be bringing with him to Portland makes him a must-watch Championship contender at this year’s USBC.

For more photos, please visit our Facebook album.

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Should you be so lucky to be located in the city of Melbourne, Australia, this Wednesday marks an opportunity to chat and learn Ben Kaminsky, Director of Quality Control for San Francisco’s Ritual Coffee Roasters. Admission is $45 Australian dollars. Learn more from the Market Lane website:

Ben will be talking us through the basics of setting up a quality control program, and showing us the tools that can make managing quality much easier (like extract mojo) and how to use them. The session will cover off the basics of extraction, and then go on to provide tips on how to implement quality and consistency focused solutions in your coffee program. In the session Ben will also give us his perspective on the future of specialty coffee: how emerging markets and increased demand will effect the specialty sector and quality as we know it now. We’ll finish up with a cupping of seven coffees from Ritual and Four Barrel of San Francisco.

Though we kind of always wish we were in Melbourne, we especially wish we were in Melbourne for this event. Learn more about Market Lane and their offerings here.

[Photo source: Google+]

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Read Sara Deseran’s 7×7 article about Four Barrel, Sight Glass, Blue Bottle and Ritual. While we don’t agree with the author’s main point – we think that web sites like Twitter, Four Square, and Yelp have made the service industry more self-aware and accountable – we do agree that customer service needs to be the primary focus for third wave shops worldwide.

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Local San Francisco NPR affiliate recently interviewed the owners of leading cafes in the Bay Area, including James Freeman of Blue Bottle, Jeremy Tooker of Four Barrel, and Eileen Hassi of Ritual.  One of our favorite coffee bloggers had this to say about the affair:

The radio program played out like your typical coffee innovator/”third wave“/bleeding-edge routine that we’ve become accustomed to over the past decade. While a bit heavy on the Coffee 101 — particularly when callers asked common FAQ-type questions that have been answered on the Internet 20,000 times over already — KQED produced a good program overall.

James Freeman noted Italy’s “industrialized system of near-universal adequacy,” which is a different but accurate way of summing up our long-held beliefs that outstanding coffee in Italy is almost as hard to find as unacceptable coffee. Other covered topics included coffeehouses eliminating WiFi, Berkeley’s Caffe Mediterraneum inventing the latte, the Gibraltar, and even James Freeman designating home roasting as coffee’s “geeky lunatic fringe.”

Listen to the whole interview right here on Sprudge.com:

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It should be noted that coffee is the only category in the GFA to require rigid organic certification. Preserves, pickles, beer, cheese, charcuterie and even chocolate (coffee’s low-down kissin’ cousin) do not require organic labels. It’s also worth noting that, unlike all of these other consumables (save for chocolate), coffee is a massively international pursuit – organic certification at origin is not simply a matter of driving down to the dairy farm in Petaluma and making sure the cows look happy. The GFA does not require roaster organic certification, which is necessary for coffee companies to affix an organic label to their products, but DOES require the producer to be “certified”. This distinction is notable as the steps and requirements for a producer to be certified are vastly more troublesome than the steps a roaster stateside must take for a similar certification. Why one and not the other?

According to reliable sources, several prominent roasters simply won’t be participating in this year’s GFAs. These roasters include Stumptown Coffee, Four Barrel and Ritual.

Look back at our wide world of GFA coverage by clicking here, including a groundbreaking fusion of personal woe and organizational obfuscation written by our own Carl Mundy, entitled “The GFA’s and My Fifth Wife”.

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The art show in question involves photographs that seem benign at first glance: snapshots of a dwelling space, a made bed, a puppy on the floor, a trunk packed with manila envelopes and photographs. The show is titled “Making Room”, and it’s the work of Varese Layzer, a San Fracisco-based artist who grew up in Manhattan - you can see the show in its entirety by clicking here. Only upon reading the artist’s statement do patrons learn the context behind the photos:

In 2010, my mother died. As the last living member of my family, it fell on me to clear out the cluttered 1,100-square-foot rent-controlled apartment where I grew up and my parents had lived for 40 years. The process would take three months. During that time of work and grief, I also had to live there. I documented the process of making room for me at 5E.

After giving away thousands of pounds of belongings, I moved the remaining 4,000 pounds to a San Francisco storage space. Slowly, I made room to bring those objects into my world here: a painting, a clock, a lamp. I documented that process too.

Apartment 5E has since been bought and its walls demolished by a new owner. The objects and these pictures are all that remains.

Heavy stuff, to be sure – evidently too heavy for Ritual to exhibit for more than a few days. Ritual’s owner, Eileen Hassi, was forced to make a difficult decision: Continue to display art that she felt was inappropriate for her cafe, or remove the show and void Layzer’s contract. Ultimately Eileen made the latter choice, by first removing the artist’s statement, and soon after removing the photography itself. In response to losing her show – a show that she claims cost $3000 to produce – Varese Layzer took to her Flickr account, posting the following email she received from Eileen Hassi. In the name of context and fairness, here is the entirety of Eileen’s email, which is at times sincere, at other times a bit flippant:

Hi Varese,

My name is Eileen and I’m the owner of Ritual. It’s too bad that I haven’t actually met you, as this would probably make more sense if you knew me. I asked one of my employees to take down your artist statement when I was in the cafe on Sunday. I needed to leave directly to go up to an event I was running in Napa and was away for the rest of the weekend.

I know that you’re upset and you’re going to think I’m the bad guy in this situation, but allow me to explain my position: Your art is serious work. It’s too serious for the cafe. It’s dealing with real stuff, real emotions, loss, attachment, family, death. It belongs in a real gallery, where people are in a space to contemplate these things. The art that belongs in a cafe is fluffier stuff, stuff that doesn’t make people think about the tough questions in life: pictures of telephone poles, birds sitting on the wires, tapestries of heavy metal lyrics. Whimsical stuff.

The curator made a mistake, I fired him. I want you to take you[r] shown down as soon as possible. I know that you put a great deal of effort into the show, so it’s not a total loss for you, I’d like to offer you $300. I have a great deal of respect for your work, and would not put it in jeopardy, it’s just not the right art for the space. Your artist’s statement is safe, just tucked away. It was just too intense for people looking for escapism with their coffee. I have another show ready to go, so please let me know when you’ll be taking the show down.

Like I said, it should be in a gallery, where you can have a real opening, with wine and cheese. My boyfriend has a gallery — give him a call — [number redacted]. I have another friend who just took over a gallery space on 6th Street as well and is looking for work to show.

Like I said, I’m sure you think I’m being the bad guy in this situation, but really no one should have led you to believe this belonged in a coffee shop.

Best,
Eileen

SFist jumped on this story as indicative of the “Starbucks-ification of Valencia Street”, and the time line of events seems to indicate something of a communication breakdown at Ritual – removing a statement without the artist’s permission? Tearing down the show and firing your curator? We aren’t cafe owners, but surely this could have been handled with more tact.

More importantly, we think this story begs a wider question for our industry: What exactly is the role of art in cafes? Do you agree with Eileen when she says “The art that belongs in a cafe is fluffier stuff, stuff that doesn’t make people think about the tough questions in life”? Is there room for “serious” art on our cafe walls? Would you allow a controversial, “serious”, or otherwise challenging show like this one to be exhibited in your cafe?

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