Man Seeking Coffee » Oregon

coffee@home: Guatemala La Concepcion Buenavista

ManSeekingCoffee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:46 +0000

Beans: Guatemala La Concepcion Buenavista Roaster: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Rating: 3+

Occasionally I have a strong opinion about what coffee I want (or don’t want) when I’m buying beans. That was even more the case a few years back when the pickings were slimmer and I was frequently rotating amongst different coffees from one particular roaster. These days [...]

coffee@home: Hair Bender

ManSeekingCoffee — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:00:06 +0000

Beans: Hair Bender Roaster: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Rating: 4

A true metaphysical puzzle for any coffee roaster is how to name a signature blend. The challenge is that the components of any blend change, both seasonally and from year to year (I’m not even considering variation from roast to roast). With single origins, the challenge is easy. This year’s [...]

coffee@home: A happy confluence of events

ManSeekingCoffee — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:50:05 +0000

Beans: Panama Carmen Estate Roaster: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Rating: 4

It’s hard to know which happy event to begin this piece with so I’ll start instead with a caveat. I will return to my coverage of New Orleans, but felt compelled to interrupt that thread for this important bit of news combined with happy coffee consumption.

Sunday wrapped up the [...]

coffee@home: Stumptown Wondo

ManSeekingCoffee — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:00:54 +0000

Beans: Ethiopian Wondo Roaster: Stumptown (via Four Barrel Coffee) Rating: 3+

In what very well may be the last of my Stumptown purchases from Four Barrel (1,2), I grabbed this bag of Ethiopian Wondo from the shelves during a fit of not knowing what else to grab. My primary goal at the time was to get some more tasty decaf [...]

coffee@home: Yin and Yang

ManSeekingCoffee — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:00:57 +0000

Beans: Kenya Muburi Kirinyaga and Guatemala Finca Semillero Roaster: Ritual Roasters & Stumptown (via Four Barrel Coffee) Rating: 4 & 4-

This post isn’t a Ritual vs. Stumptown taste test even though it does compare one coffee from each of these two roasters. What I’m hoping to illustrate with this comparison are the varied extremes that two very good [...]

coffee@home: Stumptown Decaf

ManSeekingCoffee — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:27:24 +0000

Beans: Decaf House Roaster: Stumptown (via Four Barrel Coffee) Rating: 4

When it rains, it pours. That seems to fit the weather around here this past week – that and (relatively) frigid temperatures. Of course, what I had in mind with that cliche remark wasn’t weather, but decaf coffee. Recently, I’ve found the two best decafs I’ve [...]

Pondering the Third Wave Expansion

ManSeekingCoffee — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:40:36 +0000

I find it a little surprising sometimes that prominent, high quality (OK, let’s just say it – “third wave”) cafe/roasters have opened as few shops as they have. Take the Big Bay area players, for example, which have no more than a large handful of stores combined. Blue Bottle appears to be in the lead with [...]

Don’t Judge a Bucks Buying Clover (Part 2)

ManSeekingCoffee — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:58:28 +0000

Name: Starbucks – Small Batch/Clover Service Location: 7 Third Street, San Francisco, CA (and other locations in Boston, Seattle, Portland and the Bay Area) Rating: 3

My previous piece was the backstory. I filled you in on the controversy surrounding Starbucks’ recent purchase of the Coffee Equipment Company and its technological wonder, the Clover 1s. Today is the action.

I [...]

Don’t Judge a Bucks Buying Clover (Part 1)

ManSeekingCoffee — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:08:07 +0000

A huge event took place in coffee back in March. Starbucks purchased the Coffee Equipment Company, gaining ownership of its sole product, the Clover 1s brewer. This news was big because the Clover 1s had been adopted and embraced by specialty coffee shops around the country in a kind of grass-roots, coffee revolution sort of way. [...]

coffee@home: Stumptown’s Ethoipian Koratie

ManSeekingCoffee — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:29:50 +0000

Beans: Ethiopian (Organic) Sidamo Koratie Roaster: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Rating: 3+

I asked the guys behind the counter at Four Barrel Coffee for something floral. Without hesitation, they pointed to the Ethiopian Koratie. That sounded good to me. I had read some pretty glowing reviews of this stuff on Bean Chaser and Chemically Imbalanced. Of course, that particular roast [...]