City Lights and Progress Slideshow

I have some more pictures! These are a few photos of the coffee bar being used downtown for City Lights, an outreach in downtown Raleigh at All Saints Chapel. The history of this place is captivating, so I will make a follow up post about it. Below the Chapel is a large, open floor plan, basement, where we set up a coffee bar and gave away coffee. I poured two coffees using a couple simple, micro-brew methods. While everyone enjoyed the coffee, I believe the crowd favorite was the Kenyan Auction Lot prepared using the TruBru pour over. I also served a new favorite of mine, the Burundi (small country south of Rwanda and west of Tanzania), using two Bodum French Presses. It was a lot of fun! Also at the end of the slideshow are some updates on the site. The steel of my building just started to go up today.

6 Billion Others

I found this site, 6 Billion Others, very interesting. They interview people from all over the world asking questions on universal values; money, happiness, love, death, fear, war, God. It is extremely fascinating to listen to their stories. I like the 100 year old Masai, Kenya warrior who has 4 wives.

Lafayette Development slideshow

updates coming soon!!

Lafayette is moving ahead fast...and so am I. Over the past few days I have had a chance to meet with several people in regards to Jubala. I sat down with the architect and engineers of the project, bouncing several ideas off of them. I left the meetings satisfied, knowing that we were all on the same page. The space has changed a lot and I believe the public will be pleased when the final renderings are finished. If not, then back to the drawing board. We will be incorporating ideas inspired from several places. Think "community." I hope to have a new website soon, or atleast an update to the existing one, because a lot has changed since the oringial site launched. In the meantime I will continue to post layouts, pictures, and ideas on this blog when the files are ready....stay tuned!

Macro - Micro

No - this is not going to be an economics lesson but, like the economy, we can look at coffee from many different angles. Dark vs. Light, South American vs. African, Organic vs. ...not?, Washed vs. Unwashed, Course vs Fine, Regular vs. Decaff, Drip vs. Pressed, Espresso vs. Brewed, Fair trade vs. Unfair Trade (?) <--a subject I will touch on later, Hot vs. Cold, and Macrobrew vs. Microbrew. These are some of the reasons why my passion for coffee continues to grow. There is just so much to learn from a single seed. Maybe that is why the gospels contain so many parables on seeds. Anyways, lets take a closer look into macro vs micro, specifically in the brewing process.

VS

My concept of brewing was once limited to ground coffee, a filter, and an automatic brewing machine. I mean coffee is coffee, everything tastes the same right? I have slowly realized that wasn't the case. I never thought that I would be able to sip a brewed cup of coffee and have an idea of where it was grown and how it was prepared. Well the how it was prepared part is a stretch, but maybe one day. I have learned that there are two basic ways to brew coffee. Macrobrew - large batch brewing, and Microbrew - small batch brewing. Starbucks macrobrews if that helps. For coffee, macrobrewing would be grinding and brewing large batches in those large, stainless steel, commercial machines you typically see at most coffee shops. This is a good technique to use when a shop is busy (mornings) to manage the lines. Americans don't like to wait when they are expecting something quickly. The downside to macrobrew is that some customers get fresh coffee and some get the coffee that was brewed 30-45 mins before they pay for it. It all depends on when you get in line. Microbrew is more of a brew to order method specific to a customers taste. The french press, pour over (post below), and vacuum or siphon pot are ways some shops and individuals choose to use the microbrew technique. There are several reasons as to why I prefer micro over macro. The coffee is always fresh, the customer can choose any type of coffee that is available, there is little to no waste, and most of all it is fun. I mean some people like letting machines do all the work but I don't find much excitement in pushing an orange button and waiting. Microbrew usually involves some hand on action and it is a great way to build community with your customers.

At Jubala we will incorporate both, macro during the morning rush and micro available all day. More than likely we will have a few different stations. Our espresso station to make those tasty shots and latte based drinks, a french press and pour over station (similar to what 3cups does) , and a vacuum pot station (look at video clip in Blue Bottle Coffee post below). These will all be on the front bar counter giving the staff opportunities to engage with the customers. The boring macrobrew machine will be on the back counter to be used during those busy morning rushes (at least that's the idea).

TruBru

I have been looking at a lot of different ways to manually prepare coffee. I have nothing against automatic brewing or using machines to get the job done but there are so many other ways to work with coffee. During my visit to Atlanta I ran into a representative for a simple manual drip system called TruBru. You don't see these much on the east coast, or at least in North Carolina (I can only think of one place), but they are normal out west. I am getting one and putting it to good work!