Next Sunday, May 30th we will again be holding the J B Coffee fixie bike race at the Halifax Commons. It should be a great day of bike racing. The racing will begin at 9 am and continue well into the afternoon. Come on out and enjoy a great day of bike culture. http://bicyclespluscyclingclub.com/content/halifax-crit-2010
Next Wed. June 2 bring your ride by our shop. We’ll have the good folks from Cyclesmith there doing minor tuneups on bikes, between 10am-2pm. Bring your bike helmet and get an espresso based drink for 1/2 price.

After a long wait, we are pleased to announce that our Brazil CoE’s have arrived. Well at least one of the two lots that we were fortunate to purchase during the recent Brazil Cup of Excellence competition. Fazenda Sertaozino is an award winning farm acclaimed for exemplary craftsmanship, consistently producing spectacular yellow bourbon coffee, an heirloom variety. Located in a mountainous region in the southern part of Minas Gerais, The geography and microclimate produce optimal conditions for the heirloom Yellow Bourbon, Mondo Novo and Catuai variatels that are grown on the farm. In addition to the 370 hectares of coffee production, the farm possesses 300 additional hectares of rain forest reserves with centennial tree and protected water resources. The property is managed by an agronomist named Jose Renato Gonvalves Dias who uses organic fertilizers produced on the farm to help nurture the plants and ensure that all coffees are prepared in an environmentally-friendly way. Toasted almonds, honey, and an apricot sweetness dominate the cup. There is a pleasant brightness in the finish.

Cup Of Excellence Brazil Fazenda Sertaozinho

Farmer: José Renato Gonçalves Dias
Region: Sul de Minas
Variety: Yellow Bourbo

For more info http://www.fazendasertaozinho.com.br/

I would like to share with you an incident that happened recently. A very good customer was very disappointed to find out that our his coffee of choice… Costa Rican Helsar de Zarcero was sold out. Before I could explain he walked out of the cafe in apparent disgust. There is a a lot of talk these days about the seasonality of coffees. Like many agricultural products, coffee, depending on the country of origin is harvested at different times of the year. Lets look at our Helsar de Zarcero. Coffees in Costa Rica are harvested between December and March. After the coffees have been harvested, they need to be depulped, washed, dryed, sorted, and finally shipped to consuming countries. Coffee is a fruit, well actually its the seed of the fruit, so while we tend to purchase fruit that is in season, coffee also has a “season”. While we try to purchase as many coffees as we can that have been packaged in special grain pro bags or even better in Vac Packs as most of our Cup of Excellence coffees are packaged. Coffee is at its best within 10 months from harvest. We have just recieved current crop Gutemalans. Our fresh Costa Rican should arrive within the next two to three weeks. While we could have found other coffees from Costa Rica, they would have been somewhat “tired”, not as vibrant, and we would rather offer a substitute like our recent Brazilian coffees that are in “season”.

jd

I would like to share a photo sent to us by Helen Boden. Helen spent the last year volunteering in Afghanistan with our troops. What a great smile! We are happy that Helen is back safe and sound and look forward to seeing her and her “gang” at the cafe.

Is this weather amazing or what? Spring is in the air. And that can only mean one thing. New coffee arrivals. We have been very busy lately, cupping, cupping and more cupping as samples have been arriving at our door almost daily. We are very excited about some of the coffees that should be arriving shortly. Our new Tanzanian Peaberry Songea is very sweet, has citrus and peach notes and is vibrant and delicious. Next week look for our new Brazilian offering… a Mundo Novo varietal that is unlike any Brazilian we have seen in years. This coffee should not be missed.

Here is Paul our Roaster (also known as “the face” of the company) showing off his custom cut permanent Aeropress filter.

This method of brewing has quickly become on of the preferred methods of brewing among some Java Blend staff members.  Some still prefer the paper filters but others feel that the paper robs the cup of delicious oils and the wonderful mouth-feel that the perfect amount of sediment can create (just like in a French press).  Anyway, if this brewing method interests you here is a quick pictorial guide on how Paul gets it done!

The permanent filter was cut out of a 8 cup funnel shaped drip filter; some say any old filter is fine others claim that swiss gold is the only way to go.

Since the permanent filter is more porous than a paper filter we recommend using the “inverted aeropress method” of brewing.  The setup for this method looks like this:In the above picture we have all the gear we need: inverted aeropress with some of our delicious Ethiopian Amaro Gayo inside, a preheated cup, the permanent filter and our newest toy a pino digital kettle pro (these are really nice kettles that allow you to preset a specific temperature and it will hold that temperature + or – 3%).

With the temperature of the water stabilized around 205 Fahrenheit Paul begins to brew.

Pouring the water

Stirring

With the filter secured, inverting over preheated cup

plunging

Discarding the beautiful spent puck

And that’s all it takes: simple, clean, portable and it tastes amazing!

I just wanted to give everyone an update of the recent Brazil Cup of Excellence auction. We received a bit of press, just before the auction in the Chronicle Herald, so everyone is curious about how we made out at the auction. Well I am happy to report that we were very fortunate to win not one but two lots of coffee. Lot#: 14 Fazenda Sertãozinho and Lot#: 19 Serra Do Bone.
There were 26 different coffees up for auction and we cupped them all blind. These were two of our favorite lots. We actually scored these slightly higher than some of the top placed coffees. http://www.cupofexcellence.org/NewsandCalendar/PressReleases/tabid/146/ctl/Details/mid/428/ItemID/576/Default.aspx We hope to have these coffees within 4-6 weeks for roasting.

We had a great group to help us cup this years Brazil CoE coffees. Some pretty amazing coffees. The auction takes place on the 19th. Wish us luck.

Our 26 Brazil CoE samples have been roasted with lots of love by Paul
We did an initial cupping and found some very interesting and wonderful samples
We would like to invite all those interested to a public cupping of these coffees Thursday afternoon at 4 pm at our cafe/roastery. We hope to see you there.