Highlights from the Jitterz Cafe LIVE Coffee Roasting
Earlier this month, Tampa had a MAJOR art showdown at the Tampa Etsy Craft Party – and Jitterz Cafe was there with some MAJOR dance, ahem, coffee moves! We featured a live coffee roasting demonstration, showcased coffees from Africa (specifically the Ethiopia Harrar and Ethiopia WP Jimma), and shared endless techniques and fun behind preparation and consumption. Here are the highlights from the show! Photo Credit: Sarah Fisher
Here are more pictures!
Live Coffee Roasting Demonstration in Tampa!
LIVE and in-person, we’re going to show you how to roast your OWN quality coffeehouse beans for a fraction of the cost! Live demos, piping hot coffee samples, and yes – GIVEAWAYS! Stop by and check out our live coffee roasting demonstration!
Which coffees would you like to see demonstrated and to sample? Peek at our offerings, pick your fave, then post it in the comment box below! Jitterz Offerings
Date: 6/10/2011
Time: 7pm – 11pm
Address: 108 S. 12th Street at Channelside | Tampa, FL
This event is hosted by the Tampa Etsy Craft Party. Visit the Tampa Etsy Craft Party page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=219420521415349
Visit the Official Etsy Craft Party 2011 Meetup Page: http://www.meetup.com/etsy/Tampa-FL/100657/
*Photo Credit: Gevon Knox*
Sensual Mystery: Ethiopia Limu from BaristaOnDutY
This coffee is like Heaven in a cup…No, LITERALLY. It’s loaded with so many flavors – honey, butternut, jasmine, toasted macadamia. It’s a very floral and sweet coffee, but has such an unexpected collaboration of flavors and intriguing twists. This coffee has been around for quite some time and has always been raved about. I was so happy when I found out that BaristaOnDutY had sent some to me.
You may question what’s going on in the cup. Is it my taste buds or the coffee?? It’s so sweet and floral but very rustic and woodsy. The dry aroma made me chuckle a bit to myself – glad to smell something so pleasing: sweetened nuts, honey, and peach. The wet aroma released soft scents of banana, honey, jasmine and honeysuckle – an aroma that definitely brought me back to my childhood of picking honeysuckles and experiencing soft, elegant flavors against my tongue.
The taste of this coffee was like a playground experience: butternut, apricot, an explosion of honey, a short, dry finish, winey accents. It played with my emotions in good way. Further along in the cup, the soft jasmine aroma from before meets my tongue and excites me once again. About halfway through – SMACK! Toasted macadamia nut – well where the heck did this come from?? But I like it! A little later, more floral tastes arrive and lasts throughout the duration of the cup.
This was such a pleasurable experience – it’s easy to be taken by surprise with this coffee; however, don’t let it confuse you. Let the element of surprise share an all too intriguing melody with you. Experience this coffee any day at any time, and your mouth – and heart will smile.
Suggested Preparation: French Press, Coarse Grind
Get to know your BODY: @BaristaOnDutY / BaristaOnDutY.com
Great Coffee Moments Start @ Home
One of my biggest mottos is “Great Coffee Moments Start at Home,” so I wanted to share this little recipe for you coffee junkies who are always on the go, but never really have time for breakfast (and for you guys & gals who feel you deserve a midday treat 
).
Chocolate Coffee Mug Cake:
I found this recipe a while back, but of course mine is modified a bit to enjoy with coffee. I like to add coffee that fits the “chocolate” profile, but add whatever your fave coffee is. If you are the most basic home chef, you should have all of the ingredients right in your pantry.
Ingredients:
- 50g dark chocolate
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons plain flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 4 tablespoons prepared coffee
Instructions:
- Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside to cool.
- Add flour, ground cinnamon and sugar to a small mixing bowl, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and mix well. Add the melted chocolate, and prepared coffee and mix again.
- Pour the mixture into a large microwavable coffee mug. Microwave for 2 minutes on medium, 1 minute on high. It should be cooked (skewer test comes out with moist crumbs), but still a lil moist. Remember, it will continue to cook while standing.
- Allow to cool a little, eat up, and enjoy with your favorite brew!
If you want, you can even heat up a little extra chocolate to drizzle over the top of the cake. I’ve even enjoyed mine with a nice cigar from time to time. You literally transition between these two in five minutes! YUM!
Does My Coffee Smell Like Raisins?
This is a follow up to the last blog post “Making Coffee Tasting Fun!”
Some coffee aficionados might ring my neck for this, but…you don’t have to be a master at coffee to recognize its intricacies. If you’ve got taste buds and your nose works, you can properly describe the taste qualities of coffee as well as experiencing its simple pleasure.
Preparation:
- Start with a bag of whole bean fresh roasted coffee. If you don’t have fresh roasted, purchase a bag of whole beans from your local grocery store or from your fave coffee shop.
- Using a course grind setting, grind the proper amount of beans for your brew.
- Brew the coffee using your preferred brewing method (French press is my fave!) Make sure to use fresh, cold water.
- Pour into your fave coffee mug.
The Taste Test:
Once I prepare my coffee, I usually take it black, and if I am tasting it for the first time, I most definitely take it black. All coffee producing countries have certain taste characteristics and identifiable qualities, but sometimes you have to approach tasting without any expectations but with an open mind. Many coffee connoisseurs can identify what region a coffee is from just by smell alone. But we’re going to approach it a little differently. Soooo, Let’s Start! Today we are tasting a coffee from Peru.
- Dive head first into the mug and SMEELLLLL the coffee’s aroma. Do any memories come to mind? The aroma of your coffee is going to trigger certain scents that you’ve smelt before. This coffee from Peru smells like raisins, pear, and a little bit of a soft cream.
- Slowly taste the coffee, first letting it touch the tip of your tongue, of course letting it cool to a temperature that is acceptable enough to drink.
- As the coffee begins to wet your palate, let it roll from the tip of your tongue to the base of your tongue, again inviting personal memories of combinations of smell and taste. A lot of aficionados are very cultured and well travelled, and sometimes they tend to apply “high-end” terminology to describe a coffee’s taste. But on a personal level, use the tastes that you’re used to and that you identify with the most to describe your coffee. My coffee tastes like pear, a bit of cocoa – very balanced.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase “taste is 80% smell and 20% taste” – it’s true. When we combine the wonderful aroma of the coffee with what our taste buds are telling us about the coffee, we get the awesome opportunity to experience the world of coffee on a much deeper level. And that is the simple pleasure you can have each morning in your cup!
Making Coffee Tasting Personal and Fun!
Some coffee aficianados use high-end terms and their world travels to describe the many taste characteristics of coffee. I’m going to share how you can apply your most personal and local memories to the coffee in your mug.
My Love-Hate, On Again-Off Again Relationship With Starbucks
Soooo, where do I begin? I guess I can say my infatuation with coffee (funny, I almost wrote a hashtag in front of #coffee) started some time in late high school/early college – right about the time of the commercialized birth of Starbucks accompanied by raging hormones of the influential college atmosphere…
Growing up, my mother had always been the coffee fanatic; my father, less convinced that there was “much ado” about it. I was more like my father and was not halfway concerned about lapping up that brown drink. I recall my sister coming home with a Starbucks frappuccino that was loaded with chunks of brownie. I was crazy about sweets, so I jumped on the bandwagon. Thus began the basis for my addiction. As Starbucks sprung up on just about every unclaimed piece of land, I was given several options: one in my neighborhood, one in the core of my college campus, one on the way to work – oh and of course, on my way home from work, hit the one in my ‘hood again. I schooled myself on the newest “terminology” from tall to venti and skinny to whipped, and was drinking everything from warm apple cider to triple shots of espresso (Ma’am, do you know this comes with a shot? Yes*DUH*, please add another…)
A few years into my “Starbucks Habit,” I had applied about three times (all rejected); all of the Baristas at each shop knew my name, preferred drink, and my fave treat (Oreo Dream Pie); and just about every gift I received and gave was coffee-related, most of which were gifts from Starbucks. I began to influence people around me with my coffee habit, turning non-coffee drinkers into avid coffee drinkers who eventually turned their mugs down to “office coffee” and who began to help fuel my habit. As all addicts do, I denied that I had a problem, hid my Starbucks purchases from my parents, and became a walking, talking billboard for Starbucks.
After going through a bag of old receipts and discovering that I was spending almost $400 a month on Starbucks – OUCH – I decided to “scale back” on my coffee habit by only purchasing Maxwell House and Starbucks from the grocery store. I still completely indulged into coffee and the lifestyle, yet had never been truly educated about the beauty and history of it. I just knew that decent coffee came from my mother’s kitchen and that Starbucks coffee *at the time* gave me warm fuzzy feelings. I had a great supporter, who one day in passing told me that the greatest coffee experience I could have was to taste fresh roasted coffee. I thought about it and at first took it a bit lightly…until about 5 years ago when I cheated on Starbucks with Peets 
. Instead of shipping some of my friends marketing/brochure samples, Peets accidentally shipped an oversupply of coffee. EXACTLY. This opened up a whole new discussion of what “good coffee” actually is, and ever since, I have purposed in my heart to embrace coffee’s history and to educate others about what coffee actually is…and I vowed to never return to Starbucks…
Since then, I’ve become a home coffee roaster, launched a coffee club, have been researching coffee’s history, influenced my friends to only get coffee from me, and have found my Signature Blend (for purposes of protecting the writer, the name/blend qualities will not be revealed J). It has been an incredible journey that anticipates the rebirth of the coffee house and the education of the general coffee consumer. As every true coffee man or coffee roaster has their own internal (and external) battle with SBUX vs local coffee shop vs fresh roasted coffee, we may occasionally visit SBUX and get busted in the act.
Reload…
I apologize to all of my readers…I know some of you are checking back in. My new blogs weren’t posting…Looks like I had too many tags…This is a test… By the way, I roasted some more El Salvador yesterday and was having problems hearing the “cracks.” Needless to say, I roasted it what I thought was a slight step beyond C+, but once I saw it I knew it was closer to FC+/Vienna. THEN this morning I performed a taste test b/c I was so disappointed last night, but to my surprise it DID explode with cinnamon. BUT…it was a little over 12 hours later, and this particular coffee needs a little rest to taste its best at each roast. I gave that batch to a friend, so I am tasting the remaining at about 17 hours. Sip, Sip. Still immense cinnamon with underlying chocolate notes…YUMMY!
Am I Addicted?
Just Eat The Beans
Am I addicted to coffee? I like to call it passionate. Here I am, no coffee, constantly thinking of it…My body already going through sleepy spells and body aches – Am I REALLY addicted to caffeine, NOT coffee?? Constantly fiddling and knocking things over like a helpless drunk, going cold turkey is NOT how to pull yourself off of the coffee habit. Actually, I don’t intend to stop at all, I JUST ACCIDENTALLY LEFT MY COFFEE HOME, and I REFUSE to drink “office coffee.” So for the next hour and a half I will just keep up with the random arm scratches, neck twitches, back spasms, and completely crazy daydreams that remind me I’ve slipped into a work coma until I make it to my front door, and the hero’s theme music begins to play. Yes I will sprint to my kitchen cupboards (read below), rip the package of coffee open, and relentlessly chew those coffee beans! Yes I said chew, no time for brewing.
I am not addicted…I am passionately crazy about coffee.
Morning Devoid of Coffee…
So last Friday I was trying to stray away from overloading on coffee. This morning I grabbed my 3 cup french press, packed my lunch and was so excited…until I got to work. I left my fresh roasted Yemeni coffee home!!!! Now the question is do I break down and have “break room” coffee, or do I wait for that glorious moment this afternoon, when I break through the front door of my house, sprint to the kitchen, grind my coffee, and sip up?
I think I will wait…maybe I’ll play theme music just before I bust down the door.
Afternoon Devoid of Coffee…Window of Opportunity!!
So it’s mid-afternoon and I’ve only had about a cup and a half of coffee (people have this misconception that since I eat, sleep, and breathe coffee that I must consume like 12 cups a day…). HOWEVER, all I can seem to think about is drinking more! And not only because I’m hella sleepy, but because I’ve got like 6 bags of freshly roasted coffee that I am supposed to ship out today, and they are sitting right behind me in my office, and all I can smell is creamy chocolately coffee! MMMM!!! You walk in and it smells like a small coffee shop – LOL. See you soon, I am going to go fix myself another cup of that Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley (in my french press of course) – YUM!
