Well a two week period of emersing ourselves in the third or new wave of coffee in the East of USA, has come to an end.
When Mzukisi (who had never flown before) and Frog Quaffer started the trip almost two weeks ago, we were not sure what was waiting for us.
We knew we were gonna see Diedrich some roasters and a few coffee houses. At the end of the tour there are some highlights.
- Visiting Diedrich was awesome to see their manufacturing arm, and spend time being trained by the designer of the more and more famous Diedrich Roasters was fantastic. To find that our tastes matched theirs was a bonus.
- From there we popped into Craven and Roast House. Both have not even entertained the use of Arabica’s far removed cousin Robusta, and are driven towards a wholesale and direct model. Roasthouse have put a stick in the ground and drawn their line saying organic is a must and direct from farmer is where they prefer to be.
- Seattle started with a tour, of the most famous coffee houses. Our first awesome espresso was at Vita, and we were exposed to the Synesso machines that control the temperature exactly, and allow baristtas to manipulate the pressure of the brewed extraction. These where dominant in Seattle
- That same day ended with awesome espresso from Milstead, where the measure each espresso to the exact grammage, and the ratio it has to ml. Making sure it is no more and no less to 5 to 1.
- The following day the highlight was Victrola, they are passionate and are driving local education on the perfect coffee and roast profiles.
- Luckily we had time to pop into Dillanos, which blew us away with their passion and quality control
And not a Robusta bean to be seen anywhere. They are driven to excellence and that was obvious.
