UglyNews

2007-04-24T16:18:00.001-07:00

So I too am back from my European extravaganza. My trip took me to many of the outer peripherals of the continent: Hungry, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Denmark. I also had enough time in Germany to try a shot or two. I must confess most of the shops I went to had employed folks who despite their best intentions, and occasionally with my neurotic instructions still delivered balls-up beverages. This was striking because of the reputation Europe seems to have here in Michigan.

I am amazed by how often the European card is pulled here in the states. Some of you may have experienced this. Have you ever run into the know-it-all coffee fan that validates their opinion on how, or how not, this or that should be done, by simply mentioning they went to Europe, once. Never mind the research, years of experience, and continual dedication to quality the Barista may have undertaken. One trip to “the land of coffee,” and all that is rendered null and void in the omniscient gaze of a European traveler.

This to me is one of the most frustrating kinds of exchanges in the business (second only to the powerful Seattle native empowered from birth to discern good and evil, and all that is not their beloved Starbucks). However now that I have sufficiently ingested the amazing array of espresso offered in the fine beaneries across the pond I am equipped with the same Omniscience donned upon the travel weary consumers who make their way into my humble place of employment. And for the most part I can say European coffee sucks just as hard as our own.

With that said I would like to talk a little bit about the places that did a great Job. There were a few shops that delivered a drink that made me smile. In Budapest Mike, Laura, and I found one little shop down an alley that had great service and served a decent macchiato. Unfortunately I was just waking up when we got there and forgot to write the name down. In Ireland, well I tried, but the coffee wasn’t so great. I didn’t really come across a cup that caught my attention until I got to Copenhagen.

My cousin, Erica, mentioned that a place called Estate Coffee served a wicked brew. Although she hadn’t been there herself rumor had it they were one of the best. At this point it had been quite a while since I had had a drink that I had truly enjoyed. I think Laura was about ready to kill me from my continual pining after the Ugly Mug. I asked Erica where Estate was and she told me it was by the Reuters office where her husband Gelu worked. Laura and I rode out to the shop that afternoon.

The first thing I saw when I walked in was the La Marzocco GB/5 3 group manual sitting there. Pure beauty to a fatigued coffee deprived traveler. The shop was small and pretty quite. I came up and ordered a drink. I watched as the Barista dosed, tamped, steamed, and poured. It was perfect, a real top notch Job. I looked him in the eyes and thanked him and told him of my quest to find a good cup of coffee. He asked if I was a coffee geek. I said yeah, and he asked where I worked. I told him about the Ugly Mug. He had heard of us and all the baristas there hooked us up for the rest of our time there. It was really great. They even let me make a few drinks on the GB/5 (which, by the way, is kinda leaky). THANKS LINUS AND THOREY!!

Estate gave me a nice list of local shops to check out. I spent the whole day bouncing from shop to shop. First I checked out Ricos. They had a pretty chill environment, but the coffee wasn’t drinkable. Then I went to Risteriet. This was a small roaster with better coffee then Ricos, and a great home Barista store in the back. Their coffee was alright but not quite up to snuff. Next I went to Europa. This place was packed. It wasn’t nearly as friendly as Estate, but the coffee was pretty good. My main complaint was that the Barista let my shot sit way to long before she added the milk to my macchiato. The tamp was also sloppy and it started channeling a little. I decided to stick with Estate for the rest of my time there.

Check them out at http://www.estatecoffee.dk/

The rest of my trip was filled with adventure, fun times, and a whole lot of stories.

Come by the shop and I’ll tell you a few

Signing off,

-Billy Kangas

2007-03-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Praha.
It's about 6:30 in the morning in Prague and Mike and I just climbed the hill to the StVitus catherdal and the castle. On the way back, we crossed the Charles Bridge and found that we were the only people on the entire bridge. I nearly cried. I've never been so overwhelmed by sheer beauty. The lights of the city were reflected across the Vltava River, perfectly still, foggy, incredible. Today we met at Cafe Louvre, there since 1902 and an old hang out of Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein. The coffee was sub-par, but who cares?

2007-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in Amsterdam right now now and I have about 1 minute before the computer at theis coffeeshop dies on me, butI thought I'd post something really quickly on here to let everyone back home know I'm ok and I'm not coming back.

2006-10-08T11:03:00.001-07:00

San Francisco

DAY 1
Lets just say things didn't get off to a great start. I got to the airport the recommended time before departure and let's say I wished I hadn't. I have not flown in years so to me all this insane security was Greek. The taking off shoes and having air blown all over you seem a little weird. I almost think that those measures are pointless and they just want us to feel like they are doing something. After making it through security I still had over an hour of sitting I had to do. I tried killing some time talking to strangers at the gate but no one really wanted to talk. I would have gone for some coffee; unfortunately the only coffee at the airport is Starbucks and Caribou. After trying to read and realizing it wasn't holding my attention I decided to walk around for a bit. After enough time killing we were finally able to load the plane. It was only after we loaded that they told us that they still had to fuel it for the flight and the flight would be delayed. We took off about forty minutes late. I spent most of the flight sleeping but woke up in time to watch the lights of the cities as we flew in. By the way the moon was a harvest moon and at the altitude it seemed like we were flying next to it. Again as we approached the airport we were delayed. So in total my flight landed over an hour late. After transferring to the BART t and then making it to my stop in The Mission it was nearing midnight. I was staying on the couch at Eileen’s, one of the owners of Ritual, who was already asleep when I arrived. I had a small chat with her roomy then went to sleep myself.

DAY 2
I woke up early which was kind of sleeping in to me being that I'm on Michigan time, took a quick shower, then made the small hike to Ritual. For anyone that hasn't seen it, it's really nice. It's in hipsterville and rightly so. The walls are red, black and white. The long wall down the side across from the bar has picture molding. I finally met Eileen as well as some of the staff but Jeremy was out surfing so I didn't get to meet him. Now before I get to the coffee, I decided that while I was here I was just going to enjoy it for what it is, good coffee. I will be bringing back coffee so Zak and I can get into that when we're bored at the shop. I started out with a double and a coffee; as of right now they are still using Stumptown’s Hairbender and they french press for coffee. I then had a macchiato and tried Ryan's (ass. roaster) Gibraltar. If you don't know what it is it's more or less a tiny latte in a rocks glass. Me and Ryan hung out on the roaster while he did a few batches of Sumatran Torajaland. After that I hoped on the BART to go to the market so I could start the Blue Bottle triple threat. I stopped at the first cart at the ferry market which seems to be a lot slower than the other one. It serves the Retrofil blend I just had a double there and it was awesome. Then I went over to the pink cart and had a double of the Roman Espresso. It was more bright than the Retrofil but definitely tasty. It's really fun watching the four workers orchestrate behind the pink cart, it stays pretty busy and if you've never seen it, the drip is all single served drips. Last I stopped at the Linden street garage location. They serve the Hayes Valley there, which was by far my favorite. I also had a macchiato which was one of the better that I have been served in years. After all that caffeine I decided I'd walk back to Ritual. I came across a place called "We Be Sushi" and stopped for a late lunch, up there with the better sushi I've had. I met up with Eileen and her roomy and we went to the free bluegrass fest. Hey, I'm always down with free. After that we went back to her place, I walked over to get some dinner and then after everyone got ready we met some people at the new bar or the park which ever you want to call it.

2006-03-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

My god...where to start. A lot has happened during my 2 (or so) month long blogger hiatus. I think I remember them in correct order.
First, We had a barista jam. A pretty good one I think. We were lucky enough to have David Latourell from Clover, who we all love, out for a Clover demo and a night of drunken revelry. We were also lucky enough to have some amazing coffees sent in by some of our favorite roasters to run through the Clover. Lots of Bolivian COE #1 (some from Victrola, some from Paradise), a small amount of some Brasilian COE from Miguel at Paradise, Ecafe Natural Yirg from Paradise, some mind blowing Mercanta European Lot Harrar from Victrola, and a slew of others, (Great Northern, some of our coffees, some Counter Culture). We ran batches through the roaster, let everyone play on the Synesso, drank an ungodly amount of Clover coffee, stared at a vacuum pot, and snuck cigarettes out back. At the end, I kinda felt like I was on drugs, tasty drugs at least. I think if we bought a Clover, I'd be in the ground within a month.

The last few months have been strange. I feel a little like I've been in limbo. I've been, I wouldn't say uninterested in coffee, but definitely stagnate. We've gotten in some great coffees, almost finished our espresso blend, and have had some wholesale business. But things have, overall, seemed kind of slow lately. We're doing a bunch of renovations in a week or so, which will be a really nice change of scenery. And we're getting in some new coffees in soon which will be REALLY nice. It's suprising how boring it can get to roast the same five coffees everyday. I'm not sure what we're getting yet, I'll make a post of it when we get them. Also, a big "roasting secrets" post is still in the works. I'm going to really try to post at least once a week from here on out. I'm sure that won't be the first time say that though. We have some new stuff going on our site too, thanks to Josh. It's still very much under construction, but should be in decent shape soon. More to come....

2006-01-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday's Intended Schedule: Wake up at 8:00am, go get Sierra, go get coffee and milk for the Great Lakes, check traffic report, leave for Chicago by 9:00am.
Saturday's Actual Schedule: Wake up at 8:00am, walk outside, fall on my ass due to the solid inch and a half of ice coating EVERYTHING, go to the shop to get milk and coffee, find out that every freeway to Chicago is closed due to major pile-ups, apologize to Sierra, apologize to Jim, work a counter shift like a chump.
Today was the first round of the GLRBC. Our friend Jim is competing for the first time and we're suppose to be there. However, there is now a sheet of ice covering everything in lower Michigan. The traffic reports are telling me it will take around 9 hours to get to Chicago. Apparently, there are 10 major accidents between here and Jackson, which is only 45min away. So here I am, sulking in an empty cafe. Hopfully, I'll get to at least listen to Jim's set via cell phone. Since the comp is going on as I type. I'll let go some info on Jim's set.
The blend we built is totally custom, made especially for the comp. It's based with a Brasil Sul De Minas Fazenda Cochoeira Yellow Bourbon. This gives a nice silky mouthfeel, amazingly clean frontal notes, and a light honey finish. We felt it was a perfect base as it acts more or less as blank canvas at the profile we used. The first accent bean is a Sumatran Triple-picked Iskandar from Sweet Marias. It's a very clean Sumatran, unusually so. It boasts one of the most complex finishes I've ever come across. Orange peel, market spice, earthy wet raspberry, back to orange peel. The front notes are very subtle with a little hint of muslin and big body. The next accent coffee is a Yemen San Ani from Sweet Marias. We used a very small percent of this one in the blend. The Yemen was all about the front notes. They were fruity, sweet, punchy, with a little black tea note. The tail end of this coffee was interesting by itself, but clashed in the blend. So we dropped the Yemen content down to about 10%. We felt that at that percent, the top notes were there, and the funky bottom notes were covered by the Sumatran. This combo gave a taste that reminded me of chewing Juicy Fruit and drinking coffee at the same time. Wierd, but good. The topper was a Monsooned Malabar Elephant. We used high percent of the Malabar, against the advice of our esteemed Victrola friends. Our excuse was this: this Malabar doesn't really taste like a Malabar. It's deeply fruity with dark chocolate and smoked almonds. It did have the trademark body and smooth feel, but didn't get gross at lower temps. In fact, it was the saving grace of this blend. It really tied everything together and made the blend "pop" in milk. Without it, the blend was too sharp and seemed too contrasted. The blend, in it's final form, had great top and middle notes of clean fruit, white sugar, and cinnamon, middles of chocolate and earth, with a endlessly complex finish that ties everything together in a mixture of bitter citrus, dank berry, fresh soil and spicy black tea. The straight shots were good, but this is a blend for milk drinks, hands down. I've never enjoyed a macchiatto as much as I did with this coffee. Everything breaks through and is heightened by the milk. Heavy shit. The blend will be available for a very limited time at the cafe, as straight shots or macchiattos only.
The sig drink...is as follows. It's a two part drink consisting of a little shot of fresh raspberry puree, followed by a macchiatto with a little drop of violet. It doesn't show off the espresso too much, but it goes really well with it. The trick was to overdose the shots for the sig drink and only pull about .5oz into each glass. Otherwise, the violet overpowered the espresso.
I'll have another post tomorrow about the results. GOOD LUCK JIM!!!!!!!

2006-01-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

We've been running "dry" sets for the Great Lakes Barista Comp. We found out that all 6 of last year's finalists are back this year. So Jim will have to knock one of them out for a shot at the finals. We do have a top-secret plan for the sig drink should Jim make finals. I can't say much except it comes in a 2 liter bottle and it's the Taste of a Generation. If that doesn't work, Jim has a plan to "make sure" the finalists don't make it to the award ceremony....if you know what I mean.
I received a very nice phone call from our main man Miguel from Paradise Roasters last night. He's judging the comp again this year and wanted to know if we'd be willing to take five pounds of Boliva COE (#1) of his hands. (did i mention Miguel is our main man?) So I figure, even if Jim manages to set the Marzocco on fire during his set, I still get to meet up Miguel, drop him a little Streamline, and snuggle up to a bag of #1 on the drive home. I don't see how I could lose.

2005-12-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

New year, new shit. Jim is now in the thick of his training for the GLRBC. We've built an espresso blend from scratch using some greens from sweet marias and some of our own. For Jim's setup, sig drink, and drinkware choices, he's taking a simple, traditional approach. The water he's selected is amazing. The milk he's using is sweet and from a family owned dairy/petting farm. I'm actually suprised how sweet the milk still is this time of year as most of the pastures are dying right now. We are still ironing out the ratios and presentation for the sig drink, but i think the simplicity will do well.
As for the blend, I don't know if Jim wants me to let out all the coffees. I will say this. We have built this blend 100% from scratch. It involed many test batches, SOS tasting, graphs, equations, many many trial blends, tremor-like caffiene highs, blew out palletes, and a stubborn Sumatran. Most of the trail blends tasted disturbingly like the Five Country from Counter Culture, which were trying to get away from. In the end, we were slurping down nicely blanced shots with earthy, spicy undertones and a clean fruit snap right in the center of the tounge. Long, ultra-complex finish with phases ranging from orange peel, caramel, and market spice. It's holding really well in milk and makes for a really complex macchiatto. The blend will be available for a limited time at the cafe after the comp. We will be basing our house espresso blend off of it, but that won't be on tap until later in the month.
This whole experience has gotten me really excited about my job again. This is a great chance for me to compete vicariously through Jim. Whether he places or not, I'm really glad he's doing this. And I'm very thankful for the chance to be a part of it.
Good Luck to all at the GLRBC, we'll see you there!

2005-12-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

Josh and Zak inspect the greens at the round table.

I’m constantly charmed by the glorious baristas of Behemoth. It’s as if they were put on this earth to humor me and keep me from getting too depressed about my various failures in coffee. Behemoth will be roasting my espresso for the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition. This is a HUGE deal for me.

It’s local, it’s a collaboration, it’s totally hands-on, and it’s a great exercise for all involved. We’ve now roasted four origins. The plan is to cup them separately, try them as single origin shots, and eventually blend them.

Our time is very limited, and we only have enough beans for two trial batches. In spite of this, I’m confident that the right people are on the job. Sometimes I wonder if Zak is more excited about this than I am. Whatever. What we lack in time / funding / experience / talent / knowledge / passion / etc. will be made up for in enthusiasm, right?

They’ve even offered to mock-judge a run of my routine. The thought of this makes me nervous to the point of being ill… but hey, isn’t that what the comp is all about?

Thank you Uglies for being so nice to me! And thanks for the great shot this morning Erin and/or Melissa.

-JIm
(an Ann Arbor barista)

2005-12-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

Open Late, ugh....
All this week we've been open until 2am in an act of sympathy for the poor suckers studying for finals. The real kicker is that me, Erin, and Melissa are pulling the extra shifts, on top of our 8-10hr daily bar shifts. So this is my fourth day of being on bar for about 15 hours a day. It hasn't been too bad, we've been chugging french presses to the point of kidney pain. And I've gotten a lot done with the espresso blend. I've modified my roast profiles for the Brasil Sul de Minas Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon, the Ethiopian MAO Harrar, and the Honduran Marcala in an atempt to come closer to a flat brew temp. Tacy's posts have been haunting me....

2005-12-07T06:44:00.000-08:00

In the Media

Commentary by Josh Longsdorf

"It's not just a 'cuppa Joe' any more" headlined a local paper recently followed by a smaller headline "Imported beans, sculpted froth to mark newest area coffee house". The article was about a new drive thru coffee location opening in flint. The owner promised in the article to out-starbuck Starbucks. Whether or not he can do it remains to be unseen however he does go on to say that he promises "froth" that can be sculpted to the customers like. He also uses the whole article to attack Starbucks with sayings such as "Starbucks just isn't gourmet enough". Now I've said it before and I will continue to say it till I die or starbucks does. The problem in this industry is not Starbucks it is the indies that offer below par coffee and drinks to their customers. At least I can be sure that if a new customer goes in to a Starbucks for the first time they are getting the same consistent coffee as the person before. Who knows what they will get at the indie maybe something that may make them never want to try coffee again. Now this new location featured in the article is going to be a drive-thru only location, at least to start. I can only assume to keep up with that kind of volume they will be using an automatic, maybe a semi-automatic if they are fast. The owner of this new location goes on to state that their shots are pulled between 18-24 seconds which is the proper way to pull a shot. Sounds like consistency to me. I guess the thing that bothered me was that the guy constantly stated how is the end all and be all of coffee for the area when I know there are at least two other shops that can at least promise me consistent shots.
While I'm on the subject of how the industry is portrayed I would also like to take a shot at the bigger names that have recently made the national media. Now I'm not saying that the articles haven't been interesting but could we get just one good looking picture of a latte for once. I mean for the most part just about any barista reading this could pour a better looking rosetta with a blind fold on. Heck I've seen better looking lattes come out of Starbucks.
So if you've taken the time to read this then you are probably guessing I'm bitter. DING DING DING!!! We have a winner! I know I could have just skipped to the point but then you would have nothing to laugh about (mainly me), so here it is. The media is the largest opportunity that the non-coffee drinkers of the world get to learn about our industry. So if you are an indie new or old and someone is doing an article on you, don't attack Starbucks. Instead go in to detail about the quality of drink you can offer and how that separates you from the below par shops and by detail I mean more than sculptable froth. As to you bigger names, when you get the chance to pour a latte for the media have one of your star baristas pour it so that I don't have to look at a Mongoloid rosetta while reading the article.

2005-12-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

It has recently come to my attention that we actually have a few readers. Not only that, but readers of the.....caffeinated persuasion...
For this reason, I feel as though we should maybe think about posting things that are at least semi-coffee related. So this is my vow to at least mention coffee in every post. Starting now.
We've been doing some "in-depth" horsing around with the construction of an espresso blend. Some of the new coffees we have in have been quite pleasant as shots, so we thought we'd give it a go. The first lego was the Brasil Sul de Minas Yellow Bourbon natural process I've been having pretty good luck with. We've all been drinking test batches of it for the last week and the more recent profile has proved to be the winner. So we started playing around with the brew temps on the Synesso, zeroed in on 199.5F, and out came some amazing shots. A rich brownie batter-ish chocolate was the first thing that hit me, a soft, smooth texture. Vanilla pipe tobacco in the middle with little notes of sugary lemon. Clean, slightly almondy finish with subtle hints of lemon. A little too smooth to be by itself, but a great base. It held well in milk, and it was good.
We started running some shots of Organic Colombian Popayan to see if we like it better as a base than the Brasil. The Colombian was..... interesting as a SOS. It reminded me of Counter Culture's Five Country Espresso. It had that earthy, cyprus taste to it. Like the forest smells after it rains. We played around with temps for awhile to see what else we could get out of it. Leathery at higher temps, salty and sunflowery at lower temps, but always with the musty cyprus taste. Right before giving up on it, Josh pulls one at 200.5F. Bingo. The dominating cypruss taste had turned more towards a light rose tone, good body, and lush orange soda middle notes, seriously, orange soda. Not much of a finish, but good enough qualities for us to throw it in the blend.
With the success of finding an awesome base coffee in the Brasil, and narrowing in on the quality acids in the Colombian, we hugged eachother and called it a night. I predict this blend taking us around a month to put together. I'll keep posting the progress. Next step, the Harrar MAO.
Quick side note, if you haven't checked out the experiments with brew temps on Chris's Godshot blog, do it now.

2005-12-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Bastards........
A big fat buying group made up of the "coffee illuminati" has snatched up a lot of #1, (Bolivia COE). With an average score of 93.52, and boasting a score of 100 from Geoff Watts of Intelly, this coffee gives me action in the pants. The buying group included the folks from Victrola, Paradise Roasters, Intelly, Coffee Klatch, Gimme!, Barefoot, Sweet Marias, PTs, and Terroir. I'm not sure who got what or if all of these shops ended up being involved in the winning bid. Apparently, there are some small roasteries in Japan who are also getting a piece of the action. The ending bid was 12.55/lb. I was kinda suprised that it didn't go for more, but maybe people learned their lesson from the Esmeralda. (not saying the Esmeralda wasn't great, but for $20 a pound, that coffee should have granted wishes) So congrats to all who bagged some #1, I hate you all. Except Victrola, you're cool.

Update: Miguel from Paradise drops some science in the comment section.
Retraction: Paradise is also cool.

(photo by Miguel of Paradise Roasters)

2005-12-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to volume two of "know your barista"! This is Sierra. Sierra is prime example of barista poaching as we stole her from a cafe across town that we just don't like much. Sierra spends most of her free time reading to deaf children and hosting impromptu open-mics at various supermarkets and check cashing locals. If you'd like to visit Sierra and bare witness to her soul shattering barista skills, stop by during the day. At night, she's busy eating brains.

2005-12-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, three things. One, we're getting new and exciting coffees in this weekend! A Colombian Popayan, Brasil Sul de Minas Yellow Bourbon, Ethiopian Harrar Horse, and a Honduran Marcala. Test roasting will be taking place all weekend so if you have an itchy cupping finger, stop by.
Two, we are looking for a little help around the shop so if you think a superstar barista lurks somewhere in your soul, stop by.
Three, thank you Jim for the insightful and kind coffee related post. I am sure that both of our readers will find it interesting.

2005-11-30T19:09:00.000-08:00

"Why is dark roasted coffee so good?"

I always explain it to customers this way:

Say you have a still-warm slice of a baguette that was baked fresh a half an hour ago by a third generation French baker in a traditional, eighty year old brick oven in a remote village in the outskirts of Gascony.

And say you have a slice of two week old Wonder Bread, that’s been sitting in the bottom of your fridge.

Drop the two of them in your toaster, and let it work its magic until the slices are nice and black. Now, bring in a panel of the world’s leading chefs and culinary experts to evaluate which piece of burnt toast is best.

Ignoring the differences in texture and shape, I think they’d find the two pieces TASTE THE SAME!

The charcoal and burnt flavors dominate the flavor profile, and what merits the fancy baguette had are just a memory forever erased by a pretty significant chemical reaction.

Guess what, coffee is the same way.

A LOT (not all) roasters find it easy to pawn off shoddy beans under the guise of a “gourmet” French Roast. Dark roasting can significantly mask the fact that the coffee is actually low-grown, poorly warehoused, two-year old Colombian that they bought for 45 cents a pound. A LOT of quality and consistency issues can be side-stepped by roasting dark. After all, the dominant flavor is char and perhaps some caramel notes from the burned sugars in the bean… those flavors will develop no matter what kind of bean you roast.

“Why drink the light roast?”

Well, the folks at the Ugly Mug are part of a great movement in the coffee world. It’s a radical idea that people should TASTE THE COFFEE and that the coffee should be TASTABLE! They’ve formed some pretty remarkable relationships with people who get their hands on some great green beans. They don’t need to roast dark to hide the defects, blandness, or age of their coffee.

Chemically speaking, coffee is much more complex in terms of flavor compounds than wine. Unlike wine, you can get a cup of the worlds best for under three bucks.

“Well, what’s the difference between the good stuff and the bad?”

When you order a cup of their light roast, ignore your immediate need for a fix, and TASTE IT! Do it for the sake of science! Ask yourself “what is going on in this cup?” Are the flavors at the front of your tongue or at the back of your mouth? Is it fruity? Savory? Notice how the flavor changes as the cup cools.

Taste like you’re squinting to see something real small. Try another cup another day. How are they different?

POOF!

A whole world will open up to you. You’ll find yourself thinking things like “Wow, the blackcurrant in this Nicaraguan is way more pronounced this year!” Lighter roasted coffee will make these little details more apparent. Sure, I’ve had tasty dark roasts made with excellent beans but nothing accentuates a GREAT coffee’s nuances like a lighter roast.

In terms of coffee quality, the Ugly Mug is easily the best coffeehouse I’ve visited in Michigan. If you live nearby, consider yourself VERY LUCKY. While you’re there ordering your cup of joe, you’ll do best to keep things light.

-JIm

_________________________
JIm Saborío has worked behind coffee bars for thirteen years and has home roasted coffee for seven. He currently manages Ann Arbor’s Café Zola, and runs the so-so coffee program there.

2005-11-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

This is a new feature we're calling , "know your barista".
Meet Jake.
Jake is a true coffee shop hound. In fact, he showed up at the shop a few days after we got the keys to the building and he's been here ever since, seriously. When Jake gets off for the night, he goes down the street to the 24hr diner to drink coffee and hang out. I think he sleeps about 2hrs a day cause he usually is here around the time we open back up in the morning. He digs Russian children's books, costumes, and internet pornography.

2005-11-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

We've been so excited about the new Synesso, I forgot to mention some of our new coffees.
We have in some of the Brasil Porta Rossa from Atlas. Very rich cocoa, ripe strawberry, and vanilla notes. It's not a bad SOS either, one of my espresso snob customers tried it and thought I added chocolate to his shot. It kinda takes on a Fruity Pebbles taste in milk, which I shamefully admit I like.
We also have in a Java Kali Bendo that reminds me a lot like those Gold&Black chocolate bars with the crystalized ginger in them. It's got a pretty heavy body and a little bit of an earthy finish, sort of pumpkiny.
Then we have a Costa Rican Diamante. On the cupping table, I picked up some anise in the aroma, and a little black cherry in the finish which I really liked. I didn't get these in the drip brew, (i kinda hate drip coffee. luckily, our new Fetco arrives Monday), but there was some kind of spicy smell, maybe nutmeg. Medium body, roasted almond and brown sugar middle notes, with a really long rum/chocolate finish. It performed very similar in french press as it did in cupping, which I thought had a better balance and finish than the drip. Also, the anise comes through more which makes for a pretty interesting cup.
Cheers.

2005-11-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

our new slogan:

Caffe Behemoth
if you can't dig it, you ain't got no shovel.

2005-11-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

We have a new woman in our lives. A 2group Synesso. I have been known to say that I'd probably stab someone in the face for a Synesso. Well, I didn't get to, but I did get a Synesso, so that's cool.

2005-11-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

A sad day. Our 3 group Linea....died, a few times over. We fixed it like 3 or 4 times, but, you know, shit breaks. And in Michigan, finding someone to service a La Marzocco is pretty much impossible. So for about a week, we had no espresso drinks. Needless to say, the mood around the shop was a little tense as none of us really knew what was going to happen. All I know is, when you tell a trust fund hippy girl that she can't have a sugar-free-vanilla-half-calf-soy-latte, she can and will burn holes in you with her eyes.

2005-11-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Seattle.
Day one of our stay was a bit of a whirl wind. We got off the plane and had about 2 hours to get to the NWRBC to see our friends from Victrola compete. So before checking in to our hotel, we headed straight for Victrola to meet up with superstar roasters Tony and Chad to head over to the comp. We got there in plenty of time as the entire weekend seemed to be running about a half hour late. As some of you have probably heard about, there were some problems with the tampers getting stuck in the portafilters at the NWRBC. During Kyle's set-up, he was reduced to hammering the PF against the counter to get his ergo-packer out. This ended up being an issue for several competing baristas, but nothing was really ever done about it. Kyle's routine was awesome, much like his signature drink, "The Awesome". We saw quite a few people's presentations, and Kyle really seemed to stand out. The judges, however, saw things a little differently as Kyle didn't make it to the finals. Daniel did. And Daniel was fuc*king sweet. The guy did a shot with the judges. It rocked. We met a few of the coffee illuminati hovering around the comp site and headed out. We skipped out on the party at Zoka, and went to bed early.
Day Two:
Enter V2, Victrola's beautiful new roasting location on Pike. Also, the site of the debut of the Clover 1. The Clover is the shit. Perfectly brewed, by-the-cup, coffee. This was one of the first times I have had a cup of coffee that tastes the way the grounds smell. Zander, the rep on hand from Clover, was overworked to say the least. And the poor two group Synesso was gathering dust.
The NWRBC finals were next. We caught a few finalists, but we were mostly there to see Daniel. He did very well, again, and talked the judge's ears off with a heart warming tale of the origin of his espresso cups. In the end, he placed fourth, I think. I should note, Daniel did not pratice his routine once before the comp. He said it would make him to stiff. I guess it worked.
We left the NWRBC and took some time to do some non-coffee related stuff around Capitol Hill. Got an awesome dinner, and headed for the Elysian Room Brewery for a little after party. Well, big after party. Beer was on the house and flowing freely thanks to Duane from Stumptown. At one point the kegs tapped out, so Duane was forced to wave some 100s at the keg guy to keep us in full supply. I saw Billy Wilson whine to Mark Prince about his scores, that was cool. And Melissa and I got to enjoy a "relaxing moment" out on the patio with Stephen Vick and Bronwen Serna. We met more of the celeb-baristas wandering around, and took off for some nice drunken rest.
Day Three:
This was our last day in town, and daylight savings played a cruel joke on us. We were supposed to meet up with Tony and Kyle at Victrola around 10:30am. We arrived at 9:30, hungover, pissed off. Tony was there moments before we were attempting to run off for some breakfast, and so the drama began. I was supposed to roast with Tony in efforts to boost my mediocre roasting skills into coffee-god status. Melissa was suppose to do some drink training with Kyle in efforts to boost her coffee-god status to alpha-coffee-god status. Gier, a roaster and cafe owner from Canada stopped by to watch the spectical. And a spectical it was. Upon firing up the roaster, Tony's face took on a somber tone. The main burners wouldn't fire. After hours of head scratching and fiddling, Gier took off to retrive someone from the Diedrich booth at Coffeefest. In the meantime, just about every competing barista in town stopped by to see the famous Victrola roastery. Only to be welcomed by a bunch of sad faces. Kyle showed up to do Melissa's training, which I decided to take over due to my "shot issues". And the morning was pretty much a loss. We went out to check on our friend's aparment, walk around the city, and count down the hours til we had to say goodbye. We stopped by V2 one last time to bid farewell to our friends at Victrola. Melissa pulled me an awesome shot on the 2 group Synesso they had set up, we met a few more nice coffee folks, and said bye-bye.

2005-10-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Lots going on this week. We have some new coffees in. A Brazilian Porta Rossa, a melt-your-face Java Kali Bendo, and a Costa Rican Diamante. We've also been working on our blends and packaging so samples will be available shortly. We'll be adding our cupping reports and prices soon to the website.
In other news, we'll be heading out to Seattle tomorrow to checkout Coffeefest and visit with some friends from Victrola, and steal Tony's profile book. Apparently, the real excitment this weekend isn't taking place at Coffeefest, but down the street at the soon-to-be Victrola roasting works. The Vickies have set-up a temporary coffee speakeasy featuring a 2-group Synesso and the debut of the Clover 1. Check out www.victrolacoffee.net for more info on this groundbreaking brewing device. We'll be covering as much of the happenings as we can via iPod and Digi-Cam. Check our website next week for "The Uglies do Seattle".

2005-10-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

So it seems that despite our insistance on doing whatever the hell we want, we cannot. The supporting evidence came in the form of a "cease and desist" letter from a certian coffee company asking us to change our name or face their wrath. And while we like wrath, we don't like court costs. So as a result, The Ugly Mug Cafe of Ypsilanti will soon be sporting a flashy new name, Caffe Behemoth (patent pending). We wish the best of luck to The Ug*y M*g Cof*ee Comp*ny, I'm sure their Snickerdoodle Coffee is way awesome...

2005-09-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCING......Behemoth Coffee Roastery. Our new roasting company, based out of the cafe, will be offering small batch roasted coffee. We're starting out with just a few organic single origins, and we'll be working on a few blends in the coming months. Samples and such will be available soon. Offerings will include a Bolivian Caranavi, Washed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, and a Mexican Chiapas. For more info, feel free to e-mail us at info@uglymugcafe.com.