Specialty Colorado Coffee Shops

In a perfect world, if you wanted the best possible specialty Colorado coffee, your day would start around 4:00 AM. You would start the day by grabbing a handful or two of unroasted coffee beans, depending on the amount of coffee you planned on brewing. You’d then pop the beans into the coffee bean roaster and roast them. Right after roasting, you would toss them into a grinder, and grind them up. Then you’d brew the coffee. After the brew was finished dripping or steaming or pressing, depending on your coffee maker, you’d sit out on the deck with your favorite coffee cup and enjoy the Colorado morning with fresh air and a good cup of brew!

For the freshest possible coffee the ideal is to obtain unroasted beans, then roast and grind on the same day you plan to brew. Don’t roast too much, because you will want a GREAT brew tomorrow. Let’s face it. This routine is not possible for most folks, so we have to make do with what we can.

Roasting beans is, however, something of a ‘cooking’ specialty. Unless you’re willing to invest some fairly expensive pieces of equipment, the results are often less than satisfactory. Not to mention that – even when done correctly – the roasting beans can fill the house with odors that take time to dissipate and the smell is a little too much, even for a die hard coffee drinker like me. Continue Reading »

Tags: coffee canister, coffee roaster, specialty coffee freshness tips, unroasted coffee beans

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There is something about going into a coffee place that I shall call the coffee experience. Each shop is different. It’s how you feel when you get there, order your drink and either leave or stay depending on the place. Let me give you some examples of places I went to on a visit to Colorado Springs recently.

Ever been to a Seattle’s Best Coffee® cafe? There is one in Colorado Springs that I stumbled on to recently. It was inside of Borders Books in the south part of Colorado Springs. Overstuffed chairs, small tables with straight backed chair, two or three of each at each table. People sipping a specialty espresso coffee, while reading a book in one of those over stuffed chairs, or flipping through a magazine, or sitting with friends at a small table. It was a come and stay for a while kind of place.

Right across the way is Starbucks. It was a totally different kind of place and the experience was different too. Starbucks had small tables and chairs like the Seattle’s Best Coffee® place but it wasn’t as warm and cozy as Seattle’s Best Coffee®. Starbucks was more of a come and go kind of place. I think there would have been more people sitting around but the chairs were scarce and there was not a lot of room to sit and enjoy a cup of specialty espresso or just a cup of joe.

Then there are places where you do not even sit down. Come in, call your coffee order, pick it up at the other end of the counter and leave. Presumably to go back to wherever you were before you came in the door and drink your coffee someplace else. Continue Reading »

Tags: Borders Books, coffee shack, Colorado Springs, espresso coffee brew, Seattle's Best Coffee® cafe, specialty espresso coffee, Starbucks

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Everyone has to start someplace. You don’t however, have to start at the top of the coffee / coffee maker / coffee grinder list. My advice would be to start out by visiting some of your local coffee shops. Let’s say you lived in Salida, Colorado. If you do, you are very lucky. Not because there are tons of coffee places in Salida, but because Salida is a great place to live.

Salida Colorado does have a few coffee places where you can start your coffee journey. If it were me, I would start at the Salida Café also known as Bongo Billy’s. For you GPS fans they are at (latitude 38.537787, longitude -105.991749). They are located at 300 West Sackett Street 

and their phone number is 719-539-4261. Bongo Billy’s is a nice place and if you go there, ask them for a coffee card. (If you do go there, tell them that the Java Girl sent you. Maybe I can get a free cup the next time I am in town.) I am not sure if that is what they call it, but mine is yellow and has 10 cups running along the bottom of the card. They mark one cup off for each visit and after 10 cups have been marked, you get a free one. Continue Reading »

Tags: "call" your coffee, Bongo Billy's, coffee grinder, coffee maker, drip, Java Girl, latitude 38.537787, longitude -105.991749, Salida Café, Salida Colorado, specialty coffee

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The earliest method of grinding coffee involved placing it in a bowl and using the blunt end of a stick to crush it along the sides and bottom of the bowl. This process was time consuming and messy. It was also a lot of hard work! Others without much patience simply smashed the coffee with a hammer.

These methods were replaced by a mechanical grinder. This became popular because most people already used a mechanical grinder for their spices.  The coffee was placed between two disks. One stationary, the other a moving disc. The moving of the disks resulted in grinding. This process is also known as milling. The milling style coffee grinder is available in many colors with many features. The price varies on the brand and the features you choose. Generally they are between $50 and $200. Continue Reading »

Tags: burr grinders, Coffee Grinders, coffee milling, mechnical grinder, moving disks, Turkish coffee grinder settings, wall mount grinder

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Coffee makers date back to the Turks in 575 A.D. It wasn’t until 1818  that the first coffee percolator was made. This coffee pot is also called the cowboy pot because many cowboys began using it. From 1835 to 1850, coffee makers saturated the market. Pressure steamers, glass balloons, grinders, and roasters all became available.

In 1890, the Manning-Bowman Percolator began being distributed in the United States. These percolators were linen with a cloth that had to be washed after each use. A paper filter was introduced in 1912. This made making and cleaning up of coffee much easier, and it increased in popularity. It wasn’t until 1960 that coffee pots with disposable filters began being used commercially.

The coffee maker industry hit it big in 1972, with the Mr. Coffee automatic drip process and disposable filter. Mr. Coffee is still the biggest selling coffee maker in the world. This is because Mr. Coffee has continually updated their product with the needs of the consumer. For example, in 1977 the price of coffee tripled. Mr. Coffee came out with a maker than used less coffee grounds, yet had the same great taste. The design stayed the same until 1979 when a timer was added. Now people could conveniently set their coffee to start brewing at a certain time each day.

Mr. Coffee added additional products to the popular coffee maker. 1989 was the introduction of the maker that only makes 4 cups in a pot. This was at the demand of people who consumed small amounts of coffee, but still wanted it to be fresh. The same year, Mr. Coffee introduced the first ice tea maker. Mrs. Tea followed suit in 1995, similar to Mr. Coffee, only for hot tea.

Coffee continues to be one of the most demanded products in the world. Regardless of how you like your coffee or where you purchase it from, coffee comes in a variety of flavors and with a variety of addings for individual flavor.

If you like coffee, and you buy an occassional espresso at a local shop like Seattle Coffee, Starbucks or maybe Bronco Billy’s, you really ought to look into getting an espresso maker. I have to admit that it took me a while to get the hang of making espresso and foaming my milk. But now, that is how I start every weekend morning.

I got a few things that helped me with the overall experience. Like a stainless steel foaming bucket and a thermometer. Then I could see when the milk was in the red zone or when it needed just a tad more steam.

Tags: automatic drip, coffee grounds, Coffee Makers, coffee percolator, coffee pot, disposable filters, espresso, espresso maker, foaming milk, glass balloons, linen filters, Manning-Bowman Percolator, Mr. Coffee, Mrs. Tea, paper filters, Pressure steamers, Seattle Coffee, stainless steel foaming bucket, Starbucks, thermometer

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