Coffee Canon

You are reading S2 Episode 10: Crema.co ft. Emily McIntyre from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

This week on The Boise Coffee Podcast I’m joined by fellow coffee fanatic, and founder/coffee director at Crema.co, Emily McIntyre. Emily and I originally connected over Twitter and after talking with her I was intrigued by her company. In this episode we discuss how she got started in coffee, the future of coffee subscription services, the need for coffee education, and how Emily thinks Crema.co addresses these issues.

If you’d like to get in touch with the Crema.co team, shoot them an email here.

Check out their awesome Hario v60 brew method video (as mentioned in the episode).

Thanks for listening!

The post S2 Episode 10: Crema.co ft. Emily McIntyre appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 9: The Chemex – A Synthesis of Logic and Madness from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

Peter Schlumbohm was a larger-than-life inventor, marketer, and idea-man. At over 6 ft tall and around 300lbs, he was a hard man to miss. He loved food, women, and coming up with new ways of streamlining and solving old problems.

Schlumbohm filed a patent for a brand-new coffee brewing device on April 13, 1939. By 1944 it was featured in the Museum of Modern Art as one of the best designed products. It’s simple, yet elegant – utilitarian, yet beautiful. It’s called The Chemex, and as its inventor put it, “with the Chemex, even a moron can make good coffee.”

The Coffee Guy

Episode Transcript:

It’s hard to remember a time when war wasn’t controversial.  Being against conflict is easy for us today – for the most part human rights violations and bombings don’t impact our everyday lives. War is expensive in more ways than one, and unwieldy. Historically speaking, being on the right side of war is most strongly correlated with whether or not your side won. Winston Churchill famously said, “history is written by the victors.”

In 1937 the United States was condemning the war in Europe while maintaining formal neutrality. The U.S. was supplying Britain, the Soviet Union, and China with war materials, but was largely staying out of the ground, sea, and air conflicts. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was adamant on this point, while still using harsh rhetoric to condemn the actions of Nazi Germany. On October 5, 1937, President Roosevelt gave a famous speech, now called the “Quarantine Speech.”

-FDR Quarantine Speech-

Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, the discussion changed, and so did the tide of the war.

-FDR War Speech-

The principles of peace that the U.S. adopted following WWI were now being bent to end tyranny abroad.

World War II gives us a massive look into the American psyche, and in many ways shaped the DNA of the nation. Nobody was exempt from the war. There was no ignoring it, and everybody was expected to contribute. High tax rates were put into effect, and the income levels associated with those rates were lowered. For example, the income levels associated with the highest tax brackets were lowered from $5 million/year to $200,000/year.

The ways the war impacted everyday Americans didn’t stop at taxes, however. In 1942 a rationing system was implemented to limit the consumption and use of necessities needed for the war effort, while at the same time guaranteeing a minimum amount for everyone, especially poor people.

Tires were rationed first – supplies of natural rubber had been interrupted – followed by gasoline. By 1943 rationing had extended to basic household items like sugar, meat, cheese, butter, clothing, bicycles, shoes, and yes – coffee. American citizens were given government-issued ration coupons to purchase specified amounts of all of these items, and more.

While extremely uncomfortable and irritating for average Americans, this rationing system did get a lot of public support. Everybody knew that supporting the soldiers and sailors overseas wasn’t an option or preference, it was a necessity. Winning the war was important to everyone, and so people gave.

The private sector quickly picked up on this American sentiment, and everything from design to sales mirrored this shift in public opinion. Frivolous design was replaced with simple, utilitarian composition, and products were being made using materials considered less important to the war effort. You can practically hear a 1940s salesman convincing an American prospective buyer that by purchasing this simply made, conventional product you’re “helping our boys kill Nazis.”

It’s no secret that World War II-era Americans loved coffee. Some statistics indicate that in the 1940s and 50s, twice as many Americans drank coffee than they do today, and on average they would drink 2-3 more cups per day – maybe coffee rationing wasn’t such a bad idea.

Out of this new public perception, war-effort salesmanship, and love for coffee arose a beautiful alternative to conventional brewing. A german inventor and immigrant to America named Peter Schlumbohm filed a patent for this new brewing device on April 13, 1939. By 1944 it was featured in the Museum of Modern Art as one of the best designed products. It’s simple, yet elegant – utilitarian, yet beautiful. It’s called The Chemex, and as its inventor put it, “with the Chemex, even a moron can make good coffee.”

I’m Colin Mansfield, and this is The Boise Coffee Podcast.

Peter Schlumbohm was a larger-than-life inventor, marketer, and idea-man. At over 6 ft tall and around 300lbs, he was a hard man to miss. He loved food, women, and coming up with new ways of streamlining and solving old problems. At one point he invented an original all-in-one-machine: it was an electric oven, ice-cream maker, frozen food chest, thermos, dishwasher, and air conditioner called the Tempot. He managed to get Time magazine to report on this crazy invention in 1946, though later they found out he had only ever made 20 of them. Like most inventors, Schlumbohm had a roller-coaster life before creating his famed coffee brewer.

Schlumbohm was born in 1896 in Kiel, Germany. Shortly after graduating from the German equivalent of high school, he was conscripted into the German Army to fight in World War I. After returning to Germany in 1918, Schlumbohm began his academic pursuits, convincing his family to pay for his school in return for giving up his father’s eventual inheritance. At around this time he expressed anti-war sentiments, going so far as to call for the abolition of the military.

Schlumbohm attended the University of Berlin and spent eight years pursuing a doctorate in Chemistry, which he achieved. In the years following graduation, Schlumbohm kept himself financially afloat by selling patents and working on various scientific and personal projects.

In 1931 Dr. Schlumbohm visited the United States in hopes of selling patent rights related to the manufacture of dry ice. This experience proved to be surprisingly lucrative for the German chemist, and while he hated the corporate mindset of American businesses, patent regulations in the United States proved too good for him to pass up.

Between 1931 and 1939 Schlumbohm filed dozens of patents, many of which were centered around refrigeration – something he considered particularly important for the modern era. His other patent filings included applications for unburnable gasoline, a method of illuminating rooms, and a writing utensil. The loud, boisterous man was digging into every nook and cranny of his expertise to find the golden egg that would give him the financial independence he had been seeking since achieving his doctorate.

Finally, in 1939, Schlumbohm had his first apparent break. After showcasing his latest attempt to perfect refrigeration at the New York World’s Fair – a device he had been working on for several years – Schlumbohm was approached by a prospective investor. The offer was straightforward: the investor would provide enough money to make the prototype device a reality in exchange for a controlling interest in the company.

Agreeing to these terms would not only mean an opportunity to finally get a device he invented on the market, it would also mean up-front cash.

His decision, after the break.

-Advertisement-

Today’s episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by Audible. With over 180,000 audiobooks to choose from, Audible is the best way to find a title you’ll love and listen to it wherever you are. I recently picked up “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth. It’s a look into the real reason why some people stick through challenges and thrive, while others give up. Based on her psychology research, Duckworth says that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but instead a special blend of passion and persistence that she calls “grit.” If you enjoy books from Malcolm Gladwell or titles similar to Freakenomics, you’ll love this book.

Audible is giving listeners of The Boise Coffee Podcast a free 30-day trial, as well as a free audiobook of your choice if you sign up today. Visit audibletrial.com/BoiseCoffee to get your free book and support my podcast. That’s a-u-d-i-b-l-e-trial.com/boisecoffee.

-End Advertisement-

Schlumbohm said no. He simply couldn’t stomach giving away any percentage of his company as a cash grab. He said, “To afford that refusal, I had to take an appraising look at the other arrows in my quiver. There was this new patent for the coffeemaker, with its broad appeal. Within a week, I had sold half-an-interest in it for $5000 and planned to license it.” Turning the last several years of his work in refrigeration on its head, Schlumbohm rushed headlong into the world of coffee.

On April 13, 1939 patent no. 2,241,368 for a “Filtering Device” had been filed. The original version of the Chemex included a spout and handle and was intended for uses both in a laboratory and at home.

Later that year, Schlumbohm, an acquaintance named Isaac Harter, and a man named Edward Turner incorporated The Chemex Corporation in New York State. As per state regulations, two-thirds of a company’s directorate had to be American citizens – Edward Turner was brought in to fulfill that requirement, and was given a minority holding of one share for his troubles.

In that same year, Schlumbohm was perfecting an updated design for the product – the same design that would end up in the Museum of Modern Art just 5 years later.

The Chemex is essentially a big glass beaker, somewhat in the shape of an hourglass. It features a molded groove on one side, allowing for easy pouring, as well as a glass level button towards the bottom. The middle of the Chemex is sheathed in a wood corset tied together with a rawhide strip and round wood bead. When assembled, the wooden sheath provides protection from the hot glass, making the Chemex easy to hold and pour from. As for the filter – Chemex recommends you use their circular paper filters, folded to form a simple cone shape.

The Chemex originally sold for around $6, and was produced by Corning Glass Works in NY after Schlumbohm received approval from the War Production Board in the U.S. – remember, this was during the World War II rations period.

While other similar products used in-demand materials like aluminum and chrome, this all-glass coffee maker was both functionally relevant and designedly desirable to U.S. citizens. The Chemex is strongly tied to the Bauhaus style, also called the International Style, an approach to design that argues there should be no distinction between form and function. It’s marked by the absence of ornamentation and the marriage between the function of an object and its design. The Bauhaus style was dominant in the US in the 40s, largely because of the war effort.

Schlumbohm capitalized on the success of his new coffee maker well into the 1950s, placing cartoon advertisements in every magazine he could, and showing it off at trade shows and international expositions. Schlumbohm used other non-conventional methods of advertising as well; he believed in the soft sell, giving the Chemex as a gift to famous cartoonist Charles Addams, President Harry Truman, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. And…it worked. If you look closely, you can find Chemex coffee makers in media, television, and books to this day. It appeared in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the pilot of 90s sitcom Friends, Don Draper’s kitchen in Mad Men, and is even in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel “From Russia With Love.” Apparently, Mr. Bond makes his coffee the American way.

Peter Schlumbohm spent his later years as a carefree bachelor with an erratic work schedule. His daily agenda in the 50s consisted of sleeping well into the afternoon, coming into his New York City studio to work at around 5pm, then leaving for dinner after only an hour or two. But “dinner” was usually an all-night affair, consisting of Schlumbohm taking to New York City in his Cadillac Coupe De Ville (complete with gold Chemex hood ornament), often with friends. They’d stop at one of the inventor’s favorite restaurants, eat a course, then pile back into the car to move on to the next joint. Schlumbohms friend, cartoonist Roy Doty, remarked on these common all-night jaunts saying “Eventually you’d be somewhere eating streusel with him and by that time it was two or three in the morning.” This was when Schlumbohm, according to himself, did his best work. Surrounded by other night-owls, he would begin discussing new ideas and making calls well into the morning. Eventually he would return to his Greenwich Village penthouse to enjoy a German beer or some wine before bed.

Peter Schlumbohm died of a heart attack in 1962. He held the rights to over 300 inventions, which he had continued to make and sell even after the success of the Chemex. In a eulogy for Schlumbohm shortly after his death, the notable design author Ralph Caplan described the typical Schlumbohm invention as “a synthesis of logic and madness.”

Today, the Chemex is used in specialty coffee shops, cafes, and homes all around the world. There are multiple sizes of the famous coffee maker, along with a glass-handled variant that is absent the wood corset. As for price, it runs from $40-$50 depending on the style and purchasing location.

The Chemex, for some reason, has an incredible staying power in culture. While the rise of specialty coffee in recent years has brought about a new wave of appreciation for simple brewing techniques, the Chemex seems timeless. The coffee that the Chemex produces is void of all fine coffee grounds that might muddy the taste, producing a cup that has distinctly clear flavor profiles, and consistently great quality. Some people argue that its the design of the Chemex – the angle of the cone, or maybe its smooth glass. Others say its the filters – the folded, circular paper filters are unique to the Chemex, even to today. I tend to believe that, like its design, there is no one factor that sets the Chemex apart from other manual drip cones. Instead, its the synthesis of everything: that marriage of design and utility, the logic and madness of the inventor; all of it coming together in a focused way to do one thing well: make great coffee.

Thanks for listening to The Boise Coffee Podcast. As always, I’m your host Colin Mansfield. I really appreciate your support and the great dialogue I’ve had with some of you recently. If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can find me on twitter, my handle is @BoiseCoffee, or my blog, BoiseCoffee.org. If you like what you heard today, check out my other episodes on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud and leave me a review. Today’s episode was sponsored by Audible. To claim your free audiobook and get a 30-day free trial, visit audibletrial.com/BoiseCoffee. Thanks for listening, and have an awesome rest of your week.

Sources used for this episode:

The post S2 Episode 9: The Chemex – A Synthesis of Logic and Madness appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 8: The AeroPress from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

Alan Adler founded his company, Aerobie, around his flying disc by the same name. He essentially perfected the Frisbee, then went on to sell 1.4 million of them in just two years. Not only that, Alan’s flying disc broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s farthest throw.  Alan has three parts to him: he’s an inventor, an entrepreneur, and most importantly for us, a coffee fanatic.

While he started with flying discs, Alan went on to invent something completely different. His invention took the coffee community by storm, and is now the basis for international coffee competitions. Not only that, it’s a staple in third wave coffee shops and cafes around the world. It’s simple, inexpensive, and a little alien looking. It’s unlike anything the coffee community had seen before, or has seen since. It’s called the AeroPress.

Check out AeroPress recipes that have won the World AeroPress Championship here. You can check out the Boise Coffee recipe here.

The Coffee Guy

Episode transcript:

The AeroPress

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Over time, however, humans have proven that they define “necessity” in many different ways.

You know those big popcorn tins that you can buy around the holidays? Those have been around for a while. In fact, in 1937 Fred and Lucile Morrison were enjoying popcorn from exactly that kind of tin. They noticed that the lid, a circular metal lid, could fly a good distance when they tossed it. They had an idea – but first they needed to find a cheaper object to throw to each other.

A year later, Fred and Lucile made their way along the Santa Monica beach in California with a stack of cake tins in tow. People on the beach, as it turned out, were more than willing to pay 25 cents to buy a cake tin and toss it to each other for a little fun. Fred and Lucile’s new business, aptly titled “Flyin’ Cake Tins,” became the first flying disc company.

Their business continued to thrive until WWII, when Fred left to fight as a pilot. Fred flew P-47s and was shot down over Italy. Subsequently he was captured, and taken as a prisoner of war for 90 days. During his time in the Army Air Force, Fred sketched a new, more aerodynamic design for his and his wife’s flying disc idea. By 1957 he had a patent for the design, a successful company, and a new name: Frisbee.

The frisbee is now the most iconic toy flyer in the world – many people have gone on to iterate the design, and even make improvements. One of the most famous individuals to do this was Alan Adler. Alan has three parts to him: he’s an inventor, an entrepreneur, and most importantly for us, a coffee fanatic. While he started with flying discs, Alan went on to invent something completely different. His invention took the coffee community by storm, and is now the basis for international coffee competitions. Not only that, it’s a staple in third wave coffee shops and cafes around the world. It’s simple, inexpensive, and a little alien looking. It’s unlike anything the coffee community had seen before, or has seen since. It’s called The AeroPress.

I’m Colin Mansfield, and this is The Boise Coffee Podcast.

–Boise Coffee Theme–

Alan Adler got his start as an engineer, working on things like submarines, nuclear reactor controls, and aircraft instruments. He’s a curious person at his core; always learning and finding new hobbies to delve deep inside. Case in point: as an amateur astronomer in the early 2000s, Alan invented a new type of paraboloid mirror. Not only that, he wrote a computer program called Sec that assisted the way astronomers select secondary mirrors.

Later, Alan became interested in sailing. But, true to form, he didn’t settle for merely learning the craft – he wanted to excel. Alan designed a boat that competed in the Transpac race – a sailing race that goes from San Francisco to Hawaii. His boat took first place.

But back in the 1970s, Alan wasn’t dreaming about sailing or astronomy – he was dreaming about flight. He set out to design a flying disc – something that was “easy for the average person to throw with very little effort.” By 1978 he had gone through dozens of iterations, and had finally finalized a design that he called the “Skyro.”

Alan Adler created the Skyro around a fundamental principle of aerodynamics: a flying ring requires an equal amount of lift in the back and front. In order to keep the ring from dipping or lifting too far while in flight, he fine-tuned a donut shaped disc with a large hole in the middle, and thin edges. Later, Alan altered the design to create an airfoil for his flying disc. This required a molded spoiler lip around the outside of the rim.

Upon testing his new airfoil design on Stanford’s campus, he remarked that the disc flew “as if sliding on an invisible sheet of ice.” He dubbed the new design the “Aerobie Pro.” This finely crafted product sold 1.4 million units worldwide just two years into production. Its success has stood the test of time: it is still on-sale today and popular on college campuses and in parks nearly everywhere.

Alan’s company, now called “Aerobie,” has gone on to design flying discs and toys of all shapes and sizes: there are flying triangles, yo-yos, frisbee golf discs, and two sizes of the original flyer among others.

The Aerobie was, and still is, a massive success. But after 2008, it was Alan’s second best-selling product.

Alan Adler had long considered himself a “one cup kinda guy” when it came to coffee. His home coffee maker yielded 6-8 cups per brew, and this frustrated him to no end. The rest of us might have let it go, or simply brewed less coffee. But Alan? He’s not like the rest of us. He set out to invent a better way to brew a single cup of coffee in the best way he knew how: engineering.

By 2005 specialty coffee was already becoming a trend in modern culture. Alan noticed that while most people were fine with automatic drip coffee pots, the hardcore coffee fans preferred manual pour-over methods. Alan started his coffee engineering journey by testing these various methods, and he noticed something key: manual-drip coffee takes time. By his estimate, the Melitta cone, one of the popular pour-over coffee cones, takes about 4-5 minutes of steep time – or “wet time” as he called it. In his opinion, the longer the wet time, the more bitter the cup of coffee.

Alan considered this a problem: bitter coffee, as far as he was concerned, is bad coffee. To him, the solution was simple: shrink the wet time, shrink the bitterness. His first step in achieving this solution, however, is probably not what most people would jump to. It struck him that air pressure was the key to shortening brew time, and achieving a naturally sweet cup of coffee.  And after only a few weeks in his garage, he had a working prototype.

The design was straightforward: a plastic tube, a plunger device, and a paper filter. Put the coffee in the filter, attach the filter to the tube, pour in hot water, and insert the plunger on the opposite end. Then, press.

After brewing his first cup of coffee, Alan knew he had made something special. He immediately called his business manager,  man named Alex Tennant. Tennant came over, tasted the coffee, and took a step back. “Alan,” he said, “I can sell a ton of these.” They called the new coffee brewer The AeroPress, but as it turned out, the road ahead wasn’t nearly as easy for Aerobie as Alan and Alex seemed to think it would be. More on that after the break.

–This episode’s sponsor is Audible.com–

Today’s episode is brought to you by Audible. With over 180,000 titles to choose from, Audible is the best way to listen to audiobooks wherever you are. I recommend the Red Rising Trilogy – if you cross the Hunger Games with Game of Thrones, you’re getting close to Red Rising. I recently spent an entire international flight immersed in book 1, and I think you’ll really love it. Audible is giving listeners a free 30-day trial, as well as a free audiobook of your choice if you sign up today. Visit audibletrial.com/BoiseCoffee to get your free book and support my podcast. That’s a-u-d-i-b-l-e-trial.com/boisecoffee. The best part? If you don’t want to stay signed up, audible will let you keep your book, no questions asked. Again, visit audibletrial.com/BoiseCoffee

The AeroPress debuted at Seattle’s Coffee Fest in 2005 where it was well received by coffee aficionados. The price didn’t hurt it’s reputation – at only $29.99 it was an impulse buy for many people who just wanted to try it out.

To this day, the AeroPress has only three main components: the filter basket, the tube, and the plunger. In their recommended brew recipe, Aerobie says you should use about 2-4 scoops of coffee grounds, and water heated to 165-175 degrees. Since then, people have created their own methods of making coffee with the aeropress with all different varieties of brew ratios.

One great feature was unintentional – the AeroPress is self-cleaning due to the tight seal that the rubber plunger creates. No coffee residue is left in the tube after the brewer completes their press. Instead, a single puck of coffee grounds remains after pressing. It’s easily disposed of by removing the filter basket and holding the AeroPress over a garbage can. From there, you give the plunger a final press to release the coffee puck.

Despite its low price point and great features, the AeroPress was not an overnight success. Tennant still recalls pleading with one sales rep group not to drop the product due to low sales. Adler himself said,

“Aerobie spent over 20 years establishing distribution for sporting goods, and all of a sudden we were confronted with creating distribution for kitchenware. We didn’t leap into this lightly.”

The AeroPress had a hard few years ahead of it. At one point in 2007, the company was receiving even lower sales than they had gotten the previous year. It appeared as though their revolutionary product might fizzle and die. The fact that this weird-looking coffee maker was being made by a toy company wasn’t helping. Bent on succeeding, Adler decided to try a grass-roots approach to selling the device.

Aerobie began leaning into its products biggest asset: it brews amazing coffee. In that vein, they attended coffee trade shows to get more exposure to the specialty coffee community, and sent free products to coffee experts and food writers to try. Finally, in 2008, sales began to climb.

Adler believed that his product’s eventual success was due to one main thing: the way people viewed coffee changed. More and more individuals were becoming less interested in standard $30-$50 coffee pots – they wanted something that would brew good coffee quickly and well.

2008 was also the year that the World AeroPress Championship was conceived. Three Norwegian friends brewed coffee in their AeroPress’ competitively to see who’s coffee was best. In 2009, the competition had 22 competitors. Last year, in 2015, the competition was held in Seattle and boasted 35 competitors and an audience of 500 spectators. This annual event alone has boosted international sales of the AeroPress to 38% of Aerobie’s overall revenue.

Today the AeroPress is sold in 56 countries worldwide. It’s especially popular in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland where the average individual is incredibly serious about their coffee. The AeroPress is also Aerobie’s best selling and fastest growing product. Since 2005 Aerobie has sold over one million units, and it’s not slowing down.

It’s easy to get the AeroPress confused with the French Press due to the naming similarities. The two brewing devices, however, could not be more different. While the French Press usually uses a metal mesh filter to strain coffee, the AeroPress relies on air pressure and a paper filter. You can expect to get a full-bodied, oily, rich cup of coffee from a French Press, while AeroPress coffee is bright and clean, with individual flavors easily distinguishable. AeroPress coffee is akin to drip coffee in many ways, although the shorter steep time usually makes for a sweeter cup. Because of the many possible brew methods that the AeroPress is capable of hosting, however, it’s hard to nail down what an average “AeroPress coffee” tastes like. Some people even claim that with enough coffee, the AeroPress can even create something very similar to espresso.

Many consider the AeroPress to be a hackable product – its design and craftsmanship make it easy to think up new and interesting ways to brew coffee. One popular method, the inverted method, allows coffee to steep longer in the AeroPress before pressing.

To accomplish this, the plunger is inserted in the tube just enough to create a seal. The AeroPress is then placed on-end so that the portion of the plunger that you would normally hold is flat against your table or countertop. From there, coffee and hot water is put in the tube, where the brewer can let it steep for any length of time before attaching the filer and flipping the device on top of their mug to press. While Adler himself is not a big fan of the method (after all, he created the AeroPress to get away from long steep times), it is nonetheless very popular.

Other alternative AeroPress brew methods include using multiple paper filters, after-market metal filters, and various coffee-to-water ratios. After the World AeroPress Competition every year, the winners publish their recipes online. This makes it incredibly easy to try a variety of methods, even for the casual coffee lover.

The AeroPress is one of my favorite coffee products. I believe that it contains the heart of the specialty coffee community, mostly because it contains the heart of Alan Adler. Alan’s creativity and explorative personality ooze out of this product in surprising ways – everywhere from its endless brewing possibilities to its eye-catching design. I recommend the AeroPress to everyone – whether you’re a lifelong coffee expert or simply someone looking to get a better cup. The AeroPress is still available for $29.99, and you can buy it from Aerobie’s website, Amazon, or your local specialty coffee shop.

Thanks for listening to The Boise Coffee Podcast. I’m your host, Colin Mansfield, and I really appreciate your support. You can check out more episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or my website – BoiseCoffee.org. If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can reach me on Twitter – my handle is @BoiseCoffee. Earlier this week I launched the Boise Coffee store. Shirts, mugs, hoodies, and more are on sale there with sleek coffee designs and sayings. Check it out at BoiseCoffe.org/store.

A big thanks this week to Audible – my first podcast sponsor. You can listen to Audible on your phone, tablet, or kindle using their app – it’s really a great experience. Visit audibletrial.com/boisecoffee to get a 30-day free trial and audiobook of your choice.

Thanks for listening, and have an awesome rest of your week.

The post S2 Episode 8: The AeroPress appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 7: Good Grounds Coffee ft. Mary Lansden Rees-Jones from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

I’m joined this week by Mary Lansden Rees-Jones (formerly Brewbaker), one of the founders and the current Managing Director at Good Grounds Coffee Co.

Good Grounds is a coffee pre-financing, export/trading company based in Congo and the United States. Mary and her husband Huw, along with their business partner Dan, have developed a sole partnership with a coffee cooperative on Idwji Island, Congo that employs former Congolese rebels in an effort to bring peace to a place that has known war for far too long.

Mary and Huw live in nearby Rwanda – a three hour drive and one hour boat ride away from where the Idwji coffee beans are grown. I got the chance to speak with Mary at length about Good Grounds, Fair Trade, and what the future holds for coffee in Congo.

Please support Good Grounds Coffee Co. by contributing to their Indigogo page, here.

More about Good Grounds (from their About Page):

Our purpose is to transform the lives of former Congolese rebels by giving them the option to lay down their guns. In Congo employment is scarce, so men join rebel groups to provide for their families. Good Grounds brings lasting change in both the short and long run by providing cooperatives with cash to process cherries and export beans to roasters and consumers in North America. We also guarantee the purchase of all the coffee we pre-finance, eliminating risk for smallholder farmers.

Rather than starting anew, Good Grounds builds relationships with local cooperatives composed of former rebels and rebel widows.  Good Grounds is focused on quality because we believe in sustainable business and we know that our market demands only the best.

Now that we’re back on schedule, The Boise Coffee Podcast will be returning to a bi-weekly release schedule. Thanks for your patience!

The Coffee Guy

The post S2 Episode 7: Good Grounds Coffee ft. Mary Lansden Rees-Jones appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 6: Loyalty Programs and Coffee from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

The Pareto principle states that for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For a business, this means that 80% of sales comes from 20% of customers. One of the keys to having a successful company, then, is to find those 20% of customers and keep them coming back for more.

For a coffee company to be successful, they need to establish loyalty with their customers. In this episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast I discuss the history of loyalty programs over the past two centuries, and why I think it’s important that we support our local coffee shop with our wallet.

The reality is that small, local coffee shops rely more heavily on regular customers than you could ever know. Don’t waste your loyalty on chains that want to squeeze money out of you to stay on top.

The Coffee Guy

The post S2 Episode 6: Loyalty Programs and Coffee appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 5: The Five Attempts to Ban Coffee from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

It turns out that throughout history, not everyone has supported coffee or even believed it to be healthy. Sometimes these people have been motivated for political purposes. More often than not, however, fear of coffee, its effects, and those who popularize it, has been the chief reason people have attacked it.

In this episode, I talk about five instances where state and religious leaders fought to outlaw or ban coffee.

Subscribe to The Boise Coffee Podcast here.

Coffee brings people together. Whether it’s 2016 and estranged friends meet at a coffee shop to catch up on each others lives, or its 1780 and American revolutionaries are sharing political opinions over cups of coffee, that one fact seems to be irrefutable. Coffee encourages conversations, stimulates thought, and provokes epiphany. Everyone seems to agree with this – or do they?

It turns out that throughout history, not everyone has supported coffee or even believed it to be healthy. Sometimes these people have been motivated for political purposes. More often than not, however, fear of coffee, its effects, and those who popularize it, has been the chief reason people have attacked it.

In this episode, I’d like to talk about five instances where state and religious leaders fought to outlaw or ban coffee. We’ll start in Mecca in the early 16th century, and we’ll end at the end of the 18th century.

Attempt 1: Mecca, 1511

In the early 1500s, Khair Beg, the young governor and chief of police of Mecca, learned that satirical verses were being written about him at coffee houses and shared openly. He, along with more conservative Muslims, pushed the idea that coffee was as much an intoxicant as wine – a beverage that is banned by the Koran. Khair Beg, a politician in every sense of the word, saw an opportunity to stop this sedition and undertook a campaign to show the destructive capabilities of coffee. Beg convinced two well known Persian physicians, as well as a host of coffee drinkers, to issue pronouncements about coffee’s intoxicating and dangerous affects to an assembly of jurists representing various schools of Islam. The jury ruled in Beg’s favor, and the young governor sent a copy of the findings to his boss, the Sultan of Cairo. In 1511 Beg outlawed coffee and coffee-houses within Mecca.

At that time, coffee was widely used by Muslims to prepare for and stay awake during late-night prayer vigils; some even believed that the heightened sense of awareness brought them closer to God. Some of these Muslims were present during Beg’s coffee court and even went so far as to defend the drink on the record – but to no avail.

After reading the results of the jury’s findings, Kansuh al-Ghawri, the Sultan of Cairo, was furious. Kansuh had appointed Khair Beg, and insisted that no ban could be instated without his prior approval. The sultan was likely a coffee drinker himself, and was surrounded by some of the best physicians the Arab world had to offer – none of whom agreed with Beg’s findings.

History is a little unclear as to what transpired next; some reports indicate that the sultan lifted the coffee ban, charged Khair-Beg with embezzlement, and put him to death. Others say that the sultan simply replaced Khair-Beg with a new governor in the following year who wasn’t averse to coffee. Regardless, the world’s first recorded coffee ban didn’t last long.

Attempt 2: Venice, 1600

While muslims in the early 1500s outlawed coffee on the basis that its effects were similar to wine, a century later Italian Catholics tried to outlaw it because it was seen as the opposite. Wine, in the catholic tradition, is a staple of the Eucharist – one of the sacraments that the church holds as a rite with particular religious significance. In 1600, catholic clergymen in Venice knew that coffee was popular with Muslims, and they saw the drink as a sort of antithesis to wine, even going so far as to call it the “bitter invention of Satan.”

The political goals of the clergymen are unclear to us now – what we do know, however, is that suspicion and fear are powerful motivators. They saw their religion being threatened by outsiders, and coffee was an easy target. Like-minded catholics issued appeals to ban the drink within Venice, and the controversy grew to a breaking point. Finally, the pope was called in to settle the dispute.

Upon tasting coffee for the first time, Pope Clement VIII is said to have exclaimed “This devil’s drink is so delicious…we should cheat the devil by baptizing it!” Many historians believe that coffee’s spread through Europe over the next century was encouraged most because of this single papal endorsement.

Attempt 3: Constantinople, 1623

Murad IV was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, and he took the throne at the age of 11. Shortly after becoming sultan, Murad made it his goal to clean up the corruption that had plagued previous sultans. As a part of this campaign, Murad banned alcohol, tobacco, and coffee in Constantinople – going so far as to order executions for breaking this ban.

Some records indicate that Murad’s punishments started less severe – beatings, and casting violators into the waters of the Bosporus: a strait that connects the present day Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Other records say that he was truly without mercy; there are stories of Murad IV disguising himself in commoner’s clothing and prowling the streets and taverns of Constantinople late at night, looking for violators of his decrees. Upon finding someone sipping coffee under cover of darkness, he would reveal his identity and behead the law-breaker on the spot.

Murad IV died in 1640 from cirrhosis and was replaced by the sole surviving Ottoman prince, Ibrahim. Murad IV had killed all four of Ibrahim’s brothers and sisters during his reign of terror, and Ibrahim lived in constant fear that he would be next. Nonetheless, he ascended the throne, but proved to be more interested in harems than in enforcing the coffee ban of his predecessor.

Attempt 4: Sweden, 1746

In 1674 coffee arrived in Sweden for the first time, but wasn’t truly popular until about 100 years later. By the 18th century, it was a staple beverage for the wealthy worldwide, and Sweden was certainly no exception.

Unfortunately, this popularity didn’t diminish the power of fear and suspicion surrounding coffee for certain individuals in Sweden – namely King Gustav III. He was convinced that coffee, for all of its wonderful benefits, had to contain negative drawbacks that hadn’t yet been discovered. To his benefit, he decided to go about this with a scientific mind – though his methods remain in question, to say the least.

In 1746 Gustav issued a royal addict against “the misuse and excesses of tea and coffee drinking.” He commanded the state to levy heavy taxes on consumption – if someone bought coffee and didn’t pay the tax, they were heavily fined, and their coffee paraphernalia – including cups and dishes – were confiscated by the state. Later, Gustav banned coffee completely, though this simply drove consumption underground.

It was at this point that King Gustav III decided to prove once and for all that coffee has negative health effects that could be scientifically proven. So, he decided to hold an experiment.

Gustav III used two identical twins for his coffee experiment. Both twins had been tried and condemned to death for crimes that they had committed previously, but Gustav promised them mere life imprisonment on one condition: one of the twins had to drink three pots of coffee every day, for the rest of their life. The other had to drink the same amount, but of brewed tea. The twins agreed.

Two state-appointed physicians were given the task of supervising the twins and providing accurate and detailed reports to the king on their findings. Unfortunately, both physicians died of natural causes before the experiment was completed. Even more unfortunate, Gustav himself was assassinated in 1792 before either of the twins met their end.

The twins, it would seem, were the only ones to survive, and perhaps benefit from the experiment. The tea drinker was the first to perish at the ripe age of 83. The coffee drinker lived even longer, though his exact age at death has been lost to the history books.

While Sweden continued to try to ban coffee until the 1820s, none of their attempts were successful. Ironically, today Sweden has some of the highest coffee consumption per capita in the world.

Attempt 5: Prussia, 1777

Frederick the Great of Prussia was a brilliant military leader, politician, and proponent of the arts and the enlightenment in Prussia. He achieved some of the greatest military victories of his country’s history, including victory against great odds in the Seven Years’ War. He was also well known for his love of beer.

In 1777 Frederick noticed that beer consumption in Prussia was declining. In an effort to combat this, he issued a manifesto calming that beer is far superior to coffee, and that the country’s coffee consumption was interfering with their beer consumption.

An excerpt from the manifesto:

“It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the country as a consequence. Everybody is using coffee; this must be prevented. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were both his ancestors and officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.”

In 1781 Frederick the Great made coffee a royal monopoly. He commissioned the help of disabled soldiers and employed them to spy on citizens, sniffing in search of illegally roasted coffee. It may come as no surprise that the general population was incredibly annoyed with this.

Interestingly, in his later years Frederick the Great was known to rise before dawn and consume six to eight cups of coffee before attending to state business. Perhaps his positive relations with the newly formed coffee-loving United States of America had some influence on his preferred morning beverage later in life.

As interesting as these five examples are, my hope is that they illustrate a larger point: coffee, throughout history, has been as much something to be enjoyed as it has been something to fight for. Over time, leaders of powerful nations have made it their work to snuff out coffee consumption and sales, yet all have failed. Perhaps this is simply because coffee is well loved – it provides energy, and it’s tasty – but I think it goes deeper than that. We, as humans, for whatever reason, are tied to coffee. Nearly every culture that has come into contact with it has fought to integrate coffee into their daily routines and rituals – and when threatened, have risen up to support and defend it. Often, coffee is tied to nostalgia – it reminds us of home. It brings us together, and it gives us an excuse to talk and share ideas.

Coffee may not speak to our hearts with the same level of passion as ideas like freedom and justice do, but it does speak. And history has shown that when it speaks, people of all demographics and backgrounds listen.

The post S2 Episode 5: The Five Attempts to Ban Coffee appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 4: Family Coffee Break from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

In this episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast I take a breather from the normal routine to have a conversation with my wife and my parents about our coffee roots. Thanks to my mom, Susan, my dad, Dennis, and Hannah – my beautiful wife!

If you’d like to get in touch with my dad, you can find him on Twitter, his website, or his publisher’s website. Check out his newest book, Cocoa The Blind Dog: A Daily Devotional About Devotion!

At the end of the episode I feature four individuals from the Anchor community who responded to my request for personal accounts/stories having to do with coffee. Thanks to Brandon, Eric, and Seth!

Please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and leave me a review!

The Coffee Guy

The post S2 Episode 4: Family Coffee Break appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 3: Coffee Flavors and Aromas from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

In this episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast I discuss coffee flavors and aromas, and how you can use the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel to put words to what you experience when you try a new coffee. You can see all three versions of the wheel below.

In January 2016 the SCAA came out with an updated wheel, as well as a full description of how and why they changed it.

If you like this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave me a review on iTunes! Thank you and have a great rest of your week.

The Coffee Guy

The original SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel:

The 2014 Counter Culture Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel:

The 2016 SCAA updated Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel:

The post S2 Episode 3: Coffee Flavors and Aromas appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 2: The History of Coffee Pt. 2 – “The Favorite Drink of the Civilized World” from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

In this follow up to The History of Coffee Part 1 I discuss how coffee made its way from Europe to the United States, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and beyond. Focusing in on the 17th-19th centuries, I tell the stories of key individuals who pushed coffee forward and made it the multi billion dollar industry it is.

If you enjoyed this series, please subscribe to The Boise Coffee Podcast on iTunes and leave me a review! Look forward to a new episode in two weeks.

The Coffee Guy

Episode Transcript:

The History of Coffee Part 2: The Favorite Drink of the Civilized World

17th-19th centuries

By the mid 1700s there were over 300 coffee shops in London alone, which attracted artists, businesspeople, merchants, and other like-minded people of various intellects and backgrounds. As we discussed at the end of the last episode, Dutch colonists were the first to transport coffee to their villages in the New World, but it was by-far not the most popular caffeine-laced beverage.

The British love their tea, and prior to 1773 so did their American counterparts. A little incident called the Boston Tea Party changed this sentiment forever, causing a major shift in the political implications of drinking coffee.

Choosing to drink tea in colonial America was as much a political statement about your association with Great Britain as waving a British flag outside your window. Some historians see the Tea Act (and similar taxation-without-representation acts) and the events that followed as a “straw that broke the camel’s back” leading to the Revolutionary War.

Tea was out, and coffee was patriotic.

But back to the Dutch. In 1714, King Louis XIV of France was presented a gift by the Mayor of Amsterdam – a young coffee plant. The king ordered that it be planted in the France Botanical Gardens in Paris, and in 1723 a young French naval officer by the name of Gabriel de Clieu arranged to transport a seedling from this plant.

Through rugged storms, tumultuous winds, and a would-be saboteur who intended to destroy the seedling, Gabriel carried the seedling to the Caribbean island of Martinique where he planted it. According to the National Coffee Association, the seedling not only thrived, but is credited with the spread of over 18 million coffee trees on the island over the next 50 years. Not only that, but this seedling receives credit for being the parent of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South, and Central Americas.

In Brazil, the history of coffee is no less interesting. In 1727 a man named Francisco de Mello Palheta was sent by the emperor of Brazil to French Guiana in hopes of obtaining coffee seeds or plants. The Portuguese were looking for a way to undercut the coffee market, but had been unsuccessful with obtaining any viable plants due to the governor of French Guiana being unwilling to export seeds.

Francisco made his way across the border with hopes of diplomatically solving this problem, but was unsuccessful in convincing the governor. While there, however, Francisco did befriend the governor’s wife. Depending on the story, he either seduced her, or she was taken by his good looks – but either way, the result was the same. While diplomacy did not rule the day, Francisco nonetheless returned home with enough coffee seeds to successfully start the Brazilian coffee business. Today, Brazil is home to a billion-dollar industry around coffee.

In 1824 Founding Father and the third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson deemed coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world.” According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, he enjoyed the coffee houses of Williamsburg and Paris, and served coffee at the President’s House, Poplar Forest, and Monticello. He preferred beans imported from the East and West Indies and abhorred the “green” or unripe beans that were popular in America at the Time.

It’s estimated that a pound of coffee a day was consumed at Monticello during his retirement. To store his coffee, Jefferson kept unfrosted beans in barrels in his cellar. These barrels weighed as much as 60 pounds. Small portions of coffee were roasted and ground in Jefferson’s kitchen, then served at breakfast and after dinner. Jefferson designed and commissioned the smithing of a silver coffee urn which he would use to share the beverage with visitors to Monticello.

As you’ve heard over the last two episodes, the history of coffee is far from boring. Monopolies have been built on coffee, and smugglers have brought them down. Entire modern industries are based on coffee because one person did their job and brought home viable seeds. While some might argue that the spread of coffee was inevitable due to its characteristic caffeine buzz and the fact that its popularity almost always preceded its availability, I argue instead that it succeeded only because specific individuals pushed it forward.

Coffee didn’t succeed merely because of traders, kings, emperors, or political agendas. It succeeded because of specific individuals – people. People who believed that coffee could make them and their country better. People who believed that coffee was worth the time and effort it took to grow, process, grind, make, and brew.

In first world countries today, coffee is treated equally as a commodity and a specialty beverage. In places like LA you can find a $1 brewed cup of coffee at a diner, or you can travel to your nearest third-wave shop and drink a brew crafted to perfection for closer to $4 or $5. This wide availability and craftsmanship did not come all at once, or because of one group of people. The history of coffee spans centuries, nations, and the lives of specific people who thought coffee was worth it.

The post S2 Episode 2: The History of Coffee Pt. 2 – “The Favorite Drink of the Civilized World” appeared first on Boise Coffee.

You are reading S2 Episode 1: The History of Coffee Pt. 1 from Boise Coffee. Please share it with friends!

I’m super excited to bring you Season 2 of The Boise Coffee Podcast, and we’re kicking it off right with a two-part season premiere. I haven’t written or talked much about the history of coffee, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to give a little context to the drink we know and love.

In this episode I start with the discovery of coffee in the 9th century, then talk about the overall movement of coffee from the Ethiopian plateau to Yemen, then eventually to large cities like Mecca and Cairo. Finally, we’ll trace coffee’s European origins and how it became both a source of curiosity and fear.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Boise Coffee Podcast on iTunes, and leave a review if you like what you’re listening to!

The Coffee Guy

This is a two part episode. Check out The History of Coffee Part 2: The Favorite Drink of the Civilized world.

Episode Transcript:

Part 1

9th century – 17th century

As with any historical narrative, the stories range from completely apocryphal to mostly true. Regardless, we know that the outward spread of coffee happened, and that it was as much due to the slow globalization of culture as it was to luck and a few key historical figures.

The initial discovery of coffee is steeped in legend, but we know that the coffee plant has its origins in the Ethiopian plateau. To this day, the coffee trees in Ethiopia are the most ancient in the world and arguably produce some of the most delicious beans you can find. The higher altitude (compared to the rest of Africa) produces coffee that, when lightly roasted, is fruity and very bright.

Legend says that coffee was first discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed that when his goats ate the fruit off of specific plants they got jittery and excitable, so he tried some out for himself. He became so energetic that he couldn’t sleep, and his excitement prompted him to report his findings to the abbot of his town’s monastery.

The monk, as it turns out, was having his own trouble’s with sleep; he couldn’t seem to stay awake for the long evening prayers. The red fruit gave him enough energy to stay vigilant, so he decided to share his new found miracle-fruit with the other monks. Slowly, knowledge about these energy-inducing cherries spread east, eventually reaching the Arabian peninsula.

Coffee history picks back up in the 15th century in Yemen, the country that was a primary importer of beans from Ethiopia. Yemeni traders began growing their own crops, and were the first to actively cultivate the plant mainly for use in their Sufi monasteries. The Sufi monks experienced a kind of “intoxication” during their Godly chants and used a beverage made with coffee beans as a way to stay concentrated both day and night.

Coffee continued to spread throughout the Arabian peninsula, becoming popular in remote villages and big cities alike. The Yemeni port in Mocha was the primary export location for coffee, and by the early 1500s cities like Mecca, Medina, Cairo, and Baghdad became importers as the demand for coffee grew. This “wine of Araby” was brewed in coffeehouses that attracted people from all walks of life to participate in conversation about local politics and culture, prompting them to be called “Schools of the Wise”

Coffee’s journey to Europe started as legend. Travelers to the near east brought back tales of this unusual dark beverage. By the 17th century, coffee was extremely popular in Europe, but not everyone trusted these bitter beans.

Around the year 1600 Venice experienced immense conflict surrounding coffee. The local clergymen treated the drink with suspicion and fear, going as far as to call it the “bitter invention of Satan.”

One of the basis for the Venetian conflict around coffee was its popularity with Muslims at the time. It was seen as a sort of antithesis to wine, a staple in the Catholic Eucharist.

The controversy grew, prompting appeals to ban the drink. Finally the pope was asked to intervene and decide once-and-for-all if coffee was allowed, or if it was an evil to be avoided.

Legend says that upon tasting it, Pope Clement VIII exclaimed “This devil’s drink is so delicious…we should cheat the devil by baptizing it!” The controversy dissolved, and the spread of coffee through Europe continued at break-neck pace.

Until 1616 coffee was essentially a monopoly run by the country of Yemen. Merchants in Mocha were forbidden to export live coffee trees or coffee beans viable for planting. Because of this, demand for coffee across the world could not meet the bottle-necked Yemeni supply. That all changed when a Dutch merchant named Pieter van der Broecke stole some closely guarded coffee beans from Mocha and smuggled them back to Holland. He planted them in the greenhouses of the Amsterdam botanical gardens, where they were closely monitored and bore the first European-produced coffee fruit.

This one event received little press or publicity, but ended up having a major impact on the spread of coffee to the world. These few coffee trees adjusted well to their new home and ended up producing many healthy Coffea Arabica plants. In 1658, nearly forty years after van der Broecke’s coffee heist, the Dutch transported coffee plants from Amsterdam to begin cultivation in their settlements in Ceylon – present day Sri Lanka – and later in souther India.

Within only a few years these Dutch colonies, including Java in Asia, became the main suppliers of coffee to Europe. The Yemeni monopoly was broken.

The idea of coffee houses was not unique to the near east – European consumers quickly found them as a way to share ideas, and they drew people from all different backgrounds. Cities in England, Holland, Germany, Austria, and France were epicenters for coffee houses. In England you could go into a coffeehouse and pay only a penny for a drink and stimulating conversation prompting the nickname “Penny Universities.”

In the mid-1600s coffee received its next big push forward, thanks to the Dutch once again. Dutch colonists were the first to bring coffee to their little colony called New Amsterdam – which would later have its name changed to New York by the British.

The post S2 Episode 1: The History of Coffee Pt. 1 appeared first on Boise Coffee.