Flagpole Food Editor Review

Food Editor Hillary Brown's review of 1000faces on 4/14/2009:

The Loving Cup

Cuppa Joe: When I started getting emails from Ben Myers at 1000 Faces Coffee(www.1000facescoffee.com) flogging the local roasting company's cuppings, I wasn't exactly sure what it meant. I've been drinking coffee daily since I was 15, and I fancy that I know what's good and what's not (although I don't always follow through on the relentless pursuit of quality), but I didn't really know what a "cupping" entailed. It turns out that 1000 Faces is eager as a beaver level to open up its facility to the public - I think Myers said the word "transparency" somewhere around a hundred times during the tour they gave me, and I would encourage anyone interested in learning a good bit more about the noble bean they call coffee to take advantage of the company's enthusiasm for education. The company has an "open doors" time every Friday from 2–5 p.m. in its small roasting facility in the back of the DOC Building at 585 Barber St., during which they offer free training and conduct cuppings. 

I've always appreciated from afar 1000 Faces' commitment to going beyond even fair trade to negotiating directly with small coffee growers (direct trade), but all its employees are quite adamant about the benefits of such a system, and their politics don't mean a lack of commitment to a good product, roasted in micro-batches so they can control the procedure from start to finish as much as possible. It's the artisanal approach that's becoming more common in all fields these days. 

So, what happens at a cupping? It's not so simple as brewing a cup and thinking about the way it tastes, although that's part of it. One starts with dry grounds (three different kinds, in our case), which one smells, deeply, and contemplates and smells again, and then jots down notes. What does it smell like? Chocolate? Earth? Blueberries? Carrots? There are no wrong answers. The barista then adds hot water to the grounds, and you go through the process again, making note of differences between dry and wet scents. You learn about the "break," which consists of breaking with a spoon the crust of grounds that have risen to the surface of a cup and inhaling deeply at the same time to get a sort of puff of aroma. All this precedes putting any coffee in your mouth and instills a sort of respect for the beans. The fact that it's blind, meaning you don't know whether a roast is dark or light, may lead to some surprises as well. Following the break and then the removal of the risen grounds, it's time to start slurping and swishing (and spitting, if you desire), a messy and noisy process and one in which a lack of decorum is encouraged. The louder the slurp, the more air you're getting into your mouth, and the better you'll taste all the elements of each cup. Flavor is noted and then re-noted after a bit of cooling, and then it's time to discuss. Is this elaborate? I suppose so, but it puts the emphasis back on individual flavor and aroma components and, in the process, renews the way one looks at coffee. No longer just a shot of fuel to prevent disabling headaches in the a.m., it's a beverage that can be even more varied than wine, and approaching it in such a fashion not only awakens appreciation of its complexity but, in fact, is a fine exercise for your palate in general. If you stick around, you may be rewarded, as well, with the best cup of cappuccino available in Athens, foamed with a local milk that is the equivalent of collapsing into a pile of satiny pillows and being fanned with a palm leaf.

See Full Review at: http://flagpole.com/Weekly/GrubNotes

Comments

[kum]

mm, another way to enjoy coffee