Slow Food Nation 2008

What are you doing Labor Day Weekend?

The first ever Slow Food Nation event is being held August 29- September 1st in San Fransisco. So whats the big deal you ask? Well beyond being the largest celebration of food in America, Olympia Coffee will be represented in the Coffee Pavilion alongside some of Americas best coffee roasters. Roasters like Ritual, Ecco, Barefoot, Intelligentsia, Terrior, Stumptown, Verve and Zoka...... All I can say is WOW, how cool is that?

Olympia Coffee Roastings Coffees will be prepared as always on La Marzocco Espresso Machines and Clover Coffee Brewers, by some of the best Baristas in the country (and possibly the world ;-).

Andrew Barnett of Ecco Caffe, Eileen Hassi of Ritual, Tony Konecny of Tonx.org, and Brent Fortune of Crema Bakery, have put together a great effort to host the Coffee Pavilion. What a great group of dedicated coffee people!

Olympia Coffee will be there and so should you. Come Celebrate, Learn and Act to build a food system that is sustainable, just, and delicious. Join us in San Francisco this Labor Day Weekend for an unprecedented event!

Idido Misty Valley

As if it wasn't enough that we are roasting up the first of our Las Termopilas this week, we are also adding an outstanding Ethiopian coffee to our list of offerings. Misty Valley is a dry processed coffee from Idido, Yirgacheffe. It has an intoxicating floral perfume aroma, with flavors of blueberries, honey, and lemon. It's fresh roasted today, stop by and try this exquisite coffee.

Nicaragua Las Termopilas Direct

Later this week we will be getting a shipment of coffee from Finca Termopilas. We are very pleased to be able to bring this coffee back onto our offering sheet as the result of direct relationship with the producer of this coffee, Milton Canales. Bringing in coffee direct is a milestone for our company, and what better coffee to launch our first direct trade than Las Termopilas. This organic coffee was purchased through direct negotiation with the producer based on it's quality, fetching a price over 25% above Fair Trade price. Those of you who miss last years Cup of Excellence auction winning lot stop by next week, this years crop will continue to dazzle your taste buds. Our first roast of Las Termopilas will be available for purchase next Wednesday, July 30th. Stop by for a cup brewed fresh on our clover or pick up a pound for home.

Customer Spotlight: Java Flow continues to grow

Olympia Coffee is a small coffee roaster, with big ideas.

When we first met Stephenie Jekel, she had just purchased her first store in Downtown Olympia. Since that time we have worked with Stephanie and her staff to learn proper espresso preparation methods and business tips.

Now with four stores and two more on the way, Stephenie has overcome more than just a few trials. This story in the Weekly Volcano from earlier this year tells it all.

Stephenie and her crew are truly the type of success story that Olympia Coffee is proud to be a part of. Our story grows as the story of our customers, and farmers grows. We send a big thank you out to Stephanie and her customers for supporting the work and quality of Olympia Coffee Roasting!

Coffee Review #3

Olympia Coffee Roasting has received yet another Coffee Review rating this past week. This current reviews focus was on single origin espresso. We received an 87 score for our efforts!

We have been fortunate to receive 3 reviews to this date, and these have included our signiture espresso " Big Truck" and our Mountain Water Process Decaf coffee.

Sam submitted the Boliva Chicoloma Cup of Excellence coffee that we have been so fortunate to have here at the roasting works. Being a small craft roaster and having the opportunity to buy great coffees and receive excellent feedback for our efforts is a great feeling. Thanks to all of you that take note of our efforts to focus on quality.

Kenneth Davids of Coffee Review and Heather Perry of the Klatch Coffee Roasting were this months reviewers, and it appears from the reviews they had some fun with these coffees. You can read the entire review here

El Salvador Cup of Excellence

We missed chance to bring any coffees home from the Nicaragua Cup of Excellence as Terry stated in the last post. The good news is we were part of the group that put the winning bid on Lot #4 in the El Salvador auction yesterday. So in a month or so look for any outstanding Pacamara from Santa Teresa IV. We will keep you posted on it's arrival.

To check out the results from yesterdays auction click here.

Bikes, Las Termopilas, and a missed opportunity

This last month has been fairly productive around Olympia Coffee.

Sam attended the Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence panel as a Cupping Judge. This was quite the experience for Sam as well as Olympia Coffee, as we have started to create more of a global awareness to our commitment to quality coffee. Being a small coffee roaster comes with it's challenges, and one of those is sourcing quality coffees that normally are reserved for larger companies with more funding options.

On this trip Sam was able to meet with the owner of Las Termopilas. This coffee was the number four Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence winner last year and we were able to purchase a bag of this nice coffee via a partnership with Cafe Imports and a few other quality minded roasters.

This year Las Termopilas did not make the COE but the coffee is still quite nice and we have created a direct trade agreement with the help of Jared Rennie of Noble Coffee Roasting and Cafe Imports. This is a great event in the history of our company, and one that has significant meaning to all involved. Make sure you try some of this coffee when it arrives.

We started delivering to our wholesale accounts in Downtown Olympia Via a very cool Dutch Delivery Bike. We worked with local bike purveyor Larry Levine, of Oly Bikes to purchase this bright orange delivery bike. We then outfitted the bike with Panniers from Clever Chimp of Portland. The bike is way faster than the van, and we do not have to find a place to park! This thing is cool. So cool in fact that the local paper picked up the story. We like bikes and of course the exercise and the environmental benefits are a plus as well.

Ok, so times you win, sometimes you lose........ and in this instance we lost. Olympia Coffee was participating in the recent Nicaraguan COE auction, and was bidding on a lot with our past bidding partners as mentioned above. Unfortunately for us there was a communication break down during the auction and we missed the opportunity to purchase this coffee, bummer.

The good news is that somebody won this lot and somewhere in the world they will get to taste a great coffee. If you read this blog and you won the lot, maybe you could just send us a bag, as a conciliation prize?

Make sure if you are in Olympia, Passing through Olympia, thinking of coming to Olympia, that you swing by our Roasting Works and Cafe, we would love to show you around.