thefreshride.com Blog

March Snapshooter Profile

Check out this month’s featured photographer….
Photographer Name: Minta Thomson
Home Town: Pheonix, Arizona

Minta's Bad Dog featured this month

Would you say you’re a snapshot taker, or a pro, or something in between?
trying to make a living at it =)

What kinds of pictures do you enjoy taking?
candids… secretspy type…unposed moments that may have gone unnoticed. I like to flip the perspective of things & make my viewers think about the story behind the foto.

Have you had a chance to share your fame, or your coffee with others?
I have! I gave coopins to my neighbors…shared on facebook, flickr, twitter & when talking to friends.

And last but not least…how do you take your coffee?
With a smooth kickstart.

To Freeze?

Where to store these little jewels?

Picture this…..There you are at the bakery. You point to the clerk…”I’d like one of those, and one of those, and one of those.” Just baked, and still just room temperature you run home to throw the perfectly delicious raspberry almond, peach, and strawberry pastries into the freezer so they will stay “fresh” for your afternoon coffee party with friends. You go to the freezer 6 hours later to pull your pastries out to thaw in time for your guests’ arrival. Not only are they hard as a rock, but they now smell like the Dino-Nuggets and fish sticks wedged deep in the freezer 18 months ago. You pretend like this doesn’t bother you, and let the baked goods thaw at room temperature, only to find that when finally thawed, the flaky crust, and chewy center, and fresh fruit have been turned into a soggy, flat and sad excuse for the once amazing baked goods you purchased earlier that day. Sure they still taste pastry-like, but you’ve moved them from a “10” to a “6” at best. Your friends officially think you suck, and would like never to be invited for afternoon coffee at your house again.

So what the does that have to do with coffee besides the fact that it’s coffee hour? Everything. If you are going to buy freshly roasted coffee (I mean freshly roasted, like in the past 1-3 days), and you’re going to be able to drink what you’ve purchased over the next 8-13 days, don’t put it in the freezer. Yes, a pastry’s freshness window is really only about 12 hours, whereas coffee is about 2 weeks, so adjust your imagination accordingly. If you can drink the coffee you have purchased during its freshness window, simply store in an airtight, opaque container and normal room temperature. Enjoy it every day until it’s gone. If your coffee came in a foil coffee bag with a one way degassing valve on it, and can be closed well, that’s also a great way to store it.

If you can’t drink the fresh coffee you’ve purchased within the 2 week freshness window, then here are your options. (Pay attention…none of this matters one bit if you’ve purchased old coffee already.)
1. Don’t care, and know that your coffee’s flavor will deteriorate during the time it takes you to drink it. Keep it all stored at room temp in an airtight container.
2. Try to make it better, and take the portion that you can’t drink in 2 weeks and store it in your freezer in an airtight, opaque container. Enjoy the fresh portion you’ve kept out at room temperature until it’s gone. Once your room-temperature stores have depleted, remove your frozen portion from the freezer, and store and use at room temperature from then on. Know that your frozen coffee’s flavor will be less amazing than the freshly -roasted-never-frozen-version of itself. Don’t expect your coffee to hold on in the freezer for longer than a month.

The most important thing to realize is that making a hybrid version of the above is a terrible idea.….thinking that by just KEEPING your coffee in the freezer day after day, that it will stay better. Not true! We all know that anything we freeze changes in texture and taste. Loaf of bread? That Marlin you caught in Cabo last fall? You get the point.

Think of it this way. You’re a young 15 year old girl has just discovered makeup (ok, hang with me here). You ever-so-slightly apply some mascara and eyeshadow to your eyes to highlight their green color, then brush a little lip gloss onto your perfect little lips to brighten your amazing smile. You go out on a date looking this way, and you’re georgeous. The world acknowledges your undeniable beauty and radiance, and compliments come from every angle. The next day, still enjoying yesterday’s compliments, you think to yourself “if some makeup was that awesome, then I’ll, like, just put more on, and everyone will think I’m INCREDIBLE!”

Nope. Wrong. Now you look like a hooker, and not the “good” kind. Don’t turn your coffee into a street walking train wreck by keeping it stored in the freezer. (You know who you are…you have that half-sealed bag sitting in there right now. Every day it goes in and out of the freezer, forms condensation on the beans, picks up the freezer’s odors, and breaks down the fantastic flavor and aroma characteristics to the point where your coffee just tastes like the old ice cubes on the top shelf behind the sad frozen open bag of broccoli).

The best world scenario is to buy only what you need for 2 weeks, get it fresh, treat it with respect, and enjoy it until it’s gone. Then, buy more fresh coffee and do it all over again. Think of the freezer as an emergency situation that’s only brought in when you get invited on a sudden beach vacation to Baja. When you get back, you’ll still be basking in your sun-tanned look and post Tequila fogginess, so you have a few days to burn up the frozen stuff before your brain kicks in to reality and tells you it’s time to buy more fresh coffee.

The Final Yard….

A little logo that means so much

Auditors I’ve met in the past usually come clad in suits, and spend most of their lives tediously sorting through papers in locked off areas of offices to which one only goes when one’s manager wants to have a “word”. Today’s visit was luckily different—at least from a fashion point of view. As someone who regularly audits agricultural processing operations like dairies, she seemed happy that she didn’t have to come to this audit wearing her rubber boots, and could instead arrive in her every day comfort-footwear, with not a suit in site. She also happened to be a coffee business owner and roaster herself, which, if anything else, just made me feel like we’d be speaking the same language for the day. Ready to go, our audit started with an inaugural espresso before we took a seat and dug in to the pages of our application.

What is certified organic coffee anyway? Here it is…in plain words: Starting with the grower, coffee is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Then, after coffee is grown and harvested, certified organic handling standards are met throughout the supply chain to ensure that when coffees arrive at the coffee roasters’ doors, the integrity of the organic quality is maintained. Why then, wouldn’t that be considered certified organic coffee, you might ask? Good question!

If you can imagine a quarterback tossing a perfect spiral throw to the receiver, who then runs it 60 yards toward the end zone…but instead of crossing the line for the touchdown, he stops just a yard short, sits down, and calls “close enough” a “touchdown”. Well, it’s not a touchdown. And at a yard short, it’s not certified organic either.

The coffee roaster – the one responsible for the final yard before reaching you, the customer – must also become a certified organic processor for the coffee to be sold as USDA Certified Organic on the label. It’s a commitment to the organic product, by which the roaster ensures that handling, roasting, and packaging methods are performed per certified organic processing standards.

All of this is for us, the consumer. Can you believe it? The USDA actually cares about us and the validity of the organic product we might choose to purchase. Believe it or not, the use of the term organic is still highly abused within many industries, including the coffee industry. Strict labeling requirements define who, how, & where you can actually use the term “organic”. It seems like it’s a confusing thing to understand, but the good news is that at the consumer level, we don’t need to know all these rules. We can just look for that little round “USDA Organic” logo on the front packaging of a product claiming organic, and know that this is actually what it says it is. The entire supply chain, including the final processor, is certified. It’s just that easy. Thank you great regulators of the world. We like pictures.

So finally, after hours of scouring every one of our policies, practices, forms, and processes (probably topped only by the amount of paper that Brad and Angelina had to file to adopt their soccer team of kids) our auditor left. We’ll had to patiently wait for what we hope to be the good news. And good news it was. We’ve officially been granted our organic processors certification, and are now a certified organic coffee roaster. Now that……..that is a touchdown.

Snapshooter Profile December

Check out this month’s featured photographer, Michael Bryan….

Photographer Name: Michael Bryan
Home Town: Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Michaels snowman....one of 3 winning snapshots voted by our customers

What kinds of pictures do you enjoy taking?
I really enjoy shooting macro’s, especially of flowers, but I am expanding my horizons a bit and starting to do more landscape shots. My photos can be seen on Flickr at mbryan777. In fact my Lizzy’s Fresh Coffee label is featured there.

Have you had a chance to share your fame, or your coffee with others?
I’ve been sending bags of Lizzy’s coffee to friends and family and they like it!

And last but not least…how do you take your coffee?
I like my coffee strong, so I grind it fine. Then I add a bit of hazelnut creamer.

Snap-Shooter Profile, October

Check out this month’s featured photographer, Ricardo Carreon…

October Snap-Shooter Profile
Photographer Name: Ricardo Carreon
Home Town: Saltillo, Mexico

Ricardo's winning picture...do the tube socks make you go higher?

What kinds of pictures do you enjoy taking?
People pictures, travel pictures and landscapes.

Have you had a chance to share your fame, or your coffee with others?
Yes, I showed the picture on the coffee bag to my parents (they are the grandparents of the kids in the photo) and they were simply delighted. I also left a bag with them to taste the coffee, I am pretty sure they will like it as the smell of the beans was outstanding!

And last but not least…how do you take your coffee?
Espresso. I like the rich flavor espresso in the morning and after lunch.

Snap-Shooter Profile, September

We’ve had so much fun getting to know the photographers who take all the great pics for our coffees! But wait, you’ve been left out. So in the spirit of sharing, every month from now on we’re going to share a profile of one of our most awesome snap-shooters. Check out their work, and find out more about them…enjoy!

September Snap-Shooter Profile
Photographer Name: Heather C. Kraft
Home Town: Boston, MA

Heather's picture of her dog and the doughnut bag....

Would you say you’re a snapshot taker, or a pro, or something in between?
I’d say something in-between. I’ve taken a few courses in college but most of what I know comes from looking at other people’s work. I’m not overly technical or precise, I like to get a feeling for a shot as well as capture the moment.

What kinds of pictures do you enjoy taking?
You know, I used to be very opinionated about my subjects, but I’ve found the more that I try things, the more I realize what I like. A few years back I tried something different for fun, it turned out getting more response than other things I’ve worked twice as hard at. You can check it out here,
http://www.flickr.com/groups/709368@N22/
Before that project I ran around Boston photographing life-size cow sculptures – with my dog in them! I had to get creative because after the first 12 or so [there were 117!] my dog started giving me attitude. He’d put his ears back and look tortured. My final shot won me the contest that funded my camera.

Have you had a chance to share your fame, or your coffee with others?
It made me feel great to be chosen and I shared that success with friends. To get the news out as fast as possible I sent a mass email. This is something I’ve never done before, ever, and it really gets people’s attention [because I never do it]. Everyone has been extremely excited
because they understand how much I love photography. But my dog also has a lot of fans out there and people were equally amused by the picture and excited to see him.

And last but not least…how do you take your coffee?
Mmmm, coffee. Just milk or cream, often iced and always strong and smooth. Actually, the Bad Dog coffee has really surprised me, it’s quite tasty and I often lean toward espresso for really good coffee.

Who Invited the Russian Judge?

I am the Russian Judge. It’s possible I’ve been bribed by Don Carlos, or the little girl I call the Candy Lord (she’s mastered the art of manipulation using her endless supplies of hard candies). I can be bought, and I know nothing of what I speak. I could hold up a “10” when all the other judges are holding a “6”. Just stand back and be ready to gasp at the results….

Breathing a big sigh of relief I woke up from this morning reality TV dream and got my bearings. It was day 2 in Monserrate, Colombia, and I was there to judge 59 coffee farmers’ hard work with a sniff, a slurp, and a pencil. The top 5 winners would take home cash prizes, and enjoy extra per-pound profits as a result, not to mention earn the respect and envy of every neighbor on the coffee growing hill top. That’s a lot of pressure, and the hopes and dreams of these coffee farmers were waiting on the judgment of 9 people, one being me.

My dream wasn’t far off, because among the room of judges were experienced Q Graders, coffee roasters with several years’ experience, and coffee industry professionals who’ve collectively slurped and spit more coffee than I’ve roasted in my career.

So here’s the gig: “Cupping” is the act of “tasting” coffee. There is a strict protocol to create an equal playing field for the coffees to compete. All must have been roasted the same way, ground the same, measured to precisely 12 grams, brew using water at 203 degrees for exactly 4 minutes, and then be tasted on characteristics ranging from aroma to acidity to body to aftertaste, among others. Scores are tallied and compiled to widdle these 59 coffees down to the top 10 on the final day for a showdown between the best.

I tentatively dipped my spoon into the first cup of joe for a slurp. Nope, it’s not a dainty act. It’s a big airy suck of wind that sprays the coffee into your mouth in order to expose all the flavors the coffee has to offer. A quick swish and the coffee is spit into my personal little spit-cup. Within that mini-moment, I’m supposed to get my head around that coffee. Does it taste like mango dancing in the sunlight of a lemon field laced with a cashew velvet? It was up to me to decide.

At first it was really really hard, and although I wasn’t completely off base, I felt like my assessments were contrived and unnatural. I talked with the others as they all gave me tips on what “body” really felt like, on what number to assign “aroma” and how to detect what really was a “nuttiness”. I was really trying to pick apart every bit of the coffee and mechanically decipher its features and benefits (the downfall of being a boxes and squares kind of gal). I quickly realized this just wasn’t going to work for me, and began wondering where the bribers were hiding because I was pretty sure my vote could be bought at that point.

We came back to the cupping table number 2 and I just decided that I was going to block out all the noise and words that I was trying to put to the coffee and just taste. The clouds parted, and I believe the Virgin herself paid me a visit because all of a sudden this coffee cupping pace gained a momentum and ease that could only be matched by a near effortless downhill ski run in fresh powder. I know, cheesy, huh? But really….just the same. If someone would tell you how to ski and describe every angle of the turn from your knees’ degree of bend, to the pressure assigned to each foot, to the intensity of the grip on your pole, you’d crack. Your first turn would end with a faceplant and yardsale. But instead, if you eased up, let go, and just felt the snow and what it needed to provide you a pillow upon which to arc your perfectly glossed boards? Pure Warren Miller ski movie magic baby.

In two and a half days of tasting, some tables were easier than others, but I seemed to be getting it. Even though my descriptions of the coffees lacked more than 3 adjectives, I could say yum, yuck, and so-so to every coffee on the table right at pace with the group. They taught me so much, gave me so much insight, and made me happy that I wasn’t the only one who could accidentally dip my nose into the cup, or choke on a slurp.

The grand finale was on the final round when we discussed our rankings of the coffees at the table. I knew which coffees I liked and wanted to share with my customers, and I knew what I didn’t like. I learned that not everyone has the same favorite, but I also realized that when a coffee was great, it was great. It was such a joy to realize we’d all voted on the winning coffee when all 9 of our hands went up in unison, and I was not, in fact, that crazy Russian Judge at all. Suck that Candy Lord.

Just Getting There

At 8 p.m. last night I was casually sipping the last of my cold beverage, and enjoying a slice of pizza with friends at a local pizza joint. This is otherwise known as “skillful delay of packing for a trip.” With a 7 a.m. departure, I figured I had all night to pack if I wanted it, and I could sleep all day during the flights to Colombia.

At about midnight I put the finishing touches on the packing and climbed into bed for 5 hours or so of sleep–Total panic– I realized I’d left my boarding pass at my store, along with the pictures of kids whose gifts I was on a mission to deliver to Colombia. Arg!!! I just figured I’d have to get up half a crack of a you know what earlier to fetch this stuff, then I’d be on my way.

At 5 a.m. I was up and at ‘em…so far so good. I was out the door at 5:30 to fetch the stuff, and transfer a few computer files to the travel laptop….still good. 5 minutes and I’d be outa there. Five somehow turned into twenty five, and when I looked at my watch I had one of those pure freak-outs that comes when you realize you’ve just inflicted pain onto yourself that is now irreversible, un-repairable, and would require the most advanced of pleading and manipulation of airport personnel you are humanly capable of delivering.

Ok, into the car I went, with the gas pedal at full throttle to get to the airport in time for the flight. I grabbed my driver (my husband) with a 25 mph “get in the car- I’m late” move, pulled up to the airport, jumped out, ran to the ticket counter, and to my total (not) surprise, I was too late to drop off the pre-checked extra bag I had. (The bag that contained the soccer jerseys. The whole purpose of my trip, bag. The bag that now was going to require me to beg with TSA or someone else to allow it onto the plane with me.)

All I can say is that living in a small town has its perks. Not one of my ready-for-action skills of manipulation was called into duty, and I had full permission to just put it on the plane-side baggage cart (yes if you didn’t catch that, we actually have such a small airport that you walk across the pavement, unprotected and sort of wild-west like, and walk up the stairs into the awaiting 30 passenger prop jet.

Suweet! I’m on the plane, I’ve got my bags, and all I now have to do is get it checked in during my next stop. Perfect. Start the engines! Um, START the ENGINES, Ya…hello engines, did you hear me? Really I don’t know enough about planes to know if those are the “engines” or just the “props”. Bottom line? Plane has 2 props, one on the right, and one on the left. The left one just didn’t feel like starting. Are you kidding me?

Off the plane we went with no time to spare! My trip is a long dance of coordinated pick ups, rides, and rendezvous. I can’t show up late unless I want to be finding my own way through the back roads of Colombia, and I certainly can’t cancel. I had to figure out a way to make this work. After 45 minutes of line standing, new line standing, calling, bag grabbing, line standing, phone calling, and did I mention line standing? (My particular favorite line standing moment was when I stood behind 2 quite metropolitan ladies off to what looked like a fun weekend in New York, who were utterly perplexed by what they were going to do if they couldn’t get to their pre-booked $1000 per night hotel reservation refunded by the airline. Hmmm….I’m thinking if you’re booking $1000 hotel suites maybe you don’t need to be giving the completely un-empowered ticket agent a hard time right now. I’m guessing she’s not feeling too sorry for you.)

So, the bottom line? If I want to make it to Colombia, I’m going to have to get into my Soccer-mom mobile and drive it like the wind for the next 4 hours to make my flight at the next destination. Ok, then, game on.

I was pedal to the metal for the next 4 hours. Me, my music cranked, the roast beef man-sandwich that I stole at the last minute from my husband’s lunch, and my cell phone feverishly making calls to try to fix the big snafu that had now been created. I didn’t count the laws I broke, but just crossed my fingers, hoping everything would be ok.

Man Sandwich - high in protein

I’m here in Houston, about to get on the red eye to Bogota, and hoping that all the strings “Juan” pulled are going to come together perfectly!

Just Say Yes

The ticket is booked. Somehow there’s available credit on the American Express and I don’t care that I’ll be eating cereal for dinner the next several months to pay it back. If you get a chance to go on a trip like this, you say “yes”… then figure it out.

What started out as a spark of kindness by my son is now dropping me right in the middle of the home of Juan Valdez and his mule. It’s possible that Juan is now retired, after working his butt off in the 60s, 70s and 80s, hand picking beans and showing up at the back doors of housewives all across America with cans of Colombian coffee, perfectly timed to relieve the stress of preparing the coffee for the ladies luncheon. What would our moms have done without him? Colombia sits as the 3rd largest coffee producing country on the globe behind Brazil and Vietnam. I’m sure they could do better if they slowed down a little on the cocaine production. Who has time for coffee when you’re producing 80% of the world’s cocaine supplies? I laugh, but I give mad respect to those working their tails off cultivating coffee to make a legal living.

So how, you might ask, did I end up ticket in hand? Pretty cool story, actually. My son has been way into learning about coffee. Back in the late fall he was looking at the giant world map, marked with coffee origins of the coffees that I use in our blends, and asked what it was like for the kids who lived in these places. I told him about how the kids live a lot differently than he does. They don’t have 16 sweatshirts and talk about the latest game they played on Wii. They don’t go skiing for fun in the winter, and sneak episodes of “Ben Ten” on the TV when Mom and Dad aren’t watching. A lot of these kids work in the family business of coffee, don’t necessarily have shoes, may or may not have the privilege of going to school, and sometimes find themselves hungry when the cash is low and harvest is still weeks away. He pondered and said to me “I want to do something nice for a kid there”, with “there” being anywhere that coffee is grown.

I picked up the phone and called my coffee importer, and have to admit I felt a little bit like I was going to be bugging him with this little request. I told him that my son wanted to do something for a kid “there”, and asked if he had any ideas. Almost as though this was the exact phone call he’d been waiting for all day, he told me not only could he do something nice for one kid, but he could do something nice for a whole community of kids if he wanted to. He explained that the kids in the town of Monserrate, Colombia are soccer obsessed, but play in their multi colored tee shirts, and would be out of their skin with joy if they had real soccer jerseys. I hung up the phone, proposed this idea to my soccer-obsessed child, and it was game on without a blink.

Oooookaaay…so now my kid, who I thought might be getting a book or a pair of shoes for one kid in Colombia, is about to outfit the whole soccer team in uniforms. How the heck is this going to go down? Never underestimate the power of a kid, his school teacher, or the simple desire to just make something happen. My son talked to his teacher about his idea, because clearly he’d need some help, and she jumped on about as fast as I suck down an espresso. Before we knew it, we had the entire 3rd grade on board.

We made a learning experience out of it by bringing each of the classes to my store for a coffee field trip (See Raise Your Hand Please). Then, each of the kids in the classrooms created a potential coffee label, and the kids voted for their favorite 3. We sold enough coffee online to buy the kids in Monserrate 30 soccer jerseys, and that was that!

So back to the ticket? I called my importer again in May and said…”ok, the kids did it! I have the jerseys, hand-written letters, and a signed soccer ball here. What’s the best way to get this to Monserrate?”
He quickly replied “Well, the best way to get it all there is for you to join us as a guest cupping judge during the August harvest, and deliver the kids’ gift in person”.

The thought of this opportunity…seeing the special community of Monserrate, getting to know the people who harvest this amazing coffee that I buy, playing a game of soccer with the kids (and getting whooped), and just experiencing the unknown….Like I said, you say “yes” and just figure it out.

…and you are?

The other day I was dropping off some coffee for a customer and one of the employees at the store came out….blah blah…talk talk….we introduced ourselves. I was happy. I was very happy, and I’ll tell you why. The man stood there with a gift from heaven. Yes, if you can imagine this: He had his name “Mike”, embroidered to his shirt. There it sat, happily perched upon his left chest, embroidered in a contrast blue stitching to his baby blue button down shirt. What I loved about this is that, unlike my typical lame self, when I forget a person’s name about 1 minute after I meet them, I had his little shirt to tell me who he was, and I could say in style as I walked away, “nice to meet you M-I-K-E”. Yeah. Nice touch, I know.

I’ve met a few hundred new people in the last months, and I have to say, I’m much better at remembering names than I used to be. Inevitably, though, someone will walk in the front door of my store, know exactly who I am, and I’ll have no idea what their name is. I scan to the left chest to see if by chance I’m blessed with an embroidered reminder, or a plastic badge bearing the two legged human’s name without looking like I’m checking if it’s cold outside. Why couldn’t this person just have come back from “Learning to Talk to Your Teenager” seminar and have the “Hello My Name Is” sticker still conveniently pasted over the chocolate doughnut stain on their shirt? Come on…help a sista out.

Here’s the unfairness of it all. I’m aware that half of the faces who “know” me are cheating anyway, as they walk in my door and say “hello Lizzy”. Nice work, but they’ve just read the “Lizzy’s Fresh Coffee” store hours on the front door. Anyone who has met me knows that I NEVER introduce myself as Lizzy. I don’t go by Lizzy, I don’t smell like a Lizzy, and I only have one friend on the planet who calls me that, and it’s usually after I’ve had a cocktail or two. I’m Liz, and my brand is someone else. I’m not near nice enough to be called that anyway, where as she (my company) is a nicer, sweeter, more patient, and much more bubbly version of Elizabeth (a name only saved for my mother and friends who knew me in the 3rd grade).

Once a person proclaims the “Lizzy”, as I like to call it, I feel like I know something about the person standing before me that they don’t know that I know (like maybe they cheat when they’re the banker during a game of Monopoly). I laugh a little inside, smile back, scan for the name tag, feel defeated, and say “nice to see you again”. I muddle through a couple minutes of conversation that ends in the victorious hand over of the credit card….Ah the glory of retail. My heart pounds, I feel relieved, and I say as the person turns to leave….
“Thanks for coming in, J-I-M”.