An Evening of Coffee Tasting with Rocketfuelcoffee.com

Order the coffee online at www.rocketfuelcoffee.com and let the festivities begin!

Things You'll Need:

Information on each of the coffees

Small glasses of water

Large spoons and several cups

Step 1. Decide what you are tasting for.

Comparing coffees is very much the same as comparing fine wines, brandies or cigars. Many factors are open for basis of comparison and the theme of the evening will decide the coffee source, the budget and catering of the affair. A range of Panamanian coffees will be a wonderful evening. A tasting of Kopi Luwak might be a dream come true for some if the mood is right!

Step 2. Make the best coffee and make it right.

Choose beans that are as fresh as possible and make sure they are genuine, not blends or labeled improperly. Grind properly for the process you are brewing: coarse for French Press or percolator, finer for filter dripped coffeemaker. There is no right way, just the kind you like.

Know that the four key elements to any good brewed coffee: water (filtered and hot, but not boiling), grind (matches the machine--for a coffee press grind course), proportion (usually 1 tablespoons for every 6 ounces of water), freshness (coffee beans have an expiration date--opened bags of coffee are only good for 7 days)

Step 3. Variety makes for a great tasting.

Have at least three but no more than four different types of coffees to try in one tasting. Two will not give you enough diversity to learn the differences, unless you are already an experienced coffee taster. Any more than four will muddle the tastes together, which will also make it difficult to taste the differences. However, if the idea is for everyone to go for a champagne and Kopi Luwak evening, invite me!

Step 4. Food Pairings

Choose the foods based on the types of coffee. Just like a good cup of wine, coffee pairs well with specific flavors. For example, a coffee can have citrus or berry accents to it. Pair this with a lemon tart or a blueberry muffin and the resulting flavor can amaze you. The same can occur with almonds, cinnamon or cheese depending on the specific coffee.

Display the food in bite-size pieces so it is easily available. Keep the different foods on separate plates so not to cross-contaminate flavors.

Step 5. Start the Coffee Tasting

The coffee should be brewed fresh and hot. A coffee press lasts only 20 minutes before it begins to cool and lose its potent flavor. We are using a spoon for this tasting.

Know how to properly taste coffee. Smell first; cup your hand around your nose and sample of coffee. Take a big whiff then slowly breathe out. Take a second to think about how you would describe the aroma. Words? Images?

Take a large and loud slurp of your sample of coffee. If you can't hear the slurp, you may be doing it wrong. Slurping coats the coffee across your entire tongue without burning it. Don't swallow the coffee yet. Take a second and let it sit on your tongue. Each part of the tongue picks up a different type of flavor. Note how it feels on the back, front, sides and tip of your tongue.

Swallow. Take note of the flavors that hit your senses. This includes the after flavor of the coffee. Some coffees hit your tongue with a sharp, strong flavor, but leave your mouth quickly as if you were just drinking water. Others coffees seem to linger in your mouth long after you swallow, pleasantly or bitterly.

Pair the coffee sample with food. Note the flavor of the food by itself. Swallow. Take a second bite of food. Before swallowing, slurp a sample of coffee like before and hold it in your mouth. If the pairing is complimentary, the flavor with literally come alive in your mouth and shock your senses.

Rinse your mouth with water and repeat the steps above with the different coffees. Your guests should have a great evening!

Holiday Time at Rocketfuelcoffee.com!

Oh what fun when you are in illustrator in the coffee business!

It's that time of year when companies get to bring out their holiday cheer and we no exception. Only because I (Lisa Rotenberg) am a professional artist/designer/illustrator I really get to have some fun. So much that I could not decide on one Christmas/holiday package so I came up with an edition of FOUR. Mix 'em and match 'em. Pair 'em up.

The best news of all is what's inside. All contain the wonderful Rocketfuelcoffee.com Triple X, arguably our best coffee, even with our fancy schmancy Black Label coffees, some coming in at $220 a pound. The blend of Jamaican Blue, Hawaiian Kona and Sumatra makes sleigh bells ring. What can we say.

Check out the page where you can put together gift packs for friends and clients! Rocketfuelcoffee.com Travel mugs, a beautiful red box and voilà you are a holiday hero! We will even send it direct to the giftee of your choice.

Come up to the LAB... We have a new Toy!

Don't get too excited, Matthew and I have not become true rocket scientists yet, except maybe in our own minds! We have become the proud owners of a lightly used Behmor 1600 coffee bean roaster and we can now roast small batches at home. Believe me, George, rocketfuelcoffee.com's sommelier is not concerned that Drs Frankenstein and Frankenstein will put him out of business.



Although it has taken over 2 weeks and about 5 pounds of green beans to get even a remotely drinkable cup out of the Behmor, it has been a fun project and our house smells great! Matthew thinks my constant desire to mix beans into whacko blends is disgusting. I think he is a prude and a supremacist.

The reason we got this thing is to try exotic coffee beans 1/2 a pound at a time. George, bless his heart will only fire up his cannons for 20 pounds at a time. If I get in some green beans of India Mysore Nuggets and I am not sure about them, what am I going to do with 20 pounds?



Shall keep on roasting, but so far results vary. Beans have not been dark enough for fear of burning down the house. Oh and never use an extension chord as not enough electrical juice gets to the monster. Roast 1/2 a pound on the one pound setting and set up a chair in front and watch like a TV (that's what I do). That way you can throw it out the door if a bean bursts into flame.

Roast ON!

New Review in for Esmeralda Special from Daily Shot of Coffee, Mike Crimmins.

Dailyshotofcoffee.com
August 31, 2009

The Drink: Esmeralda Special from RocketFuelCoffee.Com
Type: Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

I’ve been very fortunate to taste some of the rarest coffees in the world – Kopi Luwak, Kona and many more. This afternoon I sampled another very rare coffee, the Esmeralda Special from RocketFuelCoffee.Com and now you can try it too!

Esmeralda Special is grown on a small plantation in Panama. The Hacienda la Esmeralda plantation is only 6,000 acres and Esmeralda Special grows on only a limited portion. The beans are hand picked to ensure that only the best are harvested and go through an intense tasting process to make sure only the cream of the crop ever leave the farm.

This is a coffee that will get your attention and wake you up in the morning. The beans themselves have an intense smell. When I opened up the bag, I was greeted with a romantic winelike aroma. A few minutes later, an equally as strong aroma was streaming out of my coffee cup, but this time it had more of a berry tone. There were hints of ripe strawberries, freshly picked blackberries and from the completely other end of the spectrum a dash of licorice.

From the first drop to hit my tongue, I knew that this was going to be something intense. It had a serious, mature taste with a very smooth feeling.

The taste was well balanced with a medium dark coffee taste setting the pace.

On one side of things, there was a deep berry taste. There were the strawberries and blackberries, but now there were also hints of blueberry that could’ve easily come from a pie still warm from the oven.

Underneath, I picked up a darker taste, but it was still full of flavors. The licorice was there and there was a slightly smoky feeling. It definitely wasn’t a dark roast, more like a rich, gourmet coffee.

My tongue was left with a sweet, berry filled feeling. The taste didn’t want to disappear.

It’s definitely not a “value play” at $75 for a half a pound, but it’s worth pampering yourself with a special treat. It’ll impress your family, your coffee loving friends and most importantly your taste buds.

I put it right up there with the 4.5 out of 5 that I gave One Love from Marley Coffee last week. Both are standout coffees in their own right and for different reasons both are worth checking out.

THE LI$T - The World's Most Expensive Coffees

Disregard the prices... These guys are dreaming :-)

Impressed how many we have or what???

* Taken from Posted April 4th, 2009 12:48 pm by admin Filed Under: Food & Beverage, MOST EXPENSIVE, Top 10

The Top 10 Coffee of the World - Most Expensive

Coffee enjoys immense fame as the best of beverages available all around the world. The most refreshing of all drinks, it is popular with people of all age groups as an energy booster. Being a commercial crop, coffee is the economic mainstay of many countries. There are several varieties of coffee. They differ in quality, flavor and taste. Here is a list incorporating the top ten coffees from different parts of the globe.

1. Kopi Luwak - Indonesia

Kopi Luwak popular in Indonesia is a powered extract of coffee cherries that common palm civets feed on. Common palm civets make use of their keen smelling power to select the ripest coffee beans. The flesh from these crimson beans is removed through their digestion process. It costs $160 per pound.

2. Hacienda La Esmeralda - Boquete, Panama

Hacienda La Esmeralda’s Geisha grown in Boquete, Panama is world wide popular for its flavor. It is largely cultivated in the shade of old guava trees. It is priced at $104 per pound.

3.Island Of St. Helena Coffee Company - St. Helena

The island of St. Helena, 1,200 miles off the coast of Africa is the breeding ground for St. Helena Coffee. It owes its present popularity to Napoleon Bonaparte whose praise of the coffee sowed its seeds on the island of St. Helena. It comes priced at $79 per pound.

4. El Injerto - Huehuetenango, Guatemala

This sort of coffee by El Injerto owes its origin in the region of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. It has bagged the first prize in the 2006 Cup of Excellence. The coffee is retailed at more than $50 per pound.

5. Fazenda Santa Ines - Minas Gerais, Brazil

Rated as the highest in Cup of Excellence history, this coffee is a rage with Caffe Artigiano, a famous café in Canada and two Australian roasters. Cups of this exclusive coffee are available at other specialty shops across the world. It is priced $50 per pound.

6. Blue Mountain - Wallenford Estate, Jamaica

Jamaica Blue Mountain is known for its variable quality. It is highly popular with coffee lovers for its mild taste and strong aroma. Japan imports about 85% of this coffee. It is available at $49 per pound.

7. Los Planes - Citala, El Salvador

Los Planes the best of commercial crops grown in El Salvador ranked the second in the 2006 Cup of Excellence. It got 93.52 out of 100 from an international jury in the competition. It costs $40 per pound.

8. Kona Coffee Hawaii

The British introduced Brazilian coffee trees to the rich volcanic soil of Kona in the late 1820s. The climate of the place was suitable for the cultivation of this coffee. Known for its pleasant flavor and taste, Kona coffee comes at $34 per pound.

9. Starbucks Rwanda Blue Bourbon - Gatare/Karengera, Rwanda

Starbucks discovered these coffee beans in Gatare and Karengera from their visit to coffee-washing stations in Rwanda in 2004. Now, Rwandan farmers cultivate Blue Bourbon coffee beans as the main crop. You can enjoy the coffee at only $24 per pound.

10. Yauco Selecto AA Coffee - Puerto Rico

Originating from the Yauco region, Puerto Rico coffee is known for its excellence across the globe. Produced on the Southwestern Mountains of Puerto Rico, this coffee is valued for its mild flavor. It is available at $22 per pound.

Gift Packs from Rocketfuelcoffee.com - Never too early!

Here are two amazing gift suggestions for your favorite coffee lovers (well one suggestion really, just 2 variations). A bag of incredible Rocketfuelcoffee.com coffee of course, and a wonderful rocketfuelcoffee.com travel mug in a beautiful gift bag. Voilá! you are done.

Rocketfuelcoffee.com 1/2 pound Jamaican Blue Mountain, Travel Mug in gift bag - $30 USD

Rocketfuelcoffee.com 1/2 pound Triple X, Travel Mug in gift bag - $20 USD

Plus Shipping. Volume discounts can apply. Inquire by e-mail anytime!


And look there! A special holiday edition of rocketfuelcoffee.com TRIPLE X for Christmas! Ho Ho Ho! Stunning!

Details here including corporate gifting:

www.rocketfuelcoffee.com

Favorite Reviewed Coffees

Favorite Reviewed Coffees

Posted using ShareThis

Tasting Esmeralda Special TODAY!

OK so I am sitting here drinking the FIRST CUP of freshly roasted TODAY Esmeralda Special. It is so wonderful, mellow and smooth, a bit on the floral side, with lighter notes than my Kona or Jamaican Blue coffee, but slightly more exotic flavor. I am not as experienced as so many of you here, so you will excuse me if I am not appreciating the bean as you might. But damn this is a great cup of coffee!

I decided that the way to kick start this new company of mine was to get a coffee that lots of folks would search for on the internet, so I used the same skills I used to use as an antique seller on eBay and search for treasures online. When I found the Panama auction at Hacienda La Esmeralda, I knew I hit gold. They would not let me bid because I was too small potatoes, but I could become a stakeholder with other bidders. There are companies who do just this. Sweet Maria's let me bid with them and I secured 50 pounds. Now, 4 months later, it is here with me in Toronto.

I do not roast my own coffee. I have a roasting partner, George who is an expert that makes sure my coffees are perfect every time. The only thing I know how to roast is a marshmallow.

Great story or what?

Esmeralda Special is coming!!

After participating in an exciting online auction in May with some of the world's heaviest hitters of coffee (those years of eBay powerselling have truly paid off!), Rocketfuelcoffee.com, with the help of coffee guru Sweet Maria's has secured one of the most magnificent coffees in the world!

The coffee is legendary since it is grown on one plantation in Panama, Hacienda La Esmeralda, owned for decades by the Peterson family:

Lifetime Achievement prize for Hacienda La Esmeralda at SCAE’s Copenhagen awards evening

24th June 2008

Hacienda La Esmeralda, the source of the highly prized Geisha coffees from Panama, won the SCAE’s highest honour, the Lifetime Achievement award, at the Awards for Coffee Excellence evening dinner held during late June’s Wonderful Coffee event in Copenhagen.

 Price Peterson, of the family that has owned La Esmeralda for several decades, was on hand to accept the award, along with members of his family.



Rocketfuelcoffee.com Esmeralda Special has the following attributes:

Caballeriza (Kah-ba-yeh-ree-sah) Wild
strawberries, intense licorice, blueberries
and red currant in the cup, this is an
intensely aromatic coffee, coming from
one of the new production areas
in Jaramillo.

Farm Name: Hacienda La Esmeralda
Coffee Name: Caballeriza
Elevation: 1,500M
Growing Region: Jaramillo

We have 50 pounds green to roast and offer our wonderful customers, at $75 a half pound from now until Christmas, so book yours today! Cheers!

Rocketfuelcoffee.com teams up with Muskokapress.com!

Any half pound purchase (or more of course!) will get you these gorgeous note cards featuring original art by Lisa Rotenberg. This painting, called “Forest Fire” is reproduced so close to the actual painting, on recycled paper. It will be featured on an upcoming coffee from Panama called Carmen Estate.

Muskoka Press is a new sister company to rocketfuelcoffee.com, where the same artwork can be found an cards that match the coffees. Perfect for corporate promotions and holiday cards, charitable fundraising and gift giving.

Check it out!

Announcing Rocketfuelcoffee.com BLACK LABEL

Expensive. Oh sure, but SO WORTH IT.

Rocketfuelcoffee.com is please to announce the LAUNCH of a entirely new line of special coffees, so special and exclusive they have their own page and color band at the top: BLACK LABEL.

These coffees include the elusive and lengendary KOPI LUWAK aka "cat poop" coffee coming in at $55 for a quarter pound (worth every bean) and our own custom MILLIONAIRE'S BLEND - 50% KONA/50% KOPI LUWAK at $35 per quarter pound (a bargain!).

Watch for incredible Panama auction fare HACIENDA LA ESMERALDA, where rocketfuelcoffee.com will be one of the few places on earth to find this rare and wondrous treat. I have painted artwork just for this coffee. Others will follow as they become available. So save your allowance and get ready to be blown away.

Peas and Bananas Coffee Contest Sponsored by Rocketfuelcoffee.com!

Coming soon via Twitter!

Welcome to the Peas and Bananas Coffee Contest. Each month this year I will be doing a coffee contest with some sort of prize/giveaway that is coffee related. This contest will then lead up to the BIG end of the year super prize! (details about that to stay top secret) Therefore, if you want to win, you have to play. Good Luck and Enjoy!

~daddy bookins (aka Peas and Bananas on Twitter)

June 2009 Contest

We are getting ready to start the June Coffee Contest Sponsored by RocketFuelCoffee.com - Monday June 1, 2009.

Stay tuned...

Video Review for Rocketfuelcoffee.com Jamaican Blue is in!

Another Linked-in Post about TWITTER

Follow me on Twitter
“I signed up for Twitter a few weeks ago under my company, www.rocketfuelcoffee.com. I knew absolutely nothing about how it worked, how to grow followers/following or what the posts would do for me. My company is an online one so I figured this is an important place to be.

Inside of 2 weeks I have figured it all out (and I am no rocket scientist), and I have over 1000 followers and turned over my following list a couple of times, since you can only have max 2000 at one time. I have joined demographic specific groups to my market and made great contacts who have reviewed and bought my coffee, including an 8 minute video.

Trading blogs on my site is another interesting idea I got from Twitter. I do not try just to get customers from Twitter. That would be like catching flies in a forest. I use Twitter to connect with like minds, advertise, grow and look for new venues to plant my new business globally.

And in this short time it is working very well!”

Video Review from COFFEECUPNEWS.org

The Sensuous Beauty of Sake

Welcome from Twitter, Soul of Japan


This winter, as you pour warm sake into her belly button, reflect on her curvaceousness. The overflow of sake as it moves downward from her navel following the will of gravity in a snake like motion and then settling down into her boundless beauty a whiff of nature mixed with hints of soft floral scented sake and then a nice quaff as the after-taste permeates back into your nose – (sigh) this is what winters are for.

Her snow clad hair, majestic mountains rising up out of a natural hot spring as she stands up, tiny little beads of healthy sweat moving down the nape of her neck and down her shoulders; breathing slightly heavily, yet naturally and easily, exhaling sake scented breath.

She presents herself to me with approving eyes, sushi neatly and beautifully adorned around each areola as each nipple stands erected presenting its pinkish colored centers. Mons veneris can that be? I almost mistook it for a shiny beautiful black sea urchin waiting for me. How fine and soft must you be lost in all eternity.

The magical essence of sake is that it drinks us whereas drinks like scotch, whisky and bourbon force us to drink them. These hard drinks demand our attention and then they kick our heads in every morning in the form of a hang over. Nihonshu is a spiritual drink that fades away in the morning with faint memories of a great time had, or a great time lost as fate would have for so many at the bottom of the sea.

As we imbibe off of that beautiful 1.8 litre of sake we pay a little more extra attention to our glasses, the long upward and beautiful one leg of that sake bottle beautifully adorned in ancient Japanese calligraphy, that tiny little sake cup with no bowl and no stem that was uniquely handcrafted by some forgotten great Japanese hand somewhere deep in Nara. We never question its whereabouts we just tip our cups. Done !

Rocketfuelcoffee.com on Twitter!

Medicine Hat Alberta
(just included this for fun)

Here is how I got 1000 followers in 2 weeks, and I am new to Twitter. I am no marketing genius and I certainly am not one who subscribes to any form of gimmick or cheesy advertising techniques. I figured this one out myself.

At the top of the page, under "Find People", there is a link where you can search for twitter members by key word. I searched for twitter members to follow by related key words to me, starting with coffee, as my company is called rocketfuelcoffee.com. I followed twits with 250 hits or higher. Then I did the same thing with cafe, espresso, latte and moved on to words I thought were in parallel markets to mine, like wine, cigar, bmw, travel, scotch, art, you get the idea.

I tried to avoid names that were just spammers or not potential shoppers. Also, folks started following me that were insurance and web trawlers. I unfollowed them. They crowded my page with spam. Next, Un-click in your settings to get notified by e-mail everytime someone follows you back. You will go nuts with all the e-mails.

From this I have made contacts with folks who have reviewed my coffee, traded blogs with me and bought coffee. A million twitties may be nice, but give me QUALITY not quantity any day of the week.

Finally, as you get close to 2000 twits that you are following, you may have to edit, as that is the limit. Good luck and have fun!

rktfuelcoffee aka www.rocketfuelcoffee.com

how to make coffee

reaching out to make coffee more social

reviews Rocketfuelcoffee.com
Robert Angeles, CoffeeTalkee

2-3 weeks ago, I was invited by Lisa Rotenberg of RocketFuelCoffee.com to try some of their coffee. How can I resist? It’s coffee and Lisa is one of my caffeinated Twitter friends talking about coffee every time we are all inside Twitter sphere.

I asked Lisa to send me beans and let me do the grind. Unfortunately, when they arrived, this Texan allergy season came to play and I was one of those unlucky ones who got it. That’s the reason why it took me 3 weeks to do this review. It would be unfair to taste her coffee with something bothering your senses.

Please be reminded that I’m not a professional barista or cupper and I review coffee as a consumer in a language that can easily be understood.

So, what did I receive?

Jamaican Blue Mountain

To give you a background, history of coffee in Jamaica is epic. In 1728, coffee was imported into Jamaica from Martinique. The country was ideal for this cultivation and after 9 years from the day it was introduced, around 83,000 lbs. was exported. The country experienced a lot of rise and fall but eventually was able to remain consistent in the following years. Only coffee grown within the Blue Mountain region, which is in the eastern part of the island, can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain.

After I was done grinding the firs t set of beans, I immediately brewed it using my Keurig Brewer. The first thing I notice about this coffee is that it has a good kick without the strong taste and doesn’t stay too long on your tongue. My senses were delighted because of the variety of flavors that came from every sip, the wonderful strong aroma it brings and yet gives you that light note that will make you smile. You will enjoy how every component of this coffee plays together. Perfect! This is a true mark of a Grade 1 coffee.

Rocket Fuel XXX

This next coffee will startle you with its bright, bursting and slightly strong aroma. It has some aroma characteristics of the Jamaican Blue Mountain yet that slight strong aroma gets in once in awhile. This goes the same with the taste. It has those different flavors and light tones but this time, the kick is there. It’s not really bold but a mixture of the light , colorful and strong side. I would recommend this as the perfect coffee after lunch or during the afternoon where our brain starts begging for a jump-start.

I would like to thank Lisa for giving me the privilege to review her coffee. It was an amazing experience and did love how the flavors played around with my senses. Keep roasting good coffee Lisa and I apologize for the delay. Will I buy these coffee? YES! You should try Rocket Fuel Coffee. It will definitely make you smile.

For more information, please visit RocketFuelCoffee.

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or you can subscribe to our RSS Feed to receive future posts.

Independent Coffee Review for
Rocketfuelcoffee.com Triple X!

Recently I got in touch with a member of COFFEEFORUMS.COM, coffeeloverlisa aka rocketfuelcoffee.com as she was/is wanting members here to give her beans a try. I asked for something espresso specific and she hasn't covered that base yet, so I went to her site at www.rocketfuelcoffee.com and looked through what she has to offer. I decided on the XXX, which is a blend of three high quality varieties of beans...... Kona, Sumatra and Jamaican Blue. Lisa was very kind to send me out a 5 oz. sample rather quickly, which was packaged nicely in a foil lined pouch and I couldn't wait to open it. The beans smelled quite nice, with no exterior oils and had a great medium roast look, kind of milk chocolate in color.

First ground some on a medium-fine setting and used that for drip, which was quite nice. Lots of body, a little bit of acidity (nice) and a mellow aftertaste. No harshness or bitterness whatsoever. I've only been drinking high quality coffee for 2-3 years now and am just getting to the point of being able to distinguish different notes and I liked what was apparent in this blend for drip. Then onto my favorite... the spro. I pulled 4-5 doubles with it on my Cremina lever machine. It pulled nicely being about 90% crema, but the color/taste was off a bit compared to other espresso specific profiles. They were good shots, but had a bit too much acidity to really come off nicely like you get with darker roasts. The color was a bit lighter as well, but all-in-all better than I expected. To be fair, I have severe allergies and have to take alot of meds, including Benadryl 3-5 times daily, and this can alter my sense of taste. I do give Lisa and her beans two thumbs up. Make sure you try some of her samples if she has anything left. Later!

- Shadow745, Central North Carolina, coffeeforums.com blog member

Hey coffee drinkers, my name is John Newaz, author and operator of www.ThisCoffeeKid.com, a blog about anything and everything coffee. I'm proud to say that as of lately This Coffee Kid.com has become a blogging partner of Rocketfuelcoffee.com. As a result of this partnership, you may see more of me popping in and out of the Rocketfuelcoffee.com Blog. I'll be sharing my thoughts, comments, and ideas about coffee, whether that be Rocketfuelcoffee.com's offerings or coffee in general.

Now I'll take a moment to talk about what it is exactly that attracts me to Rocketfuel. Well actually, I'll take more than a moment, since this is going to be the subject of today's post. Rocketfuelcoffee.com is a prime example of one of my most admired institutions, the microroaster.

If you don't know what that is, it's a person, or company of persons, that source and roast coffees in small high-quality batches, usually to sell to a mail-order crowd. Mail order coffee!? Why would anyone do that when coffee can be found at every grocery store and Starbucks in between. Well, people pay extra for these small batches of coffee for the same reasons I admire Rocketfuelcoffee.com. It's all about the quality.

Imagine you're a home baker. You wake up each morning and work in your small kitchen, today's task is cookies. You weigh out the flour (getting most of it on yourself), inspect the eggs, pour out the milk (the same milk you put in your coffee, so you know its fresh), and do all the little things that bakers do. After your hard work is done, you personally pull out the fresh baked cookies and send them out to a grateful planet. Beautiful isn't it? In the coffee world, this is the microroaster.

Time to get ugly.

In this next scenario your name is Joe, but your friends call you Average. You wake up at 4 in the morning and stumble into your car. After arriving at a factory somewhere out in an Industrial wasteland, you toil for 8 hours shoveling small sad lumps of flour, high fructose corn syrup, and imitation chocolate chips into huge ovens (probably designed by someone with horns) and finally into foil bags and cardboard boxes. Your coworker, whom you've never spoken to before, quickly seals the contraption shut and places it on a conveyor belt shipping out to God-Knows-Who in God-Knows-Where. And do you care about this product? No. Of course not. You're not a baker. You’re Joe, Average Joe.

In the coffee world, this is the commercial roaster. If you think that was more of a big institution bash rather than a comparison of coffee quality, hear me out. I realize that other than the mention of high fructose corn syrup, I spoke very little about the difference in quality between the home baker's cookies and the commercial baker's product. But I remain steadfast in saying that the above example is a question of quality. You see, Rocketfuelcoffee.com and the many other microroasters out there... care. Not that commercial coffee companies don't care, sure they do. They care about profits, their shareholders, the threat of unionizing employees, and company growth. But do they care about coffee? No! Okay, well maybe. I mean let's be honest, there really are some great coffee companies out there, all jests aside. But there are some pretty bad ones too *cough* F*lgers *cough*. But rest assured that it’s no gamble when it comes to microroasting companies: they care about one thing. The coffee, the coffee, the coffee.

Rocketfuelcoffee.com doesn't have shareholders, it doesn't need to meet fiscal quarter estimates, nor do they worry any more about workers starting a union than they probably worry the same about their pet dogs. They care about the coffee, and you know that it's the real deal. Because if they didn't care about the coffee, they'd be in a different business wouldn't they? I think a useful maxim to remember is that Quality is not necessarily a sign of Care. But Care is always a sign of Quality. Catchy isn't it? Fortune cookies don't write themselves. But seriously, the questions of individual care, devotion, and passion for coffee is why I admire the small coffee businesses of America. They are truly inspirations for stepping into a market that's full of big corporate bullies.

I'm 100% confident that there will always be a place for small businesses like Rocketfuel. After all, that cute little diner down the street is just as small as Rocketfuel, and Denny's is just as big as Starbucks, but I don't see that diner flinching.. So more power to you Rocketfuelcoffee.com, and keep that coffee coming. It's a thirsty world out there.

Happy Brewing,
John Newaz
www.thiscoffeekid.com

Sharing a Coffee Nationwide.

Now I have been at this coffee gig for all of 2 months now and like the caffeine in my cup, concentrated and very invigorating, this business has kept me up nights. Once the coffee beans were chosen and the packaging designed, the website running and the processes settled, just how do you get on with the business of selling coffee?

Turns out there are online forums, trade shows, discussion boards, competitions (some just for patterns on the top of lattes), newsletters, meeting groups and tastings, or "cuppings", paying homage to the sacred bean. Then there are the auctions for the most expensive beans, only at choice times through the season to fight over prized varieties. A sponge for information about the passion of the moment, I love this stuff. Pity my poor husband Matthew, who has to listen to my trivia over breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Fortunately, others of my craft love to gab about this information as well, and not long after I became a maven of mocha (apologies) I hooked up with some mentors who were generous with their knowledge. I greased them up with my Kona and Jamaican Blue and fortunately it was good enough to keep them talking. Mark Prince, moderator and coffee genius of www.coffeegeek.com is an incredible chat, as is Colin Newell of www.coffeecrew.com. Nick Usborne, the Coffee Detective is another site that has offered advice. Had I not been in business for myself before, I do not think I would have had the guts to just call on these guys and ask them to review my coffees and for information, just like that.

One of the first guys I ever had the pleasure of speaking with had to be Barrett Jones. His company, 49th Parallel Coffee out in BC has to be a model of how to do this business right. The web site, the branding and the products, and seeing him on TV... the guy has it going on.

Opportunity Based on Experience

Most of us over 40 (there I admitted it even though you can't see me), have had a few jobs, perhaps even a career or two. Some by choice, sometimes by having the decision made for us. We were canned, we were laid off, we stomped out the door in tears or perhaps in handcuffs. Hey. Your story, right?

If you are like me, you have collected a shopping list of skills along the way that have come in very handy and they have accumulated in value like art or collectible hockey cards. The older the better, condition matters and the more information and research that goes along with the property, the more valuable the item becomes.

I graduated as a graphic designer and my thing was consumer packaging back in the 1980's. Dog food, beer, Kleenex, soup. That sort of thing. Then I moved on to account management, marketing, writing for business. I hit my artsy illustration phase in the late 1990's and opened a retail gallery. Next came my online obsession with antiques and eBay. When the Canadian dollar went on par with the US, that market tanked and I returned to account management at a printing firm, combining all my skills.

Combining skills seems to be the post education process I hear many of my associates doing now. An accountant who takes on a CEO position based on experience after being the company CFO. A respiratory therapist managing a practice of a successful entrepreneurial physician. A lawyer becoming a best selling author of murder mysteries based on factual legal process. Only with the guts to back it up can you move forward into these new positions.

Another key ingredient seems to be an essential element in the opportunity based transition: passion. This second (or possibly third) reincarnation is probably based on something the person loves or really feels strongly about and wants to share, coming from the heart. In my case it is art, coffee and great taste.

Rocketfuelcoffee is a passionate project, utilizing just about every skill I have. I hope this will be the basis of a strong business plan. If one loves what they do, believes in it and can share it with others, how can it fail? (*crosses fingers*)

Making Great Coffee @ Home

Just because we at rocketfuelcoffee.com roast, grind and drink the finest and freshest coffee anywhere, does not mean that we have to make a huge fuss about preparing it at home or at the office. Au contraire, we have already chosen the most wonderful beans. The rest should be easy.

On the rocketfuelcoffee.com website, we show instructions for coffee brewing with both French Press and more commonly used Drip coffee makers. Both make delicious coffee based on personal preference, what you are familiar with and what your wallet can afford. Matthew and I have a Bunn Drip coffee maker on our counter top that we use every day, but when we went to Paris, we had coffee with a French Press brewer. We bought one immediately upon our return to Toronto. It sits on our counter and it looks great, but we rarely use it. The coffee is absolutely delicious when we use it though! It is a Freiling. I understand the Bodums are great too.




I would have to say the biggest draw back about most home drip coffeemakers that I have seen is the coffee does not get piping hot. And if it is not hot, it does not stay hot and it does not stay fresh. Microwaving coffee to bring it back to life is like a day old slice of birthday cake. Uh, yeah. Whoopee. But a good one is terrific, like a Bunn or a Cuisinart. If you have one you like, let us know here and share your knowledge.



The last point I want to make is one I wanted to get off my chest when I started my new business. Seems the real coffee snobs only tolerate their elixir strong and black. Polluting the finest brew is sinful and disrespectful to the sacred bean. True confession time. I like mine with milk and sugar. Matthew likes his black. And we are still married.

Cheers!