On Memorial day one of our customers, Michael Royce, generously brought over a cage of pork ribs he smoked. Mondays are long days for me, as I work the day, roast in the afternoon and don't finish until late. I heard about these ribs in the early afternoon and then Michael sent me an email about them. By the time I got hungry, I asked about the ribs and was informed that I was too slow. They were all gone. I emailed Michael back and let him know that he apparently only brought enough for three of the savages who work here and the boss got the shaft.
Long about 1030 that evening, Michael rolled up as we were sitting outside waiting for the roaster to cool down (drinking a little Four Roses Single Barrel and puffing on a San Cristobal), and handed me a sack of ribs. More ribs. How nice is that?
Tuesday evening I warmed them in the oven, poured a Koningshoeven Tripel and sunk my teeth into the most delicious ribs I've ever eaten. These things were amazing. He cooked them slowly and melted all the globulous fat out of them. They were meaty, the perfect texture, slightly smoky, with a few sweet and savory spices rubbed in, and I found myself gnawing and sucking each one, savoring every last morsel, and then letting Sterling lick the bones. And I was sad when the last one hit the floor, stripped of its flesh.
Not long ago I saw that a scientist in Australia "discovered" that the word "siphon" was defined incorrectly in the Oxford English Dictionary, and had been for almost a century. Dr. Hughes contends that a siphon works when gravity pushes liquid from one point to another through a tube. The dictionary stated that atmospheric pressure moved the liquid. Of course, gravity could be the atmospheric pressure, but atmospheric pressure doesn't necessarily have to be gravity. When I read this, I thought about the "siphon" coffee brewer. The siphon coffee brewer has two bulbs connected by a tube. Water is boiled in one bulb and the expansion of air in the bulb causes the water to ascend into the second bulb, where coffee grounds are mixed with the hot water and extraction occurs. The heat source is then removed and the air begins to cool and contract in the first bulb, pulling the water back through a filter and the tube into the original bulb. This works via atmospheric pressure. The changes in temperature create positive and negative air pressure, which moves the liquid back and forth. So if Dr. Hughes is correct, the "siphon" coffee brewer isn't really a siphon. Michael Royce and I discussed this one day and he went off to do some research, confirming what I suspected. My next question to Michael is this: What type of device is the "siphon" coffee brewer?
Siphon coffee is one of several brewing methods that take time, and have been clumped into a movement that emphasizes slow coffee. Most one-cup brewing methods that don't involve the espresso machine are a part of this movement, and the specialty coffee industry is embracing the ability to brew one cup at a time for their patrons. Pourover coffee, presspot coffee, "siphon" coffee, Aeropress, and a myriad of other forms of brewing have become popular in recent days. And they are definitely slow. Using these methods in a coffeehouse requires time, employees, counter space, and the equipment to make it happen. We're planning to slow it down in the new space and let you further experience our coffees in ways you haven't been exposed to in the past. Because, like good ribs, sometimes slower is better.
Since we have gotten this good press in the Wine Spectator, the word of DoubleShot Coffee is spreading far and wide. I received a letter a couple of days ago via snail mail from a guy who doesn't have his computer connected to the internet. I thought this was really interesting. A guy in a suburb of Chicago who reads Wine Spectator and doesn't use the internet. And who is still willing to write a letter to a business, inquiring about purchasing a product. It took me back to my childhood. That's how it used to be, huh? I remember that my brother used to send letters to celebrities and get back autographed black-and-white photographs of them. Roger Staubach, Adam West, and other cult heroes of children in the late 70s. Remember order forms? Fill out the order form and send it in with a check. So I wrote him back. I like doing it the slow way. Now I'm thinking about how I can start using this old-school snail mail ordering method. Slow is the new fast.
Our Colombian coffees just reached the port in Oakland. They took the slow boat from Colombia in a shipping container. Which has just been held up by customs. Slow seems to be the watchword and song of the government. But as soon as the container is released, a truck will drive here from California with our El Boton Natural, some WASHED El Boton, and the second Colombian natural in the United States, from a farm called Las Animas, in the Concordia area of Antioquia.
How are things going with our expansion buildout? Slow.
Slow and steady gets the prize?
My dad always told me, "You may not be good, but you sure are slow."