Black Coffee Roasting Company written up in Make it Missoula.

Black Coffee Roasting Company got a write up in the Village Voice this week. We promise to work on our spelling in the future…

Here is a great write up in the Vine & BEast, by Lori Grannis. Thanks Lori!

There has been a lot of talk lately about Venture Capitalists around the world funding tech ideas, some of which work, some of which are merely concept. Matt and I have enough caffeine everyday to stimulate a lot of new, and in our opinion, wonderful ideas… take for example the Blue Cup, which we posted about one year ago.
This week we have a new idea. With the level of energy we derive from coffee beans, why don’t we harness that energy and put it to use? Sure there are some kinks to be worked out, but we are pretty sure we can have it up and running in no time, as soon as we find some VC funds…

What is it you ask? The USBbean. We have harnessed the energy of coffee beans to run personal computers, but eventually we envision full bags of beans plugged into cars, even houses, businesses. We think we can eventually override the need for fracking with the use of our coffee bean energy. It is a little rough right now, and we hope to streamline and clean up the look of this energy system, but with a little refinement, we feel this might be the energy of the future.

It is spring time and while we still have rain, gray, and snow in the mountains, the signs of Spring are clear and visible. Subtle buds thicken in the trees, grasses begin to toy with green, and flower buds eye the sky, thinking about the upcoming sun that will soon flood our northern latitude.

Here at Black Coffee Roasting Company, we have been busy profiling new coffees and we have happened upon some fantastic beans. In addition to our newest coffee from Bali that comes in the BLOOM label, we have a new Colombia, a Rwanda, a Bolivia, and a new Ethiopian Sidamo. Do we have a favorite? We are in love with all of them. These coffees offer a wide array of the spectrum of possibilities in coffee. Coffees should be distinct and between the single origins we currently have in stock, they represent a wide array of the possibilities offered in great coffees. Brightness levels, body, mouthfeel… Coffees should taste different.

We also have recently added a few tables and chairs to our roastery offering a place to sit while you enjoy a cup. If you get the chance, stop in and see us. The season is here to be out and about, and we are excited about the impending sunlight.

A friend asked me earlier today (though I will paraphrase), “On Christmas morning, you wake up, you go downstairs, how will you make your coffee?” I love to think about this kind of thing. I love my first cup of coffee everyday. In fact, I love my second, third, and sometimes fourth and fifth cup of coffee, and for me, the making of a coffee is an integral part, though it need not be time consuming or complicated. I am lucky in that I have nearly every conceivable method of extraction available at my disposal, however, it is often the most simple methods I find the most charming. And I always seem to look forward to my next cup, even if it is hours or minutes away.
So on Christmas morning, it will be something like this. The air will slightly cooler downstairs and I will probably be the first one down to light the fire. Regardless of my kids’ excitement, there is still a general fear of Santa and his elves, and the idea that he might still be around, so the kids will want me to make sure the coast is clear. I also have a nasty habit of waking up extremely early, so I will likely be the only one awake. The kitchen will smell like baked things as my wife and our dear friends at LPO supply my kitchen with a steady supply of various breads and cookies. I will hold a down pillow over the grinder to dampen the loud burrs, a method I have perfected in recent years. Sometimes when the house feels especially silent I will carry it to the garage and grind there. After putting the water to a boil I put about 2 tablespoons of ground coffee into a paper filter inside the hario. (There are any number of these available at your local grocery, plastic, glass, and ceramic. We have the ceramic ones for sale at our shop, so that is what I have at home.) I like to preheat with a bit of boiling water poured through into the mug, then emptied before I begin the extraction.) The water, brought to a rapid boil then gets put into a small metal pitcher, which brings the water temp down just below boiling and also allows for a nice slow pour into the hario. (Again, there are ways to make this more complicated, which I often do, especially when at the shop with more extensive tools. At the shop I measure the coffee out by weight – 23 grams, and I have the water measured to 190 degrees… but you can also just wing it, and it will turn out just fine.)
The first water I pour in does something wonderful. The smell of the coffee is suddenly forced up from the carafe into the air, and my mind reacts with great happiness. I pour the water ver slowly, around and over the grinds so as to saturate them without the water completely pouring through them. This is a someone important part. Ideally the water has at least a minute or so to absorb into the coffee before pouring through. A little will, but you do not want to overfill it. As the grounds come to life, they raise up, stretching, absorbing. Then I continue to pour. The cup I use at home is about 10 oz, and I shoot for a 4 minute extraction (yes, I do still time it at home.) I have tried everything from 1 minute to 6 minutes. 4 is right in the sweet spot, so it is a nice gentle addition of water, and then…
That is it. Then I have a great cup of coffee. This method is so incredibly simple. Hot water, ground coffee, a simple filter. And the result is so fantastic. I love espressos and drip coffee as much as anyone, but this method of extraction reigns supreme in my mind because of its utter beauty in simplicity.
Then I will cut a nice piece of bread or grab a springerle and procede to a comfortable chair by the fire to wait for the rest of the family to wake up. Most likely there will be calls from upstairs, “Has Santa been here? Did he leave yet?” Then, as my mind wakes up, Christmas will proceed.

December is here (tomorrow) and we will be open the first two Saturdays of the month from 8:30-12:30. We will be serving free coffee both Saturdays, from drip and Chemex. We will be making a variety of coffees, blends and single origins, and it will be a great opportunity to taste them side by side, compare and contrast, etc. We hope you can join us!

Also under the “News for December” category, we have just released our first Cup of Excellence coffee, from Nicolas Mountain, El Salvador. We hope to get this up on the website very soon, but in the mean time, it is available for retail purchase in our coffee shop at the corner of Wyoming and Russell here in Missoula.

Hope to see you in December!
BCRC.

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to Black Coffee Roasting Company’s small corner of the web-i-verse. As winter settles into the mountains of western Montana we are happy to release our seasonal DRIFT blend. This years DRIFT features coffee beans grown on the El Quatzal Estate, a fourth generation coffee farm in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua. This blend is medium/dark roasted to highlight its rich, full-bodied mouthfeel, and to bring out its dark notes of chocolate and molasses. We love this coffee additionally because it has a hint of anise and spice, which adds vibrancy to any cold, winter day. Thanks for visiting our website, poke around, and if you are in the neighborhood, be sure to stop in and see us at our roastery/coffee shop. And as a side note: we will be open the first two Saturdays in December offering free coffee samples from around the world. Hope to see you there.

Taste, is, after all, what it is all about. Or at least what it comes down to. At first glance, Taste, is what matters the most, but with coffee, the story is much more nuanced, much more specific, much more in depth. Taste, has the final say in the matter, but there is much more that goes into it. A cup of coffee is a beautiful thing… at least it should be. For many of us, it has nearly as much to do with the process as the final outcome. The opening of the bag. The grinding. The proportions. The cup filling with hot, steaming coffee. The people we are involved with along the way. The voices. The sounds. The smells. And in the end, the taste.

And so, in an effort to put taste front and center, we at Black Coffee Roasting Co. would like to invite you, friends, and whomever else you like to drink coffee with, to our first annual December tasting. We will be open the first two Saturdays in December to highlight the various coffees we roast, and help introduce you to them. Not all coffees are the same. And they should not taste the same. Each one comes from different soil, with different weather and climatic influences. Each of them has their own farmers, who use their own methods. The difference is distinct, and a lot of fun to examine. So we hope you will join us in an exploration of coffee, the first two weekends in December, at Black Coffee Roasting Company, located in the heart of Missoula, Montana.

More details to follow soon.