Cupping @ Ridgewood Coffee Co

Made the trek out to Ridgewood, NJ, for a cupping put on by NY Coffee Society focusing on seasonality.  There was a Bolivian that was superb (coming soon to Intelli).  And the difference between the in-season coffees and the out-of-season coffees was fairly noticeable, although it was also subtle at the same time… and Daniel did an excellent job explaining the coffees and guiding the group through the cupping.  Although it was a little crowded in there, it was a lot of fun.  Looking forward to more cuppings with those folks.

And I highly recommend trying Ridgewood Coffee to anyone out in that neck of the woods.. serving up Intelli, Ecco, and Novo…. and a Clover to dial them all in…  Almost makes me want to move.  Fairfield County needs more cafes like this.

 

Koffee/Bru on Orange St in New Haven

Went to a cafe in New Haven today.. was looking for Koffee on Orange, but looks like it’s been renamed again to Bru Cafe (wasn’t it Moka not too long ago?).  Possibly an owner change, perhaps?  They still had some punch cards that said “koffee.”  Nice looking place.  It wasn’t on the menu, but I ordered a macchiato anyway… guess it isn’t on the menu because they have no idea what a macchiato is; they ended up giving me what would be better defined as a cappuccino (it was about ten/twelve ounces!).  If it wasn’t for the taste of the milk, it would have probably been a decent cappuccino, but it had a slightly sour flavor.  Either they don’t clean their steaming wands, or they re-steam milk from earlier drinks left over in the milk pitchers (or maybe their fridge is busted up, I dunno)… next time i’ll keep driving and hit up some other place in New Haven.  Have heard great things about Jojo’s.  I’m due for an all-out New Haven coffee tour anyway.  

Tomorrow I’ll be over in North Jersey for a cupping with the NY Coffee Society.  Looking forward to it.  

 

superbowl

woohoo!  go steelers!  yinz ain’t got nothing!

 

Caffe del Mondo

Apparently there isn’t any coffee in New Britain, so I hopped over to Southington to Caffe del Mondo, which is Italian for “Coffee of the Mondo.”  

They serve LavAzza coffees, and use a Conti.  Shop seems to specialize in flavoring their lattes, stuck in time in the second wave, much like the rest of Connecticut.  Nice atmosphere, vintage french coffee posters, pastries, desserts, panini.  Ordered a macchiato, and after the barista made sure I wasn’t looking for the insidious *$ drink, proceeded to pull a double shot of crema-less ten-second espresso, and then added a spoonful of big bubbled froth.    The baristi seemed very nice and well-intentioned, and I imagine the place is a great spot for lunch.  But the cafe has a long way to go in terms of its coffee.  Maybe if they stopped thinking up ways to flavor their lattes, and focus on how they taste without syrup, they could take a few steps in the right direction, eh?

As always, the search continues.

 

on the horizon

I know I’ve tried this before, but I’m going to re-attempt… I’m going to have a google maps based page with pins at all the cafes I’ve been to, and I’ll link that up with whatever I’ve said about the place.  Last time it didn’t work out very well do to the way I was doing it, but I’ve got ideas.  I’ll probably also put in pins of a different color for the places I haven’t been yet, but am thinking about.  

Oh, and there will of course be more brilliant commentary flowing from my brain’s portafilter into your eyes.  I’ll probably be in the New Britain, CT, area this weekend, and hopefully will be able to try what they have to offer.  They must have something worthwhile up there, right?  And I’m probably due for another disappointing trip to Zumbach’s in the very near future.  (I don’t mean to pick on them, but they have a lot of potential and are close to where I live & work, plus they have a roaster.  And at the same time, DD probably makes better espresso beverages.  Maybe I’ll casually leave flyers for coffee training from some company in there or something.)