GPC Blog

Check it out!

Jon — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:04:57 -0500

The new Coffea site is officially up.

www.coffearoasterie.com

We'll be blogging on the Coffea site from now on, so be sure to tune in for future updates.

Thank you to everyone who has been loyal to us over the years at Great Plains Coffee. We can't thank you enough for your support, and we hope to see all of you for the grand opening of Coffea in March!

-Jon

SCAA Convention and Other Updates

Jon — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:33:00 -0500

A lot is happening right now...

We're busy making preparations for the opening of Coffea Roasterie in March. The outside of the building is pretty much finished, and the interior will be coming together shortly. Time is moving incredibly fast around here, and we're all getting very anxious to move in to Coffea.

We just registered today for our booth at the SCAA trade show in Atlanta this April. I kind of see it as Coffea's national "debut," and I couldn't be more excited to share our coffees with some of our friends in the industry. It will be a great experience.

As far as coffees go, the dry process Sidamo is tough to beat right now, with the Yirgacheffe taking a close second in my book. Beloya, as always, is tasting incredible.

We will be launching a new, fully functional website for Coffea soon, at which point this blog will switch sites. I'll be sure to post an update when that happens.

-Jon

Coffea Drink Ideas

Jenna — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:52:01 -0500

As some of our regular customers have already noticed, we have been working on some pretty unique - and hopefully delicious - drink ideas for Coffea over the past few months (though not all are perfected yet...wasabi white hot chocolate anyone?) So just thought I would let you all know that any ideas and thoughts are more than welcome! And if you would ever like to participate in a focus group to taste out some of our drinks, please send me an email at Jenna@greatplainscoffee.com.

Cheers!
Jenna

Another Natural

Jon — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:03:24 -0500

We're not used to finding stellar Ethiopias this late in the year, so when we tasted a recent sample of the Gerbicho Rogicha dry process, we were a bit surprised.

Like the Beloya, these cherries were sorted according to strict ripeness standards and dried carefully on raised beds. This is a very clean lot; almost free of the quakers that plague so many otherwise good natural Ethiopias. The aroma is floral and gently fruity, with citrus dominating the cup, along with cream and a touch of berry.

This has been a fun year, with many exciting coffees, and the new Gerbicho is no exception. Look for this one on the menu shortly.

-Jon

Sumatra Mandheling; rooting for the underdog

Jenna — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:06:47 -0500

We cupped our Sumatra Mandheling (roasted 12/15) this morning and were justifiably impressed. I was cupping blind, and for my first few slurps thought it was our Sumatra Blue Batak. It had amazingly dominant green pepper notes, pleasant earthiness, rich body, a hint of sweetness, and wonderful lingering finish. I suspect these qualities will only become more pronounced over the next couple days as this batch has a chance to rest a little longer. And don't get me wrong, our Batak is absolutely delicious and has more depth and nuance in comparison, but this Mandheling shouldn't be hidden in its shadow.

-Jenna

p.s. I also suspect this batch will show extremely well in the Clover. I guess I'll have to go find out...

UPDATE: Clover + Mandheling = one awesome Tuesday morning. It just melts in your mouth. Come by for a cup if you are in the area anytime soon.

Batak is in.

Jon — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:10:34 -0500

The first production batch actually made it on the shelf last Friday, and it has been selling briskly.

The Sumatra Blue Batak is such a special coffee; I wish it was something we could keep in stock year round. Sure, there are plenty of other coffees that I love drinking every day, but none of them can really serve as a replacement for something so unique as the Batak. This new crop is just fantastic, and I'm really glad to have it back.

Another note... we cupped our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe this morning, along with several other coffees, and it was a real stand out. The intensity of the floral aroma in this lot is unparalleled, and I love the subtle fruit notes.

Paul and I were talking this morning about our personal coffee preferences, and I think we both concluded that we would be perpetually satisfied with a menu consisting of a good curranty Kenya, a nice floral washed Yirgacheffe, a sweet and fruity dry-processed Ethiopia (probably a Sidamo), a subtly earthy, refined Sumatra, and a solid Central American (Guatemala, El Salvador).

Those five coffees would offer enough variety and interest to cover just about anything I typically crave. Don't get me wrong, I love coffees from many other origins, and having a greater variety to choose from is one of the great perks of this job. I guess it was sort of a desert island scenario conversation.

-Jon

Future Baristas of Coffea

Jenna — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:15:32 -0500

I have already had some people asking, so for anyone else interested (or if you know anyone interested) in rocking it out as a barista at Coffea...

We will be hiring a few new coffee-loving people between January and March, and resumes can be emailed to jenna@greatplainscoffee.com or dropped off at our location in the Empire Mall. (Any other questions can also be emailed to me.)

Cheers!
Jenna

What is Coffea?

Jon — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:36:56 -0500

Just in case you haven't noticed, we're pretty excited about our new venture, Coffea Roasterie & Espresso Bar, but up until this point, we haven't quite explained the specifics. Here's a taste of what you can expect:

Beans
We just introduced our first Coffea offering, the Ethiopia Beloya Selection Nine, and the response has been overwhelming. In our fifteen years of operation, this is the best dry processed Ethiopian we've found. It truly is an incredible cup.

We're working with a number of new sources that have given us access to even better coffees, like the Beloya. Coffea will have a bean menu full of truly special, limited offerings available in a variety of price ranges. Don't get me wrong: the coffee we're selling at Great Plains is some of the best you'll find anywhere, but its about to get even better.

Drinks

When we sat down to decide what the Coffea drink menu would look like, we pondered an interesting idea. It seems like just about every shop in the area has the same general menu; some just prepare their drinks much better than others. We wondered what we could come up with if we allowed ourselves to deviate a bit from the traditional menu, and experiment with new ingredients and flavor combinations. We explored the possibilities and came up with an incredible menu with something for everyone.

Whether its our hazelnut latte made with an extract prepared in house from fresh roasted hazelnuts, or something completely new, like our Masala Spice Latte, we've done taste tests for every ingredient in every drink, and analyzed every step in the process to create the best flavor experience possible. Some of the new ingredients were hard to find, and the new methods are much more labor intensive, but the resulting drinks are well worth it.

Seating

We've never had more than three seats, so the thought of a large, comfortable seating area is wonderful. Coffea will have seating for about fifty, with everything from a bar by the roaster, to couches and chairs around a cozy fireplace. We want our customers to feel like they can linger and enjoy their drinks for as long as they would like to stay.

Roasterie

The Roasterie is one of the most exciting parts of our business, so we're very anxious to bring the espresso bar and roaster together under one roof. We want our customers to be able to see all of the things that make our coffee as good as it is. We'll have a cupping bar where customers can join us every morning when we taste our coffees for quality control, and we'll be roasting samples and production batches right at the counter.

We can't wait to answer questions and show our customers what goes on in the roasterie.

Drive Through

Last, but certainly not least, Coffea will have a drive through. We want our customers to be able to have great coffee any time it fits into their schedule. We'll be serving the same great drinks every day at our express drive up window, and the location is just perfect; You won't have to worry about an awkward left turn onto a busy road when you leave, Our drive through lane exits onto our own road with a traffic light on the intersection with Louise.

Coffea will be a big change from Great Plains, but we think our customers will love it. We've traveled to cafes all across the country to collect new ideas, and gathered lots of feedback from our local customers to create a concept that we hope excites all of you as much it excites us.

Coffea will be open in March '09. In the mean time, come visit us in the Empire Mall, and we'll fill you in on the progress.

-Jon

BATAK!

Jon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:53:10 -0500

Our Sumatra Blue Batak Peaberry was extremely popular when we carried it earlier this year, so we've been getting lots of questions about when we expect more. Well...we found some.

The new crop just came in, and it is fantastic. We cupped our first sample this morning, and I was just floored. It has tons of pineapple and sweet bell pepper, with all of the incredible complexity I remember from our last lot. The aroma immediately reminded me why we loved this coffee so much.

I think this new crop is even better than the last, and, luckily, we were able to find a much larger quantity this time, so it should be around for awhile.

Look for the first production batches later next week.

-Jon

November News

Jon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:18:26 -0500

Coffea is Coming…

Construction has finally begun on our new roasterie and retail outlet. We have many exciting plans in the works; an all new menu, a cupping and clover bar, and some very special coffees. Coffea Roasterie is everything we’ve always wished that a coffee shop could be, and we have been anxiously awaiting this opportunity for years. We’ll be opening in March of 2009, and we can’t wait to share our new ideas with all of the customers we’ve worked with over the years.

For more information, visit CoffeaRoasterie.com.

‘Tis the Season…

For Ethiopia Beloya! We’ll be roasting the first production batches of this phenomenal coffee later this month. For anyone who hasn’t heard us gushing about it already, the Beloya Microlot 9 is essentially the best dry-processed coffee we have ever encountered, from Ethiopia or elsewhere.

Beloya comes from Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region, where the dry process has been utilized for many years. Traditionally, the best cherries (fully ripe and free of damage) have almost always been reserved for the wet process. The ones that dont make the cut undergo inexpensive dry processing; they are placed on the ground and dried whole, usually with a relative lack of care and attention. The finished product usually has a fruity flavor profile, spoiled by aggressive earthiness and under-ripe vegetal notes.

The Beloya coffees are an entirely different story. Only intact, fully ripe cherries are selected by taking precise sugar measurements prior to harvest. They are dried according to a strict moisture content profile above the ground on raised beds, and turned almost constantly to prevent spoilage or uneven drying. It is some of the most carefully implemented dry processing ever executed, and the resulting coffee is one of the best ever produced.

Beloya coffees exceptionally sweet and distinctly fruity, with notes of berry, vanilla, and citrus. We tasted several micro selections from this year’s harvest, all of which were very good. Lot #9, however, was by far the best, and completely blew us away with it’s intense blueberry aroma, creamy body, and delicious sweetness. Only nine bags of this coffee were produced, and we were lucky enough to secure one.

The Beloya Selection 9 will be the first coffee we sell under our new label, Coffea Roasterie. It just arrived yesterday, and we should have the first production batch ready for purchase tomorrow.

Cupping This Saturday

There are still spaces available for our next cupping. It will be held at Queen City Bakery on Saturday, November 15th at 1pm. With the recent arrival of the Beloya, I'm sure it will be a good one. Give us a call if you'd like to get signed up.

The Perfect Gift for the Coffee Lover

Our sampler boxes are the perfect gift for the coffee lover on your list. Choose one of our hand selected variety packs, or create your own custom mix of fresh roasted coffee, premium hot chocolate, and loose leaf tea.