The roastery filled with new seasonal goodies from Ethiopia, Brazil and Colombia. Looking for an affordably luxurious gift for your favorite coffee geek? Try the microlot organic Colombia Granja La Esperanza natural process, a sensational cup. Another organic offering is from our partner importers Sustainable Harvest of Portland...Ethiopia Sidamo Wotona Bultuma, a washed process fruit bomb from the SCFCU (Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union). We have choco-nutty-fruity new Late Harvest Brazils from OurCoffees (Copermonte Cooperative in Minas Gerais)..."Sugar" and "Dry", the latter more reminiscent of Central America and Africa. However you swing it, Happy Holidays!

Badbeard is proud to announce availability of its coffees at Market of Choice, the well-regarded Eugene-based chain of gourmet markets in and around Portland. MofC's SW Portland location is currently stocking Badbeard's Ethiopia YCFCU Yirgacheffe, Sumatra Sidikalang-Dairi "Tabu Jamu", and El Salvador Santa Rita Estate) in the bins, and Deep Cello "Bossa" at the West Linn store.

Jazzed by the success and reception of the Symphony blend, with a portion of proceeds being donated to my local buds and colleagues of the Oregon Symphony here in Portland, Badbeard's is releasing a Symphony Espresso which will satisfy even the most demanding devotees of javamania.  Extensive cupping notes to follow Thanksgiving chowdown...we should call it Mahogany Friday.  A pound of this blend will make a nice stocking stuffer for your coffee-crazed loved ones and you won't risk stampeding over your favorite barista to get it either!  My guess is that even the lump of coal will smell great after cozying up to the bag....

Symphony Decaf Espresso will be forthcoming....

Well, we knew that they were watching...taking notice.

Here's Derek Hill's take on the show on mel.opho.be

Well, I hadn't intended on making this the subject of my first blog entry ever...impressions of the book "The Devil's Cup" by Stewart Allen were to go first....but reading the recent NY Times article about the Japanese siphon bar at the Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco, the Clover explosion, etc. truly made me gag.  What the HELL is going on in the coffee world? Had Bush's certifiable state of the union speech not come AFTER this article appeared I would have assumed IT had unleashed so many Pandora's boxes full of java fetishism.  I guess the facts just speak for themselves and context RULES.  I feel as angry at these fetishists as I did at Robert Parker and Michel Rolland in  "Mondovino".  Sure, their qualifications are impeccable and their hubris and fortunes excessive, but their elitism is nauseating.  'Nuff said.  The american Monstera continues to roll over every xoloescuintle in its path.  Hell, we friggin' INVENTED great coffee out here in the Pacific Northwest, like, uh, ten or twenty years ago, didn't we?  Who reads history, anyway?

I love having access to the great coffees of the world and the ability to roast those beans to a degree of hedonistic drinkability, then share it.  I know growers who go through extraordinary circumstances to share the fruit of their land with me and my customers.  I don't need or want the hipster mavens with scanty life experience resumes around town (Portland) to ever tell me what great coffee is; it's actually quite obvious.  Kudos to those who love coffee and wish to explore nuance, but make up your own damn minds. You'll probably survive even if you don't pick up the jasmine, ugli fruit, burnt toast, barnyard and stone(d) fruit; look for the smell of COFFEE.  Get that first, and last.  I know the Clover is capable of producing a nice cup of coffee, although a certain shop in town ruined a potentially wonderful cup of excellence Brazil in my second-ever cupful.  My third was at CoffeeFest in Seattle, a truly wretched experience (right on the heels of a great espresso shot at the 49th Parallel booth) with the nouvelle "natural decaf" from the normally incredible Daterra people.  Oh well.  But what gonzo caches of coffee you could acquire for $11K...hell, $10,800 for beans and the rest on a Technivorm, and ya could be just as happy as the woman on the farm who picked ripe cherries ALL DAY to earn, MAYBE what ya just spent on that cup.   I'm happy for those in the business who are profiting nicely, even according to the manufacturers $$$ analysis, but please don't riddle me with any excessive bullshit, por favor.  The first two layers are more than enough.  But at least the Clover dudes don't have to spend months learning how to stir water on the correct zen path.