Back, and back, and back to Rochester

Between Fetco calibration and Marzocco repairs, I've been spending a lot of time in Rochester of late. Yesterday I headed back there yet again, this time with Spot's roaster Michael in tow. What a weird day! Between all the driving, some persistent upper respiratory thing, and the non-drowsy medication I'm taking for it, Rochester felt pretty surreal. It doesn't help that Rochester is kind of like Buffalo's sibling separated at birth, or better yet maybe an adoptive sibling raised in the same house...just familiar enough without really being the same.

We rolled in to do another version of our home brewing lab, aka “1 coffee 5 ways”. The idea here is pretty simple: hand out some free coffee, demonstrate how brew methods affect the cup, and give some tips on making better coffee at home. In addition, we've got the brewers available for sale in the stores now.

Merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made!

Unfortunately, the good people of Rochester were just not into it on this day. We had a few people come up early on and be suitably impressed by the difference French Press vs. Chemex makes on the same coffee, but after that we didn't get a lot of takers. I'm given to understand that we were competing with Wedgestock; not sure how much that is to blame. I'm re-thinking the show, wondering if there might be a better way to do it. At any rate, Spot hasn't offered any coffee equipment for sale since I've worked here, so we've at least got a few attractive methods for sale now.

Michael & I used the opportunity to lay out some coffee plans—better ways to advertise and sell our varietals & blends among them. We're switching to better bags and labels soon, and we've just got in a micro-lot that we're pretty excited about, so it's time to get rolling on this stuff.

San Juanille Micro-Lot

After making sure Spot Rochester is set up to sell, and bidding their baristas farewell, we decided to check out some of the other coffee-shops in the area. Michael wanted to try the coffee at Boulder, so we headed there first for some coffee and food.

Boulder's “Genessee Greek”: egg, greens, onion, balsamic, swiss, feta, olives on a bagel.

After learning that Boulder roasts their own coffee in Rochester's Public Market, we decided to track that down before heading back to Buffalo. I had no idea the Public Market here was such a big deal! We don't have anything like this in Buffalo—the Bidwell Farmer's Market is really nice, but it's once a week and about a tenth the size.

We found Boulder's location, but their roastery was tucked away somewhere out of sight, and we were more curious about just seeing what the market had to offer. All fresh produce aside, I was most impressed with this “Lil' Orbit” machine, which combines a.) mechanized production with b.) donuts.

This thing could revolutionize Casella family camping/reunion cuisine. And chop about a decade off each of our life expectancies.

I'm not giving up on the home brewing lab. It's really pretty easy to get a drastically better cup at home, or the office, with just a little more attention. We just have to get that info out there.

Most people in these parts haven't had really double-take good coffee, ever, and I think if we can expose a few people in Buffalo to it they'll come around. The show of making good coffee one cup at a time is a lot of fun, and draws people in, so ultimately I may need to just focus on getting some kind of brew-to-order in place—kind of becoming my refrain, isn't it?