Cravens Blog
Ringing in the New!
January 26th, 2011With a new year comes new opportunities for taking care of you, our valued Customers. See what’s in store….
A new face. Our Facebook page has moved. Why? It’s a long story, but it has something to do with a little apostrophe. Whether you have ‘friended’ us in the past or new to facebook, please follow Cravens Coffee on our new page so we may better serve you. New upgrades provide you the latest coffee news, crop announcements, special promotions, events and the occasional element of surprise. Friend us, like us, share us and we will deliver!
New to Twitter! Yep, old dogs apparently can learn new tricks. We dared to venture into the world of tweeting and live to tell about it. We promise to share with you helpful and insightful tweets. Thank you for following us.
A new venture into videos. Given we prefer preparing your coffee each and every day to producing videos, we won’t promise genius behind the camera but we will promise good coffee fun. Find our YouTube tab on our new Facebook page for short video clips we hope are useful and entertaining. Who could resist Simon slurping and spitting at the cupping table or his latest adventures to the coffee farm? We look forward to hearing from you!
Let’s not forget new crop coffees. Our recently popular Tabu Jamu coffee will continue as we just got word the fine farmers in Sumatra have produced a second year crop, which we have secured for shipment. What was intended to be a one-off coffee treat was so well received by a select few specialty coffee roasters, including yours truly, the coffee has turned into a longer term relationship. Learn more about this unique coffee on our recent blog here. At stores now!
Here’s wishing you a prosperous and happy new year!
Yuletide Blend
November 30th, 2010A word we all recognize but what does it mean? Back in 1993 while roasting our very first holiday coffee, we named it Yuletide Blend in honor of the winter festivals of centuries gone by. Why mess with a good thing? Yuletide, a time of celebration and an act of good cheer. “Good tidings we bring to you and your kin”, as the lyric sings.
There’s much to enjoy about the holiday season – crisp, snowy mornings, specially baked cookies, gatherings with family and friends. Whatever your holiday favorites we offer Cravens Yuletide Blend to help you celebrate.
Yuletide Blend is a rich combination of Sumatra Mandheling and the finest coffees of Central and South America for a full-flavored, bright cup. We combine several coffees grown in distant lands to celebrate the holidays – and honor our faraway friends for all they do so well. Costa Rica Monte Crisol’s sweet, tangy, up-front flavor lends sparkle, then perfectly matched with Mr Irham’s IKA Sumatra Mandheling providing a fruity, spicy body at the finish. We include just enough French Roast to elevate the complexity.
Cravens Yuletide Blend – our way of sharing the warmth of the season with you. Cheers!
Available at area grocery stores and coffee shops serving Cravens Coffee.
Tabu Jamu
November 24th, 2010It’s just fun to say! Tabu Jamu. Pronounced “taaboo jaamoo”. Or, as conjured up by diligent Ryan, while carefully stewarding our coffees through the roasting process, “Tattered Pajamas” or “Tatooed Llamas”. Why not?
The name, Tabu Jamu, means Forbidden Healer. A name selected by the gentleman who discovered the coffee in Sumatra and brought it to our attention. After being taken through the farm, he was sitting with his hosts in a sidewalk café when a lady, dressed in blazing colors, bird plumage, beads and necklaces rode up to them on a bicycle. The attached basket overflowed with unusual looking paraphernalia. She cackled and laughed at them, then moved on slowly.
She was a medicine woman, faith doctor or, in Indonesian parlance, a Forbidden Healer, which in the native tongue is….Tabu Jamu.
As unique as the name, the coffee does not disappoint. A true micro-lot coffee prepared in the traditional Sumatra natural-process-style. This means the coffee has experienced an abbreviated de-pulping and washing procedure followed by a drying stage designed to maximize the development of fruitiness and cocoa-like body.
From a small town on Lake Toba in Sumatra, this coffee is truly special and delivers a syrupy, hoppy flavor with spicy undertones. We roast Tabu Jamu in both our lightest and darker profiles to feature it’s unique attributes at contrasting roast levels.
Enjoy!
Espresso
May 27th, 2010Why is espresso either really, really good…
…or really, really bad?
The key components of espresso are sweetness, smoothness, consistency and balance. The intrinsic qualities are aroma, taste and aftertaste. A well-constructed espresso will “launch” itself over the taste buds, exhibiting a tanginess and creaminess with a dark chocolate-like finish.
The “theories” of espresso roasting and blending are diverse. A roaster who may blend a certain origin could be at odds with another roaster who does something completely different. Such is the nature of the Specialty Coffee business.
Since 1993, Cravens has cut across the grain, choosing to avoid the traditional espresso ingredients (they are woody and rubbery to us) instead working with exemplary stand-alone origins and blending for a balance of sweetness and body, with variations in degrees of roast.
The espresso extraction process is the best, as well as potentially the worst, in coffee brewing. Because of the intensity of the process, the oils within the coffee are emulsified. The roasting of coffee for espresso has to be gentle. The objective is to tease out the best flavor components, not blast them. Subsequently, any flaws are exposed in a dramatic fashion (the really, really bad part). While, if the details are adhered to – fresh crop green (pre-roasted) coffee, careful roasting and intelligent blending, you have, what is known as, the nectar of the gods…which is the really, really good part.
Examples of our best known espresso blends:
Spokane Express – the original Costa Rica Monte Crisol based, lighter roast degree
Big Sky – Guatemala Finca Vista Hermosa based blend, medium degree of roast
Moon Bean – darker roasted, Sumatra Mandheling IKA as one of the ingredients
Survivor Blend
April 14th, 2010Breast Cancer awareness month! An opportunity to recognize the impact of breast cancer on our lives and the challenge to find a cure. We, at Cravens Coffee, thank you for joining us in honoring the survivors in the war against breast cancer with a special blend created by the beautiful women of our local chapter.
Survivor Blend is an organic-fair-traded coffee with a buttery upfront flavor and bold, rich finish. This unique blend combines rich full-flavored Sumatran and fruity Ethiopian varietals, featuring a special Nicaraguan from a women-operated co-op in Segovia. We honor these women from war-torn Segovia as fellow survivors. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Survivor Blend benefit the Eastern Washington Affiliate of Susan G. Komen. Find Survivor Blend in your local grocery store the entire month of April. Visit http://race.komenspokane.org to learn more about being part of the cure!
