Last Thursday, April 12, 2012, Café Excellence had visitors from the beautiful country of Colombia. Joining us were Emilio Alberto Fernandez and his wife, Gloria, daughter, Paulina and Paulina’s husband, Michael…

PureBread Deli recently visited Café Excellence to expand their knowledge of coffee. Armed with a great team of managers and eager to learn, we hit the ground running. We covered everything from different types of coffee plants to where coffee is grown and how a region's climate and altitude effect coffee.…

36 hours. That's how long it took Ric Hariyanto to get to Café Excellence from the island of Sumatra. Ric is a Sirwijaya coffee grower and his family has a 3-acre garden in the village of Lintong. (The entire village is only 500 yards x 500 yards – WOW!)…

This week I had made a few adjustments to the roast profile of our Breakfast Blend and we reduced all of our batches to 75 pounds. This reduction of coffee brings a new dimension to the flavor profile development of the coffee. When we first smelled the dry aromas, a flower and fruity fragrance appeared. When we added hot water and broke the surface, wow, a burst of honey …

The Café Excellence team continues to explain their Friday coffee cuppings. Anthony Valerio, Café Excellence's Roastmaster, explains how to taste the coffee and what to look for in the final part of the cupping process.

The Café Excellence team continues to explain their Friday coffee cuppings. Anthony Valerio, Café Excellence's Roastmaster, explains how to "wet" the coffee and smell it properly.

The Café Excellence team goes behind the scenes and explains their Friday coffee cuppings. Anthony Valerio, Café Excellence's Roastmaster, shows why quality control is important, and how to tell what aromas a coffee will produce.

Today we cupped Serendipity Blend and French Roast Blend. These two are highly recommend. Serendipity Blend is Tanzanian Peaberry and Ethiopian Yergacheff, two of Africa’s finest coffees. Dry or wet the aromas of the grounds gave us Apricot and Fresh Butter. Fresh Butter aroma in coffee is one of the most delightful aromas one can experience when cupping. When we tasted the Serendipity, WOW …

This morning we chose to cup Serendipity Blend and Tiffany Blend. The coffees in Serendipity Blend are primarily African and Tiffany Blend is comprised of Central and South American coffees, so we expected them to be very different. When we smelled the freshly roasted Serendipity Blend, we got a very sweet fruity aroma, similar to blackberries. These aromas remained very similar when we added …

We have resumed our Friday morning cupping! This morning we cupped Venice Nights and Kona Blend. We found the Venice Nights to have a slightly earthly smell, which is due to the Sumatra. When we added water to the grounds and broke the surface, we got a burst of sweet flowery/perfume smell. When we tasted it, it was very earthy with a fruity tart flavor, …