Since the last entry, two new coffees have been added to our menu. Both are Latin American, but their only similarities are sweetness and cleanliness of cup. The first is a new COLOMBIAN microlot. Named for farmer NORBEY SANCHO, this coffee is exceptionally clean. It opens with crisp lemon and finishes with pure cane sugar, reminding the drinker of lemonade. The cup is a smooth and well-balanced experience. A small microlot, look for this coffee to stay on our menu for less than a month. The second new coffee will have a much longer shelf life, as is typical of coffees from GUATEMALA. This year, Four Barrel bought the full lot of SAN JUAN CONCEPCION PIXCAYA. This coffee will continue to develop in complexity as it ages throughout the next 5 or so months. The cup opens with sweet marshmallow, finishing with big, clean, chocolaty body and subtleties of orange zest.

Hello, my name is Brendan...

This past Saturday we hosted our monthly coffee tasting. Eight people attended this introductory tasting, and all of them had a blast. We tasted smoky Sumatra Gajah Aceh, balanced Costa Rica Montes de Oro, bright Kenya Gakuyuini peaberry, sweet Kenya Kirimara peaberry, and the spectacular Colombia Huila Rodrigo Romero microlot. The Rodrigo was the favorite of most, but the Costa and Kenyans were well-appreciated. For information on future tastings, please contact Director of Coffee, John Dustman.

A New Decaf

Shockingly, one of the most exciting changes to our menu is the decaf single origin offering. If you aren't in the shop often, you may not have heard much about the Four Barrel decaf program. There are two primary reasons that decaf coffee tends to be nasty. The first of these is selection of beans. Most exporters assume that they can get better value on their best coffees if they sell them in the caffeinated form and reserve their lower quality beans for the decaffeination process. The second reason for the bad taste of decaf is the process itself. Common processes often use chemicals to flush the caffeine from the bean. An alternate method, the Swiss Water Process, uses only water and solid filtration to remove 99.9% of the caffeine whilst retaining most of the flavor. Four Barrel has addressed both of these problems by buying green coffee from their direct trade relationships with the same standards for their regular single origin menu and then paying to have this coffee put through the Swiss Water Process. The farmer still gets top dollar for all of his/her beans and all of us get to enjoy excellent decaf. In this case, the new coffee is DECAF ETHIOPIA SIDAMO SHOYU. It is a naturally processed coffee with strawberry and blueberry flavors shining through.

The Caff Half

In addition to this decaf, we have added two regular coffees to the menu. Our most exciting new coffee is KENYA KANGUNU, which was bought at around four times the cost of most fair trade coffees. The coffee delivers on both acidity and body. This rare combination is best described as cranberry and plum on the front with a long, dark chocolaty finish. Our second new offering, PANAMA DUNCAN ESTATE, is sure to be a solid, crowd-pleasing coffee. The cup is quite well balanced, with low acidity and medium body. The flavor profile includes subtle hints of banana, grape, and vanilla.

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of a new Colombian microlot. We will be carrying the RODRIGO ROMERO on an exclusive basis from Four Barrel. The 3 bag microlot comes from Rodrigo's farm at 1800 meters in southern Huila.
The coffee opens with clove, giving way to pear and cherry acidity. The cup cools to show honey and is remarkably smooth throughout. We'll be serving the coffee for only the next few weeks. Get it while it's hot!

Since the beginning of the year, we've been happy to carry the Clever coffee dripper, brought to us through partnership with green coffee importer Sweet Maria's in Oakland. We use it in the shop to brew Handcrafted Coffee, giving you the power of choice of any bean we carry, the guaranteed freshest cup possible, and a little one-on-one time with your favorite barista. The Clever makes an excellent cup by combining the steep time and rich cup of a French press with clean filtering and cup-at-a-time brewing advantages of a pourover cone. Since we sell the Clever, we thought we'd share a few brewing hints with you.

- use a #4 brown Melitta filter and wet it before adding coffee
- warm your cup with hot water
- grind to about a drip coarseness
- we use 3 coffee scoops of whole beans with 10 ounces of hot water to brew about 8 ounces of coffee
- let the grounds steep in hot water for about 4 minutes, stirring halfway
- keep a saucer on top throughout the brewing process to retain heat

New May coffees have arrived. We have two KENYAN PEABERRY auction lots that are similar in their clean cup character but dramatically different in flavor profile. KIRIMARA offers herbaceous dill and fennel then cools into blackberry and huckleberry. GAKUYUINI provides acidity via raspberry, red licorice, raisin, and lime. Finally, we are happy to serve our second new Central American coffee of the year, COSTA RICA MONTES DE ORO. This Direct Trade coffee delivers the balance typical of Costa Ricans with panache. Floral aromas translate well into the cup, where they blend with honey, butterscotch, apricot, and white grape.

For the second consecutive year, Red Rock was happy to donate a full coffee tasting to the Cherry Chase Elementary School's annual walk-a-thon. This allows us to neatly tie together our values of Caffeine and Community by bringing the coffees to the peoples. Our guests were treated to sweet Ethiopia Sidamo Mordecofe natural, savory Sulawesi Toarco, chocolaty Guatemala Bella Carmona, complex Burundi Kinyovu, and decadent Colombia El Jordan Reserva. All the coffees performed well on the French press. The Mordecofe was the darling of the tasting, with more than half of the tasters taking it home as their free bag. For information on future tastings, contact John Dustman.

a Red Rock macchiato paired with our new delicious single origin Venezuelan dark chocolate

Brendan steps up to his new part time role as Assistant to the Art Director by posting some fresh art on the 2nd floor and serving up drinks like this.

Red Rock barista trainer and evening supervisor Aaron Moon dropped this in a mocha. Love the fat heart at the top of the rosetta!

Red Rock is pleased to announce a relationship with a new roaster. We are proudly serving Four Barrel coffee. Look for our selection of single origin coffees to expand and to change frequently to keep everything fresh. We hope you enjoy our new take on coffees that are all sweet, clean, and balanced.

Another submission from our Bar Manager, Brendan McCarthy. No great marker for scale in the pic, but the drink is a macchiato and the cup is a three ounce demitasse. Owned.

A contribution from our tea specialist, Joy Farber

If you check out this blog on a regular basis, you might think Brendan is our only barista who ever pours latte art. He is actually the only one who regularly sends me his pics.

For years, Red Rock was proud to sell coffee from the Rusenyi co-op in Rwanda in support of Project Rwanda. We are now thrilled to announce the release of an amazing new coffee in support of an equally tangible impact in source country. Andre Luiz Reis is a naturally-processed coffee produced by the Dos Costas co-op in Brazil. Starting September 18th, we will be drip-brewing this coffee, pulling it as a single origin espresso, and selling the whole beans in support of upgrading the co-op's drying patio. This investment into their processing capabilities will allow them to produce with greater quality and quantity for years in the future, resulting in direct payout to the farmers and visible benefits to the surrounding community this co-op supports. Come try some!

still more strong work in teh latte category from teh Brendan

A few Red Rockers had the opportunity to visit Four Barrel on Valencia in the Mission in San Francisco. We were jealous of the simple menu and the magnificent taxidermy. Check out the picture of Dustman with his rosetta'd macchiato.

I think this is some of my best work in the cappuccino category. ~John Dustman

Red Rock hosted its monthly tasting on Saturday morning. We enjoyed the surprisingly chocolaty body of Honduras Las Capucas, the tobaccoy chocolate tones of Sumatra Gayoland, the brilliant berry of Mexico Nayarit, the herbacious, buttery body of Sulawesi Toraja peaberry, and the winy complexity of Kenya Ruera peaberry. We'd love to see you at a Red Rock tasting in the future. Contact Director of Coffee John Dustman for more information.

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Ally Armas droppin' bombs.

The mocha provides a darker palette for the artist. This chocolaty work of art was done by Jo Farber.

Red Rock hosted our monthly coffee tasting on Saturday morning. Tasters contrasted Guatemala Huehuetenango with Sumatra Gayoland. They also enjoyed the brilliant flavors of Ethiopia Limmu and Mexico Nayarit. Finally, they were treated with a sample of Panama La Hacienda Esmeralda Geisha 2008 lot #9. One cupper described it as enjoying a bouquet of flowers in her cup. Contact Director of Coffee, John Dustman for info on future tastings.

Red Rock hosted a cupping for some of our previous introductory coffee tasting customers. We were joined by Tony's president Todd Elliott, whose expertise as a Q grader was put to good use. Palates were tested by Colombia Supremo Huila, Guatemala Huehuetenango, Mexico Nayarit, and Sumatra Gayoland. Our next introductory tasting is June 6. Contact John Dustman for more details or stay tuned to our news page for more information on future tastings at Red Rock. Check out Emily Scott's flickr for more pictures.

On Thursday Red Rock was proud to host a cupping of the Peterson family's Panama La Esmeralda Geisha auction lots. Last year, our roaster Tony's purchased a bag of Lot #9. This year they invited us and some of their other Bay Area customers to be a part of the selection process. Representatives from other coffee shops using Tony's and from Transfair were in attendance. Our decision was nearly unanimous. We are crossing our fingers for a lot very similar to last year's. We wait with baited breath for a successful auction. Look for more of last year's lot #9 to be roasted and in shop soon. For more pictures, check out Emily Scott's flickr.

my own handiwork - latte by John Dustman

Red Rock hosted another introductory coffee tasting this past Saturday. All 8 seats were sold at Cherry Chase Elementary School's annual walk-a-thon auction. Participants were able to contrast our new Guatemala Huehuetenango with our Papua New Guinea. The Guatemala is currently my favorite coffee, and I've been quite happy with the New Guinea since a recent change in roast profile. Participants were next able to compare dry-processed favorites, Ethiopia Sidamo Oromia and Mexico Nayarit.
Hope to see you at the next tasting! We have a formal cupping on May 16 and an introductory tasting on June 6. Email me for more info on either.
Cheers
John Dustman
Director of Coffee

Red Rock was thrilled to host a coffee tasting for our friends from Meebo next door. This gave a chance for some of our regulars to experience the nuances of 4 coffees: balanced Costa Rica Bougainvillea, piquant Colombia Tolima Gaitaina, smoky Sumatra Gayoland, and vibrant Ethiopia Sidamo Oromia. Palates were developed, points were made, and a great time was had by all!

Drew Dominguez dropped a rosetta and a treble clef on top of a hot chocolate (read: no crema with which to work). Using syrup might be considered cheating by some, but I am awarding points for creativity in house.