9 bar espresso

Biodiesel From Coffee Grounds

2011-02-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

We often use Vournas Coffee Trading for a green coffee source because they carry some of the regional coffees we use in our espresso. I was on their website to see if they had a certain coffee I was looking for and I discovered their news section. They had some interesting information that I had never heard before in my seven years in the industry. Here is an article on making biodiesel from spent coffee grounds I found intriguing:

Would you believe it if I told you that researchers reported today that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering our cars and trucks? It is true. In a new study released today, researchers reported that spent coffee grounds contain between 11 to 20 percent oil by weight, which is about as much as traditional biodiesel sources such as palm and soybean oils.

They postulate that the spent coffee grounds could potentially add 340,000,000 gallons of biodiesel to the world's fuel supply. The scientists collected spent grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then utilized an inexpensive process to convert 100% of the oil into biodiesel. The resulting fuel actually smells like coffee and has an advantage over traditional bio-fuels in that it is is more stable due to its high antioxidant content. And, solids left over from the conversion process can actually be converted into ethanol!

Who knew that coffee could be so good for the environment and taste so wonderful. Encouraging news for our world.

Single Origin Coffee - Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Peaberry

2010-11-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here it is. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Peaberry. Copious floral and berry notes with a tea like quality. Truly an excellent example of the varietal. What is a Peaberry? Glad you asked! In a normal coffee cherry you will find 2 beans with their flat sides together. A peaberry is all by itself in there and is... more rounded. While there is no reason for a peaberry to taste better than a normal bean most would agree they are rare and delicious. To order call 888-576-9bar or go online www.9bar-espresso.com.

New Products In Stock

2009-10-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

We have some new products in stock just in time for the holidays. One item that I was surprised with how much I actually liked the color when the shipment came in is the Nuova Point Italian Porcelain Espresso cups in blue. It was not at all the easter egg baby blue I expected it is more of a Tiffany jewlery box blue, very pretty! We also got some dark brown Nuova Point Espresso and Cappuccino cups as well as stainless steel demitasse spoons in our inventory. So please check out our online store and see all the new products and specials we have now.

Striving For Excellence Even If Your The Only Show In Town

2009-09-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Corey and I took a work trip of sorts this weekend. I say of sorts because we didn't leave for long and we didn't pursue new accounts really hard either. We left San Diego for a small town in Santa Barbara County named Solvang. The town was putting on a festival called Danish Days in celebration of their heritage. We went for a chance to get away and to try the famous Æbleskivers. The town proved to be charming, making me fall in love with the idea of living in a small town.

We surveyed the local establishments looking for potential customers knowing there were many bakeries also professing to be coffee shops. I think they used the term coffee shop loosely. Come to find out there were many bakery/coffee shops but their idea of coffee was more like what you find in a local diner. With coffee being such an afterthought we were surprised they even bothered to feature it in their store front signage and magazine advertising. We did find two shops that were more about the coffee and less about the pastries. We left a sample bag and business card with each one. We were able to speak with the owner of one of them and he was pleasant and open to building his business. What impressed me is he took advantage of the festival staying open later than the other shops in the area. He was the only serious coffee shop in the vicinity but he acted as if he was in direct competition with the guy next door.

This is the kind of customer we want and a customer we strive to help grow. Someone who is concerned with always upholding the highest standards and customer service even if no one else is offering anything close. A standard of excellence in your coffee house will not only draw the out of town tourists but build a loyal local customer base who will also recommend you to new tourists or customers. This builds the circle, entices new business while holding strong on the repeat business. Isn't this how we all want to build our brands in the effort of excellence.

Your Shops Foundation Is More Than A Location

2009-09-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

In an effort to reach out and live up to 9 bar espresso's "committed to community" mantra our rostmaster and I will be posting at least once a week here to our blog for our current and future espresso customers to enrich their coffee experience. We hope this will open up a dialogue between 9 bar espresso and the coffee shop owner, the restaurateur, and the at home coffee connoisseurs. In doing so we can all learn from each other how to better serve our own communities while supporting each others success.

This post is inspired from Fresh Cup Magazine's article by Chris Ryan about how Coffee-training programs give you and your staff needed know-how.

Making coffee is no simple task. If it’s espresso you’re brewing, the steps are numerous: grinding, tamping, extracting and more. Make a mistake in just one of those areas, and your product will suffer. And if you’re introducing milk into the equation, you better hope it’s steamed to perfection if you’re going to put forward a great drink. If you’re using another brewing method—from French press to siphon to pourover—coffee-to-water ratios, extraction times and more must be just right to produce the best brew.

It’s not hard to see the benefit of having a well-trained staff: The better they make your drinks, the more likely your customers will be to return for them. “With most coffee bars, you’re really dependent upon your employees for your success because they’re going to be the ones that are interacting with your customers probably 98 percent of the time, and they’re going to be the ones that are preparing the food and beverage,” says Ed Arvidson of E&C Consulting. “If your people aren’t trained, then instead of helping you build business, they become a liability.”

With so much time, money and effort invested in choosing the best coffee beans, shops are wise to implement a training program to ensure that those beans are properly prepared. “You can have the greatest product in the world, and if it’s mishandled, ill-prepared or misunderstood, then the quality of the coffee bean doesn’t really matter that much,” says Marcus Young, who does sales and distribution for Batdorf & Bronson in Portland, Ore.

The lengthy coffee education process will reveal general truths about any coffee—for example, over-extracted espresso produces a bitter flavor, while under-extracted espresso has a sour taste. However, one of the main benefits of extensive studying before using a machine is that the employee will become so well acquainted with your particular coffee that once he or she does get on bar, that barista will know how to make the product taste its best. “Knowing the coffee is very important,” says Bastin. “Because if you don’t know your coffee, then you’re probably not going to get the best flavor characteristics out of it.”

Understanding the product backward and forward also gives the barista the ability to troubleshoot when there’s an issue with the coffee or the equipment. Hiccups inevitably happen during a shift, and being able to address them swiftly is a vital skill. “For coffee businesses that don’t do regular training, when one thing goes wrong, every single thing goes wrong. So with training, when things are off, they’ll know how to find the source of problems,” says Sarah Dooley of Visions Espresso Service.

The desire to learn also extends to customers, many of whom are eager to absorb information on brewing methods, quality cups and more. Shops would do well to pass on what they know to the people lining up to talk to them. “It’s a great opportunity for café owners to connect with their customers,” says Young of Batdorf & Bronson. “If you sell 12-ounce bags of coffee, why would your customers need to go to the grocery store to buy coffee when they could buy it right from you? And then you can pass along that training and help them to brew a great cup at home.”

Here at 9 bar espresso we are all about education and training for a wonderful product resulting in more profit and returning customers for your business. No matter if you are just starting out or are looking to bolster your existing espresso program 9 bar espresso is here to help you with education and training. Email our roastmaster corey@9bar-espresso.com or call him at 1.888.576.9227 ext. 267 to set up a training consultation.

It's Alive! It's Alive!

2008-11-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

Yes it is live, the website. In all it's e-commerce glory. It was tough but I'm pretty proud of it. There are still a few things I would like to tinker with, like getting the USPS API's working but alas my non-programmer mind is a little fried right now so give me a some time to build my brain cells. Oh yeah check it out, www.9bar-espresso.com and do some holiday shopping while your their by clicking on online store. Start a trend and instead of getting your friends, family or coworkers Starbucks (bleck!) get them 9 bar espresso! Well even ship it to them directly for you. If you call me personally who knows I may even gift wrap it for you. Just don't ask me to bake some cookies for it too I really don't have the time. Although I may have something there because I make some really great cookies.

All fun aside being a small business owner is tough work, just like being a parent, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Tune in next time when we have the next update on the adventures of 9 bar espresso!

The Learning Curve

2008-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Yes I knew there would be a learning curve for us here at 9 bar espresso, me especially going into the coffee business. That being said I didn't quite expect there to be such a curve in doing our labels for our wholesale 2 lb. and retail 1 lb. bags of espresso. I've got over eight years experience as a graphic designer and I've designed labels before but a retail food product has a whole other dimension I did not foresee.

Corey is familiar with Richmark Label in Seattle (www.richmarklabel.com) because the company he was with before used them. So that is who we decided to go ahead and work with however the sales guy he had used before was no longer with the company so we ended up talking to Robert Fass who was fairly new and took over the old guys account. Corey wasn't sure if we should deal with a new guy but I said, "Why not, I'm new to it too and I'll be the one working with him."

I sent my initial designs over and Robert quoted them, easy enough. But then Corey and I started thinking about productivity and hand labeling, then about as our business grows machine labeling, oh yeah and 'what is required for retail food labeling?' I let Robert know where we were at and he rolled with it and said to just send him new art to quote when we were ready. I had some research to do, where do you find food labeling requirements you can understand anyway? I so happened to luck out and find a great powerpoint presentation called "Ins and outs of food labeling part 1" here is the link for those of you who are wondering: www.ag.ndsu.edu/foodent/entrepreneur/ppt/ins_and_outs_of_food_labeling.ppt

Come to find out what I suspected was true and I was also relieved to find out coffee and tea are not required to have nutrition facts like a lot of other food products. Corey and I finalized the new design only to have Robert tell us they didn't have a stock die that size for machine application (again for those of you who don't know find out the rewind number before you pick your dye size! For most it is #2). Corey and I were bummed but then I reasoned that it really would be worth it to see how much a custom dye would be for the retail espresso bags because we want 9 bar espresso to look as good as it tastes! We compromised and ended up using a stock dye size for the wholesale 2 lb. bags and a custom one for our retail 1 lb. bags. Turns out the custom one wasn't that expensive about right in the middle of my bet and Corey's bet. It wasn't over yet though. Just as I had sent over the final, final artwork for our 9 bar espresso medium roast, dark roast, and decaffeinated I get a call from Corey saying, "What do you think about doing the organic labels now too?" Aaaaccckk! I just had wrapped everything up with Robert so naturally as a graphic designer and a wife I was a little frustrated but I was willing to get it done if it was good for the business. So I asked why the sudden revelation and Corey said the last two days he had been out talking with our customers and letting them know about our new retail offerings and new blends including the organic he was getting an overwhelming positive response to the organic. Ok I get it, we needed to do it because the market was demanding it. So I swallowed my pride and called up Robert one more time. He was great, said no problem that it was a smart thing to do and I got him the additional new artwork for our 9 bar espresso organic blend.

Whew! It took about a week and a half but the labels have been taken care of AND I feel good about our choices. It's hard to strike the balance of getting good looking product and making sure it is done in a cost effective manner. Plus I'm happy we are using minimum packaging while keeping a certain asthetic. Nothing bugs me more than a product that is over packaged, too much waste and not eco-friendly. I'm happy Corey is on board with me in making 9 bar espresso an affordable eco-friendly company. After I finish writing this blog entry I'm going to triumphantly march over to our dry erase board and gleefully erase "order labels" from my list.

Coffee Fest Seattle

2008-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Corey was at Coffee Fest Seattle last weekend (September 12-14) and he said it was interesting to see it from a consumers point of view. Previously he had been there as a vendor with another company. He felt it was really sparse this year and some booths shouldn't have even been allowed to display like the ones selling jewelry. Really?! Jewelry!? What does that have to do with coffee? I find it amazing what the independent coffee house will get distracted with. So many are trying so hard to generate income they forget what they are there for in the first place, coffee. Many independent owners get so distracted with other things like smoothies, blended drinks, and god forbid a lunch menu that they throw the one thing by the wayside that got them there in the first place the coffee! I've had far too many horrible espresso drinks with a decent sandwich to count, people shouldn't come to your coffee house for lunch, they should come for the espresso.

That's what we're trying to help the independent owner with, getting their customer to come to them because they have great espresso ... 9 bar espresso! We realize it's more than a great espresso roast it has a lot to do with properly trained baristas and great customer service but we want to help them with that too.

So here we are just beginning the exciting part of the journey we have our toll free number now and I have a landing page set up for our website. Corey is at the roasting facility right now, he's actually waiting on UPS to deliver our one pound retail bags so he can bag what he roasted yesterday. We're still trying to figure out the label sizes, we really should have gotten these ordered Monday but that's the way it usually goes when your a small business owner trying to take care of everything yourselves. That's all I got for now. I'll be back to give you an update on how the launch of our retail packaging goes with our wholesale clients.

Yeah It keeps us runnin'...

2008-09-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

We've done it! Yes we have, Corey and I have taken our years of experience working for other people and jumped right in! No more complaining about the boss getting us down because we are the boss ... and the production staff, customer service rep, webmaster, etc., you get the picture. So here we are with a great product, 9 bar espresso. Corey has been roasting and and selling this product for about four years now and it has had good success but now we are here to take it to the next level with our own branding. 9 bar espresso is fresh, full-bodied, espresso roasts with a rich complexity that is delicious from beginning to end. Dare I say chocolaty, no not even dare because it is! I love true gourmet high coco content dark chocolate and this espresso is the coffee form of this kind of dark chocolate. Did I drink black coffee before meeting Corey? No and I never thought I would but it only took a few months of dating him and I was in love with rich black coffee. Now a dog, a house, a marriage, and a baby later I'm still in love with Corey and his rich espresso. So much so his dream of bringing his passion for espresso to others has become mine and we're in it together. So I look forward to updating you on our business, our updated website (9bar-espresso.com), and our coffee filled life here in San Diego.