Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco

 

Irish coffee. One of the great beverages to be created by the formidable hands of talented mixologists and passed across the bar into the grasp of locals and tourists alike.

And if you want an Irish coffee made the right way, you go to the Buena Vista in San Francisco, right at the end of the streetcar line near Fisherman's Wharf.

First thing's first: What's an Irish coffee? Whiskey, coffee and heavy cream. 

And like I said, they make 'em like they're supposed to make 'em at the Buena Vista.

They have a great rundown on how Buena Vista became the spot to go here.

But here's the quick and dirty:

In 1952. Jack Koeppler, owner of the Buena Vista put a challenge to Stanton Delaplane, international travel writer, to re-create the renowned Irish coffee at the Shannon Airport in Ireland. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, the two nailed the recipe. The rest, as they say... is history.

My first Irish coffee there was a magical experience- literally. I walked in and sat down- well, I walked in and stood, stalking a stool at the bar for maybe half an hour until something opened up. The place is always packed, day or night, but the people are mostly friendly and there to have a good time.

Back to the magic. I sit down with my date and the guy behind the bar is doing card tricks like he came out of the womb doing them. Amazing. He had bright white hair, almost down to his shoulders, with a bushy mustache. For the three or four Irish coffees I had while sitting there, the bartender did a few more card tricks, usually for the pretty ladies that sat down for their first. And he had game.

I know my date looked at me when he did the trick for her and said, "If you learn how to do that... like that, I'll be yours forever."

Well, I'm no magician and the girl is gone, but the bartender, the magic tricks and the Irish coffees are still there.

If you're in San Francisco, make the trip.

National Doughnut Day

It's the first Friday in June, and that means it's National Doughnut Day. It's one of those days that everyone loves to celebrate—especially if the local doughnut shop is handing out free doughnuts, but few people know the story behind the holiday.

National Doughnut Day is a recognition of the women from the Salvation Army who were sent to the front lines of the war, World War I, in Europe. These women, who volunteered for the duty, made hot meals for the troops, including freshly made doughnuts. In 1917 Lt. Colonel Helen Purviance as Ensign Purviance, was sent to France. Considered the first "doughnut girl," she and other Salvation Army officers, made homemade doughnuts, rolling out the dough with a wine bottle, and then frying the doughnuts over an open fire. That first day, they made a mere 150 doughnuts, but once they fine tuned the process and created an assembly line, they were frying up to 9,000 hot, fresh doughnuts for servicemen a day.

According to tradition, the doughnuts were often cooked in hot oil heated inside the steel helmets of American infantrymen. These Salvation army "lassies" were the only non-military women allowed to visit the front lines, and they were enormously important in terms of troop morale. Often the Salvation Army set up mobile tents and huts, moving with the army, and distributing food, especially homemade pies and doughnuts, and hot beverages (as well as emergency first aid, and warm clothing made by women back home).

Both DunkinDoughnuts and Krispy Kreme celebrate National Doughnut Day by giving away free doughnuts (you need to buy a beverage at Dunkin Doughnuts). At many doughnut shops, today's proceeds to to the Salvation Army and other charitable causes.

Coffee Storage

Oregon and Seattle both seem obsessed with coffee; there are tiny little roasters all over; pretty much every city has one or two small boutique roasting businesses. There are drive-through expresso kiosks and little carts. There are chains of coffee shops. You'd think, then, with this ubiquitous coffee culture, and the emphasis on buying the beans and brewing your own coffee, that people would know how to store their coffee.

They don't. I've seen people buy a pound of beans for 20.00 or more, and then leave the bag on the kitchen counter. This has caused me physical pain on at least one occasion. So here's a the basic run down on how to store your beans, in whole bean, or already ground. My assumption here is that you aren't going to grind the beans until just before you brew the coffee because you're not a barbarian. Right?

The basic idea is to keep your coffee away from moisture, air, light, and heat. That said, you also don't want to expose your drug of choice and elixir of life coffee anywhere it will be exposed to large changes in temperature. The ideal place is cool, dry, and dark.

"Cool, dry, and dark" does not mean your freezer. Here's the deal; if you're going to store your beans for a long time, yes, put them in a sealed air-tight container in your freezer. But you don't want to take them out of the freezer, and then put them back all the time. That exposes them to constant temperature fluctuations, and moisture will condense on and in the beans. Take out enough beans for a week or so, but keep the rest in the freezer. Keep the beans for the week in a sealed, air tight container in your pantry where it won't be exposed to light.

Don't believe me? Here are the experts. Also here.

Bikini Baristas

In the old days, someone like Mr. Roper on Three's Company was forced to either go to beach himself (which I don't really recall him ever doing) or to get out his trusty binoculars to spy on girls in their bikinis. Fortunately for a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest, men don't have to go anywhere but their local espresso stand (for the price of about 4 or 5 dollars) to see a young hottie with a bodacious bod in her bikini or lingerie serving up cappuccinos. Some earnest young Tacoma man has even started his own blog devoted only to these prime girls in their bikinis, publishing locations and pictures of the stands and sometimes even the girls themselves. (actually taking photos of the girls is frowned upon)

In Seattle, on Aurora, which is home to more than one strip club and has the dubious distinction of being the prostitution strip in the neighborhood, I doubt anyone is complaining about the stands ruining the hood. I mean, seriously, Chica Latte, one fine coffee stand is located right next to a strip joint. I wonder if some of the girls work in both places. As far as I know, there are no lap dances at the Bikini Barista coffee stands and very few of the girls, if any, seem to be above the age of 20. While they do risk spilling coffee on themselves, the tips from customers to girls in bikinis are reportedly larger than the average coffee stand. Some customers even buy more cups of coffee.

The biggest complainers about this style of coffee stand are conservatives, the religious right, moms, and not surprisingly, other coffee stand owners who claim that the bikini baristas are taking away all of their business. It also is largely dependent on the neighborhood, too. Moms tend to want to protect their children from this sort of thing. (although how this is different from a bikini car wash I am not exactly sure).

I recommended a friend of mine open up a similar establishment in Milwaukee, WI, which I think would spur a coffee revolution in a town better known for beer than coffee. I failed to consider the fact that Milwaukee is one of the coldest places in the United States. It would be better for nipple action, but I think the frost-bite and hypothermia risks would unfortunately outweigh the gains.

If I had the gumption, I would put up a similar coffee stand up in town, but with men serving the coffee. My target customer would not necessarily be a typical female like myself, but more likely a gay male and the stand would be located in an area such as Capitol Hill in Seattle, which is notable for being a gay-friendly area in Seattle.

Beer + Coffee= Sober?

In my 20's, back when I was more of a drinker, my friends and I would often go out drinking, then go out to  breakfast for something healthy like chicken-fried steak and then smoke about half a pack of Marlboro Lights while slurping about four cups of mud-like coffee to sober us up. Occasionally, one of us would drive in a situation when we shouldn't have, believing that our blood alcohol levels would have been miraculously and mysteriously lowered by the coffee. Sadly, that was not the reality of the situation. Basically, coffee and other caffeine products do absolutely nothing to lower your Blood Alchohol Level, which in my humble opinion, sucks.

From my understanding, the whole process of lowering your BAC goes something like this. Eliminating toxins is the liver's job. And, while it may be true that each person gets alcohol out of their blood stream at different rates, the speed is not dependent on or affected by caffeine consumption, which is rather unfortunate for those looking for a quick fix in order to drive, work, or otherwise function normally in society.

However, as long as you're not driving or being tested for your Alcohol Levels, there is some help. Coffee will stimulate your nervous system somewhat. This, in turn, can give you the illusion that you are clear-headed and awake, which is almost, but not quite as good as actually being clear-headed and awake.

Small Talk

At my place of employment (Starbucks) one thing we must do is constantly chat it up with customers.  Any time people are waiting for their drinks we have to think of something fun and exciting to talk about.  Of course 90% of the time we don't think of anything original so we resort to the same old drab "small talk" conversations that millions of people must endure daily.  For some reason, both the customers and employees tolerate this and we even act as though it is an interesting, useful conversation we are having.  We try to pretend this is important dialogue, when of course everyone involved in the conversation knows this isn't true. 

Naturally, one of the main topics that is brought up is weather.  Sometimes we're able to steer clear from this drab subject, for example Griffey's return to Seattle,  triggered many conversations and of course Obama's victory made for weeks of interesting conversation, but the excitement always wears off, reality and routine hits us once again and conversation would inevitably shift back to weather.  Weather...a topic people have been discussing for ages and will continue to focus on, regardless of the fact that these conversations get us nowhere.  Weather is simply out there, in the sky and in the air, we have no impact on it (aside from global warming of course) and it's one of the most temporary things I can think of.  It affects us for one day only and then we move on, hoping for more sunshine and a nice breeze come tomorrow. 

One can imagine my excitement when I must talk about this drab topic over and over all day long.

"Well it looks like a nice day out, better than yesterday at least."

"Yes sir this is the perfect weather because it's nice enough to take care of your lawn, but still chilly enough that you have an excuse to put it off, if you don't feel like doing it."

"You enjoying the sunshine?" 

Somehow I always end up asking people if they are enjoying the sunshine.  This should be a given, people generally enjoy the sunshine, but for some reason when the sun is out everyone wants to talk about it.  Someone will be out driving around with the top down, sunglasses on, blasting music, and I still ask them if they're enjoying the sunshine.  The weird thing is people love this question.  They love to be asked if they are enjoying the sunshine because then they get to point out their topless car and give an enthusiastic head nod accompanied with a "Yep, I'm out for a drive!" 

Everyone is clearly happy when the sun is out, but what about when it's gloomy?  I find it funny that when it's rainy or cold out in May, people complain that the weather is acting weird, constantly changing from day to day.  People seem to forget that this is normal Seattle spring weather!  It changes all the time.  Sometimes the days are nice, sometimes lousy, and we Seattle residents simply have to take what we can get. 

This is Seattle for you: nice summers and shifting, unpredictable springs.  Now that I think about it, even the summers here are unpredictable.  Sometimes they're just as rainy and cold as the spring, as if Mother Nature completely forgot about July and August, keeping us in an endless onslaught of April showers and clouds.  If one must complain about rainy weather in spring, go ahead and complain, but there is no reason to call it strange.  We aren't in the Caribbean and this isn't Southern California.  If it was, I wouldn't be writing this article, I'd be at Disneyland.  In the end, the best decision we can all make is to simply stop discussing weather.  The elements will do what they please, sometimes the sun will shine and the sprinklers will come out.  Other times the temperature will sink down, making people wish they had brought along that extra hoody.

It's my opinion that we should simply allow nature to take its course and move onto discussing more important issues at hand, like where the best dog parks are and how many calories are in a grande frappucino. 

 

Back to the Future: Starbucks Launches Instant Soluble Coffee

The coffee drinking world has received Starbucks' news of a new product launch with, let us say, "some skepticism." Howard Schultz is promising to reinvent the way we drink coffee on the go, by providing us with handy single serving packets of instant soluble coffee. In the minds of many people, instant soluble coffee is freighted with two associations: 1. Old people 2. Tastes awful When I hear the phrase "instant coffee" I think of my grandmother. Not because she drank instant coffee - she was a coffee fanatic, and would never stoop to such lows. But because she kept a jar of petrified Sanka in the back of her cupboard for emergencies, and for elderly visitors who preferred the taste of Sanka to a pot of freshly brewed coffee. Her own mother, who had been born at the turn of the century, greatly preferred the taste of Sanka. Apparently she had developed a taste for it during the rationing of the Great Depression. (I understand the same can be said for pig knuckles, cold ox tongue sandwiches, and Spam.) My own experience with instant soluble coffee is limited. Fresh out of college, I worked an entry level job at an extension course provider, one of those places that offer "classes" with titles like "Five Ways to Find The Work You Love" and "Soapmaking 101." I was the only coffee drinker on staff, and in deference to my preference for coffee, my supervisor purchased a box of Maxwell House instant soluble coffee in single serving tea bags. I thanked her for the gesture, which I knew came from the heart, because she was a thrifty woman. For her, buying anything for her staff was a big move. The tea bags dribbled out a miserable steep of coffee flavoring. It was like regular Maxwell House coffee, but weaker and with a skunkier aftertaste. I found myself caught in a Catch 22: if I didn't use the coffee bags, my boss would feel that her gift had been slighted. If I did use them, she would be encouraged to buy more. In the end, I decided to make a cup once or twice a week just for show, and to claim that I had been converted to tea drinking. All while buying "real" coffee from the stand in the lobby, which I was careful to consume in secret. In the abstract, Starbucks' new offering is genius. By pitching the instant soluble coffee as a pocket accessory, Starbucks can solve its version of the "final mile" problem: how to deliver Starbucks coffee into those far reaches of life where actual Starbucks coffee is not available. It's a portable insta-Starbucks, and how great is that?! Unfortunately, even insisting that it be called "soluble coffee" can't overcome the instant soluble instant associations of "old ladies" and "terrible taste" in this consumer's mind. And judging by the public mockery of the new Starbucks announcement, it appears that I am not alone in this.

Coffee Drinking Decreases Stroke Risk in Women

I am one of those people who routinely have two to four cups of coffee a day. I like my coffee. I like it so much I've learned to drink it black, or with skim milk, and still like it. But I'm frequently being told by well-meaning friends that coffee drinking is bad for me. I'm glad to say that there's increasing evidence that a moderate intake of coffee, by someone with in overall good general health who exercises regularly is not only not dangerous, it may actually be good for us.

A new study, published in the March 3rd issue of Circulation magazine, asserts that drinking coffee appears to decrease the risk of stroke among women, with greater coffee consumption equating with less risk of stroke. The study tracked over 83,000 women, with an average age of 55 years old. The women all participated in the Nurses' Health Study between 1980 and 2004. The study lasted 42 years, during which time the participating women had nearly 2,300 strokes. Most of the strokes were ischemic strokes, which are strongly tied to blood vessel blockages.

The article notes that smokers do not seem to benefit from whatever protection regular coffee drinking might offer. Women not otherwise at risk (that is, at the start of they study, they had no sign of diabetes, stroke, cancer or heart disease) who indulged in two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day, had an average risk of any kind of stroke that was l9% percent lower than women who drank less than one cup of coffee in a month. Those who drank four or more cups of coffee in a day lowered their stroke risk to 20%.

Women who never smoked, those women who used to smoke but quit, but who drank four or more cups of coffee a day enjoyed a 43% reduction in their risk of stroke, for all types of stroke. But women with similar patterns of coffee drinking who did smoke, reduced their risk of stroke by a mere 3%.

Since those who participated in the research but drank tea or caffeinated soft drinks instead of coffee did not show any reduction in stroke risk, it is unlikely that it is the caffeine in coffee that potentially confers protective anti-stroke benefits.

What does the study actually mean? Assistant professor Rob M. van Dam of Harvard Medical School says that until we have more data, the study suggests that women can continue to enjoy coffee without being concerned that moderate coffee consumption increases stroke risk, but we should still concentrate on reducing our risk of stroke by quitting smoking, engaging in physical activity regularly, and reducing the amount of salt in our diets.

You can read about the study here.

Starbucks: ethical sourcing and Israel

Several posts ago, we brought up the issue of free trade coffee and the position of Starbucks on this issue. Someone at My Starbucks Idea found our post and commented with several links detailing Starbucks’ progress in the fair trade arena. According to a post written by Dub Hay, the Starbucks VP of Coffee and Global Procurement, the chain has been listening to their customers’ demand for fair trade coffee, and is doubling their amount of free trade coffee purchased in 2009. At 40 million pounds, this move will make Starbucks the largest buyer of Fair Trade coffee worldwide. Although I am skeptical that the above is merely a result of the sheer volume of coffee Starbucks purchases, it nevertheless means that 65% of their coffee is currently “ethically sourced”. They also are pledging that all of their coffee will be “ethically sourced” by 2015 (does ethically sourced mean fair trade? Does it mean anything? Sorry to be skeptical, sometimes these labels are just thrown around and are meaningless). I must say that this is clearly a step in the right direction for Starbucks. And as a tried and true Starbucks addict, I am relieved to have some ammunition to continue to defend the chain from attacks. Additionally, here is an outline of Starbucks environmental and ethical goals.

While we’re on the topic of Starbucks, I thought I’d address the rumors that Starbucks is financially funding the Israeli military. I found these allegations obviously unsubstantial and kinda ridiculous, and from the statement on the Starbucks website it seems they found them the same. Nevertheless, conspiracy theories do exist. Apparently a Starbucks near the Israeli embassy in London was trashed, which is just sad and unnecessary. But I don’t want to get too much into this conflict because it’s not a topic for a coffee blog!

Alright, enough about Starbucks for awhile!

Show Your Appreciation

Having recently become a barista, I have a newfound appreciation for tipping.  There are a few reasons why this is such an important part of working as a barista.  I will start with the obvious: it's extra money in our pockets.  Although the work is very busy and involves tons of memorization and multitasking, baristas barely get paid anything.  Like so many positions, it's an underpaid job and tipping is one way to help out the hardworking people who serve coffee. Second: It's quite calming and relieving to see change (and of course paper) go in the tip jar.  We work hard to serve customers and that extra change is a big token of appreciation.  Even if it's just 40 or 50 cents, the change adds up.  What else would someone do with that change anyways?  Sure, some people like to keep it for future purchases, but that little bit of money would considerably lighten a barista's heart.  It is all about the spirit of sharing and being thankful for one's coffee. Third: Tipping is a sign of respect towards the barista.  Many people who buy coffee have tons of money.  Of course this isn't true with everyone who buys coffee beverages, but it still cannot be denied.  If someone is driving around in a beautiful Mercedes and they're willing to spend $9+ on a couple of drinks, they would have a tough time convincing me they are dealing with "hard times."  I don't care if it's a recession, a depression or the apocalypse, if someone is driving around in a nice car buying 20oz Lates with extra matcha powder that they know costs 50 cents extra, I think they can handle giving 40 cents to the broke barista getting steamed milk and whipped cream on their elbows and shoes. Don't get me wrong, tipping isn't an obligation.  For example, if service is lousy, this is an ok reason not to tip.  Then again, if it is lousy service on one particular day but the customer is a regular and they know that normal service is 100% up to par, the tip is deserved!  Sometimes things don't go perfect and one must have mercy on the people working. A number of things could have happened to mess up the service, maybe one of the computers crashed, an espresso machine could be pulling shots slow or maybe the barista making drinks was out way too late the night before partying.  Even if this is the case the customer must take into account that we baristas are human.  We have needs and sometimes we must be social people.  Every move in life cannot be focused on serving excellent coffee, there must be time to unwind.  Perhaps the tip can be a little bit less, but it still should come. Of course, people don't always want to tip and this is fine.  Sometimes it may feel like one is overdoing it when they give 50 cents or a dollar a day.  If this is the case, take a day off of tipping...take two days off tipping, that is fine.  I don't want it to sound like I get mad at people any time they don't tip.  Some people have their money on their mind and it is perfectly fine to just want to pay for only the coffee.  But there is a difference between taking a day off tipping to save extra money and being stingy and disrespectful.  Customers that value their coffee should stay away from the stinginess and appreciate the delicious beverage that fills up their plastic "eco-friendly" cup every morning.

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