Fresh Market

Fresh Market opened in Crystal Lake and is carrying a selection of our fine, artisan roast, hand-packed coffees.

Coffee Review: Conscious Cup earns 94 point rating

Coffee Review rates our Ethiopian Harrar among its highest-rated.

Blind Assessment: Intense aroma and flavor dominated by deep, jasmine-like flowers and tartly sweet fruit: pomegranate, bergamot, raspberry. Rich, complexly expressed acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The finish is lemony, sweet, and very long.

Notes: Grown and processed by members of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, this coffee is Fair Trade certified, meaning it was purchased from small-holding farmers at a “fair” or economically sustainable price. Harrar is one of the world’s oldest and most traditional coffees. As it has been for centuries, it is simply picked and spread in the sun to dry inside the fruit. Conscious Cup Coffee Roasters is independent and family-owned and operated cafe and coffee roaster specializing in socially and environmentally sustainable coffees.

Who Should Drink It: Those looking for excitement. Almost startling intensity and complexity in this unusually clean, bright Harrar.

The Economy We Control

None of us are likely in a position to, say, influence money rates in any meaningful way but we can control one element of our economy.

We can choose to support our communities and buy local.

The Benefits of Buying Local

I’m writing this after driving past Nick’s Pizza in Crystal Lake on an errand. The drive and parking lot was jammed. This followed a plea from Nick Sarillo that his company needed your patronage to stay in business. Nick’s had expanded into Elgin, a site that was beset by ill-managed road construction that, at one time without notice, left the Elgin restaurant with no visible access from Randall Road.

Unfortunately, Nick’s case probably isn’t as unique as his hutzpah. At lot of us could use a jammed parking lot and I’m uplifted by the image this night at Nick’s as an effect of his plea.

You can choose to spend your money locally, with locally owned and operated businesses and not the national chains. Crystal Lake, McHenry County and greater Chicago offer effective local choices at every level of commerce. Our friends at SMT Associates, Inc., in Crystal Lake, turned us on to the 3/50 project.. What a great idea. Identify three local businesses and spend $50 at each.

With the economy still struggling and risking a double-dip, we need to support each other. It’s important to buy local. If you’re running a business, check your vendors. As consumers, choose locally owned businesses over national chains. What goes around comes around when you buy local.

By some accounts, local businesses reinvest $0.45 of every $1 you spend with them back into the local community versus a $0.15 reinvestment by national chains. Of course, WalMart attracts a lot more of your money than either Nick’s or our Conscious Cup; I’d guess more than Nick’s or CC combined. So, I’m not saying you shouldn’t shop at WalMart, just think hard about what you need or want and then see if that can be met by any of our local merchants or service professionals.

Whole Foods

Drove through a Monday morning rain to O’Hare, then, on the way back, stopped at Whole Foods Market in Palatine.

Our coffee looks good on their shelves.

Conscious Cup Coffee Roasters at Whole Fooods Market, Palatine

Pour Over

In the fast, no faster world of commuting Crystal Lake, we offer a pause, a moment of, um, coffee zen.

Take a little time to enjoy a hand-poured coffee from the coffee bar.

The flavor and aroma produced by pour-over coffee is different from our brewing system (which is fired up to serve go go commuters).

Hand preparation takes a couple of minutes longer but you’ll appreciate the break in routine. This is, by the way, a great opportunity to try a cup of our select coffees when available ahead of this holiday season.

Join us the second Saturday, September 10, September for Mike’s Coffee 101 and learn how to use the same Chemex or Hario pour-over used at our coffee bar.

The Quality Distinction of Latte Art

Latte art is a showy part of the barista’s craft but, even more, it’s a reflection of quality.

Latte Art at Conscious Cup Coffee Roasters

Latte art can’t be done without properly pulled espresso, with a substantial, sustainable crema. Latte art can’t be done with a casual regard to steaming milk. The latter is most visible to you as a consumer.

The technique at the steaming wand for a latte versus a cappuccino is different; the latte only being capped with micro-foamed milk while the micro-foam holds a thicker (roughly one-third) position in the cup for cappuccino. A cappuccino requires the barista to draw more air into the milk to create a larger volume of micro-foam. The remaining milk in either preparation is steamed hot.

Steaming technique

Whether or not your cup is topped with latte art, the techniques to getting the correct proportion of steamed milk to micro-foam cap are similar. The result allows the milk to be poured through the espresso crema in one uninterrupted motion, the crema infusing the micro-foam as a result. Look for a smooth, shiny surface unbroken by large bubbles. Latte art is a nice touch that can’t be done unless the steaming/frothing is done correctly.

Two big no-nos to watch for:

• Don’t accept a drink poured from a large (bigger than a pint) pitcher that the barista supplements and reheats. It’s expedient but the result is scalded milk.
• Amateurs use a broad knife to block the foam from the pour and then scoop or ladle foam onto the top of the drink. The foam doesn’t get infused by the espresso crema.

French Press Iced Coffee

Take a plunge into summer with a nice, freshly brewed iced coffee. This method will deliver a smoother taste than chilling coffee left over from your home brewer.

In a French Press, add 8.5 grams of coarse ground coffee per cup (8 ounces) of cold water. Of course, a gram scale is handy and essential if you’re a dedicated cook. Typically, a French Press comes with a scoop and recommends one scoop per “cup.” I’d check out the scoop’s capacity.

First, saturate the grounds so they don’t float. Pour in the remaining water (our French Press holds 4 cups). Stir until the grounds are fully saturated.

Place the French Press lid onto the pot with the safety lid in the closed position, covering the spout. Leave the plunger raised.

Let the coffee rest and chill overnight for 12 hours in the refrigerator.

The next morning, press gently down on the plunger.

In a tall, ice-filled glass, mix equal parts of the chilled, concentrated coffee with water, or add water to taste. If you wish, add milk and sugar or a flavoring like hazelnut or vanilla.

How to make strong coffee

I think their marriage will last a few more years as they’ve already passed the 60-year mark but my mother and father in law just don’t agree on coffee. Sure, they both like coffee but mom likes strong coffee and dad is of a mind to stretch a basket of grounds.

Tasting Notes

We gently remind dad that he can always add a little hot water or an ice cube to his cup if the coffee is too strong for his taste. Coffee brewed too weakly can’t be salvaged.

Coffee at our cafe is brewed strong. We use a full complement of properly ground coffee whether prepared in volume through our brewers or single cups by hand at our pour-over bar. Let’s begin with a definition of “strong” — the dose of coffee used in brewing.

The coffee you’re buying is good so lets invest a little time to prepare it with precision and then adjust to your taste.

That word, “strong,” doesn’t, or rather shouldn’t, have any meaning to the darkness of the roast. Our dark, aromatic Onyx blend coffee would be a weak coffee if too little is used in the brew. A light Brazilian can be muddied by too strong a brew. Other factors influence desirable aroma and taste: sweetness, acidity, body, balance and finish are the five on which we concentrate because the coffee industry’s flavor wheel can make you dizzy.

Flavor Wheel

Here’s what the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) recommends: 10.5 grams of properly ground coffee per US cup, or 8 fluid ounces of water. You may have heard 7 grams but that relates to a 6 ounce, or European, measured cup. In the US, it’s 10.5 — it doesn’t seem like much, does it.

If you spend a little time with a gram scale like the simple one shown, you’ll learn how much coffee beans to prepare for grinding for whichever method you prefer. For Christmas a couple of years ago, we received a really nice coffee measuring scoop and leveled off it holds 13 grams of coffee. It’s pretty, though, but about as accurate as the “2 tablespoons” per cup adage.

So, we’re going to stick with 10.5 grams per US 8-0unce cup. That adds up quickly to 85 grams (just a pinch shy of 3 ounces) for 8 US cups, or 64 ounces of water to prepare coffee.

But there’s a head fake involved. Our “12 cup” carafe in our home brewer isn’t really 12 US 8-ounce cups. In fact, at the 12 cup “fill” mark, the carafe falls short of eight (8) US cups. Our favored cafetiere (French Press) held just four (4) US cups. Little wonder we’re always short of coffee!

This whole issue of strength of coffee can get sticky within a finicky industry. SCAA’s technical recommendation, the measure used for Gold Cup awards, is for 18 to 22% weight of the ground coffee’s oils to extracted to a brew. By SCAA’s calculations this will produce a beverage containing 1.15 to 1.35 percent dissolved solids. But, we think you shouldn’t fret so much to set up a chem lab in your kitchen.

Let first your nose, then your pallet decide. You may want more or less coffee than the 10.5 gram per 8-ounces benchmark. That will depend on how different coffees taste and how you adjust preparation methods to suit your own tastes, whether you’re my mom or my dad.

We’re just not going to get into equipment here. SCAA currently certifies just three home brewers, mostly because most home automatic drip brewers fail SCAA’s temperature tests. Water temps are supposed to be between 92c and 96c (197f to 204f) in the brew basket for no less than 50% of a 2-8 minute brew cycle. We use off boil water in our French Press — that’s hot, likely around 94c or 202f. The three certified machines are:

• Technivorm Moccamaster
• Lance Larkin BE 112 Brew Express
• Bunn HG Home Brewer

You’ll enjoy the fully enjoy the fresh taste of our roasts only if you grind just prior to preparing your coffee. A quality burr (not blade) grinder is the first investment to make in quality preparation.

Whether you use paper filters or a metal filter is up to you; the latter delivers more of the oils to the cup and the result is a richer character, as in how the coffee feels in your mouth. Paper filters deliver a cleaner cup, absent any sediments that slip through the metal filters.

Peace Out, Dude

Convenience

I know several people who swear by their single-serve coffee-maker.

Freshness aside for the moment (no, the coffee is not fresh), I’ve always had a nagging concern looking at, for example, the rather large cardboard box filled with little tiny cups stacked at Costco. The packaging far outweighs the coffee — some 3 billion (yes that’s a “b!”) of the little cups are discarded each year so that’s a big effect on the waste stream. Little evidence exists that the cups are recycled or composted. Consumer behavior isn’t that keen on either, unfortunately. (Consider that arguably some 70-90% of readily recyclable plastic, single-use water bottles are simply tossed into the trash.)

Julie Graves

Julie Craves, a University of Michigan bird ecologist and coffee lover, holds the same concern about the single-serve coffee systems, writing in www.coffeehabitat.com (her web site) that little progress is being made on making the small cups either recyclable or more readily compostable. The makers of the Keurig K-Cup system, the most widely used have been stalled for more than five years in coming up with a recyclable cup. (The owners, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, have had an otherwise laudable sustainability and responsibility program for years.)

The New York Times has weighed in on the single-use cup dilemma — the tussle between convenience and waste. Oh, how we love convenience and my how little we care about waste.

While a bit less convenient, we suggest you consider a pour-over. Tea kettle, carafe, filter holder, filters and freshly ground coffee. It’s the best way to get rich, coffee-house flavor at home. Paper filters and grounds are compostable: At Conscious Cup grounds are available to customers free (and great for tomato plants).