The world of coffee, from seed to cup. Barista craft, artisan roasting, coffee farming, and other practices.
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If you go on over to the Costa Rica La Union page and check out the bag label, you'll read the descriptors snap peas, jasmine and alfalfa flowers. During recent cuppings, I've also perceived cocoa, fresh earth and peaches.
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While not the fastest in operation, it certainly is in looks. This beauty is Formula 1!
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Drive your Toyota like a jackrabbit. Gun it at the greenlight, catch air off a speedbump, carve donuts in your neighbor's lawn. Do it 15 hours a day, 365 days a year. How's that little Corolla feeling now?
Maybe you think of foofy drinks. Or you geek out like some latter day microscopist. Ooh, I know: you think of plug-n-play gadgets. But me, I think of Bartles & Jaymes. I was programmed in the '80s. My automatic response to the word "coolers" has everything to do with those old guys catching a fruity buzz, and nothing to do with... war.
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I am the official Gimme! cupping spoon. I am instrumental in the daily decisions that are made at the Gimme! roasting headquarters. Let me take you through my typical routine. I like to wake nice and early.
In the specialty coffee industry there is a practice that is protocol for any decent, responsible and quality focused roaster called cupping. Coffee cupping is something that is for the most part, well known to specialty coffee professionals from baristas to CEOs of said coffee companies. Cuppings are a method of determining the quality of a particular coffee. When we get a green coffee sample at Krums (our roasting facility/coffee lab) I roast it on our sample roaster for the next days cupping. 
Shootin' hoops at an organic coffee finca in Cauca, Colombia. When you are 1,600 ft. above sea level on the cordillera central, you really don't want to be the one to chase the ball down the hill. Hence, the only shot I took... was with this camera. 
If you haven't browsed Mimi Wysong's splendid photos from Mesa de los Santos, Colombia, here are the photo gallery and travel report. Mimi has a naturalist's eye to match her knack with a camera. She also manages our Cayuga Street espresso bar — the original Gimme location and a perennial favorite of Ithacans.
We finished dis-assembling this neglected roaster and it still smells like death. Hopefully, sandblasting will disinfect and deodorize it.
All 30 baristas from Gimme's four upstate New York retail stores hit the Upstate Training Lab this past Tuesday and Thursday for a tasting of our Nicaragua Linda Vista Cup of Excellence coffee. They learned about the Linda Vista farm, French Pressed the coffee and talked at length about the Cup of Excellence auction. Photos
Sigri Plantation is located in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Growing conditions here are well-suited for coffee: about 5200 feet above sea level, with a cool climate and plenty of rainfall.
Every fall into winter season means exciting and new opportunities to buy beautiful coffees. I am stoked to be cupping
1 to 2 to sometimes even 3 times a day in order to find that beautiful,
strange or eccentric new coffee to purchase and then roast and share.
Up at Krums Corners,
there is a nice hum that you can hear on a visit up route 96. The hum
of the roaster, the sample roaster, the production team bagging up
coffee, the slicing of tape and the taping up of boxes to get shipped
out to accounts and customers.
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It should come as no surprise that Starbucks is making aggressive moves in Pacific rim emerging economies. This particular outlet is about a mile from Peking University, the same general area as Google.cn HQ. The Western-culture loving Beijing capitalists are prime targets for adopting coffee culture and fostering a trickle-down effect, helping to introduce the most populous nation to coffee.
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Daterra Estate's commitment to quality and sustainability has made it one of the best-known farms in Brazil.
Two intense years have passed since Peter Meehan reported on the arrival of specialty coffee in New York City -- a few decades after the niche industry got its start on the West Coast. Gimme and our peers have been hammering away at "new wave" practices, with special attention to barista craft, artisan roasting, sustainability, and working closer with farmers.
Here's a rare look into the coffee mind of John Gant, Master Roaster at Gimme! Coffee. John's signature style of working with coffee -- roasting, tasting, tweaking, and communicating the nuances -- goes on full display in this cupping report that he penned about our Rwanda Bourbon Bufcafe. It's a joy to read John's expressive, exuberant prose.
Before the Coffeelands presentation at the 2008 Barista Jam in Easton, I wasn't sufficiently aware of the problem of land mines in coffee-producing countries. Upon returning home, I did some searching and found 2 videos on the subject. After watching them, I decided to go one step further and donate to the Landmine Victims' Trust.
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Mill owner, Epiphanie, shows the Gold Cup that the cooperative won in Rwanda's national coffee competition.
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Now there's an idea — a coffee prospecting map of New York City. This edition of “Cafe Life” went to press just before we announced our new Manhattan location. The Mott Street espresso bar would be in the lower right part of the inset box.
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Fresh-picked beans dry on raised beds at Mesa de los Santos in central Colombia.
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Several different lots of coffee beans dry in the sun at the Malinal cooperative in Narayit, Mexico.
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Evans' Farmhouse Creamery in Norwich, NY, supplies us with local organic milk. It's a traditional family farm, with nice shiny cans.
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Maria Elena Camacho and family, at home on “La Unión” farm near San Rafael, Costa Rica.
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The best Kenyan coffees balance bright acidity with fruity sweetness. Careful processing preserves these flavors.
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In the old-growth forests of Elk Hill Estate, wild elephants sometimes stop in for a visit.
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Gimme barista Colleen Carey took her signature "shiny happy face" all the way to a bronze.
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Black Gold is a "vivid and galvanizing" documentary (Time Out New York) that explores the international coffee trade and its effect on Ethiopian farmers.
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Cup of Excellence winner El Bergel, a brilliant harvest from the small farm of Colombian Alvaro Cruz.
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There's precious content inside, but can “Barista Manual 1.0” take the punishment of fieldwork? Before getting our stamp of approval, the “Manual” got a whoopin' in our espresso lab. Here, a 30-second blast from the steamwand.
Latest PhotosThe Gimme! Blog is a collaboration that gives voice to people across our company. The goal is to share individual perspectives with a broad audience of coffee-lovers.
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