As working baristas, we are often asked, "So, how many coffees do you drink in a day?" However, this is actually a surprisingly difficult question for us and we are likely to answer with an anticlimactic 1 or 2. A better question to as is, "How much coffee do you drink a day?" to which we answer with a predictable, "A lot!"This is starting to sound like a riddle, right? But there is a simple explanation:
Unlike most other brewing methods, when making espresso there is no set "recipe" to follow.
You see, in brewing methods such as French Press or Pour Over, ground coffee simply sits and soaks in hot water, exposing each particle (and thus extracting) for the same amount of time, and then is gently separated using some form of filter. Because these brewing methods are so gentle, it's pretty easy to achieve the same outcome every time, enabling you to set and follow standard measurements.
But it's a little different with espresso where highly pressurized water is forced through finely ground and tightly packed coffee, pushing out the oils and gasses. And with such a forced extraction, coffee particles become volatile, exaggerating the smallest of variables into major factors; such as roast date, weather conditions (humidity and temperature), equipment temperature, and the list goes on.
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But it's a little different with espresso where highly pressurized water is forced through finely ground and tightly packed coffee, pushing out the oils and gasses. And with such a forced extraction, coffee particles become volatile, exaggerating the smallest of variables into major factors; such as roast date, weather conditions (humidity and temperature), equipment temperature, and the list goes on.
It's a baristas job to reign in all of these variables that would make for a bad shot, and manipulate them into something that is delicious! We have two main variables that we use to help us achieve this: dose (amount of coffee) and grind (particle size). Usually these two will go hand-in-hand in kind of a teeter totter fashion; low dose + fine grind or high dose + coarse grind. Through some combination of these two variables we create a coffee puck with even density that is going to let the water pass through just slow enough to push all those tasty gasses and oils out, but not fast enough to over extract them with too much water.
These parameters can change in as little as ten minutes! And the only way to determine these parameters is by taste! So when you see us tasting shot after shot, we are in the process of finding that sweet spot, which is called "dialing in".
Now you can see why this is a tricky question for a barista: We drink a lot of coffee, but usually just not a whole cup at a time!
How do we handle drinking that much coffee?
Water, water, water! Hydration is key. And a little barista trick to cure the coffee shakes: Bananas!
These parameters can change in as little as ten minutes! And the only way to determine these parameters is by taste! So when you see us tasting shot after shot, we are in the process of finding that sweet spot, which is called "dialing in". Now you can see why this is a tricky question for a barista: We drink a lot of coffee, but usually just not a whole cup at a time!
How do we handle drinking that much coffee?
Water, water, water! Hydration is key. And a little barista trick to cure the coffee shakes: Bananas!
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A graphic designer for LaMarzocco designed this symbol to indicate "continuous flow". In our repair shop, we are blessed with a continuous flow of espresso machines that are experiencing technical difficulties. This provides endless opportunities to explore espresso machine engineering insight that spans 5 decades. ]]>
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We are proud to offer two Las Mingas lots this year, one from the Department of Cauca and the other from the Department of Huila. Las Mingas Cauca is an organic lot that has bright citrus in the aroma and flavor, and is balanced by a juicy but mellow acidity. Think of it as vibrant yet easy. Las Mingas Huila is incredibly creamy and comforting, like a sweet milk candy that has some ripe cherry smack in the middle. ]]>
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Ladies and gentlemen! For your entertainment, with us today are two coffee grinders rivaling for the Title: Best Home-use Coffee Grinder! (Not an actual event.)
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On snowy Sunday we packed our bags and headed south to Scranton. We braved the weather to do what we love: talk about and share coffee! We were headed to Northern Light Espresso Bar a Gimme wholesale account located in downtown Scranton. We wanted to get to know our comrades in coffee a little better. ]]>
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When a building-wide, freak power outage struck 228 Mott St yesterday just after sunset, panic broke out amongst the coffee-seeking, snow-storm-refugees at Gimme! "No Coffee?!"
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If you combined Madrid with South Beach, added a little Brooklyn, some sweetness, and crossed all of that with a surfing bad ass you would get Maria Fuenmayer.]]>
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We set up our experiment by brewing three Press Pots of coffee: identical in type of coffee, dose, temperature and extraction time, but using different types of water. For this experiment we used: tap water, distilled water, and the filtered and softened water we use for brewing in all of our stores. The coffee we used was our Rwanda Remera. 
The filtered water was noticeably better to every one in the lab, so it's worth paying attention to water quality. You are, after all, using wonderful beans. Brew them to their highest potential!
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What is "mouthfeel", and why is it so important?
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I recently took a bus trip to New York City to visit our cafes
and baristas down there. While the trip is always totally worth it, I couldn't help but grumble at the necessity of being ON the bus at 5:30am. No time for breakfast. No time to make coffee. Good thing I packed my trusty picnic basket...]]>
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You don't understand Japanese? Are you are feeling intimidated by the Skerton Grinder instructions? No problem! I'm here to talk you through setting up this lovely grinder.]]>
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Hello All! This last week in our NYC Lab, we took one coffee and brewed it using several different methods. Our goal in this experiment was a) get to know this coffee in a few different ways, and b) to explore the differences/similarities between different brewing methods.]]>
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Let talk about brewing with the Clever Dripper! Maybe you were lucky enough to receive one as a holiday present, or maybe you had a cup from the Clever in stores and couldn't resist bringing one home. Either way, making excellent coffee at home can be super easy. You will need: the Clever Dripper, paper filters (size 4), a timer (or clock), a spoon, a small plate to cover the Clever while brewing, freshly ground coffee, and I highly recommend a scale. ]]>
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Meet Heather Deal.
Rumor has it she hails from Upstate New York.]]>
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When baking my holiday pumpkin pie I assembled the usual roster of spices: cloves, cassia, nutmeg, and allspice. I also added, you guessed it, ground coffee!]]>
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For me, November came and went, as pumpkin pie making season. In one short month I went from making my first pumpkin pie, to my seventeenth! Lucky for me, there was an absolutely spectacular coffee in my cup to keep me fueled! 
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For Thanksgiving dinner I made pumpkin pie. The secret ingredient? Coffee! I used our Honduras Linda Vista because I felt the sweet, spicy notes of this coffee would pair well with the spices typically added to pumpkin pie. To preserve the clean sweetness of this coffee I decided to cold brew it the night before I was planning on baking.]]>
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A coffee, like wine, is said to be representative of its growing
location, or terrior. The mineral composition of soil contributes to
the amount of sugars that are metabolized. The altitude of the plot
contributes to the overall metabolic rate, lending to differences in
bean density and acidity. Location of a region contributes to the need of higher or lower elevation for a given varietal to yield the highest
quality. Harvesting time, processing techniques, reposo (resting)
period... these are all just some of the variables that can make or
break a coffee's quality and unique character. 
Do we need to know the intricacies of flavor chemistry in order appreciate and understand a coffee? Certainly not. Neither is it absolutely necessary to understand how a given growing region in Brazil may differ from the slopes of Mt. Kenya or may share similarities with Nariño, Colombia. What is important, however, is knowing that these variables contribute to the quality of a coffee, the overall trends in the global coffee economy, and why we at gimme! coffee choose one coffee's uniqueness over another's. 
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Do you have a bean busting, electricity sucking, noisy old grinder at home?]]>
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Enjoy downtown Ithaca, and join us for coffee and a pastry before a movie, after checking out a book, or on your way wherever you're going. 
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At the upstate stores, and in the lab, we've been playing the game of swirling foam too. Here's some worth showing off, starting with a rosetta in progress by yours truly.]]>
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As autumn nears it's end and mitten season just around the corner, I often seek warmth in a delicious hot beverage from the espresso bar. ]]>
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Pacamara is just about the biggest bean you've ever seen.
Developed by the Salvadorean Coffee Research Institute in 1958, this
hybrid culitvar sought to combine high productivity and environmental
adaptability with lushness and superior cup quality. Pacamara is
typically characterized by a brilliant balance of sparkling acidity and
creamy body. This El Salvador Altamira I pacamara is no exception. During the
Cup of Excellence, an international jury found that this coffee had
notes of honey and caramel with grapefruit acidity and banana. This is
a highly nuanced coffee with a lot of dimension and we are roasting it with the intention of preserving its every character.
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If you are spending some time at Gimme studying, or just enjoying the ambiance of our newly renovated State St. store, I highly recommend giving our new Pour Over Coffee a try. ]]>
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That's right folks! After a few month hiatus, NYC Gimme! Coffee locations are excited to welcome back our barista training program!
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Look at this hot little number.
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If you are a regular at either of our downtown Ithaca locations you may have noticed an abundance of new faces recently. They are all baristas in training.]]>
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What a normal peaceful day at State St Gimme! Coffee. Everything is in its place, espresso drinks are flowing smoothly, and everyone is calm.]]>
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We've been composting coffee grounds for years. Now we've expanded our program to include more of our waste at all our upstate locations, including our cafes, headquarters, and roastery.
Photos
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This past September I joined a group of roasters and green coffee buyers from the United States and attended the 2nd annual Expo Especiales, a national conference funded by the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC). It's taken me some time to reflect on the conference, a venue that through discussing the current trends in production and consumption in one of the world's leading coffee exporting countries, essentially sets the stage for determining coffee futures globally. Here are some of my thoughts...]]>
Quality. The FNC regards quality
as "[resembling] the relationship and commitment of those who play part
in the
coffee trading chain, to preserve the unique conditions of the bean
from the moment it is picked to the time when it is shipped across the
globe." Indeed, every presentation from the FNC's Commercial Director,
to the US Ambassador to Colombia, to the Coffee Quality
Institute (CQI) focused on the fundamentals of producing, supporting
and marketing quality coffee. Needless to say, this conference was for los productores de café.
From time to time some very unique and beautiful coffees slip through the cracks of a competition as large as Cup of Excellence (CoE) because of variance in roast degree or other such factors. Finca Trinidad is one such coffee that did not make the final jury selection for the Guatemalan CoE auction this past July. The first axiom of sensory analysis (taste, smell, etc.) is that it is subjective and highly influenced by environmental conditions. Even as trained and calibrated coffee tasters, there is no certainty that compelling coffees will not be glanced over and forgotten. Luckily, we were able to restore Finca Trinidad from anonymity and, hopefully, create a legacy.
Dear Friends, 
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At 6am on a rainy Saturday morning, the 18 members of Team Gimme (along with their motorcycle safety gang and their canine fan club) were already up and running. ]]>
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Upcoming October Events in Ithaca
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Hello class, it's been a while since we've done one of these, but I thought it would be nice to get back to giving you helpful hints and guidelines for home brewing. Today I will be presenting Pour Over style coffee made on a Bee House dripper, and using a paper filter.]]>
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MVA that once was. Just days ago you might have walked through this door and ordered your favorite drink, but now everything has changed.
Upcoming bicycle events we're supporting this week.
We support many fund raising events throughout the year and I'd like to begin highlighting them here. Here are some happening this weekend:
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The secret to great espresso, in fact the secret to all great coffee, is that there is no secret. No magic formula. No easy answer. The secret to great coffee is in the details and in the hard work applied by everyone involved in every part of the process. As Baristas we know that we are the last step in a long line of people working to bring high quality coffee to consumers. ]]>
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For months now this Synesso has been installed in the lab at the back of State Street Gimme, getting moderate use from the trainers and sitting idle most of the time. ]]>
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September's secret password is Amaro Gayo. However, we will also accept: "WOW! It's like blueberry donuts" and "Yum Yum Yum". 
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A Japanese speaking, Utah native, you can find Adah starring in barista cameos at both of our New York City locations.]]>
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This past week in the upstate training lab we made macchiatos, more macchiatos and then we made more macchiatos!]]>
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lab and busy training, and busy drinking cup after cup of these delicious new coffees.
This week in the lab we are deconstructing our leftist blend by pulling single origin shots of its components. The spectrum of flavors in the coffees pulled by themselves as shots was amazing. Boy did we find some gems! The Kenya Gatomboya was by far the favorite! ]]>
If you are looking for a mellow, rich espresso to build milk drinks, than shots of Kenya are probably not for you..... If you are looking for an exciting burst of flavor that challenges what you think coffee tastes like, then pick up a bag and give this a try. These shots were a party in our mouths! Juicy! Sweeter than Sweet! Bright fruit notes of pineapple, orange and the crispness of an apple! The body was thin compared to the leftist blend. That didn't matter, the zing of the top of the mouth taste made us forget all about body. These shots were like candy... 
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In September of 2008, I traveled to Colombia in order to congratulate the coffee growers involved in the Las Mingas program.
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We are proud to be the official coffee sponsor of the 11th Annual Southern Tier AIDS Program Ride for Life on September 12 in Ithaca, NY!
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State St. Gimme! Coffee is looking n-i-c-e. 
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renovated the space, trained a team of friendly and stellar baristas, hung a sign, and opened a Gimme espresso bar in Lansing, NY. 
Two East African coffees, and two Centrals. We've been working since February to bring in these
coffees, which means the producers have been working for many months prior to
that. The process can be cumbersome, but the effort can yield unimagined results. This month's arrivals are proof that coffee is personal, coffee is political, and best of all, coffee tastes darn good. ]]>
Ethiopia Amaro Gayo
There have been many shops in Phoebe Aceto's life: there were the Gimme Coffee shops (in Trumansburg and on Cayuga Street) where she worked for 5 years as a barista and a trainer. There's also the tattoo shop, Model Citizen, where she can be found "bringing the pain" while apprenticing with owner, James Spiers. Then there's her mom's kitchen shop for her catering business, in downtown Trumansburg, where Phoebe grew up; there's also her dad's instrument shop. In any event, the question, "Where's Phoebe?" can often be answered in two simple words: "The Shop." Now open at 312 East Seneca Street, just up from the Commons, this new coffee shop venture certainly is aptly named.
The Shop is Ithaca's newest coffee shop, and it may very well be the only shop in Ithaca open until 11pm nightly. It's big, bright and spacious, with impressive handmade tables and counters (made by Pheobe's brother Teo). Don't forget to look up when you go - the tiles are hand stenciled gold paint, giving it the appearance of an old-style tin ceiling. 
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Barista jams are the equivalent to business conferences, a place where baristas gather to exchange new techniques, make networking connections, see old friends, and hone their skills under pressure behind the bar. Back in June we were excited to attend the Mid-Atlantic / North-East Jam, hosted by Troy Reynard of The Cosmic Cup. ]]>
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We'll be getting these lovelies in about 4-6 weeks. But of course they won't be blank. Picture a red Gimme! Coffee logo on both sides, full of our freshly brewed Las Animas micro-harvest.
I meet il Professore at the bar of the Caffe Fiore in the late, starting to heat up, murky Napoli morning. He is speaking of another taste, entirely: "You could make a fairly complicated blend of two of the existing Gimme mantras, the French, and Leftist, equal parts. The shot I am looking for has a certain 'meta-taste', a fantasy of complexes; one I say, that is like first tier bittersweet chocolate, could be Belgian or Italian."]]>
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Sheena Heise started working at Gimme! Coffee on Mott Street in January. ]]>
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State Street. Heat and AC duct work, a giant hole in the concrete for plumbing drains, and more floor leveling are just a few of the things that have happened since last week.
To help spread the word, Sales Rep Lance Nichols did a demo during
Member Discount day July 10th, French-pressing four of the coffees
GreenStar is now carrying.
Couldn't you just move right into those bubbles? 3 bedrooms, lots of light, water view, free coffee.]]>
A model for the next Biosphere? 
I like this glassy stream of espresso. 
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Ashley Cake has been working for Gimme! Coffee for more than 4 years part time. She first started working the Gimme trailer at Cornell in January 2005. ]]>
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