Specialty Grade

I’ve been wondering.

There are a LOT of roasters in our state. A lot of them claim to be “high quality” “premium” or “gourmet”.. but how many are actually roasting strictly Specialty Grade coffee?

This may not appear to be important, but the description of this site specifically states: Specialty Coffee in the Lone Star State.

Not just “coffee”… but a specific grade of coffee.

So what should we do with the roasters list? What should we do with the shop list?

How do we know who is using Specialty Grade coffee and who is not from a mere link?

Usually, seeing a little tag that says “SCAA Member” is a good indicator, but not all of them have that.So, roasters, retailers, if you are roasting and retailing nothing short of Specialty Grade, we want to know.

I think it would be a good idea to keep the list as it is, but to differentiate the Specialty Grade coffee folks from the Premium or lower grade institutions. It makes a big difference.

Texas Coffee People Logo Contest

I think it’s about time that we have a logo to help promote the Specialty Coffee Community growth and development in our little section of the US of A.

I’ve tossed around different ideas, and thought about asking a few graphic designers to make one up, but I I thought the suggestion of having a logo contest was a better idea.

So it’s official.

The prize is to be determined, but there will definitely be something in-store for the winner.

So, post them up.  There will be a poll to determine the winner.

Entries must be in by April 25th.  That’s a whole month to find the time to work on something and get it in.

Click here to sign up.

Good luck!  I look forward to seeing the results.

TX-Coffee.com

Yup.. the domain name has officially switched.  Update your links, kids.  txcp.wordpress.com will still function as a redirect to tx-coffee.com.

www.tx-coffee.com or http://tx-coffee.com  Should work equally well.  The feed URL has changed along with it.  The link on the sidebar is updated, so it’s a quick click away from updating your info.

“Summer Time.. and the livin’s easy..”

That is, of course, unless you’re a barista in Texas.  As the weather outside warms up, fewer people are ordering the drinks we love.  Hot coffee, it appears, does not agree with hot weather in the minds of most coffee patrons.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean people don’t still order coffee in other forms.

So what’s your cold coffee drink of choice during the warmer months?  I know that there is a growing army of customers assigning a coffee frappe with the general term “coffee” when the temperature rises above 75F.  But I’m a purist.  I know there are others reading this who are like me.

So what do you go for to cool you down while still getting some coffee into your diet?

For me, it’s an iced Americano.  Incidentally, it was the same last year.  It’s nice to see some consistency in my life..

Post ‘em up.

Austin Trip

So, I had a solid 5 days off, so I and a certain someone else went on a trip to Austin… you know, to get the heck out of Lubbock for awhile.

It just so happened, not planned, that our trip was right smack in the middle of SXSW.  It appeared that the entire city was stricken with a plague of hipsters.  More than usual, and they all looked more uniform than usual as well.

We decided to see what we could catch, since we hadn’t planned for it, and we didn’t have “tickets” (wristbands), so we head to S. Congress, take a few minutes trying to find a place to park, and then start wondering around.

We spent way too much time at the S. Congress location of Jo’s Coffee.  We caught The Octopus Project pretty randomly, and I’m glad we did.  They were awesome.

I insisted that we make a trip to the much-hyped Caffe Medici.  My insisting was well-received, so the visit was set.  I thought it kind of humorous that the sign is the exact same picture as what you see on their website.  Inside, there is a wall of bags of Cuvee coffee.  The menu is minimalist in nature.  There is a shiny red LM FB-80 that’s pretty hard to ignore right as you walk in.  I saw Dan who was good enough to say “hi” when I didn’t recognize him right off.  Apparently, they do barbecue night once a week, and I happened to catch the day… Dan was a wreck.  I thought the place looked nice.  I dig the black and white photos all over the place.  Nice touch.

Later that night, we went to 6th.  It seemed that every single venue was a place for a SXSW-related event.  Which was cool.  But the pedestrian traffic was ridiculous.  We caught this band neither of us had ever heard of, but that totally blew us both away.  They were incredibly good.  They were called Alpha Rev.

Last day, time to leave.  We stopped by a shop that looked like it had just opened not long before called Dominican Joe.  The outside looked very cool, inviting, all that fun stuff.  The inside, personally, looked a little unfinished and underfunded.  We got a Mocha and an Americano, both of which were served in what looked like domestic serve wear cups in a pastel brown/gray color you would expect to find in your neighbor’s kitchen.   They are doing good things for sustenanc in coffee.  I’d call it direct trade, but that’s a trademarked title.

Overall, it was a much-needed trip away from this flat wasteland.  Even if I didn’t have a decent espresso every morning like I normally would.

We really should take more of these.