Friday, June 28, 2013

Blue Bottle Coffee


Before leaving California I had to check out Blue Bottle Coffee. Everyone raves about Blue Bottle being the best coffee in the Bay Area, so I had to see for myself what all the commotion was about. I always thought Blue Bottle was based out of San Francisco, but upon further investigation I came to realize that it is made only 10 blocks from our apartment in the Jack London district of Oakland. How cool...and why did it take me this long to figure that out!? Along with making/roasting the coffee, they have a small coffee shop, a tasting room (they do tastings, called a cupping, every Tuesday and Sunday at 2pm), and a large area outside to enjoy your coffee beverage. We participated in one of their "cuppings" to learn about their coffee and experience it first hand.


The "cupping" was quite the experience, almost like tasting wine. First, we were told all about Blue Bottle and the coffee. Then, we smelled the coffee grounds from about 10 different kinds of coffee that they roast from all over the world. After that, hot water was added to the grinds and we did something called "scraping the crust", where you spoon up the crust of wet coffee grounds and smell it. All the while we took notes about what we smelled. Lastly, we tasted the coffee. The tasting consisted of getting a spoonful of coffee and slurping it into our mouths along the roof of our mouth. Each phase of the tasting brought out different notes in scent and flavor. The whole experience was VERY interesting.


To round off our experience we purchased a few bags of coffee and some cappuccinos. Paying $5 for a small cappuccino is probably the most I have ever paid, but it was by far the best I have had! It was a great experience, and I can confidently say that it is some of the best coffee I have ever had...though I am not picky about coffee, Dunkin Doughnuts will do just as fine too.

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