Coffee: All about "with" and "you"

photo by Gservo's Photography

A major coffee company recently found through Facebook and Twitter research that the two most used words were ‘with’ and ‘you’. Two little words that rose to the top of all coffee industry jargon to encapsulate what drinking this little brown gem was all about.

Its not new news that coffee is a centerpiece of people’s lives, but it is profound in how big it is. Our favorite experiences involving coffee are being able to share that moment in time with others. From brainstorming ideas, getting critical feedback, arguing over flavor points, to sharing in the absolute beauty of a perfectly grown, roasted and brewed cup of coffee – truly, we can’t get enough.

When sharing in a cup of coffee or shot of espresso we tend to lean in a bit more – listen to what the other is saying – to be more present, per se. Maybe it’s the added benefit of the caffeine, maybe it’s the stop gap in our day dedicated to taking time for ourselves and another...maybe it’s a sorely needed ‘slow down’ in this ever-quickening, fast paced world. Whatever it is, our experience is ‘with’ ‘you’.

We encourage you to find great coffees that are ‘worth slowing down for’ - you can get those at Kohana Coffee. Create the experience with those you care about or want to know more. And in the mean time, share with us a favorite memory or shared coffee experience you've had - we love to hear them.

Girls drinking coffee in the city!

Victoria Lynden and I had the great pleasure of being in New York last week - many things are good about this but getting out of our 'day to day' had to be at the top. As a coffee enthusiast I looked forward to new shops showcasing specialty coffees and seeing how coffee niches are ever evolving. The trip, although NOT all about coffee (which I was reminded on several occasions), did not disappoint. With pre-trip help from @gservo and a general refining of my 'list of wants' - I forged a small window of opportunity where I could get visit my inner coffeegeek.

On my short list was McNulty's Tea & Coffee where we sell Kohana's Org Ethiopian Harrar, Org Ethiopian Sidamo and Org Sumatra. David Wong, who runs the store with his father, is the perfect coffee conversationalist and we love being included in this 115 yr old shop of choice coffees and teas. We enjoyed a lovely cup of Puerto Rican Yauco Selecto he just brewed - it was one of his favorites and has always been high on our list. If you have a chance - go there, it's in the village, and check out the Kohana coffees he carries.

Another stop was the Ace Hotel, home to the more recently appointed Stumptown Coffee Roasters. If you want and appreciate great coffee beans/roasting/presentation - go here. I like a brewed coffee that tastes exceptional down to the last sip of a cup and it passed my test. The Ace hotel vibe was a perfect high end coffee environment.

These are two of many experiences but the take away is that we never stop learning about what's out there, what's trending upward, how educated our consumers are and how truly appreciative the buying world is of great product. It keeps us on our toes and makes us want to be better at what we do.

Help us help Haiti...please

Our world is a wondrous place but sometimes we are also devastated by it. Being in the coffee industry as well as officing with an international company Alliance Abroad Group - we are super conscious of what's affecting other parts of the world. Right now we're centered on Haiti.

Kohana Coffee is donating $1 for each new Facebook friend or Twitter follower as well as taking $1 from every online coffee sale to Haiti earthquake relief and the word is really getting out. I'm astonished at how quickly that news spread and our donation dollars have increased - thank you to anyone/everyone who's helped this effort - I'm thrilled. Please Retweet and Share on Facebook - it can only help.

Last night I got an email notice from Causemail.com showcasing different organizations and direct links for donating through Facebook Charity Gift Shop. Although our efforts are not combined, I appreciate the work they did to compile the links and general information.

If you want to help but don't have the dollars - 'follow' us on Twitter or 'friend' us on Facebook, we'll donate the dollars. If you feel led to do more please check out these organizations that help to get resources to our friends in Haiti.

• Oxfam - Water, sanitation, health and shelter equipment
• UNICEF - Children care
• CARE - Food, hygiene kits and water, as well as deliver emergency health services
• American Red Cross - Shelter and overall care
• World Vision - Children sponsorship and care

Why are there no posts here???

I'm not sure what it is - maybe writer's block - but I haven't written a post in over a month. Maybe it's that we we're busier than ever in December - maybe its that other parts of the business are pulling me away from quiet time in front of my laptop - maybe its that I don't really have anything to say.

For those of you that know me - you know the last part just isn't true. As a matter of fact, give me too much coffee and you'll have a hard time shutting me up (Kohana team quit rolling your eyes). I spend quite a few waking hours pouring over coffee mags/newsletters/books/websites and am constantly thinking, 'that would be a great to blog about'...folding down page corners, scribbling notes where I can. So its not for lack of material or things I want to talk about - I find the coffee industry as a whole to be one of the most fascinating out there.

Regardless of the quest to find my 'reason', my resolution for 2010 is to get off my fence post and just do it. You all can hold me accountable. Please.

Happy Twenty Ten to everyone out there that's listening!

Piper

P.S. and for those interested in the beautiful Chemex brew happening above - well that's @BaristaOnDuty's incredible Pan Crafted "Piper Roasted" Ethiopian Limu that I was fortunate enough to receive. "Wow" is all I can say and THANK YOU!

it's just been too long...

Since I last posted -- and that's only because we've been so immersed in our coffee roasting. From working to find the best green coffee available to developing the purest roast profile for each bean - we throw ourselves into the process like it's the most important part of our lives. And, for all intensive purposes...it is. Coffee is what we live and breathe (and sip, savor, explore) and if we don't totally love what we do it would show through.

We know you are discriminating consumers - we are too. I guess that's what we love about you and what makes it all worth while. If we find something that blows us away we KNOW you are right there ready to experience the same. That’s why we snatch up opportunities to sample our coffee because each and every time we do the coffee sells itself. We’re so stoked when people turn on to the Kohana Coffees – it’s like finding your ‘clan’.

Our promise is to keep on doing what we do with the hopes that you’ll do the same. Find us out there if you’re ready for a great coffee treat – we know you won’t be sorry!

Fall means specialty coffee....

and that means we're out reminding folks who we are, what we sell and where we sell it. Kohana Coffee has been so blessed this past year. We've broadened our horizons and become a bit more 'main stream'. We love the restaurants, stores, websites and brands we work with - they are some amazing groups. And we love that people are finding us on the internet and buying our coffee that way.

If you see us in Central Market, Whole Foods, Breed and Co, Blue Dahlia Bistro or at Cissi's Market - please come by and sample the coffee as well as chat for a while. You know we love to talk about what we do and why we do it.

Long story short - we thank all of you out there that have been with us this far - your support is making us who we are.

Piper

Music-Coffee-Music-Coffee....Coffee!

Well, we're all recovering from Austin City Musical Festival '09 -- it's taken most of the week. So much excitement - so much great music - so much coffee adoration - so much mud! I have to admit it felt a bit like a small Woodstock as I watched the mud divers going at it.

Being in the Artist's Lounge was an awesome experience. Not so much just hanging out with incredibly talented musicians - but being able to treat them to great coffee that they all appreciated was our pleasure. Our favorite line was 'I heard about this amazing coffee that I had to come try' -- that, in itself, was music to our ears.

I took some video - mostly before the heavens opened on Saturday and I was fearful for my borrowed camera. It gives a festival snapshot for those that didn't get to attend - and a bit of what it looked like behind the scenes.

Thanks to our Kohana team of Nicku and Nate - they made it happen! And thanks even more to everyone who fell in love with Kohana Coffee...we appreciate you more than you know.

Piper

Kohana Coffee and ACLFestival '09

I can't tell you how worked up we get each year being able to say "we're serving Kohana Coffee in the 'Artist's Only' tent" at Austin City Limits Festival http://www.aclfestival.com/

From picking out the coffees to brew hot - and selecting which coffee to cold brew, to making sure every single detail is ironed out and performed to perfection....we love every minute. ACL Festival is an icon in Austin and we all seem to set our lives on hold to experience it each year. Although the logistics of setting up vending in a field are fierce (and our hats are off to all those that do this for a living!), we love being able to turn people on to great coffee - it's just what we do. The line up for '09 couldn't be more exciting - so calling it work from our end is a bit of an oxymoron.

And to be behind the scenes with the artists....well, I think that part is self explanatory. Look for photos & posts on our FaceBook and Twitter pages - we'll try to share the love that way.

Kohana Coffee and Regional.Best.com

So many cool things coming our way!

Kohana Coffee was recently chosen as a www.RegionalBest.com vendor – you really need to know this website. It’s an artisan food marketplace, where shoppers buy direct from food artisans and producers across the country, including farmers, bakers, chocolatiers, cheesemakers and other small family-owned businesses (like us!). They’re committed to helping us small producers who champion local foods and flavors to move beyond our local markets and thrive by reaching a national audience. How great is that?

RegionalBest.com was launched by Marsha Cade of suburban Philly (originally a west Texas girl!) and Caragh Whalen of suburban Boston – both food lovers/appreciators, as well as smart, seasoned business execs, moms and entrepreneurs. To know us is to understand that we also stand behind them for these very reasons. They are also coffee fanatics which carries them ‘over the top’ in our book.

Kohana has nine coffees offered on their site; one being the brand spankin’ new Alamo Joe, created exclusively for RegionalBest (see the fun we had in the coffee naming blog below). Not only are our incredible Hawaiian selections available (Hawaiian Select, Hawaiian Prime, 100% Kona Estate and our popular signature, Kohana Blend) but we’ve added our Texas presence with Rockin’ Like Austin that’s topping the charts in the Lone Star state and the new Alamo Joe. To showcase the other growing regions of the world we’ve topped off our grouping with a lovely medium roast Kenya AA, dark roasted Kohana Panama and our wonderful decaf offering of Decaf Kohana Blend.

We're very excited to work with these women because we value what they do, both as consumers and as a vendor partner. Our hat is off - congrats to everyone on their team for a perfect idea and great execution.

You want a Texas themed coffee????

Sometimes being creative in our business comes easy - like how we blend coffees, how we talk about our passion of the specialty coffee industry or how we promote our brand. Sometimes its hard - like the other night when we were trying to come up with a name for a great new blend we have that needed a Texas themed name. That night, after brainstorming at the end of a very long day, we had it - done - off to the printer - finis. Unfortunatly there was a 'next morning' in this tale where I arrived in the office to see that our brilliant late night submission really sucked - truly - and would never work for what we intended it to be. It was a 'what were we thinking' sort of scenario.

What do we do? Our much more brilliant conclusion was to approach our friends and believe me, Kohana Coffee has some creative ones. I put the info on Facebook mid morning and had a skattering of suggestions by mid afternoon. Again, I prompted, and then the magic began. It was like a Texas tornado - ideas flying right and left, swirling at times. And they were GREAT. Ok, some of them were bad in a very humorous sort of way but more were great than bad. Eureka - after about 90 posts we had a winner.

Thanks to all that joined in the fun; Kristin Schell, Marye Audet, Stephanie Schmidt-Shipp and Steve Dean were the biggest contributors - with Marye Audet's submission ALAMO JOE being the winner. You guys were awesome - I mean it - and we couldn't have done it without you. Everyone involved is getting a sample of the new blend as a thank you!

So much is happening on the Kohana Coffee front. We're movin' and shakin' in lots of directions you need to know about. First, as you've read before we're becoming very popular at the North Shore Country Market on Oahu - Irma and team are holding down the fort creating Kohana Coffee converts as we speak. People there love the local farm coffees and those coffees, of course, are some of our favorites.

In Austin we're finally rounding the corner of hot months (not to be confused with 'hot coffee' months) turning into more bearable 'almost fall' months. What that translates to in the coffee world is a pick up of coffee drinkers - and that makes us happy. We have lots of new crop in - expecting more - and we're ready to pass forward the great tasting coffees you know Kohana Coffee for.

Look for more information about Kohana Coffee going 'live' on several websites very soon. We'll give all the skinny as soon as we have it. Very exciting!

Oh, and if you haven't already checked out Marye Audet's blog http://www.blisstree.com/kettleandcup/ about coffee and everything that's worth noting - you must. She's been very good about reviewing Kohana Coffee - and we feel her perspective is right on. We give her big thanks for doing what's she's doing to support indy coffee roasters - and for appreciating a great cup of coffee.

Finally, and most importantly, we want to know what you think - your ideas/thoughts/feedback are food to us. If we don't have it we're guessing at what you want - and probably somewhat ineffective in that effort. Let us know - we LOVE to hear what you have to say. Also, follow us on Twitter @kohanacoffee and Facebook, there are links above that do it for you - we're giving away FREE coffee there this week. Check it out!

Coffee on!

Piper

Kohana Coffee and Central Market

I’m not sure if I’ve said much about the Central Market http://www.centralmarket.com/ stores in Austin, TX, and if not it’s time I did. If you’re not from Texas you’re missing out – period. To say that each time I enter my senses awash with pleasure may sound lofty – but it’s the truth.

Central Market carries six SKU’s of Kohana Coffee in their Bulk Department and we couldn’t be prouder. Not only is CM one of Kohana’s dream stores because we personally love to shop there – but we love working with them too. They appreciate our coffee and support us as a local coffee roaster in a way that makes us feel all the effort is worth while.

If you haven’t met Christina and the bulk crew in the North Lamar store – you should. They know more about what they sell than anyone I’ve ever known. And if you’re at the South (Westgate) store tell Janie and her bulk group we said ‘hey’. They’ve been instrumental in getting Kohana Coffee going there. These people know coffee, rest assured, they’re even taught me a thing or two and I love that.

So take the time to stop in and try some coffee they’re sampling that day. There’s a good chance it’s one of Kohana’s lineup; Brazil Fazenda Alvorada, Mexico Pluma Don Eduardo, Honduras Marcala Especial and Lamar Blend are exclusives to Central Market. Flores Bajawa and Rockin’ Like Austin are big sellers there as well.

One other thing – The Rockin’ Like Austin is so popular they’re moved it up to the Coffee Bar (North store has Lamar Blend as well)! Stop by and try them out – I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Piper

Hawaiian Coffees at Farmer's Market

It’s very cool to have your product well liked – basically it says that others feel the same as you and we dig that. Recently Kohana Coffee has become a vendor at the North Shore County Market at Sunset Elementary on the North Shore of Oahu. It’s a perfect fit because we serve coffees from the local coffee farm (Waialua Estate) that people really enjoy and at the same time promote Kohana and Waialua to the local audience.

At NSCM we sell Hawaiian Prime, Hawaiian Select, Kona Estate, North Shore Blend, Acoustic Soul and Island Cacao in several different retail bag sizes. We serve the 100% Waialuan – Hawaiian Prime as a hot brew and the Kohana Cold Brew we offer over ice is the North Shore Blend. Both are becoming very popular and we see repeat customers – YES!

Our dear friend Irma Jimenez is manning the booth while we’re away – no easy feat. Everyone loves Irma so it’s an incredible match. She loves the coffee and that is infectious.

Big thanks to all that are helping make it happen – from the Austin team to strong volunteers on the North Shore (Irma, Ruth and their entourage). It takes a village, people!

Also BIG thanks to Anuhea for coming out to support Kohana and see how popular the coffees she's chosen are. Check out her calendar at http://www.anuheajams.com/ - see a show if you can, you will be thankin' us for the reco!

More on Waialua Estate Coffee

Actually being on a coffee farm, surrounded by coffee plants filled with 'soon to be ripe' cherry - is a site to behold and excites us at Kohana Coffee. It's a chance for us to view the new crop while making decisions in our head of how we'll add to, change or take away from the product line we currently offer. But more importantly, it's the promise of what's ahead. If we see healthy, full plants and know of optimum conditions that took them there - we visualize how great that coffee will cup and the expressions on the faces of satisfied customers.

In the Waialua Estate Coffee fields (waialuaestate.com) we saw every example of cherry on the plant. The photo here is green cherry beginning to hedge yellow before the red of ripeness. We saw raisin - that's basically overripe cherry that's protected in it's dried fruit covering. We also tasted those coffees and marveled in the added fruit present in the cup.

Our tour and tasting was led by Derek Lanter and our group was Victoria, myself, my son - Zach, his girlfriend - Sarah Kate and a local foodie/cyclist/ Lori Barth of Sugarmillbikes.com. We learned a lot - as we always do - and came away feeling smarter about the craft we love dearly.

We love being on the North Shore - have I said that lately?

Piper

Catching up...whew!

Kohana Coffee has kept us busy in the Aloha State. We've been a lot of places and talked a lot of shop - all worthy of note - so this is my catch up time.

To start, we've had several visits with Waialua Estate Coffee http://waialuaestate.com/our-coffee.html Derek Lanter has been gracious enough to host us for tastings, cuppings (a bit more extensive evaluation of coffees we want to taste, compare, evaluate, etc) and farm tours. What this time gives is a close look at several things important to us at Kohana; a birds eye view of washed vs. naturally processed coffees, comparison of past and new crop (and opportunity to taste both side by side), and upcoming crop with continued impressive yields Derek has worked hard to bring from his coffee plants. It also gives us time to talk shop - which we always enjoy with him.

We love Hawaiian coffee and buy our infamous 100% Hawaiian Select and Prime coffees from Waialua Estate Coffee. We also use them as a highlight in our North Shore Blend, Acoustic Soul, Kohana and Sunrise Blends - be sure to check out our summer Hawaiian Coffee internet specials at http://www.kohanacoffee.com/specials.php

We thank Derek for every effort he puts into providing us these coffees - he knows his craft - and our faithful customers appreciate it as much as we do.

More to come...

Piper

Say 'Aloha' to our Hawaiian Specials

Summer means Hawaii for Kohana Coffee. This time of year we focus on our aloha inspired offerings and our relationships with our Hawaiian coffee growers. It’s the hours and effort we spend getting to know these producers and their practices that ensures the quality and consistency of our coffees.

The journey begins on the North Shore of Oahu with the Waialua Estate and their single origin premium 100% Hawaiian Coffee beans. Located on 155 acres of Arabica typica coffee plants, their rich, volcanic soil provides the beautiful surf, mountain and sea essence we search for in our cup. This is the home to our 100% Hawaiian Select and 100% Hawaiian Prime coffee beans as well as key components of our signature Kohana Blend, Sunrise Blend, Acoustic Soul, and North Shore Blend.

With the harvest season running from September to February, now is the perfect time to inspect the young beans and evaluate the upcoming crop. It also gives us valuable opportunites to learn from and strengthen our relationships with our Oahu grower partners.
What does this island of rich mountains and world-class waves offer in a cup? A smooth, medium bodied and well-balanced escape with just a hint of chocolate and pleasant, lingering after notes.
Next stop: Lion’s Gate Farm in the Kona region of the Big Island, home of our 100% Kona Estate.

OFFER:
As a valued customer, we’d like to show our Aloha spirit and offer 10% off of our Hawaiian inspired coffees: 100% Hawaiian Select, 100% Hawaiian Prime, Kona Estate, North Shore Blend, Acoustic Soul, Hawaiian Hazelnut and Island Cacao http://www.kohanacoffee.com/specials.php

Aloha from Hawaii

All work and no play makes....well, not much fun. Even though this time in Hawaii is meant to cultivate relationships with coffee growers/farmers and deepen our awareness of those coffees we're so crazy about - we're also here to foster relationships with current customers and potential new ones. We want everyone to know of the Kohana Coffee brand we're so in love with. We also want everyone to know these coffees (Kona Estate, 100% Hawaiian Select, 100% Hawaiian Prime) and why we consider them worth slowing down for.

Some of this feels like our day to day in Austin, some of it feels surreal because we're in HAWAII working. Work and Hawaii almost feels like an oxymoron...what, you mean I have to get out of the water for a call? Wait, get the saltwater out of my eyes, sand off my hands...

So we set our work hours in the early morning - trying to coincide with those working so hard in our absence at Kohana headquarters in Austin. We get as much done as we can in that window of time - and then we relax, or at least we try our best with the little ones pulling to play.

Summer is Hawaii time...

If you haven't already picked up on it - Hawaii is not only inspiration to Kohana Coffee but a big part of our coffee product line as well. One of our pleasures is to offer Hawaiian coffees at affordable prices and bring what we love most to those that appreciate as much as we do. Two of those coffees are 100% Hawaiian Select and 100% Hawaiian Prime.

Fortunately, and we mean this, we're in the heart of birthplace to these two great coffees right now. Both the Select and Prime are from Waialua Coffee located on the North Shore of Oahu - a perfect location for producing world class coffee. We've had the distinct pleasure of making friends with Derek Lanter, who continues to improve these coffees with great attention to quality - which is evident in the coffees we roast and eventually cup. We'll be bringing more to you on this later.

As an added treat - the North Shore is also home to some of the most famous surf spots in the world. Even though surf is small in non-winter months we sometimes have the opportunity to see it - pictured here is a day at the 2008 Triple Crown in December - Bonzai Pipeline.

Aloha for now...

Piper

Caffeine Junky turned Coffee Connoisseur

I used to sit in coffee shops, gulping down whatever was cheapest in order to stay awake and study. I thought that coffee was coffee, and that it was pretty much the same anywhere you bought it. When I became an intern for Kohana, I had no idea that I would learn so much about the stuff in such a short time.

After acquiring a few samples of coffee, I decided that one day a few weeks ago was as good as any day to become a connoisseur-in-training. I started using my roommate’s French press, cringing at the noise of the grinder in the early morning, then getting a big grin on my face when I would smell the fresh grounds. Heating up the electric tea kettle and standing over the press while waiting for my coffee to be ready made me feel worldly and adult. I’ve become so enamored with my new routine that my old coffeepot stands in the corner, scowling at me, dusty from disuse.

And the coffee! I would normally pour milk and three packets of fake sugar in my mug, but now find myself sipping it without adding anything and still thinking it’s delicious.

Recently, I had an opportunity to see the shooting of a four-part (was it five part?) news series in action; News 8 Austin’s Todd Boatwright came to Cissi’s Market a few weeks ago just to learn about Kohana Coffee. Sitting behind the scenes allowed me to learn so much about what actually goes into each cup. It’s not just picking a plot of land with beans on it and roasting them. It’s selecting the perfect locations for the coffee plants to grow in, roasting the beans to perfection, tasting them, and after all of that, making sure everything about the product is perfect. Piper Jones, Vice President of Operations at Kohana, taught Todd everything he ever needed to know about coffee and more. He got a crash course in what goes into an espresso shot, how to taste the coffee by “slurping” it, how to use a French press, and which desserts go best with which blend.

I can tell that as my time with Kohana continues, I will get to know coffee pretty well. I’m excited at the prospect of learning about each blend and what makes it special. And most importantly, I’m excited to drink more coffee!

-- Whitney

We have a new Roaster!

We'd like to introduce and welcome Mieke Fonteyn into our Kohana Coffee fold as our new Roaster. She comes to us with more than a decade in the coffee industry and we love what that adds to our team.

What she loves...in her words -

-what I love about coffee is the intricacy of each cup, how every origin, degree of temperature and care of growers and roasters makes a difference in the final product.
-what I love about the industry is that life moments often happen over great cups of coffee, I am passionate about being a part of that.
-what I love about Kohana is the care we take in ensuring the purchasing and roasting to provide the best spectrum of flavor in each bag and being part of something women/locally owned and operated.
-favorite coffee = Org Ethiopian Harrar
-favorite place to drink coffee = our roasting warehouse in SATX (South Austin for those not from around here)
Personal:
-love live music (especially hip hop)
-love my dog a jack Russell pug named Rocco

Welcome Mieke, we're glad you're here!

Piper