Filed under: Uncategorized
A few months a go I mentioned a guy named Geoff had come into the roastery and blogged about his visit. Soon after, Geoff and I started talking about him working at Detour and taking over the roasting. Over the course of a few months Geoff spent a few late nights with me learning the ins and outs of our roaster and for the last few weeks has been doing it all on his own. First off, I’m very glad to have found him and through our combined efforts, we have been making new discoveries and improvements to our roasts.
As my title suggests, Geoff’s former work life also includes a stint at Starbucks. Eeeeks!….Well, turns out that wasn’t a bad thing especially given that he started, on his own initiative, to pour latte art during his shifts. Some of you fellow geeks may have followed his thread on Coffeegeek about his efforts. As you can see from the picture here, he hasn’t lost his touch. He and his girlfriend Sarah also run a great blog called Far Away Foodies here on WordPress which details their adventures in food.
On the coffee front, the wholesale side keeps growing and we were recently taken on by Dish Cooking Studios in Toronto. They run cooking classes and a cafe out of their space on Dupont Street and notable for me, make my favorite brownie! Heart of the Hammer in Downtown Hamilton started by a lovely woman, Rebecca Doll, has also been featuring our coffee for the last few months.
This week marks and end to our Kenya Rungeto Coop. We look forward to the arrival of Kenyans in the following months. In the meantime Geoff and I recently had a mammoth cupping session and went through 22 coffees! Our counter was filled with cupping bowls end to end.
Out of that session we choose some Brazils to make their way into Punch Buggy espresso but also a couple new coffees that we will introduce this week: a lovely Rwandan, with orange and brown sugar notes, and a fruity Guatemalan Pacamara with notes of Anise and caramel. Pacamara is a hybrid between “Pacas” and “Maragogype” varietals. The beans are huge in comparison to other coffees but without the high density and as a result are trickier to roast.
It’s a bit of old news to our retail customers at the roastery but at the beginning of the year we also introduced a program at Detour in support of Coffee Kids. For every bag (1/2 lb, 3/4lb, or full 1lb) we sell at the roastery we will donate $.25 to Coffee Kids. In case you aren’t familiar with Coffee Kids, since 1988 they have worked with local organizations in Latin America to create programs in education, health awareness, microcredit and food security for coffee farming communities. These efforts allow coffee farmers to reduce their dependence on the volatile coffee market and confront the most pressing community needs. Coffee Kids supports 24 projects managed by 15 partners in five countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Peru. More than 6,000 families in nearly 150 communities benefit from Coffee Kids programs.
Hope to see you at the shop!
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
detourcoffee blog 
Funny, I read Geoff’s CG post last year and meant to find out which SB it was so I could get some properly steamed milk. No need now with Detour in the neighbourhood though!
Comment by JTang February 17, 2010 @ 10:49 pmNow that’s you’ve talked up Geoff’s mad art skills I’m just going to have to have him make my next Latte.
Comment by jamie February 18, 2010 @ 8:13 pm