Ethiopian Shantawene - our April Featured Coffee!

Matt Bolt March 29, 2023

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

Our April featured coffee will be our award-winning single origin from our Foothills series - Ethiopian Shantawene.

Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia and some of the world’s best coffee is still grown there. Shantawene Village is located in the Bensa District of Sidama, Ethiopia. This natural lot is a collection of coffees from the village, produced at the local mill run by the Dukamo Family. In 2006, brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukamo founded Daye Bensa, a coffee grower and exporter in Ethiopia. Daye Bensa exports coffee from its farm, in the Shantawene Village, as well as from “out-growers”(or smallholders) in three villages: Shantawene, Karamo, and Bombe.

Their company, Daya Bensa has quickly become the leader in high-quality coffee collection and curation winning them numerous accolades. The mill at Shantawene Village has been especially successful as you will taste in this coffee! Just a couple of years ago they received 7th place in the inaugural 2020 Cup of Excellence competition for Ethiopia.

This beautiful coffee is processed using the Natural Process where the coffee beans are left in the fruit to dry on raised beds. Each lot is carefully hand-sorted to remove any unripe cherries before going to the de-pulper to remove the outer fruit layer of the coffee. This process results in the wonderful fruit-forward flavor and a heavier, more syrupy body.

Here at Vienna Coffee, we roast this single-origin coffee to a Light roast to bring out all of the natural fruity notes while highlighting the sweet acidity. Tasting notes listed on the packaging are Raspberry, Plumb, and Lavender.

This coffee also won a Bronze Medal for Veinna at the 2022 Golden Bean Awards, a national coffee-roasting competition. The coffee won the award in the “Pour Over Filter” category. We will be sure to have something in the cafe pointing to this fact and encourage customers to try the coffee prepared as a pour over.

I hope you all take pride in knowing that every single day you are serving our customers only the highest quality coffees, sourced from farms that take great pride in their product and care deeply about their workers and the natural environment. Take the opportunity this month to try this truly outstanding coffee and please share your thoughts, I would love to hear them!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

Dark vs Light - what effect does roast degree have on flavor?

Matt Bolt March 22, 2023

Welcome to another edition of For The Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the staff of Vienna Coffee.

Have you ever wondered what all the fuss is about regarding light roasted vs dark roasted coffee? Sure, there are obvious differences; one coffee appears dark and oily, and the other is a light-brown color with no perceivable oil on the surface. One tastes dark and smoky (some may even say burnt) and one is more floral and fruity with typically a bright acidity and clean finish. What causes these dramatic differences in flavor? Is it all just about how long the coffee is roasted? Or is there more to crafting a rich, flavorful dark roast than just roasting the coffee to the edge of being a fire hazard?

Coffee roasted to a very dark roast degree called “French Roast” degree will appear black and oily on the surface.

For a typical coffee here at Vienna Coffee Company, we start with quality-sourced green coffee. We take this coffee and roast it to a few different profiles (more on that in a moment) and then cup the coffees to decide which one tastes the best and brings out the unique characteristics of that particular varietal.

After cupping the same coffee roasted at different degrees of roast we will determine what profile seems to be the best for getting the maximum flavor and delight from that coffee. We will then make a determination as to what we will label that roast following our established protocol (Light, Med-light, Medium, Dark, French). You should all recognize this graphic used on all of our 12oz bags which indicates roast level.

This image indicates that the coffee inside is roasted to a Medium roast degree

This simple graphic communicates a lot about the coffee inside. It tells the customer what they can expect from the coffee as far as the roast degree, which (for the experienced coffee consumer) will tell them a lot about the flavor profile. Roast degree, probably more than any factor determines what coffee will taste like in the cup. The roast degree is something controlled by the Roastmaster. However, the roast degree of the coffee is not the only determining factor. The amount of time a coffee spends in the “Maillard Reaction” and “Development time” will also affect the tasting notes in the cup. For a more detailed discussion of roasting visit my previous blog The Art of the Roast.

In the interest of time, I will not go into the various theories about roasting coffee and how each phase of the roast can affect the flavor in the cup. Below is a very simplified graphic overview of how a roast degree can affect flavor.

In the most basic terms, a lighter-roasted coffee will be more acidic, lighter-bodied, have a more fruity and/or floral character and have a clean finish. A darker roast will tend to be less acidic, have more body, have more earthy/smoky notes, and a longer finish. All of these tastes and perceptions are influenced by how long the coffee beans spend in the various stages of the roast, and the final drop temperature of the beans. A roast profile is a graphical representation of a coffee roasting session and shows the times and temperatures of each phase of the roast along with the total roast time and drop temperature. All of this information is then used to determine cup quality and characteristics. Below is an example of a roast profile used for a Kenya coffee found in our Red Roaster Blend.

The profile tracks the time and temperatures of the roast along a curve which can then be duplicated in future roasts.

In conclusion, the degree to which a coffee is roasted is one of many factors which determine how it will ultimately taste in the cup. Many factors such as quality of green beans, processing methods, and the Roaster’s skill will all have an effect on the final product. The beauty of coffee is that no matter if you prefer light, medium, or dark roasts, the same coffee can be roasted to varying degrees bringing out different flavors and experiences for each roast. The next time you enjoy a delicious cup of Vienna coffee be sure to take note of the roast level and begin to appreciate all the wonderful and complex flavors that it brings to the cup.

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!!

~Matt~

2023 Guatemala Coffee Origin Trip

Matt Bolt March 8, 2023

Welcome to For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

This week’s edition will mostly be pictures from my recent coffee origin trip to Guatemala where I spent 7 days visiting some of the most beautiful coffee farms and meeting the farmers and workers. It was truly the experience of a lifetime and I am so grateful to John Clark of Vienna Coffee for encouraging me to go on this life-changing adventure, and also to Les and Adam from Deeper Roots Coffee for allowing me to tag along and for patiently putting up with all my questions and non-stop picture taking! Enjoy the images, and please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about any of the pictures in this post, or if you would like to see more! Every day in Guatemala is a GREAT day for coffee!!!!

First day arriving in Antigua, Guatemala and my first glimpse of “Aqua” a dormant volcano right next to the city and home to many coffee farms on it’s magnificent slopes.

The small three-wheeled “Tuk Tuk” is a common way to get around in Guatemala.

Donkeys are also a common site on the city streets.

The women of Guatemala wear traditional dresses which are beautiful and are always very colorful.

Our first coffee farm visit was to the Julio Cuy Xar Family farm in Santa Maria De Jesus. In this photo, Les from Deeper Roots talks to Melvin, Julio’s son, about the coffee growing on their farm. This is the coffee we serve at Vienna under the name La Armonia Hermosa.

The deep red, fully-developed coffee cherries of the Santa Maria farm.

Melvin operates the farm’s coffee de-pulping machine which removes the coffee fruit from the coffee seeds (beans) inside where the beans can then be washed and laid out in the sun to dry.

In this picture you see natural processed coffee in which the coffee beans are left in the fruity skin and dried in the sun imparting a thicker body and more natural fruit notes to the coffee. Right next to the natural process, you can see some of the washed coffees drying where the fruit has been removed.

Farm workers spread out the coffee onto large tarps to dry in the sun.

A future coffee farmer was there with his father bringing some of the coffee grown on their farm to Julio for processing.

Two generations of coffee farmers, Julio and Melvin … Proud of their heritage and their coffee!

Sunrise high above the village on Finca San Jeronimo Merimar coffee farm.

Enjoying a wonderful cup of Finca San Jeronimo coffee high on a Guatemalan mountain on Finca San Jeronimo coffee farm!

Giorgio Bressani, a fourth-generation coffee farmer of Finca San Jeronimo Mirimar coffee plantation. Giorgio and his family are highly involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm and Giorgio frequently spends time among his coffee plants tending them, pulling weeds, and continually checking the health and development of the trees for any signs of disease or bug infestations.

Beautiful coffee cherries thriving because of constant attention and care.

Sometimes the coffee cherries are growing very high off the ground and some real effort is required to reach them for harvesting.

Selecting only ripe cherries is critical for getting the best taste from the coffee beans. Under, or over-ripe cherries are sorted out from the good ones at the processing area.

Some of the farm workers catch a lift after a long day of harvesting coffee cherries. Almost 2,000 lbs of coffee were picked on the day we visited the workers.

Coffee trees flourishing in the rich, volcanic soil of Guatemala.

We visited the plant nursery of Finca San Jeronimo where they hand-splice the roots of a Robusta coffee plant with an Arabica stalk to produce a heartier, healthier plant capable of better withstanding disease and also getting more nutrients to the coffee. It was truly amazing!

There are astonishly beautiful flowers everywhere on the farm.

Visit to the processing area the next morning where the coffee is laid out to dry in the sun for several days before being bagged and readied for shipment.

Workers using custom-made tools used for spreading out the coffee on the cement patios.

Cascara (dried coffee fruit) drying next to honey-processed coffee.

Coffee going into large tanks for fermenting to remove the sticky mucilage on the beans prior to drying. This is called “washed coffee” in processing terms.

Washed coffee beans flowing down a cement channel where they are stopped at the end of the channel and beans that do not meet the required density float to the top where they are then channeled to another area to be used in lower-quality coffee offerings. This very old and time-tested method results in only the highest quality coffee being selected for the specialty market.

One of the many trip highlights. I had the privilege of going for a ride in a private plane owned and piloted by the Senior Mr. Bressani , who is still heavily involved in the family coffee and dairy business of the farm.

Marathon cupping sessions were a big part of the trip. We cupped over 120 different coffee lots over the course of 3 days!

View from a final coffee farm visited in the small village of San Pedro, high atop a mountain accessible only by extremely steep and bumpy roads.

Two generations of Guatemalan coffee farmers working their farm in San Pedro.

Not all of the farm workers in San Pedro are human.

The final night in Guatemala City we were treated to an amazing sunset!

Introducing Organic Colombia Huila - our March 2023 Featured Coffee!

Matt Bolt February 28, 2023

Welcome to this week’s edition of For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the staff of Vienna Coffee.

As I write this I have just returned from a 7-day coffee origin trip to Guatemala which was truly amazing. Be on the lookout for next week’s blog about the trip which will include many photos I took while there. Guatemala is beautiful beyond description.

But for now, let’s focus for a few moments on our March featured coffee of the Month - Organic Colombia Huila. This delicious coffee comes from a fertile growing area in southwest Colombia known as the Huila Region. Huila produces more coffee than any other region in Colombia, and when you consider how much coffee Colombia produces annually that is really saying something. In 2016 the Huila region accounted for almost 20% of the entire country’s coffee production!

Coffee trees grow on a beautiful mountainside in the Huila region of Colombia.

Most of the coffee farms in the Huila region are between 12 - 15,000 meters about seal level and benefit from an ideal climate and rich, volcanic soil. While Huila is naturally blessed with optimal coffee-growing geography, the key to this exceptional coffee are the growers themselves. Coffee farming within the region is overwhelmingly small-scale with approximately 80% of the farms being less than 3 hectares (approximately 7.5 acres) of land.

These small farms are tended by individual families with labor only very rarely being contracted out, leading to more thorough and intensive management practices. The farmers take great pride in their product which for them is an extension of their family.

Here at Vienna Coffee we take great pride in offering coffee that is ethically-sourced from small family farms like those in the Huila region. We know that the coffee grown there is more than just an agricultural commodity to the families that live and toil their whole lives, many for multiple generations, to produce a product that blesses the world with it’s exceptional quality and beautiful story.

You can be proud to know that you are part of this beautiful story every time you brew and serve Organic Colombia Huila in the upcoming month. You make a difference in the lives of our customers, our suppliers, and in the lives of those farmers 2,250 miles south of our humble little cafe’ here in Maryville.

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

Matt

Chilhowee Mountain Decaf Espresso

Matt Bolt February 15, 2023

Welcome to For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

This week’s blog is really more of an announcement regarding the name change to our decaf espresso blend. A decision was made recently to change the name of our decaf espresso from Left Coast Decaf Espresso to Chilhowee Mountain Decaf. The name is meant to pay homage to the natural beauty of the East TN area.

From the website description:

The name of this relaxing blend pays homage to the Chilhowee Mountain range, which provides several favorite natural vistas for Vienna Coffee Company's hometown, Maryville, Tennessee. The mountain's name originates from a local 18th-century Cherokee village. The views from Look Rock, its highest easternmost point, are a favorite of locals, along with the familiar shape of its first prominent peak enjoyed while driving towards the Smoky Mountains from Maryville (which appears as three separate peaks and is known locally as The Three Sisters).

After cupping this coffee recently, it was decided that it was quite delicious as a brewed coffee and that it should be marketed as a brewed coffee in addition to a decaf espresso blend. The label and website were then updated to reflect all of these changes, but the word “espresso” was dropped from the label. This has caused some confusion among some customers and staff so we are placing the words “Decaf Espresso” back on the label. In addition, we are taking several steps to inform our customers of the name change. Our wholesale customers are receiving a flyer with their orders, and our Marketing dept will be releasing a blog to further inform our customers about the name change.

While the name has changed, the blend remains the same: 50% Decaf Colombian and 50% Decaf Brazillian coffee make up this fantastic blend with tasting notes featuring Butter, Toffee, and Honey. This blend continues to be Veinna Coffee’s only Decaf Espresso Blend and should be promoted as such. It can also be promoted as a wonderful decaf brewed coffee, so it’s really a great option for our caffeine-sensitive customers or anyone looking for a great decaf! Thank you all for your patience and for helping us to “re-introduce” this lovely coffee under a new name and with a new focus.

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!!!

~Matt~

Who is Kaldi?

Matt Bolt February 8, 2023

Welcome to For the Love of Coffee. A weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

In today’s post, I thought it would be fun to revisit the story of how coffee was first discovered. “The Legend of Kaldi” is widely known and generally accepted as the epic and historical event which changed the world and gave us the exquisite beverage we all know and love.

Let us go back in time in our imagination to the plains of an Ethiopian countryside in the mid-9th century. A humble goat herder named Kaldi sits on a gently-sloping hill just outside his village where he has a small flock of goats that he lovingly tends. It is a normal day for Kaldi as he tends his flock, providing food for himself and his animals, and enjoying the beauty and tranquility of the Ethiopian plains. The climate is tropical and the soil produces an abundance of vegetation, fruit, and shrubs of great variety.

On this particular day, Kaldi awakes from his afternoon nap and notices that some of his goats have wandered off. He stands up to see if he can spot them. Suddenly he hears them just over the hill baaing excitedly. Thinking his precious goats are being attacked by some wild animal he runs to see what is causing the commotion. To his astonishment, he sees his normally very calm and mild-mannered goats leaping and running around a particular bush and acting very energized. This unique bush had beautiful, red fruit in abundance amidst its leathery dark green leaves. The goats had been feasting on these berries and as a result, seemed to have received an abundance of energy. Kaldi was very curious about this and decided to try the berries himself. Apart from some bitterness, the berries were edible and had a pleasant sweetness. As was customary in those days, Kaldi decided to take the newly discovered fruit and boiled it to make himself some tea. He immediately noticed that the beverage also gave him more energy and alertness. Thinking he had discovered something of great value, he takes some of the fruit to the local monastery and shares it with the monks who lived there.

An early and famous rendering of Kaldi and his dancing goats

Most of the retelling of the Kaldi legend ends here, but some accounts continue the story saying that when Kaldi brought the berries to the monastery, the head Monk seeing the effects of the berries threw them into the fire thinking it was the devil’s work. As the berries began to cook in the fire, a pleasing aroma filled the air. The monks then took some of the cooked berries and made tea from them which resulted in an energizing beverage that the monks then used to help them stay awake during long periods of prayer. I don’t think it is a coincidence that coffee to this day is still served at most churches before service!

Vienna Coffee offers a wonderful blend called Kaldi’s Dance in honor of this famous legend of the discovery of coffee. The blend contains a sweet Harrar coffee from Ethiopia as well as two south-American beans. It is a dance of wonderful flavor notes including caramelized sugar, black tea, and plum.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and learned a little bit about the legendary origin story of the beverage that is loved around the world. Look for more posts in the future about the history of coffee and how it has traversed the globe to become the most highly-traded and sought-after food item in history!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

Introducing our February Featured Coffee - Organic Mexico Chiapas

Matt Bolt February 1, 2023

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

For those of you who were not at the monthly VCH meeting last night, I gave a brief presentation at the meeting about this amazing coffee, but want to go deeper and cover more ground here in the blog. As of 2023 Mexico is the 9th largest producer of coffee in the world* producing over 515 Million pounds of coffee annually. Mexico is the world’s second-largest producer of organic coffee (Peru is #1). Approximately 17% of all coffee produced in Mexico is certified organic.

*Source https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/coffee-producing-countries

A bag of certified organic Mexican Chiapas coffee currently in inventory at the Roastery of Vienna Coffee Company

El Triunfo Biosphere Preserve in southern Chiapas, Mexico

The Sierra Azul Cooperative is a cooperative of over 100 small coffee farmers operating in this area who are dedicated to environmental protection and producing very high-quality coffee. The average size of the coffee farm in the cooperative is 5-12 acres. This focus on quality is clearly represented in the end product.

A Sierra Azul cooperative worker displays a recent harvest of coffee cherries ready to be sent to the processing mill.

Traditional flavor profiling characteristics of coffees produced in Mexico are described as light to medium-bodied, soft, balanced, and sweet. Cooperative coffees, particularly from the Chiapas region may be more intense and bold overall with a savory edge to the sweetness due to various processing methods employed. Common aroma & flavor notes include- Roasted nut, chocolate or cocoa, brown sugar, cedar, malted grain, & berry.

Here at Vienna Coffee, we roast our single-origin Organic Mexico on the lighter side of the spectrum to a medium-light roast. Tasting notes described on the label are Cocoa, Hazelnut, and Blackberry.

Vienna Coffee Organic Mexico is certified Organic and Fair Trade

This coffee is also a full 60% of our organic Thunderhead Espresso bend. We blend it pre-roast with our organic Sumatra and roast it to a medium roast to reach the perfect flavor profile that our thousands of customers and client cafes have come to love in their daily Cappuccinos and Lattes. My favorite is the Thunderhead Americano. I highly recommend it!

I hope you all will take pride in knowing that every single day we are serving our customers only the highest quality coffee, coming from a group of coffee producers who care deeply about their natural environment and who receive a fair wage for their product. Please take the opportunity this month to try this outstanding coffee and please let me know your thoughts, I would love to hear them!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

Introducing February's Featured Coffee - Organic Mexico Chiapas

Matt Bolt February 1, 2023

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.

*Source https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/coffee-producing-countries

This beautiful coffee is grown and processed in and around a nature preserve in the southern region of Chiapas, Mexico. The El Triunfo Biosphere is one of the most diverse forest reserve areas in the world and contains South America’s largest cloud forest, as well as a protected natural environment for thousands of plant and animal species. All of the coffee produced here is shade-grown. The Sierra Azul Cooperative is a cooperative of over 100 small coffee farmers operating in this area who are dedicated to environmental protection and producing very high-quality coffee. The average size of the coffee farm in the cooperative is 5-12 acres. This focus on quality is clearly represented in the end product.

Here at Vienna Coffee, we roast our single-origin Organic Mexico on the lighter side of the spectrum to a medium-light roast. Tasting notes described on the label are Cocoa, Hazelnut, and Blackberry.

Vienna Coffee’s Organic Mexico is certified Organic and Fair Trade

This coffee is also a full 50% of our organic Thunderhead Espresso bend. We blend it pre-roast with our organic Sumatra and roast it to a medium roast to reach the perfect flavor profile that our thousands of customers and client cafes have come to love in their daily Cappuccinos and Lattes. My favorite is the Thunderhead Americano. I highly recommend it!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

The Art of the Roast

Matt Bolt January 25, 2023

Welcome to For the Love of Coffee! A weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the staff of Vienna Coffee.

Today we will be discussing the subject of coffee roasting. Roasting is both a science and an art. The myriad of chemical processes (science) that take place during the heating up and cooking of green coffee are the elements responsible for the flavors which result. However, it is the skill and experience of the roaster (art) which guides these changes. Factors such as “charge”, “drop temp”, “dry end”, “Maillard phase” “rate of rise”, “first crack” and “development phase” all come into play when roasting coffee. It is the Roasters themselves who have ultimate control over these elements and the timing and duration of each phase in the roasting process which determines the complex and astonishing flavors which result.

Here at Vienna Coffee Company, we purchase only the highest-quality Arabica green coffee (for an in-depth review see my previous blog post - Coffea Arabica - the unstoppable bean). Fresh, high-quality green coffee is essential for a skilled Roaster. In essence, it is the medium for the art they are going to create. Low-quality beans can never produce exceptional coffee, just as low-quality ingredients limit what a chef can accomplish. On the flip side, high-quality beans do not necessarily guarantee a high-quality result either. This is determined by the Roaster’s ability to bring out the unique character and flavors of each type of coffee.

Vienna Coffee founder John Clark roasting on the original “Red Roaster” which started it all.

Below is a very brief synopsis of the coffee roasting process.

Green coffee is weighed to a precise amount before being dropped into the heated coffee roasting drum. This coffee weight is called the “Charge” and the temperature of the roaster at the time of the drop is called the “Charge Temperature’.
For the first 1 - 2 minutes in the roaster, the coffee is absorbing the heat from the roaster (endothermic stage), and the roaster’s internal temperature drops. At the “Turning Point” the coffee and roaster temp equalize and the coffee begins to heat up.
For the next 5 - 8 minutes the coffee is in the “Drying Phase” when all the moisture in the green coffee begins to heat up and the coffee begins to lose its pale green color and begins to take on a soft yellow hue. This is called the “Dry End” point of the roast.
From this point, the coffee will enter the “Browning” or “Maillard Phase” when it begins changing from yellow to “cinnamon” color, to ever-darker shades of brown. It is during this time that many chemical reactions are taking place inside the coffee bean and steam and various gases are released. This is when it is important for the roaster to closely monitor the “Rate of Rise”, or the speed at which the coffee is heating up. Too quickly can result in a burnt, or under-developed tasting coffee. Too slow and it can result in a baked or flat-tasting coffee with little acidity or character.
When the coffee beans reach a temp of around 400 degrees the remaining water energy in the form of steam inside the coffee releases suddenly in an event called “First Crack”. This is an audible “popping” sound and it causes the coffee bean to expand, sometimes even doubling or more in size! At this stage, the coffee beans themselves begin to give off heat that they have been absorbing during the entire roast (exothermic stage). It is also at this point that the “Development Phase” begins.
The “Development Phase” is responsible for most of the flavors ultimately experienced in the cup. This is where sugars are caramelized, aromas are developing, acids are breaking down, and coffee oils are produced. Stopping the roast at the desired roast degree is critical to how the coffee will ultimately taste in the cup. Too light, and it can taste grainy and highly acidic (think unripe fruit), too dark and it can taste smoky and burnt. If the development phase continues on to reach a very dark roast stage there will be a “second crack” which occurs. Coffees roasted to second crack are very dark and bold with little acidity or original variatel charachteristics left. Finding the sweet spot for each type of coffee is the roasters ultimate goal.
The final phase of the coffee is the “Cooling Phase” when the coffee is released from the roaster into a cooling bin that stirs the coffee and blasts cool air through it to stop the roast. It is very important that the roast be stopped quickly because the beans will continue to cook themselves and ruin the profile if not cooled immediately.

Various stages of roast degree from green to dark roast (sometimes called Vienna Roast or the darker French Roast)

I hope that this gives you some basic insights into what goes into the roasting of green coffee. All employees are welcome and encouraged to visit the roastery and observe our Roast Master, Trace Johnson during roasting times to learn more about the process and see it all happening in real time! It is very enjoyable and satisfying to bring coffee from its original state as a tasteless, dense, and unpalatable green seed to the wondrous and endlessly fascinating product we know as COFFEE!!

It’s a GREAT day for Coffee!

~Matt~

The Cupping Table - You're Invited!

Matt Bolt January 18, 2023

Welcome to another edition of For the Love of Coffee! A weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee. This week’s post will be about the all-important quality control that is “coffee cupping”.

Here at Vienna Coffee QUALITY is what we do! We start by sourcing the highest-rated green coffee beans we can find, then we custom-roast them to bring out the unique flavor characteristics of each origin, and finally, we cup each coffee to ensure taste and quality. But what exactly does “cupping” coffee mean? And what is its purpose? Let’s start by talking about exactly WHAT I mean by “cupping'“ coffee.

200 degree water is applied to freshly ground coffee

Cupping coffee is simply a method of precisely brewing and tasting coffee. Cupping involves very tight controls so that we can isolate any defects, determine flavor notes for a particular bean or blend, and ensure the quality and consistency of the coffee. This is done by grinding a very specific amount (11 grams) of coffee, placing it in small bowls, and pouring 200-degree water over the grinds. Four minutes after the water is applied to the grounds we start by “breaking the crust” that forms on top of the coffee. This releases a burst of aromatics and we get as close to the cup as possible to experience as much of the aroma as possible. This is the first indication of the tastes that will be experienced in the cup.

Step two is to taste the coffee. We use specially-shaped spoons when tasting the coffee which are basically soup spoons that are round in shape and make it easier to “slurp”. The slurping of the coffee helps to aerate the liquid and better distribute it across the palate. We then try to identify any negative flavors (hopefully there are none) and any unique flavor notes we perceive in the coffee such as fruit, chocolate, nuts, floral, spices, or any of the hundreds of tasting notes that can be found in coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association has developed a coffee tasters wheel that can help identify a large number of “notes” which are found in coffee. It is by no means a comprehensive table, but it will identify all of the most common flavors found in coffee. We record our perceptions and notes for each coffee.

For a great, free coffee flavor app available on Google Play click here

Coffee cupping sessions are open to all employees and are encouraged to help you develop your palate and a deeper knowledge of coffee. We schedule them regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 10 am upstairs in the coffee lab, and anyone is welcome to attend. Just make sure to check with me first so I know you are coming in case the session is delayed or canceled.

It’s a GREAT day for Coffee!

~Matt~

Introducing January's featured coffee - Guatemala Finca San Jeronimo Miramar

Matt Bolt January 11, 2023

Today’s staff blog will focus on the featured coffee for January 2023 - Guatemala Finca San Jeronimo Miramar.

This delicious coffee is sourced from a coffee farm located on a literal volcano in the Atitlan region of Guatemala called Volcan De Atitlan. The coffee farm is located between 700 - 2,600 meters above sea level, and coffee is grown between 800 - 1,600 masl. The tropical climate of this region is perfectly suited to grow coffee and receives abundant rainfall year-round.

Volcan De Atitlan, Guatemala - Image Credit: Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The farm has been owned by the same family for over 100 years and produces coffee, exotic tropical fruit, honey, and a variety of dairy products. The farm’s natural fresh-water springs feed the farm’s water supply and provide hydroelectric power to all the farm’s processing facilities. Owners, Georgio and Gina Brassani treat the environment, their employees, and their community with a deep level of care. A large portion of the farm is a nature preserve that protects a number of native species, and they have a lab on-site to research natural methods of reducing fungi and pests in coffee production!

After the fruit of the coffee cherries has been removed, the coffee beans are put through a washing process and then spread out on cement patios to dry before being bagged and shipped to our roasting facility in Maryville.

Guatemalan coffees are known for their full-body, chocolaty notes, and rich toffee-like sweetness. The coffee grown in the Antigua and Atitlan regions is categorized as strictly hard bean (SHB) and features a pleasant floral acidity and mild spice. We carefully roast this specialty coffee here at our Maryville facility to bring out the best flavors and aromas possible for our customers. We source this coffee from our partner business Deeper Roots Coffee in Cincinnati. Deeper Roots owner, Les Stoneham has developed a producer/roaster relationship with the farm and is able to source the highest quality beans from each year’s lot production.

Les Stoneham - Owner of Deeper Roots Coffee leads a coffee cupping at the Finca San Jeronimo farm in Guatemala.

I have recently updated the roasting profile for this outstanding coffee to highlight more of its incredible chocolate and dark fruit notes. The roast degree is considered Med-Light and the tasting notes on the bag have been updated to Dark Chocolate, Black Cherry, Almond

We are fortunate to have access to this limited-supply coffee and I am excited to highlight it as our featured coffee for the first month of the New Year!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

Whats in a Bean?

Matt Bolt December 29, 2022

Welcome to “For the Love of Coffee” - a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the staff of Vienna Coffee!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and are ready to celebrate the dawning of a brand-new year! I can’t believe how fast the past year has flown by. 2022 was a year of BIG changes for me and my family with a move, new jobs, and new challenges. I look forward to the New Year and working side-by-side with all of you as we seize new opportunities, conquer challenges, and soar to new heights as we grow the Vienna Coffee brand to reach more coffee lovers than ever! It’s going to be a GREAT year for coffee!

The humble green coffee bean - a power-packed seed contains a world of aroma and flavor possibilities

Today’s blog will be short and sweet. What’s in a coffee bean? Have you ever wondered about the physical composition of a coffee bean? Perhaps not, but you may be surprised to learn of the amazing amount of organic materials, chemical compounds, sugars, oils, and other physical properties. A single coffee bean has more than one million cells made up of over 850 variable known compounds that appear during the roasting process.

Just a few of these volatile properties are:

Water (around 11% in green coffee) - moisture content in green coffee is responsible for the coffee’s ability to withstand the high heat applied during roasting. After roasting there is less than 2% moisture left in the coffee. The weight of the coffee is reduced by around 20% from pre to post-roast.
Sugars (6-9%) - mostly Sucrose provides sweetness in the cup and also contributes to the coffee’s acidity.
Lipids (16%) - contribute to coffee’s aroma and mouthfeel.
Proteins & Amino Acids (10-13%) - interact with sugars during roasting causing the browning of the coffee known as the Maillard Reaction, which contributes to coffee’s bitter-sweet, roasty, meaty and baked aromas.
Caffeine - around 1% of green coffee weight, but contributes to 10% of the bitterness experienced in brewed coffee.
Organic Acids - primarily chlorogenic acids (7-10%) which contribute to coffee’s acidity, bitterness, and astringency.
Aromatic compounds - over 200 aromatics in green coffee explode to more than 850 in roasted coffee making the humble coffee bean one of the most complex aromatic and sensory-stimulating beverages in existence!

Take time today to enjoy a delicious cup of Vienna coffee and pause a moment to enjoy all of the wonderful aromas, tastes and sensations that the humble coffee bean provides us each and every day.

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!!

~Matt~

Coffea Arabica - the unstoppable bean!

Matt Bolt December 21, 2022

Welcome to the second edition of “For The Love of Coffee”, a new Vienna Coffee staff-only weekly blog about all things coffee! For those of you who may have missed the first blog and would like to read it, you can find it here.

In today’s blog, I would like to spend just a few minutes talking about a product that has changed the world, given rise to empires, created entire industries, and generated its own unique cultural impact all over the globe: the humble coffee bean.

The term “Coffee Bean” is a bit of a misnomer. What we refer to as coffee beans are really the seeds of a cherry-like fruit that grows in tropical climates around the world in an area around the equator often referred to as the “Bean Belt”. It is in this narrow belt that all of the coffee production in the world is grown. Coffee bushes can only grow in warm, tropical climates and the best coffees require higher elevations to develop the unique cup characteristics required of high-end specialty coffee.

The official botanical name of the plant which produces the coffee we consume each day is “Coffea Rubiaceae”. There are two main species of coffee this plant produces that are grown commercially - Arabica and Robusta. In general, Arabica coffee is far superior in taste and quality to Robusta coffee, however, there are some Robustas that are of high quality, and some Arabicas that can be of low quality, so much of the question of quality comes down to the way the coffee is grown, harvested, processed and how it is roasted. Arabica coffee represents about 60% of all coffee production worldwide and is what we at Vienna Coffee purchase and roast here at our Maryville location. Arabica coffee is grown at higher elevations which are required for the fruit to develop more slowly and create a superior-tasting coffee. Arabica coffee is known for its complex character and quality, sweetness, lively acidity, and a variety of flavor notes including floral, fruit, chocolate, and nuts. Within these broad tasting categories lie hundreds of more subtle tasting notes. Arabica coffee is more difficult to grow, takes longer to develop, costs more in the marketplace, and is the only type of coffee we purchase here at Vienna Coffee (with the exception of a bag of Robusta here and there to add to a couple of our espresso blends because of Robusta’s crema-producing quality).

**Difference between Arabica and Robusta**

Starting from it’s discovery around 700AD the humble coffee plant has traversed the globe (a topic for a future blog post :) and become a cultural staple and a daily ritual for untold millions. Here at Vienna Coffee Company we carefully source and roast only the finest Arabica coffees from around the globe. We only purchase coffee that has a standard industry cupping score of 85 points or higher. A score of 85-90 points is considered “Excellent” by specialty coffee industry standards. You all play a vital role in crafting and serving this beautiful product to our customers each and every day. Vienna Coffee House has raised the bar for coffee standards in Maryville and beyond, and you all are the reason!

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

Coffea Arabica - the unstoppable bean!

Matt Bolt December 20, 2022

The official botanical name of the plant which produces the coffee we consume each day is “Coffea Rubiaceae”. There are two main species of coffee this plant produces that are grown commercially - Arabica and Robusta. In general, Arabica coffee is far superior in taste and quality to Robusta coffee, however, there are some Robustas that are of high quality, and some Arabicas that can be of low quality, so much of the question of quality comes down to the way the coffee is grown, harvested, processed and how it is roasted. Arabica coffee represents about 60% of all coffee production worldwide and is what we at Vienna Coffee purchase and roast here at our Maryville location. Arabica coffee is grown at higher elevations which are required for the fruit to develop more slowly and create a superior-tasting coffee. Arabica coffee is known for its complex character and quality, its lively acidity, and notes of fruit, chocolate, and nuts. Within these broad tasting categories lie hundreds of more subtle tasting notes. Arabica coffee is more difficult to grow, takes longer to develop, costs more in the marketplace, and is the only type of coffee we purchase here at Vienna Coffee (with the exception of a bag of Robusta here and there to add to a couple of our espresso blends because of Robusta’s crema-producing quality).

It’s a GREAT day for coffee!

~Matt~

A weekly blog about all things coffee, exclusively for employees of Vienna Coffee company

Matt Bolt December 14, 2022

Welcome to For The Love of Coffee!

This is the first-ever edition of a new weekly Vienna employee-only blog. Each week I will bring you useful and current information about all things coffee, especially as it relates to you as a valued team member here at Vienna Coffee. I hope you find it educational, inspirational, and at times entertaining! :) ~Matt

In this week’s blog, I would like to focus for just a few minutes on what makes the Specialty Coffee Industry (the one we all work in every day) so special. Here are just a few of the hundreds of reasons why what YOU do every day makes such a big difference in people’s lives here in your community and around the world.

**Vienna Coffee founder John Clark on an origin trip to Ethiopia in 2016**

Coffee is the second-largest traded commodity in the world, second only to Oil in trade volume. Indeed, that humble cup of coffee you serve our customers every day is the end result of a worldwide chain of people beginning with the coffee farmer right down to YOU, all contributing to produce this amazing beverage. In fact, you are the final link in a chain of hundreds of people whose life’s work is to bring the highest-quality coffee they possibly can to market for only one reason: the enjoyment of others. You are VERY important in this chain!

Cafe’ Feminino is a woman-owned cooperative with farms in 9 different growing regions around the globe. Vienna Coffee is proud to offer coffees affiliated with this fantastic organization. Learn more

The Specialty Coffee Industry provides a living for hundreds of thousands of people all over the world making it possible for them to live, and raise a family while providing a product or service of which they can be proud and that brings joy to others. While coffee as a commodity has been around for thousands of years, the specialty coffee business is still in its relatively early stages. It could be argued that Starbucks started the specialty coffee industry in America. Starting in 1971 in Seattle, WA, Starbucks rose to a multi-million dollar business by the late 80s through strategic targeted expansion and in 2021 had over 383,000 employees. Since those early days of Specialty Coffee, tens of thousands more coffee shops of all sizes and shapes have opened their doors, including the first Vienna Coffee House on High Street in Maryville in 2010. The Specialty Coffee Industry is projected to continue to grow at an incredible annual rate of 9.2% through 2026. You are in good company, in an industry well-positioned for continued growth and opportunities!

You can be proud to work for Vienna Coffee Company (VCC) knowing that we support dozens of charitable organizations and projects in your community. This list includes:

in addition to several more worthy organizations. VCC also regularly gives away a number of food and product overages to local charities and food banks. You all play a very important role in our continued ability to support all of these great local causes.

VCC Roastery employee Patrick Devillier loads donations into the Second Harvest truck for local distribution to help needy families.

As I hope you can see, YOU play an extremely valuable role in a very special company within a very special industry! I for one am grateful every single day to be a part of such a wonderful local business that is making an impact both locally and globally. I hope you feel the same! :) ~Matt

Vienna Coffee Company

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