Mariah has been at the shop for 5 years, which is almost its entire life. Through those years she has quietly and graciously taken whatever task I gave and done it as perfectly as possible.  Wake up five mornings a week and pull shot after shot? Yes. Organize the backroom? Yes. Keep the shop clean? Yes. Most daunting of all, keep me organized and on track? Yes.

Many regulars have had a constant every morning, being able to wake up to a sassy joke and a delicious beverage. Judging by the gifts and cards, I know they realize this.

And this of course is the real meaning of a cup of coffee. Not the hints of lemon, or the perfect extraction, but the relationships we develop while sipping.

Mariah is moving on to other things, and of course we wish her luck (although she barely needs it) in all she accomplishes. Of course, a part of us wants one more morning, but what we really want is to say thank you for all the cups we’ve already had.

Thank you, Mariah.

We’ll be celebrating the delights of our new neighborhood with three cupcake and ice cream pairings (courtesy of Sweets and Izzy’s), served at your table with coffee or tea.

For $25, choose from:

• Caramel & Nut,
• Berry & Citrus, or
• Chocolate & Chocolate.

We’ll be taking reservations via email or postcard (available in-cafe soon). Just let us know your dessert theme, who you are (name and email address) and what time you’ll be coming (6pm ’til late).

To guarantee a spot, please register on or before January 12th.

Questions or to reserve: andrew@kopplinscoffee.com

Saturday, December 24th 7 am – Noon
Sunday, December 25th Closed
Monday, December 26th 7 am – 8 pm
Sunday, January 1st 7 am – 8 pm

See you around the shop!

In an age of iPods, laptops, and a plethora of places for our attention to go, we so rarely do things communally (even family meals are becoming segmented). To this end, we thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor to have something that the entire Kopplin’s community is doing together. Reading one book a month seemed like a great place to start.

The first book we chose is American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen, which is a collections of stories about pockets of place-driven food from around the Americas.  We encourage everyone to pick this book up – at the café or Micawbers (who we’re partnering with) or at your local library – read it, and then join us for a discussion on Wednesday, January 18th from 6-8pm.

While this book is a non-fiction book, we’re looking to keep as much variety as possible so expect fiction, memoir, etc. in the future.

We’re excited for this book club and can’t wait to see as many of you as possible reading and discussing the book around the shop during the next month and coming in on Jan 18th as well as .

Celebrate the traditions of the season with us:
There will be a lefse demonstration and tasting, winter beverages available including eggnog from Castle Rock Dairy and hot chocolate from Rogue Chocolatier.

Special guest Scarlet Letter A Design will be showing a sparkling collection of jewelry.

Our new Good Taste retail section will be on display featuring great gifts. Including, ceramics by Eureka Pots of Minnesota, honey and candles from Ames Farm, “good taste” tees and hoodies, “Linger” posters from Design for the Arts, and coffee-brewing tools for the coffee lover. ]]> http://www.kopplinscoffee.com/blog/news-events/holiday-open-house/feed/ 0 http://www.kopplinscoffee.com/blog/news-events/509/ http://www.kopplinscoffee.com/blog/news-events/509/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:32:42 +0000 admin http://www.kopplinscoffee.com/blog/?p=509 As an extension of our commitment to well-crafted artisan products, we’re excited to be able to expand our selection of retail goods in our new location. We believe that surrounding yourself with objects that encourage a connection and reflection is an important part of life. Just like sourcing local food ingredients from farmer’s we know enhances the flavor of our beverages, so does sourcing mugs, candles, and cards from local artisans. Light a slightly honey-scented beeswax candle, warm up a ceramic mug crafted by the touch of a hand, and relax to enjoy a gently steeped tea. I guarantee that it will be a completely different experience from gulping down some steaming liquid on your commute or at your desk. The more moments that we gift to ourselves, the richer our experience is of the world. Sometimes it’s worth taking the time to savor.

Some new items featured in our retail area include:

• “Linger” posters are designed by Karen Kopacz of Design for the Arts in collaboration with Kopplin’s and printed locally on Neenah Environment 100% recycled paper, these 8×10 digital prints will serve as a little reminder to live in the moment.

• “Good Taste” tees and hoodies from Alternative Earth knits are printed locally with our shop motto by our friends.

• Ceramics by Colleen Riley of Eureka Pots combine form with function to enhance your experience of the everyday.

We’ll continue to feature select items from Ames Honey and, of course, Rogue Chocolatier, and our favorite equipment for brewing at home. We look forward to expanding our assortment of goods as we grow into our new space. Check it when you’re in the store to see what’s new!

First off, it’s important to remember that there are few things simpler that making coffee – “just add water”.  Basically, one adds hot water to extract a certain amount of of the soluble material; depending on how much you extract, you get a variety of flavors. Every machine, not matter how space-age looking, is simply accomplishing (to varying degrees) the same thing.

Starting from this basic understanding I decided I wanted a process that brewed coffee that met three requirements:

1.) Has the ability to extract a proper amount of soluble material, in a reasonable amount of time

2.) Simple to use to create the extraction one desires.

3.) Easy process to repeat.

Let’s take these one at a time:

The ability to extract the proper amount of soluble material, in a reasonable amount of time. There are three major factors when it comes to extraction in coffee: time, temperature, and grind size. Longer contact time, higher brew temperatures, and finer grinds increase extraction, which means the brew system needs to have the ability to hold the coffee in an insulated environment. Also, these variables play on each others, because it’s really difficult to hold the brew temp above 195º F (crucial for proper brewing) for much longer than 3:30 minutes, which means that the grind size needs to be fine enough to allow for a shorter time. If we allow all of these variables space to be what they are, we end of with a coffee brew that has a finer grind, shorter steep time, and insulated.

A simplicity of use in creating the extraction one desires. To make things simple is is often easier to break them into pieces.  In brewing coffee there are basically two major component: extraction and filtration. With the more common drip brew bar methods these components are combined, which has always made it difficult for me to find the extraction I’m looking for.  To me it became essential to have a steeping followed by a definite and speedy filtration.

Ease of repeatable results. Perhaps this is more important to me in a café setting, however, I think it’s important to have a process that can be repeated so that it doesn’t feel like you’re constantly reinventing the wheel. I appreciate that no two cups are exactly the same, but I also think if the same method produces wildly different results, you may want to check the method.

With these requirements as my starting point, we have come up with a method that works not only for the café, but can easily be done at home.  Using a double-wall glass tea infuser for our brewing vessel we accomplish the insulation factor. By grinding finer and steeping for shorter times, we achieve proper extraction within a minute. And lastly, we use a filter only for cleaning up the finer particles so the final brew is completely clean.

I’m really excited about this new brewing method and hope everyone will enjoy it on our new bar. For those interested in supporting us and learning more about brewing I suggest checking out our fundraiser.  There you can donate and receive a brew kit (infuser, filter pot, and grinder) with a lesson.

In Italy, the price of an espresso is most often – and I believe is actually fixed by the government – at under 1 Euro (approx $1.40). The conversation was about why the higher end shops around town are charging over $2.00 for espresso (we charge $2.50) and whether the higher price discouraged a café culture from forming here.

While no on knows for certain what causes things, my experience living in Oslo, Norway leads me to believe that café culture is created by much more than simply a lower price.  In Norway espresso is also at the higher price point (close to $3.00); however, the café scene thrives. Why? I think it’s good to step back and look at the two shots (one from Minnesota, the other from Europe) in their context; which means considering the societies at large.

Italian and Norwegian cultures revolve much more around small interactions outside the home. This means that the average European is going to the coffee shop 3-4 times a day.  This works because most European cities are not designed around the car but rather walking and public transit, so a café is always within walking distance.

Contrast this with the Twin Cities culture in which most people drive to get most places and our community is stretched geographically. This means the average person stops at a coffee shop once a day and consumes a larger beverage that they take to go in a paper cup.

The typical coffee shop interaction in the Twin Cites has a higher overhead cost, due to less frequency. The lower frequency also creates different expectations. Twin Cities consumers have much more invested in each cup because they are much more likely to have gone “out of their way” to get it. This means that doing the same thing over and over again becomes boring and the business feels the need to keep things changing and interesting, which would never occur to an Italian espresso bar.

Yes, the layout of our cities affects the way we consume, which affects the way businesses must charge to survive. This in turn affects the way in which we spend.  Changing culture is a much more difficult task than a simple pricing plan.  We need create a space to live in that reflects what we value.

Gretchen, Mike, Audrey (baby), and Fletcher (dog) were awesome hosts. We had such a great time walking amongst all varieties and trying different ones.  I was super suprised by the sweetness and complexity of Chestnut Crab (this week’s cider) and the subtle notes of Ginger Gold (in next week’s cider).

More than anything it reminded me of the how much more important it is to have relationships rather than just suppliers, because it’s the  connections that are ultimately what’s important.

It is through our connection to Ames Honey Farm that I learned this year has been a rough year on the local bee population and so we won’t be able to have Ames Honey this winter.  Rather than think of this as a simply supply issue and just buy another honey, we’re working with this reality and looking at a selection of small artisan maple syrups for our sweetened latte. We look forward to keeping a relationship with Ames through this rough time and look forward to buying honey again from them come Springtime hopefully.