Courier Coffee Roasters

The bench knife, or pastry scraper, is dull with a purpose (our favorite is entirely SS and made in Japan, no plastic or wood for us). We have one SS knife that is shiny and probably has a little carbon, this is also not-so-sharp, but dainty and beautiful and we use to check the muffins with (stabbing them to see if batter clings). Then there is the antler handled honing steel, for aligning the electrons in our sharp knives (grandma may be dead, but geez her knives were razors when she moved on- serious, and very memorable). A large carbon high carbon blade Alex found on the street, this is one of our best. A small carbon blade for the customers who want to share their pastry. The Japanese Takeda Sakichan gave me does not stay on bar but travels with me at all times. Made of Aogami super steel from Hitachi, carbon sandwiches stainless, in a super thin eastern edge. This knife is very sharp, yet also brittle and delicate. With such a knife only the force necessary for the cut is made. Certain appreciation for well kept edges we picked up via Evan and Ali courtesy of their friends- the Hot Knives. “sharp knives save lives.”

While making our way to the pizza shop today, we fell in with a gang of street kids. One interesting thing was their belt knives, very large, as if for deer hunting. Deer hunting in the SW hills? the knife that Rambo carried, that size. We think about this when making pastry.

At the roastery we have a Benchmade Tanto mini-Griptilian, used for label adhesive cutting every day (this is a knife).

all of the knives that want, get sharpened. Two stones float back and forth between roastery and bar, our Naniwa 5000 superstone (japan), and combination 500/1000 stone. some of our friends even bring their knives in for us to sharpen.

we hope this thoughtfulness extends into all things (wu-tang, the last samuri, code of the samuri reference, and by extension Liquid Swords).

Old Dominion semi truck arrived as we were almost leaving 4019 SE Hawthorne. The truck is noticeable because of the three stripes of color, and we the only destination on the block. We look for the bi-directional pallet, original strapping, breakage and signs of liquid before signing. Alex and I run our hands over several of the bags feeling for moisture, and discuss the visual signs of an intact shipment. We also make sure we are receiving the coffee that has been ordered, then sign the manifest.

We exchange the pallet from a previous delivery and wave goodbye to Matt of OD, before loading coffee to the cellar. Then its off to run the morning deliveries.

Two new lots have just come in…..

Sparkling Portland Tap Water now on bar. Carbonation refilling is work, since we bike the 20 pound alloy tank to the Welding Supply store on Martin Luther King. This has put us mythically closer to our goal of having milk on tap as well, with the one thing holding us back being the purchase of an argon tank. We are proud to serve tap water. Each morning we run the water for some time, getting fresh water into the system. The same goes for the water that is served on bar. We filter our water with a loose fibre filter only to remove chunks of iron and sediment, same with espresso machine water.

The water we wash with is unfiltered. The water we sanitize our dishes with is mixed with quatro- ammonium, which has a PH of 7, unlike bleach, which is very basic. The neutral PH does not dry out ones hands. Quatro-ammonium is cool because it kills a lot of things, and when it dries leaves no residue (which is why our coffee cups and glasses are “beer clean”)

the water we do our pourover coffee with is 198.6F +/-.4F leading to a quicker desired brew time. (more on this later).

since its pouring rain, and we are low on photos, we thought we would talk about water.
Right this second BT Livermore has a fantastic artshow up at Courier’s bar. Friend and Illustrator BT is a great person to dream about signage with. Please take a look around next time on bar at the trunk show.

Frustrating but Awesome.
to bike across town, and doubling back, forgetting something.
to make muffin batter with wrong ingredients, then fixing with yogurt.
drinking the display beer at Sizzle Pie.
discovering gaydar on the phone you are borrowing.
finding a Mazzer Major in working condition, when you thought it was a Super
having a long wait at West End turn into a short one.
Getting hooked up at Maglia Rosa.
Working bar while also sharpening knives.
learning plumbing work from Bob Vila utube videos.
not sleeping.

Thank you friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are always very pleased to serve you. xox-courier

The Phil Wood freehub (rear tire hub) is back for our cargo bike. In 3.5 years we stripped the teeth from the ratchet so that it no longer engaged. Sending it back to Phil Wood, they replaced engagement ring, pawls and things. Thankfully this could be done while leaving the spokes and rim attached. We now have 20 points of engagement again, or pawls engage ratchet every ten degrees. The hub is very quiet, which freaks us out because we like to hear those pawls engaging strongly. This is probably more due to the grease than the hub, we assume they used Tenacious oil, but will give it a try.

At Roastery we have organized out parts (while turning the place upside down to look for a switch. For the few in Portland who could actually benefit from knowing how many Wand Ball Teflon O-rings we have on hand, or if we have any 2004 style Wand Spools for a Synesso we are thinking about posting our parts inventory online. There are a few who work on their own machines, and this could be rad for them. Aside from parts we have removed a few shelves in our above ground space to below, freeing up floor area. The roastery feels much better now, but we still have some boxes to deal with.

coffees- fleetingly on bar.
Dukunde Kawa Cooperative, Genke district Musasa, Rwanda- January arrival.
Dukorere Ikawa Cooperative, Burundi (last batch)- December arrival, Bourbon and Bourbon Jackson varietals.
Kenya aa Marumi, September arrival.
Mercedes Farm, East side of Las Ranas Mtn. El Salvador, August crop arrival, Pacamara varietal.
Chilco Sidamo (near the town of Dilla), Ethiopia- Late Fall arrival Gr 3 natural process

Cold today. We delivered coffee by bicycle to houses in southeast, then the eastside industrial, then downtown and northwest. Alex started roasting at 3am. James did the residential deliveries. Joel ran early coffee to our bar.

Our main delivery bike hub is on its way back to Phil Wood.

White Industries has been emailing us, apparently they are prototyping a stronger rear hub currently (maybe smaller degree of engagement). geez their freewheels are a dream.

Karen Brooks just wrote about us on her cheat sheet to 2013, but not for the coffee…

…

The secret excitement is the opening of Kenilworth Coffee (that and secret menu item that recently appeared on our menu- housemade ginger ale, from fresh local ginger). Kenilworth soft opens pretty much now at 37th and Gladstone. We are thrilled, and this will certainly be a draw for the Woodstock and further south neighborhoods. Officially not open, but definitely a place to get coffee (new years day!). Hours 7am-3pm daily

Our bar open New Years Day, starting at noon (or earlier). The staff has the day off, but we wanted to provide a spot for the working people to get coffee on this Holiday. We will be open for a good while, and then we will close.

We go into the next year with a single speed cargo bike. Our Phil Wood freehub is dead (teeth and pawls). Research points to White Industries as being better to trust our lives on, since each pawl is individually sprung. Both Phil and King use one spring for all engagement. We just find three better than one. Sure we never serviced our hub, but we disagree on the point. The teeth in the ratchet are worn where pawls touch. 3.5 years is a long time for a hub, but we want things longer. We send the Phil back to be refurbished, and later we will order a White. For the moment we rock a SS Phil Kiss Off rear hub on a 16 tooth White Freewheel (fun), with no brake. Front hub has Shimano Saint Hydraulics (c/o West End Bikes), which will keep us from death.

ok- so we expect you all for coffee in the morning. be safe.

Now open seven days a week.
Christmas Eve regular hours.
Christmas day closed.
New Years Eve later than normal hours.
New Years Day open noon till when close.
New Years Day it will be just Joel working, of course its a holiday. Expect slower service, but expect coffee.

Alex is on tour this week with the Woolen Men of Eggy Records (discography currently on the walls of Courier). We are going to pull off some really lovely roasts this week, and explore some different ways that we have been thinking about our current coffee offering. Our deliveries this week will be done by single speed bicycles only, including our cargo bike. Our Phil Wood parts order got lost in the mail, and so we are without a working wheel.

El salvador Judas is over. Our bar has the last pound. San Luis Farm we are down to 50 pounds of (green). Pictured above are some cool items. We have a two group espresso machine for sale 220v , pretty much a deal. We have an Anfim with reduced motor speed and cooling fan. There is our manually controlled San Franciscan (we love its simplicity in so many ways).