Courier Coffee Roasters

Our day is full of shifting routes and priorities as new orders come in from our commercial accounts. With the days coffee roasted and route set, something always comes up, which changes the priority of our delivery, or even has us back roasting. In a way courier is instant. Most people move, but not as light and cleanly as a messenger (which we are not). Moving by bike is not all we do, since we also operate a bar, yet the mindset of keeping fluid, organized, and without excess weight carries into all things. Our friend Zach shared long ago a motto from his time spent in Manhatten moving parcel, “lighten up and tighten up.”

Our bar is keeping consistent, normal hours today and monday (closed as always on Sunday). I think a year ago we had a strange reopening on the first at 4am where we were up after hours making coffee. For today perhaps come join us for coffee before closing. Tyler and Joel will be on bar.

Coffee bar open normal hours through the holidays. Yesterday morning we found deadstock Courier T-shirts from 2009, silkscreened by BT Livermoore, and Michael Powell-Parich in BT’s bedroom. They are mens (aa) sizes medium and extrasmall. These were biked downtown to the bar.

We are playing the game of stocking enough coffee to sell wholebean and make drinks from today at the bar- just enough. I think the freshest roast date will be from the 22nd. Our goal is to run out by four pm, and then Monday morning we will have coffee roasted that very same morning. We personally recommend having coffee within seven days of roast. At the bar our cut off is ten days (and really we never really get to that point anyway with our rolling stock). At our homes we find coffee enjoyable up to two weeks, and sometimes it depends on the coffee.

happy holidays, come hang out at the bar. Tyler and Joel are going to make eggnog.

We lit the house with candles. Courier staff arrived prompt exactly an hour past seven. Opening the garage door to clear way for bikes a bright headlight appeared from the driveway.. Fondue made with Gruyer, white wine and nutmeg. cider and holiday ale. A fire in the fireplace made with wood scavenged from the many fallen branches on the way home (by bicycle).

We sold a lot of wholebean coffee today at the bar, and so we roasted more to bike in tomorrow. Our chosen coffee for espresso switched to Ethiopia Shoye Cooperative on Saturday. Tuesday morning we open with freshly roasted coffee available for sale and also made on bar. There is a roll of ribbon if you desire your coffee wrapped.

Our staff holiday party was quiet and intimate. Pretty much the star of the night was Kourtney and Dans dog Topper (blog on right). It is wonderful being surrounded by wonderful people and working with them.

Ethiopia washed Shoye Cooperative and el Salvador washed Bourbon varietal, las Delicias farm, super fresh at our bar for resale this Thursday. Also Ginger bread loaves.

We have a holly tree, so we decorated the bar. It has been super cold these last mornings. The roastery has been holding at 45 degrees F, when we are not roasting. The coffee shop is holding at 74 degrees F, but with air conditioning (the bar has no heat source other than equipment). The bar has been slower. We are thinking about dressing up our delivery bikes in holly.

Much fresh roasted coffee for sale at the bar. Pictured above innards of our sole espresso grinder during service (Mazzer Robur, 2010 model, without modification). A roll pin holds doser star to the sweeps. Knocking out the roll pin to separate lower star with upper sweeps and cleaning the star and housing with spirits has drastically improved doser action.

Gretchen Vaudt brought a new batch of ceramic cups Monday for our bar. Ten new cups with handles, perhaps to encourage everyone to drink coffee in (and save the earth by not using disposable cups).

Actually on that tip, come save the earth with us and drink in (or clean up one of those mugs from home). Come fantasize with us about not being in America (or better yet living in a more altered America) and have a short drink at our bar (like an espresso, or Little Buddy). After all drinking at the bar would be very european of our patrons, while also fulfilling several points of etiquette.

News from this week. Four new lots of coffee arrived at the Roastery. We scored a perfect hundred on our Health Inspection, thanks to the installation of a counterweighted bathroom door using the window weight from the Littlewood residence. We make cranberry reduction for our sandwiches (vincent farm berries, Bandon, OR. Salt in our bake goods switches to salt made by Ben who harvests salt off the Oregon Coast near Oceanside (just North of Tillamook), which we make fine using a morter and pestle from that rad store Canoe (blocks away). And for a limited time we have a baratza virtuoso grinder tucked away downtown if anyone wants us to demo it give us a phone call.

LEX installed at Couriers bar last night. Today his photography (most of it) will be at Courier for the month of December. Many mornings around seven Lex would show up for a cup of coffee before heading home to sleep, after doing who knows what, after his shift in the kitchen of Santoria. This is perhaps the more beautiful part of serving morning coffee, a certain satisfaction of serving coffee to those who have been up all night long, where yesterdays party is still happening today.

The reception Thursday went awesome. We made mulled wine with star anise, cardamon, allspice, orange, lemon, cinnamon, and clove (mulling spices). Almost the entire crew from Santoria turned out, as well as friends from Baileys Taproom and Marys Club? We brought our huge Wells hotplate down along with a gigantic steel pot and poured warming drinks all evening. And in Courier style we ran a digital temperature probe to our kettle keeping the brew around 128F. Non- alcoholic winter warmers will of course be served all season starting at seven am M-F at the bar. Next week new lots of coffee available for sale.