World Diabetes Awareness Day November 14th

Dear Victrola Friends and Family,
Some of you may remember us slinging coffee back behind the bar circa 2000 and some of you are too new to Victrola to have known us. We started and ran Victrola almost 10 years ago and recently sold our first “baby” to the wonderful Dan Ollis. One of the best things about Victrola (besides the best coffee in the world!) is the community that it brings together. We met and befriended so many wonderful people over the years who became and still are very important to us. We want to thank Dan and Victrola for their support and allowing us to make a guest appearance on this blog to talk to you all about something not at all related to coffee and for lighting up some blue at Victrola in honor of World Diabetes Awareness Day on November 14.

November 14, quickly approaching, is World Diabetes Awareness Day. This particular date was chosen as it is the date that marks the birthday of Frederick Banting. Mr. Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin in 1921. Why are we talking to you about the discovery of insulin and Diabetes on the blog of a coffee business? 2 months after we sold Victrola, our 15th month old son Addison was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. We were shocked and heartbroken but had no idea what Type 1 really meant. It meant a couple of shots a day, no sugar or sweets ever,a bland diet and maybe he will grow out of it.. right? Oh so wrong. We spent a week in the hospital learning about Type 1 and how to take care of our son and found out none of those things were true. We found out that we have to give our son 5-8 shots a day(I kept saying to the educator, through my tears, that couldn’t be right!). We have to prick his finger for a blood sample to check his blood sugars up to 10 times a day. We have to check his blood sugar in the middle of the night. Every night. Most likely until he moves out of the house. Low blood sugars can cause seizures, fainting, coma and possible death. High blood sugars can cause acids to build up in the blood resulting in coma and possible death. Long lasting high blood sugars can lead to many, many complications down the road such as heart disease, eye damage, kidney damage, thyroid problems and nerve damage. Celiac disease is also a possibility. Despite all of this, he will lead a “normal” life. He will have diabetes for the rest of his life, unless of course someone out there discovers a cure. Insulin is a lifesaver but, alas, it is not a cure for diabetes.

There are 2 types of Diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. Only about 10 to 15% of the cases of diabetes in the world are Type 1. In the words of the JDRF – Although the causes of type 1 diabetes are not entirely known, scientists believe the body’s own immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It is not caused by obesity or by eating excessive sugar, which are two common myths about type 1. Both genetics and environmental “triggers” are being studied as potential causes of type 1 diabetes. With Type 1, the pancreas is no longer able produce insulin, the key that unlocks our cells to allow sugar in to be converted to energy. Without insulin in our bodies, we would not survive. SIgns of Type 1 include excessive thirst, excessive urination, extreme hunger, weight loss and lethargy. Many children are not diagnosed until they get very sick and many go into the hospital in a coma. We were very lucky that our pediatric team at the Odessa Brown Clinic was educated about Type 1 and they diagnosed Addison before he got really, really sick. He still spent 2 nights in the ICU with IV’s in both hands and one foot and 5 more days after at Children’s Hospital to get his body back in balance.

Our lives were turned upside down by Addison’s diagnosis. We are always calculating carbs, insulin to carb ratios, correction factors. While Addison can eat anything he wants, certain things are really hard on his body (like refined sugars) and we have to count ALL his carbs at every meal in order to determine how much insulin to give him. It is a delicate balance making sure he has just the right amount of insulin in his body to keep him healthy. We are his pancreas and it is a 24/7 job. One of the most frustrating things about this illness is that most people don’t have any idea what Type 1 is. We have had a medical student ask us to tell her 8 year old son not to eat so much sugar so he won’t get diabetes (eating too much sugar does not cause Type 1!!!), We have had a friend tell her child that Addison has “allergies” just like she does (Type 1 is not an allergy!), we have had people say “Well, he will grow out of that, right?” (no, he won’t ever!). We have read stories about Type 1 children in school who were taunted by their schoolmates for “causing” (not possible) their illness and being “contagious”(also not possible). We have also perpetuated some myths ourselves like by telling our elderly neighbor who brought Addison cookies once that he was diabetic and couldn’t have sugar because explaining Type 1 just seemed too complicated.

So, on this day, this week, this month..we want to dispel some myths and educate our community about this illness. So now, if you ever see someone pricking their finger or giving themselves an injection of insulin in public, you will understand. This might be Type 1. You will know, it was not caused by eating too much sugar or sitting on the couch all day. That insulin is keeping that person alive. Maybe you will visit the JDRF and make a donation to help support those searching for a cure. Maybe you will wear blue, light a blue candle or put some blue lights in your window in honor of this day. Maybe, when you hear someone talking about diabetes you will ask “Do you mean type 1 or 2?”. And just maybe, you too will help dispel the myths about Type 1 . We are looking to you, our Victrola Community, to help us educate others, dispel the myths and support finding a cure. No matter how “normal” a life Addison may lead, it will never really, truly be “normal” as long as he needs insulin to keep him alive. And, the more people who understand the illness, the easier it will be for him to be in the world and the less explaining he (and his parents!) will need to do.

You can follow us and find more information about Type 1 here.

Sincere Thanks,
Jen & Chris & Addison (now 2.5)
Founders, Victrola Coffee

With a Grin: It’s the best Kenya…

This morning at a public cupping I pressed our roaster Perry to tell me something exciting about the Kenya debuting this Friday in our cafes. His reply, with a slight grin and a twinkle in his eye, “Well, It is the best Kenya I have tried all year”.

The other Kenyas, he explained, had lopsided profiles. They either lacked body and were highly acidic, bright, crisp and clean or they were uninteresting, straddling the middle range, with only subtle hints of dried fruit. The remarkable thing about the Kenya Muthigini, Meru District Peaberry is that it has the best qualities of both categories: it has a grapefruit like acidity rounded out in the cup with fresh raspberries, a subtle spice and a hint of dried apricot. It is has substantial body for a Kenya and is smooth, clean, and well rounded.

Kenya Muthigini, Meru District Peaberry: $16/lb

Availability: Retail, French Press, Pour Over, and maybe, if we keep our fingers crossed Single Origin Espresso

Ok – Some pictures

Kelleen’s bounty

If you didn’t make the Smackdown last week – or if you managed to attend but in the midst of all of the chaos- people, food, and cheer, managed to miss some of the action- here are some highlights:

Hip kids in matching shirts

Great loud music

A “Second Stage” for an impromptu latte art pour off

I cannot overstate: It was so great to see the Seattle and National coffee community come together, volunteer, participate and hang out.

Thanks to Reg Barber for providing the pictures.

Smacked down

Top Seattle Pour

If, when you ask about Saturday’s Smackdown, your friendly barista only mentions the cozy feelings of camaraderie they felt with the baristas from all over the city, or the great turn out, or the flowing beer, or even the tasty food, but fails to mention the competition, don’t be too surprised. While we had our share of great pours (and our share of chokes) our laid back LA friends went home with the trophy.

Top LA Pour

We do extend a heart felt (honest!) congratulations to the winner, Phil Kim, from Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, and to the crew from LA for representing and besting Seattle as the top city. For his efforts, Phil Kim walked away with the grand prize- two days & two nights, hotel & flight sponsored by Victrola Coffee & Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea to Seattle, WA.

Laila Ghambardi, from Urban Coffee Lounge, took the top prize for Seattle. With only 2.5 point difference between her and her LA opponent, Phil, it was definitely a close call. Laila won a Chemex Brewer, grinder, scale, and engraved tamper from Visions Espresso Service. The next morning, while the rest of us were recovering, she woke up early and competed in the NW Regional Barista Competition Finals.

Our very own sassy Kelleen Blanchard took second place for Seattle. She won a Chemex Brewer, engraved tamper & other goodies from Visions Espresso Service (all of which, I have heard, are prominently displayed in her kitchen).

Check out photos of the pours and a video recording of the event.

A tiger riding a shark?

What does a tiger riding a shark have to do with coffee? Nothing really. It is awesome though, fierce and intimidating- just like our Seattle latte art finalists. This weekend during Coffee Fest, ten of Seattle’s top baristas, all donning tiger-shark shirts, will gather with a hundred or screaming fans at Victrola’s Pike Street location and battle it out against some of LA’s finest.

Don’t worry. If you miss it, we will surely have a blog post with plenty of photos and stories from the event next week.

Mild and Perfectly Balanced

Our new EL Salvador, Finca El Carmen, Ataco- Red Bourbon, is mild and perfectly balanced. Nearly everyone will find this medium body, medium acidity, chocolaty, sugary, slightly fruity coffee delightful. While this coffee may not be the most exotic offering on the menu, it is a crowd pleaser- the perfect everyday coffee.

We had our first opportunity to show off our new El Salvador last Thursday, at a fancy local wine and food event sponsored by Futurwise. Late in the evening after a number of glasses of wine and plates of locally produced sausage and sauteed greens, people came in droves to our little coffee station, some eager to talk and others wanting to sober up. We placed three single origins on the table and discussed their distinctive qualities. When it came time to discuss the El Salvador, here is a little synopsis of what we said:

1. The Finca El Carmen has been in the same family since the early 19th Century and the coffee comes from an heirloom Red Bourbon varietal.

2. The coffee trees are grown under 60% shade cover that both helps migratory birds and helps insure even ripening of the coffee cherries. (We love it when we can choose coffee that is both exceptional and environmentally sound!)

3. At harvest, only the ripe cherries are picked. They are pulped on the same day, washed in natural mountain spring water and sun dried on clay patios.

My prediction: A lot of you will buy this coffee and make it at home or come back for a number of french press refills at one of our cafes. Who among you does not like a coffee that tastes the way a warm, soft blanket on a crisp fall day feels?

In the cafes and online: $14/ lb

Finally, A Harrar to get excited about

We have learned not to underestimate the popularity of coffees from the Harrar region in Ethiopia. Earlier this summer across the board shipping delays out of Ethiopia left us without a fresh crop. When we ran out of Harrar we had many a sad coffee drinker. Luckily all of our patience has paid off. We finally have the Ethiopia Harrar “Makeda” Longberry to get excited about.

This coffee has all of the characteristics we love in natural processed (a waterless process where the coffee cherry dries in the sun) coffee: sweet and fruity, mildly acidic, and earthy. The Makeda also has a nice heavy body, a milk-chocolate sweetness and a hint of berry.

If you like a snappy, crisp cup of coffee, you are sure to like the Ethiopia Harrar “Makeda” Longberry.

Available in French Press and retail ($16/ lb).

And the winner is…

Chuck Lambert from Victrola!

Here is how the night went: A full slate of competitors (32 in all) came together to fight it out for a pot of $320 and for the chance to be one of the ten finalists to compete in our live online Seattle v. LA latte art Smackdown in September. Dozens more came to cheer them on.

The contestants were judged on a number of criteria, from definition and symmetry to beauty, on a scale of 1-90. the judging was blind, with 3 judges- one each from Victrola, Fonte and Zoka, and only a number sign to identify each drink.

1. Winner Chuck Lambert not only won the tournament but also got the highest score of anyone with 84.25
2. Nick Harberg, Zoka Coffee & Tea, 82.5
3. Michael Lewis, Victrola, 82
4.. Laila Ghambari, VCL, 78.25
5. Alex Negranza, Why Not Coffee, 78
6. Tom Pikaart, Tougo, 78
7. Stephen Robinson, Victrola, 76
8. Jeremy McDermott, Victrola, 76
9. Kelleen Blanchard, Victrola, 75
10. Amanda Whitt, Victrola, 74

Click here to see more Photos or here for some video clips of the event.

Special thanks to Visions Espresso, Zoka, Fonte and everyone who helped make it happen. This event wouldn’t have been possible without baristas from different companies in Seattle coming together and making it happen.

Coming Soon: Hope

Tanzania Mbeya Hope, Mbozi District – Peaberry

Why we love this coffee (and why you should too!): Well, first of all, it is a great coffee (it has fruit flavors, golden raisins and dried pear, a gentle wine-like acidity, a nice medium body and a clean finish- a sort of love at first sight (or taste) combination, for Perry and the rest of the roasting room). Aside from the romance, we love this coffee because it comes with a really compelling story that hits at some of Victrola’s core, down in the heart, values: our belief that by building fairer payment systems and supportive infrastructure for coffee farmers, everyone can win, from the producer to the consumer.

It all started in 2003 when the Lima company founded the Hope Project. They built 23 pulping stations across the districts of Mbozi and Makambako to process the coffee of the 90,000 farmers the project buys cherry from. These pulping stations are distributed around the project area and ensure that the coffee is processed immediately after picking, a necessary step to producing quality coffee in a country where water resources are scarce. Farmers are also paid higher than market prices through a system that evens out price fluctuations for cherry during the harvest season. These fluctuations in cherry price throughout the harvest used to motivate farmers to pick their coffee when prices were high, not when the cherry was ripest. After harvest a second payment is made to the farmers to balance the market influence, giving farmers the incentive to pick only ripe coffee.

Great farming practices and great coffee – A hope we can all believe in.

Availability: Retail, French Press, Iced Toddy, Pour-Over (V2 only)
Price: $15/lb

Pour Over

About a month or so ago, a group of us were sitting around, talking about ways for us to really showcase our new coffee release. We were just about ready to place the $30/lb Ethiopia Beloya on the shelf and we wanted the average interested customer who walked through the door to be able to sit and savor this great coffee, with as much clarity and purity of flavor as possible.

Here’s what we came up with: An Epiphany! (Note: At least from my own experience: Epiphanies most often occur, when the scales come off, our eyes are opened, and we see what now seems like the most obvious thing in the world). What we needed, was not some fancy, complicated machine, but something so simple and so basic that for some reason we had previously over-looked it. The brew method, alternately known as a Melitta or a Pour-Over, consists of a simple stand, a filter and a cup. Step one: wet filter. Step two: put in the coffee. Step three: pour water over the coffee and Voila! great, pure, amazing coffee (well, of course you have to have your proportions right, and your temperature on, and then there is your grind…).

Already, as I write you can have one of these excellent cups of coffee at the Roastery on Pike ($2.75 for a twelve-ouncer), soon up at 15th too.