What exactly is ‘cold brew’ and how is it different from iced coffee?
A respectable, easy way to make a refreshing cup of cold coffee is simply brewing double strength coffee over ice. The ice immediately chills the product. Because you brewed double strength, the ice melts a bit when it comes into contact with the brewed coffee and you're all set.
Cold Brew is brewed — or technically steeped — without heat. This process can reduce the acidity in the brewed coffee by almost 65%, creating a product with a smooth, naturally sweet taste. Using this method to make our Bold as Love Cold Brew creates a refreshing, lighter-bodied coffee. During the cold brew process, the coffee steeps at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 12-18 hours. And, depending on the brewing ratios and the length of time during the steeping process, you can can increase the strength and caffeine content by 25%. This is especially helpful when enjoying a nice glass of cold brew on the go. As the ice melts over time, your coffee remains deliciously strong.
As discussed in a previous blog, I prefer a coffee brewing ratio of 16:1. For Cold Brew, we use a coarse grind setting and brewing ratio of 8:1. Because of this, the end product is inherently twice as strong. Once the coffee has steeped 12-18 hours, the liquid should be filtered by pouring through a very fine strainer or cheesecloth. Cover and place brewed coffee in the refrigerator for up to five days. Whenever you need a glass, your coffee is at the ready. Pour over ice & enjoy!
Hope this helps you cool down as we head into the home stretch of the dog days of summer. If you don’t feel like going through the home-brewing process, remember that you can always find a perfectly brewed Cold Brew at Drip Café.
GV
]]>As the dynamics of the hospitality industry are continually changing, we must adapt to provide the best service, as well as safety, for our guests. The costs of products continue to rise. Everyday items like fryer oil, paper products, gloves and cleaning supplies have all seen a significant increase in cost. Some of our vendors are still experiencing supply chain disruptions, making it difficult to procure the products we need to continue uninterrupted service.
When restaurants were permitted to reopen their dining rooms in June of 2020, we made the decision to change our service style in our Hockessin cafe from table service to counter service, mirroring the service styles between our two locations. This change in service style allows our staff an opportunity to serve the guest more quickly and efficiently. With the same goal, we introduced a contactless online ordering system and rewards program through our new ordering app! You can even use this app to order food to be delivered directly to your table while dining at Drip Cafe. Our goal is that these changes improve our customer experience throughout the cafe. Same delicious brunch, in a fresh style.
Over the past 8 years, Drip Cafe has continued to evolve. I couldn’t be more proud of how our team has adapted to the ever-changing landscape of the hospitality industry and overcome the adversity that we encountered. Drip Cafe has always been a work in progress for me. I am grateful for this community & the support we have received over the years.
GV
]]>Coffee is very subjective. Light roast vs. dark roast. Cream & sugar v. straight black. Espresso vs French Press. Everyone has their own version of the “world’s best cup of coffee.”
I knew our house coffee, Bold as Love, would need to please our customers and transition from what we had been serving at Drip Cafe over the past 7 years. For an espresso blend, you need a coffee blend that has depth of flavor and low acidity to withstand the pressure of brewing.
Coffee is like wine. Every farm in every country of origin will produce coffee with its own unique flavor notes. Sometimes, farmers will even create micro lots on their farms where they know the conditions are optimal to produce exceptional coffees. These micro lot coffees tend to be submitted to international competitions, like Cup of Excellence. Coffees from Central America tend to produce notes of chocolate, nuts, brown sugar and caramel. While East African coffees will be lighter, more tea-like, with fruit forward notes of citrus and berry. Finally, coffees from Southeastern Asian countries will produce heavy, earthier coffees that hold up well to darker roast profiles. Single origin coffees will highlight the work of each farmer, and allow the individual coffee to speak on its own, while blending coffee focuses more on creating the final roast and flavor profile.
Coffee is a seasonal product. Most locations will only harvest their coffee once a year, making the coffee available every year finite. For Bold as Love, I wanted to create a comfortable coffee that could be enjoyed throughout the year. Through the Spring of 2020 I toiled with a few coffees I thought would work well together. I was set on using a Brazilian coffee as the base. Coffees from Brazil tend to have a lower acidity, with strong chocolate notes. Both of these characteristics are a great foundation for espresso drinks. Next, I wanted to fill in the high notes for the blend. I chose a Peruvian coffee that had notes of tart green apple and milk chocolate. Finally to meld these two coffees together, I chose a well rounded Colombian coffee that has notes of milk chocolate and dark fruit. Together these three coffees made up our first set of coffees for Bold as Love. Due to the seasonality of coffee, there will often be variation within the blend. While some of these coffees have come and gone over the course of the last year, I continue to find new coffees that fit the flavor profile that I want to achieve for our house blend, Bold as Love.
As I’ve gotten more confident with blending, we’ve created seasonal blends, including the newly released Running on Empty blend, which supports a local organization, the Friends of Fusion Foundation with every sip.
GV
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Just for a moment... sit. Have a cup of coffee and catch your breath. Absorb the scents and subtle sounds that exist in our everyday lives. As Spring blooms, and the gentle rain of April leads to the warmth of Summer, the simple moments of our lives need to be amplified and embraced.
Coffee should be something special. Yes, sometimes it’s the fuel to function and keep up with our routines. Other times, when we get to sit and enjoy our coffee break, coffee can be that elusive perfect cup. Learning basic techniques will help you achieve your perfect cup time and time again.
The first step to optimal flavor is grinding your coffee fresh. I recommend grinding your coffee just before brewing with a burr grinder to achieve grind particles that are even in size and coarseness. Consistent particle size will help with an even extraction of the coffee solubles as water is introduced. Do not use a blade grinder or spice grinder for grinding your coffee. You will never be able to achieve a consistent grind size.
Deciding how coarse a setting is needed to grind your coffee for your brewing method can be tricky. A rule of thumb is the coarser the grind, the longer the coffee is in contact with water. For instance, a french press steeps coarsely ground coffee and water for up to 6 minutes. The coarsest grind setting slows the extraction process for the proper brewing time, as opposed to brewing an espresso, which is a quick, thirty second process. For espresso, a very fine grind is needed to be able to extract more coffee quickly. Gravity fed brewing methods like drip coffee makers and Chemex brewers fall in the middle of these two methods.
Using a consistent brewing ratio will help you eliminate one variable in the process. Personally, I prefer to use about an 18:1 brewing ratio. This means there is 18 grams of water to every 1 gram of ground coffee. Choosing the coarseness of the grind will affect the cup of coffee greatly. If your coffee is too weak, try a finer grind setting in order to extract more coffee over a shorter period of time. Vice versa if your coffee is too strong.
Utilize these small techniques to help improve your coffee game and always find time to enjoy your coffee break.
GV
]]>After six months of sketches and scribbled out menus, in October of 2012 I got the first glimpse of where my life was headed. The idea of owning my own cafe was not just a dream, but instead a small, growing ray of light on the horizon. The conversation to purchase the used equipment in the Lantana Square cafe had begun. The unknown was staring me in the face as I pushed forward. As they say, the first step is the hardest.
As the conversation to open the cafe grew and intensified, I dove deeper into research. My childhood friend, Ben Bean, and I drove all over the Philadelphia area visiting coffee shop after coffee shop. We’d drink black coffee, espresso, and cappuccino. Then, with our hands shaking, we’d move on to the next spot. We studied menus and processes. We ate scones and fresh baked cookies as I took mental notes. I tried to learn something from every cafe we visited. Burlap & Bean, Ultimo, Bohdi Coffee, Square One, & Passenger Coffee were some of the places we sought out on our journey. When Drip Cafe finally opened in April of 2013, I could walk through the cafe and point out every little bit of inspiration that we cultivated from those trips. It’s great to see so many of these cafes have now grown into multiple locations as well.
These coffee excursions with Bean are some of my fondest memories of the early stages of Drip Cafe. It was a time of awe and inspiration; a time to believe in the impossible. As someone who I have always relied on and trusted, Ben became my first barista and supervisor at Drip Cafe. I am beyond grateful that I was able to share this experience with my lifelong friend.
GV
]]>In late 2019, I started researching the idea of roasting our own coffee for Drip Café. It’s a daunting task. Roasting coffee is not a trade that you can just teach yourself or easily learn on YouTube. This is a craft, and an artistry is needed to perfect each roast. Trial and error can be an expensive method. But I knew roasting would be the next big step to help grow Drip Café.
As I started truckin’ down this path, I reached out to a customer and friend, Micah Becker-Klein, who owns and roasts for Roasting Rabbi Coffees in Delaware. We have known each other for a few years through the café and crossed paths at Phish shows and Grateful Dead gatherings, but now I really needed to lean in and learn from his coffee roasting knowledge. We set up a time for me to visit his warehouse space where he roasts on a Mill City Roaster, so I could absorb as much information from him as possible. As a novice roaster, he offered me all that he could through those lessons in the warehouse, but I could tell that learning to roast coffee was going to be a long process.
While we tasted our freshly roasted coffee, he opened the most recent issue of the Specialty Coffee Association magazine and pointed to an ad for Bellwether Coffee Roasters. Inspiration, move me brightly. It was sleek and new. It was all electric and required very little to install the unit. The roast profiles were automated for consistency time and time again. I knew this was what I needed to help my company grow into the next year. Little did I know what was on the horizon in 2020.
Our Bellwether coffee roaster arrived on March 2, 2020 — just 14 days before it was mandated that all restaurants temporarily shutter our dining rooms. I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision to take on this new business model, but, as it turned out, this coffee roaster was my lifeline. A rope in this uncertain time. This darkness has got to give. The decision to install a coffee roaster at the Newark café helped catapult our online presence throughout the Spring of 2020. It became a major catalyst in connecting with our customers in a new way while we reorganized our restaurants during the early months of the pandemic. Drip Roasting Co. was born.
The ripple of my afternoon with Micah was felt all throughout 2020 and became a nice reminder that every once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest places if you look at it right.
GV
]]>Tastings and cuppings are a critical part of learning about brewing and expanding your coffee knowledge. By reducing variables in brewing, you can begin to compare coffees side by side to compare the aroma, flavor, body, acidity and finish of the coffee. Depending on climate and different growing conditions, coffees can vary dramatically on these spectrums. Even as we roast coffees, we need to taste the same coffee with a few different roast profiles to make sure the chosen profile is highlighting the best the coffee has to offer.
Recently, I was invited to participate in a virtual coffee tasting with six other Bellwether owners throughout the country. Through the zoom call, I was able to place faces with people I had only communicated with via email. We made connections and told stories about how we have survived and even improved our businesses over the past months during the toughest of times.
Throughout my 15 years in the coffee industry, I have participated in hundreds of coffee tastings and cuppings, but this virtual event was a first. Each participant received a package of Bellwether’s Mexico Reserva El Triunfo as well as some basic parameters for brewing. Since every location is going to have a different water source, grinder and brewing equipment, we conceded that not everyone was drinking the exact same brewed coffee, but we were still able to discuss the flavor notes and come to some consensus. For an hour, we discussed the aroma, flavor notes, body and finish of this coffee and we connected through our shared experience. Mexico Reserva El Triunfo is a great balanced cup of coffee, with notes of cocoa and tart apple - a perfect coffee for a bright breakfast. This coffee will be available for purchase at both of our cafes as well as via our website www.driproastingco.com in Spring 2021.
GV
]]>Everyone has their favorite way to enjoy coffee at home or as a special treat when they visit Drip Café. Coffee is subjective, so never let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t enjoy. Whether you use lots of cream and sugar or you drink it black, here are some basic tips to help you brew the best tasting coffee every time. The three major factors to deliciously brewed coffee are freshness, grind and water.
First, buy fresh roasted coffee from Drip Roasting Co. (or your other favorite local coffee roaster, but for obvious reasons we prefer this option). Fresh coffee is at its peak of flavor 3-10 days after roasting. We seal our coffee in stay-fresh bags with a one way valve. This valve allows carbon dioxide to escape as the beans go through the process of degassing, but does not allow oxygen to enter to harm the coffee beans. Coffee is always best within four weeks of roasting. After that, the natural flavor profile of the coffee will begin to deteriorate.
Grind your coffee fresh everyday, just before you brew. Honestly, this should be the number one action step to help improve the quality of your finished product, but I had to plug my business first. As soon as whole bean coffee is ground, it begins the oxidation process, slowly losing its natural flavor profile. It is always best to grind your coffee just before brewing.
There are lots of options if you are in need of a coffee grinder; just make sure you are using a conical burr grinder, not a blade grinder. A burr grinder will grind your coffee into consistently sized pieces for better extraction. If your ground coffee is full of different sized particles, smaller pieces will be extracted before the larger pieces, resulting in an uneven brew. You will not get the best tasting flavor from your coffee.
Cusinart makes a great Grind-and-Brew home coffee maker with a thermal carafe. The thermal carafe allows you to keep the coffee hot for hours without using a heating element. Applying heat to brewed coffee is the best way to ruin it fast by scalding the bottom. Always store brewed coffee in a thermal container or insulated mug prior to drinking.
My final coffee brewing tip is simple: water. Coffee is 98.5% water. Use purified or bottled water when brewing your coffee at home. It will make a world of difference, and you’ll notice it immediately. By following these three simple steps, you will elevate your home coffee brewing.
GV
]]>Flash forward eighteen years to 2013. I decided to step out on my own and open Drip Cafe. In the days leading to our opening, I had a crew throughout the restaurant cleaning, organizing, painting, and preparing for the unknown that laid before me.
I always obsess over the music I put on when others are with me. Whether I am showcasing a new band I found, or diving into live concert footage from the ‘70s; I have always loved sharing music with people.
Naturally, I had to put some thought into the first song that would be played at Drip Cafe. As I put together some of the original playlists for the restaurant, I carefully picked out tracks that I personally loved and represented me. Tracks that I wanted to share with my new customers.
On the morning of April 22nd, 2013, Drip Cafe was ready to open, and I landed on the title track from Jimi Hendrix’s 2nd studio album, Axis: Bold as Love. “Anger - he smiles towering in shiny metallic purple armor,” rang out into the empty dining room at 6:30 in the morning. Jimi’s guitar circles and swoons as he describes all of the colors of love. Bold as Love is all of the many impressions that humans are prone to in their minds. And the axis is the point where all things meet. At that moment that morning, I was standing at an axis point for my life.
So much has happened since that fateful morning in the Spring of 2013; a roller coaster of emotions difficult to quantify and describe. To be an entrepreneur is to be bold, and to love your passion and craft. Over the next 7 years we have won six Best of Delaware awards, catered many events, renovated our original location, built a second location, and greeted thousands of guests at our doors. As we started this past year, we were set on launching another new beginning: our own coffee roasting company, Drip Roasting Co. This allows us to serve the freshest coffee available to our customers time and time again.
Knowing the history of the cafe and the song, a life-long friend suggested the name Bold as Love for Drip Roasting Co.’s signature coffee. A blend of Central American coffees that is chocolatey, rich & bold, with a lovely, smooth finish. As we stand in this new axis point and look forward, Bold as Love is a fitting name to our first house coffee.
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