San Francisco Coffee Tour

The Coffee Tour:

            I love coffee.  Any one who knows me knows that I enjoy a good cup of coffee.  I’m quite serious about it and anytime that I can enjoy a smooth cup I jump at the opportunity.  As part of my vacation to the San Francisco Bay area, I set up a coffee tour stopping at the best places in the Mission District, world renowned for their joe. 

During this tour, I rated each local on a 1 to 5 cup scale in 5 different categories. Atmosphere, Cost, Menu, Coffee, and Technique.  Atomosphere rates the decor, music, patrons and general vibe of the space.  Cost would look as the price of standard cup of Joe, but would also take into consideration the cost of other items on the menu.  Menu evaluated the types of coffee served, variety of specials as wells as other items served.  To rate the Coffee I considered the flavor, warmth, richness, strength and aroma of each cup.  Technique looked at how each coffee house made, kept, heated, and served their brews.

I started my adventure by filling my stomach with a crepe at the Crepe House, downing almost a gallon of water to combat the diaretic effects of caffeine and then strolled down Valencia Ave to my first stop, Ritual Coffee Roasters

Atmosphere – Ritual offers up a clean simple modern look.  No art on the walls or unique character defining elements.  The space is open with plenty of tables and seating for Conversations and Studying.  The first occupied a majority of the patrons, and their conversations were load enough to cover the Indie World Music.  At least I think that’s what it was, I admittedly couldn’t hear it.  3.5 cups

Cost – They were celebrating Brazil week serving up a variety of Brazilian Beans for Drip Brew.  I ordered a Serato for $2.25, a good value for the quality of this coffee. The other options were starkly higher, but on par with most coffee shops today.  5 cups

Menu – The focus here is on Coffee and the Menu proves it.  The non Coffee options where pretty standard with the typical array of pastries, deli style cookies and sweet breads.  The coffee Varieties were extensive.  Beside the 6 different weekly special Brazilian drips, they served a vast of array of mochas, lattes, and espressos though they failed to post those for easy ordering.  3 cups

Coffee – Simply put amazing.  The Serato offered a strong aroma, delicate flavors of roasted nuts, citrus, and a smooth note that extended to the caramel finish. A great cup of coffee made very well.  The flavor lasted from the first sip to the much cooler last drops.  I enjoyed every one of them.  5 cups

Technique – These people are coffee snobs.  They breathe beans.  From the way they freshly steam milk for each drink, meaure the temp of the water used for brewing, they revere the bean.  It is their master and they serve him well.  Unfortunately, the customer doesn’t get even half the same attention.  I hardly received a smile from the 3 different people it took to order, make and pay for my coffee.  Would I change it? No.  Serve thy master and let me sip on the sweet aromatics of thy ritual blend.  4 cups 

         A short walk down the street and a couple of visits to the used books stores along the way and I found myself at the next stop.  Four Barrel Coffee Company

Atmosphere - This is the way a coffee house should feel. Dark warn wood counter tops, Bare industrial floors, and an industrial size and functioning coffee roaster in the back.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t here on a production day, but the aroma of freshly roasted coffee settled on everything like a fine layer of magic pixy dust.  Even though the place is large, boasting 3 separate coffee bars and one dedicated to just specialty Pour Over Drip Brew Coffee, it has limited seating. This doesn’t take away from the warm and welcoming feeling here.  The fact that the employees are smiling and jamming to the classic rock played via LP doesn’t hurt the vibe either. 5 cups

Cost – For just 2 bucks you can enjoy their in house roasted coffee. I chose to indulge and get a specialty Pour Over Brew.  The Ethiopian Tekka Wato was $3.50.  4.5 cups.

Menu – As is expected in a Coffee House that puts their roasting facility on display for all to see, the Menu focuses on the Joe.  A few pastries behind the counter, pale in comparison to their drink selection as well as fresh roasted bean selection.  With 15 varietys of Beans roasted in house, you can sniff and smell to your hearts content and either have them make you a cup on the spot or take it home to share. 4.5 cups

Coffee – This cup was a very rich and strong brew.  Dark color with earthy tones and flavors, it finished with what I’ll try to describe as the smoke of a burning oak wine barrel.  None of the unpleasant choaking or tear jerking responses, just the sweet smoky flavors of grape and oak blended perfectly together.  The flavors float through you mouth like wisps of smoke and settle on your tongue.  5 cups.

Technique – It’s evident that Four Barrels views Coffee as an Experience. They set up everything to allow their customers to enjoy the moment of relaxation and calm that good cup of coffee offers. From the moment they ground the beans for my cup, allowed me to smell the fresh grounds before brewing, the 8 minutes it took to slowly pour the water over my the delicate grounds, to the friendly conversations I had during that time, Four Barrels gave me an experience I will not soon forget.  I left here relaxed and warmed to my heart.  5 cups.

After walking past what I had intended to by my 3^rd stop, I moved onto the quirky, fun and vibrant Philz Coffee.

Atmosphere – This is a hip hangout for the contientiously eclectic crowd that populate the streets of the Mission District. The overall vibe created by the murals, random postings, and abstract art of the Proprietor, Phil, was the same feeling you get after having one too many cups of strong coffee, slightly over caffeinated.  This is a place on the go.  Grab your coffee and head out or take a seat on one of the couches, which look like they were found on Craigslist, and get some work done.  The people behind the counter move about with a smile on their face, jumping from task to task like an oversized flee circus.  The Simon and Garfunkel playing overhead adds to the hippie vibe, but not the mellow stoner hippies.  These hippies, now fueled with Philz best, are headed out to protest.  3 cups

Cost – I grabbed a large PHILTERED SOUL for $3.75.  The average cost for one of the 19 different variety of single cup Pour Over Brews.   A little pricy considering the cramped space and quality of the coffee.  3.5 cups

Menu – Phil offers his guests 19 different blends of beans, “one cup at a time.” He and his son have hand crafted each blend. One blend took 7 years to get just right.  Along with the standard pastry display, Burritos, Sandwiches, and Bagels are available, but they aren’t made on the premises and simply thrown into a wicker basket for the guest.  I passed on this game of culinary rullete, but I did get a cheese Danish to take the edge off my hunger.  Is “’Blah’zaise faire” a term.  3.5 cups

Coffee – Not the best cup I had today, by far.  It was a medium roast and according to the definition has a sweet hazel finish.  I missed both due to an overpoweringly strong bitterness, which came across as a burnt flavor.  Admittedly, this could have been the intended flavor, but it left me with anything but a Philtered Soul as the title suggests.  Instead I had a bitter acidic after taste left in my mouth.  The aroma did help this cup.  It gave me a sense of the sweetness that the definition promised and failed to deliver.  2.5 cups

Technique – In one word, Rushed.  There is no way to make a good cup of coffee quickly, but as they try to speed things along that rushed attitude steeps into the drinks.  To their credit, they do make each cup one at a time and even aerated my drink before handing it to me.  The temperature was hot enough to make my hand start to sweat through the cardboard sleeve, and I can only imagine that the violent temperature didn’t help the coffee any.  The baristas or servers were very friendly and seemed like they really enjoyed being their.  They add to the funky, fun, if a little frantic environment of this Mission District institution.  4 cups

What If ...

            I found myself walking through the snow one evening, the gentle flakes falling slowly and dancing in the street lights.  The city sounds were dampened by the snow and even my footsteps seemed distant.  My friend and I had just left the movie theatre and had the pleasant sensation of seeing the world entirely changed.  The street we had seen only a few hours ago had been covered by this ethereal white blanket.

Still warm from the theatre and the joy of our winter surprise, my friend turned to me and said, “You know, if the zombie apocalypse came in winter we’d all be screwed.”

We spent the next hour planning our Winter Zombie Survival Strategy, which for your information involves a snowplow, TJ Max, and Wal-Mart.  I know it seems ridiculous.  Well actually it is.  This wasn’t the first time that I’ve debated with my friend about zombie survival strategy and I would be surprised if it was the last.

Whether the undead are going to come and eat my brains tomorrow doesn’t really change much about my life today.  I still have work to do, friends to meet and blogs to write.  Trying to plan for the theoretical attack of a mythical creature is…well…absurd.

But the same logic applies to other areas.  I like to plan.  That’s a nice way to say that I worry and obsess.  If I do or don't do this how will they re-act?  What did she mean when she said that?  If I change this to that what will be the effect? What should I say?  Why did this happen?  What will happen tomorrow if they do?  How am I going to make this happen?  What if?  How? Why?

At the beginning of every summer camp session, they give a short talk about emergency procedures.  In the event that this building is on fire meet here.  If a tornado comes don’t go outside.  If someone is bleeding get help.  It’s all common sense really, but then they always ask, “Are there any questions?”  Without fail someone asks something along these lines, “If the building we are in is on fire and we go to the safety spot and then a tornado comes and makes us go to the secondary safety building and then a purple dragon comes and sets that building on fire and then that dragon starts wrestling with the lake monster and destroys the third safety spot where do we go?” 

Most of the time, the questions I obsessively try to answer aren’t answerable.  Not only are the questions impossible to answer, if I did have the answers they would have very little affect.  I can’t predict the future and trying to answer what will happen tomorrow or interpret the motives of others and their consequences is …well...

…like planning for the Zombie Apocalypse…in winter.

Hi I'm...

     I've been thinking about “questions”, which is entirely different that answering questions. I answer a million questions everyday but how often do we stop and actually think about the question? To use a metaphor, questions are food. I can either wolf it down and binge on the banquet in front of me or I can enjoy it, cutting small pieces savoring it's subtle flavors and the delicate textures as my tongue moves it over every taste bud in my mouth, letting the sensations become vision as they dance light across the back of my closed eyes.

    Ooh, writing this on an empty stomach was not a good idea.

    One of the questions I've been dining on has been feeding man for centuries. You can't count the tomes that have been written in an attempt to answer it. I keep coming across this query with many of my friends, but I've met older people as well who struggle to come up with a reasonable answer.

    Who am I?

    Philosophy has tried to answer. Most popularly known is Descartes who reasoned, “I think therefore I am.” I don't dismiss the power of the mind, but in this answer I sense a short coming.

    The psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, added, “You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.” My grandparents generation, called the Greatest Generation, believed this. A man worked his land, his job, and was thankful for the toil. And when the sun sets? Who am I when I cease to labor?

     Heritage used to play a major role in identity. An introduction was a name followed by a long list of 'son of's. But what do we do with the broken families of today? The Fatherless? The abandoned and the lost?

     Marketing is more than willing to supply you with an answer, a stylized, modernized, and capitalized answer. You are what you wear. You need this to be. Show who you are with this App.

     All of this adds up to little more than questions. I walk away from each answer feeling hungry, sensing some truth, but the aftertastes of the question lingers on un-matched and un-satisfied.

     I agree with Deitrich Bonhoeffer when he tasted this same question.

Blogging: File 13

       I've never Blogged.  I've never read blogs.  The whole genre, or fad as some say, was thoughtlessly tossed in to File 13.
       My high school French teacher, Mr. Johnson, used File 13.  He was old school.  Firm discipline and high expectations.  He never settled for less than a student could give and always encouraged them to push beyond what they saw as their limits.  Think Mr. Feeney from Boy Meets World.  Whenever an office Memo about dress-code or a new policy that had nothing to do with education would arrive, Mr. Johnson would hold them up and praise their historical import, their lasting impact on his life, how they would change our lives forever.  There was only one place to preserve such important documentation, File 13.  With great ceremony, he would take the hallowed document tear it into tiny pieces and violently throw it into File 13, the garbage can.
        Blogs belong in File 13.  They're just a waste of other peoples time.  No added value to life.  Most of the ones I've seen are emotional vomit, a fit of ranting in which the author heaves up the thoughts of their mind, like so much bile.
        Or so I thought.  I was recently challenged to start blogging as a means of sharing my discoveries with others, a chance to steer them to content that could affect them for the better.  First I apologize to all of those blogs and bloggers that I carelessly tossed into File 13.  Secondly, I seek to make a amends by creating this blog as a means of pointing people to content such as yours.  So if anyone comes across content that they feel is worthwhile leave a comment and I'll do what I can to connect others to you.

        This blog will exist for 3 purposes:
        #1 - To ask difficult questions and anecdotally share attempts at answering them.
        #2 - To share discoveries related to the technical arts and their impact on individuals.
        #3 - To encourage others to thoughtfully engage media in this new era.

       Hopefully if I am able to stick to these three criteria, it will give you a good reason to read me and save me the fate of File 13.