‘Shift’ Your Thinking about Coffee

My good brother Angelo Fesperman has opened a new coffee shop in Denton, Texas: Shift Coffee located at 112 E. Prairie just two blocks east of Ravelin’s Bakery. It is in a nice quiet area off the square and without all the busyness of the universities. The interior is by local artist Kelsey Ann Heimermann.

Denton has a lot of good coffee, but I think Shift is bringing something to the area that we did not have yet.

Besides the fact that Angelo is participating in the roasting process for the beans he is serving–from Avoca Roasters in Ft. Worth–he is also bringing to our little town slow coffee.

What is slow coffee?

Basically, the slow coffee movement is a trend where the barista–who is a craftsperson folks–shows you the knowledge and skill of the coffee crafts by making an individual cup just for you.

If you can spare four or five minutes of your life–I know, Scandalous!–the barista will grind enough beans for a single cup of coffee and use a Chemex brewer to make you that perfect cup.

What you will discover through this process is that a) coffee is not nearly as acidic as you think it is and b) coffee is indeed not a black liquid but more like a deep mahogany.

And it is so delicious, you rarely need to doctor it with sweeteners or creamers.

For your edification, I leave you with two items to up your coffee-informedness:

• a Youtube on the Chemex process and
• a really excellent Atlantic Monthly article on the perfect cup of coffee.

Go check out Shift Coffee… you will not be sorry you did. And tell Angelo that Keith sent you.

See you around the “Shift.” 

...if you’re like us, no one ever taught you how to make coffee properly. Or how to appreciate it. When you stop in at your local coffee shop, everything is hidden away behind the counter, too far removed for you to understand. That was us not too long ago. But through trial and error—and an absurd amount of mistakes—we’ve managed to learn. It’s a shame to waste these moments on bad coffee, and if you’re going to drink it every day, or if you’re going to serve it to other people, it may as well be good, right?

Actually, it should be better than good. It should be perfect.

via How to Make Perfect Coffee – Michael Haft and Harrison Suarez – The Atlantic.