patricklang Senior Member Joined: 29 Dec 2005 Posts: 27 Location: Seattle Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Gaggia Classic Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso, KitchenAid... Vac Pot: need one Roaster: Hearthware iRoast 2, various...
Posted Mon May 5, 2008, 5:30pm Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
I visited Blue Bottle three times in two days at the end of a trip to SF. Excellent coffee and espresso.
When they're well-staffed on the weekends, they also serve excellent breakfasts. I had a wonderful, but simple, waffle with a siphon pot of coffee. Maybe I'll add a vac pot to my collection at some point - I liked the cup.
Posted Fri May 9, 2008, 9:58am Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
First time I had the new Ritual Sweet Tooth espresso. Very nice sweet and fruity. Tastes more like an SO than a blend to me. I still prefer the Red Flag espresso.
Posted Fri May 9, 2008, 10:00am Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
I had this nice COE #3 made on the Clover. Recently I've been playing with the BB Yemen which has wild flavor, so to have this very clean tasting coffee was quite a contrast. Cute plant, or is that a cactus?
Posted Tue May 13, 2008, 4:14pm Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
So Liz was disappointed with the Blue Bottle siphon Ethiopian coffee. I've also been to Blue Bottle Cafe but haven't tried their siphon coffee yet. Coffeegeek cpl593h was also disappointed with the Ethiopian siphon coffee. "Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco"?Page=3
There is a nice article about San Francisco coffee houses which also mentions Bottle Coffee Cafe. http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/new-buzz#story_top. In the article is a very interesting quote, "The siphon produces clean, lean coffee, bordering on thin for palates accustomed to the dark roasts that still dominate the Bay Area coffee scene. Drink slowly and concentrate, though, and you’ll sense the complexities emerge: blueberry, honey, grapefruit, clove. Sometimes you taste them; sometimes they’re just descriptions on the menu. The power of suggestion is prevalent in coffee. But as with wine, once you feel you know the good stuff, you can’t turn back". The power of suggestion statement is interesting but IMO it might only be true for people who are just not used to tasting fine coffee. Anyway, currently I now know from 4+ different sources that the siphon bar coffee is a bit disappointing.
I've been going to Flying Goat for years. I was at the Healsburg location last Sunday and had this nice Ticino espresso with chocolate and complex flavors. Flying Goat uses a Robur to grind for straight shots.
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 1:38am Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
Just 50 yards from Flying Goat in Healdsburg is a frozen yogurt shop that also makes espresso drinks. They use beans from Flying Goat to pull shots. Large sign in store says that shots are pulled as ristretto. Nice looking espresso equipment. Ordered a ristretto. Was grind to order. Result; a 2oz espresso that was a sink shot. That happens sometimes.
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 1:45am Subject: Re: San Francisco Cafe Crawl: Spring 2008, Road Reports
Last Sunday May 11 I also made it to the Santa Rosa Flying Goat coffee house. I had this double espresso made with the Ticino blend. Some complexity but not too interesting. Flying Goat is not very consistent in pulling good shots.
On monday May 12 I had this ristretto at Centro coffee kiosk at Sawyers News in Santa Rosa. Shot was pulled with Ecco Northern Italian Roast beans. Nice shot with nutty and complex flavors.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
![GaryH: Ritual_May08_1a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38816/Ritual_May08_1a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Ritual_May08_1a.jpg");)
![GaryH: Ritual_May08_2a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38817/Ritual_May08_2a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Ritual_May08_2a.jpg");)
![GaryH: Ritual_May08_3a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38818/Ritual_May08_3a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Ritual_May08_3a.jpg");)
![GaryH: Ritual_Oxbow_Market1.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38930/Ritual_Oxbow_Market1.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Ritual_Oxbow_Market1.jpg");)
![GaryH: Flying_Goat_Healdsburg1.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38931/Flying_Goat_Healdsburg1.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Flying_Goat_Healdsburg1.jpg");)
![GaryH: SnowBunny_FlyingGoat1.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38932/SnowBunny_FlyingGoat1.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: SnowBunny_FlyingGoat1.jpg");)
![GaryH: Flying_Goat_May08a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38933/Flying_Goat_May08a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Flying_Goat_May08a.jpg");)
![GaryH: Centro_May08_1a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38934/Centro_May08_1a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Centro_May08_1a.jpg");)
= No New Posts since last visit 