The Defiant Bean Roasters are to be found in Downtown Glenwood Springs Colorado. This superb small-batch Roaster is in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado near the ski resort Sunlight and outside of Aspen Colorado.
Well named as ‘Defiant’ the philosophy behind this underground operation bucks fast changing trends in the world of espresso roasting. I have personally sampled their espresso, prepared professionally with the Lever Rancilio at their location in Glenwood Springs, and in the realistic day to day setting of my home, and can tell you this is an excellent bean.
I sampled a single origin South American espresso as well as the ‘Blend X’ in the shop. ‘Blend X’ is a buttery-sweet espresso, thick on the tongue, smoky finish, and well suited to Americano’s and Long Pours or Milk Drinks. It is bold, yet pleasurable to drink, contrary to so many popular blends today (Intelligentsia, Ritual Roasters) that over-value making a statement with their tang or other-worldly fermentation. Blend X is smooth, it is un-assuming, and it does not leave you wondering “Do I like this? I should really try to like this- everyone loves this! I must do my best to like this- …..did i grind this right? surely i messed up- GULP- CRINGE- ”
Here’ the description from their site :
This blend is inspired by northern Italian espresso cuisine and offered as homage to the homeland of espresso. A moderately dark roast is applied to beans of mild acidity and full body to bring out hints of sweetness and the fruit notes of the highlight coffee. Adequate body will ensure a healthy cap of crema to seal in the aromas trapped in your shot of espresso. As with our original Espresso Blend, Blend X makes a great cup of coffee via your favorite brewing method.
I will say this- and this will come as a shock to true coffee and espresso lovers, Defiant does not have an iPhone app. I know. Its disgusting. What is more, Jeff- the Roaster, will actually deliver coffee to you in the Roaring Fork Valley and Aspen Valley area. That means you may actually shake hands with the one man who operates this company. Difficult to comprehend? Yes. But after that awkward meeting, you can wipe the nervous sweat off your forehead with the humble brown bag of FRESH roasted espresso beans and prepare yourself for a soothing retreat back into your world of app’s and limited local interaction.
So go their site- www.defiantbean.com -- order a blend, or better yet pick up your urPhone and call 970-930-1327 and you may be pleasantly surprised.
This is the guy- can you believe it! In the flesh!
Its a tiny picture sure, but its hard when you’re just stealing images from another site. People have become so “possessive” of their intellectual property. Strange when most people would freely give you their opinions and feelings on a matter, even if you didn’t ask. This little coffee shop is located a V shaped valley, a V-Valley, in the heart of the Rockies of Colorado. The town is Crested Butte, and the shop is a small, license-plate sided building. But their coffee is quite excellent. Depending on the Barista of course, we did have some sub-par drinks made by less-then-motivated people. But that doesn’t seem to be the norm. There is a friendly girl their with Dark Short Hair who makes an excellent shot. Their Sledgehammer Blend is the espresso offering, and it performs fantastically in our home set up as well. Order Some! Seriously! http://www.camp4coffee.com/coffee.aspx?ax=1
Red Espresso is a rooibos tea finely chopped meant to be brewed in the portafilter of an espresso machine just like espresso coffee. Stovetop espresso machines are also recommended.
Natasha at Red Espresso was kind enough to send us a few bags to try out!
First of all- cool packaging. Comes in a resealable bag with 250g of nice smelling Red Espresso which keeps for 6 months after opening and offers about 16-20 servings.
The instructions call for 12 grams of the red rooibos Red Espresso, so we came close…
Loading into the portafilter is simple, but we knew not to tamp or not, so this first video is untamped, brewed in a bottomless portafilter at about 200 degrees.
I think that video was pretty self-explanatory. HOLY COW!! Exploding red liquids! So we assume that maybe tamping is a good idea- and hey lets try a lower temperature, say around 190.
Better- but still messy.
Enter good old fashioned Non-chopped portafilter.
Yes there is a an advantage to having all that metal funneling the liquids into the cup where you want them. However this would present a challenge for cafes or people with only the crotchless portafilters, the tea does calm down the lower temp you brew. Also interesting is the puck removal. The wet tea tends to stick to the portafilter and requires extra diligence in rinsing between Red Espresso and Black Espresso (Brown Espresso? registered trademark pending).
THE IMPORTANT PART: Taste
Red Espresso tastes very nice, a subtle field of alfafa, thick (for tea) though minimal crema compared to coffee) It has a bold taste that is new to this palate, and is altogether different from green or black tea. Even steeped red rooibos teas taste less intense, and therefore less powerfull as a tea latte.
Another plus side to Red Espresso is its color! Very bright in the cup with pure white milk froth. Honey as a sweetener is excellent, and harmonizes with the delicacy of some of the more subtle flavors.
Pros:
Great tea lattes
Unusual product- more intense and bold extractions
Scott Rao’s book is stout! Literally as well as figuratively. The book is well bound with a thick “school text book” style glossy cover. However for its thick cover it is surprisingly thin, including all indexes and appendixes it comes to 99 pages of glossy wide marginalized paper. To be perfectly honest my initial feeling was a bit let down by its size and seemingly short length. Just flipping through the book one quickly passes through the different sections on Espresso, Milk Drinks, Drip Coffee and Tea- and then that’s it -it’s over. But interestingly what seemed to be a weakness has quickly become a strength in my mind, for Rao lays out his intentions from the get go to create a “serious, practical book with relevant information about making great coffee in a cafe.” Not necessarily a long book, in fact he chooses to avoid becoming an “almost-unreadable scientific book” that has been the norm for many books covering the subject.
The practicality of this book becomes evident as well when considering its intended audience. Aiming to appeal to “professionals as well as some obsessive nonprofessionals” Rao hits his target. What could be a laboriously pedantic study on coffee science becomes a concise hands on guide (with enough science sprinkled in to believe it) that even Jimmy-17-year-old-brand-new-barista could be expected to study and comprehend. A cafe owner would do him/herself a huge service to give every employee a copy because it’s easy enough, and short enough, to read and re-read, increasing the benefit that would be lost to a longer and unconquerable tome.
The book hits the main drinks served in a cafe- Espresso, Coffee (drip and French Roast) and Tea. With considerable weight on the espresso section (66 pages of the 99). Also contained is a concise discussion of water quality, water terminology definitions and (some) proposed treatments, and a nice- if somewhat short- introduction. Also short and sweet is the section on drip and french roast preparation, focusing on the morals and ethics of fresh coffee preparation then an engrossing study of methods (again don’t you want all Baristas to know how important fresh coffee is, even if they doesn’t understand perfectly the science behind it?)
The wonderful people over at PTsCoffee were kind enough to send me their espresso blend La Bella Vita, and the espresso coffee blend Gizmo. This is a review of the PTsCoffee Espresso La Bella Vita, the Gizmo will follow. PtsCoffee is an award winning roaster and equipment merchant based out of Kansas!
We brewed ours at about 16-18 grams double basket, and the temperature reading of our Eric’s Adapter (see here) was in and around 195- Somebody send us a scace and we’ll get more specific! The shot looked beautiful extracting, Great colors and striping- a very promising extraction.
The espresso is a lighter roast and is a traditional Northern Italian style espresso. It is sweet and we found the flavor quite complex and it had high tones of flowers and fruit. Its had acidity as well, but nothing that made you pucker up.
Sipping the straight espresso was marvelous, and the flavor was still discernible and not washed out as a wet cappuccino and americano. This espresso from PTsCoffee was actually one of the better espresso’s I have tasted in my home machine- maybe I got lucky or maybe this is just and easy espresso to make- but with few grind adjustments, using the Weiss Distribution Technique, this espresso was superb! I am excited about trying it at lower and higher temeratures, end give this espresso my highest rating 5 stars!
Rating:
What do you think of La Bella Vita ?
FOLLOWING IS PTSCOFFEE DESCRIPTION OF LA BELLA VITA
La Bella Vita is what we call a “northern Italian style” espresso blend -- that is to say -- slightly lighter roasted and sweeter to the taste than her darker roasted and more pungent cousins in southern Italy. Bella Vita features hints of milk chocolate and a faintly floral aroma. You will love pulling shots with La Bella Vita, and customers will love you for choosing her as your espresso of choice.
La Bella Vita Espresso has been used in the SCAA’s United States Barista Championships -- Midwest Regional Barista Competition and many other competitions. In the Midwest Regional, PTs Coffee Roasting Co. barista, Pete Licata, won first place with this blend in 2005 and 2008, second in 2006 and finished second in the United States Barista Competition each of the last two year in 2007 and 2008. Of course this blend has changed over the years, but she has never stayed far from her roots as an amazingly sweet and lush espresso.
Guide to Ideal Extraction:
Dose Weight: 21 grams (on Astoria or similar machines you should use triple baskets) Extraction Time: 26-28 seconds (for a double shot) Volume: Two 1oz shots
Order a pound today. Enjoy it at home or see what great coffee can do to help retain customers for your cafe. We’ve been serving it for 13 years in our stores. Compare to other well known blends and you won’t be dissapointed.
Coffee Review Rating
OVERALL RATING: 92
Notes:Assessed on a La Marzocco professional machine with brewing temperature set at 200F. One-ounce shot achieved approximately 25 seconds after the first drop. Tested in milk by combining a one-ounce shot with two parts and then four parts 2% milk. PT’s is a quality-oriented wholesale/retail specialty roaster with a wide and refined selection of coffee blends and origins. The PT’s motto is “without the love, it’s just coffee.†Visit www.ptscoffee.com or call 888-678-JAVA for more information.
Blind assessment:Intense, sweetly pungent small cup with dark chocolate, cedar, banana-toned fruit and a hint of ferment that contributes a slight brandyish nuance. Syrupy body, mildly astringent though very sweet finish. Heavily dominates short milk but blooms and balances beautifully at four parts milk to one part coffee, rounding toward a rich, minty dark chocolate.
Who should drink it:A complex, powerful straight shot and a superb contributor to long milk drinks.
The long awaited, game-changing, trivial and meaningless espresso machine ECM Giotto plumb-in direct connect heat exchangerE-61 OVERFLOW PROTECTION!!!
This mod may leave you wondering “why”? And I have found that the answers to questions like that are not always very satisfying. Whatever the reasons for doing it- its done now. Would I do it again? No. It wasn’t easy. But I think some of the most difficult parts about adding this drain to my ECM Giotto would be easier next time around. I wish… that.. I knew what I know now….
It all started when someone compared my auto-fill float valve to a toilets. Hurtful, yes. Accurate? No. Toilets are far more reliable than what I had setup. Mostly because they have a fail-safe= the overflow drain. Without it the mildly irritating “toilet that keeps running” would become the disastrous “toilet that flooded my house when I was on vacation, ruined my snowglobe collection and led to my deep depression and homelessness”. So I thought ‘lets make my espresso machine more like a trusty crapper!’
The idea really gelled while browsing my hardware store I saw this:
The part basically provide a gateway through the side or bottom of something, and is usually used in a swamp cooler…..hmm….sounds familiar. Anyways my mind now on full tilt (not as impressive as it sounds) I quickly located this: Continue reading Water Filter/Direct Plumb Saga Part Three- DRAIN!
This is my second post now on plumbing direct connect for my ECM Giotto Heat Exchanger machine. (first here) I would think this would work with plumbing in any HX machine. In plumbing in my ECM Giotto HX espresso machine I chose to use a float valve in lieu of a direct connect plumbing kit. It seems eassier and more versatile. However I must admit it is a little more risky than a direct connect plumb in option with a solenoid valve, pressure regulator plumbed in to the pump. Risky in the sense that if the float valve fails than it would overfill the reservoir and flood out. I am in R&D now to mitigate this risk with some kind of overflow drain as in a toilet. But for now I am trusting the little bugger to hold up its end of the bargain. After all I saved it from an eternity on the shelf at the hardware store, with the meager hope of being used in a swamp cooler some day, and placed it in a truly lofty position inside my ECM Giotto. It owes me loyalty and reliability.
Jacob: Sweet! Is it new? PID? I think you be happy
Team Nishimoto: I just ordered the Rancilio Silvia machine & Rancilio Rocky grinder for the office! I hope this does a good job... I'm nervous about such a little machine.
Team Nishimoto: Do you have a place to add readers set-ups? I would love to gain some notoriety out in Vista, CA with our La Pavoni Pub & Nouva Simonelli MDX.
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