Xpression Coffeehouse - jazz and java

The other day, I went searching for a different café in Southwest Portland. I had a couple hours to kill before I picked my daughter up at preschool, and although there are a couple cafés fairly close to the school, I have not been overly excited by either of them. I knew there was another coffee shop in the area I wanted to try out, so I went looking for it. It wasn’t easy to find, though, and I was about to give up when I glanced over and saw the sign for Xpression Coffeehouse to my right.  It turned out to be a nice discovery.

As I entered the café, the first thing I noticed was that it felt very welcoming. Soft jazz music was playing and a strong scent of coffee filled the air. The barista greeted me as I came up to the counter. She was working on a drink for the person in front of me and said she would be right with me. I waited, listening to the music that was playing, reading the information screen located behind the register. I was surprised to read that the music was original and composed specifically for the café.

“That’s one way to get around the music-industrial complex,” I thought, recalling an article I had recently read discussing coffee shops and music copyright issues.

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A sweet deal

I hope you were able to take advantage of Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day today, but if you weren’t, I have another deal to let you know about. It’s not an offer from me—I’m just passing along the information.

I have mentioned before that world coffee prices are going up—way up. As of today, green coffee prices are up over 100% from a year ago. In other words, prices have more than doubled in that time. The big coffee companies, like Starbucks and Folgers, have raised their prices several times in the last year. Many of the local roasters have raised their roasted bean prices too. Some have shifted from selling 16oz bags to selling 12oz bags for the same price, instantly raising the price per pound by 33% (some are even selling half-pound bags for nearly the same price!).

Therefore, I was surprised today when I stopped in at the Spunky Monkey café (that’s right, the super funky Spunky Monkey) and found that they were selling organic and fair trade coffees (which generally cost more to begin with) for $11 per pound. I haven’t seen full 1-lb bags of coffee in other local shops for a couple months, certainly not for $11.

There were three coffees available, all roasted yesterday: a fair trade/organic coffee from Peru, a fair trade/organic from Ethiopia (Sidama) and an organic coffee from Brazil. At this price, the coffees are as good a deal as you will find from a local roaster.

When I asked the owner how he could offer such a deal, he admitted he was probably going to have to raise prices soon. So if you are looking for a great deal on some local fresh-roasted coffee, you should stop in at the Spunky Monkey to get some before he does. 

Not sure how long this will last

Espresso quality control

Here’s a demonstration of the variation in quality between cafés. Compare the two pictures below. In both cases, I ordered a double espresso.

Small and flavorful Too big for an espresso

As you can see, there is a significant difference in the size of the drink (the quarter in the picture gives you a sense of the how big each one was). The difference in quality was even greater.

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Poetry, a picture and some links

It’s April 1st, but where’s the rain?
Does this mean spring has come again?
You see the sun, but dare not blink
It might be gone before you think

 

Today on this, the day of fools
Hopefully you broke some rules
Now set aside your long-week blues
Sit back and read some coffee news

 

The sun is fighting valiantly against the clouds

Good news for coffee drinkers in the Windy City! Stumptown is planning to open another roastery this year, in Chicago. It will be the company’s fourth city with a roastery, after Portland, Seattle and New York. Will Intelligentsia reciprocate in Portland? We'll see. link

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Extracto Il Secondo

After spending time with the supermodel at Jim and Patty’s, I headed westward down Fremont Street, en route to the Albina branch of the Multnomah County Library. As I was walking, a  whiff of freshly-brewed coffee tickled my nose. It smelled wonderful, so I followed my nose toward the scent and stumbled upon another quality Portland café, Extracto 2*.

The sign is easy to find

[*Confession: That’s not exactly how things happened. What really happened was that I was kind of lost, so I checked my location on my phone, realizing that I was close to Prescott Street. Prescott Street stuck out in my mind as the location of the café (these days I tend to remember Portland streets by the cafés that are on them). I was only a few blocks away, so instead of going to the library, I headed for the café.]

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