Paper Tiger Coffee is now available at
Neighbors Market on Main Street. The locally owned grocery features products from dozens of local producers.
Support a local business and stop by! 1707 Main Street in Vancouver.
Paper Tiger Coffee at Neighbors Market
Caffeinated PDX
Eagle-eye Anthony spotted Will from CaffeinatedPDX at Paper Tiger last week, and we struck up a conversation. A snippet from the generous blog post published last week follows. Enjoy!
“…the café had a very welcoming interior that looked as hip as any PDX café, and the air was charged with a powerful smell of fresh-roasted coffee. It gave me the impression that the owners knew what they were doing…”
Full article here.
NW Regional Barista Competition
Paper Tiger coffeehouse will be closed this Saturday and Sunday, January 29th and 30th, as Alex, Allen, Anthony, and I head up to Tacoma for this year’s NW Regionals. We’ll be there to support our good friends from the Portland scene, including Ashley and Adam from Sterling and Tyler and Marty from Barista.
Barista competitions are about much more than bringing home the trophies; they are a great opportunity for industry professionals to gather and explore new frontiers in presenting specialty coffee. Each competitor has 15 minutes to present for technical and sensory judges in front of a live audience. Each barista chooses his or her coffee and other ingredients, and crafts four servings of each of three beverages: cappuccino, espresso, and a signature drink highlighting the barista’s individual tastes.
It was my privilege to be present while Ashley and Adam rehearsed their presentations last night at Coffeehouse Northwest. The creative process and preparation required for competitors is a fantastic tool for professional development as well as finding new ways to share a passion for specialty coffee. I got to sample some great coffee, and I am excited to see these guys compete!
More details at the USBC website. This event is open to the public.
New Sign!
Rebecca and I got the paints out and whipped up a new creation using a little imagination and a classic circus tiger look…
Enjoy!
Coffee’s a Passion at Paper Tiger
Some more ink on Paper Tiger in the Columbian yesterday:
“…First came the necessity: Caffeine-infused cups of joe that Zachary Gray used to keep himself chugging along on freelance graphic art projects, sometimes into the night.
Then came the culture: the Portland coffeehouses where he hung out, sipping brew and working on those freelance projects…”
Coffee Tasting Tues 18 Jan – Ten Coffees on One Table!
We are excited to offer a big coffee cupping table this coming Tuesday, including 10 coffees from the list published here. We will be selecting coffees to add to our offering list from this tasting. Join us this Tuesday, two sessions at 3pm and again at 6pm.
You can view the full list with origin and processing information as a PDF here.
Costa Rica – Los Manantiales Fidel Microlot
El Salvador – Finca La Florida
Panama – Lerida Las Chichicas
Panama – Carmen Estate 1900 m
Brazil – Dry Process Bahia Chapada Diamantina
Colombia – Tres Payasos de Tolima AAA
Ethiopia – Wet Process Shakiso
Ethiopia – Wollega Leka Wato
Sulawesi – Tana Toraja WP Peaberry
Guatemala – Finca La Maravilla SWP Decaf
The Columbian, 5 Jan 2011
Java on a Grand Scale
by Howard Buck, Columbian Staff Reporter
“A paper tiger is on the prowl, perking up a Central Vancouver neighborhood and creating a scene. Make that Paper Tiger Coffee Roasters, brewing up robust java every day at 703 Grand Blvd…”
Coffee Tastings Every Tuesday
Coffee Cupping 101
Why cup coffee? Much language used to advertise mass-market coffee may be appealing to our sense of the coffee experience, but it is usually vague, generic and repetitive.
But there is a good method for discovering what makes a coffee truly exceptional. Evaluating coffees by cupping, or intensive tasting, is a proven way to develop the palate and build a vocabulary of flavors and descriptors that fill in the details, the specific qualities that make each coffee unique. We know first hand that the informed coffee drinker can enjoy so much more in the cup!
The most important element in our approach is consistency. We embrace the ritual of weekly cupping as an opportunity to stay sharp and focused on the beauty and nuance of our entire list of offerings. Every Tuesday at 3pm and 6pm, we set ‘em up and knock ‘em down, rapidly but carefully tasting, recording, and discussing what we find on the table.
Join us at 3pm and 6pm every Tuesday, and ask lots of questions. We love to share our passion for the product, and introduce people to the story of specialty coffee through the most important element: flavor.
Coffee of the week: Guatemala La Esmerelda Yellow Bourbon
This is a microlot from a farm in San Martin Jilotepeque called Finca La Esmeralda. The farm size is about 11 hectares planted in coffee, shade grown at an altitude of 1600-1650 meters. Yellow Bourbon is a variant of the usual red Bourbon type, a classic old varietal that originated on the island of Bourbon (now Reunion), and named for the royal family of France at the time.
It’s an ideal coffee for high altitude cultivation, and results in dense physical structure of the coffee seed. This allows very even heat transfer during roasting, minimizing damage to the bean structure.
Bourbon coffees tend to have a “classic” Central American cup profile. This coffee from La Esmerelda has great balance at a light roast, with both sweet and savory notes complimenting crisp acidity that fades into malty and toasty finish. A classic Guatemala acidity, like green apple, with notes of hazelnut, milk chocolate on the finish.
We are featuring this coffee all this week. It is excellent brewed in our siphon coffee maker, with fully developed sweetness and body.
Elevation: 1600-1650 meters
Processing: Wet Process
Varietal: Yellow Bourbon
Grade & Appearance: .2 d / 300 gr, 16-17 screen
