This coffee adventure starts out with me finding out about a week or so ago that my last shop, Kozy Koffee, had just closed. Whether or not it had anything to do with me and Courtney leaving 2 months previously and the customer base falling off rapidly thereafter or just the owner giving up for financial reasons or lack of effort, both which I know are contributing factors. That makes it now the third shop I have worked at that has closed within months of me leaving them. I would hate for that to sound bad, like I was a cause of these closures, because in all the cases decisions that were not mine contributed far more to the closures than the positive things I did to keep them open. I think I may be concluding that, in Michigan at least that although I have poured my heart into three potentially great shops that once the ownership starts to make bad decisions in order to limit quality and steers away from the focus of coffee that the snow ball has started to build momentum turning itself into an avalanche ending with the closure.
Getting into Michigan just in time to say happy birthday and good night to my lovely Courtney it was around 7 on the 20th that we arrived. We woke around 11am and headed almost instantly to Ann Arbor to eat at Seva and get some coffee at Comet Coffee. We had from what I can remember now a couple shots of Epic from 49th Parallel and a pour over of the Costa they had brewing that day... all I can say is they can make some of the best pour over that I have ever had.
We continued out to Ypsilanti for some time with the Uglies before the throwdown that night. We talked tons of coffee and a lot of industry concluding with drinks and food at Sidetracks (which has awesome vegetarian food I might add for any out of towners) before heading over for a drunken good time at the Ugly Mug for the throw down versus Milwaukee.
Courtney was lucky enough to get to throw down for Ypsie since we have in the past worked for them kinda, roasting in the back and occasionally playing on bar. Unfortunately for my Michigan homies they ended up loosing to Milwaukee in a very strange way with an over all fun filled, beer saturated, time.
As a funny side story, Ramiro was supposed to throw down against Scott at Alterra for the final head to head, but before that happened we made our way over to the Corner Brewery to have some of the worlds greatest beers, which is precisely where we found out that Ramiro was supposed to throw down against Scott. I guess we will never know what could have happened. We eventually made our ways to the Elbow Room in Ypsie and had a few rounds and headed all the way back to Highland for the night. I hope Courtney liked her birthday and all the coffee time with these crazy Michigan guys!
The next morning we woke around 10 or so, ate breakfast, and headed out to Grand Rapids to meet up with the great people at MadCap Coffee. We were lucky enough upon our arrival to be greeted by the whole gang of MadCappers (if they would let me call them that) Ryan, Trevor, Laura, and Chad. We had a blast chatting it up about the upcoming throwdown at the beginning of October, as well as potentially sourcing some amazing coffees together from Costa Rica... Pumped. We even had time to do a side by side comparison of some Kenya Peaberry Ruera Estate Vs 49th Parallel's AA of the same estate, I know I am partial to the stuff roasted by us so of course I thought ours was the better in this battle, but realistically it was just fun to see the coffees up against eachother and the flavor differences of two of the same estate coffees, just different types. Very fun I must say, but we had to head out for a vegan birthday party in Lansing. Ironically though, before we left Grand Rapids, we stopped at a friends house on the way out and standing on the front porch we spotted Kurt Stauffer's roasting business 'Rowsters.' Another unfortunate thing of just stopping in town suddenly is that he wasnt there, but I was able to get a hold of him and chat it up a bit over the phone for a minute or two. Seriously an awesome guy, If anyone is ever in the area stop by, he is a great roaster.
Eventually we made it out to Lansing where I had the opportunity to hang with some of my close friends where one of them (Joe Matteson formerly of the Mug-shot in Highland, one of my old shops) just so happened to have one pound of the first batches roasted my good friend Josh Longsdorf, under his side company RootCoffee out in Napa, CA... I didnt have any means to brew the coffee at the time so I mocked up a way to cup it on the spot and was really just blown away at the amazing coffee... I feel stupid now, but I dont remember what the coffee was (thats what drinking after the fact does) but I can tell you that the guy is an amazing roaster and everyone should keep an eye out for him in the future and buy some coffee off his website if there is any left!
As for the rest of the weekend, I spent some time with friends playing baseball, eating with my family and catching up on old times. Oh, I almost forgot. My sister, Megan Pattison, was helping me manufacture my pour over system, and well the final product is made and is actually in Anodyne right now. Personally I think they look amazing and really just stand out above all the other pour over systems I have seen made. Hopefully soon here I will stop procrastinating and have a website made so I can start an actual production made on these things and cure the world of the ugly pour over station...
Besides that there is a ton of news that I cant really talk about yet because they are plans in the works but I am super psyched to be doing some of these things, so stay tuned.
Michigan, I love and miss you already!
