March 3, 2010
Coffee Being Brewed at the Grove House (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)
On Tuesday, March 2, the Grove House hosted a coffee “cupping” to test out new coffees that the Grove House Committee is considering offering in its Kitchen. Pitzer Junior Bennett Cross (PZ ’11) led the event and is the one-man force behind changing the coffee offered by the Grove House. Cross works in the Grove House kitchen and is also a member of the Grove House Committee, but perhaps more importantly is an avid coffee enthusiast.
“I’m trying to change the way Grove House does coffee,” said Cross. “I’m looking for slightly more of an emphasis on quality, it would reflect well on the grove house and people would pay for that.”
Cross made the decision to affect that change, he said, after his return from being abroad in Italy last semester. “I went to Italy because of my passion for coffee,” said Cross. “I worked at a cafe there and studied the coffee culture.”
The coffee in Italy, said Cross, was consistently very good. “I got back, would go home or come to the grove house and would want a coffee, but the quality would be much lower.”
Between 10 and 15 students participated in “cupping.” Four different coffees were tasted, all of which are free trade, all organic, and sold by Monkey and Son coffee distribution, a company that at one point was a provider to the Motley Coffee House at Scripps.
Bennett Cross Led the Event (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)
The cupping process was similar to that of a wine tasting, focusing similarly on flavors evoked by the drink in participants’ palettes. Cross guided the process as he brewed each coffee and encouraged participants to really consider the taste of each, not just drink casually.
“Really try to slurp the coffee,” said Cross a number of times. “You want as much spray as possible to coat the mouth.” This technique, he said, would encourage the best taste testing possible.
Reaction was also important to Cross, who encouraged participants to use any adjective that came to mind, no matter how far out it might seem as an ordinary descriptor for coffee. He gave some examples as well, suggesting that coffees could often be described as nutty, earthy, acidic, or as having citrus notes. Participants did not disappoint, using such adjectives as rich, chocolaty, full-bodied, profound, smooth, mellow, and as having both middle and high notes to describe the various coffees’ flavor.
The feedback from this cupping will be used by Cross in his recommendation to the Grove House committee on what
Student Participants at the Cupping (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)
should be offered in the future. Whether the Grove House will offer one, a couple, or all of these coffees is undecided.
“I’ll need to talk with the grove house committee and decide on a budget, then look from there,” said Cross, “I can think of a bunch of different things we could get off the top of my head, but it depends on how much we can get for the project.”
| Coffees Under Consideration and Participant Feedback: | ||
| Name: | Type: | Described as: |
| Fook!!! | Blend | smooth |
| Ethiopian Roast* | Single origin | Earthy, chocolaty |
| Velvet Hammer | Blend | Dynamic, full-bodied, smooth, mellow |
| Funfulla * | Blend | Semi-bold, semi-smooth. Flavor somewhere between the Ethiopian Roast, which was very bold, and the Velvet Hammer blend, which was smoother. |
* Indicates participant group favorite
Monkey and Son website: http://www.monkeyandson.com
Associate Dean Chris Freeberg and Dean of Students Jim Marchat at the Cupping (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)