Stumptown

It is becoming coffee season here in PDX! Well not really but today it is cloudy and we are expecting some rain - everyone including the weatherman is amazed that PDX has gone 71 days without any rainfall (the cow looked up rainfall last night and we figured out that Sac has received more rain than PDX over the summer). The temperature is still not quite coffee weather for me but if you know anything about the cow it is that he will stop and drink coffee at the drop of the hat.
One reason for this passion for coffee is his new found love Stumptown Coffee Roasters. The first time he experienced this amazing coffee was at a coffee shop in the NE called Albina Press. The "Press" refers to how every cup of coffee is prepared. The barristas French Press every single cup served. Oh yes, you can still get espresso or cappucino but when you order just a cup of coffee expect an amazing taste.
Not only does the French Pressing bring out the original taste of the coffee but we have discovered that Stumptown coffee roasters are a buying powerhouse of coffee from around the world. We are lucky enough to have one of the Stumptown coffee shops just down the street and around the corner from HoY but what we also found was the "ANNEX"! This place is two doors down from the coffee shop on Belmont and it is set up to buy Stumptown beans for home use. The service personnel in the Annex are amazing; nice and knowledgable. They describe where each bean is grown, how and when it is harvested and they can tell you about Fair-trade! ALL of the beans being sold at Stumptown are bought at higher than fair-trade prices. We purchased the Rwandan Musasa and were told that it is a female cooperative that has acquired health care since Stumptown has helped them bring there production to higher levels.
The annex offers what they call "cupping." It allows the buyer of a pound of beans to taste the coffee they are buying before they take it home and find out that it is too strong or too weak. It is a beautiful thing to watch (although I haven't seen them do it, but the cow was very excited about this). In the annex there is a flat screen television - now I am usually against this whole tv thing in restaurants and such - but this one shows a continuous loop of the people, places, and coffee that stumptown buys from around the world.
If and when any of you come to visit (yes that is a shot at some of you who think going to Europe,Mexico or Canada is more important) we will walk down and enjoy the Stumptown! The last picture is just to see if el s is reading!