Thoughts on the Cafe Bombing

Crazy times here. There has been a bombing of buses down the street and around the corner, a bombing of cafe up the street, earthquakes in June, earthquakes in December, and a hostage situation at the local supermarket. And all of this coming in the last half of this year.

The bombing at a cafe up the street has been the most unsettling. The thought that it could have just as easy have been our coffee shop does not sit well with me. There is no defense against somebody willing to do that with no regard for their own life. There aren't really preventive measures that can be taken.

No news is certainly not good news. Nothing reliable or new has come out since the day of. Conflicting reports continue to sweep through what little online reports there have been. No major news agency or media has picked up the story at all. We are left to guess what happened, why it happened, and whether or not it will happen again.

The anti-foreigner backlash has been probably the most troubling. Online some locals have blamed foreigners for this assault or asked for all of us "laowai" or outsiders to leave China or even for us simply to die. There is still deep hate in some people's hearts to say such things in the wake of this tragedy.

New Years Bash at Chicago Coffee

Cafe Bombing - Kunming

Photo by www.salvadors.cn

Earlier this morning, reportedly a man walked into Salvador's Cafe with an explosive device and detonated it. Some are reporting casualties but none of it has been confirmed. Salvador's is a well known cafe just down the street from us. Actually I passed by on my scooter after teaching my class this morning and noticed something of this nature must of just happened. It turns out that it happened only shortly before that time. More information is available on www.gokunming.com.

Merry Christmas!

McD's getting fiesty

McD's has recently been taking a lot swings at Starbucks. This sign was put up directly across from Starbucks HQ. Another had the phrase "large is the new grande." Although witty and very clever, I am afraid the same people that aren't satistfied with the quality that goes along with a $1 burger will be the same people that might not fall in love with a latte from McDonalds.

Best of Kunming- Vote Now!

Only four days left to vote Chicago Coffee Best Cafe of Kunming. Go here for details.

Quest for the Supreme Bean- part three

The coffee cherries at this farm are dried using one of the oldest methods: dry processing. The beans are separated from the cherry using coffee pulping equipment as seen in the background of this first picture.



The cherries are then disposed of and the beans are spread out in the sun to dry. It takes about a week for the beans to fully dry and it is important step in the overall quality of the coffee. If the beans become to dry they will be brittle and break but if they are too moist then bacteria and fungus will begin to grow on them.

Here one of the farmers is sifting through the drying beans to make sure they dry evenly and thoroughly. After the beans are dried another outer shell is removed. Finally, the beans are sorted by size so that the grade of beans can be determined. After this final step the beans are then bag and made ready to be shipped or sold.

Its at this point that we now buy directly from the coffee farm (for local Yunnan beans) or through a third party (for buying imported beans from around the world.) For us we then cup the coffee to test its quality and then roast the beans so they are ready to make into various beverages from coffee to lattes.

Quest for the Supreme Bean- part two

Coffea Arabica
Miles and miles of Arabica coffee trees. Arabica coffee is far superior to the lesser quality of Robusta coffee. Arabica coffee is much harder to grow and cultivate but produces a more supreb flavor and taste. Robusta on the other hand is used mostly in instant coffee.

Arabica coffee must be grown at a higher elevation so a lot of time it is grown on the side of a mountain.

The Lujiang Coffee farm covers most of the mountainside in the foreground of most of these pictures. There are over 30 employed to cover the picking of all these coffee trees.

When coffee trees bloom a white jasmine-like flower appears for a few days and then disappears making way for small green coffee cherries. As the coffee cherry ripens it turns yellow, then red, and then deep red. When it has reached its deepest red it is now ready to be picked. Arabica beans are almost always picked by hand to ensure that every coffee cherry is perfectly ripe.

Unfortunately standards for Yunnan coffee are a bit lower so you can still see about 15% of the cherries that were picked before they fully ripened. Yunnan coffee is continuing to improve as more and more investment is poured into the crop and stricter standards are enforced. Beans of this region in Yunnan are said to have a stronger and deeper flavor than beans in the other major growing regions around the province.

Below you can see another picture of the coffee cherries as well one of a coffee picker way off in the distance.

Quest for the Supreme Bean- part one

On Thursday I traveled west to Baoshan, so that I could visit a local coffee farm. I have been meaning to do this for quite a while but coffee is only in season during the winter so this was the first chance I have gotten since Chicago Coffee was opened. I plan to post more on the trip over the next few days so check back more this week.

It was a fast trip (1.5 days) but it wouldn't be a trip within Yunnan without the obligatory flight delays or cancels. I took a Lucky Air flight, a local Yunnan airline, that was delayed 3 hours. I knew we were doomed once we boarded and began to crawl towards the runaway when they started to move the stairs back up to the airplane door. Sure enough, our plane was broken so we just needed to hop onto a different before we could take off.

Side Note: Lucky Air
Most translation errors or mistakes are funny and sometimes understandable. But come on. Lucky Air. I will grant you that in Chinese everybody loves Luck and it has a little bit of a different meaning than in English. But please I don't want to cruising at 30,000 with a company that just considers themselves lucky. Not exactly a vote of confidence.

Side Side Note: E-cigarettes
Apparently I missed the announcement of the invention of electronic cigarettes. I was baffled when the folks at Lucky Air informed us that cigarettes, cigars, and electronic cigarettes were all banned on board the flight. I thought it must an error in translation since I had not even imagined such an invention was possible. But then I wikipediaed it when I got home and sure enough, the electronic cigarette.

The flight to Baoshan is only an hour but the coffee farm village is about 2 to 3 hours further into the mountains. In fact, it was very close to the Myanmar border, as the Chinese man with the machine gun pointed out.

Upon arrival at the farm, we waited for the tractor to pick us up and take us up the mountain.

These pictures don't do the 40 minute ride justice but hopefully you can get some sense of it

At the top of the mountain it became clear that this was truly in the middle of nowhere. You know you have gone far if even Coca Cola has not yet arrived.

more of the quest tomorrow...

Middle of Nowhere

Any further into the middle of nowhere will have to put me somewhere
~ Lujiang Coffee Farm, China

Debunking Myth #3- Can't teach an old dog new tricks

Perhaps I am that old dog. But I would say that there were many new tricks I have learned from Year One of the Coffee Business.

"Yes" does not always mean "yes" - in fact sometimes it does not mean anything at all

Roasting my own coffee and running a coffee company has tripled my coffee intake and my joy in drinking coffee

I view landlords in a different light

I do not appreciate being threatened but I have learned that I do not easily back down

If given the opportunity some people will gladly down 5 Grande Mochas without blinking

Cooking and baking can be very therapeutic

Hot Brewed Coffee never goes out of season

Confusion is a very strong negotiating tactic

A properly crafted latte can take as little as 52 seconds

Humor knows no language barrier

There is no common ground quite like a coffee shop

Holiday Blend Coffee available starting Dec 5th/6th at Nordica

The festive blend of Guatemala and Indonesian coffee beans features bold flavors with hints of citrus and is paired best with cinnamon and nutmeg flavors and other holiday foods and drinks.

Carrefour Hostage Standoff- Kunming, China

Crazy times in these last few days. In the country a jump to the west from us we had the Mumbai attacks and in the country a skip to our south protesters attacked the airport in Bangkok (the same one we hoped to fly into next month) and down the street there was a hostage standoff at a local supermarket. Yesterday, the Kunming Media and police sources reported that a Chinese man attacked customers with a knife at the French supermarket Carrefour and took a woman hostage. The standoff was ended after 5 hours when a police sniper killed the attacker.
Crazy to think how close to home that is and that Carrefour is often where I go to buy things for the coffee shop and for my home. In fact, in the picture above is exactly where I park my electric scooter. The picture below describes the event in detail so please don't look closely or zoom in if you are distrubed by violent images. images from www.yn.chinanews.com.cn, www.kunming.cn