from Josh F....

At what has become an annual Kaldi’s Kirkwood tradition, this past Thursday evening (July 10, 2008) Erin Bode delighted listeners with calming tunes from her new album The Little Garden. Tranquilized by Erin’s mellow demeanor, an estimated 2000 listeners socialized quietly in lawn chairs that lined the plaza patio - a fitting Kirkwood hometown welcome for a local star.

Since it’s opening in June 2005, Kaldi’s Kirkwood truly exhibits the connection between coffeehouse and community. With Kirkwood City Hall bordering the west side of Bode’s stage, this year’s concert showed the resilience of a community still healing from the tragic shootings that took place just 6 months ago. Former Mayor Swoboda and several of the city council victims were loyal customers often seen sipping their favorite cup of joe on Kaldi’s patio. We wish Mayor Swoboda a speedy recovery and thank the city of Kirkwood for its continued support.

Spreading jam on your bagel constitutes most of a barista's contact with the sticky substance, except for a couple of weekends each year when the Kaldi's staff gathers for a different type of jam. A little over a week ago, our staff of coffee enthusiasts congregated at our roasting & training facility for our semi-annual staff Barista Jam. A barista jam is an opportunity for coffee lovers to step out of the café and examine our favorite beverage through a more scientific or global lens.


This summer's jam, Let it Flow, centered on espresso and its complexity. Workshops addressed everything from the guts of espresso machines to the craft of roasting espresso blends. Baristas from all of our stores sipped their way through six different espressos in a class led by USBC Certified Judge Frank McGinty and Kaldi's Roaster Jeff Shafer that compared taste notes of espresso to a table full of dried fruit, molasses and nuts. To finish the jam in style, our baristas competed against each other in a die-hard latte art competition. After the last drop of milk had left the carton, Alex Frankel (Downtown Clayton @ the Crescent) claimed the top prize of dinner at Araka and a Chemex brewer.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the jam was announcing a new espresso blend. A few prototype batches were roasted and distributed to the cafes for sampling. Look for a brand new espresso blend (yet to be named) from Kaldi's in August!

The next barista jam, slated for late summer or early fall, will be open to all of our wholesale and retail customers, as well as any regional coffee lover or barista.


Above right, Alex Frankel pours his winning latte art.

Those large groups of people spitting in the corner of Kaldi's Coffeehouse on weeknight evenings aren't tobacco chewers. They're Kaldi's baristas. We want them to spit. As part of our ongoing barista training, Kaldi's baristas participate in coffee tastings, or cuppings, conducted by our Roasters. The baristas smell and taste a number of different coffees side by side, each prepared in individual cups, unfiltered so that all the aromatic oils extract. They breathe in the aroma, then slurp, so the coffee penetrates their olfactory and taste senses. Then, they spit to avoid a certain unwanted physiological response. The barista training cuppings shuffle on a revolving schedule between Kaldi's Coffeehouses. Starting this month, the cuppings will be open to the public, so customers and baristas can participate side by side. Look for dates posted at the register of your neighborhood Kaldi's.

Tyler Zimmer, above, hosts cupping at Kaldi's Coffeehouse at the Crescent