the Barefoot crew will be pouring coffee wonderment at the famed Rivers of Chocolate festival at the Mountain winery today. All proceeds benefit EHC youth programs.

Barefoot will be serving up our tongue tingling Kenya Kagumoini, the sublime Guatemala Vista Hermosa Peaberry and the smooth Brazil Ipanema Dulce natural. Come on down and support a great cause and get great coffee and chocolate.

simply amazing stuff. Think pureed fresh cheery tomatoes and sweet red peppers. mmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

An amazingly, shockingly unique coffee. A mouth explosion of mega sweet cherry tomatoes and sweet red bell peppers. Kenya Auction winner. From the esteemed Dorman estates. This is extremely limited coffee. It will change your life brewed as a single origin espresso. Like dynamite on your tongue. 

order it here Kenya 

Just spent a awesome week vacation touring the most amazing stuff in the three states by the Barefoot. Went to Yosemite, Las vegas and Grand Canyon. Yosemite and Grand canyon blew our minds! God makes some amazing stuff for sure!

I was pretty low key on coffee all week. I did not visit a single coffee house. Not one. yeah I brought Barefoot coffee and french presses but even so I ended up trying various different roadside coffees.

Here is what I did drink over the week:

1. A shade grown organic Peruvian coffee from the “coffee house” (bar by night, during the day they drag out a coffee brewer at the grand canyon lodge)
2. The ‘Turbo’ Joe coffee from Burger King
3. Blak from coca cola
4. several prench presses of Barefoot costa rica monte crisol coffee (pre ground though so freshness was a tad low)
5. A “Jamaican Blue Mountain blend” coffee at a restaurant
6. Mega pot drip from a 20 gallon urn at the cafeteria at Grand Canyon

I was very surprised by several of these. Here is my ranking of them by my personal taste preference. (not ranking the Barefoot french press coffee as it was by far the best cup)

1. Turbo Joe from Burger King - it was a surprisingly great cup of coffee, I think it is simply brewed closer to regular strength so it actually taste good. You have to ask for it special as it is behind the counter only-no self service. It had a excellent smooth, chocolateyness with just a tingle of acidity and sparkle. It had a great aftertaste and was darnd good. I drank all 16 ounces to the last drop. Did not need cream.
2. Peruvian house blend from the Canyon “Coffee house” at grand Canyon bright angle lodge. It was a very pleasing cup, good medium body, slight acidity, very nice cocoa and maple flavors. brewed with a fetco but it needed more coffee in the filter and a higher brew temp to max the falvor.
3. The Jamaica Blue mountain blend from Bahama Breeze restaurant in Las Vegas. it was good enought to drink straight to the last drop. It had a decent amount of blue mountain in it. It was relaxed and smooth. However the best thing I can say about it (and basically most Jamaica Blue Mountain) is that it had no negative tastes. It was really smooth like cotton. No highs and no lows and no depth. $4 for 10 ounces too.
4. Blak from coca cola. In a blind taste I would be hard pressed to ID this as coffee. It tasted very intriguing and uber sweet. at first I hated it but it grew on me and I found myself enjoying the cloying heavy creamy caramellyness and effervescent coffee bubbliness. I did not enjoy the splenda throat tightening afterchole though. All in all it was enjoyable and would have been way better without the splenda.

SO I highly encourage all of you out there to at least try the Turbo Joe from BK. It is a great move by the fast food chains to conquer starbucks. The fast Coffee wars are heating up.
So glad to be in the Great Coffee business and not in the fast coffee market.

The Barefoot is going to be featured on a swank little 30 minute TV spot on NBC 11 about the Barefoot way of coffee. They are filming alll morning till about noon so come on down if you want to see the TV thing.

So Barefoot is going to be the subject of a fall episode of NBC 11’s award winning show “In Wine Country“. It is NBC’s place for all food and drink content. It is scheduled to air in the Fall. The Barefoot team made tons of comparisons between wine and coffee and championed the Barefoot way of coffee. (great coffee, coffee as a culinary art and sustainability) It is a national show so grab a hot one and curl up for some fine pontification. Here are some of the markets it is in:
San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland: NBC11/KNTV Sundays 6:30 pm and Mondays 12:30 am

New York: WNBC DT 44 Saturdays 9:30 am, 3:30 pm, 9:30 pm and 3:30 am

Chicago: NBC5/WMAQ Wednesdays 11:30 am

Hartford, CT: NBC30/WVIT Sundays 12:45 am

Thanks for drinking great coffee wherever you are. we love you too.

Food and Wine Magazine rates Barefoot Coffee Roasters as one of the top four boutique coffee roasters in the nation.

San Jose, CA, March 16th, 2006 – After an exhaustive 410 man hours spent tasting 157 of the best coffees from the best roasters in the country, Food and Wine Magazine chose the best of the best. Food and Wine Magazine’s annual “Obsessive’s Guide to Coffee” in the March 2006 issue, highlights the cream of the crop of today’s boutique roasters. Silicon Valley’s own Barefoot Coffee Roasters was rated as one of the top four boutique roasters in the nation. The judging was based on coffee taste and industry recognition and involved multiple rounds of blind coffee tasting. Barefoot Coffee Roasters is the sole Bay Area recipient of this prestigious award for coffee quality.

The list of boutique roasters reads like the Who’s Who of the high end specialty coffee industry with Portland’s Stumptown, Massachusetts’s Terroir, and North Carolina’s Counter Culture joining Silicon Valley’s upstart Barefoot Coffee Roasters in the top four ranking. Boutique roasters like these take great pride in hand crafting coffees of the highest magnitude. The flavor complexities exceed that of even the finest wines. And many of these roasters take the coffee so seriously that they develop direct relationships with coffee farmers in producing countries to ensure the highest quality and most unique flavors. These relationships also serve to pass more of the profits to the coffee farmers themselves through education and awareness and eliminating unnecessary middlemen.

“Holy cow! We are so honored to be recognized for our obsessive coffee quality. Great coffee, like great wine takes an immense amount of dedication and passion to do well.” Andy Newbom, Chief Espresso Officer of Barefoot Coffee Roasters. “We treat coffee as the culinary art that it is. Great taste is the number one goal. The Food and Wine award recognizes the great heights to which coffee can reach and we are tickled pink to be included among the amazing roasters in this list. ”

Food and Wine Magazine also ranked their top ten favorite coffees from the 157 they tasted. Barefoot Coffee Roasters had two of their single estate coffees chosen for the top ten coffees: Their exclusive Finca Vista Hermosa Guatemala (which they buy direct from the family farm in Guatemala) and their Costa Rica from the Coopalmeres co-op. Edwin Martinez, owner of Finca Vista Hermosa farm in Guatemala, was excited about the news. “We are a small family farm striving to produce the best coffee we can. It is so rewarding having a relationship with a quality focused coffee roaster like Barefoot Coffee Roasters. We know that our coffee is in good hands and will be roasted and prepared with the same care and passion we put into it. Having our coffee chosen as one of the top ten coffees in the country by Food and Wine Magazine is such a reward for all the hard work we do all year.”

The March issue is on newsstands today and readers can also view extended coverage on their website.

Barefoot Coffee Roasters is a full-service coffee and espresso bar and artisan organic wholesale coffee roaster. Barefoot is the Bay Areas most award winning coffee roaster and cafe. All coffees are roasted fresh in the café by skilled artisan roasters using old-world, small batch roasting techniques to coax the best flavor out of every coffee. 100% of Barefoot Coffee Roasters coffees are sustainable and over 85% are certified organic, shade grown and fair trade. Barefoot Coffees are served and enjoyed in many quality cafés and restaurants throughout the nation. Barefoot Coffee Roasters is proud to be a participating member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the Roasters Guild and a founding member of the Barista Guild of America. Located at 5237 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara (at the corner of Lawrence Expressway). For more information, please call (408) 248-4500, visit www.barefootcoffeeroasters.com or simply drop by.

good morning world. it is early monday morning and everything feels thick and syrupy. My head, the SOS of mighty harrar moka I made myself, the sound of the roaster warming up for a day of roasting rocket science. Barefoot is a tad quiet this morning…feels like the quiet before the storm. It is a wonderful day to be in coffee. The Barefoot team is servin and smilin and having a great time making great coffee. The roaster feels ready to roll. while the roaster (me) feels more ready to sit and stare.

so on some coffee news we have been having some serious fun with our new Brazil Ipanema Dulce Fazienda, Awesome sweet and caramelly mellow coffee. Just lights atop your tongue like a beautiful toucan. The Barefoot green team is working on a nice long contract to get more of this delicious and socially and environmentally just bean. There has been mutinous talk of squirreling away the remainder of the bag as a “private reserve” for Barefoot tongues only. We will see what can be done to keep this in the hands of the cofee fans out there and still avoid a bloody coup.

And on a super fun note Barefoot sends a friend shout to the mighty Barista warriors out in Charlotte way who battled the pink robot and emerged victorious. To our good friend and customer from Wanderlust Coffee Chris Baca who battled in his first national competition! Woot!

To our swank friends up the street Ritual and the dynamic duo of coffee Gabe and Ryan who both made it to the semi finals! You guys rock! It was fun partying with you and the whole Ritual crew at the Barista Bash-up! (watch out world! The Bay Area is coming up on it in coffee!)

And to the fab six finalists slugging it out today: You are all true champions! I have see you all and know you and salute you! Ellie (intelligentsia rocks!) you are a true pro

Matt (yo intelie!) there has been talk of your throat tatoo aqnd you inspire us with your discipline
Billy - My original team mate from ‘021 You kick coffe ass dude!

Amber - passion and pro all in one.

Jon- you gotta dig what jon is cooking up. always fresh and smiling

Steve - swing one for us oldies and ex-chefs! You always wow up there!

Thanks to all for keeping the quality flame lit!

wow! fun stuff yesterday! cupped great coffees.