Our Blog
- Robert and Rick
Robert's Blog - 6/21/10
6/21/201011:28:24 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment
In the last few weeks, we've brought in Blue Bell ice cream to three (3) of our locations. We now have eight flavors of ice cream available at Tarrytown, Shady Hollow and Tuscany. You can pick between a cup or cone as well as our new Carmadillo Sundae!!!
Also, these locations now have the ability to make the Espresso Milkshake that many of you had been disappointed to see removed from our menu (although they were replaced with Texenza NATURALS - yummy!!!).
With the weather being so hot outside already (and it's only June), we have two summer drinks that will surely quinch your thirst. The first one, the Sparkling Citrus Chai, is black tea blended with special spices and infused with citrus fruits. It's a very unique beverage that I think you'll really like. The second drink, the Mint Chocolate Chip Blenza, uses smooth cold brewed coffee blended with non-fat milk, cool mint and chocolate chips. It really does taste like Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. Come by and try either (or both) of these summer drinks in our cafes.
We also recently revamped our soup menu after feedback from many of you. We now have four soups that you can enjoy in our cafe or take with you to-go, Creamy Potato, Broccoli/Cheddar, Minestrone, and Chicken Noodle. All four of these soups are made fresh at our bakery in north Austin (Little Big City Catering & Bakery).
Lastly, most of you are probably aware that in the last three months we have moved all of our coffee roasting to Austin and are now 100% local with all of our coffee. This transition was something that we really had intended all along, and now with more single-origin varietals to choose from, roasted exactly to our specifications, everyone has a coffee to fall in love with.
Stay cool in this Texas heat and we look forward to seeing all of you in our cafes over the next several weeks.
-Robert
Robert's Blog - 3/10/10
3/10/20103:09:35 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment
We're very excited to let everyone know that starting next Tuesday, March 16th, you will be able to order all of the new food items that I had previously communicated last month we would be rolling out.
You will also notice that our menu boards have changed in look and feel. The thought behind this was to highlight visually many of the items that we sell so that you could see what they look like before you order.
Listed below are the new menu items:
Quiches - Spinach and Quiche Lorraine
Soups - Broccoli Cheese w/ Fontina, Chili w/ Beans, Chicken Noodle & Minestrone
Pizza - Cheese, Pepperoni, Vegetarian, Meat Lover's & Supreme
Yogurt & Granola Parfait
Canadian Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast sandwich (in addition to our current breakfast sandwiches)
Oatmeal w/ Granola and Brown Sugar
Child's Lunch - including PB&J sandwich, fresh sliced fruit, baby carrots, fig newtons, and apple juice (for kids or those on the run!!!)
We're also very excited to now be offering breakfast and lunch pairings, consisting of:
-Small Coffee & Breakfast Sandwich
-Small Latte & Pastry
-Any Small Beverage & Grilled Panini or Grab & Go Sandwich
We would love to hear from you how you like all of the new items. You can either email me (rgleason@austin.rr.com) or my partner Rick Timmins (rtimmins@yahoo.com).
Enjoy!!!
-Robert
Robert's Blog - 2/10/10
2/10/20108:44:19 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment
We are excited to announce that we will be rolling out several new food offerings in the next few weeks. Additionally, we are overhauling our entire menu board system, featuring many pictures of the beverages and food we offer in our cafes.We will be adding two types of quiche, spinach and quiche lorraine, oatmeal with granola and brown sugar, yogurt with granola and a canadian bacon, egg & cheese sandwich to our breakfast menu.We will also be adding several soups and a child’s lunch to the lunch menu. The soups will be available either to be served in café or to-go in disposable containers.Lastly, we will be introducing pairings to offer more value to all of our guests, with two breakfast pairings and one lunch pairing. These pairings will give you up to $1.50 in savings off of the retail prices when you pair them together.While some items are being taken off of our current menu boards, such as kid’s beverages and the addition of soy milk, these items will still remain available for you to order.If you have any questions before, during or after this transition of our menu boards, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email at rgleason@austin.rr.com.Thanks,RobertRobert's Blog - 2/2/10 - Costa Rica January 2010
2/3/201010:41:54 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment
I traveled to Costa Rica in January to more fully understand the coffee growing and milling process. I was able to see the huge difference that a focus on quality has on coffee.My first stop was a large, traditional mill, one of the largest in Costa Rica. This mill processes hundreds of thousands of pounds of coffee each day. With that much coffee being processed, it’s difficult if not impossible to trace the coffee that this mill is processing and exporting back to the farm where it was grown, called “traceability.” The coffee beans that this mill processes through the wet and dry process are gathered at different receiving stations throughout the region, with each of the farmers getting paid at that point. This is the only option for many of the coffee farms in Costa Rica, as they don’t own or have access to micro-mills to process their coffee. As a result, their coffee, which may have some amazing characteristics, is combined with other farmer’s coffee beans, and as a result, the quality of the coffee in the cup could be damaged.I was also able to visit the Las Lajas farm in Alajuela. This farm and micro-mill is owned by the Chacon family (Oscar and Francisca). It was amazing to see the difference between this small mill and the large commercial mill. Since the Chacons own the ecological mill, they are able to control quality throughout every step until the coffee is given to the distributor for export. Also, the Las Lajas farm has many more manual processes, such as patio drying, raised screens for drying the coffee, and the ability (and desire) to use many different drying processes for their coffee. The farm is also certified organic, requiring much more work to maintain the quality of the farm. The larger, commercial mill employed approximately 60 people and processed approximately 200 times the coffee that Las Lajas does with only 12 people.Since the harvest season is from November to March, we were able to observe ripe coffee “cherries” and participate in picking some of the ripe beans. This was an amazing experience seeing how beautiful their farm (100% organic) is compared with some of the other farms in the area. Their farm has true shade-grown coffee, as opposed to other farms that only have a few shade trees to be able to make the claim of “shade-grown coffee.” It was amazing to me how difficult and pain-staking the picking of beans can be, with a basket wrapped around your waste for ten hours per day, six days per week for up to four months of the year. My pickings in about 45 minutes yielded just under $1.00 pay. I am told that the best pickers pick the equivalent pay of about $20 per day in Costa Rica.I would highly recommend a trip to a coffee growing region, or if anyone is traveling to a coffee growing region for pleasure, to make time to tour a farm and have the coffee growing and harvesting process explained to them.Below are several pictures from my trip. As you can see, there was a little time for fun on a zip-line through the Costa Rica rain forest canopy!Enjoy!!!
Large commercial processing mill
Time for fun!!!
Dry/natural process (leaving cherry on)
Pulp Natural / "Honey coffee" process
Natural screen-drying with help of Oscarita
The day's harvest
Las Lajas Ecological Farm
Coffee fermenting (part of wet process)
De-pulping the cherries (part of wet process)
Hand-sorting out the "floaters"
Oscar Chacon explaining the family's 100% organic farm
Ripe cherries ready for picking
All the roots live on the surface in an organic farm
Green bean with mucilage (fruit) and skin
My pickings with the Chacon children
Real shade-grown farm versus pseudo shade-grown on other side of river
Rows and rows of coffee trees
The Chacon family
Arenal volcano – 1 of 10 most active in the worldRobert's Blog - 11/5/09
11/5/200910:04:17 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment
We are getting very close to that time of year that I always look forward to, the Christmas season. I also look forward every year to two of my favorite drinks, the Gingerbread Latte and Peppermint Mocha. The homemade gingerbread star on top of the Gingerbread Latte is an added touch that makes this drink very special to me.
We’ve also added a new drink this year to our holiday mix, the Old Time Hot Chocolate. This drink is rich and creamy and will remind you of sipping hot chocolate by the fire. It also comes with mini marshmallows on top to create that distinctive finish.Again this year we will have two coffees featured, our Holiday Blend, available in whole bean, and our Festive Pecan, available in 12oz ground valve bags for purchase. The classic blend of southern pecans caramelized and toasted creates a memory of evenings around the campfire.We will also be featuring several confections with a gingerbread and peppermint theme to go along with our core holiday drinks.We will be rolling out our holiday drinks, merchandise, confections and coffee on November 23rd.Lastly, if you haven’t had a chance to taste our new Texenza NATURALS, they are truly amazing!!! All of them have between 300 and 350 calories and no saturated fat (except Orange Cream – 4g sat fat). They use 8oz of fresh fruit, a whole banana, and 6oz of juice.Until next time.RobertRobert's Blog - 10/21/09
10/21/200910:40:40 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment
This week we've launched Texenza NATURALS in all of our cafes. They are amazing healthy & tasty fresh fruit smoothies. We have five flavors available - Strawberry Banana, Blueberry, Peach, Mango Pineapple, and Orange Cream. You have to try them. They really area amazing.
Each of the NATURALS is truly natural, using fresh fruit, bananas, and juice. My favorite so far is the strawberry banana.
Can you believe that it's already the end of October. Before you know it, Thanksgiving and then Christmas will be here. We're gearing up to launch our favorite holiday drinks in late November, Gingerbread Latte, Peppermint Mocha, and a new Old Time Hot Chocolate. I can't wait.
Stop by also to take advantage of our daily specials - Muffin Monday, Taco Tuesday, Free Flavor Friday. There's something for everyone.
Take care.
Robert
Robert's Weekly Blog - 10/5/09
10/5/200910:07:34 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment
I went to Coffee Fest (www.coffeefest.com) in Seattle last week. It's amazing all of the great products that were on display. There is even a twitter site to follow all of the products / vendors (www.twitter.com/coffeefestshow).
We're working to bring in several of the products that were on display at the show. We'll have more information in the next couple of weeks on these products.
The Latte Art from the Millrock Freepour competition was amazing. It's amazing what a barista can create in a cup!!!
The Northwest Regional barista competition was also incredible. These baristas take their job seriously!!!
We're getting very close to rolling out our Healthy, Fresh Fruit Smoothies. We're excited to share them with you. I know that you'll love all of them.
Lastly, if you haven't had one yet, you've got to try one of our Fall promotional drinks. The Campfire Mocha is delicious, hot, iced or blended, and the Caramel Apple Cider is great on a cool morning day (although we haven't had many of those yet!!!).
Until next time.
Robert