Alice Laussade

Singing Barista Dude: The chipperest mother fucker ever.

​You find yourself in the drive-through line at the Starbucks. You're not necessarily proud of choosing Starbucks over White Rock Coffee or Pearl Cup, but it's early, they're convenient and you're an un-coffee-ed bitch who needs a fix right now dammit stop judging.

You yell your coffee order at the intercom. You drive around the corner to the coffee window and that's when you see it: the car in front of you is rocking side to side, it's jamming out so hard to Jackson 5's One More Chance. The guy in the car is full-on scream singing. And then you see the barista is scream singing, too. He's handing the coffee over, "Woon't yoooou please let meeeeeee backinyourheart!"

They're so. Happy.

What in the fuck is going on here?

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Daniel Rodrigue

​On Friday afternoon, about 45 folks packed into Oddfellows in Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District for one of Texas Coffee School's "coffee cupping" events lead by the school's founder Tom Vincent.

Much like a wine, beer, scotch or cheese tastings, the coffee-cupping classes teach java junkies how to do more than sip their brew, and by the end of the class, Vincent had these wannabe coffee connoisseurs hollering out descriptions of the various layers of aromas and tastes within each of the featured brews. Fresh roasted coffees that were hand delivered just minutes before the class started by Lorenzo Perkins of Austin's Cuvee Coffee were Guatemalan Volcan de Agua; El Salvadorian Los Luchadores; and Colombian Cerro Azu Geisha.

Part of the allure of these kinds of cuppings is they provide coffee consumers the chance to experience a sampling modeled after the traditional cupping and tasting process conducted by coffee growers and buyers as they're testing their wares. And the other part is that these events tend to present folks the chance to sample some rare beans, like Cuvee's Colombia Cerro Azul Geisha, which retails for $40 to $45 for a 12-ounce bag. More »

The folks down at White Rock Coffee may not have known what a Cup O' Joe Award was a week ago, but they do now. A few days ago, the Lake Highlands shop won the award for best coffee house in Dallas from Krups USA, a maker of espresso and coffee machines.

"We're just thrilled. It's awesome to be thought about for top 10 in America," White Rock co-owner Nancy Baker says.

Well, top 15, actually. Krups gave Cup O' Joe Awards to coffee houses in 10 cities around the nation and five in New York.

Baker says there are several things that set her shops apart from other local coffee houses. For one, they roast their own coffee, but someone's gotta brew it, right? As you may recall, Roasted reported one of the shop's baristas advanced to the South Central Regional Barista competition in Austin. Baker says that none of her baristas attended this year's competition, but that they still compete locally in "barista jams" around Dallas.

It takes more than a good barista to pull a shot of espresso, and Baker says the brew is only as good as the beans, and this cafe is in a unique position to provide fresher beans. Since the store has its own bean roaster, Baker says they can buy directly from growers in an agreement she calls "direct-trade."

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With more than 20 college-age folks milling about the packed parking lot in front of Stir Coffee just before 5 p.m., it was easy to spot the location of Monday night's barista jam. Especially for those who, like Roasted, had yet to pay a visit to Stir Coffee, Dallas' new coffee-centered coffee shop that shares a space with Good 2 Go Tacos in an old strip mall at Peavy and Garland Roads.

Opened January 13, Stir Coffee's owners, Rip Rowan and Vanessa Peters, clearly hope to gain a reputation in Dallas as a coffee shop that takes coffee very seriously. The menu boasts several "slow," hand-crafted brewing methods and their baristas are all said to be "expertly trained" in skills like shot timing, extraction, water science and milk texturing.

So, it's no wonder Stir's already hosting a barista jam, which are seen as community-building educational sessions, with tastings and speakers as well as knockout, tournament-style competitions where folks from different coffee shops go cup-to-cup.

And the stakes for these barista jams are higher than even the cash prizes hint at, because the winning baristas earn some serious cred among fellow tampers. And, with more than 50 people looking on, it was clear that jittery, over-caffeinated hands spelled disaster for a few contestants.

Before the event officially started, with the crowd outside chattering and chain-smoking away, Jon Meadows of Cultivar Coffee worked his way from person to person, jotting down the names of -- and collecting the $10 cash buy-ins from -- the baristas who had showed up to "throwdown," as it's called in the competitive coffee scene.

"This is huge, a really good turnout," Meadows said, glancing at the clipboard with all the contestants' names and the names of the coffee shops they represented. (Nowadays, when he's not roasting beans, Meadows himself slings shots at The Pearl Cup.)

To attend the event, baristas drove (and biked) from Dallas, Oak Cliff, Denton, Grapevine, Fort Worth, (with a few coming from as far away as Austin and Houston), representing area shops The Pearl Cup, White Rock Coffee, Global Peace Factory, Big Mike's Coffee Shop and Avoca Coffee Roasters.

"If we would've tried to organize this a year ago, we may have had 10 people here," Meadows told Roasted before heading inside to add more names to the list.

A small turnout would have made for a much less interesting night, if only because the number of participants in these competitions determines the dollar amount of the winner-take-all first prize. Which, on Monday night, ended up being $160 after 16 of the 50 or so people in attendance entered the competition. (Second prize was a $25 gift card to Good 2 Go Tacos, and the third place winner earned a free membership with the Barista Guild of America.)

The goal of these barista jams is to cultivate a coffee community while stirring up a bit of healthy barista versus barista competition and coffee shop against coffee shop rivalry. Bringing together so many baristas under one roof is also meant to foster a community passionate about seeing better coffee available and brewed in Dallas.

In addition to the latte art competition, attendees sampled a Guatemalan coffee brewed using three different extraction methods (French Press, Chemex, and Hario V60 -- single-cup brews available at Stir Coffee, and a few other shops in Dallas), with the idea that the baristas learn how much the brew method alters a bean's taste.

And then came the speakers....

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Daniel Rodrigue

​On a recent grocery shopping excursion to Central Market Dallas, Roasted was pleasantly surprised when we rounded a corner near the bulk foods section and spotted a display on an end cap stocked with one-pound bags of fresh-roasted beans from Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters.

The display was next to the bins filled with bulk coffee, but the award-winning beans from Oak Cliff were the only ones already bagged and sealed to keep the beans fresh. But, other than the bagged-not-bulk thing, what stood out about the Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters display was the way that Central Market was smartly promoting as the coffee as both local and fresh with a sign announcing that the coffee had "Just Arrived!" and was "Locally roasted Wednesday mornings."

So, Roasted bought a pound of OCCR's Victor Prosper's Roast to bring to the office for sampling in the bullpen, and then we placed a call to the coffee roasters to find out more about how this local partnership got its start.

Turns out, the fresh-roasted beans have been on sale at the Central Market Dallas since March, but because the coffee has sold so well in Dallas, the grocer has -- as of last Thursday -- started carrying beans at the Plano location as well.
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Photos By Daniel Rodrigue

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It's funny how fast word travels around town when a new coffee shop opens its doors.
No sooner had Roasted heard about Mercantile Coffee House than people were telling us -- or asking us -- about it left and right.

The coffee shop, located downtown a stone's throw from Main Street Garden Park, just celebrated its "soft opening" about three weeks back, and word is traveling at buzz-worthy speeds weeks before the spot's grand opening.

It's no wonder that word about the new coffee and frozen yogurt shop is spreading so fast, after all, it's the first coffee house in Dallas to be brewing up beans from the popular Chicago-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea -- the company's winged logo is stamped all over the place.

We called Intelligentsia this morning just to make sure that Mercantile was the first, and we were told that the "only other place in Dallas" is the specialty-cookie joint in Snider Plaza Crème De La Cookie.

Intelligentsia's award winning beans are the stuff of legend among many folks from the Windy City, but Roasted wondered if the hype surrounding the beans and coffee house's brew was nothing more than hot air.

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Photos By Daniel Rodrigue

​This morning, after hearing very good things about the coffee and espresso at Zaguán Latin Café & Bakery from several of the folks around the bullpen at Observer HQ who regularly visit the establishment, Roasted finally headed across the street for an early-morning coffee break.

And, we're glad we did, because the café and bakery offers an amazing "Breakfast Special" that's available weekday mornings. Priced at $3.95, the deal includes a 16-ounce coffee and your pick of a croissant, pastry or cachito (a "stuffed bread" filled with various savory ingredients). For just 99 cents extra you can substitute the coffee for a latte or a cappuccino.

With a full coffee and espresso bar, Zaguán serves those coffee shop staples like lattes and cappuccinos, as well as some less-familiar Latin American recipes like a cortado (espresso cut with a bit of steamed milk to temper the coffee's acidity) or a café marrón (it's like an extra strong and creamy cappuccino) -- all of which are made from the café's "Top Quality Colombian Coffee."

Which, it turns out, tastes just as good as we were told.

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Daniel Rodrigue

White Rock Coffee's new "Express" kiosk looks a lot like a smaller version of this, the original location, only with more drive-through windows.

​Roasted's been following the progress of White Rock Coffee's new kiosk at the northeast corner of Abrams Road and Mockingbird Lane for a while now. After all, the beans have been out of the bag since the beginning of the year.

Though the new satellite location's grand opening festivities still won't be until mid-August, the mom-and-pop coffee shop celebrated the "soft opening" of its White Rock Coffee Express last Friday at noon.

And, the "double drive-through kiosk" has been "very busy" ever since, according to one employee we spoke with this morning. Already dubbed the "Mini-Me" White Rock by some regulars, the much smaller Express location has two drive-through windows with another walk-up window for pedestrians.
So, no café in which to sit and sip their award-winning coffee and no free Wi-Fi like the original Lake Highlands spot -- though we're told they should have some patio furniture outside within the next few days.

So far, folks don't seem to mind the less hang-out-friendly approach, thanks to the quick turnarounds they're receiving from the baristas frothing up drinks inside those dual drive-through windows. If only the opening of the Express kiosk was as speedy.

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Photos By Daniel Rodrigue

​Monday morning, Roasted headed to Buzzbrews Kitchen to get our buzz on. And, now that we got that stale caffeine-addled joke out of the way, we really did get pretty jazzed up after repeatedly helping ourselves to the diner's "Drink 'til you Buzz" self-serve coffee bar.

Which at only $2.50 is a real steal, especially because the purchase entitles customers to soak up the free Wi-Fi.

We skipped the original location on North Central Expressway in favor of the way-less-Denny's-like second spot on Lemmon Avenue. With a slogan like "Get A Buzz Today" in red neon above the door, honestly, Roasted's not sure why we haven't been taking them up on the offer more regularly.

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Nothing soothes like a cup of coffee...except maybe a slug of booze.

Starbucks has joined the growing list of chains intent on bowdlerizing adult beverage traditions, suggesting today that flavored coffee's a good substitute for alcohol.

Earlier this week, City of Ate chronicled the new low-cal cocktail trend, a backlash to drinks made with super sugary mixes. Rather than return to classic cocktail recipes, some bars are using agave syrup and artificial sweeteners in their margaritas and mojitos.

But a Starbucks rep who read our coverage decided the "skinny drinks" didn't go far enough:

"When I saw that you have written about beverages -- your Low-Cal Cocktails write-up in particular -- I thought that you might like to try the newest line of coffees from Starbucks. These new coffees are a great low-calorie alternative to an alcoholic beverage," Olga Walsh writes.

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