Portland Culinary Alliance

On a Saturday afternoon in late April, a handful of PCA members and guests gathered for the alliance’s first-ever program by bike… a coffee crawl! The adventure began at Laurelwood Brewing where Pedal Bike Tours owner and operator Todd Roll overviewed the rules of the road and got the team up and rolling. Cruising at a leisurely pace, we rode up to Cellar Door Coffee Roasters for a quick tour of the year old neighborhood coffee house. Owner and roaster Jeremy Adams took us into the cellar to show off his newest roasting toys – a wetscrubber and an electrostatic precipitator, aka a “bug zapper.” The new machinery will not only increase Cellar Door’s production four fold, but the cutting edge, low energy equipment helps reduce roasting odors.

From there, we buzzed up to Stumptown Coffee on Belmont where we learned the science of a coffee cupping. Surrounded by glass beakers and vaporizing equipment reminiscent of a mad scientist’s laboratory, we sniffed, stewed and slurped our way through six single origin coffee varietals from around the globe. The experts at Stumptown thoroughly caffeinated and educated our group. For interesting bits of Stumptown trivia, see below.

Now fully energized, we pedaled our way to the site of Portland’s soon-to-open roaster and corner coffee house, Oblique. Housed in a historic mercantile building, owners John and Heather Chandler have thoughtfully renovated the original 1891 property, adding eco-friendly elements like water cisterns and a tankless water heater. But the real show stopper was “Bart,” the 1986 German built cast iron roasting drum, already seasoned to perfection (just like cast iron pans at home, roasters look for seasoned drums).

After Oblique, we could hardly wait for our fourth and final stop, Laurelwood Brewing. Brewer Chad Kennedy took us on a behind the scenes tour of the brewery, walking us through the cold water extraction process for making their Portland Roasting Espresso Stout. This creamy, chocolaty, black gold is the ultimate Portland beverage, blending local beer with locally roasted coffee beans. The perfect ending to a perfect PCA program.

Random Coffee Facts

• Ethiopia is recognized as the original coffee producing region.
• Ethiopian coffees are often called “field blends” because they are picked from whatever coffee trees are around.
• Peaberries – beans that are one whole, not two halves – occur 10 - 15% of the time.
•  The Kenyan SL28 varietal was genetically designed by Scott Laboratories in the 1950’s and remains to this day one of the most highly regarded beans.