Java Joes – The Soul of the Des Moines Court Ave. District

If one place has been the soul of everything that is good about the Court Avenue district in Des Moines, I believe it is Java Joes CoffeeHouse. In a district awash with cheap beer and two dollar Coke and Captains, and a lot of recent bad press about the mobs of drunks,  Java Joes has always stood as a reminder of the original promise and vision that the real estate developers had for the area when it was nothing but porn shops, bail bondsmen, dive bars, and transient hotels — well, at least the porns shops are gone – so that is some progress in you are not into that sort of entertainment.   It seems that Joe and Cyndy Coppolla opened Java Joes sometime around 1992 (that date is also typed in tiny numbers on the street sign). Although I don’t remember the day it opened, I do recall the buzz that immediately followed. Des Moines residents and downtown workers were genuinly excited that a coffee shop had opened in Des Moines.  Keep in mind, this was the same year that Starbucks went public and it would be more than decade more before Des Moines would have its own Starbucks.  So, we were glad to have a place that served coffee that didn’t come from a Bunn drip machine.

Crowd at Java Joes on a busy Saturday

If coffee has been roasted recently the first thing you may notice when entering Java Joes is that they roast their own coffee. When I’ve tried their coffee, when either dropping in on a late night visit or before or after a show it was always well prepared. It is hard to rank the coffee served by local establishments as quality can change from bag to bag and roast to roast. The age, source, and handling of the coffee beans and the time since it was roasted are also huge factors. But, like I said, the coffee has been uniformly good. 

Java Joes is also one of the main venues for small shows and acts in Des Moines. Most Friday and Saturday nights will find some sort of act. Looking at their current lineup I see local jazz, comedy, and a poetry slam. These acts can be in either the coffee house itself or the 4th Street theater next door. Here is a link to some of the performers who have appeared at Java Joes: List 

The ambiance of the place is Bohemian with upholstered chairs, random tables, and a look of studied shabbiness, befitting the coffee culture of the early ’90s.  The nearest comparison that I can think of is Zanzibar’s. They both push the coffee house culture theme, but Zanzibar’s is more of a modern reboot (barely) while Java Joes retains its cred as an original coffee house.

A Java Joe Latte

Hours:
Monday thru Thursday
6:30 AM to 11:00 PM
Friday thru Saturday
6:30 AM to Midnight
Sunday
6:30 AM to 10:00 PM
Phone: 515-288-JAVA (5282)
Fax: 515-244-5244

Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure – Great beans, Great brews, and Great atmosphere

Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure is a well-known and locally-owned coffee house on Ingersoll. Zanzibar’s does three things well: It starts with good beans that are carefully roasted, it brews a wide variety of drinks, and it offers a great atmosphere to slow down and enjoy the brew.

First, and foremost, it roasts great coffee beans to perfection. Everything must start with good beans and perfect roasting. The beans are stored in the same burlap bags that they arrive in, with all sorts of exotic locatons stamped on the bag. I think that this is what puts the “adventure” in the name. Coffee cannot be great unless the beans are good beans. And good beans can be turned into bad coffee if the roasting is not done right. Janean has been roasting Zanzibar’s beans as long as I can remember and she roasts them just right. After roasting, the beans are put into sealed plastic bins that are marked with the roasting date. If you make your own coffee drinks and you know what you are looking for, the staff can choose a fresh roast that fits your needs.

Do you want something that would be a strong morning Americano? They can get that. Do you want a mild espresso, or something that will punch through the milk in a latte? They can do that as well. Be sure to ask what they have on hand and do not be afraid to try some different beans. It is amazing how many different varieties they have on hand. And don’t forget the house blend. Blending anything tends to get short shrift. But a good blend of beans can provide a complexity that cannot be found by sticking with just one type of bean and roast. So do not hesitate to give it a try. Good ingredients is where it starts. I should add that for Starbucks fanatics, I’d highly recommend a latte or espresso using their House blend to find out what an espresso is supposed to taste like. If you try this and you still want to drink that evil, burnt black swill they concoct at Starbucks, then, as Southerners say to those they think are idiots, “God bless you.” And unlike Starbucks, you don’t have to memorize secret passwords to order your coffee.

Second, Zanzibar’s can brew a great coffee drink, which is helped greatly by the fact that they start with good beans and a good roast. At certain other coffee establishments they don’t give you much, if any choice of the beans that go into a brew. Zanzibar’s will allow you to choose the bean and roast, grind it for you on the spot, and make a brew that matches your desire.

Third, the characters that are found on both sides of the counter put the finishing touches on making Zanzibar’s what it is. I think that Zanzibar is about as Bohemian as it gets in Des Moines in a beret and chess way. The staff is invariably helpful and freindly and some have been working there for years. The patrons mostly have that comfortable look that invites everyone else to slow down and enjoy the day. If you find an old freind while stopping in, there is no better place to just sit down to catch up on what is going on. There is no wi-fi and with a good cup of coffee you can enter into a coffee time-warp of sorts. Give it a try, and put some coffee adventure into your next outing.

2723 Ingersoll Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50312
(515) 244-7694

Monday – Thursday 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday – Saturday 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Iowa City’s Prairie Lights Bookstore Times Club Coffee

Prairie Lights Times Club

Iowa City may actually be more famous overseas for its Writers Workshop and the Prairie Lights Bookstore than the Hawkeyes. I know that is hard to believe, but it is true. Making the awesome selection of books even more interesting is the fact that there is a very nice cafe on the second floor, called “Times Club.” As expected of a cafe in a bookstore it is well lit, with books and magazines lining the walls. Every time I’ve been there it is busy. The first time I ordered a latte I had too much syrup to tell just how good the latte really was. It is hard to judge how will a barista can pull a shot if you add syrup. So, the next time I visited I ordered it straight up with just nonfat milk. I have to tell you, it was very well made, it came in a nice fat mug and the flavor was fantastic. I don’t know where they get their beans or if they roast them themselves, but this particular cup was great. I will buy some of their beans the next time I visit and see if I can get more information on their roaster.

Prairie Lights Latte

Hot drinks for the Blizzard

With the wind and snow blowing outside and the certain prospect of being home bound tomorrow, it is time to dust off some quick hot drinks.

Most Complicated but Best

My personal favorite comes from a rare book I own called “Cocktails Collectors Edition” (I can’t find any available anywhere in the US) This particular hot drink is called Black Gold. The ingredients are as follows:

4 oz black coffee
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Baileys
1/2 oz Frangelico
Whipped Cream

Just dump the first four ingredients, add the whipped cream and sprinkle it with chocolate and ground cinnamon.

If all you have around the house is Baileys, then try the classic Bailey’s Irish Coffee.

1 oz Baileys
1 teaspoon brown sugar
hot coffee
Whipped Cream

If you don’t have Baileys but have Frangelico, then substitute that for the Baileys and sugar for a really fantastic drink. Frangelico is a hazelnut liqueur. The Frangelico bottle is the one that has the monk’s rope belt around the middle of the bottle. If you squint your eyes, or just drink enough, you can see the profile of the friendly monk. If you don’t have Baileys or Frangelico, but have rum, then 1/2 to 1 oz (to your personal preference) of rum works as well. If you don’t have any of that, then you really didn’t get ready for this blizzard, did you?

Non-alcoholic Drinks. For those who don’t want the alcohol, my favorite alternative is the Chai Tea Latte. You should have an espresso maker with a wand for this to make it right, though.

6 oz brewed Chai tea
6 oz steamed soy milk
1 oz of Chai tea flavoring or sugar to taste.

Does the AeroPress Coffee Maker Measure Up?

One of my friends got an AeroPress Coffee Maker for the holidays. Dubious about this multi-part plastic doohicky, I set forth to have a few cups of coffee through it so see what my friend was on about. At first glance it seems a bit “As Seen on TV,” what with all the different brown plastic bits and complicated setup, but the marketing copy promises a better, faster cup of coffee than with any other method, as well as the ability to make espresso.

The Bad

My friend says he goes through one AeroPress every year. He uses it twice or three-times daily, and eventually the press breaks. He says he gets his for $10 each, but I couldn’t find that price online. Amazon has it for $25.

It also uses much more coffee than other methods. Depending on the strength, it uses about a tablespoon and a half of grounds for a single cup. The same amount in a French-press usually nets me twice that. And if you want more than one cup you’ll have to run the AeroPress several times. It also takes a lot of time to prepare and clean. There’s also no crema on the espresso.

The Good

It uses the same granularity of grounds as a drip coffee maker. This can be invaluable if you don’t have a burr grinder.  The coffee tastes rich and slightly sweeter than out of a drip brew (which was the only comparison available to me at the time of writing this). The espresso comes surprisingly close to the dark, bitter taste of a real machine-pulled espresso.

On the whole, I would say the AeroPress is pretty good. It makes richer coffee than a dripolator and is pretty close to the taste of a Café Americano or a long-pull espresso (which is what you get when you order coffee in Europe). The espresso it makes is okay, but lacks a crema.

However, all the little parts are a pain to keep clean, and to keep from disappearing in a forgotten kitchen drawer. It’s also not as sexy as a Bodum French press or an antique percolator. Unlike a vacuum pot, you definitely couldn’t put it on display. I’d recommend it if the best coffee solution (whole beans and a burr grinder with an espresso machine, French press, or vacuum pot) is not available and you want something a little better than a drip brew machine.

Speaking for myself, I’ll stick to my French press. And I’ll use my vacuum pot for times when I feel like building a Lego set in order to make coffee.

Blue Line Coffee

Blue Line has two locations in Omaha: one in the burgeoning North Downtown neighborhood and the other in Dundee. Because I live close to the downtown location and go there often, that’s what this review is about.

Blue Line styles itself as a French espresso cafe, complete with light fixtures that resemble gaslights, big vintage absinthe posters, and a small, comfortable bar. It’s a fun place in a good part of town. Next door are a number of other great places, including Slowdown, the Film Streams movie theater, and Greenstreet Cycles. Blue Line becomes the natural stop before or after a movie at Film Streams, after a show at Slowdown, or while my bike is getting fixed at Greenstreet. What I’ve done several times is pick up a sandwich from Blue Line and bring it in to a movie. I’m not sure this is technically allowed, but I figured that everyone else is munching on popcorn the whole time, so I might as well have a pannini.

Blue Line’s food isn’t anything fancy, of course. It’s mostly just simple toasted panninis, quiche, some black-bean burgers, and other cafe food. The coffee, however, is excellent. The iced coffee is among the best available in Omaha, and it might be the only coffee shop in the area that uses the real cold-brew process, instead of simply brewing coffee hot and then refrigerating it. The quality of the beans is also very good, and I frequently buy their whole beans for later use. Although several of the coffee strains they sell are not technically organic or free-trade (which requires expensive third-party certification), Chris, the rather eccentric owner, apparently flies out to the coffee farms in Africa which produce his coffee to ensure their quality and ethics. That’s dedication.

One of the few problems with Blue Line is the incessant be-bop and hard-bop that’s always playing. I enjoy jazz well enough, but constant loud be-bop gets rather grating after awhile. It’s fine if you bring headphones or you’re a loud talker.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Blue Line is also the only Omaha coffee shop that also serves alcohol. It’s not an especially overwhelming selection, but they have plenty of wine, bottled beer, scotch, and absinthe. Blue Line wonderfully fills the role as the place to go when all other places seem expensive or tiresome, or when you want cocktails, she wants coffee, and he wants wine.

Vacuum Pot Coffee Makers

Of all the various and myriad ways with which to make coffee, perhaps the strangest, most arcane method is the vacuum pot. It is certainly the most visually striking. Run a Google image search for vacuum pot coffee makers, and you’ll see what I mean. They tend to resemble laboratory instruments for a Victorian-era alchemist. As you can see in the picture, the lower bulb holds the water and the upper section holds the coffee grounds. Between them is a glass tube with a cotton filter.

The ideal gas law in action

Not only do they look weird, the method by which they make the coffee is also unique. The vacuum pot exploits the relationship between temperature, pressure, and volume by heating the water, which boils into steam. The steam expands, pushing the water up through the tube and the filter, and into the upper section with the grounds. The water brews directly with the coffee grounds until you remove the heating element. Then the steam cools and creates a vacuum and the brewed coffee in the upper section is pulled back through the filter. This creates and audible sucking sound and leaves the grounds almost completely dry.

And the coffee tastes wonderful. It has a kick of strong flavor that’s hard to get with most other methods. It’s easy to make too strong, but properly brewed it almost tastes like an espresso.

Making coffee with a vacuum pot is a really fun experience. Lots of careful preparation and measurement brings back fond memories of Bunsen burners, redox equations, and tritation (well, not so much the redox equations). It rescues the daily chore of making coffee and transforms it into an archaic and pleasurable experience. Indeed, vacuum pots were among the first modern coffee makers, first introduced in the mid 1800′s.

However, it takes a long time, which means that it’s strictly a weekend ritual for me. Vacuum pots are also expensive and delicate, generally running around $50 a pop. A far cry from a $20 Target electric dripolator with all the bells and whistles.

It’s definitely not my primary coffee maker. That’s a trusty old French press, of course. But it’s great fun to use and show off and makes wonderful, strong coffee.

Yama 3 cup Vacuum Pot Coffee maker

What goes into a good cup of coffee?

I am a recent convert to the joys of drinking coffee.  I grew up in a household of coffee drinkers, but the coffee was so awful that I could not see the attraction. It frequently came out of a Sanka bottle and was bitter and nasty.  Half the time the coffee in the pot was leftover from the day before, just reheated.   But then I started to get into espressos, lattes and cappuccinos  and I was hooked. I’ve since learned a lot about how to make and enjoy great coffee.

If you want to enjoy really good coffee there are two routes that you can take. First, you can simply buy each cup of coffee from a good local coffee shop. This is easy, but expensive. The second way is to brew your own coffee, whether as regular “Americano” style or as a espresso, latte, or cappuccino.

I will skip the option of buying finished coffee.  Here are my quick tips for making great coffee.

1. Great Coffee begins with great beans.  You need to buy roasted beans that will work well for what it is you want to make. If you want a regular cup of coffee, then buy a lighter roast. These beans will be a lighter shade of brown.  For a full-flavored espresso you can go with a dark “french” style roasted bean.  If you want a particular flavor, coffee beans from different regions offer slightly different tastes.  A Kenyan free trade bean I recently tried, has a “tang” taste to it.  It was a bit too much for me but blended with other beans made a good blend for a latte, where you need some stronger flavors to punch through the milk and other flavorings. We buy our beans from Zanzibar’s on Ingersoll and Greene Bean Coffee in Jefferson, Iowa.  To buy Zanzibar’s coffee we go directly to the shop at 2723 Ingersoll. They are continually roasting new batches of beans. Tell them what it is that you want to do with the beans and they will help you choose the best beans, based on your taste preference and the current supply.  One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that there is no prejudice against blending different beans. If you want a more complex coffee, blending different beans is the best way to go.  Zanzibar’s excells at putting together a House Blend that is great for lattes.   We obtain our Greene Bean Coffee from the Iowa Food Cooperative.  As with any good roaster, the bags are all marked with the date that the beans were roasted.

Coffee Bags

2. You need freshly roasted beans.  I was surprised to learn that after beans are roasted they go through a fairly rapid oxidation process. After two to three weeks they are not going to taste as good as they did.  One way to can track this process is to look for oil on the beans. If you obtain coffee beans that have been recently roasted they will usually have an oily sheen.  That oil will slowly evaporate away as the beans age.

Oily Beans

3.  You need to properly grind the beans. For regular coffee, a cheap blade grinder will do. For latte, espresso, and cappuccino, you need to use a burr grinder. These cost between $50 and $1,700, with  very good grinders in the $200 to $360 range.  The goal for a  latte, espresso, and cappuccino is to grind it down to a very fine size.  For Turkish-stye coffee, where the grounds are added directly to the brew, an even finer setting must be available.

Rancilio MD 40 Burr Grinder

4. You need to properly store and then use the beans.  Seal the beans in an air-tight container.  Grind them up and use them within a week or so for best results.

5.  You need to properly brew the coffee.  For American style coffee, it is mostly about water temperature.  I once worked for the coffee division of a large commercial food company and there really isn’t that much difference between coffee machines that just make regular drip coffee. They are basically a steel pot with a heating element and some mechanism for getting the hot water to drop over the ground coffee.  The only way to go wrong is to put in too much or too little coffee or to use an inferior coffee.  The vast majority of corporate coffee is made from Robusta and inferior Arabica beans. These ingredients will not make great coffee. One way to make a better pot of coffee, in my opinion, is to use a French press.  A French press allows the water to be in contact with the grounds for a longer period of time than with a drip mechanism.

A  In order to make a good  espresso, latte, or cappuccino you need an espresso machine. The cheap ($60)  machines available at department stores are likely to be steam-driven.  These are inexpensive and fairly care-free as they have few moving parts. However, they are not going to make a great product. A better choice is a pump-driven machine, which is what you will see at a real coffee shop.

Professional Espresso Machine

Pump-driven espresso machines are available at almost any price from $200 on up to nearly infinity. I will save for later a fuller explanation of all of the different types, but some will do almost all of the work for you, others use “pods” made by coffee distributors, and others are mostly manual affairs (semi-automatics):

Gaggia Classic

6.  Make the coffee, espresso, latte, or cappuccino.

The sign of a properly prepared espresso is the crema.  This is the product of the right beans, the right roast, freshness, and proper temperature and pressing.  Enjoy.

Espresso Crema