Vienna Coffee Company

Now Hiring!

2010-03-05T15:38:00.001-05:00

Join VCC's team. We are now hiring an operations Manager. We're looking for the right candidate to help us get to the next level. Successful candidate will have at least 10 years commercial or industrial experience. Must be a coffee lover. Responsible for creating & executing operating procedures for packaging, wholesale and retail fulfillment, equipment maintenance and asset management.

Guate travels: Juan

2010-02-24T11:54:00.002-05:00

One of the days that we went to Alberto's field he took us to his son Juan's farm to meet his family. They were great and their coffee trees were very well maintained.

Due to the height difference of the trees and Juan's family who picks the cherries. The first picture shows how they work around this issue. They use a rope tied to the tree and pull is down with a hook tied to a stump on the ground. That enables them to get the cherries at the very top of the tree.

The next picture is Juan picking some of his great coffee. And the third picture is of his wife.

Their work is a whole family affair, Juan's daughters, wife, and Father (Alberto) all work the fields to produce the wonderful coffee that makes up La Armonia Hermosa.

Winter Seasonal Drink Competition

2010-02-18T16:51:00.003-05:00

Congratulations Jim Lindsay! He is our 2010 Spring Seasonal Drink Competition Winner.

Check out his delicious Marshmallow Mocha Latte on our website. Now this is not your average Mocha... check it out!

Jim Lindsay stated, "The snow and making hot cocoa, with marshmallows, for the kids inspired it, so I know it's perfect for coming in to from being out in the cold weather!"

Home Sweet Home

2010-02-15T16:42:00.005-05:00

John, Les, and Jamie are all back from a great trip in Guatemala.

There were so many great things that happened this trip that we will continue to update the blog with new photos and stories from this past month.

The first image is of Demetrio, one of the new farmers of La Armonia Hermosa Coffee. He is showing us his large arabica trees. He has a wide assortment of coffee trees of all ages and an assortment of shade trees. He's great! Incredibly animated, and very passionate about his crop.

The second image is Demetrio walking back from his farm to the path probably carrying about 40 pounds worth of jocote (a tropical fruit) on his back! The incredible part is he is 56 years old and barely broke a sweat!

Also incredible is this path that he and all the other farmers have to walk up with all of their products to go back up to Santa Maria from their farm! Wow... these guys are strong and fit! You didn't want to see us after climbing this hill without anything on our backs.

The last image is John and Les talking with Demetrio about his crop this year and eveything that goes into it. Very exciting!

Next edition: Juan's farm and family

El Salvador: Casa de la Tia Nena

2010-02-08T13:03:00.007-05:00

During our trip to Guatemala, we came in contact with Rodolfo, a finca owner in El Salvador close to Santa Ana who is part of the organization called Casa de la Tia Nena. He requested that we come down to visit his family's finca (camp). It was a great experience as we learned the coffee processes in El Salvador. Their farm/beneficio is much larger than the one we work with in Santa Maria. Rodolfo is incredibly hospitable and very willing to show us around. We learned a lot from both him and his land. Here are a few pictures from our trip...

The first image is of unripe coffee drying (with the cherries still on the bean) on the patio of Rodolfo's brother-in-law. When they sort the ripe coffee cherries from the unripe coffee, they keep the unripe cherries to use for themselves and dry them on patios around their land.

The second image is of a coffee tree nursery. Notice how good these seedlings look.

The third image is of the bags of coffee cherries that the pickers picked. Imagine carrying one of those on your back up a huge hill!

The fourth image is of Rodolfo weighing the bags of cherries that have been picked by his pickers. When Rodolfo took us around his land he had us walk up the mountains like the pickers do. We, however, didn't have 100 lbs of coffee strapped to our backs. The agility, strength, and determination of these pickers are incredible. I'm fairly in shape, and I was huffing, puffing and falling all over the place.

The fourth image is of their beneficio (wet mill). This is a large scale beneficio. The one we are constructing in Santa Maria will not be this large.

The fifth image is of Rodolfo giving Les some green samples of his coffee (these beans are not roasted) to take back for Vienna Coffee to sample roast. Notice in the background that they have a large warehouse full of coffee ready to be shipped to different roasters around the country.

Like I mentioned before, the trip was very informative. We hope to continue the relationship with Rodolfo, and see if we can help each other in the future.

Guate travels: Pictures

2010-02-05T11:53:00.005-05:00

Interested in what we have been doing while in Guatemala? Here is a brief picture summary of what we've been up to...

The first picture is outside of John's window the first two nights he was in Antigua.

We then went to Dometrio's land. We are taking a little break eating Jocotes. One of Dometrio's shade crops over his coffee trees.

These are the "chicken" buses that take people to and from the different villages and cities in Guatemala.

John, Les, and Jamie took a nice relaxing lunch at Epicure. It had a beautiful plaza in the middle of it, and the food was spectacular! We even received complimentary chocolate/ginger truffles.... yumm.

Then the day before John left for his "origin" tour with the Roaster's Guild, we all went to a great vineyard in Santa Maria which is supposedly the only winery in Central America. It is new, but has tasty wine and is in a BEAUTIFUL location!

The last photos is of the casa where we were able to taste the wine, and there's a little restaurant inside too. Also, Les was able to talk with the owner of the vineyard (Château Defay), and they might be willing to sell La Armoñia Hermosa coffee by the bag and by the cup at the winery.

John in Guatemala

2010-02-01T21:20:00.005-05:00

John made his way from Atlanta to Guatemala city this past week in preparation to take an "origin" tour of different beneficios (coffee mills) and fincas around Guatemala with the Roaster's Guild.

Before his official tour John spent the weekend with Les, Jamie and the farmers of Santa Maria de Jesus. These are pictures of John depulping 250 pounds of coffee! Now that's a lot of coffee!

In the first picture Julio, Les and John are picking out the green (unripe) cherries before they go through the depulper. These exact beans were picked by some new farmers who have decided to join the co-op. We are excited to have them because they had some of the best picked coffee we've seen. "Solo rojo."

The second picture is of John actually cranking the depulper. The cherries go from the top and get squished along the copper grate which pushes the beans out of the cherry pulp. This is some tiring work. The stuff coming out at the bottom of the depulper is only the pulp that is later composted back into the soil.

The third picture is the beans coming out of the depulper. There are a few of the cherries left with the beans, but those will be sorted out in the washing process.

More updates from the field coming soon...

Announcing FlourPower

2010-01-24T17:35:00.004-05:00

We would like to announce our newest Vendor of our coffee...

Please welcome FlourPower to our great list of vendors. Located behind Purple Dog Art Boutique in Abbeville, AL, this quaint boutique and bakery opened its doors at the end of November last year. Owners, Sarah Williams and Paulette Riley enjoyed a great Grand Opening with drinks, food, and entertainment from Clark Williams and Yuri Hoshino. Here's some pictures from that event. Thanks FlourPower for choosing Vienna Coffee.

Beneficio in Santa Maria

2010-01-22T14:22:00.003-05:00

Les had a great meeting with the farmers this week. They have created a contract for the land that the beneficio (wet mill) will be constructed on. Because of the demand during picking season, construction will not start this season. Things move quite slow here in Guatemala, but it looks like construction might start in April! This is great news!

Just yesterday Julio and his nephew received and processed more than 18 Quintales of coffee cherries from various farmers within the coop. That's a lot of coffee cherries to process on his small depulpper. Therefore the idea of having a beneficio with a larger depulper and drying patio is a great idea for efficiency, and it will allow for more of the farmers to get more involved in the processing of their own coffee.

This is a video of the land that will have the beneficio on it...

Photos of Alberto's land

2010-01-18T11:00:00.004-05:00

As mentioned before, here are some pictures from Alberto's field. The first image is of the coffee cherries from one of Alberto's trees. They are almost ready for their first picking!

The second picture is of Alberto on the left, Julio (the main contact and organizer of the cooperative) in the middle and his son Melvin on the right.

The third image is of a coffee cherry with the two coffee beans that are found inside of each cherry. The beans are covered in a sweet tasting mucilage (the tan color). This mucilage is what ferments after the cherries have been depulped (depulping is what I did manually to show the beans inside. It is basically just taking off the outside ruby red flesh). From there the bean (with the mucilage on it still), is set out on drying racks and the mucilage turns into paper-thin parchment (this phase is called pergamino). I will show more of the phases later.

And the fourth image is of the coffee bean flowers. Before there are cherries, these white flowers form on the branches. Once these are pollinated then they will turn into the beautiful coffee cherries. The cherries start out as green to yellow to orange to light red to ruby red. If you don't pick it early enough they kind of turn a reddish brown color. All of these pictures were taken at the same time. Therefore, as you can tell there has to be multiple pickings of ripe cherries because some of the cherries are ready to be picked while others are still in their flower form.

More to come later...

Guate travels: Alberto

2010-01-15T11:49:00.004-05:00

Jamie and Les left the freezing USA last Monday to go to the deliciously warm Antigua, Guatemala to work with and visit the coffee farmers of Santa Maria de Jesus. To their great happiness, their first week in beautiful Guate was great consisting of farm visits, shared meals, and many meetings.

Here is a snippet of one of their trips to Santa Maria de Jesus...
"After catching a ride on the back of a local's truck and taking the long hike down from the village onto the farmland, we came to Alberto's land where the harvest is looking great. (photos will come shortly). He has shade trees full of avocados, lemons, Kumquats, bananas, pacaya and many other delicious treats. His coffee trees are full and plump with beautiful coffee cherries ready for the picking. Alberto, a masterful farmer, has a great selection of different varieties of coffee which helps if a coffee blight takes over one of the varietals. You can tell Alberto has such great passion for his crops not only by his enthusiasm when showing off his land and the twinkle in his eye, but also the health of all of his trees and plants. BEA-U-TI-FUL!"

The picture is of Volcan Agua (the Volcano Santa Maria de Jesus is located on)

Please check back in the near future for more about Les and Jamie's trip and pictures.

INTRODUCING: Audra Doughty

2010-01-12T18:18:00.003-05:00

Vienna Coffee Company is excited to introduce to you our newest employee...
Audra Doughty.

Audra found Vienna Coffee Company in 2005 when she opened her own coffee house in Athens, TN. Supplying the best available product and supporting local business being key to her success, Vienna was the obvious choice. After three and a half wonderful years of self employment Audra now joins our company with a vast insight into both the café business and its customers' needs. She is thrilled by the opportunity to pass her "trial by fire" experience, love for coffee and passion to see others succeed in their dreams on to Vienna's existing and soon to be customers.

Audra likes to start her day off with a 3 shot breve latte with just a touch of Monin's Pure Cane Sugar Syrup using only the best; Vienna's Espresso Bella.

So if you see Audra around town be sure to tell her, "hey!"

La Armonia Hermosa coffee farm visit

2010-01-08T19:39:00.003-05:00

Les and Jamie are off next Monday to Guatemala to work with the coffee farmers of our delicious La Armonia Hermosa coffee. Keep up with the story of the project at their website.

During this trip the goal is to start construction on a cistern that is needed for constructing the wet mill. Creating a wet mill will let the farmers to process their own coffee which gives them more control over the quality, and it will also employ the farmers which will allow more money to stay within their community instead of the larger beneficios (processing plants). John will be joining them at the end of January where we will help pick the coffee berries. Everyone is excited about the trip and will take many pictures!

*The picture is of the wet mill at Azotea where they get their coffee processed currently.

Espresso and Latte Art Training

2010-01-05T15:03:00.005-05:00

Last month we had a record month and some exciting new classes. Les Stoneham held an Espresso and Latte Art Class on December 28th. The turn out was great with people from all over the world!

For the first half of the class, Les instructed all of the students on the history, agriculture methods, and what goes into pouring the perfect shot of espresso. Here is a short snapshot of this section of the class...

The second half of the class, the participants were divided into two groups. One group enjoyed some tasty treats (some people asked for these recipes, please check back soon. I'll post them in a later post) and learned how to create a latte on some of the high quality home espresso machines VCC has to offer (Nuova Simonelli Oscar, and Rancillo Silva). The second group was with Les again learning hands-on how to pour the perfect cappuccino, latte art included. With a sampling of our Little River Style Espresso and our Fair Trade Thunderhead Espresso, Each student was given the chance to pull their own shot and enjoy their own handmade drinks off of our Nuova Simonelli Appia compact commercial espresso machine. Then the two groups rotated. The class was incredibly enjoyable and informational with participants from all walks of their "coffee journey."

It was such a success that John has decided to make this training a seasonal training. If you are interested in attending the next class please don't hesitate to call or email us for more information. We have not planned the next event yet, but please check back soon.

Interesting Coffee Fact: Random acts of Kindness

2009-12-17T16:23:00.004-05:00

Did you know that on December 14th, 2007, in Exton, Pennsylvania a US army vet gave $10,000 to a Salvation Army bell ringer in appreciation for the coffee and donuts he had been given during World War II. Random acts of kindness like this, can help to change the world even if it is only a few people's worlds at a time, every bit helps.

This holiday season think about doing some kind of random act of kindness. Everyone could use a little holiday cheer!

Happy giving!

Latte Art Class

2009-12-14T10:59:00.003-05:00

Time is running out for your holiday shopping. So, we just wanted to remind you of a great gift for any barista or wanna-be barista...

Date: December 29, 2009
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Where: Vienna Coffee Company Roastery
(106 Everett Ave. Maryville, TN 37804)

Come in for a night of espresso and latte art magic as Les Stoneham, Great Lakes Barista Championship Finalist and trainer, teaches and demonstrates how to pour the perfect shot and create those stunning latte art designs that have won him barista competitions.

This class is a perfect gift for any espresso lover. The class is designed for beginner baristas and those who are interesting in touching up on their latte art skills.

Delicious snacks and latte drinks will be provided.

*when purchasing this product, a gift certificate will be sent to you or you can pick it up at the roastery.

Price: $18.00

Click here to buy a certificate online.

Interesting Coffee Fact: Coffee Filters

2009-12-11T15:53:00.003-05:00

Did you know that in December of 1908 in Dresden, Germany a housewife, Melitta Benta invented the modern day coffee filter by experimenting with her son's blotting paper after being tired of drinking coffee grounds. She then established a business for the manufacture of coffee filters. Want to know more? Please click here.

Thank you Melitta!

Cutshaw's Vacation with Vienna Coffee

2009-12-07T14:27:00.005-05:00

Our wonderful inside sales and fulfillment coordinator, Mary Cutshaw vacationed with her family this past October to Sanibel Island, and "took along our favorite Vienna Coffee to enjoy on the beach." This is a beautiful picture of her daugher Holly on the beach with a Vienna Coffee travel mug. Like the Cutshaw's you too can enjoy Vienna Coffee anywhere with our stainless steal travel mug, just click here for more information.

Avanti Savoi

2009-12-01T13:13:00.002-05:00

A couple Friday's ago, one of our wonderful vendor's, Avanti Savoia had an open house with our coffee out on display. It was a wonderful night had by all. Here are a few pictures of the event.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T11:27:00.002-05:00

Gobble Gobble Gobble...
Who said that,
big ole turkey
big and fat...

Gobble Gobble Gobble...
what did he say
"Eat me on Thanksgiving day."

or for the vegetarians out there, insert "big ole tofurky, big and fat"

Don't forget to grab a bag of our Pumpkin Pie Spice flavored coffee for your Thanksgiving feast today because starting tomorrow, the roastery will be closed the rest of the week. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

In this time of Thanksgiving we would love to hear from you. What are you thankful for?

We would also like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to spend time with friends and family this holiday.

Interesting Coffee Fact

2009-11-23T10:22:00.002-05:00

Did you know that according to Ricardo Levins Morales's Coffee Calendar, "coffee became a part of Arab weddings, early in its history. Freshly made coffee was poured in front of the bride's feet to please the spirits."

Sampling at EarthFare - Turkey Creek

2009-11-18T12:48:00.003-05:00

Come out this Saturday to EarthFare in Turkey Creek for a free sampling of Vienna Coffee Company's exquisite offerings! This week we will be sampling our delicious Fair Trade, USDA Organic certified, Guatemalan coffee.

This coffee is clean and crisp. A well-balance "classic" full-bodied coffee from the western Huehuetenango growing region. This full city-roast has variable sized beans yielding a broad roast profile. But you won't be able to understand the intricacies of this coffee unless you come out to taste it.

The store is located at:
10903 Parkside Drive
Knoxville, Tennessee 37934

Store Hours:
Monday - Saturday: 9am - 10pm Sunday: 9am - 9pm

Make sure to say "Hey" to our wonderful staff, Micah and Chuck!

We Need Your Help: Hoodie Design

2009-11-10T18:02:00.003-05:00

Hey customers, we need your help. We are working on a design for a new Vienna Coffee hoodie, and we would like your opinion. Please let us know which style of hoodie you like: the pullover or the zip down. The actual hoodies might not be these exact hoodies, but we are hoping you can get the idea.

Also, the designs are just sketches at this time, but please let us know what you think about placement and/or your opinion on the sketch ideas.

We really appreciate your help!

Please click on the image for a larger version (from there you can then click that image and view a larger image.)

Please either comment on here or email Jamie with your responses

Saul Bolanos: Cafegrafia

2009-11-09T16:52:00.004-05:00

Saul Bolanos from Costa Rica developed a photographic process using light sensative emulsion to transfer liquid coffee images onto tiles. Since then he has developed other forms of coffee printing including coffee art masterpieces on coffee filters.

It's incredible. "Coffee Images can also be produced on coffee filter paper. They have the Aroma, Color and Taste of Pure Coffee and are 90% Costa Rican Coffee with 10% humidity. There are no other ingredients. Each Coffee Filter Image is a work of art,
or just put it in your coffee maker and drink your coffee art." *taken from http://www.squidoo.com/coffeeprints

Check out his work at http://www.costaricacoffeeart.com.

Artsclamation 2009

2009-11-05T18:10:00.002-05:00

This Saturday Vienna Coffee Company will be serving coffee at the 2009 Artsclamation Art Show. This annual Fine Art Sale benefits the behavioral health services of Peninsula. Here's in the information: We'd love for you to come out and support Pennisula. They have a lot of talented work and artist at the show. We've gotten some really great pieces in the past!

November 7, 2009
9am - 5pm
Sacred Heart Cathedral
School Gymnasium
711 Northshore Drive
Knoxville, TN

Hope to see you there!