Muertos Coffee

My wife and I were in Old Town Glendale, Az at a cool taco shop that had a beautiful mosaic in the front and was full of great Mexican art (food was good too). I was in the mood to check out a coffee shop and get my first review up. Old Town Glendale is a neat little spot. It is in a very old part of town (as its name would imply) and much of the area is run down. There is a cool pocket of good restaurants and an artsy vibe. A really great place for a cool coffee shop. I hopped onto Yelp and picked the only open coffee shop (economy has been hard on mom and pop shops in Az) and thumbed through the pics ( http://www.yelp.com/biz/mighty-cup-glendale ). Looked interesting enough. It had a "New Times Favorite Coffee Shop" poster. Surely that applies to the coffee too, right? It was a quick drive from the restaurant. Parking was open and easily accessible. The approach wasn't quite and enticing as I would have liked, but I was willing to hold judgment until I had the ...

I coincidentally began my Twitter account just before the SCAA Symposium.   It looks like a fantastic event. I also wonder if I would be completely overwhelmed by the collective knowledge in that building. My current approach to coffee is fairly primitive, “Me like,” or, “Me no like.” I feel, at times, like I am a tadpole trying to push my evolution onto the sand while others are building the Tower of Babel. I read blog posts and picture them in lab coats and pocket protectors instead of aprons. They can be very difficult for me to follow because many of these posts are written with assumptions about coffee that I have not yet established. * For example, I just learned that the ideal cup extracts only the first 20% of the grounds which results in a 1.4% solution (please correct me if I am wrong because I am assuming brew strength is equal to the percentage of coffee in the solution). I read that and instantly my eyes glazed. Panic filled my heart and I flashed back ...

Hello, Coffee World! I have a dream of owning my own coffee shop one day. This blog is my first step. I was first introduced to coffee by my father and his "Cowboy Coffee." When we went camping my father would scoop coffee directly into the bottom of a coffee pot, fill it with water and put it in the coals. As a child, I normally opted for hot chocolate. As I got older and it became more difficult to wake up before sun rise, I started taking coffee. This is where I coined the phrase, "Crunchy Coffee." The coffee was strong, thick enough to float a horse shoe (as my father would say) and had a lot of grounds in it (no filter). When I was in my early 20's I got a job working at Starbucks. I loved this job. I had been working in restaurants since I was 15 and love service industry. Starbucks allowed me to connect with people in a different way. I also learned that I love the process of serving customers. I eagerly accepted the challenge of 120 drinks in 30 mi...