A typical morning at Sacramento’s oldest specialty roaster

It’s a typical morning at Coffee Works, Sacramento’s oldest specialty roaster that has been serving its house-made blends to East Sacramento and beyond since 1982. Back in those days, recalls owner John Shahabian, there were no specialty coffee houses and Starbucks had yet to stake its claim in the state capital.

So, we’ve been a little busy – and this post is a little late…

A couple of weeks ago, our neighbors at Sac News & Review put up an excellent article about Sacramento’s thriving coffee scene — particularly the independent specialty roasters. As you well know, Coffee Works has been priming, roasting, and brewing since 1982. We appreciated joining with our Sacramento peers in SN&R’s article.

Community and culture I think is really what this is about. I told one of my friends that it’s like a place where we can repair our souls.

It is especially nice that this article came out on the heels of another article they printed/posted in September about hockey player and chief roaster, Stevan Teague. You can learn some of his secrets to a great cup of coffee and Coffee Work’s longevity (lasting quality!) via this link.

Otherwise, please enjoy this article by Steph Rodriguez, about the national award winning and flourishing scene.

(PDF LINK)

Sacramento French Film Festival Starts on Father’s Day Weekend

Coffee Works has teamed up with Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission to produce 2017’s Sacramento French Film Festival.

Opening night was last Friday at Sacramento’s Crest Theater.

The festival will close this coming Sunday with HEAL THE LIVING at 7:45pm at the Crest Theatre, followed by a Closing Night Champagne & Dessert Party in the lobby of the Crest Theatre. Read more

Uganda AA “Bugisu”

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The Pearl of Africa

Is it possible to overstate the importance of the East Africa Rift System to coffee-lovers? On that distant ridge of tropical peaks and highlands, zig-zagging from Sinai to Zimbabwe, the coffee plant made its botanical debut. There, at the edge of the continent, the best of it still thrives.

East of Lake Victoria and Mount Elgon (4,321 m), where the Equator meets the Rift, lie the celebrated Kenya coffee lands. To the West of Elgon lies the lesser-known Bugisu (Boo-gih-shoo), Uganda’s premier growing region. Read more

Myanmar Natural “Golden Triangle”

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The British introduced coffee trees to Burma (now Myanmar) circa 1900. There was a flirt with development in the fifties and sixties, but regional and internal political and economic turmoil left the Myanmar coffee plantations in the stone age of world production. Not good maybe for the central bankers of Myanmar, but oh so perfect conditions for those of us looking for the next source of unspoiled coffee. Read more

Colombia “San Agustin”

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Coffee has been king in Colombia more than a century. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of “mild” arabica coffee, and, next to Brazil, the second largest producer of all coffee. In 1998 it made $565 million as America’s No. 1 supplier.

Call it codependency. The smiling trademarked face of the fictitious Juan Valdez is an icon of Western culture, better known than the logos for CBS and AT&T. Since 1959 Juan has been sent to persuade us that Colombian is “the world’s richest coffee”. Read more

Ethiopia Natural Sidamo

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Call me Mr. Natural

If coffee drinking were a religion, Ethiopia would be the Holy Land. The coffee faithful would trek there, like the annual hadj of Mohammedans to Mecca.

In the Sidamo province of southern Ethiopia, where the Great Rift system lifts the north-eastern African plateau above 5,000 ft., the species coffea originated. It was from here that ancient traders, identities shrouded in the mists of time, ferried plants across the Red Sea to establish the first coffee farms on the arid mountainsides of southern Arabia, today’s Yemen. Read more