Alright we're trying something new on 60 beans today! Here's a guest interview of a good friend of mine, Katie McCarthy, who is one of the coolest and cutest horn players you'll ever meet. Katie lives with her husband Benjamin in Chicago, where they have lately been taking further steps into the world of coffee aficionados (cofficionados?). Read about her history with coffee after the jump!
What was your first experience with coffee?
My first coffee experience came from my parents, who drank it every morning of my childhood. I woke up every day to the sound of my mom grinding beans, now that I think about it.
My parents had a coffee station set up in our kitchen. Nothing fancy, but it was well stocked and well used, consisting of a tupperware full of beans, a red Krups grinder (which my mom still uses), a drip machine, a jar of sugar, and a jar of cinnamon/sugar. Above all this in a cabinet was my parents' mug collection from the various places they'd traveled (both worked as travel directors for several years).
My favorite mug as a kid was (still is) their Cafe Du Monde mug from New Orleans. I'm not sure why I took to it...I think it was a really plain mug! (a few years ago I visited Nola for the first time and went to Cafe Du Monde. Incredible, obviously. but what I didn't expected was the sweet moment I had when I saw the Cafe Du Monde coffee mugs in action at Cafe Du Monde; I had only ever known that one, singular mug existing in my home so far away. Now they were everywhere, caffeinating an entire city!)
Give an overview of how you got into the brew!
stage 1: I fell in love with coffee shops before I liked coffee, thanks to Cheyenne Oyen, my bff from UW who also disliked coffee but loved studying at cafes. We went to cafes frequently, only ordering tea or hot chocolate. That got old fast.
stage 2: During my sophomore year one of my best friends, Elysa DiMauro, started working as a barista at Barriques in Madison, on cap square. She talked often about coffee and met some really cool people at that cafe, so I became intrigued. I asked her one day to help me like coffee. So we met up at Barriques, sat on their outside patio, and she brought me an iced mocha. Extra chocolate I'm sure. I took a sip, and made the face a 3 year-old makes when they taste a lemon. It was too bitter. Elysa took a sip, and busted out laughing because it was essentially chocolate milk with a hint of espresso. I was discouraged, but vowed to keep trying.
stage 3: Fast forward to grad school: I'm judging coffee shops by how well they make an iced mocha now, and I'm always asking for fewer pumps of chocolate (why didn't I just graduate to a latte? old habits die hard). Eventually, benjamin and I become friends with this great couple, Jon and Amy, and they're super into coffee. They make us coffee with their Aeropress, we are amazed. We go home, we start making coffee regularly with an old french press we'd inherited. They come visit us, we go on a food/coffee tour of Chicago. Benjamin and I get married July 2014, and our honeymoon essentially revolves around food and coffee. In Maui, Kauai, and San Francisco we visit coffee farms and shops and buy about 10 lbs of whole bean coffee to bring home with us. Honeymoon coffee highlights: O'o Farm in Maui, Kauai Coffee in Kauai, and Blue Bottle Coffee in SF.
Do you have a coolest coffee-related experience?
O'o Farm in Maui on our honeymoon. We bought a farm tour, and it was hands down the best $100 we've ever spent. We got to walk around 10 acres of this beautiful farm guided by one of their farm hands, pick our own food, pick some coffee cherries, see their roasting facility, and then ate this crazy awesome meal outside which was followed by their own bean-to-cup coffee. O'o Farm is in Maui's Kula region, which has an elevation of about 3500 feet and due to its shade, moisture, and latitude, it's perfect for growing incredible coffee.
Favorite local haunts?
Floriole, Bagelers Coffeehouse, Citygrounds, Osmium, Bourgeious Pig, Heritage.
What's your choice method of home brewing?
Pour over, for sure. We use a V60 and a Bonavita goose-neck kettle. Both of these trinkets have upped our coffee game considerably :)
Do you have inspiring coffee characters in your life?
Elysa DiMauro and April Nett. These ladies were passionate about coffee before it was cool and have helped me to appreciate it. Also they recently opened their own cafe in Philly, Menagerie Coffee, which I'm about to visit in March for the first time!
Thanks so much Katie! Coffee sippers, gulpers, addicts, and lovers will always be welcome around here :)
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