#YelpCoffee – Origins: Coffee at the Source @ The Hub

Great job on explanation of coffee. Excellent examples for tasting.
Enjoyed the event

This event was so much fun and definitely up there with my top favorite Unilocal events! I love the chance to learn something new about something that is a regular part of my world. Coffee — I never knew so much thought, detail, love, work, and process went into my cup of coffee! Mark and his team at the Hub did a lovely presentation about the ins and outs of their sourcing and roasting. It was so fascinating to learn about the variety of places that they travel, the different qualities they look for, and the expressions of roasting that they perfect. Not only was the presentation great, it was a lovely experience overall between the outdoor tented seating and all the delicious I samples they provided throughout the lecture. And that cold brewed coffee — wow! So creamy and smooth on the palate without even a drop of milk. Nice work, Mark and Michael T!

Let’s start at the very beginning. That’s a very good place to start.
This was the beginning of process to make the magical elixir of life known as Coffee (yes with a capital C). Thanks to our own CM Michael Tragash we will be able to learn and follow that whole journey from plant to cup.
The first step is an origin story. The growth and development of the magic bean from soldier to planting to growing the fruit, to harvesting the seed, is a long one. We are not talking about a mass produced product here. All of these coffees are hand picked from small farms with local people who take pride in their product.
Mark Trujillo, owner of Hub coffee, and his young roaster, David, Walked us through the process. He buys directly from the growers so he knows the quality of the product. During the very informative and educational presentation we were treated to: tea brewed from the coffee fruit (the coffee bean is the seed), a Mexican coffee, and a cold brewed nitrogen infused toddy.
It was a lovely way to learn; sitting out under a tent, in a beautiful setting on a warm summer day, sipping amazing drinks, and learning the beginnings of the perfect cup of coffee with a fine group of fellow coffee lovers.

Terrific event and very educational. It was very interesting to hear how Mark Trujillo selects the ingredients for his fantastic coffees, and the processes he uses to roast the raw beans. We sampled Cascara, which is a tea brewed from the husk of the coffee beans; a Mexico-​sourced coffee; and a cold-​brewed, nitrogen-​infused Toddy which definitely got a buzz going. If this coffee-​month kicking off event is indicative of the quality of coming events, I really look forward to them. This event was very much worth attending.

I felt like I was back in school today. Mark Trujillo and David put on a presentation for as almost two hours on the origins of coffee.
Most of us take our coffee for granted, me included, and do not realize the work it takes to make that one perfect cup of coffee.
For us it is venturing to the grocery store and grabbing it off the shelf, for mark and his crew it is traving to the source, and that might take them to columbia, Africa, costa rica or wherever. They visit the farms and get to know the farmers. The coffee may be more expensive than mass produced and machine Picked, but the quality is higher and this is where mark is planting the seed so to speak
The growers The Hub does business with, many of them do not have modern equipment to process the beans. When mark buys coffee from these growers he is investing in there future.
Mark does not buy site unseen, he cups his coffee at the source and knows what he is getting.
When the beans are purchased it may take months for them to arrive in reno. With a shelf life of 4 to 7 months the green beans need to be monitored closely.
When it is time to roast, The Hub has a one pound roaster to get to the right color, smell and taste. When they have the roasting locked in, they go to the big roaster and crank out large amounts. Lost in all this they have to take into consideration the elevation and humidity.
Last but not least is the milk. Milk is milk is milk. Not true. Mark actually does cupping of milk, and tastes the differences. What might taste good cold may not steam well. Mark found out that the fat content in model dairy milk bound for California is higher than that of nevada.
So that is it in a coffee bean, makes you appreciate that cup even more

It was a beautiful day for our small group to have this educational and interesting talk about coffee! I learned a lot about coffee, Mark Trujillo took the time to answer our questions. During the talk we received three samples of different types of coffee brewing. I enjoyed each of them, all having slightly different flavor profiles. Thank you for this event!