Au Revoir Revell

On May 27th, 2013 a familiar bespectacled & vested Philip Revell - his gaze projected from under that enviable distinguished wave of hair - concentrated on his very last pour at Quills Coffee. 

It was a winner.

Philip has been with Quills for over four years and has been a major player in the growth, success and passion of this small but dynamic operation. No one can be served coffee by Philip without thinking "Now that guy knows what he's doing. And man- he's all about it. And geez- he's a really nice guy too. And oh boy- has anyone ever told him he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio?"

Philip's unwavering devotion to detail and quality are invaluable. His patience and genuine kindness with customers, co-workers and all he meets come naturally alongside a passion to simply share the things he loves with others. And his tolerance in being told countless times how much he looks like Leo is pretty remarkable too (though- come on- how bad can that truly be).  Philip is in the truest meaning of the word- a pleasure for every one of us to work with.

Throwback Phil: 

2010 Barista of the Week

2011 competing nationally

The Creation of Thai #5

“To me, Philip has always embodied what Quills is all about- probably better than anyone. He’s amazing at holding an intense passion for coffee (and really anything he is into, let’s be honest) with his warm, welcoming spirit. He loves what he loves, but he doesn’t condescend and make people feel like idiots if they don’t get it. He’s just an all-around heart-on-the-sleeve kind of guy which has been one of the most fun parts about working with him on the Ops team. He always fights for what he believes in and pushes his organization- or team or group or whomever he is with- to a deeper level. And seriously, how can you not love a guy who puts peanut butter on his Najla’s sweet breads? :)”

— Luke Daugherty

“Philip, Louisville’s coffee community is indebted to your many contributions through the years. You’ve truly been a trailblazer and you’ll be sorely missed. ”

— Michael Butterworth

“No matter how good I thought I was, Philip always had something to teach me.”

— Houston Miller

“I remember a few days early on in my time with Quills training with Philip. He always seemed so passionate about what Quills is doing. I remember chatting with him about life and love and marriage as he was walking through things with Ashley. It takes a lot of work to be Philip Revell but it’s worth it. And we’ve all benefitted from his presence. We’re also all a bit envious of his tendency to be so suave and debonair! And who can forget the Thai No. 5- quite possibly the most brilliant espresso concoction I’ve ever tasted. ”

— Matt Park

“Philip makes coffee-making look really really cool - like everyone will admire you and think you’re awesome forever just because you’re a barista. At least that’s what everyone seems to think of Philip. So I quit my lucrative super fancy big-time job to be a barista and enjoy a reputation just like Philip’s. Yeah.... apparently it doesn’t work for everyone. Darn you Philip!!!! (Of course - every preceding word was a total lie EXCEPT for the Philip being ridiculously cool part). PHILIP- So thankful to have gotten the chance to work with you and learn from you and dance to Girl Talk when we had to close together some late Friday night. So excited for all that is to come for you and Ashley!!”

— Erin Ferguson

“I first ‘hired’ Philip when he had emo bangs in 2008. He & Eric Bray - the 1st manager at Quills - helped me pack up our basement and load it up on a moving truck. He’s worked for me for nearly six years. He helped demo, clean, buildout & open the Baxter location. I’ve seen several hair styles & dozens of Leonardo references. I’ve been privileged enough to hear his first ‘Ryan Adams-esque’ demos along with some of his underground, seldom heard hardcore rap demos. I witnessed his foray into fine beers, bourbon & scotch and bought him a bottle for his 21st birthday. I witnessed the suspenders come & go, but the creepy five finger shoes have hung around (they freak me out). I’ve watched him become a phenomenal coffee educator & competitive barista. And I’ve watched him fall in love & walk through the excitement of engagement. In many ways I’ve had the honor of watching Philip mature into a trustworthy coworker & honorable man. Its been one of the more memorable relationships of my adult life & truly a joy of my Quills career.”

— Nathan Quillo

“Philip has a way of enabling people to experience and enjoy good coffee, or just good things, and that is invaluable. Phil, I Thai # melt your face off, I love you. Keep thinking with your entire body.”

— Matt Stevenson

Philip will soon be marrying his lovely gal Ashley and they'll ride off to new adventures in New York City. He hopes to continue in another great passion- making good music. In fact, he just finished tracking a 5 song ep which he hopes to release this fall. You can find his music here  http://philipjamesrevell.bandcamp.com

Thanks for everything Philip. We love you!

Quills Returns to Coffee Fest

Time for another round of Coffee Fest. This time in the windy city. This weekend- Houston, Jesse and Luke will head up North for Chicago's annual turn at the popular tradeshow. Houston will be competing again in the latte art championship. Luke and Jesse will be there to learn a ton, keep updated on what's happening in the industry and of course- be Houston's biggest cheerleaders. 

(We talked about the last coffee fest in NYC here and here) 

Luke says: 

"It's hard to believe, but despite more than 9 years in the coffee industry, I have never had the chance to make it to Coffee Fest. I have wanted to partake for a long time, but it's never worked out. Never too late to get started! I'm looking forward to several of the opportunities for my own and Quills' ongoing development, that are offered through the classes and networking opportunities there. Also, my last time in Chicago was as a pre-coffee-nut college kid so it's long overdue for me to experience the Chicago coffee scene!"

 Follow us on Twitter to keep updated on how Houston's faring as well as general updates from the fest.

Kathleen Lolley at Quills

Have you visited the deepest, most mysterious parts of the forest lately and climbed trees with fairies that look like frogs (or are they frogs that look like fairies?) or danced with foxes or caused mischief with owls with calculated wingspans? 

Not yet?​

Take a look into the magical world of Louisville's adored artist Kathleen Lolley and you'll ​quickly find yourself there. 

Kathleen's work is seen in many-a-lucky home & store around Louisville as well as in the homes of actors Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Ginnifer Goodwin ​(and probably some others too) 

And Quills is so so excited to have her shadowboxes on display over the month of June. We'll start with a celebratory opening for "Twilight in the Garden of Earthly Delights" ​this Friday - June 7th from 6pm - 9pm. And you, our friends, are invited. See you there!

From Kathleen's website: ​

Storytelling plays a prominent role in my work. My earliest artistic inspiration came from oral family stories and folk tales...As a result of spending childhood summers on my grandparents' farm, I use the forest as a backdrop. My paintings contain visual narratives usually involving imaginary creatures acting out scenes of magic and illumination.
 

​

Part 3: How to Taste

In our last two posts, we introduced you to the science and importance of cupping then took you through the first step of minding our noses. Now would be a good time to go back and refresh or catch up before continuing on to our favorite part: Tasting.

Part 3: How to Taste

The last couple of steps of the "smelling part" of the process included pouring hot water over the grounds, letting it sit and brew, then breaking the crust that has formed and taking in the new wet aromas. Once the coffees have cooled sufficiently, we’re ready to start tasting. 

When coffee is still too hot (and that heat is essential for brewing), it is much more difficult to taste all of its complex flavors. Interesting fact: We have all become accustomed to piping hot cups of coffee but this usually just masks the flavors of a bad coffee. When bad coffee cools all of those unpleasant, ashy, bitter flavors show there true colors. A truly good coffee, in contrast, will unveil some of its most unique, pleasant qualities only as it begins to cool.

At this point, the room gets a little noisy with the symphony of slurping. Everyone's got their own unique style and sound. Sitting in on a cupping is worth it just to experience the wide array of jungle noises you might hear when a group of focused baristas is throwing away their manners and slurping away. Tempted right?

But of course- the purpose is not to annoy. It’s important to aspirate the coffee well, letting it hit every area of the pallet - even “chewing” it a bit and breathing in while we swallow (or spit out when we get over-caffeinated). This allows us to experience every nuance of the coffee’s flavors as it washes over our taste buds. You might even do something like this already when sipping a over a bowl of soup. Pay attention next time.

Tasting is, of course, when we get to experience the coffee in its fullness. As we move around the table multiple times, we’ll think about the coffee under five overarching categories: sweetness, acidity, body, finish (aftertaste) and balance. Below are some basic things we look for under these broad headings:

Sweetness: Does the coffee have an overall pleasant flavor? Is there a noticeable sweetness that brings balance to the cup? Is it more of a caramel sweetness or a fruity one? True, coffee has bitter components, but when bitterness is the only thing coming through, you probably aren’t drinking a good coffee.

Acidity: This can be a tricky one to evaluate as it comes through in many forms. Is their a crispness, brightness or effervescence to the cup? Does it “snap”? Is it more of a citric (think grapefruits and oranges) or vegetable acidity (think tomatoes)? Acidity is what often gives a coffee a lot of character, but it must be balanced out with other characteristics or it can be overpowering.

Body: Literally, what does the coffee feel like in your mouth? Is it thick and creamy, or is it light and soft? Certain characteristics go well with deeper-bodied coffees, but some coffees (like our Los Naranjos for example) need a delicate and light body to allow the gentle, sweet flavors to come through.

Finish: Do you continue to experience the coffee after you swallow it? Does it linger on your tongue? Is it still pleasant and clean, or does it leave you with a bitter aftertaste that you can’t seem to get rid of? It is possible that a coffee will seem to be very pleasant up until the point that it leaves your tongue.

Balance: This is simply the big picture of a coffee. In all of the above categories many different characteristics can be pleasing or not depending on how they fit within the whole picture. Just as in music, a solo might be executed with technical perfection, but if it feels out of place within the whole song, it just doesn’t work. Period.

Again- coffee changes while it cools, and you can’t experience the full spectrum of its flavors without patiently tasting it for quite a while. We spend up to 30 minutes tasting around the cupping table. With this particular Brazil, we are happy with the coffee we honed in on. We wanted to find a coffee with a lot of sweetness, body and a low acidity to balance out the fruity, acidic characteristics of our other espresso components. We think you’ll find that all of this effort was well worth it. Come try our espresso this month and then again later in June and see if you think it’s only getting better!

He is Marshall

And this- our final ode to Mr. Aaron Marshall - at least for the day. Aaron has been a loyal cortado-addicted customer of Quills on Baxter for a very long time. His enthusiasm, ingenuity and friendliness are contagious but perhaps most important to all of you - He is the reason we serve the delicious 4 oz. cortado at all of our stores. Well maybe we would have figured it out eventually but he definitely got us started sooner than later. ​

​Photo by Lang Thomas Photography

​But Aaron's main claim to fame (and ours a little -we like to think- by serving as his favorite office) is his development of the photo-manipulation app Over - which was the No. 3 feature spot for the ipad app store over Christmas this past year. Find out more about that app- and download it!- here and here

Anyways- to get to the point- Aaron and his family departed for Cape Town, South Africa today where they will find all sorts of new adventures for their beautiful family and where Aaron will find new cafe-offices to push the cortado to (although we all know it will never be as sweet as here at Quills and that will likely be a little bit of a bummer for him. Chin up Aaron! )

Part 2: It's in the Nose

Earlier this week we introduced you to one of the most important methods to our madness when it comes to selecting and delivering great coffee: our weekly cupping. You can review that post HERE. As you’ll recall, we were exploring a recent cupping in which we needed to select a new Brazilian component for our espresso. Let’s pick up back up with the details of the cupping process. In this post, we’ll look at the first phase: smelling.

Part 2: It's in the Nose

Cupping begins with a weighing out of our samples. These have either been pulled during the week’s production roasts or sample roasted specifically for the cupping table- as is the case with our selection of Brazils. For our recent purposes we had our four main production coffees along with a set of five Brazilian coffees to compare.

After weighing our samples and preparing the table with everything we need, the work begins in earnest with grinding the beans. After our samples are ground, we take a moment to experience the dry fragrance of each coffee- moving around the cupping table to smell each coffee fresh out of the grinder. This gives us an initial idea of what kind of natural aromatic compounds we might expect to see in the cup. Coffee- like other beverages such as beer, wine or bourbon- is an intensely aromatic experience. In fact, much of the flavor comes from what you get in your nose. When you pick up a glass of red wine, you intentionally stick your nose in the deep, wide glass to catch its fruity or spicy aromas. Likewise, with a good bourbon, the smell of the barrel comes out as you put your nose to the glass. 

These aromas are a major part of the tasting experience. Conversely- try beer from a bottle or coffee with a lid on the cup and you’ll get some idea why the olfactory sense is so important. Really, the first thing you usually notice in a coffee shop is that smell of freshly ground coffee. We go for coffees that intensify that sensation.

Next step - after the coffee is ground and before it sits for too long (it loses quality quickly once ground)- is to pour water over each cup. Thus begins the process of extraction in which the hot water is quickly pulling solids from the coffees, drawing out all of the possible flavors- both good and bad- from the grounds. Once each cup is brewing, we’ll take a quick pass to get an initial experience of the wet aroma of each cup. The real aromatic experience, however, comes after about four minutes of brew time. ​

After about four minutes the coffees have sat just about the right length of time for the ideal amount of extraction. Now we “break the crust” that has settled on the top of each cup. When we do this, all of the aromatic gases that have been trapped beneath the crust are unleashed, creating an explosion of aromas that gives us yet another picture of what the coffee has to offer. 

It’s always especially interesting to see the differences that manifest between the dry fragrance vs. the wet aroma. Did the fruity fragrance hold up in brewing? Did those especially bright, tangy notes disappear or are they enhanced? What unique aspects of this coffee’s origin, territory, processing, and roast are coming through in the cup? Do we smell any noticeably off-putting aromas? All of these questions are a standard part of our cupping-table conversations.

These conversations will carry through into our discussion as we begin tasting as well. We’ll take you there in our next post.

Why We Cup (Part I)

This is the first of three posts you will see over the next several days describing the coffee cupping process and the whys and hows of Quills approach to it. 

Part 1: Why We Cup

We talk a lot about the care that is taken in choosing our coffees. If you frequent our New Albany location, you may catch a glimpse of us in the back playing mad scientists- slurping and scrutinizing an inordinate number of coffee bowls. But what is this outlandish ear-displeasing practice about? Isn’t it a little much? After all, it’s just coffee....

Obviously we don’t think so. In fact, more and more people are getting tuned in to the complexity of coffee in its own right (listen to this great NPR feature comparing coffee tasting to the more well-known and appreciated wine tasting). And we think the quality of our coffee illustrates why our little science experiments matter. So we’re going to pull back the veil a bit and let you inside one of our main testing labs: the Friday Cupping.

Each Friday afternoon, our roastery team- along with a rotating crew of our baristas- comes together to evaluate the week’s roasts and sample any new coffees we are considering or developing.

The cupping process serves multiple purposes. Among them are quality control, education and coffee sampling for potential new offerings. We work on the first two of these repeatedly; Cupping the roasts from the preceding week to see how we did and discussing what we can do better next time. This is an essential process as even tiny changes in the roasting session can result in dramatically different results in the cup. This also serves as an ongoing educational piece for our staff as we get to know our coffees and how to brew them best.

But our primary focus for this series will be the third purpose: coffee selection. 

Allow us to set up a scene for you: At a recent cupping our job was to find a replacement component for our Blacksmith Espresso blend. So we prepped our taste buds to try on, compare and contrast several options. This time we were taking a look at selections from Brazil which would serve as the foundation-or base-of our prized espresso blend. 

Selecting for a blend is different than selecting for a single origin coffee. We want to find the coffee that will “play nicest” with the other coffees in the blend. As the base component we wanted to find one that would provide the “lower” -or deeper- tones (e.g. chocolate) and full, syrupy body that we love in our espresso. This perhaps illustrates even better the necessity of a good cupping process that will ensure we have the coffees we are most excited about. All of the coffees we bring in as samples have already been scrutinized by our importer, therefore we know that we’re choosing from a solid set of coffees. But it is more than simply choosing best from better. It’s about selecting the coffee that perfectly fills the particular hole in our lineup.

Without the right Brazil to serve as our base, our espresso blend could be entirely thrown off. The bright notes might overtake the whole experience leaving an espresso without body. It can feel almost like drinking flavored seltzer water if you’re not careful. But finding the right Brazil gives us the balanced espresso we're committed to serve- full of bright, citric notes but also full of sweetness and delivered with full body and texture. That was our aim. Stay tuned and we'll take you through the process in our next post.

O Clever How Clever

If you've come in requesting a French Press recently (or if you've meticulously studied our new menu -as surely you all have), you've probably quickly discovered that we no longer have the French Press on our bill but have swapped it out for another extra-efficient immersion brewing method- The Clever. We love The Clever because it gives us a clean, flavorful cup without the silt or sometimes messy clean-up of the French Press. And the price is quite appetizing too. 

No need to make it difficult - the below comes straight off its Quill's product page. (You can head there to order it, filters and a server straight from our webstore). We also talked about it back in the winter when it was a part of our holiday packages 

The Clever dripper is a by-the-cup brew method with a unique release valve on the bottom of the brewer. To brew a cup, you simply place a filter in the brewer, add ground coffee, pour water over the coffee and let sit for 2-3 minutes (depending on the grind), and then place the dripper on top of your cup. The cup presses up on the release valve and the coffee begins to drain through the bottom of the dripper into your cup. 

• Release mechanism on the bottom of the brewer will drain coffee directly into cup when done steeping
• Full-immersion brewing
• Easy clean-up. Simply dump out the coffee grounds and rinse with hot water
• Comes with lid which helps keep the brewing temperature stable
• Durable plastic body
• Works best with #4 size cone filters

  You'll want to determine how to brew best according to what you've got to work with where you are but Quills uses 24g of coffee and 350ml of water. We pour over our grounds for 1 minute and then move it to the server at 2:30.

More Resources and Styles: ​

  A beginners guide immersion brewing by Prima ​
  These step-by-step directions recommend stirring which is optional. Try it out. 
  If you're the type that likes a video

But really- it couldn't get much more simple! ​