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BYO French Press and More - Friday, May 16th
When the need for a diner meal crops up (after a rough night on the town in mixed company) One thing that can make the whole experience come together is the French press. I wouldn't suggest grinding your own table side although I have done it) so show up with it your course ground ready and then sweetly hit up then wonderful person serving you for some hot water and you'll be drinking The Roos no matter where you go. Throw your server a few extra bucks for the trouble and all will be money.
More subjects I'm prepared to write about: Brewing during power outages, airport brewing, or summer road tripping tips, basically being able to drink fine coffee no matter.
To tell you the truth I only drink espresso in between eating coffee beans!
I'm loving eating these nice light roast Mexican Chiapas right now. Crunch crunch.
There is a shot of last last Thursday at Eve with DJ Erin in the house. (he's the one in the stylish sweat jacket) I want one! There is Gray Owner of Chelsea Gallery pulling the best shot of espresso and selling Roos Roast in Chelsea.
A lot of people think I'm on drugs all the time but actually it's just the way I see the world.
I don't do drugs. Is tooth paste considered a drug? I occasionally take an aspirin?
I'm so wired right now I have to stop writing.
Until later.
The rest of this post will be explained in pictures.
New Realizations, New Coffee... and a New Coffee Class! Sunday June 1, 2008 - Thursday, May 8th
Most important epiphany of the day: I need to keep thanking you all for drinking Roos Roast. My customers are my most important asset.
(Here's some feed back from Heidi Alward:)
John,
Just wanted to thank you again for the awesome coffee. It's my new drug of choice - turned me into Wonder Woman! After two cups, the dust cleared and I realized I had cleaned out my entire basement. You've doubled my productivity, and it's delicious to boot. Even my four year old's eyes rolled back when she took a deep whiff of the beans. Then she wouldn't give the bag back.
RoosRoast Rocks!
Best,
Heidi
For those of you who always need to be right on top of the newest, latest, and greatest: check out the new Ethiopian Sidamo under the “Fair Trade and Organic” section of the Roos Roast Store. You’ll also a find a new Fair Trade Organic Mexican Chiapas hanging out in there, and a local favorite known as "Rich French Neighbor."
Put Sunday June 1st in your date book, Treo, and iPhone because that is the date of the next Official Roos Roast Coffee Class. The price of everything else in the world has gone up, but not everyone’s favorite coffee-learning experience! It's still $20 and you can pay in advance using the Roos Roast Store. Even better, now that I'm doing the class at the new “underground café” location, the food is off the hook. It’s a great way to expand your coffee knowledge, meet some interesting people, and drink lots of fresh coffee, roasted and brewed all along the way. The class starts at 10:30 and goes till Noon. Don’t be shy! Give me a shout if you’re interested in coming, or just sign up online.
Also, remember I deliver locally on the most happening branded coffee bike in the Deuce. Check out the cheesy pics of me in action on my new “free local bike delivery” page.
Lastly, I’m looking for 2 great interns who want to learn the ways of Roos Roast. It’s not as scary as it sounds. If you’re into coffee and want to learn the trade, let me know…I know you’re out there, but how can I find you?
Until next time, Life is Hard and life is Soft
Great Coffee is a must!
JR
Be Ready for Mothers Day! - Friday, May 2nd
Celebrate fertility,passion and glory of birth with Roos Roast Organic and Fair Trade Coffee. Mothers Day is coming y'all...Look it up in your blackberry. Sunday, May 11th.
On Saturday May 3rd, 2008 I will be roasting coffee at the Sahara Cafe and Grill. For those of you unfamiliar with the "New West Side" of Ann Arbor, that's in the Scio Village Shopping Center next to Kitchen Port on Zeeb Road. Right across the street from the Meijer's that looks like a bad Hollywood Movie backdrop, but is actually a really nice store inside. There won't be any unfortunate and useless raffia-filled gift baskets, or pots of wilted flowers that end up getting thrown out/dying on the kitchen table. Instead, it's going to be about fresh coffee in the name of Roos Roast. There will also be Organic Water Processed Decaf so you and Mom can relax with a "time out" for both of you!
Come on down and smell the coffee. I will be there roasting and selling pounds to make your Momma's heart pound. Free Baklava for the first 500 hundred customers. Maybe. (I have to run that by Mohamed and Asan—brothers of the café—first, because I haven't told them I'm giving their food away yet...)If they're down with the "free gift with purchase," then it's on.
I'm also going to be taking pictures for the "who's who" at Roos Roast page, so bring your mug and get your mug shot. But regardless whether you're photo-friendly or camera shy, I will be there and hope you will be too.
10 Subjects I'm prepared to truly write about, but instead only have time to comment upon: - Wednesday, April 23rd
1. The Dalai Lama's message on Sunday at Chrysler Arena. Basically: He's happy. Hey... if the Dalai's happy, I'm happy. Simply being there was moving and inspirational. I was glad he clarified that we cant move to the Moon if we destroy this planet. That's a given, right? Be content, love more, work as one.
2. Big Ups to Mighty Good Coffee for the cool article in the Ann Arbor News! Good Job Guys.
3. Speaking of press, I want to thank Steve Gilzow and The Ann Arbor Observer for the Ann Aborite feature in the Observer this month! You made my momma Proud! Also, many thanks to Emily Rippe of Current Magazine for representing and speaking up about Free Speech Coffee. Even though the story ended up not being 100% true (the New Jefferson Market and Cakery decided at the last minute not to carry Roos Roast... perhaps around the same time they decided to be closed on Sundays...) the fact that Current published my logo and wrote the piece counts. So thanks to them.
4. The Private UMS and Friends Coffee Class on Felch last Sunday was a monster (in a good way) thanks to the influence of people I can't at the moment mention, mostly because Roos Roast needs them for further marketing campaigns. It was a great group of people, who not only made the class, but put the D in the backyard Destination space (where I'm currently writing). God, I love this country!
5. The New Roos Roast home digs are so money that I'm filled with gratitude to be living here. The Espresso machine really pulls the heart of the house together, that being the killer kitchen custom built by Cameron Magoon. Cam and his boys worked magic on the ghetto digs and now it's gourmet compound butter. Did I mention this whole neighborhood is pure butter? Aloe Vera Money Butter! When I first moved in, I felt guilty every time I got in my car so now I hardly drive anywhere! I keep trying to reduce my carbon footprint, and in fact there are days at a time when I don't have to get in a motorized vehicle and I'm ripping around on a bike moving beans! Plus I can hear frogs at night, and birds in the morning. So nice.
6. How glad am I that I'm not starting each summer day by A. Running out into the blistering heat and jumping into a brand new Subauru (Any model of new car is possibly one of the more toxic environments available on 4 wheels) B. Pulling it forward for someone who's "Just starting out in the process of buying." C. Watching as they breathe in and say, "Mmmmmm, nothing like that new car smell." D. Saying, "Have a nice drive." E. Returning to the overly AC-ed show room and explaining to my boss why I'm not on the test drive F. Going back to hovering over my phone with the hope of snaking a phone sale in the next 9 hours before G. Going home and getting back up to do it all over again. So as for NOT doing all that, Id say I'm pretty glad!
7. I bought a Roma tomato at whole pay check and it actually tastes real. A sure sign of the season.
8. It's so magical here when the weather turns. The trees are blooming, all the cool birds are singing their hearts out, people are friendly, and everything become a little easier to do because youre not fighting the cold, ice, clouds, and snow.
9. Critical Mass this Friday at 7:00. Sponsored by McCabe Meats and Roos Roast. Meet at North University and State (The corner of the Diag)
10. Finally, this just in from the judges: Drum roll please... (writing that is almost as good as saying it!) The winner of the 2008 Most amazing Pot Hole of the 48103 is.
Huron River Drive! The whole road. And all of Main Street. And most of Seventh from the bad part of Miller to Liberty. And if you happen to be on campus, there are some really great ones that will rip the tires off your rims on many parts of Washtenaw. Good luck missing them.
Thats it for todaysend comments so I can see who's looking at this snapshot of the Roos/coffee life, as your thoughts and further support of Roos Roast are invaluable. Thanks for lovin on the blog, and more importantly, on the coffee!
JRoos
Deep Local Experience - Wednesday, April 16th
Undercover sipping bad coffee at Washtenaw Dairy on Sunday morning with Claire Rice, I was commenting on the movement of hipsters toward this unfortunate brew. They seem to be searching for the deep local experience of timelessness, and find it steeped in the setting of this Old West Side classic.
Eavesdropping on the oldsters while glancing thru the NYT Sunday edition, and grimacing over coffee from those classic two-part plastic cups where the handle is reused but the basic cup gets tossed out. The cream comes from traditional milk bottles with over-sized bartender pour spouts, the donuts are fresh and infamous, and everything about the place screams unadulterated Ann Arbor tradition.
Prior to the hipster commentary, I was bragging about a Vietnamese restaurant in Portland, Oregon where I was often the only white person. Claire thought I sounded like a blog she'd heard about recently. Later at Brunch at the Aut Bar we randomly met Jacob and Dorothy (who happened to be there eating with everyone’s favorite shoe purveyor, Molly Mast) and Jacob mentioned the very same site. I knew I had to share it with my valued readers because its relevance was cracking us up, like on-the-floor laughing style. Stuff White People Like
Sorry for the posting delay, but the Really Good Coffee has actually been selling like crazy. Buy some and see what all the fuss is about.
The Cupping Is Upping My Energy - Friday, April 11th
Let me take a moment to thank Langel for getting the new web site up and making it so functional. Shoot, I can slap new pages up with images and links as easily as I can post this to this web log.
I'm finally settling in to my new digs and this morning was the first time I actually felt like I could complete sentences in the new home office space. (Bought a bookshelf off of Dawn and Jason thru craigs list last night which allowed me to un-earth all my journals and books from boxes on the floor taking up space)
I was all like, man, I'm a real writer. I'm one of those people who uses language to express the truest self...and I hope some of you get something from it too!
Enough about my process... lets talk coffee. So I cupped for reals, the Organic Tanzanian AA , one of the new coffees I have in. This means I actually sat down and got into the coffee, returning to the senses that brought me to this concern in the first place.
This coffee is best roasted light. Seems like 90% of the coffee snobs out there like their brew super dark. And I'm with you, but you're robbing yourselves of intense amounts of caffeine! After getting into this light roast (Organic Tanzanian AA Hope Project from the land of Kilimanjaro & Zanzibar) I felt like a friendly, non-paranoid version of Hunter S. Thompson! Which is hard to do. This stuff is jungle gym material. If I had children I would have had them on the Bus, or in the SUV (or maybe the hybrid, as this is Ann Arbor) and then off to school an hour early. Its bright, sweet, clean and easy on the stomach, with a good solid buzz happening. I brewed it in a militia filter and after one cup I was ready for anything.
Go to the Roos Roast On-line store and buy some now!
New Look - Tuesday, April 8th
Normally when a website takes on a new face there is a lot of attention brought to that fact far in advance of it actually happening. Not so here friends. We just slap it up there and see if it sticks. Here is the thing. The old look of Roos Roast is still very popular or so I'm told and I like it too, but change is always good and getting more directly to the point is good too and that is what the new site does. Way to finish Langel!
The great news is no matter which site you like you can use either one, because we left Roos Roast Classic view as an option. So now you know what is going on behind the scenes here at the mad coffee work shop.
Free Speech Coffee Post - Saturday, April 5th
I love to write. And I'm wired right now! Whoa Baby!
Coffee Class Announcement.
Because Of my move to a new location, the next Coffee class is going to be at a later date. I have big plans for more fun and more great breakfast food. Bear with me as I put it together and let me know if you’re interested...all I need is 10 or more people who want to know the magic of roos roast!
I used to write letters to people all over, especially my poet comrade Rob Strong. (He goes by Robert now...I still write him.) With the advent of the blogo-sphere I have a a larger audience with not so much as a stamp or envelope. Great and scary at the same time because of all the possibilities! Yikes.
Thing of it is, when I do the blog it's often that I forget major messages, like I did in the last post! I was so keyed up from watching so many films at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and serving so much coffee that I forgot to mention an important aspect of being there: I shared a table with Jeremy and Aubrey Lopatin of Arbor Tea! We had a blast! Two small beverage businesses, right here in Ann Arbor. If you need tea, they are all organic and they really do a great job.
Arbor Teas
And don't think I've forgotten about my promise because I'm about to crack the case and give up the goods on Pot holes of the 48103. I know the city has been hard at work “blobbing” molten crunchy tar shovel by shovel onto the problem areas with a really helpful program called “truck to shovel, road to car, stone to chip, and carbon foot print” but I gotta say they\'re going to need some new technology if they plan to even mildly affect the craters I'm about to diclose!
Big shout out to Award-winning film maker Brooke of Boobiegirl.com for snapping this image of me giving Larry Flynt the Beans, T-shirt and Roos Roast Pen. Those are his body gaurds there, freaking “screening” the coffee before turning it over to Mr Flynt.
Cheers all and Drink more coffee Roos
Thank You for Living. You're Good For the Planet! - Monday, March 31st
What a week last week was at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Fabulous minds, great ideas, the poetry of living imagination, smiling faces, and 10,000 lips drinking gallons and gallons of Roos Roast Free Speech Coffee.
The message that came alive for me in this years participation was:
We all count!
Now more then ever we need to stand up and be counted.
That's why during the Q and A with Larry Flint when I could have either sat there in my seat and imagined asking a question or actually asking it. I got up and asked if Mr. Flint if he would like a gift of Roos Roast Free Speech Coffee and he said I'll take anything that's free.
So hopefully he's sipping some Roos Roast right now. (Luckily Christen McArdle chose me way in the back of the theater with my hand raised up Arnold Horseshack of Welcome Back Cotter fame style.)
Big ups to Steve Gilzow and the Ann Arbor Observer for featuring me as an Ann Arborite in the latest issue! Steve's captured my pace and mind work without being assuming.
Thank you to Ian Gray for kicking in the bandwidth so you can be reading this right now because for the last 12 hours the Roos Roast was down because I had run out of my monthly allotment of usable bandwidth because of all the visits. That's is all going to change very soon as the new look of Roos Roast is on the way.
Get Up. Stand Up!
Thank you
When things actuallly work - Wednesday, March 26th
The ice is off the river! Ducks and Swans I spotted a song sparrow in Pittsburgh. That is the bird right there to the left. I was down there last week end. 
People keep telling me I have really good coffee as the masses drink the brew I have going on here at the AAFF. That is my humble mission. Make Killer coffee! Any one need a cafe in Ann Arbor? I have all the ingredients . Just ad water.
I just got a 1000 lb and it all fit in the 1991 Subaru Loyale.
I'm cupping right now in between watching films and brewing. This a great week because in a way it's like working at the Michigan Theater for a week. Russ Collins and The Kids who work here are great. And the talent who have worked so hard (you know who you are) to make this years festival so great are always impressive to me. These are hard times we live so get on down here and support this festival of free thinking. Did I say check out the films? Support Ann Arbor Support local.
If you are a fan of Roos Roast that is another reason to come down and watch some films and drink some coffee. Hope to see you at the Michigan Theater.
Did anyone check out all the "Donny Darko" Bunny's around town on Sunday? That's what I call them anyway.
I have some correspondence stock to check out. Pictured is all 8 images on correspondence stock.
Here are some recent images of my photo journalistic views.
Hope to see you at the Michigan Theater