As the holiday season approaches quickly, it is time to start seriously thinking about that something special to get for that special someone. Whether you need something for your teenager off in college, your parents or the coffee nerd friend of yours who seems to have everything, we are determined to help you get the perfect gift for your resident caffeine junkie. We've got a team of elves that have been working tirelessly to put together specially crafted gift boxes to suit all of your loved ones' coffee needs they didn't even realize they had! Of course, you are welcome to completely customize, pick and choose or do whatever you want to construct the perfect gift box if you know exactly what is required, but if you need some help with figuring out the formula we've got a few pre-fabbed examples ready to go! The Student For the college kid in your life, this gift box makes it easy for anyone living in a stuffy dorm room to make a perfectly brewed cup o' joe and take it on the run. It includes a bag of coffee (getting it preground can help save them some precious study time) a clever dripper, filters and a nifty glass and cork travel mug guaranteed to draw a few envious glances. The clever dripper is a fantastic easy brewer designed for easy and quick brewing and cleanup, all the student needs is to add hot water and coffee to the filter in the brewer, wait about 3 minutes and place it on top of their mug where it will drain - a perfect brew that's brainless to make will result every time. If you know somebody that craves caffeine and is short of time and space, this is the basket for them The Host This box is best for someone who always likes to keep company. This bundle includes a bag of coffee, two of our new camper style mugs and a beautiful Chemex brewer with filters. Whether it's for a new couple in a cozy loft or the friend known for throwing fantastic dinner parties, this gift is perfect for delivering multiple cups of coffee brewed in a stylish way. The Chemex can serve upwards of six cups at a time and it looks great doing so, and it's a perfect gift for that speial someone looking to impress their guests. The Traveler A great selection for a coffee aficionado on the run, this box includes a bag of coffee, a fabulous glass and cork Boxwood branded travel mug, a sleek Porlex hand grinder and the ever-efficient Aeropress. These items allow for a cup of coffee to be constructed anywhere you can get some hot water as they pack easily into any bag or suitcase - even a carry-on. The Aeropress is a genius way to brew a single delicious cup of coffee, just add water to coffee and press it directly into whatever vessel you choose to drink out of! It's easy to use, easy to clean and super light - perfect for someone on the go or forever in a rush. The Coffee Enthusiast Okay, now we're pulling out the big guns. You've got this one person in mind - they're the coffee nerd, the expert, the one that goes on and on about single origin coffees, experimental processing methods, and when they describe coffee flavors to you they use pretentious sounding words like 'mouthfeel' and 'tamarind'. You have no idea what to get them because they seem to have everything, but they don't know what we've got for them. The Enthusiast box include the usual supplies of coffee, a new sleek camper mug, a trusty Porlex grinder and of course, the siphon. The coffee siphon is one of the most beautiful and interesting ways to brew a super unique pot of coffee. Anything that involves an open flame and glass brewing vessels will attract lots of attention, and whatever lucky soul finds this wrapped up in paper will have a blast knowing they got a hold of something truly special and unique. Again, these are are few suggestions that we've got ready to roll out, but the beauty of gift giving is that you can still construct the perfect box if you've got something specific in mind. We hope we can help you find the perfect something for someone special, and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season :)
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About three years ago, Boxwood first opened its doors to the streets of downtown Summit. Since then, a lot of things have changed and all for the better. Originally a simple cafe, the business has become a full roastery, specialty tea house and even our kitchen offerings have skyrocketed in quantity and quality. We're opening a new store soon with more bells and whistles and opportunities to experiment, collaborate, and to better understand the beverages we create for our loving customers. Everyone on staff has been part of this learning experience as we adapt and accelerate forward down the coffee rabbit hole, and thankfully we have also led much of our community and customers down to this wonderfully caffeinated land with us. Learning and sharing all about coffee is what makes us happy, and each day we become better equipped to do so.
One things we've been trying to focus on is calibration. This is a term used greatly in the coffee industry. We calibrate our grinders, brewers, espresso machines and pretty much anything that has moving parts. This is an important step in creating good coffee, it ensures everything is operating properly and consistently so we can always count on everything tasting the way it should every single time. We also calibrate people. Not like we're robots or something weird and creepy like that, but sometimes our senses and thought processes need a little maintenance. When two people drink the same coffee, there is nothing different about the what they taste. What is different, however, is how each person tastes it. For most scenarios this is fine and fair, but in certain cases it can be a very powerful tool for everyone to not only be on the same page, but to be reading it in the same language. It can unify a staff serving the same products, and it can help us all inform and educate customers as one team on a mission to spread and serve delicious coffee. Calibration is a very real term when it comes to coffee cupping, or coffee tasting in an objective setting. It refers to the act of a group of people cupping a coffee and discussing what it is they taste, how they describe it and how they score it. This discussion is critical, as it calibrates the group of people to the same scale and helps each person objectively taste a coffee similarly to a partner without having to discuss it in length. They all taste the same thing, but they need to align themselves to taste it with the same type of objectivity. As the Boxwood crew delves further and further into the realm of specialty coffee in an effort to provide quality products with top notch educated service, it became clear that staff calibration was to become a necessity. So if you happen to stop in the shop during shift change some days throughout the work week, you may find a bunch of baristas standing around the sharing table, loudly slurping coffee as a frantic roaster wildly flails his hands and shouts at them about how cool coffee is. My goal with this is to make sure that every member of staff knows the product they're serving frontwards in back, that they know all the sensory analysis that goes into deciding what constitutes a coffee we deem able to serve in our shop, and that they get excited about the product their serving and show that excitement to our customers. When a customer asks a question about the coffee served to them, they will get an educated and thorough answer about tasting notes and techniques from anyone working behind the bar. What is important is that each answer is backed by firsthand experience, not just a script they have been told to recite when a specific question pops up. This experience contributes to a larger discussion, it makes us ask each other questions and excited to find the answers. Not only are we calibrating a shop to taste coffee the same way, we are calibrating a shop to educate and be educated about coffee in a wonderful journey of discovery. |
AuthorHayden Kaye is our Master Roaster and head of the Say Interesting Stuff department. Archives
December 2017
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