This is the holiday that honors the kickoff to fall. It might still be a tad warm outside, but cooler breezes, the sounds of football and weekend mornings with a good read and cup of coffee are soon to follow. This is your time to relax and take some of the weight off of your shoulders. We are going to help with that task by offering the following special for the holiday weekend

*Free shipping on all orders over $30. Use promo code “LABORDAY”*

This offer is good until Midnight Monday September 6th.

Labor Day also puts a delay in our shipping schedule unfortunately, but not to worry, even though we will not be roasting or shipping coffee on Monday, we will still have someone to take regular scheduled orders.  All orders placed after 11:59 P.M. on Thursday September 2nd, will be roasted and shipped on Tuesday September 7th.

Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the Month as well.  This means that we have released a new Single Origin Espresso.  As we tour the world over the course of the year, we were particularly excited about this month’s espresso, El Salvador - FINCA LAS MERCEDES - La Avila Honey.  La Avila Honey is a juicy espresso. Its high acidity has the essence of ruby red grapefruit that rounds to an apricot sweetness. Hints of light brown sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon in the finish.

In addition to being a great coffee, Finca Las Mercedes has everything that we look for in a Direct Trade farm. The quality of their coffee is outstanding. They go to great lengths to ensure that their coffee is as pure and clean as possible. They do all of their processing on the farm. Their dedication to sustainable practices, both environmentally and socially is commendable.

We hope everyone has a relaxing and happy holiday with a great cup of coffee.

Our Hunapu comes from a highland valley near the colonial city of Antigua, one of Guatemala’s premier tourist attractions due to its heritage and scenery.  Antigua is situated between three impressive volcanoes, Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego. The unique dry climate, magnificent landscape, and excellent volcanic soil  provide optimal conditions to produce some of the best coffees in the world.

Hunapu is a name established by Beneficio Bella Vista for a group of small producers that got together to separate their Bourbon varietal cherries and offer one of the best Antigua coffees available. The name Hunapu derived from the natives name for the Agua volcano.

The Hunapu Bourbon is the result of the hard work to separate 100% Bourbon varietal fully ripe cherries and deliver them to Beneficio Bella Vista, where the traditional washed process is used during the wet stage and fully sundried to bring out the best of the Antigua Bourbon profile.

The Hunapu has strong chocolate notes, a fine complex acidity with a tender orange aftertaste and a unique roundness characteristic of a high altitude Bourbon.

Due to fluctuation in the commodities market, pricing has risen to it’s highest point in 12 years, and weather patterns that have caused substantial reduction in crops in Central and South America, PTs Coffee Roasting Co. will have a price adjustment at the wholesale and retail level effective immediately. We regret that this step is necessary.

Regards

Fred Polzin and Jeff Taylor

PTs Coffee Roasting Co.

Our exclusive Passport line of coffees gives you the opportunity to taste the best the world has to offer. All the travel, cupping, and know-how we have is poured into spotting these rare coffee gems and bringing out the best in each.

First
For our Passport offerings, we specifically seek out coffees that are rare, exceptional, or have a limited offering.

Then
We roast them to the peak of perfection, in small batches, and on specific roast dates to ensure freshness and quality.

And Then . . .
We ship directly to you. You’ll be able to taste each mastered step of PT’s Passport coffees from tree to cup.

SOLD OUT!  More expected in coming weeks. What a great day for Hawaiian coffees!  Our Micro-Lot of Rusty’s Hawaiian just arrived and we plan to launch it next week. We are now accepting pre-orders for this exceptional coffee.

Lorie Obra next to a sign that denotes her family farm. The farm is named in honor of her late husband, Rusty.

For years customers have asked why we don’t carry Kona Coffee on our offering sheet, in our store, or on our website. I’ve always had the same answer. “The samples of Kona coffee that I’ve received  just don’t cup well enough to justify the price that is paid for a coffee carrying the Kona Coffee brand.”

I tell customers that “we make every attempt to offer coffees that are worthy of the price, not just the name.” Kona Coffee has had a tremendous reputation for years. But in recent years the samples I have received and tasted on our cupping table just didn’t measure up. So despite the pressure to offer a Kona Coffee or Kona Coffee Blend, we chose to stay the course and only offer coffees of exceptional quality.

Coffee cherry harvested by Lorie at her family farm in Hawaii.

Today, we are very proud, a coffee we’ve now carried for 2 years from the Hawaiian Islands placed 1st place in a Blind Cupping competition. I noted when we first bought this coffee that we had finally found a coffee worthy of the price from the Hawaiian Islands. Rusty’s Hawaiian Coffee is an outstanding coffee that is grown and harvested by Lorie Obra in the District of Ka’u. Lorie takes incredible pride in the coffee she grows and processes and is always willing to go the extra mile to make it exceptional.

So this blog post is for you Lorie: CONGRATULATIONS from your friends at PTs Coffee Roasting Co.!

Lorie strives to make her late husband proud and produce not just a coffee crop, but one that is exceptional. Today her dream was realized in a blind cupping competition. We are proud to work with you Lorie and look forward to working with you for years to come.
For more info see the local stories about the competition.

Our Micro-Lot of Rusty’s Hawaiian just arrived and we plan to launch it next week. We are now accepting pre-orders for this exceptional coffee.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Jeff Taylor

PTs Coffee Roasting Co.

As of Monday, July 19^th you will see some new names added to our blend offerings, while some will seem to disappear. No worries though, fundamentally these coffees aren’t changing…just getting a fresh look and feel. The coffees you have come to know and love will still be available, but here’s a run down of their new identities-

Thunder Road

Formerly our Rolling Thunder, this blend’s new identity is in homage to Jeff’s favorite musician- Bruce Springsteen. Hearty and smooth, this blend is still “The Boss”.

Ol’ 93

You will have known this blend as Moka Java, a classic blend of opposites. Sweet and earthy, this is our rendition of the oldest coffee blend in recorded history, and the new name reflects the year of our inception as PT’s Coffee.

Farm Girl

Bright but balanced, this blend has been loved by many. Previously our Sunrise Blend, the Farm Girl is still sweet and sultry and filled with character. We are currently out of this blend but it will return soon!

B-ville House Drip

This take on an approachable and well rounded drip coffee has been previously known as Coffeehouse Blend. Still a Direct Trade offering, this standard is still what we serve daily in our original café- Barrington Village, which has been coined “B-Ville” as our term of endearment for it.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email at info@ptscoffee.com or call at 888-678-JAVA!

So why does Topeka, Kansas rank as the 10th best city in the country? In part, because of PT’s Coffee of course! In the July issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, they chose Topeka, Kansas as the 10th best city in the United States. In addition to Topeka’s growing economy and low cost of living, being the home of PT’s Coffee is listed as one of the reasons why Topeka is such a great place to live. Can’t really argue with that! You can check out the article here, and taste why PT’s makes the difference here!

Given the announcement yesterday of our change in leadership at PT’s Barrington Village, some of you are probably wondering what’s going on with the previous manager, Robin Seitz. No worries- only good things! Robin has accepted the role of Account Manager for our US accounts west of Kansas City. Starting June 1, 2010, he will be busy getting to know our wholesale clients, answering their questions and helping them find the coffees and products that best fit their tastes and concept.

In the nearly 8 years that he has worked for us Robin has shown a perpetually growing interest in coffee, in all its forms and flavor nuances (prior to his employment with PT’s he had been a daily die-hard regular for another 7 years). His continuous curiosity has led him to pursue a variety of activities and opportunities such as retail management, coffee catering, trade show barista, barista competitor, barista champion, coffee trainer…and the list could go on. Needless to say, he has had a lot of exposure to different perspectives and ideas, and we feel that this experience will translate well to helping our retail partners. Keep on the look out for a Robin sighting near you!

A smattering of thanks from Washburn Rural High School's culinary classes

On Friday, April 9th we at PT’s hosted a day of education for the Washburn Rural High School’s culinary classes. Starting at 8am we had 3 groups of students come through to tour our roasting facility and see what it is that we do exactly. All together there were about 150 students that got an introduction to sourcing and roasting coffee and even got to watch one of our barista competitors go through her presentation that she gave last weekend in Anaheim, CA for the 2010 United States Barista Championship. Today we received a huge envelope of thanks from what appears to be all of them! Here’s a few of our favorites we wanted to share with you…

“Coffee is pretty awesome. You & the people you work with put a lot of devotion in your work. The fact that what you do effects the lives of so many, well, I dig that. You put a lot of care into those beans. Thanks for inviting me in to see. If only you were hiring!

Thanks a lot

-Angela”

“Thank you for giving us such a great tour. I thought it was really interesting how so much work and care is put into your coffee, and it was cool to be able to see the process of making the coffee. I never knew that people who worked in coffee are so passionate about what they do and work so hard to make the best quality of coffee. Thanks for sharing your story with us and allowing us to see what goes on behind every cup of PT’s coffee.

Sincerely,

-Kylie”

And one for fun…

“Thanks a lot bro for the show. It was chill and the fun level wasn’t low. Now I always know what I’ll be havin’ with my toffee, that’s right, you guessed it a P-H-phat cup of PT’s coffee!

Much love -ya boi

-Hunner”

Thanks to each one of you for coming! We are so glad that you enjoyed it!