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August 17, 2005
Romancing the Stone
I've had the fortune of knowing Martin Swinson for nearly 16 years, and during that time I've seen him grow from a coffee drinker to a coffee enthusiast to an outright coffee expert to, well, "coffee god" may be a little extreme, but at least on a Chattanooga scale, there's certainly room for him in the pantheon.
Who is Martin Swinson? For purposes of this post, he's the roaster for one of several boutique coffee roasting companies in this burgeoning town, Stone Cup Coffee. Stone Cup has quite a history with me as well, as I used to visit their Riverview location for a cup after baking all night and flinging sandwiches all morning at the now-long-dead Bagel Market; then they moved down to Frazier Ave into the former Blue Angel; and now, in case you didn't know, they occupy some really sweet digs in the new Frazier Place building just next door. But before there was ever a Stone Cup, there was Jennifer Stone, with whom I worked -- for Martin Swinson, no less -- at a mall [ugh] coffee & tea store which shall remain nameless. As bad as working in the malls* was, enough good has come of those earlier days to make it all worthwhile.
So, what has this to do with anything? Nothing, except that I want our city to know that, among the choices for a good cup of coffee in this town, Stone Cup ranks in the top three (and that, for me, they are numero uno). It's not just that I've known these people for a while. It's that the coffee holds up to my very exacting standards for flavor, freshness, and even fair trade.
If you don't want to take my word for it, just check out CoffeeReview.com, where Kenneth Davids -- the veritable Zeus of coffee -- "cups" and rates samples that are submitted for his impeccable review. Several of Stone Cup's submissions have rated in the high eighties. That's no mean feat, y'all. The most recent one to rate this well is their Costa Rica SHB, Central Valley Monte Cristol ("SHB" stands for "strictly hard bean" and is a grower's/buyer's distinction for the utmost in quality raw product). I've sampled this myself, and I give it a similar rating. Costa Rica is a tricky coffee to roast, and Martin manages to bring out the maximum flavor in this relatively mild bean. He does similarly well with Panama, and right now I'm testing out his take on Nicaragua. I'm one day into the bag, and it's going well.
One of my favorite Stone Cup offerings is the organically-grown bean they get from Timor. Wow. I've always enjoyed Indonesians -- Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, and coffee's other namesake, Java -- but this Timor is frighteningly good, as it is so balanced that the body just sneaks up on you, and you realize after you have swallowed a sip that you've just had an incredibly full and complex flavor (it's comparable to the Sulawesi that we used to have at my old stomping grounds in DC).
I asked Jennifer the other day if I could link to Stone Cup's website, and she said that it is currently down for re-vamping. I will therefore put up a link when it comes back online. In the meantime, stop by and visit. For those of you who are more into cappuccino, latte, mocha, or even less coffee-related things (hey, they even recently started serving beer), you'll find great choices, as well as sandwiches and other eats.
So, here's to wild success for Jennifer, Martin, and the rest of the crew at Stone Cup: I raise my darkly glistening brew to you.
*I know that I'll probably incur the wrath of La Covenosa Nostra by giving such love to Stone Cup without mentioning their darling, Greyfriar's (but see, I just did), but suffice it to say that Ian's product is in that same aforementioned top three. Ian and I also worked together, ten or so years ago, in another local mall, at a sister nameless coffee & tea store. The seeds for good coffee in this town were sown in those barren surroundings. Nothing could make me happier than to see that all three of these folks (Martin, Jennifer, and Ian) are now providing the citizenry with coffee (and tea; don't forget the tea) that are on a par with any uppity ol' Northwest beaneries.
Stuff to Buy | By joe lance | 09:28 PM