September 2018 - Cultivate: Coffee. Culture. Community.

September 19, 2018 In At-home, coffee, Drinks, Fall

Five Favorite Fall Drinks

There is nothing like the time of year when Fall begins creeping in, especially out here in the desert of Phoenix. By the time schools start each year, Phoenicians begin looking for every sign possible that Fall is on our heels. It’s not just because so many of us love the smell of fresh baked pumpkin bread, or the feel of a warm delicious apple pie latte going down our throat, but really, we are just darn tired of the heat! Celebrating Fall means we are celebrating the triple digit weather leaving and settling into the next 9 months of why we all live here!

Our Fall fever may kick in when school starts, but the reality is we still have a good two more months until we can even pretend the weather is cooling off. Today was our first day under 100 degrees for the season, and at Cultivate, we couldn’t be more excited! And believe me, we have checked the weather app over and over to make sure this is for real and that the trend is sticking around. Here’s to hoping!

For now, we’re going to start celebrating fall by making some of our favorite Fall drinks! There are so many you can make at home, even if you don’t have an espresso machine. Here are 5 of our favorites:

1. Dirty Chai Latte

I know. I just said, “drinks you can make at home without an espresso machine,” and our very first drink is a dirty chai. Although traditionally a dirty chai is made with a shot or two of espresso, it can be substituted for a very similar brew from a Moka Pot. Some even argue this is just as good as a shot of espresso your local barista pulls from their fancy machine. We will let you be the judge. You can pick up a Moka Pot for relatively cheap. Here’s a great recipe for a delicious dirty chai latte from This Original Organic Life

2. Mexican Cafe De Olla

One of the things we love about coffee is learning the many different ways other countries prepare it. This is a delicious option that’s great for when the weather cools down. It’s made on the stovetop, and although traditionally it’s made in special ceramic pots, you can make it in any sauce pan. However, using the traditional handmade pottery makes it a lot more beautiful and taste authentic. To learn how to make this at home check out Muy Bueno Cook Book’s blog.

3. Slow Cooker Gingerbread Latte

So, this may sound a little more Christmas than Fall, but let’s be honest, we all want to get as much time in for these favorite hot drinks as we can! This is a simple, but very tasty drink, and great for serving at parties. We found this recipe from Mom On Time Out.

4. Hot Buttered Rum Coffee

A few years ago, friends of ours turned us on to the delicious cold weather drink of Hot Buttered Rum. It is a rich, oh-so-good drink that will warm you from the inside out. Having this drink in Phoenix is a lot like trying to wear your favorite winter boots. You really only have a good week or two that it is truly appropriate, but you know you will start wearing them Oct-March despite being a high of 70 degrees out! This is a drink you picture yourself having on a cold day, sitting by the fire with some of your favorite friends – but you may have to make do hanging by your pool. Farm Girl Dabbles took this wonderful treat and made it even better by creating a coffee hot buttered rum!

5. Pumpkin Spice Latte

You were probably wondering if we were going to get to the most sought after Fall drink there is, a pumpkin spiced latte. Well we saved the best for last! We all know it’s Fall when Starbucks starts serving pumpkin spiced lattes, but what we don’t often know is how terrible they are for us. The fake ingredients, high calories, and not too mention the cost, puts a damper on this treat. We found a recipe that keeps the delicious, but takes away a lot of the bad. Oh She Glows adds a little twist by making it a Salted Pumpkin Spiced Latte.

Posted by Bethany Priebe

September 15, 2018 In

At Home Espresso

In our home we have coffee on the daily… and often all day long. Our typical choice of brewing is pour over (or drip for ease), but sometimes nothing hits the spot like a hot or iced Americano – a rich drink that I prefer with nearly a 1:1 ratio of espresso and hot water. The problem for most of us is getting espresso at home. When a decent espresso machine can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, it often feels like a luxury that is out of reach for the majority of us. So, instead we do with drip until we are out-and-about to hit up our favorite local shop. Yet, this also becomes costly over the years and is not always convenient. Fortunately, there are some good, affordable options.

Years before we started Cultivate Coffee…

Chris and I experienced a really unique time in our lives. We were both working for non-profits, while working on a startup on the side. We loved our work and were enjoying our newly married life when everything in our world changed within a few months time.

To our delight I got pregnant! To our surprise it was with twins. Around this same time, I lost my job due to lack of renewed grant funding. I was also hospitalized for 6 weeks because of the concern for premature labor. Our boys were born 10 weeks early and also spent another 6 weeks in the NICU as they finished growing and developing outside the womb. Between the loss of a job, the crazy housing market, and stacking hospital bills we found ourselves facing foreclosure.

Community building

Our Twin boys at about 8 months old.

Fortunately for us, we found an amazing opportunity to serve as the Cares team at an apartment community. Our role was to host events, welcome new residents, cultivate friendships within the community, and overall serve the residents and staff. We did all this for an extreme discount on rent, which was what we needed as we paid off medical debt and lived on a limited income. We found ourselves bringing treats to the staff and neighbors on a regular basis, as well as having friends in our home daily. Since we couldn’t afford to meet people at the coffee shop or pick up a simple latte to treat our manager, we needed to find a homemade and cost efficient way to bring caffeinated treats to our friends.

The hunt for an at-home espresso machine

We were shocked to see the average cost, but found there was a handful of cheap options. First, we tried the Mr Coffee home espresso machine simply because it was the cheapest on the market for about $50. What we found was the espresso never tasted quite right and was watery. So we decided to research some more to see if we could find quality without going into debt for our machine.

Different systems

As we researched, we learned that there were two different systems being used for countertop espresso machines. The Mr Coffee machine used a steam based system. Similar to the Moka Pot system, these machines bring water to a boil in a sealed tank. The steam creates the pressure to send the water through grounds in the portafilter. The problem is that these systems fail to produce the full 9 bars of pressure needed for a proper pour of espresso. In fact, they can barely do 2 bars of pressure. No wonder our coffee never tasted right!

The other system is a pump based system that is able to produce a minimum of 9 bars and also better controls the temperature. Most cheap pump based espresso machines start at around $200 and easily go up into the thousands. However, we found that De’Longhi makes a model for just about $100.

A great, affordable, at-home machine!

We love our De’longhi! It makes a nice, rich espresso with a beautiful crema on top. Even now that we own two different commercial quality machines, we still enjoy using this one at home, especially because it is a great size for small spaces. Our first one lasted about three years before it pooped out. We had another gifted to us and try to do a better job cleaning and descaling. It’s now been another 3 years and counting on this machine. We highly recommend this for home baristas. The steam wand can be a little finicky and needs careful attention when using it, but if you want a great cup of Americano at home, look no further.

One shot of espresso from our De’Longi machine

To learn more about different types of espresso systems, visit Kitchen Kaper’s blog. They explain these systems in more details, plus how the Moka Pot works, and other attempts at home espresso making.

Speaking of espresso, we are on the verge of releasing our espresso roast soon so be sure to visit the website!