Alien Coffee

These are unusual times -- so unusual that flavored coffee has invaded the galley at Whaling House. The image below is so incongruous that my most devoted coffee students will immediately have questions. For everyone else, this is a good opportunity to share a few ideas about coffee, particularly flavored coffee.


Rather than write a lengthy post, I have decided to make a video about this weekend's coffee. The video will include a reference to this blog and also to A Story About Coffee by Pam Hayes-Bohanan.



It will be featured in my Coffee Week course this summer, which will be offered online for the first time. Since the Coronavirus crisis precludes the usual visit to Whaling House, I am bringing a few words about Whaling House to the course.



And although I spent 15 minutes explaining the milk in this coffee, I do have two things to add.

First, I forgot to mention that the residue of the flavored coffee stays in the grinder, even if it is used only once. This might necessitate a thorough cleaning; in my case I compromised by grinding some unflavored coffee that I put right in compost. It is a waste in one sense, but allows for proper enjoyment of the next cup. I can still detect the aroma while grinding, but it is not present in the cup.

Second, Pam found a clever way to redeem some of the flavored coffee. She blended vanilla ice cream, coffee milk from our local dairy, chocolate syrup, and a few ground mint-choco coffee beans for delicious milkshakes (or maybe they're frappes) yesterday afternoon.  Delicious! (And yes, I ran some extra coffee through the grinder after she did this.)

Lagniappe

Thanks in advance to Bones Coffee for being good sports about this.

CoffeeWeek Movie: The Sequel

COVID-19 NEWSFLASH: As of April 9, we have decided to move this course 100-percent online. There will be a Zoom meeting each morning June 15-19, with special guests and with online assignments each day. Work will be due Monday, June 29.

Some coffee art from my most recent travel course,
which was my first visit to Costa Rica.
Among many other things, Coffee Week students will
learn the significance of each form that coffee takes in this photo.

I am leaving the film below in place because it is fun and captures the spirit of this course. But the mode of delivery will be very different. Taking the class online means that we miss the fun of driving all around the state to different coffee venues and all the sites, tastes, and aromas that entails.

BUT doing this remotely ALSO means that we have some opportunities we otherwise would not have: mainly, we can draw in the expertise of coffee professionals near and far (in some cases very far), either in real-time video conferences or in video presentations they record for us. This will include some of the people who participated in the class before, and some who are too far away. They will include at least.a couple of coffee farmers.

We will also have time to watch and then discuss several coffee-related films, available for streaming at little or no cost.



We are pleased to be offering a 1-3-5 coffee course for the third time:

        1 van / 3 credits / 5 days

This class meets all day, each day for a week, giving us the opportunity to visit many -- but not nearly all -- of the amazing coffee places in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Specialty roasters and cafés are integral to their local communities while connecting our region to some of the most interesting coffeelands throughout the world.

This summer course will follow on the heels of a spring season full of coffee-related activities that have been organized by the Bridgewater One Book One Community Committee, which has chosen the delightful Thanks a Thousand for its spring read. All members of the wider Bridgewater community are invited to talks, tastings, and tours throughout March and April.

NOTE: Most of the events mentioned above were canceled, but some will be taking place online.

Coffee Week: The Movie

Well, a very short movie. My colleagues in Continuing Education were as surprised as I was that Coffee Week BSU has not really caught on. We had a few students in 2016 and 2017, but we could not run it in 2018 because we had only one student! So the clever marketing folks in Continuing Education have worked with me to produce this little clip to draw attention to the course. Please share widely, Coffee Achievers!

For registration details, please visit the BSU summer page. For details about the course itself, browse the rest of this blog.

This course may be transferred to other universities. It is offered as a regular undergraduate course with no prereqs, but may also be taken for honors or graduate credit.

Summer 2019: Coffee Week is Back!

BSU flat mascot BriStaCo poses with honey-
processed coffee in Nicaragua.

The idea of Coffee Week BSU was born as soon as I the new dean of Continuing Education at Bridgewater State announced that summer courses could be taught in a 5x8 format -- five days of eight hours each.

As soon as I heard this, I realized that it would allow a third kind of coffee course. I already teach a travel course -- usually in Nicaragua -- and a speaking-intensive seminar that is open only to BSU second-year students. I have been looking for a way to offer a local summer course, and the 8-hour days give us some outstanding options.

Through my other courses, I have learned about a lot of innovative coffee businesses within reasonable driving distance of the BSU campus in Bridgewater. The 8-hour format allows us to visit several of these each day, including roasters, importers, and fantastically innovative cafés.

We will meet no more than one day in a typical classroom, watching a few coffee-related films. But in order to meet the real experts throughout our region, most of the class meetings will begin and end at a campus parking lot, and we will spend all 8 hours in the BSU Coffee Coach (a campus van).

Coffee Week BSU has no prerequisites. A modest reading list will be provided to enrolled students two weeks before the class begins. The 3-credit course transfers easily to other institutions as GEOG 296 (undergraduate) or GEOG 520 (graduate). Graduate students will prepare additional research papers or lesson plans in the case of educators.

Coffee Week BSU meets 8:30-4:30, August 5-9, 2019
BRIDGEW.EDU/SUMMER

Students. In a van. Learning coffee.

Poster: Harvey Hayes-Bohanan
Apologies to Jerry Seinfeld

Coffee Week 2018

We have just set dates for Coffee Week 2018 -- our third offering! Details will be developed through the spring, but the maps and posts below give a good idea of where the course will go. We will spend 8 hours each day learning about coffee locally. We will watch a film or two on campus, but most of the course will be held in some of the best cafes and roasteries in Massachusetts -- a state with more excellent coffee companies per square inch than any other!

The course will meet 8:30a - 4:30p, July 23-27, 2018.
NOTE: This is a change from previously-published dates.

Coffee Week 2017

Coffee Week was such a success last year that we are offering it again this August 7-11, 2017 (Monday to Friday). I will meet the class at a designated parking area every morning at 8:30, with a van ready for the day's adventure. There will be some "class" time, but most of it will be in cafes or roasting facilities all over eastern and central Massachusetts.

Much of the itinerary shown on the 2016 map will be followed, but with some important additions in Somerville and Boston, and unfortunately some deletions. Check the draft 2017 map, subject to revision as the course date approaches and cafes/roasteries are confirmed.

The course is GEOG 400-002, available at BSU College of Continuing Studies, which can also provide answers to registration and billing questions.

See photos by 2016 Coffee Week participants on Flickr.