Blue Horse Coffee

It’s been a beautiful holiday weekend, but it’s not quite over. Almost as good as having Monday off is the fact that you can come to Blue Horse Coffee on your day off!

Hurry, though, we’re only open 8 a.m. until noon. (We’ll be back to work as usual, just like you, on Tuesday, at 6:30 a.m.)

Here at Blue Horse, the coffee has always been our focus. As a lot of you long-time customers know, we tried a lot of different roasters before choosing Counter Culture Coffee as our supplier. Simply put, we’ve always felt that Counter Culture is the best, light roast to dark roast, regular and decaf. Roasting coffee really is both art and science. A truly fine roaster understands the beans, the interaction among heat and bean and cup, and how to bring out the best from each coffee.

Coffee drinkers like different kinds of tastes in their cups. It’s like any other food or drink in this world. Some people like vanilla ice cream (and all the varieties there are within the vanilla world), some people like chocolate (and all the varieties within the chocolate world). Well, it’s no surprise that some people like a light-roasted Kenyan coffee, some people like a medium-roasted Mexican coffee, some people like a dark French roast coffee. Notice, there was no attribution of origin for the French roast. So much of the time, when somebody orders a French roast coffee someplace, there is no origin associated with it; it’s often some blend or lesser bean roasted dark, without a lot of respect given to it. Well, there’s no good reason that a coffee that is dark-roasted should be treated like the red-headed stepchild of the coffee world (I’ve got nothing against red-headed stepchildren, it’s just a saying). In our view, coffee drinkers deserve the best of whatever kind of coffee they prefer.

Counter Culture thinks that, too. That’s why they work directly with Roberto Salazar, a third-generation coffee farmer in Honduras, in sourcing the excellent coffee for our French roast.

Dark-roasting a coffee, properly, takes a lot of skill and understanding. Here’s some insight from Peter Giuliano, the master roaster at Counter Culture: “Creating a great French Roast is a challenge: it takes skill and real craftsmanship to bring the roast to mahogany darkness without scorching, and keep the natural sweetness of the coffee intact. One often overlooked secret to creating a great French roast, however, is to start with superb green coffee. Of particular importance is the coffee’s hardness: dense, strong coffee withstands the trying dark-roast process much better than more delicate coffees, and so the best French Roasts come from high altitude, healthy, vigorous farms.

In 2003, while visiting Honduras for that year’s coffee tasting contest, I tasted such a coffee. Solid as a rock, this coffee was built to roast. It had a dense body, sweet acidity, and pure coffee flavor. Later, I met the farmer, Mr. Roberto Salazar from Ocotepeque, and made plans to visit his farm. The next day we started on the long drive to Ocotepeque, on the northwest border of Honduras, near Guatemala. Finally, we reached Finca Pashapa, which was like arriving in a forest paradise. I’ll never forget walking into the farm—it felt almost like entering a giant, green, airy room. The towering shade trees formed a perfect canopy, covering the carpet of coffee trees below. Birds darted between the canopy and the trees, and soared around the trunks of the trees holding up the “ceiling,” where green leaves let a bit of dappled sunlight through. The farm was pristine and beautiful. As Roberto continued his tour around his farm, he explained his commitment to organic agriculture, and showed us his earthworm compost station, which remains the most impressive I have ever seen at a coffee farm. The high altitude of the farm (more than 4,000 feet above sea level), dense shade, and conscientious farm management are what create a phenomenal “hard bean” coffee, perfect for rigorous roasting.

That year, we bought our first lot from Finca Pashapa. It has been our pleasure and honor to roast Mr. Salazar’s coffee every year since. Roberto is heir to a rich coffee tradition: his grandparents founded Finca Pashapa 42 years ago, and produced the first washed coffee in the region! It is a stellar coffee and an interesting story, way too good to be hidden behind the anonymity of simply ‘French Roast.’

So this year, for the first time, we will be selling the first farm-specific French Roast we have ever heard of. We’re extremely proud of this coffee—it is sweet and complex, never ashy or hollow the way lesser French Roasts can be. Dark roasting lends a particular bittersweet character to the coffee, bringing to mind a 70 percent dark chocolate. Thanks to Mr. Salazar and our crack roasting staff, I am confident this is the most delicious French Roast on the planet.”

So, Blue Horse people, if you enjoy a truly fine dark-roast in your cup, please come in for our Certified Organic, Shade-Grown, French roast – Finca Pashapa, grown and harvested by Roberto Salazar in Honduras, roasted by Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina, and offered directly to you by Blue Horse Coffee in Mt. Lebanon.

So, we’d been toying with a couple of ideas for a while now, and we finally got our recipes just right. We think you’re really going to enjoy our new ice cream cookie sandwiches, and our made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls. Yeah, you heard me right, and that voice in your head that’s saying, “Wow, those sound good,” is 100% correct.

We’re starting out with 2 kinds of ice cream sandwiches, both made with chocolate chip cookies. The first is stuffed with vanilla ice cream, and rolled in mini-chocolate chips. The second is stuffed with vanilla ice cream and toasted coconut, and then rolled in more toasted coconut. These are really going to come in handy over the next several days, that’s for sure.

We also have wonderful new cinnamon rolls, with cream cheese icing. It’s all made from scratch, and, wow, these are really, really good.

You know, we’re all about giving you the best new stuff, so come in and indulge a little. You deserve it.

We are so happy to tell you that two treasured, old friends have returned to Blue Horse Coffee. The new crops of coffee from Zaragoza, Mexico and Marcala, Honduras, are in the shop now, and these perennial favorites are just as delicious as ever.

Zaragoza is high in the mountains of the Oaxaca region in southern Mexico. The coffee is produced by a small cooperative named the 21st de Septiembre (named after the date of its founding). About five years ago, our roaster began working with the farmers of the 21st de Septiembre; from the outset, these farmers have been dedicated to producing very high-quality coffee. This cooperative is comprised of dozens of small, mountain-top farms. (To see some photos and learn more about the farmers, check out counterculturecoffee.com, and go to the Coffee page). Careful cultivation, harvesting and processing methods have produced yet another wonderful crop.

This coffee is rich without being heavy, with predominant flavors of chocolate and roasted nuts, and a hint of sweetness. The coffee of the 21st de Septiembre is justifiably a coffee-lover’s favorite, and we are happy to share this classic coffee with you.

In the La Paz region of west Honduras sits the town of Marcala. Just outside of Marcala is the coffee farm called Finca El Puente (“finca” means “farm,” and “el puente” means “the bridge”). Finca El Puente first came to prominence about six years ago or so, when Marysabel Caballero entered her then-unknown coffee in the Honduras Cup of Excellence competition. She found immediate success in that and other such quality competitions, and her reputation for superb coffees continues to grow.

Our roaster has established a very close relationship with Marysabel, and her partner, Moises Herrera. Marysabel and Moises are fanatical about coffee quality, as well as the constant improvement of their coffee. As an example, a few years ago, the crop faded much more quickly than usual (that is, the flavors did not last long), and so, our roaster actually discarded a fair amount of the green beans they’d purchased from Finca El Puente. In working with Marysabel and Moises, it was decided that the culprit was the mechanical drying equipment. So the next year, Finca El Puente engaged in a combination of mechanical and more labor-intensive non-mechanical drying. This added to the labor and time involved in getting that crop to market, but it was (and is) more important to Marysabel and Moises that they produce GREAT coffee, rather than just producing coffee.

Nicknamed the “Purple Princess” for its purple fruit flavor notes, this is a delicate and delicious coffee. As one of our customers put it (we’re lookin’ at you, Mary), “it smells good enough to chew.” And yes, the taste is at least as good as the aroma.

Both of these coffees are, by the way, Counter Culture Direct Trade Certified(tm). In short, that means that an independent auditor has certified that this coffee meets certain quality, price and relationship standards. Check out our Direct Trade section on our Coffee page, and go to counterculturecoffee.com for even more information.

So yeah, it might be hot outside, but you still need your coffee, right? Come on in and enjoy the new crops from Mexico and Honduras.

As always, we will close early on Father’s Day, so we can all spend time with our dads. So, this Sunday, June 20th, we close at noon.

Happy Father’s Day to all you daddios!

Starting this Saturday, our hours will be:

Saturdays – 7:30 to 4:00
Sundays – 8:00 to 4:00
Mondays through Fridays – 6:30 to 4:00

We’ll be closed all day tomorrow, Monday May 31st.

We’ll be open for business as usual at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

See you June 1, everyone!

In typical ‘burgh fashion, the weather has gone from too cool to too hot. Luckily, Blue Horse Coffee has you covered either way.

We’ve gotten a couple of new gelato flavors, to go along with vanilla, stracciatella, mint stracciatella, cherry vanilla, peanut butter and cappuccino.

We have the most outstanding strawberry gelato right now. Since Capogiro Gelato only uses fresh ingredients, this chock-full of strawberry, creamy gelato will only be here for a couple of weeks or so. And for my money, there’s nothing that finally kills those winter blues than having some sweet, delicious strawberries.

I love nutella. You know, the hazelnut flavored chocolate spread. I can’t keep it in my house, ’cause I put it on as many toasted bagels as I can. So I couldn’t resist getting nutella gelato. It’s milk chocolate with real nutella. It’s a very yummy chocolate treat, so please eat it up before I give in to temptation.

So many of you love the ancho spiced Mexican cocoa and lattes we make. We love them, too, and so we were pretty excited to see we could get a spicy Mexican chocolate gelato from Capogiro. So we did! While there is no Scoville unit rating on this gelato, there really could be. When you first put a spoonful in your mouth, the sweet mellow chocolate is your first sensation. After you swallow that spoonful, you’ll feel a pleasant chile burn begin in your throat. It will last a bit, and it’s oh, so good.

Finally, our favorite sorbetto so far. Mango. Mango lovers know that there is a small window of time each year to enjoy the ataulfo mango, also known as a champagne, or honey mango. So sweet, such a smooth texture and incredible flavor. If you like mangoes, you will absolutely love this sorbetto. And if you’ve never tried a mango, this is a pretty darn good way to try it.

We’ll be keeping you posted as we get more flavors in. Be sure to check out our featured flavor, too. This is a rotating flavor, a staff pick. Presently, the featured flavor is cappuccino.

See you soon, spoon in hand.

We will be open this Sunday, May 9th, at 8 a.m., and we will close at NOON.

As we do every year, we close early on Mother’s and Father’s Day, so we and our staff can spend precious time with their parents.

So come in during the morning, sit a bit and spend some time with mom, then take her to lunch somewhere really nice.

Happy Mother’s Day!

We literally just unpacked this year’s inaugural shipment of gelato, and it was like Christmas morning. We are so excited that this outrageously good gelato is back!

We have dark chocolate, vanilla, cherry vanilla, stracciatella (which is like chocolate chip, only better), mint stracciatella, Thai coconut, peanut butter, cappuccino, and orange sorbetto.

We get this fantastic Italian ice cream from Capogiro Gelato Artisans, from Philadelphia. Why Philadelphia, you ask? Because this is the best gelato we have ever, ever tasted. And we’re not the only ones who think so. Bon Appetit Magazine chose Capogiro as one of its favorite ice cream makers. So yeah, it’s really, really GOOD!

We serve it in a cup, so feel free to mix flavors. For an extra kick, order an affogato – two shots of espresso lovingly poured over two scoops of gelato. Oh, man …

So come in to Blue Horse for a couple of scoops of the best ice cream you will ever have. Seriously.