Our very own Barista, Logan, has taken to the road again with Roman Candle, a band that lives up to its name and will rock your socks off (what?). We are huge Roman Candle fans, isn’t everyone? Enough shameless rocker promotion and on to Logan’s second report from the road (first Barista Rocker report).

“As Alice Cooper says in Wayne’s World, Milwaukee is pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que which is Algonquin for the good land.” And he’s totally right. This town surprises me every time I come up here. It’s clean, well-planned, and the people are really nice. I’m sitting at Alterra coffee on S. 1st st waiting to go to soundcheck, and the coffee here is actually really nice. So far I have ordered a double espresso and some drip coffee. The espresso is actually a lot like our (Drew’s Brews) Zappia blend. Although the shop here has a La Marzocco (older model) machine with normal portafilters, the crema on these shots were really nice and golden brown with even a touch of ‘tiger striping’ visible on top. The taste was really bright and citrusy, but not bitter or to acidic. Really good balance with a soft weight to it – seemed to have been properly dosed and tamped. Timshel had a cappuccino and really liked hers also. As far as method and technique goes – I really didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or new. The typical hand leveling, and tamping (although the Batista did use a few knocks to increase the dose).

The first CREMA Christmas event raised over $800 for Safe Haven! That’s a big deal for a small shop. And we have many to thank – just a quick nod to all that made this possible, most importantly our talented artists, Sara-bellum (a.ka. the parking fair), Margie, and Rachael W., and least but not last YOU – it was you that made this a success with your purchases and donations.

We set an aggressive goal of $2,900, this amount underwrites the cost of a family becoming successful graduates of Safe Haven’s Mended Hearts program from start to finish. Working with our upcoming artists we will continue to donate until we reach it and we will continue to accept donations, in store or check by mail made out to Safe Haven, or you might even commission one of the artists and ask that a portion of the sale be donated – see our artist page for links to their bio and contact info – we’re sure they’d love it.

What did you think about this event? Leave us a comment.

Happy new year to all!

Rob Wilds of NPT’s program Tennessee Crossroads, profiles Drew Park, a Nashville coffee craftsman who is dedicated to brewing a better brew.

Tennessee Crossroads travels the highways and byways of Tennessee, highlighting the personalities, crafts, places, foods and events that make Tennessee special and its character unique.

Check out the video by clicking image to the left, and view episode 18.

In partnership with Drew’s Brews, Nashville’s roaster extraordinaire, we showed up for the Willie Nelson concert ready to feed the caffeine frenzy. Not sure what to expect, we were surprised at our popularity! Our limited power supply and one drip brewer couldn’t keep up with the Willie crowd, but we learned quickly how to serve a large crowd and are ready to cater your next event.

The trailer is 50’s model that has been meticulously gutted and rebuilt with coffee and espresso stained wood, truly a labor of love by Drew and friends.

Thanks to Paul Rinkes at http://rinkesphotography.com for snapping this photo. Find a few of our own here, sorry none of Willie – we were too busy making coffee!

Also serving Willie was Mas Tacos, an idea so “simple, so obvious, so brilliant, so…diabolical!…that I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it first” as Jack referred to it on the Nashville Scene Bites blog. We couldn’t wait to try Teresa’s brilliant idea and were not disappointed.

A friend passed this along, a coffee grounds powered truck! Could we be the key to the renewable energy crisis?

Kristen Foster wrote a nice little story on my journey to creating CREMA over at the new hip chick magazine her nashville. Check it out: CREMA of the crop.

Speaking of hip folks, head over to the Nashvillest blog and check out what guest blogger Jon Arnold has to say about CREMA. The Nashvillest is an entertaing-must-ad-this-to-your-rss reading list. Check it out: the Nashvillest.

While you’re surfing, check out these photos Dave has snapped at CREMA, he’s making a small fortune seling them over at istockphoto.com. Nice work Dave! Check them out.

While I’m on a roll here with links, here’s one of our favorite new blogs, Soapbox Musings, she “gets it” and also wrote a few kinds words about CREMA,  “…the best cappuchino I have had since returning to the States…it’s as close to an Italian morning as I’m going to get in quite some time.” Read the whole post.

Look for a short article about CREMA in the Tennessean’s Weekend paper by Dana Kopp Franklin. Dana spoke to us about our new extended hours during Titans games (post update: we are not open during Titan’s games, sorry) and more importantly our new exclusive CREMA Espresso blend – created by us in the CREMA Coffee Lab, a secret hidden layer in the belly of Nashvegas. Ok, I made that up, but we did create it and it is hand roasted to perfection by Drew’s Brews so you know it’s good!

Dana writes, “…Lehman who takes a seriously gourmet approach to coffee has added a second variety of espresso brew… now she and her co-workers have designed CREMA Espresso Blend, uniting beans from two different Ethiopian regions with a little Indonesian coffee.”

Our new CREMA Espresso Blend is in addition to our standard Zappia Family Espresso blend, you now have a choice between two great espresso blends for your Cortado, Cuban, or Americano!

Click the picture or here to read the article.

Please note that the CREMA Espresso 101 class this Saturday is all booked. Stay tuned if you’re interested in a follow up, we’re planning a video for those who miss the class. It will be posted as a CREMA College of Coffee video on our YouTube channel.

This Friday, May 9th is Bike to Work day. Bikers across Nashville will commute in to downtown and meet at the Schermerhorn plaza. Check out the details here: http://www.walkbikenashville.org/

While on the Walk/Bike Nashville website check out the results from the 4th Great Commuter Race that pitted a biker, a car and the Music City Star against each other! CREMA was pleased to provide coffee for this event.

Just maybe we’ll have a couple free cups of coffee for anyone that stops by on their bikes on friday!

….if you notice a little bit of change with your next espresso, or a brighter flavor from the Moka Harrar, it’s because the crops are coming in. Most of our coffees are coming in season, which means they have been harvested, washed, and shipped most likely in the last month. If you’re in this week, ask us to take a whiff of the Lost Weekend (a blend of Harrar and Sumatra), and note the bluberry-ish smell. Also, keep a look out for some new coffees. We’re tasting a Tanzanian this week, and hopefully a new Ethiopian Sidamo and El Salvador peaberry next week. Ask us to try some……the only requirement is that you have to let us know what you think.

We’re are always grateful when someone writes about CREMA. Even happier when it’s well written and the author is attentive to, r impressed by our passion for the perfect cup and the hard work we put into creating a better coffee experience, for you.

If you missed it, here’s the review of CREMA by Will Ayers from The Nashville Rage, Coffee’s King at CREMA, The downtown shop is a true espresso lover’s haven.

Here’s what a few bloggers are saying…

“…the best Americano I have had in Nashville to date”

“…awesome atmosphere, and great coffee”

“Crema is my new favorite coffee shop.”

Seeing and hearing that CREMA is enjoyed by you is the measure of real success. Thank you for visiting, writing, and telling others, this is what makes it truly special for us.