Coffee and Community

What's Brewin' out Back?

2010-05-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

It may be small, but it's cozy & quiet. The Treehouse now has a little patio out back. It's perfect for a quiet, sunshine filled sip of joe. So next time you're in, take a peek out the left side back door. It's at the top of the steps. We also still have cafe table out front on Merchant Street that is actually a little more shaded. Just another thing to try at The Treehouse Coffee Shop.

Plant a Cup of Sunshine

2009-03-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

On March 21st, we welcomed Spring by reusing some used coffee cups to plant sunflower seeds. Can anyone guess what we used as a secret plant food ingredient?

Families took theirs home, but The Treehouse Gang has a few planted in the front window.

Let's track our seeds together. We'll post our pictures, you post yours!

Week one of The Treehouse Gang's Plant a Sup of Sunshine Project

Java Recycle Competition

2009-03-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

Well done Gurus of the Grounds! We raised $50 for World Vision's 30hr. famine, and found usefulness in used coffee cups.

In the end we had only three entries, but each one is so unique. Check them out and comment. Share your ideas. And if you want to try this at home, feel free to ask for some cups.

Java Tree: Audubon Preschool 3yr old classes
Planter by Holli
"Why Me?!": by Lazarus

2009-02-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

The GingerBread Lady Visits The Treehouse
Where else does The GingerBread Lady visit and spend time making cookies with kiddies. A special event for children every month. Stay tuned at www.treehousecoffee.net.

2009-02-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

KID'S OPEN MIC- Every Second Friday of the Month
The Treehouse Coffee Shop is the best place for children to unleash their talent in a positive atmosphere. Every kind of talent from singing to dancing to telling a joke or playing an instrument is accepted and welcomed. This is a great environment to foster the arts in children. The Treehouse gets packed with talents of all kinds!

2009-02-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

Crazy picture of a kid's birthday party held at The Treehouse. Why not have your party here?!

Check this out:
www.treehousecoffee.net/kids-parties.php

2009-02-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

The Treehouse Coffee Shop has some of the youngest customers around. They get addicted to coffee only days after birth.

A lady walks into a coffee shop and asks "Do you grow your own tomatoes?"

2009-01-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

This is a true story. How many coffee shops do you know that grow their own produce? I do not know of a single restaurant let alone a coffee shop that grows their own produce. A few years back, a lady came into the shop and wanted a breakfast sandwich. When she looked at our menu, she asked if we grew our own tomatoes. I have never heard that question. We responded by saying that we get it from a local produce stand. She was very aggravated and said that she would take the ham egg and cheese instead. I guess she thought the we raised our own animals.

I Columbian 13 (take on I Corinthians 13)

2009-01-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

Love is coffee
Love is tea
It does not drink Wawa
It does not to *bucks
It is not bitter; It is not water downed
It is not decaf; It doesn’t come in a can
It keeps nothing to be microwaved in the morning
Love does not delight in bad coffee
But always rejoices with The Treehouse

History of Coffee

2009-01-16T11:28:00.001-08:00

The coffee tree is indigenous to Africa. While there are dozens of coffee plant species, the
only one able to produce high quality coffee is Arabica. Its origin is Ethiopia, where it still grows wild.

Coffee is much younger than tea or wine. Whereas their use goes back thousands of years, coffee, as a beverage, has been around for only a few hundred.

Originally, certain African tribes crushed coffee beans (really seeds, not beans at all!), mixed them with animal fat, and ate them to give them extra strength and endurance. The use of the dried fruit surrounding the "beans" came next, probably before 1000 AD. The husks were
boiled in water and consumed as an herbal beverage, which is still consumed in Yemen.

Only around the 15th century did the beverage, as we know it take hold. After being roasted, the beans were ground into the finest powder, boiled with water and then imbibed. This
method still exists and is called Turkish or Middle Eastern coffee. Coffeehouses and the consumption of coffee during religious practices quickly spread throughout the Middle East.

Once the pleasures of drinking roasted coffee were discovered, coffee was transplanted across the Red Sea from Ethiopia to Yemen, the breadbasket of the Arabian Peninsula, and grown for the first time on a commercial scale.

Yemen monopolized the coffee exporting business for many years. All coffee was shipped
from its Red Sea port of Al Mukah (pronounced ahl-mookáh). Europeans came to know this exotic new drink as originating from Al Mukah and gradually came to call the drink Mocha.

Today, Yemen produces only a fraction of the coffee it once did. High prices are paid for Mocha, since it is revered as an heirloom coffee by the world coffee trade, including US Specialty. It is described as having a uniquely exotic and pleasurable flavor.
The Venetians introduced coffee to Europe in the early 1600's. It was sold for its revitalizing properties by street vendors and soon became a common drink.

The Europeans were quick to compete in the burgeoning coffee trade. It began when the Dutch smuggled coffee plants from Islamic India to the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java in the late 17th century. Naturally, the first coffee blend could only be Mocha-Java! Europeans seeded the world with coffee plants over the next two centuries (1700 to 1900).

Today coffee is grown in Central and South America, mid to southern Africa, southern Asia
and on many islands of the Pacific. Coffee is second only to oil in dollars transacted per year and grows on approximately 10% of the world's land area. The coffee industry provides employment for over 25 million people. Much of the third world depends on the sale of
coffee for its income.

The Roasting Process of our Roaster

2009-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

The roasting of our green coffee beans at Crescent Moon Coffee & Tea is one of our most important processes. We employ a combination of science and art to produce a truly unique roast for every customer. Unlike most traditional bulk roasters, who pull beans off a warehouse shelf or out of a truck, Crescent Moon Coffee & Tea is a Micro Roaster. All of our coffees are Artisan Hand Craft Roasted in house to give you the freshest possible flavors.

In a nutshell, we take the green coffee beans and put them into our drum roasters. Here they are craft-roasted to their specific desired level, using
the skills of our roastmaster. The roasted beans are then deposited into a cooling tray and air-cooled. Unlike some of the larger roasters, we prefer
this air-cooling method to the flavor-diluting effect of water-cooling.

We go to a great deal of expense to buy the best coffee available from each country of origin. A combination of time, expertise and knowledge needs to
go into the roasting process in order to get an exceptional coffee that not
only brings out the best characteristics of each bean, but also keeps the customers coming back for more.

A lot of people assume that all coffees are the same, and so a lot of
roasters roast each coffee identically. However, we know that growing conditions such as soil, rainfall and the way the coffee is picked,
processed and stored, all contribute to how the coffee will roast up
and taste. Therefore, we do several trial and error roasts for each coffee
to determine their optimal roast level. This takes a lot of time, but you
tell us… It's worth it, isn't it?

When we have our desired roast levels determined, we don't stop there. We do cuppings of our roasted coffee to ensure the desired flavors and characteristics are coming through. Our customers can be assured that
each time they purchase coffee from us it is the best quality they can get.