EL CAMINO DE CAFÉ [II] Zaragoza - León

EL CAMINO DE CAFÉ [II] Zaragoza - León

Zaragoza - León

MINIPRESSO BREW [ROADSIDE]

In relying solely on Google Maps for navigation during my trip, which seemed to be very keen on me taking some of the most gravelly roads, I happened to run into my first flat of the journey just before entering Rioja (how convenient). Fortunately, it was also the only flat throughout the entire two weeks on the road, and after pumping my tire back up to full pressure. I decided to take the time to pump up a few espressos as well.

The way Minipresso works is through a bit of hot water and pressure built up completely by hand. The brewer comes in three chambers as well as a snap-on espresso cup. The top chamber is filled with hot water, the middle contains the pump action, and the bottom chamber is packed with ground coffee in a miniature basket. Everything is screwed together and in less than a minute, you have a creamy espresso no matter where you are in the world. With my tire back on and coffee packed away, I was ready to press-o on.

I woke up in Logroño with a decision to make. Do the 70 km trip to the small town of Belorado and try my luck at finding a Pilgrim hostel, or push through the full 118 km and climb around 1300 m to arrive in Burgos (officially half of my cross-Spain journey) where good family friends were waiting to host me with warm food and a warm bed. After making a few Moka Pot coffees for myself, and my host that morning, I set off again and decided only time would tell how today’s ride would pan out. Of course, as I got deep into the Region of La Rioja, I did some quick tests on a few fallen grapes, for quality control, and they were definitely magical. I was fortunate enough to make a new friend along the way, George from Buckingham, making his own trek around Spain by bicycle, and we took turns drafting each other in fact the full way to Burgos!

REST DAY [BURGOS]

Huge shouts to Toño’s mom, and dog, and friend, Ángel, for taking me in during my well-needed day of rest, and showing me around town. Here in Burgos, we took some time to explore two special coffee shops that were still quite under the radar.

The first was called Esmol Jaus, and apparently doubled as a vintage shop. From my observation, they were using all Lavazza coffee cups, but at the time were serving Puchero Coffee. Estefania, the owner, was working the bar, and explained that she had been there for 3 years now. They had some great brew methods for sale, and they closed at 1:30 pm every day.

The second café was called BB Café, and it turns out they even roasted their own beans. They did filter coffees, but only when there was two people working, today being only one. Fortunately, they had 2 different espressos on tap, Guatemala and Honduras, of which I tried the latter and it was quite nice. They had also been around for about 3 years, operating as well as a bar, but I couldn’t find out much more at the moment since the owner was not around.

SAN AGUSTÍN [LEÓN]

My ninth day on the road brought me to León just after 1 PM. Knowing that the roastery of San Agustín was somewhere in town, I gladly took the short day to rest before the looming mountains ahead and try to make another coffee connection. Failing to get a response from the roaster over Instagram or email, I searched the address on the IG profile, and came across an old Jazz bar under the name Café Plaza. With single-origins by San Agustín in three different espresso grinders on the counter next to the tapas, I knew I was in the right place. I ordered a double shot of Colombian, and in chatting with the woman behind the machine, I explained about my trip as best I could in my broken Spanish. As it turned out, Roaster Luis, her husband, was just out on an errand, but she gave him a call and he quickly returned to chat with this mysterious pilgrim. She handed me a second espresso with origins in Sumatra, and I gave him my spiel.

This was my first interview all in Spanish, but I managed to get all the core details, and we were both super inspired by each other’s projects. For the past 18 years, Café Plaza has been operating as a jazz bar, well-known for their Spanish tortillas, tapas, and Czech beers. Luis had been roasting for seven years by this point, but only under the brand of San Agustín for the last two years on the advice of one of his regulars and a marketing expert who was also responsible for their genius branding.

Luis proceeded to give me a tour of his roasting room in the back of the bar, showing me four different sized roasters thoughtfully arranged for roasting samples (half kg), roasting microlots (2 kg), regular orders (5 kg), and blends or large orders (20 kg). He prepared us V60 drip of a new Ethiopian roast he was experimenting with which we eloquently enjoyed in wine glasses. He mentioned a particular café that he supplies coffee to, called Dispar, in my destination city of A Coruña. I knew this was my next must-see, and I was again surprised it never came up in my research. Another win for chance coffee encounters.

That evening, I made my way back to settle into my new couch for the evening. My host, Erasmus student from Hungary, was more than happy to accompany me by bike to her favourite look-out spot above the city where we could watch the sunset and ride blindly down the mountain with only our small bike lights to guide us.

Second round of IG Stories:

FOOTNOTES

An extended version of The Field Report published in the April + May 2017 Twelfth Anniversary Issue of Barista Magazine.