Special Events
Educate yourself.
Coffee is serious stuff for the staff at Volta. So is tea. (Although we're serious about chocolate, chocolate itself is just fun.) We are constantly working to educate ourselves about the intricacies of coffee and tea, be it staff cuppings whenever we introduce a new varietal, or daily work to dial in the Clover to make sure we are producing the proper flavor profile.
We like to share our knowledge with our customers. For now, we are scheduling monthly public coffee cuppings and tea tastings. We're working on plans for seminars about chocolate, direct trade, coffee production, and roasting. Check this page for listings about upcoming special events.
Public and Staff Coffee Cupping
Next public cuppings: Every Thursday afternoon @ 2pm
Volta is kicking off the new year with another round of free public cuppings. A cupping is a sort of formalized coffee tasting; in the field it is used to evaluate the quality of crops to be purchased; at the roasting works is it used to find optimal roasting levels. At Volta, we are cupping production (final release) roast of the coffees we serve to help build a deeper understanding of how coffee type and terroir change the flavors of the coffees we serve.
The next Volta coffee cupping will be held this Thursday at 2pm.
The cupping is free and open to the public. No prior experience (beyond a love of coffee) is necessary; we'll provide instructions and guide the cupping from start to finish. A cupping is a structured tasting that is used in the specialty coffee industry to evaluate the quality of specific coffees, both in the field before auction/purchase and at the point of roasting to determine the best roast level. We'll start by evaluating the dry and wet aromas of the coffees, then move on to the "slurp" to develop an evaluation of each coffee's taste. All we ask is that you refrain from wearing perfumes or other strong scents when cupping with us-- there's just so much that a nose can take in before the individual fragrances of the coffees are overwhelmed.
MFA Poetry and Fiction
Volta is pleased to announce the latest schedule for the UF MFA poetry and fiction reading series. Stop by the shop to hear works read by up-and-coming authors and poets from UF's acclaimed writing program. Readings begin at 8 and last about an hour.
Update: The March 18 UF MFA Poetry & Fiction Reading has been canceled. I guess the keys are stuck on the Olivetti and the poems have gone unwritten. Look for the readings to continue with the new MFA writers in the fall.
Spring 2010 Schedule
- January 14: Poetry: Diya Chaudhuri and Fiction: David Blanton
- January 28: Fiction: Rachel Khong and Poetry: James Davis
- February 11: Poetry: Karin Lightstone and Fiction: Beau Golwitzer
- February 25: Fiction: Halvor Aakhus and Poetry: Jessica Hammack
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