Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.

"Coffee Lovers Appreciate The Difference..."

A little less than a month ago I purchased a Groupon for $8 that gave me $20 worth of locally roasted Fair-Trade coffee (and more!) from Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company. I really wish that Monterey had Groupons, but I'm glad that Santa Cruz started featuring daily deals!

Today I got a chance to drive to San Jose and I figured why not take Highway 1, the coastal route, through Santa Cruz to pick up my coffee? The drive is a lot prettier than Highway 101 and it takes only about 10 minutes longer (because the cars go no faster than 65 mph)



The Groupon could be applied to any of their three locations:

1330 Pacific Ave. (Coffee Learning Center location)
Santa Cruz, California 95060

19 Rancho Del Mar, # A
Aptos, California 95003

920 Pacific Ave. (Brew Bar location)
Santa Cruz, California 95060


The Groupon writers are brilliant at summing up what SCCRC does best so here you go, straight from the source:

Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company provides caffeine devotees with bulk portions and single-serving sips of delicious, locally roasted beans. Its signature BrewBar allows the baristas to brew a single cup of made-to-order coffee according to drinkers’ discerning taste buds for $1.85. (You can also get a fast cup for $1.65 if the brew bar is too slow.)

SCCRC sells bluk beans, about $9.95/lb. They have an array of other products too:


Triple chocolate truffles ($2 each) or cinnamon rolls ($2 each) help jittery stomachs absorb caffeine kicks like a delicious bulletproof vest. Customers who are handcuffed to their computers in a wacky romantic-comedy scenario can go online to order beans to their door, including the two-roast-toned BluesBreaker ($9.95 per pound) and the insomnia-enkindling Zooom Brew ($9.95 per pound).

Groupon continues: The staff at Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company has focused on bringing its customers fair-trade, singularly tasty java since the Reagan administration assumed control of Jimmy Carter’s White House and demolished his prized Oval Office ball pit. Offering everything from inventive organic and classic blends, single origins, and flavored coffees to the accessories needed to grind and brew them into a steaming, screaming cup, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company is the perfect pit stop for persons in need of boldly roasted human fuel.

I ordered 1 pound of Brazilian Hazelnut (I LOVE HAZELNUT EVERYTHING) and a half pound of Sumatra Dark, which I might just roast and incorporate into an adventure-inspired cupcake.... hmm....

I also got a cup of their drip coffee. I chose the Santa Cruz Full City, which is described by SCCRC as a cup with fragrance notes of sweet vanilla-nut and warm spices [that] unfold in this blend of South American and high-grown Central American coffees from rich volcanic soils. Flavors reminiscent of chocolate and oranges emerge in the cup. Roasted to the point where the first delicate oils burst to the surface, this coffee has bright acidity, rich mouthfeel, and a fruity finish.

To round out my $20 Groupon I also grabbed a Peanut Butter Fudge Collision cookie which actually looked better than it tasted. I mean, of course it was good, but I was hoping to bite into a cookie that tasted more like a peanut butter cup.

Do you want to know how to brew the perfect cup of coffee? Here are some of Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company's tips:

- Use fresh, cold natural water (coffee is 98 - 99% water ya know)
- Do NOT use distilled water
- Use 1 tablespoon of coffee to 5 ouces of water
- Do not brew coffee with water that reaches a temperature greater than 205 degrees F! It will damage the flavor.
- Do not brew coffee with water that has a temperature less than 195 degrees F... it won't extract the coffee flavors properly

Mills-Monterey! Day 1

Kerry Mills came to visit me the last weekend of June and we had such a blast! I LOVE KERRRRRRYYYY!!! (She has a blog too! 100 Things to do in the OC) She flew up here from San Diego on Allegiant Air. They have the best Monterey/SD flight deals but because of low interest, they are getting rid of them July 31st. SO DUMB.

Anyways, Kerry arrived Friday night around 7. We got in the car and quickly stopped at my house to pick up Tyler, Max, and Dave. Then the five of us road-tripped up to Santa Cruz to spend some time at the Boardwalk. 

A few people from the Bay Area (old kickball teammates and Megan & Paul) met up with us and we listened to the Blue Oyster Cult perform. Can't remember their hit song, but it was nice sitting on the beach. Every Friday a band plays two sets at the Boardwalk. Place gets packed. No joke.

The hungry bug bit us and we went to find food using my coupon book. We settled on buy one get one free corn dogs. Believe it or not, this was my first corn dog experience. It was delicious!! Corn dogs remind me of a mix between hot dogs and doughnuts, not hot dogs and corn bread. 

We rode the iconic Big Dipper next. It is such a classic! 

Then we rode the Fireball... It was getting pretty late and we were supposed to go to this bar in downtown Santa Cruz called The Red Room.


However, Megan and Paul (-->) told us about a place (<--) called Marianne's Ice Cream (1020 Ocean St, Santa Cruz) where they serve up crazy delicious flavors like Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough and Heaven (vanilla ice cream with brownie bits, peanut butter and fudge) and Mud Pie and Horchata and Lavender and Pumpkin and Orangesicle.... over 40 flavors that they make themselves.

We got lucky finding parking because we got there pretty late (open til midnight Friday and Saturday) - I'm definitely making that a staple Santa Cruz stop! If you are reading this and want to hang out in Santa Cruz anytime soon please invite me and we'll go here together!

So by now it was practically 11:30 maybe and we finally got to the Red Room. Kerry, the lovely lady she is, bought me a PBR and one for herself. PBR Love. The Rrrred Rrrrroom was a rrrrreally cool spot! Obv. they had red lights and it was very old school with mahogany, rich carpets, lots of plush velvet seating and what not. Most of the San Jose people left and we went downstairs to the "other" red room type place. They allowed smoking in there. Weird. Not a fan of indoor smoking! After a wee little bit we drove back to Monterey and crawled in bed. Saturday was going to be a busy day!

Dogs Closer To Returning To Downtown SC

Dogs Closer To Returning To Downtown SC: "The Santa Cruz Downtown Business Association voted Tuesday to recommend a repeal a decades-old law that bans dogs in downtown."

For decades, dogs have not been allowed in downtown Santa Cruz. Yesterday the Santa Cruz Downtown Business Association voted 8 - 1 in favor of repealing the doggie ban. The business people are thinking that if they can bring the dogs, then they'll bring the dog owners as well.

But what about all the poo? No one wants to walk downtown Santa Cruz and step in some steamy mush! And SC is full of hippies. Hippies go barefoot. That equals... gross-ness. Welp - fear not dog owning Santa Cruzians, the Walkers and Woofers business plans on supplying 5,000 biodegradable doggie bags.

Next step: Santa Cruz City Council will visit the issue in a couple weeks. Keep the leashes on their hooks, folks. At least for now.....

Strawberry Fields Forever

Just signed up for this! Now I need to figure out how to train for the 65 mile ride. Or, I could train for the strawberries covered in chocolate ganache part (they'll be at the finish). "A beautiful ride through southern Santa Cruz County. Includes approximately 4000 feet of climbing. Espressos and lattes at the levee, lunch at Royal Oaks, pie at Gizdich Ranch and perogi in Corralitos. A good ride for the accomplished weekend warrior. An after-ride meal for all routes will be served at the finish. All rides start at Pajaro Valley High School, south of Santa Cruz. There is no overnight parking at Pajaro Valley High School. "

Grocery Outlet and .... a surprise!

After work I went to the Grocery Outlet (215 Reservation Road, Marina) to assess how good their deals are. They buy brand name products directly from manufacturers when there is surplus inventory or manufacturing overruns. Example from their website: cereal company had boxes with Shrek on it. Then Shrek went to DVD. Don't need those Shrek boxes in stores. Fill em up anyways and give them to Grocery Outlet (at a fraction of the cost). I noticed that they had really good deals on health/beauty products, like Neutrogena's $20-ish dollar wrinkle cream for only $8. Must remember that for when I'm OLD (or if I continue making strange faces as often as I do).

I read that they also have good wine deals. I'll have to go back before a night out to stock up! The produce section was pretty small, but how would you get discount produce anyways?? The Grocery Outlet website advises to stop by often because products are always changing, when you do see something you like get a lot because it might not be there the next time, and sign up for email notifications - if you are that gung-ho. (Which maybe I am?) I left Grocery Outlet with a HUGE thing of $5 detergent, lots of $1.50 lean cuisines, $2 box of Kashi, and other stuff!

From there I drove up Hwy - 1 to go pick up something I decided to buy on craigslist. I bet you are curious as to what I got!

That's right! I finally got a stand mixer, thanks to the help of my Doze-Valentine. The drive went by really fast both ways, mostly because I listened to the new Angels & Airwaves album LOVE on repeat. I was, however, perplexed by the intense fog. (Or should I say marine layer?) I plan on researching a bit more about this and posting a scientific description - bet you can't wait!

Tomorrow is Thursday aka the preseason for the WAKA Kickball league begins. My team has a late game, which I'm pretty happy about because then it won't get in the way of my after-work routine. It's too bad that our team will be missing both our captain Tyler and teammate Max. I'm anxious to see what these Monterey teams are going to bring to the, um, plate. Literally.

Amgen Tour of California will end at the Boardwalk

The Tour of California is a professional cycling stage race that covers about 650 to 700 miles of turf. It is a pretty intense tour, with a 2.HC rating (Hors Categorie - it's French for Beyond Categorization). Only two other US tours have that rating, Tour of Missouri and Tour of Georgia.

On May 18th, cyclists will finish stage 3 at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Stage 3 starts in San Francisco. This is the first year that the race is taking place in May, usually it happens in February. Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin hopes that this will bring in some tourism for the years that follow. I'll be there Mr. Rotkin! But I'm not a tourist.