Mike

Coffee House Cafe

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The Coffee House Cafe in Salem serves 100% Organic Coffee locally roasted in the traditional Italian style from Ticos Coffee roasting company in Stayton. They have free wi-fi and comfy chairs to enjoy your coffee and talk with friends.  Large space inside and out. Their menu is varied as is their selection of drinks.  Beyond … Read more

Honest Chocolates

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They are good, honestly.  I dropped by Honest Chocolates‘ Newberg location after a recently sunny day visiting Willamette Valley Vineyards and had some very delicious chocolates, especially the peanut butter cups.

They make the candy themselves, with their own recipes, and in a kitchen, not a factory. Their chocolates are hand-dipped with high quality “eating” chocolate, not the inferior “dipping” chocolate that can taste waxy or slick.  They choose natural ingredients whenever possible to avoid impurities that might affect the candy-cooking process.

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Volcano Vineyards

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Volcano Vineyards is a Micro-Winery producing about 1000 cases per year.  Their Tasting Room is a located in Bend, a Central Oregon city.  The founders are two former waiters with a love for wine and a great story of how they started i the wine business found here.

What is a Micro-Winery?

We are very small – hence the “micro” – it’s along the lines of a micro-brewery. A “small” winery is considered to be one that produced less than 50,000 cases per year. For our first commercial vintage release (2003), production was a mere 250 cases. And we are now up to a whopping 1000 cases annually!

Awards:
Double Gold Medal – 2009 National Women’s Wine Competition
Double Gold Medal – Wine Press Northwest 2008 Platinum Judging
Gold Medal – 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Silver Medal – 2008 World of Wine Competition

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Hop Valley Brewing

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Some of the largest hops farms in the country were located at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers until prohibition destroyed the demand.  Hops Valley Brewing pulls from this rich history to brew some fantastic beers on site.

Their Brew Master is Trevor Howard.  A graduate of the OSU Fermentation Science program in 2004, he has already won 41 medals at national and international beer tasting competitions.  He started with Rogue in April, 2004 before joining Hop Valley where they brewed the first batch of DD Blonde.  

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Green Plow Coffee Roasters

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Green Plow Coffee Roasters is the only locally owned coffeehouse in Redmond with an in-house  roastery!

Green Plow Coffee Roasters is located in the heart of downtown Redmond, Oregon serving as a living room for the community.  Go in, grab a cup of their house roasted coffee, and talk with friends, old and new.

Green Plow roasts coffee fresh in our shop on a Probat L12. As Volkswagen owners, we appreciate its simple German engineering.  It’s important to us to find coffees that not only taste great, but that are ethically produced. We also look for coffees that have been grown with environmentally friendly methods. Watch here for updates!

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Cheese Bar On Belmont

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6 Beers on tap, 50+ bottles of beer, and  200+ types cheese.

I had a chance to talk to Steve of the Cheese Bar on Belmont near 61st. It’s great to talk to someone who has a passion for what they do.  Steve has been selling cheese for 15 years.  Steve and his wife started experimenting with pairing cheese and beer and loved the results.

“Beer pairs better with cheese than wine.” It seemed like a bold statement but he had some good points.  Beer is made of grain and the animals eat grain. It isn’t a gigantic leap why they should work.

Steve has three ways to pair cheese with beer.

1) Comparative – Acid to acid, pairing bright wheat beer with Chevre,goat cheese.

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Purple Cow – Muscat 2009

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Purple Cow Vineyards has just released their 2009 Muscat which took a slight deviation from their traditionally bone dry food-friendly offering.  The 2009 vintage took advantage of the high sugar at harvest to stop fermentation with 1% residual sugar.  It’s not enough to cloy on the palate, but it does modify the nose to accentuate … Read more

Southern Oregon Brewing Company

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Southern Oregon Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery that produces the region’s premier craft beer with a total commitment to independence, integrity, community and superior customer service. When the brewery was founded in the summer of 2006, after a year of planning and research, they had three things in mind….Make Amazing Beer!  Have Fun, and Take Care of Your People! The foundation of their corporation will be the production of high quality, flavorful and consistent products without compromise.

Gold – Fermented with a lager yeast, this crisp, lightly hopped beer finishes with a subtle citrus note. (4.5 abv)

Pale – A smooth, well balanced pale that goes well with a flavorful meal.

Porter – A dry finishing Porter with coffee/chocolate undertones, and a hint of smokiness. (5.5% abv)

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Noble Coffee Roasting

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Noble Coffee Roasting is pretty much crazy about coffee. Whether it’s sourcing great coffees that they ensure are responsibly produced (100% certified organic, fairly traded, and shade grown), carefully hand-roasting them in small batches, or educating folks about how to best brew them, they are passionate about the art of the bean. The difference is tasteful.

Noble Coffee follows a growing theme in with Oregon coffee shops,

We are Noble Coffee Roasting, passionate people with one goal in mind – to improve the way in which coffee is grown, purchased, roasted and prepared. everything we do is guided by our mission to be quality driven, socially responsible, and environmentally friendly.

Fresh, organic, artisan coffee – that’s Noble.

We believe that amazing coffee starts with the farmers who grow it and ends in the fine details of brewing. We are both masters and students of the bean; confident in product and ability to maximize its potential, yet always excited to learn more.

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