We are changing the date for the Espresso class to Saturday, April 13th at 11 am. The class will be at Dancing Mule and will be presented by Sean Hunziker of Grounded Coffee/Copper Canyon Roasters and Randy Austin from Dancing Mule. We will discuss the basics of espresso preparation and then get hands on and pull some shots. Please reserve your spot for this class by email to info@dancingmulecoffee.com. The date for the milk steaming class has also been changed to Saturday, May 11th, at 11 am at Dancing Mule. If your are an aspiring home barista or just curious about how it is done you will be able to explore during this class. We will get our hands around some pitchers and steam and texture some milk. We can’t promise you will be a latte art champion after this class but you will be headed in the right direction. The date for the roasting demonstration has not been set at this time. We will post more information about the roasting demonstration on the Dancing Mule website and Facebook when it is available.
At Dancing Mule Coffee Company, we believe great coffee starts with a great foundation. If you don’t get the fundamentals right, it can change the whole essence of your coffee.
Coffee is 98.5% water, so the first building block of great coffee is great water. We use the Cirqua Easy 720 reverse osmosis water filtration system at Dancing Mule. The Cirqua system doesn’t just filter water it allows us to formulate the best water for our coffee by programming the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) level in our water. We use our Cirqua filtered water for all of our coffee and espresso brewing and even our ice is made with filtered water.
Our water is purified three times through a sediment filter, a carbon filter, and the reverse osmosis process before it is used for making any of our drinks. Low grade tap water leaves you with bland, flat coffee, which is, frankly, unacceptable.
We’ll never compromise on any part of the coffee making process, not even the water… because picky doesn’t begin to describe our pallet for great coffee. All coffee starts out as water, so why not start out with the best? Because when you’re Stubborn About Great Coffee like we are good enough, just plain isn’t.
Well, it’s hotter than a two dollar pistol here in the Ozarks, and it’s time for cold drink season at the Dancing Mule. Fortunately, the Mule has several excellent options for your hot weather coffee needs. The first option is: Don’t be a wimp, just drink it hot like a real man or woman. There is nothing like a hot latte or cup of coffee to stoke your internal fire on a hot day.
If you are the sensible type who likes to adapt your habits to suit the changing temperature, you can try our many other options like iced coffee, iced lattes, frappes, crèmes, fruit smoothies, iced tea, Italian sodas, iced chai, or even a glass of ice water, bottled water, or a bottle of Coke or Diet Coke. We even have chilled juice boxes for the young ones or the young at heart. Over half of our menu consists of cold drinks, and we can make anything iced or blended that we can make hot.
What if you aren’t familiar with all the cool coffee shop lingo or you are just confused because different places call the same thing a different name? Don’t fret. We have some definitions and explanations that should clear up the confusion. While we’re at it, we’ll tell you why the cold Mule drinks are better than the corporate chains. Remember, friends don’t let friends drink corporate coffee.
Iced Coffee –This one is pretty simple—it’s just coffee poured over ice. Many people add a dash of cream or some sugar to suit their taste, but it tastes great without anything added. Some of the corporate chains have corrupted the name of this drink by really serving an iced latte with a flavoring and calling it iced coffee.
At the Mule our iced coffee is cold brewed and has a smooth rich and chocolaty flavor. We use the cold brewing method because pouring hot coffee over ice can make it bitter and it melts your ice and then you have diluted iced coffee. We use five pounds of coarse ground coffee and pour five gallons of filtered water over it and let it brew for 18 hours. The filtered water we use is from our Cirqua reverse osmosis filter system. Good water makes better coffee because coffee is approximately 98.5% water. The longer brewing time is necessary because we aren’t using hot water to speed up the extraction of the good stuff from the coffee. The cold brewed concentrate is then chilled and kept refrigerated. A batch of cold brewed coffee only stays around a day or so during the summer at the Mule, but if refrigerated it is good for several weeks.
Iced Latte – In our case, an iced latte is made with cold brewed coffee concentrate mixed with milk (skim, 2%, whole, or half and half). If you want to add flavoring an iced latte is a better choice than iced coffee. We can add any of our wide selection of flavored syrups or sauces to an iced latte. We use the cold brewed coffee concentrate instead of hot espresso because espresso can be bitter when chilled too fast over ice. We will make your iced latte with hot shots if you prefer the stronger coffee flavor. We make the iced honey latte with hot espresso shots because it is difficult to mix honey with cold coffee.
Frappe – The frappe is a blended coffee drink. We use a non-dairy base, ice (our ice is made from filtered water), cold brewed coffee, add a flavoring of your choice and blend until smooth. We can top with whip cream (our whip cream is made at the Mule) or use sugar free syrups or sauces to go the other direction and lower your calorie and sugar count. If you are really watching calories, an iced latte with skim milk or an iced coffee are probably a better choice. Our frappes are not made from a pre-packaged mix. They are better because we use our cold brewed coffee and are made to order the way you want it. We encourage custom orders, and we want you to ask questions so we can make you something you will really enjoy.
Crème – Crème’s are frappes without the coffee. The fruit flavors are great for a crème, and it is fun to experiment with different flavor combinations. Crème’s are very sweet and have a milk shake like consistency.
Smoothies – Our smoothies are a fruit puree and we have Strawberry, Mango, Wildberry, APB (Acai, Pomegranate, and Blueberry), Mango, and Strawberry Banana. Our smoothies are from Jet and have a green tea base although they taste like fruit and not the green tea base. We can combine flavors to create a custom smoothie.
Italian Sodas – They are a flavoring combined with soda water and ice. The fruit flavors generally work better in an Italian soda. Many of our customers like to experiment with Italian sodas and combine flavors to create your favorite.
Iced Tea – We use Harney and Sons Black tea for our sweet and unsweet iced tea and, of course, filtered water. Our iced tea is kept refrigerated and chilled so it doesn’t melt your ice. We can also ice any of our nine varieties of Harney and Sons if you have a few minutes to wait for us to brew it for you.
Iced Chai – Our iced chai latte is made with Oregon Chai concentrate mixed with milk of your choice and poured over ice. We have an extra spicy chai for the adventurous who like a stronger flavor. We can also make a chai frappe if you prefer a blended drink.
Come by and pick one of the options above to cool down on a hot day. We look forward to serving you your new favorite cold drink at Dancing Mule soon.
Dancing Mule Coffee will be hosting a free Coffee Cupping on Saturday, March 26 at 11 am. Cupping is the formalized process for tasting and evaluating coffee. We will observe the general rules for cupping; however, as with many other things at Dancing Mule, formality is relative. The object will be to learn about tasting coffee, begin to describe the coffee, and learn how different growing areas, processing methods, and roast levels affect the taste. We will taste four different coffees and have plenty of time for questions about tasting and brewing coffee.
Dancing Mule Coffee is changing our espresso to PT Coffee’s new Southpaw Blend. We have used the Gizmo Blend since opening day, so this is not a change we take lightly. Southpaw is more subtle and smoother in a milk drink than Gizmo and way more interesting as a straight shot with layers of flavor. It is well balanced, achieving a complex and sweet flavor profile and has enough body to punch through a latte. Southpaw has a sparkling tangerine acidity, juicy cherry sweetness, all grounded with rich milk chocolate and cocoa notes. The texture is syrupy and dense, lending itself well to combining with milk, creating a malty milk chocolate flavor.
We are excited to share this new espresso with you, and we think you will be pleased with the change.
Our current featured brew is Finca Cerro Paldo Costa Rica from PT’s Coffee. Finca Cerra Paldo has a beautiful depth with the aroma of brown sugar and chocolate. In the cup, it is sweet with notes of buttery caramel and milk chocolate. Its finish is clean and mellow. Costa Rica Finca Cerro Paldo received a 95 point rating from Coffee Review in 2009.
Finca Cerro Paldo is located just 45 minutes south of San Jose in the popular coffee growing region of Tarrazu. The farm is located at 5,570 feet above sea level, an altitude at which the sun’s rays boost the bean’s density and make this an incredibly sweet coffee. Juan Rafael Monge, a second generation coffee farmer, owns Finca Cerro Paldo. His father Adam Monge Castro bought two hectares of land more than 60 years ago and began their legacy of producing great coffee. Currently 10 people live on the farm and are devoted to producing some of the finest coffee in Costa Rica.
Come enjoy a cup today!
Dancing Mule Coffee is hosting a free coffee cupping on Saturday, February 19 at 9 am. Cupping is the formalized process for tasting and evaluating coffee. We will observe the general rules for cupping; however, as with many things at Dancing Mule, formality is relative. The objectives will be to learn about tasting coffee, begin to describe the coffee, and learn how different growing areas, processing methods, and roast levels affect the taste. We will taste four different coffees and have plenty of time for questions about tasting and brewing coffee.
We have a trio of mochas for our current featured specialty coffee drinks: 
- Treat your valentine with a Sweetheart Mocha made with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce, Torani Cherry Syrup, and topped with whipped cream. (If you feel a little too macho to order a “sweetheart” drink, you can order this drink as a Black Forest Mocha.)
- Another great winter drink is the Frostbite White Chocolate Mocha with brown sugar cinnamon topped at your option with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles.
- We also have our Millionaire Mocha, a year-round Mule favorite, made with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce and Torani Orange Syrup. A few Mule customers prefer the Millionaire made with white chocolate.
Remember, we can make many of our drinks with sugar-free syrups and sauces, including all of our current featured drinks. We can also use skim milk for the “Skinny All Around” sugar-free, fat-free experience, so go ahead and indulge!
Anisa Dawn will be performing a live acoustic set at Dancing Mule Coffee on Saturday, February 12 from 7 to 9 pm. Experience live music in a comfortable, alcohol- and smoke-free environment while enjoying your favorite coffee beverage. Anisa Dawn performs an engaging and lively set of contemporary and alternative favorites.
Drop by Dancing Mule Coffee Sunday, February 13 at 5 pm and cheer your favorite Dancing Mule barista in our Dancing Mule-only Latte Art Competition. As a spectator, you might even score a free 12 oz. latte! We will be making 15 to 20 lattes in our quest to crown the Dancing Mule Latte Art Champion, and someone should drink them. In addition to a free latte, you can geek out on coffee preparation with us and socialize with like-minded caffeinated individuals.
What Is Latte Art?
If you are a regular Dancing Mule customer, then you’ve probably noticed the designs we pour in our lattes. Latte art is a fun way to demonstrate the proper steaming and texturing of the milk. When the milk is steamed correctly (resulting in tiny foam bubbles), it brings out the natural sweetness of the milk and allows the barista to raise the espresso crema to the top and make designs with the milk. The designs are cool; however, they are merely an indicator of properly prepared milk. It takes practice, training, a steady hand, and luck to be able to pour latte art when your peers and others are watching and judging your performance. Please join us and help add to the general hubbub and competition atmosphere. After all “competition is the whetstone of talent.”
