ESPRESSO CATERING

It’s not always easy making a coffee shop turn into a great tasting mobile coffee caterer for your event; a lot of the times, it’s a big letdown. That’s because most people and most cafe owners don’t have the experience in coffee catering and think that it is just as easy as operating a coffee shop. With us, we have years of experience catering coffee even before we started our company, so we took that experience and fine-tuned it creating Rugged Coffee. Now we offer you the ability to have some of the greatest coffee you’ve ever tasted catered to your conference, convention, corporate event, or wedding.

The science of coffee is complicated, you’ve got to figure out the right grind setting, the right amount of water, the right type of water, the correct temperature of water, if you want to agitate your coffee or not. Take all of those coffee brewing variables and add catering to it, and you could be left with a disastrous result if not experienced if the craft or industry. We use our experience of over 15 years in the Specialty Coffee industry and add that to our 9 years of experience in the coffee catering industry to bring the best experience to you and all of your guests.

We pride ourselves on brewing and crafting the best coffee you’ve ever tasted, and we do all of that while being mobile, bringing it to you and your event. Whether you are an exhibitor at a convention and want to attract people to your booth, or you want to treat the guests at your conference with fuel that will keep them awake and alert, or you want to treat your employees with a beverage that shows that you care, or if you want to have something extremely special that will wow the guests at your wedding, we are the coffee caterer for you.

ICE CREAM CATERING

Rugged Coffee is a specialty catering company. We mainly offer some of the best coffee you’ve ever had, but we also have upgrades that you can attach to our coffee catering Espresso Bar. Some of the upgrades that we offer include the Tea Bar upgrade where we use only the finest tea leaves, sourced from Rishi Tea. We offer 2 types of hot brewed tea to serve at your event and we also offer 2 cold brewed tea’s to serve at your event. The tea list that you get to choose from is:

• Jasmine (green)

• Earl Grey (black

• Wild Thai (black)

• Organic Pu' erh (black)

• Bao Zhong Oolong Tea (Oolong)

• Tangerine Ginger (herbal)

Not only do we offer a Tea Bar upgrade, but we also offer our Homemade Specialty Ice Cream Bar. We only offer products with the highest quality so we cut no corners to make our ice cream the best it can be. With our Ice Cream Bar addition you get to choose 3 that we serve at your event from the following list:

• Vanilla ice cream

• Chocolate ice cream

• Lavender Honey ice cream

• Cookies and Cream ice cream

• Caramel ice cream

• Matcha ice cream

With this upgrade, your guests get the ability to have just a bowl or normal ice cream, but also they can combine it with coffee to make drinks like an Affogato, Cold Brew Float, Mocha Float, Latte Float, and pretty much any other coffee drink that you can put over ice cream to make a float. The possibilities are almost endless.

Our Hot Cocoa bar comes as an addition to our Espresso Bar and it a bar where we set up little goodies for people to top their hot cocoa with, a fan favorite especially around the Christmas Season. Your guests can top their drinks with items like Crushed Oreo’s, Marshmallows, m&m’s, Candy Canes, Homemade Chocolate Sauce, Homemade Caramel Sauce, and Whipped Cream.

Lastly, we offer specialty freshly baked local pastries. Our pastries are baked locally at Eastbrew Cafe in Eastvale California. The pastries that we offer to pair with your coffee and espresso bar catering are as follows:

• Plain Croissants

• Chocolate Croissants

• Cheese Danish

• Cinnamon Rolls

• Galette’s

• Scones

• Blueberry Muffins

• Seasonal Muffins

• Chocolate Chip Cookies

With these specialty upgrades to our espresso bar catering, you cant go wrong. We are your one-stop-shop for all your catering needs.

INTERCONTINENTAL SAN DIEGO HOTEL

San Diego is a city that we love serving in. There are so many hotels and venues to host your event, conference, convention, or any other corporate gathering at. We have served all throughout a ton of the major hotels and venues, such as, the Marriott Marquis, Manchester Grand Hyatt, and the San Diego Convention Center.

Each hotel listed above, from a vendor’s perspective, is super easy to work with, the staff is very knowledgeable and helpful, and loading-in and out of the hotel is a breeze. The last time we served at the Marriott Marquis in San Diego, we served on the 2nd floor out front of their conference room. Where we were at, there wasn’t enough electricity, so the electrician from the hotel quickly and easily routed us a new line of electricity to power our equipment off of. When we served at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, we served first on the first floor in their giant conference room, then half way through the 2nd day, the host of the event wanted us to move our station to the 2nd floor and serve out front of another large room. Moving our service was easy and electricity was everywhere so we had no problem plugging in and serving at either location. The San Diego Convention Center was a nice place to serve and their staff load everything in for you, making that part easy.

We will be serving next week at the Hotel Del Coronado for an event with Splenda. Hotel Del Coronado is right on the beach in Coronado, so not only is the scenery beautiful, but take a step inside and you’ll be surrounded by an interior that is upscale and dazzling. We are so excited to serve there.

The hotel that we would really love to serve at next is the Intercontinental San Diego. As we got to visit that hotel while attending a conference ourselves, we couldn’t help but see how beautiful the hotel is and how responsive the staff was which makes us curious about serving at a place this nice. We hope that we will see you there at your next conference!

TURNING POINT USA: PASTOR'S SUMMIT

Turning Point USA is a fantastic non-profit organization out of Phoenix Arizona that is all about spreading 2 fundamental truths across the nation. That is that Jesus Christ is king of all and that the United States of America is a nation that has been blessed by God because of our Christian founding and because of that we have alleviated more people worldwide out of poverty by our charity work, that we have been a beacon for freedom across the world and that, despite what some in the media like to say, we are not in fact a racist country. The organization believes in Freedom, in Limited Government, and Free Markets in America.

We are blessed with the opportunity to be able to provide 50 bottles of our Cold Brew for the speakers of the upcoming Pastor’s Summit 2023 in San Diego on September 13 - 15 and we hope to do many more events with them moving forward. AmericaFest 2023 is an event that we are really hoping to be apart, and will keep you posted on how that turns out.

Rugged Coffee is a coffee catering company that is rooted in the Grace that was given to us freely by the works and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and we think that America is a country of exceptionalism and greatness, so teaming up with Turning Point USA is a no brainer for us because our values align perfectly. Because of this freedom and Grace that we have received, we have been able to create this business and watch it flourish and we want to make sure that everyone has that same ability to do what they love and that is why we stand up for our values and will do everything we can to preserve those values in this great country.

We are a coffee catering company that caters to businesses, conferences, conventions, weddings, parties, concerts, and anything else that you may need coffee at.

THE OCEAN INSTITUTE: DANA POINT

Catering at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point is one of our favorite things to do. The last time we were there it was for a huge 5 hour party that was indoor and outdoor. There was a bar serving free cocktails, a stand giving out free cigars, dessert tables, oysters being shucked, and of course our delicious coffee being served. We not only served delicious coffee there, but we also created a Cold Brew Old Fashioned, where we mixed bourbon, cold brew concentrate, bitters, and our homemade vanilla syrup. The drink was a huge hit. Serving there again, we will be serving 3 separate events over the course of 2 days along with another event at the Honda Center in between.

Serving at the Honda Center this month, we will be catering their Anniversary party with Gwen Stefani, then 2 concerts a week later for Luis Miguel, and for Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. This coming month is going to be epic.

Back to the Ocean Institute… This is a venue that is our preferred client/ venue, with the beautiful scenery and friendly staff, you cant ask for anything better. This venue is located in the Bay at Dana Point, so you get to smell the lovely ocean smells, and see the beautiful ocean, but watch out for the seagulls. Even though we haven’t had any run-ins with them, they are still there.

What more can you ask for in a venue? You can spend your morning and early afternoon at the beach, soaking up the sun, and then walk over to the Ocean Institute in the evening to host your party at. It’s a perfect combo. If you need recommendations on where to go, where to eat, what the best coffee spot is in Dana Point, then let us know. We are always happy to help!

COFFEE CATERING IN LAS VEGAS

We have just expanded our coffee catering to the area of Las Vegas, so if you need catering in the Las Vegas area, then let us know. We will travel to places all over Las Vegas to venues, such as, the MGM Grand, Park MGM, the Aria, the Bellagio, the Mandalay Bay, the Flamingo, the Palazzo, the Mirage, the Strat Hotel and Casino, Paris Las Vegas, the Venetian, Trump Hotel, Caesar’s Palace, the Waldorf Astoria, and all the Hilton properties.

We are experts when it comes to serving coffee catering for conventions, conferences, weddings, all corporate events. What we specialize in is getting delicious specialty coffee in the hands of all your guests in a quick fashion.

Our expertise comes from our over 15 years of experience in the coffee industry, where 5 of those years we spent as the coffee educator for Lamill Coffee where we had the honor of training their clients, including the folks at the Aria Patisserie, Canyon Ranch, the Bellagio, Hazel at the Mandalay Bay. We helped open many restaurants for Michael Mina, which are scattered all over the Las Vegas Strip.

Delicious specialty coffee is our forte, and knowing how to serve it quickly with a great attitude is what separates us from the other competitors out there. Some of the coffee roasters that we use for our service is Portola Coffee, Lion and Lamb Coffee, Lamill Coffee, and Arcade Coffee. We make our catering unique by providing our delicious and one of a kind flavored syrups that are made in-house combined with the delicious coffee that we use, put it all together with delicious organic milk and with our knowledge in the science of coffee we bring to you the most delicious beverage catering that you’ve ever tasted. We will amaze you with our offerings and our service, that we are sure of.

COFFEE CATERING FOR EVENTS

Rugged Coffee is a beverage catering cart that serves Coffee, Pastries, and Ice Cream. Some people call us a mobile coffee bar, while some refer to us as espresso catering, but we call ourselves Rugged Coffee. Our coffee catering bar is top notch, we use only the best ingredients and with our experience in the coffee and food industry, we are able to create the best recipes for everything we serve.

Coffee is a science. Knowing how the grind size interacts with the water when brewing, and how to adjust those items to create the perfect harmony between the two, is one aspect. Grind size is the easiest way to increase or decrease coffee extraction. Increasing coffee extraction can increase the density of the brew, while creating bitterness in the cup. Decreasing extraction can lighten the density of the brew and can create sourness in the cup. The ideal is creating the perfect extraction where the perfect balance of sugars and acidity is extracted and perceived in the cup. The other aspect of brewing (or extraction) is weighing each ingredient. Creating the perfect balance between the coffee grounds and water is key in whatever you are brewing. When creating a cart for conference catering, meeting catering, business event catering, or coffee cart for weddings you need to take that coffee science and make it scalable, so that you are able to serve delicious coffee beverages in a very short amount of time.

Not only do we use great coffee beans and the highest level of coffee science, but we also create our own specialty syrups for custom flavored latte’s. With these syrups, balance is the key, once again and we use high quality ingredients to create these balanced syrups. We’ve created such unique and custom flavors, some that you wont find anywhere else, such as our Apple Pie latte, or our tiramisu latte. Our extensive syrup list is found on the homepage of our website.

Lastly, you have great ingredients, now you need to compile everything and create a great tasting drink that has balance with all the ingredients. We have over 15 years of experience in the Specialty Coffee industry and we use that experience to help us create these perfect drinks for our mobile coffee carts for events. We know that once you try our coffee and tea catering, you’ll never want coffee from anywhere else.

Our Ice Cream catering and Pastries catering option is an upgrade that gets added to our espresso catering cart option. Our pastries come from an amazing local bakery called Eastbrew Cafe and with our ice cream we can create so many coffee drinks. We make the delicious and popular Affogato, or a Cold Brew Float. Guests have gotten creative and asked for a Matcha Float, a Mocha Float, or anything other iced coffee drink over ice cream to create that ice cream float. We know that our Coffee Bar Catering will not only wow you and your guests, but will make you dream of having our drinks again.

RIVERSIDE CONVENTION CENTER

Serving at convention centers all over the Southern California region is one of our favorite things to do. From the San Diego Convention Center to the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County to the Riverside area with the Ontario Convention Center and the Riverside Convention Center, we serve at them all. Serving at Conferences and Conventions is great because while there is a whole lot of people there and it is busy all of the time, the guests are always so happy and fun to be around.

Serving at a convention or a conference means that we need to serve excellent coffee in a speedy fashion, which is no problem for us. We have mastered our craft so well that using systems that we have created (not automated systems), we are able to help our Barista’s utilize their skills to their maximum potential. Serving coffee is not only a scientific and tedious task, but it’s also a job that we are able to have fun with and that comes in the form of serving your guests with conversations and smiles.

With these larger events, we will come the day prior to set up our station (or stations). The reason we come the day before is because we want to make sure that we have enough electricity provided us and if there are any issues with the space we are allotted, then we can figure that out then and not trying to put out fires on the day of. We take this much care in every aspect of our services, from the set up to the stock of supplies to the drinks we serve, we are professional in every way. Bringing a coffee caterer to your convention is one thing, but bringing coffee with class, now that is where you get noticed and that is what you really want to do especially at a convention.

We can bring the class, service, quality, and professionalism that you are looking for because that is what we do best.

MOBILE DESSERT

With the summer season upon us, it is a great time to start thinking about cold desserts, such as our ice cream and affogato bar. With this addition to our espresso bar, all of your guests get to choose from a menu of Affogato’s, Cold Brew Floats, and just straight up ice cream. We carry delicious ice cream flavors of Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chip, and Cookie Butter. Just because our menu states affogato, cold brew float, and ice cream that doesn’t mean that they are only limited to those options, they can get creative and combine other drinks to make any iced beverage a float. We’ve seen Matcha Floats, Mocha Latte Floats, Chocolate Milk Floats, and so much more. Not only do people mix and match the floats, but your guests can also mix and match the ice cream options, as well. They can get Mint Chip and Vanilla, Cookie Butter and Chocolate, Vanilla and Chocolate, or just a kamikaze of all the options, then put any float option you’d like over that ice cream mixture. The options are almost endless to our ice cream dessert bar.

If ice cream isn’t what you’re looking for, then we have freshly baked artisan pastries, as well. These pastries come in assortments of 50 count, 75ct, 100ct, 125ct, and 150ct with pastries such as the cheese danish, chocolate criossant, plain croissant, seasonal flavor scone, blueberry muffin, banana muffin, an artisan poptart, delicious galtette’s with a dollop of house-made whipped cream on top, and the ever-popular and decadent cinnamon roll.

For any time of the day, we've got the dessert or breakfast item for you. From Ice Cream to Pastries, pairing with coffee has never been more exciting and delicious. And dont forget, the 4th of July is coming up and if you need to up your coffee homebrew setup, then check out our online coffee store where we have all of the items that we recommend for sale with no confusion.

CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS

Having coffee at a conference is a necessity. We find that we are the most busy booth at the entire conference because every person needs their coffee to stay alert for the numerous breakout rooms, as well as, a lot of people using fly-in from out of state, so the jet lag and time zone differences usually really affect people. Without their endless supply of coffee, they are going to not be able to concentrate on the reason they are there and Specialty Coffee brings that alertness and gratitude to a whole nother level.

With the constant bombardment of tired guests wanting their coffee all day long, you will need to have a catering company who has the experience with handling this type of rush. We found that normal coffee shops that do catering on the side, typically they try to infuse their coffee shop standards into a catering, which if you have been to a coffee shop and seen how long it takes to make one drink, then you will understand why that doesn’t work. We are coffee caterers who started as coffee caterers and have over 7 years of experience with our company in the catering industry. We have created excellent catering standards so that you get the most delicious coffee service, with the greatest care with extremely minimal wait times. This means that your guests wont have to wait long in line so they can get back to their breakout rooms where they can be focused on the conference.

Not only do we use excellent standards that keep our drinks tasting the best and the wait times only seconds per drinks, but we also use the finest specialty grade coffee around and best ingredients, so that you know that your conference will be known for quality. We have heard guests still talking about how much they enjoyed our coffee even years later, so you know that your conference will be talked about for a long time afterwards.

COFFEE: SUR COFFEE ROASTERS

Today we just got access to a new coffee roasting company that we are proud to start offering called Sur Coffee. This coffee roastery is located in San Diego, San Clemente, and Huntington Beach (I guess they like the beach since all 3 locations are at the beach, lol). This company only works in Direct Trade, so that means that they are the ones who are directly connected to the farmers and that also means that they have visited each farm of every coffee that they serve to ensure that the best and highest quality of processes are happening at each farm. One thing about Direct Trade, that most people dont know about is that because they directly interact with every farm, they cut out the middlemen and can therefore pay the farmers a higher premium, so the farmers are able to afford better processes to make even better coffee.

We like to partner with Specialty Coffee roasters like Sur Coffee because, not only do they help the world grow better coffee, but they also roast great coffee beans for us to use and for you to drink. Some other coffee roasteries that have great beans that we enjoy using are Lion and Lamb Coffee, Portola Coffee, and Arcade Roasters. These 3 coffee roasters have been the main coffee providers that we have been using these last few years, but we also have many other companies that we work with; some local and some farther away (but mainly local).

The specific coffee beans that we look for are Single Origin coffee, and that just means that the coffee beans that we are using at any particular time are grown at one farm rather than in a blend where it is a blend of coffees from different countries and different farms. Another thing that we look for is that the beans are roasted light, so that all the natural and inherent flavors are brought out in the brew and lastly we only work with washed processed coffee. Washed processed coffee just means that after the coffee cherry is fully ripe (the beans grow inside of a cherry), they are then picked, then the cherry is removed, and the beans are washed of any cherry pulp stuck on it. After the beans are fully washed, then they are laid out to dry in the sun.

Finding excellent coffee roasters that provide specialty grade washed process coffee is one thing that we really enjoy doing so that we can support our local businesses and so that we have more of a variety of coffee to choose from to serve you all.

4th of July 2023

We are planning on launching our online store just in time for this years 4th of July celebration. We have done extensive research and curated a quality list of coffee equipment such as the Baratza Encore grinder, the Espro Bloom Pour Over vessel, the Espro Bloom coffee filters, the Brewista Artisan Variable Temperature Kettle, and the Brewista Ratio Scale. Each one of these items we have carefully tested and so you can rest assured that it has stood the Rugged Coffee approved test.

Our mission with our options was to cumulate a list of excellent brewing equipment for home brewers, but without the high price tag that the mainstream items go for. We tested several different items in each category, side by side, to come up with our approved list. We tried the Timemore Mirror scale, which is flashy in appearance, but very inaccurate in weight registration. We tried the Brewista Smart Scale, which was smaller in size but also slower in weight registration; accurate, but slow responsiveness. In the past, we have tried the Hario scales, but they break too easily, and the Acaia Pearl scales, which are excellent scales, but way too expensive and their recharge port damages very quickly. The Brewista Ratio scale was the one that we landed on because it is has a very quick weight response, it has a brew timer, it has a ratio calculator on it, and it also reads in ounces.

The pour over vessel that we landed on was decided through a blind test of each vessel we tested. We did this by creating the best brew recipe for each vessel, then we brewed one each vessel using that brew recipe that we created for it, then blindly tasted each one. The Espro Bloom stood the test and was the best by far on the counter. We chose the Brewista Artisan Variable Temperature Kettle because it was a beautiful looking kettle, it has the gooseneck shape that we are looking for, and it gets to the temperature we set it to, while holding that temperature for an hour.

All of our equipment is white in color, other than the Brewista Ratio Scale and the Espro Bloom because they didn’t offer the white color option. We are always looking for new and better equipment, so if you have any recommendations for us, then please do not hesitate to let us know in the comments section.

COFFEE FOR CORPORATE EVENTS

It’s a fact that people operate better at work when they are more alert, and when they feel they are cared for. What we are offering you is the ability to provide both those necessary aspects for your employees by bringing specialty coffee to them so they know they are cared for because you provided a delicious beverage that will make them more alert. 

Rugged Coffee is a Specialty Coffee Catering Company based in Southern California and we have been offering our services for businesses, conferences, and conventions since 2016. The reason specialty coffee is sought after today is because the quality in your cup is so much better than the drinks you get at the big chain stores, but specialty coffee has also gotten a bad reputation because of the snobby and elitist attitudes of the baristas. We pride ourselves in the unparalleled quality that we bring to each service and in the friendly and welcoming atmosphere we provide. A place you can be assured that each and every drink that is ordered is not only delicious, but also is met with smiling faces and great attitudes. We guarantee that your guests will leave our station smiling and drinking one of the best coffee drinks they’ve ever had.

Rugged Coffee specializes in creating great experiences using phenomenal coffee as the means to deliver those experiences. We use our coffee expertise and our 7 years of experience in the catering industry to bring you coffee that is incomparable in quality and taste with service that is efficient and caring. We not only bring excellent coffee beans, but we also bring top shelf espresso drinks, some of the best cold brewed coffee on the market, as well as, the best and most unique custom flavored latte’s. Flavors like the Samoa Girlscout Cookie latte, Lavender Honey Latte, Apple Pie latte, Chestnut Praline latte, and many more. Through our years of experience, we have found the most efficient way to serve excellent coffee so that guests aren’t waiting for their drink for long periods of time while our drink quality remains uncompromised. How do we do that you ask? We spend a lot of time in the preparation of the ingredients so that our Barista’s just have to focus on the measurements and making our guests feel great about their time spent with us. 

We have worked with some top companies, such as, the Honda Center in Anaheim, Fox Racing in Irvine, Oakley in Foothill Ranch, Taylormade in Carlsbad, Hitachi Energy, Cabi Experience in Carson, the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, and many more.

BREWING COFFEE: ESPRO BLOOM POUR-OVER

Trying to find a great way to brew your morning coffee with the best pour-over equipment is hard to find with the never-ending amount of information online these days. So how do you remove the chaff and find the right info in the coffee industry? The best way is to follow us. We are constantly looking for the best ways to brew and make coffee, which means that we are never content with being just good enough. With that being said, we have recently been doing tons of research trying to find the best pour-over and finding the best brew method for that pour-over, which brought us to the Espro Bloom.

The Espro Bloom is a flat bottom pour-over, but instead of having a few holes on the bottom to slow the draw-through, this flat bottom pour-over has micro perforations along the entire bottom, similar to what you would see on the bottom of a portafilter basket. The shape of the vessel allows for the most even extraction possible, which is why we recommend this vessel as our top choice for the best tasting pour-over coffee. We will be offering this vessel on our website for sale within the next week or so and our pour-over method for this vessel is as follows. We hope you enjoy!

ESPRO BLOOM DRIPPER

• Coffee Dose: 24g

• Water Dose: 400g

• Grind Size: Medium/Fine

• Brew Time: 3:20 - 3:40

PROCEDURE:

1. Bloom: 

1. Start a timer and Pour 55g - 60g of hot water over the coffee grounds to fully saturate. 

2. Let it sit until the timer reads 40 seconds. 

2. Brew:

1. Pour water slowly in a spiral-like pour until you get to 150g. This should take about 20 seconds. 

2. Wait 20 seconds. 

3. When the timer reaches 1:20, then slowly start pouring up to 225g. This should take about 20 seconds. 

4. Wait 20 seconds. 

5. When the timer reaches 2:00, then slowly start pouring until the scale reads 300g. This should take about 20 seconds. 

6. Wait 20 seconds.

7. When the timer reaches 2:40, slowly start pouring the last pour up to 400g (+/- 3g). This should take about 20 seconds.

3. The Finish: 

1. Let the water seep through the ground bed until there are no more puddles of water remaining, then stop the timer. 

2. Carefully remove the Bloom Dripper from the server and throw the spent filter and grounds away. 

ICE CREAM, AFFOGATO'S, AND COLD BREW FLOAT'S

For these upcoming hot summer days, what is better than having an ice cream bar at your wedding or event serving really high-quality ice cream? Pairing our ice cream service with our espresso bar coffee catering, you get options that you wont get from just any ordinary ice cream caterer. We offer unique ice cream offerings, such as, the Affogato, which is our delicious espresso pulled directly into your ice cream, or a Cold Brew Float. Imagine drinking our amazing cold brew while indulging on some ice cream at the same time, well that’s what it’s like to have a cold brew float from us, having this decadent option is an option you cant pass up.

At the evening time, when people have been busy all day with conferences, work meetings, or even have been at your wedding all day, it can be a little tiring on the attendees, but with this option it’s a good way to get some dessert to your guests while getting them an energy jolt. We see people finding it so hard to put down that they end up eating their entire Affogato or Cold Brew Float within minutes and coming back to get more. Not only do we offer the options on the menu, like the Affogato or Cold Brew Float or just plain Ice Cream, but we can also get creative with the guests. If they want us to add a Signature Flavor to the Ice Cream, then we can absolutely do that for them or if they want ice cream in their mocha or their latte, we say, “lets do it!”. We are here to make your coffee dreams come true, the best way possible.

The Ice Cream options that we bring to each event is Vanilla, Chocolate, Cookie Butter, and Mint Chip. We can mix and match the options in your bowl or just give you that one ice cream flavor. Remember, the only limits we have are your imagination and quality.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CONFERENCES: COFFEE SERVICES

Conferences happen in Southern California quite often, especially in San Diego, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. Conferences usually last for several days and they are long and intensive leaving those that attend tired and spent, which is why its always a great idea to have delicious Specialty Coffee provided for those attending.

We have catered at so many conferences in the past and we love serving at them. In our experience, people are constantly coming to us to get the coffee fuel they need to keep them going through out the day. The nonstop bombardment of people is so fun to serve and that ends up making our day fly by; time fly’s when you’re having fun.

We use some of the best coffee beans in Southern California for our coffee station, which is one reason why people keep coming back to us all day long during these conferences. Some beans that we use are Portola Coffee out of Costa Mesa, Lion and Lamb Coffee out of Costa Mesa, Arcade Coffee out of Riverside, Hidden House Coffee out of Santa Ana, Lamill Coffee out of Alhambra, and Golden State Coffee out of Placentia, just to name a few. We never cut corners when it comes to quality which is why we use only the best Specialty Coffee beans that are medium to light roasted.

Some of the places that we have served at for these conferences are the San Diego Convention Center, the Sheraton Hotel and Marina, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, the Manchester Gran Hyatt, the Westin Anaheim Resort, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, The DoubleTree Ontario, the Toyota Arena, and we cant wait to serve at many more. We have mastered the art of serving quickly with really high quality, which makes us perfect for conferences because their tired and exhausted attendees usually need the coffee quickly and they need it all day long.

TOYOTA ARENA ONTARIO

A local venue that we want to highlight is the Toyota Arena in Ontario California. This venue is a huge space built and owned by the City of Ontario, operated by ASM Global, can accommodate over 11,000 guests. The 225,000 square foot venue features 36 luxury suites located on two levels and a continuous concourse hosting a variety of concession and refreshment stands, merchandise kiosks, the VIP Club and other fan amenities.

Because of the large space this arena has they host over 125 events a year including sporting events (like hockey games), concerts, business functions and gatherings, and much more. This venue is located centrally in Southern California in the Inland Empire, Riverside County, so coming to this venue not only gives you a great space to go to, but also has almost endless activities to do while not at the arena. Locally you can visit the Ontario Mills and San Antonio Winery, but Los Angeles, Orange County, Big Bear and Palm Springs are just about an hour away so like we said, the activities are almost endless out here.

Great coffee to sip on is a necessity when having long events, early morning/ late evening events, or just getting something to help you amp up for the festivities. Delicious nonalcoholic beverages are a way for people that are not interested in getting drunk to enjoy being apart of the gathering. We have fun getting to serve at the Honda Center multiple times a year and really look forward to doing the same with the Toyota Arena, as well. Upcoming events include the hockey game of the Ontario Reign vs Henderson, the SCPA Championship Finals, Terry Ilous and the Vagabonds, Hot Wheel Monster Trucks Live, the Entrepreneurship Summit 2023, and a bunch more. Those are heavy hitting events coming up and we hope to see you there!

PHOTO CRED: ASMGLOBAL.COM

BREWING COFFEE: NOTNEUTRAL GINO DRIPPER

There are so many different types of manual brew pour over drippers out there and everyone wants the best. The truth be told, there is not a dripper that is held to be the best. There are certain ones that are more widely used in the Specialty Coffee industry, but that is just based on preference, ease of use, and price. We have been testing out many different manual drip pour over vessels and one that we tried and like is the NotNeutral Gino Dripper. This dripper is easy to use and tastes great, but the only downside is that it is made of glass that can be easily broken, if you’re not paying close attention to how you handle it.

Photo Cred: notneutral.com

The Gino Dripper is conical in shape and has a flat bottom with 3 holes in it. The flat bottom and conical shape really encourages even extraction as the water flows through the coffee bed because the flat bottom slows down the water from flowing through one side or the other, otherwise known as channeling. Below is the recipe for our brew on the Gino Dripper:

• Coffee Dose: 24g

• Water Dose: 400g

• Brew Time: 3:15 - 3:30

• Grind: Medium/ Coarse

PROCEDURE:

1. Bloom: 

1. Start a timer and Pour 55g - 60g of hot water over the coffee grounds to fully saturate. 

2. Let it sit until the timer reads 40 seconds. 

2. Brew:

1. Pour water slowly in a spiral-like pour until you get to 200g. This should take about 35 seconds. 

2. Wait 20 seconds. 

3. When the timer reaches 1:35, then slowly start pouring another 100g of hot water. This should take about 20 seconds. 

4. Wait 20 seconds. 

5. When the timer reaches 2:15, then slowly start pouring until the scale reads 395g (+/- 3g). This should take about 20 seconds. 

3. The Finish: 

1. Let the water seep through the ground bed until there are no more puddles of water remaining, then stop the timer. 

2. Carefully remove the Gino Dripper from the server and throw the spent filter and grounds away. 

We like this dripper because it creates a good cup and because it is easy to repeat the result. It is definitely one of our favorites, but not the favorite of Rugged Coffee, we’ll rate this a 7 out of 10. As we keep posting different recipes for different drippers, we’ll let you know which one we like the best.

DOUBLETREE HOTEL ONTARIO

As a caterer, we get to travel and move around because we are not held down to one location, which means that each day is a new day with new views and new guests to serve. The venue that we are excited about serving at is the beautiful DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton in Ontario, California. Ontario is home to the Toyota Arena, the Ontario International Airport, and tons of amazing restaurants and wineries, so there is so much to do in this city. The hotel itself has so much to offer, from the room service to the relaxing resort style pool and jacuzzi to the extravagant ballroom; beauty and class runs through each aspect.

Things that you need to consider when choosing a venue to host your wedding, conference, or corporate event at is what sort of staff help do they provide you, how much electricity do you get to draw, if they have private options for meals, and then if there is plenty to do outside of the hotel for after the event is over (especially if this is a several day event). Ontario has plenty to do, from a concert at the Toyota Arena to the mall at the Ontario Mills, your guests will be happy with the plethora of things to do around town.

Coffee catering is what we are good at, getting delicious coffee into the hands of your guests without the long wait that they might be used to at a Specialty Coffee shop. Our quality is uncompromising, so we use our 7+ years of experience in the coffee catering industry to provide your guests with coffee that is unparalleled in quality, with speed of service that is remarkably surprising, and with the attention to the customer's needs and guest experience that can be rivaled by none.

ARTISAN PASTRIES CATERING

Pastries and Coffee is the morning pair that wakes us up which is why we have gone to such great lengths to get the best pastries around to pair with our amazing coffee.

The pastries we use are artisan, small batch baked pastries that are sourced locally in SoCal out of the Inland Empire (Riverside area) called Eastbrew Cafe. We offer pastries such as, the ever famous gooey Cinnamon Roll, a seasonal fruit Galette, Blueberry Muffins that are to die for, Banana Muffins that melt in your mouth, Seasonal Flavored Scones, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and poptarts that bring back the nostalgia of when you were a child. The seasonal flavors or fruits used in these pastries are always rotating with such pastries like the mixed berry galette, the pumpkin muffin, lemon raspberry poptart, cranberry scone, and an amazing peppermint cinnamon roll (christmas seasoned). The bakery we use goes to great lengths to provide us with the best pastries around and once you taste them, there will be no question about it.

To pair with our amazing pastries, we have got to use the best coffee, so we like to provide coffee from local roasters in the SoCal area, such as, Portola Coffee Roasters, Lion and Lamb Coffee, Hidden House Coffee, Arcade Coffee, Lamill Coffee, and a few others. Acquiring good coffee beans is only part of the equation, you’ve got to know the science behind brewing in order to make those good beans taste good too. We’ve been in the Specialty Coffee industry for over 15 years now and have studied coffee extraction during those years, so one could say that we know how to brew coffee and espresso to make it unparalleled in quality.

With coffee this good and pastries this delicious, how can you go wrong? Let us know how we can make your next conference, event, or wedding one that people will be talking about for months ahead.

Photo Cred: Eastbrew Cafe