Collegiate Times

Deet’s Place has been awarded its second Golden Cup award, an award presented by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, which recognizes excellence in brewed coffee. The premier ice cream, pastry and coffee shop is the only coffee shop in Virginia that has won this prestigious award.

Deet’s Place roasts its own beans and provides 17 different varieties of coffee that are available in more than 15 flavors.

According to Don Harvey, unit manager at Deet’s Place, the coffee shop follows the SCAA’s standards for brewing coffee. The standards provide formulas for how much coffee to use for a certain amount of water.

“With lab equipment we test the coffee to see that it falls in the ‘window of perfection’ so to speak,” Harvey said.

Brian Babcock, Deets’s brew master, was the one who submitted an application to the SCAA for the award, Harvey said. He said that the application required information on brew time, temperature, strength, extraction, coffee to water ratio and acidity.

According to SCAA spokesperson Mike Ferguson, coffee shops that apply for the award submit samples of their coffee and the water that they use. The samples are then tested to see the number of dissolved solids.

“It is a highly objective process,” Ferguson said. “There is really no subjective component at all.”

Ferguson said that there is a fairly small “window” that the shops need to hit in order to comply with the standards. He said that the SCAA’s standards are based on scientific testing that has been done over many years and that Deet’s Place met the standards.

Harvey said that he attributes a lot of Deet’s Place’s success to his staff of students, as well as the brewed coffee.

“I was blessed with the best staff on campus,” Harvey said.

Ryan Johnson, a Deet’s Place employee, said that he has worked at Deet’s for two semesters and has noticed over the last semester that the management and staff have been putting more of an emphasis on improving things. There has also been improvement on how often the coffee is brewed, he said.

“(Deet’s is) run by students essentially,” Johnson said. “Everything is done by students, so it’s a coffee shop for the student body.”

Deet’s Place also offers “Coffee College” classes throughout the year, covering topics such as grinding, roasting, and coffee “cupping.”

Deet’s Place has submitted entries for this award twice, and has received the honor both times, the first time was in 2000.

“We are very proud of the staff,” Harvey said about winning the award twice, “Being run completely by students, I’m very proud of the way they handle things and the consistency that they have.”