3CUPS is very excited to announce its Fall Re-Opening on Thursday, October 30, 2008. After months of construction, 3CUPS emerges in a bigger location with more emphasis on wine and retail sales. Store hours are Monday to Saturday, 7:00AM to 8:00PM and now open on Sunday, 10:00AM to 6:00PM.

Jay Murrie formerly of A Southern Season joins 3CUPS as a partner, and has teamed with Elaine Thomas formerly of Lantern and A Southern Season. They have carefully selected 200 wines from the world's best small farms and have information and knowledge about each one. 3CUPS has planned an ambitious schedule of wine socials to be held at the new wine tasting bar on Friday and Saturday nights. Thursday nights in the 3CUPS wine department will be dedicated to events featuring local farmers and a variety of other food folks from around town. These unique wine and food pairing socials will be informative, educational even, but also very informal, basically one-on-one conversations with the guest hosts and resident wine merchant. The 3CUPS Wine Social is an attempt to reinvent the long standing and laborious wine dinners where we all eat and drink too much without gaining much insight about either the food or the wine!

Phoebe Lawless of Scratch Baking takes center stage on Thursday, November 13 for the first ever Wine and Pie Social . The following Thursday April McGreger of Farmer's Daughter will host a Wine, Cheese and Chutney Social, an event that will inspire holiday entertaining ideas that allow you more quality time partying with friends and family, and less time in the kitchen cooking for them. To buy tickets in advance, send your name, phone number and the number of tickets you wish to purchase to jmurrie@3cups.net and your reservation will be confirmed.

In addition to wine, partner Badi Bradley and the coffee and tea staff will lead weekly Coffee Cuppings and Coffee Brewing Workshops scheduled for Saturday mornings. A cupping is a blind tasting of fresh roasted, fresh ground coffees. This is done to learn about the character – the aroma, flavor, body and aftertaste - specific to coffees from different regions, different varietals, and different growing processes. It's also designed to help appreciate what makes a great coffee great and to develop a palate for recognizing and selecting these coffees. The process of cupping is a process of tasting, thinking and learning with a group. A rule of silent work is used, so that no participant's tastes are influenced, although there is a lot of "aspirating" going on – snorting and slurping to get everything that's there. It's a chance to discover and appreciate what you like, what you don't like and a lot you probably didn't know about coffee cultivation and care. A coffee brewing workshop fits the title, one coffee with many ways to brew it. Learn the difference between a press pot and a vacuum pot and how they brew the same coffee to taste different. Cuppings and brewing workshops rotate on a weekly basis.

3CUPS will also resume wine, coffee and tea classes featuring farmers and importers in an intimate discussion setting.