hello

hey there, it seems that there were some nice words about a pour I did in vegas over at coffeed.com…cool! Coffee people are the best people on the planet. I can’t post there (I got removed for not posting) and can’t re-register without a referal or invite I guess. Great forum though. Anyway here are some similar pics if anyone cares.

the one below is the one I showed you on my camera Chris; nice talking to you by the way. The one above is something kind of similar that I did some time last year.

Not really focused on latte art anymore but there you go. Thank you all for the kind words.

On a side note I just had the best shot of the a-go-go I’ve had in quite a while…nice. Taylor Maid is supposed to have a new spro comming my way soon to play with, hopefully next week. I’ll keep you guys posted (if anyone is even reading this). See you in Seattle.

goodbye…

organic panic r.i.p.

As I was digging through our latest order looking for my panic I was informed that there was to be no more…ever. Thats right folks, Taylor Maid has pulled the panic. Although not a coffee I would drink every day, for the past month it has been my favorite Taylor Maid espresso… much better than the a-go-go recently and more engaging than the Brazil we’ve been screwing around with. So this months panic rundown: heavy dose, 21-22 grams, 26-27 seconds, about 1.8 ounce double. First sip is heavy and earthy, big but not overpowering or bitter…good cedar/woody notes; second sip/finish is suprisingly sweet like a nice dark molasses that ends quite smoothly. Really nice in a double macchiato…yum. But, It does not always taste like this! This last month has been about the best it’s ever been, before that it seemed different every time I tried it; could be me I guess, who knows. So yeah, not my favorite or anything but was good lately.

Another coffee that I look forward to trying again is a creation by miss Eugenia Chen of Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Knee Buckler. Yup, light dose about 1.5 ounce double at 35 seconds…what? But oh so good…simple two bean blend. Pulled some at the Western Regional Barista Guild Jam and was down. Can’t remember any real specific flavor notes but I remember being happy after I dialed it in (fruity?). Good job Eug. Oh yeah, I need to take a small time out and thank Andy/Barefoot for hooking me up with awesome espresso for this years Western Regionals and USBC: THANKS! Bye bye now.

thousand dollar decision

So, coffeefest in Vegas/latte art comp. Poured on Friday and made it into the finals on Sunday. Poured on Sunday, picked my last pour and chilled to watch everybody. When the whole thing was done I was told by Chris and one of the other Milrock judges that my second pour which was a bit different from the rest would have taken first place…OOps. Oh well, I had a good time and all of the final round pours were awesome. A little extra cash would have been nice though…1st round top left; last 3 below. I picked #3 but should have picked #2.
Anyway good times in Vegas with Tony and big-D, good to see everyone and meet so many more. The lame thing about Coffeefest is that there’s not to much good coffee. I saw a ton of misinformation being spread by vendors and salesmen that it made my stomach tighten up. There were far more milkshakes and smoothies than anything else…lame. A big thanks to Zoka for keeping everyone at the convention supplied with quality coffee, good job guys. Anyhow, I’m sure that this is running on and on…back to work.

Our espresso seems to be going through some changes, this last weeks order came with a completely different flavor profile than usual. Way deeper and heavier in the low end with much more punch and a heavier mouth feel but…it’s lost a lot of sweetness. The second sip previously exhibited a smooth, semi-sweet, dark chocolate flavor that now seems to be gone, replaced by a smokey harsher taste…very dark, lots of low-end. The morning shift before I left I tightened up on the grind and dosed it lower which showed some improvement; it took of the edge and brightened it up a bit but the sweetness is still not there. Tomorrow will be a good day…I’m really going to focus on getting the best flavor profile I can out of this coffee. Cheers.

out for the weekend

so I’m sitting at the bar inside Ritual and feeling quite content and spaced out at the same time. I had the pleasure of Ryan making my drinks (double espresso as well as a “gibralter”-cappish type drink) so no stress on my mind as to the quality of my tasty beverages…it’s nice to just sit back and be a customer sometimes.

I really like Ritual, for some reason I feel totaly comfortable sitting at the bar and watching whoever is pulling shots and just kind of staring out into space for long periods of time. I long for something like this where I live but don’t really see it happening any time in the near future…the thought of moving has been running through my mind quite a bit lately. I spend so much time at work that it’s really important for me to have a good time while I’m there and to work with people I can relate to. I love working with coffee and don’t see myself doing anything else in the near future. Anyway, enough of the sob story…BGA jam comming up tomorrow.

First stop after Ritual took me to visit my boy: ninja-barista D-sauce at Bittersweet. Blue Bottle coffee and big chocolate selection. Nice.

No sleep and not enough food later I found myself in Campbell at the culinary institute. 4 machines, lots of grinders, and even more coffee. I don’t want to go into detail about what went on so lets just say I had a good time talking to everyone and pulling shots but by the end of the second day I was pretty burned out.

Back in San Francisco Sat. night…Mark Miske in the Mission.

Long weekend. Back and forth betweem Frisco, Campbell, and Pacifica. Coffee and music. Exhausting. Bye.