rollin’

thursday and friday landed me in the Mo where I hooked up with Vitorrio for some coffee luvin’…first at Plantation to get me by and then the real fun at his house. V-dog is the proud owner of a dedicated room containing a single group Rancilio S-24 (not a sylvia kids) and a nice blue Mazzer Major. He had some a-go-go to burn and I hit up the Creek for some Nicaragua Miraflor…and off we went. The machine is fairly solid and is more than capable of producing quality shots. Given that most people in the Valley are using equipment that is poorly cared for with staff that is poorly trained my vote for the best most consistent coffee in Modesto has to be Vitorrio’s laundry room! We didn’t have much coffee but we pulled a few shots, made a couple of capps that seemed to sufice and chatted coffee for the remainder of our binge.

In other Modesto news Wanderlust (the soon to be central valley coffee juggernaut) has found a home! 10th and Needham next door to the carrot in a really cool/funky, rectangular shaped building with high ceilings. Plumbing and electrical is being addressed at the moment but the ball is rolling peoples. Plan on a GB-5, Barefoot roasted coffee, and a killer emloyees. Since Wanderlust will really be the only cafe in the valley to be doing coffee on a serious level, look for it to scoop up every barista in town that truly has a passion for coffee and a decent set of skills to match; I still only count five or six but that will leave all the other shops with zero…step up folks.

Ritual…I get to work bar today. I got together with Jeremy for a session on what exactly they want from the hairbender and how they go about getting it. We also adressed some things that I could change from a tecnical standpoint as far as me being behind the bar. Speed will be a big one; space will be another…given the number of people behind the counter and the small space you have to be fully aware of how much space your movements actually take up. The Height Of The Counter. I don’t know if you guys have seen this thing but it’s like one foot tall…from pulling practice shots it seems like that will really be a bother at first, I might need a booster counter or perhaps another back surgery will be in order. yikes. bye.

holy smokes

hmm…started my new job the other day; crazy. I’ve never worked at any place that’s so busy…really…I speak the truth. The crew seems to be awesome and quite motivated; really cool people. The only downside is that I’m going through withdrawls from not being on bar. My position as of now seems to be that of the barback/dishwasher/register worker type…which is expected I guess considering I’m the new guy around here. Hopefully I’ll get to pull some shots sometime soon.

day three brought another busy morning shift and a room search. I need to find a place to live soon. Anyhow In the evening I busted down to the basement and cupped some coffees, which will hopefully turn into at least a three times a week type thing…who knows.
I seem to be spending most of my time in the basement here. On day 8 or 9 I actually snuck on bar for an hour or so when it was slow and got to play with the hairbender for a bit. It’s quite interesting; everyones shots taste fairly different and it seems there are a few ways to get a good profile out of this espresso…there seem to be far more ways to make it taste horrible. Most of the time the shots come out with what I consider to be a “higher end” profile. At best they seem to be sweet with lots of citrus type flavors going on, tart or tangy in a good way; not extremely heavy bodied at all. Quite good straight up…with milk I’m not that thrilled. In a capp or mach I need ssomething much different. I don’t think the fruity-ish flavors blend with the milk to well and most of the sweetness gets lost.

On the capp note the best I’ve had lately was via Luis at the Creek when I was back in mo-town…150ml size, milk was on the thinner side (which I dont mind) at perfect temp and shot was sweet. Altogether it tasted like nestle quick chocolate mix with a punch up front & super smooth all the way through; best drink you’ve ever made me man. Nice mean mug my friend.

Two things are bugging me…I miss being on bar on a regular basis…ok at all, and I miss my experiments. At the Creek we were slower so I could bring in my grinders and pull all knids of coffees. I think I pulled every S.O. that Taylor Maid offers, fun stuff. This doesn’t seem to be an option with the volume here, there is zero downtime. I need my S.O. espresso, it’s one of my favorite ways to play with coffee. I really need to be on bar, I feel like a child without his favorite blanket…so lonely. Guess I’ll have to sell my car and get a GS-3 or something.

Ok, I’ll get to barista when I visit Vitorrio and play on his new machine (hopefully soon). Then we can run three grinders for maximum effect…mad coffees goin on and hopefully everyone will come visit me soon. Stay up.