Saturday…

tryin’ to be swass

So Jared and I jumped on the Chemex train and dug deep with some interesting results to be posted/documented some time in the near-ish future.
Also, it seems I’ve stolen Ryan Browns idea of a monthly full staff meeting/lab and am running with it. Thank you Ryan. Each month we’ll do an espresso tasting and callibration followed by a full menu cupping and end the night by teaching the staff a new brewing method. After party is optional. This months brewing device: Chemex/pour-over. I mean why not? All the cool kids are doing it right?
Our first party is this Wednesday…I’ll let you know how it goes.

Shoppers Corner

More fun with the ghetto “hero” cam. Jared, Sierra, and I go shopping. The girl checking us out thought the camera was a mini water gun and that I was gonna squirt her. Pretty sweet. Someday I’ll post a real video…

Sony DCR-VX1000 vs. Hero cam

So my beloved VX1000 is back in my possession. I kind of tucked it away after I stopped skateboarding consistently…I mean, if you can’t film skating, what the fuck else is there? Unfortunately if you’ve ever owned a 1000 you know that at some time you will need to have the ribbon cable replaced. For me that time is now. Bummer. I won’t bee deep in any high quality-ish footy for a month or so. In the meantime I’ve been playing with this little Hero cam. Horrible picture and sound quality, but the damn thing’s only about three inches by an inch and a half and sports a field of view similar to my Century death lens. It records to an SD card and its got a sweet waterproof housing. At least it gives me something to play with while I get my VX fixed. You cant do anything super fresh on it but it’s small enough to always have in your pocket. As it were I snatched some footy of our new roaster Jonathan shredding spro just after Jared, Ryan, and I finished up some surfing. Peep game:

Bike to Work Day

This past Thursday was bike to work day in SC. Perhaps it was bike to work day where you are as well. Sean took care of the details and set up a sweet little spot out front for those who cycled to work could grab free coffee and pastry. It wasn’t popin’ off like crazy or anything since we’re not really on a main commuting thoroughfare or anything but it was good stuff and we got to see some new peeps.
For those who are wondering: no, I did not bike to work. Most of the time a 5am 3.5 mile bike ride is a bit to much for me. Every once in a while I’m game but not that day. It’s not that far and only takes like 10-15minutes but, I’m a puss. I done gone soft. Hate away.

This is Ian

Ian came from big bad Culver City to party with the evil empire known as Verve and possibly to do a little schoolwork on the side. I first met Ian at the 2008 WRBC where we shared a practice station for a whopping five minutes. Ian wears button up shirts everyday and speaks impeccable English. He has a new found Love for ball caps and disc golf. His love and skill for making the beverage known as Tom Collins has earned him the nickname “Dr. Bombay.” Ian’s favorite phrase is “tell eeeeeveryone.”

He’s good to have around and I’m feeling like we might keep him for a while. If you think you might want to learn more about Ian go here: http://coffeetasteslike.blogspot.com/ While you’re floating around there, ask him about his cappuccinos. Please.

Next week meet more bad muthafuckas…maybe.

Inspiration

As the world charges at you day after day there comes a time in every mans life where he needs a vacation.  Lucas, Jared, and I found this vacation in the form of Chico California this past weekend.  Jared and I speed out to Chico Thursday for a night of burgers, beer, and a gnarly quesadilla then backtracked Friday morning to work a guest shift at Bloom.

Bloom seems to be a testament to what young entrepreneurs can do with a limited budget, limited experience, and a shit load of drive.  Bloom was housing Gaven, Sarah, Andrew, Jake, and Lucas.  Big posse.  We ran through a gamut of single origin shots as well as Verve’s undisputed champion: Streetlevel.  The highlight for myself in the S.O. category was Ritual’s Gichathaini, a Kenyan coffee from Nyeri. I only had a quarter pound but fuck that noise I still got 4 bangers sauced up!

We grabbed some solid food with the boys then stole Lucas and hit the road back to Chico.   Chico was, well…Chico.  Perfect evening and early morning weather, good cheap food, good cheap drinks, great company, walks in the park, swimming, lounging, movies, scooter rides, playgrounds, and maybe falling into a river?  You get the idea.

All in all we were the victim of an awesome weekend. We even got the chance to check up on a wholesale account we’d trained called Tin Roof. They’re killing it HARD! They specialize in awesome wholesale/in house baked goods and they’re also serving Streetlevel and slangin’ it well. So if you need a vacation, take a vacation…and if you’re in Chico hit up Mark at the Naked Lounge and see if he’ll give you a scooter ride. Solid.

Crash and Burn

Just recovered my laptop from and epic crash.  I lost everything on it but luckily most of my stuff is backed up on my other comp which never goes on the web.

Verve just came across a new retail manager in the form of Sarah Peterson.  Sarah is super rad and I feel a bit bad that we cold jacked her from the Abbey across town.  They will miss her I’m sure but I’m here at the Abbey now and their still kickin’ ass.  Anyway.  Thats all I got today.  I’m just happy to be on the interweb again!  Cheers.

Santa Barbara

Got to go gnar gnar in Satna Barbara and do a wholesale training at an awesome new shop called The French Press. Run by a fully flared couple Julia and Todd, this pimp little place on State Street in downtown is gearing up to kill it. Just needed to send a shout to Todd for taking a 6-7 hour training straight through like a champ. He’d never made coffee before and ended up ballin’ outa control. I’m not so suprised though as everyone knows that skateboarders are much quicker learners than the average human beings. It was crazy fun and rewarding to work with people who are really down to get down. I didn’t get any pictures of the spot or Teezy but theres a picture of Julia and myself (fully looking like the dork that I am) post GB5 install here: http://lamarzoccousa.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/the-french-press-santa-barbara-via-verve-coffee-roasters/

Good luck ya’ll!  Peace.

Santa Cruz

Well I’m sitting here at the Abbey where I spent my last three dollars on a little americano (the 5 oz varietal) and thought that I might like to jot down some thangs.  I miss my homies in the Mo-town, right now I’d be really stoked to get up and ride down to the bean and sip on some gnarly two hour old drip coffee and chill with the posse in 110 degree heat.  I miss Ritual.  I miss the knock down, shred-fest, total destruction, type of barista-ing I might never see again.  I miss quite a few people there as well.

That being said.  I’m having a great start at Verve.  The core is solid and the aspirations are high.  Being here is giving me the best opportunity to do what I really want to do with coffee right now: have a tangible positive impact on the way a company that I believe in runs their game.  There’s a few really exciting things in the mix.  Currently I’m wearing hats of barista, wholesale trainer, and there’s another hat that I will share with Truby which involves my third true love…espresso. 

So things are rad. I get a bit of flack in the cafe for being the new guy and fucking up the program. A lot of the “that’s not how we do it here” kind of stuff. But shits gonna change. I don’t really care about politicin’, just coffee so I might get a few haters but it’s all gravity. It’s all about progress, and with progress comes change. So that’s it, I got a shot of Sermon getting ripped for me right now so I gotta go slam it. Catch you soon(ish) I hope. Peace.

P.S.  be on the look out for the return of Biggie Smalls…