update

my friend james traded his fancy-schmancy old-timey french brewer for his newly completely customized,bejeweled, napoleon bonaparte-themed tamper from espressopartsNW.
will be available to drool over on the OMG section of sprudge.com soon, i'm sure.

pourover geekout

My dear coffee-geekin' friend james came over to my new apartment the other day for a "mid 19th century french vs. 2010 japanese" pourover contest. He had discovered an incredible french brewer, the likes of which i had never seen in an antique shop in seattle. the guy who sold it to him said that it was most definitely a tea pot. however, we were convinced otherwise.


We didnt know how it worked. we were just going on a whim. we ground the coffee coarse. and thought that it would not slip through the holes in the middle "pourover" chamber into the bottom of the pot.


little did we know that the pot was meant to hold the grounds and be the brewer, while the middle cyclinder, which we thought was the filter was actually a dispersion method for making sure that the hot water went over the coffee grounds evenly.
there was this nifty little doodad in the bottom of the pot, which held back the grounds whilst you poured out your brewed coffee into your cup.


the brew that we made using our hypothesis took 7 minutes to brew and tasted awful. overextracted mess. i really wanted to know where we went wrong, but first i had to school James on my bad-ass hario pourover method, ala Scott Rao.
I have been perfecting my method after reading "everything but espresso" by Scott Rao and also writing the methodology for "manual brewing" for Training and Education @ B&B. Every brew i have made, i have put through the Extract MoJo and it gets a "good score" every time. I'm sure it needs work. there is always room for improvement, But since James just started working at a new job that requires the ability to make Bad-ass pourover coffee, I thought that i owed him a tutorial



note the cellphone as a timer.



the end


ps. for some eye candy

http://vimeo.com/11181154

coffee comraderie

so i just wanted to put in this little note about my thoughts on comraderie in the coffee industry.
there is none.
why so competitive, people?
a customer ( an annoying one, but that's besides the point), asked if it was true that there is a lot of in-fighting in the coffee business. i couldnt say that it was not true. it's sad.
yesterday, i was coffeegeeking at a local competitor's shop with a fellow barista. we tried to make some plans to get together and make some coffee science experiments happen. unfortunately, because the two businesses we work for are competitors, neither of us could invite the other to use the facilities at the roasting works at either place. that was just annoying.
it seems like it isnt the baristas who are the source of this industry wide rivalry/in-fighting, but the coffee roasters/shop owners/industry professionals who are making it so evident.
i think that the only way that we will really accomplish any real comraderie is if these shop owners and higher-ups each take the high ground and open up their doors to each other.
in pittsburgh, i think that this was beginning to happen to some extent. there was sharing of resources between shop owners. there was definite comraderie amongst the baristas, for sure.
i just want everyone to TRULY get over themselves and realize that our purose, besides making money, is to educate the public about coffee and in turn educate growers about what the consumers want.

ps. read sprudge.com

michael phillips. yes. chris baca. yes.

hi.
so yesterday was the final for the USBC (united states barista competition). michael phillips, from intelligentsia coffee & tea took first place (most deservedly) and chris baca from verve coffee took second.
i am so inspired by these two baristas. they bring so much passion, knowledge and "can-do" attitude to the barista competitions. Both were thoroughly engaging as far as their desire to educated the judges and their audience about the coffees that they were using. Both did a most beautiful presentation, from table cloths to the way their drinks looked. Michael's was supremely technical, showcasing three different coffees three different ways, in his sig drink, espresso and capps, plus his sig drink was three different vessels with the three espressos pulled the different ways. he used different dose, volume and length of extraction with all three coffees. and explained WHY he pulled each coffee differently. so impressive.
Chris Baca, pulled of a very calculated performance, making his sig drink first, which looked gorgeous. he also engaged the judges by making two extra sig drinks, one for himself and one for the head judge and demonstrated how he wanted the judges to drink his beverage. and each judge did EXACTLY as he did. not only did he engage each judge but he also had a great story about his coffee and where is comes from. it wasnt that his presentation had alot of "flash" because it didnt, if you dont count the flourescent pink details throughout his place setting. he just expertly pulled off his performance. there were no glitches. it was very natural. it seemed to me as though it was an accurate portrayal of the experience that you may get if you were to walk into the verve coffee bar in santa cruz, and have the pleasure of having him serve you coffee.
on the interwebs:
http://www.justin.tv/usbcscaa/b/262428774#r=Lc0KgXk~&s=07


just saying... inspiring

holy shizzles.

so. long overdue update.

new job: retail trainer for Batdorf & Bronson, Olympia retail.
cool? yes.
starting to see some results from my overly passionate nature rubbing off on my minions. i kid about "the minions" part.

i spend alot of time zoning out and daydreaming about the future of my own professional life and the future of coffee. i have alot of ideas of the things i want to do with my life and the knowledge that has been imparted unto me by some of my coffee heroes.


some of my new ideas:
coffee shop opening within the next year.
selling french press cozies to pay for it.
making "barista butter: it's the balm!" to also pay for my coffee shop.

working a little more on sig drinks for next year's nwbc. i think that if you can at least make it to the finals in this region, that you have a good chance at nationals. so i've got my fingers crossed that i will do well and the secret to doing well, is knowing the coffee, knowing the routine and practice, practice practice.

i'll keep you posted but i think that something involving an alternative brewing method in addition to 'spro. but i'm not sure what that will look like, taste like etc. i basically want to engage the judges in all of the sensory perception that is possible. i want to show them my passion through my ability to demonstrate how well i know the coffee that i'm working with.
i tried some square mile coffee the other day and i would like to formulate something close to that, a 50/50 blend of a pulped natural and a natural. just what do i try is the question. a pulped natural would really add to the crema of the spro, but having something really dynamic flavor wise would be excellent. just how do i accomplish that bomb, dynamic flavor without overwhelming the palate with too much fruity-ness.
???
so.... until next time....

espresso

hey. so i started to develop an espresso for competition next year. i roasted some on the sample roaster last monday and i had the opportunity to try them out in the lab myself yesterday. i chose to work with a pulp natural sumatra that is very highly sorted. of course there are some natural defects in the coffee because of the nature of coffee harvesting in sumatra however it is a pretty high grade of coffee.
i did about 6 batches myself in the sample roaster to try out different temps,etc. etc.
i ended up with some scorched ends in a couple of batches. but i was able to get some great espresso from one batch that tasted alot like a kenyan espresso and had crema that just would NOT quit.
overall, very exciting and i think that one of the roasters at the roastery is going to get some going for me this week at some point so that i will have something to play around with.
my idea is to have two SO espressos at competition. one for straight espressos, one for cappys and be able to combine the two into a signature beverage. the idea of skimming the espresso in the sig drinks has been tossed around as well. to highlight the transformative effects of skimming and being able to to it consistently.
if you get a chance, check out the new issue of barista mag. my co-worker matt is in the "tools baristas love" story.

holiday barista jam

hey all,
(meaning the one person i know who reads this blog)...
i had the priveledge of attending the holiday barista jam and latte art contest on sunday at the mall, of all places. the venue was weird but it was great to have a crowd of people who had no idea what was happening. i poured, myself, however it was not a heavyweight pour, and made it three rounds in before being put out to pasture. my friend and co-worker, katie won and my co-worker matt came in second place. it was fun to heckle michael elvin and pal around with other baristas.
tomorrow, i may be working on some sample roasts of SO espresso to use in competition next year. too pre-emptive?

here is a link to the pics of the coffeeworld i've been collecting over the past few years....

pictures of coffee

enjoy!

okay okay....

so i'm starting to get this whole "skimming" thing. i think.
so after my last visit to heart, and the acknowledgement of myself by randy as "difficult and stubborn", i decided to do some un-scientifically formulated experiments relating to temperature of water and skimming of espresso on americanos with a sumatran coffee that we had in the "guest" grinder's hopper. this wasnt roasted for espresso, but we used it anyway. why not?
when grinding, i smelt the very distinct herbacious aroma of the sumatran mandheling, which, to be honest, i'm not a huge fan of on the cupping table or brewed in any way from pourover to clover to press to drip. uh uh. i've never been a fan. but i put my inclination to not like it in the back of my mind as i updosed to about 21 grams in a double la marzocco basket. i extracted my first shot into an 8 oz cup with water at about 105 degrees. i then skimmed the crema off of the top. firstly, the temperature was optimal for the proper flavor to be processed by my taste buds. skimming the crema gave the coffee an oddly grapefruit juice like acidity and flavor, which transformed to a tingly herbacious ( sage and thyme) quality towards the bottom of the cup. and the coffee had a really nice soft and plush body that i found akin to an el salvador that i had had from verve coffee this past spring. very enjoyable. my co-workers who tasted the drink couldn't tell me that what they were drinking was sumatra. they were very surprised when i told them.
next, i contrasted the previous cup with an 8 oz 200 degree not skimmed americano. very different. the coffee had that same soft body but it still was very reminiscent of what the mandheling would be as a drip coffee.
and thirdly, we tried it as a 5.5 oz 105 degree skimmed americano, which in my opinion was not as good as the 8 oz. the coffee was still bright but the grapefruit juice flavor was overcome by the herbacious flavors in the smaller cup. one person said it tasted like sumatra that was run through the clover.

i also tasted some straight shots that were skimmed. the most common flavors were dark chocolate and cloves with a little orange zest thrown in for good measure. very surprising.
i also tried a skimmed shot in a capp, in which the flavors of the straight skimmed shot were lost. definitely more pronounced in a macch.

so this is the lesson:
Skimming, though i dont like to admit it, can help to take a coffee that has one set of qualities and lead it to have a whole other set of qualities ranging from body, texture, flavor, acidity. skimming could potentially revolutionize the way that a barista presents espresso to the consumer.
when any person enters a conversation, they enter that convo with their own pre-concieved notions about a subject of a thing because of their own previous life experience associated with the thing at hand. if you say to the consumer, " hey, you want to try the S.O. sumatran espresso in you macchiato?", that consumer may have a preconcieved notion of how it will taste and may say "no" because they have a negative feeling about indonesian coffees as a whole, as many people do. but to skim offer skimming as a way to open up new flavors of the coffee to the consumer, it has the possiblity of changing how that one consumer views a particular coffee or growing region as well as espresso as a whole.

i know i have had some strong opinions against skimming but i think that i had to experiment on my own to really understand why it's so good.
on the other hand, i dont believe that skimming a shot made from an espresso blend would be beneficial. for one, most espresso blends are formulated not only for flavor but also for the persistence of crema in a shot. for so long, crema has been the gold standard for proper extraction and companies have built their brands around the espresso blend that they formulate that have great crema.
secondly, to skim the crema off of a "blended" shot, may take away an integral part of the espresso itself, a flavor that helps to keep that shot of coffee tasting balanced versus "roasty" or "burnt".

i suppose skimming espresso is much like scraping the head off of a high quality beer. bartenders have been doing it for years at microbreweries, as a way to stop the creamy foam on top from interrupting your palate while drinking a highly complex micro-brew. perhaps if you do not scrape off the head, you may not get the subtle apricot flavor from a hoppy winter ale that the brewmaster had every intention of you tasting.

ah rant over.
happy thanksgiving.

coffeesnob OLY

i know it's been too long and really i have no excuse besides the total upheaval of my life and starting anew on the left coast.
Olympia, washington is my new home and i love it here. right now, darkness reigns supreme but coffee is her lady in waiting.
I'm now working for Batdorf & Bronson coffee roasters, being a barista, working my way up the ranks, absorbing as much training as i possibly can. so far, i've done roasting workshops, latte art workshops, espresso training, more espresso training. you get the point.
you may be wondering what my reasons were for leaving pittsburgh after such a long time of working at Tazza D'oro. Well, i had felt that i had reached the highest level of training and ability that i could have achieved while working there.there were more opportunities available but they were not really for me. it really was my time to move on to seek a new challenge and a way to grow as a coffee professional. i wish all the folks at tazza and pittsburgh the best in their own personal and professional growth.

living in the pacific northwest, good coffee is super easy peasy to find. i have it timed to drive perfectly from portland back to olympia perfectly where i get an americano at Heart (http://heartroasters.com/) at 7am and get back to olympia at 8:50, just in time to hop in the shower and get a second americano at caffe vita on my walk to work.
Heart is definitely my favorite coffee place in the PacNW. so far. the environment that they have created in their cafe is awesome. there are turntables playing records, interesting taxonomy prints on the walls, a synesso AND a la marzocco, siphon brewing, friendly baristas and a GIANT probat roaster sitting it the middle of it all. i feel very much at home when i stop in every friday morning. they skim their espresso there though, which i have some strong opinions on. the first americano i got there, some weeks ago, was made with sumatran 'spro and was creamy in texture and had a fabulous jasminey aroma. the next one that i got was made with guatemalan spro, upon which after the barista poured it began to skim off the crema, which then became a discussion, in which i stated some very strong opinions about the whole matter and now i'm known as "the-friend-of-ryan-who-hates-the-idea-of-skimming-and-lets-everyone-know-about-it".
whoops.
but i still go there. i give them all my money for delicious drinks. and you should too. whenever you are in portland.
i have stopped in to many places and have discovered so many great things about my new region.
a short list:
cellar door coffee roasters
cascadia rising gluten-free bakery and cafe ( dude, HEMP MILK MOCHA!!!!!)
dalo's ethiopian kitchen (they serve ethiopian coffee exclusively)
little red bike cafe
all of portland's many yarn stores
potato champion food cart
olympia free herbal clinic ( a great resource for a broke barista to get some treatment for coffee-induced injuries {willow bark and jamaican dogwood are my new friends})
pay what you can yoga
fresh fish!

Long story short, i love my new home and cannot wait to write more about all the great things that i'm getting to do in my new job.
till next time.

oh geesh

it has been a LONNNNNNGGGG time since i wrote anything here.
life has been a rollercoaster of decision making and heart breaks the past few months.
i have decided to leave pittsburgh,as of august 27th -ish in pursuit of a more coffee-centric existence. the plan as of now, is to make my way to st. louis to meet up with a friend from college and drive along the lewis & clark trail to oregon. from there, my friend is taking the ferry to alaska for her big move and i will see if i can find a job in the great wild west.
i would really like to find a job working at either a shop run by a roastery or at an actual roastery. perhaps a place like what the barismo guys are now doing out of their shop in Beantown.
ideally everything will work out and we will all live happily ever after, but if it doesnt, i will come back to the east coast to discover what philadelphia has to offer.

the hardest part is definitely thinking about what will happen once i'm gone. will anyone remember that time i served them the best looking macchiato they'd ever seen? will anyone remember that time i rigged the latte art competition so that i would win? kidding.
no really though. this move has brought up alot of quandries for myself as to place, community and one's existence as a barista in society. as a player on the fringe, how does my decision to leave effect my community. will the quality of coffee beverages at my place of employment go down? will jokes not be in as much of an abundance and without that daily laughter, is everyone going to die sooner?
serious questions, my friends.
this move has also put me into an obligatory place where i have to write everything that i have done down, rather than just remembering that i have done something. i have to create a record for otehrs to reference in the future. writing is hard and so is remembering to write everything.

whoa portland... what a place....

so i've been back for a couple of days and my jetlag is mostly gone. i had a really great time, geeking and the like with the left-coast baristas. some highlights:

first coffee was had at stumptown on belmont on my first day, only after consuming a voodoo donut (the "no-name") and vegan biscuits and gravy at hungry tiger,too. i had a macchiato which did not have contrast and was acrid and bitter in taste. i said to myself, "perhaps it was a fluke..." and went about my merry way. we walked around the belmont area, wasting time until the 3pm cupping at the annex, two doors down from the belmont stumptown locale. while wasting our time we discovered a rhubarb soda which was tart and refreshing on the unseasonably hot sunny day.
the cupping at stumptown was good, a classic beginner's cupping table lead by a really nice lady whose name escapes me as i write this. the table was arranged from a C.O.E guatemala to a colombia to a kenya to a sumatra. it's always nice to see how other people set up cupping tables. everywhere and everyperson does it just a little different. it was also nice not to have to do all the explanations of "what cupping is" to newbies. i even got randy to participate, despite his hatred of coffee. he liked the sumatra because it reminded him of old books, his favorite smell.
we steadily made our way to BARISTA, in the pearl. i had a couple of shots of the ecco beloya and eyed the vac-pot bar. i couldnt find it within myself to pay $9 for a cup but i vowed that next time i would.
the beloya was tasty and a little mono in taste. though the dark chocolate dry finish and the lemon zest quality at the beginning were nice. i really didnt know what to expect. he had some verve coffee on the shelves, along with a variety of ecco, intelligentsia and stumptown coffee for sale.
the next day i really wanted to try out coffeehouse NW. i am in love with this shop. and i'm not overstating the fact. the shots pulled by daniel on the first day i went were from freshly roasted hairbender from stumptown. after my macchiato experience, i was hesitant to try hairbender again. however having espresso that had been roasted that very morning was too good to pass up. the shots i had rival the best espresso i've ever had. the double was sweet and had a strong aroma of cinnamon and a finish not unlike a chocolate stout. i loved it so much i had to have another, while randy sipped on black iced tea with sassafras. the baristas were so friendly and accomodating, telling me new spots to check out that i vowed to come back.
staying at the jupiter hotel on burnside, the closest (good) coffee is at the stumptown on 3rd ave. downtown. i tried another espresso at that location but it couldnt even hold a candle to the 'spro i had the previous day at coffeehouse NW. i tried it in a latte and liked it more, however, my lactose intolerance made it impossible to be comfortable for the rest of the day.
after a delicious lunch from the food cart, thai basil, we went to crema bakery and cafe for dessert. the bike that i rode around definitely lead to more caloric intake than usual and the peach rhubarb pie was a welcome sugar rush, as was the "special" rwandan espresso, currently made famous by the reigning US barista champion. i loved crema's ambience and lazy afternoon vibe. i could have stayed all day if it werent for my teeth beginning to ache from too much sugar and espresso.
two more trips to coffeehouse NW sealed my reputation as a "geek". randy accompanied me both times, though we only shared their famous hot chocolate once. the hot chocolate is worth a visit to portland in itself. made from single origin cocoa and himalayan sea salt, melted with half and half, then mixed with microfoamed whole milk. it's worth every penny of the $5 but is far too rich to drink alone. i strongly suggest bringing a friend to share it with.
i tried albina press on my last day. i liked the atmosphere though the barista's holier-than-thou attitudes were a bit much for the occasion.
i miss the coffee already. it's only been 3 days and i'm having serious withdrawal symptons from the look, the feel and attitude of the portland coffee scene.

WBC finals

just watched michael phillips perform at finals in atlanta. he is such a nice person and so genuine and i think that really comes through in his performance and his bar skills. michael and i had a really long conversation via phone this past fall about coffee and both of our upcoming respective regional barista competitions. needless to say, my performance did not go as well as i had hoped at the regional level. i was wowed by his knowledge as a barista and a coffee professional and i am honored to call him an acquaintance.
in other notes, since it's been a while since i updated this thingy here.....
my beloved has moved clear across the country to portland, the greatest coffeeland/mecca/heaven in the world. soooooo in good beloved fashion, i'm planning a trip to the northwest to go visit and see the feasibility of moving there to participate in their culture. i'm really excited about it all. i'm thinking of staying at the ace hotel, which has a stumptown coffee shop in the lobby. or the jupiter hotel which offers the guests free stumptown coffee in the rooms as an amenity. i'm going to overdose on coffee and come back to the burgh with a whole new perspective on coffee and what it means to be a coffee professional in a marginal market like pittsburgh. i'm also really nervous about it all. it could also signal the beginning of an end for me in pittsburgh. we'll see what happens....
i've been working with some really cool espressos. first it was a blend that was meant to be served as a super-duper ristretto at 34-45 seconds. i know right. crazy 'spro. i loved working with it and i loved being able to nail it and get some really great tasting shots while only having a couple of pounds to work with. then i worked with a single origin ethiopia that was %75 natural and %25 washed from the yirgacheffe region. probably my favorite espresso i've ever tasted. fucking incredible. chocolate, sweet as hell, blueberries and cream, dark-ass crema and syrupy body. when we ran out, i cried a little. next up was a single origin costa rica tarrazu. also incredible.not as syrupy in body as the ethiopia but definitely worth writing about. candied citrus, sweet as hell. reminded me ALOT of ritual's colombia sweettooth espresso blend.

Also trying to work in some time to do some mods to the mazzer major this week before my vacation. the problem lies in getting the appropriate tools to take the dosing chamber off the grinder to attach the mods, mostly the elvinator (designed by coffee genius, michael elvin of espressoparts NW) and and a stainless steel grid to cut down on clumping and spray from the throat of the grinder.the mods will pay for themselves in a day for the waste that they save. i'm excited for that definitely, especially now that i'm using the major more and more these days.

Also, trying the solidify the details of training more and more and to get that more regimented to leave sort of a legacy at the shop for future generations.

the coffeeworld is changing as i type this, as you read this. my word. hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, now begins our thrill ride.

gender and coffee

i recently read in ms. or bitch magazine, one or the other, i forget. about how coffee has been portrayed as a very gendered thing. tough guys in movies are always drinking coffee black. the blonde ditz is always ordering a skim sugar-free vanilla latte. frou-frou drinks are, according to the author of this article that i dont remember where i read, considered very feminine. stupid people order them in movies.
i'm not exactly sure whether i agree though. i love drinking coffee black. well, i love drinking ethiopian coffee and costa ricas black. i never order drinks that have to be made up more than a drag queen on halloween, but am i not feminine?
the tough guys that come in to the shop and order mochas with extra whip cream. or a soy caramel latte. they exist. are they not masculine?
i'm just saying......

MARBC 2009

so it's all over.
the mid-atlantic regional barista comp is over and done with. a little bit of a disappointment that pittsburgh's specialty coffee scene was represented by a crazy mocha employee (crazy mocha being the pittsburgh equivalent of starbucks). crazy mocha isnt exactly what comes to mind when i think specialty coffee. actually what comes to mind is "undrinkable swill". drew from 21st street and frank from aldo both had incredibly strong performances. i think that i didnt do too shabby myself, however this year i recieved the exact same score as i did last year. however, my performance this year was a thousand times better than last years.
there is definitely a bad taste in my mouth left by this year's competition. i will be judging at the USBC in portland this spring and hopefully that will lend me some sort of perspective as to what it's like on the other side of the table.

i am happy that katie duris won. she is an incredible barista and has an incredible skill level. her presentation was very well put together and her signature drink was very well thought out.
i was impressed by most of the competitors. everyone put on a good show.

decaf?

so we all know what it's like to get the shakes from taste testing too much damn espresso. so why not try the odd decaf every now and then? i'll tell you why not. decaf is pointless. every decaf i've ever tried has made me want to scrape my tongue off. david letterman said it best in the peak of the ratings wars...."decaf is pointless brown sludge. what is the point?". i couldnt agree with him more. what kills me is people who order decaf skim lattes with sugar free syrups. but they order the largest size possible. why not just get a small latte with one shot of real espresso and no sugar free anything in it? has everyone forgotten moderation as far as volume and caffeine are concerned? i think so. i know i have forgotten caffeine level moderation, at least.
a new coffeeshop opened recently in pittsburgh. it's opening has been much anticipated by all coffeesnobs in the pittsburgh area, including myself. voluto coffee is located on penn ave. between the heart of garfield and east liberty. they carry 49th parallel coffee from vancouver, which i had never had before. the space is beautiful,high lofty ceilings with lots of light. it looks very much like an ikea catalogue, which is not a bad thing at all. very modern and very classy. they have a 3 group synesso machine and brew all of their coffee via french press ( one cant help think that they were inspired to do so by pittsburgh's old standard, tazza d'oro). on my first visit i had an espresso and a traditional cappucino. both were good though i would very much like to see them carry a single origin espresso. the espresso is very smooth and chocolatey, i like a little fruity sweetness in my 'spro too, though. the hot chocolate i purchased on my second visit was also exceptional, though i was expecting a might bit of chalkiness since they use a powder. i also ordered an ethiopia sidamo coffee which was right up my alley. i am a sucker for a good african coffee. the sidamo got increasingly sweeter as the coffee got colder, which to me, is the true test of a well-roasted and brewed coffee.
overall, i am impressed by voluto. it's great to have another coffeeshop in the pittsburgh community that is continually raising the bar of quality. yes please. i would love some more!

an apology

sorry it's been so long since i updated this jam.
i moved. moving just totally throws me through a loop every time. i've moved 6 times since i've lived in pittsburgh. a bunch of bad living sitchs and unfortunate timings. but now.... everything is gravy. i love my new living situation. a big rambling house close to work with some people who appreciate coffee! yes!
i find myself, on my days off, making lattes on the stovetop espresso maker, and making french presses for my roommates and our assorted guests. on the weekend of thanksgiving, i ended up giving a few lessons on the correct way to make a french press to our guests, staysee and dave, and my roommates jason, monika, and emilie. totally the raddest way to experience coffee at home.
i've been really digging the B&B nicaragua los milagros lately. i've been making it as both espresso and as french press in the mornings i dont have to work. it's really nice and sweet with hints of dark fruits like cherries and plums with some chocolate too. so nice anytime of day.
i havent been getting out so much to experience the coffee scene these days, though i did come second place in a latte art throwdown recently. i am determined to win next time though.
competition is quickly approaching and i'm beginning to feel a little stressed about it.i'm sure i will be fine. i need some experience on an aurelia though. that is what i am most stressed over i think. i've got most stuff set in stone as far as my 'spro and my drinks and my prep time and other stuff. i need a few run throughs and a few xanax and i'm sure i'll do okay. i really would like the bar to be raised for pittsburgh as far as coffee goes.
in addition to preparing for competition, i'm working on a business proposal that may change the face of things to come in the burgh coffee scene. i'll keep you posted. but i am very excited about it all. a bit too much. i might pee my pants from the excitement or is that the obscene amount of coffee i drank today?

joe van gogh

my mom sent me some awesome coffees from my hometown of durham,nc.
the name of the roaster is joe van gogh. it's all fairtrade and mostly organic and i'll tell you, the coffee is incredible. she sent some guatemala and some costa rica and some sumatra that i did not try because i pretty much always hate indonesian coffees. the costa rica was sweet and had some maple syrup and some tangy citrus. very very tasty. and the guatemala was smooth and chocolatey and spicey at the finish. if you're ever in the triangle area, look up joe van gogh. i wish i had gone to the shop they have on duke campus, but as a rule i avoid duke campus like the plague. my mom went in there and started talking about how her daughter is a coffeegeek/barista and the owner got really excited and told her to tell me that i was invited to come to the roasting works when i'm in town next. which is typical NC fashion; invite the relative of a complete stranger into your home/workplace/bedroom.

on other topics of coffee news..... we did the african coffee cupping today. it was pretty cool. we "cupped" batdorf & bronson's kenya AA, ethiopia sidamo, ethiopia harrar, yemen, and kenya peaberry. i made french presses of each and had a "calibration table" that had a bunch of stuff that would get everyone's noses and palates ready for tasting the nuances in the coffees. strawberries, blueberries, currants, scotch, lapsong souchong, jasmine, molasses, lemon zest and butterscotch. yum. it was a great cupping, even though we didnt do the traditional sniff/sniff/break/taste/talk/sniff/taste cupping, it was good to facilitate discussion in another way. taking away the technical aspects of the cupping helped us talk mroe about the coffee than about the method of the cupping, which was way cool.

anyway. till next time.

october events

please come to tazza d'oro these days for good times and great coffee.

october 23rd- an african coffee cupping. this is open to the public. we will have a variety of african coffees to taste along with a "calibration" table to get everyone's olfactory nerves in sync.

october 29th- a Halloween themed latte art throwdown. $5 to enter. freepour only.each competitor gets one attempt at making a beautiful 12 oz double latte in the first round ( 4 minutes each) and then in the second round the top 5 scoring lattes from the first round will get one more chance to out-do each other. there will be no "warm-ups" or "second tries". what you pour is what is judged. we will have some kind of food and refreshments. call the shop if you have any questions . 412-478-8533

NC day two

we woke up and ate a very belabored breakfast and late breakfast at mom's. had some of the batdorf and bronson organic nicaragua isabelia with our tofu scramble and toast. very delish. went through chapel hill on our way to asheville and killed some time at surplus sid's which is such an awesome military surplus store. thought about stopping somewhere to get a quick cup before the drive but said "fuggit " and got on the road. we eventually touched down in asheville around 7. we had seen some epic sunset on our way but we were unbelievably hungry so immediately set out for rosetta's, which has the BEST food in all of asheville. got the peanut butter tofu,greens, sweet potato fries and gravy. so good. and then went over to izzy's to see dean and make plans for meeting up after he finished work. walked around and showed randy my old haunts, ran into some people i hadnt seen in years. it turns out that dean lives right next to the dripolator's new location on biltmore ave. and i resolved to get a capp there in the morning. the driploator carries counter culture which seems to have a sort of monoculture here in NC. instead of a capp i got a cup of drip mexico organic which was chocolatey and spicy. yummy. we wokred our way over to the tupelo honey cafe for breakfast. earlier i had made the joke that asheville is the place to go if you like having some hot girl serve you organic eggs first thing in the morning. there are like 10 breakfast only restaurants in town. but still with the saturation of breakfast joints there is still an almost hour long wait for a table at tupelo when we arrive. but we do it anyway. we got the biscuits with milk gravy and soysage, goat cheese grits and fried green tomatoes with more biscuits and peach butter. so good. when were sufficiently stuffed we went to izzy's to get a cappucino from dean, which was tremedous . i love izzy's.i love asheville. moreoever, i love good food. we're home now and ready to get back to work.

NC day one

the flights down here were pretty horrible. cramped seating,drunk moms, screaming children. but being greeted by my mom at the airport was good. i was so happy to see her and her partner. got back to her house to see that the kitchen had been completely remodeled with solid marble counter tops and stainless steel everything plus bamboo flooring. very posh and very comfortable to snack in!
we woke up friday morning with the intention of a) getting a good cup of coffee and b)taking care of the business i came down here for.
the first part was a lot harder than it sounds. i really wanted to go to this place called 3cups, that i'd never been to before ( check out their website www.3cups.net). it sounded and looked exactly what i was looking for in a cup of coffee. unfortunately they were closed. boo! then my mom recommended that we go to shadetree coffee on erwin road, which looked like it was permanently closed. boo! so we walked over to the building that she works in to the coffee shop they have on the bottom floor. port city java. upon walking, i noticed their fully automatic e(X)presso machine. i order an organic sumatra coffee. it had no syrupy body whatsoever. it was bland and i dont think that they used the standard 2 tablespoons per 6 oz of water rule. boo!
we gave up on getting coffee and focused on records and thrift stores which this area has a plentiful array of, but stumbled upon parker & otis where the old fowler's grocery used to be. the lady working the coffee bar had a great knowledge of the counter culture coffees and sold me 4 1/4 pounds of different coffees to take back to pittsburgh.she also made me a cappucino which was very tasty but the milk was steamed in the old way, not the microfoam way and was a bit dry for my liking. but eh. i was satisfied after having looked allover for a decent cup all day.
after dinner at watts grocery, an all local foods restaurant on broad st., we went to caffe driade for some coffee after some more record shopping. the guy behind the counter suggested the tanzania in a press pot and i took the bait. it was really delicious. it was light in body and mouthfeel, with some really nice floral aromatics. some serious dried apricots and cherry flavor notes with a robust tobacco note to finish. a great cup of coffee. i almost walked away with the tiny 12 oz bodum they had handed over to me, but my guilt got the best of me. it would have been a great souvenir from the day that coffee was not to be had.
later we discovered that we had missed a public cupping @ the counter culture roasting works earlier in the day. for that i am kicking myself, but now i know what to look forward to next time i visit: avoid coffeeshops in durham, full stop. only go to driade and go to the cuppings @ CCC fridays @ 10am.