Category: life

life

Fun bike ride

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I decided to take a bike ride today, the longest bike ride ever. It was really only 17 miles. I’ve gone that far before but cumulative not all at once. Southbound on Rich road is kinda like a portal to the country. I’ve spent a lot of time in the country…like ten years growing up in Clarksville, TN. Every once in a while I like to go back there and rural Olympia is just the ticket. There are lots of barns and fields along Rich road as well as small “grocery” stores. There’s even a post office. Johnson’s Smoke House is on my route so I stopped by and got some  Landjaeger.I stopped into Lattin’s but it’s closed on Sundays so I couldn’t get a fresh apple fritter! I was originally going to bike to Millersylvania park but I missed my turn at McCorkle road so I stopped at the gas station next to The Powder Keg and refueled on Red Bull. One really cool thing that stood out was the amount of trains I heard! I don’t know it it was just one train snaking it’s way through or if there were multiple trains but i felt like it was following me. I’ve been followed by trains before and it’s scary. Anyway I’m drinking beer now to negate all the calories I burned.

NWRBC Day 2

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Day two of competition was awesome!  I was able to take a lot of pictures and watch some of the best Baristas in the PNW do what they do best.  I think I was most excited to see Alex Negranza, Sarah Dooley, and Laila Ghambari compete.  Alex made me the best cocktail I ever had in my life and he pulls some mighty good espresso, so I was looking forward to see what he would do.  Sarah is a great competitor, very creative and always does  an amazing job.  Laila’s fruity water tower had me intrigued too.

Everyone did an amazing job and showed so much passion and professionalism.  The competitor that stood out the most to me was Timothy Graham from Victrola.  He was sooooo good!  You wouldn’t know it was his first time competing from watching his routine.  He was concise, articulate, and confident!  I had his espresso on the fourth bar and it made me pass out it was so good.

The Brewers Cup was also going on Saturday.  Lots of great coffee being brewed by some very talented people.  Olympia Coffee Roasting Company was definitely represented well by six Baristas!  Everyone had to brew the same coffee with their choice of brewing device.  I used the Bonmac ceramic dripper with kenaf filters.  25 grams of coffee/425 grams water, 150 gram bloom for 30 seconds 200 more 1 minute into the brew and the rest after 2

minutes with a 3:45 brewing time.  The coffee was sweet and I got a lot of molasses from it.

After a full day of competitors we had our top 6 finalists!

1: Tyler Stevens (Barista)
2: Collin Schneider (Sterling Coffee Roasters)
3: Sam Purvis (Coava Coffee)
4: Laila Ghambari (Stumptown Coffee Roasters)
5: Marty Lopes (Barista)
6:  Devin Chapman (Coava Coffee)

Note that all finalist are from Portland.

NWRBC day 1

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Day one of the North West Regional Barista Competition is over.  My wife and I arrived at the Tacoma Convention Center bright and early so I could attend the mandatory competitor meeting.  This is my second year competing and I’m pretty stoked.  My practice time was at 8 Friday morning and it went really well.  My biggest fear when competing is that for some ungodly reason the grind is way off.  I have nightmares of this happening.  So when I pulled that first practice shot and it tasted like rainbows and happy thoughts I was relieved!

With only six Baristas scheduled to perform the competitors room was pretty quiet.  There were the usual suspects Dooley, Ghambari, and regional champ Purvis shining glasses and building carts.  I got my cart together, shined my glasses, and mingled with the competitors.

I competed at 12:53.  It went really well, I remembered everything I wanted to say and my spro looked awesome (except for my first round of capps).  It was nice to see all of my co-workers in the crowd!  I work with the best people.  I feel spoiled having such a great support team from Espresso Parts and my coffee sponsor Bluebeard Coffee.  I love this industry so much!

Now I gotta go get ready for todays festivities!!!

Blue Beard Coffee Pandamonium Blend:

El Salvador
Ethiopia
Panama
Colombia

Grinder:

Mazzer Robur Comp grinder 

Sorry…I kinda forgot I had a blog

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We are a little over two weeks into the year and I haven’t posted anything.  My bad.  I will post more often…starting now.

I’ve been getting ready for NWRBC coming up next Friday in Tacoma.  This will be my second time competing and I’m pretty stoked about it.  I think Baristas should try it at least once.  Regionals are a great opportunity to be in front of your peers, share awesome coffee and create an amazing experience for the judges.

I chose to use Bluebeard Coffee out of Tacoma this year.  Kevin Roaster/Owner from Bluebeard visited EP in August and dropped off some of his espresso The Narrows blend.  I threw it in the hopper and magic came out.  The shot tasted like marzipan and sunshine.  From tasting that shot I knew I wanted to use his coffee for competition.  I’m so lucky to have them as a coffee sponsor and be able to rep a Tacoma roaster.

Espresso Parts is once again supporting me by covering my entry fees and helping with small-wares costs.  I’m fortunate to work for a company that is completely committed to the Barista community and coffee industry.

I know that competing is spendy but there are a few things you can do to cut down on costs.  Ask the roaster if they will sponsor you, this can be by selling the coffee to you at a discount or even covering the cost completely.  See if your employer will cover any costs you might have be that entry fees or small-wares.  Don’t forget BGA members are a great source of knowledge when it comes to competing and anything coffee.  There are a lot of people that want to help all you have to do is ask.

Alright, I gotta go play in the snow with my doggy.

Metronome made my heart beat.

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It took me too long to get to Metronome Coffee.  I first heard of Metronome when competing at regionals in Tacoma.  For some reason I never made it to the cafe.  Seven months later on a sleepy Sunday I decided it was time.  My friend Chad came along for the ride.  He had tweeted earlier in the morning that he wanted some coffee so I invited him to join me.  It’s a 40 minute drive from Oly to Tacoma, not bad.

There is no lack of natural lighting at Metronome.  Windows line the street and make the cafe feel more open.  Two large mainly glass garage doors face S. Union Ave. further opening up the space.  I love the layout of this cafe.  There is a variety of seating options, you could pull up to the bar and order a coffee or beer, sit outside, chill next to the fire or study on the stage.  Metronome is also set up to be a quality venue for musicians.  Something to mention is the series of blown up Polaroid pictures that spell out Tacoma.  Another nice touch is access to the iTunes library that’s hooked up to WiFi, download the Remote app from iTunes and you can request a song to play on the system.  It’s like a digital jukebox. OK let’s talk coffee.

First I ordered a macchiato that was made on a beautiful Victoria Arduino Adonis.  Seriously hot machine.  Seriously awesome macchiato.  Josh showed up and invited us up to the bar.  He made two siphons of some really tasty Peruvian coffee, one with a metal filter and the other with glass.  Josh has come up with some non coffee drinks too.  A splash in the pond was next, its double strength early grey tea poured over ice and charged with CO2 add that to a cup with ice top with half & half  and a little vanilla bean simple syrup.  This was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had…ever.  Next the elderflower lemonade, refreshing.  The sake it to me: a frosted mint iced mocha with 4oz fortified double barrel sake blew my mind it was so tasty.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Metronome.  The service was great, the coffee was delicious and it feels like home.  I recommend to anyone in the area that hasn’t been to Metronome MAKE IT HAPPEN!  You will not be disappointed!

P.S. Metronome will be hosting a TNT August 25th…so there’s a good reason!

 

Here is a link to my Metronome Flickr set: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvvQXyK

Official TNT NW Blog:  http://tntnorthwest.wordpress.com/

TNT 7/28

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YO!  The first Thursday Night Throwdown on the west coast will take place the 28th of this month!  It is being held at the Espresso Parts lab in Olympia WA.  The doors open at 6pm, sign-up is at 6:30 with the first pour starting at 7pm sharp.  The event will benefit the Stonewall Youth as it is part of Sprudge’s #YesEqual movement.  Bring all your friends and let’s do rad coffee stuff.

WBC Results

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2011 WBC Winners:

1st

Alejandro Mendez. El Salvador

710.5

2/659.5/Pete Licata, U.S.A

3/659/Matt Perger, Australia

4/631.5/Javier Garcia, Spain

5/629.5/Miki Suzuki, Japan

6/613.5/John Gordon, U.K.

Congratulations to all the competitors this year!  There were so many Baristas that took a chance, trained their asses off and did amazing things with coffee.  It was great to see the best in the world compete today, I learned so much from watching.  Well I guess it’s time to figure out what I’m gonna do next year.

!!!!Origin wins!!!!

WBC Finalists

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It’s been ridiculously nice here in Olympia this weekend so this is about as good as it’s gonna get.  Good luck to the best Barista’s in the world!

 Here are your World Barista Finalists:

Pete Licata, United States Of America 13:50

Javier Garcia, Spain 12:15

Alejandro Mendez, El Salvador 13:12

Miki Suzuki, Japan 12:34

Matt Perger, Australia 12:53

John Gordon, United Kingdom 13:31