Here are my score sheets from my recent endeavor in the Barista competition world.
NWRBC score sheets!
Category: life
life
postaweek2011
This year I will be participating in the post a week challenge. My goal is to …..post one blog a week. If I am feeling crazy I might post two a week. I will also post more pictures with these damn posts. That’s all.
_Panda
33 cups of coffee
My new favorite thing right now.
This is the inside. It is set up in a really easy to approach way. I love the star rating.
Seattle Coffee Society/Cafe Crawl
I heard about The Seattle Coffee Society meeting from Sara Dooley about a week before it happened and decided I would attend. I got the day off so i could go up to Seattle and do some coffee stuff before the meeting what follows is a summary of where I went and what I had.
First stop Neptune Coffee located in the greenwood neighborhood. Dan has been coming into our shop(OlympiaCoffeeRoastingCo.) a lot lately so I thought I would show some love and stop by. As you walk through the door you notice to the right there is a long bench with tables along it and chairs across from it. In the rear is a ping-pong table that was being used and I liked to hear that in the background. To the left of the entrance is an over-sized table covered in laptops being analog I opted for the bench. I ordered a shot of their SOE Panama Boquete Volcancito, Lauren pulled a most excellent shot, it was about one and a half ounces had great flecking and a nice caramel aroma. I was punched in the mouth with toffee a great chocolate body and caramel finish that left me with a smile on my face. I picked up some semi washed Sumatra Lintong which turned out to be the most amazing Sumatran coffee I have ever had. When I got back to my shop on Friday I ran it through the Clover 35g/12oz/40sec, SUPER clean, nice cedar and tobacco undertones and as it cools it gets a really nice berry quality. I also picked up some El Salvador La Fany that I have yet to try.
Ten blocks south of Neptune is Herkimer Coffee. Heads up: cash only. I had a double of the espresso blend the barista wasn’t quite sure what it was made up of. The shot was a little over one ounce very bright and had a sharp finish. The inside of the cafe was low lit but had a lot of windows for natural light to come through. Very nice location.
I hit the road to downtown Seattle for Seattle Coffee Works(SCW) and Trabant. After realising I parked in the most expensive parking garage I possibly could I headed to SCW. SCW has a great location, it sits where the old johnny rockets was across from Pike Place Market. When you walk in you instantly feel welcome. Because they have a lot more space you get more choices for seating, there are benches, chairs and table, couches and a nice area where the slow bar is. The choices don’t end with seating, you can get a pour over, siphon pot, espresso, or french press. I opted for a shot of El Salvador Villa España. It was around two ounces, milk chocolatey with a wine like body and a great roasted hazelnut finish. This was one of my favorite stops this trip.
Last but certainly not least Trabant Coffee & Chai. I have recently fallen in love with this space. During coffee fest I attended the train wreck party and had a great time. The shot of 49th Parallel’s Epic espresso was very nice. Matthew the Barista explained to me that he has been tooling around with long shots all the way up to three ounces. The shot I had was a little over two ounces, there was a pleasing acidity to it very light body and a burnt sugar finish. The Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Koke really came out as the espresso cooled and the Honduras added a nice milk chocolate finish. Like Neptune they have a large bench with tables and chairs along the left side of the cafe with a small area at the entrance that has tables and chairs. There are really great quilts on the walls which I believe are from the next door gallery…..if I’m wrong please correct me, my favorite of which was a depiction of an ice cream cone with the words “yum factor 10” sewn on. I picked up some of 49th Parallel’s Costa Rica Helsar micro lot and have yet to brew it at home. I highly recommend this spot for great conversation with Baristas that like to geek out more than what I have experienced in other shops.
Now that I am fully caffeinated I head back to SCW for the inaugural meeting of the Seattle Coffee Society. Daniel Humphries put this together to get more open discussion within the Seattle coffee scene. Daniel had just come back from Puerto Rico doing some research on the soil there. Being from Puerto Rican descent I found this very interesting. The main gist is that P.R. has a high market price for their coffee…somewhere around $3.oo so form the producers P.O.V. there is no reason to change practices. When he asked them to pick ripe cherries for testing he got back a bag of very green and bright red cherries.
What I got from this subject was with enough education and investment into the P.R. coffee industry we can see some really nice high quality coffee coming from here within the next 10 years. Another thing that interested me was the practice of par roasting coffee to be sent to P.R. due to the fact that the importation of green coffee is forbidden. So the coffee is roasted for about five minutes and sent to P.R. where they add green beans along with the par roasted beans to their roasters and the product is often inconsistent. There is most likely going to be another meeting at the end of January if you have any suggestions hit up Dan.
This was one of the most fun and educational coffee days I have had in a long time. I thank Daniel for putting together the meeting and SCW for hosting. I also want to thank all the Baristas I interacted with Y’all made my day even better!
Life is good.
I am thoroughly enjoying my coffee life. I started working in the coffee business only 5 years ago and have come a long way. I started at Starbucks and learned a lot about coffee and customer service. I never go there anymore but I can’t deny that without Starbucks I may have never entered this industry.
After two and a half years of the same shit different day it became evident change was required. My wife (fiancé at the time) suggested I apply at a local Olympia roaster Batdorf & Bronson, so I did. My interview went very well, I consider myself a good interviewee and a few days later I got the job. Thus started my two year relationship with B&B.
Working at B&B was refreshing. Becoming the best Barista I could became my focus. While there I learned to pull great shots of espresso, pour rad latte art, and delved deeper into the coffee world. After almost two and a hlaf years I decided to try something new. I became a dispatcher for 911, I quickly learned this was not the job for me. I also learned that coffee has become the thing I am best at.
After resigning from my dispatcher job I applied at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company and a couple of weeks later started working there. My coffee life has never been better. I have learned sooooo much from working here in such a short time. We have such great mentors here: Michael Elvin, Robbie Britt and of course Mrs.Sarah Dooley. I have also learned a lot about roasting and production work, things I would have never learned at my former jobs.
Basically I LOVE LIFE, I LOVE COFFEE and I LOVE O.C.R.
Day trip to Portland
Yesterday my fiance and I decided to go to Portland. We started the day off with a cupping at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company. Brazil Serra Do Bone was on the table for us to try. We used a Hario brew the coffee and it was great. I really got a nice lime acidity right off the bat, the finish rich chocolate and slight floral flavor. We pulled it as an espresso and it was completely different. The mouth feel was light and the lime acidity really came through. I normally don’t like my ‘spro too bright but this was nice.
Our first destination in Portland was Fabric World. We looked it up on google maps on our way and decided to check it out. The store had a limited selection and we didn’t find anything we wanted. When we left the parking lot I noticed The Little Red Bicycle Cafe having read about it in a grass routes travel book we stopped for lunch. The cafe was real;ly nice it is just the right size. I really enjoyed the lighting they had. Huevos Rancheros was the special of the day, we ordered it with their house made chorizo. This was one of the best things I have eaten…ever. The entire dish was soo fresh there was the right amount of cilantro and the little bits of pineapple were perfect. I mentioned where I worked and had a nice conversation with the Barista Evan. He told me all about the coffee they serve Courier Coffee Roasting Company. I bought the Costa Rica Los Santos, Tarrazu. It was really nice. I got a lot of hazelnut from it and a nice light milk chocolate flavor. I LOVE IT! One of my new faves for sure.
With our stomachs full we decided to head to Fabric Depot. While we were eating at the L.R.B.C. a customer suggested we go there for cool printed fabric. When we arrived at the store we thought it was big, then we went inside…….it’s the biggest fabric store I have ever been to. We spent about an hour there and Angela found some really nice fabrics to use as table runners for the wedding. After an hour od shopping for fabric I needed some espresso. I really wanted to try Heart based on Jared’s recommendation. The spot is really clean and minimal. The Baristas play vinyl records on the stereo system and the roaster is in the lobby area. I tried their Kenya as an espresso and was blown away. It had a really great syrupy mouth feel and a nice lime acidity, it finished off with a tanginess that I compare to cream cheese. They use a La Marzocco Mistral if you haven’t seen one of these before…..they are sexy. On to the next one.
A trip to Portland isn’t complete without a trip to Powell’s Books. My favorite section is japanese culture and history. They have a great variety of books on the Japanese society that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. I picked up a book about an American Mafias boss that moved to Japan and tried his hand at organised crime. After an hour or so it was time to head home. I went to Portland for the first time a couple of years ago for my birthday and it has become one of my favorite cities. This was one of my favorite visits. My fiance and I enjoyed every part of our day. Thanks Portland!
Ugh!
If you have read my blogs in the past you know that in October I started training to be a dispatcher. Well I tried my hand at it and I have decided that CAPCOM is not the place for me. I didn’t pass my S.O.D (supervisor observation day). I tried really hard but in my heart I know this is not the job for me. I can;t do it! You have to be soo quick with life and death decisions and my brain doesn’t work that way.
No hard feelings…..actually I feel really good. I tried something completely new and out of the ordinary. Not many people can say they have answered a 911 call, I can and it feels very cool. It was a bad experience I went through things I thought I wouldn’t be able to. Listening to someone be abused over the phone wasn’t fun neither was the time I listened to a woman yell at her kid so loud it made my ear hurt. They weren’t fun to go through but on the other hand i helped those people…and that’s what felt good.
When it comes down to it you have to be very quick and able to multi task like a mad man. Unfortunately for me the quickness and multi tasking thing were not on my side, if I could answer the phone on my time…you know every once in a while I would be fine. The training and being able to see what goes on behind the scenes is something I’ll always carry with me. The one thing I will be most appreciative about this experience is that now I know what Angela does ! I can relate with her on certain things that go on at work and now I can understand that after working a ten-hour shift at the call center it really does exhaust you physically without even having to get up. So in the end, great life experience.
P.S. I need a job!
Anticipation
The next two days I work are the last days of training. I am almost done which is both exciting and nerve-racking. It would be nice to be on my own finally but it’s also a lot of responsiblity. My trainer said I am doing a really good job, all my type codes are correct and I include good details in my comments.
While I am getting good feed-back I can’t help but be a little nervous. I don’t know what it is but I have a hard time believing in myself. It’s something that’s always been with me. People tell me I can do it and there is no problem when it comes down to it, I follow through but for some reason it never sinks in. I totally have faith that I can do my job but for some reason it doesn’t feel that was all the time. I guess it could be a new year resolution….since I don’t have any.
Last day of freedom.
Today is officialy my last day of freedom. I start training for my new job tomorrow. I have been off for about a month and a half and it has been soo nice. Angela and I had a lot of time to spend together and do fun stuff like go to the fair and camping in eastern Washington.
I am really excited to start my new job as a dispatcher. During my vacation I took time out to study fire and police codes as well as the phoenetic alphabet. I visited the call center to listen to calls and I think that was a big help. My main goal was to go into this with some sort of idea of what goes on.
Anxious and nervous are two words I would use to describe how I feel about tomoorow.
I wrote this a while ago but i totally meant it.
Would you like that for here or to go?
I have finally made my exit from the retail world. Honestly I couldn’t feel any better. I no longer have to spend my days making money for someone else! Making money for other people is no longer in my job description. Saving lives and helping to keep the county running smoothly is my new task.
Since my last post the job as a dispatcher for 911 has been offered to me….full time even. Serving coffee will be something missed dearly. It has been part of my life for the past four years. Interacting with the public will be what I miss the most. If I had the opportunity to move up where I was things would be different but they were becoming stagnant. Being under appreciated and having to deal with double standards in something as trivial as tamping too hard got me down. Worrying about coffee is something I didn’t want to deal with anymore. I needed something more.
The best part is that the coffee world is still accessible almost at a new level. Instead of a job it is now a hobby which is totally fine with me. I still have a passion for coffee, something that no one can take from me. Through all of my time on the other side of the counter I have realized how much I needed out. I definitely will miss my co-workers very much and the relationships I built behind the counter.
Thoughts of Clouds 