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.
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
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.
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.
This post is for any PNW Baristas that would like to continue their coffee education. I am planning to hold certifications here in Olympia before Camp Pull-A-Shot. If you are interested please contact me at panda@espressoparts.com. Let’s get together and learn!
The USBC started yesterday. Today the semifinals were held and two of my co-workers participated. Sarah Dooley and Robbie Britt represented Espresso Parts in the Fullest. It makes me proud to have that kind of talent in our company. It was so great to watch competitors from Sam Purvis to Scott Lucey be amazing representatives for our industry. Every year the competitors get even better and make the rest of us practice even harder to be great. Here are the finalists:
1. Kevin Bohlin (Ritual)
2. Pete Licata (Honolulu Coffee Company)
3. Trevor Corlett (Macap)
4. Lorenzo Perkins (Cafe Medici)
5. Ryan Knapp (Macap)
6. Nik Krankl (Gelato Bar & Espresso Cafe)
The first brewers cup was held this weekend and two of my good friends competed. Jared Gum and Mike Cannon repped well for the PNW and have made it to the Finals! I am so glad these two made it, they have worked their asses off since NW regionals and deserve to win it. Good luck guys!
Espresso Parts is hosting a USBC finals viewing party tomorrow starting at 10am and going until the winners are announced. So come to the Olympia lab and make coffee with us while we watch the finals!
Everyone mark you calendars June 18 & 19 Northwest Coffee Festival will be taking place and you should really join. Whether you’re a cafe owner, Barista or coffee enthusiast/customer there will be something for you. There will be manual brew bars, espresso bars, roasters, food and desserts. We want to make coffee more accessible and this is the kind of event that makes it possible. If you live in the PNW I hope to see you in June.
Last Saturday I spent the day in Seattle visiting a few cafes with friends. We met up at Arabica Lounge on Capitol Hill. This was my first visit and it kind of blew me out of the water. I arrived first so I had time to scope out the space and I liked what I saw. None of the furniture matches the hardwood floor looks had and the walls could use paint but all of this adds up to why I love this place. My Macchiato was everything one should be, sweet and balanced. I had a little much to drink the night before so I had the hangover omelette. To be honest I wasn’t really thinking the food would be that great luckily for me I was wrong, it was perfectly cooked and seasoned
When my friends showed up we talked a little about educating coffee consumers, I feel the more we educate the customers as to what good coffee is the more accountable we are to make it for them. Dooley introduced me to Brian who is organizing a really rad coffee event. The gist of it is to bring the Barista closer to the customer in a role of education and not just service. Brian and I have similar viewpoints on coffee/brewing, especially making it more accessible. We (specialty coffee) are very serious about training staff why not train customers the same way?
Our next stop was the SBUX on Olive Way. I was very surprised by what I found inside, there was a double fire-place, semi-private indoor seating as well as open seating areas. It was interesting to see the square brewing station like the one at InlelliVenice reinterpreted in this space. This cafe is very warm and inviting, I could definitely spend an afternoon there.
We hit up the Vivace sidewalk cafe and had drinks at the Brix cafe. The cafe is very open with lots of seating as well as a “study” section separated from general seating by a glass door. Since this was my first time I ordered a macchiato and straight shot of espresso. The macchiato super sweet and full of caramel was made with Vita and the espresso was balanced and chocolaty. One of my favorite things when visiting new cafe is interacting with Baristas. Brian our barista has been with Vivace since 1995 and is currently the head trainer, we talked a lot about espresso, the foam knife and misc cafe stuff. The coffee coupled with a fantastic Barista made this an experience that will keep me coming back to Vivace.
Fully caffeinated and ready for more we headed to Stumptown on 12th. This is also the location of their Seattle roasting facility. We all ordered espresso, mine was sugar sweet had a slight floral quality and made my mouth happy. Luckily we happened to stop by while the 3 o’clock cupping was going on. The cuppings are held downstairs in the roastery/production area. There is a cupping table with a window running along it that lets you see into the training lab. The Costa Rica Helsar Reserva was amazing, it had nice raspberry and floral qualities, the body was syrupy and the finish sweet and clean. When you walk through this roastery you can really tell they know what’s up, the facility was clean the lab tidy and production area well organised.
Our Seattle coffee crawl was a success! We got together spoke of world domination and drank some really great coffee. I thoroughly enjoyed every stop on our list and can’t wait till the next crawl. Thank you Seattle!
Thoughts of Clouds 