Quote: Dwight D. Eisenhower

May 24, 2006 at 10:45 am · Filed under Quotations

The history of men is never really written by chance but by choice—their choice.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Lending a Hand

May 22, 2006 at 8:14 am · Filed under Cafes, On the Radar

Chris Keener, a local coffee geek & future cafe owner asked for a little of my time yesterday. His church has opened the doors to its new building and he wanted to do something nice for the youth league by offering espresso service at their grand opening event.

Counter Culture donated a few pounds of coffee (thanks!!), and Chris and I toted out our home machines for some labor. We almost had a serious issue when my machine wouldn’t recognize water in the tank. We did good and checked the water type, then went through all sorts of ideas including trying to figure out how to just disable the safety mechanism all together. During our darkest moment I pulled out the treo and got on alt.coffee and read one of my Oscar pals Jack Denver talking about how this could be one of only a few things. Running through that list we re-examined the water and found it to be reverse-osmosed..how’d we miss that?! Ding! Threw in some tap water, conductivity returned, and the machine was ready to go. (an hour behind schedule, and many ml of sweat later hehe)

We churned out in the upwards of 40-50 drinks within a 4 hour period. The kids and adults came at us in waves that took me back to my bartending days. We got through it with gusto. Everyone had a blast and really liked our production. I continue to grin even this morning wondering how many kids had too clear a thought last night. Sorry parents! hehe.

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Coffee at Andy’s

May 15, 2006 at 10:28 am · Filed under Life Happens, Scribbles

My father-in-law, Bill Dietz, aka Baker Bill has taken up writing in his spare time. He’s turning out some wonderful material and has graciously allowed me to reprint one of his latest works after visiting us. I think many of you can relate. Enjoy!

Coffee at Andy’s

Coffee at Andy’s,“Oh, Boy, I can’t wait”!
One hour and a half, don’t want to be late.
Step on the gas to eighty, no more
Seems like forever till we’re at his back door.

Hugs and greetings, we say, “How ya doin”?
Now lets get down to it, the coffees a brewing.
No need to ask, forget the requests,
A shot of espresso from his very best.

He stands at machine, that cost more than my car,
A Barista he is, the best we know, by far.
With a hiss and a gurgle, he pulls me one shot,
While Tyson his cat, spies from stair up on top.

The dark liquid he brings in a tiny white cup,
It fits on my pinky, it’s down in one gulp.
As Mother and Daughter sit down for a chat,
With Tyson between them, he’s king and that’s that,

Andy prances his way, back to his place
Two cappuccinos to make, with smile on his face.
With machine fired up and pure water in hand,
He grinds and taps his coffee, from some foreign land.

He eyes the dark stream, with an odd knowing grin
The pressures just right, it’s so good, it’s a sin.
Designed by an artist the froth floats on top,
Like fluffy white clouds, poured till Andy says stop.

Two ‘caps’ to order, one for his love, one for mine,
And one for himself, for he knows he has time,
Till the sad gloom of empty he sees on my face,
Café’ Mochas’ on order, can he keep up this pace?

Off he goes for the chocolate, and new coffee to try,
Soon the cups in my hand and I tell you no lie
You haven’t lived in your life, no not even one day,
Till you’ve had coffee at Andy’s, and that’s all I’ll say!

-Bill Dietz

Thanks Bill! I love it!

-a

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Steve. It’s all about you.

May 5, 2006 at 8:12 pm · Filed under Culinary

I thought I would throw out some appreciation to a fellow geek, Steve, aka Spinnaker. I’ve known Steve for a couple years now. We’re both espresso enthusiasts, both trying to open a cafe; we’re brothers-in-arms. Steve has mojo when it comes to learning and excelling at new coffee techniques and the longer you let him go the better he gets.

Check out his current latte art skill. This guy is killing me.

Look at his flickr feed for more goodness.

Recently we sparked a little idea on doing online barista competitions through google video. Would anyone say his video is like throwing down the gauntlet? hehehhe! Sure wets my appetite.

Anyhow, it’s fun Steve. You rock. What are we learning next?

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Weekend Catchup

May 2, 2006 at 10:11 am · Filed under Culinary, On the Radar

It’s been a rather busy couple days for us. Those who watch the feed always get a drop on those who just read due to my flickr influx.

The roundup. My G5 died the weekend before last and for a couple hundred canon offered to do an upgrade. With Robin’s blessing (heh) we moved up to the Canon Pro1. It has it’s own issues like everyone else but being a Canon owner I have a pretty good read for what my expectations were and it’s being met well. If I don’t get my broken cam back in the mail today though I’m going to be the winner of a nice additional bill.

Marshall Park on Saturday was host to an Earth Day event. The weather in the park was fantastic. The Dietz came in to town to hang out with us. We signed petitions, learned about rallies, bought some creamed honey, were educated on bio-solar-gray-and-green initiatives. Before I left I was approached by a nice lady asking if I was their photographer. Sorry, John Q. Public here, but I’ll gladly let you have access to my shots. In the future if you.. [plug plug]

Off again! The Charlotte Flickr Meet was also being hosted this day at Jitterz around the University area. Leaving my map at home I used my keen sense of directions to get fully turned around and backassward showing up not early to help with any setup but just a little after start. Being the first meeting we only had a handful of people but they were enthusiastic and from many different walks of life with a keen sense of photography as a uniting force. I think the group has some potential in learning from each other. In the future we’ll probably have workshops and special interest groups that can be signed up for. Good stuff.

Lastly and really deserving it’s own post I’ve been an espresso madman. Besides draining a bag of Tuscano in two days I’ve been trying to dial around Counter Culture’s Ethiopian Sidamo. I’ve gone through a series of taste tests adjusting boiler temps along the way. (10m delay between shots) These numbers are not brew head temps so their relevance is vague. Once I’m done playing (and today is another play day) I’ll switch to the scace and figure out where others might want to reproduce it at. Until then here’s my latest info.

• 119.3’c = Good, little too bright, comfortable mouthfeel.
  +sugar = cherries cherries cherries (on the verge of medicinal)

• 119.6’c = Acidity down, Brightness down, More pear skin or plum.
  +sugar = dark fruit, mebbe good in milk but something doesn’t appeal to me.

• 119.0’c = med. brightness & acidity, low tartness, smooth, maybe cashew?
  +sweet = much too tart. confusing. I don’t understand how its taken such a different tact with sugar but it has.

Who needs to slow down? Psha.. next!

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