ketchup week: murky tales from our correspondents
April 27, 2007 – 11:45 amword reaches this blog that ryan goodrow, he of the fondling tamper motions and puppet show co-starring role, was at his resplendent, meticulous best one recent weekday evening.
it was the cypriot and bursch-head, actually, in d.c. for a trade convention involving the cutesy finial things they do, and admirably determined to hoof the distance to murky coffee. the gravelly voiced bearded one, it turns out, was waving his arms and dumping shots on his way to sweet, eye-opening macchiato rounds described to this blog in painstaking, verbally florid terms as “gahood.” (both of these guys, it should be noted, are no strangers to the toscano in use … just goodrow’s toscano, apparently).
which sort of conjures a tonx-like paradigm of experienced coffee palates unearthing again the magic that only a competition-tested barista can bring.
did this blog just say that?
“that only a competition-tested barista can bring”
Hmmm, that statement wants to be very important. I am not disagreeing by any permutation of the imagination. In fact I have been taking a person by person approach to disseminating that particular understanding of the effects of Barista Comps. But more often than not I get the dismissing wave of the hand, and the standard rhetoric: “Competitions don’t have anything to do with the working Barista, they don’t measure a real Barista’s skill.”
So I guess what I am saying is, keep on spreading the word.
as should be obvious by now, i love barista comps as a fanboy, but think they fall far short of their potential for energizing a wider public.
that said, there’s something about a comp-tested barista, kinda like an experienced playoff team or a battle-scarred presidential candidate.
gosh darn it – from the front end, posts like this discourage the heck out of me! Yet, call it stupidity, stubborn love, or what-have-you, I just can’t stop changing profiles, adjusting grinds, and pulling shots on the homefront! I will never have a spro bar at the casa that is Schomer-worthy; nevertheless, everyday is marked by an effort to extract Edenic nectar from my pf! But at the end of the day, my hat gladly goes off, those comp guys and many others that work the bar are top-shelf! No debate about that!
I have had equally superb spros from you, mr. blogmeister. Have you ever competed?
nate: it’s not meant to be discouraging. as a hack amateur, i strive less for a certain “level” that someone else has achieved, and instead for a similar “effect” on the people i’m serving.
witness the cypriot’s post. (he’s a wee bit nutso on this point, but still …)
Point taken. However, I am not so much discouraged about “ability” as I am “accessability”. Sometimes I wonder if it is even possible to extract the bean’s full potential on a modest-home-spro-bar (especially when it comes to temp loss in the group). So my delimma comes from a desire to consistently produce the bean’s potential at home while feeling it near impossible without a commercial investment; not from a desire to be on par with the pros. While I feel I have great success in educating people who are accustomed to the Big Green Gobblin, at the same time I sense more present in the composition of the bean that I cannot seem to extract. Therefore, I strive to cultivate an environment that will allow the bean to display its full potential but always sit back and wonder if shortcomings are the result of equipment, ability, or both. I guess the ultimate philosophical question is this: ability aside, can a diamond be presented at its full potential if it has been cut with a dremel tool?
WTF… you don’t call or email me first?
’tweren’t me, nick. i wasn’t there. i kinda doubt you’d want to meet any and all of my friends who happen through d.c.
and, i believe, they showed up just before closing. hoofed it all the way from some convention center on the spur of the moment.
i would, however, drop a line if i were nearby.
nate: dremel. ha.
you have only begin to crack the abilities of the silvia, from what i understand from others who have one. demoralization shouldn’t be an option.
Thanks for the comments. I must say . . . Miss Silvia is quite sexy! She’ll be even hotter when I saddle’er up with a PID. Then, I will know if she is capable of what I am demanding of her. Who knows, maybe I will introduce her to Mr. Tea over memorial day weekend ; )
disturbing. miss silvia sounds a wee bit promiscuous to this blog.