Archive for category ‘mad coffee jaunts’
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
well beyond two weeks post-roast, this blog stuggles still to communicate to you the subtleties of lem butler's competition espresso blend. heightening the mystery: a pragmatic decision to pull much of it with the lever machine at the studio of the bioluminescent cypriot, where a gaggle of the man's indentured ...
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Monday, October 29th, 2007
this blog stands corrected: there was, it would appear, at least one media reference to clearwater's SERBC -- which briefly features greenville's alex! (watch the video; hat tip, the zombie)
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Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
at this rate, there may not be an audience for next year's southeast regional barista competition. you could just hold the thing in my back shed. at one point during a compelling and unpredictable final round, i counted 13 people in the seats. thirteen. i met most of them, and ...
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Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
this blog was going to attempt to relay to you the depth of emotional investment by c-n-c's shannon hudgens and his mother in their inaugural barista competition. zombie chris owens saves us the trouble by capturing the moment, after round one, when the underdog discovers he's made the finals.
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Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
UPDATE: katie did the murky thing -- studious, poised, no-nonsense espresso. the sig was lavender-infused, and involved cocoa butter.
she got the raw end of more than one technical snafu, most notably when her music sputtered to start the finals routine. she called the toscano espresso "my greatest teacher in coffee" ...
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Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
UPDATE: as spoofed in last year's puppet show, michelle is an utter dynamo from a cafe we can vouch for who, ah, adores competing. it's quite funny, really. she grins and lectures and pulls shots with all the lumbering ponderance of a hummingbird. a hummingbird with muscles. espresso machines under ...
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Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
note: the vid cuts off early, for some reason. 'twill be fixed.
UPDATE: you already know what we think about shannon, the mall kiosker from greenville so effusively lauded in the fresh-printed issue of barista mag.
word is, he got low finals marks because the daring espresso he chose to use ...
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Monday, October 22nd, 2007
UPDATE: ben's deal was very understated, very simple and confident. the sig, apparently, was based on a favorite childhood con -- cajoling his ma to buy sweets. ha-ha! she was partial to cherry cordial, and so were the judges. rumor has it ben's cherry cordial sig was both very sweet ...
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Monday, October 22nd, 2007
the blog doggedly stalks mr. sexy foam!
recently infamous CI commenter "true" offers SERBC pics from his vantage point as a dish runner and covert beverage taster. after finally meeting the marketer-come-espresso-junkie, this blog can definitively say: he's got the disease!
in fact, the man's generously offered laptop might have been our ...
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
UPDATE: the owens-trained, third-place finisher danielle was so nervous in round one, this blog thought she might ingest some of her ceramic wares. this finals performance marks a substantial improvement in nerves and a sparkling sig beverage idea -- a coffee version of a gin martini.
essentially, we're talking a darjeeling ...
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
UPDATE: to the untrained eye, lem appeared to take fastidious care not to earn himself another nickname. the trademark quirky declarations about blow torches and nemeses and the shapeliness of his milk foam were strangely missing. we blame his employer -- that bastion of soulless corporate culture -- for homogenizing ...
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
The champeen be LEM BUTLER. Ben and danielle second and third.
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
More polish from lem - cucumber, lemon, ginger shaken with spro. michelle put spro with a spice paste.
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Danielle: a coffee gin and tonic. Shannon: ginger ale 'n spro. Katie: lavendar milk 'n spro.
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Octane's danielle, c-n-c's hudgens and murky'S katie all appear eminently more polished.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
this blog knows you come here eagerly for half-baked impressions typed on the tail end of surreal, sleepless days in the rattling blogmobile. thus will we deliver!
the SERBC so far foists upon us these first-blush notions:
* smallest crowds in recent memory. smaller, most of today, than any spectator group we've ...
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
* * * shannon hudgens (blue shirt), the underdog du jour of greenville, s.c.'s coffee and crema
* lem butler (black), the previous champion now of of durham, n.c.'s counter culture coffee
* michelle bradicich (blue tee), of apex, n.c.'s pheasant creek coffee
* katie duris (green sweater), of washington d.c.'s murky coffee
* ben helfen (gray shirt) ...
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
It'S true: today'S starbucks competitor intends to combine espresso and, ah, sweet potato puree.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Um, oooh. Octane'S danielle slings serious darjeeling-jasmine spro. Samples, please.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Greenville's shannon serves up his spro and Blenheim ginger ale with no time left. Cold.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
This blog did not mishear: the emcee just said HIS spro machine came from stein mart!
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Arrived. Counter culture-co-opted Lem butler goes low key, with cucumbers in his sig. Smooth.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
7am, and still the dawn won'T dawn. Interminably ahead are rancid, spent espresso valleys. Now we go insane.
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Stupid rest stop. Locked all the stupid restrooms. This blog asks you: will the SERBC treat us this way?
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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
This iz uh test. This blog's phone iz learning how to blog. On the road. Pass the walnuts.
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Friday, October 19th, 2007
if you had hauled your wasted self to the floridian peninsula for day one of the SEBRC (this blog has not yet departed) you would have witnessed four out of 12 (edit: four out of nine?) listed competitors turn in viable routines. more from hudgens:
* four no-show/withdrawals -- including one ...
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Friday, October 19th, 2007
in the universe of reasons for this blog NOT to attend this weekend's SERBC, at least five of them are attached to the blogmobile. we'll be photographing them, post-haste.
UPDATE: your enthusiasm embarrasses this blog. but, ah ... herewith the photographic-automotive reasons we shouldn't be leaving after tonight's concert previous, unavoidable ...
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Friday, October 19th, 2007
SERBC shocker of the hour: perennial contender lena abed, of north carolina's open eye cafe, disqualified herself with a competition routine that ran past 16 minutes. at least, that's what hudgens just told us in a muffled, backstage voice. lena was a finalist last year -- famously the victim of ...
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Friday, October 19th, 2007
that distinct, edgy sound in hudgens' voice as we listened to tonight's voicemail: boredom. but then, what do you expect in the land of jazz festivals and "pseudo-military scientology!" might as well just do next year's SERBC in greenville!
UPDATE: hudgens' latest voicemail: "ridged la marzocco baskets suck."
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Thursday, October 18th, 2007
c-n-c's hudgens calls to say they've made atlanta, en route to the SERBC, pitting of course at octane for the midnight infusion. the scene: aspiring competitors ben and danielle cramming some late-night practice rounds.
too bad all competitors don't have access to such competition-ready, off-hours practice machinery. but, hey -- ...
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