Archive for category ‘mad coffee jaunts’
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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Thursday, October 18th, 2007
especially attentive blog-readers (e.g. "carping losers") may recall that we accurately predicted hoffmann's world barista crown -- an entire year in advance! building on this stunning record of prognosticatory success, we'll now daringly call this weekend's southeast regional barista competition for ... c-n-c's shannon hudgens!
truth is, this blog's on-again, off-again ...
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Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
to state the depth of this blog's teeth-gnashing chagrin that the blogbrother -- and not this blog -- is starting his day in copenhagen's renowned cafe europa would be, well ... criminal.
in the interest of totally stomping on his parade, (a) wouldn't you say this espresso crema looks a bit ...
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Thursday, August 16th, 2007
moises, left, and marysabel say it could be the cold water that makes their coffee what it is. "or," marysabel said, "it could be God." fabio, right, ate a lot of dip.
what grabs you about moises hessera is that he rushes right past his verb conjugations to explain the finer ...
Posted in mad coffee jaunts, subjective swilling | 4 Comments »
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
another in a series: tales of coffee woe you, too, could experience were you enough of a self-flagellating masochist.
it was just the sort of gripping social dilemma that pits yourself against someone you love. the cypriot's brother-in-law had caught the coffee snob's bug and needed mentoring. of course, he still ...
Posted in bioluminescent cypriot, mad coffee jaunts | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
scarily, it's true. the bloghand, clutching the blogcam, hath made an abhorrent appearance on the cover of a regional alimentary publication -- part of a gaggle, as it were, involving far better-known barista personalities.
this blog assures you that, when it saw the actual paper in atlanta this weekend, it ...
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Friday, July 20th, 2007
one in a series: tales of coffee woe you, too, could experience were you enough of a self-flagellating masochist.
in one of those desert scrub towns that huddle, no more than five buildings total, along the colorado highways south of denver, nate the finger checked into a motel. on the internet, ...
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
new sublimity from charleston's muddy, where this blog encountered a new, blond barista, less-sharp-more-sweet-tasting toscano-based hot beverages and valiant attempts at latte art. also, we're not the only ones. this concludes our quasi-regular public service on south carolina's quality-conscious rarities.
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Monday, June 11th, 2007
chilling but true: there are even less mentionable coffee outposts in far removed stretches of these hinterlands -- kansas, say -- that come laden with ambience, but, when asked for an espresso, will produce a stare, a stammer and then something like this:
which sort of looks like chef's leftovers. thanks ...
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
... wherein CI scrapes the final coffee fest leftovers from the side of the casserole dish by comparing premium decaf coffees to formless new-age music!
it's phil's fault. the blogwife, being great with child, had reached the limits of trade-show-floor caffeine, and, being casually installed next to the counter culture booth ...
Posted in mad coffee jaunts, subjective swilling | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
it's not ignorant ... it's journalistic! asking questions, that is.
* where were those reputedly gonzo alterra kids? you know, the ones who "make everything more fun" and bring that effusive dedication to latte art? this blog was among the very first to arrive at saturday's que-and-brew (as a public service ...
Posted in mad coffee jaunts, screeds | 10 Comments »
Monday, June 4th, 2007
as metaphors go, there be few more apt for the coffee wasteland to which this blog returns:
frankly, it's nothing short of profound. 'el expreso. las carolinas.' true, sir. so true.
add to that the home discovery of the spro machine run dry by the sitter and baking away in the boiler, ...
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Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
it says something about this rarified consortium of coffee devotees when some of those best known for cupping the stuff begin to analyze the party pork. "there's something in this pork," said a genial, bearded fellow. "something secret." and so these great brains with tongues (known, sometimes, as counter culture ...
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Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
the one on the right: worth the price of a new corolla.
you, too, would hit the deck if you'd just landed a tuition-lifting $21,000 (not a typo) for properly creating a frothy milkbath and tipping it into some spro.
and so there was layla osberg of blenz, pourer of one stellar, ...
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Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
video -- funny video -- of ancillary topics surrounding coffee fest atlanta is burbling up right here.
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Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
cuppin' the stuff at a madly hopping counter culture booth. silky bolivian peanut butter sandwich included.
three -- out of hundreds! -- of committed coffee fest attendees agreed tonight with this blog: the afterparties are killer. jostling latte art smackdown-age. krispy kreme donuts. a bizarre human, er, interpretation of a death ...
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Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
take it from this blog ... the atlanta latte art has been somewhat mediocre, the paladino coming from zoka coffee's convention booth extraordinary and the counter culture party underway as we speak is a drenched, humid, raucous affair. the highlight so far: conceptualizing with lem butler the awesome possibilities of ...
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Monday, May 21st, 2007
yes, well, in today's edition of "startling places greenville hides its coffee," CI zooms in like a finely calibrated wire brush on one of those new, off-main-street shops with an idiosyncratic mix of ephemera that may well be ahead of its time. ephemera such as ... well, we quote, "coffee, ...
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Saturday, May 5th, 2007
attempts at citizenship took the cypriot to charleston (to the naval brig, you ask? well, no.), where, upon taking the oath, he promptly became a money-centric, eagle-eyed 'mericun consumer!
his observation outside muddy waters: you know you're one of those kinds of coffee establishments when the atm is immediately adjacent.
in a ...
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Friday, April 27th, 2007
word 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 ...
Posted in mad coffee jaunts, subjective swilling | 11 Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
this week in c-n-c: a spewing hole in the camry's gas tank notwithstanding, a blogdate takes us to the mall for a cheery female barista, a honeyed-but-fast shot of guatemala special reserve and all the caffeinated vim and vigor necessary to brave the trip home.
rest assured: the seat belts were ...
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Friday, April 6th, 2007
today in c-n-c: a new barista and howell's dirty-lemon-candy yirg pulled a wee bit fast, in three forms: double, macc, capp.
in a word: light. and loamy. spritzer-like. (that's five words -- we can't help ourselves!)
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Sunday, April 1st, 2007
coffee and crema, day two:
men's shirt sale -- the semi-annual! -- block-gorgeous faemage and a sweeter, honey-tangerine-heavy hair bender.
Posted in mad coffee jaunts, subjective swilling | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 30th, 2007
on a blog fraught with hyperbolic overkill, what are the rhetorical options when you've stumbled headlong into a brew-place that's flabbergastingly good? litotes?!
turns out that about the same time we first asked the geekers about passable espresso in this barren nexus of the country a guy in a kiosk started ...
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Sunday, March 18th, 2007
atlanta's octane is the abercrombie & fitch of southeast coffee bars -- where being ignored is part of the ambiance! (note: those people on their web site look downright preppy compared to the playas who mumbled in the general direction of this blog.
you may not address us. you wait for ...
Posted in bioluminescent cypriot, mad coffee jaunts | 2 Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
when people say those alterra kids "make everything more fun," what they really mean is, "they take dumb stuff, and use it to great effect." herewith our own, personally culled examples:
vacant lakeside pump house = hulk d' alterra
antiquated industrial rafters = sprawling intimate balconage
nature's hardwoods = trendy roughcut barstools
barren wisconsin ...
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Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
no, the blog-brother's point-n-shoot isn't really this lousy ... we blurred the pics on purpose! to recreate for you the helter-skelter frenzy that is the gritty metropolis! because, you know, the urban morning 'spro orgy totally turned us into slobbering fanboys. consider the montage this blog's public service installment du ...
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Sunday, January 14th, 2007
alterra, take two: they're patenting cool in stunningly obvious urban village areas. and they do it well.
chicago's metropolis, on the other hand, sort of feels like it sprang organically from the steaming sidewalk vents with all the oblivious authenticity of artisan subsistence vendors.
at least, that's how this blog saw the ...
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