Archive for category ‘Uncategorized’
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
and so now we have seen the apocalypse: latte art, and its machine-produced permutations, on page one of the nation's second-largest newspaper -- and by far its most austere.
and who's this hoffmann person named therein? an espresso champion of some sort? naaaa. he's merely the creative spark behind the mouth ...
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Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
this blog's gift-giving friends have such a refined knowledge of our tastes that it leaves us, well ... a bit misty-eyed.
UPDATE: it's been suggested that we respond to the giver's next request for brew with a shot of the same. excellent idea.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
UPDATE: you heard it here first -- the remonstrative jaime actually doesn't drink coffee!*
* ok, well. "at work," anyway. still .. it's a telling measure of his affinities!
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Sunday, October 7th, 2007
solis jake wonders: do relatively longer air-roast times demand longer shorter rest periods before the spro blossoms? a scintillating line of inquiry!
UPDATE: the impetus -- the new stunning pulped natural el salvador san emilio now on sale for a measly $5 a pound. with now-longer air roast profiles more controlled ...
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Monday, September 3rd, 2007
solis sl-70 sl-90 grouphead, removed and inverted.
first question this blog asked solis jake: "to which part of the normal espresso machine cleaning regimen did you fail to adhere?" turns out he is a model home junkie, in the best brush-and-floss-and-gargle sort of way. 'twould appear instead that those solis sl-70 ...
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Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
Letter from a cupping
What I learned from Hacienda la Esmeralda
There was a day during my four-month junket through Chad -- just east of the Cameroonian border and south of the Sahara -- when I saw through a stifling summer haze what can only be described as a reverie. ...
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Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
consulting the most prestigious possible sources on the subject of de-muscilage, the choice of dry-processing our stem-fresh bounty seemed self-evident. thus, the boss's coffee cherries now loll on our hand-crafted "drying patios," a sight which, to the unititiated, is a deeply moving tableau reminiscent of an age-old ritual still pursued ...
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Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
lest you think we're ho-hum-ish about the whole esmeralda thing, here are some totally spontaneous pics of this blog jumping -- impromptu -- off its porch in a completely unplanned display of glee.
our adoptive panamanian daughters, you might presume, arrived this afternoon.
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Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
Following the resignation and departure of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) Chief Operating Officer on September 12th, a serious cash shortage was revealed. An immediate investigation by SCAA’s Executive Director uncovered serious accounting irregularities and a loss of SCAA’s cash reserves.
surreal is finding the firewall between my day ...
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Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
that would be the espresso puck from hell, a fissured slice of sonoma floor in your belching portafilter. as mentioned before, the brother came down for espresso bar tomfoolery and brought with him the kind of ghetto gear you might expect to find in the militarily-appointed caffe del abu ...
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Friday, July 8th, 2005
and that is all we'll say at this point.
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Sunday, July 3rd, 2005
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Tuesday, May 17th, 2005
this would seem to be a surprisingly rip-roaring debate in my circles. polish the riviera or leave her naturally 'antiqued'? i'm leaning toward the 'to polish' end, though i've had numerous advisers against the notion. hmmm. pic here shows the brass grouphead already shined up, but the copper boiler housing ...
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Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
i had completely forgotten a parallel pang of inventive inspiration that my brother recently emailed me about. although you can be the judge of its, er, purported genius. (vital context: this brother appreciates espresso, i suspect, more as a group-debate stimulant. he both studies theology and coerces college ...
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Tuesday, April 19th, 2005
certainly, this blog realizes it would not be worth its weight in yemen chaff if it did not inform you of the world barista championship's final results.
to which i say, "can someone pleeeease unseat those scandinavians?" also: CANADA?!
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Saturday, April 16th, 2005
dedicated page of smackdown pics under construction ... but first: the globally diverse attendees.
sarkis, the cypriot host and self proclaimed coffee/rare instrument/silkworm (Lepidoptera Bombycidae Bombyx mori) aficionado
(equipment: expobar/rocky/hottop)
nate, the low-budget purist, whose lamp-cover-modified hot-air roaster stole the show! (equipment: stovetop roaster, modified popcorn popper)
jake, the progenitor, first among us ...
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Friday, April 15th, 2005
the metal beast is warming up ... and the azimuth just arrived! (azimuth?? that's what i said...)
sarkis' expobar has decided to vapor lock. but we will not be deterred! (unless nate can't find his way here ... he's still lost)
UPDATE:dan looks wasted. unshaven and what-not. erg. but he wants kenya.
UPDATE: ...
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Sunday, April 3rd, 2005
is a durn blog.
about coffee. sort of.
a bit of espresso magic from a coffee geek whose photos occasionally make me ill. in a good way.
link was here, but, er, it's gone. 'tis my only souvenir.
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