insects and Coffee

Funny… microBlogs like Twitter and faceBook have taken up the time that I would have spent posting things here. And why not, they are so much better, I mean in the sense that Everyone else’s posts are right there too.

So, headed to PDX in a few days to compete in the USBC. Just need to find a few hours more to pull it all together. In prep for the NWRBC, Billy Wilson came up and cracked the whip on me for a few days, this go around he’s in the competition, that and working full time plus, I’m sure, at his new shop BARISTA, in Portland, OR; his hands are full!

so… It’s Terry Z. and I this weekend taking one last look at my work and off to PDX… I look forward to seeing you all there.

…and if I’m not here… faceBook or Twitter is where I’ll be (for it seems I rarely have more than one line to say).

—e.

>>> the ROBUR dosing MOD template. (Back up online for download).

See older Post for more instructions… email: elvin -AT- bigeyelaboratory -DOT- com

oh… the dotted line on the Template is an optional cut line >>> if the chute is getting clogged up this cut will fix it.

Coming right along… having some troubles with the steam boiler over filling, one of the steam valves not obeying my Restoration Commands, and a leaky connection on the brew boiler… but, the good news… ESPRESSO!

Yes. Sam and I pulled some pretty amazing shots of the Big Truck on the 2 Group Paddle Machine today.

So exciting to have it up and running, with most of the bugs worked out… still a few weeks off yet to Coffee Fest Seattle, plenty of time to finish polishing up the chrome and get it all together (still waiting on the glass side panels to show up from the glass people).

This weekend, I’m headed to SF hoping to be working at the Slow Food Nation event.

Espresso Notes:

Roast date: 8-14-08
Pulled: 8-23-08 w/Triple Basket

1.25 to 1.75 oz.
28-30 seconds

Huge amounts of body, little sweetness, almost no acidity. Coco nibs, raw chocolate. Buttery.

I can see this coffee being a great base to a blend.

Yes it has been quite some time since I have posted to the insects and Coffee… and a lot of things have happened in both of these worlds…

First the Big News:

As of two and a half weeks now I no longer work for Batdorf and Bronson… I have moved across town and I now work with the folks at Espresso Parts and with Olympia Coffee Roasters.

It has been a great change for me… work is good >>> most of the past two weeks I have been working with Terry Z. and Dave Ringwood (the two leads on this project) restoring a Marzocco GS2 Paddle Machine and a Single Group GS Semi-Auto. Things are coming together quite nice with both of these Machines (we’ll have them both at the Espresso Parts Booth at Coffee Fest North West… the 2 Group will be fired up and ready to go!)

Been working the Cafe at Olympia Coffee as well, two days a week now. getting the feel for the Big Truck Espresso Blend and all that. Top Pick right now in the Cafe >>> Olympia’s Ethiopia Sidamo as SOE. Awesome! Heavy body, sweet, sweet, sweet, touch of fruit, and Coco finish… did I say Heavy? Yes!

—

Finished up with the Mazzer/ROBUR MOD… (at least until tonights tweak idea…). Dave White has cut some out of a sheet of plastic with Espresso Parts <Laser Ingraver>, so clean and crisp. Actually looks like something real.

Did I say I love my new work? Well I do, great crew here at Espresso Parts.

—

Other news >>>

The Carpenter Ant that I have in Captivity (that does not sound nice), rather I have homed in a NASA Space-Gel Ant Farm has 6 Eggs, 5 Larva, and 3 pupating young in Cocoons. Very exciting! I had just about given up on her laying viable eggs.

Here is an open invitation to all coffee folks…

June 5th from 8pm to 10pm the Dancing Goats Espresso Bar will be hosting some sort of a Throwdown that Sasha King is putting together before she up and leaves us all here in the NW to head off to NY to work with the Folks at Grumpy’s Cafe.

Sam at Olympia Coffee Roasters was kind enough to give me small sample of a sample roast he was roasting up when I stopped by to get an espresso… Best of Panama 2008; nO. 1 (coffee: La Carleida // producer: Cafe Granja La Esperanza // varietal: Geisha // score: 93.16).

Cupping Notes:

grape, lemon (tangerine), sweet cashew nuts, milk brownies, cherry, hints of green apple, juicy, bright, sweet, medium body, milky. A very good coffee.

Sam roasted this up yesterday afternoon, or was that the day before. Dig it!

Nicely done Sam.

:)

Sweet! I have just enough beans for one more 6 ounce cup!

So…

Pretty strapped for time of late, I know, excuses, but I have been telling some you all out there that I would get this up on the site soon. So, without dragging on further here it is …no directions, no photos, nothing but “here it is.”

>>> the ROBUR dosing MOD template. (Back up online for download).

I’ll get some photos of an install up later this week, or rather early next week. And when I get the time I’ll write up some instructions on the PDF file as well.

Update: (Here are the photos up on FLICKR).

>>>basically,

• print template at 100%
• use template to cut a plastic MOD
• remove doser
• remove lever plate
• bend plastic MOD into shape
• replace lever plate (putting screws thru MOD holes to secure)
• replace doser.

For now, enjoy.

Then again all my days seems too long of late… soon all will be good.

Headed up to Seattle to set-up an Espresso machine in the Meadowsweet Farms (milk) booth, at the NWFS Trade Show.

Back to Olympia just in time to catch a swarm of bees and hive them.

Then back to the cafe… closing the shop and then practicing my espresso, latte kung-fu (to relax; burnt thru 2# of coffee and a gallon of milk).

Highlight of the day, catching the swarm. Always exciting! Even more exciting is seeing the swarm take flight from a hive, the sky seems alive and 20,000 bees in the air in a relatively small area is pretty impressive. When I got home, for they were in my backyard, they had already clumped together in a tree.

Argh! Flew to NY last night. The only down side of that is the death
cold I had caught the night before…
…today, slept ’till one, espresso at Gimme(lovey fudge batter), two
espresso at El Beit(danG workin’ the bar, jenni from Gimme there as
well)… espresso at Grumpy’s in greenpoint.

feeling better… but four espresso in now, I may have crossed another
line.

elvin iPod message

So… I’ve been thinking about competing for years now, and I am now putting my name in the hat; or rather Throwing my Hat in the ring.

The one thing that has kept me from competing up to this point has been the Signature Drink. Yes the Signature Drink… I have always thought that it ought to be something that a barista could make at the Cafe with out missing a step or slowing down the line. Yet creating a drink that is new(creative) and tasty and simple and elegant, without covering the delicate flavors of espresso is not the easiest to do. My hats off to all the Barista Competitors that have accomplished this.

So, I embark on the daunting task of creating such a beverage.

…and to the rigors of training to compete in front of my Baristi peers.