Our very own Barista, Logan, has taken to the road again with Roman Candle, a band that lives up to its name and will rock your socks off (what?). We are huge Roman Candle fans, isn’t everyone? Enough shameless rocker promotion and on to Logan’s third report from the road (first Barista Rocker report).

Des Moines. I used to pronounce it “dez moy nays” when I was a kid and then was shocked when I found out (sometime in middle school) that it wasn’t a city in Idaho. Probably shouldn’t be broadcasting this, but it’s the truth. We’re playing a place called the Vaudeville Mews tonight here. This is a great little club in a great town – at least as far as we’re concerned – the local paper here, “the register” named our first record the best of the year in 2002 when it came out. And since it was the only paper nationwide to do so, we feel like there must be some sort of connection between us and this place…

Friday, May 15 is national bike to work day. Dust off those old pedals and head on into work the healthy way, hit up CREMA on the way for a free drip coffee.

Find more information such as routes and meet up points at www.WalkBikeNashville.org.

Our very own Barista, Logan, has taken to the road again with Roman Candle, a band that lives up to its name and will rock your socks off (what?). We are huge Roman Candle fans, isn’t everyone? Enough shameless rocker promotion and on to Logan’s second report from the road (first Barista Rocker report).

“As Alice Cooper says in Wayne’s World, Milwaukee is pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que which is Algonquin for the good land.” And he’s totally right. This town surprises me every time I come up here. It’s clean, well-planned, and the people are really nice. I’m sitting at Alterra coffee on S. 1st st waiting to go to soundcheck, and the coffee here is actually really nice. So far I have ordered a double espresso and some drip coffee. The espresso is actually a lot like our (Drew’s Brews) Zappia blend. Although the shop here has a La Marzocco (older model) machine with normal portafilters, the crema on these shots were really nice and golden brown with even a touch of ‘tiger striping’ visible on top. The taste was really bright and citrusy, but not bitter or to acidic. Really good balance with a soft weight to it – seemed to have been properly dosed and tamped. Timshel had a cappuccino and really liked hers also. As far as method and technique goes – I really didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or new. The typical hand leveling, and tamping (although the Batista did use a few knocks to increase the dose).

A picture’s worth a thousands words, or is that granuals of granola? Whatever, all we know is this stuff is like a rock concert in your mouth. Add a cup of coffee and you’ve got yourself a dance party with electronic music and light show, a rave in your mouth… this is what happens when you try to put words to a picture.