Every year for the past 27 years, coffee geeks and industry professionals have gotten together in some lucky city for what’s called “The Event”. It’s a magical place full of some of the best coffees in the world, the coolest new ways to make them and make them better, and the most talented, coffee obsessed people in the country.
We’ve been busy. How does anyone keep up with Twitter, Facebook, myspace, yada yada yada….
Anyway, here’s some pix from our recent exploration on the west coast. We found an awesome little, only open a month, coffee shop on Post street. It’s called, Farm:Table, everything they serve is sourced locally and baked by them. So the next time you’re in San Francisco check ‘em out.
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…
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).
In partnership with Drew’s Brews, Nashville’s roaster extraordinaire, we showed up for the Willie Nelson concert ready to feed the caffeine frenzy. Not sure what to expect, we were surprised at our popularity! Our limited power supply and one drip brewer couldn’t keep up with the Willie crowd, but we learned quickly how to serve a large crowd and are ready to cater your next event.
The trailer is 50’s model that has been meticulously gutted and rebuilt with coffee and espresso stained wood, truly a labor of love by Drew and friends.
Thanks to Paul Rinkes at http://rinkesphotography.com for snapping this photo. Find a few of our own here, sorry none of Willie – we were too busy making coffee!
Also serving Willie was Mas Tacos, an idea so “simple, so obvious, so brilliant, so…diabolical!…that I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it first” as Jack referred to it on the Nashville Scene Bites blog. We couldn’t wait to try Teresa’s brilliant idea and were not disappointed.
A friend passed this along, a coffee grounds powered truck! Could we be the key to the renewable energy crisis?