Archive for the ‘Work Related’ Category
Endless War
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Unknown location and date.
He walked in and asked for a drink. He really didn’t care what he had as long as it did the job.
The bartender does this, that and the other and fires a shot glass down the bar. “Quad-ristretto! If that doesn’t do the job, then, well, I don’t know what will…”
A few seconds to cool, sip, sip, and finish. Overwhelming intensity. Sweet golden syrup body finishing with emulsified fruit extracts clinging to the back of his tongue. “I think that will do it, I hope.”
Today is the day of the final battle. That big push to end the Endless War. The tyrant will fall and peace shall be restored to these lands. One can dream.
“One more before I go Tanis, I’ll need to keep my senses keen this day”
*psssssssssssssssssssssssssssst, thunk, ccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, thunk, thunk.*
*clinck, clinck*
“Take care of yourself out there Ummon, this ones on me and our people.”
I can feel it warming up my heart, I can feel the vigor rising and my mind turning. Today I will be a Champion for the living, a rogue to the dead.
Daggers sheathed, hood wrapped tight, I disappear into the morning shadows.
My infrequent updates have led to frequent questions. Maybe not.
To say things have been quiet on the coffee side is very untrue. Work has just been so busy the past few weeks that I havn’t really had much time to play with anything. Sure I’ve tried a few new coffees, but I havn’t been able to really test them out.
I love to play with temperature and pressure, pre and post infusion, dose and grind. These are just variables that I can’t play with when the cafe is bustling. I need to build a coffee lab to play in.
We’re getting our 3 group head Synesso installed today and our patio will also be opening very soon, so it’s going to get even busier at Crema.
The organic espresso was really bad at the end of last week. A really watery body with barely any flavour, I wasn’t impressed at all and had to switched to the Epic for the weekend. I hope this doen’t happen again with this current roast date.
I’m not sure what my favourite 49h coffee is at the moment, I don’t think I have one. I’m still leaning towards the Ethiopia Kaharian on french press, but it doesn’t seem to hold up so well on the Clover and is a bit to acidic for a straight espresso, though it does make an interesting cappuccino. I’m a fan of the Sammy Piccolo WBC espresso blend, but it’s pretty expensive and I can’t play with it too much.
We’ll have to see what coffees come in over the next few weeks, I’m assuming we’re going to go through a change in seasonal beans soon.
At home we have Intelli’s “Bolivia Anjilanaka, bourbon, caturra, typica grown at 1700-1900m. Smooth and silky on the tongue, with notes of green grapes and figs. The finish is long and lingering with notes of cocoa and cane sugar.” I’ll open it today and see what I make of it on my siphon. Tastes good on a press and the Clover.
Matt, fairly random poster.
Posted in Coffee News, Junk Mail, Personal, Work Related | No Comments »
Espresso Fun
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
I remembered to play with my cameras today and thought I’d post some shots of my espresso pours and some latte art.
So the shots are being pulled on a Synesso Cyncra, using synesso baskets in naked portafilters. I’m using 49th Parallels Organic Espresso and grinding on the monster Anfims.
The video was pulled into a 2oz shot glass and the pics into the 2.5oz cups.
Total extraction time is 30 seconds, which includes a 5 second pre-infusion.
Matt
Tags: espresso, extraction, synesso
Posted in Coffee News, Photography, Work Related | 1 Comment »
Tanzania Karmaro Microlot
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Tanzania Karmaro Microlot from 49th Parallel.
- Region: Mbeya
- Varietal: Peaberry
- Process: Washed and Sundried
- Grade: Special Category 100
- Altitude: 1400-1700 meters
- Harvest: April-September
- Export: September-February
Introduced by mulled cider and rhubarb, with citrus and fruit to brighten the cup. This complex and juicy offering is very sweet with an equally clean finish.
I’m not sure why I’m getting so much glare when shooting macro lately… Bah!
I’m loving this coffee and I know that I haven’t tasted it at it’s best yet. Still need to play with brewing times and temperatures. Been fantastic on both the Clover and Siphon, though I preferred what I was getting from the Clover, but I did only grabbed 26grams to have a taste on the siphon at home. Today I’ll try it on aeropress, french press and maybe even as an espresso.
We also have the Tanzanian Hope from 49th to play with aswell, but I’ll stick to this one for now.
Matt
Tags: 49th parallel, peaberry, Tanzania Karmaro
Posted in Coffee News, Junk Mail, Photography, Work Related | No Comments »
Table time
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
I don’t know how to go about enforcing some socialistic rules about seat time. I understand peoples frustration when they can’t get a seat and all they see is an ocean of laptops and paper work.
“Is this a cafe or an office?” is one of the most common questions that I’ve been getting asked recently, and I’m not fully sure how to respond.
A good number of our daily regulars set-up an out-of-office office in the store and the majority buy a good number of beverages and snacks during the duration of their stay. Can I ask people to huddle together around the small quadratic tables, allowing other people to get a seat? Is a set seating time a valid option when people are buying drinks during their stay. I definitely understand ones frustration if a customer has being sitting in the cafe for hours up on hours and has only brought a single item, but what can I say about the customers that are constantly topping up or replacing their vanquished drinks and nibbling away at our delicious goods? “Encouraging” a purchase after a certain time frame is definitely a feasible approach, but that won’t make space for new customers.
We have space for 20 people around 8 tables and then a small communal area around a coffee table that can comfortably fit another 8 people. If there is only one person sitting at each table and the communal area is being hogged by one group of 4 or 5 people, our total capacity has dropped from 28 to 12, that’s a 125% decrease. Ouch.
Is this a problem that can be solved? It’s impossible to have a down right ban on laptops or people working in the café, these customers are pretty much the core of our daily regulars (and how I love you), and then there are the people that sit reading the newspapers and books (I love you too) and the groups of customers that have their daily get together and chat for a couple of hours (I also love you guys). A set seating time could be imposed during busy periods (ie, mornings and weekends) for people taking up a table to themselves, maybe this could encourage people to be more communal share a table (although there isn’t much space for 2 laptops and paper work on a single table).
Food for thought on a sleepless night.
Matthew
Tags: cafe, seat time
Posted in Work Related | No Comments »
Good Morning Sunshine.
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
I woke up with the sun this morning, as I do most days, and thought to myself that this is the best morning for a long time. A crisp spring chill, one that revitalizes you and you can’t help but feel awake and alive. The sky had incredible gradient from intense burning orange through to a misty blue and continuing into deeper tones where the sun hadn’t shone yet. Mornings are my favourite time of day, usually because i have a great sense of purpose that slows dwindles as the day progresses.
But today I have lots of work to do and I plan on getting as much done as possible. Processing photos this morning, house chores before noon and then I have work at Crema this afternoon/evening.
Last week I did some photography work at a music video shoot. It was shot at Vivace studios and was a video of the awesome Joanne Camilleri and her troop performing a sort of belly dance ritual thing.
I’m not overly happy with the results, but it was super dark for photography in there and my camera really doesn’t handle low light/high iso situations very well. Still, I think they’ll like the shots and I know that i might get the chance to go back and do some promotional shots with control over the lighting. It was fun to work alongside the videographers (Kieth and John on lighting duty) and was interesting to see how differently they saw the whole thing.
Today at Crema I’ll be working with and training the ‘new’ guy Ryan. He has experience at Balzacs here in Toronto, but he said that we do things differently, so it’s up to me to show him the ropes and get him in sync with our processes.
We’ve also had a couple bags of counter culture espresso in this week. Geoff brought back their espresso trio from his trip last week and Brian got me a bag of the Toscano from Everyman in NY. I’ve only had chance to pull a few shots, but so far I’ve enjoyed it. Quite a contrast to the tastes of 49th espressos. I’ve been doing some research and have a long list of roasters that I’d like to get coffee from over the next few months. So far this year I’ve had lots of espressos from 49th, Intelli, Square Mile, Gimmie, Counter Culture, Origins, Terroir, Klatch, Java Blend…. I think that’s all so far, but I plan on it being a much bigger list before the years end. I think the Klatch was my favorite so far, but I really enjoyed the Winter espresso from Square Mile and plan on getting more than 1lb next time so I have enough to dial in and then enjoy. I’ve inquired about getting a big shipment in from Square Mile, but it’s just to expensive to ship. Maybe I’ll just fill my suitcase with it when I go home in the future.
Matt
Posted in Coffee News, Personal, Photography, Work Related | No Comments »