Over-Ambitious Coffee Weekend

Friday: Wake up and realize I don't have time to make coffee!  Usually this is a bad omen.  Today, I am way too busy to assign it any meaning other than lack of delicious stimulants.

Green bike is still in the shop, so it's me and the single-speed.  To work!

Luke with some fresh-blended Puckslap.

Rap with Chad about some coffee stuff for a bit.

Rip apart, clean, calibrate Elmwood's Compak K10 Fresh.  It had been doing this weird thing where it wasn't adjusting smoothly at certain vital ranges-- seeming to get a little coarser after fining adjustments and vice versa.

Dang, but I like these grinders!  Really nice design, the burr housing chamber is tight, really keeps build-up to a minimum.  I think the issue on this one was just that a lot of grounds had been forced into the threads, possibly by baristas fining it up without grinding.

The Rosh tests it out, back at Elmwood.  I was re-installing the grinder right in the middle of a rush and I was like "oh no I have to make 30 drinks to test this grinder.  Oh no."  Boy I miss just being the barista-on-duty for rushes like that.

Then I forgot to take more pictures!  Scrambled around doing all kinds of work stuff, scrambled around packing up, grabbed a beer and a ride with M. Konkol.

A ride to the Greyhound!  The Greyhound to NYC.  For the NERBC!

(That's the North-East Regional Barista Competition. I competed last year and it was an amazing experience.  Never did blog about it, shame on me.)

(In addition to being one of the best skill- and confidence-building experiences, the NERBC 2011 also presented me with the opportunity to utter the phrase:
"Excuse me, but are you Chris Funk?")

Not competing this year, but I wanted to see what everyone was doing.  Also just wanted to see people, primarily this guy:

Burke's been head-barista-ing at caffe bene since heading down to Manhattan, and just got hired to work with Blue Bottle!  Very exciting.  On which note, we swung by the new Blue Bottle shop by Milk Studios:

 Nice shop, super simple.  Bought a bag of a Honduran COE that, as of this morning, Clever-brewed, is easily the best cup I've had in 2012, quite possibly 2011 as well.  Cup I got of the same coffee in the store was nice, spicy, but not very well extracted.  Perils of hand-brewing.

Ran into the Chelsea Market since we were right there.

Shot of Ninth Street's Alphabet City Blend and a toasted almond brioche from Amy's bakery.  Nice shot!  And I've all but cut refined sugar from my diet, so every cell in my body freaked out from the pastry.

Excuse the dim photo, but look at that menu.  No surprise that Ninth St. wins the "no frills" award.

Swung by Culture and grabbed a shot of Hairbender.  Best Hairbender I've had in ages, actually.  Can't get over all the Strada MPs everywhere in New York.  As I've said before, I love the EP but can't imagine using the MP in a shop environment.  Not sure if that's a price point thing or availability or what, but I saw an awful lot of them (MPs, as opposed to EPs) on this trip, so people must be pretty happy with them.

But Mike was sensory-judging, so we scurried back to the competition:

Mike DeJesus from Dallis.

Brady from Pavement, one of my favorite shops in Boston.

Anonymous Dallis hunk Chemexing up some really tasty Kenya.

This year's competition machine, the Nuovo T3.  I really want to rip one apart and see how it works.  Apparently it's feeding individual brew boilers off of a heat-exchange system, with multiple PID points--best of both worlds.  So it oughta be pretty stable.  Still the Aurelia-style wand & lever, which I like, though I'd like some more practice on them.

Ben Turiano of Joe Bean setting up.  Mad props to these folks, they had people competing for the Barista & Brewer's competition, judges, and general support.  They actually closed the shop for the weekend so they could all come out.  Ben was super-polished.

Katie's set up.  I didn't get any good pictures through her set because I was kind of enthralled.  Wonderfully presented coffee, very educational, just nailed it.  Not surprised at all when she won.  Katie was the first person in specialty coffee to really teach me how to pull shots, way back at a Tamp Tamp class in the mists of time.  I've always been a little intimidated by her, impressed by her knowledge and educatin' abilities; it was really cool to watch her perform this year.  And I got to try some of her espresso on the 4th bar: pretty amazing.

Brewer's cup is an awesome competition in terms of furthering our brewing skills; not as exciting to watch, sadly.  Some exquisite techniques going on, though.

Marcus running around making everything happen.

Oh look!  It is Michael Phillips.  Shouldn't he be at that one coffee place, opening this weekend?

Ah, Park is using Handsome's coffee and barista guru-ing.  Now it makes sense.

Terrible photo of two of the nicest and most knowledgeable folks in coffee.

Sam Lewontin, one of the Sams of Everyman.  Impeccable presentation focused on the concept of balance in a beverage.  Sam called time at 14:59, perfectly run routine, pretty awesome.

All in all a great competition this year, the bar has gotten really high.   I got to see a lot of people, tasted some delicious coffees, wandered around the bizarro Coffee & Tea fest that was "hosting" it, even got an awkward, prolonged, European hug-hold-kiss from Gianni.  All in all, fantastic.

Grabbed some noodles with Mike & Megan, discussed Angora rabbit shearing stations.

Stopped into Culture again for a little shindig Stumptown was hosting--first taste of 4 or 5 different coffees they're just putting on the shelves.  Tasty stuff, Kenyas, Ethiopians, & Colombians.  Apparently, Stump is not buying natural coffees anymore, which is...interesting.  Surprising, though I myself lean that way.

Then, hopped a bus to Boston!  Because I am crazy.  Also, because Boston contains my friends Julie, Anthony, Jessica, and also lots of coffee.

All hail seitan at Clover in Harvard Square.

Clover also has a wonderful, simple coffee program--hot water towers & Melittas, rotating guest coffees from near & far.

Hanging out with A & J.

Jessica in Harvard somewhere.

So we went looking for Dwelltime, Barismo's new joint, and the internet totally failed at telling us whether it was open or not.  Turns out it wasn't!  Bummer.  Got some hippie juice from a hippie juice-bar instead.

Another victim of the beet-juice.

Not pictured: obligatory stop at Crema in Harvard square; they are still doing a great job.

George Howell's cafe in Newton. So good.  Really awesome atmosphere, very relaxed and neighborhood-feeling.  20 or so seats, small but tasty food menu (I had a pretty banging pear/goat-cheese/honey crepe), and then you're like, "Oh, and this is the best coffee I have ever had, and they didn't even make a big deal of it."  For the win.  Really nice experience, got to meet the man the legend Mr. Howell himself, as well as some of his staff.

Not pictured: hiked back into Boston to meet Jessica at Pavement, which is still ridiculously high on my all-time favorite shop list.  Right up there with Peregrine in DC.  Got a delicious bagel & tofu-spread concoction with sprouts like whoa, and a well-brewed cup of Counter Culture's Idido, aka "the very berries".

Walked about Boston for a bit with J, checked out this Render Coffee joint.  Well done!  Got a very tasty shot of Apollo 7.0, again off a Strada MP, and rapped with the barista for a bit.  Turns out they know Phil Roberts, a guy who's been recently involved in Buffalo-area coffee (the Delish rebuild, now roasting in East Aurora with the Elm Street Bakery.)  Small world.

Last coffee of the weekend: Hairbender cap and an eclair at Thinking Cup.  Dig this bar, low ceiling, quiet, very close but lots of seating.  And I think the first Stumptown I've run into in Boston.  And yes, I realize it's poor form that I'm visible in the reflection.

Wonderful trip, good coffee, good people.  And I am still recuperating.  More things soon.