In Which I Am Not Dead

So, it's been a long and pretty a-social three months since my last post.  But believe me, I am still in the trenches.  And they are filled with pretty good coffee, it turns out.

Florida!  Spot had been talking about opening a branch café all the way down in Delray Beach for a long time, and this winter the doors opened.  This was really exciting for me, because it's the first time I've been able to contribute significantly to a new coffee shop, deal with equipment providers, train a whole first generation of workers, and evaluate a new customer base.  Lots of fun, lots of stress, probably a lot less of both than the team down there has had through the first couple of months.

Highlights of my time in Delray: seeing ex-pat Buffalo baristas Scott, Jenn, Kristen, & Andy again.  Getting a GB5 up and running with Compak grinders and decent water filters.  Meeting a lot of neat people: like a lot of coffee shops, the Delray Spot attracted an odd blend of people with cool interests, bicycle people, science people, art people.  They were also lucky enough to pick up a really awesome homeroaster/barista.

And training, and training, and training.  Basic coffee education classes, introductory cuppings, espresso & milk classes.  Delray was a marathon education-fest for me, to the point that it really changed my approach to a number of training issues.  Running the same class 2 or 3 times consecutively really made me look at what was working, what was sticking, what differences came from the students and what areas I need to improve in my approaches.  Good stuff.

More Florida pics here.

And cupping.  I've cupped more in the last 3 months than I did in the previous 4 years.  That's been really satisfying, and has just made me realize that: I need to cup more, I need to cup more frequently, I need to construct some more training for myself to improve my abilities.

I had my first encounter with potato!  Which was crushing, because Michael & I were cupping samples for potential competition espresso, and my first cup of a Burundi blew me away, it had a lot of the juicy brightness I love out of natural Ethiopians, with none of the mud. I was ready to sign up for the bag...and our next cups had potato in it.  Really a bummer; I'm trying to write it off emotionally as "educational encounter with a defect".

Oh yeah, competing.  I'm going to be competing, frighteningly soon here, in the NERBC.  Expect a few posts on that.  I'm really pumped about it.

What else? Went to Montreal for a Decemberists show, survived the cold, had some good bagels, had some good coffee.  The folks at Myriade were outstanding, I had three great coffees there as espresso, vac-pot, and steep-and-release.  Really good service, too.  Toi, Moi, & Cafe was a bit underwhelming, particularly since I've had such outstanding shots of their coffee from Sam James.

Coffee shop that stole my heart in Montreal, though, is newcomer St. Henri.

It's early still, but the tastiest shot I've had in 2011 was definitely their "Godshot" espresso.  Pulled on a Strada!  The first I've seen:

I waited until my barista turned away and then very gently caressed it.  On a plastic bit, so I wouldn't leave a fingerprint.

Actually, the barista on my first visit had pretty much the same comment that I've heard from others: the potential is great.  The implementation is difficult.  St. Henri has the first generation Strada, no ability to electronically record and replicate pressure profiles, and the barista said they'd probably need to trade up or trade down.

I also had a really banging Guatemala on their pour-over, described quite accurately as "Oreo chocolate". Good stuff.

Things are busy in Buffalo!  There's a new coffee shop opening near my cafe on Elmwood, no idea what they're going to be like quality-wise.  The Spot on Hertel is getting closer.  Elmwood's moving fast towards a brew-bar, which is going to be this massive headache and I'm going to love every minute of it, we'll be the first in Buffalo and I'm really excited to get it out to the good coffee drinkers of the city.

Lots of training, lots of cupping, Coffee Cabal has started up again, lots of good stuff coming.  And I've got to bike to work right now, actually.  As a parting shot, I'm kind of excited about the first time a GB5 steam wand breaks on me, because surely they are designed a little better than the old Linea style.  It seems like that's the only thing I repair any more.  I leave you with my favorite tool that really shouldn't be necessary, the snap-ring plier.  More updates soon, I promise!