Jeez, wait up there! It's still Wednesday evening over here.
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Espresso Enthusiasts
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That pick it up in person thing.....what is it like? Big ugly warehouse, as one would expect in Oakland. Or something else?
It used to be a big ugly warehouse, but I hear they recently moved. I'm not sure what it's like these days.
I follow SM on Instagram and they posted some photos of the moving and setup progress. They also made a couple of blog posts as well with a few pictures included.
Moving our warehouse.
Picking up your order in a new location.
Enjoy it.
Yes, Yirgacheffe never fails to delight.
My favourite coffee for the past year and a half - thank you, @Kurwenal, for steering me in that direction.
Jeez, wait up there! It's still Wednesday evening over here.
Hm. Is it?
And as the sun sets slowly in the West (actually it set a while ago, but never pass up an opportunity to use a well worn cliché) we bid a fond farewell to another day filled with coffee consumption.
The life of the chronologically challenged is filled with small pleasures, as large pleasures are difficult to hustle these days. So coffee represents one of those pleasures available to an old codger seeking anything he can get.
I bid a good evening to those for whom it is still evening...to those for whom it is already night...and to those for whom night approaches.
And a bit of advice...if you are still young enough to hustle some wonderfully nasty pleasures...go for it... as it doesn't last forever!
The life of the chronologically challenged is filled with small pleasures, as large pleasures are difficult to hustle these days. So coffee represents one of those pleasures available to an old codger seeking anything he can get.
I bid a good evening to those for whom it is still evening...to those for whom it is already night...and to those for whom night approaches.
And a bit of advice...if you are still young enough to hustle some wonderfully nasty pleasures...go for it... as it doesn't last forever!
And as the sun sets slowly in the West (actually it set a while ago, but never pass up an opportunity to use a well worn cliché) we bid a fond farewell to another day filled with coffee consumption.
The life of the chronologically challenged is filled with small pleasures, as large pleasures are difficult to hustle these days. So coffee represents one of those pleasures available to an old codger seeking anything he can get.
I bid a good evening to those for whom it is still evening...to those for whom it is already night...and to those for whom night approaches.
And a bit of advice...if you are still young enough to hustle some wonderfully nasty pleasures...go for it... as it doesn't last forever!
Ah, @Shrink what is this stuff about being 'young enough' and hustling or rustling up some 'nasty pleasures'?
Well, I'm one of those who probably missed the whole point of being young and who always thought being young was completely over-rated; I daresay it was wasted on me.
In truth, I suppose that I just didn't 'get' it.
Especially about seeking 'nasty pleasures' - all I wanted to do was argue - er, talk, I think might be a better verb, but honesty and a very good memory compel me to reveal that the verb 'arguing' might be a bit more accurate in the circumstances - about politics, history and - perhaps - philosophy or science.
Actually, I wanted to drink coffee through the night; indeed, when I started university, I was a borderline teetotaller, in that I disdained pubs, and would only consume alcohol in the context of a meal. Needless to say, this was not how fellow students understood the concept of socialising, especially socialising with alcohol. I was probably in my third year before I even sipped a beer.
Mind you, I couldn't 'get' why they were not content to debate - endlessly - over coffee, and wanted to do other stuff, such as seek out 'nasty pleasures'.
But coffee has always been a constant in my life. Good coffee preferably......
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Nasty pleasures? Sex? When I was in university, the only coffee available was Folgers and various other brands. In bean form, mind you. I don't remember when they stopped offering beans. It had to be in '95 at the latest. Mind you, as bad as Folgers is, the beans were decent provided you could finish the giant tin canister in time. If you went back several decades, they were much better. Globalization and greed, though more the latter, made a lot of these brands into money hungry giants who'll buy the cheapest beans.
At the time, the best coffee one could get was Peet's. I can't even remember the last time I had Peet's or bought their products. If pressed to get commercial prepared coffee, I'm inclined to go with a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They don't have as many "cafes" as Starbucks, but they also don't ruin their beans as much.
At the time, the best coffee one could get was Peet's. I can't even remember the last time I had Peet's or bought their products. If pressed to get commercial prepared coffee, I'm inclined to go with a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They don't have as many "cafes" as Starbucks, but they also don't ruin their beans as much.
University canteens - and student houses - rarely had good coffee when I was a student, but there were always good cafés to be had in university towns. And, at home, from a young age, I was the coffee maker, and drank only the real stuff.
[doublepost=1473409803][/doublepost]Oh, yes: On topic and back to the thread: Already today, a day of writing reports, I have had two espressos, in two different hotels. How nice is that?
Followed by a third (a cappuccino, this time; the fact that it has gone past noon is an irrelevance, - the simple fact that good coffee is available is more than enough for me.)
Draft versions of some reports have been written; they will be finalised tomorrow.
Draft versions of some reports have been written; they will be finalised tomorrow.
There is a running joke in my marriage that I make a lot of coffee, but I don't drink a lot of coffee. To those of us who inhabit this thread, it seems perfectly sane: the first shot is almost never right, if you are lucky the second is, but not infrequently it takes to the third shot before I drink.
Small pleasures....the ritual. The process. Almost a sacred thing. And I think this is one reason I have really taken to tea for my evening cup over the past couple of years, aside from the health issues. The ritual of tea is just fantastic. I told my wife the other night that I think I can taste the difference between water heated over a flame vs. water heated over an electric element....completely untrue, of course, but it makes the point. Water for tea must be heated over an open flame.
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I may have told this story previously in The Thread. In undergrad, many, many years ago, as a freshman I shared a house with six others. One morning, I walked into the kitchen to see a roommate roasting coffee beans in a frying pan on an electric burner. I could not believe what I was seeing....watching the beans crack and jump six or eight inches into the air as my friend frantically "stirred" the beans by moving the pan.
Thus it began.
Great story.
Actually, in Asia - or the environs - the tea is fantastic (and I write that as someone who cannot stand the tea we drink in the British Isles). It is only in recent years that I have begun to acquire a taste for good tea, and agreed, it is very nice to have some in the evening.
Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, all have superb tea, while Turkey and Armenia share the rare accolade of being able to prepare and serve both stunning tea and coffee.
However, re coffee, even as child, I thrilled to the aroma of real coffee. My father liked it, - actually, he loved it - whereas, my mother didn't.
For some reason, - probably because, like grapefruit, I have always actually liked coffee - an aside: I may have written about my real love for this fruit ever since I first tasted it, aged around four, to the stupefaction of the adults who gave it to me, probably to shut me up because I kept asking to try it, they kept saying that they doubted I'd like it as it was sour and bitter - anyway, I remember experiencing an epiphany of some sort, realising that this was a taste I had been waiting for all my young life.
Coffee was the same, as was dark chocolate: These were tastes that I never had to acquire, even as a small child, I was born having acquired what is normally an acquired taste.
Sweets, - most sweets - ice cream, confectionary, milk chocolate, on the other hand, I have disliked all my life.
Anyway, I do recall that friends of my parents were always surprised that - as a small child - I was allowed to drink real coffee, and that I actually wanted to. The upshot of all this is that from the age of around eight or so, I became the family coffee maker, - whenever (real) coffee was required, either for my parents, or for guests, a position I still hold some decades later.
The first real coffee I prepared was with a beautiful coffee set my parents had been given as a wedding present - at week-ends, they got into the habit of using it after dinner, and I was taught - or encouraged to want to learn - how to make coffee using this exquisite set.
However, as @Kurwenal has already pointed out, this is an interest and a skill that one updates constantly, adding further refinements and skill sets as required.
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I didn't acquire a taste for coffee until I was in grad school. Prior to that, although I loved the smell of coffee, I couldn't abide the taste. When everybody else was drinking coffee, I was drinking hot chocolate.
I felt like a complete wussy.
So I decided when I got to grad school I had to learn to do two things… as I had always been a terrible student I decided that when I got to grad school I had to learn to study, and I had to learn to drink coffee.
I learned to drink coffee…
I felt like a complete wussy.
So I decided when I got to grad school I had to learn to do two things… as I had always been a terrible student I decided that when I got to grad school I had to learn to study, and I had to learn to drink coffee.
I learned to drink coffee…
Clearly you had your priorities in proper order!
I started to drink coffee in comprehensive school (high school to you guys).
But after living in flat shares, I found I was drinking far too much as part of the social communal living.
That's when I switched back to tea. Found it didn't mess with my sleep as much.
I probably have 5-7 big mugs of tea a day.
If I did the same with coffee I'd never sleep!
But after living in flat shares, I found I was drinking far too much as part of the social communal living.
That's when I switched back to tea. Found it didn't mess with my sleep as much.
I probably have 5-7 big mugs of tea a day.
If I did the same with coffee I'd never sleep!
Well, to be fair, what's typically served as coffee is often downright nasty.
To be sure, the stuff I started drinking was foul..but I didn't know it (as I had no point of comparison) so I drank the stuff - black. I figured tat you learn to drink coffee without doctoring it up, or you're not really drinking coffee.
It is only in the past decade or so that I learned about truly fine coffee.
(Well, maybe a bit more than a decade. When I was younger, I thought and remembered in terms of years. Now it's in terms of decades. Sheesh!)
Decades are nothing. The Vatican and the Russians think in centuries.
Ah, but when you encounter fine coffee, it really does day something special to your palate. And, when it has happened for the first time, it can be a mind blowing experience.....
As I am neither the vatican (oh, would that this was PRSI for only a moment) nor Russian, this doesn't apply to me.
I'm just a little old man in New England who can't get his head around the idea that he is as old as dirt. I went from relatively young, to an alter cocker before I knew it.
Sorry...very off topic. Well, actually only a little off topic, as the topic is ME.
Coffee is an interesting topic, too.
As I am neither the vatican (oh, would that this was PRSI for only a moment) nor Russian, this doesn't apply to me.
I'm just a little old man in New England who can't get his head around the idea that he is as old as dirt. I went from relatively young, to an alter cocker before I knew it.
Sorry...very off topic. Well, actually only a little off topic, as the topic is ME.
Coffee is an interesting topic, too.
But age grants perspective, don't you think?
Personally, I don't get this adulation of the young; yes, their skin is nice, glossy, flawless, whatever, but - even when I was young, I thought most of them incredibly uninteresting. But then, I have always thought I was born middle aged.
Okay: Back to coffee: What can I say? The quality of coffee in parts of the world which used not to serve it much, - or cultivate anything of a coffee culture - has improved beyond all recognition over the past quarter of a century.
I would say: mostly....nearly always.