Transportational coffee

Soon I should start posting things that make sense but another item of interest happened that I feel like noting.

Transportational coffee is not something that you find/experience at Starbucks or in 99% of all kitchens so this post is something most can just pass up...Sorry about that.



Now onto it:

Today I was planning on pouring into an irregular shaped cup to see what funky things might happen in the interpretative art avenue but as fate would have it the odd cup walls just destroyed anything of visual interest.

Fine by me because I was met with trasportational coffee in the cup. By my senses this is not an everyday occurrence. Mainly because I do not try to find it and allow the intensity of the experience to dictate to me what it wants. Another way to say it is that I am content (at thins point in time) to let the small still voices remain subtle and it takes a "stand up and shout" cup to sway my attention. Again I'll stress at this point in time.

So today it was such a loud roar.

Outdoor cafe' Someplace like Austria or Bavaria...maybe it's even main street USA at Disney World to be honest the overriding factor is outdoors, crisp air, and a very airy atmosphere and as I look deeper I'd bet $1,000 it's Bavaria.

Sitting at a small table with white frame and white chairs...etched glass table top.

Alone but only right now...somebody else has stepped away from the table but should return.

Eating chocolate croissants.

VERY strong register of chocolate croissants.

Most interesting is we are also smoking cigarettes and there is no coffee to be found anywhere on the table. ?? :o

Of course I've never been to Bavaria, don't smoke, and hardly ever eat chocolate croissants but that goes without saying right?

2 pics I like

I have a couple pictures from last week that I enjoyed. This is just a quick post to mention them...no real content or comment.

The first one is something Adam found on a walk a few days ago. He took off down Cherry Creek Trail looking for a lake we heard about without knowing exactly how far away it was. This pic is just a bit down the path but he wound up weaving, turning, trail switching, and stream jumping his way about 5-6 miles from here.. hahaha! He isn't used to that sort of thing but this is a cool pic from along the way.



The other one is from my testing of the Handpresso Wild. It's not art but to me it's artful. Sometihng unintended happened when I selected my hand made cup from Stray Clay and the way this thin espresso got washed out in the milk...I just like the pic for some reason.

Stair training location #2

Now that I'm within 1-3 hours drive of more 14er's than I can probably ever climb considering my advanced age. :o ...

As the move settles in I've got to get ready for next season with some off season training. Stairs were my main tool back in Sugar Land to simulate "going up" and yesterday we had a chance to go to Red Rocks and see what's what.

Lot's of stairs....in elevation... uhmm.... "ouch".

1.5 trips with my .5 jumping bleachers instead of taking the steps (cuz I saw somebody else doing it) was enough for an introductory lesson in cardio above sea level.

Lungs - toast
Head - dizzy
legs - wobbled

Nice intro but I'm not ready for a big bite yet, I see how you could kill yourself or at least wind up in an embarrassing situation of being flat on your back and begging strangers for air if you try to tackle it too soon.

I'm happy to start getting my head on straight and it was a cool visit to Red Rocks... I'll be back. ;)

Espresso overshoot philosophy

It might have been 5 years ago I thought about learning to pour latte art. After about 10 min. I decided latte art sucks and I didn't need to chase it down. :(

Reason being it doesn't come naturally to me at all and I sensed how hard it was going to be.....bottom line is I bailed out on the work required.

6-8 months ago when my buddy Shaun took my 2-3 doubles per day of perfectly poured latte art back up to Canada with him I was forced to face the work ahead. The fact is I had come to understand something about espresso drinks I had previously discounted. The fact is milk texture matters. Art does not change the taste (however proper milk does, and you need proper milk for art)but it does effect overall presentation and care in the cup. Short answer is that when striving towards excellent cups art is inevitable to tackle.

The first couple months were difficult because I had to uncover and then correct mechanical issues. My obsession with re-inventing my machine is a separate issue but it is what it is and I had to change a steam wand, add a pressure gauge, OPV, and address a water debit problem to get me where I am now. Where is that?

About 6 more months away from pouring art. ;-

But that isn't my point today. My point is my new thought about overshooting a target.

My small milk drinks have reached an all time high point. I am drinking the best espresso drinks I've ever made right now. I don't want the hunt for art to get this point lost so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge it. My coffee is very good right now and I'm really happy with that.

Much of the credit is because of overshoot by looking for art. I am having to pull good shots, texture good milk, and have everything "just so" while shooting for it and that effect is to pull up all the other tangibles by default.

So while I am grumbling about why it's so hard to pour art and working myself up by some close calls the side effect is very good coffee.

Life should be so hard right?

Close calls.... Stay tuned for 2010.

Nitro pour

Dig my nitro pour stout from Dry Dock brewery. ;)

Sweet!

Also my house IPA.



And my sampler fleet...



I think I will wrap up this post with nothing more. ;)

What a difference a day makes.

Well.... who could have know the events of the last weeks would have led to this but the long and short of the new reality is that we live in Denver Colorado now.

I woke up today to see the first real snow I've seen since I was a teenager.

Not only that but there is a 30' Christmas tree outside my bedroom window. :o

The blog will probably move to "all things Colorado" for a while now and there is too much to say as we have only been here 3 days and have not figured out the lay of the land yet...

More to follow soon!