A naked triple ristretto into a bowl for latte art practice.
The art has been coming out wicked easily lately. I feel in awe sometimes at how much muscle memory plays a role and you just do it without thinking.
The nerves have gotten me lately to where I have been tweaking at work. Tired and yet nervous about all the attention lately. It's weird when someone asks for your autograph in this business. I'm not a rock star baristi, I shy from the limelight. Though, the sentiment was truly appreciated. In the last two days, I really feel we have served as many straight shots as drip coffees. At one point we had only brewed 4 airpots but had served so many espresso I couldn't get cups washed in time. I believed so much in this idealism and philosophy that now I am apt to question whether it is starting to take or it's just a fluke and one day things will go back to the way they were. I can't accept in some ways how everything is happening all at once. The real question is why should we sacrfice? Why shouldn't we force things to happen at some point and drive these idealisms to come true. [idealism]Someday, I will be able to talk with my coffee distributor middleman and he will finally get me and understand all this. [/idealism]
We gotta start an espresso drinking trend in this drip coffee town.
I'm still looking for that great coffee experience to share with others. Suprisingly, the Southern Daterra has been very nice lately. It lightened up and they got the roast level down a lot to let the tastes come through.
I need to get back to the guest espresso program and tastings and ... so much other stuff at Simon's but it's busy and I'm tired. I just need time off to refocus. How is it in a town packed full of coffee shops that us in this little no name shop can make so much noise. It's seriously strange. I want to know what else is out there and hook up. It's like Barnett said, you got to have community. There needs to be other cafes to bring the entire culture along. That's why I hook up with Atomic Cafe every now and then. That's why I occassionaly ask customers if they know of a good barista out there. I really think there needs to be a community of barista. Not an us against them shop to shop competition but a straight up sharing of knowledge and passion among like minded people. No, I will not train the Sbux staff down the street(I don't have time to complain about customers all day like those guys who work there do, I like most of my customers and feel appreciated), but I definately would hook up with other barista from local shops.
So Simon is getting a website for us to put up all our happening hip events and tastings, guest espresso, and general smack talk for everyone to read. I'm thinking 'Most linear coffee shop website on the web.'
