My Heart is in Helsinki

World Latte Art Championships

2009-06-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

So i was kind of waiting to broadcast this information too loudly, but now that it's official, i'm happy to say i'll be representing the US of A in the World Latte Art Championships at the end of this month. I'm very excited, but VERY terrified. Thankfully, two of the best dudes ever, Stephen Morrissey and Michael Phillips, are letting me come up to Chicago this weekend and do a bit of training. Morrissey's WLAC experience will be very invaluable to me as i've only read about the details of this competition a week or so ago. I have yet to do a ful run-through.

The WLAC is quite different from latte art competitions here in the States. There's taste involved and etching... it's nuts.

In any case, I just want to promise you all i will do my best not to embarass myself, Octane, or America.

But really this is all just an excuse for me to have a beer with Colin.

My (weak attempt at a) Guide to Atlanta for my coffee friends

2009-04-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

So a few people have been asking me for "Guide to Atlanta" of some sorts for people attending the World Barista Championships in a couple weeks. One Atlanta's many flaws, however, is that it is a really spread out city and there's so many parts of the city i haven't even been to or restaurants my friends have told me about and i still haven't been to, and i've lived here a long time..... Lame.

So instead of a thorough guide, i'm just going to list some of my favorite places in Atlanta that i recommend visiting if people have the time. Note that this list is not complete in any way, and most of my friends would yell at me for things i've left out...

Coffee

Octane Coffee (www.octanecoffee.com) - Okay, so this is an easy one. I work here, and i know my view may be slanted, but i think Octane is the best coffee shop in Atlanta... It'd be weird if i didn't think so, right?
Method (www.methodcoffeebar.com) - Method is a great coffee shop, and Danielle and I go here for our weekly meetings quite regularly. They're an Intelligentsia account, and do all Chemex. Great baristas and great friends of Octane.
Park Grounds (www.parkgrounds.com) - This is coffee shop/dog park located in my neighborhood. They've recently switched to Counter Culture and are really stepping up their quality. They don't do drip either, like Method, and instead do pour-over.
Dancing Goats (www.dancinggoats.com) - Batdorf and Bronson's flagship store here in Atlanta. Only coffee shop with a Clover in the city (at least that i'm aware of). They're not in the city though, they're over in Decatur, which is about 10-15 minutes from Downtown Atlanta.

Food/Restaurants

Bone Garden (www.bonegardencantina.com) - Bone Garden is a Mexican place, but a REALLY good one. Almost everything is A La Carte, and they've got a good tequila selection too. My girlfriend and i go there about 3 times a week on average. Sometimes more. They're pretty close to Octane, but are tucked away in a corner of a little industrial park. Worth the search though. Cool decor and super awesome staff and owners.
Taqueria del Sol (www.taqueriadelsol.com) - Another taco place, but a little more "Americanized". The Westside location is pretty close to Octane, and it's a very big local favorite.
Spoon (www.spoonatlanta.com) - Again close to Octane. However, it is also the best Thai food in Atlanta. And i've been to most of the Thai places in Atlanta.
Chinese Buddha (www.buddharestaurant.com) - Chinese Buddha is a 24 hour Chinese place and used to be super sketchy (while still be awesome), but they've moved to a way nicer location, still 24 hours (i think) and have the BEST vegetarian/vegan Chinese food you will probably ever have. You here me, Mike White? This place has your name all over it. Oh, and it also has great non-veggie Chinese food too.
Las Palmeras (they don't have a website) - I almost feel guilty for sharing this with the world... This Cuban restaurant is in a house. In a neighborhood. Like surrounded by residences. One of those cool well kept secrets. The Pollo Frito will blow your mind. And you should ask for extra onions.

Places to get drunk (also known as Bars)

Octane Coffee - Yeah, we actually have 10 great drafts that we rotate, and some wine and liquir too. And a REALLY awesome Espresso Martini. And Irish Coffee too. Jameson + Bailey's Irish Cream + French pressed coffee + little bit of steamed milk = awesomeness.
Brick Store Pub (www.brickstorepub.com) - National recognized in beer nerd magazine on a regular basis as an amazing place to get an awesome beer. Crazy selection, knowledgable bartenders, an Atlanta beer drinkers' favorite.

Sadly, that's the end of my list! The bars section would be bigger, but i never go out. And i don't want to send any of you to some of the sketchy places i go, hehe....

Feel free to ask questions in the comments and i'll do my best to answer them!

Bleed Espresso

2009-03-01T10:59:00.001-08:00

Yeah, pretty sick. Inspired by the new Ritual shirts.

Bleed Espresso
Originally uploaded by Curt B

Notes from barista coach (even though i've said i don't like the word coach)

2009-02-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

To say that the past two weeks or even month or more has been exhausting is a perverse understatement. My body despises me. I'm aching all over. I haven't been able to get over this weird cold thing for a couple weeks. Pittsburgh was so dry, especially the hotel, one corner of my mouth has been chapped to the point of bleeding and won't heal. And i've been unable to go a whole night's sleep without waking up in the middle of it for a while now.

I know Josh, Danielle, and Crystal (and Tony, John, Diane, and most of the Octane crew who picked up some slack at the shop) have had similar experiences over the past few weeks as well. All for the love of coffee and the specialty coffee industry and a few moments of glory.

Needless to say, Octane is a happy little coffee shop right now. We had all three of our guys make the finals of the Southeast Regional Barista Competition, and then take 1st, 2nd, and 5th.

I'm trying to stay positive and relax a couple days, but USBC is right around the corner, which means more work is not far away. Not to mention that whole "doing my job" thing. In any case, this picture makes me happy.

"I've only had 15 to 20 good espressos in my life.": The T-shirt

2009-01-29T10:35:00.000-08:00

It all started with an article Mike White posted on Twitter. In this article, which is coverage from the WRBC, the article writer quotes one of the most loved baristas in coffee, Stephen Morrissey, as saying "I've only had 15 to 20 good espressos in my life."

Needless to say, this is a hilarious thing for a WBC Champion to say. Nothing wrong with it at all, i just found it really funny. I immediately posted this tweet, in which i jokingly plan to create a shirt with Stephen's face on it, and the funny quote.

It just so happened that it was a slow night at work, and i decided to play around with making a t-shirt design, just for fun. I "borrowed" a picture of Stephen from Tonx's Flickr (which i claimed was for a good cause, though he still encouraged me to use it for diabolical purposes) and created the above shirt design. Right as i was finishing it up, my co-worker and other half of "Team Coffee", Danielle, walked by and i explained the significance and that i was playing around, etc.

Well, seeing as Danielle's boyfriend runs a screen printing company, she said we should print a couple. And so we did. And there you have it.

Just so everyone's clear, we love Stephen and think he's super bad ass, but the stars just aligned in our favor. Wouldn't you have done the same thing?

Because i care

2009-01-28T15:57:00.001-08:00

In one week i'll be on my way to Pittburgh with Tony to take the Judging Workshop for NERBC/MARBC. I'm super pumped. So pumped, in fact, i'm taking dramatic measures to make sure i do well....

I'm going to quit smoking.

Not sure if i'm doing technical or sensory judging yet, but in case i'm doing sensory, i want my pallatte to be as clean and untainted as possible. Starting to tomorrow, i will have no more cigarettes, at least until after SERBC, which is in 2 weeks. Hope i stay strong!

I'm the first hit when searching "rosetta stone finnish"!

2009-01-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

So about a year and a half ago, i made a post about how Rosetta Stone doesn't offer Finnish as one of their languages and how frustrating that is. A year and half later still no Finnish Rosetta Stone, but i've discovered i'm not alone in my search! Every once in a while i get comments on that post from my fellow Finnophiles expressing their frustration as well. My assumption has been that they've been searching Google for "rosetta stone finnish" or something and way down the list my blog has popped up. I decided to check and see how far down i was.... and it turns out i'm first!

Isn't that nifty? I think it's pretty cool, and also very sad... In any case, i'm playing on a few language sites still trying to keep up my Finnish education. I'm always up for new suggestions, too, so keep them coming!

I'm about 6 months to a year behind the rest of the coffee world

2009-01-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

So yesterday i posted about Tim Wendelboe's deliciously awesome French Press technique that i saw on CoffeeGeek. Still excited about my "new" discovery today, i was talking online to Chris Owens and he informed me or, should i say "busted my balls", by telling me James Hoffmann had done a video tutorial a while ago too, and Coffee Collective before that! So needless to say, i had to go back and watch James's tutorial as well, just to see what i had missed. I guess i have some more playing around to do...

My fatal flaw is that in an effort to better my coffee knowledge i subscribe to an obscene amount of RSS feeds, but because for many months i had literally over 1000 unread posts in my reader, i missed a lot of good stuff. (On a side note, i've switched from Bloglines to Google Reader (with Helvetireader) and am now completely caught up!) My days of being 6 months behind are (hopefully) over!

The moral of the story is have a good RSS reader. It helps your coffee skills and keeps you super informed.

CoffeeGeek spreads delicious knowledge!

2009-01-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

Like most coffee nerds, i love hearing about new techniques for anything related to coffee. I've been watching more video tutorials online recently, just so i can see what's out there. Most recently i watched the above video from CoffeeGeek, and i have to tell you, it's rocking my world.

My love for the French press has waned over the past year or so, but i'm happy to say it's been reinvigorated. This French press technique (apparently invented by 2006 WBC champ Tim Wendelboe) involves using 20% more coffee and a clearing technique used in cupping. I'll let you watch the video for details.

Danielle and I decided to test out this method to see if we could really tell much of a difference. We made a French press the "old-fashioned" way and one with the new technique, using Counter Cultures La Golandrina for both. We were a bit skeptical at first, but the proof was in the cup(s). The new technique was much cleaner. The best thing i can compare it to is if you combined the clean cup of a Chemex with the fuller body of a French press. Definitely the best of both worlds.

I tried the technique again this morning on the Ndaroini (Kenya) Microlot we have and it's was one of the best cups of a Kenya i've had in a long time. Mike (one of our new guys) said it was straight up maybe one of the best cups of coffee he'd ever had. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure i'll not be able to go back to the "old-fashioned" way for a long while.

Retiring from competition...... for now.

2008-12-31T08:30:00.001-08:00

It's official. I just registered to be judge at the NERBC/MARBC in first week of February. Needless to say, i'm super excited.

Competing last year was very educational and i wouldn't trade it for the world. I almost beat Lem for first place in the SERBC (short by 8 points), i won Millrock Latte Art Competition, i bombed at USBC, but my teammate Danielle made it to semi-finals and placed ninth! The competitive coffee world has been good to me, so now i'm going to try to give back.

As fun as competition has been, there's a lot of work to be done around Octane in the next 4-6 months, and i'm looking forward to the lack of stress competition usually brings. It also frees up time for me to help my fellow Octaners who are competing in their training.

I think it's going to be a good year.

"So shouldn't you be in Finland by now?"

2008-12-02T09:53:00.001-08:00

So a lot of people have been asking me about Finland recently, and why i'm not there yet.... Pretty understandable. I've only been talking about it for 2 years straight. In any case, here's an update on that front.

I still adore Helsinki, and would love to live there one day. The dream is not dead. My heart is still there, if you will. However, i have decided to put it on hold for a while for a few different reasons. The main reason is that Octane is looking to grow in the relative near future and if a certain set of circumstances took place, i could find myself in a dream job type of situation.

Additionally, i have recently taken on the position of Southeast Chapter Rep for the Barista Guild of America. And if i remember correctly, i think Heather threatened bodily harm to me if i bailed. How do you think she's done so well in competitions? Intimidation. Fear. (Just kidding, Heather, you're great)

To sum up, there's a lot things i'd like to accomplish before i leave Atlanta. I'm invested in a lot of things here, and i can't abandon them just yet.

Also, it'd be nice for my girlfriend, Brooke, to be able to visit there at least once, before i drug her there for a few years.

Time for a change

2008-11-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

So i don't know if it's not cool to have a background that doesn't scroll or not. I think it might be a design no-no, but i don't care. The background picture is one i took near Saila's parents house in Espoo, and it makes me feel good.

I think everything is just a whole lot less ugly. Which is what i was going for. I hope it's not as painful to visit this site now. The old one was pretty brutal....

Life Update

2008-11-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, so i figured i'd do a quick update.

Just helped teach a latte art workshop in Charlotte this past weekend. And facilitate a throwdown. It was a lot of fun. On the way back to Atlanta, Tony, Diane, and I stopped by Coffee and Crema where we had amazing cappuccinos made by Shannon. After the caps, we stopped by the blog-home where we were served chili and cookies lovingly made by the blog-wife. I've never left Greenville heading home without a full stomach of Michelle's great food. Thanks, guys!

Octane is keeping me pretty busy. Danielle and I are working really hard and are getting a lot done. We're serving Intelligentsia teas now, which is exciting. The customers are really digging it, which brings me joy. We're certifying two new baristas, Mike and David, and we can't wait to get them on the machine. They're going to kick ass. We're also working on a coffee certification that will be rolling out soon that all the employees will have to take. It's going to consist of a triangular cupping (have to get 5 out of 6 flights right), completing a cupping notebook, and taking a written test based on a manual we've yet to write. It's going to be good though. Everyone's knowledge of the Counter Culture coffees we serve is going to skyrocket.

That's about it for now. Gavin's waiting on me to help him start closing up the shop, so i will help him.

Oh! Also, if you live in Atlanta, come to the Indie Craft Experience this Saturday! My girlfriend is selling her environmentally friendly and stylish wares. They're pretty rad.

Suomi is on my leg

2008-09-25T22:47:00.001-07:00

Suomi is on my leg
Originally uploaded by benexhale

So for those who don't know already, my friend Scott is an apprentice at Timeless Tattoo and I'm helping him out by letting him practice on my leg. He's done 8 or so on me now. Mostly Sailor Jerry flash, but we've also done some random stuff as well, like a can of Diet Coke.

Well, today we were flipping through the Sailor Jerry books and saw a flag tattoo. Like tattoos a sailor might get after visiting a place. We switched it up a bit and now I have the Finnish flag with a banner that says "SUOMI", which is pretty great. It's as if I were a sailor whose travels took him to Finland and he fell in love with the country. Which is minus the sailing part, is completely true.

::Update:: Here is a better shot of the "Finnished" product.... if you will.... sorry that was lame.

Kukushka

2008-09-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

The other day, Brooke rented a movie for us to watch called Kukushka or in English, "Cuckoo". The story takes place during WWII, right before Finland is about to drop out of the war. Through a series of circumstances a Finn, a Russian, and a Lapp are thrown together, they can't understand each other, and warm-hearted hilarity ensues. I won't ruin anything, in case you want to see it, but Brooke and I enjoyed it, and most importantly, it was nice to hear some Finnish. I hadn't heard any in a while, and it always does my heart good. And even cooler, i was able to understand a few words! Specifically "ymmärrä", which means "understand" because the Finn kept saying things like "Do you understand me?"

I haven't studied my Finnish in quite a while, so it was nice to know i hadn't lost too much. Even though, at this point, there isn't much to lose...

You know you want to...

2008-09-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Scientificish coffee reading

2008-08-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

If you had told me several years ago that i'd be reading an article on Bourbon and Pacamara coffee varietals and really really enjoying it, i would have probably laughed at you.

Yet here i am. Reading a really really really great article on Bourbon and Pacamara varietals. Thanks Coffeed!

Sunday Selections

2008-08-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

Josh and I have a fun music blog! It's called Sunday Selections! It's fun!

James Hoffmann's diabolical plan revealed!

2008-08-21T08:43:00.001-07:00

James Hoffmann's diabolical plan revealed
Originally uploaded by benexhale

So I'm at the cupping leaders lab today at the Counter Culture training center. Eddie from E2 coffee is taking the lab as well, and it occured to me that I'd never been to his shop. I decided to google map "E2 coffee" on the trusty iPhone, and guess what the first hit was!? Square Mile in London!

I guess James has a secret plan to steal hits from small coffee shops. Truly diabolical.

A declaration of support for my friends at murky

2008-07-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'm was reading my coffee blogs today (because that's how i roll), when i came across this post on the murky coffee website. Apparently there was some drama there a few days ago with a belligerent customer who also happens to be an avid blogger. I won't bore you with the details, you can find them out yourself if you want to.

Anyways, I just want to publicly say, if you are in the Washington D.C./Arlington area and you want good coffee, go to murky coffee in Arlington. If you don't care about good coffee, then go to a gas station. But if you want really great coffee with a very knowledgeable crew, murky is where it's at. Whenever someone comes into Octane and says they're heading to DC and want to know a good place to get coffee, without hesitation every time i will say murky.

They're not just friends of mine, but they are some of the best coffee professionals out there, and they have the balls to serve people the best coffee possible, even when their convictions are unpopular.

Stay strong, murky! Your friends in Atlanta love you!

The best thing you will see today

2008-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

I stole this from fellow barista and coffee blogger, Ryan Wilbur, and even though it has nothing to do with coffee or Finland, he is right....... the world does need to see this.

If life gives you lemons, enter a latte art competition

2008-06-04T16:58:00.001-07:00

As many of you may or may not know, one of the next steps in my Finland plans was to go volunteer Nordic Cup, which was taking place in Helsinki this year. I was going to get to meet a bunch of Scandinavian coffee people (maybe even some potential employers.....) and it was going to be amazing.

Sadly, it was cancelled...

Needless to say, i'm pretty horribly bummed. However, there is a silver lining. Nordic Cup was going to be happening the same weekend as Coffee Fest Seattle, which is holding the next Millrock Latte Art Championships. Since i'm not going to Helsinki that weekend anymore, i get to go to Seattle and try to defend my title! I have no aspirations of actually winning again, but i'm sure as hell going to try. If i don't win, i hope Justin Tiesl (from Alterra and who got 2nd when i won) gets a victory this time, because i think he's come in second or third about 521 times. Well, at least enough to be 4th on the all-time money winners board.

In any case, i'm excited to go to Seattle. It'll be fun to see everyone, and nerd out for a weekend. Isn't that why we go to these things anyways?

Become one with your coffee

2008-06-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Heart-Beans

Is it wrong that i want one? Just for novelty sake, of course......

Visiting coffee shops is fun

2008-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently sitting in the very lovely Caffé Medici in Austin, Texas, and figured i'd do a little update for the ol' blog. I'm currently on a mini-vacation, which has been pretty awesome. My friend Nicole just got a car in Washington, DC, but lives in Austin. I offered to fly up to DC and help her drive it home. Of course, along the way i wanted to stop by a few coffee shops and visit some friends, and we did. We've gotten cappuccinos at every place we've gone, and it's been really fun to here Nicole's input, as she is not a coffee nerd like me.

When i first got to DC/Arlington we visited my friends Katie and Nick at murky and had lunch with them. Poor Nicole had to listen to us geek out for a while, but she claims she enjoyed it. She also enjoyed her cappuccino at murky, which the Cho crafted himself. She thinks it might have been her favorite of the trip.

After a day in DC, where we saw some sculptures of giant coffee beans, we got some sleep before we headed on the 1500 mile trip to Austin. In the morning, i was dying for some good coffee before we got too far along on our trip. Thankfully, Espresso Map had informed me that there was a good shop not far called Brew Mountain Coffee, at which we stopped. We were greeted by super nice barista, Chris, who was manning the bar. They've recently made a switch from Intelligentsia to 49th Parallel and he made us some killer cappuccinos (Nicole really enjoyed this one as well) with their Epic Espresso blend. Soon the connection was made that i had won Millrock, and i was propositioned to show my skills (which are questionable) to my new barista friend. I choked on my first one, making an excuse about pitcher size, and then did a halfway decent (but not super great) rosetta on my second try. I hope Chris still thinks i'm cool, because i didn't feel like was doing a good job of living up to my title. In any case, aside from marginally embarrassing myself, Brew Mountain and Chris get two huge thumbs up.

The next coffee experience was in Nashville, where we stayed the first night. I've been to a couple places in Nashville before, but we were eager to get on the road and didn't want to wander around for too long. We were just going to stop at Starbuck's, but saw a place called Portland Brew, and decided to go the "indie" route. It was fine, nothing painful or anything, but i thought it was really cool that Nicole could tell a big difference between our cappuccino's there, and the ones we'd had at murky and Brew Mountain.

We arrived in Austin last night, and this morning are currently enjoying excellent capps (thumbs up from Nicole again) at Caffé Medici, home of the first and second place baristas in the 2007 South Central Regional. We just talked with Patrick (South Central champion) and he said that they're in the process of opening a second location, which Nicole is excited about, as it is really close to where she lives.

So all in all, super great vacation. Heading home tomorrow to the ATL, where i must say, i'm ready to get back to work.

Hahaha!! Amazing.

2008-05-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start wearing only high cut running shorts to work from now on.

This is my inspiration.

As a dude, you know you're a coffee nerd when the thing you want to know the most is how good the coffee really is...

Hyvää Suomi!

2008-05-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

So the Hockey World Championships just ended, and usually i'm keeping better track of how Finland is doing during the tournament, but my beloved Kari Lehtonen (goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers) was not in goal for Finland, so i haven't been on top of things as much. Kari is up for signing a new contract this summer, and was nervous about hurting himself. It's understandable (he has a history of groin injuries), but if he had played, perhaps it could have been the edge that could have gotten them the gold, but bronze isn't too shabby.

This bronze is especially sweet (possibly sweeter than gold) because of how they won it. The got the bronze beating Sweden 4-0. SWEDEN! 4-0! Amazing. I'll have to check with Saila, but i have a feeling Finland is on cloud nine right now. (Finland and Sweden have a bit of a rivalry...)

Canada and Russia played for the gold, and Russia prevailed because of another beloved Atlanta Thrasher, Ilya Kovalchuk. Russia was down 3-2 halfway through the second period when Dany Heatley (a not so beloved former Thrasher) made it 4-2 for Canada. Alexei Tereshchenko made it 4-3 in the middle of the third, but it was Kovy who tied it up with 5 minutes left in the period sending the game into overtime, then Kovy again in overtime with an amazing powerplay slapshot which gave Russia the gold. Goodtimes indeed.

The other sport i'm into these days, football (soccer), isn't such a happy story for Finland. They barely missed qualifying for Euro 2008, which is sad, but then again, England didn't qualify either..... which is way worse.

Back from Minneapolis

2008-05-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

Back in A-town! Feels nice. As fun/awesome/great experience SCAA/USBC was, it was nice to be able to watch soccer, and catch up on 30 Rock, Lost, and the Office. Oh yeah, and working again.... work is good. Bills, gotta pay those...

Needless to say i took away a ton of things from the trip. Met some AWESOME people. Saw some mind-bogglingly good baristas do there thing (and put me to shame). But i think the most important thing i learned was, that i am a poor dresser/appearance maintainer. There's some rough pictures of me floating around out there... (just kidding, that wasn't the most important thing)

Speaking of taking this away, i still haven't unpacked.... i should probably go do that now.

Live USBC video link

2008-05-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

It would appear the live video feed from the USBC will be coming from here...

And we're off!

2008-04-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

USBC/SCAA, here we come.

M'lissa and I are a few hours away from getting on a plane and spending the next week in Minneapolis. I'm super excited. I'm feeling good about my routine. I'm stoked on my coffee. I think i just might do okay.

There will be some kick-ass online coverage this year somewhere in the vicinity of http://conference.scaa.org or so. I'm going 4th on Friday around 10ish or so maybe? In any case, you should check out the coverage, it's going to be super fun/nerdy.

I'll try to post some updates once i'm up there.

Update

2008-04-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

So i'm at the Counter Culture training center practicing for USBC and i've got some down time for a few minutes, because i'm waiting for M'lissa to get here to help me out (because M'lissa is my coach and without her i'm more of a mess than you could possibly even fathom). In any case, i figured i'd do a little update while i wait.

First off, M'lissa, Danielle, and I are leaving bright and early Thursday morning to go to Durham, NC to get Counter Culture certified. We've all been wanting to do this for a long time, and since USBC is only a couple weeks away now, we figured it'd be a good time for Danielle and I to practice our routines. It should be a nice little mini-vacation. We found out our beloved friend (and SERBC champ) Lem Butler is going to be DJing Thursday night, so we're going to have an awesome night out on the town Chapel Hill/Durham style.

Once we get back, the practicing will probably get more intense. I'm really excited about my whole presentation, i think it's going to be really good. I'm doing a slight Finnish theme and my signature drink is inspired by sima, which is Finnish for mead. Obviously, though, there will be no alcohol in it, and while sima is my inspiration, i'm tweaking it quite a bit. I'm putting bilberry juice in it, which is the kind the European version of blueberries, and i have to say, the end result is pretty damn delicious.

M'lissa just got here! Hooray! More later....

Thursday Night Throwdown on CNN.com

2008-04-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

So at our first TNT a few weeks ago, this guy Curt, who works for CNN, did an audio report for CNN.com on the Thursday Night Throwdown our first night of doing it. He interviewed a lot of us, took picture, and i have to say... it's pretty cool. I'm kind of really pumped about it

Here it is.

Cuz i'm (stressing about) TNT. It's dynomite.

2008-03-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

So i know i haven't posted on here in a while, but it's because i've been pretty busy. I'm moving to the other side of town (over the course of a couple weeks....), but mainly the image and link above has been occupying a great deal of my time. M'lissa and I have been spending a ridiculous amount of hours planning and organizing Thursday Night Throwdown. I even had a nightmare last night involving it...

In any case, to sum it up, it's a latte art competition/throwdown that we're having every Thursday at Octane. It's open to anyone who has pulled a shot of espresso and poured a latte before. It's main goal is build some coffee community in Atlanta and it's surrounding areas. Throwdowns have become such a part of coffee culture at this point, and they're such bonding experiences. We wanted to see if we could pull this off......

Weekly. Don't worry, i already know we're crazy.

Well, the first one has come and gone (click the picture above to go the TNT blog, we'll have a post about the first night soon) and it was an amazing first go at it. We had 16 people sign up, and representatives from Cumming and Columbus, GA and even Alabama! Needless to say, M'lissa and I are extremely excited that our first one went so well, and can't wait to see how it grows from here.

So yeah, that's what i've been up to.

Cafiza changes lives

2008-03-01T11:46:00.001-08:00

So it's been kind of a slow Saturday afternoon here at Octane. I voluntarily took French Press/register duty today, just because. I've been trying to do a little extra cleaning, but nothing too serious. I broke out the Cafiza on some individual 16oz. presses and tried to give them some love.

About an hour ago, this guy came in with a brightly decorated traveler mug (i checked the bottom, it was from Starbucks) and wanted coffee in it. I had to brew some more coffee, but i told him i'd take his mug for him and let him know when it was ready. I took the lid off, and what i witnessed was the worst coffee stain i've ever encountered in person in my entire life. I tried to rinse it with hot water, and it didn't even flinch. It was as it the stain bad become permanent decoration in the interior of this guy's mug. I wanted so badly to Cafiza it, but i didn't want to seem pushy or rude, so after the coffee was brewed i just poured it in and handed it to him with a smile.

After a few minutes, i started feeling bad that i hadn't done anything about it. There's a fine line between offering help and being pushy. You can have the greatest intentions int he world, but it can be perceived as negative if you're not careful. Especially in the coffee world.

Well, after a few minutes i forgot about it, and went about work. About an hour later, the guy came back and asked for a refill in his traveler mug. I was so excited! I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass by again. The guy seemed really nice, so i just went for it... "Excuse me, sir, can i ask you a weird question? Would you mind if i took a couple minutes to see if i can try and clean the inside of your mug. I have an idea that might work." He said "Sure." but then told me that he'd tried everything and nothing worked. He'd spent crazy amounts of time scrubbing, with nothing to show for it. As i put a little Cafiza in his mug and filled it with hot water, i explained what Carfiza is and that it's specially designed for cleaning coffee machines and urns and the like.

So long story, short(er), by the time i was done with his mug a few minutes later, it looked brand new, and didn't smell like coffee from 10 years ago. He was so pleased, he actually told me that it made his week.

There you have it. Cafiza changes lives, people.

Things are happening...

2008-02-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

Just a brief update. I've gotten a couple emails from a couple of Helsinki-based (important) coffee people, thanks to some help from my new friend/personal hero, Sarah. No matter what comes of them, it feels really amazing. If you would have told me a year ago that i would have accomplished this, i probably would have said, "Yes, i will accomplish that by now," but on the inside, i'd have been doubtful.

In any case, i feel amazing blessed at the moment. And just thought i'd share.

A funny thing happened in DC...

2008-02-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

So as you saw from the previous posts, i, by some miracle, won the Millrock Latte Art Competition. Before i even made it to the finals, M'lissa and i were joking around, and she said if i made into finals we should get matching latte art tattoos. I told her there was no way i could afford a tattoo right now, but said if i won money, we'd do it. The joking went further and i said if i won the top prize ($5000), then Tony, she and i would all get matching tattoos and that i'd pay for it.

Well, i won. And yesterday we all got tattooed (by Jason Kelly of Timeless Tattoo, who already had tattooed both M'lissa and I). And above is the evidence. Pretty crazy.

Katie Duris on TV!

2008-02-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Katie Duris, one of our friends at Murky coffee in DC and one of my personal favorite baristas ever, was featured in a CBS news story while we were at coffee fest. It kind of talks about the Millrock Latte Art Competition a little bit. Although doesn't really mention it by name....

In any case, go check it out at the Murky site over here.

If you're curious what a $5000 latte pour looks like....

2008-02-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

People have been asking for a picture, so here it is. This was my winning pour. It's the middle one.

Live-blogging the MARBC Finals tomorrow!!!

2008-02-16T21:09:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow (well, i guess technically later this morning) M'lissa and i will be live-blogging the MARBC finals over at her blog which if you don't know by now, is over here all along this underlined blue stuff. I will be taking pictures and M'lissa will be commentating on all the action! It's going to be awesome! Blogging will start around 10:30ish.

This is a little surreal...

2008-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit in shock. I know i was supposed to finish posting about Day 1 of stuff, but i'll have to do it tomorrow. I'm in no position to say anything coherent right now. All that needs to be said for now is i won Millrock. Chris Owens taught me everything i know about pouring. Helsinki friends, i'm coming to see you soon. Lots of bills will be paid. And i'm FINALLY going to get my sleeve finished.

More later...

Coffee Fest/Millrock/MARBC: Day 1

2008-02-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

Day one of Coffee Fest seemed more like a couple or three days in one. M'lissa (read her accounts of our weekend here) and i walked to the convention center from our hotel, which was a Holiday Inn close to Union Station. It's actually really nice. Top notch. M'lissa and i both slept very well. Tony (beloved boss) however, who's 2 floors below us.... not so much. Anyways, we get the convention center really early (about 8:45) because we wanted to watch the Millrock Latte Art Championship. For those who don't know, this is a latte art competition (purely visual, taste does not matter) and the top prize this go around is $5,000!!! Tony and i had tried to register me for it, but we did so the day the application was due, and we didn't hear back, so we thought i didn't make it in.

Before i go any further, i think it's important to note that Octane's very own coffee boss, M'lissa Muckerman, my barista coach/dear friend/co-worker, is on this month's issue of Barista Magazine. It's hard to stress how awesome this is. Let's just say Heather Perry (two time USBC champion, 2nd at last years WBC, coffee celebrity) pointed out that she's only ever been on "the ass of Barista Magazine", never the cover.... If Heather Perry thinks it's a big deal, it is.

The reason this is important is because there are literally HUNDREDS of this month's Barista Magazine being given away, and M'lissa is having to mentally prepare herself to be stopped by a lot of people this weekend saying, "Wait, that's the girl on the cover of Barista Magazine!" "Will you sign this mine for me?" "Can i take a picture with you?" and also for her friends to come up and congratulate her/embarrass her.

We're at the convention center pretty early, around 8:30 in the morning, because Millrock starts at 9. We're saying hi to people we know, M'lissa is introducing me to some awesome people (shout out to Sarah Allen, editor and co-founder of Barista Magazine, who's going to hook me up with some contact info for some shop owners in Helsinki) and then we sit down and get ready to watch people rock some latte art. They're about to get started and all of a sudden Sarah (one of the judges of Millrock) calls me over. I come over, and i find out they had me on for today......... yeah. Crazy. I proceeded to stutter my way through a statement of acceptance, and then went to sit back down with M'lissa.

There was impressive art poured, including the above done by Phoebe from Gimme! which was a heart with an arrow through it for Valentine's Day. Pretty bad ass.

I went through the almost the entire morning not knowing exactly when i was going on. It kind of worked out well though, because i was completely relaxed, and didn't stress too much about how i would do. All of a sudden, within 5 minutes of not knowing when i'm going on, i'm pouring some latte art. Earlier, when i had been nervous about whether or not i actually wanted to do it, i realized i didn't bring a tamp with me. M'lissa, not wanting me to miss this opportunity, gave me the great honor of letting me break in the tamp she was holding on the cover of Barista Magazine.

That is correct. Let it sink in....... the above tamp, which was custom made with Louis Vuitton fabric by one of Octane's most beloved regulars, Curt, was broken in by me. The Louis Vuitton tamp on the cover of Barista Magazine being held by my barista coach/dear friend/co-worker, M'lissa Muckerman, i used for Millrock. I used it first. Forgive my excitement, i just think it freaking rules.

To cut to the chase, i choked a little bit, and only got out one decent pour, but somehow it was enough to propel me into second place! So after day 1, i'm in second.

My pour, which you might be able to see better on if you click on the above picture, is second in from the top left corner. I think i can do better if i make it to finals, which i'll find out if i made in about three hours. There's 20 people today, so as long as 8 people don't do better than me, i'm in.

I need to run, but i'll post on the rest of Day 1, and some a Day 2 later on tonight.

Coffee Fest and MARBC here we come!

2008-02-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

So in just a few hours, M'lissa and i are on our way to D.C. for Coffee Fest (coffee trade show) and the MARBC (the Mid Atlantic Barista Competition, at which we are volunteering) and we're really excited. Technically it's kind of a work thing with Octane, but basically it's like a little mini vacation, which i need really bad. In any case, look for pictures and tales of awesomeness in the coming days.

Saila is going to get obsessed with this...

2008-02-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

Okay, before i explain anything, i need to you click on this link for me. CLICK HERE TO HELP POPULATE MY MINI CITY.

Okay, have you clicked yet? Good. So basically, what this is is a little mini city that gets built by unique visitors to the above link. You can visit once a day. Each visit i get, i get an inhabitant to my city. Apparently it gets more complicated the bigger my population gets, but i just started.

And just so you know, my city is in Finland and it's named Lehtonen after the Thrashers beloved Finnish goalie, Kari Lehtonen.

Samantha Brown in Helsinki

2008-02-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

So about a month ago a friend told me that he was watching Samantha Brown: Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel (great show), and that she did an episode where she went to Helsinki. Needless to say, i was super excited and went home to see when it was going to re-air. Long story short, i saw that it was going to air again in about a month, so i set a date reminder in my phone and waited.....blah, blah, blah.

Well, today my phone went off and reminded me and i got to see the episode! It was so great. I knew about or had been to 80% of the places she went. It was awesome, yet made me homesick at the same time. (Can you be homesick for a place that isn't your home yet?)

The best part of the episode for me was when she told a Finn she was out drinking with that she heard Finns drink more alcohol per capita than any other people in the word. This was denied by the Finn, and i laughed out loud... I'm not saying it's true or not, but it made me laugh nonetheless. I also laughed when she talked about licorice because i remember one time Sini gave this licorice candy and i thought it was super nasty.

There really isn't much else to say except that now i'm a little depressed i'm still in Atlanta..... *sigh*

And yes, Saila, i know the weather sucks there right now, but i'd still trade places with you in a heartbeat. (And thanks again for my Six Degrees magazines you sent me. You're the best!)

A Finnish dude did "Sandstorm"

2008-01-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

You know how there's songs that everyone knows, but no one knows what the song is called or who it's by? This is the true of the song called "Sandstorm". I'm not even sure how i know i've always known that that is the name of the song, but i have. In any case, you'll know it when you hear it, i promise. They always play it at sporting events and things like that. I hear it at Thrashers games at least once per game. It's kind of a 'let's get everyone pumped up' kind of song.

In any case, i was talking about this with my co-worker, Josh, last night, and i joked that even though no one remembers who did that song, that guy still probably never has to work again a day in his life from the money he's made from it. I decided to look up online who it was by, because i realized i don't think i had ever bothered to (because honestly, it's kind of an annoying song).

Believe it or not, they had an entire Wikipedia article on just that song. Well, it turns out the DJ's name is "Darude", but get this..... he's Finnish! Isn't that crazy?! I got quite a kick out of that. I scrolled down to the bottom of the article and found a video for the song which you can watch below. It's a pretty amazingly horrible video, but at the same time it rules because it takes place in downtown Helsinki! The opening scene is all at the Cathedral of Helsinki! I always can't help but get excited when i see Finnish things on TV and i can say, "Hey, i know where that is. I've been there."

Black Slabbath vs. Octane Wall

2008-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

So one of Octane's good friends, Stefan Kjartansson, designed this font called "Black Slabbath". For fun he made a mock-up of the font used on our wall to spell out a bunch of our coffee drinks we have. He then, through the labor of one Mick Bailey, installed it in real life on our wall. The above is a fun little time-lapse video Mick did of it going up.

First Star: Octane Coffee

2008-01-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

When attending a Thrashers game (or any NHL hockey game for that matter), after the game is over they announce the 3 stars of the game. They're like the MVP's of the game, but they're ranked. Meaning, the first star is the most valuable player of the game, etc.

If there were top stars named in this month's Barista Magazine, Octane would definitely be one of the top stars. Maybe number one, but at least one of the three. First example can be seen on page 20 with a little blurb on the SERBC (Southeast Regional Barista Competition). Both Danielle and I are mentioned (as we placed second and third) and it's also mentioned we work at "uber rad Octane Coffee in Atlanta, GA". There's also a picture of Danielle, M'lissa, Chris, and other awesome Counter Culture affiliates. If you're wondering, the ladies do love Lem. And probably a fair amount of dudes as well. (You can click to enlarge the picture.)

But that's just a blurb. One of the feature stories is on barista certification programs. Octane's own "Coffee Boss", M'lissa, and "All Around" boss, Tony, are featured for about 75% of the article, in addition there's a picture of Matt (Octaner) in cluster of photographs on the middle one of the pages. HOWEVER, on the opposite page of the same article, there is just one picture that takes up the entire page. And that is this picture....

Some of you may recognize this shirt as being familiar, and that is because........it is my shirt. More importantly, it's my shirt on me, myself. Yes, my torso is taking up an entire page in this month's Barista Magazine. I think Cat (Octaner) took this picture. I'm sure it seems silly to many out there, but i think it's super rad. I wonder if i could put that on my resume....

So let's do a final tally here. Including Nordic Cup coverage, there are 2 pictures of M'lissa, 1 of Danielle, 1 of Matt, and my very large torso. Actual Octaner names mentioned: 2 briefly (Danielle and I) and 2 for 3/4 of a feature article (Tony and M'lissa).

My conclusion: Octane is kind of a big deal/awesome.

2008: The Year of the Finland Move

2008-01-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

2008. Two days in. I have only one resolution. And that resolution is to be living in and settled in Helsinki, Finland by 2009. I'm going to make it happen!

For those who are curious about how i'm progressing with Finland plans, it's going slowly, but going nonetheless. Since college in finished, i can now be more focused. My current problems, however, are all financial. This time of year i always get behind on bills because of lack of work. Additionally, my three jobs have boiled down to just one (Octane), which is both nice and horrible at the same time. Octane is a great job and i love it, but getting used to the income of 1 job as opposed to 3 absolutely blows.

So obviously, number one priority is to find another job. I'm going to start working on resumes and that kind of thing, and hopefully before too long i'll be able to start making some decent money, and save up for my big move.

Number two priority is to make another Finland visit, hopefully in a few months. I miss Helsinki and, most of all, my friends.

I'm done with college for the rest of my life

2007-12-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what emotion i'm feeling right now. It's not an emotion i've felt before. I've been working on something for 6 and 1/2 years, just plugging away, bit by bit, struggling, working hard, almost giving up countless times, and now it's over. I never have to take a test or write a paper or anything like that for the rest of my life. In all honesty, i'm freaking out a bit. Not in a bad way, but not in a good way either. Just a "Wow." kind of way.

I don't really know what any of it means. All i know is that this is one step closer to my dream of living in Finland. It actually seems possible now. And that's a good thing.

::Edit: And what was my first act as a college grad? Well, i went and had a cigarette and now i'm catching up on my LOLcats and this is where i'm going to be for a while.

It feels like...

2007-12-05T21:53:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite activities on my last trip to Finland was sitting on the back porch of Saila and Sini's parents' house, smoking with Saila in the cold, and watching Onni walk around in the snow. How it feels outside here in Atlanta at this very moment makes me remember that feeling. I'm sleeping with the window open tonight.

It's Finntastic

2007-11-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

Places and Things I Learned About Today with Google Earth and Wikipedia

2007-11-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

All this started because i was on Saila's blog and one of her friends made a joke about Nuorgam, which i had no clue until i checked wikipedia, is the northern most point of Finland. I love learning! Here are some other things i learned about today.

The Islands of Tristan da Cunha - A group of remote British Islands in the way south Atlantic with a little under 300 people who all speak English. They also have a very informative (if not a little outdated) website here. They also just got TV in 2001.
Svalbard - The northern most part of the Kingdom of Norway, it's an archipeligo about 700 miles away from the North Pole (that's not very far). Home of the World's most northern ATM machine.
Bouvet Island - The southern most part of the Kingdom of Norway, which is 1400 miles away from Tristan da Cunha TO THE SOUTH. It's like almost to Antarctica! Norway's badass.
Anything on The World's Most Northern page of Wikipedia.
Olavinlinna in Savonlinna, Finland - A medieval castle that's thr home of the Savonlinna Opera Festival every summer. I want to go!
Kaffeklubben Island (The Coffee Club Island) - The most northerly piece of land (pretty much) on Earth has to do with coffee! Awesome!
Finlandization - def: "the influence that one powerful country may have on the policies of a smaller neighboring country"

I'd post more, but it's 5 and that's closing time here at the slide library, so i'm going home.

Representin' the S.U.O.M.I.

2007-11-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

Just thought i'd share this with you. I'm such a nerd when it comes to Finland, my Halo 3 character has a Finnish flag on its shoulder. Obviously, the flag could be more of a latin cross than a greek cross, but that's the best i could do. It's good right?! I think it's great. I know, i'm kind of a loser....

Believe this.

2007-11-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

I'm probably not likely to admit this blog exists in a sober state, so here you have it.......

Ben Exhale + Alcohol = Music Poignancy/

In my dreams... literally.

2007-11-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Last night, or maybe morning... like the time of morning where you're waking up, but still sleeping... In any case, around that time i had a Finland dream. Somehow, i had come into exactly a million dollars. Not around a million, exactly a million. I think i had helped invent something, not sure though. I think it was something like in The Jerk where Steve Martin's character gets a lot of money for inventing the Opti-Grab. Something like that.

So i'd gotten a million dollars so, of course, i moved to Finland. However, even though i had a million dollars, i didn't get my own place. Instead i was staying on Saila's couch in her new apartment. I was casually looking for jobs, but not really trying hard, because i didn't really have to work. And that's all i remember.

Overall, very pleasant, but very weird. I hope in my dream i was at least helping Saila pay bills. That's kind of freeloading of me...

*sigh* I miss Finland.

The RoBOOSTo Adventure!

2007-11-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

So as i mentioned in the last post, Danielle and i competed in the SERBC this year. At this event there were a few sponsor booths that had random stuff at them. One booth (seen above), which i can't even remember who it was for, had this wonderful item called RoBOOSTo, which Danielle and i both received samples of. Apparently, it's "A Super Caffeinated Coffee Experience!" (Their exclamation mark, not mine.) I've been afraid it is thus far, but this morning i woke up, and decided to bring the packet to Octane and share the experience with my co-workers who were having a slow Sunday morning. And also to document it with pictures. And then post about on here...

Step 1 of the instructions on the packet say, "Get a bottle of water and take a swig!" (Their exclamation point, not mine.) So i got a bottled water and took a swig. Right before i started to read step 2 (which is "Pour entire contents of packet into bottle."), i saw a section of the instructions that said "Choose Your Strength Level." Apparently a 16.9 oz. bottle is 'Safe', which is what we had. That's no good, if we're truly going to experience the RoBOOSTo then we don't want to do it half assed. A 12 oz. bottle is 'Strong', but we need the maximum, which according to the packet is an 8 oz. bottle, which is......'Intense'. We don't have an 8 oz. bottle water, but we DO have 10 oz. Ginger Ale bottles.

In my excitement, i dumped the Ginger Ale bottle down the drain. As i was pouring it down the sink Jason said, "I would have drank that." Kind of wasteful of me. I felt bad...

Anyways, i rinsed out the Ginger Ale bottle well and poured the bottled water into it leaving a significant amount of room. In my mind i saw it as 8 ounces minus a swig. Well, whether it was or not....

it wasn't enough room for the RoBOOSTo podwer. Jason got a funnel and everything, and we still had overflow problems. My conclusion, if you're going to go the 'Intense' route on the RoBOOSTo, take about 3 swigs out of an 8 oz. bottle, and that should leave you enough room. But as i'm pretty sure we're never going to do this again, that conclusion is pointless.

After i finally got most of the contents of the packet into the bottle, i proceeded to step 3, "Shake bottle well, drink and get Boosted!" (Their exclamation point, not mine.) While i was shaking the hell out of this bottle for a good 5 minutes, M'lissa thought it would be funny to make lines out of the RoBOOSTo powder that had spilled everywhere. I agreed with M'lissa that it was funny, however, we both decided it would not be funny to snort the lines............... and the thought of that just made me twitch.

As shot glasses are the perfect sampling cup for this kind of thing, we poured some of the 'Intense' RoBOOSTo mixture into 5 shot glasses for M'lissa, Jason, and I, and also Larisa and Erin, who were in the kitchen.

While we were drinking out of shot glasses, we didn't shoot it, we sipped on it. This would have been brutal to shoot, or so we thought. Both Larisa and i got nice chunks of powder in our first sips, which needless to say, was gross.

In all honesty, though, the general consensus was two things: 1) While it wasn't good, it wasn't as horrible as we thought it was going to be, and 2) for being 'Intense' it was pretty non-intense. It tasted like watered down Coffee Coolant (which is Octane blended coffee beverage), not "the Flavor of a Traditional Italian Coffee Latte" as was advertised. Overall, pretty anti-climactic. However, it was a fun little experiment. And my curiosity is satisfied finally.

As M'lissa said, which sums up everything quite nicely, "I feel RoBUSTed."

The Trails of Barista-hood

2007-11-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

I want to tell a bit of a barista horror story that happened to me a few days ago, but first i have to give a little preface. About 2 weeks ago my co-worker Danielle and I competed in the SERBC (Southeast Regional Barista Competition). It was for both of us our first competitions, and shockingly enough we did really well. And by really well i mean freaking amazing. We got second and third! Part of the reason we did so well was because we practiced our asses off, but also because we had amazing coaches. My coach was Octane's very own beloved coffee boss, M'lissa (seen with me above) and Danielle's was M'lissa's boyfriend and beloved representative of our roasters, Counter Culture, Chris. We practiced together a lot though, so really both Chris and M'lissa were both Danielle and I's coaches. Another reason we did well was because with one of new things Octane is doing to step our quality and become a bad ass coffeeshop is with a certification process M'lissa designed that all barista's who want to work on the espresso machine have to complete. You can read about this awesome certification on M'lissa's blog. Danielle and I (and JT, though he didn't compete this year) passed all three parts before we left for competition.

I say all this to say that while i admit i have a great deal to learn about coffee and i'm always looking for ways to improve, at the same time i know what i'm doing. I know how to make a pretty decent espresso drink. I'm pretty confident 2nd place in the SERBC doesn't happen by a fluke.

The thing about working in a coffee shop, though, is that a lot of people don't care if you've won an award. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people do, and Octane's customers, especially our regulars, are some of the best customers in the world and we love them all, and nothing makes me happier than working hard to make them an awesome drink. But a lot people just aren't that into it their coffee, which is totally okay. That's not my job. My job is to make them a drink that they like.

The story behind this whole post is that on Halloween, i was working with Gavin, and a very nice gentleman came in and ordered and espresso and said he also wanted something else. He looked at the menu and ordered and macchiato, which at Octane (and traditionally) is espresso with a little bit of steamed milk on top. I politely made sure that's what he wanted, as i was confused why he would want an espresso AND macchiato. Anyways, i made him his espresso first, as i assumed he would want to sip on it while i made him his other drink. I made the espresso, set it down in front of him. He smiled and then waited for me to finish his other drink. After i made it, he took both outside.

Now espresso starts to go bad pretty quickly after it's made. I always get a little nervous when people don't drink it right away. As it turns out, the reason he waited was because it was for someone else. The reason i know this is because about 2 minutes after he went outside a woman came back inside, set the espresso down, and proceed to very aggressively tell me how horrible the espresso was and if she could get something else. Now i've dealt with my fair share of upset customers in my day, but the thing that was different about this particular one was her complaint. She was upset specifically at the TASTE of an ESPRESSO. There's no milk or syrup to change flavors in an espresso. You're skill is exposed, there's nothing to hide behind. I proceed to ask her what was wrong with it and if it was too bitter or something, so i could fix it. She said, and i quote, "Bitter doesn't even begin to describe it."

Wow. At this point, i'm absolutely mortified. I tell her i must have made some mistake and practically beg her to let me make her another espresso. Sensing how badly my feelings are hurt, she proceeds to blame the beans and that she'll just have a macchiato. I make her another espresso really wanting to make things right, but she doesn't even touch it. After i make her macchiato, she takes it outside, and i receive no more feedback.

I tried the espresso i made her, since she didn't touch it. It wasn't the "God shot" but it was fine. First off, the espresso she got sat for a way too long because the guy didn't know any better. Second, it was the Toscano blend, and it can have those high notes it. Third, it was still really fresh and had some gasiness to it. Fourth, i think she was in a bad mood and felt the need to be really dramatic.

Anyways, even though there was a logical explanation for it all, my confidence was significantly weakened. When something that i had a little bit of pride in was so brutally spoken of, part of me wanted to say something to effect of, "Look, lady, you're being irrational. LOOK AT THE TROPHIES. I know what i'm doing!" but thankfully i didn't. That would have done way more harm than good, obviously.

And thanks to few compliments i received yesterday, my confidence is back.

The moral of this story is that being a barista isn't as easy as it looks in the movies...

Dreams

2007-11-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last night, i must have had 100 dreams. I don't know what brought on this onslaught, but it was interesting. I can't remember most of them, just bits and pieces.

I remember there was one where i had a piece of wood that turned into a guitar. But it had plastic strings and the base somehow had a screen on it. I don't know where the pickups were supposed to be.

I remember also i had the sweetest espresso i've ever had. It wasn't warm, which was weird, but there was absolutely no remote hint of bitterness. I don't remember if i was the one to make it or not. I remember thinking how awesome it was that this espresso was so sweet without any sugar being added to it, but then i also remember thinking i could have really used some more brightness to it. It was a little too sweet.

I also had a Finland dream in there too. It was one of the more blurry ones. Somehow it involved a Finnish flag. I think Saila and Sini may have been in it too.... i can't remember....

Dream are weird...

Now featuring Coffee!

2007-10-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

I realized recently that for someone who wants to get into the coffee industry, i don't talk about it much. I'm going to change that! From here on out "My Heart is in Helsinki" is about Finland AND Coffee! Hooray! I even changed my banner a little!

It was either that, or start a new blog, and i really don't want to be "that guy".

(And yes, i did do the 'Metal Latte'. But that picture's from a while ago, and i stole the idea from a magazine and Danielle...)

Scandinavian Festival

2007-10-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, some friends (Maria, Madison, and Chris) and i went to the Scandinavian Festival at Oglethorpe University, and let me tell you.... It. Was. Awesome.

Well, like i said before, even if i saw only one Finnish flag, it was going to be worth it. And i saw one, so i was pretty stoked. When we first got there, we walked by some booths and got some food tickets, and just checked out what our options were.

On the main stage, for the most of the time we were there, there was the "Georgia Brass Band" which was playing a lot of Austin Powers and Star Wars.... not sure what's Scandinavian about that.... then again there was a later act that sounded like Irish folk music (i think it actually was Irish), so maybe they didn't care about getting some Scandinavian music going. In any case, we didn't hang out by the main stage much.

Pretty early on, Maria and Madison decided they wanted Finnish Pancakes. (They were only $3, not $5!) I had never actually heard of Finnish Pancakes before and despite the novelty of them being Finnish, i didn't get one, although i tried some of Maria's, and it was pretty good. The line for Finnish Pancakes was REALLY long. Definitely the longest in the whole festival, so "Hyvää Suomi!" (Did i spell that right, Saila?)

While Finland was representin' in the pancakes department, else where..... not so much. In fact, except for the Icelanders (which had virtually nothing but a 5x5 section in the tourism section), Finland was the least represented. Denmark and Sweden had tons of booths like this one....

And by tons, i mean 3 or so. Finland had one really small booth with a couple of Fazer things, some Marimekko napkins (Really? Napkins? Of all the cool Marimekko stuff there is?), and a few Iittala glasses. Kind of lame.

In the tourism section though, the Finns had a little more going on. Most of it was really cheesy things like a video tape that was probably 10 years old about how great Finland was (in English), but i still loved it. I talked to this very nice old Finnish woman, and when she found out i was moving to Finland she couldn't stop smiling! She called me "a wonderful young man" and was very enthusiastic about me moving. We talked about the weather in Finland, and i told her that Kari Lehtonen (goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers) needed to be on the "Finnish Athletes" wall. I also learned from her that Tampere is "the Manchester of Finland" (i guess Helsinki is London). I also briefly talked with another nice old Finnish woman who runs a Finnish language school in Atlanta. I asked about classes for adults, and she said they used to have them, but don't anymore, because everyone drops out after only a couple weeks! Ouch... But she gave me her card, and said i could e-mail if i had any questions anyways.

Even though some aspects were kind of disappointing, the Scandinavian Festival was still awesome in my eyes. The highlight of the my day (possibly week) was when a woman waiting in line for Finnish Pancakes said, "Are they selling those here?" while pointing to my 'Suomi' hoodie. I told her i didn't think so, to which she asked "Where did you get it?" I got a huge grin on my face and just said, "In Finland." *sigh*

Oh, i almost forgot. Here's some Norwegian trolls.

Finally, some cold air...

2007-10-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

Atlanta is finally get some moments of chill air. I'm sure it'll get hot a few more times, but i'm really excited to be able to rock the "Suomi" hoodie for bit. It's not the same as Finnish cold air, but i'll take what i can get.

Tomorrow i'm going to rock the "Suomi" hoodie at the Atlanta Scandinavian Festival with my friend Maria (who's half-Swedish and shares my love for Scandinavia) and we're going to have a blast. Don't worry, i'll take lots of pictures and do a big post tomorrow or Sunday. It will probably be cheesy, but we're such huge dorks we'll love it even if it's lame. If i see one Finnish flag (which i will) it will be worth it.

Gregorius.... It all makes sense now....

2007-09-20T07:48:00.001-07:00

So yesterday i posted about receiving a package from friends in Finland which included some newspaper clippings. Part of Saila's note said, "I've also enclosed a little article to help you learn Finnish and see what the fabulous Gregorius looks like now (he's a library employee)." Being the dense person i am, i totally thought Saila was being weird and funny and sending me some random article about a library employee just for fun and to practice my Finnish on.

WELL, Saila commented on the post from yesterday informing me that the guy in the article is the guy from the Finnish YMCA video. I'm an idiot. For some reason Gregorius didn't register in my brain, even though it flashes "Gregorius" in the middle of the video. Anyways, all of sudden, i understood the article a lot better. I still have a lot of translating to do, but at least i know what it's about now. I feel really stupid for not putting the pieces together quicker, but in my defense, i didn't look super closely at the article until after Saila told me who it was.

Mail from Finland

2007-09-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago i received the much anticipated Eurovision DVD in the mail that Saila and Sini's dad made for me. I haven't watched it yet, but i'm extremely excited. (Thanks, Mr. Savolainen!) Much to my surprise, also included were notes from Saila and Sini with newspaper clippings!

Saila's newspaper clipping (the first image) is to help me with my Finnish. For practice purposes. All i've got so far is that the dude in the picture either did something or had something done to him 600,000 times. I'm still working on it...

Sini's newspaper clipping (second image) has the English meanings of a bunch of towns around Helsinki and Espoo. Pretty hilarious stuff. Again, also good Finnish practice. Hilariously enough, on the back of Sini's clipping is an add for SINI cleaning products. How amazing is that? I think i actually laughed out loud when i saw that.

Needless to say, i'm definitely feeling the Finnish love from this side of the ocean.

::EDIT!! UPDATE!!:: - According to a comment left by Saila, the dude in the first picture is the guy from the Finnish YMCA video!!!! (scroll down to see the clip) This just took it to a whole new level!!!

Walking

2007-09-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, there's a nip of cold air here in Atlanta. I'm sure it'll hit 90 a few more times before winter comes, but i'm still enjoying it. I got to wear my "Suomi" hoodie the other day, which always makes me feel really good. Past few weeks have been ridiculously stressful, but i got a chance this morning to walk around downtown in between some errands here at school, and i felt really relaxed. There's nothing like walking around in the heart of a big city. It's very soothing. The world slows down a little more it seems. I'm very excited about not having a car when i move to Helsinki. I'll have to walk and take the bus everywhere. It will be daily therapy.

I'm going to have to snap back to reality here in a few minutes, and it's going to be horrible, but i figured i'd try to preserve the peace for a moment longer.

Hel Looks

2007-09-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

I must confess. I pride myself on the fact that when i tell people i'm moving to Finland, they automatically assume i'm Finnish or have some Finnish in me (insert dirty joke here). Even when i was there this past March, everyone always would start speaking to me in Finnish first, and i would have to sheepishly tell them i spoke English. Only exception was this drunk Russian guy, but it was because he didn't speak Finnish either...

I feel pretty good about the fact that i'm able to pull this off. I'm not sure what it is. I am a little pale. That helps. Maybe i have a bit of that cool Helsinki fashion in me? Well, there's one way to check and see if this is remotely true (i've already decided it's a little true), and that is with the gem of a website known as Hel Looks. Hel Looks is just this little hobby website done by these two photographers who wanted to document the looks of the people of Helsinki, mainly young people. For me, it's hours of entertainment, because soon, these will be my people.

Not only are there lots of cute girls, but there's some bad ass dudes (like Janne, Sami, and Antti) which i'm definitely taken mental notes from for style ideas.

Now once you've looked around on that site for a while, you'll realize that not everyone is so progressive. There's definitely the goth scene and metal scene going pretty strong, but overall, this site makes Finland look awesome (and makes up for the "The Finnish YMCA", right, Sini?).

And besides, who wouldn't want to live in a place where they produce dudes like Roberto?!

The Finnish YMCA

2007-08-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

As if i needed even more incentive to move...

Päättäväisyys

2007-08-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the previous post, a week or so ago, i purchased.... er, went into debt for a new MacBook. It was a really tough decision, because i'm trying to save money for Finland, but my old one had completely died, and school blows without a computer. Another motivating factor was the sweet education promotion Apple is doing right now. I got a free iPod (which i named "Anteeksi, en ymmärrä") and a free All-in-one printer. Both are killer. In addition i got a couple hundred bucks off the MacBook itself. An added bonus is the built-in iSight it came with. That means i'll be able to video chat my friends and family back in the ATL once i'm moved to Helsinki! Hooray! (My new AIM name thing is "benexhale" just, FYI.)

As most of you know (or may not know), my current dream about this whole thing is too be able to work at a coffee roasters in Helsinki. I've been going to as many cuppings as i can, started a coffee journal, etc. I'm trying to get my skills and knowledge up. One source of anticipation is that my friends M'lissa (a.k.a. Octane's Coffee Boss) and Chris (a.k.a. M'lissa's boyfriend and Customer Relations Master of Awesomeness in Atlanta for Counter Culture, Octane's roaster) are going to Copenhagen and Oslo in a few weeks for some specialty coffee industry fun. There they will probably meet some Finnish roasters, and hopefully put in a good word for me and see if any of them want this awesome American dude to work for them. Or at least get me some contact info.

While i'm not banking my whole move on Chris and M'lissa being able to get me some conacts, i am hopeful. I'm going back to Helsinki hopefully in December for a week or two to apartment hunt and check out the contacts i might have. I'm nervous, but at the same time, pretty damn determined. I'm going to make it happen.

Rosetta Stone hates Finns

2007-08-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

So i've been hearing things about this amazing program called Rosetta Stone that's a language teacher thingy. Everyone, when i say i'm trying to learn Finnish, says, "Dude, you got to get Rosetta Stone! It's so good!" So i decided to investigate. And by investigate i mean download illegally. Well, the tables turned on me when i found out they don't offer Rosetta Stone in Finnish....

At first i thought, "Well, that's understandable. Finnish is kind of an obscure language." But then i found the languages they do offer. Along with the major ones, they have Welsh, Pashto, and Tagalog!??!?!?! Are you serious?!?! (Although, Welsh would be cool.) The Finns have been shafted... Well, people who want to be Finns are being shafted i should say. I'm content with my Teach Yourself Finnish book and CD's, but i still thought that was screwed up.

On a side note, i named my new iPod (that i got for free when i purchased my new MacBook) "Anteeksi, en ymmärrä" which means "Sorry, I don't understand" which i find HILARIOUS.

On an additional side note, Saila's dad is mailing me a DVD of this years Eurovision, which is so sweet, i almost cried. I love the Savolainens!

There's no smog in Finland

2007-08-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

This week in Atlanta has been brutal, as far as the weather is concerned. I believe we reached the triple digits temperature-wise, and needless to say that produced some wicked smog. I texted Saila, which is what i usually do when i'm missing Finland, and asked her if there's smog in Finland. She replied that there isn't, which i already knew, but felt like asking anyways for an excuse to be nostalgic.

If there's one thing i can't wait for, it's the crisp, clean Finnish air. It's delicious. And that's yet another reason why i'm looking forward to moving.

Visa, visa, visa

2007-07-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

One of the main things that's going to be interesting in this whole process of moving to Finland is getting a visa that will allow me to work there. This is important, mainly because i am not independently wealthy and will need to work as soon as i get there.

I was informed of something i didn't know existed called a "working-holiday visa" which is easier to get than a straight up working visa and lasts a year in some cases. In my preliminary investigating, however, i found Americans aren't eligible for this. Suck. After more investigating and screwing around on the Directorate of Immigration website for Finland, i looks like in order to work in Finland, i need a residence permit. Now i'm confused. I don't think a residence permit is the same as a visa, but at the same time i wonder...

There's a Finnish consulate here in Atlanta that i just need to go to and figure everything out, but i've been putting it off, because i'm scared they're going to hate me and make sure i can't get into their country ever again. I realize this is an irrational fear, but it's very real in my mind. Hopefully i'll summon up the courage soon, but i really should get the ball rolling on this thing.

That reminds me, i need to renew my passport...

Teach Yourself Finnish

2007-07-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago i received my Teach Yourself Finnish book and CD's along with my Finnish-English pocket dictionary from Amazon. I don't have any delusion in my mind that it's going to take me forever to learn this language, but i still can't help but be optimistic.

I've been practicing along with the CD's in my car, and i think i'm getting pretty good. My favorite phrase i've learned so far is "silloin tällöin" which means "now and then". It's my favorite because it sounds really cool. I also like "hyvää päivää" a lot also. That means "good day".

The thing that's taking the most getting used to is the vowels. They're 8, and there's short and long forms. The trickiest is "y" because it's doesn't sound anything close what it sounds like in English, so i'm not going to even try to type it out phonetically. I think i've got it down now though.

Speaking of which, i think i'm going to practice now...

Moving to Helsinki

2007-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

While it's been a long time coming, i've finally officially decided i'm moving to Finland next year. The goal is by summer of 2008 to be living in downtown Helsinki. This blogs purpose is going to be to document the struggles, joys, frustrations, etc. that i'm about to start going through. It'll definitely be cool to look back on in a year or so. And also, it'll be a good way to share with my family and friends how things are going once i've actually moved.