World Latte Art Championships

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

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

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)

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

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

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"!

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

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!

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.

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?"

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

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

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

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

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...

Scientificish coffee reading

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

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

James Hoffmann's diabolical plan revealed!

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

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!