New Espresso Machine

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coffee

Link: Check out SF’s Coffee Innovators.

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coffee

You can find the Podcast at http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/151/510075/144920787/KQED_144920787.mp3.

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Latte Art Tuesday Dec 14, 2010

Latte Art Dec 14 2010

Latte Art 2010 12 09

Tags

coffee, engineer, latte art, passion, yahoo

Latte Art 2010 12 09 - I'm thankful for having a daughter who openly communicates with me

Latte Art Nov 13, 2010

Tags

coffee, latte art, passion, san francisco

starting the day off with a decent, frothy, light cup of espress from Blue Bottle

Latte Art is back in my life

I begged my dad this week to drive me over to pick up my espresso machine that was being repaired. Without being to run anymore, I needed another distraction.

Tonight’s pour didn’t taste that sweet but it looks pretty awesome

poorly made latte: Cafe Corbas

Cafe Corbas is on Hayes Street, one block from the War Memorial Opera House. One morning I was too early for Bluebottle so I dropped by this place lured by the ‘Vote #1 Latte In San Francisco” sign.

The inside is small, cozy and warm. With a pan of freshly baked cookies to wet my appetite. I ordered a latte and a fresh chocolate chip cookie. I was horrified when the ‘brista’ pored and shaked the steam milk into a milk shake glass and pored then espresso on top. I knew I was not getting a good latte this morning. The glass is way too big, the milk was not foamed correct, too much bubbles, why would the milk go in first?

The latte was very hot, bland, even with 28 oz of milk I could tell the espresso was bitter. The cookie was warm and sweet. I was sitting in the courtyard thinking how many people think this is good latte. No wonder people pore sugar and honey into their latte’s. It’s because of bad coffee like this that gives coffee it’s bad name.

Latte is suppose to be sweet, no need for sugar at all. When the milk is not steam beyond 150 degrees, the milk plus the espresso makes for a sweet, aromatic drink.

On to better coffee!!

Passsion For Coffee

Getting the fever for coffee this week, this photo is a latte art pour I made 2 am last night

1) I watchd Black Gold, a movie about coffee farmers and Ethiopia
2) I ran 5 miles round trip to Blue Bottle coffee for an espresso and latte
3) I’m considering buying a $1,899 home dual boiler machine
4) My holiday shopping list is from Coffee Geek’s holiday buying guide
5) My last 4 rolls of photos were Latte Art I’ve been making
6) My favorite youtube videos are latte art sequences, check out this one from the U.K. Barista champion

Latte art #9

Latte Art Rosetta #5 – success

Today’s pour is from Cafe Roma with Clover milk.

Latte Art #4

It’s been a while since I could pull a good shot and pour a decent piece of latte art.  My last good one was #3 and I’ve gone through one pound of coffee without coming up with a pretty rossetta.  But today I’m getting 2 pounds to try again.

Latte Art #2

Every morning I get up, I pull 2 shots of espresso.  Every night I pull another 2 shots.

The espresso shot was smooth, thick. The milk had perfect microfoam, nice and thick and sweet.  My pouring was shaky.  The result was yummy.

Latte art #3

Practice actually works kids! I knew the espresso was right on. The milk was the right consistency. The second I started pouring, I knew I had it.

Latte Art Lesson #1

Recently I’ve been thinking that it would be cool one day if I became a part time barista.    The art/craft of making expresso interested me after I listened to 2 podcasts from pf.net and coffeegeek.com.  There is a 3rd wave coffee movement to lift up the consumption of coffee to the level of the wine industry.  It makes a lot of sense.  Why is it that you go into a 5 star restaurant and you get hundreds of wines to choose from but you can’t choose coffee from different regions and the expresso base drinks are prepared by the wait staff who are not formally trained to prepare them.

Last night I got one pound of Rituals Hair Bender esspresso and a 1/2 gallon of Clover milk and went to work.  Here are the results.  I’m estatic with the last one, it actually looks like a leaf!

I’m trying to  use tamping skills from Coffeegeek, pouring skills from the UK barista champion.

30 lbs of pressure using the Reg Barber tamper
fress coffee roasted less than 7 days ago from Rituals
25 second espresso shot
mico-foam milk with latte art as testimonial to the right consistency.

Cup #3

Cup #2

Cup #1

Hair Bender espresso and the best milk available from Clover

Crema extraction!