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While everyone else is getting burnt in the sun today - I jumped on an opportunity to head down to Hines / Origins on Granville Island and cup some exquisite new varietal’s from Panama. Spencer, the JJ Bean Coffee Quality Leader was tasting some nice Guatemalas and Ethiopians with the staff at the Public Market and was quite pleased to come along with me.

A beautiful white Dalla Corte caught my eye as soon as we entered.

I got a chance to play with this machine during my stint in Ireland and I really was impressed… so many tricks and variables to mess around with - Sanders said he was surprised that Starbucks hasn’t jumped on these machines yet to better their image. Sanders explained to us how the machine has an easily removable brew switch panel that can be programmed and tinkered with - it is quite remarkable.

He also demonstrated the Dalla Corte grinder… as our main concern with it was clumping…

I am still amazed at how you can hook the grinder up to the espresso machine and they can communicate with each other and adjust themselves accordingly.

I also had my eye on the La Marzocco tester for the WBC…

the paddles are nice - but why does La Marzocco insist on using plastic for everything lately? Our new brew switches on our Linea fall off every week… and I really wonder how much wear those paddles can handle - the pre-infusion was quite impressive though.

Alistair and Matthew K. arrived and the cupping began…

We cupped 16 out of 20 of the Best of Panama. A few of them seemed underdeveloped - emitting a grassy or baggy taste… flavour was one dimensional and flat. Still they carried lots of body and sweetness - and as Drew mentioned we found ourselves describing the mouthfeel more than the actual flavour present.

Our first geisha on the table wasn’t so great… another geisha blew our minds completely. Some of the better offerings were extremely similar to Yirgacheffe… lavender, juicy acidity, and a caramel finish.

I really liked Matthew’s descriptors (creamy lime).

Spencer noticed a rubbery taste in one of the offerings and John emphasized that some of the best cups have that rubbery taste and it’s not really a bad thing. Seriously, I have never tasted rubber in coffee before - and I liked it too.

By the end of it all we had picked our favourites and the La Carleida Geisha won us over - such an outstanding coffee - and only 250 pounds are available! Panama never ceases to amaze me with their coffee… polished, clean, and so much class.

Spencer and I pulled some shots and we both really liked the Compak grinder… I might even prefer it over the Anfim we are testing in our store right now. The doser on the Anfim actually did strange things to my wrist after a busy day… maybe my method isn’t right.

It was a great afternoon to cup some beautiful coffees with very knowledgeable people - John, Drew, Matthew, Spencer, and Alistair - almost a little intimidating for someone who doesn’t cup as much as he’d like to. I really enjoyed the descriptors - even being asked ‘do you see colours with that one?’ I could cup coffee all day… to me a barista’s job can be mundane - but when you are in a room with people that are just as or more passionate about coffee as you are and have stories to attach to each coffee we’re tasting… so much better than pouring latte art.

Two lost tourists wandered into the roaster while we were cupping asking us if we will serve them a cup of coffee. John said slyly in his charming American drawl ‘no but you can grab a spoon and slurp with us!’

‘That one will scare them away every time…’

we’re hosting a barista jam - all of the industry are invited to join us.

a new look for my blog for starters. i have gotten so tired of making new headers all of the time - and besides, does anyone use headers anymore? awkward.

practice, practice, practice. my cappuccino foam seems to be getting alot more consistent when the milk is split between four cups. i kept obsessing over the second pour… so much lighter than the first… and the first so dense, but too dense. ah, the ridiculous obsessions of pompous barista’s while cyclones, earthquakes, tornadoes, and pivotal gong-show presidential elections rock our earth.

recently we have acquired an old hand at our Yaletown cafe. the very talented Matt Fehr has returned from retirement to once again grasp the portafilter. he’s a bit of legend in the company… and i am excited to work with him quite a bit. he says he is alittle rusty - we’ll see tomorrow.

Photo by Mark Prince

and, lastly, still waiting on the arrival of an Anfim demo from Elysian Coffee for us keen folk to play with…

And more importantly… there is a giant void of coffee blogging going in Vancouver. All the blogs I used to read haven’t been updated since the WBC in Tokyo… but I must mention a certain gang of keeners in West Van that have kept up their refreshing take on our coffee scene - cleanhotdry.com. george and his associates often visit me at night-time just before I am closing up and I have still yet to visit Crema - it’s going to happen soon.

Waiting for a new cafe in Vancouver to open is like waiting for another sequel to The Gods Must Be Crazy (maybe not actually)… but I have heard whispers that Wicked Cafe is getting ready to open a second location downtown - and those are all the crumbs made available to me. Which reminds me I had a funny dream about Wicked - I was in this giant cafe that was blasting reggae music…. and everything looked new but then on closer inspection it looked haggard and falling apart. And all of these girls in hollister skirts and guys in tuxedoes came waltzing in dancing to some deranged house music while Arthur was pulling shots behind the bar (looking rather annoyed)… I said to the busser ‘the new wicked looks great!’ and he said ‘i’m sorry but we’re not open yet!’

then everything went dark… the music turned off… and i was stuck inside a very long tunnel - and someone was clanging metal against metal - and it was echoing… and at the end of the tunnel I was in Harrar - and there were lots of antelopes…

twisted coffee dreams.

I imagine that we barista’s must go through a lot of shoes.  I can count on both hands how many pairs I have gone through in one year and it’s rather frightening.  So, instead of throwing your destroyed sneakers into the garbage… why not put them to use.  Fill them with some starter mix, plant some seeds of choice… and there you have your own ex-barista shoe garden.  Bring home some spent coffee grinds and give them a boost…