Spro machinery! Finally, got my machines.

I was finally able to visit Shannon’s home where his gracious wife invited me in for breakfast with them and their two sons. What a fantastic family and a great breakfast. They knew I was walking up at 7 A.M hungry as a bear. After breakfast we had a nice Ethiopian via Fpress. We then proceeded loading the two machines and all, and I do mean all, of the stuff that goes with them.

I must admit, I was overwhelmed by all of the parts. I am very glad I didn’t take my GMC Yukon XL down to pick the machines up, I think it would have been a waste of time and about $100 of gas, because I don’t believe it would have all fit in the car. So, I put them in my Great Dane 53′ refrigerated trailer, tied’em down using duct tape to a pallet for the old unit and Shannon still had the shipping crate for the newer machine. They didn’t budge for the whole 400 mile trip and 5.5 of driving. My neighbor helped me offload them into the house and as of right now I have the new machine on the kitchen island counter with the panels assembled.

Now I have to wire it, plumb it in, get a tamper

Hacienda La Esmeralda::Finally got some!

Not a knock off lot. It was the Hacienda La Esmeralda Especial that brought the $130 (or whatever it was).

It smelled like Frootloops and didn’t really taste much different. Thank goodness that was my favorite cereal as a kid!

Was it good? Yes. Was it incredible? No. Was it worth $130 per pound at auction and $250 per pound at the store? No. I would pay $20…tops. Ethiopia Biloya is much better for a fraction of the cost.

Her complaint was as follows: “All I can taste is the coffee!”

I have been studying a couple “contemporary issues” in the retail coffee business. One is cup sizes: is it really necessary to have 16oz and 20oz cups if all is happening is the coffee is being covered up? Two: Syrups – Is it really necessary to cover up the taste of your hand selected espresso with that garbage?

I have listened to a couple different podcasts and heard opinions from shop owners and read on coffeed.com about all of this, but today I was in Greenville, SC at Shannon Hudgens shop Coffeeandcrema.com and a customer comes up and orders a latte with a syrup. I didn’t think anything about it, that is normal right? She walks away and then about two minutes later comes back with a complaint: “All I can taste is coffee. Can I have more syrup?” Shannon quickly oblidges and she sips and says, “Nope, I still can’t taste anything but the coffee in this latte.”

I almost fell right off of that bar stool! It was all I could do to contain myself. This lady taught me a whole bunch today. I won’t say what she taught me, but she sure did take me to school!

Murky Road Trip

My rear-end is tired. Yesterday at 13:30 EST I looked at the wife and said, “Wife, lets drive to Washington D.C for a cup of coffee. It is only a four and a half hour drive!” She replied, “Four and a half hours? That is all?” So, we loaded the ladies into the 07 Impala SS and jammed up NC 117 and I-95 at 75 mph all the way to Murky Arlington where Allie (spelling?) proceeded to tune that grinder in and pull me a fab shot! And then another! The wife with her Mocha smiled and the girls with their shared hot chocolate were just happy little tirds. After much discussion, purchasing a slice of carrot cake and noticing the $15,000 Synesso spro machine was not even being employed I couldn’t help but ask, WTH is going on? Your using a $5,000 or so LM Linea instead of a much revered “Benz” of a machine called a Synesso. They explained that it failed and they couldn’t fix or get it fixed for a while. DANG IT. I think I will go with a LM when it is time to do any big purchasing.

Anyway, after much discussion and fretting over that machine, we decided to go see Reggie and Julia over at the 660 Pennsylvania Ave location. FAN-FREAK’N-TASTIC. That girl likes coffee a whole bunch. I was just really impressed with her. Look, she pulled me a shot and said, “Do you have some more time, I wasn’t as happy with that shot and the humidity is changing in here rapidly. I want to redial this grinder real quick and get you a real shot.” I promptly told her she was going to have to kick me out of the store and I was theres until closing! She dialed it in as best as she could (the temp and humidity changed noticeably a couple times within minutes). Pulled a fantastic shot for me and herself and we just stood there sipping quietly. It was a funny moment. Enjoying the product with the producer enjoying the results as much as I was enjoying the results.  Anna, my four year old, comes up to me and says, “Daddy, I want some espresso.”  You know, I think I might just have a barista champ on my hands.  The next thing I know Julia is pulling a decaf Tuscano spro shot for the little tike – Anna grabs a straw and pokes the cup and drains it!  Her daddy’s baby!

It was a fantastic evening and from what Alley told me we missed the Cho by only ten minutes or so. Dang it. I will have to do this again. After leaving Murky we just drove all over D.C proper, driving by the USDOT building I promptly flipped that entire building the middle finger! We saw the White House, the Capitol Building and well over 2,000 police officers, just in case we needed one. We grabbed late supper at McDonalds and were sitting back in the yard by 02:30 AM (01:30 with the time change).

That rocked! I need to do crazy crap like that more often and the girls loved it.