Don’t let bad beans go to waste! ***UPDATE***

The good ol’ mason jar has been working perfectly for storing old beans. The one thing I somehow managed to overlook is the lid to the mason jar. I was so stoked about the paint job and forgot about the gas the beans give off. The other day I went to unscrew the lid and it popped off and made a loud noise. DUH!!!  There was a bunch of gas built up behind the lid because it had no where else to go. My friend Marcus Young recommended cutting out the one way valve from a bag of coffee!!!!! IT WORKED! Have fun!

Don’t let bad beans go to waste!

I currently live in Olympia, WA and I’m originally from the south which means I’m inclined to re-purposing mason jars. I have a Baratza Maestro plus at home and when I need to dial in the grind for a certain brewing device I don’t waste new coffee I use old coffee. To keep the beans from getting too gross I keep them in an opaque jar covered in ColorTex by Design Master. It’s a spray adhesive that has bits of multi colored plastic in it. After I’ve covered the jar with the ColorTex I let it dry overnight. I noticed that the jar smelled of spray paint afterward so I covered it in two coats of Mod Podge. This helped cover the smell and give the jar a more glossy look. I really love how the jar looks!

tehCoffee review

I’ve  been struggling with updating this blog more often. In an attempt to help with that I’ll also cross-post some things I feel like you guys might want to see. I just posted a review on a really great new site tehcoffee.com Dan Baumfeld dreamed this baby up and it’s been picking up speed. These reviews are done by industry professionals. People that actually work as judges for the SCAA & BGA, cafe owners, baristas and other active members in the Barista community. You can trust that these reviews and the places that are reviewed are quality. The next time you go out for coffee check tehCoffee!

Direct link to the review——-> http://tehcoffee.com/reviews/86

 

 

_Panda

Fun bike ride

I decided to take a bike ride today, the longest bike ride ever. It was really only 17 miles. I’ve gone that far before but cumulative not all at once. Southbound on Rich road is kinda like a portal to the country. I’ve spent a lot of time in the country…like ten years growing up in Clarksville, TN. Every once in a while I like to go back there and rural Olympia is just the ticket. There are lots of barns and fields along Rich road as well as small “grocery” stores. There’s even a post office. Johnson’s Smoke House is on my route so I stopped by and got some  Landjaeger.I stopped into Lattin’s but it’s closed on Sundays so I couldn’t get a fresh apple fritter! I was originally going to bike to Millersylvania park but I missed my turn at McCorkle road so I stopped at the gas station next to The Powder Keg and refueled on Red Bull. One really cool thing that stood out was the amount of trains I heard! I don’t know it it was just one train snaking it’s way through or if there were multiple trains but i felt like it was following me. I’ve been followed by trains before and it’s scary. Anyway I’m drinking beer now to negate all the calories I burned.

SERBC Barista Finalists 2012

Check out http://www.usbaristachampionship.org all day today and cheer on your favorite Barista!

Michael Harwood/Caffe Driade

Lem Butler/C.C.C.

Trevor Corlett/MadCap Coffee

Dustin Mattson/Octane Coffee

Camilla Ramos/Panther Coffee

Lindsey Kiser/Peregrine Espresso

SERBC Brewers Cup 2012

The Finalist for the SERBC Brewers Cup

Tune in to http://www.usbaristachampionship.org/ for the live stream of the competition.

Jonathan Bonchak/C.C.C.

 Bryan Duggan/C.C.C.

 Matthew Ludwikowski/OctaneCoffee

Stevie Brown/Octane Coffee

 Dave Delchamps/Octane Coffee

 Jason Dominy/Batdorf & Bronson

NWRBC Day 2

Day two of competition was awesome!  I was able to take a lot of pictures and watch some of the best Baristas in the PNW do what they do best.  I think I was most excited to see Alex Negranza, Sarah Dooley, and Laila Ghambari compete.  Alex made me the best cocktail I ever had in my life and he pulls some mighty good espresso, so I was looking forward to see what he would do.  Sarah is a great competitor, very creative and always does  an amazing job.  Laila’s fruity water tower had me intrigued too.

Everyone did an amazing job and showed so much passion and professionalism.  The competitor that stood out the most to me was Timothy Graham from Victrola.  He was sooooo good!  You wouldn’t know it was his first time competing from watching his routine.  He was concise, articulate, and confident!  I had his espresso on the fourth bar and it made me pass out it was so good.

The Brewers Cup was also going on Saturday.  Lots of great coffee being brewed by some very talented people.  Olympia Coffee Roasting Company was definitely represented well by six Baristas!  Everyone had to brew the same coffee with their choice of brewing device.  I used the Bonmac ceramic dripper with kenaf filters.  25 grams of coffee/425 grams water, 150 gram bloom for 30 seconds 200 more 1 minute into the brew and the rest after 2

minutes with a 3:45 brewing time.  The coffee was sweet and I got a lot of molasses from it.

After a full day of competitors we had our top 6 finalists!

1: Tyler Stevens (Barista)
2: Collin Schneider (Sterling Coffee Roasters)
3: Sam Purvis (Coava Coffee)
4: Laila Ghambari (Stumptown Coffee Roasters)
5: Marty Lopes (Barista)
6:  Devin Chapman (Coava Coffee)

Note that all finalist are from Portland.