M^4" MOVEMBER?

M^4:

Manic Coffee has a new sign, door and layout of their cafe.
I'm digging the Typeface.

Tomorrow is Movember - a month full of moustaches to create awareness for Prostate cancer. There have been some cafe with strong fundraising support for this cause, who's in?

On another note: Halloween is today!
Spooky drinks: "unknown Sumarta from Kreuig...."
I'm scared.

Great Blog post from Barismo:Check it out, Espresso pairings

Fun Friday: Fall Drinks

What's your favourite Fall Drink?

1. Pumpkin Spice Drinks
2. Apple Cider
3. Caramel Drinks
4. Cinnamon flavoured

Thoughts?

ALSO this video is amazing:
Productivity of the Future.


Enough said

Vid Thursday: Level Ground

Hey!

Remember Josh from Level Ground? 


The Victoria, BC. Company has gone on strong breaking into the DIRECT Fair-Trade market. You can find their products online or in your local store; such as Ten Thousand Villages.

I first met Josh last year when the Coffee and Tea show was happening. Boy has it been great to bump into this familiar face. Well.... usually in Toronto.

Here's a video they made about French Press:


It's to the point, and showcases what they're all about.
Direct relationships with farmers, giving them competitive compensation for quality products.

Here's to see more of Level Ground.

remember, they're not just about coffee, visit their website for more products.

Food for Thought: Diner

Good Morning!!

Just wanted to share the classic Diner dish that I usually order.

Nothing fancy here: mushroom omelette with Brown/ Whole wheat toast and butter.

What's great here - at these establishments - the coffee compliments the food. Semi-greasy food goes down slightly better with your cup of joe.

What's your take on Diner breakfasts?
For more information check out: http://www.espressoadventures.com

Take home Tuesday

Although I've mainly posted up about my travels outside of Toronto, I'd like to take this moment to write an opinion piece about my experience on the blog-o-sphere within the last year.

My first anniversary came and went, and officially it was on Sept 26th. A couple of days before National Coffee Day. During my time I've been posting regularly, sometimes 5 articles a week, to lull periods where posts are far and few in between.

Here are my top 5 life-lessons I've learned through Espresso Adventures.

1) Taking time to carefully plan ideas: Easier said than done when other life factors are taking away your time from your passion. It's easy to become swayed, but if your goal has SWOTs and you've analyzed all angles, you have an idea of what it takes. Time is of the essence. I've allocated 30 minutes of brainstorming, 20 minute reflection, and 10 minutes of exploration of my most prominent thought of the day.

In a nutshell: 1 hour of time/day, interruption-free thinking.

2) Photos, notes, inspiration: Documentation!!!!

 I have a really good memory, but once my attention span is filled I seem to think I'll remember which cafe I visited 3 weeks ago... This is why I care around a notebook. Coffee Journal, scratch pad.

Photos get stored in my phone, and camera. This was I have a way to cross reference my journey.

3) Coffee sparks conversation.

Tastes, experiences and suggestions allow me to have a common conversational piece with other cofficers. In general, it doesn't dominant the conversation but allows for an easy way to start the random conversations flowing - then allowing for networking to happen. I'm all for the advancement of creative process. To many more.

4) Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn...

Love it or Hate it. It's the new forum for the internet. We must embrace and use it to continue the conversation beyond the posts of Espresso Adventures. Currently I lean towards Twitter, but it's multi-faceted, and without these campaigns - it does not feel whole.

5) No shortage of coffee education.

Seriously, it's tough to keep up with the emerging micro-roasters, brew techniques and brew processes. But it's fun, exciting and brings out the scientist in me. As technical as it can be, we can learn a lot from what's out there, and our own experimentation. It's more toys, toys, toys.

That's it for Take-home Tuesdays.

HAPPY ESPRESSO ADVENTURES....

Watch out for the Top 10 in 2011 cafes in 3 weeks time.

(old and new joints curated into one list.. oooo excitement)

M^4: World Aeropress Championship

It's been a long time.....


Wrap up of the weeks events:
WAC 2011 was last night, and it was a great showdown.
Thanks to Twitter for keeping us informed.

• Jeff Verellen from Caffenation took home the big prize for Team Sausage and Belgium.
• Getting married in a coffee shop parking lot??
• Good Friend: smdlr is in PDX

Later days!

Fall is upon us

Stained Coffee Diner Mug
Radio FG blasting with Fav artist: Adele
Saturday morning Paper/online edition
Catching up on Pan Am games in Mexico

Phew... Afternoon of exploration.
Espresso Adventure is back with a big boosting way.

Sorry to keep away from here but you know it was a good excuse to do some traveling and bring more coffee news to you guys!

Be back next week with an onslaught of articles.

Enjoy your weekend.
For more information check out: http://www.espressoadventures.com

Been away

Hello Fellow Readers,

As you can tell I've been away for a bit - I thought I would be good to go for Last week - but sickness got to me. COLD and FLU season is around the corner.

As such, I've been getting better - but been off of COFFEE for a full week. I KNOW, instanity.

My taste buds are shot, and been on anti-biotics. Will be back in action in 2 more days (or so I hope).

Keep following me on Twitter, as it's easy to do one of those quick tweet things.
Don't worry folks. I have big news I want to share.

Signed,
Espresso Adventures.

TL: Coffee Prices (A reflection of the market)

Toronto Life just published an article referring to the second most traded commodity on the market (Coffee).

Arabica and Robusta are both players effecting the end result of customer prices.

Have we noticed the increase in prices ?
Yes, but mainly in bags of beans.
At the til, do we mind paying that $0.25 extra for your brew? $1 for the cost of the "C"...

Take a minute and ponder that ....


now, remember the article by Coffeegeek, Mark Prince about hidden costs that indie shops place into their coffee prices, could we be benefiting if they didn't go to Origin?

Tough questions, as the market moves, will we see coffee prices?
Many factors - but ultimately, how do we balance the satisfaction of caffeine, experience of a shop and linking that into the acceptance of these new prices.

Money talks - but at what price? (more discussion soon)

enjoying some time off (Thanksgiving Day/Columbus day)

Video: Coffee snobs

As @nickcho stated: this is the real life version of "notes notes notes":

Presenting: Coffee snob, from "funny or die" filmed at: Proof Bakery (post that's pending from my LA adventures)

cognoscenti coffee,  was quite delightful on my adventures. 

Here's the clip about HARSH coffee:

 

Coffee Snobs - watch more funny videos

Little Holiday

Hi Espresso Adventures fans.

I'll be away on holidays for a bit, sporadic posts - Should be back in Action for Oct 12th.
Nothing is wrong, just wont have enough time to prep some posts before I go away.

Until mid week!

C

2011 CNBC is..........

LIVE breaking news:

Results are in from the Canadian National Barista Championship!
Awards delivered from Reg Barber... (gush)

Canadian National Barista Champ: Josh Hockin
First Runner-up: Benjamin Put
Third Place: Jeremy Ho
Fourth Place: Morgan Allen
Fifth Place: Geoff Woodley
Sixth Place: Randy Hogg

CBC Finalists.

Just announced: 2011 CBC Finalists.

(watch the action here 12 PDT, 3PM EDT)

no particular order:
Benjamin Put
Geoff Woodley
Josh Hockin
Jeremy Ho
Morgan Allen
Randy Hogg

2011 CBC Live

Its' back, sooner than kicking that can around the playgroud.

Canadian Barista Championships going down in Vancouver today and Monday.

Live stream can be found (here).

9AM Sunday (all 15 competitiors)
12PM Monday (for the 5 finalist)


No predictions here, as it's a really strong field. (very Canadian of me, eh?!)

Mad Cap: and then there were two

Official Annoucment should be happening today, but nothing out about the yet...


2nd locations from the boys at MadCap... opening in 2012, but where...




Madcap Announcement from Hybrid Media Co. on Vimeo.