Froth Failure

There is a certain art to a perfectly pulled shot, I have slowly been discovering. Actually, there is a little art, a little form, and a lot of practice wrapped up into making any type of espresso drink. The other night at work one of my co-workers asked me is I wanted to take the cappuccino test. Naturally I agreed, and then asked what it was. The perfect cappuccino, you may not know, not only has a specific net weight, but also foam density is essential. The test then, is to froth your milk to such a consistency that you can balance a quarter on top. “No problem,” I thought. Conceited as that thought may have been, I embraced the challenge readily. Granted I’ve only been a certified barista for two weeks now, but you’ve got to have a little confidence in yourself, right? Well any way, I frothed my 2% milk good and hard. To my amateur eye it looked spectacular. I piled the seeming foam into a cup, tapped once or twice, and was ready to test my froth. I carefully held my coin a centimeter above the steaming foam, and released. Plop! It immediately sunk to the bottom; disappearing in an instant and taking all my unmerited pride with it. Apparently I still have a lot more to learn before I’ll win any Barista Competitions.

the way i see it:

People just love to hate.

Get any group of people together and before long they’ll find some negative commonality between them. Even those things they love and couldn’t live without (i.e. coffee), they’ll find something to hate. Perhaps it because the more we love, and grow particular of something, the more often we are dissatisfied with some aspect of that very thing that we depend on.

Take any big name company. Wal-Mart. Starbucks. McDonalds. Google anyone of them and it’s pretty easy to find someone hating. Yet we all still walk in their doors and buy their products without any hesitation. While we sit around and bash Wal-Mart, complain about the wait at Starbucks, and how unhealthy McDonalds is for us; they in turn are still the top in there markets and still growing.

I think that complaining has become apart of our attitude. We whine merely out of habit. So next time you’re standing in line, and a complaint arises, stop, and think of something positive to say instead. We all understand your beef with Wal-Mart. And yes, the line is long; we’re standing in it too. And McDonalds probably shouldn’t be consumed on a daily basis, try the Pita-Pit once in a while its right next door, you’ll feel better about yourself.

One Raw Sugar, two Splenda, and half a Sweet’n Low please

My mother always told me that artificial sweeteners were cancerous (same with dark soda) and would make you fat. Therefore they were promptly banned from the house, my father was broken of the habit of incorporating Sweet’n Low into his coffee every morning, and I now cringe at the though of having artificial sweetener as a part of my diet.

Unfortunately, similar to many other wives tales like running in the rain causing you to catch a cold, or swimming after you eat making you sink, or eating without praying giving you a stomach ache, when hold them up to the light of science they rarely hold true.

According to the research I perused over as I was tumbling this topic over in my head, artificial sweetener don’t, directly, cause cancer. Pheewff. We were all holding our breaths there right?

German scholars agree that artificial sweetener doesn’t lead to cancer, and our government concurs.

Nevertheless, being so enlightened, I still can’t help but cringe when I hear some one call a drink with nine Splenda, or eleven Equal. And even if it doesn’t directly cause cancer, you have to wonder about those rumors of unusually sized brain tumors…

Fort Myers Cafe's

I just wanted to note that despite espresso map's claim to having found the best espresso in the country, I believe he over looked a few when he drove past Fort Myers on his way to Miami. Therefore, I’m making it my job to up date you on the local coffee shops in the area.

A Quaint Cafe?

I heard it said recently that Starbucks offers an addictive experience. That struck my interest because, while coffee is not a forbidden addiction, it becomes the method by which an invigorating experience is handed out. Which brings up the question; has coffee truly become a subculture in American society or is it just another product of a well marketed company, like McDonald’s, that is fast becoming one of the many faces on the American billboard of consumer products? When Howard Schultz came back from Italy in the late 80’s, he brought with him the experience of a café culture. Many countries have them—breezy, open aired café’s, where customers stand around high top tables and linger over lattes, cappuccinos and macchiatos. This experience was the spring board for his attempt at creating this type of neighborhood café out of Starbucks, with an American twist of course, market the hell out of it and see where you can take it. Can you market a culture? Apparently you can. In the last decade or so Starbucks’ have sprung up everywhere nationally and world wide. But has it lost some of its quaint, neighborhood appeal by being such a large corporately owned coffee producer?

In The Beginning

This blog essentially was born out of a class project. Fortunately, my obsession with Starbucks has led me to consider the culture that has arisen in our society from coffee.

We have always been all about coffee. Think about the tea rebellion and the entire phenomenon of taxation without representation, which ultimately lead us to drink coffee over tea.

Then here is the Starbucks craze. And now when you say “Let’s get a cup of coffee” what you really mean is “Let’s go to Starbucks”.

Now I'm an Official Blogger

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