Pulling out the fine china and fancy milk pitchers

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Southeast Regional Barista Competition. My name is Shannon and for the next fifteen minutes I'll be ..."

That's as far as I've gotten so far - but the registration is in and now it's official: Both Alex and I are heading south for the SERBC in October. Initially, only Alex had planned on competing but since I was driving all the way to Clearwater (for the second time in three months) I thought I might as well make the most of it. Sounds kind of off-the-cuff-no-big-deal right?

Actually, I'm already feeling queasy. Some of the best baristas in the South (and a few future USBC champions, mark my word) will be there and maybe even a blogger who's threatened to realtime vlog the whole thing. I'm not even sure yet what my espresso will be, much less my signature drink. Oh yeah, I'm feeling a little sick now ...

But there's a Barista Jam and Roaster Training going on at the same time, just in case I tap out in the first round.

But I won't.

Zooooooom!

I’m back from Clearwater and bring gifts! Namely espresso. It’s a blend called Zoom and comes from Cinnamon Bay Coffee. They were going through some changes when I arrived and weren’t technically called that anymore but were still using the same stickers and roasts and blends. But this particular batch of espresso is extra special because I roasted it personally (with some help from the roastmaster and an automation system - but I was there man, I was there!).

We’ve been playing with it for a couple of days already at the shop and think we’ve found its sweet spot, which falls on the heavy side. Come by and try it at 14, 16 and 18 grams per double; you’ll be surprised at what a difference a couple grams makes.

August Update

This month I'll be heading down to Clearwater, Florida for a few days to catch a little sun and get a look at the venue for this year's South East Regional Barista Competition (which is where I heard it will be, though I have yet to see anything official). One of our baristas has expressed a desire to compete this year and even though I don't have much money or experience we are going to do what we can to get him there. I won't be gone long but, unfortunately, the final guest espresso of the summer will have to be pushed back a week later than planned.

This month I will go single origin or ...
or ...
maybe I'll bring something back from Florida.

In other news, we have been playing with the flow restrictor valves on our espresso machine and might be near the end of the whole "flushing routine." But we've only started to tweak the machine so I'll let you know more about that later.