|
We have 1 guest online
Baratza Inc.
Baratza.com - Creators of the Virtuoso!
|
Home Articles Recent Articles Ten years after, ten years on...
|
Ten years after, ten years on... |
|
|
|
Written by colin newell
|
Scotty, of classic Star Trek, once said: "Warp 13! It cannot go that fast!"
Today I looked in on a very successful blog that just had its 1st birthday. One year. 365 days of blogging. Brilliant.
At ten years of age, the CoffeeCrew website is older than dirt. Thank heavens there aren't too many 10 year old coffee drinkers because I would seem like Moses indeed. Ten years: It does seem like a long time in internet years. There aren't too many sites out there that continue to pump out timely stuff after all this time. I know there are a few and some of them I visit on a semi-regular basis.
Coffee. It doesn't seem like a suitable topic for such an elongated and uninterrupted monologue but here we are. Care to assume that I running out of steam? Think again.
Truth be told, it is not about the coffee. Not in the real world anyway. What the readers get to see online is merely a distillation of what is going on in my world every waking minute of every day. Well, at least in the caffeinated interval anyway.
Example: After work, one afternoon, my wife and I popped down to a new cafe on the avenue in one of our historic villages near Victoria. This cafe is ideally located on a quiet 2 lane thoroughfare set back from the road apiece, surrounded by swaying oak trees and a scrum of tudor style houses and apartments. We are actually recognized as we enter the place. I get a series of handshakes. My wife gets a series of hugs. I guess you might say this coffee thing can be a feel good endeavor. As long, that is, as you stay on the good side of the coffee scene. As it is in any corner of the food and services industry, it is very easy to make enemies when good press is the difference between survival (eating, paying bills, etc) and failure (bankruptcy, shame, other bad stuff).
I really try to do my part - read: tell the good news, keep the bad news to a bare minimum unless someone really, really goes out of their way to piss me off.
I digress. As I said, this is not about coffee at all. It is about camaraderie, social intercourse, verbal discourse, tastes, sights and sounds. The coffee website appears, on the outside, to be a lot of jabber about coffee, espresso, cappuccino, machines and beans. It is about life and writing. Living I have never had a problem with. I have been doing that since birth. Writing is something I am desperate to do better. I have not achieved my goal unless every article achieves, at least, a twang of emotional resonance with my readers.
Cafe culture - here I am living it first hand. We sit in comfortable leather backed chairs on the avenue. I look out over my cup at my beautiful wife and her hot chocolate. My half-caffeine americano was made by the daughter of one of the owners. It is not perfect but that is not the point. The raw materials are good. The taste is good and the energy is positive.
One of the partners offers, "The opening day jitters are almost over..." On one level I get it. My sipping great coffee with my dear wife is only one minute piece of a much bigger picture. Here, in this shiny new cafe, there is livelihood and a sense of hope. An independent business is launched. It is the beginning of a brand new day for these people. It is my job to enjoy it and find the positive spin and make it all a better place.
We begin another decade.
Colin Newell lives in Victoria and writes about life, coffee, the universe and everything. His goal is to reach as many happy people as possible and make them ever so slightly happier.
|
|
|
|
-
Subject: Re:Original Atomic Espresso Machine For Sale - by: JerseyStyle
Yes, Im actually listing it for my mother who is back in NJ. But she seemed to think it was pretty hard to find, couldnt find anything relative on eBay so we werent sure on price....
-
Subject: Re:Original Atomic Espresso Machine For Sale - by: colin
You are in Portland Oregon?
That is a fairly rare model of the Atomic.
Good luck....
-
Subject: Original Atomic Espresso Machine For Sale - by: JerseyStyle
Thought you might like to know I found one of these packed up in our basement and we've listed it on eBay. If you have any question please contact me via eBay. Happy bidding!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws...
-
Subject: Re:Flavor - by: colin
Every origin arabica coffee has some degree of lemon, citric or bright notes - some more muted, some less. Some of the brightest tasting coffees are classic Kenyan Double-A's - not my favorite. Fruit ...
-
Subject: Flavor - by: sachermom
Does a slightly acidic/almost lemony nuance to a coffee tell a coffee tester anything about what type of bean the coffee is made from? Nothing objectionable, not to me anyway, in fact, I like it espe...
-
Subject: Re:Coffee employment on Vancouver Island - by: colin
Tell me what you really want to do, and I will give you some suitable tips.
The current rule is: If you are not employed within one hour of trying... in Victoria B.C. Canada - you are lacking a pul...
-
Subject: Re:Coffee employment on Vancouver Island - by: ivorygirl4ever
I'm moving back to Victoria in 2 weeks and thought I'd do some online scouting for great coffee shops before I arrive (I found a couple when I visited this summer, so I knew that there were great ones...
-
Subject: Coffee employment on Vancouver Island - by: colin
I have been watching the cafe scene in Victoria since the mid-seventies... I know, since before some of my most loyal readers were born.
We are in an interesting time now - there are more jobs than...
-
Subject: Re:Saeco Royal Cappuccino taste problem - by: colin
Yes - the problem is...
It is a super-automatic machine.
The water for the coffee touches so much plastic and travels through so many tubes... the coffee is brewed in a plastic or composite brew m...
-
Subject: Saeco Royal Cappuccino taste problem - by: Didi
Dear All,
I have Saeco Royal Cappucino, testing it for several type of different coffees from around the world, but the funny is the coffee taste always the same. It has prebrewer function and I di...
|
|