G'day! G'day!
The Central Eastern Regional Barista Championships are quickly approaching us. I believe April will be the month to watch for. Guaranteed, there will be 2 of us from Mercury competing. Stay tuned for more details. You will all find out details as I do. Also, tje first GTA Latte Art Championships will be this May. Keep tuning in as well for more details. This ones gonna be exciting. We're all working on the fine tuning of the the designs we do here. Watch out for Adrian's SWAN. It's taking shape quite nicely and looking more impressive by the day.
Now on to Mercury's business.....................
We are turning a year old on March 20th. Seeing as it's a Tuesday, we will be holding the festivities on the 24th and 25th. Live music, coffee and more coffee!! Possibly an outdoor roasting demonstration if we can swing it...... from the green bean to the cup. Keep checking in for more details.

Talk to you soon!
Matthew

Matthew Taylor will be attending the Food & Beverage show tomorrow if anyone wants to stop by. He'll be getting drunk and pouring latte art at the Zuccarini booth and if you're really lucky, he'll be drunk enough to reveal all Mercury's secrets! Hmm... drunken latte art. I wonder if it's like Drunken style kung-fu and a whole new discipline of latte art is discovered after a certian level of inebriation. I'll be the first to volunteer to test out the effects alcohol consumption has on latte art. I know, I know, it's rather noble of me to put myself in this position but you know what? I'll take one for the team. Several would be even better.

a

It's 8;13 pm on a frigid Sunday night. I just cupped Idido Misty Valley Natural Ethiopia Yergacheffe (yet another variation on the spelling) roasted by Intelligentsia in Chicago. Idido Misty Valley has some of the best coffee that I've exposed my tastebuds to and this particular one is no different. It's overwhelming my mouth with fruit salad flavours that range from tangy Passion fruit to the subtle flavours of grape drink (not juice exactly but in a good way). Screw the Super Bowl, I got the best half-time show going on here.

Up next, also from Intelligentsia, is the Cruz del Sur Direct Trade Organic Peru. Damn, I think I over brewed it. I was so busy ranting and raving about the Misty Valley that I let the Peru sit for a minute too long. Let this be a lesson to all you french-press novices, one minute can make all the difference. The chocolate notes are incredibly prevalent but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be right. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow and let you all know.


love,

alex

My quest to bring consistant Tiger Stripes continues. I find the 'aussie' dosing method to be more effective in this case...at least so far. I'm open to other suggestions but right now it seems to work the best. For those who aren't familiar with 'aussie' dosing, it is a method that requires you to tap the porta-filter as you dose. This allows 'over-dosing' of grinds into the filter to get more of the sweeter notes in the espresso. I suppose the name refers to it's origin but there could be some hidden meaning that I'm unaware of. Someone enlighten me.