BATTLE OF THE BLOGGERS

Its a little intense today in Mercury, and the staff are restless.........

After muscling one of our dear Mercurial customers out of the way, I will now begin our regular broadcast, Susanna's Sunday Session.

Not familiar? Well pull up a chair and a Costa Rica Tarrazu Feature Latte and get comfortable my chickadees. I mean with closing time occurring at 3pm tomorrow, you'll be wanting to soak up all the Mercury goodness you can today right?

Fear not, don't panic, and don't do anything crazy if you aren't a regular blog reader (I'm not judging you.....) you might not know but with the excitement of new store openings we are installing a fancy-schmancy new machine tomorrow evening and you know we are worth the wait.

Ease your nerves with a oatmeal peanut butter cookie, thats right.......... nibble...........breathe........ nibble again......and relax..............

TA-TA ALICE!! I AM GOING TO BEAT YOU IN A FIGHT OF FISTS!! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU EVER MET ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the dawn of a new era at Mercury. As I'm sure you all know, we will soon be opening two, count 'em, two new locations-- one at Gerrard and Main, and another at Church and Front. Of course, we can't have three locations operating on only one espresso machine-- so we brought out the big guns.

Check it: it's the Synesso Cyncra three-group espresso machine, the Cadillac of the industry. Under the hood, she's got a 6-litre V10 engine, pushing shots out with 558 horsepower and 330 pounds of torque. Her 6-speed manual transmission lets you blast from zero to sixty in under 4 seconds, with a top speed of more than 200 miles per hour. That's pretty remarkable for an espresso machine, but even then, we wanted more. We custom ordered a hot rod show-quality air intake and ripped out the second seat to add nitrous injectors, upped the suspension to double wishbone, and lowered the chassis three inches. Now, this mean mother looks a lil something like this:
Pretty sweet, eh?

So anyway, we have to install her behind the bar, so we're doing it on Monday, from about 3 onwards. While we'd love to have you all in to see the magic, it'll be a bit of a bumpy ride, so we're closing up shop at 3, so if you need to rev up for the night, better come in before we take off.

EDIT: This post used to say 5, but it will actually be around 3 when we're closing down for the day. Props Ryan.

It was a dark and stormy day, but things at Mercury are HOT HOT HOT! Today's eye candy consists of Damien, Alex, Alice, and the new guys Doug and Matt. And if the sizzling barristas aren't your thing, the feature lattes are sure to grab your attention. This week's feature is the India Monsooned Malabar, yours for the low low price of four hundred and ninety-five pennies.

If per chance you can't handle the heat, or if by some freak act of nature we get some sun today, you may like to enjoy one of Mercury's delicious iced beverages. They come in quite a few varieties, such as the sweet and smooth iced mocha or the zesty and refreshing iced lemonade, made fresh per order especially for you.

And if that doesn't warm your innards, have a cold-hearted laugh at the expense of hilarious small children being bored in the car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Sincerely,
your favourite regular,
Hannah~

P.S. If you're not content enough with the coffee that you just ordered, you can always picture the mercury staff in speedos, lathered in coconut oil, and completely ripped. In the advent of summer, that's what I've been doing all morning (really all week) long. It makes the time fly like bees.

-Matt

Where does one go on a rainy day like this? I mean besides hiding out at an espresso bar. Where, seriously, where?

a

You know what are cool? Monkeys. you know what else is cool? wallabies. now smack them together and voila......but ya really wonder what kinda party they are going too. drink coffee bitches!!!!

-drink more Hayterade haters

Who brings the coffee coffee? I bring the coffee coffee!!!!! Thats right, i'm back to blogging, and i'm not the doe-eyed, shy newbie I was last time around, thats right, i know you've seen me, steaming and pouring my way into your heart. Well its six steps later and it is sunny to the max so what better reason to pedal over for a tasty iced treat???? Myself, I'm rockin the iced soy latte of mad deliciousness. Oh yes, its mad delicious.

I wish you the sunniest of sunny times in from the bottom of my ......So before you start your long weekend early by bringing in the 2-4 for your 24, waltz on over and say hi to all.......i miss you.


Yours in super perky caffeinated solidarity,

Susanna!!!!!!!!

Adrian's got this blogging thing down. "The first sentence that pops into my head," he says, " I go with." Me, I feel like I need to think it though. Where can I take it? Will I have enough material?
Man it has been hell of out of sight here what with we are listening to Fela Kuti and drinkin' chill iced drinks -- can't let the weather get you down when we are six steps from sunny summer. Grinding great gouts of good beans, before brewing buckets of brew and whippin up some wicked white stuff for cappuccinos and lattes. We've got some new coffees on press, so we'll sample and report back to you soon. It's gonna be

New Matt: Everyday I work with Alice she hassles me to create a blog post. I don't know about you, but for me, unless I'm in the mood, I find it incredibly difficult to write something out of nothing. The other day I suggested that we get a customer to write a blog in order to show "a customer's mercury experience" (she totally bought it). However, Today I'm sort of getting out of it because AMBER has never even written a blog! That puts me three or four up on her! So without further ado...

Amber: Hi! well, i gotta say, i'm a little nervous, some stage fright even... i mean, the precedent on this blog is pretty astoundingly awesome and consistently kickass... its a lot to live up to, really.
so, i may not be one for words so much, at least not on a monday morning... but i'm told i make good coffee. and today, i have something special for y'all.. if you hurry down to the Merc in the next hour or so, i'll pull you an amazing shot of Andrew Barnett's Ecco Reserve Espresso, which i think is pretty much exactly like the comfort food (think mom's spagetti and meatballs) of coffee.
i'll smile at you too!

and i promise to blog more often.

Nas, Ghostface, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, Raekwon, Dead Prez, A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde!!!!! And there are even more amazing acts that will Rocking the Bells this year. So now that all of the heads out there have stopped creaming their panties at this orgasm inducing news its time to pull out all your old old records and start studying. I know it seems like a daunting task but all ya gotta do is load up your respective music listening device and start cramming your brain with beats and let them bounce you back to the days yesteryear. Days of cutting classes to drink in parks then subsequently running from cops for drinking in the park and skipping school. So just ride the nostalgia and sweet tunes until that glorious july day when every head's wet dream comes true.

oh and don't forget to thank your momma for squeezing your screaming ass outta her Va-jj.

eat your peas and carrots, peace

Alright, so I'mma take it down a notch and talk about conversations. Real talk. I was in London last weekend and met a local roaster, and had an interesting discussion. Basically, he told me about the ethical issues he deals with when procuring and selling beans, and they are numerous. I'll bet a lot of you, dear readers, have seen the documentary Black Gold, and that gives you some idea of the markup that occurs between the purchase of beans and their sale after roasting. The fact of the matter is that the farmers, working long, hard hours in developing countries, are making only a tiny fraction of what the coffee is worth.

Anyway, the roaster I was talking to mentioned that he had ramped up his production recently and was nearing a point where his profit margin would be exceedingly comfortable. So comfortable, in fact, that any profit over and above it, he said, would be reinvested in the coffee's source.

Here's a movement I can really get behind. Intelligentsia's been doing this for a while, and they've even recorded it in their statement of principles. Treating the growers with the same respect we have for other artisans-- and yes, their work is a specialized art-- is a major step to righting the history of wrongs that is the current state of the coffee industry. Our suppliers provide an alternative to the poorly grown beans that larger growers-- whose names I won't mention here, but you know who I'm talking about-- pay chintzy amounts for. Coming to the Merc-- and other independent, ethically-inclined local coffee joints-- is like a vote with your wallet for a more responsible industry. And it benefits you in the end: better conditions mean better coffee.

Doug is back! No longer in China, Doug likes to hang out, have a coffee, and run the place. If you like the sound of that you can call 555-5555.
So here we are...
Alex and I ripping it up in an espresso bar near you. Good vibes.
In other news...
I, Alice Berg, am on my way to becoming a grease monkey. Sporting orange coveralls, I was knee deep in Varsol. Don't worry... I was also elbow deep in rubber gloves. With Keef as my mentor, I'm set. Updates will be posted.
Check this out- We will be pouring the Intelligentsia Decaf Black Cat. That's right decaf drinkers, we're pulling out all the stops for you. Life drinking decaf is hard, lets help ya out. So let us know what you think. like the difference? hate it? Didn't know we were even giving you decaf?
over and out
The Berg