What I like about Bishop

(just ripping off Helen Newman's post riffing about life in Copenhagen)

The friends who will give you the shirts off their backs, esp. the ones who are always game for impromptu potlucks and who come bearing goodness in a dish.

The Black Sheep, the brilliant coffee bar that is less than a minute's walk away, and the attached Spellbinder Books.

The 340 days of relentless sunshine.

The White Mountains.

The Sierras.

The very tiny, but very much loved and supported arts community.

The Millpond Music Festival, where all the kids run wild and free and the musicians come from so very far away to entertain.

The Tri County Fair at Labor Day Weekend.

The Mule Days Parade.

Living downtown with my big tomato garden.

Cycling to do almost all my errands.

The fact that nobody locks their doors.

Guinea Pigus Maximus

Wednesday morning, we booked over to the Black Sheep coffee bar to act as guinea pigs for Peter and Konrad who are trying to get their 4 shots, 4 cappuccinos, and 4 specialty drinks pulled in under 15 minutes. They were practicing for the regional barista competition.

Peter is using a new single origin Rwandan which he is factoring into his Sierra Oro blend. It is lovely, bright, with apricot and blueberries, but not the huge brightness bomb that Ethiopian Yirgacheffe can sometimes be. Other folks are getting cinnamon and butterscotch. I haven't yet.

We had Peter's sublime straight single shot (and I don't normally like straight espressos) and smooth, creamy, intriguing single cappuccino. Good grief, he is ready. Each cap featured the same damn latte art fan in the same scale. It was a sight to behold four identical drinks.

The boy has a cold. The boy is getting pinkeye. Matty still accommodating, with our goo and crabbiness.

Decaf, take me away

Yesterday, I had six shots in three coffee drinks. Konrad's cappuccino at Black Sheep still slays me. I didn't order it, but that place is like Cheers and like our old bar in Hong Kong, they start pulling your drink the minute you walk through the door.

Konrad and Peter are going to the Western Regional Barista Comps in a few weeks. Matt and I won't be going as part of the support team because we have a weddin' to attend, but GO EASTSIDE!

Pulled the first shot I have liked on the Silvia- George Howell's DECAF La Lapa from Costa Rica. You wouldn't know that it was decaf. Lovely crema. Smooth. Fine with or without milk. We are really starting to geek out, keeping a notebook of grind settings and relative humidity for different beans.

ski and coffee

First ski of the season for me. It's been a dry, dry year. Matty and I will take turns skiing and watching the boy.

We are trading in the Saeco Aroma espresso machine for a Rancilio Silvia. Just realized that we should probably have the machine we want now instead of working up towards it. It's helped by the fact that Costco will give us back the $215 we paid for the Saeco. Wow. We don't normally return things, but in this case, the machine didn't quite work as we hoped .

The refurbed Mazzer Major doserless beast (it weighs twice as much as Wyatt) that Billy made for us is working well. It grinds beans like a champ.

We've been trying lots of different espressos with Peter in the last month. Ecco (astringent?), Intelligentsia's Kid O (fabby everyday dark chocolate tones), George Howell's Terroir (peanut butter nut fluff marzipan, but the Decaf La Capa is pretty amazing), Vivace's Vita and Dolce (really needs the milk to bring out the sweetness)...At the end of the day, I'm still pretty happy with what Peter's got going on at the Black Sheep most weekends. I'm grateful for what Chris Tacy taught Matt and me about coffee going back five or so years now and for what Peter provides to the wee community of coffee addicts. How sweet is it that one of the best coffeebars is only a few hundred yards away?

So, no, this home set up isn't replacing going to the coffeebar, it's just making our rushed weekday mornings a bit easier from home.