Coffee Tastes Like

What?

2011-04-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

Don't they shut these things down from inactivity after awhile? Guess not.

Great talk.

-Ian.

Future Update.

2010-08-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Coming Spring 2011:

I'm going back to school.

Word.

-Ian.

consider the oyster

2010-08-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

mie arrived in santa cruz late friday night. late because it was dark and past dinnertime, but early enough for a couple of beers and industry ~~espionage~~ gossip. and everything she wished would happen came true - there’s nothing going on here except rad people, expensive tacos and all kinds offloats. so she had tacos for breakfast, root beer float for lunch and so far champagne for afternoon snack while she's soaking up some much needed vitamin D and working on her laptop. too good to be true.

she's reading consider the oyster by mfk fisher and yes, it makes her consider the oyster. as a young adult she wished she liked them, before a friend made her understand them and which ones she liked. ever since, she comes back to them a couple of times a year to explore “the strange, cold succulence”, as fisher describes it. maybe she in particular likes all things dual - how the oysters have such famous aphrodisiac powers and equally notorious gut-wrenching ones is maybe one of those things she doesn't understand but is thrilled to find in life. and it’s fine thinking about things that she has such a strong love-hate relationship with when life is shorts and flip-flops and sun and nice people all around her. it’s ok, you can hate her now, because tomorrow she's returning to san francisco and will be a mess again by monday morning.

p.s. ian's totally like 25 or 26. he looks so rough and tumble that i can't tell.

Quickie.

2010-07-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

I had some downtime, so why not make a post?

A few days ago, I headed down the coast for a few days. Taylor, super-friend and former co-worker, is about to head off to Japan to study there for a year. My friends Brittani and Nicole proposed that we make the trip down to Orange County to visit Tay-Tay before she leaves.

Brittani / Nicole

Taylor

On the way there, we stopped off in Santa Barbara to go visit The French Press on their 1-Year Anniversary. Julia and Teezy are some of the most solid, awesome people I've ever met. You walk into their store and it doesn't matter if you've never met them before, because they'll treat you like their best friend from High School. Great espresso, great environment, and it won't be another year before I head down there again.

Next, Nicole, Brittani, and I went down to Luxxe for a quick minute, and then my house in Culver City, where my mom had made us Mac 'n Cheese and bought Brittani a cake for her birthday. We hung around the city and went to the cafe I used to perch at and hung out with a few of my old friends. I don't see many of them that often, but it's great that whenever I go back, it feels like a never left. Old habits die hard, and in this case, it's a good thing.

The next morning, I went down to The Conservatory to visit AJ and grab some coffee. If you recall, I used to work here and got my first real introduction to specialty coffee. I sincerely believe that had it not been for this place, I wouldn't be where I am right now.

Hit up Intelli.Venice afterwards and had some great espresso, grabbed some coffee, and chatted up a few people who work there. Both Percy and Tyler were there (they previously crashed at the Mansion for a night), so it was awesome to see them. Sad to know that Percy is moving to the Pasadena store, but I'm sure I'll see him soon enough. M'lissa Owens was there too, so I got to say hi to her as well. Also, I got to see Nina, manager of Intelli.V, who I haven't seen in almost a year. Great times.

Then we finally got down to Orange County to see Tay. We had great fun, awful espresso, and continued a tradition of Ice Cream For Breakfast. Or açaí. Whatevs. Most importantly, we sailed. Literally. On a boat. Check this shit:

Boat:
Ian / Brittani / Nicole

Anyway. A good time was had by all. It was a fun 3 day vacation, and I'm going to miss Taylor a great deal. Good luck, kiddo.

Now I'm back in Santa Cruz, back to life and Verve. See you there.

-Ian.

Don't Touch The Machine

2010-07-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

General Guideline.

But seriously, dirty machines? Not having it. To be honest, I'm not the cleanest person who works at Verve, but typically speaking, when it comes to handling our GB5, I follow a kind of rule that I've made for myself. As far as I'm concerned, there is only one exception to the rule, which I'll explain later. For now, here's my rule:

There are only 6 sets of places that I should ever need to touch. They are:

-Steam wands
-Steam knobs
-Portafilters
-Pump Pressure Buttons
-Boiler Water Switch
-Legs

I think every thing up there is pretty explanatory, except for the legs. I only touch these when I need to adjust the position of the machine.

The only exception is cleaning. Pretty much everything is fair game when the intention is cleaning. The only time you should need to touch the top of the machine, or the dispersion blocks / screens, or the face, or the tray, etc., is when you're you're making them fresh and clean. Ideally, there shouldn't be too many scuffs on the face of the machine, but it's not uncommon to find stray espresso here and there.

So that's my thing.

-Ian.

P.S. Props to whomever can tell what the inspiration for my design was. And only props.

Anything Trubaca Does, I Can Probably Do Once In A While.

2010-07-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

I want to actually do this blogging thing, so I'm actually going to do this blogging thing. Let's start off at once a week, at least. Short, sweet posts. Sounds tasty. So here's where I'm at right now:

The week before last, my manager asked me if I wanted to take over public cuppings. A former employee of ours used to do it once a week, but she moved away, and cuppings pretty much did too. The staff has talked about it at meetings, and before my manager asked me, it seemed like it was something that was going to happen, but no one knew when or how.

Enter: me.

I say yes.
I spend the next couple of days figuring out what I want to do and writing a little info sheet about it. I figured and simple cupping would just be tasting the differences between processing methods. Ideally, I would have the same coffee processed different ways, but this was not the case. Instead, I had the following:

Washed:
Haile
Ethiopia, Sidamo Grade 2
Heirloom

Pulped-Natural:
Brumas del Zurqui
Costa Rica, Central Valley, Heredia
Caturra

Dry:
Harrar
Ethiopia, Harrar, OCFCU Co-op
Heirloom

Semi-Washed:
Lake Tawar
Sumatra, Aceh

The info sheet I made had little write-ups on what processing meant and what each method entailed, as far as both technique and resulting flavors. People seemed pretty stoked on the whole thing. I had a group of about 10 people cupping. It was super satisfying, because I got to see all these people light up whenever they smelled/tasted the difference between the coffees: "Wow, this one has a lot of berries", or "This one smells spicy", and "It has a lot of flowers."

It was good.

So it's going to be a regular thing. However, it won't always be cupping. I figure like 60% of the time, it will be, but I want to do more, like show off some of the brewing devices that we sell at the shop, but don't use. Siphon, Eva Solo, Clever, etc. This week, in the spirit of Summer, I'm going to mess around with some Iced Coffee, Toddy style. We'll see where it goes from there.

So yeah, if you're in town, Fridays at Noon. See you there.

-Ian.

P.S. I might put stuff up here that has nothing to do with coffee. For example, I'm hella strong and really feel like you, the reader, need to know about the 210 pounds I bench pressed last week. Or the fun little photoshop images I've been messing around with.

Yeah.

P.P.S. I replaced the cloth on my siphon with a GB5 dispersion screen. More on that later.

Tomorrow.

2010-04-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

I'm 100% 50/50 on the idea of me posting something new and exciting sometime tomorrow. I have to draft it in my head but, topics may include:

2010 WRBC

2010 SCAA Expo

2010 USBC

Slayer

Strada

Moving in with Baca

Moving in with Trubaca

Sick new shoes (2 pairs!)

Also, new secret development in my life and my career.

I should make this like a barista competition and just have people tell me what they'd like to read. Trust me, I've got sig drinks ready for each of these topics. However, they are all full of cheese.

Fuck, I'm funny.

See you tomorrow.

-Ian.

P.S. If I don't post tomorrow, I'll just say that this teaser was enough to cover for the last however long it has been.

Two Posts, One Day: Blog Happy

2009-10-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Photo by Jeff Wenzel

Another quick post. Verve was featured in the November issue of GQ, where it has been dubbed one of the ten "best places to get your daily fix." Check it out here.

Hot, Short Post

2009-10-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

I was just checking out Sweet Maria's and stumbled across this:

For the latter half of my tenure at Luxxe, I was looking for a electric kettle with programmable temperature. We were using the Zojurishi 5.0 liter boiler, which I thought could have been better. I'm not a fan of only having three temperatures to choose from, so something like this Pino would have been great. I'm going to save up some tip money, and drive up to Oakland to grab one. For now, I'm going to buy a battery to replace the dead one in my digital thermometer and syphon up some Ocaña.

-Ian.

"Blogs Die Hard"

2009-10-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

Chris told me that about three weeks ago. It's true. I've been neglectful, and as a result, my blog is dying. Hard. So let me preface this post with two things: 1) Sorry. 2) I'm going to try to update this thing twice a week. Minimum. Fingers crossed. Alright. Let us begin.

EDIT: 3) Less spelling errors.

So a few things have been going on. One of the bakers from whom Verve gets pastries, Companion Bakers, also does work at the local farmer's markets. They've been expanding from selling just baked goods to also having a coffee service. I was asked to help out with their pour-over coffee bar, and I agreed to. This was the set up:

It's not often that I get to prepare and serve coffee in a capacity that is not espresso or french press. One of my favorite things about the pour over bar is how much longer it takes to prepare a cup of coffee than it takes to prepare espresso. It definitely brings something different to the table, and allows for much more time to interact with the consumer. I enjoyed being able to talk to customers at length about the coffee I was serving (Ethiopia Sidamo Moredocofe), being able to engage them and getting them to ask questions. I believe one of the most important aspect of a barista's job is to be an educator. There is a ton of information about coffee that the average consumer doesn't know, and I'd like to think that being the last person the coffee passes through before reaching the customer, that we should be able, and willing, to teach as much as possible. Don't get me wrong, working the espresso bar grants plenty of opportunities to engage customers in that manner...but it also allows the customer to grab their cappuccino and walk. I like the idea of a brew bar, where the purpose of it isn't to serve coffee, and educate as well, but to educate, and serve coffee as well. I'd really like to start something like that at Verve. We do public cuppings regularly, but I'd like to expand on that idea more. We used to have Syphon Saturday, but it stopped before I started working there. I'd like to have a weekly brew bar where syphons, Chemexes, french presses, and Eva Solos are used, and the customer chooses how to be served, and expect to be educated in the process. Hopefully I can make it work, what with school taking up a bit of my time, but I fully believe that it can happen. I'll get started on the plans.

More has been going on lately as well, but nothing too exciting. I made a promise to not post ridiculously long posts again, so I'll end it here. Hopefully I'll talk to you in the next couple of days.

-Ian.

It Has Happened/Nice To Meet You.

2009-09-17T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it couldn't have been too much longer before it happened. It finally sucked me in. The guilty emptiness I feel from sucking so much out of the internet has collapsed. I have to give back. I have to tell you my opinion, now. I have to write a blog. Web-log. Internet journal. I've never had a diary before. I've never had a log before. I've had a livejournal, but who among us would count that? So why not start now? I'll even let all three of my friends who read blogs see what I have to say on a semi-irregular basis. Seems redundant though, that I would write a blog for friends who I talk to every day to read. So who am I writing this for, really? Not my friends. Myself? No, I don't need to give myself up to thoughts of the masses for myself. But, I could still give myself up to the masses. So I will. In that case, this blog is for those of you who aren't my friends, and who aren't me. For people I don't know, who may find what I have to say interesting, worth reading, educational, thought-provoking, etc... Or not. Maybe it's for people who just want something to do to pass the time. That's fine. You all have one thing in common, though: you don't know me. And I don't know you. It'd be hard for everyone who could potentially read this to introduce themselves to me, so I'll just introduce myself to you all. Also, it's my blog, so I don't really need to know you. Let's begin with an introduction.

[As a note, I'd like to say that I never plan on writing a post as long as this one again]

Hi. My name is Ian Levine. This is me:

I was born and raised in Culver City, California. It's a little city you've never heard of that borders cities you have heard of. Santa Monica. Venice. Los Angeles. I found it to be a very convenient place to live. I didn't live in a city full of high-end shops; I didn't live in a city with a world famous beach; I didn't live in a city stuffed to the brim with everything else; but I did live within driving distance of the places that did. I could be in the hustles and bustle of the city whenever I wanted to. More importantly, I could also not. And on most occasions, I chose the latter. I preferred the quaint, small town qualities of Culver City, but also appreciated it being just commercial enough to where I didn't have to go to far to find a Ralph's. Or 7-11. Or gas station with comparable produce. I kid. It was nice. I didn't have to go far to find anything. Everything I needed was there. Except quality coffee.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of coffee in Culver City: King's, Tanner's, The Spot, That One Place On Sawtelle That Eventually Became A Wine Bar That Eventually Shut Down. And The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa. Unfortunately, none of these were enough for me. Let me lay down a little history. I began working in coffee in 2006. I use "working in" loosely, because it means something different to me now, than it did then. My friend at the time worked at King's Cafe, which was owned by her parents. I was right out of High School, with a couple of years of Community College ahead of me and I decided that working in a cafe seemed like an easy enough job. So I asked her if I could work there. And I could. So I did. Let me give you a run down of this cafe during my employment. Smallest cup that wasn't a demitasse was 12 oz. Largest was 20. A cappuccino was defined as being either a single or double espresso, topped with equal parts steamed milk and scooped foam. A macchiato was a single or double espresso, served in a 12 oz. to-go cup, topped to the brim of the cup with foam. The grind setting was never to be touched. The drip coffee was to be ground as soon as the tupperware, that ground coffee was stored in, wasn't full anymore. A single espresso was about 2 oz. of espresso, pulled in about 8 seconds. How many grams? To put it simply: it's wasn't pot. Why the fuck did I need to know how many grams were going into the portable coffee/tea filter? You get the idea. Anyway, after about a year there, I finally started looking up coffee, and getting more information from people more qualified than my almost-never-there boss. I found out that it didn't have to only taste good with sugar and cream. I found out that drinking bitter espresso doesn't mean you're manly, but rather uninformed. I learned that a cafe doesn't have to rely on sandwich sales to stay afloat. After realizing that it could be better, (and also losing "creative control" after I adjusted the grind so 2 oz. of espresso came out in 25 seconds), I quit.

I went to work at the aforementioned Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa. It was a cafe that had been open for 12 or 13 years when I started. On site roasting. Grinders, that had their grinds adjusted as needed, and a machine that wasn't pulled out of the "So You Want To Open A Cafe?" catalogue. I was stoked to get a job there. My boss taught me a great deal about coffee, while I worked there. I learned that not all coffee tastes the same. I learned that different coffees should be roasted differently. I learned how to make drinks without using a bar spoon. I learned enough that I felt comfortable competing in the 2008 WRBC. It was there that I met Jared Truby and Chris Baca for the first time. It's also the first time I heard of Verve. They become active characters in this yarn a little bit later. I placed 17th; a position I'm still proud of, considering my tenure as a barista, and the resources I had available. Again, after a year or so of working there, I decided I was ready to learn more. I had already become the 2nd best barista there (second to my boss), and I felt it was time for me to work someplace where it'd take longer to earn that title. At this point, I made a daily commute out of my town. I found myself in Santa Monica almost everyday. I found Caffe Luxxe.

So, instead of using that Ditting, that James Hoffmann used to win the 2007 WBC, I was now using two Mazzer Super Jollys (one for decaf and one for straight espresso), and a Compak K-10 WBC (for milk drinks). Instead of a 12 year old, aging Faema with spouted filters, a brand new Synesso Hydra, with nakeds. Two Hydras, in fact. Hog heaven, my new friends. Until I was allowed to pull shots, I gazed up that set up with an almost religious zeal. I still love those grinders, (I'm more partial to the Compak) and who doesn't remain in love with a Synesso?

So I spent some time there. I made coffee, I made friends, and I competed again. Let's not talk about that. One of my co-workers (who was and still is one of my favorite people ever) also competed and placed 8th in the '09 WRBC. We went up to Portland for the USBC so she could compete. By far one of the best coffee experiences I've had. Anyway. Some things happened when we got back. Some things I was not at all happy with. So I decided that it was time, once again, to move on. And so I moved on. To where I am now. Welcome to Santa Cruz.

Here's the thing. Before the '08 WRBC, I had decided that I wanted to go to school at the university in Santa Cruz. When I met Jared and heard about Verve, I decided that while I went to school, Verve would be a good place to work. This was before I would decided that have my career be coffee. Over the next 2 years or so, it became less that I would work at Verve because it was in the same town as the school, and more that I would go to the school because it was in the same town as Verve. (At this point, I feel like I made the move solely to work at Verve, and that going to school is just something I tell my parents). So I made the arrangements to transfer to UCSC, (if you must know, I'm majoring in Language Studies with an emphasis in German), and to work at Verve. So now I'm here. And I'm very, very happy to be. I'm making coffee and I'm making friends. I may even compete this year. Who knows?

So that's my life story. Hope you survived the novella that is Coffee and Ian. I think I'm done with this post. Well, except for one thing. I feel like I should write a statement of the purpose of this blog. Look at the title. It's a coffee blog. So I'm only going to write about coffee. I may slip more personal stuff in here and there, (not funny), but I'll be saving most of that stuff for my friends and myself. Maybe the first story arc will be the road the competition. Probably not. It'll probably just be me talking about my quest to become a better barista. Whatever it will be, it will be about coffee. It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you back soon.

-Ian.