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Hit it!

After an excruciating time spent at the Hertz rental car counter this morning, Clara and I finally got hold of our rental Prius and cruised on out of Portland, Northern California in our sights. To be fair, we were pleased that Hertz actually had the Prius for us (think of Seinfeld: “You know how to […]

Bikes to Rwanda Nor-Cal Road Trip!

Clara Seasholtz, Executive Director of Bikes to Rwanda (BTR), and I—Sarah Allen, BTR Board member and editor of Barista Magazine—are hitting the road bound for Northern California!

This crazy idea came about when we were at the SCAA show and US Barista Championship in Minneapolis this past May (where, at the Monin party, we had the […]

On the ground in CPH

Sarah and I are back in our hotel room, munching on cheap pizza before we fall into a deep jet-lagged slumber. But to be back means that we first went out, and we did. In fact, we spent all of 20 minutes in the hotel, when we arrived on our delayed flight out of Amsterdam, […]

Best Name Ever

Doing any sort of traveling demands many hours perusing the SkyMall catalog, and it’s always amazing just what is for sale at 30,000 feet. In previous years, hot dog cookers have been popular with multiple, competing versions available. This is one that our cat, Spacey, was lobbying for:

Lately, however, the SkyMall has been taken over […]

Back from Cali

What a freakin blast the last six days were. I spent them in Berkeley, Calif., my hometown and where my parents, Steve and Leanne, still live. I was there for two reasons: to attend and emcee the SCAA’s Western Regional Barista Competition, and to hang with my folks for two days after the competition. It […]

Washington, D.C., it fits me to a T…

Thanks to one of the bestest bands ever, Magnetic Fields, I had the song “Washington, D.C.” (from the record, 69 Love Songs, Volume 2) spinning in my head for all of last weekend, as we traipsed around Coffee Fest D.C., the Millrock Latte Art Championship, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition. (Thanks, Stephin Merritt!)

The weekend […]

Report from Africa

Today I received an email from our friend Shane Devereaux, owner of habit coffee + culture in Victoria, B.C., about how his extended trip to Africa for various coffee trainings is going, and thought I’d share it with all of you…

“At the moment I’m in between two semi final matches of the African World Cup. […]

Farewell, Nicaragua… Hello, M’lissa!

It’s hard to believe that we’re back in Portland. In many ways, this trip to Nicaragua for me and Ken was one of the most important coffee ventures we’ve been on. Nicaragua is a beautiful, complex, poverty-stricken, vast, friendly, and unforgettable place.

It will take me many more days to process what I saw, the wonderful […]

Back to Managua

Yesterday, the Nordic Barista Cup travelling roadshow rolled through the north part of Nicaragua. We saw a different climate, much drier, than the other coffee producing regions of the country, and perhaps that climate difference is why so many Cup of Excellence winners come from Nueva Segovia.
The Nordic baristas did another hands-on training with some […]

Today Was A Good Day

Greetings once again from beautiful Nicaragua. We woke early and packed our bags to check out of Hotel Cafe in time for a training of baristas in Jinotega. Though the city is known for its misty weather, which we experienced when we arrived on Tuesday, today was bright and sunny from start to finish. We […]