http://baristamagazine.com/blog barista magazine's blog Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:08:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/07/03/hit-it/ 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 ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/07/02/bikes-to-rwanda-nor-cal-road-trip/ Cylon invasion? Series cancellation? Well, I guess it's not quite the same as humanity being decimated by a nuclear assault by the mechanical armies of its own creation, but it's news nonetheless as a bad economy brings a tough summer for that other Starbuck. The Associated Press reports that Starbucks plans to close ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/07/01/starbucks-tough-times/ The few of you that may follow my personal blog are fully aware that I'm terrible at updating the thing. That isn't to say that much has not happened to M'lissa and I since my last post. Hopefully you've all been following M'lissa's new(ish) blog where she has been much ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/29/biking-to-work-is-great/ The 51 national barista champions who took the stage at the 2008 World Barista Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, had more than a few things to concentrate on in the weeks preceding the event, and indeed during the actual event itself—including figuring out a way to get photos taken of themselves ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/29/find-your-champion-on-flickr/ After the end of Sunday's monumental World Barista Championship Awards Ceremony, everyone was flying on pure adrenaline. It had been a long, hyper intense day of finalist performances, and emotions and the noise level were both running high -- especially for this guy (2008 WBC Champ Stephen Morrissey addresses the ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/25/that-last-crazy-night/ Ken's and my faces hurt from smiling so much, we're so happy for Stephen Morrissey of Ireland, the just-crowned 2008 World Barista Champion. He is an incredible guy, one of the funniest I've met, and holy cow, the best barista in the world. Hats off to you, Stephen. You deserve ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/22/world-barista-champion-stephen-morrissey-of-ireland/ Here we are! It's crazy to believe that we made it to this point after three long days of preliminary competition. There are probably 1000 people packed into this small, tight room. First things first: the judges are: WBC ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/22/the-finals/ Was it the heat in the WBC area multiplied by the hundred of people who showed up to hear the announcement of the barista championship finalists, or simply the knot of emotion about what was to come in the pits of all of our stomachs that made the experience of ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/21/our-2008-wbc-finalists/ We've shown you photos of each competitor, but of course there is a lot more going on here that you haven't seen, so as we wait for the announcement of the six barista champions who will go on to vie it out in the final round tomorrow, we thought we'd ... http://baristamagazine.com/blog/2008/06/21/some-scenes-from-the-wbc/