Part 2: How To Brew Awesome Coffee...Every Time.

"Please don't take as long as you did in that last entry to talk about brewing one cup of coffee. Please?" I've heard your anticipated cry so I will make this how-to short and sweet.

For those who didn't get the list of supplies needed to make this cup, reference here for that list. I also recommend having some sort of timer or stop watch nearby. Brew time should be about 4 minutes, including a 1 min bloom time (I'll explain).

So we're looking to make a 300g cup of coffee. 300 grams is about the size of your typical coffee mug. We'll be using 19 grams of coffee for our 300 grams of water.

Step 1: Measure the Beans

With your digital scale, measure out 19 grams of whole bean coffee. Remember, your coffee's only going to taste as good as what beans you're using.

Step 2: Grind the Beans
Make sure to set your grinder to a medium grind. We've discussed the importance of making sure the grind isn't too course nor too fine for our pour over in the last post. Once you've ground your coffee, many in the professional barista community would say that you have about 15 minutes before those grounds become stale (reason being is due to the fact that your grounds now have a much smaller surface area therefore it's decay rate is now much quicker).

Step 3: Set the Water To Boil
Water boils at approximately 214° however the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has found the perfect temperature to brew coffee at anywhere between 195°-205°F. You can either measure it with a thermometer, like I would typically do or just let the water boil (or whistle, whatever your boiling indicator is) then wait 25 seconds before using it to brew your coffee. By that time it'll be at the ideal brewing temperature. Too hot and you burn the beans. Not hot enough and the water won't fully dissolve/extract the desired amount of coffee from the grinds (that gets into TDS, which is a whole other discussion).

Step 4: Pre-Wet Your Filter
Place your V-60 on top of your coffee cup (I'm using a mason jar). Place your number 2 paper filter in the V-60 and pre-wet the filter before placing the coffee grounds in. Pre-wetting the filter will get rid of some of the impurities and paper taste from the filter. Once you've done that, dump out the water from your cup and now you're ready to put the coffee grinds in your V-60, as shown in the picture to the right. Try to make sure the grinds are spread out evenly.

Step 5: Let the Pouring Begin!

Place your coffee mug and V-60 on your gram scale and tare it so it's at 0 grams. I'll get into pouring technique on another post, but for beginners, what you want to do is pour in a clockwise motion, starting from the inside and making your way outward without pouring directly on to the filter. You're goal is to always be hitting the coffee grinds. Try pouring in a consistent stream without any abrupt stops. A nice gauge of how fast you should be pouring should be about the thickness of a piece of spaghetti. Ahhhhh! I'm sorry! I said I wouldn't get into pouring technique, but here's a quick 101 on it.

Coffee bloom is a bubblin'

• Start your timer and pour 60 grams of your water on to the grinds (making sure all grinds have been touched by the water) and let it bloom. When the coffee blooms, you'll notice the coffee start to bubble a bit. What that does is it allows the trapped C02 in the coffee to escape, which lets those trapped gases in the coffee out (also a good sign of fresh coffee). I like to grab a small spoon at this time and agitate the beans to ensure all beans have been wet.
• Once your timer hits the minute mark, pour again from inside to outside in a clockwise fashion. This time pour till it reads 125 grams.
• Let the coffee drip and start pouring again (wait till the water has passed through the filter, but not long enough to let the bed of grounds become dry). This time, pour till it reads 200 grams.
• Repeat the previous process, then begin to pour again until you get to your 300 grams. While the waters passing through, I like to give it one more quick agitation to ensure that all the grounds were fully saturated. 

Step 6: Sit Back and Enjoy

Your hard work has paid off. It's been a total of about 3.5-4 minutes since you started pouring and now your ready to enjoy that amazing cup of coffee. You'll be able to not only taste the difference, but you'll even be able to see a difference in the clarity of the coffee. Very light in color, almost tea like (obviously depending on what kind of coffee you're using). It's definitely like night and day compared to that Costco-Brand Coffee you've been drinking every morning this week (no disrespect to Costco, you win when it comes to polish hot dogs and a drink for only $1.50... am I right people?). 

See, Quintana's! Your gift from Down Under gets good use!

Now I hear and have heard critics tell me, "that's way too involved, I'll never do that." If that's you, remember that total brew time is only about 4 minutes, which isn't much longer than your coffee machine. Still impatient? As the old English saying goes, "good things come to those who wait," and those words ring true when it comes to good coffee. Take your time brewing. It doesn't have to be a chore and, at least for me, it's a relaxing and enjoyable morning ritual. It really is a fun part of my morning and in the end you reap the benefits with an absolutely tasty cup of coffee. When I drink a good cup, it just makes me think of how awesome it is that these interesting tastes can be naturally occurring in coffee. It's a wonder to me! I've had so many different kinds of coffee over the past year and half and each time I taste one I like, it blows me away how God has made these roasted coffee cherry seeds to emulate other tastes, like blueberries, strawberries, apricots, dark chocolate, or random other tastes like herbal tea, and toasted marshmallows (seriously, I've had some coffee that has a tasted like a toasted marshmallow, it's bonkers). 

My beautiful wife, the coffee antagonist, would be able to vouch that there is a world of a difference between these hand crafted cups of coffee and Starbucks. There's no comparison and it's obvious that this coffee blows others Keurig coffee or instant coffee miles away. My challenge to you is to just try it. I'll let you borrow my set up for a day if you want or just come over and I'll make you a cup. This kind of coffee is the way coffee should be enjoyed; smooth, tasty, and an enjoyable compliment to your day. If you've done coffee this way, comment away and let me know what you think. Questions? Let them be known and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Part 1: How To Brew Awesome Coffee...Every Time.

You know what isn't the best part of waking up (besides Folgers). It's waking up with a stuffy head and drippy nose. What makes the morning even less enjoyable is having to pass on that warm, tasty cup of coffee that you so enjoy every morning while you do your morning routine. Well today is day 2 of being stuffed up and I've said, "the heck with this, I'm making myself a cup of coffee. And I'll even blog about it! So take that, cold!"

As I've told you already, this past year and a half have been very enlightening to me in regards to our world's second greatest commodity (darn you petroleum for being number one!). I've gone from drinking garbage coffee, to making what I thought was good coffee (realizing now that it wasn't), to now being able to replicate awesome tasting coffee every day. So without further adieu, allow me to explain to you step by step what goes in to making an amazing cup of coffee so you too can make an amazing cup every single time!

Choosing The Beans

It's all about the beans! Let me take a moment to emphasize that:  IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEANS! If you were to assign each component of coffee making a percentage, I would say that the kind of coffee you use makes up about 60% of the overall coffee making experience, 20% would be in brew technique, and 20% in equipment. You can have the most expensive brewing equipment, fantastic technique, and awesome grinder, but if you're using regular store bought Maxwell House coffee, it's not going to taste good. This is a mistake I made back when I first started making coffee. I started using a pour over method with just any coffee, thinking that I'd be making awesome coffee and I wasn't. It tasted like regular old coffee. Then I decided to step it up and use pre-ground Starbucks beans. Still, no good. Then I stepped it up yet again, now getting whole beans from Peet's Coffee and Javatini's. Better, but not as good as those shops like Portola, Intelli and Verve. Disappointed, I brought my situation before my friend and awesome barista, Andrew, who threw down a bit of coffee wisdom on me saying, "It's all about the beans." Sure enough once I started buying artisan coffee I got artisan results.

For today's brew, I'm using a nice El Salvador Pacomara from local roaster Golden State Coffee Roasters (oddly enough their website didn't help me in finding out who they are or where they're at...not good when you're starting out a brand name for yourself).

The Equipment:
For a good cup of coffee every time, you're going to want a couple of essential items that will allow you to replicate your good brew every time you're in the need of some caffeinated goodness. Here's our equipment list we're going to be needing.

1. Coffee Grinder
2. Digital Gram Scale
3. Hario V-60 Pour Over
4. Coffee Drip Kettle (not absolutely necessary, but very helpful).
5. Some sort of water boiler or tea kettle

 Okay, let me talk real quick about some of these pieces of equipment. Real quick!

Coffee Grinder:

Now in order to make awesome coffee every time, you're going to want to be consistent in everything, including grind size. It's true for grinders that you get what you pay for. The least expensive coffee grinder, the blade grinder, is going to run you about $15 or so which isn't much. Blade grinders are the least consistent grinders when it come to making coffee as it overly grinds some beans while not grinding other beans enough. Next on the hierarchal scale of grinders is the mid priced conical burr grinder such as my Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill. These will get you a good enough grind for pour overs and presses, however not good enough for espresso grinds (the burrs aren't that good). These ones fly for about $45-75 at a Target or Macy's. Last on the affordable home grinder range is the higher priced Baratza grinders. The one in the picture above is an older model Baratza Maestro Plus, which has been replaced by the Baratza Encore (pretty much the same thing but with better burrs). This is my weapon of choice. This Baratza grinder has the ability to deliver consistent grinds for anything from French Press to a good espresso grind and for $129 it's the best deal on the market for the home barista (especially if you intend on making espresso in the near future).

To speak on the importance of grind size very briefly here's why it matters for our pour over coffee:

• Grind too fine= Water passes grinds too slow= Over extracted coffee= Muddy/nasty coffee
• Grind too course= Water passes too quickly= Under extracted coffee= watery/flavorless coffee

Obviously you're going to want something in between the two. Now with a blade grinder, you get some grinds that are course, some that are pulverized into dust. Therefore, some grinds are over extracted and some are under extracted. It's inconsistent and some day's you'll have okay coffee while other days you'll have bad coffee. I say if you can just get a burr grinder.

Digital Gram Scale:
Why the US refuses to use the universally accepted and preferred metric system is still a mystery to me (besides the fact now that...never mind I won't get into it). For our coffee purposes, I always encourage people to weigh things out. It doesn't take long, and it saves you from wasting coffee and allows you to repeatedly make awesome coffee every time. I always compare coffee making very much like baking a cake. If you add 3 cups of water instead of the 2 that the recipe calls for, you're going to get some drastic differences in that cake. Same with coffee. If you're going by the measurements I'll be giving you but decided to add 28 grams instead of 26 grams of coffee, you will get very different results. Coffee's a finicky beast. For this reason, and in addition to not wanting to waste coffee, I say that the gram scale is very important. You can get one for anywhere from $20-60

V-60 Pour Over:

There are many different good ways to brew coffee. From a Chemex to Aeropress to French Press to siphon and beyond, there are many brew options to work with. For today, we're using one of my favorites, the Hario V-60 Pour Over. I like the V-60 because it's easy to use, makes a tasty cup, and the $25 price tag makes this a good bargain for good coffee making. I could go on into further detail why I like this method, but I'll save you from my excess and unnecessary ranting.

Drip Kettle:

This piece of equipment is kind of pricy, but if you're looking for long term use it's a good investment. This will allow you to pour consistent streams of water when brewing which is very important in making good coffee and for the sake of repeatability. This piece of equipment will run you about $50

Tea Kettle/ Water Boiler: You know what this is. It boils water. I use this guy, pictured to the right. Use whatever will get that water to a boil. Whistle kettles bug me, so I use this Capressi Water Kettle. No whistle and, most importantly, looks cool when it starts boiling.

Now if you're thinking, "that's a lot of equipment just for a cup of coffee," I would remind you that we're making an amazing cup of coffee here for you, everyday. Artisan cups of coffee run for about $3-7 a cup, so if you do the math you'll see that over a short period of time you'll be saving money by making these cups at home rather than going out and buying them daily. On top of that, you'll have the freedom to use different beans, try different measurements, and see what kind of results you get. For me, it's a hobby. A tasty hobby. And if you're looking for a one stop shop that'll get you most of these items at a REALLY good price check out Portola's online store for the V-60 Bundle Kit. $100 and your set with everything I've mentioned and more.

Coffee's one of those things that many people use to survive in the morning. Maybe that's you too. If coffee's something that you'll be drinking every single day, why settle for something that doesn't taste good unless you drown it in creamer or sugar (which isn't really coffee as much as it's just coffee flavored sugar). If it's that important to you, it's worth the investment of a couple extra bucks and an extra minute or two.

Brewin' Time!
Wow, I think I wrote too much. Intermission time. Go take a break, grab some Goldfish, listen to this, then pass Go, Collect $200 and advance token to nearest railroad. And then read my next entry.

Best Compliment to a Good Cup of Coffee

Well not really. This is just what happens when you grab what you think is a breakfast bar, only to find out it's filled to the brim with prenatal goodness. By the way, it tasted like peanut butter flavored chalk. Men: stay away; I've taken one for the team to report this back to you. You're welcome.

today's bible reading:
1 Samuel 28 (I always wondered if Star Wars got the name for the Ewok home, Endor, from this passage...hmm)

Coffee Review: Organic Bolivia Anjilanaka by Intelligentsia

It doesn't take much to get me to brew up some coffee at Casa Hernandez. My cousin, and fellow coffee connoisseur, Fabian just got a new bag of Intelligentsia Coffee that he wanted to bring over and brew up. Obviously, this is a no brainer for me; bring it on over!

So, thinking about it, this post could go two different ways:
1) I explain to you, in deep unnecessary detail, the visit from my cousin Fabian. This would include our family history, embarrassing stories from our childhood, and us ending our visit with a nutritious family dinner consisting of sloppy joes and curly fries.
or
2) I give you, in brief detail, our findings from our awesome coffee brew party.

Let's go with option 2.

Organic Bolivia Anjilanaka
Roaster: Intelligentsia Coffee
Region/Farm: Caranavi, Las Yungas

Processing: Wet Processed
Varietal: Typica, caturra, catuaí

We decided to prepare this coffee two different ways so we could determine which method we thought would be most tasty for our home brewing. Here were our findings:

Method: V-60 Pour Over
Grind: Course-Medium
Grind/Water: 26g/410g
Pour Method: 60 (agitate/bloom)-140-220-300-380 (agitate)-410
Initial Water Temp: 200 F
End Water Temp: 152 F
Extraction Yield: 19.23%
TDS: ???? (because I messed up in my measurements...bahh)
Aroma: Berry, spices
Taste: Fruity, cloves, dark chocolate (especially as it cools)
Mouth feel: Slight acidity, mild.

The Verdict: This is the part where most of my friends would say, 'yeah, I have no idea what those numbers have to do with coffee, just tell me how it tasted.' Alright alright! So at first slurp, it honestly did not taste as good as I had imagined it to be. Usually that first sip, if you brewed it right, is where you get those crisp, clean, slightly acidic notes on the tip of your tongue (obviously depending on what kind of coffee you have). This had a bit of a bite to it. I wish that I would have been able to measure the TDS (total dissolved solids) because that would have given me a pretty good indication if I brewed the coffee too strong. However, one thing you always want to remember with coffee is that it is complex. There are many variables that contribute to the overall taste of the coffee. The first variable I thought of was the water temperature at the time of consumption. The serving temp I had for this coffee was 152 F, which for me is usually a bit too hot for my liking (I usually like mine in the 140-145 range). So I waited about a minute for it to cool and once I had it at about 145 F, it was pretty good. Coffee continues to develop character as it cools off, so keep that in mind when drinking your coffee. The fruitier notes definitely kicked in once it had time to cool.

So was it amazing? No, however it was still good. One thing I'm trying to stay away from is knocking specialty coffee roasters for not having shockingly amazing coffee. To me, as long as their products taste good I'll consider that a win for them.  Typically your South American coffees end up being a bit heavy ended, such as your Brazil's, your Columbia's, etc... Given that, and the fact that I'm a bigger fan of the wilder berry tasting coffees, I'd say that this coffee was good. Have I had better? Yes, but this stuff still knocks the pants off that Yuban you had at work this morning.

After less than stellar results from our pour over, we were interested to see what this coffee offered run as an espresso...

Method: Mypressi Twist Espresso
Grind: Fine
Grind/Water: 18g/2 oz (approx)
Pre-infusion: Yes
Shot Pulled: 20 sec
Initial Water Temp: 207 F
Aroma: Berry, dark chocolate
Taste: Bright apricot, brown sugar, slight limy acidity
Mouth Feel: Light yet full body, mellow

Coffee drinker by day, amazing musician by...well,  by day too. And night.
FabianChavez.com

The Verdict: Smiles were all around with this coffee done as an espresso.
Fabian's first words after finishing his shot was "Dude, lets make another one!"  Crema was nice and rich in color. The sweetness given off from this coffee as an espresso was smooth and mellow, yet sugary with a hint of acidity as you finish it. We sipped that shot and gave each other imaginary high fives and 'atta boys, thinking that this coffee had redeemed itself in our graces. There was no debating between the two of us that this coffee is best served as an espresso rather than pour over. Again, it's not a bad pour over, it's just better as an espresso.

Overall, it was a nice side by side comparison between the two coffees. One coffee done two ways. Both tasted good but the espresso just tasted better. We felt that the espresso brought out the more subtle fruity notes and made them more vibrant and noticeable. It's neat how brewing coffee as an espresso does that. A friend of mine once described espresso brewing as a caricature, or exaggeration  of that particular coffee; meaning if the coffee tastes of berries, it's likely to taste really bright and vibrant as an espresso. Or if it had subtle chocolate undertones, an espresso would really bring out that chocolate to the forefront of your tasting, making it rich and dark.

If you ever get your hands on Intelligentsia's Organic Bolivia, try it different ways. I believe that the beauty in coffee is in it's complexity. There are so many factors that contribute to the coffee's overall taste, so play around with your brew methods. Don't be afraid to mess up. Record what you do, adjust your variables when somethings off, and repeat your method once you get it just right. In the words of the late Aaliyah:
"If at first you don't succeed, you can dust it off and try again, you can dust yourself off and try again, try again."
Literally. Dust off that portafilter and try again (wow, that quote worked perfectly for this coffee entry).

Life's Just Better In Twos: Cognoscenti & Sqirl with B&G

If you know me, you know that Saturday at 7:30am is as good as 3am for most normal people, meaning I'm asleep. So at 7:30am, my good friend Terry texts me asking if I wanted to go check out Cognoscenti out in LA. An hour and a half later, in some sort of half daze, I mustered up the strength to reach for my phone and acknowledge the message. Unfortunately, my schedule that day was pretty blocked, however once I realized that I didn't have to go to that baby shower,  I called up Terry telling him that it was game on!

Cognoscenti Coffee
First stop on our list (of at the time, only one shop), was to Cognoscenti in Culver City. I had heard of this place from a friend who said this place was definitely legitimate, so I was ready for a good cup.

Ambiance: If you go into any place that's trying to be any place in LA, you're going to expect the obligatory modern art styled architecture, which is very much the setting in this place. I liked it. Very clean, very to the point. Apparently the owner was/is an architect, so the store's minimalistic design was very important to the overall feel of this shop. Seating is only a couple of tables and chairs, however the place had some bars that you could stand by and enjoy your brew, which Terry and I did.
The Coffee: If you look behind the counter, you'll be sure to notice the plethora of "good coffee" that Cognoscenti has the potential of serving. This includes serving from awesome roasters like Counter Culture, Ritual, Wrecking Ball, Phil and Sabastian (from the Great White North), and Sightglass for their espresso.

The Verdict: Now I can't vouch for anything other than what I had to drink, which was my cappuccino. Looking back, I should of had a cup of their single cup brewed coffee, but life's always 20/20 in hindsight. I've had Sightglass before over at Coffee Commissary, so I was expecting something of that caliber. however my coffee was just "good." It wasn't over the top great, it was just good. Because of that, I'm not going to complain, saying, 'oh it should have been mindblowing,' because that's just unfair. One thing I was hoping for was for the milk to be a tad more flavorful. Instead it was just milk. Again, minor detail for many, however I was hoping for the milk to be a just a bit creamier for my liking. Not frothier, but just creamier. I won't hold it against them because I feel that would be just too finicky.

After Terry and I were done, we figured, 'we're in LA, lets go big before we go home.' So we went to another coffee shop (at least that's my idea of going big). Why? Why not, is the better question.


Sqirl with B&G
I had never had heard of Sqirl with B&G, but figured, what the heck; and what a pleasant surprise it was. As we drove around the very Latin community of Virgil Ave. we would have missed it had it not been for the group of not-Latin people crowding around the door of this hole in the wall. To top it off the place had no signage (obviously because signage is so not cool). Young white kids in very Latin community in front of a shop with no sign; that was enough of a sign to tell us that we had arrived.

Ambiance: First off, I'll just start with saying that I am a big fan of their very unconventional style. Seating was unique, as we had chairs and a crate for table (outdoor seating, by the way). While some may not find this as something they like, I thought that its style made it unique; not in a bad way, but in a memorable way. Throw in some good LA weather and you're set. Terry and I were fortunate enough to share this experience with some local strangers that let us sit at their, um, crate. I think being able to share a meal and coffee with total strangers who were just really nice people may have also made this experience that much better.

The Coffee: First let me start by emphasizing that this is not just a coffee shop. Sqirl's claim to fame is in their preserves, which were absolutely fantastic. However, in addition to their yummy menu of assorted jams with toast and other tasty items, they serve awesome coffee (and by awesome I mean Heart Coffee). Not only do they carry good coffee, but their baristas definitely know what they're doing. From espresso based drinks to iced pour overs, this place knows how to brew correctly. I had the pleasure of having (one of my favorites) an Ethiopia Yukro on their Kalita pour over. It was brought out to me on a chopping block with a small carafe of coffee and a drinking bowl in lieu of a traditional coffee mug. Presentation was fantastic. Coffee was well done; very tea like in both color and taste, sweet berry mouth feel. Smooth from start to finish. Paired with a nice meal and good company; couldn't get any better. Your order is taken by a waiter or waitress so interaction with you barista is pretty non-existant unless you make the extra effort to go to the bar and ask some questions.

The Verdict: As you can tell from my descriptions of this place, I absolutely hated it. I kid. This place fantastic. Sqirl's high standards for preserves was matched with their high quality coffee. Their coffee was spot on, in terms of brew method and overall quality of their final product. Again, I can only say that their pour over was great, but from what I was hearing from other customers, their espresso based drinks were also very nice. Good baristas and Heart is a winning combo.

Now I say life's better in twos because I'm a firm believer in a coffee experience for at least 2. Coffee is one of those things where you want feedback. You want to know if your suspicions of what you're tasting is in fact either as delicious or disgusting as you think they are. Next time you go out for coffee, go ask a friend to get coffee with you. Shoot, ask me to go get coffee with you. I'm down.

This is my wife. And I love her.

"I'm glad you have this outlet now! Now you can tell other people about your coffee stuff, and not just me."- My Wife (not a coffee lover)

I love this woman and her honesty. Honesty is one of those things that seems to be less and less prevalent these days. I am glad that, when others may just try to be nice with their answers, I know I can always get a straight answer out of this beautifully pregnant woman.

"The wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy"
Proverbs 27:6

Glad I get both wounds and kisses from this lady.

Do you have a friend or spouse that has a hobby you can care less about, yet still support? Careful when answering that questions,  please (unless you're okay with sleeping in the garage this week...it's been cold out lately).

"You know what, you should just start a blog about all the coffee shops you've been to and just...I dunno, talk about them"

-Jessie Quintana

So that's what I plan on doing.

I guess after I was told this by a good friend of mine today at church, I realized that, 'Yeah! I should totally sit in front of a computer and type out my coffee nonsense for the heck of it.' Just for good measure I also ran it by my wife and she gave me the thumbs up for it too, which is typically how I make many of my decisions. Some people have a Magic 8 Ball; I have my wife.

Some people watch sports as a hobby. I make latte art.

I enjoy a good cup of coffee. I really do. Probably more than your average coffee drinker does. Definitely more than your Folger's coffee drinker does. I think it was about a year and half ago that I started really enjoying coffee. I'm not going to sit here and make you think I'm some kind of coffee expert that's been drinking coffee since before it was cool. I haven't. You want to know why I started drinking coffee? It started with this song. Some guy talking to a girl about getting some coffee together late at night.  I remember telling my wife, "I really wish I liked coffee, so we could be cool and go hang out at coffee shops after dinner and stuff."

Long story short, I started drinking coffee, which was much to my wife's grief (I'll explain later, or maybe after I start blogging enough, you'll wish I hadn't had the stuff and just stopped blogging). And I didn't drink just coffee. I started drinking Portola coffee (I'll do a post about this place in future posts, as well as many others). It was the first coffee experience I had. The place was brand new and had just opened about a week prior. We walked into this totally hipster looking place after dinner and ordered from some menu that had all these descriptions of coffee like "berry mouthfeel, honeysuckle finish" and "fruity, blood orange, snozzberry." I was like, "Dude, fruit flavored coffee sounds awesome! This is gonna be rad!" I was handed my hand crafted cup and as I reached for the sugar by the coffee lids the barista asked me, before I tainted it with additives,  to try the coffee black. So I did. I did it and gave one of my weird halfway smiles; one of those I-just-gotta-make-it-look-like-I-really-like-this-stuff kind of face to the barista. I told her, "Oh yeah! This tastes fantastic!"when in reality, I was as ready as ever to head over to the counter and drown that sucker with sugar.

However, that first coffee experience somehow led to a second. Which led to a third, and then a fourth, and so on and so forth (which, in fact, is also how most drug addictions start; just thought I'd throw in that fun fact). Now it's probably just annoying to my friends, as I describe some coffees as having 'such fruity notes and creamy mouth feels and blah blah blah blah blah,' and Instagram my latest latte artwork that I'm trying to improve on. Regardless, over the past year and a half I've grown to develop quite the affection toward the brewed beverage and, as mentioned before, intend on talking about it here in this safe place. It's safe because this blog has the word "coffee" in it. It makes it okay. And the fact that I could very easily disable any comments on this blog if I received any negative feedback, which would, in turn, make this blog an unsafe place for me to rant (I joke... I do not intend on doing that).

Speaking of intentions, I'd like to forewarn you that I did not just want to make this a blog about coffee. The reason being is that I, personally, would be bored if I just talked about coffee. I feel that most people who are interested in something aren't just interested in one single thing. We are unique people who are multi-faceted. I'm not just a coffee drinker, I'm a husband. I'm a brother. I'm a friend, a son, and a soon to be father. I'm a musician, I'm a hard worker and most importantly to me, I'm a child of the Living God. I sound like I'm typing out some kind of resume, but all that is to say that we're so much more than just one type of person and I'd be a liar if I told you my life revolves around just coffee. It doesn't. However I  do hope to have discussions with anyone who reads this blog regarding the variety of topics I blog about. I will say a lot of them will be about coffee, while others may be about my cat, or whatever. I called this blog "Life & Some Coffee" because I intend on talking about just that; life. And also about coffee.