Cappa - Short for a cappuccino, preferably a 5.5oz single shot drink with approx 1-2cm of foam
Flatty - Short for Flat White, hopefully you’ll get a double shot 5.5oz drink, with 1cm foam, and some latte art.
Spro - The most important, short for espresso, can be a double ’spro or single ’spro
Baristi - Plural of barista, heavily disputed!
Reg - Ie. “where the hell is my Reg?!” Short for Reg Barber, the popular tamper brand.
Skinny - short for Skimmed milk, or water as I like to call it (affectionately of course)

Just a short list for now, please comment me with more!

Chris, Common Grind

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1. Discussion Post: Drink Sizes Well this topic has been a bugbear of mine for...

1st @whereduck with 9
2nd @seamusMcFlurry with 7
3rd @WOnet with 6, a commendable score with a late finish
4th @Richibear with 4, blaming “tweetdeck freaking out”

@whereduck has thus won a bag of Hasbean Coffee!

If you wanna play next time, follow me on @commongrind, Thanks guys, and enjoy playing next time!

Chris, Common Grind

• A @richiebear Colombia Agua Azul
• B @whereduck Antuiga Bella Caroma
• C @seamusmcflurry Bolivia Cenaproc
• D    @whereduck Kenyan Doman
• E   @richiebear Guatemalan El Bosque
• F   @seamusmcflurry Costa Rican Finca Zamorana
• G   @richiebear Kenyan Gethumbwini Peaberry
• H   @seamusmcflurry   Ethiopian Harrar
• I   @richiebear Brazil Inglaterra
• J   @seamusmcflurry   Bolivian Julia Cenaproc
• K   @whereduck   Hawaiian Kauai
• L   @seamusmcflurry   El Salvador La Illusion
• M @WOnet Kenyan Muburi
• N   @whereduck   Mexico Organic Nayarit
• O   @wonet Kono Ono
• P   @WOnet   New Guineau Organic Purosa
• Q   @whereduck   Yemen Qishr
• R   @WOnet   Panama Royal Select
• S   @whereduck  Nicaragua SHG CofE
• T   @WOnet   Costa Rican Tarrazu
• U   @whereduck   Colombia Union de Narino
• V   @whereduck   Guatemalan Vista Hermosa
• W   @seamusmcflurry   Ethiopia Wild Bonga Forest
• X   @whereduck   Papua New Guineau Kimel X
• Y   @WOnet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
• Z   @seamusmcflurry   Colombia Huila Zephyr

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Follow me @commongrind and please tweet this around

Chris, Common Grind

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1. The Coffee Game Right guys. I want to start something called The Coffee...

When I started my position at The Angel Coffee House in Lincoln. They were using a well known commercial company to supply the blend. And it showed, it wasn’t the freshest coffee in the world, and all the subtleties of the coffee were long gone. But what it did have was biting bitterness and acidity, making it the ‘perfect’ blend to come through milk. But not in a great way. Unfortunately this is common in a lot of start-up coffee shops. The commercial companies can offer great help for start-ups, including supplying blends, equipment, machine and more in one easy package, and it can be hard for business owners, especially ones without any in-depth knowledge in coffee, to know when they have grown out of these big companies.

After lengthy discussions, some calm, some more.. enthusiastic so to speak. We decided a change of supplier was in order. Having worked with Steve Leighton of Hasbean coffee for the past two years at Coffee Aroma, he seemed the logical decision, and soon an email was flying through the interweb to Stafford, and The Angel Blend V1.0 was born. It was a three part blend of Brazil Fazenda Cachoiera (40%), Guatemala El Bosque (40%) and. After the proper de-gassing period, a time of great excitement and impatience, it was finally ground and run through the machine. And what came out was something magical. A fantastically sweet, complex, liquorice espresso, fantastic to drink, something really special.

With excitement of what we were about to experience we ran it through again, steamed up some full fat milk and created our first ever Angel V1.0 cappuccino, we opted for a 5.5oz single shot but alas, things weren’t right. This magical espresso was drowned by the milk. And whilst it’s quality still shone through, Max correctly guessed that the customers would miss the ‘hit in the face’ quality of our previous blend. We ran with the blend for a few weeks, but alas, it wasn’t to be, and The Angel Blend V1.0 was to be forever lost in the annuls of time.

Roll on The Angel Blend V2.0. This was a simpler two part blend of Guatemalan El Bosque, and Sumatran Lingtong Takengon. The Guatemalan was there to bring the liquorice and complex quality to the espresso, and the Sumatran there mainly to give it some more kick to bring it through the milk. With trepidation this time, we ran it through the machine. And as espresso, it didn’t fit my idea of what I wanted. My taste buds still reeled with the magic of the previous blend, and this less complex, but much more acidic espresso didn’t tick my boxes. However, I persisted, and pulled an Angel V2.0 latte. And straight away, Max’s point, and this blend became clear. It was a different drink, much more of a kick through the milk, with a lovely chocolatey flavour, but still, the acidity niggled away at me.

We ran with this blend for a few months, but as it got colder the Sumatran became a naughty child. Refusing to de-gas, intensifying the acidity. The impatient El Bosque didn’t have time for this, and soon lost its subtleties before the Sumatran was ready to give its part. The blend wasn’t working, the acidity became too much to handle, and the degas period too long. After more discussion we admitted our second defeat, and again, I was sent to Steve to request The Angel Blend V3.0.

With this third blend, Steve was finally set free. During the months of the first two blends, The Angel Coffee House has finally seated into its status as a speciality coffee bar. We became more firm with our decisions, more confident with our coffee choices and more prepared to show the people of Lincoln what coffee can be. Our brief was simple. We wanted a coffee that showed off. With complex acidity, fruit, and a overall taste you could never forget. As always Steve’s ever working mind started ticking away, and within a few days sent us an email detailing our new blend.

For a base he’d decided to go for the stunning 2007 Cup of Excellence winning Nicaraguan Limoncillo, a coffee I know well from my cuppings and drinking it as filter, but not an espresso I had ever tried. With 50% of the blend being the Limoncillo promises of complex green acidity, and a sweet caramel acidity filled me with excitement. To then back this stunning single origin up, in comes a second 2007 Cup of Excellence winner offering 25% to the blend, the Costa Rican Finca Da Licho. Lending more fruit in the form of raspberries, and some sweet honey to help the caramel balance out the blend and finally the glue to hold it together comes in the form of the Colombian Agua Azul.

With more excitement than I felt on christmas morning, I awaited the blend. And finally, on a Monday morning, the delivery man pulled up, and I ran out the door to intercept him at the van. I raced the coffee back in. Luckily it had been roasted three days previously, so wasn’t too fresh to run through the machine. I tore the bag open, through it in the grinder, and pulled my first shot. Everything I’d asked for, and everything Steve had bravely promised jumped out the machine. The fantastic complexity of the green apple Limoncillo, the luscious mid palette of juicy raspberries, and the long smooth honey aftertaste. Straight away I pulled a second shot, this time into 5.5oz cappuccino, and Steve again showed his point, the blend shone through, the caramel working perfectly with the creamy milk. The raspberries peeking through to give a delicious hint of fruit, and the acidity bravely cutting through to give perfect balance. Finally we were happy, The Angel Blend V3.0 had ticked all boxes, and more.

Blend development isn’t an easy task to get right. What works for some, fails for others. Some coffees thrive in their environment, some play up. You can’t be shy, you can’t be nervous, you have to shout your coffee from the rooftops, and finally, that is what we achieved.

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Chris, Common Grind

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1. Pumphries Barista Jam Write-up As promised, here is the write-up for the UK Barista...

It will be played on twitter, and the premise is based around naming a coffee for each letter of the alphabet. I’ll announce the letter I’m looking for, and the first person to @commongrind me with a coffee beginning with that letter wins the round.

At the end of the alphabet, the game is over, and whoever won the most rounds, wins a bag of coffee, courtesy of Common Grind.

A few rules.

1. It has to be the coffee name, not the country name.
2. In the case of strange letters, ie. ‘x’ I will award creativity.
3. The winner will be the first tweet I receive, my decision is final
4. Each game round, I will keep lists of coffee, and it will get harder and harder!

I hope you guys get involved, follow me @commongrind to play along, I will announce the games at fairly short notice, so keep an eye out!

Chris, Common Grind

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1. The Coffee Game on 18th Jan at 8.30pm Playing the Coffee Game  at 8.30 PM today, (18th January)....

On top of this, my third reason is a switch from quantity to quality. I am working on a series of essays that focus on how I perceive my job as a barista, and its place within the industry. It’s a bit of a tangent to my normal posts, but I hope it will inspire discussion, thought and maybe a deeper appreciation of what baristas do.

Right.. podcast talk. The january podcast is going better than I could have ever hoped, with nearly 350 hits already. That’s 50 a day since the release on the 1st of January. On top of this, the previous two casts, December and November have each broken 500. Unfortunately I can’t track the stats of Common Grind 001 and Common Grind 002 due to a change in domain, however I’m expect these to sit around the 500 mark also, giving me a combined hit count of approaching 2500. This is fantastic, so a massive thanks to everyone round the world listening to my voice, and the next cast will be out 1st February, regular as clockwork!

Chris, Common Grind

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1. quick update Hey guys, Just wanted to post a quick update. Everything...

Common Grind has officially hit the twitterverse, and I want to try and hit 100 followers before the end of tomorrow, so please follow me @commongrind I can promise information, and cheap laughs!

Thanks guys!

Chris, Common Grind

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However, the good news is the January podcast is getting rather imminent. We have a cracking interview with James Hoffman of Square Mile recorded, we’ll be having a small chat with R-James, the Coffee Forums UK competition winner, and rather eccentric geordie. We will also be cupping a record six coffees for the cast, and finally will be having guest host Ashes first ever solo segment, so it’s going to be good one. And the first podcast of the new year.

So anyway, sorry for neglecting you guys, I hope you’ve all been enjoying my drunken tweets at @chrisweaver

Chris, Common Grind

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