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Greenway Barista

Male

south side of houston texas

Latvia

Profile Information:

What is your position in the coffee industry?: barista, coffee shop owner, barista trainer, coffee roaster, coffee enthusiast, consultant
Where are you located? ( City and Country ): greenway plaza
How many years have you been in the industry?: 10
If you are a barista or shop, are you interested in a barista exchange with another coffee shop/barista?: no
Tell us more about your coffee shop or barista skills.: learning to roast
learning to be a competitive barista
must represent where I am from and where I want to go
What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?: Japan
Brazil
Micronesia
Indonesia
Latvia
Italy
Vietnam
Belize
About Me:: UBC Americas "ultimate barista"
SCRBC competitor
Millrock Competitor
Learning how to roast coffee now.
Jumping into the competitive circuit
Coffee Culture advocate
Graphic design is 2nd to coffee
Entrepreneur
Donut Jedi Master
About My Company:: Coffee Street combines retail, catering, and consulting of espresso in a convenient location in Houston, TX. Our retail location is Greenway Coffee and Tea in 5 Greenway Plaza.
What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?: Farmers
Website:: http://seriouseats.com

Comment Wall:

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Mike

How's it Texas coffee?

Sep 28, 2008
Dan Streetman

thanks! it was a ton of fun, and I think everyone did really well.

fortunately for me, I found a little favor

Oct 1, 2008
Aaron Blanco

So great! What a fun time at Catalina. It was great meeting you there and I'm sure we'll get the chance to catch up again soon. Are you going to Austin for SCRBC?

Oct 1, 2008
Aaron Blanco

Well, maybe we'll get lucky and see you there at SCRBC. Should be a good time.

Cottonwood is busy having itself a good time. I hopped on Catalina's Synesso after the pours were done and pulled about 20 shots of Cottonwood.

On Jacinto, though, I would recommend waiting a couple weeks because I'm expecting new crop Guatemala to be in by then and since that's 50% of Jacinto, fresher would def'ly be better.

Rock.

Oct 2, 2008
Ken Palmer

Dave
You showed a interest in the Synesso May I be of service? We are the Houston distributors of Synesso We will have a Hybrid 3 Group in our show room soon feel free to come and try it.

Oct 8, 2008
Ken Palmer

None of the blends I am doing are MY espresso blend. Mine is propriatory and will have to be paid for. These blends is just me paying around and having fun watching all the crema and comparing to the "local" blends. I have a fresh one now called the Texas blend if you want some let me know where. If nothing else it is free coffee

Oct 9, 2008
Silence

Yao cafe, yeah yao pi jo,

Nov 4, 2008
Ed Kaufmann

We are at 275 Greenwich Street 10007. Check out 9th Street, Grumpy, Gimme!, I have been digging Variety lately too. If you end up in South Slope, hit South Side Coffee. There are a few more. I am sure Anne will take you on a great coffee tour.

Nov 18, 2008
Ken Palmer

Did you taste it??

Dec 17, 2008
Steve MacDowall

I like your new photos - Greetings from Canada - Steve

Jan 7, 2009
Steve MacDowall

thanks for adding me to your list -- have a great Sunday- ta Steve

Jan 18, 2009
Silence

It was a good game on Sat. I will call you when I get back!

Jan 19, 2009
Silence

BTW, is that your dog on BX?

Jan 19, 2009
Aaron Blanco

Thanks for your kind words on Peregrine (Espresso Three). I feel it is maybe the most complete espresso Brown has compiled to date. So yeah, you will be able to have it at Catalina for a little while to come, as Max has agreed to carry it for the next couple months (in addition to Gunslinger) until his espresso comes online. Tell your friends. :) No immediate plans to hit H-town...we are having a baby this week. So we'll see. But let me know if you're coming to S.A. and we'll geek out at our roasting space. Cheers!

Jan 19, 2009
Aaron Blanco

That'd be great. Bring donuts! :)

Jan 19, 2009
Michael Binns

Thanks for coming out. It was an awesome night. I will send you pictures once I get them all together from the multiple photographers.

Jan 20, 2009
Nicely

Fantastic! Black Cat is blowin' some minds out here LA! Thank you so much for the well wishings. I'm gonna be pourin' everything I got into this place in Venice. We're slated to open in March. I look forward to be making you something there! If you're in town before then I have been working at the Silverlake location. Hope to see you soon!

Jan 27, 2009
Lorenzo Perkins

bing bang

Jan 28, 2009
Ed Kaufmann

Excellent news! Who was your other fav? It is getting harder to do a quick tour of awesome shops in the city. More and more amazing shops each month. Thanks for the good words! I will pass them on to everyone.

Jan 28, 2009
Alun Evans

Ah...susu telor madu jahe. Its sometimes a little sweet for my tongue. We live not too far at all from Bogor. You have to let me know your plans, I dont mind at all setting up some coffee trips for you.

Jan 29, 2009
Alun Evans

Pagi Ecky. Rumah dan pabrik saya di daerah Sentul Selatan, sekitar 10 minute dari Bogor. Dulu, sebelum pindah ke Sentul, tinggal di Jakarta Barat.

Bogor masih terkenal kota hujan. Hari ini sudah 12 jam hujan terus dan deras. Acara saya batal karena takut banjir di gunung2 dekat Bandung. Mau bertemu Petani kopi.

Feb 1, 2009
Alun Evans

Sekolah Pelita Harapan tidak begitu jauh dari rumahku. Dulu, sebelum krisMon,hampir semua guru disana orang asing (banyak dari NZ). Kalo asli dari Bogor, Ecky keturunan Sunda?

Sebetulnya banyak orang Indonesia belum kelihatan kebun Kopi (atau Teh). Dont worry too much about it!

Feb 2, 2009
Alun Evans

How small are you looking at? Besides... better you buy from us than a broker. I can guarantee relationship coffees are purchased at a fair price PLUS give you some info and pictures about the villages they come from. When i say "Small" I am kind of hoping you are not after too much, rather than the opposite as most of our farming communities are small!

Feb 2, 2009
Alun Evans

agreed 100%. I would be fooling myself if I said I think Indonesian specialty coffee is adequately represented in the US!

Feb 2, 2009
Ginny Wang

Hi~ yeah, Silence is come to Taiwan lol~ andmaybe we'll meet in Atlanda.

Feb 5, 2009
Ken Palmer

I'm Back

Feb 8, 2009
James

ofcourse bro!!!! im here to learn everything i can!!!!!!!!!!

Feb 9, 2009
Andi

Thanks!

Feb 9, 2009
Silence

just got back to Houston, will find a time to visit you next week

Feb 10, 2009
Silence

Get your milk ready, I will show you what I got!! =p....

Feb 11, 2009
Lorenzo Perkins

I'm hanging out at the Guadalup-e store . . . did some catering for the Austin Marathon today (volunteers want coffee, not the runners). Give me a call if you are in the area 512-609-9899.

Feb 15, 2009
Alun Evans

We have 3 openings planned for this year...one may be as soon as March. One other is confirmed for 1st June (lease signed already). The third is hanging in the wind, as it depends somewhat on factors beyond my control. It would be fair to say I will not be spending too much time in country this year...but hoping 2010 will see me feet up at a villa in Seminyak, Bali enjoying the sunsets, occasionally checking on the Empire. OK, so I exagerate. No matter what I will be around 2010. My skype is alun_evans_merdeka but I generally only use it when I have broadband access

Feb 16, 2009
Alun Evans

Cool! If you want to bounce any Indo specific ideas off me, feel free to do so. Jakarta for sure is a huge potential market that has just been scratched on the surface at this stage. Our focus (retail) is the expat part of this market, which is like 50,000 people out of 15,000,000! There is a local guy now who is beginning to hit out at doing small "Kaki-Lima" type Coffee places...making it affordable for owner ops to get into the business. It will be interesting to see how it all progresses. For us, ultimately we are roasters first, retailers a distant third behind machines.

Feb 16, 2009
Dan Streetman

it was my pleasure!

I'll look forward to seeing your space next time I am in Houston. It will most likely be after USBC though.

Feb 16, 2009
Alun Evans

Yes, Malls may be the way to go. As you have probably heard the roading infrastructure here is diabolical. It can take 2 hours to travel 5km. To that extent Malls are like islands of sanity for shoppers. In NZ or Australia customers would happily (and easily) travel accross Auckland or Sydney for a Primo coffee experience. Here, at least in Jakarta, that is not going to happen. Malls also attract customers who will be there literally all day, a captive market so to speak. I think your concept would work well.

Feb 16, 2009
Sean Marshall

Nice...

Feb 16, 2009
Sean Marshall

Very Nice...=)

Feb 16, 2009
Jesse -D->

Hey man, you don't know me, but I noticed that you are in Houston and I was wondering if you had ever heard of a place called Boheme. I was reading about it and it sounde pretty cool. Just looking to see what you think. Thanks.

Feb 18, 2009
Jesse -D->

I'm always planning a trip to somewhere, someday it'll be houston.

Feb 18, 2009
Aaron Blanco

Whoah, cool! How much did you buy from Max? That's great. Thanks! Let me know how it comes out.

Feb 19, 2009
Aaron Blanco

Excellent. Well, thanks again. I hope your customers enjoy it.

Feb 19, 2009
Nat Paolone

Hey mate, I have been living in Saigon (HCMC) for a year now.

Feb 23, 2009
Sean Marshall

Hey man. Got some coffee for ya. I'll swing but and see ya in the mornin'.

Feb 23, 2009
Nat Paolone

Hi mate good to hear from you. In response to your question, the the term Barista is relatively unheard of here. Espresso is really in its infancy stages. All the people I teach, I introduce them for the first time to espresso stuff, so its all new. Also the precision and quality of beans and equipment necessary for good espresso is few and far between there. That being said, I do have one client with a LaMarzocco GB5 so its great working with them. However, one thing I learned from working at some of the best cafes/roasters in Australia is that really high end equipment such as a Synesso, GB5, Mistral, Mirage, double-boiler, etc... is not necessary to make great espresso. I have worked with many machines such as ECM, Faema, and other single boilers and produce awesome esresso.

The thing about Vietnam is that most people cannot justify spending more that $3000.00 for a machine, and don't even want to buy a water filter. Most filtered bottle water in Vietnam is sub-standard so this all affects the quality of the coffee.

I may be interested in the room your friend has for lease, if its not too expensive.

Talk soon,

Nat

Mar 1, 2009
Aaron Blanco

sounds lovely. wish i could swing in and try a couple doubles of it.

Apr 7, 2009
Aaron Blanco

Yeah, bro, I have no problem with that if you want to pick up your share of gas, hotel and common expenses, including van rental and hotel parking.

Apr 10, 2009
Aaron Blanco

Just give me a call or drop me an email (email on my website front page or Max has my number) and we'll iron out details.

Apr 10, 2009
Rob Tuttle

Hey David...I get into Houston at 6:00 Sunday. Want to grab a bite?

Apr 21, 2009
Rob Tuttle

I am good for whatever. I prefer to do something hat I can't get here in Atlanta. What is a cool local hangout? You have my cell number...right?

Apr 24, 2009
Hung Nguyen

Hi, if you are in Saigon again, don't forget to call me for some coffee cups.

Apr 28, 2009