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Gwen

Female

Seattle, WA

United States

Profile Information:

What is your position in the coffee industry?: barista, barista trainer, coffee enthusiast
Where are you located? ( City and Country ): Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA
How many years have you been in the industry?: 4
If you are a barista or shop, are you interested in a barista exchange with another coffee shop/barista?: yes
Tell us more about your coffee shop or barista skills.: I am experienced at the espresso bar and can make a wide variety of specialty drinks, including lattes, cappuccinos, mochas etc. I can adjust the grind to perfect from a deadlock in two tries or less. I have food prep and sanitation skills as well as some bakery prep skills. I also know the grind settings required for a variety of home brew methods, including but not limited to moka espresso, toddy, vacuum, neapolitan, french press, melitta, and chemex brewers. I have experience using the aforementioned brew methods. I can back flush an espresso machine. I can consistently pour latte art. I also have some knowledge of the inner workings of the espresso machine, particularly in relation to cleaning. I have extensive knowledge of tea history and brewing and I have been involved in the Tea Science 101 research group since it's birth in the company. I have some office experience, particularly with filing. I'm organized, punctual, and efficient. I took three years of Spanish in high school and two of German, though In am out of practice with both. If I think of more I'll add it later.
What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?: London, England is probably my first choice. I wouldn't mind traveling elsewhere in Europe.
About Me:: I live for: music, random information, vinyl, coffee AND tea, my friends, animals, travel, excitement, adventure, playing guitar, my bed, and thrifting. I collect coffee brewing apparatuses (I'm still missing a vacuum pot and an ibrik). My favorite music is Punk, The Clash being my favorite band, but I'm pretty open minded. I'm a complete Anglophile. I love reading; sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, romance, classics, horror, and non-fiction particularly in regards to music and/or punk. If I were a car, I would be an '85 Toyota Tersell, white, with rust around the wheel wells, no power steering, no anti-lock breaks, two-doors, automatic. Incidentally that was the first car I ever owned. *grins*
About My Company:: Phoenix Coffee believes that you can change the world by serving a really good cup of coffee. I'm not sure about that applying to the entire world, but I've seen it work on peoples' personal worlds. The feeling that I can make someone's day better by talking to them and giving them some great coffee; well that's Phoenix to me. We're incredibly active in our local communities. Our strongest point, aside from great coffee, is customer service.
What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?: The people and the coffee.
Website:: http://csuohio.facebook.com/profile.php?id=85700300

Comment Wall:

Caitlin

i would never exchange you, yer too indispensable in my life! ;)

Feb 25, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hi gwen.. would you like to have a friend in Australia?? I'd love to have a Barista friend in Ohio! my sister lives in Columbus Ohio.. I'm sure she'd be happy to hear that someones making a good brew near-by!
Anyway.. have a wonderful day!
Ben

Feb 25, 2008
Stephen

nice photo gwen

Feb 26, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hi Gwen,
The coffee scene down here is a blast! Heaps of people really putting effort into making it wonderful.. I love it! I get to work with heaps of them.. I wouldn't really call it work though? I see you like tea too! that's cool - I've managed to do a few tea master classes over the last few years.. I find it very interesting..What kind of coffee machine are you using at the moment? I've been re-building one for a friend this past week :( but with a couple of tricks.. it's come up fine, making wonderful espresso mmmmm
look forward to hearing from you soon
coolbeans.

Feb 26, 2008
Ben Gleeson

French press is great - especially when your working with single origins.

I've been working with machines for about 2.5 years i guess.. which all came out of wanting to understand why some machines where getting better results than others.. I rebuilt a few machines that were past their prime.. and asked lots of the top tech nerds heaps of questions! then it was all about experimenting with them. I brought an Elektra Barlume because I loved the look of them - and they had a reputation of running too hot.. I wanted to prove that you could 'tweak' them to kick some espresso butt! It took a while, but it's amazing now! I've also rebuilt an ecm giotto to give me dryer steam - and more thermo consistency - I hope I'm not boring you..
Believe it or not, machines are not my passion! I just wanted to understand them.. I love making and drinking coffee the most! and teaching people to do the same is what drives me!
In terms of dosing.. I've always subscribed to the theory of sight dosing - which is not so much about the journey of the dose - just the destination.. the other thing is that I try to dose on demand as much as possible..
How far away is your coffee shop from Columbus? I'm hoping to visit my sister by the end of the year.. that's if I can make some time for it..
Hope you have a great day!
Cheerio

Feb 27, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hey Gwen,
Roasting hey? yeah.. I was lucky enough to work with 3 of the countries leading roasters when I was with Toby's Estate coffee here in Sydney! We had close to 50 different green beans that we could work with at any given time! We would regularly have cupping sessions together - I was looking after quality control and training.. so I got to spend heaps of time learning about roasting.. got to participate in creating a new blend.. It was fantastic. I'm actually starting a roasting business on the Central Coast at the moment.. we're about 5 weeks away from opening our doors.. so I'm gonna get lots of practice with roasting! we're also moving my school out to the new facility.. which going to be great as we've now out grown the first one! it's really exciting and scary right now.. but anything worth doing is usually a stretch at first!
nice talking to you Gwen.. hope you have a cool day ; )

Feb 28, 2008
joe o'hara

Hi Gwen,
Let me know when you're in the uk.
We always need good freelance baristas and we can introdue you to some of the people that run the better shops.

Joe

Mar 6, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hi Gwen,
Thanks for the stats..I'm not too sure about all the bits and pieces.. but here we go!
Mod. stands for model, 85 in that number stands for when that model was first released - 1985. As for the other numbers.. I'm not sure. Freq and pot both refer to the type of power required, while the Press. stands for pressure in the boiler - which can handle a maximum of 2 bars of steam pressure.
As for your weather - wow! my parents just got back from that part of the stats and they where sing that same tune.. crazy! I can't imagine it?
How is everything with you now? still in a blizzard - if that's even how you spell it - don't know?
Hope you have a SUPER day!

Mar 16, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hey Gwen,

Good news about the snow!

The bars in the specs you gave me refers to to the boilers capacity - or rating.. which has nothing to do with the water going through your portafilter.. you'll notice on your machine that their are to readings on your machine gauge.. 15 and 2. The side that has 15 on it reads your pump pressure - which when running a shot through should read somewhere between 9 and 10 bars.. the other should float somewhere between 0.9 and 1.2.. - that's the steam pressure in the boiler - where you get your steam from. Bars simply means atmospheres.. so the pressure that the world puts on us ;) x whatever it reads..
I hope that makes some sort of sense - let me know if it doesn't.. and I will try to explain it better : )
Have a great day tomorrow Gwen!

Mar 18, 2008
Caitlin

Just so y'all know, Gwen is one of the most fabulous baristas, co-workers, employees, and friends I've ever experienced (and I've worked with a lot of really great people, so thats saying something!). I've watched her sell beans based on a customer's fine wine tastes in a charming and knowledgeable way that makes my jaw drop. She sucks up knowledge of coffee and tea and then creatively makes it her own and presents it to others in a way that they can connect with. Gwen is one of the pioneers of our Tea Science Crew and eagerly experiments and educates. She works hard, smiles big, keeps a pristine bar, and is an incredible asset to our community. Gwen is a gift and whatever shop in the UK finally steals her away from us will be about the luckiest place in the the world. Love you Gwennie!

Apr 18, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hi Gwen,
Hows things with you - nice rap from Caitlin! maybe you should come to Australia ; ) we've got nicer weather.. Anyway, bit of news - I managed to win the National tea infusion challenge the other week 'yay' so that's pretty exciting! anything new with you?

Apr 30, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Hey Gwen, it was the first one ever run in oz, and was held at one of our big industry events.. it was great fun, I had to prepare and serve a traditional (hot) tea, and a iced tea infusion with a black or green base.. I went with the Chinese White tea Pui mu tan for my traditional, and I made an Red Iced Chai for the cold one. It was judged by a panel of 3 tea experts.. I won a two and a half thousand dollar tea set - which was pretty cool and I get a double page spread in the next cafe culture mag over here! I would have loved to go to vegas for the convention but am flat-out busy over here with the new roasting business.. Next year! How's things with you?

May 7, 2008
Ben Gleeson

Happy New year Gwen!
It sounds like you're having a good time oganising barista jams etc, pretty cool. So, with Australia as oppossed to England... I'm not too sure how strict the laws are over here, could be similar? I've asked one of my Canadians barista buddies to join BX, and he is currently working in Vietnam but was working for a couple of years in Australia before that.. and should be pretty up to date on what you need to do to get in. His name is Nat, and he's promised me he'll join in the next few days - so I'll keep you posted. On another note, looks like I'll be heading to WBC in Atlanta this year - as a spectator.. So if you're heading their too, we should catch-up ; )

Jan 6, 2009
Ben Gleeson

Hey Gwen,
I will be in Ohio next week, just wondering if I can come by your work and grab a wonderfully made cup of coffee? let me know when you'll be there! Cheers,

Mar 29, 2009
Ben Gleeson

Hi Gwen,
Back in Australia, sorry I missed you! I was in Cleveland for 1 day and spent the rest of my time in Columbus.. Had a good coffee at Cafe Brioso in C-bus, not much else though : (

Apr 24, 2009