Yes please! You know how I love spro in plastic jars! But seriously. Things are going good. We're gettin close to gettin open. I'll keep you posted. We'll have some pre-opening bashes. Good times. How's things at JPs? You didn't catch that crazy Holland disease did ya?

Hello Terika, greetings from Canada - Steve

Thanks Terika for adding me to your list - it's snowing agin outside - the nice thing is I have a mug of hot very good coffee in my hands. - Steve

http://www.baristaexchange.com/group/greatlakesbaristas

Thanks for joining the group! Hope to get out to JP's soon for some spro. Take care!

Hey Terika, not quite. If everything goes well we'll have a soft opening tomorrow. How's life in Holland?

Opening tomorrow at 8am. Live music at 8pm. If you can make it this way you should come hang out.

Hey, you going to be around when we come hang out on Sunday?

We'll be there around 4.

My first two songs were Bon Iver, second two songs were Owl City. Things went well. I won third. Looks like I'm headed to Portland next week.

Yeah, that's cool. It would probably be best to wait till I get back from Portland. Which will be a week from today. I'll send you a message next Monday with some times that would work. Is that cool? What kind of funny things is your espresso doing exactly?

Heard you were geekin' out during a lecture today and watching UStream. I'm so proud of you! Haha. I totally spaced and didn't catch any of it. Anyone stand out to you and who are you takin for the win this year?
OH! Did you get to see Ryan from MadCap? If so how did he do?

-bry

I saw that "jpscoffee" was on the livefeed for the USBC all day today. Are you guys feeding this through your shop's TV's? That really cool if you are.

Thanks yo. It went really well. Unfortunately, due to uncontrollable circumstances my coffee sucked so I didn't score so well. Ah well, next year is going to rock. When is good for you to come over and test your spro?

Cool stuff. I will plan on being there!

thanks for watching...good to feel supporters on the other side of the country. how's life in Holland.

Hey Terika, how about sometime Sunday afternoon? Say after 3 sometime? Let me know.

Sounds good. See ya then.

thanks. i'll check it out.

That's a very snazzy lookin' poster ya'll got for the throwdown.

Good work with the setup/rules and such... You drafted a fine document.

Oh... and I'm gunna go...

Planning on it - as long as all works out! Congrats on your win...err..ability to buy the judges...;-]
Nah it was fun - nice work

Yeah... I didn't get a chance to tell you guys ahead of time, but I had a meeting at my church about a trip I'm going on.

I'll keep you posted about the next one. I have a busy couple of months coming up. I know it's short notice, but you should totally go to Atlanta. We can all zip around on the show floor together, watch some WBC competition... you know... the usual, haha.

Terika,
The Classe 8 uses different electronics and has the display for programming but the temp monitoring and group/tank systems are identical. If you can get your hands on a scase, you should find you are in that 202-203 range. Classe 8s brought into the US in 2004-2005 were fitted with the larger restrictors in the system I spoke of. If you can scase, you would find out a group that is has not been used in the last 15 minutes with these larger restrictors will climb to around 207-208. They do reduce scale problems and this is why we use them around the world. Besides, most locations globally produce constant espresso which contiuously balances the temp on most machines. If your machine has the smaller restrictors, fitted around mid 2005-2006 till today in the US, you should find the temp plus or minus less than 2 degrees. If you let the group, with these restrictors, sit for half an hour, you will see the first part of the shot go up another two degrees but before you are halfway through the shot it will be back down in range.
A kind polite person responded to your post about HX machines. He was basing his knowledge upon the vast majority of machines out there that usually swing 14 degrees or more. I have to agree with him that almost all HX machines do swing radically. Some more than others. Rancilio has been actively refining the systems to provide you a more accurate espresso. The company does not advertise much about this.

Fortunately on your machine you can easily modify the temperature/pressure in the steam tank through programming. I still maintain proof is in the cup. When you are trying to get that last 5-10% out of your shot, which I commend, small changes can truly blossom your espresso. So, gather the espresso gurus at your location, sample a shot, adjust the temp, actually pressure, up .05 bar, let it stabilize for around five minutes, then sample again, then raise it again, sample again. You can easily go in the opposite direction as well.

The group incorporates a "soft infusion" chamber which is truly a key to the shot quality. It absorbs the shock that the industry has had since we went from lever machines to mechanical pump that drill water at 20 mph and 130 psi through the machine. It shocks and channels the coffee. This system has been copied by others due to its success. It has an effect of preinfusion but this is not its purpose. On the C8 you have the ability to electronically preinfuse but I suggest you avoid this until you are satisfied with everything else. Then see how it affects the flavor profile. Each coffee profile reacts differently.

One last thing when checking temperature. There has been a trend for the last few years to have the most totally stable temp at the group head. This is good in a lab. In the real world, we pull the portafilter away from the machine, add coffee, swing the PF back through air up to the group, thus lowering the assembly temp. In the real world, you want a machine that adds some temp at the beginning of the shot then, as you heat up the coffee the rest of the shot is stable at the desired temp. I'm sure you will find many who disagree with this concept but it is merely temperature, mass and physics if you truly want the coffee extracted at the right temp. Typically the top end Italian machines provide a temperature curve that does, deliberately provide this desired effect, slightly warmer for the first 10-15% of the shot.

I apologize for being so verbose. It's just the way my brain works.

Hey Terika, I never thanked you for a job well done running the throwdown. Also, nice pourin by the way. May you never lose the fervor to make great coffee. cheers

Hey yeah, Andy and I are planning to come on out at least...been meaning to RSVP. So you're sayin you can't pay off the judges this time? ;-]

Terika, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I don't think any of us will be out. We're headed out to Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon to check out Comet Coffee. Maybe next time. cheers

I think that I really, actually might be coming this time. I need to get a ride up to Holland (car still isn't working... gah) but I don't have anything going on, so we have that working for us.

ATL was an absolute blast. I know I had a great time and I think Sara did as well. I feel like we both learned a ton and she got some really great insight and maybe some leads into what she wants to do with journalism and coffee, etc.

Hopin' to see you Sunday.
-bry

are you tenae"s sister? if so i worked with her at the eBar in orlando and i think we hung out a couple of times.

i'm really good. running a small local shop now and getting ready to go to the Dominican republic in a month. I'm looking at creating self-sustaining coffee farms in India down the road. congratulations on graduating Seminary. that's awesome.

Lol Yep, getting married the next day... I think I may be busy
:)

Summers are busy so its hard to say but we will try our best. . You should bring the crew on a road trip to our Thursday night coffee jam. Every Thursday all summer from 6 to 9. No cost, no strings attached. Very informal way to learn and share.
Kurt

Thanks for the invite, but unfortunately I have a few appointments and old friends I'm spending time with on that day.

I hope to do coffee with you folks again.
~Sam

P.S. I saw Kurt already told you, but it would be great to have all you guys come to GR to hang out, do coffee, and enjoy some art in the gallery one of these Thursdays. Auf Wiedersehen!

Thanks for the invite. I'm not sure if anyone will be there for this one. It's the weekend of Sara's wedding and we're all involved in some capacity, trying to keep the shop open while helping set up for the wedding/reception.

I'll be there. Ticket will be purchased tomorrow...
And in response to your "undefeated" latte art record, you are so going down :0)
See ya soon. I'll probably be up there before the jam anyway so I'll let ya know if I'm planning on coming in...

Hey Terika, thanks for the invite, I'm totally not in the area anymore (I'll be back in town in November.) I miss the coffee world... nearest cafe is 20 miles away and everything tastes like crap!!

That's awesome. You never know. If its a nice day maybe we'll ride out again.

Dude, awesome job at the Plymouth Throw Down! Wish you guys could have come over to Zingerman's and played on the Slayer