Well just when I thought things weren't going to work out then ended up working out after all. I finally got all the plumbing and electrical done, I was putting the sheet rock up last night and mudding and taping (always fun) and even installed 1 of the 3 LCD tv's in the main dining area. Carpeted the lounge area to get ready for the furniture which they tried to deliver yesterday and wouldn't fit!! So now I have to go and pick out new furniture, that sucks. I am getting very excited to share my place with everyone and hopefully they will make it their place, we have some great music coming so it is going to be a fun time!Merry Christmas to everyone!BrianCyber Infusion
Read more…
I've been playing around with different name possibilities and logos for a while now.On one hand, I do wish that I had the name figured out as one less 'to do' on an already infinitely long list. On the other hand, I'm comforted by the fact that I'm not going to settle for a sub-par name that doesn't capture the essence of the business I'm making plans to create and that when the name finally does come to be, it will be 'the one' much in the same way that I knew my wife was 'the one'. Each one involves a labor of love.Sometimes I DO worry about being too picky, but I believe there's a lot to be said about the shop's name when it comes to the world of brand management.To use another bad analogy, I would imagine parents give just as much if not more consideration when considering names for their children, only I can't take the easy way out by naming the shop after my father. Come to think of it, my wife and I already have a name a girls name picked out should our first-born be a girl... and that was MUCH easier than this process has been.Hmmm...
Read more…
Posted by Pat Riggs on December 22, 2009 at 5:30am
The first thing I notice is the TV antenna. It's affixed to that skinny mast. There's no rotor. Its pointing like a compass toward civilization. This image is testimony that although cable has yet to arrive on scene, drugs have made themselves at home here at 45 Main Street USA where "we never close."I snapped the picture via Blackberry while visiting this anonymous hell-hole-of-a-town, out in the Central Valley. I was late for court, representing a drug client. I was on the run, not knowing what kind of justice I was going to receive for being, what was now, ten minutes late. As usual, I was craving coffee.That craving causes me to day dream. The dream for today was the “what a great place for a cafe fantasy.” A lot of people dream about flying, or dating someone like Heidi Klum. I dream about coffee, and where to start café’s. The mental loop started off with, just call it 45 Main, and keep it cable free. That one antenna lead would bring in a signal displaying a snowy, old school world. The TV would be black and white, strapped to the wall, tuned with a knob, by one of the baristas while standing on a stool. The press would come by and like the fact that we could only pull in one or two channels. And most importantly, we could keep the Drugs We Never Close sign by grand-fathering it via the local zoning ordinance.I put my dream on hold until I met with the next subliminal coffee cue. I walked through the doors to Department 1.When you are an attorney who is not a member of the local bar, the protocol is: polite, heads up, keep the hair short, and don’t loose your cool when the judge goes through a sort of scripted hazing ritual where the content is designed to prove that he or she knows more than you do. The drill is not quite a public shaming. You laugh at a few of the jokes pointed your way, and you move on.My client’s case was on for sentencing. I knew it was going down hill when the judge called my client an addict, maybe even a dealer. He stated on the record, “Mr. so-and-so you could fly into any town in the world, and as soon as you land, you would know exactly where to go. You would go straight to the seedy part of town, and buy what ever you need to satisfy your addictions.”The court reporters hands were bobbing up and down, next to a tall Starbucks paper cup, next to the pink folding doughnut box, which was next to the empty jury box.I was thinking to myself, no your honor, no need to fly anywhere, 45 Main is just around the corner. They sell drugs there. It says so on the wall. DRUGS, in white letters, surrounded by a field of robins egg blue against a back drop of this wonderful big sky country of yours.I then had a coffee epiphany.The reporter’s bobbing hands and the Starbucks cup beside the doughnut box was the second subliminal coffee cue of the day. It reminded me that addiction is a universal human trait. Addiction is in my genetics, it's a gene I acquired back in the day. One of my remote coffee ancestors had an error in their DNA replication. They had a DNA strand with a coffee mutation that not even a repressor protein could cure. I was made as well as I could be made. Maybe addiction, in any of its many forms is the quest for perfection, to become like gods, to find that missing piece that we believe we don't possess, or missing link that will somehow finally satisfy us. Maybe addiction is the opportunity we take to keep us from who we really are.As a culture we migrate from one drug to the next. My Coffee ancestor would never have left the cradle of mankind in the Olduvai Gorge, if a good espresso machine capable of producing god shots would have been available. They had to keep moving, they had to keep evolving because they only had basalt and chips of stone to tamp and grind their coffee.So the dealer of addiction, who never closes, is going to go far in this world. This place, 45 Main, was just a block from Highway 5. It is the methamphetamine highway which begins in Mexico and links many of the small cities up and down the Central Valley of California.The bailiff was circling to remand my client, whose last words to me before they whisked him away, “I can do the time. That’s not it, I just wanted a rehab. Jail won’t do me any good. I am an addict and need help.”Maybe this post has taken a turn down a very dark alley about an unpopular subject. I need coffee every morning. I suffer withdrawal if I don't get it. It seems to improve my life. I enjoy it in a big way. Right now I am enjoying some Mexican Zaragoza. from my Chemex.I'll drive to any part of town to satisfy my addiction, but make mine legal.What about you?Patcopyright all literary and photography rights reserved 2009
Read more…
Posted by Gabe Windham on December 21, 2009 at 5:29pm
So I have noticed a theme where I am residing. The rock climbing gyms in my area are starting to steer towards selling coffee beans or something along those lines. The gym that I am a very loyal patron to has started selling beans from a company called Coffee AM and the new gym being built in Atlanta (right down the road) will have an entire floor devoted to a coffee shop, yoga center and weight lifting gym. I worked at a small coffee house in my immediate area whose target market was cyclists. As many of us know, the cycling/coffee scene in Europe is rather common and in the old days the coffee scene was turned at motorcyclists, which birthed cafe racing. In the southeast United States, climbing has really been blowing up. And now it seems like climbing and coffee are becoming one in the southeast just like it took a merge with cycling in Europe. Just a thought. Anyone got any thoughts?
Read more…
Today I reached the point in my coffee education where I felt ready to begin developing the first iteration of my business plan.The problem is that I have endless ideas, some of which I have formally developed in a binder, and am only now starting to figure out how to transcribe and articulate those ideas in the form of a business plan. Much easier said than done..I once read about a clock-maker, or 'timepiece' maker, who was renowned for his artistic brilliance and ability. When asked why he did not take up sculpting or some other art form that would allow him a greater degree of flexibility to be creative, he stated that a blank canvas was too intimidating. The point is that people like to have boundaries and limitations, because then we have waypoints and a bit of guidance from which to then create our masterpieces.I want to type this business plan until my fingers fall off, but the trouble is getting started. The blank canvas still feels a bit intimidating..
Read more…
Bruce, my health inspector (both for my existing downtown Paradise Cafe and now soon to open Roastery Coffeehouse) stopped by this afternoon to look the place over. He said all looks good and approved the pre-open plan. Now just a few (hundred, or is it thousand:-) remaining things to do before the actual final pre-open inspection sometime before NY Day Grand Opening Party... Drive fast (and safe) Bry! :-)
Read more…
The gas fitter was in today and tomorrow the venting goes in. Bean order is placed. Nervous! Excited!Hoping to be running our beans for the New Year...Expecting hiccups.
Read more…
So it has been quite a while since I've posted here. My http://journal.youngtreecoffee.com/ receives most of my blogging attention. I think this is new idea might actually hold some weight. Live links and pictures can be found on my blog listed above.On my last trip to the farm I spent a lot of time watching coffee dry. When I had full-time employment obligations in the US I was not able to spend as much time as I like on the farm. A one week trip to the DR would only allow maximum 3 maybe 4 days playing in the dirt. The rest of the time was spent in transport to Los Frios from Santo Domingo.In the coffee circles that I get my inspiration from, there has been a shift in "appropriate" drying times from a maximum of 10 days up to 30 days. Just two years ago when I was asking all the processing questions to anyone who might know the answer they usually said that washed coffee should be dried between 5-10 days. Just before leaving on this last harvest trip I had a really enlightening conversation with Tim Hill from Counter Culture Coffee. "Yea Byron the Peru - Valley de Santurario and the Burundi - Bwayi from this year were both took up to 30 and 20 days to dry respectively," said Tim. In my opinion, the Peru was tasting super solid at the end of its green lifespan (6-8 months) and the Burundi was one of my favorite CCC coffees of the year. The Bwayi was also the only Burundi that had a post-fermentation-soak after the washing.Then at SCAA in Atlanta, I had a chance to get a coffee drying tutorial from the owners of Virmax. They recommend that the growers build these raised beds with coffee stacked one over the other. After the coffee is washed the coffee is placed on the lower bed to drip dry. (If you are a grower and want to learn from my mistakes please contact me directly). It is really important that the coffee is spread very thin, no more than 2 beans stacked. Then as the coffee dries it is raised up to the second tier. Then after a week, the coffee can be raised up to the highest bed where it is dried in the sun under the plastic tarp.This year in Colombia the micro-lot from the La Golindrina project at CCC is the result of an experiment with underwater ferment, done by a couple farmers. When Tim and Kim cupped the coffees from the coop, Organica, there were 3 stand out coffees on the table. All three came from the same farm! When Kim asked what was different the farmers said the only thing they did differently was to ferment the coffee underwater, they had heard that it had good success in other places and wanted to see if it made a difference there.To prepare coffee seeds for planting: pick the cherries ripe, depulp, ferment, wash the muscilage off and dry the coffee in the shade until it reaches about 20%.So my seed prep theory came to me when I was drying coffee. All of these new processing techniques are more akin to seed prep than the old theories of coffee prep. Older coffee processing techniques were all about pushing coffee through processing because it is much more cost effective. For example, one wash, as short as possible fermentation times, as short as possible short drying times, and less experimentation. If you follow the Virmax recommendations about coffee drying you could take the coffee off the middle bed and plant it because the processing until the last stage is exactly the same as seed prep. As I've mentioned before Virmax's advice won them First and Seventh last year at SCAA. Then if you look at all the post fermentation soak and underwater ferment that is showing signs of success it only further supports the theory because just prior to planting coffee seed it is ideal to soak them for 24 hours in water.
Read more…
Posted by Gabe Windham on December 10, 2009 at 2:15pm
So I am currently working at a shop I started out at in January of 2009. I left in March of 2009 to go work with another shop, Cafe:ine, which I value very much. Upon returning to Cafe:ine, I began to see a lot of the flaws with the company and began to pick up on the issues we were having and how they were being dealt with. Our location was very difficult to get to, our target market was extremely small (cyclists), we changed ideas for the store quite frequently, disallowing our current ideas a chance to pick up, and our employees (other than a select few) were not experienced enough and weren't people persons. Earlier that year, when working at Chocolate Perks, I was basically acting as the store manager. Our actual store manager was inexperienced and brought much of his personal life into work with him. He couldn't be satisfied with the way he did things therefore he laid it out for other people to hear. The end result of this was an employee fallout and he shortly-there-after lost his job. In that time I learned a whole lot about the internal needs of a coffee house and the things that needed to be done in order to run one. Now that I have returned to Chocolate Perks, I see how successful it is. Although the recession we are currently in is affecting numbers and we are hurting financially, I am confident that we have not lost a bit of hope and faith that we will be okay. We are very linked up with our community and have been winning awards from both our county and our state for various different reasons. Some of those include "Best cup of coffee", "Best Power Lunch" and "Outstanding Community Representative." Our baristas love what they do and are hungry to learn more. And as a barista trainer, that excites me because I am able to utilize me skills to watch new and growing baristi do what we do best. Although this recession is hard on us all, we can at least hold our heads high and continue doing what we love until we collapse or until we fight our way through all of this.
Read more…
Pan roasted some honey coffee from Panama this morning.Anyone know much about this new "honey" processing? It creates quite the sweet and rounded cup thus far, even from last year's crop.
A post from Lisa McCloud, BUNN Director of Marketing, Retail Division.I love watching The Biggest Loser. The show is about transforming lives through hard work and dedication. It's an inspiration that's helped me in my journey of losing 70 pounds over the past year.In last week's episode, I was soooo excited to see that one of this season's finalists, Danny Cahill, owns a BUNN home coffee brewer. I wanted to call him up right then and thank him, but his published phone number was disconnected....probably because of people like me! LOL - just joking!Anyway, over the next couple of days of thinking and discussion, we decided that we wanted to do something to congratulate Danny on his hard work and owning a BUNN - the hardest working coffee brewer around? Better yet, how do we thank all of our loyal customers? So, here's our commitment... If Danny wins The Biggest Loser, BUNN will donate to charity one coffee brewer for each pound he loses through the finale on Tuesday, 12/8/09. Based on his current pace, this could be up to 250 brewers or up to $25,000 worth of coffee brewers. Check out the press release here.Go Danny Go....we at BUNN are hoping you win it all!Sincerely,Lisa
Read more…
Posted by Alun Evans on December 3, 2009 at 1:29pm
The ride from Wamena Airport to the Hotel in pedal powered Becaks took 5 minutes. The air was crisp, the sky clear and warming. The initial impression of the town was that the place was very small. Wamena is laid out in a grid like pattern, with streets patch-worked across the valley floor. Most roads were only recently sealed and until 3 years ago the only motorised transport was the four-wheel drives belonging to the Army, Police, Government and NGO's. As there are no roads in, or out of the Baliem Valley- all cars arrive in town via Hercules transport plane. One thing was fairly obvious, no beer was available. Wamena, like Jayapura, has very strict rules on alcohol sale and consumption. Alcohol has been blamed for contributing in some part serious flare-ups in violence and, of course, for contributing to the staggering HIV problem in Papua.The Hotel was the very best in town. For sure the glossy and colorful billboards I saw at Sentani Airport did not do justice to the place. It was actually nothing like I imagined. Like cars, all building materials are brought into the valley by air. Thus the gold taps, ceramic baths and chandeliers were nowhere to be seen, However it must be said the place was cozy, the staff friendly and the coffee was hot. My room had two small single beds, a 12 inch TV and a pair of slippers which were well worn by previous guests.At the Hotel were meet by the farming community head and his number two and went by trusty old Toyota Kijang to one of the sites we currently work with. Unlike Java, the small-holders plant in a well planned communal area, not directly around their houses./villages Most farmers have around 1.5 ha- ranging between 1600 to 2000 trees. Of course this number can be misleading, as not all trees fall into the productive category. .In the case of our first visit there were 50ha of Arabica coffee trees producing good quality cherries, under the protective shield of full grown shade trees. The coffee- all Arabica, is flourishing at the Baliem valley's altitude of 1800-2000m+. There are many reasons why Arabica from Papua, and indeed Papua New Guinea, is so good. A mixture of the right altitude, soil types, rainfall, humidity, cultiva and processing makes up a good part of this. The coffee is also organic, the farmers use borer traps pioneered in Papua Niugini to catch and dispose of the bugs in a non chemical manner.The farmers are growing coffee in an as sustainable system as possible. The shade trees have been growing 20 years plus. Almost by default the system has always been organic. The cost of transporting fertiliser and pesticides in by plane is prohibitively expensive. It is hard to imagine but nearly everything is brought in by plane- drinking water, fuel and even building bricks and tiles. The use of airplanes pushes the cost of everyday items through the roof. Aqua drinking water, selling for 2000rp in Jakarta, sells for 25,000rp in Wamena.Historically the town has been a centre of commerce and trade for the tribes not only in the Valley, but also for those living in the thousands of square kilometers mountains around Baliem. In recent years the town has grown quickly. It is the Provincial capital of the JayaWijaya sub-district. Hospitals, schools, government offices are located either side of Jl Jend Sudirman, the main road. At night the town is dark. Electricity supply is often erratic, street lighting poor. Large groups of locals gather at the outdoor markets- as much for socialising as for shopping. Fires add an eery, primeval aspect to the cool evening air. Betel nut is in plentiful supply, imported from the coastal plains where the Pinang palms grow.We were lucky with weather. Being in the midst of some very big mountains, the Valley is often subjected to lighting quick changes in the weather. Clouds can form within minutes and come charging down off the tall peaks, engulfing the town very quickly. Wind can also be quite strong, entering the valley at altitude and gathering speed as it is funneled down onto the valley floor. In the late afternoon the winds really make their presence felt, the temperature drops very quickly as the sun sinks.The next two days we spent with various tribal groups spread over the Valley. The Agenda was a “Frank discussion on coffee”. The idea was to find out what we could do to help the coffee farmers as a collective to produce the best coffee and to then secure the best possible return for that coffee. It saddened me to see that many of the plots we went past were neglected. Several generations of coffee samplings were struggling up under the trees that spawned them. Long grass and weeds often thick and tangled under the trees. Luckily every group we meet was keen to work with us to revitalize their coffee crops. We walked through the plot after plot, looking at what needed to be done. Sometimes the coffee was actually in excellent condition, the farmers maintaining their trees as a point of honor rather than because of any material gain. The two days were pleasant- enjoying the quiet sounds of nature occasionally punctuated by a 4wd Mitsubishi Strada roaring past- loaded to the gunwales with tribesmen on their way to political or church sponsored meetings. Each 4wd roaring past left a scent of diesel and the sound of tribal singing hanging in the air.Often the regular meetings we organised took place in communal settings outside: under huge shade trees, in pleasantly grassed compounds. Sitting in a full circle, like around a campfire, discussion came easily. The meetings were designed to be educational- for the villagers, for us. Learning from each other and therefore moving forward in a positive manner. Every evening the three of us would retire to Mas Budi's restaurant (serves the best Mie Kuah east of Java) and talk over what we had seen in the field during the day. Each had their own observations and sharing them really helped to formulate some ideas for not only for the next day, but for the intermediate term.The Trek up the Baliem Valley had to wait until the 3rd day. It proved to be a big highlight of this trip. We left Wamena early and got to the drop off point. We hauled our packs out of the old Kijang and headed up the Valley. The first hurdle was TNI (Army) and POLRI (Police) checkpoints. Being a foreigner I had to present my Permit for being in Papua. The Permit comes from the Intelligence Agency in Jakarta and normally clears any misconceptions of why a foreigner is in these parts. Both the Police and the Army were pleasant enough, so no problems.The walk was initially not too tough. A well trod gravel track marked out by hundreds of years. Soon the track narrowed, the gravel became a mixture of river sands and bare rock. We crossed the remains of a huge landslide, 1 km of mountain rock had tumbled across the valley floor into the river below. It had completely buried the valley floor under a million tonnes of rock.The Baliem River which has carved out the impressive Valley is a ragging, violent beast- billions of litres of water an hour go tumbling down the tight and narrow valley. On one side tall, imposing cliffs contain the River. Above these cliffs are plots of land, walled with river stones brought up from below. Cultivation has been going on in this Valley for well over 9000 years. The tribes use a 7 year rotating method- hence the use of all arable ground right up to the top of the towering peaks. Apart from coffee the other crops include tapioca, sweet potato, corn, sawi and red ginger.On the trails that wind through the valley we encountered wild pigs, an occasional dog and a number of tribal villagers. We exchanged “Nyayak Lau” to the villagers, and generally ignored the pigs and dogs. The hike took well over 3 hours to the first village. By days end we had covered well over 30km on foot! In many places we climbed almost vertical rock faces and traversed raging streams. It was tough going. Our local friends were pretty fit, but the three of us were flagging. Every village we came to we sat down and discussed coffee. Training issues, concerns with the market, the needs of each particular community. Every village was different but the common thread was a desire to be able to reach the market with a fair price for them all. Along the way we saw many hillside Arabica plantations. Most were very well looked after- the pride each family had in their plots evident. We picked up new crop samples along the way- almost 12kg in total! Most of it was still in parchment form- with the outer shell of the dried coffee still attached. Golden yellow and crackling dry it had to be carried by hand, which added to the sense of adventure and discovery. It was an amazingly rewarding day. Meeting with the growers, their families, the village chiefs is what relationship coffee is all about. Listening to their need s for the year ahead, indeed the years ahead, added to the incentive to come back as soon as possible. The culture and its ongoing vibrancy. The bonus: the absolute beauty and sheer loneliness of one of the most spectacular coffee growing regions on earth.That last night the three of us had our ritual evening meal at Mas Budi's. The place was packed. A soccer game between Jayapura and Kediri was being shown on a small TV in a cornier of the restaurant. Indonesians have an insatiable appetite, an unquenchable passion for football. Even the smallest warung in rural Java or Flores will be packed when a local, an English or an Italian league game is being shown live. Over glasses of crimson red Tamarillo juice we reflected on the 4 days work behind us. We had visited farmers we had been working with for sometime as well as forging bonds with communities which were new to us. Everywhere we traveled we meet enthusiasm and hope, both great assets in the coffee growing communities around the world.The next day we found it was far more difficult to getting out of Wamena, than to get in.. During the last night of our stay the rains arrived with a torrential vengeance. This was not your usual tropical downpour- the rain began heavy at 9pm and was still falling the next morning. The valley was swathed in a half light- padded with a grey cotton wool blanket. There was some doubt we would get to fly out that day. After saying our goodbyes to the coffee community leaders we headed to the airport. Puddles of brown, muddy water spilled out onto the streets, ankle deep around the entrance to the terminal building. The early fights were all canceled. By 12 noon it looked certain we would not get out. The check-in area was jammed with potential passengers, many chain smoking cigarettes. We camped as close to the check in counter as was possible. Suddenly a plane landed, chaos as it became evident that the weather was lifting and some lucky passengers would get out of Wamena that day.We missed out on the first two flights, and fought a group of willy German Mountain climbers (who I must say jumped the Que) for seats on the final flight of the day. We were fortunate. Saying goodbye to the Valley was certainly harder than I expected. As the plane struggled up out of the misty cloud and broke into the bright blue skies above, I was already hard at work planning for my next trip to Papua.
Read more…
I got the machine moved to a friends shop for the duration of work and testing to make sure all is working. Need to discover what parts might need to be replaced. I hope I can find some documentation on this old jewel.
Read more…
Posted by Alun Evans on December 1, 2009 at 7:00pm
There are over 250 tribal languages spoken in Indonesian Papuan alone (258 to be exact). The languages are so different that tribes living along the length of the long and wide Baliam valley can not understand each other. A common language called Papua-Malayu has been invented to help bridge this language gap. A combination of Malay and commonly used Papuan words. It works well.The Valley itself has been cultivated for almost 9000 years, making it one of the oldest continual agricultural cropping locations in the world. Coffee is a recently introduced crop, being brought to the district by Missionaries during the 1960's. These days there are many cultiva of Arabica being grown along the Valley floor and on the steep valleys that intersect the Valley along it's km length.Getting up into the coffee districts involves negotiating the crowds at Jayapura's Sentani Airport. Located about 1 hour outside of the city, the airport is a link through to places such as Sorong, Nabire, Maurake and Biak. The locals who crowd around the entrance to the departure check-in area are friendly and conversational. They know where NZ is, they know Maori are the local indigenous people of NZ and make the appeal for the NZ government to support a united, independent Papua. I will pass this info to John Key when I next see him for brunch. Being the lone foreigner at the airport was bound to attract attention I guess.Inside queuing is haphazard at best, non existent at worse. Luckily my local partner has a way of securing our seats, booking our luggage through and getting us to the waiting area without having to get anywhere near a “Que”. . A decades worth of Indonesian airport protocols and dramas means I am all for this option. I am travelling this week with Pak Jusuf and Pak Indri- both live in Papua. The airport waiting room itself (and the view out over the runway) reminds me of that NZ's Rotorua's airport. I am on the lookout for my first Orang adat (ie a Papuan only wearing a Koteka/Penis sheath)- none in sight at the airport! The array of aircraft and airlines that fly into Sentani is amazing. Planes including DC3'.s, Dash-8's, ATR-72's, 737s of various vintages, Cessna, Russian built Andraprov cargo lifters, Twin-otters and BAE whisper jets take off regulary. Airlines include: Garuda, Merpati, Lion, express, Trigana, Aviastar, Silkway and JayaWijaya. Flying really is the only feasible way of getting around Papua. A boat trip from Jayapura to Meaurake takes 2 weeks, the new airline Aviastar flys there in a little over 90 minutes.Like many provincal airports in Indonesia, there are no air bridges securing the terminal to the planes. The aircraft park 200m from the terminal and when the boarding call is made there is a made dash for the door. Seats are not assigned so, like boarding an aged bus, its first to the plane-first choice of seat. The weather in Sentani is variable, so often the run for the plane is made in misty and foggy drizzle. Luckily on this morning the weather is calm. Clear sky rippled by a touch of high cloud bodes well for the day, the week ahead.The flight to Wamena should take around 45 minutes in the turbo-prop. Due to the fact that we arrived at the airport at 9am, the flight was rescheduled until 12- it made for a fairly long trip to fly a distance of roughly 279km. This issue of time is typical of Papua- traveling anywhere outside the Timika-Jayapura-Biak triangle a minimum of a day should be allowed. The plane duly arrived, it was a fairly aged ATR72-200- a two engine turboprop used to haul cargo of both the material, and human type. I managed to get a seat up the front (I am a , next to the cargo petition (cargo takes up the FRONT end of these planes- human cargo at the back). The front seats are by far the best on these aircraft- a full 6 feet of legroom! Unlike other airlines there are no rules about securing personal baggage in overhead lockers, so the cabin is filled with luggage.The plane climbed steeply out of Sentani airport and banked sharply in the direction of Central Papua. We flew 40 minutes over jungle, rivers, more jungle. To say the scenery below was monumental would not be doing the landscape justice. It was purely, simply how the earth must have looked before human development stripped the rainforest away. Awesome.Apart from the show out the window the flight was fairly non-eventful. The only drama was that some cargo moved during takeoff blocking the door to the captains cabin- thus denying him the privilege of eating Papa Rons Pizza (we all ate small bits of dried fruit cake- the flight attendant had Pizza for the captain only). The final 10 minutes of the journey we flew up the Baliem valley, the tops of the mountains on either side just hundreds of metres from the plane. The weather determines whether or not the plane is actually going to make Wamena, on some days the planes make it all the way to the “Pintu Pesawat” (Plane corridor between the moutains) only to have to turn back.We dropped through the cloud. On either side, less than 300m from the planes wings, were craggy and menacing rock faces. Suddenly the plane burst free and with a bump entire Baliem Valley was spread out underneath us, spectacular and wide open- like some of the huge river valleys in NZ. The ATR dropped quickly, the pilot planting us rather too firmly on the roughly asphalted runway. Wamena Airport was pretty basic- a single runway, fairly dilapidated terminal shed. and a cluster of buildings with traditional Lani Hone style shaped roofs. The exodus from the plane was a competition in shoving strength, then a quick run over to the main building. Crowds of locals in tribal garb were leaning up against the fence, watching us passively and spitting red, gooey gobs of Pinang stained saliva on the runway. It looked like a pool of blood from a slaughtered animal. Duly the luggage was hauled by handcart to the stained tiled floor in the terminal where it was dumped to be picked up by passengers..(To be continued)
Read more…
This blog with photos will track my refurbish / re-build of a travel / event espresso machine. The machine was removed from service in working order as I was told. Given to me from one of my store accounts. He couldn't get two employees to build similar drinks. Lets see what it takes to get it up to snuff and pulling decent shots.
Read more…
The first thing I notice is the TV antenna. It's affixed to that skinny mast. There's no rotor. Its pointing like a compass toward civilization. This image is testimony that although cable has yet to arrive on scene, drugs have made themselves at home here at 45 Main Street USA where "we never close."I snapped the picture via Blackberry while visiting this anonymous hell-hole-of-a-town, out in the Central Valley. I was late for court, representing a drug client. I was on the run, not knowing what kind of justice I was going to receive for being, what was now, ten minutes late. As usual, I was craving coffee.That craving causes me to day dream. The dream for today was the “what a great place for a cafe fantasy.” A lot of people dream about flying, or dating someone like Heidi Klum. I dream about coffee, and where to start café’s. The mental loop started off with, just call it 45 Main, and keep it cable free. That one antenna lead would bring in a signal displaying a snowy, old school world. The TV would be black and white, strapped to the wall, tuned with a knob, by one of the baristas while standing on a stool. The press would come by and like the fact that we could only pull in one or two channels. And most importantly, we could keep the Drugs We Never Close sign by grand-fathering it via the local zoning ordinance.I put my dream on hold until I met with the next subliminal coffee cue. I walked through the doors to Department 1.When you are an attorney who is not a member of the local bar, the protocol is: polite, heads up, keep the hair short, and don’t loose your cool when the judge goes through a sort of scripted hazing ritual where the content is designed to prove that he or she knows more than you do. The drill is not quite a public shaming. You laugh at a few of the jokes pointed your way, and you move on.My client’s case was on for sentencing. I knew it was going down hill when the judge called my client an addict, maybe even a dealer. He stated on the record, “Mr. so-and-so you could fly into any town in the world, and as soon as you land, you would know exactly where to go. You would go straight to the seedy part of town, and buy what ever you need to satisfy your addictions.”The court reporters hands were bobbing up and down, next to a tall Starbucks paper cup, next to the pink folding doughnut box, which was next to the empty jury box.I was thinking to myself, no your honor, no need to fly anywhere, 45 Main is just around the corner. They sell drugs there. It says so on the wall. DRUGS, in white letters, surrounded by a field of robins egg blue against a back drop of this wonderful big sky country of yours.I then had a coffee epiphany.The reporter’s bobbing hands and the Starbucks cup beside the doughnut box was the second subliminal coffee cue of the day. It reminded me that addiction is a universal human trait. Addiction is in my genetics, it's a gene I acquired back in the day. One of my remote coffee ancestors had an error in their DNA replication. They had a DNA strand with a coffee mutation that not even a repressor protein could cure. I was made as well as I could be made. Maybe addiction, in any of its many forms is the quest for perfection, to become like gods, to find that missing piece that we believe we don't possess, or missing link that will somehow finally satisfy us. Maybe addiction is the opportunity we take to keep us from who we really are.As a culture we migrate from one drug to the next. My Coffee ancestor would never have left the cradle of mankind in the Olduvai Gorge, if a good espresso machine capable of producing god shots would have been available. They had to keep moving, they had to keep evolving because they only had basalt and chips of stone to tamp and grind their coffee.So the dealer of addiction, who never closes, is going to go far in this world. This place, 45 Main, was just a block from Highway 5. It is the methamphetamine highway which begins in Mexico and links many of the small cities up and down the Central Valley of California.The bailiff was circling to remand my client, whose last words to me before they whisked him away, “I can do the time. That’s not it, I just wanted a rehab. Jail won’t do me any good. I am an addict and need help.”Maybe this post has taken a turn down a very dark alley about an unpopular subject. I need coffee every morning. I suffer withdrawal if I don't get it. It seems to improve my life. I enjoy it in a big way. Right now I am enjoying some Mexican Zaragoza. from my Chemex.I'll drive to any part of town to satisfy my addiction, but make mine legal.What about you?Patcopyright all literary and photography rights reserved 2009
Brewing coffee is a four minute novel.Pulling a shot of espresso is a mere fraction of that.You grind, you heat, coffee blooms, and then it dies. The novel, the ceremony, takes on the seriousness of a game.For example, coffee is like a game of pinball. Pinball, like brewing coffee, is random, encased in glass, and an event, once the ball is launched, almost entirely beyond the player’s control. We have this human desire to beat the odds by telepathically imposing our will on the ball or shaking the machine. In coffee, especially, espresso we are all players. We have a history of loss, and the occasional high score.Daily, every morning in fact, the thrill comes from not knowing whether your efforts will produce a good cup, a good shot, or something destined for the sink. As people, our strong suit is reflection rather than prediction. We are better at mourning than prophesying. Since we seldom see the end result in our mind’s eye, we have this deficit that gives us hope. We hope to just keep the ball in play, hope to brew the cup, and hope to extract the perfect shot.Pat© all photographic and literary rights reserved 2009 Pat Riggs
A post from Lisa McCloud, BUNN Director of Marketing, Retail Division.I love watching The Biggest Loser. The show is about transforming lives through hard work and dedication. It's an inspiration that's helped me in my journey of losing 70 pounds over the past year.In last week's episode, I was soooo excited to see that one of this season's finalists, Danny Cahill, owns a 
BUNN home coffee brewer. I wanted to call him up right then and thank him, but his published phone number was disconnected....probably because of people like me! LOL - just joking!Anyway, over the next couple of days of thinking and discussion, we decided that we wanted to do something to congratulate Danny on his hard work and owning a BUNN - the hardest working coffee brewer around? Better yet, how do we thank all of our loyal customers? So, here's our commitment... If Danny wins The Biggest Loser, BUNN will donate to charity one coffee brewer for each pound he loses through the finale on Tuesday, 12/8/09. Based on his current pace, this could be up to 250 brewers or up to $25,000 worth of coffee brewers. Check out the press release here.Go Danny Go....we at BUNN are hoping you win it all!Sincerely,Lisa
