'A blobby flame'

They're playing the most obnoxious music at the café that I'm at right now that may or may not be Bjork.

Just thought I'd share.

Thank god for headphones and iTunes. Otherwise I'd have slit my wrists open twenty minutes ago.

I had a pretty good day in the office today. I did my usual Monday paperwork and then rewrote half of the espresso training manual. Also got to have a brief though informative talk with our roaster about our espresso blend as well as our espresso machines (we use fully manual lever machines: I didn't realise that all of the pressure was created by the rather large, spring-loaded piston. I had thought that the water from the boiler was also under some kind of pressure. But, no, just that large, spring-loaded piston is what creates the 9 bars of pressure necessary to make yummy 'spro.)

On our blend, he clarified some of the beans in it and what they contributed to the flavour profile. I mentioned to him that although I enjoyed our blend, I found it quite heavy in nut flavours. Nut, yes, but almond in particular he pointed out. And he suggested I try to look past the nut, too, because there ought to be some citrus notes in there. I didn't get the chance to pull myself any shots when I was at the shop later on because I'd already over-caffeneited myself for the day (as I tend to do when at the office) and I was more content to sip on some Yemen Mocca Sanani than hit the espresso. There's always tomorrow, though...

The art school shindig yesterday wasn't all that exciting. However, I made a sort of latte art yesterday when I made myself a cap before heading down to the event. I took a picture of it on my phone but I haven't yet transferred it to my computer so I can't post it here yet.

For the record, this is what I'm going for (and this is done only with free-pouring the milk, mind you...): click me...

And, other than that, nothing too new or exciting.

I'll try to post my attempt at latte art tomorrow. It's not a full rosetta. More like a blobby flame. But it's something. And I'm proud of it! :-D