Korner Talk

lucky jack
dark and light roasted coffees
combine to give a
complex, earthy flavor.

I knew this guy was going to be a winner. The dark and oily beans called out to me. I think this will be my go to coffee whenever I stop by gw.

I’m a sharing kind of guy, so I decided to keep track of things I find online that are interesting and post the links at the end of the week. This certainly isn’t a clever or original idea, but hopefully you guys will find some of the things useful. At the very least, it’ll help me archive stuff I’ve found. Who needs bookmarks?

Principles That Make A Web Design Look Good – Interesting read for someone who designs websites. I use to back in the day so I appreciated this article.
Buy a Giant Tuna for $177,000 – Sad to think that one day these giant tasty beasts of the sea will be gone FOREVER if we don’t scale back on harvesting them.
Minimalist’s Bike – There is no practicality to this bike other than to function as an “art piece” you put in the corner.
NOC Moving to DC – Another sign that I should go to Smith (close to DC). Or maybe it means I should get as far away from DC as possible.
Life After MBA for Class of 2010 – Good to see that folks land are landing PM gigs after getting an MBA, especially since that’s my stated goal.
I Hate My Job – Survey that confirms that I’m not alone in being dissatisfied by work.
Earned My Seal of Approval – Douche heads exist in the animal kingdom as well.
Epic Bike Ride Through Taiwan - Inspiring report by a guy bike riding along some really nice scenery along Taiwan’s east coast. I’d like to do something like that, albeit on a moped rather than a bike.
8888888 – A guy from China donated a huge sum of money to Yale School of Management. Guess how much?
Clever Mini Commercial
Software Product Manager’s First 30 Days – A checklist of todo’s for new PMs

I never really enjoyed coffee drinks other than regular coffee. Every now and then I would get a mocha frap from SBUX, but I would always feel swindled and gross afterwards. I also never took the time to figure out what the hell a latte, americano, or espresso really was. Give me a simple cup of coffee and I’m done.

Surprisingly, the person that turned me onto lattes is TL who doesn’t even drink coffee. I think we were walking through the mall one day and she offered to buy me coffee because I was getting antsy and slowing down her shopping. She bought me a latte + coffee cake, left me on a bench and bid me good riddance. Now I go shopping with just to get a free latte.

Anyways, a latte is basically espresso and frothy milk. I hate going out to buy coffee if I can make it at home, but I have neither an espresso maker nor a milk frothing thing. Eventually I’ll pony up the money to buy an espresso maker. For now, I’m making lattes with coffee instead of espresso. I’m making about 2 cups of coffee. For the foam, I warm up about 2/3 cup of milk for 45 seconds in the microwave and then blend it with the bullet blender. The bullet blender does a poor job of creating enough foam for a wide coffee cup, but since I use a tall mug, the amount of foam suffices my needs.

The result is, well, you read my title. I like it, but it would taste a lot better if I use real espresso shots.

Right now I’m using Kenyan coffee beans that I bought from Intelligentsia, a hip coffee/tea place on Abbott Kinney. The beans are way pricey. I think it was nearly $20 a lb. The coffee is pretty good though, but it’s unlikely that this is a repeat purchase.

I forgot to mention that I bought some Venice Blend beans from groundwork the other week. The beans were OK, though I realized that I wasn’t using enough per cup. I’m going to buy some more when I’m done with the Kenyan beans and redo. I’ll probably do half Venice Blend and half decaf something to help wean down my caffeine intake. I’m getting the heart jitters when I drink coffee and withdrawal headaches when I don’t get my joe in the morning.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Equator Cafe and bought a pack of Yirg Coffee. In the last couple of pots that I’ve brewed, I’ve noticed that Yirg has a very Bailey’s Irish Cream taste without the whiskey kick (darn). This has got me into thinking that I should experiment with making my own BIC using Yirg and some kind of whiskey. If you have any suggestions on good whiskey (!Crown or !Johnny Walker), please let me know.

While I’m talking about whiskey, I was chatting with a coworker from Tennessee while out at Yuma and he was saying how he couldn’t wait to go home and smoke a cigar on his porch and sip on some Jack Daniels straight from the distillery. The fact that JD is bottled in Tennessee didn’t click with me right away, but when it did, I peppered my coworker with questions like where the distillery is located, how to get there from Nashville, when is it open, etc. Needless to say, if I have free time when I’m out visiting Vandy in December, I’ll be heading to Lynchburg to visit the distillery.

Stay tuned on how my home brewed BIC turns out and a report from JD.

Ah it’s good to be home!

I took a morning bike ride yesterday in search of Groundworks coffee but somehow ended up on Abbot Kinney in Venice. AK is adorned with several chic retail stores, cafes, and “organic herb” shops that one can spend an afternoon or two exploring. I landed in Equator Cafe, which is inside a book store called, wait for it…… Equator Books. EC serves organic coffee from Bay Area based Bluebottle Coffee Company. I got the Bella Donavan, the “wool sweater” or go-to Bluebottle blend.

EC has a very manual brewing process that I think really bring out the characters of the coffee. Instead of the standard drip or a french press, EC uses a drip-cup-thing. Yes, that’s the official term for this brewing process. Basically the contraption uses a cup with a hole on the bottom. You place a filter in the cup, add the grinds, add a bit of water to soak the grinds, wait, add more water and let the coffee drip like a standard drip coffee maker. Whew. I should have taken a picture of this contraption.

I almost feel like it’s sacrilege to say that Bella tastes like SBUX’s daily brew, but it does. Bella however is so much cleaner tasting and the flavors are more distinct. I bought a bag of the Yirg, a medium roast Ethiopian bean. The beans look smaller than the Kona beans so I used fuller teaspoons to get enough grinds. The coffee is pretty good. It is light and smooth… although it seems like everything my coffee maker makes turns out fairly light.