Sunday, September 12, 2010

Getting Ready for Awesome :)

Since the last post (three weeks is too long, I know!), we have decided on Colours of Coffee roasters for our espresso and two single origin beans. They are represented to us by the fabulous Lukasz--2009 Areopress Champ and excellent service-guru. If you've never heard of them, you can check them out here. We'll also proudly serve Mundo Novo (a good coffee with a GREAT purpose) as one of our pour-over coffee offerings. Mundo Novo is shade-grown, organic, and fairly traded, not to mention it is our roots--the sole coffee we've served until now. Mundo Novo is where it all began and as long as it exists, I hope we offer it everyday of the week. Never forget where you came from (unless you came from a strange place full of crappy coffee, then it's okay to forget). Since we're expanding our offerings to include pour-over coffee (or, in Polish, "fresh made") coffee, we needed a second grinder dedicated to the pour-over (i.e. non-espresso) grind. Of course, we went to our trusty Uno Espresso for this need (check them out here!) Lescek (Leh-sh-ek) was all over it and sold us a perfect-size grinder with a display-model discount, sweet! If you work in Polish coffee and you don't know Lescek Odija, you are missing out! In the meantime, we are gearing up for the Nordic Barista Cup next week. You would be surprised how much planning goes into a 6-person trip on a budget. The answer is, well, a lot. Sniff sniff. Sorry. Distracted by the smell of Aaron grinding coffee in the kitchen. Where was I? Planning. Yes, so, planning outings and meals, lodging and reservations, making matching scarves for everyone (long story); it's a lot to think about. We're taking the cheap way out (literally) which involves a train ride to Warsaw, a bus to the Warsaw airport, a flight to Oslo, and a train to downtown Oslo. Fun Stuff. In the meantime, I am trying my darndest not to pack two suitcases, but seeing as I am bringing most of the group's food in my check-in, it may not work out. Hoping to post some great pictures when we get back--hold me to that one, guys. I'm scared, nervous and TOTALLY STOKED. I'm excited about meeting a lot of passionate, knowledgable people and tasting fresh coffee over and over again while learning a LOT in a short amount of time. Six people, five days, one hostel bedroom. Pray for us, k? :)