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Everybody get happy… with the Tamper Dance!

via: bX

Latte Art Throwdown TONIGHT! @ Catalina Coffee: Houston, TX

Remember this post?

www.catalinacoffeeshop.com

Latte Art Throwdown

• @ Catalina Coffee

$20 to enter – winner takes all.

Baristas will have 7 minutes to make up to three lattes, choose one to present to three judges.

Judging will be based on symmetry, contrast, and technical difficulty and complexity of the art.

Free-pour only, no etching.

Yeah, well, it’s tonight! Bring $20, Bring yourself, and Bring your A-Game. And for the love of coffee in Texas, bring a camera! I won’t be able to make it, but I’d like to document a recap on TX-Coffee.

Have a blast, for those who WILL be making it.

"The Perfect Cappuccino" Movie Screens in Texas!

Some of you may remember our blog post about this movie when the trailer was posted. (ignore the formatting.. the post is from an earlier incarnation of this blog)

Well, today I received an email from Amy Ferraris, the creator of the film, to let us know that it will be screening THREE TIMES in Texas.  Be sure to watch the trailer if you haven’t already.

Don’t miss the screening if you can help it.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to make any of them, honestly, which is a shame.  So here’s hoping most of you can catch it and give us a write-in about it.

Amy writes,

Hi guys,
I’m a documentary filmmaker, and I’ve recently finished a film called “The Perfect Cappuccino.” I’m writing because it’s going to be screening a few times in Texas over the next couple months – the first time is this Saturday in Denton. And I was wondering if you would consider either posting something in one of your forums or creating a blog post to let your members know about the screenings? I think the crowd of people who frequent your site would definitely get a kick out of the film.

It’s going to be screening…
–Saturday 9/27 at 11:00 am in Denton, Texas as part of the Thin Line Film Fest (www.thinlinefilmfest.com)
–At the Dallas Video Festival, which runs Nov. 6-9 (www.videofest.org)
–At the Real Films screening series in Houston in early November (www.realfilms.org) – I will be at this screening for a discussion afterward.

I’m pasting the text of a press release re: the screening in Denton below. (Excuse the press release-ese, but it has some good info on the film in general…)

Thanks for your help in getting the word out!
All the best–
Amy
_____________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Perfect Cappuccino
A documentary about coffee, consumerism and being American
screens in Denton, Texas on September 27, 2008

Global Capitalism. One Man’s Fight for Survival. Delicately Foamed Milk.
One morning only!

Filmmaker Amy Ferraris’ eucalyptus pictures presents the Texas premiere of THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO at 11:00 am on Saturday, September 27, at the Fine Arts Theater in Denton, Texas. This quirky, first-person  documentary screens as part of the 2008 Thin Line Film Festival (www.thinlinefilmfest.com).

THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO tells the story of thirtysomething Amy Ferraris’ lifelong obsession with the cappuccino, an Italian coffee drink that consists of espresso and foamed milk. Having first discovered the cappuccino on a trip to Italy in 1990, Ferraris comes back to the U.S. and is plagued by one seemingly unanswerable question: in the country that put a man on the moon, why is it so hard to find a decent cappuccino?! Ferraris’ quest to answer this question leads her all over the country and includes encounters with a wide variety of characters, including average coffee drinkers, espresso historians, cultural critics, political activists, and even one of the founders of Starbucks. Ultimately, the search leads her to the DoubleShot Coffee Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she finds not only sensational coffee but a community of fascinating characters as well. But her happy discovery coincides with a threat to DoubleShot’s very existence: a legal dispute with corporate giant Starbucks.

“Although this film is pretty wide-ranging in terms of time and geography, in the end, the DoubleShot story is really the film’s heart,” Ferraris notes. “The David-and-Goliath story of this tiny shop standing on principle and going up against a corporate behemoth really inspired me, and it really made me think.” Although it maintains a light-hearted tone, THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO raises some serious questions. Why is the Starbucks chain-store model a uniquely American approach to coffee? Is there something in our character, as Americans, that pushes us toward expansion and mass standardization? Is this human nature? Is it American nature? Are we a culture that values business enterprise? Or a culture that is ruled by it?

Described by one viewer as Super Size Me meets This American Life, THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO was a crowd-pleaser at its festival premiere in August 2008, at the Hardacre Film & Cinema Festival in Iowa. Ferraris has pieced together a smart, witty meditation on what our coffee habits say about us, as individuals and as a nation. “The central idea behind this film,” comments Ferraris, “is that when you talk about a ‘perfect’ cup of coffee – or any food, for that matter – you are really talking about much more than how it tastes. Taste is part of it, but there are these other intangible things too – the environment in which you drink it; community, or the people who’re with you when you do; the business practices of the entity who sold it to you… there’s so much to consider.”

Tickets for the event may be purchased in advance at www.thinlinefilmfest.com.

###

To view a trailer of the film, please visit http://cappuccinomovie.com

Media Contact: Amy Ferraris at cappuccinomovie@gmail.com

Production still photos available for publication.

Press copies of the film available for review.

For press inquiries on the Thin Line Film Festival in general, please contact festival director Joshua Butler at joshuabutler@texasfilmmakers.org

The Fine Arts Theater is located at 115 N. Elm Street, Denton, Texas 76201

Have a Great Weekend!

It’s still warm here in West Texas, and I figured an Affogato sounded pretty good.

Consider this the Texas version.

It’s Blue Bell with espresso made from a drip blend from Aduro Bean in Ft. Worth.

It’s still summer if I want it to be, right?… Bueller…

Have a Great Weekend!

Houston Ike Relief Fund – Houston News Report

Originally Found @: KHOU.com – Houston Relief Ike Fund

Houston Ike Relief Fund

09:52 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 16, 2008

KHOU.com staff report HOUSTON — Many people have been hard hit with the hurricane not just in the city of Houston, but in the entire region. Because of this, the Greater Houston Community Foundation has established a special Houston Ike Relief fund.

To donate to the fund, checks can be mailed to:

4550 Post Oak Place Suite 100

Houston, Texas

77027

Make checks out to: Houston Ike Relief Fund.

Money donated to the fund will be used to help hurricane victims throughout the Houston region.

No, it’s not coffee, but this is a huge hit to Texas, and here is an opportunity to help from a distance.

Latte Art Throwdown – Sept. 27th, Catalina Coffee: Houston, TX

www.catalinacoffeeshop.com

Latte Art Throwdown

• @ Catalina Coffee

$20 to enter – winner takes all.

Baristas will have 7 minutes to make up to three lattes, choose one to present to three judges.

Judging will be based on symmetry, contrast, and technical difficulty and complexity of the art.

Free-pour only, no etching.

New Book…Looks Like Fun

Killing trees with coffee, I think, is an acceptable trade-off. Especially if you use recycled trees or fake plastic trees, and if you recycle your used coffee grounds into your compost bin.

Now comes this from, fittingly, a Berkeley publisher: What appears to be a fun new book in the super-macro-food-pics mold that is all the rage today, complete with a delectable line-up of deliciously done drinks.

The book is entitled, Coffee Drinks, by one Michael Turback, and, at 112 colorful caffeinated pages, is a bargain at under $15.

Coffee, Culture, and Music

Music has long been a big part of coffee house culture for many people.  The morning brings about the need for energizing comfort in a cup, and the evening brings the desire for social interaction, and a little local culture for many coffee house patrons.

Naturally, we like to focus on coffee quality as the high priority around here, but how many play host to local or traveling musicians?  A shop here built their name as sort of a venue, and the coffee quality came later.  Reverse order, if you ask me, but still… far better to be late than to have missed the boat entirely.

I often enjoyed the “culture” found in a bustling coffeehouse warmed with the sounds of a one-man(or woman) folk band, or a jazz/funk/experimental quintet, or anything in between seemingly breaking the social ice, not offering even a chance for it to form.  Everyone is there to have a good time, and everyone knows it.  Everyone also knows that the air will (usually) be smoke-free, and that the likelihood of a loud drunk ruining the fun is extraordinarily slim, at best.

The undefined, yet undeniably present cafe culture in the United States is what drew me to the specialty coffee scene years ago as a young teen.  Back then, I didn’t know anything about the coffee.  What I did know is that all of the retail spaces that made me feel at home had one thing in common.  That one thing was coffee.  This only further fueled the spark of respect I inherently possessed for the beverage.  Eventually, this respect blossomed into a desire to learn, to understand, to know, and to spread the enjoyment of quality coffee.

How does this all relate?  For a lot of people, they are not drawn in by the bean, but by the culture surrounding it in certain retailers.

We’d like to know.  Is the availability of live music in a coffee retailer much of a priority for you?  Honestly, it is no longer a high priority, but I still enjoy going to a shop that not only knows how to serve a good cup of coffee, but also plays host to numerous musicians looking for an audience.

If you find that it is, or was, a priority for yourself, where did it begin?  Where do you go now?

2008 South Central Regional Barista Competition

Is Coming!

All we know is that it will be held in Austin, TX from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Rules/regulations and score sheets are up, as is the information about this year’s equipment sponsor.

If you’ll notice, there is a new tab just to the right of the “Home” tab up top entitled, “SCRBC”.

This tab will take you to a page which will be updated as frequently as updates become available for news about the SCRBC.

Polish your pitchers.  Practice your efficiency and consistency.

Polish those skills, and bring it to the 2nd SCAA SCRBC.  2007 was a blast, and I am hoping for 2008 to be even better.

p.s. - remember last year?

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