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Cappuccino Movie - Dates and Times Update for Houston and Dallas
Remember this post? “The Perfect Cappuccino” Movie Screens in Texas!
Well, Amy emailed again to fill in the details on the screenings in Houston and Dallas. Unfortunately, the Houston screening is happening right smack in the middle of the South Central Regional Barista Competition, though if you are in the Houston area and are not planning to make the trek to Austin for the competition, be sure to check it out!
THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO at Real Films, Houston, TX
Saturday, November 1, reception at 7 pm, screening at 8 pm, Q&A with the filmmaker at 9:30 pm
The Aurora Theater, 800 Aurora Avenue, Houston, TX 77009
Tickets: $10.00 online or $10.00 cash/check at the door. Ticket price includes free refreshments: beer, soft drinks, water, and popcorn (and hopefully coffee too! We are working on it…)
Door Prize: A signed DVD of the film
Local Sponsors: Catalina Coffee and Cuvee Coffee
For more info, please visit www.realfilms.org
THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO at the Dallas Video Festival
Sunday, November 9, 10:30 am
Angelika Film Center
5321 E. Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, TX 75206
214-826-3300
For info/tickets, please visit www.videofest.org
Buna Bean Coffee Roasters Open House
I received an email from the folks at Buna Bean Coffee Roasters in Ennis, TX to let everyone know that they are having an open house.
When: Thursday, October 16th, 5:15pm - 7:00pm
Where: Buna Bean Coffee Roasters
1505 S. Oak Grove Rd., Ennis, TX 75119
map
We are having an Open House/Business After Hours on Thursday, October 16, 2008 from 5:15 – 7:00 p.m. at our roaster located at 1505 S. Oak Grove Rd., Ennis, TX 75119, 972-872-2862 (BUNA).
We would love to have other coffee folks come to our event. Food served.
Thank you,
Brenda Haupt
Buna Bean Coffee Roaster
Thanks, Brenda!
Buna Bean Coffee is a fairly new roasting company in the DFW area roasting on a Deidrich. They are new, but they are off to a great start. If you are in the DFW area, give them a visit! I have been enjoying a Costa Rican from Buna Bean for the last couple of days with good results.
Latte Art Throwdown - Sept. 27th, Catalina Coffee: Houston, TX
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.
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?
Win a Hottop KN-8828B!
I was talking to a friend of mine about home roasters, and he told me to:
Hey, let folks know that Homeroasters.org is running another contest. Top Prize is a Hottop KN-8828B!
This friend is one of the judges of this competition. The idea is to build a bean cooler that can cool a minimum of 4lbs. of coffee right out of the roaster to 150F as quickly as possible.
Sounds like a task, but with a prize like this:
I’d say you’ve got more than enough motivation. :o)
EDIT!
I received another email today from another homeroasters.org member. It reads:
Hi all:
Just wanted to say hi and a huge thankss for the contest plug.
It is heading toward some very inventive stuff. Join in!!
Warmest Regards,
Chat Nights with Texas Coffee People Proudly Presents: Cole Arendt
In addition to our normally scheduled 7:30pm Tuesday evening chat sessions, we will, from time to time, feature a coffee industry professional as a solitary guest “discussion panel”.
Aaron Blanco has arranged for the first of these special presentations to occure on Dec. 12th, 7:30pm sharp.
The discussion will begin promptly at 7:30pm CST, and will end precisely one hour later.
Our first Celebrity Guest Speaker will be:
______________________________
Cole Arendt
of
New Guinea Traders LLC.
________________________________
If you have not already done so, please Register on the Texas Coffee People Forums beforehand if you intend to join in the discussion. If you have already registered, we would appreciate it if you would log in so that your username is visible throughout the duration of your visit.
If you would like to discuss any specific questions or topics with Mr. Arendt, you may send them to Aaron Blanco, who will be moderating the Discussion. You may reach him at: aaron[at]browncoffeeco.com or by clicking his name above(must be logged into the forums).
This Chat session is open to anyone and everyone interested in participating.
Again, the session is featuring a discussion with Cole Arendt, moderated by Aaron Blanco at 7:30pm sharp(cst) and will last for precisely one hour. We hope to see you there!
The Chat Room is open 24/7, though not always populated, and can be found by Clicking Here.
Tuesday Evenings with Texas Coffee People, 7pm Chats
I have been surprised at the kind of information and knowledge sharing that can go on in a live chat session. It’s amazing how much of a difference real-time communication can make in the detail and quality of shared information.
It is for these reasons, as well as an attempt to foster the Texas Coffee Community farther than on a localized level, that we have decided to organize a meeting of the minds.
Every Tuesday evening at 7:30pm(cst), the TX-Coffee.com forums chat room goes live for open discussion.
Aaron is scheduled to be present, as is Dan. Naturally, I will be on as well.
Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in on the fun, or merely observe if you prefer.
Click Here to visit the chat room. It may help to orient yourself before Tuesday.
I hope to see you there!
Welcome, Cafe Gallo!
Grand Opening in San Antonio!
Cafe Gallo, in the Gallista Gallery
1913 S. Flores Street, San Antonio, TX
Google Map and Directions
Just a quick note here that tomorrow, Saturday 13 October, is the grand opening of a new espresso bar on San Antonio’s up and coming South Flores corridor.
Cafe Gallo, tucked inside one of the area’s avant galleries known as the Gallista Gallery, is headed by Jason Garcia, a former culinary boundary pusher with the luminous likes of La Reve and Biga on the Banks on his resume. The grand opening will coincide with a new South Flores area visual and performing arts event known as Second Saturday Smart Fair, with events for all ages such as visual art, live music, theater, film and video, poetry, workshops and food. The area is adjacent to the hip Southtown area of San Antonio and is a haven hole for chic and trendy artists and scenesters alike.
The staff at Cafe Gallo have been trained by Texas Coffee People’s very own Jason Haeger of Espresso Trainer.com and will feature a small lineup of espresso beverages, single-origin drip coffee created via manual pour-overs, and a focused menu of homemade Mexican pastries and sandwiches.
While Jason Garcia and his small crew are very excited to be opening, they are viewing this as a very first step in what promises to be an ever-evolving coffee and culinary experience that takes advantage of the blossoming South Flores loft and condo corridor on San Antonio’s southside.
Grand opening events at Cafe Gallo will kick off sometime around 1pm. The cafe and gallery is located at 1319 S. Flores Street.
Texas Coffee People on Myspace.com
And
Together at last.
The Texas Coffee Think Tank: Initiation
John Johnson of JP’s Java in Austin, TX decided to put together a regularly scheduled get-together where professionals in the coffee community could get together and share their expertise on a variety of topics relevant to the specialty coffee industry in Texas.
He called it the Texas Coffee Think Tank, and its first encarnation just occured on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007. I was invited, but Austin isn’t so close, and I had a training session today. Let alone the costs and time demands.. which is a topic that is neither here nor there, so I shall continue.
Since I am a part of the official think tank, regardless of my ability to attend, I received an email, as did everyone else in the think tank, that recaps and summarizes the event. Thanks to John Johnson for filling us(me?) in.
He writes:
Okay,
So first meeting down. Aaron put together a fun and very informative cupping. I think we can all definitively say that the age of the bean, and the way in which it has been stored greatly effects the final flavor, even when they are from the same year and same crop. After lunch we discussed the future workings of these meetings or events. It looks like the host will pick the day and the subject for presentation, and sometimes we will taste multiple coffees from the same region just for the fun of it. I’ll work on a neat map we can stick pins in. Michael V. has taken over the month of October. If anyone would like to schedule an event, or maybe just an hour of tasting some coffees in September that would be great. I think its important that we do something each month, even if its very small, to keep up momentum. Also Jason (via satellite) pointed out that we should probably take pictures. Anyone interested in doing that in the future?
So, there you have it. I can say that good things are happening here in the panhandle, and it seems like South Central TX can take care of itself. Three cheers for JP’s, Medici, Cuvee, and The Brown Coffee Co for fighting the good fight and spreading the gospel of quality coffee in their neck of the woods of our great state of Texas.
I’d like to take a month on sometime in the future. Time is an issue, as is cost. We’ll see.
Hopefully next time we’ll have some pictures to show the world what great things are happening here in TX.
-
TX-Coffee Partners
EspressoTrainer.com