zachary zachary

10:29 TasosDeli : esseff where are you from?
10:29 bszob : who’s callie?
10:29 Leyland : little
10:29 bszob :
10:29 Bludviksen : i think that bartenders appreciate coffee as much as baristas appreciate alcohol
10:29 esseff : sf
10:29 jen-1536 : i wish i could see the shots enough to tell if they looked blond
10:29 Leyland : haha
10:29 bszob : must be soooom egirl
10:29 esseff : ca
01:29 Bludviksen : it’s almost symbiotic
01:29 zacharyzachary : boom
01:29 jons_bevalo : cali is california yes?
(more…)

USBC IS LIVE

click that, buddy

We’re off to the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Annual Conference in scenic Minneapolis! We’ll be apart of a great team of bloggers, video-professionals, journalists and Nick Cho groupies. We’re excited to say the United States Barista Championship will be broadcast live in streaming video during the competition.

We’ll post some antics here but the juicy stuff can be found here:

The SCAA Conference Blog

The USBC Live Stream

The SCAA Flickr Pool

See you at the convention center!

Sandy Jenkins & Friends

“What is that? Sugar or salt?”

“No no no, the white stuff.”

“That’s foam.”

That’s foam?

The year was 2005. Starbucks, growing and developing all over world, was on top of its game.

From Seattle’s The Stranger

The scene: The Starbucks Licensed Stores Awards ceremony, a celebratory/motivational leadership conference, held this evening in the fourth-floor ballroom of the Washington State Convention Center. “Boring stuff, as usual corporate things go,” writes our man Cilantro. But things took a turn for the surreal when the emcee announced “something special for you all–Jefferson Starbucks!” after which the hydraulic stage rotated to reveal a pretend band comprised of the upper-management folk the audience had heard speak earlier in the evening. “They were standing in front of a huge American Bandstand-esque 45 single dangling in the air,” writes Cilantro. “And they all had on rock ‘n’ roll Halloween costumes: pink glitter wigs, white fishnet shirts, fake leather pants, as well as big fake instruments–a huge, oversized piñata guitar and keyboards. It was like a living cake decoration.” From this most promising of plateaus, Jefferson Starbucks quickly ascended to the heavens, lip-synching their way through a company-specific rewrite of Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City,” the 1985 anthem that made fresh headlines last year by topping an international critics’ poll of the worst songs ever. But tonight, Starship’s crap was Starbucks’ gold, as “We Built This City On Rock ‘n’ Roll” was reborn as “We Built This Starbucks on Heart and Soul!” with lyrics rewritten to celebrate the Starbucks way:

Knee-deep in the mocha/making coffee right
So many partners/working late at night
We just want to build here–IMDS, does it pass?
We call on development to complete the task!
Living the way of being,
In the Green Apron Book!
Don’t you remember?
We built this Starbucks on heart and soul!

The official song.

When traveling for coffee related events it’s important to pack for a perfect morning cup of coffee to start your day. Aaron Ultimo and others demonstrate how to prepare that special cup in your hotel room…

This video was brought to our attention by a thread on coffeed.com. The artist’s name is Andriana and it appears that this is her first coffee music video. You can buy her song on iTunes.

This will officially begin our week in YouTube coffee videos.

Trish Skeie of Seattle writes,

My favorite lines:

“sugar-free intensity!”

“pour some more of Equador!”

…but really so SO many great lines to choose from.

We couldn’t agree more, Trish. What’s your favorite line?

Where was this long lost bullet casing found? In a bag of Jorge Recinas’ Finca Armenia Nueva of Huehuentenango, Guatemala! How did this casing end up from farm to cup? This will forever remain a mystery.

TWO HOURS AND NINETEEN MINUTES OF SEXY, CONTROVERSIAL, HOT AND STEAMY COFFEE GOSSIP!

CLICK CLICK CLICK!

I’m gagging!

Love,
Sandy Jenkins

We here at zacharyzachary.com want to let everyone know that we are alive and working hard on a new, improved video blog. The blog studio is in the process of moving locations and once we unpack the boxes of blog-gear we will hit you all with an unstoppable surge of eye gouging video blogs.

Exciting things have been happening in the coffee universe and fortunately our friends have been there to blog about them! Check out Barista Magazine’s blog and James Hoffmann’s blog!

I think everyone is asking “What happened to portafilter.net?” and we have to tell you, we’re stumped! If anyone has any leads to the real reason this beloved coffee podcast hasn’t been updated since the WBC, let us know! We’re dying for juicy gossip!

All the best,
Sandy Jenkins

The New York Times ran this article today about the single-origin coffee trend. Superstars Duane Sorenson, George Howell, Peter Giuliano, Mark Prince and Geoff Watts are featured. In a movement toward online-video-awesomeness, some Times reporters came by Ninth Street Espresso to film a cupping session. Unlike previous televised attempts at capturing cupping, this video has absolutely no snowmen cappuccino art.

Check out the article along with the accompanying slide show and video here.

zacharyzachary.com video podcast coming soon.

World Barista Champion and fellow blogger James Hoffmann is having a silent auction. This is James’ first venture after winning the WBC and it’s for a great cause. All money will go toward CoffeeKids, a non-profit that coordinates community-building programs in coffee-growing regions.

[CoffeeKids] staff partners with local non-governmental community organizations in Latin America to create education, health-care, training, and micro-enterprise programs for coffee farmers and their families. Our projects respect the cultural integrity of our local partners, foster independence, and promote long-term self-sufficiency.

From James’ blog..

The champions from Kenya and Costa Rica were both great and whilst I was running around like an eejit Anette very calmly spoke to them and asked them each to sign their respective cups. So rather than hoarding I thought I’d share the love - sort of.

…I will ship anywhere in the world from my own pocket. I’ll give this a couple of weeks - will clarify once I’ve worked out where I’ll be when.

Bid!

Get all of your up-to-the-minute Barista Champion information
Jim Seven

View the scores here.

First Place - World Barista Champion James Hoffmann

Second Place - United States Barista Champion Heather Perry

Third Place - New Zealand Barista Champion Carl Sara

Fourth Place - Japan Barista Champion Miyuki Miyamae

Fifth Place - Switzerland Barista Champion Anna Kaeppeli

Sixth Place - Brazil Barista Champion Sylvia Magalhaes

Thanks to Nick Cho and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) we were able to obtain live feed of the finalist presentations.

6th place: Brazil Barista Champion Sylvia Magalhaes

5th place: Switzerland Barista Champion Anna Kaeppeli

4th place: Japan Barista Champion Miyuki Miyamae

3rd place: New Zealand Barista Champion Carl Sara

2nd place: United States Barista Champion Heather Perry

2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffmann of the UK

in the finals….

best espresso: Heather Perry, United States
best cappuccino: Miyuki Miyamae, Japan
best signature beverage: James Hoffmann, U.K.

and for the whole thing..
favorite barista: Ingibjorg Jona Sigurdardottir (Imma), Iceland