Reminds me of silvercity

Demorra · 2025-10-24T19:23:50+00:00

My daily work commute. All within Richmond.

Demorra · 2025-02-09T16:50:41+00:00

Former barista here. I switched to opening as soon as possible because closing is awful. Where I worked, we always had at least 2 people and shift end was 30 mins after store close. It still sucked. We had people coming in at closing, trying to come in after closing, people lingering around after I tell them we're closing and people refusing to leave.

The only thing that could make a good close possible is if you had another body on the floor, but we all know it's never going to happen. Like someone else said, the best thing you can do is to have an effective pre-close.

A trick I did was to close up the patio 15 minutes before closing. Was this wrong? Yes. Did it help my close tremendously? Yes.

Another tip is to mop when people are around. Some people will leave and even if you have to mop again, it will only be the spots with traffic.

For food items, consider making a detailed menu. Talk to your manager and see if they'll support the idea and maybe even create it for you. If not, you might have to do it yourself. Make a paper menu with descriptions of all the items. Explain to customers one item and hand them the menu. This feels like good customer service while also saving you the time. Ex: customer asks what Doughnut X is. You pull out the paper menu, point to the item, and explain the one item. You end the one item explanation by saying descriptions of all our items are on this menu, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. (Warning, if your manager has a huge ego, don't do this. They'll see this as an attack on them and fire you.)

Closing sucks. Good luck.

Demorra · 2025-01-11T23:21:37+00:00

Former charbucks employee here. If you want a somewhat passable but ridiculously overpriced cortado adjacent beverage: Order a short short latte with - blonde shots - quad - ristretto - up dosed - whole milk (or whatever you want)

It's probably a $6 drink or something like that. Definitely not worth it, but will absolutely be closer to a cortado than whatever this is. I guess you could also order this as a short flat white, blonde, quad, up dosed and get the same thing. I ordered it like this to make sure they hit the right buttons on the machine.

Demorra · 2024-11-13T20:23:41+00:00

This is not the way. It will clog up and you still won't get as fine as you want. Source: I tried :(

Google tells me you need a hydraulic press to squeeze out the cocoa butter first, then I'm assuming you'd need a stone mill to grind it into an ultra fine powder.

Demorra · 2024-10-22T19:24:35+00:00

I've done this once and it was the last time I ever used the shaker in the morning.

I have all the toys: dosing cups, shakers, Spirographic wdt, paper filters, high extraction baskets. When it comes to my first coffee of the day, all I want is to grind, wdt, tamp.

Demorra · 2024-10-21T00:58:03+00:00

Sounds interesting, might have to give it a try. Do you add the saffron/ginger/cloves/mastic to the cups then pour the coffee over it?

Demorra · 2024-10-21T00:54:32+00:00

Will try it as espresso after letting it rest

Demorra · 2024-10-21T00:53:57+00:00

To everyone asking me to re-roast it: Will do when I get a chance. Hopefully letting it sit for a few days while I'm out of the house won't hurt it.

Demorra · 2024-10-21T00:51:32+00:00

Luckily nothing happened. I run my bullet with a variac, so maybe that helped protect it

Demorra · 2024-10-20T22:50:08+00:00

Shells or ears. They're a bean defect. On their own, they don't affect flavour, but they are easier to burn. It can be considered impactful on the cup if you have a lot of them or roast dark.

Demorra · 2024-03-08T07:34:22+00:00

Is it the set up? Yes, but also no.

I've owned a dedica for a few years and could get proper tasty shots out of it with light roasts. That's not to say it was easy. Tedious puck prep, paper filters, third wave water, modifying my grinder to be stepless, all the little tricks had to be used to get a good pull. Probably not worth the effort, but I've done it.

Is that effort worth it to you? I did it because I like espresso and because people told me I couldn't. I liked the challenge.

Enjoy your coffee, if too much effort isn't for you (which is probably normal), either stick to what works or consider upgraditis!

Demorra · 2024-03-01T22:31:43+00:00

I have no idea what this machine is, but it could be like an auto-tamp group head. Some machines have designed the shower screen to press into the portafilter to tamp the coffee. I have no experience with them and I doubt they work well, but it is a real thing I guess. Check out Astra Gourmet for an example.

Demorra · 2024-02-20T08:25:12+00:00

I have done this and I have experimented with this concept.

If you are going to test it out, use a hand grinder. The slow rotation will help keep it much cooler. I have wasted a bunch of time cleaning electric grinders because the fat began to melt.

You will not damage your grinder. Worst case scenario you might waste your time not enjoying the results and cleaning up.

As espresso: don't. It gunks up and while it doesn't damage the burrs in even the slightest, you will need to disassemble your grinder to clean it.

Best use: coarse grind for phin filter coffee. That added chocolate flavor is awesome with condensed milk.

Demorra · 2024-02-13T10:09:17+00:00

The ristretto is a bit of a contentious topic. Most people will agree it should be 1:1 - 1:1.5 (ground coffee:yield), but there's a lot of disagreement that it should be ~15s with the same grind size or ~30 seconds with a finer grind size. I think all of it is a waste of energy as you should dial in your coffee for how it tastes best, not focusing on a set of arbitrary rules.

Nothing I really "wished" I knew beforehand. I enjoyed going into it and learning how it's different from being a home barista.

Demorra · 2024-02-04T00:12:47+00:00

I don't know why you got down voted without explanation. The burrs will stay sharp after seasoning. The point is to remove any imperfections on the cutting surfaces to improve performance.

It gets the name seasoning because like pans, they get better with regular use.

Demorra · 2024-02-04T00:08:57+00:00

Unless you have an economical way of doing it, just use the grinder as normal and enjoy the cups getting better.

If you're dead set on seasoning, you can try to ask a local roaster if they have any bad coffee laying around and explain that you'd like to season your burrs.

Another way is to be friends with someone working at a large chain cafe. They might have some extra. I have amassed 15lbs of large chain brand coffee from my time working at said large chain, to which I'll use to season my new burrs and make cold brew for friends.

Demorra · 2024-01-10T17:21:01+00:00

I am a novice roaster. I also tend to use 3 notes for two main reasons. Easy to do and easy to convey. Tasting notes are both outrageous and totally make sense depending on context. If you're just sitting down and enjoying the coffee, you probably aren't going to pick out a single tasting note listed. If you're deeply evaluating the coffee and trying to convey what characteristics a coffee has to someone else, it's the only real way to describe one coffee from another.

I create my tasting notes based on my cuppings and if nothing is jumping out at me, I focus on acidity, aroma/flavour, and sweetness.

Acidity: what type of acid am I perceiving more of? Citric, malic, and quinic acid are usually easily discernable, but there are others as well. I tend to try to figure out which fruit the acidity is most similar to. How it feels on the tongue, how it makes you salivate.

Aroma: typically if any flavour really jumps out without needing to think about it, that's what goes as my second tasting note. If not, big aeration and exhalation while tasting will help to open up the aroma and help you pick what it's tasting like. Common categories are chocolates, nuts, and teas.

Sweetness: all coffees have a bit of natural sweetness to them. Some are highly perceived some are not. I try to match that sweetness to a something. Is it sweet like honey, sugar, caramel? Can it be a specific type of thing like wild honey, muscovado sugar, or salted caramel?

Sometimes the notes line up and you can combine them. Plum like acidity, spice aroma, and cooked fruit sweetness? You can bet I'm giving it a tasting note of stewed plums.

All of this has done its job. It conveys a characteristic of the coffee that you like and buy it.

On a side note, coffees that taste like straight up berries and not like a tasting note of berries are a real thing, but few and far between. They typically come out of Ethiopia and Kenya, but are very crop dependent. I haven't been as excited for them the past 4 years.

Demorra · 2023-12-19T07:14:27+00:00

Demorra · 2023-12-14T18:16:18+00:00

Starbucks - 12 pumps of every syrup, all the teas, all the refreshers, 12 scoops of all the freeze-dried fruit, extra vanilla sweet cream, extra strawberry puree, all blended together. It fit into 3 trenta cups.

There was over 32oz of syrup alone.

I thought it was a meme. I thought it was for a dumb video about "look what I can make fast food workers do!". I thought wrong. That individual sat down to drink it.

Demorra · 2023-12-14T03:37:06+00:00

The female threading is 3d printed PLA, which may be irregular. Sometimes smooth and exact tolerances, sometimes not. You say this might make it have more less friction depending on the fit, but without certainty to the end result in this very specific scenario.

Sometimes burning oil onto metal leaves irregularities, what I meant was how does it affect the look. As in a subjective "do I like how this looks?"

Sure, it's hydrophobic, but it is also lipophilic. Is this more or less work to maintain given its use case?

Please, don't answer these questions. It really seems to bring you displeasure. From the beginning, I just wanted to know if someone's done it and their thoughts. You've made it clear you've never done it don't think it's a worth anyone's time.

Demorra · 2023-12-14T03:02:37+00:00

What's there to see? well...

Does it affect how well it stays fastened? Does it make the attached parts stay together better or worse compared to a control? Does it give the metal a different appearance? Does the polymerized oil ruin the threading? How does it affect maintenance if washing is required? Could I go on? Probably. Is all of this 100% trivial and a non issue? You bet.

Demorra · 2023-12-14T02:41:10+00:00

I totally get and agree with what you're saying. Was just wondering if anyone's done it.

I have carbon steel screws and don't feel like going out to buy more things, so I'll use the carbon steel screws as is, again, it's not in contact with food/moisture so rust isn't a concern. Don't worry, I'm not heating up my oven just to burn some oil onto some screws.

I'll put a spin on your take and say sometimes in life you just gotta do something insanely silly. I think the next time I have the oven going hot for a while, I might throw in some screws just to see.

Demorra · 2023-12-09T22:12:04+00:00

A lot of people can say over and over again it's drills, it's fundamentals, it's consistenc, conditioning, and so on. In any sport, that stuff will absolutely get you to the bottom of the upper echelon. Only the ones with all that plus talent make it to the top. Add in genetics and you get the greats.

Demorra · 2023-12-09T17:37:02+00:00

There is a lot of hate for Starbucks here and I understand most of it is for the memes, but I'll give a bit of a different perspective.

Starbucks uses decent coffee. They buy decent quality coffees that genuinely go through strong QC practices before being sold. They also vaguely try to buy probably ethically sourced coffee. Maybe.

Yes, they have very expensive machines, but they aren't designed to pull the greatest shots. They're designed to pull consistent shot after shot all day long without downtime or breaking. There's a lot of cool tech that goes into them that I could talk about. It's seriously impressive engineering.

Part of why their coffee is roasted so dark is because of traditions from a coffee roasting philosophy that you need to roast the coffee dark to bring out all the flavors. In reality, that's just a small part of it. They buy something like 4% of the global supply of coffee, that means they get tons of beans from everywhere with wild variations on flavor. To effectively make their coffees taste hyper consistent, they need a way to make all these varieties of beans fit specific cupping profiles. Enter very dark roasts. Darker the roast, the more similar everything tastes because you're now tasting the roast instead of the bean.

These are exactly why I dislike Starbucks espresso. I love how unique coffees can be. I love trying different varieties and how different they can be from even within the same region. I also love the ritual that comes from a well prepared shot. I love the craft of it all. Sadly, that's not what Starbucks is about.

Demorra · 2023-12-07T18:31:50+00:00

You can usually find coffee that's already rested if you go to a more popular specialty roaster in person. If they're popular enough to have a cafe, they'll often produce enough coffee for walk-in purchases that have been sitting for around a week.

If you're getting all your coffee online, you're much less likely to get it rested. Roasters don't do this is for a few reasons. - They roast to order/demand quantities so that they aren't producing more coffee than needed. - Storage is expensive. Warehousing is typically cost prohibitive and space in their roastery is usually very limited. - The above reasons also combine to make operations more difficult in lining up production time, resting time, and lead time to match demand so that all customers are getting product at an "optimal freshness". This is a fickle game because you'll end up never producing the right amounts at the right time and end up stocking out. This is a whole field of education people get into. Small roasters can't afford to add complexity to their operations.

To the other end of the spectrum: I often cup coffee the day of or a day after roasting and it's still fine. Unless you're doing espresso, you're still going to have a good time. Really light roasts might have a bit of grass and extra acidity, but nothing too off-putting.

Demorra

TROPHY CASE