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So, it is the weekend again. Time for me to collect my thoughts on my life, coffee, and everything going on in general. I have been trying really hard latly to get things moving in the catagory of getting stuff done, or accomplishing goals.

Milwaukee
First off, personally, I feel great! I am surrounded by people who love and care for coffee as much as I do. We talk and debate about coffee all day long. Truth be told, I do not think I would rather be anyplace besides Milwaukee. Working at Anodyne has provided me with an opportunity to really put my knowledge into practice, work with some excellent coffees and people, and is giving me a chance to experiment with coffee and feel out its boundaries. Milwaukee is a town where there are tons of quality coffee shops hidden all over. If you have never been here, most likely you have least heard of Alterra. Alterra has some great coffee, and some great people working for them. You have Anodyne, where the focus is not about opening up franchises, but about roasting the best coffee and representing it to the best of our ability. I do not know much about them but The National. Every time I go into The National I get amazing spro from Metropolis out of Chicago. The baristas at The National know how to pull it and brew a good cup. There are also the guys up at Roast Coffee Co who can do great things with coffee (if you get a few drinks in them), but seriously they can do awesome things with some coffee. We also here in Milwaukee, happen to be bordered by Madison where there are a crap-ton of roasters and coffee shops, I have not been there yet, but plan on doing an espresso crawl in the next coming weeks.


The Holy Coffee Grail
I really want to do something amazing with coffee, but I kind of feel intimidated by the thousands of years of history behind coffee and feel like there is not much left for a person to discover or conclude about coffee. Although I do know that we are just skimming the top of an ocean of coffee adventure, I just get the feeling like I am scraping the bottom of my bowl and need a refill of this coffee awesomeness. It is like I want to discover something awesome in this multi-cultural, multi-national thing, a beast of sorts. I hear stories about how great things are being done all over, from a several thousand dollar siphon thing in California, to the Slayer people up in the North-West. But, when all is said and done, I can not help but get this feeling like we are all looking for this "coffee grail." Seriously, I see it in all serious coffee people. This look that is almost coveted, a way of living, we have this esoteric thing, coffee. When they speak to non-coffee people the look is always the same too, "What, you have not experienced the awe-inspiring amazing-ness that is great coffee?" I know this sounds weird to a non-coffee person too. "Dude, it is just coffee, couple bucks in a can at the store. Duhh!" I guess I just want to scream about how great it is, be its number one advocate. But, there is this almost quest going on to find the best way to brew, and the best coffee to brew. If you know the secret, it is amazing. If you don't know the secret and its just a cup of coffee, well, thats great too, but yeah. This grail though, this need to find and achieve coffee bliss, we are all looking for... I wish I had words to describe it.

Movies
Something I find funny is movies. More specifically coffee in movies. I occasionally see a french press or a moka-pot in these Hollywood movies and wonder "Do they know how to use that?" I, for sure, do not want to sound pretentious but seriously, it makes me think about the Hollywood stars too. They have almost this unlimited source of income and you always end up seeing these paparazzi photos of everyone walking down the street holding a cup by "you know who." I do find it funny, but could only imagine if I had this level of income, the coffee I would drink... I guess this makes me come to the conclusion that I would love to see some more people who waste money regularly, waste it on coffee, and great coffee at that.

Ultimate conclusion for the day
I am sitting at my kitchen table, typing on my laptop. I cant complain about anything. I think I am going to go get some coffee right now, my chem-exed "summer awesome fun yeah blend" was not enough to quench my thirst. I definitely have my head in the clouds today, not thinking to seriously about anything.