Listen to your coffee

Hi everyone, I'm the new kid in class. I guess Mr. Nick wanted to stir things a little, and he asked me to join this blog. Unlike the other members of the group, I'm purely an amateur: a coffee geek, to coin a phrase. :-)

Frankly, it's a little intimidating for me to participate here, since you awesome professional-type folks have a great deal more experience in coffee than I do. So I'll do my best to add a comment or two, and try not to embarrass myself too much. On the other hand, I've gotten pretty cyber-friendly with Jay, and I make a solemn promise to try and to embarrass HIM whenever I can! :-)

I'm one of the lucky folks who's been lent the new La Marzocco GS3 espresso machine for testing. Yes, I've already been asked, "Who did you have to sleep with to get the machine?" But I'm not telling...at least not in my very first pf.net post.

Recently Chris Deferio (from Gimme Coffee and the Carriage House Cafe) came over to check out the GS3. That's him in the photo below. Those of you who've met Chris know that in addition to being an incredible latte artist, he's deeply serious about the art of espresso preparation.

I loved the way he played with the machine for the very first time. He simply paid attention to everything that went into that espresso. He checked out the beans, he tested the grind, he felt it and made adjustments. He watched the coffee drop into the doser. He flipped the doser handle and carefully studied the way the coffee fell into the portafilter. At every step in the process, I was impressed at how much ATTENTION went into Chris's whole way of making espresso.

That's the most important thing I learned from Chris that day. Stop talking, stop thinking: pay attention. Listen closely to your coffee, you may find it has a lot to say!