Jonathan Alan Withers

Archive for the ‘Industry’ Category

Santa Cruz via Portland

In Abroad, Home, Industry on July 22, 2009 at 4:06 am

Short update to show I’m alive and well. This afternoon we finish the move to Santa Cruz. Early tomorrow morning we’ll leave for two days at Crater Lake, then four of coffee, music, beer, food, and general culture in Portland.

We’ll be back and settled into our new place on the third of August, when I’ll report for duty for two weeks of bar shifts to kick things off.

Hope to see you up there soon!

In the News (Singularly Focused Edition)

In Bar, Home, Industry, Roastery on July 1, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Bravely moving to Santa Cruz!!

Five Years

In Bar, Home, Industry, Roastery on June 28, 2009 at 9:10 pm

This month marks my anniversary with coffee. In the past five years I have worked at three cafes, one roastery, and two barely-related jobs in the restaurant industry. Between sourcing, roasting, brewing, serving, drinking, writing, reading, thinking, and dreaming I don’t believe that coffee has left my mind once the entire time.

To say that I could not be luckier or happier to be doing what I do is a serious understatement. The common dream of doing for a living what one loves is so often unfulfilled that it is something of a cliche. I cannot image a better profession or a better life. I am enormously appreciative of the wonderful people, coffee, and times that have filled the last five years. Here’s hoping (and working towards) many, many more!

Cut Chemex*

In Home, Industry on June 12, 2009 at 4:58 pm

I have a modest collection of obscure-ish British folk LPs. As much as I enjoy this music, I keep the vinyl undigitized and off my iPod. In keeping it reserved for dedicated sessions of listening I not only enjoy better sound, I get to savor it more than I would as background music for my commute.

This makes me think of siphon pots. More than just the unique flavor profiles, I like saving the preparation for times when I can fully devote myself. The coffee tastes better and I’m allowed to gleefully geek over each detail.

Then I saw that this theme can be expanded upon; there are convenient parallels between brew methods and music format. If I find siphons and vinyl to be the respective ultimates of quality, then perhaps French press and compact disc are the next best: Taste/sound are still great, but with the advantage of improved ease of use & cleanup/portability and storage.

Percolator pots and cassette tapes? Both produce relatively awful results and are generally super annoying to use. They’re also both ubiquitous staples of the thrift store, looking exceptionally outdated and run down.

Chemex and mp3 can both be pretty good, in a “substitute for the real thing” kind of way. They also seem to share a fairly healthy debate regarding their quality and proliferation.

I could keep this up (giant urn/FM radio, ibrik/street artists), but I’ll refrain. Some food for thought!

UPDATED: The folks at CoffeeGeek have me beat to this in many ways. Fixed “quality” link to reflect this!

*Stolen from a Tim Styles & Deaton Pigot exchange.

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