OlaLatte

For the love of coffee, and my dabbling in the art of it

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Another latte. Yum.

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Home barista leaves and such. Cups by Rörstrand, Sweden (as always).

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Subtle heart in bowl cup.

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Volunteer barista. A Monday morning shift in February.

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Home barista

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I'm feeling beet 😋 Like coffee, like cup. Today's latte art failure turned into a fun win.

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Today's pours included these small lattes and the new seasonal favorite spicy mocha - yum yum - with a hot touch of cayenne along with some cinnamon and nutmeg. Try it!

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These are both guest appearances from two of my favorite coffee shops in the City - Lucid Cafe and Little Collins (the latter being the one with the amazing “Smash” avocado toast!). Fantastic and inspiring!

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These are my own pours again. Funny how similar the patterns turned out. The cappuccino (in bigger cup) I poured at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, while the other one is from my little La Pavoni lever machine at home.

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Today’s home and away. Both pulled by yours truly though. Featured coffees 1) at home, made with a Blue Bottle Coffee Hayes Valley bean, and 2) at Housing Works Bookstore Café, with a Black Cat Espresso bean.

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A brunch coffee at home.

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Alright, I finally got all my gear in place. Bought a pretty Ascaso grinder from 1st-line Equipment outside of Freehold, New Jersey - which ended up being a 5 hour trip in total, haha! But hey, why not?! And got a tamper, brush and knock-box from various places on Amazon. So now I can actually grind my beans and start getting those little lattes right. Right now I'm working with Blue Bottle's Giant Steps, which is pouring okay, but I find it to be a little too smoky as an espresso. And I realized reading about it that it is more of a french press or drip pot blend/roast. Next time I'll go with one of their designated espresso beans, like the Hayes Valley or 17ft.

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The new kid in town!!! Brought this beauty home from Lindenhurst, Long Island (an hour and a half from NYC).

So, I finally found a baby fit for our new getup in NYC. After A LOT of searching on Craigslist, ebay, Amazon, google, Coffeegeeks, and various repairshops around the city (and up the East Coast!) I finally settled on venturing out into the world of lever machines.

This La Pavoni “Professional” is a 2006, which is certainly a small scaler as far as most machines go. But for the size and price tag I thought it’d be fun to try out and see if the lever technique could produce a relatively nice result on both the espresso and latte side of things.

So, it’s early days yet. I’m working on getting the milk to behave as I want. I just got a new milk jug, which helps. The biggest issue now is that I need a grinder so I can get a fresh and exact grind of beans, rather than the ready ground that I’m pouring now (which is too coarse). But all shall be tweaked to perfection (or as close as I can get) in due time.

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Another shift @housingworksbookstore cafe. Great to be pouring a bunch of cups again. Love the customers, the fellow volunteers and all the books!

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A perfect guest appearance (as always) by @littlecollinsnyc

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My first volunteer shift at Housing Works Bookstore Café in SoHo, NYC. For some reason I was nervous as all hell, my hands shaking like a leaf also when pouring my first cups. It was a blast though, such lovely people (shout out to Amy for being a rock), both behind and on the other side of the counter. I am already really looking forward to my next Monday morning!

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Very last pours with my dear Isomac machine before leaving it behind in Stockholm, as we moved to NYC, with no machine of our own (yet!)