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Cara and Petra had some time on their hands tonight.
We would've had individual photos, but the camera batteries died. Lucky to get these off.
Btw, we don't do etching as a matter of course. It delays the time between the espresso pour and your mouth - and every second matters.
But it's nice to know they can do it.
Filed under the category of "left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"...
When we put together this morning's staff meeting, Melanie planned to talk about "body" - the "mouthfeel" of a particular coffee. We poured both the Organic Sumatra (heavy body) and the Flor Azul Nicaraguan (light body) so everyone could get a feel for coffees more or less on the extremes.
About an hour after we finished and the cups were in the dishwasher, the UPS guy shows up with a box from Intelligentsia.
Surprise to everyone but the bosslady that inside the box was four half-pound bags of Bambito, the second-place finisher in this year's Best of Panama Cup of Excellence auction and four half-pound bags of Carmen, the third-place finisher. Having already tasted the first-place winner, Hacienda Esmeralda, we've been eagerly awaiting these two.
Had we known, we would've happily added a cupping of both coffees. But the package arrived too late for a staff tasting. Bah.
Anyway, we've got both these Best of Panama Cup of Excellence coffees in stock this week, as well as a half-pound of the Finca Jojoa. Both the Carmen and the Bambito are $24.99 per half pound, the Finca Jojoa $19.99 per half pound. Get 'em while they last!
All hail the winner.
Cara's heart art was on 80% of all ballots cast.
The final overall scores of the top five (out of 100 possible points):
Cara 85
Belle 78
Lois 59
Petra 47
Frank 22
Congratulations to our winners.
Btw, Cara said she's going to sleep wearing the tiara tonight. We always knew she was a princess...
First the customer winners. More than 100 of you came into the store to cast your votes. 10 of your ballots were selected at random to win a free drink. Here are those lucky 10:
Anna Humberston
Bobbie Townsend
Caroline Fisher
Craig Warner
Genna Kicinski
Julian Carapellulti
Kaitlin Ybarra
Ken Dobbins
Megan Malli
Nancy ReynoldsEach of the above winners will get a free drink of their choice.
Now the envelopes for best latte artists...
2nd Runner Up, Best Heart: Lois
1st Runner Up, Best Heart: Belle
Winner, Best Heart: Cara
2nd Runner Up, Best Rosette: Belle
1st Runner Up, Best Rosette: Lois
Winner, Best Rosette: Petra
2nd Runner Up, Overall: Lois
1st Runner Up, Overall: Belle
Winner, Overall and Top Aldo Coffee Latte Artist: Cara
Congratulations to all our winners. Thanks also to Andi for her assistance in training and in helping judge this contest and to our other baristi for getting behind the contest. One thing we know, everyone here is on top of their microfoam and espresso, even if the art isn't always perfect.
What's most astounding about these results from an industry perspective is that the average age of our winners is 40+. Generally speaking, competition baristi are in their 20s. We're tempted to send some of our moms and grandmas out to the MARBC next year to show the 20-somethings a little what-for. Now that would be fun.
Let's plan on doing it again next year.
We were hoping to announce the winners today, but due to a death in the Aldo family over the weekend, we couldn't pull together a staff meeting. So we'll be announcing tomorrow before noon.
Somebody's going to be very surprised.
Btw, these photos are not of a winner. They're from a latte Belle poured this afternoon while playing with Chris deFerio's "Fire Breathing Dragon" concept (bottom photo).
Instead of building off a rosette like deFerio, Belle instead poured a heart. The resulting art looks more like a benign fat moth instead of a mean serpent.
The Panini Guy has been expanding his repetoire to desserts of late (mostly the no-bake variety - too many details in baking for his limited attention span). Melanie has been promising to jump in as well on the baking end and take care of the tiramisu and (we think) Steeler cookies.
Meantime, Rich continues his journey off the deep end of coffeehouse cuisine. This week we take on an oriental fusion recipe: green tea panna cotta. It actually makes sense for us and isn't really all that "far out". Again, it's just something you don't see often (if ever) in Pittsburgh. Btw, we're using Sencha for this, not Matcha, for those of you keeping score at home.
Maybe you've had green tea ice cream at Little Tokyo or elsewhere. It's sort of like that same taste - a tad earthy, a little sweet, a bit complex, but very satisfying. Unlike the ice cream, it jiggles. We're doing some samples on Wednesday for staff tasting.
We still haven't decided what to use for a sauce. Lord knows we have plenty of fresh mint growing out back, but that would be too overpowering by itself. Probably something with blackberries and chocolate. (Wonder if we can sneak a plum wine reduction in there?)
Speaking of plum wine reductions... here's what been tantalizing us lately. We surrender to this level of genius.
Here are this week's varietals and blends, some of which may served by the cup in an airpot before noon (check the daily menu) but all are avialable as press pot anytime. You can also order Aldo House Blend, French Roast or Black Cat Espresso Blend as press pot coffee.
To learn more about any of the coffees listed, click the coffee's name and you will be taken to a fact sheet on that coffee. The notes provided are tasting excerpts from Intelligentsia's green bean buyer, Geoff Watts.
This week, August 20-26:
While we're still "outsourcing" some of our baked goods, we've been playing with some new desserts and hoping they'll find an audience.
We talked about mixing some savory into the sweets. We've been seeing a ton of fresh strawberries about lately and Melanie recalled a dessert she'd had in Rome with strawberries and balsamic. A quick search turned up a recipe from Michael Chiarello for Strawberry Pazzo (crazy strawberries). So we made some this weekend.
If you haven't yet voted, you've got about 30 minutes to cast your ballot. Remember, 10 ballots will be selected at random to win a free drink. We close at 3pm today.
Winner will be announced Tuesday. Stay tuned.
It's been interesting - lots of first-time or occasional customers who had (a) no idea what they were looking at - as if this weren't achievable, and (b) people who knew it was doable, but didn't know all the art came from our baristi, not somewhere else.
It's a start. Melanie is printing up little cards explaining why the art is, if not necessary, at the very least a strong indicator that your drink was prepared with care. After all, both the espresso foundation and the milkfoam must be near-perfect for the design work to be possible. Hopefully y'all will come to expect this not just from us, but from everyone else in the Burgh.
Aldo's Slideshow 
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