the difficulties of patience

First things first, it's been a while since my last entry, and for the sake of this blog I apologize. No one really reads it but for it's intent it must be kept relevant, ahem...it' just takes me a bit to get going with these things. So Blackbird Coffee(sometimes ground zero and sometimes home base depends on the days happenings) has seen some real action over the past month and or so. We've gotten rather busy, and sales have reflected that it's not just foot traffic(insert Southern Baptist styled "Hallelujah!").

The team of baristas here seem to have started to really step up there game. To their credit, there hasn't been a check and balances for them here in quite a while, and they have really pushed themselves to learn in there own time and also to help create a great atmosphere of coffee knowledge and neutrality in the shop. The new standards are probably a bit strict, they have taken to the new adjustments well, and although there have been a few kinks here and there, there has been an obvious effort on all ends to step up their proverbial game.

On that note I would also like to welcome our newest barista to join the flock, Clair Guy. She is still going through training and is showing some promising colors. She's been really receptive of instruction and is great with all of the people coming through the shop. Good luck Clair.

For the longest time Blackbird has quite honestly just been about making the money to pay the bills. I think gradually the owners are beginning to see the positive idea of taking your time and cultivating a product that draws people as a specialty worth a bit more, rather than just a stop along the day that one may or may not get to.

A lady just contacted me about helping her and her husband open a coffee shop. They actually know nothing more if not less than what the owners of Blackbird knew when they first got into this idea, so she has a chance here. She sent me a list of what she needs to know though, and it won't be a quick lesson. Simply put.

Last Friday night the grinder in the store stopped working, great. I took it apart from the top and cleaned grime from no telling how many months of disregard concerning equipment, after that it would work for a handful of beans, but anything over an ounce would make it literally grind to a halt. So I took it completely apart, everything unscrewed on the table apart, and the burrs (parts that do all the grinding) were caked so thick with old grinds that you could barely see the teeth, this is when a cigarette entered the picture :) Apparently there has never been an sort of cleaning regiment here....that just changed.

In other news I have begun recycling the burlap coffee sacks that our green coffee beans come to the store in. I started making messenger/satchel bags out of them, and they will soon be for sale.
Last but not least, we finally got a new coffee!
Welcome El Salvador Santa Barbara "Bourbon" Certified Rainforest Alliance to the line of Fresh Roasted Coffees delivered by Blackbird Coffee.

We will be doing free in house tastings of all of our coffees, in about a two weeks. They will be led by my long time friend and coffee compatriot Erik Gotrich. He is young in his coffee indulgences but the extent to which he researches the coffees he will discuss or the zeal for understanding that information and explaining that to willing listeners is unparalleled in this middle Georgia area we currently call home.

hope to see you around the shop,
Chris- amor y paz