the explorer becomes a student, part 2

I think baristas are superheroes.

Your superpowers are frothing milk, pulling the perfect shot and awesome latte art. Your enemies are uncalibrated grinders, dirty steam wands and over-extraction (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Today we learnt about roasting, blends of coffee beans, more frothing and latte art. We went through Coffee Assembly's coffee menu and Felix made each one to show us the differences in taste, size and technique.

Once again, I tried and tried again to get better at my latte art and steaming of milk. For my latte art I managed to make an onion (bottom right) and something that might have resembled a certain body part (I'm not going to get anymore specific than that haha).

I quickly threw them down the drain because I was embarrassed that I still couldn't execute the technique used to create latte art as well as getting my milk to be even socially acceptable. Like Sylar from "Heroes" (in the first season) he had to practise (and kill - but that's beside the point, not a perfect metaphor I admit) and meet people with the powers he wanted before he became a hero himself (or villain? Definitely not a perfect metaphor).

Whilst I understand the theory and logic behind the process of making an espresso coffee. There is a difference between knowing how to make it and actually making it. I guess I'm just a little disappointed in myself, I thought I would have been better at it after working with my colleagues that taught me too. But yes, practise, practise, practise! (I mean, I don't mind getting bitten by a radioactive spider if that'll help?)

Felix taught us a little about different coffee beans with differing qualities and how when blended together create complex levels in the overall taste. He roasted a mix of Brazilian, Ethiopian, Papua New Guinea (has strong aroma but little taste) and Indonesian (has strong taste but little aroma) beans for about 30 minutes in his roaster and when he ground them, man, the smell was amazing! We had to wait about an hour before we could actually try the espresso from the freshly roasted coffee beans, but it was well worth the wait and overtime.

Ristretto, espresso, espresso lungo, espresso macchiato, cappuccino, caffe latte, latte macchiato, caffe mocha and cappuccino mocha. These are the espresso beverages Felix described in detail, made and got some of us to taste. I got to ask more questions and have them answered. If you are interested and want to learn more about coffee, I do recommend Coffee Assembly.

Before we left, Felix told us to keep practising when we had the chance. Afterall, learning about all this stuff will only be useful if we put it to use. I hope to keep practising but I'm scared of doing it in front of others as well as wasting coffee beans and milk! Ahh.