I have wanted to start a coffee blog for about three years now.  The problem is that every time I've started down this trail, I'd start second-guessing my motives and experience.  It feels like, while I do really enjoy coffee, there are so many people out there who "get it" and who "know more about it" than I do.  A great example of this being my coffee-mentor Marcus.  He has traveled to coffee farms, roasted coffee in all manner of machines, and can observe and taste coffee in a way that simultaneously makes me admire and despise him.  He even has a sweet beard that gives off the "I don't trim my beard because I've been too busy driving my Volvo into the jungles of Costa Rica" vibe.  I think, to be a true barista, one needs to have a sizable amount of facial hair.  I may be off-base on that point but most of the baristas I've met have had them and, while I don't want to get into the debate of whether the chicken or egg came first, I do know that great baristas tend to have beards.  That's all I'm saying, and having said that I should point out that I do not own either a Volvo (anymore) or an unkempt beard and for these reasons have felt grossly unprepared to start a coffee blog.

I'm just an average-looking white guy who loves the art of coffee.  I am not a guy that you would pick out of a crowd as somebody qualified to discuss the finer aspects of ristretto shots.  I am just a person that loves learning  and this blog is a place for the person that goes to their local coffee shop, orders a grande, and doesn't understand why the barista gives them the "hate stare."