done and done.

Hey I am doing pretty well hope you had a great time at the JAM! Hows things with you great I hope!.Talk to you soon have a great weekend!

Hi Gwen, it was great meeting the Ohio crew, enjoy your Green Machine.

Hi Gwen,
Back in Australia, sorry I missed you! I was in Cleveland for 1 day and spent the rest of my time in Columbus.. Had a good coffee at Cafe Brioso in C-bus, not much else though : (

Hey Gwen,
I will be in Ohio next week, just wondering if I can come by your work and grab a wonderfully made cup of coffee? let me know when you'll be there! Cheers,

Happy New year Gwen!
It sounds like you're having a good time oganising barista jams etc, pretty cool. So, with Australia as oppossed to England... I'm not too sure how strict the laws are over here, could be similar? I've asked one of my Canadians barista buddies to join BX, and he is currently working in Vietnam but was working for a couple of years in Australia before that.. and should be pretty up to date on what you need to do to get in. His name is Nat, and he's promised me he'll join in the next few days - so I'll keep you posted. On another note, looks like I'll be heading to WBC in Atlanta this year - as a spectator.. So if you're heading their too, we should catch-up ; )

Hey Gwen, it was the first one ever run in oz, and was held at one of our big industry events.. it was great fun, I had to prepare and serve a traditional (hot) tea, and a iced tea infusion with a black or green base.. I went with the Chinese White tea Pui mu tan for my traditional, and I made an Red Iced Chai for the cold one. It was judged by a panel of 3 tea experts.. I won a two and a half thousand dollar tea set - which was pretty cool and I get a double page spread in the next cafe culture mag over here! I would have loved to go to vegas for the convention but am flat-out busy over here with the new roasting business.. Next year! How's things with you?

Hi Gwen,
Hows things with you - nice rap from Caitlin! maybe you should come to Australia ; ) we've got nicer weather.. Anyway, bit of news - I managed to win the National tea infusion challenge the other week 'yay' so that's pretty exciting! anything new with you?

Just so y'all know, Gwen is one of the most fabulous baristas, co-workers, employees, and friends I've ever experienced (and I've worked with a lot of really great people, so thats saying something!). I've watched her sell beans based on a customer's fine wine tastes in a charming and knowledgeable way that makes my jaw drop. She sucks up knowledge of coffee and tea and then creatively makes it her own and presents it to others in a way that they can connect with. Gwen is one of the pioneers of our Tea Science Crew and eagerly experiments and educates. She works hard, smiles big, keeps a pristine bar, and is an incredible asset to our community. Gwen is a gift and whatever shop in the UK finally steals her away from us will be about the luckiest place in the the world. Love you Gwennie!

Hey Gwen,

Good news about the snow!

The bars in the specs you gave me refers to to the boilers capacity - or rating.. which has nothing to do with the water going through your portafilter.. you'll notice on your machine that their are to readings on your machine gauge.. 15 and 2. The side that has 15 on it reads your pump pressure - which when running a shot through should read somewhere between 9 and 10 bars.. the other should float somewhere between 0.9 and 1.2.. - that's the steam pressure in the boiler - where you get your steam from. Bars simply means atmospheres.. so the pressure that the world puts on us ;) x whatever it reads..
I hope that makes some sort of sense - let me know if it doesn't.. and I will try to explain it better : )
Have a great day tomorrow Gwen!

Hi Gwen,
Thanks for the stats..I'm not too sure about all the bits and pieces.. but here we go!
Mod. stands for model, 85 in that number stands for when that model was first released - 1985. As for the other numbers.. I'm not sure. Freq and pot both refer to the type of power required, while the Press. stands for pressure in the boiler - which can handle a maximum of 2 bars of steam pressure.
As for your weather - wow! my parents just got back from that part of the stats and they where sing that same tune.. crazy! I can't imagine it?
How is everything with you now? still in a blizzard - if that's even how you spell it - don't know?
Hope you have a SUPER day!

Hi Gwen,
Let me know when you're in the uk.
We always need good freelance baristas and we can introdue you to some of the people that run the better shops.

Joe

Hey Gwen,
Roasting hey? yeah.. I was lucky enough to work with 3 of the countries leading roasters when I was with Toby's Estate coffee here in Sydney! We had close to 50 different green beans that we could work with at any given time! We would regularly have cupping sessions together - I was looking after quality control and training.. so I got to spend heaps of time learning about roasting.. got to participate in creating a new blend.. It was fantastic. I'm actually starting a roasting business on the Central Coast at the moment.. we're about 5 weeks away from opening our doors.. so I'm gonna get lots of practice with roasting! we're also moving my school out to the new facility.. which going to be great as we've now out grown the first one! it's really exciting and scary right now.. but anything worth doing is usually a stretch at first!
nice talking to you Gwen.. hope you have a cool day ; )

French press is great - especially when your working with single origins.

I've been working with machines for about 2.5 years i guess.. which all came out of wanting to understand why some machines where getting better results than others.. I rebuilt a few machines that were past their prime.. and asked lots of the top tech nerds heaps of questions! then it was all about experimenting with them. I brought an Elektra Barlume because I loved the look of them - and they had a reputation of running too hot.. I wanted to prove that you could 'tweak' them to kick some espresso butt! It took a while, but it's amazing now! I've also rebuilt an ecm giotto to give me dryer steam - and more thermo consistency - I hope I'm not boring you..
Believe it or not, machines are not my passion! I just wanted to understand them.. I love making and drinking coffee the most! and teaching people to do the same is what drives me!
In terms of dosing.. I've always subscribed to the theory of sight dosing - which is not so much about the journey of the dose - just the destination.. the other thing is that I try to dose on demand as much as possible..
How far away is your coffee shop from Columbus? I'm hoping to visit my sister by the end of the year.. that's if I can make some time for it..
Hope you have a great day!
Cheerio

Hi Gwen,
The coffee scene down here is a blast! Heaps of people really putting effort into making it wonderful.. I love it! I get to work with heaps of them.. I wouldn't really call it work though? I see you like tea too! that's cool - I've managed to do a few tea master classes over the last few years.. I find it very interesting..What kind of coffee machine are you using at the moment? I've been re-building one for a friend this past week :( but with a couple of tricks.. it's come up fine, making wonderful espresso mmmmm
look forward to hearing from you soon
coolbeans.

nice photo gwen

Hi gwen.. would you like to have a friend in Australia?? I'd love to have a Barista friend in Ohio! my sister lives in Columbus Ohio.. I'm sure she'd be happy to hear that someones making a good brew near-by!
Anyway.. have a wonderful day!
Ben