Well let's get the ball rolling

Alright first post on this coffee fan blog! So... where to begin? Well I guess I'll start this all out by saying a little something about myself, my coffee experience, and what led me to be the coffee lover I am today.

It all began in high school and Starbucks. By my high school was a Starbucks that served as a general hangout spot for myself, my friends, and just about every other high schooler that needed a caffeine fix. It was nice, comfortable atmosphere, laid back Baristas, and good coffee (though my definition of "coffee" at the time was a white chocolate mocha or Frappaccino). After just about every school day my friends and I would retire to Starbucks for general bullshitting until our rides home arrived. It came to pass that Starbucks would become a social hub for us, the days events were rehashed (at times embellished) friendships were broken there and remade there, relationships bloomed and fell apart, but no matter what the ever shifting variables were there was one constant, coffee.

After high school coffee began to evolve for me. Soon it was no longer a substance of social events, rather it had become an elixir of life. OK that may be a bit excessive to say, but when I began working at Noah's Bagels and needed to wake up at four o'clock in the morning to get to work anything that helped to shake my tiredness felt vital. There was a short while where a cup of joe was good for me, but later espresso became my good friend. It was fast, strong, and I could go for a good few hours on just four ounces of espresso. Because the morning crew generally worked until three or four in the afternoon I remember one of my managers instituting "twelve o'clock shots", everyone would pull two espresso shots for themselves and pound them, this kept us going until we had to leave, and once again it was a kind of social thing to do.

I spent four years working at Noah's until I moved on for greener pasture, but even though my scenery changes coffee stuck with me, however now I found my tastes had evolved a bit. When not pounding espresso shots I found that my favourite cafe drink was a vanilla latte. As it was so close to Noah's I was regularly going to Starbucks for my drink, however when I left I found that there were several other drive through espresso stands on route to my new job. Previously I had no desire to go to them I had this preconception that they would have some gross roast or something. But one day I decided to let go of my Prejudice and try one of these places. The first drive though I ever tried was Brewed Awakenings which uses Stumptown beans. It was summer and hot so I decided to have my vanilla latte iced that day, when I first had a sip it was as if I had never had coffee before, it was smooth with no acidic after taste like I had always had from Starbucks, I felt reintroduced to coffee.

Anyway the rest is history I guess. The place I regularly go for espresso drinks is another drive though called Espresso Works right there on Multnomah Blvd. It's fantastic and has great customer service. Though lately I have been brewing my own espresso using my 3 cup Bialetti Moka Express and Stumptown's Hair Bender roast.

Hope you enjoyed this self indulgent first post. If you have any comments on your coffee experiences or suggestions for what I should try please leave a comment!