Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Southwest Roasters Group
coffee - knowledge - mentorship - fun
This is a great group of professional coffee roasters living and working in the Southwest - people willing to share and exchange ideas, committed to expanding/increasing their knowledge of coffee and providing quality coffee to the consumer. Plus it's a lot of fun!
ok...official shoutout to my peeps!

Friday, January 20, 2006




This 1989 La Marzocco Linea 2 group was taken out of a local coffeeshop. As you can see, this machine is in very poor condition. It was pulling shots and steaming milk right up to the time I replaced it for the owners with a new one.

The La Marzocco is an incredibly good machine, in my opinion, one of the best. I have a certain fondness for the LM's and that is the reason this machine will be going to the bench for restoration and maybe a little hot-rodding.

This project is not for the faint of heart as it is going to require a complete strip down and rebuild and I'm not sure what I will find when I open it up. The first step will be descaling the boilers. I'll post notes and pics of my progress.

Stay tuned...!

Friday, January 13, 2006



The Roadshow by Fresh Cup magazine came to Arizona last weekend. A industry trade show of sorts, with training classes and seminars, the event was well attended.

The major players in the Arizona coffee scene were there as well as a number of industry types from around the country.

I sat in on one of the morning seminars that was instructed by the owner of a local coffee roasting company and was surprised by the lack of knowledge and mis-information that was being thrown about. I should have just gone to breakfast instead!

I did see some old friends in the industry, Bill from Espresso Wrench in Tucson, David from Red Rock Roasting Co. in Albuquerque, the crew from Zoka and my good ol' buddy Terry Davis, the president of Ambex Roaster Manufacturing in Clearwater, FL.

Sadly the only good shot of espresso I had the entire time I was there came not from any Arizona coffee company but from Zoka coffee roasters out of Seattle.