Santa Cruzin, yo!

Up at 4 am…Pittsburgh, Phoenix, San Jose, rental car, drive and in Santa Cruz by 1:00 pm  PST and a 1/2 of day training on tap at Verve. Face, Morgan, Jennifer and I are visiting our roaster Verve all in preparation of opening our new location at the new Gates Hillman Center at CMU. Actually, Face and Morgan are advancing their training.  Morgan will be the in house trainer for Tazza D’Oro, Face will continue to prepare, organize and oversee our weekly coffee cuppings and Jennifer will be the manager at CMU (btw, she moved away from Pittsburgh 4 years ago and now she’s back and we got her!!!). Once we get back to Pittsburgh all the veteran Tazza D’Oro baristas will undergo their yearly certification and all the new baristas will train, train, train.

It’s good to be back in Santa Cruz. The weather is awesome and so is seeing the ocean. Thursday is a full day of intenseness – coffee, espresso, roasting, more coffee, more espresso and then a cupping.

Thank you, Ryan and Colby, owners of Verve. These guys love coffee, they are passionate about their company and their passion and commitment to being one of the best is very contagious.  The hours spent today, listening and learning were amazing!

Jared and Chris working the bar today served us some rad coffee and espresso. We feel really lucky to have Chris doing the training tomorrow.  Chris Baca is one of the best barista’s in the country AND he is a really great guy too.

Then Sarah surprised us with a welcome basket of goodies that will take the edge off all the coffee and espresso being consumed tomorrow.  Thank you, Sarah!

Ryan talking to us about developing roast profiles-

Salt air, sea gulls, hoodies, take-out, 1 old vine Zinfandel, 1 Cabernet, 1 Pinot Grigio and 3 coffee mavens trying to explain reality TV to me – more wine, please!

(l-r: Face, Morgan and Jennifer) – Stay tuned!