Coffee School

Kindra and I went to coffee school for two grueling days last week. It was something to behold. The lovely lady that stuffed our brilliant minds with all the coffee knowledge necessary to run a successful cafe was a lot of fun. Her husband was the actual coffee connoisseur—he'd had successful coffee houses all over the country until he died—but she carried on the tradition well. As will be evident when Sweet Thing opens, her experience and knowledge held much value.

Also, for amusement factor, it must be mentioned that the Davison mind is also something to behold. And behold it this nice lady (Oksana) did. Heh. The first day of class she shared a billion stories with us to help illustrate the importance of what she spoke of. She had a funny habit of including more details than were necessary. I don't suppose it would have been so interesting to a lot of people, but when you have a mind like a vice details don't just skip across the surface. On the second day of class Oksana was quite shocked to hear the dreadful details of her most absurd stories relayed back to her. The situation made her state she should be more careful with the details of her stories. And, sadly, her stories were less frequent the second day.

We don't mean to scare people. It's just the way we are. Ask Grampa.

The second day was practical exam day. We made every hot drink on the menu before lunch, and every cold drink on the menu after lunch. We also were required to try every drink we made for experience sake. Ugh. A coffee high is so much more insane than tea drunkeness. We were wired for hours. We got the making of the drinks down on the machine Oksana had, but the machine we have is different. Hopefully we will get it up and running soon so we can adjust our tactics to suit it before openning. That will be fun.

These are all the cold drinks we made. Look at all that waste! But after consuming all the hot drinks in the morning, who could blame us?

Here is Kindra excitedly foaming milk. Don't scald it! Ah, just perfect.

Me acting like he's pulling a shot. I missed out on getting my picture taken while the real action happened so we had to make do. As you can see the espresso machine cleaner is sitting on the counter. Obviously not the beginning of the day.

Here I go again.....Everyone hold your breath!

The last few weeks have been quite a ride......and have prompted me to put some thoughts together to post on our blog. This is only the second blog entry I've posted....thank goodness! We would have far fewer avid readers were I to post more often. Kenny does a much better job of entertaining than I will ever be able to do, and for that we can all be grateful. Nonetheless, I felt the need to subject you all to my (less than) literary prowess in order to thank everyone for their support this past while.

January 2009.....yeah, that month. Remember? It was supposed to be the month we opened. Unfortunately, for the collective sanity of our Sweet Thing crew and loved ones....that was five months ago!

Late June, early July 2009....the new "norm", the new target date range, and hopefully, the last opening date we'll have to give out.

So, without further ado....thank you all for bearing with us as we've journeyed through the tangled web of oh-my-goodness-are-you-kidding-me?-set-back-infused-grey-hair-inducing-FUN that is creating something from nothing. The shop will be something to behold, I'm sure! Not only for those who are anticipating our opening, but especially for those of us who are privy to the melt downs, late nights, sweat, blood, tears, and joy, that have gone into making the dream a reality!

Here's to the next few weeks and to not losing our tenuous-one-tired out-weak-little finger-hold on something that (sort of, but not really) resembles sanity.

All for now.....let's all go get some sleep! I have a feeling we're going to need it!

Shawna

Tea too

Our focus is pastries and coffee, not tea. We will have tea, though, and it will be good tea. Kindra's been in communication with Matt, the owner of Townshend's Tea Company. His teas are fantastic and locally made (hardly a dozen blocks from our shop, actually). We will offer eight teas to begin with, but if we get mass requests for more, or different kinds, we will adjust that.

The loan is still in the works, but I have seen evidence (communications) of its forward progression. This is good. More evidence of successful certainty is that Shawna ordered a "Coming Soon" banner for the store front. That should get there in less than a week. Then everyone can drive by and say, "Hey, I know that place!"

Also, Marty, our fantastic chef wanted to be trendy and miles ahead of the curve, so he has looked into possible ways for us to offer our customers nutrition information on our products. His actions (and emails to the right people) has landed us the opportunity to be interviewed by the AP. The reporter wants to research eateries that offer nutrition information when they aren't required to by law. We need to get back ASAP about this lest the reporter dredge up another exciting start-up to question. Hopefully, though, national exposure will be ours.

This sure is fun...

We have a lease, yes. For proof, there is a picture of the draft below. We currently have two experienced lease people giving it the once over to assure that those of us not well versed in legalize did not miss something significant. But, as of the moment, it looks perfect. The location also has begun to look like an inhabitable building of late. If you drive by, you can see people working, and we recently noticed the building actually has windows in it now! Fantastic.

At the moment we don't have any problems. We have finally managed to rummage together all information required for business loan requirements. That was nothing to scoff at. The rigmarole required for such would make climbing mount Everest look enjoyable. Sadly, though, I shudder to think that our dealings with bureaucracies has just begun. Thankfully, Dina (our manager) has experience with such insanity. That fact is most wonderful and welcome.

Martin (our chef) has been hard at work creating menus and prices. He is very experienced and very talented. He knows what he wants and he knows what he needs. With such precision on our side we cannot fail. We have become anxious to open if for no other reason than to be able to sample his wares on a more regular basis. =)

Our menu will not be immutable—several things about it will cater to the excitement of mystery. The main idea has been the consideration of world holidays—we plan to make specials associated with world holidays. We aren't settled on a frequency for this plan. It could be hectic to have a new recipe every day when we are just starting up, but perhaps as we become more established the frequency can increase. Each special will be texted to customers the morning they are made, and once they are consumed it's, "sorry Charlie," for the late comers.

The exciting part of this plan is there is pretty much a holiday for every stinking day of the year. How could it not be fun to make something for a, "Mother Goose Day"?

Rolling Along

Here's a little more excitement. Things are rolling along. Perhaps in a little while longer we will have rolled the edges off our square wheels and might roll more smoothly.

Stuck in a Rut

Sweet Thing is in a lull at the moment. The economy stinks right now, and that fact has caused lenders and landlords to be skeptical little devils. How to drive them forward to believe in our vision is our predicament at the moment. There are many hopeful signs, but none-the-less it has been a cause for stress... which is never a welcome thing.

We have looked at another space over near the pearl, but just a hair off the beaten path. It's a brand new building with lots of square feet. We were promised a fair deal and even more if needed. We like it, but wonder how much excess work it will be to market our brand when we are not on a main thoroughfare. Who knows? All we know is that the Alberta and MLK space is pretty much the perfect space for a new bakery. Hopefully something will work out soon -- we are getting anxious.

Last night it was mentioned, "you guys better have a dollar menu!" Ha! I don't know how feasible that is, but it's a good thought. Maybe if we made mini pastries... hmm. Anyway, the point is, all suggestions are considered around this joint. We plan to be successful and that doesn't happen without listening to our adoring public. So suggest away... but do be aware I don't subscribe to that dumb saying, "there are no dumb questions." Yes there are. And yes there are dumb suggestions. So no doggy log biscuits please. =)

Cupping

Last Saturday, Sweet Thing's management and family got together for an official coffee cupping. Talk about your snooty individuals. We were encouraged to be discriminant and determine which coffee was preferable over another. We are not normally encouraged to be discriminant, so it didn't come easy. None-the-less the caffeine slurping was pleasurable.

For a cupping, a few ounces of freshly ground beans are put into a small cup. Steaming water is then poured over the ground beans. The gritty concoction is left to brew for four minutes and then the cupping begins.

First, the individual is encouraged to get his or her nose down next to the lip of the mug and embrace the aroma that wafts from it when the surface is broken with his or her spoon. When the intoxicating aroma is fully comprehended, the individual then tastes the coffee. He or she sets a spoon on the surface of the coffee until the spoon has coffee in it, then the spoon is brought to the mouth and a fantastic slurping sound is made as the coffee is dispersed to every area of the tongue.

Quite amusing, actually. Yes, there was a little gagging as a few errant coffee grounds pummeled unsuspecting uvulas, but overall the event caused little harm. A little enjoyment was even had!

In the process, our forced discrimination determined three brands to be our favorites. When we get our espresso machine up and about we will then have the final judgment to determine the overall winner.

After the cupping the party moved on to a meal. An Italian meal, to be exact. After all the coffee tasting we needed something to overwhelm our palates.