Libations Friday! 12 June 2009

Photo by once and future @ flickr

From Denny: With the economy still in the dumps along with our wallets, this video can perk up the coffee lovers. Demoed is the less expensive way to get that coveted coffee experience we no longer can afford on a daily basis like we used to do. There are quite a large variety of coffee makers available for any budget.

Sitting on the table is one of my favorite coffee companies, Gevalia, from Sweden. Every flavor they make is carefully considered, tested and just plain awesome! We are big fans of the French Vanilla flavor when we want a flavor coffee in our house. They carry coffees from various coffee houses in Europe like Café Sperl in Vienna, Austria, a coffee house still remembered with affection. Clearly, this video also demonstrates how there is still a huge market for coffee consumption!

Video: Be Your Own Barrista

“David Gregg from Behindthebuy.com demonstrates to Harry Smith a variety of home baristas so that designer coffee experience doesn't have to burn a hole in your pocket.”


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From the Café Moto site comes our coffee drink recipes for this week. Their funny motto over there is “we drink all we can; the rest we sell.” You really need to check out this site!

Most of us love Café Latte. I like the way they describe the process. Find out the practical tips of how good coffee is achieved in the following offerings!



Photo by Joshua Reppeneker @ flickr

ESPRESSO

We'll put this one first as it is the basis of most coffee drinks.

RISTRETTO: "Short pour." Usually 1 ounce for a single and two for a double. The original Italian espresso.

LUNGO: "Long pour." This is the typical American espresso and is 1.25 ounces for a single and 2.5 ounces for a double.

CAFÉ LATTE

Steam 12 to 14oz. milk between 120 F. and 140 F. Prepare a single or double espresso. Pour espresso into cup and then tilt the cup and pour the milk slowly down the side. This lifts some of the espresso to the top of the cup and gives it a swirled, marbleized appearance. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon.

ESPRESSO CON PANNA

Espresso topped with whipped cream.

From Denny: I love the name of this one; sure made me laugh! Also, it’s a great lead-in to my silly poem. Maybe I can claim I was drinking a Hammerhead coffee when I wrote it…?

HAMMERHEAD

An American creation meant to get you wired fast and furious, hence the reference to the shark. Good, strong coffee poured over two shots of fresh espresso. Leave room for cream. Usually ordered by very fast talkers with jittery eyes.

Now for the poetry section, or should I say, silly poetry section:

Do you ever just want to jot down something utterly silly, total nonsense, of not much redeeming cultural value yet somehow it just must be significant? I mean, after all, we are all great writers of soon-to-be historical mention, right? OK, probably not, but it’s fun to dream on…

I talked about anagrams this week. As a writer I do like to play with my words like little kids play with their food (future artists at play). Every now and then I like to play with words in a visual sense where the poem only looks good on paper. Reading it out loud is fine but the auditory loses out for the finer shades of meaning only viewed visually. I like to play with words that sound alike but are not the same subject.



Photo by k0a1a.net @ flickr

Ditties are good for the soul; they help loosen up any emotional rigidity or the results of a bad day. In the following little ditty I played with the sound of the words “I, eye and aye (archaic word for yes).” Creating this little poem was a lot like reading those old vaudeville jokes of “who’s on first?” It’s a short-cut reference, using the sport jargon of baseball, and about the confusion that can happen in a conversation when you don’t know who exactly is being referenced when the speaker uses “him” or “her.”

You could read this poem on a couple of levels, like a philosophy student, or even as a conversation with God or just as silly fun. There is nothing more fun than writing on several levels simultaneously, sort of like playing multi-dimensional chess. The more simply you write, often the more meaning can be packed into it. Also, people can enjoy it on any level.

Life is like that: take a chance, make some choices and live out loud. Choose a word you enjoy, inject a little humor and you are off to the poetry races! Have some fun!



Photo by zedzap @ flickr (such a cool photo!)


Eye I


She eyed me
I eyed Him
He eyed Us

We saw

Eye: aye
Now
You see 2
Who saw whom?

I eye: aye



Denny Lyon
Copyright 13 September 2008
All Rights Reserved

Have a good weekend, everyone! Live out loud!