Cravendale milk. Secret Barista weapon? 

David bags an exclusive interview with John Gordon the recently crowned UK barista  2010 champ and gets an expert view on the virtues of using Cravendale Milk for latte art.

David – “Hi John and congratulations for winning the final of the UK barista
championship this year. What we are are dying to know is what milk did you use?”

John – “Cravendale semi-skimmed”

David – “I hear a lot of Baristas saying Cravendale is a good choice. What’s wrong with  using a local supplier?”

John – “I do use local milk suppliers the thing is when I’m way from work at Square Mile Coffee Roasters on the competition circuit  choose Cravendale semi skimmed, its got a longer shelf life and can produce microfoam with a distinctive shine”.

David – “Microfoam, what’s that all about?”

John – “Microbubbles is what you want to minimise when steaming the milk, lessens the need to bash the base of the steaming jug to get the bubbles to pop at the surface. Cravendale semi skimmed really helps to produce microfoamed milk, great for latte art”.

David – “You say you use semi-skimmed, I thought most Baristas used full fat?”

John – “They may well do but each to their own. I like to use  semi for latte art an i just dont like the taste of fatty milk.”

David – “So whats next the John Gordon espresso coffee machine range?”

John – “Ive got where I want to be right now and I’m going to enjoy it for a while”

Interview ends…

Raise your game, serve elite standard coffee rent espresso coffee machines

Last Sunday I escaped the noise of my everyday life. I needed to find somwhere where I could be a million miles away from screaming kids and a bleeping blackberry. I felt under siege with the pressure of just another day on crazy planet earth.

I headed for my local Starbucks in York, it promised a place of sanctuary, an urban escape…

Pleasantly surprised when i got there tonnes of space was available. I claimed a comfy chair in the corner and ordered a latte resisting the Baristas constant up selling -” Would you like a slice of cake with that, would you like extra cream with that”  blah blah blah. How about just get me what I asked for!

Wearily  i shuffled back to my chair, my coat still there on the back
of the chair, no surprise York is a safe city, of course it would still be there.

Sitting down I opened up the mamoth spread of the observer, not reading it of course,  just looking at the pics, the coffee still too hot to drink.

The space was blissfully quiet, i wouldnt be bothered hear, i wouldnt be expected to act to an eMail feel guilty for not washing up, i liked this space.

Crash bang wallop. The noise startled me. Instinctively I swivelled round towards the calamity. Had some disgruntled football fan chucked a park bench through the window. Nope it was the barista bashing away with no regard for the precious peace he’d shattered. The stress pours back.

I think of how I’d like to walk over to the Barista and in a scene from that movie falling down point a leathal weapon at his skip capped face and tell him if he did’nt shut the fu*ck up I’d be using his empty skull as an ash tray. But instead I cooly flick to the back of the paper and read the orbitury section and muse… perhaps a graveyard is the only place you can find peace and quiet in a city these days.

If  you’re a  Barista  use an espresso machine  that doesnt sound like
you want to wake the dead. The guy who’s sitting in the corner has had a bad day.

“Hey Barista learn latte art and stop trying to wake the dead“

When you work in your average UK office it soon becomes apparent healthy gets abandoned between the hours 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.

Obesity is a condition not ordinarily associated with speed except of course when it enters the News arena where suddenly it speeds around like a turbo injected sprinter.

Yes fat stories are doing the media rounds again, on every News channel they broadcast “Thirteen million people in England will be obese by 2010.

But I’m curious. Why do we have such an appetite for Obese news. I would venture its because inside most of we need something not to like, every society needs a Bête noire. With X factor off air until summer we need new targets to hate.

Occasionally the NHS will run diet related campaigns and the associated dangers of being overweight but why don’t they target office workers?

Having worked in the office since graduation you soon realise the chocolate vending machine, the office coffee machine that uses full fat whitener and the ritual of bringing in cakes for Birthdays all conspire to keep you looking bad in speedo’s and perfect in a size 24.

In one office I worked in there was a Cadbury’s snack box. Packed with there latest temptations you didn’t even need to put money in a machine, it worked like an honesty box. Bright purple too, as eye catching as a baboons arse this snack box would sit in my line of site. Whispers shouted “Buy Me” Crunchies shouted “Its Friday eat me” you get the idea.

But isn’t it just wrong for office managers to allow such calorie stealth to creep in the office? I think the government needs to target office workers and educate. But before they do I say pull down the snack vending machine and replace it with a weekly fruit drop. Strip out the full fat creamer from the office coffee machine and when it’s your birthday remember you don’t have to bring in food, the office is not a buffet.

More articles >>> “Comedy coffee movie clips“

Am I alone in thinking coffee varieties have lost the plot? Living in York UK
It’s clear the big brand café chains have occupied the city en mass and have imported an exotic range of coffee choices from Caramel Macchiato to Tazo Tea. When you walk in to one of these apostles of trendy coffee cafes you feel asking for just a cup a coffee is off the menu and somehow not knowing the difference between a Frappuccino and a Macchiato marks you out as a Luddite.

Well it seems the trend of exotic coffee choices has transgressed out of the trendy café bars and into office coffee machines. Yes you can also be left wondering where the button for a normal coffee is in front of all the glowing plastic buttons with exotic names.

But if keeping up appearances’ is your thing and you’ve dumped your CD player for an ipod and your paper diary has been abandoned for an electronic organiser then here is a low down for what all that office coffee machine goobledegook means:

Café Mocha – Tastes like a chocolate flavoured coffee
Doppio Espresso – Tastes like a watery espresso and not dissimilar to a Caffe Americano
Moccachino – Tastes like espresso with chocolate

There’s probably a stack more exotic fashionable names cueing up to make there appearance on the catwalk of short lived coffee names, makes you think there could be room for an office coffee machine that just sells coffee, no fancy names just coffee.

www.pauserefreshment.co.uk – Standing up against office coffee machine  gobbledegook since 2007

Got a thirst for more coffee machine shenanigans? Check out office coffee machine etiquette