Wicked Cafe mk 2

So lets get things straight

Wicked cafe will be opening a second location somewhere in vancouver,where it is i cannot say….Yet!
So keep your eyes peeled for us opening in a neighbourhood near you.

Off the beaten track part 2

After lunch i decided to do more walking and came across this wonderful vending machine owned by suntory

Tommy Lee Jones looked pissed off,and you would be too if you tasted the canned iced coffee out of this machine,but it had to be done so i can now cross it off my list of to do’s.
Im back in Asakusa after an adventure on the subway in peak hour,it felt like i was playing rugby again stuck in a scrum but instead of big men pushing against you it was a bunch of old nannas as strong as an ox and it was quite hilarious.
As im walking around trying to find the asahi brewery and kannon temple,i found this coffee training centre from the bach coffee company,but it was closed for the day,so i had a little peek in the window,looked really cool with the roasters and lab.

After that i decided to jump back on the subway and head to Ginza for a quick look and see what happens and found this cool place which wouldve been an awesome little cocktail bar

This place was pretty cozy and had lots of cool old equipment on display,a nice little get away from the hustle and bustle of the side walk,nice atmosphere and no english menus so i grabbed an iced coffee again,the best find of the day was again in Asakusa i wish i had made it back in time to eat here……….

Off the Beaten track part 1

So im looking through photos on the computer and came across my tokyo pics that i totally forgot about.
I found a few interesting cafes in tokyo off the beaten track while i was wandering the back streets of Ginza,Akihabara and Asakusa.

I found this place in Asakusa but it wasnt open at the time as it was too early in the morning.

Cafe Paulista I was told was one of the oldest cafes in tokyo,and was the first to bring coffee to japan.
It was quite interesting to have a coffee in there,it was very quiet in atmosphere full of business men with gorgeous girls,almost seems like a scene out of a movie,the tables and chairs were quite short,i felt like a giant walking in,with my shorts and t shirt and heavily tattooed self,the whole room stopped and looked,as thoughts of previous movies as old boy run through my head i was sure as shit i was going to get jumped and every one in suits will be on me like no ones business,but unfortunately that wasnt the case,just my over active imagination and the heat getting the better of me.So i ordered a nice iced coffee to cool me down for the next half hour as i get ready to hit the road.

As i was walking round Akihabara looking for a bite too eat, i came across this cool billboard amongst all the electronic advertisements for cameras,sex shops and icecream,after taking it i wander off around the corner and found this little gem

The Pole Shop Cafe in the backstreets of Akihabara was a cool little find so i found an excuse to pop in there and get out of the heat while i had another iced coffee,maybe the coffee will make me forget that im hungry i dont know.
there was a few people in the booths talking amongst themselves chain smoking malboros and laughing,im starting to enjoy a bit of people watching and trying to capture the whole essence of the conversation without knowing a lick of japanese was quite entertaining.
After watching the guy use the air roaster and do a roast i set off to find lunch as i couldnt put off the cravings for ramen.

After slurping my way through the ramen off i go

Spring

What the hell is going on with this weather on the west coast?

I was looking forward to more snow falling here in B.C. during february,but no…

All we get is warm rain now,which is melting the snow,which is quite annoying,this time last year we saw a decent dusting throughout february which kept the runs nice and soft.

Although on the other side of the country its in the minuses,toronto is -25,i think i watch the weather channel toomuch these days and its starting to annoy me when its snowing everywhere else.I guess not riding in the last 2 weeks is getting to me, and the thoughts of being in fernie with all that champagne powder and hardly anyone up on the hills gets me slightly wound up,although i wasnt fortunate enough to experience the waist deep powder they got a few weeks before,i did get to ride knee deep stuff

walking back home from a session,i wish i had someone with a ski doo to tow me round through all this snow as it was all untouched wouldve been a laugh

cedar bowl

hardly anyone on the hill was a plus,being able to do big carves without danger of taking anyone out was one hell of a ride

Mourning in the world of coffee

Ernesto Illy dies at age 82

Trieste – illycaffè’s honorary president Ernesto Illy died yesterday at the age of 82. Throughout his career, Dr. Illy has openly shared his discoveries—not only to advance the interests of his own company, but for the benefit of all people who enjoy and appreciate the authentic Italian coffee experience. Dr. Ernesto Illy had a mission — spreading the gospel of quality espresso and coffee for the greater part of his scientific life, often praised as “Espresso Evangelist,” the “Espresso Doctor” and of course, “Papa Bean.”

Born in Trieste in 1925, he obtained a degree in chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1947. In 1956, control of the company passed from Francesco, the company’s founder and his father, to Ernesto, who started a research laboratory that soon became the source of numerous new inventions and patents, allowing illy to become a leader in innovation and technology. It was Ernesto, a scientist and researcher, who established cooperation agreements with universities and research centres, promoted premium quality coffee around the globe, and who brought Italian-style espresso to the rest of the world. From 1963 – 2004 he was Chairman of illycaffè S.p.A. in Trieste, and now holds the title, Honorary Chairman.

Dr. Illy’s impressive resume of past positions and honours include:

* ASIC (Association Scientifique International du Café, Paris) Founder and Senior Vice President of the organization.

* P.E.C. (Physiological Effects of Coffee, Paris) Served as Chairman in 1981.

* I.S.I.C. (Institute for Scientific Information of Coffee, Paris) Chairman since 1991.

* Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Industry) Granted the title by Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in 1994.

* Centromarca (association representing brand-name companies, Italy) President since 1996.

* Specialty Coffee Association of America (S.C.A.A.). Awarded with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 1997.

* Monte Carmelo, Brazil — 2002 awarded honorary citizenship for contributions to the area.

* I.C.O. (International Coffee Organization, London) September 2002 elected Chairman of the Promotion Committee.

* Flor del Cafè, Guatemala- 2004 made a member of the order by Anacafè (National Coffee Association of Guatemala).

Data logger for commercial coffee grinders

I found this interesting article from pico technology about a data logger measuring temperatures occuring on a commercial coffee grinder and the effects of heat on espresso.unfortunately i couldnt get the diagrams loaded up but you can check out the whole story on their website on www.picotech.com i believe that theyre a U.K. company.

This application shows how a TC-08 thermocouple data logger is used in the food industry to help make the perfect Espresso.

The background
Fresh coffee has to be treated carefully to ensure that the flavour profile designed into the blend is not impaired or altered by the methods of packing and storage or how it is ultimately ground by the user.

The Coffee Roaster for whom I work takes great care to roast coffee to a very precise temperature / time profile. It is then carefully cooled, again to a precise temperature / time profile, and packed in light-proof, gas-tight multi-layer valve bags that will allow CO2 out but will not allow air to enter.

For the ultimate taste and crema (the light brown cream on top of the black coffee that is typical of all Espresso based drinks) the coffee must be absolutely fresh and must be freshly ground in a good quality grinder that does not abuse the coffee by heating it or crushing it.

Contrary to what you might think coffee grinders should not crush the coffee beans but grind them by a slicing action into a controlled range of particle sizes. This is done using two flat, or conical, grinding blades with several different sizes of cutting edges machined on to them in a radial pattern. One blade is static while the other is connected to the motor shaft. Temperature and humidity also affect how the coffee beans will grind.

The problem
Commercial coffee grinders often have a high duty cycle, especially first thing in the trading day when the ground coffee chamber is completely empty (unfortunately most grinders are designed for around a 30% duty cycle). At this time the grinder must produce up to 1 kilo of ground coffee in a short space of time while imparting the absolute minimum heat into the ground coffee. As these machines usually have a relatively small casing size yet contain a powerful electric motor turning at about 1,200 rpm there is a big risk of heat being conducted from the motor up into the grinding chamber. Heat is also generated by the grinding action itself. The purpose of testing the coffee grinder is to identify and minimise all unnecessary heat. It is hoped that from the test results the “maximum run time” can be calculated for the grinder.

Test setup
The actual grinding chamber of a typical coffee grinder is very small and there is little free space. To get a temperature probe in to this space without interfering with the flow of coffee, and thus distorting the results, proved to be a challenge. Ultimately a “fine wire, exposed junction” K-type thermocouple was used. This was bonded into the grinding chamber outlet with a small dab of epoxy resin to provide insulation from any heat conducted up through the metal of the grinder casing while leaving the junction exposed to the ground coffee. The probe wire was fed out of the chamber via the ground coffee outlet chute.

A second probe was attached to the side of the motor stator to detect the heat rise in the actual motor. Here a “fine wire, exposed junction” K-type thermocouple bonded to a flexible magnetic pad was used. This kept the probe in contact with the soft iron of the motor stator.

A third probe was attached to the metal of the grinder casing adjacent to the point where the motor was bolted on to the grinder body just below the grinding chamber to show the conducted heat from the motor.

Finally a hypodermic type probe was inserted in to the base of the coffee bean hopper to monitor the temperature of the beans prior to entering the grinding chamber.

Figure 1 below shows a schematic of the coffee grinder and the location of the thermocouples.

To replicate “Coffee Shop” conditions a temperature controlled room was used. This was set to 28 degrees Celsius and an average humidity level.

Using the USB TC-08 connected to a PC the data was gathered over a period of 10 minutes with readings taken every 500 ms. The test was conducted three times and the results compared. The results from the three tests were so close that they were not averaged and just one set was used.

Figure 1: Schematic of a coffee grinder
Conclusion
The majority of the rise in motor casing temperature was not passed on to the grinding chamber within the 10 minute period; however, there was a notable rise of about 12 degrees Celsius in the temperature of the ground coffee during the period.

This is not acceptable, however referring to the graph (Figure 2) it will be seen that the rise can be limited to 4 degrees Celsius if the run time is limited to just over 4.5 minutes. As this is equivalent to just under 1 kg of coffee being ground this should be sufficient to maintain the provision of ground coffee to the associated Espresso coffee machine for long enough to allow the grinder’s 30% duty cycle to be adhered to.

Thus the test has shown that by controlling the run time of the grinder the taste profile of the coffee can be maintained.

A small electronic timer will now be developed to stop the grinder 4.5 minutes after grinding begins.

Figure 2: Coffee grinder temperature

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How to murder a cocktail

Its been so long since the last time i wrote about cocktails.
So ive been surfing for some videos or so of cocktails just to get some inspiration from bartenders,and what i found almost made me sick,bartenders killing classic drinks such as this offering from mojo.com with their version of the irish coffee.doesnt really have that much substance on the drink apart from slapping it all together

Compared to this offering from Angus Winchester,Mixologist extrodanaire and i believe he’s into molecular mixology as well,which is crossing over from food,coffee and now into cocktails which is quite exciting.

Angus’s delivery and short history on this drink (daquiri),is a pleasure to watch,to see a talented bartender deliver this drink well with the step by step guide on technique,a good way to learn if your a budding home mixologist.

A good book for any budding mixologist would be Craft of the Cocktail by Dale De Groff,a great read and a must for any working bartender

Home Coming

So i took a trip back to Australia,and it has been a while since i have been home.
i caught up with an old friend,who inked me a few years back,he has since moved from inner vision in surry hils to tatudharma in chippendale.
so i dropped in on nathan at the studio to say hi and hang out for a while.
after a while chatting nathan asked what i was up to on the weekend and i said i had family things to do in katoomba and he said….
id love to tattoo you before you go back to canada as i havnt seen you in a while and it might be a while before i see you again and that he was booked till march….
so after talking it over with kylie we came to an understanding and i was booked in to get inked.
but that meant driving back to sydney from katoomba early in the morning for an 8:30 am session.
i tell you what,theres nothing better than running on a couple of cans of v and the idea of getting tattoed to get things racing,mind you its been a year since i had my last bit of ink done from zulu tattoo in dublin from justin and sean,and i was amped.
so i decided to get something done on my knee cap and let nathan go at it.and seeing as i was off to tokyo he tattoed a hannya mask on my knee.

and so it begins…..

shading….

halfway mark…..

unfortunately i dont have a finished picture uploaded yet but nathan did a great job,especially tattooing over old skating scars so i will have pick of those soon as i take a pic,so a huge thank you goes out to him on a job well done

Techno Geeks Wet Dream

What a day…..
i spent most of today in akihibara,now this place is totally nuts,if your a tech geek then akihibara is your wet dream.
i went to check it out to see what it was like,seeing as this was my 4th day in tokyo i might as well.
i arrived at the station in akihibara and it was opening times for the shops.9 am and there were line ups at the door and so i decided to join in and it was like the running of the bulls as everyone rushed in,my bet was to escape the heat,but i could be wrong,as there was a huge sale on in town and everything had to go.
so what greets me as i stepped into akiba complex was electricals,you name it this whole building was just that.the ground floor was dedicated to mobile phones,nothing else,and there are so many companies inviting you to check out the phones.
holy shit there were some choices of what phone to buy,ones that pick up tv,movies,music,camera phone,you name it it was there.if you were after a phone it would take you a bloody long time to decide on one and when you do its already out of date.next floor was laptops,next was cameras and so on and so on.
so after all of that i decided to leave that building and grab a drink.
so at the bottom of this building there was a dude rocking it out on air guitar promoting a product which lets you play air guitar,when i get back to vancouver i will post pics of this dude.anyway he was holding this thing which was the head and part of a neck of a guitar,what i didnt know was it was hooked to a lil guitar amp and has a laser thingy that beams where the rest of the guitar should be,and every time he strums the laser it disturbs it and then i creates the sounds.you’ll understand when you see the pics.
so after having lunch with a few locals at a stand up ramen bar i decided to hoof it to roppongi,i spent an hour looking around but got bored quite easily as it was ultra hip and new that it kinda lacked character so of i go to harajuku.
now for people who dont know about harajuku,you need to check out the books fruits to fully understand what its about.its so cool with so many characters,japanese rockabillies,punks,girls who dress like strawberry short cake,mods and so on and so on.as it was getting towards peak hour in the afternoon and im getting quite hungry and tired so i decide to hike it home.when i got home the police were blocking of the streets so people can sit and set up chairs on the road to watch tonights fireworks.our hotel decided to throw a party and get everyone on the roof to watch the show.i have loads of pics to upload when i get home and put it in here for you guys to check out.

air guitar

no its not a vending machine for dirty knickers but…..

you do get some cool toys in there.

and what i really liked was this,my first ever encounter with a square watermelon,only in japan…..

and also this for that special someone…

Sumo

So this is what i found out last night,if you ever want to see anything for free in tokyo get the book tokyo for free….
as i was flicking through the book making notes on places to see round tokyo,one of them was tsukiji fish markets but unfortunately i didnt bring boots to wear with me to walk through the markets but i will try to go there when i have some plastic bags to cover my sneakers and do it ghetto style.
the other thing was sumo,yesterday a young sumo rode by me while i was walking round asakusa checking out places to eat.as so happens that there is a sumo stable close by.if you wanted to visit a sumo stable the best thing to do was ring to get permission to drop by and watch the big boys go throught their training regime and watch how they go about their daily routine,from the apprentices all the way to the champions.and i believe the sumos are pretty fast as well.
i did get a photo of these guys at a traditional communal bath