I heart espresso

A few years back our family opened a coffee house. It was an after thought. We rented a small kitchen space for me to expand my cake business and before we new it, we had gutted the front and turned it into a coffee house. It was way cool (if I do say so myself).

Unfortunately, running two businesses as a family did not go so well so we sold our shop. But my cake business expanded through this experience as well as my love for espresso. As much as we could on my cake deliveries to Lincoln, my husband and I would frequent different coffee houses and so developed a taste for good espresso.

As life often does, it turned us 360 degrees and we landed in Alma, NE. Upon our first visit to the community, feeling a little forlorn at the quite remote location of this community, I found main street looking for something to do to pass the time. I happened to pull up in front of an interesting looking building with a big awning that said "Joe Camera". I really didn't know what this meant, but I could see people sitting inside. I peeked in the door and directly across the room was an espresso bar. There was life on this planet :-) This little coffee house/camera shop/bicycle repair gave me more peace and hope than anyone could know. Even better than that, Joe and Dusti, the owners became our friends.

Which leads me, finally to today. I got to be a barista again. Joe and Dusti are on a missions trip to Mexico. Sylvia, their sole employee is holding down the fort during their absence. Today, Sylvia wanted to go and see her sister for something special at camp which I know nothing about (should have shown more interest and asked!) So, with about a 30 minute tutorial, I held down the fort for 3 hours. What a 3 hours it was, and I loved every minute of it. I guess all those waitressing years embedded in me a joy of serving or maybe I just think making lattes is way cool.

This is what good espresso looks like:

That delicious creamy looking stuff is called crema. If you see that kind of a pull, your espresso will be rich and yummy.

This is what I like to drink in the summer:

Not such a great photo. A rich iced caramel latte. Oh yea. I had to test the grind, you know, to see if I would get that crema and you can't let good espresso go to waste. The best thing about Joe and Dusti's is that they have awesome espresso.

I hope I get to be a barista again. And pray for Joe, Dusti and Emmett on their missions trip to Mexico.