Sopapillas

It's good to know I still retain some of my Spanish-speaking instincts. Yesterday amid all the SOPA/PIPA huff, I kept thinking people were talking about sopapillas. What's so bad about fluffy fried pastry drizzled in honey and powdered sugar? I mean, are we really gonna go all artery blockage police on a little dessert? My brain works in mysterious ways. For some reason a few weeks ago I had a phrase stuck in my head, every few minutes it would just float through my subconscious and trigger strange images. Wanna know what that phrase was? It was 'mutton bustin.' Go figure.

Back to SOPA/PIPA. Did y'all read about it? It makes me nervous to think that congress was considering limiting our online freedoms. I see where they are coming from with the piracy stuff, but aren't criminals going to be criminals and find a way around such legislation? It seems to me the real people to suffer will be you and I when we try to upload a funny photo to our Fbooks and we're blocked. What would I do if I weren't allowed to upload pictures of baby hedgehogs curled up in measuring cups? That's a big part of my day right there. I do have to split my time between the hedgies and really pedantic articles making fun of people with poor grammar and spelling. It's terrible, I know. It's my release. Yoga doesn't cut it for me I guess.

I was thinking about the internet and how much capability we have because of it and how truly revolutionary a thing it is. I opened an advertisement via Colter's Facebook page. The parameters I put on the ad made it so that it reached 34,653 people. Isn't that crazy?! 34,653 people that never would have known we exist. Of those 34,653 people Colter is now Facebook friends with 94 of them and I only opened it an hour ago. Jeesum crow. Those intarwebs shore is powerful.

Then I googled "coffee" to see what happens. Because internet search engines are powered by terms and also need to be powered by money all terms are up for sale. The word "coffee" will produce the highest bidder first. Sbux is apparently the highest bidder on "coffee." Big shocker, I know. But then scrolling down it gets a little deeper. You'll find something I'm sure Pete has an app for on his iPhone as well as the websites for Folgers and Gevalia. Of course the search yields 1,090,000,000 results. I don't even know how to say that out loud. As the pages go on and on the results get more convoluted. It really does go to show, however, that the internet is an incredible tool and it brings together so many people, industries, small business and hedge hog enthusiasts. It has revolutionized the coffee business, I know. Has it affected your industry?

Part of the reason I was brought into the position I hold is to take advantage of internet resources. I recently found a grant we may be able to apply for to get our baristas certified by the Barista Guild of America. How sweet would that be?! Albeit, incredibly nerdy but pretty sweet nonetheless. Plus, our coffee nerdiness is part of our charm, right?

Speaking of nerdiness. We have two new Roaster's Reserve coffees debuting today. We are going to be more regular with rotating our Roaster's Reserve and I have a hunch it's going to be on the monthly. The plan is that each showcased bean will be a single origin microlot. That sounds like Greek, I know. Basically it means that our RRs won't be blends (single origin) and will come from a very small and extra special batch of coffee (microlot). Prepare to be dazzled by Organic Papua New Guinea and Organic Brazil! I've only tried the Papua New Guinea and I liked it a lot. Light roast, buttery, a teeny bit lemony. The Brazil smelled amazing when it was being roasted and I look forward to trying it. I especially look forward to Brazil because I have a real thing for Central/South American coffees. They're like chocolate.

So, for today, come try our new coffee and appreciate freedom. And a joke:

Sherlock Holmes and Watson went camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said, "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars" Holmes said, "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied, "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of them have planets, it's quite likely there are some planents like Earth out there. And it there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." And Holmes said, "Watson, you idiot, it means somebody stole our tent!"

Har. Har. Har.

I have an absolute favorite joke of all time. In my single days I would tell it as a conversation started with the fellas. It's a bit off color and has some swearing in it but if you come in understanding those truths and would like to hear it, ask me at the shop sometime and I'll make ya laugh.


For now, later.