If you've sifted throughout my pages either here or at the BC Computer Science server you've realized I'm a hardcore geek. The thing is, you see... I've been slumming for a while now at a Starbucks. It's not a bad job, really. The money could be better, but the benefits package is pretty good. It's not a career, but I'm not ashamed; if someone asks me what I'm doing with my education I can still point here and say I'm not wasting it. Anyway...
I can't quite decide when I started liking coffee. My first experiences with it as a kid weren't good, as my family is almost exclusively a Folger's Crystals family (a substance I find pretty repulsive) and few restaurants that don't do the gourmet thing serve decent coffee. Somehow I started to like it, though. I think it was that first latte, at a Coffee Connection in Belmont (now the Starbucks that I work at), probably, when I realized just how good coffee could be. I can't say for certain.
I like foods that can be appreciated for their subtlety. I am a major beer snob; I even homebrew. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but there are a few I appreciate (Australian Shiraz, with its slight chocolate overtones, is probably my favorite out of the few I've really tasted). I cook, and I take great pride in being able to knock out anything from anywhere around the globe. So coffee is a natural for me. I don't drink a lot of it (caffeine and I have a very, uh, shaky relationship) but I usually have two or three cups (measured in shots of espresso) a day.
This part of my site is what I consider to be my own personal contribution to the body of coffee wisdom out there. After two plus years slinging espresso, I think I've got quite a bit to contribute, so here goes...