Finally we learned how to turn espresso into a cappuccino or a latte. Or a machiato, which is really hard, and my new all-time favorite coffee drink.
So the espresso machine builds up kinds of steam during the extraction process, which is a nice convenient way to heat and froth the milk. Dan explained that, while […]

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Hands on is always the fun part and so, after our lessons and lectures, we got down and dirty with the espresso machine. Cuvee uses a La Marzocco, which is tagged the “holy grail” of espresso machines in many commercial reviews. In the hands of a skilled barista, they make excellent espresso. They’re also quite […]

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During the actual barista training, we learned about beans, tamping, extraction, steaming and stretching milk, and how, if prepared correctly, a perfect latte could have even a sugar-lover skipping the sweetener.
Here are some facts we uncovered about beans and brewing:

Coffee changes from year to year and crop to crop. Ethiopian coffee, for example, comes in […]

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Earlier this month five of us set out on a road trip to learn about coffee — what constitutes the best beans, the best way to roast those beans, and how to turn those beans into the best cup of coffee. Yes, that’s right, the whole team from CEO to designers to café manager took […]

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Well, sometimes we have difficult tasks but we do what we can to tackle them. And so it was with empty bellies and discerning palates the LaunchPad Coworking team sat down one day to try out a gut-busting number of potential menu items for the café.The experience was filling and not just physically. We got […]

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I’ve had plenty of experience with startups of the virtual variety. Now, with LaunchPad Coworking, I’m looking at a project that combines bricks, mortar, food, and code.
Being a fan of puzzles of all kinds, I’m enjoying figuring out how to best put together a project that includes pieces running the gamut from how crusty should […]

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In August, 1981, MTV was unleashed upon the world and the first video ever played was a silly song called Video Killed the Radio Star. The song was allegedly inspired by a J.G. Ballard story. It’s a lamentation that with new technology comes the passing of “the good old days of…” fill in the […]

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What’s your ideal level for background noise while you’re working?
“I work in loud music — hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns ‘n Roses, and Metallica have always been particular favorites.” – Stephen King
Stephen King isn’t alone in preferring high volume accompaniment to his writing. Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon also is rumored to crank it […]

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I’ve been a gadget slut for years. So of course I ordered a Kindle the minute they became available. In case you haven’t visited Amazon in the past couple of weeks, the Kindle is their entry into the pretty long line of ebook readers that so far have been utter failures in the marketplace. The […]

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An AP wire story recently reported on findings released by the National Endowment for the Arts that concludes, based on multiple sources of research, that Americans are reading less. A whole lot less.
The study suggests that book readers are more active in general — exercising, keeping up on current events, even voting more than […]

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