It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!

Bulls vs. Bears

The Bears can’t get a firm grip of this fundamentally troubled market, and the major indices have risen above the level from my previous post. There is a big tug-of-war going on, and the edge is leaning toward the Bulls’ camp. I won’t be surprised to see the Bears getting back in the driver’s seat in the next few days…I can be totally wrong…We’ll see…

My favorite coffeehouse/roaster in Chicago.

My favorite coffeehouse/roaster in Chicago.
Originally uploaded by Spinnaker007.

I am sure all of us, from time to time, having the oranges that are just juicer than from other times, the watermelons that much sweeter, or the apples that much crispier. You got the picture.

I had a doppio from my favorite coffee shop on my way home, and I was indulged with a beautifully pulled Black Cat Espresso. It was so good that I had to paused, and enjoyed the moment. Thanks Luc!

Top Pot Doughnuts.

Top Pot Doughnuts.
Originally uploaded by Spinnaker007.

I stopped at SBUX for a treat this morning- a cinnamon swirl cake, and I was surprised to see a selection of donuts on the shelves from Top Pot Doughnuts. Then I learned that SBUX starts selling Top Pot Doughnuts today. Top Pot is from Seattle and its donuts are really tasty. There sure are a lot of changes since Howard took back his company. It is good to know that I don’t have to go to Seattle for Top Pot Doughnuts.

L'Appuntamento by Omella Vanoni

Garden State

I stayed in and watched Garden State which I picked up for $4.95 at Best Buy. This movie is not my typical genre, because I prefer the movies such as “A Night at the Roxbury” and “Road Trip. What can I say? I love those cheesy and funny movies...

This award winning Garden State, is touched with a bit of sadness and hope, again as I mentioned earlier, the drama stuff is really not my cup of tea (or coffee), but its soundtrack is awesome. "Let Go" by Frou Frou in the video is fantastic and kinda lounge-y, which I like.

Alright, the reason I bought this movie was because Natalie Portman...

Starbucks Tests $2.50 Premium Coffee to Boost Sales.

Tower of Clover
Originally uploaded by CoffeeGeek.

We all heard it sometimes ago that Starbucks may use Clover in their stores, and now it is official. Kudos to Howard.

Here Comes the Bear.

I wish this post doesn’t make me appear to be as a cheerleader for the bad news, quite contrary, I am not. I believe in good, I always try to find the positives in any adverse situations, and my glass is always half full.

About 2 weeks before that Frenchy dropped the Financial bomb, and that caused the panic selling around the global equity markets, a trader friend of mine already painted a bleak picture; a devastating plunge in US equity indices. Well, it happened, and the scary part is that we are not done yet! In the immediate future, we could see at least another 1,000 point drop in Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is currently at 12,552.24 after closed up 178.83 for today.

Well, I am not a financial planner, and I am not qualified to give any financial advices. But if you want to know what financial vehicles that will increase in value during the down market, because they have the inverse relationships (short) with their counterparts. Here is the list. I don’t mean to alarm you, and maybe I am totally wrong about the impending doom. I also heard that the market could bottom out by mid March, and I guess that is the bright side.

Here is a simple list;
DOG (Dow 30) 62.80
SH (S&P 500), 65.22
PSQ (QQQQ), 61.68

Just a little humor for today...

1st Annual Geekfest.

CoffeeGeek_Event_041
Originally uploaded by Intelligentsia Coffee.

It all started with this post, and thanks to Intelligentsia's big kahuna, Doug Zell, the 1st Annual Geekfest quickly became a reality.

For the starter at 10:00AM, we had our tour in Intelligentsia’s ginormous roasting facility, where we observed a batch of Colombia Tres Santos being roasted. For about 13 minutes, the roasting process turned those little grassy smelly green beans into the aromatic rich brown wonders. We then ushered to their cupping room where Geoff Watts, the director of coffee and green coffee purchaser, explained to us the coffee grading and the green bean buying process, also more importantly to develop a healthy and mutually respectful relationships with the coffee farmers.

I have never cupped a coffee before, so I was very looking forward to it. There were 6 coffees; Peruvian Organic Cruz del Sur, Colombia Tres Santos, Colombia Tres Santos, Micro-Lot: La Planada, Rwandan Zirikana, Rwanda Golden Cup: Melange, and the crowd favorite from Kenya (I am not sure if this Kangocho auction lot was the one we cupped.) The first step of cupping is to smell the aroma/fragrance from the grounds when they are dry, and after the grounds being steeped for 4 minutes with just off the boil water, crack the crust and smell again, and finally actually tasting the coffee. Kenya was the crowd pleaser, but I liked both Rwanda's, and Cruz del Sur from Peru.

So, how do you like your coffee? The most unexpected event for me was the comparative brewing. This experiment was to use the very same coffee, brewed with 4 different techniques; Chemex vs. French Press vs. Eva Solo vs. Technivorm, and surprisingly there were 4 distinctive coffee drinking experience from the same coffee!

The most fun and yet nerve wracking was the latte art throw down, where everyone got one chance to pour and judged. It was tense to perform under many watchful eyes and especially to compete with Matt, the 2006 USBC champ and Amber, the finalist. I gave my best, and they simply blew me out of the water…