About

as an espresso-snob, life is too short for a bad espresso shot.  ‘godshots’ only come a few times in a year if you’re lucky… 2008 World Champion Barista Stephen Morrissey once said on coffeed.com that he has probably only had 8 amazing shots of espresso.  Of course, living in Halifax since the early 1990’s, it can certainly be difficult to find amazing shots, or even drinkable ONES, in this city, but fortunately the coffee scene has changed for the better !

Now YHZ now has at least 4 cafes worthy for other espressosnobs like me (in alphabetical order only):  Java Blend, Smiling Goat, Steve-O-Reno’s &  Two If By Sea (Dartmouth preferred over Halifax).  Other places in the city, take your chance, but you’re likely to get a thin, watery shot with blonde crema, if that’s your style.  Fortunately, I travel a fair bit out of YHZ, which is great to make up for the limited choices of cafes in this city.  Given the limited selection, increasingly I’m content to try to brew coffee at home by various methods BUT leave espresso to the baristas.

This blog site attempts to capture my daily quest to find a better than average shot of espresso…  with tangential references to cycling, indie music, food and wine,  skiing…   Perhaps lately, it has swayed way too far away from espresso…  now featuring manually brewed coffees, egg yolks, beef, pig, large tasting menus, & cocktails.