Lunchtime escapes can be therapeutic. My go-to is a Starbucks nearby my office. I know, that’s pretty wack, but it’s all I’ve got for now. It’s no comparison to this weekend’s coffee excursions, but it’ll take it. Short blonde roast, a chocolate chip cookie, and a seat at the long communal raffle. Not too bad. Sure beats that cubicle. 

Starting off this week with the feels. Coming off a great weekend in DC with the fellas, I’m looking back at this day last year – August 8th, 2015. Still I’d say that it was best weekend of my life. Me, Osama, Uzair. I remember the day vividly – brunching with our girl Vicky in Cupertino, cruising in our rented Audi A4 along California State Route 1, then dragging these guys to experience Emily’s D+evolution with me in Santa Cruz. We had no phone signal along the coastal highway, so our weekend anthem was the radio’s latest hit at the time – Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”. As I sit in my cubicle right now, it’s hard to believe this all even happened. A year back I remember thinking that graduation would mark the end of our clownery, but as seen here in this pic, gazing into the Pacific with my boy Jose Loyal, it merely marked the beginning of it. 

La Colombe. A place that will always be dear to my heart. I discovered this brand in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college in Philly, and that one discovery has changed so much about my life. The amount I’ve learned about coffee, roasting, and brewing; the amount of time, effort, and investment in equipment and beans; the countless coffee shops visited in so many states; the atmosphere, the incredible conversations, reconnecting with wonderful people. This all roots back to my first exposure of La Colombe more than four years ago. Two days in DC, two obligatory visits to Blagden Alley. But I did venture out a little bit too – Peregrine Espresso and Qualia, both awesome. Ah, I miss this life so much. 

Been hanging in DC the past few days. It’s great to get away for a while, but it feels exhausting too. Despite being in a big group, I managed to escape a few times and do a few things I wanted to do – entirely coffee related. First I visited the La Colombe in Chinatown, but it was a bit disappointing. The baristas seemed apathetic, not knowledgeable about the product offering, and they even forgot to make my drink. And there was Wi-Fi is that shop!! That’s absurd! My favorite thing about their shops is the lack of Wi-Fi. Unsatisfied, I walked to the Blagden Alley cafe to see if it was any better. Ah yes, so much better. The Blagden Alley staff was super friendly, and one of the baristas told me about Qualia, a local DC coffee roaster. Qualia has a cafe a few metro stops north, so after enjoying an espresso and pour over at Blagden Alley, I headed up to Georgia-Petworth and bought some beans at Qualia. Considering that I consumed a draft latte, two double-shot espressos, and a pour over in the past two hours, I chose to forgo drinking any coffee at Qualia. Looking forward to getting home and brewing those beans. 

It’s been a crazy busy time at work lately. Many late night, usually not getting home till past 8pm. But I’m finally taking some time off! I’m going on three weekend trips spread out during this month and Labor Day weekend. I’ll be in DC tomorrow night through the weekend, reuniting with the fellas. Can’t wait!! Always have such a great time with these guys, regardless of where we are or what we do. Countless stories. 

Little sleep. That feeling the next day – the random face pain, strained eyes, sometimes even pain in the joints. Despite this feeling being overall bad, there’s something bittersweet about it to me. I remember feeling this way almost every day of high school. Little sleep mostly due to bad habits and time wasting, hence late-night studying. But even with that, I was winning. My life fell into place, I tried my best when it most mattered. I slayed. And these mornings with little sleep remind me of those days. Finally, and thankfully, I’m starting to feel like a winner again. 

I’m somewhat OCD about cleanliness. I usually make it to bed later than planned because I get caught up cleaning stuff in the kitchen or organizing the stack of mail on my desk or taking out the trash and recycling. The possibilities are endless. And that’s the key: endless. These menial tasks, endless. Sleep is important, so tonight I left dishes in the sink, dirty pots on the stove, lunch unpacked, and papers all over the desk. There will be no shortage of these things for the rest of my my life, so why stress tonight? Sleep. 

For a while now, I’ve felt that my coffee game has plateaued. I’m nearly done with my 7th box of 100 Chemex filters, so I’ve practiced this pour over art about 700 times now over the past four years. I have all the equipment: Chemex and it’s filters, kitchen scale, gooseneck kettle. I’m not getting much better from each pour I do nowadays (marginal diminishing returns…oh boy #econ). But I see a new light shining on my coffee world – the bean itself. For years now I’ve constricted myself to locally roasted coffee that is easily accessible and freshly roasted. In Philly, it was solely La Colombe. In Atlanta, it’s mostly been Brash. Both are dear to me, especially La Colombe, but I admit that neither are the best at roasting beans. Today I had a great espresso shot at Chrome Yellow, made from Stumptown’s hair bender blend. It’s motivated me again to go out of my way and try new beans. Even if it entails dropping some extra money to cover shipping costs, it’s worth it. There’s plenty of good coffee roasters out there, and sadly I’ll never get to visit them all. But at least I can get some of their stuff sent to my home. Not a bad compromise! 

I love good fried chicken. Most fried chicken is pretty mediocre, so I don’t even bother indulging in it unless I know for sure that I’m about to eat something novel. The best I’ve ever had was in Philly at a shop called Federal Donuts. That’s right, donuts and fried chicken. And honestly I’d say that the chicken is more noteworthy here than the donuts. I want to recreate such high caliber fried chicken at home, so I put the plan into motion today. 5 drumsticks and 5 thighs, buttermilk brine. The meat will soak in buttermilk overnight, then tossed in flour with some spices, then fried. Leggo.

Summer storms in Atlanta. It rains every day without fail, often at the most random times too. It’ll be clear, blue skies one minute, then dark clouds rolling through the next minute. It’ll rain furiously for about 15 minutes, totally wrecking havoc on traffic and sometimes even electricity. Then a few minutes later, sunny and clear again. Most Saturday mornings I go to the basketball courts in my neighborhood to practice that jumper and my handles, but sadly not today. Can’t wait for summertime to pass – the fall, winter, and spring are just heavenly here. It’ll be great.