my first time: coffee cupping

I've been surprised how many coffee drinkers I know have never heard of the ritual of coffee cupping. It just goes to show how little we caffeine addicts really know about our precious brews. My friend and I went to a free cupping hosted by Counter Culture Coffee's regional training center in DC. It was a neat experience: informative, challenging and satisfying.

After a short introduction about the nature of cupping, CCC's representative Alex, explained how the process worked. Each person received a cupping form on which we were to mark our reactions to the six different stages of the cupping. Here you can find each step and its purpose. CCC uses the following categories: fragrance, aroma, break, brightness, flavor and aftertaste. During the cupping, participants are asked not to talk about the coffee so as not to influence each other's taste buds.
Throughout the cupping, I discovered that my sense of smell and taste proved to be at a loss for words. (And I was certainly shown up by the baristas who do this sort of thing for a living and were able to extract flavors like cedar, steamed broccoli and fig from their palates.)

We tasted three different coffees from Burundi, Colombia and Sumatra. Overall, the Colombian La Golondrina roast was my favorite during the cupping process, but the Bwayi Lot #8 from Burundi coffee was better brewed in the cup. You can read the complete cupping notes from last week at the CCC DC blog here.

If you're into coffee (or have done any other kind of tastings before), I recommend cupping. Especially with Counter Culture Coffee because their coffee is delicious, their employees are knowledgeable and the cuppings are free.

media rated: theatre: "fever/dream"

Playing with Convention:
Mammoth defies it, Callaghan satirizes it

The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to “defy convention” with the world premiere of Shelia Callaghan’s “Fever/Dream,” which opened Monday night to a hopeful full house.

This was my debut visit to the theater as well, and I found the modern structural design of the building to appeal to today’s theatergoers, as well as provide a ideal setting for this slightly absurdist drama about the secrets and truths of corporate morality.

Starring newcomer Daniel Eichner as Segis Basil, and Mammoth veterans, Kate Eastwood Norris, Kimberly Gilbert, Mike Willis and KenYatta Rogers, this cast has remarkable talent and chemistry.

To the drama aficionados, this tale is not new. It is Callaghan’s present-day version of Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s 16th century classic, “Life is a Dream.” The basic storyline—father gives company to son, son f***s up, others fighting over the company, relations are patched, etc) is There is even a particular scene in the play where Bill Basil, owner of multimillion dollar company, Basil Enterprises, spies on his son from above the stage in a robe and slippers. (“Arrested Development” fans, eat your heart out.)

Text messaging, video blogging and conversations of a failed economy were all too familiar to this audience. . Within the first five minutes, the crowd was laughing aloud at the literal concept of Segis (Eichner) chained to his desk in a basement office as a (gasp) Customer Service Representative. The audience seemed to relate to the statuses and attitudes of the characters, which is a positive reflection on Callaghan’s story and the actors’ performances.

The Basil boys dream sequences embody the title, and though they are central to the theme, the scenes came across a bit garishly. Bill Basil’s nightmare of his son in the basement featured the young Basil singing a lame rap about his depressing life. Much more memorable was the biting wit of the female characters as they delivered one-liners such as, “And don’t say my name like you know how to fold it.”

Stella Strong (Norris) is her name personified, and is a delight to watch. Her character represents the growing presence of women in the corporate field, but is also an exaggerated version feminine corporate leader. Stella’s confident yet prickly personality may indicate some of the author’s personal attitude about society's creation of the female dichotomy.

“I don’t like women. I don’t like women that roll themselves out like a hallway mat, then get up and wonder where all the footprints came from.“

For an opening night performance, the production was incredibly seamless. The set design, featuring an elevator and hole-in-the-floor basement cell, is sleek and versatile, using lights and shadows to represent many different times and places. The small size of the theater makes each scene feel intimate to the audience member.

There are still two weeks of performances, so if this sounds like your cup of tea- check it out. I also highly recommend a trip to Woolly Mammoth anytime. Keep in mind that the first two shows of each play are "pay-what-you-can." The 2009 season looks pretty entertaining, so stay tuned.


Media Rated: Theatre: “Fever/Dream”

Where: Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St NW
Washington, DC 20007
When: June 1 through June 28, 2009
Ticket price: ticket and seating info
Length: two and a half hours
Intermission: 15 minutes
Featuring: Mammoth Company members Kimberly Gilbert, Kate Eastwood Norris, KenYatta Rogers, Mike Willis

To See or Not to See:

Storyline: old tale, new spin
Acting: drama queens steal the show
Script: written with wit
Production Design: seamless scene changes
Choreography: mini corporate coup? awesome.