Location Scouting

Now that the weather has warmed up and Easter has passed, we've been spending some time viewing properties and building plots for our new home.  We have a good feel for The West Highlands, Stirling and Perthshire now, and are leaning towards the latter. There are some really good places around there, like Pitlochry, Aberfeldy and Dunkeld, as well as some nice big moontaaigns.  We're also going to look around the Cairngorms over the summer.

Of course, finding a house is coupled with finding a site for the cafe business.  Last weekend we looked a a place in Aberfeldy.  Great location right in the middle of the town square with a big pavement just ripe for a bit of outdoor cafe culture.



Rather than lease, we're hoping now to find a place that we could buy.  There was a leak from the upstairs flat recently in this one, which would help us negotiate the sale price downwards.  But the leak was still dripping, which is a big concern when it's coming from somebody elses property (we wouldn't own the flat) and we would have no control over it.  There are also some issues regarding the positioning of the stairs up to the upstairs flat... i.e. slap bang in the centre of our shop frontage! Who's silly idea was that?
So we've talked briefly, and it's not looking like a good option... certainly not to me.  We'll ask a few more questions just in case though.

Latte Art - Take Two

Haggie's Latte Art #2

Here's an interesting snippet regarding my best crack so far at what's called Latte Art (see pic).  Turns out it's not just about how it looks.  The art can only be done when the milk has been steamed just right - temperature, volume, texture etc.  These things matter because they do actually affect the taste of your cup of coffee. E.g. you need to make ultra-tiny bubbles. Big ones stop the coffee flavour hitting your taste buds.

If you get it right, the coffee's flavour, mouth-feel and appearance improve, and being able to do it shows a certain degree of dedication from the barista.

I'm not there yet, not by a long way. But I'm slowly getting there and loving the journey.

The Tourists Are Here

Thanks for all the comments and support on Facebook, everyone - it really helps to know you're all behind us in this scary and exciting adventure! (Don't forget, you can write comments on this blog too.)

It's getting warmer now, and Scotland is coming back to life after the worst winter anyone can remember up here. I was here back in December doing some location scouting and almost ran out of diesel four times, because garages were either completely closed or would only let me buy £5 of fuel.  They hadn't had a delivery for weeks because of the weather.

But it's wonderful to see the country start to bloom again. Every day you notice a new change.  We have hundreds of frogs in the pond, crawling all over each other.  There's a part of the garden where the buzzing of the bees is worryingly loud for early April. And already it is bloody impossible to get parked in Aberfoyle on a weekend, amidst the throngs of folks who are seemingly obsessed with wool and the procurement thereof! I never cease to be surprised at what attracts people on a daytrip to the countryside. I reckon I could advertise that the ash from our fireplace was actually Robert Burns' cremated remains and get 200 people through our front room every day.

Meanwhile, I've been continuing the cafe stuff.  I'll be meeting with several banks soon to discuss our budget for the business and our home purchase/build. Leasing appropriate retail property costs anything up to £50,000 per year where we're looking, so if possible we may want to buy the place instead. (It's actually more complicated than that, but I'm keeping it light!)  Also need to find a property surveyor, solicitor, accountant etc etc. Apparently it's best to have these lined up before finding the perfect site for cafe.

And on the fun side, more coffee and cakes.  This coffee lark is so complicated.  I want our coffeehouse cafe to achieve a reputation for the best coffee north of the Edinburgh/Glasgow line - to be THE place to go for an amazing cup of the hot stuff - so this barista training is serious business. At some point I'd like either myself or one or our staff to be good enough to enter the UK Barista Championships. It's a massive challenge and perhaps too high a target to aim for, but even if we don't make it just the process of trying to will make us a damn site better than 90% of cafes.

Cakes - I piped my first cuppies today. Frosting needs tweaking, and I overfilled the casings with cake mix, but these are minor teething troubles. What do you think?

First Espresso Equipment Acquired

"How hard can it be to make coffee?", I thought back in November 2010.  I soon found out.  Jon Skinner, one of the judges at the UK Barista Championships, came to our flat in Wimbledon to give Jan and I one-to-one training in basic barista skills.  I think it was a real coup getting Jon to train us - his credentials is the industry are fantastic.



We soon learned that it's not just about pushing a button on a fancy espresso machine.  There are tons of variables, and if just one of those is not right then the drink is bad - weak/sour/bitter/watery/etc.  It turns out that ultimately the biggest factor in making a good coffee isn't the coffee itself, nor the machine, but the person making it.  I guess that's why they have the rather glamorous title of "Barista" rather than just '"coffee-maker-bloke".  And if you're thinking 'what a load of smoke and mirrors, machines can do everything automatically that a human could do', then that's completely natural.  You're right where I was before I began learning all this stuff.  But I was wrong.  (At least I hope I was!)

There was a fair bit to go through in the session, and strangely I'm more proud of my Basic Barista certificate than I am of my MBA Degree one! But really it was just enough to get us started.  We still have a long way to go.  (I say 'we' but I'm not sure how much further Jan will take it once she can make herself a skinny latte in the morning!)  I always remember reading of the actor John Turturro saying of Cafe Arriba in Portree "the reason I keep coming back is that it is the best espresso on Skye".  That's very inspiring.  I want my espresso to be the best wherever I am.

So to continue the training process I've bought (aah...ebay) the Gaggia Classic espresso machine and bean grinder that Jon recommended.  Apparently the machine's design is a lot like a commercial machine on a smaller scale, which makes it perfect for learning barista skills.  And there are plenty of forums out there with helpful coffee geeks happy to share their knowledge.  I've discovered that barista-ing (a word?) can be fairly techy too.  The coffee machine and grinder have already been in bits, and I'm going to do some modifications today.


 But the best news of all is that today I achieved my very first Latte Art.  Its a slightly blurry rosetta, and there are bubbles on top that shouldn't be there, but I think its a thing of beauty!

Some days you need to blog twice.

Just had to upload this picture, as I think its essential to give certain moments the credit they deserve.  One of the things I need to do this year is come up with a menu for the coffee shop, which also means I need to learn to cook/bake it all.  I hereby unveil my first batch of cupcakes!

Personally I think they're wonderful... soft, light, and spilling over the top of the paper cup thingy.  Pipe a bit of icing on the top and that's a hearty meal for a weary granny before getting back on the Scotland Tours bus.

Escape Quote Of The Day

"There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time."  - Edith Wharton

I'm not unaware that the plans Jan and I have involve an element of "running round after happiness".  But, whilst I understand what Edith Wharton is trying to say, she really is talking total phlegm. I mean seriously, who on earth is about to decide not to be happy?

I'd like to counter this quote with a more appropriate one.

"You've got to have a dream.  If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?" - Rodgers & Hammerstein c/o Captain Sensible

Captain Sensible - Happy Talk

Still Alive After One Week

Made it through week 1 with only a few minor hiccups.  Jan's remote working has gone very well generally, apart from a problem accessing her network account.  Rule #1: when dealing with computers always assume it will not be as straightforward as it is meant to be! Unfortunately she now has to go to London at some point to get it sorted out, but luckily there's a booze-up she can go to, to make the trip really worthwhile.

She's very good - tends to shut herself away in the office/bedroom all day to get on with work. It doesn't seem to demand huge amounts of discipline, as you might expect when working from home.  But then again she worked remotely 2 days per week in London anyway, so she's used to it.  And her workload doesn't really leave any opportunity for 'bunking off'!

Meanwhile I'm spreading myself between lots of small tasks, which is a bit frustrating as at the end of each day I feel knackered but don't seem to have much tangible to show for it. Such is the life of a housewife/husband!!  But my priority is improving my understanding of HTML, CSS, Photoshop and Dreamweaver so I can start offering to build websites for local business.  I'll do it cheap for them at first, to get myself a portfolio and also expand my experience beyond the three sites I've done in the past. (www.baan-thai.co.uk is one - it badly needs updating, which I'll do soon.)  My goal is to win 9 clients (and do their websites) before the end of 2011, which at one per month is probably all I can manage alongside all the other stuff we'll have going on this year.

Damn - Jan needs to borrow this laptop right now so that's not a good way to kick off my web design business is it?! Talk soon.