Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Thoughts about cruise ship coffee

Well, just got back to my espresso machine and grinder. It had been a long four days of less-than-stellar coffee on a Western Caribbean cruise with Celebrity. I brought an Aeropress to help ease the pain, and managed to make it through.

How is it that a ship's executive chefs can offer five-star dining, but lousy shots of espresso that average 90-second extractions from dosers full of stale coffee? I lost count of how many time the same pitcher of milk was resteamed. How is it that such poor quality control merits $4.00 plus 15% mandatory gratuity? Ridiculous!

My word of advice on the matter: do yourself a favor and bring a grinder, press/cone/aeropress, and fresh coffee with you if you have to cruise. I had to sacrifice bringing a sweater and a pair of tennis shoes to do so, but it was ultimately worth it to have a proper cup of coffee with breakfast.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Budget Proposal

So...along with becoming an official club comes monetary needs. So far, I've covered these, using part of my earnings from tutoring on campus (keep it in the family). Well, I added it all up, and yea, it's cost me a bit, money I would probably have rather allocated toward beer. So I'm writing today to announce that we are asking Student Government for money for school year 09-10.

Added all up, we're requesting a budget of $380.50 to cover the cost of coffee, cups, cream & sugar (I know....), and equipment purchases. Long gone, hopefully, will be the days of bankrolling the club and carrying all of my coffee equipment across campus.

Everybody wish us luck, and if you want to help us get funded, please write a brief letter of your support to the Student Government. Lets get the money that other clubs let go to waste!