Blossom Ride
5:41 AM 4/4/2009Tuesday morning I went out to buy a new tamper for my espresso machine. The one I have is broken.
Bear with me here... it would be extremely difficult to break most tampers - they are usually a serious chunk of metal - but, my old one had a scoop on one end, and years of pressing really hard to pack the coffee grounds had resulted in some metal fatigue. Unless I wanted to press the palm of my hand into jagged metal every time I made coffee, I needed a new tamper. (Sour Grapes:) And, besides... I never much liked the old tamper. It was too rounded at the edge.
I know a shop in Dupont called "Coffee And The Works". They have serious kitchen equipment there, and I've picked up a few important items there over the years. I got on the bicycle and rode down there. I would be brewing an espresso with the new tamper in 15 minutes.
When I arrived at the store it was not open yet. At 11. Not open. No hours posted... But, it couldn't be much longer, right? I had the bike, so I could ride around downtown and kill some time getting exercise and seeing the sights until they opened.
Before I knew it, it was a three-hour tour. A three-hour tour!
Here are some of the things I saw:
