Looks like I won't make it after all. Pull some shots for me.

Terry
Thanks for your hospitality, the great food, and the excellent bourbon lesson. A great time. Sherman, your roasts were outstanding as usual. That panama tasted just like chocolate, what a sir prize!
Vlad, really enjoyed seeing and playing with the vintage faema. Thanks everyone the conversation and contributions.

Terry, thank you so much for your hospitality! Wonderful espresso, great gear, and most enjoyable company aside, the food itself was worth the drive!!! It was really great to see everyone! Thank you!

Terry,

Thanks to you for an absolutely wonderful day! Your hospitality will become truly legendary.

Joel

Thanks to PipeGuy for hosting. I think that we need to christen his place as the HB Clubhouse. His CMA, Cremina and spread of Terroir and Counter Culture coffees was fantastic and surpassed only by the selection of brown liquors.

I confess to using the assembled members as a set of guinea pigs. In addition to the Hacienda La Esmeralda, I brought two roasts of Elida Estate Natural. The twist here is that one of the roasts was from my stash of the '10 crop which had been stored in a vac-sealed mason jar in standing freezer at -10F. The other roast was from this year's crop.

Based on the group feedback, the '10 held up surprisingly well, standing up to storage without losing any of the deep strawberry jam notes and syrupy body. The '12 could have used another day's rest, but was a very close runner up. I'd be happy to have either cup cross my palate.

My thanks to Terry.

The featured attraction was an "OK, now I see what all the fuss is about" introduction to New Orleans food. The jambalaya featured a local butcher's andouille sausage and duck that had all my Hungarian ancestors singing. The shrimp in a roux thickened stock was unbelievable. Once the shrimp was done, we are all scouring the kitchen for bits of bread with which to finish scooping up the sauce. It was based on a beautifully pungent shrimp stock, with the perfectly browned butter flavors adding depth and smoothness.

In addition, Zombie Dust was on tap (if you haven't already, add Three Floyds to your list of world class breweries) and a comprehensive selection of bourbons was behind the bar. We were even left both cursing and thanking the French know it all who had left the a bottle of Limousin oak aged rye. Pipe Guy earns his handle because he has a museum worthy collection of pipes and pipe tobaccos. After sampling an English Latakia blend in two different pipes, I started to understand that there is a certain universality to tasting enjoyment, which reaches across different kinds of drinks and foods, and even tobacco. But the last time I smoked was a a few puffs of a celebratory cigar a decade back, so I'm not going to make a fool of myself trying to describe what I tasted.

This time around, the coffee and espresso was more an accompaniment to the party, rather than the sole attraction; but we discussed doing an espresso 101 get together some time soon. The idea is that people could bring their espresso gear, and participate in a shot pulling clinic. There would be a lecture, some shot pulling on pro gear, and then on people's own gear. We'd like to hear the ideas of anyone interested in participating in something like this.

Alright. We newbies all got espresso machines and grinders for christmas. Ive read all the tutorials on web but need friendly input. Lets have the espresso 101. I will host if necessary in Oak Brook, nice and central to chicagoland. My only gear is Rocket r58, mini mazzer, scale, bottomless and other portafilters, and wide assortment of beans that all taste bad with my skills. Im thinking late January 2013. By mid january if no better hoster volunteer then my place for sure, catered.

Welcome to HB, Russell; and thanks for volunteering to host. It would be fun to visit Oak Brook, but it may be better to do an espresso 101 at a cafe or training center, where there's commercial gear avaialable. The date also need to be coordinated. I've started a new thread here to get the ball rolling.