The emphasis of The Wild Drink Blog to begin with was to discuss cocktails and my new found love for coffee. Over the past year things have shifted on more than one occasion with coffee dominating the stories around the time of UKBC (heats and finals) and now the shift moving back to a more balanced collection of features and blog posts. [...]

Unfortunately I had to give up my place on the Sharp's beer tasting panel a couple of months ago, but Rod (Laura's dad) still provides me with some beer and a sneaky peak at what's coming soon. [...]

Just got back from an exhausting couple of days spent in two cities, both new to me. On Saturday I drove through a Cornish blizzard (light snow storm) to Urban Beach Hotel in Bournemouth, I was doing training with Jimmy and his bartenders on the Monday but we met up a day before to travel down to Brighton together for the vodka leg of the Reserve Brands World Class Bartender competition.

The sourcing is done, the grinder is installed and calibrated, the pots have arrived and we've got a great coffee to put in them… and the result is not even enough room to swing an infant hamster behind the bar! This is the beginning of my journey into brewed coffee. [...]

My favourite drink as a boy was always cola, but I distinctly remember another contender which I rarely got a chance to enjoy, but when I did - it was amazing. It still surprises me how few people have actually tasted D&B as a child, for me it embodies all the sweet delight of being a young scally living in the countryside, as I did. [...]

That's not 'Starbucks have purchased a Clover ', no no no, they've just jumped straight in there and bought Clovers entire parent company, The Coffee Equipment Company . For anyone unfamiliar with Clover, it is a coffee brewing system that has been hailed as the next big thing in brewed coffee due to its stability and customisable temperature, water and brew settings. Yes, that's right, Starbucks now own it. [...]

Do you like super power granted, cape wearing, portafilter branding, crimefighting baristas? Yeh, that's right, I thought as much. Coming very soon to a blog near you, the worlds first comic strip barista, Barista Boy [...]

Make no mistake, i'm an espresso boy. My career in coffee has developed from a love of espresso and the milky drinks that go with it, for me filter has until now been a cheap and easy way to stew coffee to the brink of glorious insipid death. It's only in the last year that I have really come to appreciate the potential genius of good filter coffee, as well as other brewing methods and i'm pretty excited about it...

K2 has served me very well over the last (almost) year and it's a miracle that i've stuck with it so long, i'm normally very fickle with things like this. The minor changes made a week ago were not enough, i've spent the last month changing butchering the K2 code to the point where i've finally realised it's time for a theme change...

Oh how I love trade shows... I seem to be spending more and more time at these microcosms of society, orange juice man meets spinning glass cleaner man, meets turnip jam man. EXPO West is a South West trade show that occurs every year 1 mile from my house! This year I hung out on the Origin coffee stand with Tom, Phil, Andy, Stuart (of Masteroast) & Steve. Origin were putting on barista presentations all day in a sort of theatre area complete with gold 'throne' chairs, I held a presentation to a small audience at lunch time...