MOCHA TEASE - Café mocha enhanced with hazelnut flavor and whipped cream
Yes! That's what I had today in Barista! It has a very inviting look....lots of cream toppings. But it was a bit too sweet!!! Quite an indulgence once in a while but that's it. Not for me anymore!!
A Café mocha is a variant of a cafe latte. Like a latte it is typically one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk, but a portion of chocolate is added.
Today I decided to try Cafe Mocha at Barista Coffee Pub during my lunch hour. Hmmm....was yummy and tempting :) It added some flavour to my thoughts on "USP - Unique Selling Proposition". The discussion on what should be the USP started well in the morning and believe me, wasn't easy to narrow down on one. [Still haven't found one though!]
Googling on USP returned lots of pages. Hour long thought revealed how difficult it is to write something in short & crisp sentences, yet conveying what we want to, suiting to the industry we are in etc etc. Ok...with no result for today, my thoughts on USP will continue tomorrow, may be with a different flavour of coffee!
Making of an Espresso
Water between 88 and 92ºC. (190-197ºF.) is forced under 8 - 10 Bar (atmospheres) of pressure through 6- 9 grams of finely ground coffee so that 1 to 2 fluid oz. of brew are delivered into a small cup in 18 - 25 seconds. Espresso is usually served in a "demitasse". Demitasse means "half cup" in French and generally has the capacity of holding 3 oz. of liquid.
Espresso is what one needs when you have to break your thoughts on even "seemingly simple things". Today was a day when I had strained too much about "Email Signatures". Why is there so much of noise around this? Does it really make an impact as it claims to? Is it really significant to put a great deal of thought into it?
I have seen companies having standards for the "Email Signatures", describing the font type and size, contents of signature etc. On the other hand, some of the companies have horribly long signatures, at times even more than the content of the mail.
Going beyond, my thought runs to how is this used as a effective marketing tool. It is used for marketing purposes only during the first two interactions with a new company or an individual. Within these 2 interactions, you have either moved ahead that "email signature" is no more a marketing tool, but just an addition in the mail or your interaction has stopped/deferred.
So with this, does it really make sense to define standards for signatures? On one hand, I am a big fan of setting standards; yet to be convinced on this one item.
For sure, I hate all those fancy one-liners and graphics that are sent by various employees as part of their signatures. What are they trying to convey by this? I understand if one has it as part of their private mails, (even I have one) but appending it to official mails, according to me is highly offensive and disgusting.
After having thought so much on this simple item, don't you think I need two shots of Espresso?!!!
A shot or two of espresso poured into a cup which is then filled with half steamed milk and half foam milk so that it is one third coffee, one third milk and one third milk foam - That's the recipe for Cappuccino.
If one gets an urge to drink this lovely cappuccino or meet friends at a coffee shop, behold your thought. Take time to think about the "Maddening Chennai Traffic". New Traffic arrangements that is in effect for the last 2-3 days, have not really eased any situation. The traffic department tried to make some routes as one-way (well, possibly a good thought) but the idea seem to be a colossal failure, as either way they are unable to control the traffic.
But I should definitely say one thing - for the first time, I came to know that there were more traffic constables than I ever thought of or one has ever seen on roads. The number of constables seen seem to even exceed the numbers seen during the former CM's trip.
And more surprisingly, you are able to see them any time of the day and regulating traffic, instead of collecting "Fines for illogical reasons".
Not digressing far from the topic, the traffic situation near T Nagar is .....(am still finding a word to describe it.) It is usual to see maddening traffic situations during festive season. But this time we have a Diwali Gift in the name of "Making of Flyover", adding to the chaos.
Strictly speaking on the teaching lines of Gita, it is testing the patience of Chennaites and let's hope "Whatever happens, happens for good"!
Finally, I decided to blog my wandering thoughts in a public mode. Being a coffee connoisseur, at first step I decided to provide a some info on it. So here it goes, brief information about filter coffee.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_filter_coffee
