2011 year end
Coffee
This year consolidated the trend away from espresso towards manually brewed coffee. The portafilter.net podcast explains that this is a way to make specialty coffee more accessible to the general public. Whereas last year Chemex and Hario were the favorites, what Seattle baristas are really excited about now is Clever, aeropress and siphon.
Fortunately there are still plenty of opportunities for different kinds of espresso in Seattle, like those offered by Milstead and Co. since it’s opening in September:
Like the opening of Analog Coffee in 2011, I’ll be looking forward to Ballard Coffee Works in 2012.
Music
This shows how much I have not listened to KEXP this year: from the 91 Top Listener Voted Albums of 2011, I had never heard the name of 44 of the bands and only know how 31 of them sound like.
