As I walk into Verve, the espresso machine is the first stuff I notice — La Marcocco!!!!!

The decoration of the store is simple and use a lot of art works and woods, such as tables, counters, and chairs. BTW, they have a lot of pillows for you to lean on it.

What I order is a large size Latte, very basic espresso based drink, but very impressive. With some pecan nuts aroma and scorched flavor, and still last while it cool down.

This great Latte and great place just like mojo coffee in Taichung. (Oh, I miss it so much, and miss u so much, too)

控制鮮奶的量以及奶泡與鮮奶的比例很重要，下次弄的時候要多注意…

越上面的照片是越近期的…

mojocoffee位在大業路與大墩路交叉路口附近的Starbucks對面，如同網路上人家說的，因為招牌有點被行道樹擋住的關係會有點難以發現，但，我們還是很快就找到了。Menu上頭並沒有餐點，只單純地提供咖啡飲品，所以飢腸轆轆的我們就到鄰近的Subways去買東西來吃。

回到店內，點了杯基本的拿鐵（如最上方的照片）和紐奧良菊苣咖啡歐蕾，其實兩杯都很好喝，但是拿鐵的拉花做得很棒，所以很私心地比較喜歡拿鐵一點。

mojocoffee店內的裝潢充滿設計感，以高低落差的地板、挑高的天花板、階梯來營造寬廣同時有隱密性並肩具展示功能的空間。

令人驚訝的是當夜越深，客人反倒多了起來，我猜大多是幾位朋友在聚餐或是在電影之後來這邊喝杯咖啡繼續聊天的吧。老實說，這邊的氣氛真的很適合三五好友聊天，或者帶著書本、notebook來這邊作自己的事情，或者只是單純地點咖啡來欣賞牆壁上不定期更新的畫作。當然，如果只想買點食物搭配一杯美味的咖啡也是很好的選擇。

另外可以參考 mojo官方網站及其blog，還有其他人寫的介紹 (1, 2, 3, 4)

檢視較大的地圖

新來的這台機器還不錯，壓力也足夠可以拿來打奶泡，只是仍不夠細緻，但可以打出流動性高的奶泡是件好事情，這樣要作拉花(Latte Art)就容易許多，或許下一次可以拿這機器上的蒸汽打泡跟原本用的 frother 比較一下。

另外，比較遺憾的是這台機器水流比較大，所以原本的咖啡粉就顯得太粗，煮出來的咖啡就沒什麼 crema ，拉花出來的顏色對比就弱些而沒那麼好看，下次買咖啡豆大概是好一陣子之後的事情了。下面兩張是最近弄出來的作品…

Last month, I visited Seattle and met wangys and his wife there. Seattle is an impressive city, you can easily find a lot of trees and fall in love with the fresh air there. Besides, Seattle is also the city of coffee in US. As a coffeholic, it must be a high priority to visit a coffee shop in Seattle, and so did I. Thus, I do not talk about the beautiful city in this article, but the coffee shops instead.

In Pike Market Place, most travelers visit the 1st store of Starbucks, which is the largest coffee retailer of the world. The 1st shop, an old style building on Pike street, keeps the 1st generation brown color logo. While walking in, the history of Starbucks comes to you with the smell of coffee. However, it is a sightseeing spot rather than a coffee shop, because of its historical meaning and value, and also due to that most visitors come here just for photo-taking and memorials shopping.

Many people said that the coffee of Seattle’s Best Coffee is REALLY the BEST among all coffee retailers in Seattle. In Santa Cruz, there is a SBC shop in downtown, and I’d bought drinks there before. Undoubtedly, I have to said that the coffee is really smooth and has great body. Besides, the forth of Latte is also unbelievably smooth, I even wonder that they maybe use some cream in it. XD For Mocha, it shows great combination of cream, milk and espresso.

Tully’s is another coffee shop started from Seattle. Tully’s is also a spot for Japanese travelers, because there are some Tully’s shops in Japan. I ordered a White Chocolate Mocha in the morning before the tour of Central Library. The way Tully’s make is a little bit different from SBC, they do not use cream in it, but it still tastes good. Moreover, the coffee beans (I am not sure all or only a part of beans) used in Tully’s are Fair Trade.

Although I think the drinks of Starbucks are the last among them, Starbucks undoubtedly gives rise to the mania of coffee all over the world. Besides these 3 retailers, you can find a lot of coffee shops selling drinks, beans or appliances in this green city, in downtown, at sightseeing spots, and even in a small lane.

When you get off the bus, you can find one near the stop.
When you walk on street, you can smell the aroma from pedestrians’ to-go cups.
When you need a shot, you can find a shop around the corner.
When you enjoy, mixed-up smells of fresh air and crema make you feel entirely free.

一直忘記去買奶泡鋼杯，所以倒出奶泡的過程一直不是很順利，今天終於有比較像樣一點的。另外，不曉得是使用frother的關係，還是牛奶的緣故，打出來的奶泡的流動性並不是很好，需要多做些嘗試。

There are many coffee shops in this small town, and all provide wireless internet services. Besides, because of the cold environment of my lab here, I prefer to stay in a coffee shop and work by the wireless internet. And, in coffee shops, you can see many people have a cup of coffee, and doing their works with computers.

Some wireless service of coffee shops are not free, especially in the chain shops, such as Stxxxxxks. But, that’s O.K., because many local coffee shops provide free wireless services, and very nice coffee. However, most coffee shops do not provide power plugs.

In these days, I usually stay in the Bad Ass Coffee, which is a chain shop from Hawaii. It has nice coffee and free wireless services, and the most important is… there are many power plugs.

Last week, I bought a second-hand espresso machine to replace the old American Coffee Maker. In these days, I went to downtown and bought a tamper and a frother.

Although it it not as good as using steam frothing, the froth made by the frother is acceptable. And the espresso is very good after I tamp the coffee powder in the filter. The follow pic is the two shots coffee powder after extraction.

And this is my espresso machine, it also contains two another filters, an one shot and an pod size.

Espresso Latte in Kyoto Mug.

It’s really nice to have a cup of espresso-based coffee in the chilly morning. To celebrate the setting of my espresso system, I change my blog logo to an image of the fringe of the Kyoto mug with coffee stains and sun light.

Well, how about the old American Coffee Maker? I may sell it on the Internet. :Q