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everwitch-magiks · 3 years

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dance with somebody (ch. 21)

start from ch. 1 | back to ch. 20

Louis is tired.

It's been a bit of a week. He's had two mock business proposals to finish, plus a pretty big presentation on innovative concepts in virtual-reality entertainment, and consequently, he's spent far too much time trying to recall annoyingly specific descriptors in the English language. And here’s the thing – Louis knows English, okay? He's got the fluency, and certainly the vocabulary. It's not his fucking fault that there's simply no way to translate skräckblandad förtjusning (meaning: mixed feelings of fear and delight, except not quite) while actually retaining that completely essential connotation of sky high adrenaline rush in the best and worst way possible.

He needs a fucking break.

On Saturday morning, he wakes up late and puts on his favorite jeans and a faded The Ark t-shirt. He packs his backup bluetooth speakers (Nursey's still hogging his best ones, but considering how that's somehow become a major factor in Louis's current strategy for dibs, he's certainly not about to ask for them back) and sets off to make the short trek across campus. When he opens the door to the Haus, he is for once not greeted by the pleasant smell of freshly baked goods.

Perfect.

Louis whistles as he sets up his speakers on the kitchen counter and puts on his playlist of ultimate guilty pleasures, aptly titled how can I resist you. He collects a bowl from the usual cupboard and digs through the pantry and fridge for the right ingredients. He doesn't need to look up the recipe. Hasn't needed to for years, now.

He's carefully stirring sugar and eggs together when Hops enters the kitchen.

“You’re baking,” Hops says, and really, he has no business sounding so surprised. Hops baked, like, less than two days ago. Someone’s always baking. “And, wait. Is that ABBA?”

Since the opening of Waterloo is literally blasting from his speakers, Louis doesn’t even bother trying to deny it. He shrugs, instead, and winces as Hops starts to hum along to the lyrics. It takes Hops approximately half the first verse before he realises that Louis isn’t actually playing the English version.

Hops quiets, and looks over towards Louis’s baking project, instead. He grins.

“Hey. Is that gonna be, like, a cake?”

“I mean, kind of.”

Louis starts measuring his dry ingredients in a second bowl, moving mostly on autopilot. Flour. Salt. Cocoa powder.

“You might wanna whisk those eggs, my friend,” Hops says, his tone annoyingly important. “That’s what Dex says, if you wanna get that cake nice and airy-”

“I don’t,” Louis cuts in. “It’s not that kind of cake.”

“Huh.” Unfortunately, Hops sounds completely fascinated. “What kind of cake is it?”

Louis sighs. Fuck. More terminology.

“I think it’s called a mud cake, in English,” he explains, wincing at the words despite the fact that he just chose them himself. “That’s not a literal translation from Swedish, though, and it honestly sounds dumb. Who wants to eat mud?”

“What’s it called in Swedish, then?”

Louis grimaces. “Uh. Sticky cake? Basically. Which sounds way more appetizing in Swedish, I promise. Anyway, it’s actually something of a classic.”

“So it’s, like, traditional?” Hops says, his eyes lighting up. “That’s really cool, man.”

“No, not really, it’s more…” Louis begins, only to trail off. This is actually exactly what he’s been trying to completely avoid, today. “Sorry, Hops, can I just finish baking?”

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” Hops takes a couple of steps back. He looks mildly confused. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Hops wanders out of the kitchen. Someone else comes down the stairs, and Louis barely registers a hushed conversation in the hallway. Moments later, he’s joined by Whiskey, instead.

Whiskey nods towards him, and makes a beeline for the pot of coffee.

Louis finishes his batter and pours it into a springform pan. He pops it in the oven and sets a timer on his phone. There.

When he looks up again, he finds Whiskey watching him over a cup of coffee.

Whiskey doesn’t look merely tired. No, Whiskey looks fucking exhausted. Louis belatedly remembers that he hasn’t actually seen Whiskey for a few days, that there's been hushed whispers all week about Whiskey’s sudden and completely unexplained absence. Yet despite all of that, Whiskey has evidently found the time and energy to stick around in the kitchen, just now, and wait for Louis to look his way. Their eyes meet, and Whiskey raises both eyebrows slightly, his expression one of mild concern and careful curiosity.

“It’s nothing,” Louis says, before Whiskey has even asked. “I’m just… I get really tired, sometimes.”

“I get that,” Whiskey says. He’s nodding slowly. “It’s been a really tough season.”

“It’s not… This is different.” Louis pauses. It’s a little easier, this time, to find the right words. “I’m tired of people not getting things. I’m tired of having so many things nobody gets."

"Like cake," Whiskey says lightly, and okay, Hops has definitely put him up to this. "Do you wanna tell me about it?"

Louis shakes his head.

"I'm so fucking tired of telling people shit, I just… I miss just being. I miss not constantly looking for the right words. I miss home."

"Ah," Whiskey says. He's nodding again. "Okay. I don't exactly get that, but that's kind of your whole point, isn't it?"

"A little bit, yeah." Louis almost smiles. "Sorry, I don't mean to dump all of my shit on you. You probably have enough going on, at the moment."

"Let's not talk about me," Whiskey says evasively, and alright, apparently that's not a conversation they're about to have, right now. "Listen, do you wanna… Okay, this might sound sort of stupid."

Louis raises both eyebrows.

"Try me."

"Talk to me in Swedish, for a bit."

"What?" Louis frowns. "I'm afraid you'd find that entirely incomprehensible."

"No, I know." Whiskey smiles slightly. "I promise I'll still nod and hum in all the right places. Okay?"

Despite that reassurance, Louis hesitates. It honestly sounds really fucking dumb. Whiskey is watching him sort of expectantly, though, and fuck it, he might as well try. Because if Whiskey has for some reason made it his mission to cheer Louis up despite the fact that Whiskey’s clearly got some sort of huge, unacknowledged crisis of his own to deal with, the very least Louis can do is humour him.

"Det kommer dröja minst fem månader innan jag får träffa min lillsyrra igen, och alltså, hon är skitjobbig, men det är ändå fan inte okej."

Louis pauses. Whiskey is nodding, as promised, and his expression actually looks just the right level of sympathetic.

Huh.

Louis keeps talking.

He tells Whiskey about his other siblings, too, about his two older brothers who are actually occasionally even worse than his sister. It's kind of a miracle that he misses them all as much as he does. He talks about his stupidly boring home town, about that one coffee place that's clearly superior to all the rest and the outdoor rink that's right by the lake, about his mom's cinnamon buns and a fresh sheet of ice and that gorgeous sunrise and his best friend right there, lacing up her skates next to Louis and prattling on about some new band she's just discovered that Louis absolutely must listen to, and-

Louis's phone buzzes.

Immediately, Louis cuts himself off mid-sentence and practically lounges for the oven mittens. He carefully takes out the cake, which to the untrained looks like it's not quite done, yet.

Fucking perfection.

"Hey, now," Whiskey says. He sounds amused. "I'm sure five more seconds would've been fine."

"Är du dum på riktigt, eller, tänk om…" Oh. Right. "And risk overbaking this baby? Not on my watch."

"If you say so." Whiskey looks a bit curious. "I think I actually caught, like, two or three words out of all that. One of them was definitely idiot."

"Probably." Louis shrugs. "You should meet my siblings, sometime."

"I'd have to brush up on my Swedish, first."

"Nah. Clearly, you're a natural."

Whiskey smiles, and Louis actually finds it fairly easy to smile back. He feels a little less tense, compared to before. A little more grounded.

"So. Turns out that wasn't completely pointless." Louis grins. And then, because it feels like that kind of moment, he continues. "I'm gonna vote for you, you know. As captain."

Something very complicated passes over Whiskey's expression.

"I know you're gonna do great," Louis adds. God, why is Whiskey looking at him like that? He must know that he's basically guaranteed to be chosen, already. Everyone knows. "And we're all gonna have your back. Alright?"

"Thanks, man." Whiskey's not quite meeting his eyes. "I should, uh. I've got to go."

"You should have some cake," Louis says firmly. He digs out a spoon from the top drawer and carefully traces it along the inside of the springform pan, before removing the sides. The slice he cuts only just holds together. He grins in satisfaction as he hands Whiskey the plate. "Here. You won't regret it, I promise."

Whiskey barely smiles. He still looks a bit shaken up. Louis wonders if he should mention this to Dex, or Tango and Ford, or maybe to that one water polo kid who's always hanging around the Haus, lately. To someone Whiskey actually talks to about stuff.

"Oh my God."

Whiskey has taken his first bite. He's staring at his plate in disbelief.

"What the… This is, like, some sort of fucking chocolate heaven. In my mouth. What the fuck." He takes another bite. "Why aren't you making this every day, always?"

"Kitchen's usually busy, isn't it?" Louis serves himself a generous slice. "Glad you like it, though."

"I'm gonna need more of this, like, yesterday," Whiskey says decisively, just as at least three people enter the kitchen at once.

"You baked, Louis? 'Swasome."

"Fuck, that smells so good."

"Plates! We need plates!"

Even in the middle of the general mayhem that ensues, Louis doesn't miss the fact that Whiskey cuts himself an extra slice before he's even finished his first, locates a second spoon and quietly leaves the kitchen. Which all seems a little excessive, maybe, but Whiskey's evidently going through some shit right now, and if plenty of cake and a high quantity of cutlery is what's gonna get him through it, Louis won't judge.

"Hey," Jader says, already halfway through his second slice. "That guy on your shirt looks pretty hot. Who is he?"

"He's a singer." Louis reaches for his phone. The best thing about music is, it never needs to be explained. "And a fucking legend. Take a deep breath, okay? You're in for quite a ride."

He puts on It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane, and serves himself a second slice.

ch. 22

#check please #omgcheckplease #omgcp #Louis #yes #our very own Lukas Landmann #and kladdkaka #this chapter is so indulgent you have no idea #I know we're all waiting for Whiskey to figure out his shit and all #but here's a fun interlude with our favorite Swedish wellie baking cake?#I'm Swedish okay let me have this #also #do yourself a favor #listen to The Ark #evie writes #fanfiction #dance with somebody

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wickeryburning · 7 years

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OTP Questions Part 1

So I started working on this about a week ago just as a fun side project… and it kind of blew up because I literally have zero self-control when it comes to writing anything Lucaya-related. As you probably know there are 100 questions to these, so because this has become such a huge undertaking I’ve decided to split it up into 10 parts to be read in between chapters of my fic (titled And So Between the Endless Plains and Empty Skies a Fire Inside Burns - it’s on ff.net so please read if you like this!). Obviously that means 10 questions per post, and while not all answers will be long, I will try to make sure there’s at least one long-ish response per post. Enjoy! P.S. This hasn’t been beta’d so I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors. 1. Who loves flower crowns more?

Maya wears them cause of Riley, and Lucas thinks she looks like an Earth Goddess when it happens 2. Who is the one who likes to cuddle?

Lucas initiates cuddling more often just because he likes to hold Maya whenever he can, but Maya initiates cuddling when she needs to feel close to him or when her irrational fear of him leaving occasionally occurs. They both like it whenever it happens no matter the reason. 3. Who has awful taste in music? Maya thinks Lucas has awful taste in music, but slowly begins to appreciate the passion behind it (though she’ll never admit this to his face). 4. Who is the meme lover? Maya sends Lucas memes while he’s at work when she’s lonely and misses him. He pretends to groan about it, but secretly loves it. When Maya huffs, “fine, I’ll stop then,” Lucas does everything he can to make sure that doesn’t happen without accidentally revealing just how much he looks forward to it. 5. How did their second date go? Lucas cooked dinner for Maya (taco salad) and brought out smoothies for dessert. The smoothies end up dumped on each other’s heads before they end up passionately making out the rest of the night and they fall asleep cuddled up together on the couch. 6. How many children do they want/have? Maya is worried about having kids for a long time because she’s still afraid she has a part of her dad still left in her. Lucas, though he’s afraid of turning into his father as well, convinces her sweetly that it’s because she knows not to be like her dad that’s going to make her a wonderful mother. They have one child (a blonde girl the spitting image of Maya with Lucas’s eyes that loves animals)… and they love being parents so much they end up having four more (fraternal twin boy and girl full of mischief, another girl who has her mother’s pitching arm and both of her parents’ competitive natures, and another boy that hasn’t stopped drawing since he got his hands on his first crayons - in that order). 7. Who hides the weapons? Lucas hides a shotgun in the closet for years against Maya’s wishes. He insists they have to have some form of protection (an old tradition he’s picked up from Pappy Joe). Maya finds it one day when she’s pregnant and bored and they get into an enormous argument about it. Maya is afraid that their daughter will get her hands on it one day (and internally is afraid Lucas’s anger will get the better of him someday and someone will get hurt). Lucas convinces Maya to let him keep it locked in the shed unloaded with the shells in a separate place (Maya figures if he gets too protective and angry with a trespasser that she can calm him down before he can get from the shells to the gun). Lucas only uses it once (unloaded) to scare someone off. He teaches his children the importance of gun safety and that pointing a weapon at anyone is a serious thing, that you should only do it in self-defense, and only in the most dire of circumstances. Maya also happens to binge The Walking Dead on Netflix at some point and immediately starts demanding she and Lucas make a zombie apocalypse escape plan. 8. Who is the better dancer? Lucas surprises Maya by being an incredible dancer (his mother insisted every gentleman in the world should know how to dance). Maya is a great dancer as well, but sometimes misses a step, in which case Lucas picks her up and swings her through the air with ease until she can get back to the right rhythm. This happens frequently enough that it becomes second nature to them and everyone is in awe at how in-sync they are on the dance floor. The two don’t notice this because whenever they dance together they become completely lost in each other. 9. Do/Did they have a theme wedding? Their wedding was a summer wedding set outdoors in Texas. The aisle was made up by a canopy of trees strung with string lights to represent city lights for Maya’s urban background. The food was Texas barbecue (what else would it be?), with a towering beautiful wedding cake decorated with stars Maya designed herself. Maya picked the band, but Lucas snuck in a special request for a square dance towards the end. Their first slow dance as a married couple is to “Unsteady” by X-Ambassadors. 10. What do their parents think of them dating? Lucas’s mother loves Maya like her own daughter and is thrilled the two are dating. Maya only meets Lucas’s father once while they’re dating (at her insistence). The three of them attend dinner where Maya and Lucas’s father get along fine, but Lucas becomes more and more irritated with his father because he notices small things that Mr. Friar does that reminds him of how poor a father he was (being disrespectful, selfish, and drinking a little too much, etc.). Maya calms Lucas however, telling him he’s not so bad and it’s just one dinner. When Maya leaves to use the restroom, Mr. Friar looks at Lucas soberly and asks him if she’s the one. Shocked at his father for asking a question that actually matters to him, Lucas levels with him and says he believes she is. Mr. Friar watches Lucas from across the table for a beat before nodding and answering, “Good. Be a better husband and father than your old man, son.” He points his fork in the direction she had walked away. “That girl deserves you at your best. Do not fail her.” Lucas gulps and says, “Yes, sir.” Mr. Friar attends their wedding and he and Lucas reconnect. Through the festivities he reminds Lucas of what he said at dinner that night. Lucas tells him he hasn’t forgotten and then looks over to see his wife (his wife! he reminds himself) smiling and dancing with Mr. Matthews before turning back to his father and says, “She keeps me tethered, dad. I could never do anything to hurt her. She’s my gravity.” Mr. Friar just nods and claps his son on the shoulder before walking over to ask his new daughter-in-law for a dance. Katy loves Lucas to death and has known they were soulmates since the Muffin Project in 7th grade. Shawn on the other hand is naturally wary of Lucas. He is especially unhappy when he learns about Lucas’s past from Cory. Shawn decides to “test” Lucas by trying to push his buttons and make him angry. It starts innocently enough, but Shawn gets carried away and fake “bans” the two from seeing each other (outside of an environment of control such as school of course). Lucas doesn’t want to violate Shawn’s wishes (and is also afraid he might get angry if he pushes it) so Maya has to convince him to sneak around behind Shawn’s back. Shawn finds out and (still pretending) gets angry at Lucas. Lucas’s temper flares and yells at Shawn. It’s a long monologue about all the different ways he cares for Maya, how he would never do anything to hurt her, and in fact ends with him exclaiming that he’s in love with her. Maya overhears the exchange and walks in, looking at Lucas shocked because it’s the first time he’s said those words, and asks if he really means it. Lucas immediately stops glaring at Shawn, and trying to control his breathing and temper, turns to Maya and tells her that of course he meant it. He’ll always mean it. Maya runs to Lucas and embraces him, which soothes Lucas’s anger immediately. Shawn grins and says “okay.” Lucas is shocked. “Okay?” He asks incredulously. “Yeah, of course,” says Shawn. “Not only did you try to control your temper towards me without Maya here, she clearly has the ability to keep you in check when she is. And you love her. You’d never hurt her. You’re good for each other. You said so yourself. What more could I want?” From that point on Shawn could not be happier for the couple. In fact, Lucas begins to consider him as a mixture of older brother and father and they become very close for years to come. When Lucas meets Kermit Maya is afraid he’ll lose control. She has never seen him this angry before. He wasn’t this angry when Riley and Farkle were being bullied, nor the time Zay was up against the lockers in 8th grade, and he definitely wasn’t this angry when she saved Farkle at Mount Sun Lodge freshman year. Those times he was a mixture of angry and worried. Those times he was just showing his protective side. But this… this Lucas was one hundred percent angry. This Lucas was scary. Lucas and Maya were sitting alone at Topanga’s when it happened. Maya had turned on her perch on Lucas’s lap to see her biological father standing in the doorway and she instantly froze, and Lucas noticed. Lucas turned to see the man himself, then locked eyes on his girlfriend to see her jaw locked and her eyes fixed on the stranger. Lucas knew that look. It was the same look he always got when he would see his own father for the first time in a long time. Understanding the situation, Lucas starts to get up but Maya stops him with a touch to his shoulder. “Lucas, don’t,” she said. “Do you want him here?” Lucas asks seriously searching her eyes. “Well, no…” She responds biting her lip. “Then I’m doing this,” he says getting up, eyes steely and fists clenched. Maya warily watched the exchange from the love seat they had been occupying. Kermit looks him up and down warily. “Who are you?” He asks stupidly. “Maya isn’t here,” Lucas gets out through grit teeth. “She’s right there. I can see her. Look, I don’t know who you are, but you have no right to keep me from my own daughter.” Kermit moves to walk past him, but Lucas stops him with a hand to his shoulder. “She’s not,” he states plainly. “Excuse me?” Kermit exclaims. “She’s not your daughter. Shawn is her father now. He’s a hundred times the man you are, and a million times the father.” Kermit’s face reddens. “Now get out. Maya isn’t here.” “Now, listen here…” He starts. “No, you listen! What right do you have to be here?! Maya is happy! She had to fight every day for ten years to get there, but she’s happy! I’ll be damned if I let you do anything to jeopardize that.” Lucas is breathing hard now, trying to stay in control. Kermit scoffs, “you mean with you?” He tries to move past Lucas again, and Maya swears she can see the muscles ripple under Lucas’s t-shirt before he’s grabbing a hold of Kermit’s wrist, locking it to the small of his back. Lucas kicks the back of his knee, and pins the man to the floor face-first. ”Yes, with me. And not just me. With her friends and family too. The Matthews, Katy, and Shawn… we’re all here for her. Unlike you, you piece of shit.” Lucas growls into his ear. “You know, it’s funny… the worst monsters aren’t the ones that reveal who they are on the outside. It’s the ones like you that hide it right underneath the surface. This is the last time you ever come in here pretending to be her father, do you understand me?” And to prove his point, Lucas twisted. Kermit cried out in pain. “LUCAS!” Maya is next to him in an instant. She takes a deep breath and puts a calming hand on his shoulder. “Lucas, don’t. He was just leaving. Weren’t you?” She asks with a pointed look at the reddening face of the man that used to be her father. He nods jerkily. He feels as though his arm is going to pop out of its socket from the pressure Lucas is applying through the hold he has on him. Lucas looks at Maya’s pleading face and lets go of Kermit, who gets up from the floor, and with one last look at the both of them, takes off through the open door. Maya turns Lucas towards her, caressing his face in her hands. He won’t look at her. “Lucas, look at me.” He shakes his head. “I said look at me.” Lucas meets her eyes and his breathing starts to slow. “That’s it, just breathe. It’s okay. I’m right here.” “How is it that you’re comforting me right now?” Lucas softly chuckles. Maya just smiles at him. “Because… all that matters to me right now is that we’re here together. He doesn’t matter. What you said was true. I’m happy. And I achieved that without him. I don’t need him. Who I need is standing right here in front of me. I love you, Lucas.” Then Maya kissed him and poured every ounce of love she felt for him into it. Okay, so I got a little carried away with that last one in particular, but I couldn’t help myself! The scene writes itself, I swear. Hope you enjoyed this! Next up… Chapter 2

#lucaya #lucas x maya #maya x lucas #lucas and maya #maya and lucas #otp questions #otp questions part 1 #otp: campfires and a million stars in a faraway place

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epchapman89 · 7 years

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Tim Wendelboe Talks Noma Mexico, La Marzocco Cafe Residency

Think you’ve got a pretty busy life? Try talking to Tim Wendelboe. The 2003 World Barista Champion and entrepreneur is redefining busy here in 2017. To wit, right now he’s overseeing a cafe update to the eponymous coffee brand he manages in Oslo, helping move the roasting operations of that brand into a brand new roasting facility, and regularly traveling back and forth to Colombia to work on the farm he purchased there in 2015, Finca El Suelo.

And he’s preparing for his coffee to be served at Noma Mexico. And he’s the next roaster in residency at the La Marzocco Cafe in Seattle, launching tomorrow.

“Everything is happening all at once,” he tells me, with a certain winking understatement. Just one of the above projects would be enough to fell most mortals, but some live for the chaos—or at the very least can make the most of it.

At Noma Mexico, Wendelboe’s coffee—100% sourced from Chiapas—will be part of chef Rene Redzepi & Co’ s multi-course tasting menu of traditional Mexican ingredients and natural wines from around the world, served in an outdoor restaurant setting described as “nestled between the jungle and the Caribbean Sea.” Tickets were priced at $600 USD and sold out in just three and a half hours.

Meanwhile at Wendelboe’s upcoming La Marzocco Cafe residency, the roaster’s Oslo cafe menu has been painstakingly recreated, right down to the cups—yes, they’re shipping ceramics over from Oslo. That means delicately roasted Scandinavian-style coffees, including offerings from revered producers like Elias Roa and Marysabel Caballero. Fussy Seattle coffee drinkers—your Niles Crane types—take note: As in their Oslo cafe, there will be no soy on offer during Wendelboe’s takeover. Allergic to milk? Drink your coffee black.

Somehow, somewhere in the middle of it all, Wendelboe spoke with Sprudge co-founder Jordan Michelman about these projects and more. They spoke digitally from Oslo, Norway and Portland, Oregon.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Hey Tim, and thanks for taking a moment to speak with Sprudge. Tell us more about your plans for residency at La Marzocco Cafe in Seattle. Who will be overseeing the program?

Stephanie Holm is there to train them—she’s there implementing the project, and she’s our bar manager and store manager here in Oslo. She’s been with the company for six years.

When did plans first get put in motion for this residency with the LM Cafe team?

We started talking about it with La Marzocco before they even opened—that was last year. But I can be slow at answering emails at times, and so we really finalized the schedule in August of last year.

Stephanie Holm will be overseeing the residency, but will you be able to see it for yourself?

Unfortunately, no. We’re moving the roaster out of my store right now into a new space, and things just don’t happen if I’m not here. I also have to focus more on my farm in Colombia—I’ll be there during our residency period, and we’re also doing Noma in Mexico during this time so I might have to go back there as well. Everything is happening all at once.

I have many Noma questions but first let me ask—what’s up with the new roasting space?

Andreas Hertzberg, who used to work for Solberg & Hansen, he’s now the CEO of Nordic Approach, and he bought a building in east Oslo that’s 10 minutes away from our store. In the first floor will be our new roastery, in the second floor our offices, and then in the third and fourth Nordic Approach will have their offices. It will be like a joint coffee building for Oslo.

Will there be a cafe onsite?

No, we’re just going to produce there. We’re taking out the roaster from our cafe and putting in new seats.

For this residency in Seattle, are you trying to recreate the Tim Wendelboe Oslo cafe experience in Seattle?

Their cafe is very different compared to ours—it’s huge, and that makes it difficult to replicate the atmosphere. But for drinks, we’re trying to do the drinks just as we do in Oslo. We’ll do an Aeropress black coffee menu with four different coffees. We’ll also offer an Aeropress taste flight—ideally it is for two people to purchase it and share, and they can taste it with some guidance from one of the baristas. We actually sent over the same cups we use for black coffee as we use in our cafe. And then for milk drinks, they’ll be made the same way as we do in Oslo, where the biggest size is just an 8oz latte. I hope it will be well received. We try and make the coffees taste more like coffee so you have to add less milk.

How do you prepare the team in Seattle for that conversation?

Well, that’s why Stephanie is there now, to really talk with the baristas and train them on how we talk about coffees to our guests. We aren’t going to serve an Americano because that’s not the best way to represent our coffee—we feel it’s better to serve an Aeropress. It’s a matter of trying to convince the customer why we do something our way. It’s about explaining it and saying, “This week it’s a little different, so perhaps try this” — and then we recommend something that’s similar to an Americano.

Also, Stephanie was tasting the milk alternatives, and we decided to just go with organic whole milk.

So there will be no milk alternatives offered?

No, unfortunately not. The reasoning is we’re trying to focus on the coffee flavor, so something like sweetened soy milk, it kind of disappears. We’d suggest our guests would try black coffee instead, and if a guest wants something sweet to drink, our roast style enhances sweet and is quite light, so it’s more approachable to taste.

I would love to be a fly on the wall that first day.

I would too! Let’s hope that it goes well. We haven’t had any problems in Norway…

Well, Seattle is not Oslo.

I know that. We don’t have a big vegan scene here in Oslo, and we don’t really have a big soy milk scene, except perhaps on the west side of Oslo where people think things like milk and soy are the worst things you can put in your body. I would argue instead that genetically modified soy milk might not be the best thing you can consume.

Which coffees will you be serving in Seattle?

We’ll have fresh crop from Finca Tamana in Colombia, as well as a Sidamo that’s still tasting great, and we might have some Kenyan coffee—we’re running out—but there’s some coffee from Nacimiento in Honduras that we won Nordic Roaster Forum with, and also some Java variety coffee from the Caballeros. It’s a one-month residency so we might change some coffees out.

Tim Wendelboe with Elias Roa (left) at Finca Tamana.

How long does it take to ship roasted coffee from Oslo to Seattle?

4 days. But last week our coffee was stopped by the FDA, and I had to spend a week reasoning with them, but it was just released today. That’s what they’ll use for the first week, then we’ll ship every second week fresh coffee. We nitrogen flush so it’s not an issue with freshness. It actually benefits from not being so fresh.

Will retail bags of this coffee be available for sale at the cafe?

Yes, and we’re participating in the newly launched Espresso Subscription through La Marzocco Home as well.

Which coffees will be served as espresso?

We’ll do two different ones—Tamana espresso from Colombia, designed for milk drinks, with a sweet and heavy body, and then Hunkute from Sidamo, which is quite bright and floral and fruity. Those aren’t in demitasse but in cups that we prefer to drink from.

So really this residency is about coming over, and doing what you do in Oslo for a month in Seattle.

That’s what we’re trying to do, yes, and that’s what (LM Cafe director) Amy Hattemer wanted us to do as well—to be as similar as possible to what we do in Oslo.

Wendelboe’s cafe in Oslo.

Let’s shift gears—you were just in Mexico helping set up the Noma coffee service there, yes?

Yes, I was there 3 full days, plus more in Chiapas.

What coffees will be served at Noma Mexico?

We’re working with Jesús Salazar in Chiapas. We got a lot of samples sent, to try and find the best green coffee for Noma that I know they would be happy with. I cupped them here in Norway and didn’t know any of the people, and had contacted a lot of different people in Mexico to try, but the coffees from Jesús really stood out, and I wanted to work with him.

I visited him in Chiapas just a week ago, and we cupped through 30 different samples representing one bag lots each, and I selected the ones we needed for Noma. I tried a lot of great coffees—I found more great coffees than I needed—and then spent the rest of my time working on roast profiles so we could create the consistency Noma needs.

So all the coffee for Noma Mexico will be roasted there, and not in Oslo?

Yes, everything is done locally. It makes more sense in terms of local stability.

Who manages the roasting in Mexico?

Jesus’ partner, Claudia Pedraza Salazar. We worked together during my visit, roasting all night actually, and I worked with her to help develop some roast logs, based on tasting the coffees the day after. The roaster they had was pretty easy to adjust so I think they’ll be able to follow the logs quite well, and that’s the idea. I will continuously be having the dialogue with Noma as well as with Jesús and Claudia, so I can stay involved from afar.

What will drinks service look like at Noma Mexico?

Several different drinks will be served, including a warm filter coffee—that one might not be very popular because it is very hot there, and the restaurant is literally on the beach.

Well, I want to drink a hot coffee on the beach.

Oh really? Well, we are also making drinks with ice, using hot coffees that we cool down before adding syrups. I’m not sure if I should be telling you any of this, but there’s one drink we’re making that’s very refreshing, made with sour orange, honey, and a filter coffee that’s cooled down, served in a glass.

Almost cocktail style?

Yeah. And then, of course, we’re doing espresso with a different Mexican coffee, one that’s tasting like ripe berries, really really nice. That’ll be served on its own, plus there will be a cold version that I really can’t talk about yet, but it tastes so good. There will be 4 drinks total.

What kind of gear will Noma Mexico have for coffee?

A La Marzocco Volcano grinder and Linea PB 2-group espresso machine. We’re serving for 140 people a day plus the staff, and those chefs drink a lot of espresso, and they need a big machine. For filter, we’re using Hario V60 to brew on.

I’m curious—since you’re working only with coffees from Mexico, will sommelier Mads Kleppe use only Mexican natural wines, like Bichi Wines?

[Laughs] No, but a big part of the menu will be. He’s been working with some producers there for natural wines—I tasted a few, and some of it is really good, but it won’t be an 100% Mexican wine list. Some will come from France and so on, and hopefully they will arrive in time—they’ve had some trouble with customs.

Will you head back to Mexico to oversee the coffee program’s launch?

They really want me to go eat there. They’re kind of insisting actually. I really don’t have time for it but we’ll see, and also if they need some help for coffee. We’ll see, but I’m kind of hoping they don’t.

Well I know the whole thing will be a dogpile of thirsty American journalists, but if you need someone who knows coffee to come check it out, I’d love to join you.

[Laughs] Yeah, okay. I worked with Mads on the program and they’re well-trained, so I’m confident it’ll be good. It’ll be really great and I’m happy with it. I have to say—I didn’t expect to find some great coffees in Mexico. Every Mexican coffee I’ve tasted in the past has been average in quality, but the coffees I found for this project were very good.

Perhaps like in Brazil, Mexico’s coffee reputation could be changing. Might this become a regular thing, for Tim Wendelboe to begin offering Mexican coffees?

I’m planning to get some bags sent to Norway so I can present some of our Noma coffees, and I will be sending them to 108 in Copenhagen. The volumes are very small but, in the future, hopefully it’s something we can improve on.

What do you think has changed in Mexico, to help start overcoming the stigma around Mexican coffee quality?

The biggest thing is simple, which is that people like Jesús Salazar are working to improve quality. Normally it just takes a couple of people to start working on it, just a couple of producers are needed to improve quality and show what is possible to their neighbors. That’s it—the coffees has probably always been there, and the ones we’ve bought are old varieties bought by long-held farms, so it’s just a matter of starting to work towards better quality. Jesús is doing that small scale for his own coffee shops, but the coffee scene in Mexico is very collaborative and working together to create something better.

Anything else you’d like to share?

No, I should be going. I’m going on a date with my wife tonight; we haven’t seen each other in a month.

Have a lovely time and thank you.

Tim Wendelboe’s residency at La Marzocco Cafe begins Tuesday, March 21st and concludes May 1st. La Marzocco Cafe is located at 472 1st Ave N in Seattle, WA with hours daily. Visit their official website for hours and more information.

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network, and a contributor at Willamette Week. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

Images courtesy of Tim Wendelboe.

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