I changed my grading option to P/F at the part about the sirens
Statement of Purpose
I am a student at University of California Santa Barbara. I am majoring in Linguistics, specializing in Chinese and German, with a History minor focusing mainly on the period between the Medieval and Renaissance periods. My specialties include leadership, culinary arts, and the coffee and tea industry. I am certified to operate pressurized espresso systems at Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
Coffee to some is but a quick jolt to begin the day, or a substance alleged to exist in Starbucks Frappuccinos. Coffee is my passion. In today’s society the coffee and tea industry has exploded, expanding worldwide, populating single streets with clones, and making extravagant promises about one’s social life and self esteem; but where is its soul. All too often has a man approached my counter to pay for not the straightforward honesty of a cup of coffee, but an immense ice-blended, extra-caramel-drizzled, extra-whipped-cream-topped (a dome lid defines the boundary between the rest of the world and a limited space; how is the man’s desire possible?), dessert-esque monstrosity, not a beverage for mortal man so much as his Icarian attempt to touch the face of God. All but dead is the tradition of copious amounts of research of bean alkalinity by region resulting in choice raw beans roasted to personal preference in a fine sweet Zach & Dani’s coffee roaster, the proceeding taming-by-combination of the mighty forces of anarchy by pulverizing the creation and heating molecules of water until they become vapor, to result in a perfect cup of coffee; nay, a work of art. Where is this artist today? He hides, shamefully, in his apartment, roasting green coffee beans he has purchased on the street in his air popcorn-popper. A single tear falls from his eye and courses down his grounds-encrusted cheek. It becomes mud. In this world of pre-ground, pre-charred, vacuum-sealed, Frappuccino-freebase, the people are in need of this modern-day alchemy all the more. I believe in coffee as the drink of the people. I believe in an affordable cup of sincere, artfully crafted brown gold. I endorse the old school of coffee brewery.
In my formative coffee-drinking years I took a job at the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I was quickly schooled in the moderately comprehensive trade of coffee barista. I approved of the company’s predominant use of natural and naturally brewed or decaffeinated ingredients. Its whole leaf teas contained whole flowers and cardamom pods, its ice-blended drinks contained authentic coffee extract in the Costa Rican tradition, its coffees were diverse as a United Nations after-party and as accessible as a local street fair. I loved this job dearly, and drank deep of its offered wisdom and bountiful employee benefits for a year and a half, at which point commitments at school during my eighteenth year ripped me away. Post-graduation, however, my old position had been filled and I sought a similar job, ultimately resulting in my work at a Starbucks in the higher-class portion of my hometown. Here I was exposed to this aforementioned “new man”, the man who turns his face from the craft of coffee and is seduced by the wily sirens by the names of Flavored Syrup, High-Cholesterol Frappuccino Base, Caramel Drizzle. The New Man partook of these hundreds of times a day at this Starbucks alone, and I was disheartened, often recommending people to the authentic locally-centered coffee shop in the same shopping center who roasted their own beans. Fortuitously, I quit this job and left for University before I could be penalized for my actions. Since that day I have sought positions at local coffee shops somewhat half-heartedly, preferring to converse and chain-smoke with the employees, gaining information about the coffee world at my own pace and for my own benefit, until recently.
In recent weeks I have realized that my true calling is the world of coffee once more. At this time during the year, many a coffee-peddler offers potential employees a position, and my experience and burning passion for the trade compel me forward to accept one of these. My goal is to bring coffee in its purest form back to the people of this wasteland, and, in doing so, perhaps ultimately bring the smile back to the eye of the tear-streaked man in the basement.
I am a student at University of California Santa Barbara. I am majoring in Linguistics, specializing in Chinese and German, with a History minor focusing mainly on the period between the Medieval and Renaissance periods. My specialties include leadership, culinary arts, and the coffee and tea industry. I am certified to operate pressurized espresso systems at Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
Coffee to some is but a quick jolt to begin the day, or a substance alleged to exist in Starbucks Frappuccinos. Coffee is my passion. In today’s society the coffee and tea industry has exploded, expanding worldwide, populating single streets with clones, and making extravagant promises about one’s social life and self esteem; but where is its soul. All too often has a man approached my counter to pay for not the straightforward honesty of a cup of coffee, but an immense ice-blended, extra-caramel-drizzled, extra-whipped-cream-topped (a dome lid defines the boundary between the rest of the world and a limited space; how is the man’s desire possible?), dessert-esque monstrosity, not a beverage for mortal man so much as his Icarian attempt to touch the face of God. All but dead is the tradition of copious amounts of research of bean alkalinity by region resulting in choice raw beans roasted to personal preference in a fine sweet Zach & Dani’s coffee roaster, the proceeding taming-by-combination of the mighty forces of anarchy by pulverizing the creation and heating molecules of water until they become vapor, to result in a perfect cup of coffee; nay, a work of art. Where is this artist today? He hides, shamefully, in his apartment, roasting green coffee beans he has purchased on the street in his air popcorn-popper. A single tear falls from his eye and courses down his grounds-encrusted cheek. It becomes mud. In this world of pre-ground, pre-charred, vacuum-sealed, Frappuccino-freebase, the people are in need of this modern-day alchemy all the more. I believe in coffee as the drink of the people. I believe in an affordable cup of sincere, artfully crafted brown gold. I endorse the old school of coffee brewery.
In my formative coffee-drinking years I took a job at the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I was quickly schooled in the moderately comprehensive trade of coffee barista. I approved of the company’s predominant use of natural and naturally brewed or decaffeinated ingredients. Its whole leaf teas contained whole flowers and cardamom pods, its ice-blended drinks contained authentic coffee extract in the Costa Rican tradition, its coffees were diverse as a United Nations after-party and as accessible as a local street fair. I loved this job dearly, and drank deep of its offered wisdom and bountiful employee benefits for a year and a half, at which point commitments at school during my eighteenth year ripped me away. Post-graduation, however, my old position had been filled and I sought a similar job, ultimately resulting in my work at a Starbucks in the higher-class portion of my hometown. Here I was exposed to this aforementioned “new man”, the man who turns his face from the craft of coffee and is seduced by the wily sirens by the names of Flavored Syrup, High-Cholesterol Frappuccino Base, Caramel Drizzle. The New Man partook of these hundreds of times a day at this Starbucks alone, and I was disheartened, often recommending people to the authentic locally-centered coffee shop in the same shopping center who roasted their own beans. Fortuitously, I quit this job and left for University before I could be penalized for my actions. Since that day I have sought positions at local coffee shops somewhat half-heartedly, preferring to converse and chain-smoke with the employees, gaining information about the coffee world at my own pace and for my own benefit, until recently.
In recent weeks I have realized that my true calling is the world of coffee once more. At this time during the year, many a coffee-peddler offers potential employees a position, and my experience and burning passion for the trade compel me forward to accept one of these. My goal is to bring coffee in its purest form back to the people of this wasteland, and, in doing so, perhaps ultimately bring the smile back to the eye of the tear-streaked man in the basement.