those of you who follow my blog regularly or know me personally, know, that without a doubt i’m positively enamoured with espresso. call it an addiction but that’s such an ugly connotation, i choose to call it love. i may love it, but until yesterday, i avoided making it myself. my husband happens to have some pretty fancy barista skills so i do get my fix daily, and by daily i do mean a couple of times per day, however, he does have to go to work. this leaves me cappuccino crippled when he’s not home…not any longer. yesterday i joined a fine group of espresso lovers like myself, at the E61 espresso bar inside liberty market, for some in-depth instruction on the in’s and out’s of espresso making.

this vintage beauty is an absolute work of art in and of itself.

a lot of instruction went into which types of beans and roasts of coffee make the best espresso, with plenty of taste-testing so that we could experience the differences for ourselves.

i’m a pretty serious note-taker. my hand-outs came home thoroughly marked up with random comments and thoughts on the lesson.

we sat, quite studiously, hanging on to every word of espresso insight our professor…

…the espresso extraordinaire himself, joe johnston, imparted upon us.

joe is no doubt, a walking encyclopedia on all things coffee. he has so much great information to share.

the beautiful machine in action.

liberty market is a gorgeous restaurant with no detail left ignored. the edison bulbs are a perfect touch.

at the end of the class we each got to go behind the counter and try our hand at pulling our own shots.

the graduating class…i’m there on the very end.

i had a great time and can’t wait for espresso 102, where we’ll learn how to make specific espresso drinks. thanks so much to joe, teresa the head barista (pictured in the red Liberty Market shirt), and Liberty Market for a great time.