flyingthud

After just watching far too much crap tv and enjoying every second of it (Speed), I’m about to go asleep on this my 25th Christmas. I had a great day spent with family and friends and hope you all did too. To relate this post to coffee I can only offer some measly feedback on the new Bodum Kona that I bought for my brother. I tried a coarse brew at 60g per litre and it was a little sharp so after a quick text to James in Norway, I coarsed that bad boy up and brewed again- (the body boy in this case being a sumatra that Ariosa are currently carrying). The result was really quite nice; rounder, nuanced enough for an indo and certainly seemed to strike favour with my sister, but thats only because years of living in robusta heavy Barcelona has led her down a path that favours that bit of ‘earth’ in the cup. If I find time, in the morning I’ll try brew it side by side with a chemex and see how it does, though I did notice today that it wasn’t as clean as my chemex brews of late.

Moving away from coffee, should you be interested, here is some of the music I will be now listening to over Christmas;

The new Bonnie Prince Billy - Ask Forgiveness (theres a great cover of the Thom Yorke and Bjork track from the Dancer in the Dark soundtrack)

Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert (which I already had on vinyl but never on cd and can tell you already its lovely)

Menomena - Friend and Foe ( I’ve no idea who these guys are other than my sister recommends them and the artwork on the cover is apparently re-created on stage)

Martin Simpson- Prodigal Son (lovely guitar playing and a nice cover of Louisiana by Randy Newman)

Caribou- Andorra (have had this for a while but its great and will no doubt get play time)

Other gifts included The Trial of Colonel Sweeto by Nicholas Gurewitch from my brother which is some of the funniest and prettiest sketches I’ve ever seen. See example below;

I can now also boast all three Seasons of Arrested Development, (thanks to Nick Brown of Manic for first getting me into it) as well as some nice clothing from my favourite company Angry. In addition to this I had numerous kind donations of dollars for my upcoming trip to NY. Does anyone know if the Christmas Intelligentsia cups can be bought in Manhattan? I need a few, as well as super fresh coffee to bring home, especially Counter Culture, Novo, Intelly and anything else those of you in the know might like. Any tips would be greatly welcomed.

Will try post results of any brew tests, even if all I ultimately say is ‘bodum kona good’ or ‘chemex reigns still’.

Happy Christmas all and enjoy my day tomorrow.

I’m sitting at the worst terminal of Dublin airport, A. Surrounded by horrible, smelly, rich, poor, sick, Irish, not Irish, ugly, and orange people, I’m still tasting the fierce bitter cappuccino I had from one of the coffee shops here. Its 8.45 am and I’m waiting to board the 45 minute flight to Edinburgh and even though I have an emergency seat I can’t get out of my scrooge like mood.

I keep thinking of presents I have to get and loose ends I need to tie up before the 25th, with the subsequent stress making me resent everyone. The reason for the trip is to do some training and install a machine in a cafe. It is nice to be working again as thinsg have been somewhat quiet for me recently. On the 22nd and 23rd I’ll be helping out in a small cafe/deli called Seasons in my hometown working bar. While I’m glad of the work,  I’m stressing about not getting all the small things done in the time between. I’m worried I won’t have time to pop into the market in Meeting House Square in Dublin on Saturday morning. Its probably the only place in town I’ll go to stock up on coffee from probably the best roaster in Ireland,Michael Kelly of Ariosa. Unfortunately he only sells his beans at that market once a week so if you miss him and need supplies, you have to resort to whatever else is lying around or available in the local supermarket which as we all know is shitty to say the least. (please blame profanities on current mood)

I don’t like attacking other coffee suppliers or other methods of brewing as I tend to consider specialty coffee, or at least my understanding of it as an old together different product. But I don’t think I’m being remiss in describing much of whats available in supermarkets and labeled as specialty coffee as pretty rough, at least in Ireland that is.  I do make an effort to keep in touch with whats available though. I recently did a cupping with friends Jackie and Julie, looking at some of the offerings available both at home and abroad. On a side note,  we also did a palate exercise evaluating various types of citrus. Its fascinating to see the variance between the sweetness of a clementine and the sharpness of a lemon although we did take into account how the sweetness and acidity levels can vary wildly with fruit itself.

Anyway, ee decided to throw Starbucks Christmas blend into the flight. Just to say it again, I have very little against Starbucks and welcomed their arrival into Ireland a few years ago. I think they bring a new benchmark of quality into a market whose interpretation of quality coffee varies far too wildly for my liking.

Also on the table were four coffees from Ariosa, including his take on the Gethumbwini, as well as Novo’s lovely worka which Jackie had picked up in Grumpy Cafe on her recent trip to NY. The Worka won us all over from the break, and sadly the Starbucks was easy to spot and hard to forget for the wrong reasons. Its annoying when you’re doing a comparative cupping and one can tell the coffees from just looking at the grounds.

The reason I talk about this is that some Ireland really does have a way to go in delivering the best coffees the world has to offer. So far as I know, my only options are Ariosa in the market each Saturday or else ordering online from Steve of Hasbean. Speaking of which, I’ve been really enjoying his roast of Toca da Onca, a Brazilian coffee where the farm happens to be owned by Stephen Hurst of Mercanta. Its a really unusual cup for me that seems to vary quite a lot as it ages, although I suspect my lack of consistency in my chemex brewing may have a part to play.

Ok, flights being called. If there are spelling mistakes, and I’m sure they are, (I’ll never forget Doug Z chastising me over my poor spelling), I’ll go back and edit the post tonight. Hopefully Edinburgh will have some tasty coffee and shops to facilitate all my christmas needs. I’m particularly looking forward to lunch in Urban Angel, still the best breakfast I ever had.

All for now.

I will soon be working in a new cafe. But before we open the doors, I’ve been spending a lot of time wondering how to get people through them. Quality on every level is a given, and good press is always helpful, but when it comes to pleasing the masses, how does one stand out if your competition is brewing and pouring just as well as you. Put another way, how many shops serve lattes so individual and distinctive in taste, you could pick them out blind. This question is particularly tough for me as I normally don’t drink lattes, but still, I’d like to think its possible to offer a latte that ticked all the boxes in what people want, but offered something else others didn’t.

Oddly, one of my most recent ‘lovely coffee moments’ was a latte prepared in the newly opened Manic Coffee in Toronto. Its worth pointing out I suppose, that at the time I was cradling a very delicate stomach and sore head as a result of much drink the night before, all of which I’ve no doubt helped sensationalise the nursing qualities of the coffee. That said though, I do remember certain details of why I liked it so much; the temperature, more in the tepid cappuccino arena than what is often interpreted to be a latte temp, something considerably hotter. The other detail I appreciated in the cup was the balance. Built with a double shot of Intelligentsia’s Black Cat, and combined with the pleasant lower temp, the drink was sweet, smooth, full of flavour, and managed to articulate a lovely pointed chocolate taste through the milk.

Obviously the comparisons to hot chocolates have popped up in many blog or flickr gushs referring either to macchiatos, cappuccinos, or quite often lattes too. But, I have had lattes before that were brewed well,with tepid milk and quite possibly loved by a hungover self, none of which stood out like the above mentioned Manic experience. Its made me think that I need to start tasting more lattes, and not stopping there, but tasting mochas, vanilla lattes and whatever else seems to top sales in cafes. While I’m comfortable our coffee will be delicious and approachable, I would like our bigger drinks to have something distinct other than pretty latte art to develop a customer base. I probably prefer Kid O, Intelligentisa’s Organic espresso as a straight shot, but when it comes to milk, I think a Black Cat latte is a very very tasty drink and reckon I might be able to pick it out blind.