Archive for the ‘Coffee News’ Category
Endless War
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Unknown location and date.
He walked in and asked for a drink. He really didn’t care what he had as long as it did the job.
The bartender does this, that and the other and fires a shot glass down the bar. “Quad-ristretto! If that doesn’t do the job, then, well, I don’t know what will…”
A few seconds to cool, sip, sip, and finish. Overwhelming intensity. Sweet golden syrup body finishing with emulsified fruit extracts clinging to the back of his tongue. “I think that will do it, I hope.”
Today is the day of the final battle. That big push to end the Endless War. The tyrant will fall and peace shall be restored to these lands. One can dream.
“One more before I go Tanis, I’ll need to keep my senses keen this day”
*psssssssssssssssssssssssssssst, thunk, ccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, thunk, thunk.*
*clinck, clinck*
“Take care of yourself out there Ummon, this ones on me and our people.”
I can feel it warming up my heart, I can feel the vigor rising and my mind turning. Today I will be a Champion for the living, a rogue to the dead.
Daggers sheathed, hood wrapped tight, I disappear into the morning shadows.
My infrequent updates have led to frequent questions. Maybe not.
To say things have been quiet on the coffee side is very untrue. Work has just been so busy the past few weeks that I havn’t really had much time to play with anything. Sure I’ve tried a few new coffees, but I havn’t been able to really test them out.
I love to play with temperature and pressure, pre and post infusion, dose and grind. These are just variables that I can’t play with when the cafe is bustling. I need to build a coffee lab to play in.
We’re getting our 3 group head Synesso installed today and our patio will also be opening very soon, so it’s going to get even busier at Crema.
The organic espresso was really bad at the end of last week. A really watery body with barely any flavour, I wasn’t impressed at all and had to switched to the Epic for the weekend. I hope this doen’t happen again with this current roast date.
I’m not sure what my favourite 49h coffee is at the moment, I don’t think I have one. I’m still leaning towards the Ethiopia Kaharian on french press, but it doesn’t seem to hold up so well on the Clover and is a bit to acidic for a straight espresso, though it does make an interesting cappuccino. I’m a fan of the Sammy Piccolo WBC espresso blend, but it’s pretty expensive and I can’t play with it too much.
We’ll have to see what coffees come in over the next few weeks, I’m assuming we’re going to go through a change in seasonal beans soon.
At home we have Intelli’s “Bolivia Anjilanaka, bourbon, caturra, typica grown at 1700-1900m. Smooth and silky on the tongue, with notes of green grapes and figs. The finish is long and lingering with notes of cocoa and cane sugar.” I’ll open it today and see what I make of it on my siphon. Tastes good on a press and the Clover.
Matt, fairly random poster.
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Espresso Fun
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
I remembered to play with my cameras today and thought I’d post some shots of my espresso pours and some latte art.
So the shots are being pulled on a Synesso Cyncra, using synesso baskets in naked portafilters. I’m using 49th Parallels Organic Espresso and grinding on the monster Anfims.
The video was pulled into a 2oz shot glass and the pics into the 2.5oz cups.
Total extraction time is 30 seconds, which includes a 5 second pre-infusion.
Matt
Tags: espresso, extraction, synesso
Posted in Coffee News, Photography, Work Related | 1 Comment »
Tanzania Karmaro Microlot
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Tanzania Karmaro Microlot from 49th Parallel.
- Region: Mbeya
- Varietal: Peaberry
- Process: Washed and Sundried
- Grade: Special Category 100
- Altitude: 1400-1700 meters
- Harvest: April-September
- Export: September-February
Introduced by mulled cider and rhubarb, with citrus and fruit to brighten the cup. This complex and juicy offering is very sweet with an equally clean finish.
I’m not sure why I’m getting so much glare when shooting macro lately… Bah!
I’m loving this coffee and I know that I haven’t tasted it at it’s best yet. Still need to play with brewing times and temperatures. Been fantastic on both the Clover and Siphon, though I preferred what I was getting from the Clover, but I did only grabbed 26grams to have a taste on the siphon at home. Today I’ll try it on aeropress, french press and maybe even as an espresso.
We also have the Tanzanian Hope from 49th to play with aswell, but I’ll stick to this one for now.
Matt
Tags: 49th parallel, peaberry, Tanzania Karmaro
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Good Morning Sunshine.
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
I woke up with the sun this morning, as I do most days, and thought to myself that this is the best morning for a long time. A crisp spring chill, one that revitalizes you and you can’t help but feel awake and alive. The sky had incredible gradient from intense burning orange through to a misty blue and continuing into deeper tones where the sun hadn’t shone yet. Mornings are my favourite time of day, usually because i have a great sense of purpose that slows dwindles as the day progresses.
But today I have lots of work to do and I plan on getting as much done as possible. Processing photos this morning, house chores before noon and then I have work at Crema this afternoon/evening.
Last week I did some photography work at a music video shoot. It was shot at Vivace studios and was a video of the awesome Joanne Camilleri and her troop performing a sort of belly dance ritual thing.
I’m not overly happy with the results, but it was super dark for photography in there and my camera really doesn’t handle low light/high iso situations very well. Still, I think they’ll like the shots and I know that i might get the chance to go back and do some promotional shots with control over the lighting. It was fun to work alongside the videographers (Kieth and John on lighting duty) and was interesting to see how differently they saw the whole thing.
Today at Crema I’ll be working with and training the ‘new’ guy Ryan. He has experience at Balzacs here in Toronto, but he said that we do things differently, so it’s up to me to show him the ropes and get him in sync with our processes.
We’ve also had a couple bags of counter culture espresso in this week. Geoff brought back their espresso trio from his trip last week and Brian got me a bag of the Toscano from Everyman in NY. I’ve only had chance to pull a few shots, but so far I’ve enjoyed it. Quite a contrast to the tastes of 49th espressos. I’ve been doing some research and have a long list of roasters that I’d like to get coffee from over the next few months. So far this year I’ve had lots of espressos from 49th, Intelli, Square Mile, Gimmie, Counter Culture, Origins, Terroir, Klatch, Java Blend…. I think that’s all so far, but I plan on it being a much bigger list before the years end. I think the Klatch was my favorite so far, but I really enjoyed the Winter espresso from Square Mile and plan on getting more than 1lb next time so I have enough to dial in and then enjoy. I’ve inquired about getting a big shipment in from Square Mile, but it’s just to expensive to ship. Maybe I’ll just fill my suitcase with it when I go home in the future.
Matt
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Ethiopia.
Friday, March 13th, 2009
When I first read about the possible changes to the coffee exporting legislations in Ethiopia, I was expecting it to take alot more time to be brought into effect. Obviously I was wrong and it is being brought into effect as of next week.
If you’re still unaware of whats going on, let me attempt to fill you in.
The Ethiopian goverment has decided to govern all coffee distribution. All coffee from Ethiopia will now be exported by area and grade. So you might be able to buy a Ethiopian Yergacheffe Grade 1/2/3/4/5 or an Ethiopian Sidamo Grade 1/2/3/4/5, etc. There will be no more distinguishing between farms and estates. Everything will be ranked and sold by grade at auctions (I think it will be auctioned). Goodbye Beloya, Kaharian, Rakasa, Aricha, Konga Co-op, etc…
I’m still not 100% sure if you’ll be able to get information on farms/backgrounds when you buy coffee from these new auctions. Hopefully they’ll keep organic coffee’s separate and I’m actually not sure if they’re going to just blend beans together or if they’ll be sold separate once graded.
How is this going to effect the coffee farms themselves? I know the goverment is hoping to bring more money into their economy during a time of world money crisis and the US dollar is valued really high in Ethiopia at the moment.Will this benefit the farms directly?
We will have to just be patient and hope that the goverment can arrange a better process on getting coffee to us with knowledge of where it is from and information on individual estates.
Matthew
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