Wednesday, May 15, 2002


the new york times shakes my faith every day. . .

i mean, i want to believe the times is the greatest source of news. however, the errors pile up in all kinds of articles. . .computer and internet articles. . .food writing. . .and now espresso. this is odd, because as i have noted previously, times writer r.w. apple is a true connoisseur of espresso; his article last year was superb. . .

today the august restaurant critic william grimes does an article on espresso and gets major, important details wrong. however, he does manage to come to the conclusion that drove me to begin this website over a year ago. . .there's no great espresso in mall-hattan. there is semi-decent espresso sporadically available in brooklyn. for good espresso, you have to make it yourself at home.

however, grimes seems unaware of life outside mall-hattan. he does not mention any place in brooklyn at all; it appears that he is completely unaware of coffee developments here in brooklyn. while he deems the undrinkable swill at dean and deluca as acceptable, i have to say it's not worth using even as paint thinner.

let's start with grimes' discussion of crema, which he calls a khaki-colored cream. but crema this light is a sure indicator that the espresso machine is at the wrong temperature! "khaki" would indicate a sour-tasting espresso, because the machine wasn't warm enough to dissolve the natural sugars out of the coffee. if sour, mouth-puckering stuff is what grimes calls espresso, i'm weeping hot tears. . .

we all know that perfect crema is very dark reddish-brown, the color of a hazelnut with the skin on; wet red clay; mexican floor tiles; or as i say, "pompeii red," the color so often used as the background of roman frescoes. heck, just look at the pic on the cover of andrea illy's book here. or here.

compare that carefully to the picture of the espresso from the quadronna in grimes' article. notice how light the via quadronno crema is; also look carefully to see the "white" spot in the crema. this whitish spot is the proof that the espresso is over-extracted. the barista ran too much water through the coffee. that whitish stuff is bitter, nasty and ruins the drink. a good barista who knows the machine and the coffee well times shots and stops the machine before any of that whitish liquid appears to mar the cup. perfect espresso has a uniformly dark reddish crema, and may even have slightly darker red "tiger stripes" in the surface. this is the visual proof of perfect espresso.

i could nitpick some more, but i won't. even i can only grouse for so long! what also shocks me is that grimes doesn't even appear to know that you can make espresso at home; at least, he doesn't mention it. but you can make superb espresso at home, fully equal to that of the storied cafes of rome, trieste, and naples. . .interested? wanna learn how? contact 1st-line, whole latte love, the daily grind or espresso parts northwest. . .

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