Saturday, June 08, 2002


maybe not everyone here is a fan of max orsini, but i just tried some of his wood-roasted organic espresso gold.

due to a shipping bobble, the coffee came to me 5 days old.

i have tried in in silvia both as a latte and as a straight espresso. i dialed it in on the mazzer mini at one notch to the left of the arrow on the decal. i tried it at both 2 notches and 1 notch left. 2 notches was ok on the standard siliva double basket; 1 notch seemed better to me personally on the ridged la marzocco double basket in a 1 spouted portafilter. 2 notches for the l.m. basket seemed a little fine.

mr. right, as you may recall, is a diet coke person who will deign to drink a vanilla latte of vivace on a weekend morning. he also accepts a caffe d'arte firenze. otherwise, he ignores coffee. i made a plain latte for him with the orsini, with sugar, no vanilla. he immediately pronounced it the best coffee ever. he loved its chocolate-ly notes, which came through the milk. (my lattes are italian-proportion, not american proportion.)

he was actually licking the foam from the cup, a first. i made myself a latte, and it was scrumptious.

i then made a straight espresso in the l.m. basket with the 1 spout portafilter. i have only gotten tiger stripes with 1-day-old fed-exe'd vivace, personally, which probably sez more about me than any coffee.

but i got the 1.5 oz in 28 seconds with guinness effect and tiger stripes from the orsini. the crema is a little more brown than red on the reddish-brown scale. the caffe d'arte firenze is more red, while in my experience, the vivace is between these two colorwise.

the texture of the drink was more motor oil than honey. while of course the crema doesn't rival the overflowing amounts of malabar gold, i got a good half-inch (estimated since i poured into my miss rancilio cup -- i moved the crema "aside" a little with my spoon. . .).

this coffee is 6-bean blend, roasted northern-italian style (orsini learned to roast in udine, which is about 40 minutes from trieste,
between trieste and venice, i think) and has a pinch of robusta. to my eye, it is roasted lighter than the caffe d'arte firenze, definitely, and lighter than vivace dolce.

call me hopeless, but in general, i don't always appreciate that touch of robusta in a straight espresso. i always add a demitasse spoon of sugar to my espresso, but i tasted this straight. it does have a pronounced chocolate flavor, but i just personally don't care for that robusta note. so i added the sugar, which helped balance things out for me.

i may need more experience working with this coffee as a straight espresso. the brownishness of the crema may indicate i didn't temp surf quite right for it??

but from just a couple of experiments this morning, i have to say that caffe orsini's a superb coffee. my husband may now refuse to drink anything else. i bought a second pound and gave it to my neighbor, alan r. i haven't talked to him yet this today, but hope to hear his opinion soon.

as for max, i did get a chance to speak to him personally, and frankly, whatever others' experience has been, i just find him endlessly charming. quite a character. i love original people with strong personalities, and max is right up my alley. that he quotes poetry in a beautiful italian accent works for me too!

i also dropped by the chocolate bar today where i downed a cup of illy co-owner allison made me, but i think i'll talk about that tomorrow, after i return from a special yoga workshop i'm taking in the morning. . .all for tomorrow.

questions? comments? click the link below to check out my new test forum. if it's happening after 90 days, i think i'll keep it. do your part -- chat away. . .

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