Saturday, June 14, 2003


delight & handstand

finally it's stopped raining here in nyc, and today dawned bright with a little breeze. in one respect this was good news; in another, a small difficulty.

whenever the weather changes, it's a fact that you have to adjust your espresso grind. i had had the luxury of enjoying one setting on the mazzer mini (flash required) for weeks as that miserable seattle weather settled in. this morning meant i had to once again try to dial in that sweet spot for the batdorf & bronson dancing goats i use for milk-based espresso drinks.

as long-time readers know in my house at breakfast we pretty much drink what you might call a short triple cappucino with extra foam, because mr. right likes soft italian "wet-style" microfoam almost as much as the coffee. probably more than the coffee, actually.

the grinding problem is also compounded in that finally the daemons of package delivery took pity on me and a half pound of the friendly espresso blend don schoenholdt at gillies had made up for me appeared on my doorstep along with yesterday's yrg.

don's fresh coffee of course grinds so fine it's almost shocking. i'm just basically throwing the thumbscrew on the mazzer all the way around -- for those of you grinding along at home, fresh batdorf grinds at about 4 or 5 notches to the left of the mazzer arrow decal, while don's blend sits at around 8 notches.

and with only a 1/2 pound, you can't really afford to spend a lot of coffee on the dial-in process to find that awesome spot. nevertheless, i managed, and pulled a pleasant shot of don's first time into the pre-heated miss rancilio logo cup (our awesome pal toto, a real brooklyn italian, reviews 'em here). while i always describe the crema from this coffee as uniquely mousse-y, today it seemed more like creme chantilly. . .

(is this due more to the coffee, the roasting or the grind? don's coffee comes out his lilla medium-dark, with patches of oil, while the batdorf is much darker, with no oil. those who play with fire tell me that batdorf probably does this by not letting any air into the drum while roasting. . .)

the jones is finally over. but the point here is the wonderful repeatability of the mazzer. once i know where a coffee should be for its age and the weather, i can with confidence move the dial and forget about it.

adjusting between different coffees is no problem; the mazzer is just spot on -- 4 notches to the left of the arrow always gives me the same repeatable results. serious espresso fans know this isn't always the case with other grinders. . .

in other exciting news, long-time readers know that i have long been working on pressing up into handstand in the middle of the room. no hopping. just put yer hands down on the floor, walk your feet in until they start to lift up on their own and up you go.

this is a particularly exhilarating pose because as you slowly go up, your head and torso feel like they're coming more forward of your shoulders than when you kick up into the asana. so you feel more strongly as if you are going to fall.

still, when it happens right, you also have a sensation of extending beyond your own skin, of moving outside where you think the boundaries of your body are. freaky and hard to describe -- but very liberating. . .

yesterday with a spot from alma largey i managed this in class for the first time. i also have to thank carl horowitz and his wacky, fun ball-exercises. i think i'm going to taking my time this one -- it might be a while until i'm doing this without a spot. . .

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