Saturday, August 16, 2003


black(out) cat & cups

spending the afternoon with a delicious black cat, which is lovely served in intelligentsia's own logo cups.

these are the great italian-sized bar cups from ancap; sturdy, comfy, fit snugly on the saucer. all good. cute.

for those -- what, the 3 coffee lovers left maybe? -- who haven't yet tried the "new" black cat, it's a sweet, full coffee, with a roasty anise fragrance, great dutch cocoa & spicy-thyme thing going on. long dry finish.

creamy, lightly syrupy body that thinly coats the back of the demitasse spoon. soft, generous crema.

the batch i got was roasted to some oil -- not really oily, but more than patches of oil. beyond what i'd call medium-dark maybe into lightly dark dark?

more than other coffees i've had recently the black cat coats the tongue. actually colored mine an amusing milk-chocolate-on-the-face hue.

i made it on silvia after 20 mins. and again at about 60 mins. that is a maybe slightly cool silvia, and a maybe slightly hot silvia.

black cat didn't seem too picky, and was good both times in a classic 27 second double.

it grinds very nicely. i set the mazzer at 4 notches to left of the arrow decal and went to town. it's just an easy coffee to work with not finicky.

plus, i love that doug gave me a born-on roast date: 8/11.

iirc, doug likes the black cat at about 72 hours rest, so maybe mine was a bit past absolute perfection, still within the realm of ideal.

did i forget to say doug zell rocks?

now let's talk about black cat in milk. the cappucino cup doug sent is just a joy to hold, with a good no-dribble rim.

the cocoa taste of the coffee sings out in milk, so in an italian-sized cappucino, there's almost more of a hot-chocolate feeling than a coffee one.

i made the cappucino in carlos expobar, just shoving the cup under the spouts and pouring for 18-20 seconds.

what's interesting is that no matter how fine the grind, i'm discovering that carlos pours faster than silvia. that is, the time before the coffee "mousetails" lightens is always shorter than on silvia.

i wonder if this is caused by carlos' professional-style pre-infusion? it's not his filter hole size, because i am now using the stock silvia double basket in carlos as an experiment. . .

what's new is that with his lower temperature i am slowly and painfully coming closer and closer to the level of microfoam i can achieve on silvia.

which causes my husband to complain that i should just switch back to the rancilio for good (hey glenn surlet, have you been talking to mr. right?) because he loves the foam probably more than the coffee!

however, i did manage this afternoon to pour a sloppy heart latte with carlos' foam, so i am perhaps getting somewhere at tortoise speed. . .

let me just repeat that i'm loving the black cat and the cups. in wilder moments i perhaps fitfully consider decamping to chicago to sit on doug's doorstep and asking him to autograph the saucers for me. . .

then i remember -- chicago. . .!

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