Tuesday, December 23, 2003


meet your family & norwegian wood, take 2

"coffee has the potential for doing something unexpected: bridging the rarely crossed generation gap between teens and their parents."

it's true: teens love coffee, especially starbucks-style flavored milk drinks. parents, re-introduce yourself to your children over coffee! coffee remains the social beverage par excellence.

following up on norwegian wood: i made it this morning in a cafetiére a.k.a. french press.

and once again i really have to marvel at how changing the coffeemaker changes the coffee. the napoletana requires a very coarse grind, and this seemed to highlight the brightness in the coffee.

while the fantastic red currant and addictive vanilla fragrance of norwegian wood remain the same, in the cafetiére the coffee not only gained body -- as you'd expect, because the press is a method that highlights body -- but also a light chocolate aftertaste.

the brightness was reduced to a more balanced level, or maybe the chocolate aspect balanced the brightness more. however you want to say that. while i could appreciate norwegian wood intellectually in the napoletana, i really loved it in the press.

i ground it coarse for the press, but what i'd call finely coarse, not the kosher- or rock-salt size coarse you need for the napoletana. i used 55 grams (about 2 oz.) to 32 oz. (about 945 mls.) water, with the water at 200 degrees f (about 94 degrees c), and let it steep for 4 minutes, languidly stirring with a wooden chopstick the entire time to promote good extraction.

tomorrow, the last experiment with this coffee while it's still superfresh: to make it in a vac pot. i expect this will thin the body some, but it might also bring out new notes in the coffee i have yet to experience!

in short: how you make the coffee counts! a coffee you might think you don't like one way might shine with a different preparation.

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