Tuesday, May 25, 2004


over bloom, or i surprise myself

you know i often worry that complicated posts like yesterday's on the i.c.o. may confuse coffee lovers who are just looking for a really great ethiopian to brew up at home.

but i really have to stop underestimating you, dear readers. that post, whose topic at first seems so removed from our daily cup, actually received more views than any other this entire month: my urchin sez nearly 2,500 hits, plus about another 1,200 calls to the post in its plain-text, syndicated rss format.

i also need to thank scaa chief ted lingle for the standards pic i posted yesterday. whenever i need a document to support or explain what's going on, he always comes through, which tells you why i basically sleep with the coffee cupper's handbook under my pillow. . .

speaking of that ethiopian, i was given some fresh harrar from batdorf. looking to enhance its subtle flavors, i awoke this morning to make it in the vac pot.

vac pots work best when making a full -- or at least 2/3s full -- pot, so i filled the base of the bodum santos with a liter (about 33 oz.) of water and set it to boil. as i ground the coffee, it just smelled heavenly.

i weighed out 55 grams (about 1.9 oz., call it 2 for those with less accurate scales at home) of harrar in the top globe. when the water was boiling furiously, i turned the flame down low, and popped the top globe into the base.

the usual vac pot drama -- the water rises from the base to the top globe with a glorious turbulent foam. but i saw a small patch of coffee that wasn't quite wet along one side of the glass.

i took the lid off, picked up my wooden chopstick to stir, when boom! fresh coffee did its thing.

fresh coffee has a delightful bloom, and the batdorf was so very fresh it overflowed the top globe in a thick puffy stream. imagine a fabulous blueberry-scented coffee bath of bubbles. oops.

i snatched the pot from the flame and set it on a trivet. naturally the coffee began its descent back to the bottom globe.

too fast! aargh! but fortunately for me the coffee stalled. i let it hang there for about 3 minutes to get some brew time, placed it briefy back on a low flame to get it flowing again and wa-llah!

perhaps not ideal, but still delicious harrar. completely worth the hassle. . .

note to self: bloom. fresh coffee blooms. very fresh coffee blooms very!

(p.s.: of course, none of this is news to us scaa consumer members; dr. joe square dance pretty much covered it all in our recent member e-newsletter.

become a c-member yourself and get cool coffee health and brewing info months ahead of everyone else!)

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