Saturday, May 15, 2004


satsang & sidamo

i received an uplifting email today:

"I am writing because I feel pretty inspired by the Yoga Sutras Discussion Group that happened lasted night. We started by talking about the original context of an oral tradition and how there is a certain amount of the philosophy of Yoga contained in the process of transmission from teacher to student. 

This is the result of the process of learning to chant the Sutras. A great deal of focused concentration is necessary to accurately listen and attempt to reproduce the sound from the teacher exactly how you have heard it. 

Subtleties in pronunciation like the length of a vowel or the place in the palate where a sound is produced make all the difference, but you must be attentive to be able to hear the sound that is actually being produced rather than relying your idea of how a word is supposed to be pronounced based on past experience. 

After a brief discussion that included a little background about the Yoga Sutras and some theories about the origins of Yoga we decided that we were at a point in the process that we have been working on in the Sutra Discussion Groups where it would be beneficial to go back to the beginning of the text. We did this and chanted the first four Sutras. 

We went through the process of learning and coming to be able to chant each Sutra through a process resembling and based on the way this text was traditionally transmitted from teacher to student. Then we had a discussion which lasted over two hours where we went into great detail about the meaning and the possible implications of these first four Sutras. "

you can be there too! what: Yoga Sutras and Yoga Philosophy Discussion and Study Group; who: Andy Sugerman and Carl Horowitz; when: Friday June 18th 8:00PM; where: The Breathing Project 15 West 26th Street 10th Floor, Just west of Broadway; cost: the event is Free but donations will be accepted.

for more information: upsidedowncarl or 917-301-1616.

everyone who knows me undertstands i hold promises fairly sacred. i work hard to keep them 130%!

so i spent the morning keeping my promise: to vac pot up k's ethiopian sidamo. again, i remain completely amazed at how a different brewing method highlights new aspects of a coffee.

vac pots generally bring out the delicate aromatic nuances of a coffee; however, they do tend to lighten the body a tad. and today was no exception.

one sniff in the cup discovered a wonderful berry fragrance somewhere between raspberry and black cherry. the coffee was more winey, and a slightly smoky, spicy-clove thing appeared.

the light smoke probably comes from the roast. . .the vanilla and rose haven't disappeared, but the dried apricot faded quite a bit and fell into the tartness of the winey taste.

long-time readers know exactly what i mean. passers-by, don't despair: i'm talking about the coffee flavors from the scaa flavor wheel.

there's no doubt the vac pot does the sidamo more justice than the cafetiére (a.k.a. french press). check it out for yourself.

i used the classic formula: 32 oz. (by volume) water x 0.057 (that mysterious, omnipresent coffee figure, which i call the "lingle brewing constant") = 1.8 oz. coffee (by weight). my kitchen scale is more accurate in grams: so i weighed out 50g. sidamo.

again, i highly recommend you try some sidamo in a vac pot at home. the basic bodum santos vac pot is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, makes great coffee, and there's a lot of online guidance to help you brew correctly!

trust me on this one: you won't regret it!

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