Wednesday, November 17, 2004


the espresso temescal, part ii

this morning for some reason i just couldn't sleep -- this may have had something to do with an extremely unpleasant fed ex experience yesterday -- fed ex is the worst delivery service, except for all the others -- and so found myself roaming the kitchen pre-dawn.

in the non-light of this, i switched on my italian princess, silvia (why don't i have her on an appliance timer yet? i dunno!), and then went back to bed. this is all long way to say that due to various events, i had the chance this morning to sample james' blue bottle "espresso temescal" as brewed espresso.

i find this coffee less finicky to work with than his roman espresso, personally. as a triple shot, the temescal doesn't have the same outrageous crema as the roman.

however it does give a nice "guinness effect" even now at nearly 9 days old and a good amount of crema for such an old coffee. it displayed a thick, syrupy body that clung to the back of a demitasse spoon.

what mostly changed for me with this blend in silvia as opposed to the napoletana was the aftertaste. better glance down at the scaa flavor wheel on your mousepad again here. .

the temescal had decidedly turpeny, black-currant note at the end that was missing in the stove-top brewing. this allowed the coffee to stand clearly thru the milk in an italian-proportion cappuccino.

all good. tomorrow i at last approach the coffee i've heard the most about: james' "giant steps" blend.

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