Monday, January 03, 2005


aaarrggh!

to quote charlie brown. reading reviews or suggestions of "where to find a great cup of coffee in new york" is always frustrating, since the foodies and most newspapers never mention the places that actually serve great coffee.

(for the record, this article misses probably the 2 best tea places in nyc as well as screwing up the coffee recommendations: moby's hot teany, and the swanky t salon. not that i know anything about the whole dead-leaf fad.)

why do these stories never mention 9th st. espresso (voted best espresso 2004 by the voice), gimme coffee, joe's (voted best espresso 2004 by time out)? the story above has a picture of halcyon, but doesn't actually mention that since it moved to dumbo, it no longer serves coffee!

i think of coffee in many ways, but really, never as a moral lesson. . .

this morning i did make up a cafetiére (a.k.a. french press) of the caffé d'arte wood-roasted drip coffee, the velletri.

like all d'arte coffees this is a very dark and oily blend. i couldn't drink it black; even with splenda and a tablespoon of light cream, i couldn't finish the cup. it's just a tad too darkly roasted for my personal taste.

however, it did offer an incredible bloom and an interesting body. the ultra-roast dominated the coffee with a pungent taste and smoky, pipe tobacco notes; obviously, with such a roast level, the coffee displayed no brightness.

for lovers of the far shores of deep roasting! i know there are a large number of people who adore their coffee well beyond vienna and heading into french -- the velletri's for you -- it will speak to your sophisticated soul.

posted by fortune | 10:21 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments