Wednesday, January 05, 2005


ecco, st. hamelman & the great coffee podcast

almost don't know where to begin. let's pick up from yesterday, with andrew's ecco yrg.

i didn't have time to cup this formally this morning, and so just made it up in the cafetiére (a.k.a. french press). i very much want to check this coffee out in the vac pot to ensure i pick up on its nicest nuances.

so let me take this moment to just quickly say that andrew's coffee is the most "tea-like" of all the yrgs i've ever had. as i was frantically stirring down the bloom (this is an ultra-fresh coffee!), the scent of black darjeeling tea formed an intense cloud.

in fact, combined with the light citrus aroma this coffee also offered, the smell was surprisingly reminiscent of a fine earl grey tea! (actually i think earl grey is more traditionally made with assam, but again, i freely confess to knowing little about the dead-leaf thing.)

in the press, the coffee also displayed a thicker body than i might have expected. also, it wasn't as winey as other yrg's i've had recently -- but this could be due to making it in a press as opposed to a vac pot!

long-time bccy pal mary beth has definitely got this sourdough bread thing down. using hamelman's starter instructions and his "vermont sourdough" recipe, she's making some impressive looking loaves.

finally, i think by now everyone knows about podcasting. practically the entire planet has an ipod nowadays -- even mr. right -- i seem to be alone in not yet owning one (however this is partially because i am holding out for a new screamin' demon powerbook).

so we shouldn't be surprised to see our favorite topic, coffee, made the subject of podcasts. garrick v.b. of minnesota has a few on his site that may interest home roasters.

before you can get the podcast thing working, you need to download a little helper software, like ipodder.

once you've got that, then you can rush over to g's site and grab his archived podcasts, like this one on home coffee roasting with a popcorn popper. (don't laugh -- this is the way a lot of people do it!)

what did you say you were waiting for?

posted by fortune | 7:20 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments