Sunday, January 16, 2005


the essenza vs. hot cocoa

i think the main difference between david's atomic "essenza" blend and the hot cocoa yesterday is the chinese 5 spice powder.

grab your scaa flavor wheel. . .what do you mean, you don't carry a copy of this in your bosom with your cellphone and visconti? are you mad?

the organic essenza is the same medium medium-dark color as the veloce; however, it's oilier; many beans are covered in oil up to 1/4, unlike the pinpricks i see on the veloce.

the sweet, heavy motor-oil/crema-glob thing is alive and well on the essenza, even tho' it's now 8 days old. the dry grounds offer an intense fragrance of fresh basil and bay leaves.

the aromas reminded me of marzipan and dark madagascar vanilla. but that aftertaste is pure long dark chocolate, a little powdery, like cocoa.

fabulous stuff: i think i prefer this as an americano, personally, with splenda and light cream. that's when it's most like hot cocoa to me.

sunday, as long time readers know, is pizza day here at bccy, and the usual dough is rising up a storm. i took my old recipe and modified it according to hamelman's techniques, particularly in the mixing.

drizzling the oil in during the last 2 mins. of the second mix does improve the dough i think. again, the roul'pat's a huge help in shaping and handling a slack-ish dough.

oops! time to get dressed for yoga! excuse me, must dash. . .this class still after all this time doesn't have a permanent teacher, and it's getting a tad wearying not to know what's going on with it, honestly.

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