Tuesday, April 05, 2005


mostly right!

" 'without this," says weeks, pointing to his coffee bean grinder, then turning to a shiny espresso machine, 'this basically produces garbage.' "

completely true! i was so happy to read how much this article got right, considering most general press articles get coffee completely wrong.

there are a couple of barista schools in the u.s.a. right now, but in this area we still lag well behind australia, europe, and new zealand. with the world barista championship coming up at scaa's seattle conference, the head start given those countries' coffee cultures by a longer training tradition may play a decisive factor against the u.s.a. champion, phuong tran.

steam, phuong, steam! we're rooting for you here!

i do wish however the article would have further mentioned that the also-shiny grinder is likewise useless without freshly roasted whole-bean coffee. . .

speaking of fresh coffee, i took another try at making andrew's ecco bolivian coe coffee in the cafetiére.

as you would expect in a press, the coffee develops a beautiful, velvety body/mouthfeel. however, the delicate nuances of the fruit are present only at the moment the water hits the grounds.

enjoy that dried cherry feeling wafting towards wou while you stir the slurry with your wooden chopstick. because, i fear, you probably won't sense it again. . .

and so i'm slowly concluding that this coffee truly reveals its charm in the vac pot. i have some of the beans left over, and i might try tinkering with the grind a tad more.

but i just think the elusive cherry is a fragile, fleeing thing here. . .

i really do have to move on to andrew's beautiful espresso! and i'm definitely looking forward to that. . .

posted by fortune | 7:51 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments