Monday, November 14, 2005


elegant geishas, part vi

"caffeine is a kind of sophia loren that everybody wants to interview and investigate," said illy."

oh, yeah, that is such a dr.-illy-type remark, and this piece has a couple of nice ones! he's the most hilarious individual, trust me.

in my continuing brewing of scott & jessica's batdorf "latitudes" panama geisha, i picked up from sat. to make this lovely coffee in the cafetiére.

remember, scott crafted this to a standard/light city roast. i didn't make a full press pot this morning, due to lack of time; instead i dug out my old 2-cup bodum.

the exact model i have has been long discontinued (i think i've had this pot for about 15 years now!) but it supposedly holds 12 fl. oz. water, which means really 10 fl. oz (about 296 ml). it sort of looks like a tiny kenya.

according to the lingle coffee constant, this means i should ballpark at about .57 oz coffee by weight (about 16-17 g). by carefully pre-heating the little pot, i managed a brewing temperature of 200 degrees f., and i brewed for 4 mins.

as you might expect, french press brewing decreased the bright crispness of this coffee a tad, and boosted the body. i'd say the body grew from silky to satiny!

also as i might have foreseen, i think this now 7-day-old coffee lost some of its lighter, more complex notes: the strawberry i found earlier was scarcely present, but the coconut was more pronounced in its place.

in the remainder of the bouquet the flavors remained the delicious same: vanilla, allspice, nutmeg-y. this is just a fine cup of coffee however you make it, i think.

if you're tempted to try this coffee, but are one of those hard-core low-toned espresso drinkers who doesn't really enjoy bright coffees, then perhaps you should try it in the press. it will still be bright, but not i think beyond your ability to savor it.

(or you can follow the advice of long-time scaa consumer members jim schulman, bob yellin, and ex-barista chris tacy: pull it as a short double espresso at a temperature of somewhere between 200.5 and 202 on your machine's pid.)

everyone else will adore this coffee no matter how you make it. but i will confess that i am leaning towards pronouncing the vac pot as my favorite brewer for these beans.

but you know me, gentle readers. i tend to walk through the freshness life-cycle of a coffee brewing it all different ways to see what surprises it has in store.

thus tomorow: the geisha in the chemex! a guaranteed adventure -- stay tuned.

posted by fortune | 7:05 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 1 comments