Tuesday, November 15, 2005


elegant geishas, part vii

as promised yesterday, this morning i brewed scott and jessica's batdorf panama geisha in the chemex so kindly given to me by long-time bccy pal oren.

after my earlier valiant struggles with the chemex, i think i finally have this puppy figured out. so thanks again, oren!

and what a great coffee to figure it with. . .now i can go back and apply this knowledge to oren's harrar. . .

the panama is now 8 days old, so you might expect the flavors would begin to change a bit as the coffee moves through its freshness lifecycle. but different brewing methods, as i often say, also highlight different aspects of a coffee.

here we go with the scaa flavor wheel!

today i made up a half-pot (26 oz/769 ml water) with 1.5 oz/43 g coffee, ground at setting "12" on my saeco 2002 for a total brew time of 4 mins. 10 secs. i got good results, altho' next time i might up the coffee to 1.75/50 g since i thought the body was a bit more delicate than i would have expected; let's call it "gossamer silk."

the dry grounds were as gloriously floral as ever. not only does the panama retain its beautiful allspice/vanilla qualities in the chemex, but as the coffee bloomed, a new aroma came to the fore, i thought -- wait, was that pineapple?

yes, as i quickly and lightly stirred the chemex grounds with a plastic spoon (so as not to poke any holes in the paper filter), i definitely felt a brief whiff of something tropical. . . in the cup, the chemex, brought out a malty, dry-toast quality, a caramelly, honey-type thing and more vanilla!

a little light cream and raw sugar brought this honey/caramel note to the fore. the coffee kept its overall light nippiness. when flat cold, the pineapple juice thing returned and could be felt a little in the cup.

i'm hoping a slightly higher dose of coffee here will bring more body to the cup and allow that interesting pineapple to be noticed when the coffee's at drinking temperature. tomorrow: the kello yrg in the chemex!

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