Sunday, November 13, 2005


kello yrg redux & the scented tamarillo

having made the batdorf "latitudes" prize-winning kello yrg yesterday in the vac pot, today i decided to capitalize on its harrar-like character and brew it up in the cafetiére.

i think more people brew at home with the press pot than the vac, plus the press should really showcase the kello's surprising body. lemme just say that since this coffee was a lighter roast, i took extra care pre-heating the pot and so got brewing water at 201 degrees f.

otherwise i made it to the standard 60g. ground coffee to 1 liter of water. and what did i get? a blueberry harrar!

this kello yrg wigs me out. at 6-days old, the water hit the grounds, i stirred the bloom down, and was instantly faced with a gentle whiff of blueberry.

this is more of what scott must have meant when he described this coffee as wild, wild, wild. hey, does this coffee have any consistent character? or it is gonna be different every time?

well, different brewing methods and water temperatures do highlight different aspects of a coffee, no doubt. by scaa flavor wheel standards, in the press, this coffee was wine-y tasting, with aromas of blueberry, dark caramel, and a dry powdery dutch cocoa aftertaste.

its body wasn't quite as heavy as some of the outstanding harrars -- like this year's stumptown 2005 mao horse harrar, a.k.a. the ravishing indigo -- nor as blue either -- but it was really more like a harrar than you'd expect a yrg to be. unusual, and very good!

again, add light cream and sugar, you'll get yesterday's milk chocolate effect. if you wait until the cup's really cold -- actually not the best way to drink coffee -- even then you might find a haze of blue hovering about the cup. . .

after living la vida loquat last afternoon, i decided to treat myself to a tamarillo, another sophie grigson fave. the tamarillo is interesting: it's the color of a black plum, but shaped like a large roma tomato.

it smells strongly and deliciously of ripe plum crossed with rose geranium or maybe tomato leaves. cut it open, and the interior has a texture similar to a passion fruit.

in fact, i think the ripe flesh tastes like a cross between an ultra-sweet tomato paste and a passion fruit when you just scoop it out of the thick skin with a spoon. it might be interesting this way on a mixed-fruit pavlova or something.

grigson however suggests that you halve the puppy, dampen the skin and heavily coat the whole thing with brown sugar. then broil it for 2-3 minutes or flame it with a kitchen torch.

this makes an interesting dessert on its own with vanilla ice cream or an exotic accent for something like venison. you could also dip this fruit in boiling water, peel it like a peach, slice it cross-wise, and use a couple in a double-crust frangipane tart.

posted by fortune | 11:39 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments