Friday, September 22, 2006


mark inman's taylormaid espresso 0

for some inexplicable reason, i woke up early this morning, before the alarm. which worked out to my advantage, as i could then have plenty of time to warm up my espresso machine and pull some shots of mark inman's taylormaid espresso 0 before it completely fades away from age.

ok. i'll be frank -- i pulled 2 triple cappuccinos. because i love this coffee, which is something i don't usually say about coffees that contain robusta.

let's take a trip down memory lane, and re-visit mark's old espresso a-go-go. i still strongly feel that this was one of the most under-rated espressi in north america.

but i also understand why not very many people "got" this coffee: it was a tad too bright for most espresso lovers, and that star-anise complexity was too unusual for many drip people. it didn't taste as dark as it looked, for dark-roast lovers; while it looked too dark to taste, for those lighter-roast people.

and it wasn't strongly chocolate-y in a world where right now everyone wants a chocolate espresso. it just broke the mold in every direction, you know?

so now we have the new espresso 0, which might remind some people of mark's old organic panic! but with a strong chocolate component. i have to say that personally i do prefer this new espresso 0 to the organic panic!.

it does stand up better in milk too.

the beans, as i said yesterday, seem to me to be full city, since they don't show a speck of oil anywhere. since this morning i had a great talk with mark in which he informed me that he wants this coffee brewed at a lower temp, a dark-roast temp, even tho' it's not a dark-dark coffee.

think 195-197 degrees, for those of you who have p.i.d'd your espresso machines. for those of us who haven't, this means you'll want to run a lot of water thru before you lock-n-load to pull the shot.

this should get you the most chocolate taste: i found this out thru pure trial and error, so let me save you the effort! since the coffee has robusta, the crema is quite long-lasting and the body's super-buttery.

it's a sweet, low-brightness coffee. a rarity -- esp. for a robusta blend -- that i didn't need any sugar!

the steamed milk alone added adequate sweetness. mark has an info sheet on this coffee that i think would be helpful for people who might like to try this coffee.

and once he sends it to me in an electronic format, i'll post it. in short, if you like a chocolate espresso with a hint of robusta and super crema, do check out mark's 0.

as with all of mark's coffee, it's ultra-environmental as well as fab, fab, fab.

long-time readers know i generally frown heavily on robusta -- so for me to like this coffee is a big deal.

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posted by fortune | 8:33 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments