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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

in which oren and i have a slight perceptual difference

so the awesome oren sent me said colombia tolima corazon and i immediately tore up the bag the way greedy children descend on ruffles.

and boom! the aroma of super-fresh roasted beans struck me with a near physical blow. i swear.

in a daze i rushed to contact o. himself. "o o o," i said, "this tolima certainly is nothing like any ordinary colombian. it smells like roast chicken!"

this caused o to hesitate slightly. "well," he replied, "if you think it's chicken, i hope at least it's fresh chicken."

his answer had the gentle air of "what kind of lsd have you put your nose on, girl?" but that's the way it goes in coffee sometimes. i happen to love chicken, so i meant it as a compliment.

ah the memories of roast chicken in the farmhouse in kansas. . .but while o has an impeccable cupping nose from which we all can learn, i cannot give him my scent memories, so in this case alas we are forever separated by time.

this too is part of specialty coffee's loveliness. it is intensely personal in a way that can be hard, so hard, to convey, despite all the training we get on the scaa flavor wheel!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

finally a real vibiemme manual

long-time readers recall that i presently have 3 espresso machines: my beloved italian princess, the rancilio silvia (it's interesting to note how this machine has held its value – i could easily sell it for what i paid for it since it is in excellent condition!); my steamy latin sweetheart, carlos expobar (thanks as always, wll!); and of course, caesar vibiemme from jim of 1st-line.

everyone knows the italo-inglese of the standard vibiemme manual is, um, difficult at best and unhelpful at worst. so jim has sent out a great illustrated pdf, more than 30 pages long, of everything you need to know about caesar.

it is most excellent. i adore caesar, he can have my whole kitchen!

thanks so much jim; caesar has been a great addition to my life and makes great coffee with ease.

how i developed my relationship with caesar without it? well, caesar isn't too bad really, but this manual does provide some great hints on descaling, temperature adjustment, and gasket replacement!

fantastic work, jim.

Friday, December 14, 2007

and the beauty pours down

woot! more delicious coffee has arrived from:

forrest at batdorf: the dancing goat. many thanks for the staple espresso of bccy!
oren at oren's daily roast: colombia tolima, kenya aa. rock on, o!
don schoenholt at gillies: the best sumatra ever, the lintong kuda mas, triple-pick, japanese prep grade 1; the famous yrg(a.k.a. the best yrg ever); and his yemen moka sanani. divine! so grateful

but picking up from yesterday, i started the morning as promised with mark inman's taylormaid spicy-floral and bright miraflor in the cafetiére.

go for it. highly recommended. will chemex tomorrow and write more. oh, wait. . .i have about 7 lbs. of coffee in da houae.

the beauty pours and pours on down.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

yes i am alive!

sorry for the long delay, folks, but vacations happen. i went to jamaica, where among many other things, i visited the twyman's old tavern estate and walked through wallenford.

young david twyman is energetic and passionate; his lovely mother dorothy is as delicate as a bird. she roasts the beans in her diedrich, and prefers her coffee dark to accent the chocolate flavors.

drinking the twyman's dark roast is exactly like making a great cup of mild island coffee and then melting a dark chocolate candy bar in it. oh yum.

i also hiked up a road through the dennis estate (hi james!), where mr. right chatted up some coffee pickers briefly.

hurricane dean in august roared through, ruined the roads, and tore up the trees. in some places the shading banana trees were taken down, really affecting growth.

also, a longer than normal rainy season, which the farmers attributed to global warming, made everything too wet for too long. this caused david twyman to fear that fungus would take root; he was hoping for much sun from now on.

i have many pictures of driving-thru-the-landslides in the cloudforest until you get to the place in "downtown" section where the road washed out, leaving a gaping break about 100 feet long that plunges 2500 feet straight down. a twisted tongue of asphalt dangles in space.

that's when you push the car through the dennis estate road and hike around the hill with the pickers!

but now back in sleet-storm noo yawk, i'm greeted with a loving care package from long-time bccy pal mark inman of taylormaid. oooh ooh ooh.

wonderful organic coffees, his red rooster, the goat rock, fave espressi a and 0, a couple of fantastic single origins. . .the one i'm drinking tomorrow readers is the fair-trade uca miraflor natural reserve.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

finca siberia returns

long-time readers may recall that i regularly review batdorf's famed finca siberia pacamara from el salvador (here and here, for example).

this is what's so fantastic about enjoying the privilege of a long-standing relationship with a coffee roaster — we can return to the farm year after year and see how the coffee changes, how the farmer has been able to improve quality, how the roaster has been able to build on the relationship and roast the coffee from a full understanding of all its characteristics.

and speaking of relationships, it's a pity my long-time friend jessica marshall left batdorf to return to school this fall. best of luck jessica!

you are a super girl. to paraphrase the dolphins, "so long and thanks for all the coffee."

(actually my favorite d. adams quote remains "all it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground. . .and miss.") but this allows us to welcome forrest, a pretty groovy guy himself.

forrest was kind enough to send me this year's finca siberia. woot! thanks to you, big guy.

got your scaa flavor wheel handy? ok let's go.

the finca is roasted as always to what i'd call full-city- (the beans showed no traces of oil). i chemexed it in the usual way.

i know that even people with long experience reading this site are flummoxed by the notion that coffee really has a near infinite flavor range, within the taxonomy of the wheel. but those who truly love coffee won't be surprised when i describe the lovely pacamara as having a spicy ginger-flower fragrance, a crisp green-apple brightness, and a basalmic rice nose with a caramel-vanilla-type aftertaste.

the chemex gives it a pleasant medium body. i easily enjoyed it black.

highly recommended if you like that tingly sensation you get when biting into a juicy tart granny smith. other people might raise their eyebrows. . ."a coffee that tastes like a mix of green apples and ginger flowers and pours from the pot like a maroon satin ribbon falling from its spool?"

oh yes. welcome to the passionate and beautiful world of specialty coffee. forrest also sent some interesting chocolate, which i'll talk about later. . .

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

tolima in da house

so this morning i was sampling andrew b's ecco organic nicaragua, las termopilas, from the other day – it's not as bright as i thought it'd be &ndahs; when what arrived but oren bloostein's colombia tolima? life just gets better and better. . .can't wait to brew this baby in the chemex!

thanks again, a & o!

Monday, October 15, 2007

the glorious andrew b. offers c.o.e. salvation!

ooh ooh ooh. it seems like a dog's age since the fabulous andrew b. of ecco sent coffee!

now i realize what's been missing from my life! but seriously, along with jessica's can't-live-without batdorf dancing goats, andrew's northern italian espresso is a favorite in the bccy household.

and, as always, andrew's so generous with the c.o.e. goodness! today it's an organic nicaraguan prize-winner, with a cupping score above 90!

grown by farmer milton canales on the las termopilas estate in nueva segovia, it's a high-grown caturra! andrew lists it as grown at nearly 4,600 feet.

oh, we love high-grown coffees here at bccy. a wet-processed coffee, it's apparently completely sun-dried, meaning this should be a bright, floral and fruity cup.

with a roast date of the 11th, i can't wait to brew it tomorrow in the vac pot. thank you, andrew!