Hi Friends,
Well, according to the weather outside, we are now a good six hours into the beautiful Maine summer, and what a summer it is.
Sitting on the veranda, sipping a cold Caipirinha, watching the surfers glide across the waves . . .
Washing off my muddy mountain bike, drying out my winter socks, shivering in front of the fire, bemoaning the rain delays in Sox games . . .
Hard to tell where summer starts and the winter ends this year, but there is of course always good coffee.
This week, I'll be roasting on Sunday, July 12, then delivering and shipping the next day. Send your orders in by noon Saturday to be included in this week's roasts.
Coffees for this week include the following:
> Brazil Mogiana Fazenda Cachoeira
> Burundi Bwayi Lot 8
> El Salvador San Emilio Pulped Natural (espresso fans - try this one as an SO shot; niiiiiiice!)
> Sumatra Gayo Mountain (Fair Trade Organic)
> Giddy Goats Espresso
> Indo Limbo French
> Medianoche Decaf Espresso (Water Process)
> Brazil Mogiana Yellow Bourbon Decaf (Water Process)
> Sumatra Lintong Triple Pick Decaf (Water Process)
I've been on a bit of a bender over the past few months, in a mad rampage of collecting alternative ways of brewing coffee . . .
Last night on eBay, it was a traditional Vietnamese brewer, an odd variation on a tin cup in which a verrrrry slow drip brew comes to rest on a bed of sweetened condensed milk in a clear glass (picture the tequila sunrise effect in sepia tone).
Somewhere en route in the transportation network out there in the hinterland is an antique ibrik like device from the collection of a WWII soldier. I'll be putting some effort into figuring out exactly what to call it - it could be an ibrik, but it could just as easily be a cezve, a briki or a kanaka.
There's the Bonjour Smart Brewer, one of several new drip devices that combine the best of French Press and filter brewing. I'm not satisfied with this one, as it seems inclined to pour coffee all over our counter when I am not looking, so I've also ordered it's kissin' cousin, the Clever Coffee Dripper, from Sweet Maria's. Its a real bargain at $13.50, and you can order one here. Follow the links to see more on how to use this.
The Aerobie Aeropress (ironically made by a Frisbee company), with its hypodermic like operation, gives new meaning to the term "coffee junkie." I like this one because I can prepare an "Aerocano" in under a minute and coffee is really, really good.
We have an ibrik, used for making Turkish style coffee with cardomom and sugar.
And then, the creme de la creme of brewers, the exotic and wonderful two chamber blown glass syphon pot, part theatre, part brewer for a crowd.
To our growing collection of mostly unused moka pots, there's the see-through cheeseball plastic model, which from a distance at the garage sale looked like an awesome find but wasn't, but I bought it anyway (for a quarter) because its a cool way to demonstrate the method.
Sitting there, unused since two days after we brought it back from Costa, Rica is the Chorreador de café, looking something like a gym sock suspended from a tie rack. Here's a nice picture of an old one.
And what coffee geek's collection would be without a set of French Presses - though I confess that the reason we have a "set" is that we break them a lot.
These all compete for space with a pretty blue enameled cowboy coffee pot, several pourover drippers, the strange little infusion thing I take when I travel (now sort of broken), a funky camping mini espresso maker that makes a "serving" of just over two tablespoons at a time, the espresso machine and some grinders.
The real trouble here is that I only can handle 2-3 cups of coffee at a sitting, so I begin each day turning in circles in the kitchen trying to figure out which one to use. Maybe I should just chuck them all - I heard there's this new stuff called "instant coffee" that only needs a teaspoon for brewing.
Or not.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Kent
