Are there any cuisines, world-wide, where there isn’t a treat of some sort that you can have with your coffee?
So I had a rough couple of days. Nothing earth-shattering, just those days where it’s hard to keep your mind straight because of some issues, here and there.
A friend (Joe) who has a studio a hundred feet from my studio (down the hall and up a flight of stairs) offered me a cup of coffee. He just bought himself a stellar espresso machine and was well on his way to match any shot from any decent coffee shop pretty much anywhere. I was happy to accept.
We talked – about this and that – some about my concerns, some about coffee, some about lighting and photography, about the view…
And then he brought out a small loaf, he said, “my mom made this”.
Mrs. Borrelli, his mom, came to Canada from Italy, gosh, in the 1960s? She never got around to learning much English. I have met her before and she is lovely.
And my goodness can she bake. It’s not biscotti. It’s too soft. Joe couldn’t remember what it was called, but he sliced off a couple of pieces for the two of us and we enjoyed it with our coffee. Apparently she sweetens it with honey. The flavour is subtle but sublime.
Conversation, great coffee and a biscuit to go along with it. I can’t imagine a more perfect way to spend a few minutes on a rainy November morning.
I’m a sucker for rationalizing an expensive purchase. I do it more than I care to admit, but I have to say that I think the math usually works out in my favour.
For instance, I just re-did a bunch of stuff in my backyard. New back fence, new roof on the garage, new flagstone patio. As far as I’m concerned, the money I saved by doing the work myself more than covers the rather expensive cedar I used in the fence and also covers the rather needless ridge vent that I installed in the garage. The garage is cooler in the summer, for sure, but it was by no means necessary. A building inspector wouldn’t have failed the work without it and the fence would have been fine if I had bought some pre-made panels.
The more I think about it, the more I can find these rationales in my life. Make dinner at home? Rationalize a decent bottle of wine. (but not a super expensive one because I just can’t quite get there)
However, for coffee I can spend into oblivion without even thinking about it. To wit, my current setup: A Rocket R58 and a Eureka Atom grinder. The coffee machine dealer had a deal on – 20% off or something like that and although it was more than I wanted to pay, I knew a couple of things:
Coffee is like $5 a cup at a coffee shop.
I like coffee and I drink a lot of it.
Oh, and my kids have started drinking coffee from time to time, as well.
The Eureka grinder keeps track of how many double shots of espresso it has ground. A few days ago we passed 1000 double shots.
At $5 per coffee, the machine has more than paid for itself. Of course, I’m leaving out inputs and the fact that if there is a coffee machine nearby I drink a lot more coffee.
Regardless, even if we cut it in half I’m well on my way to paying the system off in a few short months.
Then I’ll have to find another purchase to rationalize. I have been eyeing a new gas range…
https://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.png00Alastairhttps://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.pngAlastair2020-10-26 13:09:432020-10-26 13:09:45At this rate, soon I’ll be rich!
Best I could come up with. The Perk coffee pot photo seems to be unavailable.
There is one place I’ll consider drinking coffee out of a percolator. Well, maybe two places but the second place is generally the basement of a church, somewhere, and let’s not discuss that any more.
The one place is the lake, or as we know it, The Lake. The Lake is Christina Lake, just north of the Canada/US border above Spokane, Washington. My in-laws have a cabin at Christina. It is a lovely spot, and it is boat access and decidedly off-grid. On a good day I’ll have 2 bars of LTE cell service which is just enough to be incredibly maddening when trying to pick up email or do a blog post. We have propane for a fridge and a water heater and we have a lovely set of deep cycle batteries and solar panels that require near-constant attention.
The coffee has been a source of great discussion, as one might reasonably expect – and as evidenced by other posts on this blog. We have a stove-top espresso machine, a Moka pot, which makes a decent cup of coffee. Aeropress is in regular use – always good coffee there – and there is the perk pot from, oh, the 1960s? Maybe the 1970s. This is my mother-in-law’s coffee world and she makes the perk coffee. In fact, there is even an extra pot in reserve lest something untowards happen to the pot in regular rotation. Woe betide the fool who decides to move to a different coffee option. Well, I’m still alive, but I think it’s noteworthy to point out that the perk pot is still in constant use and there is, literally, a collection of other, unused coffee options in the cupboard. All have been tried, and all have failed. Only the Corningware option remains. Shelly would probably have something pithy to say about that, “Look on my coffee options, ye mighty and despair!!”
Percolator pots are annoying and time consuming. They have to be watched as if you were boiling an egg. Bring to the boil, wait 7 minutes, enjoy! But it is boiling the coffee and having it drip through the grounds. Not my first choice for coffee…
But enjoy we do. Well, my older daughter was complaining it was a bit watery, but her young taste buds just need some mellowing.
What would barely pass muster in any other environment is rather tasty at the lake. My mother would insist it’s the water we use and she may well have a point. But I think that there is some coffee magic in this place. Makes every cup taste better, even the coffee made the old fashioned way.
Unless we try the coffee left from the year before. No amount of wizardry will allow that to pass muster.
https://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.png00Alastairhttps://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.pngAlastair2020-07-15 16:07:032020-07-15 16:07:04Perk. 33 and 1/3 percent more perk.
One of the many coffee options at the lake. The Bialetti Moka pot makes a great cup of coffee, but it does take a fair amount of work. Strange how often that dichotomy appears in life, let alone in food preparation.
The idea is rather ingenious. Water in the bottom is forced up through coffee grounds when it comes to the boil. It goes up through a stack on the top and collects in the upper chamber. It’s a perk pot where the water only passes through the grounds once, as opposed to continuously, for 7 minutes.
The base is rather small and it takes forever and a day to boil the water in there. So one needs a kettle to get the water scalding hot before the contraption is assembled. As a consequence, a towel to keep your hands from burning is a must, as is a way to keep the funnel of coffee upright before it goes into the base. I should do a video on how this all fits together.
Story of my coffee life. I always seem to make everything more complicated. Makes for great coffee, but there is a real dance to it all.
That said, the results are worth the effort. Lovely, strong espresso-like coffee. I mix it with hot milk and it is great.
I often take it down to the dock and enjoy it in the sun – except for today, where the clouds are stubbornly keeping the sun at bay. There are all these spots of blue sky but none seem to be able to find their way in front of the sun. Oh well, it’ll happen soon enough. Any time now. Waiting. Ahhhhhh. Much better.
A few years ago a friend of mine sent me a stock photo request for a cortado coffee. I had no idea what one was. As it turns out, it’s a Spanish coffee, where the milk ‘cuts’ the espresso. So a 50-50 mix of coffee and espresso. I had never heard of one before. Apparently they’re consumed in glasses, rather than cups, and apparently they have steamed milk but not froth or foam.
I didn’t make the sale on the stock request, even though I shot what I thought were some rather nice photos. I even used some film.
But I ended up making and consuming a fair number of these drinks. I have never really seen one except in photos in a search engine. Still don’t know if what I’m doing is right. I’m sure there are a bunch of baristas out there who roll their eyes at such abominations as this.
But it’s my narrative now, and this is my cortado. It’s more like a 2:1 mix of milk and espresso, and I do a bit of latte art on the top, such as it is. The Rorschach test on the top of this drink is either a puppy or a tornado. It’s hard to tell.
I’m rather partial to them now. My afternoon go-to coffee drink, especially in the summer.
Not as strong as a macchiato and with more substance so you can enjoy it longer. That’s the only problem with straight espresso. It’s over before it starts.
Coffee at the lake. First thing in the morning. Best part of a great day.
Coffee at the Lake is really rather strange. My mother used to talk about how, when we were kids, the tea at the lake (different lake, but same idea) always tasted better than it did at home. My mom was not a huge fan of the lake, (especially when it poured with rain for the two weeks we spent there one summer) but she does know a good cup of tea.
Right. Coffee. Lake. One year (last year or the one before) I took a notion to upgrade the coffee at the lake by buying, in order, a Moka coffee pot and then an Aeropress coffee maker. My mother-in-law generally just makes it in a perk pot. You know, half a cup of ground coffee in the filter part… let it come to the boil and then perk for 7 minutes – as if, somehow, 8 minutes of boiling coffee would make it terrible and 6 minutes wouldn’t be enough. Reminds me of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they are reading instructions about the Holy hand Grenade of Anioch from the Book of Armaments (4:16-20)
“Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, “Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals … Now did the Lord say, “First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”
Now I’m REALLY getting off topic. Perk coffee sucks at the best of times.
But at the lake not only is it palatable, it’s really rather good. In fact, my sister-in-law, who is nearly as much of a coffee snob as I am (OK, probably not possible, but…) prefers the perk coffee to my Aeropress coffee or the Moka.
I was out at the lake this weekend opening up the cabin. Setting up the water; pulling out solar cells; general spring cleaning… That sort of thing. Betty made some coffee from last year’s coffee – it had sat in the cabin over the winter. Since August at least – or 9 months.
Wasn’t that good. What they say about fresh coffee is absolutely true. But here’s the kicker. It was perfectly drinkable, even black, and I was yet again amazed at how good a cup of coffee can be at the lake.
The ‘perfect’ amount of ground espresso – in this case, 18 grams. If only it were right in the middle of the portafilter. *sigh*
I’m still struggling to figure out all the commands in WordPress. Half of the time I get to a spot and have no idea how I got there and, more importantly, no idea how to get back. Stupid program. Why can’t they just make it for my way of thinking? Sheesh.
This is my second post about coffee. I wanted to write something clever about the ‘magic elixir’ or how amazing coffee is. I did write a bunch but it was so hard to figure out the drafts and the revisions I just had to give up and start again.
Right. Where was I? Coffee!
I’ll admit, I really like it, but it has occurred to me that the actual process of making an espresso adds a lot to my enjoyment of the drink. This may be a theme in my life that I’ll possibly explore ad nauseum in days to come, but for the time being, coffee is as much for me about the process as it is about the drink itself.
Perhaps that’s not quite accurate. Coffee is a really fickle pickle, to use a technical term. When people talk about the process they go though when making a cup of joe, coffee is one of the very few food items that demands that level of attention and respect and will reward you for being diligent and careful. Like baking pastries, careful counts.
Many years ago I bought a Rancilio Silvia espresso maker. I used it every day for 7 years and it taught me a ton about coffee. Careful pays off. A grinder is worth the money (to a point). When I moved from the Baratza Virtuoso that wore out after 6 years I switched to the Eureka Silencio. The improvement in the coffee was immediate. I was amazed. All of a sudden I understood why people would blow $1500 on a grinder.
I upgraded to a Rocket not that long ago, but that has more to do with my magpie nature (can’t resist shiny things) and my ability to rationalize many mechanical things (I am a photographer, after all) than it does with coffee.
Besides, getting a great shot out of the Silvia is way harder than the Rocket. The Silvia is a pretty badass machine.
But where I’m trying to go is to say that some things about coffee really matter: The beans, how fresh the grind is, quality of the water as well as the temperature of it will make a big difference in your coffee experience.
If you’re brewing espresso, the amount of coffee in the portafilter (in grams – get yourself a scale – you’ll need it in the kitchen, anyway) how hard you tamp the coffee and how long you run it through the machine also make a big difference in the extraction. The key is 2oz (60ml) of coffee in 25 seconds at the right temperature. Apparently a single-shot portafilter is for people more adept than I.
Naked (bottomless) portafilters, weighing the coffee once it has brewed and snippy comments directed at people who like to drink their coffee with sugar and have it to go are listed under the heading of ‘smoke ’em if you got ’em’.
Although I will admit that the reason why I hate naked portafilters so much is because your espresso technique is shredded by those things. I don’t mind having my inadequacies gently pointed out. I’m not a fan of them making a mess of my clothes.
https://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.png00Alastairhttps://dontcrowdthepan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dont_Crowd_Logo_new-1.pngAlastair2020-05-07 00:15:332020-05-13 18:26:39Coffee – first of many posts about coffee, I expect.
