Tanzania Organic AB Hope Project

The bad news is that this isn't the best Tanzanian coffee I have had in the past year or so. The good news is that it is a decent cup.

I have been trying to reduce my green coffee stash for the past few months with decent success. People at work have benefited greatly from this, since they are the victims of my coffee every week. When I saw a new Tanzania coffee crop up (pun intended)recently, I grabbed 5 pounds to try. Tanzania may well be my favorite coffee origin, so it was very hard to resist.

The roast was a standard affair:


This took a long time to get to first crack, which was odd. I didn't observe any temperature issues, so perhaps it was the bean itself. Grinding the beans, they looked quite light - this is a City+ roast - nowhere near second crack.

Drinking this over the past week, it is lighter bodied than I expected. It is balanced, with decent acidity. There is a dense nuttiness as well that I don't think I have encountered in a Tanzania coffee. In the background, there lurks some funk/jute/leather that reminds you that this is an African bean. It isn't unpleasant, but there is a "wilder" element to it. A day or two post-roast, a creamy cantaloupe character emerges, splashed with milk chocolate.

All in all, this is a nice cup, but it didn't blow me away. I need to play with the roast level a bit to see if I can improve it. I think a tad more roast might work well.

Guatemala Oriente Dry Process

There is definitely a trend for Central American coffee producers to be trying their hands at more traditional methods of production such as dry processing. I have had some excellent examples of these over the past couple of years. This was a coffee that came and went at Sweet Marias, and I didn't get a chance to order any. I ended up trading some green coffee with someone else to get some of this to try. It is strange stuff.

Here is the roast, though it doesn't tell the story:


This coffee presented a conundrum in that it seems to race from 1st crack to 2nd very quickly. I rely on the sound of the cracks as a key indicator of how the coffee is roasting, and this one made all sorts of sounds that were hard to differentiate. Luckily the results were good, but I have honestly no idea what roast level this coffee is. Most likely Full City. Actually, I have roasted this coffee twice and had the same experience.

For those who have tried the truly bizarre Anokhi coffee, which is a different coffee variety altogether (coffea liberica v. coffea arabica), this Guatemala coffee is quite similar, but not nearly as intense.

The best analogy I can offer is Frankenberry cereal. There are odd berry notes galore, but not the clean fruit you get from say a Kenya, but fermented, slightly "off" fruit. There are some grainy notes and chocolate as well. The overall effect is slightly offputting, but not altogether unpleasant. I am glad I had a chance to try it, but I have no desire to have any more. For those who are bored by coffee, here is one to wake you up.

Zen and the Art of Knife Sharpening

I was thinking recently of how modern man has changed so much from his forbears. The sheer amount of "on" time we have to deal with is astounding. Information flows at hyperspeeds, work hours are longer and longer, and even home time is filled with kids "playdates" (a byproduct of the modern age if ever there was one), homework, chores, and other various and sundry things. If you think about it, there is just so little downtime that we have to think and reflect. I find my soul craves that stillness so badly. Literally the only time I have during the day is about 10 minutes in the morning, sitting with my coffee, looking out the window, and getting ready to hop in the shower and go to work. No one is up besides me, there are no sounds besides the bubbling of my aquarium, and I am alone with my thoughts. Kind of sad....

Given all this, people tend to find unusual ways to find this stillness. Some people fix their cars, others stare blindly at the television, and some.... sharpen knives.

I am a fairly serious home cook, and as is often the case, I have acquired many tools of the trade. There is nothing more important to a cook then a good set of knives. Until fairly recently, I was content with the usual spate of European knives - the Henckels, Wustofs, etc. Then a friend introduced me to the glory that is Japanese cutlery, and there was no looking back.

Given the extreme hardness (and accompanying brittleness) of good steel, one must maintain the edges of your knives with some sort of sharpening media, generally waterstones. Doing this sharpening freehand presents many challenges since you must maintain the proper angles of each part of the bevel, the correct amount of pressure, etc. As you become more practiced, the repetitive motion, feel, and sound of sharpening can become quite, well, soothing.

I find myself setting time aside every now and then to work my knives on the stones. That time, that concentration, has become golden. Other thoughts drift away, and it becomes just the motion of the knife against the stone. It didn't really strike me until recently how much I value this time. There is the added bonus, of course, of achieving something difficult - insanely sharp instruments that simply can't be matched by most techniques. That actual building of something, something done with the hands, is important, and something that a lot us simply don't have anymore.

A couple of days I headed to Korin in Manhattan, and had a chance to watch a true master sharpener at work (see picture above). His movements were so economical, so quick, so effortless and graceful, that it was fascinating to watch. Also on display was the Japanese penchant for making task-specific tools; knives specifically for cutting octopus, for slicing sushi, and dispatching fish. I couldn't resist adding another knife to my arsenal, in this case a yanagi that doesn't fit well in this picture due to its length.

Roasting coffee, brewing excellent tea, sharpening knives, whatever - we all need to find that place where we can take a moment to relax and ponder the imponderables.

2008 Mengku Shuangjiang Bingdao Spring Cake

Here is a chubby cake of pu'er tea:

I am a fan of this factory's teas. This Bingdao cake is a refined affair; beautiful leaves and just the perfect amount of compression.



This is actually my first taste of this particular cake, as it has been sitting in my tea cabinet patiently for a few months. I had samples of it previously, so I was finishing those up before digging into the cake itself. I sampled this today with about 6 grams of leaf in my favorite 100mL Yixing pot. I rinsed the leaves twice before ingesting anything.

1st infusion: very light. Grainy aroma, no bitterness. Sweet, but clearly the leaves haven't given up much.

2nd infusion: malted barley aroma, grassy. A hint of bitterness at the end. More complexity and sweetness.

3rd infusion: Now we are talking. Shiitake mushrooms, grains. Still a light tea, but a lot of subtlety here. Bitterness is picking up, but it is a caress, not a slap. I feel the energy in waves.

4th infusion: More of the same goodness. Long, long huigan. Some cooling sensation in the mouth, but it is light. My head is throbbing - a good sensation.

It soldiers on until I give in, but there is plenty more to be had. I like this tea, though it is quite light. I think it is a good example of a "one step up tea" compared to the plantation teas that are out there. It is refined and honest, with no tweaking to the soup; its charms are one to savor slowly while watching the world go by. Looking at the leaves, it is largely buds and small leaf/bud sets.

Espresso Blends #4 - #6

This espresso blending thing is a lot more complicated than I originally thought. I am finding that even subtle changes can have a large effect on the shot. Iteration #3 was the best yet. As a reminder, it was the following:

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
25% Panama Lerida Estate "Miel"
10% Aged Sumatra
15% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

For the next variation, I decided to replace the Uganda base with some Brazilian coffee, in this case the Fazenda Barreiro that I did not care for as a single origin espresso. All other coffees and percentages were the same.

Net: yuck. I had low expectations, but this was terrible. I just hate that particular Brazil coffee. It just goes to show that you should take other people's recommendations with a grain of salt. This blend was 1-dimensional, woody dreck.

For blend #5, I decided to return to the successful #3 and try for a fruitier coffee. I upped the Ethiopia amount, and lost the aged Sumatra:

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
25% Panama Lerida Estate "Miel"
25% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

I also went a tad lighter in this roast, stopping at the onset of second crack. This was actually quite a nice blend. There was a lot of fruitiness in there, and the corresponding acidity level was increased as well. Shots of Misty Valley by itself remind me of the cherry liquor-filled chocolates that you can find, but in this blend it was tamed by the gentle earthiness of the other coffees. This blend rates as "very good", though it might be a bit intense for some people. Cappuccinos were interesting, coming out like strawberry milkshakes.

The last experiment was to swap out the Panama "miel" coffee for another coffee. I had some Costa Rica El Puente Caturra "Miel" hanging around, so I gave it a try in the "#3" blend:

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
25% Costa Rica El Puente Caturra "Miel"
10% Aged Sumatra
15% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

This again proved that if you don't like a coffee by itself, like the El Puente, don't waste your time blending it. This variation was flat, with some weird "off" notes to it.

I have blend #7 queued up at the moment. Stay tuned.

Sumatra Lintong Special Prep

Man is work killing me. Every day brings new levels of insanity. Time to blog isn't high on the priority list... Sorry about the infrequent updates.

As an aside, I seem to be moving slower than I used to. It's funny, I am about to turn 40, and I sense a definite change in how I act physically. It is going to sound weird, but I find it much easier to hurt myself these days. I am a fit guy for my age (I think), and it seems to take less and less to strain a muscle, develop some unknown pain, etc. I also seem more likely to burn myself while cooking, cut myself, etc. I suppose it is a combination of getting older and being more distracted with work, etc. I find myself much more aware of my surroundings, how I stand up if I bend down to pick something up, thinking twice about whether to run after one of my kids, etc. It is very strange, and somewhat sobering. Scotto's growing up!

But enough depressing thoughts - on to the coffee. This week I have been enjoying the last of some Sumatra Lintong "Special Prep". In this case, "special" doesn't mean anything weird, like the Jacu Bird coffee, but is more of an indication of the care of the preparation, which is quite good for an Indonesian coffee. The roast treatment was fairly standard:

I admit as usual that I am not a huge fan of Sumatra coffees, but this one really hit the spot. There is an unexpected level of acidity which is very refreshing. The cup is sweetly herbal, sort of like Ricola candies. There is leather and spice, but it all comes together into a coherent whole, and isn't overpowering even at this roast level. It goes to show what a really nice Indonesian coffee can be, instead of the swampy, thick junk that is often passed off on us.

Espresso Blends #2 and #3

Last time I talked about some espresso blending I am doing, or rather green bean blending for espresso. Here is where I started with Blend #1:

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
25% Mexico LaJoya bourbon
10% Aged Sumatra
15% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

This was a nice blend, but perhaps a bit too acidic from the Mexican coffee. For blend #2, I decided to add some more murky complexity by adding some Yemeni coffee, in this case Yemen Moka Mattari.

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
15% Mexico LaJoya bourbon
10% Yemen Moka Mattari
10% Aged Sumatra
15% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

This was roasted into second crack for about 30 seconds. As you might imagine from looking at the ingredient list, it produced some seriously rich, intense espresso. It was similar to the Moka Kadir blend that Sweet Maria's produces. Rich and spicy, with most of the acidity of blend #1 gone. I particularly liked this as straight espresso. In milk, however, I wasn't as thrilled. A lot of the complexity was gone and things weren't cutting through that well

Which brings us to iteration #3. Now I went back to #1 and replaced all the Mexican coffee with a "miel" coffee from Panama. Remember that "miel" means honey, and is a wet hulling process sort of in between wet and dry processing. It increases body and fruitiness at the expense of acidity and clarity.

50% Uganda Bugisu AA
25% Panama Lerida Estate "Miel"
10% Aged Sumatra
15% Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley '07

This was a super sweet espresso. The crema was incredible - super thick and mousse-like. I really liked this one in milk; it is perhaps the best of the bunch. Ristretto shots of this were particularly luscious, while normal shots were very good but not quite as stellar.

Lots of interesting data here; more experimentation is clearly needed.