glass rod syphoneering

Last Christmas, Dan gave me an original, old-school Cona syphon which uses a glass rod (cool pressie, huh?!). I haven’t yet used it, as the rubber seal between the two globes needs replacing; even though I know where I can get a replacement, I still haven’t managed to get organised to do it. Today I saw that James Hoffman tweeted that he was experimenting with a glass rod in his Hario. Now why has this never occured to me?! Hazel’s mentioned it’s do-able before, yet I’ve never thought to try it. So this morning, I dug out some tools, pulled out my spare cloth filter and had a bit of a tinker. Et voilà … my Hario MCA-3 now comes with the options of cloth, paper or glass filtering.

I was a bit nervous about using it, so the first trial was with my Unibuy. Cheaper and easier to replace I used some 2 month old Masai I found lying around, and ground a bit coarser than normal (I was nervous - didn’t want to clog the filter with fines and blow myself up). It works!! A few grinds came down, but it’s much less muddy a brew than I expected. Stirring will be an issue - the Hario paddle is just a bit wide, and I don’t want to knock the rod and let grinds go down into the brew. The draw down is quite slow, so that might mean tweaking things too … hmmm … Feeling a bit pleased with myself right now ;D

Click on the pic to see it bigger.

gone fishin’

Not really. Just been a bit quiet around here lately.

I’m taking a break from blogging at the moment, life has been hard, and really, sharing it on a web page has been the last thing I feel like doing. Today I make an exception. WARNING: This post is going to be unusually personal. Those readers who only come for the coffee, I do apologise, but this one is for those friends who have persisted with me, who pray for me, and whom I love dearly.

The coffee will return, actually if I remember I’ll do a write up on Cafébiz, but bear with me.

I started this blog with three ‘themes’, what I’m reading, thinking and drinking, so I will return to these for this post.

Reading: John Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy.

Thinking: I expect that reading a book of that title is somewhat of a give away about how life has been going lately. Joyless. Miserable. Depressed. Melancholic. Exhausting. The last few months have been a struggle. There have been days when I honestly didn’t know how I’d make it through; days when I’ve felt like giving up on everything; days when I’ve craved sleep, simply so I didn’t have to think and feel and live. I’m usually an avid reader, but getting through this book has been a struggle: I lack concentration, I lack perseverance, and then I usually heap guilt upon myself about these lackings. And then of course, the added weight of guilt makes it harder to concentrate and persevere. Am I ‘depressed’ in the medical sense of the word? I don’t know, but I’m wary of it, having been there before. I struggle to know whether my emotional state is ‘justified’ given the events of life, or whether it’s more than that.

My parents split up nearly two weeks ago; after my little sister and I discovered that our Dad has met someone ‘new’. I don’t need to go into detail, but obviously, Mum, my sister and I, and Dad actually, are all heartbroken. My family has pretty much fallen apart, but no one seems to know what happens next, so we’re in a holding pattern until someone actually decides where we go from here.

There are other things going on that I won’t go into, but they all add up to make life rather difficult at the moment. Messing about with coffee provides useful relief from having to deal with everything; the problem being that I can’t do that often without feeling like I’m neglecting the kids and Drew.

But God has been good, and He has got me through those days that I honestly thought I couldn’t deal with. He is teaching me, and causing me, to persevere. He is working all things for His good and perfect purposes, and He has graciously helped me to trust that through all these trials. He has also reminded me, in His word, that these trials are only light and momentary, that they will not last. He is teaching me to savour once more His promises, and to look to Him as my strength.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Drinking: Ethiopian Natural Forest Dima. Espresso. Dark chocolate Cherry Ripe.
Colombian Huila y Tolima El Cafetero. Espresso. Deep. Balanced.

2009 world barista championship

Starts tonight … well, tomorrow morning anyway.

Competition starts at 1am AEST. You can watch it live here.

And find out more stuff here. And there’s a sweet blog here.

Tim Adams, the Aussie competitor, is scheduled to compete at 4:27am AEST (Friday morning).

I’m also keen to watch Canada’s Sammy Piccolo who should take the stage at 5:43am AEST, and NZ’s Carl Sara (Day 2 - 3:30am AEST Saturday morning).

There are three days and 52 competitors in the first round, then the six finalists will be announced at 6:30am AEST on Sunday morning. Finals will take place from 2am AEST Monday.

Better stock up on some midnight snacks …

you can learn from books

… even kids books!

Zeke’s absolute favie book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

When shown our annual, tree-stripping in mere minutes, caterpillar plague yesterday afternoon, he looked at his ‘andma and asked “Where butterflies?”

five years

surely this can’t last

The veritable deluge of awesome coffee continues.

Saturday comes around, another crawl … but where to go …?

We arrived at Hazel’s and peered at the little orange card displaying the day’s pour-over offerings … Ooh! Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley … Ooh ooh! Panama La Esmeralda #5 … Is this for real?! We can drink BOTH of them right now? The IMV … strawberries (less cream this time) … juicy, succulent … delicious … And the Esmeralda … floral, violets but deeper tones as well … ah … IMV … Esmeralda … IMV … Esmeralda … seriously … how good is this?!! Oh right, espresso … PNG Elimbari … meaty, but honey sweet … punchy … (insert bonus catch up with Mark & Jess here; once Mark realised who I was … hahaha!).

Another café, and another awesome Sidamo. Mecca this time and a syphon-brewed something-starting-with-B. Those boys are killing it there; the last three visits have yielded simply excellent syphon-brewed Sidamos and I like! (Celebrity spotting incident #1 - Paul “World Barista Champ 03″ Bassett).

By now, we were hungry, so we headed to the obvious next stop - The Source. A ham, cheddar and chutney sambo, and it’s back into the coffee. Espressoland now; Lucky 7 first (spice, jasmine tea, dark chocolate - Dan, shut up!),  then the Guatemala CoE #22 Finca La Perla (oddly fishy aromatic to begin with, but a really clean and balanced shot, very nice). (Celebrity spotting incident #2 - George Gregan and a macchiato).

Yeah, one of these days I’ll post about something slightly more interesting and meaningful …

something to think about

According to that terribly reliable source of information that is Wikipedia …

Each year, about 7.8 million tons of coffee is produced, worldwide.

And yet only 5.5 million tons of coffee is consumed.

Hmmm … more thoughts coming soon … once I find more reliable information sources

do you remember …

… your best coffee-related experience? 

Hit me with your top five(ish): What was it? Where was it? And why was it so awesome?

It could be the greatest shot you ever had, a most amazing filter brew, the coolest café you’ve ever been in, or just the most fun you’ve ever had messing with coffee.

mercanta @ the source

Have you ever woken up, still tired from a late night out, and wondered, did last night really happen or did I dream it? Well, that’s pretty much where I am this morning.

Goodness knows how, but last night I was able to attend a presentation and cupping put on by Mercanta and melbourne coffee merchants at The Source. The presentation was to do with specialty v. commodity coffee, and was one of the most illuminating sessions on coffee I’ve ever attended. I’m sure some random thoughts will come later, I have a lot going on in my head right now and I need to do some more reading/researching before I expound on it all. For now I leave you with this … the green/red lines are to do with commodity coffee prices, the blue one is Fair Trade  (grr … I will give my two cents on this later), and the purple one zig-zagging up up UP is Cup of Excellence.

After this, we were able to cup ten of some of the amazing coffees Mercanta are offering. 

The ones that stood out for me where #6, #7, and #8, which, if I’m not mistaken, were: #6 Ethiopian Harrar Rayan Highlands; #7 Guatemala CoE #22 Finca La Perla; #8 Sumatran Takengon Aceh. 

All photos courtesy of the lovely Emily Oak. View them all here. And check out The Source write-up. Oh, and Luca’s post on the Melb edition.

covering new grounds

Another coffee crawl, this time through The Shire. I promise, no hobbit jokes are to follow.

Well, actually we started with an old favie that is not in the Shire. Coffee Alchemy. Hazel and Adam served us some some delightful Kenya French Mish pour-over (so HOT right now) to start with. The French Mish is pretty amazing, especially once it cools and “turns”. Mmm … the roast tomatoey-ness becomes sweet florals … I love this as pour-over soooo much. We also had a couple of espressi: an Aussie MTE Bin 35 that was just so interesting and different and complex and bassy; and a peanutty, sweet Brasil Rondomuñho. 

Then we headed south to White Horse Coffee (Flora St, Sutherland) who are at present being supplied by Mecca Espresso. We shot some pretty good ’spro, and then had more awesome pour-over (have I mentioned I’m slightly obsessed with brewed coffee at the moment?). The first pour-over we tried was a Guatemalan San Pedro, which was (this will sound insane, I guess you had to be there) masculine, musky, graphite, and black. We then had an absolutely outstanding Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Idido Misty Valley which was purple, with berries, cream, and eucalyptus - seriously, we actually had that eucayptusy-menthol feeling afterwards (I’m not entirely sure why I’m tasting colours at the moment, but they make sense as descriptors in my head).

Next stop was Grind Espresso Bar (Surf Rd, Cronulla) who are serving up ’spro roasted by the fellas at Single Origin Roasters. I’m sure it’s great, but by the time we got there, I was so overloaded on coffee that I really didn’t enjoy the few sips I forced down. I’m sure they must have the goods, as they seem to have somewhat of a cult following; the walls are plastered with photos of people all over the world holding up the ‘I’d rather be at Grind’ slogan.

The final stop was HAM (Harry and Mario, Gerrale St, Cronulla). By then I’d given up on ’spro and stuck to my third favie drink (Phoenix Organic Cola). However, I have it on reasonably good authority that it was the pick of the Sutherland region ’spros today . The coffee is roasted by Paul Bassett and Instaurator. Not entirely sure how that works, but hey, with those two names behind it, I’m sure it’s top-notch. I’d like to go back there soon - preferably with less coffee in my system*.

*Before aspersions are cast on my coffee drinking ability, I should like to point out it is not the caffeine that causes me such a struggle. And I am NOT going soft.

les aventures d’anniversaire

To celebrate my birthday earlier this month, I decided it would only be right to drink copious quantities of exceptionally good coffee. So I grabbed a few good friends and headed for two of my favourite places.

First stop was The Source, and some seriously tasty pour-over Kenya French Mission (so HOT right now), as well as some very delicious shots of their Lucky 7 house blend. 

The food there is pretty darn yummy as well; I had a fig and prosciutto salad that was quite excellent. And their muffins are the best!

We had to restrain ourselves from drinking too much coffee, given the next step in our adventure …

Cupping @ Hazel’s. Oh yeah.

Hazel had very kindly agreed to let us swamp the Cauldron for the afternoon. It was an absolute blast!

First up we were treated to a delightful brew of cold, filtered Sidamo Dale.

The to the cupping table, where our spoons were greeted with the Sidamo Dale, Kenya French Mission, Costa Rica something-or-other (Hazel?), and Brasil Rondomuñho.

All four were quite excellent, I personally can’t go past the Dale or the French Mish, they’re awesome. It’s pushing my memory, but the Dale was citrus and berries and floral, the French Mish, deeper, roast tomatoes, sweet … Hmm, the memories have faded sadly … The Costa Rica, I recall, was clean and nice, and got more interesting as it cooled … And the Rondo - peanut butter sandwiches, unhulled peanuts …

Espresso was the next course, beginning with … a tin of Illy. Just out of curiosity really. It was rank: chemically, dark, bitter, acrid and incredibly unpleasant. After that we needed some sweet, sweet espressi, and Adam (I tell you what, that guy has a wicked stockfleth’s happening) and Hazel obliged, pulling us some Brasil Cachoeira, and the Dale. Mmm Dale … so HOT right now. (Incidently, I have been drinking a bag of Cachoeira this week, and it is great, very interesting. Full of orange peel, nice acidity, bright but not overly so. In milk, the oranges were more like those orange cream biscuits). 

We then traipsed back home for a few drinks (and a particularly lovely, minerally 2004 Cave Historique, Hospices de Strasbourg Alsace Grand Cru Riesling), with a few more friends. Quite a lovely birthday really. I’m a lucky girl.

Immense thanks to everyone who made it such a brilliant day  

I should have posted on this earlier so that I remembered more details. Oh well.

I also should have taken my camera on the day. I know Jess took some snaps, so I’m sure some will appear here soon-ish.