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.

new books

I love books. I love coffee. And so I really, really love books about coffee.

The Coffee Cupper’s Handbook by Ted Lingle, only came today, and I can not wait to read it cover-to-cover. Looks brilliant.

The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella is strangely related to the Lingle book, even though it’s a work of fiction. It’s essentially a romance novel (and a particularly explicit one, I must say) about a poet who is commissioned to develop a language to describe and characterise coffee flavours. I’ve never read anything with such a surfeit of sensory detail.

new brewing methods

Cloth Filter

Little Red Hario Drippy-Thing

I’m really enjoying brewing with these new toys.

Sidamo Dale … Kenya French Mission … SO HOT right now.

Hazel concocted a French Mish/Gethumbwini/Sidamo Dale/Washed Sidamo blend, which I am just itching to get into!

pausing

I had intended to post today about the pretty brilliant weekend I just had.

But as I reflect on the scale of the tragedy unfolding in Victoria’s devastating bushfires, it occurs to me it can wait. 

The picture is from the Sydney Morning Herald - link above.

twenty six

… today.

Happy Birthday to me.

Nothing exciting happening today, but Saturday is going to be a good (and caffeinated) day!

bounty

I’m still trying to decide where I want to take The Knock Box this year, so this is possibly why I haven’t posted anything significant lately.

Drew’s back at work, Anastasia goes back to preschool tomorrow, and we’re well and truly back into the routine. 

I start uni officially on February 23, which I’m really excited about. I get to buy textbooks! Yay! In the interim, as part of my, er, preparation, I’m supposed to be drinking wine, and thinking about what I taste/smell. Gee, this degree is going to be tough ;) 

I have also hit upon a veritable bounty of awesome coffee.

Coffee Alchemy’s Sidamo Dale has been berrylicious and delightful! Hazel kindly roasted me up some for espresso, and some for filter/syphon. I haven’t been able to make a bad espresso with it yet, it’s just brilliant! (And Drew is drinking much more than his fair share of it! He can’t get enough of it. Not that I blame him, it is pretty fabulous!) I haven’t nailed it as a brewed cup yet - they’ve all been great, but the blueberries have thus far eluded me.

Also loving the ‘Black eye’ I got at The Source - yum! (Re-reading it, that sentence is somewhat amusing). Had a couple of awesome shots there on Tuesday; Indian Balmadi, and a couple of shots on the Lucky 7 House Blend - all absolutely topnotch.

Currently resting some Michelle-roasted Ethiopian Djimmah, and Sumatran Blue Lintong. Ooh, I could even do a Mocha-Java-esque thing with them … hmmm …

cyder house rules

Made our ‘we-try-to-do-it-every-holidays’ catch up with Dave/visit Single Origin trip yesterday.

Good times.

Single Origin re-opened on Monday after a month off for Christmas/New Year/renovations. Looks pretty good, though I suspect they could still do with more seating ;) 

Only had the one espresso - a shot of Mountain Top - really quite aromatic and flavoursome, though a trifle on the hot side. 

However, the beverage that got me really excited was served to us by the ever-ebullient Gav as we stood on the footpath awaiting a table. Cider. When he offered to fetch us some, I must admit I was dubious. I’ve never had a good cider before; I haven’t yet acquired a taste for most beers*, and the ciders I’ve tried have always had that beery-yeasty-unpleasant aftertaste. But as Gav re-appeared moments later, carrying wine glasses and a what looked like a bottle of white wine, and my hopes arose somewhat. 

Enter Small Acres Cyder - Somerset Still - Dry Cider.

Now this is my kind of cider: more like a dry white, with tones of earthy apple. Incredibly refreshing on a hot summer day in the city.

*Most. Here’s my thing with beer - I love the taste … until I swallow it ..! (I’m working on it. If anyone can recommend a floral, cleanly-flavoured beer that doesn’t come with that yeasty-burpy aftertaste, I’d be very interested).

playing at barista

I’ve had a stack of fun over the last few days, pulling a few shifts as a barista.

First stop was getting to play barista with Hazel at Flint & Steel on Thursday morning. I steamed, Hazel extracted, and it was loads of fun chatting as we did so. Drank a few shots of Tanzanian Peaberry (empty demitasse had a distinctly ‘horsey’ aroma), and a pourover brew of Ethiopian Sidamo Dale (hello blueberries!). I came home with a bag of the Dale roasted for espresso as well; stoked! I broke into last night and this morning (roasted on the 14th), and the blueberries are already playing! Can’t wait to see how it develops over the next week or so!

I then pulled two nights at NiteEV’s Café del Freeo, making an enormous number of hot chocolates and a few coffees. Good fun, though it is possibly the worst steam wand in the world on that Grimac. Actually, I’m also quite certain the blasted thing was running way too hot as well, even after stupidly long flushes. Still it was a good chance to practice some latté art I guess ;) 

Other than that … This morning I cupped an El Salvadorian Pacamara that I still haven’t made up my mind about. It is, to be exact: El Salvador - Apa Llamate, Finca Santa Teresa, Bartres Family, washed with mineral water, sun patio dried, USDA Organic, RFA … what a mouthful! In the grinder I got a distinct whiff of pool chlorine, but once wet, the aromas were of sweet caramel and vanilla. I was distracted after that, but came back to it periodically and I really don’t know what I think about it. I’m quite sure I roasted it too light for espresso so will have a play brewing it in filter and syphon, and will take my next batch a bit further along. Oh, and the beans are flippin’ huuuuge!

Pretty sure I’ve had more on my mind but right now I’m sleepy. ‘Night.

nswbc

Spent yesterday judging at the NSW Barista Championships. It was good fun; I tasted some pretty sweet ’spro, discovered tech judging isn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and chatted to some super friendly coffee people.

‘Twas a loooong day though, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to drink any more coffee for a day or two … ahem … except for that brew of La Esmeralda I thoroughly enjoyed this morning … the very last of it … sob …

DETPAK NSW Barista Champion Results
1st Habib Maarbani
2nd Paul Asquith
3rd Sam Sgambellone

DETPAK ACT Barista Art Championship Results
1st Sasa Sestic
2nd Jack Scheeren
3rd Aaron Howman

NSW/ACT Latte Art Championships
1st Angus Mackie (ACT)
2nd Habib Maarbani (NSW)
3rd Aaron Howman (ACT)

Now, just need people to develop some enthusiasm SOON so a Cupping Comp can go ahead …

esmeralda groupie

Tasting notes: ummmm …. it’s amazing. It tastes like the rainbow … it’s exquisitely perfumed … it’s … it’s … it’s … it has humbled my palate completely with it’s beauty … 

Have had some mindblowingly great coffees lately.

Also enjoying, the natural-processed Nicaraguan from BBB, with manages to be beautiful as both espresso and filter brew. Definitely in my top few espressi of all time, especially that one shot on New Years Day that I nailed. Filtered it was a delight also, and I have a vague memory of someone mentioning orange blossom water and lavender. 

Hazel’s Xmas Xperiment, a “how about we try this” blend of Rondomuño/Sidamo/Gethumbwini thanks to Hazel and Hannah was berry, berry beautiful, both as espresso and filter; the Sidamo berryliciousness (not sure which kind - I might be leaning toward blackberries) really stood out. There was also some really dark chocolate as it cooled, and then the Geth stood up with it’s citrusy beauty. I ran out of it far too quickly. 

2009

Happy New Year all.

Hope it’s a good one.

Don’t know about you, but the first coffee I drink this year will be the legendary ‘La Esmeralda‘. 

Not entirely sure what will get dumped in The Knock Box this year … stay tuned

The NSW Barista/Cupping/Latté Art Comps are in a week … what the heck am I thinking?!