I have been reduced to brewing the morning coffee with tap water today. Spring water really does make a difference in the flavor, if you are one of those coffee drinkers who cares about the taste of coffee. I also think a small amount of half & half is better than any amount of any other dairy product. I ran out of half & half, too. So, although I am drinking freshly ground Sulawesi coffee, it isn’t quite as good as it could be. The difference really is noticeable. Brewing Sulawesi coffee with tap water is a bit like having your Padrón Anniversario cigar with a diet soda… or having a Swisher Sweet machine-made cigar with a single malt scotch.
Posts Tagged ‘coffee’
Coffee and the Water Used to Brew It
Monday, December 17th, 2007Soft Cool Rain and Strong Hot Coffee
Sunday, August 19th, 2007We’re having Portland, Oregon weather here today, i.e. rainy, gloomy, cool. It would be nice to move back there. (That may have sounded sarcastic, but I’m serious.) In very many ways, Portland is my kind of town. Speaking of Portland, I bought a pound of Sulawesi (a.k.a. Celebes) coffee from the Starbucks in Bowling Green (Ohio) on Friday. The customer service was exceptional. (Here’s an irony… The first several Starbucks I ever visited were in Portand circa 1995. I was offended enough by the callousness of the employees that I never went back whilst I lived there and gave all my coffee business to Coffee People and La Patisserie. Upon reluctantly trying the Starbucks in Ann Arbor (Michigan) at Kelly’s very strong urging, I was impressed by the high quality of the service there and consequently lifted my boycott. I would almost think it was a question of regional differences, except that the service at Portland’s Coffee People was almost always extraordinarily good. It may be a question of management (at the store, district, or regional level), or maybe it’s a matter of changes at the corporate level over time.) At any rate, this is the first time since 2000 that I have bought my favorite coffee in the world, and yes, my friends, the magic is still there. Thank the gods for good coffee. It may be expensive, but it’s worth it.
I have also been thinking about bookshops (as always), puppet theatres, and combining the two, both as a business and as an edifice. The more I think about it, the more I think Portland, Oregon may be one of the best places in North America to attempt such a venture. There are other places where it could do well, too, but Portland is still like a second home to me.
Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, Ghidorah, Coffee
Monday, July 16th, 2007Good heavens.
Ghidorah is coming.*
On Sunday I watched Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964) for the first time since I was a wee lad, this time in Japanese with subtitles instead of English dubbing. I’ll need to check the American version to see if the scene or the dialogue were deleted or altered when it was released in the States, but I was very amused by the scene in the coffeehouse. The most expensive coffee in the world is Jamaica Blue Mountain, and almost all of it is exported to Japan. So what do you suppose the plainclothes police officer orders? Blue Mountain. What does his sister the television journalist order? Blue Mountain. When the scientist that brother thinks sister is dating arrives, what does he order? Blue Mountain. And it’s no joke of the translators, either, because the Japanese call Blue Mountain coffee — wait for it — “Blue Mountain.”
Someday I need to try it. Perhaps I will discover it is the only coffee grown in the Western Hemisphere I can tolerate. Or perhaps not.
Ghidorah sports some of the most amusing daikaiju combat scenes ever filmed, too… with monster dialogue!
*Some of the amusing subtitles from Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster.
Coffee Reflections
Thursday, July 12th, 2007Despite not being able to sleep until 4:45 a.m. this morning, I arose today at 10:15 a.m. after tossing and turning for about an hour or two, and I have just now made a pot of fresh coffee. Having used only bottled spring water for my coffee-brewing for the past few weeks and developed a strong preference for it, I regret having to use tap water today instead. I am also using ground coffee instead of whole bean, which is also cause for regret, but at least it’s White Castle brand coffee. The time is coming soon when I’ll be forced to order my coffee from a distributor via the Internet or telephone, because my local sources are drying up. If I were in Portland I might not be having this problem, but it is useless to wallow in nostalgia. Did I just write that? Ouch, the irony.
The coffees I miss, to reprise (and slightly revise) my lamentations, include:
- Celebes
- Mocha Java
- Sumatra Mandheling
- Kenya AA
- Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
I just discovered several distributors after conducting a brief search. Who is the patron saint of the Internet now? [A brief search ensues.] Thank Saint Isidore of Seville! He’s apparently a contender for the title.
[Time passes.]
Zarking fardwarks! What a bloody awful cup of coffee! That does it. I’m never brewing coffee with tap water again as long as live. Did it always taste that horrible, or am I suffering from amnesia? Zark. Out you go, foul pot of the Devil’s own brew. Down the drain with you. Now I’ll need to go to the grocery store.
Coffee, Photography, Muay Thai, Juggling
Saturday, September 30th, 2006I lapsed. I purchased ground coffee in a can - Chock Full o’ Nuts to be precise. Why? It was discounted (for good reason, as it happens), and I thought to myself: “My parents do not have a coffee grinder and the only coffee they drink is decaffeinated, so why not buy a can of this and keep it at their house on the occasions when I’m visiting and have dire need of coffee with caffeine?”
Several weeks later, not having even opened the can, I decided to bring it home to try it on the morning of one of my early shifts. Yesterday, I had to rise at 5 a.m., so I tried it. Verdict: Water isn’t as weak as this coffee! Never again will I purchase ground coffee in a can. From now on, it’s whole bean coffee from a non-South American country or nothing. This morning I’m drinking freshly ground Kenya AA coffee, so I’m better now.
Riveting, isn’t it?
In better news, I now own a digital camera for the first time in my life. It arrived on Thursday. That affords me greater flexibility in my Web design endeavors. So, you can expect slightly more in the way of graphics to adorn some of my pages in the future. I’ve had ideas requiring a digital camera for ages, and now, at long last, I can implement them! Igor, fetch me the digital camera! [Insert diabolical laughter.]
Moving right along…
Findlay is finally showing The Protector, Tony Jaa’s newest film (q.v. Ong-bak), so I’ll be watching it today.
And… I’m learning the vital skill of juggling.
Be seeing you… :-?