Thursday, March 19, 2009
A few Thoughts on Coffee
I love the coffee in London! I find the great selection of high quality coffee and the near fetish-like devotion some roasters show for their beans really, really, really exciting. My coffee man in Dublin - Michael Kelly of Ariosa - had wonderful coffee and an infectious enthusiasm for quality beans. In fact, he was the one who converted me from a coffee drinker to a coffee lover, so I was very worried that I might be in trouble without him. I needn't have worried. While I still miss my weekly chat with him (and some of his rarer coffees - if you ever get a chance, try the organic Indian, it's divine for a flat white!), I have suffered no interruption in my supply of great coffee.My greatest find is Monmouth Coffee, a small chain with shops in Borough and Covent Garden. I tend to pop over to Borough Market on Fridays (a seperate post is coming next time I'm down there) and pick up my weekly supply of beans. If the weather is good, I also love to have a Macchiato and a cigarette sitting in the sun watching the world go by.
Michael in Dublin also recommended Square Mile coffee roasters. It's run by a friend of his who he promised to be just as obsessed with coffee as himself. I must admit I'm a bit shy when it comes to ordering coffee online. I want to see it and smell it at least once before I commit. But I should really given them a try.
Anyway, this wasn't originally meant to be a brief guide of the coffee roasters in my life. This post has its origins in a mistake I made this morning. Normally, I start my day with a nice, relaxing cup of coffee, a tall glass of juice and a bowl of cereal. -- Aaaahhh, the perks of being unemployed! ;o) -- Depending on my mood and the weather, I either catch up with the day's headlines from the Guardian, the Times Online and Die Zeit or I plonk myself down somewhere and read an actual paper, which is generally way out of date (the Christmas issue of the Observer anyone?). This is not to say that I see print media as outdated. On the contrary, to me it is a nod to the longeavity of their content. A good weekly publication to me is one that is still interesting months later. News age quickly and need to be consumed fast. The press give me the opportunity to get background information and analyses, which takes time and requires appreciation. I could rant on about this for ages, but this blog is meant to be about food, so maybe I'll take the news talk over to Pink Orange.
Now back to the coffee. This morning, I accidentally started doing some household chores before my first cup of joe. Big mistake! When I finally did get on with making coffee, I found that I had accidentally put my milk jug in the dish washer and just started a washing cycle. Disaster! Since my departure in Dublin - a slightly disorganised affair and a story for another day - I've had to make due with only one milk jug, so if that's unavailable, I have to use a mug. Being all into keeping waste to a minimum, I decided against using two mugs, but to simply steam the milk in and then just add the coffee to it. Another big mistake! When I finally sat down at my PC and took a sip, I remembered my dear friend Emily telling me "Never let the coffee drip directly into a mug full of milk foam, it spoils the taste". How right she was. The beans that had yesterday produced a lovely, velvety cream of goodness today hit me with an acidic bitterness and lack of depth that was astounding. I'm shocked that you can take freshly bought organic espresso beans from a quality roaster, freshly grind them yourself, brew them in an obscenely expensive Gaggia machine (thank you, Mulmi, that was a great housewarming/Christmas present!) and serve them with farm assured organic milk, but if you get the order of things messed up, the result will taste like Nescafé gone wrong. So, what's the lesson of the day?
I'll leave you with this bit of wisdom and head off to make a fresh cup of coffee. ... And wash out my milk jug. Have a good one.Christine at 9:17 am
