Nod to the Great Canadian Blog - Clean Hot and Dry · Wednesday February 4, 2009 by colin newell
If I never blogged another sentence about coffee culture, specialty coffee and the pop culture associated with the scene in the North-west…
I certainly would not be missed. Especially when there are spot-on blogs like Clean Hot Dry
Like the Jim Seven blog, Clean Hot Dry brings home the reality of the sheer sexiness of the coffee scene in Vancouver – the life and times of the baristi in Vancouver – and Clean Hot Dry speaks to the best of the best across Canada and America.
And when I return to Vancouver for a week in June, I am going to have my work cut out for me getting caught up – of course I will have the assistance of my two key associates there; Dave and Theresa.
Anyway Clean Hot Dry reduces the essence of the Vancouver coffee scene to a sweet, sweet ristretto stream of consciousness – I love it and I think you will too.
In other thoughts, I am thinking of finally abandoning the multi-threaded theme of this website; coffee, food, rants, miscellany – and just focusing on Coffee and Food Culture in the Northwest.
If there are any objections, raise them now in the comment fields.
Click on the above image for the full photizzle…
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and writer of words… his search for the perfect cup of coffee is on going
Cafe culture Winter 2009 marathon post number one · Friday January 30, 2009 by colin newell
All work and no play makes Colin a dull boy.
And it was with that thought that we had an impromptu espresso throw-down (during my coffee break…) in my lab at the University today.
It was, after all, Friday – a long week, much production under our belts and high time to have a pre-weekend cortex bending exercise with the last legal high – the caffeine bean.
The equipment: An ECM Cellini Rocket professional machine on loan from EspressoTec.com in Vancouver.
A Rancilio Rocky grinder.
Several Reg Barber tampers – one of them a coveted solid Titanium 58MM base with bubinga (farmed hardwood) handles from Central America.
Coffee: Espresso house blend from Everyday Gourmet of St. Lawrence Market, Front Street in Toronto and some single-origin Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from local roaster Peter Cross.
The Contestants: Gillian (formerly of Habit Coffee and Culture. Mike C. from IT at UVic. And yours truly.
Our taste subjects included Nick, Wayne, Al, as well as our faithful selves.
We blasted through about 3/4 pound of coffee in under 15 minutes, making about 8 to 10 doubles and some misses.
Not surprising, Gillian mopped the floor with us. Mike was not far behind with one killer God shot after another – and I followed up the rear with some pretty decent crema rich shots.
The ECM Rocket will be the subject of a detailed review one of these days.
Meantime, it is good to have fun – and I think it is a cool to, at least occasionally, get all out of control with the coffee machines in the work place.
Comment [1]
Quest 4 The Best · Tuesday January 20, 2009 by colin newell
The ‘best’ is not necessarily the most expensive. The ‘best’ is not necessarily the luxury-labelled product. The ‘best’ is actually always only known to an insider. Make that ‘only known to you’. Because the real ‘best’ is subjective and everybody somewhat in tune with their inner self knows when this personal ‘best’ has been found.
Same with whatever the ‘best’ coffee might be. Divorces were filed over badly brewed ones and first borns cut out of wills because of the wrong filter paper. So the serving of self-grown coffee to a coffee guru of Colin Newells’ caliber can make even the sturdiest coffee farmer shiver in his muddy boots. Yet when Colin and his darling Andrea tasted our beans on our Hawaiian coffee farm, he included the very four letter word in his compliment:
“Best Kona I’ve tasted.”
What-, whose? Ours?! The shivering stopped immediately, which was nice. Upon Colin’s question what we think makes our Kona beans so good, I had to admit that a big part is certainly the very setting surrounding him. Like the nameless wine served from a simple carafe in a small village in the Provence or Tuscany after having hiked the cobble-stoned streets- this wine happens always to be the very best, because it feels and tastes just right. Right for that particular moment and place. Yet with a taste which belongs to something bigger and transcends, elevates one. So the ‘best coffee’ is not what we claim to grow (albeit we like to hear it), but I felt that it was also the special moment in time what Colin meant when he stated it.
Breathing the silky Hawaiian air, tasting the purity of our fresh rain water, the view of the verdant green hills covered with coffee bushes surrounding him, and the awareness that everything around contributed to this very coffee drinking experience. Watching the chickens who pick the bugs out of our orchard, the lush grass being alive under his feet, the sun which right then when it got too hot to bear got hidden by shade spending afternoon clouds, that he can ask the farmers how they found the place and what they would have to do tomorrow, hearing the rake going through the rustling parchment drying in the sun, sensing the history of the area, taking in the scenery. All that was his personal ‘best’- our coffee only being the accelerator, the oil in the gears.
Yesterday when you shelled out the big bucks for premium brands, a large portion of what you paid for was the actual product – today you are paying largely for marketing. But marketing campaigns do not make real luxury. The real luxury is finding these particular moments in time for yourself, for your friends, for when life is in sync. It may be the cappuccino with that formidable person on a rainy afternoon in a smokey cafe: We may hear you say that this is the best cappuccino you ever had. But what you meant is that you really feel good about where you are and who you are with.
Colin asked me to write from time to time about what we are doing here on our Kona coffee farm, our day-to-day farmer life, noteworthy experiences and news from the island. I wrapped my head around it of how to find an angle so that it would not be understood as a sales pitch or marketing (because we happen to sell our coffee as well). Having a cup of coffee is great fuel for experiencing the aforementioned particular moments; many magical moments are happening by farming and processing coffee as well. So I’ll try to share one or the other with you in the weeks to come. Of course what hopefully will be a simple, good read can certainly be enhanced with having your very personal ‘best’ coffee along with it.
Joachim Oster is a coffee farmer and owner (with his lovely wife Demetria and daughter Athena…) of Blue Horse Kona Coffee Farm in Kealakekua, Hawaii (near Captain Cook). His writing will periodically grace the pages of the CoffeeCrew Blog – and for that we are eternally grateful!
Hawaii vacation blogging - I had fun though some don`t · Wednesday January 14, 2009 by colin newell
Picture if you would… a little cafe that I have dreamed up. It is kind of a hole in the wall place. Long. Narrow. There are, like, over a hundred tables in this cafe… and the seats are really packed together. So much so that you cannot stretch out your legs. House rules: Everybody stays seated unless I say it’s OK to get up. I wander around the cafe once an hour or so offering people coffee or tea… or water.
And it’s not the best coffee either.
But my cafe is very, very expensive. And oddly, very busy.
People pay hundreds of dollars to sit here. Like I said, I just dreamed this up.
And I do not guarantee that I will actually serve any coffee – or offer any food.
I might charge a cover to come in… and not serve anything at all.
My cafe is so uncomfortable and unpredictable that you might ask yourself why on Earth you are coming here. I mean, what’s in it for you?
Truth is, this business, in real life is actually wildly successful.
Except, it is not a cafe at all. It is your average airline.
An Airline. Kind of like a cafe in the sky. You pay big money. You are treated like crap. Surly in-flight crew shuffle you around like bovine, throwing trowels of inedible food at you – all the while you wonder if your personal effects will be waiting for you at your destination.
Reminds me of a website I discovered on the weekend while thinking about my next trip. Airline Quality.Com blew me away with the candid reviews of Air Travel in the 21st Century. It seems that life on Earth in 2009 is in the 21st Century, but when you take off into the wild blue wonder – you might think it is actually the Dark Ages – right down to the cattle prods and Cat O’ Nine Tails .
Example of an Air Canada horror story – Total cumulative time spent on hold was estimated at 10 hours. I emailed AC this morning, Dec 30. They responded saying it would be 4 weeks before they would get back to me. Any airline can provide good service during the off-season, when the weather is good. The true test of an airline is when it is busy. Air Canada fails this test miserably .
Yup. Page after page of shocking true to life stories like these! I was glued to the computer for hours – my wife had to shake me out of my trance, locked into this like a mongoose being hypnotized by a cobra… couldn’t look away…
Personally, I like my humiliation on the ground where I am, at least, a little in control… or can walk away… Like work, or visiting the Passport Office (funny story – another blog) or doing a live television interview the very moment the interviewer realizes that I have the stage presence of Jean Claude Van Damme… Sorry Jean. At least if you get hassled in the air, you can round-house kick your way out of trouble and parachute to safety.
Anyway – before you fly or travel or plan your next vacation – visit two websites:
Airline Quality.Com and Trip Adviser.Com
For the coffeecrew blog, I am Colin Newell. Feet planted firmly on the ground… at least for now.
Hawaii vacation blogging - Return - Home is where the heart is · Tuesday January 13, 2009 by colin newell
For the last 3 or 4 days running, I have been waking up in Hawaii – even though I have been home for over a week.
It is as if I left something behind…
But what could it be?
This was the most wonderful trip ever. And I did connect on several levels that I did not before. And I met the most incredible collection of people.
Like Demetria Oster and her husband Joachim (photo above right) of Blue Horse Kona Coffee. They lived in Manhattan, New York until the early part of the 21st Century until circumstance brought them to Kealakekua, Hawaii – the Big Island as we call it. They brought their daughter to a New World, like explorers of old. It was quite the departure, from one of the riches cities in the World to a virtually unknown belt of agricultural land that produces the bulk of specialty coffee known only as Kona Coffee.
And if you didn’t know what a coffee plant looked like, you could very easily pass through town and not see a single plant – even though you were surrounded the entire time.
As my wife Andrea and I walked around the Oster’s farm, Joachim and Demetria’s commentary added a dimension to the tour that I was not expecting; humanity. passion. transition. hope. stoicism.
A coffee farm, any farm… and the terra firma that it is planted on tolerates your presence… sometimes just barely – I speak from experience. But if you are ready to give enough and love enough, then maybe, just maybe the land will yield – and reward your efforts with another year of survival.
For me, having the Oster family open this window was a significant piece of the coffee puzzle falling into place. Part of this trip was about my coffee journey and thinking about writing the next chapter. The connection has been made.
And as I have been waking up at 3 AM every night, I am sure a part of me was left behind… with a whole bunch of work to do.
In fact, I traded a piece of my heart for a basket of coffee farm soul. And there is no cure other than returning for some more.
Colin Newell lives and breathes coffee – on the green planet Earth and hopes one day to have a better understanding of it all.
