Summer fun food and drink 2009 - Chapter 2 coffee time · Wednesday June 17, 2009 by colin newell
If my colleagues and I were cats…
This is what our daily coffee break would look like.
Draw your own conclusions.
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Summer Fun Food and Drink 2009 - Chapter One - For women only · Sunday June 14, 2009 by colin newell
In over 15 years of serious coffee tasting, I have always followed my own motto: Push the specialty coffee experience to the very edge of the experiential frontier – and then push it a little further.
And in one and a half decades of boutique coffee browsing I have sipped coffee from the most exotic climes; Like beans from far flung places like St. Helena Island – Napoleon Bonaparte, no less, wiled away his final days there. Coffee beans pooped out the tail end of marsupial civets… from three different sources no less! Thai civet coffee, Indonesian Kopi Luwak and Vietnamese farmed civet coffee. I have had Jamaica Blue Mountain coffees from all the major estates on the little Island that gave us some of the most remarkable rums and reggae music. I once held in my hands a 10 pound bag of Panama La Hacienda Esmerelda coffee… worth over $1600. And yea, I got me some!
Some of my favorites java jolts have come from Ethiopia, Yemen, Uganda, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Papua New Guinea and, of all places, Australia and Thailand.
And despite all these varied experiences, nothing could have prepared me recently for my greatest caffeinated challenge to date… Girlie Coffee
Deliciously Girlie comes from Kealakekua on the Big Island of Hawaii – it’s a tranquil little town nestled along a very narrow region of land scarcely a mile wide and 7 to 10 miles long – and 1200 to 1750 feet above Sea level – it shares the strip of weather beaten State highway 11 and a luxurious landscape with town names like Captain Cook.
Deliciously Girlie coffee is 100% Pure Kona coffee that is very lightly roasted – probably as light as you can go – and only produced within the natural environment of the ideal coffee production facility… the farm. And the roaster. That is it. No intermediate steps. No corporate influence. No processing.
What I was fundamentally unprepared for were the consequences of brewing up several pots and presses of coffee actually intended for the exclusive consumption of the fairer sex… that is, the ladies.
In my lab at the University of Victoria, I work with a wide range of folks of both sexes and all ages. And as word went around that there was some newfangled brews to peruse, the buzz for this joe became palpable.
Cups of the Deliciously Girlie coffee were passed around to the crew and much to our surprise, the coffee was… mild and quite Kona like… with light body and very focused lemony notes. Ah. So far so good. Within about 15 minutes however, the guys in our coffee circle became quite blethering… verbose… chatty. Fact was, this lightly roasted coffee packs an immense caffeine wallop – somewhat higher than your typical burnt out Starbucks roast – Deliciously Girlie is at the other end of the roast spectrum and as you might not know: the lighter the roast, the higher the caffeine content.
And one of the reasons why they call this Girlie coffee (and there are lots of reasons on their informative webpage…) is that women are better equipped to deal with the different chemistry of this coffee – like more caffeine, and more complex antioxidants – those delightful little cancer fighters that many natural foods (like coffee) contain.
What of the ladies in the lab and offices around ours that sampled the women only java? They carried on about their day as if this was a normal, but tasty, cup of coffee to enjoy.
The guys? Well, we chatted and chatted and ran over into an elongated coffee break… and chatted some more. Then hugged. And went back to work.
But don’t take my word for it! Deliciously Girlie coffee comes in a remarkable packaging that looks unmistakably Jean Paul Gaultier (the designer!) – and not surprising, the creators of Deliciously Girlie used to work for companies like Prada in New York City.
This blog on Deliciously Girlie Coffee begins yet another season of our beloved series, Summer Fun Food and Drink! I hope you all enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoy writing them! Can we talk?
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As solstice approaches - Two Old Goats Live in the Sun age · Thursday June 4, 2009 by colin newell
Wouldn’t it be cool to be in a folk band – or have a CD under your belt and sit in the audience and enjoy your music?
Ok. Kind of weird.
Anyhow. Tonight Andrea and I had the awesome pleasure of sitting outdoors and listening to 1/2 of the Two Old Goats (my band), Charlie Burton and his lovely and talented daughter Mariah – belt out some of the tunes off of our album and Charlies first album Take my Picks
The Two Old Goats recorded a CD last year – titled Island Standard Time in my 24 track home studio… and, get this, this is the 1st time I have ever heard any of the songs performed live!
The real star of the show, actually, is Mariah, Charlies college age daughter – whose vocal prowess was an utter knock-out – and whose talent was entirely not surprising. She is, after all, the daughter of a dude who has some pretty wicked chops.
Anyway – to our delight, they played at the Cadboro Bay Starbucks – out on the patio – in the brilliant Sun… on a wonderful evening. The weather has been spectacular the last few days, in Victoria, and like any outdoor setting for live acoustic music… well, it cannot be beat! Charlie sang and played his Martin guitar and Banjo – Mariah sang, harmonized, did some originals and played some awesome guitar and banjo as well.
In a stunning moment, Mariah did a version of Summertime that left the audience breathless. And as I said to Charlie after the show: “I have teared up twice in the last month – once during a Tony Bennett performance on Elvis Costello’s show Spectacle and second during Mariah’s perfect and breathtaking rendition of the classic.
For those Victoria area residents that are interested, Charlie will be playing at the Caddy Bay Starbucks every Thursday night for the rest of the month – from 7PM til 9PM. Come on down. I will be there.
Interested in the music of the Two Old Goats – check it out here
Doi Chaang Thai Civet coffee - chapter two · Tuesday May 26, 2009 by colin newell
At $500 per pound, Doi Chaang’s Thai civet coffee could be among the most expensive – and tasty coffee on the Planet Earth – and I speak from my taste experience.
And in early June it will be available at one of three Urban Fare Stores in Vancouver and Pusateri’s in Toronto.
Senior officer at Doi Chaang, John Darch, has received requests for this exotic brew which has easily exceeded the 40 lbs they have on hand.
John offers, “I’m pleased to say that the Doi Chaang Civet coffee tasting went
exceptionally well. So well in fact that Shawn MacDonald and I were invited to appear on the Fanny Keifer show.”
A tasting was attended by three Chefs, three writers and a person who is a part of the local Slow Food organization.
Their response to the Civet coffee, aroma and taste was very positive, recognizing the “Honey, floral” lingering taste which was first identified by John Gilchrist.
Without exception, all of those who had tried the Indonesia Kopi Luwak stated that the Doi Chaang wild Civet coffee was far superior in taste.
I second that. And I have never been a big fan of the caffeinated flash in the pan.
With so little Thai Civet coffee available it will be interesting to see what impact this product has on the “esoteric elements” within specialty coffee.
The upside, as I see it, is – Doi Chaang’s standard fare of traditional arabica coffees are interesting – and at under $20/pound for the conventional stuff…
Worth every penny.
For sheer thrill power, the 1/8 pound of Thai Civet Coffee that Doi Chaang sent me was enjoyed by 12 of my colleagues – who will not be forgetting their experience anytime soon.
And that’s priceless.
