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.
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Dining in Victoria as good as it gets #2 · Saturday January 24, 2009 by colin newell
I last wrote about Brasserie L`ecole several years ago – and I get back from time to time. And I am never let down… unless of course there are some things that are out of the control of the restaurant and its owner.
A case in point.
Andrea and I were out for dinner last night with a dear friend who is celebrating her birthday. She is the best and is worth the best that the city has to offer.
Brasserie L`ecole has no bad tables – and only great food.
Unless. Unless you have some badly behaved guests.
At Brasserie L`ecole, everybody is special – although if there is a fussy guest, the staff will generally look after them. Last nights celebrity guest table included Global TV news anchor Tony Parsons – an awesome guy by all appearances (and younger and better looking in person than on the tube…) He and his table were awesome – enjoying the restaurant and the whole experience.
He was to our immediate left. To our immediate right was a local clothier who thinks pretty highly of himself – you know the kind; refers to himself in the 3rd person…
Anyway, when he was not talking story with any restaurant staff that would stop by the table (forcing our table to look at staff bums for almost 20% of the time we were eating…) he was trying to send; wine, dessert, whatever to the Parsons table – essentially insinuating himself on them.
Clothier: “I would like to buy a bottle of wine for Tony…”
Maitre d’: “Monsieur, the Parsons table have plenty to drink… They do not need any more wine…”
Clothier: “Well, I would not want to buy them wine they will not drink…”
And so on and so on…
Nothing like an idiot clothier to almost ruin a great meal…
Almost. It was a great meal nonetheless.
Brasserie L`ecole is the perfect restaurant for that special first date or 22nd date or a spot to take those special friends on their special days.
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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 - memories are made of this · Monday January 19, 2009 by colin newell
My sister, Toni, just asked me…
“What were some of the best memories of your Hawaii vacation?”
Good question.
For starters…
-eating a simple birthday dinner on the lanai watching the
Sun go down… Hale Kona Kai condo – Kona, Hawaii
-making breakfast every morning; granola, fresh papaya, and an omelette
-snorkeling with brilliant tropical fish
-sitting on a patio surrounded by coffee plants… while drinking the
coffee from the plants – Blue Horse Kona Farm near Captain Cook, Hawaii
-drinking beer at the Kona Brewing Company and eating pizza while
a mongoose mooches the table
-self guided tour at Greenwell Farms, surrounded by Avocado, Grapefruit, lemon
and breadfruit trees…
-drinking coffee at Island Lava Java on Alii Drive, Kona
-Eating shave ice at the North Shore of Oahu
-Eating at a Shrimp cart in Oahu
-Enjoying a plate lunch at a dodgy Honolulu bar and grill
-Eating a plate of nachos at Charters Marina pub next to the Illikai Marina, Waikiki
-Standing in line waiting to get into the Wailana Coffee House – a “Denny’s” on steroids,
4 times the size of our Denny’s talking to Canadian snow birds from Swift Current, Saskatchewan
-Watching a tropical thunderstorm
-Flashing the shaka hand gesture at a complete stranger
-Waikiki trolley tour… pretty much any part of it.
-Walking Bishop’s museum, Honolulu
and my favorite…
-Finding Andrea 13 minutes after getting lost in downtown Waikiki…
Moderately terrifying, but a satisfying reunion.
