But is it espresso? · Wednesday August 2, 2006 by colin newell
Adam Tindale of CoffeeCrew(left) listens to Alan Adler (center) explain the aeropress to Sam Jones of Discovery Coffee (right)
Alan Adler came to town for 5 days with his wife and grand-daughter.
They saw the sights and sounds of Victoria, B.C. Canada. They took my wife and I to dinner.
We gave them a walking and driving tour of the city and its surroundings. They have been here before but they loved it all over again.
Alan was kind enough to come down to Discovery Coffee and pit the Aeropress coffee maker against the Clover Coffee maker… and the Synesso espresso machine.
That’s right readers: He wagered his 39$ coffee maker against an 8000$ single cup coffee brewer and a 12,000$ espresso machine.
The Aeropress won hands down!
No. Sorry. Only in your dreams.
The Aeropress is a wonderful product for those who love a full bodied cup of coffee. Perfect for campers, hikers and traveller’s, the aeropress is the solution for those far and away from a decent cup.
What is it exactly? It is a paper-filter coffee maker press-pot. Without the sediment of course – the Aeropress brews a cuppa at a strength suited to your taste.
We found it brews a modestly comparable cup to the Clover Coffee maker. The Clover won out in extracting more of the subtle flavors of exotic coffees like Yirgecheffe.
Still, for 39$, noone is complaining.
Does it make espresso? Most certainly not. Part of the brewing process involves creating a slurry by pouring hot water into the brew chamber and stirring for a preset time period.
Yes, it makes a beverage as “thick” as espresso. Alan used a digital device known as a Brix refractometer to measure the amount of suspended solids in the brew.
Yes, the brew was as concentrated as the espresso from the Synesso. But it is not espresso. It is drip coffee with a gentle push.
Plain and simple.
All good stuff. Curious? Buy one. What have you got to lose other than 39 dollars?
Cheers.
Take the coffeecrew challenge and stop drinking coffee. · Sunday July 16, 2006 by colin newell
As mentioned over on the homepage
I have been working downward (in my consumption habits) toward zero coffee consumption.
I know. I know. The looks I have been getting since I started this adventure. Dude you are the coffee guy. You. Coffee. You are inseparable. No Coffee. No Colin.
Oh well.
Anyway. I would like to experience a coffee free body.
I tried this once before. Suddenly actually. And the results were less than pretty.
Picture me writhing on the floor in agony.
Hallucinations.
Flu-like symptoms.
Purple Spiders crawling down the melting walls of my cage.
And that was day 2.
I lasted about 5 or 6 days before the blinding headaches became
implacable.
That first cup after 7 days away from the bean was like drinking a combination of liquid treacle laced with Afghani heroin.
The relief flowed through my body like a warm tropical rain…
and faster than a morphine epidural.
Caffeine. This stuff is nasty. I am getting off of it (at least in this form) for a couple of monthes.
Don’t worry reader It is not forever.
My dairy-free waffle or pancake recipe · Sunday July 9, 2006 by colin newell
Perhaps more than life itself, I love breakfast. If I fail to start my day with lots of carbs and a bit of protein, I might as well stay in bed.
A typical morning for me includes granola, fruit, yoghurt, multi-grain toast and water.
I know what you are thinking: No coffee and no juice? No. Never.
Coffee is a ritual that comes later – Almost always around 10AM.
Lately, I have been doing way more baking. Muffins. Cookies. Waffles.
I sous-chef for 100% of our home cooking, but I tend to nibble more at work. So, in addition to making all of my own coffee and the coffee for the lads in the lab, I make all my own baked goods for my weekdays.
But back to breakfast: I love breakfast and we all know that breakfast tends to include dairy in some form or another. It is hard to find a work-around. But you can. Here is my dairy free waffle recipe. This is not purely vegan, but I suppose with a bit of work it could be.
Ingredients and instructions.
1 3/4 cup of all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Egg yolks
1 3/4 cups premium quality Soy, Coconut or Almond milk
1/2 cup cooking oil, ideally canola oil
2 Egg whites
In a large mixing bowl (which will ultimately hold several days worth of waffle mix) stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a smaller mixing bowl beat egg yolks. Add Soy, almond or coconut milk, cinnamon and oil.
Add your wet to the flour mix all at once. Stir or fold until mixed but still slightly lumpy.
In yet-another-bowl whip egg white to form a stiff peak.
Gently fold egg whites into soya-flour-oil mixture leaving a few whisps of egg white visible.
Heat waffle iron letting waffle mix work for about 7 minutes.
Pour batter onto preheated iron. Do not open while the waffles are cooking! Timing will vary depending on your iron.
Serve with butter, maple syrup, fresh blueberries and hot, hot coffee!
Enjoy! This recipe updated September 2016
Colin is a Victoria resident and food lover that is constantly searching for the perfect cup of coffee. His blog has been on the air since 1995… but who’s counting?
Comment [44]
Point no Point - that's my point · Saturday July 8, 2006 by colin newell
Just had 24 hours of decompression at Point No Point resort, about 30 minutes West of Sooke on Highway 14.
I have been thinking about PnP as an alternative to Tofino for some time now. It represents a neat opportunity to leave work at 4:40PM on a friday and be at the resort restaurant by 6 and in the cabin by 7:30PM.
Being a cautious kind of guy, it has taken me years to get around to checking out this alternative.
I actually did a poll at my workplace, on the department off-topic listserv. I was looking for the ultimate get-away in a certain search criterium within a certain distance from Victoria.
The overwhelming opinion was this: Point no Point Resort won hands down as the quickie get-away that is within a light-year of Victoria.
You have to like that.
I was cautiously optomistic and, as it turned out, PnP resort was way beyond my expectations.
I was worried about it being to rustic. Rustic is was not.
Granted, there is no CELL phone service. No TV. No Phones. No microwave ovens. (I brought my own radio gear… that is another story!)
Long story short (I will upload some photos when I develop them from my 1965 Rolleiflex!) – this was a 5-star experience on 3-star prices. The onsite (and modest restaurant) was 3-star with a 5-star view. Seriously, the food was way better than I expected.
The cabin(s) was(are) spotless and (obviously) recently updated.
Bed: very cosy.
Outdoor jacuzzi on private patio: Delighful!
View: To die for.
Where else can you sit in a hot tub under the stars and sleep in a wonderful cedar cabin under the trees, by the Pacific Ocean, for < 200 dollars a day?
Check it out.
