Coffee… Great Coffee!

A delicious companion to Mel’s beautiful pastries!  I’m only now scratching the surface of how fantastic a great ‘third wave’ coffee can be…

Hi!  Bob here. Mel’s one and only, holding down the fort in Utah.  Since she’s busy baking, I thought I’d take a few of you through my coffee journey over the past few years.  OK… twenty five or so.

I grew up hating what America called coffee. Pencil lead, wood, and dirt. Yuk!

Until… I worked in the Veneto region of Italy in the ‘80’s and developed quite a taste for Cappuccino, Macchiato, and Espresso.  Wonderful flavor, and wonderfully consistent. And much better than what I’d had at home.

Returning home, I bought a Nespresso pod machine, reasonably OK, or so I thought at the time, and followed that up in 2006 with a semi-automatic, one touch, Jura home machine. Much better! I ground a locally roasted bean, made an espresso daily, and smiled. Jura served me and Mel well for 11 years, until one day, it didn’t. (Mel can give you the details on the leaks and the ant infestation).

Next up, Bezzera (dal 1901 – old school Italian). A professional grade machine, ‘Made in Italy’ – double boiler, 10 bar pressure, cool looks!  With a real steam wand! And a stand-alone, micro-adjustable conical burr grinder!  Because apparently, that’s what one must do. So I did.

At the same time, I started buying the ‘direct-from-the-grower’, single origin, fair trade, whole bean, precisely roasted the day before they ship, coffee.  In other words, super fresh. And well…

Weird!  Unlike anything I’d ever had before!  Fruity, smooth, acidic, mild, strong, chocolate, earth, leather, lime, and a wild variety of flavors I couldn’t identify. So different from what I thought was coffee. I wasn’t sure I liked it.  At all.

What to do?  Consult the experts, read up, buy the best beans from Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia (www.bluebottlecoffee.com &  www.Intelligentsia.com), and practice. And practice some more.

I’m two months into this learning, and I can now say I’ve had some great coffees. That I really do like! That my friends really do like, too!

I’m still working at this – some mornings are better than others – with a long way to go before I can say I’ve got it.  But, wow! What an experience! Beautiful aromas, flavors, textures, and emotions.  Sometimes, it’s that good.

The adventure continues. More to follow…  (HINT: I’ve got the world’s best bean from Yemen on my counter, waiting for a fine grind Saturday morning!  Can’t wait!)

TTFN…  Bob