Make Your Own Damn Coffee Then!

Echoing the memorable, venerable "Ms." magazine's gut-wrenching "No Comment" segments on sexism/misogyny in print advertising, this presentation takes one aback when viewed through the modern lens -- what man in a television commercial would get away with such verbal abuse today? (Although it would be disingenuous to suggest that it never happens in real life any more, because we all know it does...)

Posted by Shaun Clayton, picked up by Peter Serafinowicz, rebroadcast by Rob Beschizza at BoingBoing.Net.

Maybe these dudes need a little bit less caffeine and a little more class.

picasso brothers cafe, chehalis, wa

went with my cousin to picasso brothers for the first time yesterday on our way to the movies.  would have been content with decent espresso and was forced to make do with AWESOME.  had an 8 oz. double mocha, one of my weapons of choice for staying awake through a movie, and it was incredibly smooth, well-blended with a high quality chocolate, and the espresso was very sweet and mellow.  service was friendly and efficient.  i'm interested in trying out their food and cigar menus which  both look well above par. the interior design is good, sort of a 50's truck stop meets urban hipster feel, so lid well-chosen fixtures (lights, faucets, etc.), quite clean and uncluttered, plenty of seating, music not too loud, and a great outdoor patio.  and who can beat a retro-styled neon sign on the top edge of the building that says "ESPRESSO - TOBACCO - BEER"?  nice to have a new place to hang out, i love santa lucia but i was kind of wearing it out.

www.picassobros.com
http://santaluciaroasters.com/

Damn Good Coffee!

Agent Cooper would be proud.  Multifaceted, visionary auteur filmmaker David Lynch has developed his own brand of specialty coffee.

Choosing only organically grown beans, famed film director David Lynch established an extensive, personalized testing method, and began to systematically narrow down the field of his favorite roasts and beans.  He eventually chose three unique coffee blends to package under his own label.

Pure Coffee Blog managed to get past all the viral marketing critiques to the actual taste of the actual coffee and declared it "delightfully fresh".

[Link courtesy of The Awl]

coffee for others

my current routine, when i manage to adhere to it, involves getting up around dawn, cleaning the kitchen, and preparing coffee for my folks.  it's one of my little ways of earning my keep while imposing on them for the time being.

making coffee for others is a habit that infuses the very art with a different quality.  there's a certain way my folks like their coffee made, certain equipment they prefer me to use, and then they tend to savor a small quantity of it over a long period of time, well past the gone-cold expiration point beyond which i would have thrown it in the sink.  they live by a different rhythm than i do, with expectations of life different from mine.  i'm the kind of foodie snob that complains about there being "no real bagels" in our area; they are the kind of people who prefer eating dinner on their laps in front of the TV.  i like to buy coffee from VERY small batch artisan roasters by the half pound; they like to stock up with five pound bags from the mega-store.  at many points it's an exercise in stepping out of my miserable berkeley CA-bred whingery.

i think i need to make coffee for other people.  it's why i worked behind the bar all those years, from seattle to boulder to wherever.  it's a social ritual much more salutary than mixing cocktails in that it doesn't lead to impairment or loss of dignity or empathy.  now i don't want to go denigrating alcohol here, as inebriation is pretty much the religion of many people i know, but having my own sad history with it i've acquired rather a jaundiced eye for the so-called "social lubricant".  sometimes you don't need lubriciousness in your relationships -- you need friction so you can get a goddamned grip.  you need a social stimulant.

drinking coffee with people is pleasant any time of day, but it's particularly pleasant preparing it and sharing it.  it has an element of taking care of others, of providing space for an interaction.  serving depressant beverages seems medical somehow, as if one were a sort of social anesthetist; serving coffee is kind of like sounding reveille.  people get drunk and riot; people drink coffee and foment revolution.  i think there's a difference.

my favorite coffee fanatic quote comes from the late, venerable alfred peet: "you wouldn't take a LaFite Rothschild and turn it into a soft drink!" when asked about flavored coffees.  i think about that when i think about the drink-to-get-drunk, coffee-to-get-wired, fast-food, GPC-smoking culture of convenience without taste [bourdieu's deconstruction of taste as a structural aftereffect of class distinction notwithstanding].  a very close friend who finds my interest in coffee amusing when not annoying drinks coffee daily yet claims to dislike it, saying "i need it to work."  this is, in my opinion, a good encapsulation of the calvinism-run-amok of american culture: there is no value other than utility, and all else is a distraction, an affectation, even an abomination.  because nobody in america is supposed to actually enjoy anything any more, much less relax over a long lunch, read a good book or watch a thoughtful film, we're all fat and miserable.

there's a false stereotype of the non-urban american as being chronically obese and unwilling to go outdoors.  in the impoverished rural area i currently live, on a trip to the county fair where one expects to see hordes of fat white people, i saw instead a lot of wiry, lean, muscular (though poor) people, because they are farm people who get up early, work their asses off all day long, and do stuff outside for fun.  the other thing i saw at the county fair was espresso stands and ethnic food.  not very long ago this would have been UNTHINKABLE here.  it was all corn dogs and root beer, or real beer, and that's it.  where once it was only camels or marlboros, this low-income rural area offers romeo y julietas.  what once would have been called a "tavern" now says "PUB" in eight foot letters on the roof so you can spot it from the highway.

so when people tell you that only petit bourgeoisie get into things like coffee, wine, scotch and cigars, or obscure niche genres of music, or films that aren't all about explosions, you should send them out to my neighborhood.  i've got some good ol' boys and gals out here who would beg to differ.  and who would send back their espresso shots for not having a copper-red cap of crema just as quickly as they'd send back a porterhouse for being overdone.

Apologies followers!

A lot has happened in my personal life since the last time I posted that served to distract me from my duties, but I promise to not bore you with the details.

On the coffee front, it has recently been my privilege to sample some of the Guatemalan Roast for sale in five pound bags at COSTCO. Yeah - it's pretty good. I mean, it ain't Batdorf & Bronson or Stumptown, but it's...okay.

Stay away from those paper filters kids.

More soon hopefully -
EJR

percolator coffee

When you have just enough training in specialty coffee to be dangerous, you tend to look down your nose in disgust at the very concept of percolator coffee. It seems like a dangerous recipe for over-extraction at best; on a more subjective level, most of us have painful memories of being served something out of a percolator -- probably at "coffee hour" after church -- that resembled not so much coffee as filth-clouded pond water.

It was, then, part madness and part experimental curiosity that led me to experiment with making "good" percolator coffee. The percolator, a classic General Electric model probably dating from the 1970's, was purchased in excellent condition from a nearby St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store for a reasonable $7.00 USD. I started with fresh beans as usual to the top edge of my handheld blade grinder's bean reservoir; a full-bodied blend taken just past full-city into a "medium" roast; I filled the percolator to the 8 cup mark, set the switch all the way to "dark", and plugged it in.

The resulting coffee was extraordinarily palatable considering my low expectations. In fact, it had many of the qualities of gold filter coffee -- moderate residue and oils, no paper filter aftertaste -- and none of the bitter tang of hyperextraction I had feared. I am not sure exactly how a coffee brewed by pushing hot water through coffee grounds, and then re-pushing said coffee through the same grounds again, etc., would produce such a fine, silky-satiny, even-tempered dark-amber brew with overtones of maple and brandy. It seems...counter-intuitive. And yet, our grandparents weren't crazy after all. They just shouldn't have used canned coffee.

I am filing this experience under "success" and will continue to drink this coffee in the future. Good luck with your own experiments!

coffee in celebration of life

My uncle Pete -- father, sailor, mountaineer, vagabond, poet -- passed away recently, and at the reception following his well-attended memorial, coffee was served. Specifically, it was Batdorf & Bronson -- a small-batch artisanal roaster in Olympia, WA, and his favorite coffee purveyor. Purchased from their retail specialty coffee operation, Dancing Goats, the varietal on offer was Costa Rica La Minita Del Sol. True to what it says on the package, the brew

features a brilliant acidity and luscious body that combine for perfect balance and illuminate flavors of maple syrup and freshly squeezed orange juice. This coffee is sweet and rewarding, with a crystal clean finish.

Pete would have enjoyed this coffee, I think. He had a great interest in Central American culture and history, and as highly trained a palate as anybody in our industry could ask for. He was a person who tasted life. It was very satisfying to share this coffee in his memory, and it will always remind me of him.