A Good Cup

This is more of a typical blog entry, I guess.

Went to bed at 9 p.m., last night. Was exhausted, after teaching (2:45 to  5:30 p.m.). Usually go to bad at 1 a.m. or later but, last night, I was just out.

Woke up at 4. Yes, 4 a.m.! That’s not really me. But seven hours of sleep is rather decent so, I eventually decided to stay up.

Did a few things such as respond to emails, manage some class-related matters, responded to Jess about social bookmarking, looked at some observation reports from my “intro to culture” class…

And, eventually, made myself a cup of coffee.

Now, coffee really is a passion, for me. Like beer and music (which are, to me, all related). I’m quite intense about coffee. It’s not that I need caffeine. It’s that coffee is a major part of my sensory experience.

One of my posts on CoffeeGeek has generated hundreds of replies. In fact, I was going to post a new message in that thread to revive it, yet again. But the coffee I’m having was not brewed in a Brikka, so it’s somewhat off-topic for that specific thread.

Three days ago, I roasted some Javan Domaine, some Ugandan Bugisu, and some Ethiopian Sidamo. About 105g each. All the green beans were bought at Terra. All roasted to some point during second crack. None of them really dark but some were pretty much at the silk level.

That blend was ok but not yet to my liking. Something was missing to give it depth, balance, roundness. Can’t remember the specifics (I forget my less-favourable experiences, which does make me happier). But it wasn’t doing it for me.

So, yesterday, I roasted some Costa Rican Spring Mountain to blend with the rest. The Brikka cup I got soon after that was quite good. Very complex aroma. Wild.

This morning, I got some of the same aromas in my moka pot cup. Oh, it’s nowhere near the best cup I’ve had. It’s even flawed, in some ways. But it fits. Ideal for today. The first whiff I took was a very pleasing experience and the memory of that whiff remains with me. It changes everything.

Well, ok, not quite. But, at least, it motivates me to post a coffee-related blog entry.

As luck would have it, someone will probably reply with their own coffee experiences.

That’d be nice! 🙂

2 thoughts on “A Good Cup”

  1. Holy mackerel, that Brikka looks amazing! I’ve never heard of that before!

    I’m not a coffee expert by any means, although I do appreciate a properly-made cuppa. My old stove-top machine does an OK job of making pseudo-espresso (pseudospresso?), but I’d never drink it as-is. Milked up it will get me through a morning. But I don’t drink enough of the stuff to justify the expense and inconvenience of a “real” pump machine. Maybe the Brikka is the compromise I’ve been looking for.

    Where can I buy one in Montreal?

  2. Ed,
    Didn’t see you at YulBlog (went late).
    I love my Brikka. They sell it at Café Crème (different locations, including Plaza St. Hubert and Fleury) as well as the Milano grocery store (St. Laurent, in Little Italy).
    Though I do drink milk-based coffee concoctions on occasion (macchiato or cappuccino), I like straight shots better in most cases. I have a whole routine of drinking moka pot as the first thing, Brikka second, espresso later in the day, and milk-based when I want more of a dessert-type thing. Has a lot to do with what we can taste at different times during the day.

    Thanks for the comment!

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