Daniel's World of Coffee

Slow Food Nation This Weekend

On sad note, I was unable to get my ass out to San Francisco this weekend for Slow Food Nation. On a happy note, Slow Food Nation is happening this weekend in San Francisco!

Lots of amazing food-related events are going down in connection with this. My friends Cerise Mayo and Mafalda Cogliani are deep into the organizing for this. Famous names attached include Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma.

In the Coffee Pavilion, my friends Tonx and Andrew http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/1620800/post/compose#Barnett are spearheading the efforts. I was trying really hard to get out there for a couple of volunteer barista shifts. It promises to be absolutely insane and absolutely wonderful. There's a big dinner on Monday night. Sigh. I wish I was there.

On top of all that, it's the big opening of Four Barrel in the Mission District, and my wonderful sister, Jane, and her beau Rick are moving out to the East Bay this week! I can't really explain why the hell I'm not there, too, except to say duty calls here in NYC.

New York coffee dorks (New Dorkers?) that I know will be there include Liz Clayton of twitchy.org, and Amber Fox (link missing!). Check in with them and definitely on Tonx's site for more info from the coffee end of things.

For general info on Slow Food and Slow Food Nation, go to the Slow Food Nation website, as well as this good article from the New York Times.

Slow Food is awesome... even if it does make me think of Fletcherizing, which makes me think of Henry James, who said...

"Life is a predicament which precedes death."

and....

"I think I don't regret a single 'excess' of my responsive youth-I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn't embrace."

God bless you, my quirky Anglophile American brother. Let's me and your ghost hang out in NY this weekend regretting occasions unembraced, shall we?

Cupping This Saturday

Anne Nylander has created another cupping event for the New York Coffee Society.

Says Anne:

I didn't want to make it through the whole month of August without an
event, so I am sneaking one in. This Saturday, August 30th at noon, I
will be holding a free cupping. It will take place at Everyman
Espresso, 136 East 13th Street.

I think I will round up some espresso blends to cup. It seems like
there are a lot of new espressos out there these days, and I think it
will be interesting to compare them, as well as taste the blends out
of their usual context, i.e., not espresso!

The New York Coffee Society is a completely non-commercial group
dedicated to appreciating great coffees. We're open to all comers, so
please forward this and feel free to invite anyone you'd like to
attend.

If you are coming, please RSVP so I can get an idea of how many to
expect! Also, I may cap the event at around 20 people, so please get
in touch early if you want to come, and let me know if you are
canceling, so I can invite others who are interested.

One of the last projects I did at Victrola as cupping and espresso trainer for their staff was an espresso cupping project. We had some shots of the espresso.

Then we cupped the espresso as a blend.

Then we cupped each individual component of the blend.

Then we prepared single origin shots of the three most salient components (a Brazil, a Guat, and a Yirg).

Then we prepared the entire blend as espresso once more.

I think I learned more that day about our coffee than any single other day in my two years at Victrola. So I really like Anne's idea of "cupping" espresso. I wonder if we can convince the baristas at Everyman to prepare some shots of the coffees too. I would encourage everyone out there reading this to try and attend if they can!

As always: emails go to [email protected]

Expert Coffee Course in Manhattan

So what have I been up to that's led to such silence?

Check it out! Coffee has grown up a lot in New York City in the last two years... now's your chance to get ahead of the curve. Come take a course with me and Willem Boot, September 5-7 in Manhattan.

Email courses (at) bootcoffee (dot) com to sign up, or email me at [email protected] if you have any questions and would like to discuss. I'm really excited about this course. It's going to be very high-level, so serious coffee learners only, please!

Also, please note: There's a sliding scale for baristas.

Coffee Health Questions

Interesting article today in Yuppie Food Connoisseur Daily.... I'm sorry, that's the New York Times... about the health benefits and risks of coffee.

Probably the most important effects of caffeine are its ability to enhance mood and mental and physical performance. At consumption levels up to 200 milligrams (the amount in about 16 ounces of ordinary brewed coffee), consumers report an improved sense of well-being, happiness, energy, alertness and sociability

Although in her cutesy introduction the writer, Jane E. Brody, makes the usual lazy journalist mistake of getting her coffee-Schulz-Starbucks-coffee timeline backwards, the meat of the article is good stuff. Check it out here.