Daniel's World of Coffee

Influence of Soil Type on Coffee Flavor (Video)

Stage one of a long project studying the influence of soil type and weather on coffee flavor profile: on-site in Puerto Rico.

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?