coffee
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The Five Rules of Coffee: Rule 3
Posted by nathan on 26 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: coffee
use only fresh, pure water.
considering coffee is 98% water, it only makes sense that using fresh, pure water helps improve the taste. Emily and i buy water by the gallon to use. we can’t stand to drink our town water (even after going through the Brita), so why would we want it in our coffee?
The Five Rules of Coffee: Rule 2
Posted by nathan on 25 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: coffee
always use freshly ground beans.
the moment you grind beans, they begin to lose their strength. i know it’s more convenient to buy ground beans, or to grind your beans the morning before, but there is a significant loss of flavor when not using freshly ground beans.
The Five Rules of Coffee: Rule 1
Posted by nathan on 24 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: coffee
Always use fresh beans.
Once opened, a bag of beans should be used within 10 days. Starbucks says it is eight days, but i notice little change between days 8-10, but notice a pretty quick loss of taste from day 10 on. By day 14 i can hardly stand drinking it.
coffeehouse lesson
Posted by nathan on 28 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: coffee
So i am reading a book Emily got me for Christmas, Pour Your Heart into It by Howard Schultz. Schultz is the Chairman and chief global strategist of Starbucks. he is the guy who made it what it is today.
So this entry is a brief history of starbucks. When it was founded, it sold nothing but dark roasted, whole-bean coffee and coffeemaking accessories. They did not make coffee. They did not sell espresso. They only sold the beans and the coffemakers to properly make a good cup of coffee. (And no, a perculator does not count as good coffee–sorry.)
It was not until Schultz when to Milan, Italy to a coffeemaker conference that he noticed an espresso bar (or two or three) every block. They were everywhere. This is where Schultz first had a ‘cafe latte’ (coffee milk.) He noticed the baristas were not just making coffee, they were ‘performing.’
That is the start of the coffeehouse as we know it today in America. Starbucks brought it to America. I didn’t know that.
My parents told me they went to coffeehouses when they were my age–Schultz says those were nothing more than glorified diners serving weak, robusta coffee.
There will be more coffee posts to come, i think…