Coffee « The VeganGeek!

January 24, 2010

The God Shot

Filed under: Coffee,Ramblings — Jason @ 1:21 pm

This Sunday started out like other Sundays. Early morning breakfast, work out, a walk outside for a few hours, for errands and fresh air. It’s day two of two for nice weather. Stunning out.

I frequent the Coffee Geek forum, and I occasionally see mention of the so-called ‘god shot’. A shot of espresso that, for some reason, is so much better than other shots you’ve had. I think I finally had one this morning.

I’m usually pleased with the quality of my pulls, Second Cup dreck notwithstanding. I’ve finally been able to return to a nice 49th Parallel Epic Espresso roast this last week, and this morning my second of two shots of espresso was so good, so refined, so smooth that it warranted special mention. I’m not sure what it was — maybe I ended up with all of the “good beans” in one 16 gram portafilter. Maybe my tamp was better than usual. Perhaps the Silvia nailed the temperature. A combination of all of these things? Something else? Maybe.

I’ve been trying most of the morning to duplicate what I did. I’ve had plenty of good ones, but so far, another God shot has been elusive. That thick caramel crema, the essential oils coating the inside of your mouth, imparting essences of chocolate and hazelnut. No bitterness. Smooth. Pure. And then it’s over. And then you do it again. Maybe it can’t be duplicated. Maybe you just need to believe that you’ll have another one some day. Faith? Is it possible to have faith in coffee? Is that why it’s a God shot?

I’ve had enough espresso to normally be pretty jittery, but for some reason I’m feeling pretty mellow. I’m going to pick a track from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, Is It Real?, performed by Scott Matthew. It’s from the last episode. The link shows part of the episode, but without sound. The episode itself was pretty violent. The song counter balances that nicely. I find Anime tends to do that quite a bit, overlaying beautiful music with incredibly harsh or graphic animation sequences. Anyway, enjoy.

January 21, 2010

Infinitely Prolonged

Filed under: Coffee,Music,Travel — Jason @ 12:13 pm

The title is a Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke, but also, I know I’ve slacked a bit in the last week. With the work going on at the house, being slammed a work a bit, and running errands, I haven’t really had time to post. Making an effort today, though.

Anyway, the work on the house is done, for all intents and purposes. Still some light fixtures to reinstall, but generally, I am pleased. It’ll be nice to come home and not have to wonder where the worker bees put my stuff when they were rearranging my basement to make space for their tools or lumber, but I can’t really complain.

What I can complain about, though, is the utter craptastic quality of Second Cup coffee. I mean, I know it’s bad. This is not a shock to me. Every once in a while I realize just how bad, though. Especially their bean offerings. I suppose that at one point, the beans were fresh and probably decent. I found myself without a decent espresso roast a few weeks ago and picked up a bag of their espresso blend, just to see. I swear, pulling a tight shot with that stuff is just not going to happen. I can clamp the grind setting way down and tamp well past the SCAA recommendation and still get something that looks like watery coffee. No crema, no caramel colour, nothing. Better to go without, than to be disappointed. I think that’s true for a lot of things. Thankfully, my batch of 49th is here, and thoughts of a deep caramel shot with aromatic hints of hazelnut and chocolate is really pulling me through the work day.

Thinking of travelling again. Part of me really wants to head to Sweden in June, to Sölvesborg. There is a metal festival (Opeth is playing, that’s worth the trip right there), and I’d really like to visit a Scandinavian country in the summer. If there was a part of the world that I’d want to live in, that’d be it. Yeah, it’s cold in the winter. So is Atlantic Canada. I think their summer weather would be most excellent, though, and basing yourself there would open up a wealth of travel opportunities in the rest of Europe.

Today’s track is Avantasia’s “Sign of the Cross“. It’s difficult to listen to the song out of context, since it’s part of a rock opera, but the chorus is pretty damn awesome. My link is to a live version of the song, in São Paulo, Brazil. It’s cool for several reasons — the crowd really gets into it, they know the lyrics, the fact that it it’s live proves that the vocalist really can sing, and the security guys in front of the stage are dressed in suits and ties. So cool.

A dream is forever.
The land of salvation can’t drown.
These enchanting colours -
who could have the might to tear it down?
(all these colours – fantasy…)

December 25, 2009

Christmas Day

Filed under: Coffee,Music,Ramblings — Jason @ 1:39 pm

It’s now early afternoon on Christmas Day, and I am trying to come up with something poignant to say about it being the day that it is. Before this, I was relaxing on my couch under a big afghan with a smoky dark roast, contained in a most excellent MNO mug. I am almost done the Stross novel I’ve been picking at for the last few weeks, and am gazing with eager anticipation at the small mound of Kay novels on the corner of my coffee table. Because, you gotta have goals, right? I will be returning to my couch in a few minutes.

Things are quiet. I walked into town earlier, and everything is, obviously, closed up. Ray Henry was working in his new restaurant, trying to get it up and running as soon as possible. Dedication. For obvious reasons, a dedicated gourmet burger place doesn’t thrill me, but I do admire his drive and focus, even on a morning such as this.

I’ll recommend two tracks this afternoon. The first is a fairly traditional one that I like this time of year, Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso (Christmas Concerto), which is really quite fabulous. The other, heh, is something that most people who know me would know that I’d like. Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Black Sabbath and his own band, Dio, does a great cover of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. The staccato guitar riff when he sings “tidings of comfort of joy, com-fort-and-joy” is most excellent. Enjoy.

October 26, 2009

Up and At Them! Better.

Filed under: Coffee,Veganism — Jason @ 10:51 am

Heh. I love that quote. I’m really trying to continue to work on the Fredericton Vegetarian Society stuff. When I bought the domain almost a year ago, I figured that I’d be further ahead than I am now. Anyway, fredveg.org is up and right now it just shows a provisional logo I did up a while ago, but I am not sure if I am going to keep it. I’ve also done a version for a black background. At some point I’m going to order a tshirt with the logo on it so I can tell how it will look. In the mean time, I continue to plod along with the charter for the society. Boring administrative work but it needs to be done.

I’ve been reading “Uncommon Grounds”, by Mark Pendergrast. Its a fascinating read about the history of coffee. Amazing to think of how society has been shaped and influenced by this little bean. It’s a recommend if you’re into coffee, history, or both. It touches on slavery, women’s rights, truth in advertising, war, commerce, politics, health scams, and just about everything in between.