Quick Paris visit. It's only 1 hour and 50 minutes from Antwerp, so ...
Finally visited Soluna myself.
Nice meeting Yady Elyas who informed me with all love about their business and beans.
Tasted the all famous Rwanda Nyamagabe. James Hoffmann once wrote a very interesting article about this bean. No 'Potato' taste for me, but lots of chocolate, medium strenght, fruity flavoured coffee with great finish. I tasted once a very fresh shot of Stephens championship blend, which contained some of this Rwanda. This was my second try and it will definitely not be my last.
Took home some Gua, Ethio and Peru coffee. Maybe soon more about these coffee's. Hopefully it's going to be fresh crop, cause sometimes they have old beans lingering around the place. I understand it's hard to sell all these bags of specialty coffee, but at the prices asked for these beans, I expect some new crop ones!
Besides of Soluna Caféotheque de Paris I had two small cups. One was at the Temple cafe, besides the metro station. Disgusting! Yes, Paris isn't known for top notch coffee preparations. Hopefully we may change some things with Caffenation in the future. With the train Paris is closer by than Amsterdam, and with 10 million people eagerly waiting for good coffee ; the market is huge and wide open.
One more espresso at Brasserie Le Marigny at the Boulevard Port Royal 86 and not bad at all. Good job for a 'regular' bar actually. Congrats. You see, there's some light at the end of the tunnel.
The beautiful 'Café Florio' photo was taken on their terrace.
For the amateurs : attached an article from the Flying Thud about his Paris experiences. We passed by Laduree, but found a Japanese expert around the corner of our hotel, also on the Bd Port Royal, with great macarons and chocolates. Hmmmm!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Paris Espresso Bar Run
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Doppio Ristretto
Most specialised places around the world are offering those thick strong small espresso's. I do see this more as a doppio ristretto.
And that's what we have on the mirror since this week.
Our 'Afrique C'est Chique' blend drinks really well this way. 24 (twenty four!) grams, 20 to 25 seconds extraction and 25-30 ml in the cup. Very strong, syrupy, pronounced acidity and flavours and a very long lasting aftertaste that doesn't need a glass of water to rinse your mouth*. That's the way it should be.
Next week we'll have a darker blend as Roast of the Week. Very interesting on ristretto as well.
* This doesn't mean it's not smart to drink some water after a strong cup. It's better to do so, a minute or so after your shot, to rinse your stomach.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Intelligentsia LA Venice
Personalized drinks made with the best beans in the world, by the best Barista's in the world, prepared on the best equipment in the world. At least, that's the idea.
A pity California is a tad too far away to be at the opening today. May the one who's lucky enough to visit the bar leave a comment.
Congrats at Kyle, Doug, Dave, Chris, Daniel and all the others.
(photo by seanbonner. click the name(link) for more Intel photo's)
Brassperge 2009
It was a big honour for Caffènation to present our weekly Roast of the Week : Afrique C'est Chique - a unique blend of 4 African coffee's - at the Brassperge festival this year.
Johan did a great job brewing the freshly grounded beans on a professional drip brewer, 60 grams a liter.
A total of 30 liters of our Roast went down the throat of the enchanted participants!!
We'll be back next year with more great stuff.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Peaberry - Caracoli
Roast of the week at Caffenation is a Brazil Caracoli.
Another name for caracoli is peaberry.
At Wikipedia we found the following explanation :
Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as Peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.
Normal coffee beans are less commonly called by contrast flat berry.
Peaberry coffees are particularly associated with Tanzanian Coffee. [1]
This week we also tested a Tanzania Peaberry called Hope. Tanzania is indeed known for it's peaberry, although you find them in many Eastern African country's.
Last year we've been cupping a lot of Brazilian coffee's and this caracoli stood out for body and cleanliness.
On espresso it shows ; more body then the other Santos and Cerrado beans we find in the harbour and a less acidic finish.
For this special price of €3,80 a bag (250gr) this week at Caffenation.
One last thing about this funky looking peaberry/caracoli. Sometimes you wonder why they're so small, but apparently you mostly pick the beans at the end of the branch and are therefor less developed.
