Ageing gracefully, or Vintage Sumatra

Yesterday my district manager and myself went touring around the stores, this is our usual practice - to keep in touch with Store Coffee Masters and to support them as much as we can. My last port of call was St. John's Wood store, which is also the only Black Apron Store in my district. 

Now, Black Apron Stores are shops that sell (surprise, surprise!) Black Apron Coffee, that is speciality coffees, rare non-mass-produced beans, delicate and exotic, for an ultimate classy coffee experience. (Black Apron is also a give away sign of a Coffee Master - that crazy person, constantly high on caffeine, pursuing you to find a lemon meringue aroma in a cup, that smells of - well, coffee!)

This time of the year Black Apron offering happened to be Aged Sumatra, the beans that small amounts of going into our signature blend - Christmas Blend. It retails at hefty almost 9 pounds, however, it is worth every penny, if you think about how much time and care went into production of this wonder! 

They say: "A bold, exotic coffee from a land of tigers and spices." I have to stop here for a moment, because you won't find another person, so painfully obsessed with tigers as you humble servant. This short sentence, this simple marketing trick of marrying a real obtainable product, available to you now, with a notion of some far and totally impossible destination (paradise with tigers and spices mixed into delightful concoction!) sold me instantly! " Aged coffee, it's said, originated aboard sailing ships laden with spices and coffee beans as they made their long voyage home from Dutch Indonesian colonies to Europe. Exposed to exotic hardwoods, spices, ocean spray and extreme temperatures, the unroasted beans acquired intriguing qualities. Inspired by these maritime voyages, we carefully aged this coffee up to five years in its native environment. Our boldest cup to date, Aged Sumatra possesses an exuberant* cedary aroma, a syrupy mouthfeel and untamed flavour." ROAR_R_R_R_R!!!

Beans come in a beautiful bronze coloured tin with a little carefully composed booklet. I think it makes a fantastic gift for Christmas. (Tin alone is invaluable for keeping memorabilia from far land exotic travels or jewels). 

Tasting notes

Aroma is exotic indeed, reminiscent of a pinewoods, mossy and moist, smashed leaves and maple syrope. 

Not as "green" and herby as conventional Sumatra. The body is pleasantly full and engaging, very balanced and unusual. Has some characteristically Sumatran spiciness, however, more delicate and complex. 

Really nice cup! 

* I had to look up this word in dictionary :-) It means "lively and cheerful".  

  

Geopsychology, or Coffee Drinking in Greece

It has been known for ages, that climate and landscape shape national identity and mentality: that annual amount of sunshine has as much influence on one's personality as family habits or schooling. Landscape also played a major role in creation of language as we know it today and, of course, music, which is in a way reflection of the language or even its natural extention.
When I hear Catalan Spanish (as oppose to Colombian), I see this flaming deserts, this huge dazzling empty sky, this austere mountain ranges and  agressive attacking sun. I almost hear flamenco rhythm in an everyday exchange at the butchers.

 And London is an increadible place for meeting individuals from every corner of our planet (can I say that? given that Earth is round?). But only through travelling one can fully experience this concept, which every time feels like one own's discovery. 

I have noticed that the sunnier and warmer climate of the country - the sunnier and warmer are that country's folks. Occasionally, people get a bit crazy and overexcited with all that heat and unlimited sunshine. I am sure, everyone in London knows some Spaniard who is slightly mad or full on crazy. Nothing personal, but they just are ;-)

The more south you move  - the bigger and juicier fruit you get, insects blow out of proportion, resembling dinosauruses more that flies, cats aquire mad gaze and people tend to enjoy life more. This June we went to Greek island Sciathos to witness just that.

Oh, Greece, Greece, Greece, sweetest memories... Sun, strawberry daikiris, blurry horizon line and intoxicating, almost drinkable  acacia aroma, filling the air.... Pines upon pines upon pines and quiet. Crystall clear chilled water, kleftico, stiffado and the sourest wine ever. Oh, how much I loved that place!

In terms of coffee drinking - Greek like theirs in tiny cups with plenty of sugar and without milk. Coffee there is first being ground to almost flour like powder and then brewed. Waiters in cafes will ask you if you want your coffee medium, which I thought was reference to the size, but when they brought it for the first time in such a tiny vessel, I half-jokingly asked what small was like - ... (now, I don;t know the word for a sewing device that one uses to push needle through particularly thick material, I hope you get me!)?

His replay was that medium means amount of sugar in coffee and that foreigners usually drink medium.
Naturally,  being secretly addicted to sugar and desperately trying to conceal this addiction, I said that I don't want ANY sugar and once the drink arrived heroically tried it  - it was very strong, almost like espresso, but syropy and thick and quite bitter (hence sugar I guess).

I loved it, because I loved Greece and greek coffee will forever remind me of golden times spent in this paradise on Earth.  

PS. The box of Nescafe  on one of the pictures - is not typical, I want to think that instant coffee in Greece is a mean of convenience and not an acceptable habit.

Ethiopian coffee ceremony

On Thursday we had a District Coffee Master  meeting and instead of usual coffee tasting at the start we had a fantastic Etiopian coffee ceremony hosted by lovely Rahel. It was just mind-blowing to see how pretty much everyone can roast coffee at home, equiped  with very basic pans and, of course, knowlegde that being passed down in generations.

Rahel was very concerned about fire safety at the beginning, but it has all gone down well - no unexpected fire drills initiated!
Rahel was wearing very beautyful traditional dress for the occasion, I partucularly liked embroidary on hem. She started with roasting green coffee beans(from Ethiopia, but she wouldn't tell which part they came from - Sidamo or Haraghe or elsewhere) in a little pan, shaking the pan as she went along. Everyone got quite excited once the aroma of freshly roasted coffee started to fill the place! Then we heard the first pop.

She brewed coffee in a little black jar called jabena and poured coffee into little cups, holding jabena quite high up, which allowed to see whether coffee had right consistancy - not too thick and not too watery. Since in Ethiopia they don't use any measurments, it is cruicial to judge by the look. (if it makes sense ;-)

We all had a sip and everyone was saying that this feels like "proper coffee", meaning probably, that it was fresh, full of aroma, body and character, that we expect form a truly unique cup.

I did film the whole thing and intend to make a little video to post here, however, it might take a while to cut raw 15 min material into 3 min clip. Watch this space!    

Love, love, love it!

Everything is changing so rapidly these days, like it or not, it is just the fact of life. Seems like everybody's attention span is getting shorter and shorter, concepts are evolving with speed of light and it's hard to imagine that food or fashion can get any faster...  People are expecting more and much quicker and much more exciting. And to succeed in this insane race, one needs to play a chameleon, creature that teaches us a thing or two about adaptability and flexibility.

On Monday I saw an e mail from Darcy, talking about few grand openings in the course of last weeks  and amongst them cutting the ribbon at Conduit Street store. I have learnt that the store design was heavy influenced by Pike Place shop in Seattle, the very first "Starbucks" ever opened. Since the chance to go to Seattle will come by not very soon, I went to Conduit Street instead.

As usual, I was quite sceptical at first, discounting Darcy's overtly enthusiasm on the same grounds that that of a mum smiling deliriously and clapping at her toddler dancing like a drunken horse and singing totally out of tune. He is a metaphorical Father of it all , at least, in UK and Ireland. He is tied to shine with pride like a polished samovar. However, Conduit Street is a delight. Surrounded by high end fashion stores (Vivien Westwood, Moschino, Krizia etc.), just off Regent Street, it is airy and light, with plenty of space and sitting on every level - hard chairs, low sofas, high bar style chairs. It delievers that semi-authentic independant coffee shop feel, that it is trying to achieve: giant bags of coffee on open shelves, paintings on the walls.

And the china!  I loved the mugs, I remember, we used to sell them and took them down for Xmas, but they are totally rad! Lighter, taller than ones we use now and much better looking. Novelty!

Downstairs area is a cross between night club and the library, which is a bit confusing, but I have to admire the inventiveness of the interior design guys, there are bookshelves and comfy sofas,  caves with low lights and soft puffs, that inspire inappropriate conversations and  intimacy. In the middle of the room sits a huge communal table, I guess it would be ideal meeting space for many PR consultanies thriving in the area.

I really liked it and am disappointed that it is located quite far away, but whenever I am  in town, I will be definetely visiting the Pike Place, sorry, Conduit Street.

PS. I also had a pleasure of talking to Maria briefly there, who is DCM in Soho.
I also took some pics of the shop, however, if you want to get full impression of what it is like, have a look at Starbucks Facebook page, or better still, get your bum to Conduit street!      

Symphony of flavours

Somehow, everytime I taste coffee, some music piece spings into my mind, usually of classical nature(I have a soft spot for good old stuff).

Whilst single origins I tend to associate with solo instrumental pieces, e.g. cello, piano, sax, multi-regional blends bring to my mind golden orchestra standards with its poliphonics and layers and layers of tembre.

Whenever I have Sumatra or Sulawesi, Beethoven's sonatas are blasting in my head. Colombia is early Mozart, crisp, clear and playful, like a spring in the forest.


House Blend - is Tchaikovsky's "Flower Valse" from "Sleeping Beauty" and Guatemala Antigua - guitar flamenco, played on the streets of Barcelona.
Arabian Mocha Sanani, although being a single origin coffee, is so intense and almost intoxicating, winelike, that it reminds me of Wagner's creations, heavy and fierce.


None of our line up is Chopin for me... I am searching for the brilliance and versatility of flavour, fragility and delicacy of aroma and unbearable lightness and meloncholy in the cup.... Something slightly sad, but life assuring and impossibly pleasant. Shall I find this perfection?

PS. When I drink tea, it's always about Rachmaninoff! Tea drinking is very traditional Russian pastime and Rachmaninoff's concerts, heavily indulged in Russian folk music, are sheer delight!

"Triple grande Latte? That guy is seriously hot!"

Vogue Paris and coffee - match made in heaven (how cheesy is that!?!?!)

The title of this post is a fragment of our half-drunken chatter in the pub after Christmas meeting  (no, we didn't start celebrate Xmas early, it was a meeting about Christmas campaign). After of couple of hours of quite formal introductions(how are your family? Is it really that cold in Russia? I can't believe you can't drink water during Fast! etc. ), we eventually got to our favourite pastime - gossiping, and since we couldn't b*tch about each other (everyone was present), of course, our victims were our customers! 

Oh, what a joy to discuss their gimmicks with fellow barista! Fresh, delicious and raw pieces of gossip were served in the room, interrupted by explosions of maniac laughter and sighs of disbelieve. And here is the secret, our dearest patrons! - since we don't know your names, we are marking you just like cups for mutual convenience. It might look like an incredibly challenging task - to memorise your beverages, in order to recognize you and provide that legendary service, but it is the same mechanism we all use to remember the names!

Your name might be David or Olympia or Kelly, however, for us you are forever Venti Skinny Cappuccino or Double Tall Mocha no cream. People are creatures of habits and it is very unlikely that they change the drink they find comfort in to something unknown.

Next time you are in the shop just tune in and listen what is being said behind the bar... With a bit of luck, you might catch something ...juicy :-)

Coffee and Reykja

When we went to Iceland last March, from what I had read from all the guides, I expected Reykjavik to be a coffee heaven. ""People run on coffee"... "No one really drinks tea"... "There is a coffee machine in every shop and customers can have a cup of coffee totally free"... What else one can ask for?

And yes, there are coffee machines pretty much everywhere we went, however, those were vending machines producing horrible brew, a cross between instant coffee and dishwater. It is free, but I would not drink it even if I was paid to. So, instead of coffee paradise we faced severe coffee famine.

To be fair, to say that one can not get a decent cup of coffee in Reykjavik would be a lie. There are few places well worth of visit, I particularly liked "Mocha" for design and cakes and "Kaffitar" (icelandic version of "Starbucks") for home away from home feel.

Most of the year it is cold and dark in Iceland and therefore interior design of many small funky coffee places tends to be quite up beat and very colorful, which I really liked. This Scandinavian gem is also quite progressive in terms of technology - wherever you go, Wi-Fi is free and you don't have to have any cash on you at all - cards are accepted everywhere.

In "Kaffitar" we had very nice cappuccino and I bought 2 bags of beans to try - Colombia and Espresso. Design of the bags was beyond cool - witty, colorful and with traditional symbols of Reykjavik. Both coffees weren't great, unfortunately. Very watery, under roasted and far too sour.  I think, "Kaffitar" know their customer very well and cater for their palate, brought up on doubtful brew from vending machines, therefore offering something more intense, might not have met a great response.

All and all, Iceland is a fantastic place to go for otherworldly landscapes, wild nature and crazy nightlife, but probably not for mind-blowing coffee experience.  

Blend "Kensal Rise"

On the Conference we also discussed, how the blends are being made and Lisa, the host of the Roasting section, brought up "Thanksgiving blend", the blend that was especially created to "complement sweet and savoury dishes shared around Thanksgiving table". It was launched 4th of November last year and is a "flavourful combination of full-bodied beans from Sumatra, with hints of fine herbs, and beans from Guatemala, which add subtle spice, notes of cocoa and a pleasant sparkle". 
It is not featured on the Starbucks web site this year, so I am wondering if it was a one off or a coffee proudly taking its place in a wonderful Starbucks whole bean line-up.

As Lisa said, mainly coffees are being blended before roasting (and, I guess, it takes a lot of time to create a blend  through the way of trial and error), however, in some cases, like our "Verona", beans being mixed after roasting, because some of the beans had too be Italian or Continental roast, which is very dark.

After that session, I felt quite inspired to try my hand at creating my very own blend. I would call it "Kensal Rise Blend". Kensal Rise is a very lively area, where I live, "melting pot" of cultures and nationalities, on the border of street-wise Ladbroke Grove and divorced from reality Queen's Park.

My blend would be full-bodied affair with aroma of fried chicken from kebab shop next door, hints of red wine, excessively drank at "Chamberlayne", and aftertaste of honey, in honour of honeys roaming the Queen's Park. I think it'll be huge success!)))

Kensal Rise and Queen's Park last year, when it was snowing like mad.