Flat White Making

Perfect Flat White from Jeanna Mortimer on Vimeo.


This is little video I have made starring Aiste, our Regional Coffee Master and Serkan, my fellow District Coffee Master, making a flat white. Apologies for the sound and some commentaries(and of course, Nokia ringtone - I have a long way to go in my filmmaking, ;-) )

Gossip Girl

(Getty Images)

When I was teenager, I was obsessed with Kate Moss. I did all that your average teen would do - collected the pages with her editorials and commercials, read the articles and longed to see her in flesh. She lived in far away land and was more elusive than snow leopard. She never appeared in talk shows, gave no interviews, supported no causes to save Africa or stop the war. She was enigmatic, distant and aloof, like a real star, giving light but no warmth. 

And when I arrived to London, I was grown up enough to understand that our meeting is totally unnecessary - she is just a human being, woman who likes to party hard and doesn't give a flying monkey about what people have to say.  All her life in public eye taught her that. However, I did see her in flesh. She is pretty. 

 

The other day, our shop was graced by the brief appearance of two other celebs, whom I didn't seek to meet: Jude Law and Sienna Miller. It has long been a commonplace that two sweethearts are back together (I somehow managed to miss this life-changing news, no matter how hard tabloids tried to drive it home). They came in a quite moment on Monday, looking very casual and relaxed, did a bit of a kissing and cuddling, ordered their drinks and gone, leaving the shimmer of their aura trail in the air. 

Of course, we pretended we didn't recognise them (although, Adam who was on the till, did it genuinely). Of course, we studied them attentively from the corner of the eye - is she really that skinny? Is his tan natural? What is she wearing? etc. They also played their part, shooting quick glances around, Jude lifting his T-shirt high to show off his six pack on Sienna's remark that this Almond Croissant could make him fat and disgusting. They didn't look in the eye even when asking questions or ordering, looking at my shoulder instead.   

What I liked though, was that they ordered straight Venti Cappuccino for him and Grande Latte for her. No frills. No extra hot, half shot, quarter decaf, soya, no foam latte with two pumps of hazelnut and one pump of vanilla... 

That was the best bit. ;-)

Sumatran Delights

It has been a busy few last weeks - my Dad came to visit from Russia, I volunteered for East End Film Festival, new Summer campaign has been launched... 
I am resuming my rather non-existent blogging with the post about Starbucks latest seasonal offering - Sumatran Lake Toba and Siborong Borong. We are very lucky this time around to have not one, but two coffees. Both of the them are coming from the same region in Sumatra, however, they subtly differ. 
Yesterday during the District Meeting we had a comparative tasting of the both species.  This glorious sunny morning I decided to find out more about the country of origin. 
There is some stuff from Wikipedia:    
"Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) is a lake and supervolcano, 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world.^[1]In addition, it is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred about 75,000 years ago, a massive climate-changing event. This is the largest known eruption anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory to which some anthropologists and archeologists subscribe, it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today."
Wow! Pretty heady stuff, I guess one of the reasons that the Lake Toba coffee doesn't have any acidity whatsoever, in my opinion, is because  coffee trees are grown on the volcanic soil, which is very reach in minerals as oppose to products of organic decoy. 
^{This is how the experts of Dallis Coffee describe the cup:}

 Full bodied, with a smooth syrupy mouthfeel, earthy notes of tobacco, leather and spice mingle with savory green peppers and lush red fruits.

Another coffee - Sumatra Siborong Borong. Compared to Lake Toba, it is tangier with the hint of acidity and sharper herby notes. 

"The Batak people have lived in the Lake Toba area for centuries and are referred to as Toba Batak. Their faith combines Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Sumatra Siborong-Borong coffee was cultivated almost entirely by Batak people.
Batak women pick only the ripest cherries and then pulp and wash them, all by hand. The wet parchment is set out to dry in the sun on tarps or woven mats in front of their houses. This coffee is sorted by hand and delivered to mill the day after harvest to ensure freshness.

Locals brew their coffee Turkish-style—sweetened with sugar." (source - starbucks.ch)

I can easily picture this: with the backdrop of sunset - flaming orange sun and purple sky, the cafe(kedai) with few wrinkly and dark from merciless sunshine faces, who laugh and swear, play chess and sip thick syrupy coffee from tiny cups. Smoke from their clover(CLOVER, my dear Lord!) cigarettes mixes with heavy intoxicating aromas of the wet forest. Women quietly smile and knit. (Well, maybe they don't knit because they don't need to - it's constantly warm enough to wear just cotton shorts and straw hat, but I want them knit - it better suits the mood.) Couple of Sumatran cats, short haired and slender, snooze on the porch. 

Mamma Mia, heaven! Paradise! What have you done to me, Siborong Borong? 

Happy tasting, people!