earlgrey_44
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Posts posted by earlgrey_44
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I buy coffee from "direct trade" roasters. They contract with farmers for green beans, bypassing the coffee-market middlemen, and sell right to the consumer. Everybody wins: the coffee farmer gets a better price and a steady market, the roaster gets to influence quality and has consistent supply, and the consumer gets a better bean with a high quality/price ratio. It's a good thing.
These guys are trying to do the same for California wine. They're setting up some talented winemakers, and you get to support them with a regular payment, and get your choice of product.
I stuck my nose in and have tried a few bottles so far. Initial orders are enticingly cheap. You can post your opinions and chat with the winemakers. My first impression is of good value - certainly an intriguing idea. I plan to try it out for a few months to get a feel for what's available.
Anybody else try them yet?
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Since I last posted, I noticed that Five Guys has invaded the area as well as Smashburger. More opportunity for future "research".
Finally got the opportunity to compare Smashburger to the regional faves Steak n' Shake and Culvers. Tried the classic w/o the american cheese (me no likey American cheese) with their shoestring frites.
As the name implies, SB is of the school that smooshes a blob of beef on the griddle to frizzle it thin and well-done, as opposed to the "throw a patty on and flip it" approach. This puts them in the same camp as Culvers and SnS as far as griddle technique goes, afaik.
I think the burger edges out both Culvers and SnS, though not by a whole lot.SB seasons their beef nicely and the Smash sauce helps the flavor too. Culvers comes very close in style and in the high quality of garnishes, but they have no special condiments and undersalt their beef. If your going to get fries at Smashburger, skip the forgettable plain fries. Didn't try the rosemary fries or sweet potato fries but they've got to be better. SnS does a better job with the shoestrings, though they are maddeningly inconsistent. Neither matches Culvers nice, consistent, fat crinkle fries, IMHO, but that's my french fry prejudice.
So, Smashburger fans, if you espy a Culvers or a Steak n' Shake, know that they at least play in the same ballpark. Any Culvers or Steak n' Shake owners out there, the competition is gaining on you.
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Happy to oblige. Attached is a pic of a Charlie Chaplin, made with london gin and the Lejay.
Straight, it has a clean apricot flavor, more fruity than sweet - 40 proof like the "new" Apry.
In this cocktail, the drink is pleasently tart but well balanced with sweetness. The apricot is well centered with the lemon morphed into a fresh apricot juice impression - nice.
While I wouldn't care to sip this liqueur, this cocktail is a winner.
The Charlie Chaplin Cocktail
1 part apricot brandy
1 part sloe gin
1 part lemon juice
( I made it up, shaken, w/ the gin subsitution)
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(Bump)
Anybody?
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Too much East/West coast influence here methinks.
Which is sort of funny, considering where I currently live, but guilty as charged. Unfortunately, the nearest Culvers to me is 150 miles away. The nearest Steak'n'Shake is only 15, I can probably swing that.
Yeah, I got a chuckle out of that too, still, not too much discussion of those midwestern stalwarts.
I noticed last week that a Smashburger opened about 10 miles from me. Perhaps I'll visit soon to conduct a benchmarking exercise. Purely for scientific reasons of course.
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You could always send them to this guy: http://www.japanesek...m/services.html
He's reputable on the knifeforums.
He fixed my gyuto when the tip was broken off. Excellent repair - you wouldn't know anything had happened to it. Quick turn around too.
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Am I leaving anyone out?
Too much East/West coast influence here methinks.
Culvers (mentioned upthread)
Steak 'n Shake (Much praised by Roger Ebert)
Where do they rank? Above Wendys, but I can't compare to the list leaders - not enough FF burger experience...
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I have an unopened gift bottle of Lejay-Lagoute Creme d'Abricot from Dijon, which represents an invitation to explore unknown territory (for me) in apricot cocktail land. I've made a list from this thread of things to try.
For a point of reference, is anyone familiar with Lejay to compare it to other apricot liqueur discussed upthread?
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The first cups tend be thinner, but aren't usually unbalanced (unless the beans themselves are; the first cups do tend to emphasize any shortcomings of the beans).
"Thinner" ? Hmm... doesn't sound like a temperature problem, really. If it's not temperature, a technofix PID will certainly make the machine easier to use but won't help the issue.
... this happens regardless of whether the basket and holder have been scrupulously cleaned, left with the grounds sitting until we use it the next day, or any of the various options between the two extremes.
Careful now. Nobody said it was oils in the basket and holder that caused an off taste in the first cup - it's some of the parts behind the shower screen, inside the machine if you will, that's the main concern.
It isn't a huge deal, but I do find it kind of interesting, and have been wondering what lay behind this phenomenon .
Me too. Perhaps you're one of those I mentioned above who like better what an espresso machine does after it has just had a "seasoning shot" than a machine that has not - all else being equal. While it is a more controversial assertion, and I've never read an argument as to why it should be so that really motivated me to change my ways, there are many pros and home baristas that think so. Just because there's no consensus, that doesn't mean it's wrong.
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Turns out, it may be the temperature after all.
This makes sense to me, although I'm not equipped to test this:
Oh, yes you are equipped, oh person of good taste!
Pulling espressos at the correct temperature for the coffee you're using - and doing it consistently - is a bit of a challenge on a single boiler machine like Sylvia. Temperature variation is one possible explanation for the "second cup better" experience.
Test it this way: sip the first espresso straight. Do the same for the second pull. If the first taste tends toward being overbearingly bitter, while the second is noticeably more balanced and "sweet", that would support the idea that your usage method for Sylvia is causing you to pull the first shot too hot, since too-hot pulls tends to make the bitter flavor component take over and dominate the other flavors in the coffee. If not, the temp is probably not your problem.
The other popular explanation for "second cup better" has to do with the effect of stale oils in the machine or, conversely, the absence of fresh coffee oil seasoning. The first shot of the day will dissolve any stale oils (into your drink) and refresh the metal surfaces with new coffee oil. The second pull thus benefits. With practice, it's possible to distinguish between stale flavor and fresh, but off-balance bitter or sour flavors, though this can be confusing if you have not had had much experiment time playing with the machine. If you're not sure you're covered here, do a little reading about cleaning best practices and see where you stand.
Some folks swear that a scrupulously cleaned machine will do some evil to the first shot, and the fresh oil will bless the second, but many others say this is silly and they notice no difference between the shots when the machine starts off clean (and they have learned to control the temp).
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Well, this made a tremendous difference. The milk foam was the best I've made. I've continued this practice, and the consistency and quality of my milk foam has increased greatly.
Anyone try this? Observe this? Have any ideas why this might be so?
Reading this today is the first I've heard of this practice - intriguing. I'll have to play with this and see what happens...
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When I was first investigating my "entry-level" setup, going a step above Silvia/Rocky meant spending about double - an outlay I wasn't willing to invest at the time since I first wanted to learn as much as possible about pulling a proper shot at home.
Exactly right. This is the issue everybody with a "home barista" aspiration has to wrestle with.
If you mainly want better AND cheaper milk drinks than the ones you get at *bucks, it's not hard to do. Your Gaggia or your Breville, some supermarket beans, a decent though low-end burr mill and you can easily learn to enjoy yourself more and add up all the payback from your investment over the cost of all those damn lattes you used to buy every morning. Cool. I did that happily for many years.
If you go to one of the specialty bars proliferating around the country where espresso is carefully made (beware of pretenders), or the home of a skilled, well equipped aficionado, and experience a truly proper shot, you will suddenly find that you can't get there from there. Then what?
There is another, possibly a bit discouraging but I think wise argument that bears consideration here, that goes along with the "start on the second floor" point of view above. A lot of effort and money is wasted trying to learn to make high quality espresso on less-than-prosumer equipment. For people with more taste than money, this can be important. Instead of spending 400, 800, or even $1000 on espresso machine/grinder kit, this argument goes, spend your money exploring the most delicious coffees you can find, brew them up in a french press or manual drip rig, and froth your milk in a milk frother. Enjoy your wonderful coffee having embraced the fact that home espresso is an equipment intensive hobby, and you are saving your pennies for the day when you can afford the right stuff to explore this particular culinary space properly.
The crux here is the heuristic experience. Much of what you learn from lower end equipment is how to conform to the limitations of the equipment to maximize its effectiveness and laboring to avoid making something icky - not learning the nature of different coffees and the different results you can obtain. It may not look it from the bottom of the slope, but it's much easier to concentrate on making the drink and not attending to the hardware with higher end stuff. I jumped from very cheap equipment to full-fledged semi-pro stuff not exactly in one leap but pretty close to it, and I'm glad I did, so I think this is worth considering if you have the espresso bug, want to learn the skills involved, but are frugally minded like me.
I think this argument detracts not at all from the experience of those who ventured into Silvia and Rocky land and have learned to do good things there. One of the good things about Silvia and her friend is that their resale value is really great! (Just a hint contained therein
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Wellll, I'm not so sure.
Lots of people may shop at Super Store X, but do you really know how often the company buyers buy their brown rice? How long it sits in their distribution centers or in the store?
Back in the day, we had a wholesale distributorship that sent whole grains, freshly ground flours, various pulses over a large swath of midwest america. The brown rice farms we bought from were located in California and Arkansas. I forget how frequent the farm to warehouse deliveries were, but it certainly wasn't a once-a-year situation. The amount of cleaning these grains had before they were packaged (generally in large paper bags) at the farms and sent to us varied. We had lots of control over our trucking and deliveries,and in both the wholesale warehouse and in my retail store, things turned over much faster than the typical natural foods warehouses and stores at the time. I know this, since I sought out lots of comparative data.
While we had to do the prudent inventory checks and IPM controls in the store, we rarely threw out infested product that became that way in the store. I doubt if there was ever an instance of receiving infested rice from the wholesale. It's possible I may have encountered rice that became infested in the store, but vary very few instances if any. Plus, I saw few instances of infested anything in my kitchen, at the tail end of the chain. I knew that other retailers had regular problems with infested deliveries from their wholesales, as well as a worse situation than I with in-store problems, and these people invariably bought from distributors with fewer turns and longer storage cycles than ours.
So yes, infestation happens, and is inevitable to some degree with whole foods. I hereby forthrightly declare, however, that sealed, infested packages on the store shelf may rightly be called "old", and should not be considered a "normal" expectation in this part of the world by any stretch, especially if it happens more than once. That said, if you find yourself with a small quantity of infested brown rice at home, you need not necessarily toss it, and the world will probably not come to an end, as pointed out above.
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So twice now I've bought genmai and it had bugs crawling in it upon opening the package!
This will happen if the retailer and/or wholesaler they use has poor turnover. Find a supplier with a shorter and faster pipe from the farm to you, learn basic best-practice home storage methods, and you will have few infestation problems with whole grains. If and when critters appear, Jenni's comments are apt.
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In this Percolator vs Plunger vs Siphon vs Espresso Machine topic, poster jeffsf claims in this post that:
Read posts and recommendations about the Rancilio Silvia and Rocky with a grain of salt. In their day, they were great options (to some extent, the only options), but prices have gone up a lot over the last ten years and there are better contenders for entry-level machines on the market.So, what are the better contenders for entry-level machines? And what price level, for the two pieces of equipment mentioned, is considered entry-level?
I've heard the comment about the Rancilio combo before, and IMHO, I think that's largely a reaction to two things: some common observed behavior of newbe espresso geeks, and price point change in the tier of espresso equipment just above Silvia's head.
Many people who bought the Silvia upgrade to a fancier setup after a year or two since they are frustrated by the relatively slow pace of milk-drink making possible with such a machine, and lust after kit that is easier to use and easier to make consistent shots with. At the same time, the price of entry level heat exchanger (HX) machines, which are more forgiving of operator skill regarding consistent shot quality and can make milk drinks for dinner guests much faster, has dropped as the Rancilio machines have increased in price.
For example, one of the better importers will sell you a Bezzera BZ02, a well built and great performing HX, and a Quamar 63mm grinder (a real commercial grade grinder) for something like $1400 delivered. So, if you pay something on the order of a third more, you can get stuff that is as good or better built and quite a bit more capable. Hence the argument, why not skip screwing around in the lobby and go right up to the second floor? You couldn't say this a few years ago - the ticket price of the ride to HX land was a lot higher.
At the same time, the Rocky remains capable of world class shots as long you don't try to pack too much coffee into one shot, and the Silvia is a fine little personal machine albeit not well adapted to lattes for a crowd. The Crossland hasn't much of a track record - time will tell there.
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Zachary's post Same with coffee - you have to start with good coffee.
Yes, but where do you get THAT?
Where do you live?
If there's no good roaster nearby, start here:
http://www.home-barista.com/coffees/list-of-our-favorite-roasters-t12125.html
While this list is espresso oriented, there's plenty of brewing coffees to explore. Most all the coffee people listed ship right after roasting, and put the roast date on their bags - a definitive sign of somebody who is serious.
I agree with wienoo that the starting emphasis should be on coffee quality first, and then a good grinder. The easiest way to improve one's coffee is to find specialty coffee in the top 10% of quality for the current crop, which must be sought out from the right roaster, and avoid run-of-the-mill commodity coffee which is everywhere. The sweet spot at the moment are beans that cost $12 to $16 per pound from folks like those on the list in the link, which will yield flavor a mile ahead of supermarket coffee. Prices above this range will generally give you increasingly exotic stuff but the difference will not be quite so dramatic for the newbe coffee explorer.
Manual pour over coffee pots using paper filters will give you clearly separated flavors and a clean cup, and are cheap to buy. French press gives a muddier cup with rich oily flavors some love and some hate - a matter of taste. Siphon pots are a bit odd to use but give a cup that mixes the best attributes of both - but they're quirky and not everyones favorite. Espresso that is actually good is a another subject unto itself, and is the most equipment and money intensive way to do coffee. Percolators tend to destroy the aromatics that come with the better coffees, so pursuit of better coffee with a percolator is self-limiting - but of course their distinctive flavor pattern has its fans.
Baratza is a company that make nice grinders that are relatively durable, and do a much better job than the el-cheapo bean bashers in the department store.
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Basted eggs. That's about it.
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I've got a Champion that also has the grain grinding attachment. I use it for pulping (good for potato pancakes for example), juicing, and grinding flour.
To clean it after juicing, you:
1. turn the nozzle and pull it off
2. slide off the chute to release the screen.
3. pull the cutter head off the motor arbor
4. rinse these items and the plunger under a running tap
5. wipe off the counter and the motor head
6. Done
Not a very onerous procedure IMHO.
While I'm not a daily user, the thing has been sitting in my kitchen since 1983. Still has all the original parts and functions 100%.
P.S.
Gee, what a great thread - The French Laundry soup and Andies tomato sauce approach give me two things to try...
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You can get good use from it anywhere that you'd apply salt and savouriness
This is exactly correct. For example, use a rice miso as a salt substitute for oatmeal.
Creamy oatmeal with miso and maple syrup - mmm tasty. Gives a nice protein boost too...
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The Krups DD-912 is another reasonably well made "home flipover" iron that is still available here and there for closeout prices. See my review here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2NQW5SH0819Z...#R2NQW5SH0819ZA
Like the Krups, The Waring is also not the best made device in the universe but is probably well worth $60.
My experience with these deep pocket "belgian" irons is different from Lisa's above. I like them very much. I find they give an excellent texture - crisp on the outside, soft in the middle - that I can't quite duplicate on other designs, and that includes my beloved over-engineered vintage electrics from the 20's, 30's, and 40's.
When the Krups finally decides to die, I will likely fall back on Snowangels excellent suggestion.
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Is the cafe a known quantity? There are any number of nickle-and-dime tricks that less-than-honest restauranteurs use to improve their margins. I've had "Bombay" gin that clearly was the cheapest possible rail crap, made rose myself -- white wine with a relatively small bit of red -- and once worked in a place where the veal parmesan was made with pork cutlets.I once had the maids at a relatively swank hotel in Greece refill the vodka bottle from my minibar with water and put them back in, I assume the motive was to keep the vodka for themselves. The manager on duty did not bat an eye, but did have the bottle replaced.Same thing happened to a friend of mine in a swank hotel in Washington, DC, though suspected the room's previous occupants, rather than the maids.
In these instances of "The Case of the Purloined Vodka" the motive of the perp is obvious enough. In the case of the bogus Perrier, I'd feel a little better about it if the motive was clear as that - not because it would be OK of course, but because I could at least understand it.
I suppose a wait could in theory serve a trash-bottle bubble water, charge the mark for a Perrier, and pocket the bucks, but how in the age of computerized bills and credit cards does this actually work? Plus there is the factor of counting on the diner to be a dope - the risk/reward seems too wacky.
I don't get it...
As a one-off the Perrier makes no sense, but as part of a pattern, that you may or may not have picked up on....
Yes, Busboy, this cannot be ruled out. The place in question was just an inviting patio in the sun to stop for a drink - never saw it before, probably won't again. FWIW, both the health inspector and I myself got the impression that the owner was genuinely unaware of the incident, so she either has a good personality disorder going or her staff is up to something.
I tried to work with her and with the health dept so my work is done.
The owner did expressed gratitude for my help and offered free libations should I journey back to Toronto. As it happened, I walked out with my nose held high and without paying for my very tasty Kronenbourg , so I have already received my reward for saving my sweetie from drinking a fly due to astute capacity for bubble size observation. I will leave it at that.
Andie, your words are wise. My SO and her business associates make it a militant rule to never trust an unsealed water bottle in their travels to India, one of them having witnessed a brazen refiller in the act in an upscale, international hotel. So sorry you learned such a hard way!
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I once had the maids at a relatively swank hotel in Greece refill the vodka bottle from my minibar with water and put them back in, I assume the motive was to keep the vodka for themselves. The manager on duty did not bat an eye, but did have the bottle replaced.
Same thing happened to a friend of mine in a swank hotel in Washington, DC, though suspected the room's previous occupants, rather than the maids.
In these instances of "The Case of the Purloined Vodka" the motive of the perp is obvious enough. In the case of the bogus Perrier, I'd feel a little better about it if the motive was clear as that - not because it would be OK of course, but because I could at least understand it.
I suppose a wait could in theory serve a trash-bottle bubble water, charge the mark for a Perrier, and pocket the bucks, but how in the age of computerized bills and credit cards does this actually work? Plus there is the factor of counting on the diner to be a dope - the risk/reward seems too wacky.
I don't get it...
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It probably happens very infrequently. I typically order Perrier and have never ever had this happen. Someone must have been playing a bad practical joke or something because I don't believe anyone would think any person would ever drink tap water and think they had been served Perrier. Restaurants have a hard time of it and plenty of other problems to think about than to deliberately drive off paying customers.
Rhonda
Just to clarify, I said tap water, but the water was big-bubble carbonated, almost certainly from the bar dispenser.
I was able to talk to the owner about this incident. Turns out she had no awareness of the incident until the health dept showed up later in the week to investigate. Quite a diligent health department in Toronto, I must say. She was unaware even though two employees heard my account.
When I had asked to see the manager, I was told "that person is not on the premises"- no one even tried to take any responsibility.
What motivated it - who knows, but it seems to be some kind of a "cats away - mice will play" deal.
In any case, I was able to give the owner the play-by-play account to maximize her chance of resolving the situation and getting what she wants from her people in the future. Not only did some loose-cannon dolt pull an ugly stunt but people who should have been trusted employees buried it. Hope she able to improve her relationships.
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Last Sunday my SO ordered a Perrier at a sidewalk bar/resto. A plastic bottle with the screwcap seal broken arrived at the table. The bottle was wet on the outside, filled to the very brim, and the bubbles were huge: my incredulous brain immediately said "this ain't Perrier" , though I couldn't quite believe it.
I poured a little out - obviously soda water from a bar hose, and then made my final discovery: a free dead fly inside as an added bonus.
My friends look out for this kind of thing in India - happens a lot there - the lesson is, get a factory bottle and make sure you're the one who opens it, not the wait.
The above incident, though, happened in downtown Toronto hence my shock.
So what say ye? Bizarre aberration? All too common? Somewhere in between?
Gee, "Direct Trade" California wine. How 'bout it?
in Wine
Posted
I've enjoyed an introductory 6 bottles from these guys and have placed an order for an additional mixed case. I'll be in a better position to judge things with a little more experience with the wines.
Naked Wine has operations in England and in Oz but that is irrelevant to the outfit linked above - this deal is for California wines from the contractors only. The winemakers involved often have been in the trade for many years so we are not talking about kids just out of wine college here.
I strikes me at first blush that this set up is aimed at people who go through at least a bottle or two a week of wine in the 10 to 20 dollar/bottle range, and are attracted to both potential value and perhaps the "social networking" aspect of the thing.
I don't know enough about the wine trade from vineyard to table to judge the applicability of this kind of direct-tradey arrangement to wine as opposed to coffee, where the advantages are more obvious. It would be good to hear some informed commentary on that. My interest is in value received, and I'll reserve judgment on that until I gain a little more experience.