stlbites.com – st. louis food blog of bill burge

I am…

Dec 10, 2007 coffee, general food

That’s one word for what I am. This coffee mug is pretty unique too right? I could wax on about how it came from a thrift store, or how I bought it for the hilarious irony of it all, but no, I bought it new, in San Francisco, on Fisherman’s Wharf, in about 1983, when I lived in the San Joaquin Valley, in the city of Modesto, 90 minutes outside of San Francisco.

At the time I thought the mug was awesome, and while that might have signaled something was obviously amiss with me early on, I think I deserve some slack, I was like 7.

Now the mug sits in my cabinet; one of few in my arsenal to host a delicious assortment of brewed coffees from my Presto Scandinavian coffee maker–the cheapest drip coffee maker that brews at the correct temperature ( so cheap–$19–I have backups)–and Ellie makes fun of me every time I use it.

Yesterday the mug contained a drip brewed cup from the half pound of Stumptown’s Hair Bender Espresso which Matt (Goshen) gave me on my weekly trek to Edwardsville.  He has this wacky (read awesome) idea to bring in guest roasts from other shops all over the country to show people what other great roasters are up to, and they’d been pouring the Stumptown as drip all week.  (Matt believes a great espresso should also make a decent drip brewed cup)  As a coffeegeek I think it’s a great idea as roasters don’t all go about things in the same manner.  It’s cool to see the variations of what a shop is doing as I travel.

Using just Kaldi’s and Goshen as a local example, Kaldi’s roasts in San Franciscan drum roasters, where as Goshen roasts with a hot air roaster Matt built himself because he finds he can finesse out of it more of the flavors he’s after.  Generally people believe drum roasters to be superior because they think air roasting leaves coffees brighter than drum roasting.  To these people I can only say I was shocked when Matt told me he air roasted–try it for yourself.

As for the Hair Bender, Matt tasked me with noting something in the finish, and I hope my emailed response didn’t fall completely off the mark, for that would be embarrassing and I’d lose what tiny bit of coffee street-cred I’ve got.

To be honest though, I’m not great at picking flavors out of beverages.  What I mean is, it’s one thing to say a wine tastes like fruit, it’s a whole different thing to specify fresh or dried fruit, and another thing entirely, still, to specify what fruit exactly.  Currants? Cherries? Blueberries?  They all taste different, and I’m only now beginning to get better at picking this stuff up with that kind of clarity.

My answer, by the way, was caramel apples.  But it could have just been something I ate.

Oh…and Matt hired my favorite barista in St. Louis…some kid named Alex that used to do some amazing things with Chauvin at Picasso’s in St. Charles.

Tags: Goshen Coffee, Kaldi's Coffee, unique