Whole Foods Bel Canto vs. Sierra Coffee Beans

As you no doubt know by now, I am a coffee freak. I like the process of making coffee as much as I like drinking it, and my favorite is, of course, the purest extraction of this wonderful little bean, espresso. After subjecting myself to over a year of using preground Italian canned coffee, I bit the bullet over this past holiday and bought a vintage PeDe wall-mounted coffee grinder with burrs tight enough to do an espresso or even Turkish coffee grind. The good people at Orphan Espresso deserve a shout-out for the wonderful rehab work they are doing on these classic grinders, and for offering them at extremely reasonable prices. My grinder cost $110 to my door, which I think is a steal.

The best local place I have found so far for buying roasted beans has been Whole Foods. They roast every few days and label the beans for their “roasted-on” date, so you know just how fresh they are. The prices are pretty good, too. I drink one espresso or Americano (an espresso topped off with hot water to make a full cup of coffee) per day and $6 worth of beans will last me all week. The next step is to start buying green beans and roast them myself, but that’s another story.

Anyway, the espresso roasts Whole Foods sells here are called Sierra and Bel Canto. I’ve alternated back and forth for the last couple months and am ready to give my verdict on which are better beans, in my opinion. The Sierra blend looks better… they’re dark and oily and beautiful to see with a wonderful aroma in the bin. Sierra is a darker roast than Bel Canto, which is also dark but not oily. Based on looks and aroma alone, I was pretty sure Sierra would win out, but after a couple months of drinking these beans, I think the Bel Canto roast is quite a bit better.

In my opinion the Bel Canto is brighter and cleaner, makes more crema in the espresso machine, and is just a wonderful bean for drinking pure espresso. The Sierra is more of a “Roman style” bean, based on what I remember of espresso in Rome from 7 years of living there. It’s a great bean, but for my tastes the Bel Canto just really wins out. They’re both light years ahead of canned junk, but with home grinding I have noticed they are also both very temperamental to their roast profile in terms of how they grind. Actually, the Bel Canto beans seem very sensitive to this, forcing me to play with the burrs on the grinder constantly in order to get the grind dialed in. Once I do, its good for that batch as long as they don’t sit for too long, but I usually go through 3-4 “chokes” on the machine before getting it figured out.

Blue Margaritas, Cheap Booze & Hangovers

Ah, the allure of the blue cocktail. In the words of my lovely girlfriend, “If it’s blue, I’ll drink it.” I made blue margaritas last night and a friend’s birthday party. Before that, the last time I made them was last year, and I drank way too many of them and paid the price for about two days. Last night I drank 1.5-2 regular sized “bluegaritas” and I had a mild headache by the time I got home (and it was an early night to boot). Why is the blue margarita so dangerous?

I’m guessing the problem with my bluegarita recipe is the fact that I am using fairly cheap booze in them. Lower quality alcohol tends to have more compounds in them called “congeners.” These compounds are toxic and they are largely responsible for the effects of hangovers. The general rule of thumb is that the darker the liquor the more congeners there will be in the bottle, and within the same type of booze, the cheaper it is the more congeners there will be to find.

Brandy contains the most, and is the worst hangover according to my research. Good quality vodka will have the least, and therefore, give you the cleanest buzz.

The problem with margaritas, though, is that a lot of alcohol in them is, by their very nature, very inexpensive. So, making a top shelf margarita with expensive tequila helps, but the other components are still pretty much low quality no matter how you cut it. 

So, as pretty as my bluegarita is, the fact remains that triple sec is cheap booze, as is blue curaçao. You can barely buy a decent quality of either component. I wonder if I’m not fairly sensitive to the cogeners in this drink, though, too. I mean, two cocktails and I’m working on a brain-buster? That’s just inexcusable! lol The bluegarita is a beautiful drink, though, and it gets lots of “oohs” and “ahh’s” at parties, especially from the fairer sex, so if you can improve the recipe with the best quality liquors you can find, then this should be a great addition to your repertoire. 

Bluegarita

2 parts tequila (white/clear/blanco)

1 part triple sec

1 part blue curaçao

1 part fresh lime juice (go to any store and buy a lime press. They’re about $5 and the best invention you’ve ever seen)

Add the 3 liquors and lime juice to a shaker full of ice. Shake until the shaker is so cold that it’s getting tough to hold onto. Salt the rim of a margarita glass and add a few ice cubes. Strain into the glass and voilá! A fancy garnish like a twist of orange peel would probably look awesome, too. This is good for two average size Bluegaritas when you’re using the right amount of ice in the glass. Enjoy!

Back to the Grind

I’ve learned some things from my PeDe grinder over the past month or so of our friendship. First, the freshness of the beans has a lot to do with how fine I need to set the grinder. Airtight container for storing the beans is cuts down on most of the day-to-day grinder fiddling, but I went from Whole Foods Bel Canto beans that were about a week old to fresh roasted ones and I had to loosen the burrs almost a full turn before the grind would stop choking my Gaggia.

I also decided to try Sierra roast instead of Bel Canto, and even with fresh beans I’ve had to tighten the burr back up substantially, lest I want a cup of espresso in about 10 seconds (way too fast). I’m guessing the Sierra is a darker roast, hence a drier bean, hence requires a finer grind.

Breckenridge Brewery 471 IPA

Breckenridge Brewery is like a lot of breweries these days in that they offer a special lineup of beers in addition to their regular year-around choices. In Breckenridge’s case, this special batch of beers is called their “471″ series, presumably named after their brewing and bottling facility that opened in 1996 at 471 Kalamath Street in Denver, CO. Breckenridge Brewery has been in operation since 1990 and offers a wide line of beers, of which I have also had their Agave Wheat (didn’t blow my socks off, but the American wheat style doesn’t tend to excite me too much, although they are a top choice of mine in the summer months).

The 471 IPA is billed as a small batch, limited edition double IPA made from Pale, Munich, Caramel-30, Carapils and Torrified Wheat malts and Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe and Fuggles hops. It pours a nice copper color that is a little cloudy either from being bottle conditioned or because of the inclusion of wheat (or both) in the recipe.

At 70 IBU’s it packs a pretty good hop punch, and at 9.2% ABV taking a bomber down on your own will leave you needing a designated driver! Interestingly, for as “big” as they are touted, I’ve actually found regular IPA’s to be generally more bitter than double IPA’s. I lived in Italy for almost seven years, and that is a country that has taken bitter flavors to an art form, so I have always loved well-done bitterness in food and drink. I like gin (although it comes off sweet often) and Campari, and Justus Drugstore’s excellent Negroni is one of my favorite cocktails on the planet (Hendrick’s Gin, homemade dry vermouth and Campari).

IPA’s, or India Pale Ales, get their name because, historically, they were hopped more than the usual English beers. As the legend goes, extra hops were added to beers that were shipped from Britain to India during colonial times because hops are a natural preservative. The story goes that the colonists in India liked these extra-hopped beers so much that they asked for them to continue being made once they returned to India. This story has largely been disproven, but the bottom line is that the hallmark of the IPA style is big hops aroma and flavor, particularly when made by USA breweries.

Double IPA’s, then, use more malt, more hops, and more yeast and they should produce more flavor, more aroma and more alcohol. Ironically, however, because “double” or imperial styles do use more malt and more yeast, they produce more sugar and more sweetness. So, while double IPA’s generally contain a lot more hops, they tend to be more balanced, in my opinion, than a lot of standard IPA’s, and therefore, come off less bitter and hoppy than most of the normal IPA’s I drink.

The 471 has a great grapefruity aroma, but not as sharp as some I’ve smelled. I think I detected a hint of orange on the aroma, too, particularly as the beer warmed a little (I generally drink and enjoy double IPA’s at room temperature, a lesson I learned with Stoudt’s double IPA). At room temperature I got a little alcohol on the aroma, too. 

This aroma carries over quite nicely into the flavor. The initial flavor is a sweet, mild grapefruit/orange melange (that’s right, melange) that is carried by that big malt backbone I mentioned. Bitterness starts to come in about midway into it, followed by a nice, long hoppy finish and aftertaste.

For a 9.2% beer, this is extremely easy to drink, making it kind of dangerous! I find the 471 to be very balanced and, really, in my experience, more sweet than hoppy. The alcohol is completely hidden in the malt and hops. I had a pretty good buzz after one glass, but I was alone when I drank this and had to take one for the team! LOL

I like this beer. It’s a very easy to drink double IPA and I think it would be a good introduction to someone into the IPA style in general. My only criticism of the 471 IPA is that it leaves a goober in the back of my throat and tongue, like candy (from the malt and sweetness), and that it is not as aggressively hoppy as the marketing would have you believe. That said, this is a wonderfully balanced IPA, refreshing despite the goober, and exceedingly easy to drink. Well done!

So, What Stands Out?

With so many great beers that I’ve drunk in the past month or so since starting this blog, I was thinking to myself, “What stands out?” Out of everything I’ve reviewed here it’s actually a much easier choice than I would have expected… it’s the Bourbon County Stout from Goose Island. That beer was just as good as it gets for me, and while I’ve had an awful lot of great beer lately, that one really sticks in my memory. Now that I think of it, though, Goose Island’s Mild Winter has really been great, too. I loved the 6-pack I bought of it so much that I bought a second one not long ago. I was really surprised by it and every time I had it I really enjoyed it. Good times!

I have a lot of really great beers in the fridge, though… just off the top of my head I have Schlafly Saison, Biere De Garde, Barleywine and Imperial Oak Aged Stout, Goose Island Matilda and Pere Jaques (and another Bourbon County!), Boulevard Saison-Brett and Long Strange Triple, Jolly Pumpkin, Jenlains Biere de Mars, etc. I’ve been spending way too much money, but it is so worth it!

Boulevard Irish Ale

We may be far from spring, but January signals the release of Boulevard Brewing Company’s annual spring seasonal, Irish Ale. Irish Ale is a traditional Irish red style made from six kinds of malt and fairly mild hops. The result is a red ale with only 28 IBU’s and 5.8% ABV.

I find Irish Ale to sometimes be a little thin on the mouthfeel, but nice and malty without being cloyingly sweet. There is a little hop bitterness mid-taste, but this is really a malt bomb without being overly sweet. What this means to you is that Irish Ale is a great drinker. Not too carbonated, not too sweet, not too bitter…. it goes down REALLY easy, and at 5.8% it’s hardly a session beer, but you’ll want to drink it like it is!

Irish Ale pairs well with foods and is, in my opinion, Boulevard’s easiest beer to drink. I guarantee this is the fuel of many happy-go-lucky parade-goers come St. Paddy’s Day in Kansas City! KC has a huge Irish community and this is, no doubt, Boulevard’s way of saying “thanks, this buzz is on us!”

Justus Drugstore Experience

 

Photo courtesy of Patrick Danko

This is a restaurant review, which isn’t going to be terribly common in my blog, but my experience at Justus Drugstore in Smithville, MO was simply too amazing to not write about! Justus Drugstore is a warmly modern (think late ’50′s or early ’60′s modern style, but without the “retro” aspect) open space with seating for about 50 people, a nice bar on one side and with a completely open kitchen that takes up the back side of the room. The open kitchen is a joy, and the cooking is done cleanly, calmly and where everyone in the restaurant can see every step. 

Justus Drugstore’s executive chef is Jonathan Justus, a native of Smithville who has spent the last 20+ years away from Missouri in France and California learning both design and cooking. His wife, Camille Eklof, is co-owner. 

The unusual name for the restaurant comes from the fact that the space, at 106 W. Main, was a pharmacy owned by Jonathan’s parents. The family drugstore included a soda fountain and a small kitchen to make meals for patrons. The Justus family sold the business in 2000 but kept the building, which was vacated by the last tenant in 2006.

The restaurant opened in May 2006 and has been gaining national critical acclaim for being what most critics consider to be the top restaurant in the Kansas City area, if not in the region.

Chef Justus’ vision for the restaurant is based on using nothing but local, in-season ingredients. The restaurant sources everything locally, even going out to pick wild mushrooms for dishes like their signature mushroom soup (which, unfortunately, was not in-season in January, necessitating another trip for us in April. How terrible! lol). The restaurant makes their own crackers, bread, cheese, cured and smoked meats, etc.

Our meal started off with an amuse-bouche, one-bite snack that is complimentary. Ours was pork of some sort over an arugula leaf that was stacked on top of a flat homemade barbecue potato chip. From that taste forward I knew we were in for an experience. I would have been satisfied eating a plateful of those little appetizers!

Before eating we started with a couple of cocktails. I had a Negroni, the classic cocktail made from Campari, vermouth and gin. Justus Drugstore’s version is top-shelf, using homemade sweet vermouth, Campari and Hendrick’s gin. My companion had a concoction of pear vodka and some other stuff I can’t remember. It was slightly sweet, but not cloying like so many fruity drinks can be. Kudos to the bartender.

Following our amuse-bouche we shared an appetizer of Crawdad Cakes ($12) between us. They looked a lot like crabcakes and were served with an orange-ginger pickled fennel remoulade, roasted red pepper couli and smoked tomato water. They were wonderful!

Our next course was a couple of Goat Cheese Salads ($9 ea). A nice pile of fresh local greens dressed with what tasted to me like a balsamic vinaigrette (very sour in such a good way) was served next to locally made goat cheese wrapped in maple-smoked Berkshire bacon. The goat cheese was extremely mild and pleasant, without the pungency that it often comes with. Wrapped in bacon and cooked lightly it was warm and squishy and was an amazing bundle of joy with the greens.

For a main dish my companion had the Flat Iron Steak ($26) with Maytag blue cheese créme anglaise and two kinds of gnocchi: fingerling potato and ricotta beet. The gnocchi were delicate and light and, best of all, lightly deep-fried. Such a delicious twist on the often-boring Italian staple, and the additional texture was a great accompaniment to the rest of the plate.

I had the Pork 2 Ways ($25), one of Justus Drugstore’s signature dishes. It is a smoked pork shoulder that is lightly breaded and deep fried served with a medium (still pink) Berkshire pork ribeye over it. The accompanying sauce was an apple chantilly and there was the most amazing braised cabbage and bacon on the plate, as well as a sweet corn flan.

The Pork 2 Ways was simply amazing. This was, without a doubt, the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life. We finished the night with a flight of 6 mini-scoops of homemade ice cream and sorbet that was delightful.

The food was simply transcendental, the room was inviting and fun, the cocktails expertly made and the wait staff was perfect. All in all, the $160 I spent at Justus Drugstore was well worth the food and the experience. We will be back in April for that mushroom soup, you can count on it!

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

Goose Island is one of my favorite breweries because they make so many really great beers. According to their website, for their 1000th batch of beer, they decided to make a special beer that ended up being the Bourbon County Stout. This is an imperial stout that is aged in bourbon barrels for 100 days. 

I bought a single 12-oz bottle at Lukas Liquors, although like some of the brewery’s other special beers, it comes in 4-packs usually. The beer pours black and thick. There are no highlights whatsoever on this beer, even held up to a strong light. It’s BLACK. Very little head forms even with a vigorous pouring. The brewery site lists this beer as 11% ABV, so it’s high alcohol, with a 60 IBU. My bottle was labeled “2008,” but I’m not sure if any other vintage year is available or not. I think this would be an appropriate beer to cellar for several years.

I served it around 55-58 degrees. At that temperature, there is a TON of aroma…. vanilla, burnt sugar, hints of bourbon, but not like sniffing a straight shot of the stuff… more the sweet edges of it if that makes sense. I might even get a bit of maple syrup. A nice complex aroma, no doubt. My sense of smell pretty much sucks and standing at the counter after pouring I could catch aroma, three feet away, if that tells you anything. 

Lots of bourbon throughout my first taste. WOW! It really goes throughout the whole flavor spectrum from beginning to end to aftertaste. The initial shot of bou

rbon flavor gives way to warm alcohol, then bourbon, burnt sugar and vanilla are carried through the flavor. The aftertaste is pure bourbon. I have that “warm” feeling you get after a shot, after just one sip, and the flavor on the back of my tongue and throat is like I just sipped a smooth bourbon. Very nice!

I’m a little worried that drinking the full 12 oz of this will be overkill for me. It is a big beer and a little goes a long way. I will be a trooper, though! lol Two people to share one of these would be perfect, I think. Nice, very delicate smoke in the flavor, too. This is very, very enjoyable to me.

The low carbonation makes this a very smooth beer with a silky mouthfeel. I can see how much sugar and alcohol is in this beer. After a sip the “legs” run back down the side of the glass like a glass of red wine. I haven’t drunk too many ports, but in some ways this reminds me of the character of port. This is definitely a sip and linger beer, requiring lots of concentration to pull all the complex flavors out. I imagine this would be good with a cigar or pipe, too. Don’t pass this up!

Boulevard Imperial Stout (off market)

About a month or so ago I was approached by Boulevard Brewing Company to get permission to use one of my photographs on their website. I was flattered, so of course I said yes, and as a reward they gifted me with a 750 mL of their off-market imperial stout.

Sometime in 2009 the brewery is going to release an oak-aged imperial stout as part of their caged & corked, 750mL  bottle Smokestack Series of beers. Before they put the stout into the barrels, though, the brewery bottled some as “thank you” beers for bloggers and podcasters who were saying nice things about their beers. So, not only was I able to enjoy a beer that was free, but also one that hasn’t even been released on the market yet! Yippee!

The bottle came unlabeled but with a hangtag that says “Smokestack Thanks Brew Test Batch: Big Stout.” (photos to come later) The tag says that the beer is based on the Imperial Russian style and is fermented on Belgian yeast.

It is listed as having 55 IBU’s, 9%ABV and is made with Fuggles, Magnum, Perle and Athanum hops as well as seven kinds of barley, two kinds of rye and two kinds of oats! That’s some recipe! What ends up is a nice, full-bodied, warm stout that is smooth as silk to drink. For a big beer it is immensely drinkable, so at 9% you have to really pace yourself because you can quite easily drink way too much of this stuff!

As far as imperial stouts go, this is not a terribly complex beer. I mean that in a good way…. it’s a good drinker that doesn’t make you think too much about what you are tasting. It has a nice bitterness that is balanced by the deeply roasted malts, and the silky mouthfeel comes from a relatively light carbonation and the addition of oats. There are some dry, dark chocolate notes way back in the taste, but a lot of warm, pleasant alcohol up front.

I enjoyed this beer immensely and can’t wait to check out the oak-aged version when it comes out.

Brasserie D’Auchouffe McChouffe

That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Those crazy Belgians! LOL. McChouffe is one of the stranger beers I’ve bought lately. It is a Scotch ale brewed in Belgium using traditional ingredients from both styles. Wow! I had high hopes for this beer, particularly after hearing about it on Craft Beer Radio, but I think I had a bad sample. heavy on the aroma and flavor both was a green apple character, which is not uncommon when acetylaldehyde is present in the bottle. It can mean an unclean bottle or oxidation. I can definitely get a little bit of the peatiness found in some Scotch ales, but the overwhelming flavor is green apples. Oh well, better luck next time. Didn’t keep me from drinking all 750 mL, but next time I drink that much green apple flavored stuff I’d prefer it was just apple cider.