Chemex: Coffee for Nerds
12 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in coffee, Non-alcoholic Tags: chemex, coffee, drip coffee, hario buono, pourover
Beautiful extraction
I’ve lusted after a Chemex coffee brewer ever since I became aware of them several years ago. I was a chemistry major in college, so it’s probably no big surprise that the “two Ehrlenmeyer flasks united as one” shape of the Chemex speaks to me. LOL
I picked up the 8-cup Chemex and a box of unbleached filters at World Market in Westport. At home I brew coffee one of two ways: espresso machine or French press, but the press is a PITA for me to clean, it seemed like, so I decided to bite the bullet on the lower maintenance Chemex (although it’s a lot more work to do the actual extraction than a French press).
I haven’t gone full coffeenerd on the Chemex just yet. I am eyeballing the amount of coffee (instead of using a digital scale), I am using a tea kettle and an OXO measuring cup to pour in the water (instead of a $50 Hario Buono pourover kettle), I am eyeballing the amount of water (instead of weighing it, too) and I’m guessing on the grind fineness (instead of timing everything to dial it in).
A work of geek art
All that being said, I can still brew up a dang good cup of coffee with the Chemex!
This gives me room to expand, I suppose! The Chemex method is not for low maintenance coffee folks. You have to boil water (oh, I also don’t have a thermometer to know my water temperature, which is important), rinse the filter, “bloom” the grounds, pour, watch, pour some more, etc. It’s high maintenance, but fun (to me).
I watched a few helpful videos (go to Vimeo and search “chemex”) after the first few times I used the Chemex and learned some important things. First, you should use boiling water to rinse the filter some. I didn’t think this was necessary until I did it once and I got some brownish looking water off the filter. Yuck!
Second, gently tamping the Chemex on the counter top (use a towel under it) a few times to settle the grounds into the filter cone seems pretty important, too.
Blooming the beans is important, although I don’t know why. Blooming means pouring a small amount of water onto the dry grounds to soak them a little. Some things happen for about 30 seconds, then you’re ready to start pouring in water.
Pour the water in the center, not along the side, so you get a nice extraction from the point of the cone, rather than running down the side.
Most importantly, have fun! If this seems like “the system” that is going to stick for me, I’m going to add a digital scale and maybe that fancy pourover kettle (or something similar if I can find it)!
Ayala’s Herbal Water: Cinnamon Orange Peel
01 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
I was at Cost Plus World Market in Westport the other day and as I was waiting at the checkout I spied something in the cooler that caught my eye. Gee, ever wonder why they put those things right by the cash register? LOL Anyway, I walked out with a bottle of Ayala’s Herbal Water in the Cinnamon Orange Peel flavor.
The company appears to have been around since 2005 and this is their only product I have tried. It is clear and colorless and packaged in a relatively widemouth clear, colorless plastic bottle. There were several flavors to choose from, but the Cinnamon Orange Peel attracted me the most. The product is USDA certified organic and uses only natural flavorings.
The water has a faint citrusy aroma and a warm, earthy orange flavor with a cinnamon finish. It tastes decent but has a somewhat synthetic character to me, immediately bringing up an image of bubblegum in my mind. There is no sugar or sweetener in the water, but it has a slightly sweet character all the same. I don’t know what was in it that made me think “cheap bubblegum” but that was the only thing I could picture as I drank this water. It must’ve had something to do with the cinnamon, and even though the bottle listed “natural flavorings” I wonder if they weren’t extracts that are also used in the making of, well, bubblegum, too!
I’d have to try some more of their products before rendering judgement, but I probably won’t have Cinnamon Orange Peel again. It wasn’t bad, but I’d just as soon drink some good ol’ Kansas City tap water, honestly.
Waialua Soda Works Pineapple
25 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Non-alcoholic Tags: cane sugar, non-alcoholic, pineapple, pop, soda, waialua
Waialua Soda Works is a small soda company based in Waialua, HI, on the island’s north shore. The company was started in 2003 but builds on a long tradition of bottling soda in the area that goes back 100 years. Founders Karen and Jason Campbell use only natural flavorings and real cane sugar. They make a handful of flavors, including Pineapple, being reviewed here today, and Mango, which I’ll save for the future.
I found Waialua’s products locally at Cost Plus World Market in Westport. Each bottle was individually prices for $1.49, although you may want to check the dates. I don’t know how important the “expiration” date is on a bottle of soda, but mine had a July 2011 date on it. It’s probably a good idea to drink these soon and not stockpile them, but for all I know they last 1,000 years!
The Pineapple soda is a light color, slightly hazy and without any obvious colorings added. It basically looks like the simple syrup I make for Old Fashioneds… not completely colorless like pure water, but a kind of “platinum” color. It’s hard to describe, but suffice to say it doesn’t look like neon green or other out-of-this-world colors! In the photo, the Pineapple is the second from the left.
The soda has a SUPER-pineapple aroma. I was a little worried at first that it’d have a crazy-sweet, over the top flavor, but I was surprised to find that the flavor was a lot more subdued than the aroma. The aroma from the glass is about the same as if you cut up a fresh pineapple, which is a good thing!
There is a good amount of carbonation in this soda and the pineapple flavor is quite restrained. It has a nice creamy finish like a cream soda would. In fact, I think that would be a good way to think of Waialua’s Pineapple soda… imagine half cream soda, half pineapple flavor and it gets you in the ballpark. At 140 calories per bottle it’s not a light beverage, but real sugar is less devastating to your health than high fructose corn syrup, the flavor is nice, clean (and “adult” for a soda), and it doesn’t leave me with a big goober in my throat like mass-market soda does. The Pineapple soda is a real treat, and I can’t wait to try the Mango out, too!
Flavored Simple Syrups
20 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in cocktails, coffee, food, Non-alcoholic Tags: cocktails, flavors, food, simple syrup
I’ve been on a kick recently of making flavored simple syrups. The inspiration comes from our local queen of artisanal snow cones (yes, I said artisanal and I meant it!), Lindsay Laricks and her company, Fresher Than Fresh. Anytime I see that sweet Shasta trailer parked in front of Hammerpress (during most First Fridays in the Crossroads) or on Sundays at the delightful little park at 17th and Summit close to Blue Bird Bistro, the West Local, etc., it brings a smile to my face. I need to thank FTF for helping me discover how cool that little up-and-coming neighborhood is, too. The lure of the snow cone helped me discover something I hadn’t experienced about Kansas City yet! lol
So, um, if you haven’t gotten off your butt and tried FTF yet, you need to before she closes up for the season, which is FAST approaching its end. To have to wait until next year is a travesty. She also makes freezer pops that are the same stuff, just in the classic shape we all know and love from our childhoods.
My inspiration to try to make some more of my own flavored syrups comes from Lindsay’s Espresso with Mexican Cane Sugar flavor. When you get this flavor (and you should!), they drizzle a little sweetened condensed milk on it, too. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but trust me.
The espresso flavor is to die for, but what was really intriguing was the subtle hint of warm spice in the background… was that cinnamon? Nutmeg? Allspice? All of the above??? I asked Lindsay and she confirmed it was cinnamon, so in preparation for the cold season ahead, I decided to give making my own version of this syrup a shot (no pun intended) so I could add it to my morning coffee when I wanted something a little different. Linday’s snow cone syrup also has a nice hint of carmelized sugar flavors, which I tried to reproduce, and maybe a little hint of molasses or something.
Making simple syrup is, well, simple. You take a cup of sugar and a cup of water, put them in a pan and boil until dissolved. They keep pretty well, although I read somewhere that making a more sugary syrup will keep longer, so to use a 2:1 sugar to water ratio in that case. I did just that about a year ago to have simple syrup on hand for Old Fashioned’s, and it kept unrefrigerated for all that time with no problem at all.
About a week ago I had some strawberries about to go bad and I made a 1:1 simple syrup with them, but didn’t refrigerate it, and the syrup had mold growing on it within a couple days. Word to the wise.
To make fruit-based syrups, like the strawberry one I just mentioned, which would work for any fruit as far as I can tell, simply add the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water to your pan, as well as chopped up fruit, and boil the lot until the sugar dissolves and fruit starts to break up and everything thickens. Remember, fruits have a lot of water in them, so boiling off some won’t be a problem. Once the syrup started cooking nicely I mashed the fruit up with a potato masher and kept on trucking. When I felt like it was done, I simply strained it through a fine wire mesh colander to get the seeds and stuff out. Worked like a charm and it was delicious, the one time I got to use it!
For the coffee-flavored syrup, I just made a small batch and decided to use the richer solution, so I did one cup sugar to 1/2 cup water. I wasn’t sure which type of sugar to use, as a trip down the cooking aisle of Whole Foods showed all kinds of possibilities. I also spotted “vegan sugar” which is truly the lowest form of manipulation of those poor souls, as there is no meat in sugar to begin with. So, vegans who fall for that ploy get to spend an extra dollar for the same sugar. Duh.
Anyway, I chose turbinado sugar, which is evaporated cane juice that still has some molasses in it. Basically chunky brown sugar, but a little “drier” and not as molasses-y. It’s that fancy big-crystal brown-colored sugar you see in the coffee shops. I thought it would have some caramel notes and etc.
So, I did one cup of turbinado, 1/2 cup water and for the coffee flavor itself, I used a few demitasse-spoonfuls of instant espresso. Cooked it up and then added a cinnamon stick to get some cinnamon notes like Lindsay had. I was surprised to see that the sugar dissolved completely very quickly, so I’m guessing that because the crystals are so large, that maybe there isn’t as much density, so one cup of turbinado is less sugar than a cup of regular white refined sugar. That said, it still tasted great. I wasn’t sure how long to leave the cinnamon in, so I probably let it boil with the sugar solution for a couple minutes. I was afraid of making a REALLY cinnamon-y concoction, which wasn’t what I was going for.
Once I figured it was done, I tossed the cinnamon stick and let it cool and poured it into my squirt bottle. The syrup is really dark and nice and thick. It may be a little strong on the coffee flavor, so next time I’ll back off the amount of instant espresso by about 50% I think. I don’t pick up the caramelized flavors I loved so much in Lindsay’s, so I’m thinking maybe cook it longer to cause some caramelization and add water back in, or maybe the flavors are there and are overpowered by the instant espresso/fact that I’m using the solution in a big cup of strong coffee. I wonder about adding a hint of vanilla after the solution cools, too. I could also be using the totally wrong sugar, so this is a work in progress, but a very acceptable first try and it tastes great in coffee. I got almost zero cinnamon flavor in mine, too, so the cinnamon sticks I bought at the grocery store are pretty weak and require a lot more cooking to get into the mix. I wonder if maybe using ground cinnamon would be the way to go.
This will give me something to do this winter! lol
Grandpa’s Own Special Formula Cream Soda
09 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
I was at the Johnson County Fair last night and happened upon a stand selling Grandpa’s Own Special Formula root beer, diet root beer and cream soda. I bought two 12-oz. bottles each of root beer and cream soda for about $3.50 each. If you bring your bottles back for refills, the cost is $1.50/bottle. The bottles are just brown beer bottles with a home-applied label, so I suppose if you are cheap you could bring some of your own bottles and just say the labels came off! This product is make in St. Joseph, MO.
The bottles are corked, although the corks didn’t fit all that great, so I lost one and the other three almost popped out as the liquid warmed up. None of the products are carbonated, and the guy selling it said it would last a good 2-3 weeks in the fridge with no problems. They also offered three larger sizes of bottles with Grolsh-style caps.
The cream soda looks like cream soda, pouring a sort of light tea color into a glass of ice. The cream soda is definitely made with real sugar, and it’s sweet, but has a nice light flavor of vanilla. The absence of carbonation makes the drink less refreshing than it could be, which is really my only gripe. I’ll take my bottles back next year for refills!
Jazzoo 2009 Recap
08 Jun 2009 Leave a Comment
in cocktails, Non-alcoholic, Uncategorized
I volunteered as a bartender for the 100th Anniversary of Jazzoo again this year. The weather was a lot friendlier this year than last year, and the crowds were thinner, but we still worked our tails off giving drinks to the rich and rich-ish who attend the event, which is always a blast.
Compared with last year, there were fewer restaurants and some of the highlight restaurants (for me) from last year, like Blue Moose, had very little, if anything, to sample. That was a huge disappointment and I’m curious why a lot of restaurants only had a drink to serve or, seemingly, nothing at all, when they went all out last year.
I got to see a man lift his wife/girlfriend’s (they were an older couple) skirt up around her waist so he could apply a temporary tattoo to her ass, and at the end of the night a super drunk patron had his arm inside the petting zoo cage and was petting a small baby deer while yelling “Look at me pet this %^&$ wild llama! Oh my God, a WILD LLAMA!!!” over and over again. He seemed really excited that he was petting a “wild llama” so I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was just a deer, not that he would’ve understood at that point anyway! lol
All in all another successful Jazzoo event. The only real problem was that Jazzoo had some great music this year and they did a relatively poor job of advertising that fact, especially using free media like Facebook to get the word out. Someone at Jazzoo dropped the ball, bigtime, on that one. Hopefully next year sees a better economy and more people supporting great causes like Jazzoo and coming to the event.
On a drink note, we went through gallons of vodka and cranberry. That’s about all people drank at our bar, along with an occasional vodka tonic, gin and tonic and vodka and soda. I went through about 1/2 a bottle of Dewar’s, one bottle of Jim Beam, 1.5 bottles of Sapphire gin and a ton of vodka.
Italian Sodas : Sanbitter & Chinotto
28 Apr 2009 13 Comments
Yes, even Liquid Diets needs to have drinks without alcohol (or caffeine) in them! Actually, I’d just as soon drink non-alcoholic versions of what I do drink as I’m a lot more interested in the flavor than the buzz, but the alcohol is more or less a byproduct of what makes the flavors to begin with, so….
People who’ve read this blog regularly know I like bitter flavors and am crazy about Campari, the lovely red Italian bitter. I had the day off and took the time to go to the Italian market inside the River Market, today, and I found two things I’ve been wanting to find for a long time: Chinotto and Sanbitter. These are two non-alcoholic sodas that are common in Italy and I’ve been dying to try them. I bought a single bottle of Chinotto out of the cooler for $1.50 and a 10-pack Sanbitter for $9 or so.
Both of these sodas are marketed as “apertif” sodas. In other words, besides being delicious, they are intended to aid digestion. Digestion is an important concept in Europe, particularly in Italy. Long meals, long walks after meals, pre-dinner and post-dinner drinks and bitter flavors are all strategies intended to help the body digest the food you are eating. In a real Italian restaurant, dinner will take 3-4 hours, easily. It’s not a 30-minute table-turning, stuff-your-face-o-rama like we have learned to accept in this country.
Bitter flavors aid digestion by stimulating the 10th cranial nerve, the Vagus Nerve. Explaining what the vagus does is beyond the scope of this review, but suffice to say if the vagus is happy and stimulated it will have a calming effect on the body and enhance digestion and elimination.
Sanbitter is made by San Pelligrino, which manufactures a host of sodas and water products. It looks ruby red, just like Campari, and comes packaged in delightful little 100mL (3.4 oz) glass bottles with a bottle cap topping it. I don’t use the word “cute” very often, but these bottles surely fit the bill. According to the bottle cap, the sweetener is “sugar,” not high fructose corn syrup, so that is one advantage of this soda over something American (I know, a lot of the boutique sodas are made with real sugar, but they’re also very sweet, not an apertif soda like this).
Sanbitter tastes a little like Campari in that it does have some of the same herbal and citrus notes. I saw it described as “extremely bitter” on many American websites as I was researching for this, but I disagree. I know my palate is tuned differently than a lot of folks’, but it is nowhere near as bitter as Campari, in my opinion. The next time I drink Sanbitter I am going to try it over ice (I poured it straight from the bottle) and if I have some, throw a slice of orange in with it. Sanbitter is a good alternative to Campari and soda if you’re looking for an apertif and can’t drink any alcohol.
Chinotto is also made by San Pelligrino and comes in a slightly larger bottle than Sanbitter. It looks like slightly watered-down Coke®, kind of brown/caramel in color. It is a sweetened soda made from chinotto, a small citrus fruit (pictured at the left) that looks like an orange. The flavor of Chinotto soda is like bitter orange with some hints of cola in the background.
I found the Chinotto to be more complex and enjoyable than the Sanbitter, but both were really good. I try not to drink too much soda pop, but if I am these are what I’d like to reach for when I have the chance. They aren’t too bitter (to me), and they are carbonated and refreshing, offsetting some of the sugar in them.
