CoffeePorn

Back in Detroit, and it's more Kona time

You know, I just can't get over how fun this coffee bean is. Today I'm just not feeling all that wordy so perhaps a couple pics will help you see what I'm talking about. I roasted this one about six days ago, right before I left Texas to come home. So it was aging nicely on its cross-country trip and I dug in a few days ago. But here's what I was able to pull out in the past couple days. Folks, these are only pictures, so don't try to lick your screen.

This one here I like mainly because it, well, tasted even better than the gentle little heart that she gave to me. So smooth and rich. Creamy, like dancing butter. Slow dancing butter. I would have her again.

Then of course this little plum below, well the art is not so perfect, but you know what, eat me! If you could have only heard how she poured from the shot glass into the cup, your knees would already have buckled. Such a seductive honey oozing down into her warmed up home. No splattering. No dripping. No trickling. Oozing. Delicately flowing. Slinking. Yes, this coffee slinked into the cup. That's how hot she is.  And yes, the taste of love as she twirled into the foamed milk. Just look at the frikken picture, people!! You can see how smooth the skin is. Just look at it!  You hardly want to drink it.

Damn, I love this bean.

More Austin Coffee

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit a couple small coffee shops in the North Austin area. These two shops could not have been more different from each other but at the same time there were many similarities too.

Wha?

Okay, I'll explain.  Shop No. 1, called Sorrento's, now around for 4 years, lives in a tiny old photolab building situated in the middle of some parking lot. Remember when people would take pictures with very large obtrusive cameras and then trudge their film (oh, dear god, actual film!!) to one of these places, where you'd have to leave it behind and come back another day to get it back and finally see what crappy pictures you took?  It was slightly remodeled, and by slightly I mean heavily, but remained a drive-up type shop. We figured this out when we decided to park our car nearby the building and walk up to the doorway on that side, then open the door and then attempt to walk right into the place. Attempt. That is until the girl working in there nearly maced us for walking in and scaring the bejeezus out of all the people inside. There's a reason the other cars were driving up to the other side of the building. Okay, okay. We just wanna talk and ask a couple questions, darlin'.  Turns out the owner, Kelly, was there and she was gracious enough, once she recovered from the initial scare, to induldge our questions about the place and how it came to be, etc. Recommends a super-automatic, for example, for this type of setup because of the speed and consistency. Recommends a smaller ice machine since they're not in the business of selling bags of ice and that the extra heat generated by her large machine is enough to warm up Greenland. Recommends checking with the city to determine traffic patterns to pick out the best location for a new shop. But the most important bit of info was when we asked if she would do it again: YES!

Phew, long paragraph. How about a coffee break? 

Now on to Shop No. 2. This one's called Genuine Joe's Coffeehouse. We did not get maced walking into this place. In fact, I don't even think they have a drive-thru window so even if you're in a hurry, you'll still have to park your car. No, this place was much more loungey. Sofas and bistro tables arranged around a few rooms, with a homey feel, if your home was a typical eclectic Austin co-op housing. But hey, we're not judging. It was clean, and there were plenty of peeps working away. Some alone, others were having surreptitious meetings about this or that. The bar itself was manned by the two owners, Dave and Victor, and they were just as forthcoming with details on their baby as Kelly over at the other shop was. In fact, it's an apparent trend I'm finding that the owners of non-corporate shops tend to want to promote this style of set up, that is, building a deeper coffee culture based on personal interaction and higher quality than the "big dogs" could offer. GJ's was also around 4 years old and guess what? Dave and Victor both agreed that they would do this again if they had to start over.

Hmm. What's the moral of the story? Well, who really cares, but I'm just going to say that no matter what the format of the store is, whether it's a quick-n-speedy drive-thru, or a relaxed and quiet lounge setting, the point is that you enjoy making the product. You enjoy the lifestyle. You enjoy the type of interaction. You enjoy being independent.

Old bananas - what to do with 'em

I'm looking at this poor old banana, laying on the countertop, preparing itself for a final resting place in the trash bin, and I'm a little saddened by it. 

I bought this one about a week ago, with full intention of devouring it, you know, sometime in the near future. I really like bananas. They're so yummy and they're excellent energy food for before and after a run. I think the stuff they make GU or similar energy boosts from, has got to be pure banana. I've been close to passing out after a workout, and all I do is reach for a banana and presto I'm tip top. 

Okay, somehow I did not intend for this to be a commercial for bananas (they are good though) or GU, so let me continue. This wrinkly old banana is so freaking far beyond what a person would consider ripe. And dark. Jeez, if I ran across this banana in an unlit alley, I wouldn't even be able to see it. In fact, I'd probably just mush it accidentally under my feet, slipping away, and come crashing head first into the ground. Coming to about 10 minutes later I'd wonder WTF this mushy crap between my toes was that I couldn't see, you know, because it was so dark. That's how dark they were. I mean black. If they were any blacker, light would bend around them. Btw, if you can understand the last link, let me know. I'm dizzy just reading it. 

Suddenly occurs to me a brilliant idea. Let's make my signature shake. This shake is killer, girls and boys. I actually stole the idea from a local juice bar shop here in town, but I'm not selling them so it should be okay, right? So, clearly these shakes require bananas (otherwise I think it would be a clear sign of senility that I'm thinking of making a shake without bananas, when I'm looking at salvaging this meager specimen). Here's the list, in case you want to give it go. I recommend it, mainly 'cause it's got bananas and other stuff I also love.

• Blender (very critical)
• Fill about half way with ice (any ice: cubed, crushed, not diamonds though)
• Milk, about to the level of the ice, maybe a tad more, but you can adjust later, too
• Two heaping scoops of peanut butter, using a typical spoon that you would eat cereal with or something
• Another spoonful-ish of honey

Hit frappe (or any other button on the damn blender, frankly they all spin the blades really fast until everything's mixed together). 

When you've got a nice consistency, taste it. Too sweet? Maybe add some peanut butter or milk, or even a bit of ice. Too thick? Milk. Too -- you get my drift. Just play around with it to your own taste. I'm not a chef so I just make it to my taste and I never measure anything. If you're throwing in half a gallon of honey, you've got a problem. Otherwise, let your taste guide you. Trust me, it's yummy.

So, I'm putting these ingredients in and the whole time I'm thinking, "am I missing something?" You have to remember it's like 8 AM and I'm not a morning person, so my mind is still in bed, waiting for a virtual sunrise that doesn't arrive until around 11 AM. Apparently my brain is zenning out in California, while my body suffers the midwest. 

Anyhoo, something seems out of sorts. I taste. Yeah, not bad, but it's not sweet enough. Reach for the honey and another dab of the goop goes in. Blend. Taste. Hmm, now not peanut buttery enough. Or something. Just then I happen to turn around and notice a lonely little....goddam banana, still laying on the countertop. What a dumbass! The very thing that got me going on this early adventure, and in my opinion, the main ingredient, is still waiting patiently in its rapidly deteriorating skin. Good god, I need to get my head checked. 

Ten seconds later, it's finally spinning in the soup, too. Taste. Yum. 

And folks, that's how you save an old banana from becoming landfill fodder. Except, try to add them in right away. Not the way I did it.