I’ve another post coming on why I blog, but this reason deserved a post in its own right. A few days ago Shaun dropped me an e-mail about the Vinturi. He’d played with it a little bit and thought it was interesting, and thought it might be something that would interest me. I admit I was curious – so I grabbed one from the UK website. (Clicking through may help explain the image above!) (more…)
Two events I am very excited about, one very soon and one in a few months:
This month is the second in the London Gastronomy Seminars series. The title is “From plant to cup: flavour in coffee & wine” and I am presenting along with Jamie Goode.
Those of you into wine will know Jamie from wineanorak.com and his blog is great too. I saw Jamie present a few months ago and I learned a great deal, and hugely enjoyed his presentation. The bar is set high for me, and I am going to work hard to make my part of the presentation as interesting and useful as I can.
If you are in London then do come down, feel free to ask me awkward and difficult questions and drink some coffee and some wine!
From plant to cup: flavour in coffee and wine
21 January 2010, 7pm
Senate House, University of London (directions are here)
(Hosted by the Centre for the Study of the Senses, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study)
I’m also very excited about being involved in the SCAA Symposium this year. I helped out in one of the workshops last year, but due to WBC commitments couldn’t get as involved as I would have liked. This year’s event looks amazing and I am delighted to be attending.
I am taking part in the first session alongside some big names in coffee. I hope I can bring something of value to the discussion! The program looks amazing and I look forward to catching up with a lot of people there.
See you at one of these soon I hope!
I have a confession to make: I used to, in a very snobbish way, hate the idea of a coffee being an “after dinner coffee” or a “morning cup”. I thought it was one of those really stupid ways of selling coffee – like how supermarkets use the word “strength” to communicate how dark a roast is. 1
In recent conversations someone has said to me that they love a certain coffee, but not first thing in the morning. Maybe mid-afternoon instead. Initially I didn’t get it. My very narrow mind assumed that good coffee was good coffee and that the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun shouldn’t have too much impact on how that coffee, my tongue and my brain all got along.
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I think everyone in coffee knows deep down this is true. The wine model only works for wine, we can’t transplant it to coffee and expect some immediate understanding and increased sales of quality coffees.
First and foremost – we don’t drink coffee like we drink wine. Broadly speaking we buy wine in two different circumstances: to enjoy ourselves and to enjoy with others. Generally we spend more, buy better, buy more interesting when we are enjoying it with others. We want to know more, want a little story, want something worth discussing. Wine’s great success was making it culturally acceptable/desirable to discuss what you drank at some length. Coffee isn’t quite there yet. We drink coffee in different circumstances – mostly it is a solitary affair, though sometimes shared but rarely the focal point the way a stellar bottle of wine can be. We experience it in different environments, with different goals and different focus on the sensory experience.
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