A Good Night for Tea and Anime

Yesterday the Valca family took some serious "down-time."

For most of the morning I relaxed by doing some blogging and light household chores. Lavie slept in, while Alvis watched pre-teen shows and coped with her stuffy head.

It was chilly and wet and kinda dreary.

We had to venture out to take the ladies to their hair-dresser appointments. We stopped by a bookstore in the mall, but nothing really struck our fancy.

Then we got soaked with a blustery downpour on our way out, and dropped into a local Mexican restaurant for a mid-day snack of frijoles a la charra and fajita nachos. Yum! Just the thing to warm up on. It was relaxing and nice and really fun sharing a grande-sized plate of nachos together.

Anime Overload

Back at the house we knocked out three episodes of Eureka Seven I had taped on the VCR but haven't watched yet....

Big revelations! Talho is preggers with Holland's child (yeah!), Renton's sister (Diane) was actually Holland's girlfriend (wow!) and then disappeared while continuing research started by her dead father, and Col. Dewey (boo!) is Holland's (yeah!) older brother and Talho was his ex-girlfriend! I'm still trying to digest it all. In an added moment of sweetness, Eureka decides she wants to make Renton happy and experiments with makeup for the first time--with disastrous results, until Talho saves the day. And Holland and Renton finally bond.

Then we moved on to watch the six remaining episodes of Oh My Goddess! (TV) that I have on DVD and wrapped up that series. It had quite a bit of action but the last DVD was filled with lots of tender, tear-jerking moments. It is such a sweet series at heart. I just can't wait for the second season to be released now! I believe TBS aired a second season of Oh My Goddess! (TV) in Japan in 2006, so hopefully we will see it over here on DVD release in the states this year.

Nothing like cuddling on the couch under a Megatokyo "sad girl in snow" blanket, watching anime and laughing and crying together. Family bonding at it's finest!

Still on tap--the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki! series I've just completed collecting.

Once we were done, it was getting late and the girls were looking to bed.

Teatime with the Girls--Japanese Style

Lavie and I decided this would be the perfect time to actually attempt to use the Japanese tea-set she got at Christmas from Japanese Green Tea hibiki-an and I was up to do the brewing.

I used my little 4-pot coffee maker to heat up some hot water. Checking the temperature, it was at 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Close enough!

So after carefully reading the included guide on green-tea brewing several times, I was ready to begin. Ominously, a driving rain-storm began pounding the windows....

I measured out the fresh green tea leaves into the kyusu and then filled each of our cups with hot water from the carafe. Then I poured the water in them into the kyusu and let it brew the tea for about one and a half minutes.

Once done I poured a bit of tea into each teacup, alternating until the kyusu was empty and the cups were filled. This method spreads the brewed tea evenly in the cups and keeps the flavor even among the cups.

We enjoyed Lavie's Sencha Superior blend while we chatted, listened to the rain and ate fresh cherry's. I thought their sweetness nicely accompanied the flavor of the tea. Lavie needed a bit of sugar in her tea. She was quite surprised on how mild but clear the flavor of the Sencha blend was. The dried fresh tea-leaves are quite strong smelling. Nothing at all like the supermarket varieties of tea she is used to.

When we had emptied our cups, it was time for the "second pour." We repeated the process of filling the cups with the hot-water, then transferring them into the kyusu again. Less than two minutes later we were drinking our second cups. The flavor seemed a bit stronger as the leaves had had time to fully hydrate after the first pour.

One last time...we had a "third pour" Lavie passed, but Alvis took her cup instead. Wonderful flavor and a relaxing experience.

While I was cleaning up, I showed Lavie the hydrated tea-leaves in the kyusu before tossing them out. She and I both were surprised to find they were nicely shredded, and had a bright green color like defrosted frozen spinach. I nibbled at some and they had a very mild and pleasant taste.

I'm not a tea-connoisseur but it was very clear to me that this is some high-quality tea!

What a perfect ending to a fun family day.
--Claus

Back on the Carafe - Part II

I've generated some nice comments on my earlier post "Back on the Carafe."

One commentator recommended I check out Japanese Green Tea Hibiki-an; a family owned tea leaf farm in Japan. I dropped by their site and they have a beautiful selection of teas, gift boxes, and tea ware. In addition, their site is loaded with information and tips about teas. Their site reflects a desire to simply shipping over here to the States. I was very impressed. I plan to place an order soon and will let you know what I encounter.

Harmon kindly recommended I try using a vacuum pot to brew my coffee and offered some whole-bean choices. I haven't tried using a "larger" style vacuum pot setup. I'll need to look into getting one to try out.

That got me reminiscing and surfing.

My father-in-law gave us a small aluminum style vacuum brewer for espresso. I really enjoyed the small size. It worked great. I'm not sure where it is right now, however. The Coffee Kid wrote a couple of very nice articles regarding vacuum coffee brewing interested folks might want to check out: The VacPot HeyDay and VacBrew Method.

If vacuum brewing your coffee isn't quite your method, I Need Coffee offers Six Coffee Brewing Techniques. Of these, the only ones I haven't tried yet are "Middle Eastern" and "French Press" methods.

I do see they left out what I call the "Cowboy Coffee" method. (Did I read it in a Larry McMurtry novel or see it a Western?) Anyway, my method of "Cowboy Coffee went like this. I was desperate for coffee, I had beans and a grinder, but no filters and didn't feel like dragging the 12-potter out and making do with paper towels. So I filled the kettle up with water, ground down an appropriate amount of beans and dumped them in the pot. I brought the pot to almost a boil, then took it off the burner to sit for about 5 or so minutes. I then got our finest strainer and poured out the coffee through the strainer into a big mug.

It sufficed. Not one of my prouder coffee brewing moments, but it did the job in a pinch. Alvis was intrigued by the whole production and found it quite amusing.

I think a lot of cowboys sufficed on coffee in a similar way. Except I don't think they used a strainer. I want to say I saw one wind-mill it around in a circle a few times to help the grounds settle to the bottom of the pot.

Now this got me thinking about that scene in "City Slickers" where they can't figure out where to plug in their coffee making gear....moving on.....

When I'm not buying and using "cheaper" bulk style coffee like "Folgers" I do keep a bag or two of whole-bean coffee around. I like to have one caff and one de-caff variety. I don't usually get more than one bag of each so I can cycle through them while they remain relatively fresh. That also helps me to keep the variety flowing.

Lavie gifted me a wonderfully classy and lovely Zassenhaus 151DG box hand coffee grinder for our first anniversary. Searching the Web, I discovered that it is now very rare and hard to come by as they don't seem to be producing many (any?) for export right now. It produces a very nice medium-fine grind (on the setting I use) and filling the hopper to just below the lid provides the perfect amount of grinds for my 4-cup drip pot. There is something very satisfying getting up on the weekends and hand-grinding my own beans; feeling the crunch of the beans as they grind up is very neat. EspressoZone has a wonderful page showing many of the other Zassenhaus hand box grinders.

When I first "got into" this coffee thing, I picked up a Braun coffee grinder. You kept the beans in a hopper, set the grind setting from "crouton" to "powder" (not really but pretty close). I used it for quite a while, but eventually got rid of it. It was too loud, too hard to clean, and pretty messy.

Alton Brown (Food Network celebrity chef) is one of my heroes. I love the balance of food science, history and clever commentary and cinematography he mixes together. Anyway, Alton loves a good "multi-tasker" in the kitchen. So I've found the Braun coffee mill a very useful appliance around our house. It is much quieter than the grinder, and I can use it for coffee beans, spices, powdering (dry) oatmeal for soothing baths...the list goes on.

Growing up, my first coffee experiences were with coffee percolators. I really didn't know there were many other ways to make coffee besides these. My parents and both sets of grandparents had a beautiful chrome versions. I think they were Sunbeam models. I would watch fascinated as a child as they assembled all the parts together, added the water and then coffee to the basket. Then lock the lid and wait for the splashes of coffee to appear in the crystal topper. I'm not sure when I was introduced to drip coffee makers. Probably later in high-school or college.

Jitterbuzz has a great look back in time on some coffee paraphernalia. Fun old magazine ads, various hardware and pots, some schematics. I'm getting nostalgic. For more coffee nostalgia, stop in at 1aaa American Green Coffee Beans Coffee Brewers page. The font and page layout needs some serious updating but the pictures are pretty neat to look into.

This Victoria Arduino Athena Classic lever machine for making espresso looks classy and just something Claus would encounter. I love this design style with the brass and copper, the levers and tubes. It looks almost Steampunk. (Steampunk FAQ) More beautiful coffee appliances can be drooled over from the 2003 HOST exhibition in Milan.

Methinks, time to go make another pot.
--Claus

Back on the Carafe

Confession time. A few weeks ago I bought a coffee pot.

See, we have this big 12-cup coffee maker. I used it for a long time, but as I am the only coffee drinker in the house (unless Lavie's dad is visiting) it was overkill to make my morning two cups in the thing. So I shelved it and switched to instant. (When I'm not picking up "real" coffee at Starbucks or McD's or Dunkin Donuts.)

I've been drinking the instant stuff for a long time. It isn't the same as fresh-brewed, but it was fast and easy. I also keep some of those "Folger's Singles" around. Kinda like coffee tea-bags.

So the other day I saw an ad on TV for Folger's Simply Smooth coffee. Supposed to be easier on your tummy (lower acids or something). Only it didn't come in instant. But I didn't want to drag out that 12-cup monster again. So I found a tiny 4-cup pot.

It's just the right size, light on the counter space takeup. and works great.

Lavie found the coffee and it is pleasantly lower acid. The taste is mild, and I perfer a darker, stronger roast, but it's fine for a first morning cup.

Only I ran out the other day and being too lazy to go grocery shopping, used up all my instant. That forced me to go back to the store today and get a new canister of Folgers.

And then I picked up another "gormet" roast while I was in the coffee section, in addition to the "mild" stuff I went to get.

Now I'm back on the coffee carafe again. It's just a matter of time before I go and start buying the whole-bean bags from Starbucks again. I could easily pass them up when I didn't have the 4-potter, now...not so easy.

Sigh.

The only good thing is that we don't have any coffee shops like this one nearby. Coffee House Rouen. Check out the pictures for larger views. It would be the perfect "pub-like" atmosphere for a guy like me to hang out in and get lost in meaningful conversations at. I love hanging at Starbucks, but I don't think it would be quite the same vibe. I could only imagine.

I'd have to move in and Lavie would never see me again. Alvis might visit, though. I'm pretty sure Lavie's dad would hang out here with me. He seems to be the "pub" sort.

--Claus

McDonald's Premium Roast Coffee: A Review

McDonald's hit the news recently with the introduction of a new Premium Roast Coffee to their menu lineup.

I recently had the opportunity to pick up a Premium Roast model and check out its performance. This review was mentally composed over the span of 6 hours while monitoring a network drive being restored from tape-backup. (It failed--by the way--and we gave up trying to restore it.)

The Case:

For this review I chose the Small Form Factor (SFF) case version, also known as "small." McDonald's also releases their new roast in a Mid-Tower unit (medium) and a Tower unit (large). I really liked the portability of the the SFF model. It was light and very portable. Colorful graphics splashed on the case proclaiming its features reminded me of the "Intel Inside" label days.

The cover lid had a modern, high-tech design. It used a screwless assembly that made removal a snap. Access to the contents was quick and allowed for easy user modifications and hacks. More on that later. To prevent energy leakage, the designers made a handy swing-away port feature. It is a tiny square that covers the primary port, but can be flipped back and snapped into a recess to keep port access unrestricted. I found the snap to be very pleasing, but easy to disengage. Most of McDonald's competitors do not have this port cover feature. I have only seen it used on one other vendor's product.

Case sides were thin but sturdy with no sharp edges or join-seams. They are slightly textured and the grip was comfortable.I was unable to get the case to leak any contents while using no matter what location the portal was oriented on the case. This is important because I have used Starbucks case model many times and found that if the access port is aligned over the case seam, product leakage often occurs with sometimes bad consequences. Ergo-dynamic design allowed me to sample product with confidence and not worry about being choked with too much output, even when hitting a bumpy section of roadway.

The Contents:

Version 2 of McDonald's Coffee has been promoted as a much richer blend then their version 1 model. Color was much darker. The taste change was notable. It was much stronger and heavier a flavor. But the acidity level seemed mild. I would have to say that it was smoother. Temperature was sufficiently hot. After a number of sips, I decided to do so user-hacks. I went for the two-sugar, two creamer hack. Modifications were quick due to the aforementioned lid design. The hacks brought the flavor in line with a heavier General Foods "International Coffees."

Performance:

When the system cooled off, I performed a quick "reboot" in the microwave. Performance when re-heated was not too bad. Because the contents were not in an insulated case, performance drops quickly. The caffeine content--although not scientifically benchmarked--seemed sufficient to ward off this coffee drinker's mid-morning headache if the regular morning "cup of joe" wasn't taken.

Conclusions:

Overall I was very surprised by McDonald's Premium Roast Coffee. I was not expecting to be as satisfied with my trial unit as I was. The container was comfortable, though somewhat flashy. Taste was much bolder and enjoyable, but not at all bitter. It had "thickness of taste" (not to be confused with viscosity). Too many times I have coffee that looked dark but tasted like watered down black-tea.

I must confess that my coffee-house of choice still remains Starbucks. The quality of the coffees, the varieties, the relaxing atmosphere and the cute baristas all make it a destination place. McDonald's just cannot compete with that (neither in atmosphere nor cute baristas). HOWEVER, I don't think their business model is to directly compete--and if so--it is going to work. If I have the family in tow and we are going to pick up a fast breakfast--I will be much more willing and likely to swing by McDonald's now instead of their other fast-food competitors. And in a pinch, if I can't find a Starbucks before I get dug into for a major project, I won't think twice about picking up a cup of morning coffee from McDonald's now.

While McDonald's new Premium Roast Coffee still will not be my primary choice of morning coffees, it has taken a comfortable lead in the number two spot.

Related Coffee Links:

Man Pursues $3.7 Million in Starbucks Ice Coffee Cold-Burn Lawsuit (yes--I get it...)
The "real" Stella's Case on the McDonald's Hot Coffee lawsuit.
Liebeck v. McDonald's Corp. [Wikipedia]
Mandolux Desktops: Coffee & Beans (triptych), Caffeinated Love (dual)

See you in the skies,
Claus

And yes...the picture above was captured directly from their Website--I didn't make it up. They are wholly responsible for that copy.