Coffee by Niemann

Pic of the Day comes from Abstract City by Christoph Niemann. It's part of his series created on paper napkin in coffee that deals with his relationship with said medium.

There's a pot of coffee just like the one pictured here where I toil away the hours; which is exactly why I keep a french press and my own coffee at my side!


Coffee by Christoph Niemann, NYT 12-02-08

Aster Coffee Lounge in Ballard

One of my new favorite places for good coffee is Aster Coffee Lounge, just a couple blocks north of the downtown Ballard corner of 24th NW and NW Market. Serving Intelligentsia Coffee using the Clover machine, delish baked goods from Magnolia's Upper Crust Bakery, beer and wine, and live music on the weekends, this place rocks!

Aster is one of the few places in Seattle (besides Trabant) outside of Starbucks that still has their own Clover. I tried two of their current Intelligentsia choices, a Flor Azul Nicaragua and a Kurimi, Ethiopia Yergacheffe. Nothing beats a Clover for bringing out the distinctive notes, florals and tones from those varieties, each with its' own distinctive terroir, each bringing a blissful coffee exhilaration. I also tried the Black Cat Espresso and was blown away or, as one of my coffee comrades put it, "this is like crack" for espresso lovers, but in a good way!

Extravagant to the last drop

If you think four dollars for a cuppa coffee at Starbucks is expensive, try this London shop where the cuppa you see above is 50 UK pounds (which is about $98 at current exchange rates).

The extravagance is borne out of the blend, "an uncanny blend of Jamaican mountain and Indonesian jungle." That is, it's part Jamaican Blue Mountain and part Kupi Luwak. What is the Kupi Luwak? The Guardian explains:

Kupi Luwak beans come from Indonesia and are harvested by civets, the indigenous wild cat. These clever felines sniff out the choicest berries, digest the flesh, and pass out the bean in the way that nature intended. To call this the cat's whiskers of coffee would be a profound understatement.

I Must Admit, It's a Good Cuppa Coffee

I'm no fan of Starbucks but, I must admit, the new Pike Place Roast is a good cup of brewed coffee; a straight, no-chaser, strong yet smooth, black coffee good.

People either love or hate that Starbuck's taste most often described as "burnt" or order a polymorphic concoction of milk and syrup to hide it. But look at the original logo hanging above the first Starbucks in the Pike Place Market; it says coffee, so shouldn't they be selling a good cup of coffee?

A really bad haiku on a good cup of coffee:

Coffee, a good cup,
coursing caffeine through my veins;
awake morning, noon, night!

And the appropos clip from Toothpaste for Dinner: