Good Morning Coffee

I only started drinking coffee a few years ago. I don't know why I made it  through college, living in Europe, and travelling through some great third wave coffee cities before succumbing to the power of the bean but there it is. After initial forays into over roasted, over logoed, and over priced espresso shots, I started to learn about kinds of beans and the importance of things like proper temperature, good water, and the appearance of a good shot.

A friend - yes a dear friend - gave me a Rancilio Silvia, one of the best home espresso machines available to all of mankind! I could be overstating it but the Silvia does invite devotion like this from its many followers:

Those were the caffeine-filled days in a busy little house on the prairie with lattes for all! It was fun having such a precise morning ritual filled with obsessive espresso shot judgements: "Oh I think that's a good one!" or "Oh no, not quite. We'll try again."

Times change. And with a move, less coffee and a busier life with fewer visitors, I gave the Rancilio back to the dear friend and moved to a minimalist set up. Rather than hunt and peck for a good coffee press amidst a sea of presses, I deferred to the Coffee Crew and ordered their recommendations from Espressotech.com in Vancouver - an Espro stainless steel press with microfilter and a portable Hario hand grinder.

 

 

This combination works well and can be easily packed for trips. In fact, I first tried it in Tofino where it saved me from hotel-brown-grains-of-mysterious-origin-in-sealed-package. Now with some good beans from 2% Jazz, I'm all set for a paired down approach to morning coffee. I miss my Silvia operatic experience but simplicity is good too.

I'm not hungry (just a little self-absorbed)

Today the NFL and the NFL Players Union are fighting a media war over who is the greediest.  Like all professional sports labor disputes, it's billionaires fighting with multi-millionaires over who gets a bigger percentage of the billions. There are speeches, insults, unfair labour complaints and even banned commercials (don't click on any of those links, they bore even a hardcore football fan) and for some reason it dominates the media.  As does the Grammy's, Justin Bieber's $750 haircut, Charlie Sheen's porn family, and whatever it is the Kardashian's are doing in Manhattan. 

Around here, I have been reading about more of those evil birds that show up here daily, looking for some cool examples of micro architecture and what I am going to give Wendy for Valentines Day (a loose leaf tumbler - not sure how it works but Wendy seems to like it).

Meanwhile in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and even in Saskatoon, people are are struggling to find food.  In 2008 record high food prices started riots and unrest in over 30 countries. This year prices went higher and people hit the streets. While the media was attributing it to Wikileaks, a passion for democracy, or because of a dictator, we forgot that people all over the world can't afford to eat or if they can, they can't find food to buy.

I take food for granted. How can I not, I live in Saskatchewan. Wendy works for the same Safeway I worked at seven years ago. The shelter I work in has a fully stocked commercial kitchen. Our kitchen manager, Ryan, is a gourmet cook and you never know what masterpiece he will cook up. Several times I have made rushed phone calls to Wendy to tell her to come down just to taste the awesomeness that Ryan has created.  Wholesalers come by with samples and by virtue of harassing them when they come in and having my office next to Ryan, samples and trade show invites often make their way into my office. The cooks are friendly and while the occasional knife has been thrown at me after some wisecrack (one stuck in my arm) and a Big Mac was once beaten to death, they let me grab a snack whenever I can get away with it.

It's enough to make me forget that since food and fuel prices have surged in 2008, our meals served have grown from 40,000 meals served in 2007 to over 100,000 meals served in 2010. It's not just us. The Saskatoon Friendship Inn, a local soup kitchen has started a capital campaign to double the space they have to serve and prepare the food. A report card put out by Canadian food banks showed March 2010 had the highest usage ever with food banks in Canada seeing an increase of 20% since 2009.  At our shelter, each day we put out three large tubs of almost stale bread that is donated to us from a Co-Op and Safeway and each day when I go home it is gone. The bread walks out one or two loafs at a time carried by the countless streams of people who come in with the same question, "Can I please have a loaf of bread?".

As I consume media, food, and items that are considered luxury everywhere else in the world except for the west, it's easy to forget that over half of the world lives on under $2 a day. They aren't worried about which DSLR to purchase or if they should switch from PC to a Mac, they are worried about making it through today on less then $2 a day.

That includes 97 percent in Uganda, 80 percent in Nicaragua, 66 percent in Pakistan, and 47 percent in China, according to data from the World Bank. What makes this problem even more complex is that we are reaching the point where more people are raised out of poverty and more of the world strives after the standards of living that the west enjoys, the more resources they consume. What we are are slowly understanding is that there may not be enough resources to go around for all of us to live like this. Heck, there isn't even enough grain to keep the world fed right now.

While there are some signs that this was a one off thing (Ten million acres of Saskatchewan crops lost to flooding last spring and is likely to lose a lot of acres this upcoming year) while China's food imports are surging:

China’s wheat harvest may drop by 4 million tons this year, Alex Bos, a London-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said last week. Output may have fallen to 114.5 million tons at the last harvest, from 115.1 million tons a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Demand also may be boosting prices. Egypt agreed to buy 170,000 tons of Australian, U.S. and Canadian soft wheat in a tender, General Authority for Supply Commodities Vice Chairman Nomani Nomani said Feb. 11.

It doesn't look like a short term trend.

China is on the brink of a "new era" of corn importing which will see its intake surge from, effectively, zero to 15m tonnes within five years, a leading analyst has said.

The world's second-ranked consumer of the grain, whose return to imports in the spring sent Chicago prices soaring, has "gotten to the turning point" where it will regularly buy abroad, Hanver Li, the chairman and chief executive of Shanghai JC Intelligence, said.

Imports will grow from 1.7m tonnes this year to 5.8m tonnes next year, and to 15m tonnes in 2014-15.

It's an incredibly complex problem that involves economics, politics, unethical agricultural and foreign aid policies, and a culture of corruption in many countries who desperatly need honest brokers. Whenever I get frustrated I loan out some money via Kiva. Is that making a difference or does it help someone consume even more, making the problems worse for their neighbors? I am trying to consume less and use locally grown food and goods but the One Tonne Challenge taught Canadians one things, personal virtue may be a good thing but it's hard to bring about real change.

Whatever the solution is going to be, the events of the last month have made me re-evaluate many things in my life that I have never thought that much about.

Picture Cook

For bodies & souls enduring chilly times & climes, something to warm you up:

from Picture Cook by Katie Shelly; found via the marvellous @brainpicker (Maria Popova) on Twitter.

Or perhaps you've a craving for sweet potato fries on the side, a snack of krispy kale, or a ginger tea break. You'll find the inspiration here. As Katie Shelly explains:

Making the perfect cup of coffee

Aerobie Coffee MakerI grew up Methodist which means that I really have no vices that anyone admires. To overcompensate so I can fit in with those that have interesting vices, I tend to be elitist about coffee and hope no one really notices.  One thing that has really helped me with this is the Aerobie Coffee Maker. Yes, the same Aerobie that makes those flying disks that when you miss them go for another hundred yards. They also make an amazing coffee maker.

I am not a coffeetologist but even I know, you want the flavor from the coffee but none of the bitterness (although at work, the people I work with seem to feel the opposite is true).  I am told that in your average pot of coffee, there are compounds such as chlorogenic acids, trigonelline, furfuryl alcohol, and even caffeine itself which lend bitter flavors to a pot of fresh coffee.  Aerobie set out to solve this. Rumors are that the first coffee maker they made just went a really long distance and make a mess of the house and yard.  Later incarnations made better coffee and less mess (but don't travel as far when you throw it).

According to several coffee/nerd sites, the coffee is better because of the lower temperature and short brew time which means that the the acid level of the brew is much lower than conventional brewers.  According to coffee nerds who have actually tested it, lab pH testing measured the Aeropress' brew acid as less than one fifth that of regular drip brew.

As for French Press, people see some similarities as both use total immersion and pressure. But the similarities end there. The filter in the French Press is at the top of the mixture. Because coffee floats, the floating grounds clog the filter and makes pressing and cleaning very difficult. Users are instructed to use only coarse ground coffee. But this reduces the amount of flavor that can be extracted from the coffee and necessitates long steeping times which extract bitterness.

Here is the Aeropress in action

You can find them for around $25 all over the interweb.  While you are it, get yourself some Luwak coffee to have along with it.