Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
FROM OUR KICKARSE ESPRESSO MACHINE
Gotta take a stand and say that coffee from Chez Rae-Brown is an Auckland highlight for me
Dude, that was the old machine, which was wracked with scale. The new one is proper nice with filtered water.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to BenWilson,
Yes, I tend to agree that coffee snobbery can be self-defeating. It’s a bloody hard ask at home during a party to serve 10 espressos/lattes, but not at all difficult to do with a largish plunger. It’s still coffee, still tastes OK, many people prefer it.
Heh. Am I the only one who gets frustrated when guests insist they’re fine with “just a bit of milk”?
NO, YOU ARE NOT “FINE”. YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A DELICIOUS FLAT WHITE FROM OUR KICKARSE ESPRESSO MACHINE. ALL TEN OF YOU.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
It’s a style that I can take only irregularly but it is but one of many variants. Deep, very full bodied (unsweetened) black coffee is another and it tends to be my poison.
Now that’s more my style.
Older readers (!) may recall a previous (and pre PA System) epic coffee post where Louise Gardiner shared this wonderful experience:
The best coffee experiences I’ve had is at my friend’s council flat in Wellington.
I learnt that if an Ethiopian invites you to pop round for coffee you should allow a couple of hours!
First she sets up a low stool and a small metal brazier. Then she heats up some charcoal and places it in the brazier. Green coffee beans are then very skillfully roasted over the coals until she is satisfied they’re just right. Everyone present gets to smell the wonderful aroma before she grinds the beans.
When I first met her she ground the beans by hand with an improvised mortar and pestle, but the neighbours complained about the banging so she got an electric grinder from Briscoes!
That was from the last of three posts in a truly epic series in 2005. The others were this one and this one.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Ben Chapman,
Customs and Memphis Belle in Wellington are pushing alternative extraction methods, such as Clover and Chemex, as well as resurrecting the plunger. Memphis Belle also produces cold-drip coffee (which apparently takes 12 hours to “brew” and is delicious.
I'm all for that. Must try some of those next time I'm down.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
In any small one bejak town in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand you can find incredible coffee – it just may not come out of an espresso machine. The best caffeine hit I’ve had anywhere on this planet can be found in a small riverside retro cafe in Ratchaburi – slow dripped black syrup onto a bed of sweetened milk.
Yes, fair enough. There's coffee everywhere in South East Asia.
Although I'd still have to say I don't really like the sweetened milk thing (especially when it's sweetened condensed milk) which is probably why I find the SE Asian styles potable enough but not really to my taste.
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Cracker: Gimme Shelter, in reply to Rich Lock,
Seems to me that the BDO is more or less designed around having to have big international acts the headliners. The venue is too large for it to be economical otherwise.
There’s the added factor of the decisions really being made in Australia. The Aussie promoters, Ken West and Vivien Lees, are for real: their first shows in New Zealand were on the justifiably infamous Birthday Party tour in 1983.
Some years they’ll take a hit for the sake of rock ‘n’ roll – they paid much more than usual for Neil Young, who in turn took a lower fee than he usually would – but I gather the BDO has never lost money here, under either the original or current NZ promoters.
Where the Aussie inflection tends to really grate is in the Boiler Room – where there are typically a few dreadful Australian trance DJs. (But oddly, not this year.)
As Recordari and Geoff have already noted, there are, now, a number of smaller festivals which allow newer, younger bands a bit of breathing room.
Yep. Thank the strong Kiwi dollar.
The collective lineup being offered this summer is remarkable. It seems Laneway is doing okay (a bit slower in Wellington, where people had better get out there if they want to keep getting shows), but I think it might be harder for Splore City.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to HORansome,
Just browsed over to the Espresso Engineers' site, which doesn't seem to have been updated since 2003/4 if this page is any indication.
No. They've got a new website in the works.
I almost sold them on an ad contra for part of the cost of the Domobar, but it didn't work out. Curses.
Interestingly, Noel Leeming's new "Lifestyle" sections stock Domobars imported by Espresso Engineers, so I'd guess they'll be turning up in a few more households now.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to nic.wise,
US starbucks is in the top 10% of coffee in the US. Needless to say, the bottom 90% can hardly be called coffee (tho by comparison, US drip isn’t too bad)
Well, less bad, but yeah. I once made the mistake of ordering an espresso from a roadside coffee stand in San Francisco and it was traumatically awful. I had to buy some water to wash the taste out of my mouth.
But I did have the good fortune to stay next to a wonderful, hippyish cafe in Sebastapol when I went there for Foo Camp. Excellent espresso (I enthused to them about how they’d saved my life) and really, really yummy muffins.
In the UK, SB’s is pretty much the best of the chains, which isn’t saying much, but London has a fast growning coffee culture, and it’s not just the kiwis and aussies pushing it forward – the poms are getting into it too (best/most bizaar: a shot from Gwilym Davies at Prufrock in Shoreditch (world barista champ of a few years ago) weighing the shot, and stopping at _exactly_ 20g of espresso…. was VERY good tho)
Oh, I’m sure – but the influence of the Antipodeans in that development is fascinating. Funny thing is, the good suppliers have always been there. I used to go and buy a pound of beans from Monmouth in Covent Garden on paydays when I was working at a record shop in the West End. There, Forbidden Planet and the second-hand bookshops in Charing Cross Road. Good times.
I’ve always been both impressed and disgusted by italian and french coffee. IT’s very hit and miss, zero crema, but I love how they do it – it’s quick (VERY quick), cheap (90 euro cents usually) and chearful. Great way to start a day (much better than $3.50 for an espresso. Come on NZ, this is just getting stupid)
The rest of Europe is a rip, though. Paid the equivalent of $NZ6 for a reasonably decent espresso in Amsterdam.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Kebabette,
Proving your point, here's a photo of a rather fine looking Gaggia coffee machine at work - Fail's Cafe, Christchurch ca. 1955
Wow! And check out that counter!
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to John Campbell,
the Herald keeps insisting I made it known that I was not the 46 year old celebrity concerned. I did not. At any stage. The Herald and Fairfax kept calling me to ask me to do so, but I didn’t return a single call. I knew it wasn’t me, they knew it wasn’t me, so the notion that I would give the story more air by publicly denying it was me, seemed artful at best.
Good grief.