Not much about coffee

You may have noticed that I have not posted much here about coffee of late - which is a shame as there is a lot going on in Perth that deserves to be celebrated and crowed about.

It is not for want of coffee either - I have been privileged over the last two months to try some extraordinary coffees in local cafes from a variety of origins and roasters.

I have however been quite overworked and have arrived home with little energy for the internet in general. April will still be busy but I also want to make a determined effort to reconnect with some of the cafes I have been to in the past and also visit some new ones with my camera and try and show them in all there glory.

I also turn 40 in April - I'm not sure what that means or even what I should do to celebrate it as I am somewhat introverted and not very good and social events. Still I should probably mark it in some way and I think coffee should have something to do with it as the people associated with coffee in Perth have had a profound influence on me over the last decade.

Which brings up the other milestone - 10 years in Western Australia, and really, 10 years since I first really became interested in what makes one coffee taste better than another and started this whole rolling journey through the land of the bean.

So - resolutions for April: write more about coffee, redesign the writing space, visit cafes (including ones like Zekka, Vinyl, Cafe 54 and Tiger Tiger that I have not been to for a while) and most of all start getting around to some of the great new cafes that have opened over the last 6 month or so as there are some real gems in Perth right now.

So G'day, my name is Grendel and I love coffee.

The Grrreat and Deadly Storm of 2010

Media hype is getting out of control and while we had a big storm in Perth with lots of hail, floods and damage I am yet to hear of any loss-of-life, which is an excellent sign that most people came through with the essentials intact - themselves and their families.

The Grendelmobile had a tragedy all of its own with Mrs Grendel and the Junior Grendels. On the Freeway near the river when the storm hit they had no cover from the welter of hailstones and it was a very frightening 10 minutes for them. They limped in to my office and we remained there until the local flooding subsided and we could take my car home from the office leaving the now-dimpled Grendelmobile in the car park.

It is now waiting in line with thousands of other cars for evaluation and repair.

Kudos to RAC for doing a magnificent job over the last few days in getting claims moving as swiftly as possible. Most people have had a few waits on the phone but really to get cars towed and assessed in a week when so many have been damaged is no small undertaking. I hope the company are giving the staff their due recognition for their efforts.

In happier news, last night I had the pleasure of sharing the joy of coffee with a group of parents at school fundraiser at Pony Express O. It was fun to be invited and to get to play with big shiny machines and I really enjoyed myself.

One of the great dynamics of coffee in Perth is the willingness of those in the industry to share it with others - and to help out with things like fundraisers.

I'd love to see a lot more cafes running events like this as I think it opens up specialty coffee to an audience that otherwise may not ever get into the city or inner suburbs to try the really great coffee on offer there.

The Big Chocolatty Easter Post - 2010

It is a happy day for chocolate lovers when the purchase of your favourite Easter treat comes guilt free.

World Vision have released the following list of potential sources of ethical chocolate:

Fairtrade eggs
Chocolatier Fairtrade Easter eggs will be available in Woolworths, David Jones and Oxfam stores. Cocolo Fairtrade Easter eggs will be available from selected independent supermarkets and health food stores.

Fairtrade blocks
Cadbury's Fairtrade Dairy Milk chocolate blocks will be available in stores from 27 March.

Green & Black's Fairtrade Maya Gold is available from Coles, Woolworths and most IGA supermarkets. The rest of the range will be certified Fairtrade and available to consumers from September 2010.

Chocolatier Fairtrade Certified chocolate is for sale in Target, Coles and on the counter in Starbucks Australia stores.

Cocolo distributes a range of Fairtrade chocolate to retail outlets throughout Australia. Heritage Chocolate produces the Gourmet range of Fairtrade milk, dark and cooking chocolate blocks.

Even better than the big stores are the small businesses that stock and promote ethical chocolateThere are no specialty shops up our way that stock ultra-good treats either but fortunately I work near several that do.

If you are willing to go the extra mile this Easter then these establishments can sell you the good stuff:



Barker and Hale Cottesloe

Barker and Hale Floreat Forum

Chokoby Road


My personal recommendation is to go to either of the Barker and Hale stores as they will know for certain which chocolate is worth buying.

Products under the label Cocoa Farm are also acceptable as the cocoa is carefully sourced - and in the future will be Australian Grown.

Chocolatier – another Australian company have produced fair trade eggs for some time and these are available in light and dark chocolate.

Have a great Easter!

The Final Cafe

Yes - it is time for Cafe Grendel to expand and the already crowded cafe market on Earth means that we have no other option but to embrace the final frontier and launch into space:




If you want you name to be included on the upcoming launch of IKAROS, you might want to hurry up as the deadline is March 22, 2010.

Enter your message here.

Surf

If I were to anthropomorphize a weather system I would have to wonder whether tropical Cyclone Ului had a bad holiday recently. After having wreaked havok in Fiji it is now heading to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. This seems to me a Sure sign that Ului does not like resorts.

Having worked in the Whitsundays for several years I hope that everyone there comes through OK - and for those in there area that complain that there is never any surf to ride, it looks like you just got your wish.


Cyclone Track Map - Bureau of Meteorology

The Australian Gets it Badly Wrong

I try to keep off this topic as much as possible since this blog is primarily about coffee - sometimes the burning stupid out there just gets too much and I need to vent.

This time the stupidity originates at The Australian - the national newspaper that likes to bill itself as "The Heart of the Nation".

They managed to engage my ire with a single quote in an otherwise sloppy but benign article about the ruling by the Vaccine Court in the United States that there is no link between thimerosal (an ethyl mercury compound used as a preservative in vaccines) and autism. This link had been claimed by some who sought to sue governments and the manufactures of vaccines. The claim has been tested repeatedly in many countries and no substance to the claim has been supported by science.

The story in The Australian covers the basics and then adds towards the end of the article:

"Meanwhile, in reaction to the concerns of parents, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines in the United States."

Meanwhile?

1999 is meanwhile? How about - "Over a decade ago in 1999, the CDC, under pressure from concerned parents removed thimerosal from pediatric vaccines. There was no decrease in the rate of diagnosis of autism following this action."

This is worse than sloppy work from The Australian and borders on irresponsible as it makes it appear as if the removal of thimerosal has only just occurred.

The fact that the story originates at AAP does not absolve The Australian of the editorial responsibility for what they have published on their website.

Signature Experiments

One of the fun things at any barista competition are the amazing signature drinks that the competitors create during their 15 shot at coffee glory.

Some with quite bizarre ingredients appear - to great acclaim, or not but either way the creativity that goes into the planning and execution of the signature drinks is a testament to the passion of each barista.

I have on occasion been fortunate to try some of these signature drinks and get a lot of inspiration from them.

Recently I have been playing with some ideas for signature drinks. One involves the Soda Stream - a simple device for carbonating water and so far I have made an espresso spider, carbonated iced coffee and a carbonated espresso soft drink. Only the espresso spider seemed to have potential for real greatness - but possibly at someone elses hands rather than my own.

My other discovery is Sasparilla. Those who hail from Queensland will recall "Sars" as a familiar drink and while it is not so popular over here in the West you can by the Sasparilla concentrate from Bundaberg. This is a naturally brewed concentrate of ginger root, licorice root molasses and sasparilla root and is absolutely outstanding with espresso.

I started by adding about 2ml to the bottom of my shot glass then pouring the espresso over the top. The licorice root gives the drink a not-quite-but-almost salty edge and the result is a sweet and savory concoction of dark power.

My next addition was some unsweetened West African Red Cocoa (from CoffeeSnobs) stirred with a little hot water and 2 ml of sasparilla cordial. Into this I poured one shot of espresso and and tipped the lot over vanilla ice cream.

Heaven.

I think the trick is the balance of flavour already in the cordial - there is no dominant flavour (just as well as I do not like licorice at all!) but the combination goes with coffee in much the same way that chicory root does.

The really good part was that the cordial did not dominate the espresso but elevated certain parts of the flavour profile. This was a fun and tasty experiment!

Discovery

One of the things that I love about blogging is that occasionally another blogger will drop by and leave a comment - and a lead back to their own blog and I get to discover a whole new world all over again. I can get a bit slack in checking out what is going on so it is great to get a reminder how worthwhile this is to do.

Hold The Beef combines witty insights with great recipes and beautiful photographs and commentary on cafes and restaurants from around Perth.

A great Perth blog!

Home

I've been busy, the weather has been foul - far to hot to have any real fun with coffee, and we are in budget mode at work.

This weekend is a long weekend in Perth and I took some time to have a quieter one that we have done lately.

It was Junior Grendel Number One's eighth birthday last week and for those who do not know, he has autism. This has give us some additional challenges and joys over the last eight years - more joys than challenges and he is 100% Junior Grendel Number One all the time. He asked for (and got) a Republic Star Cruiser - Lego Star Wars which took me six hours to put together yesterday.

This followed his birthday party which was at Darklight - a laser shooting place. He didn't play - he finds it all a bit intense, but he wanted his party there because he knows his friends love to play. When I asked him later if he had a good time he assured me that yes - it was a great party because he got to see his friends. Definitely a more complex child than his outward expressions may indicate.

Last night he came in while I was watching a most beautiful film called Home. Released midway through last year home is a stunning film that is free to watch online - or download as an MP4 file.

I highly recommend it - here is a little clip from the creation of the soundtrack for the film:



If you want more details - or to download it for yourself - go to Home