Tweet
I cant sleep so I thought Id post a note about my Sunday afternoon just gone - at the risk of sounding like a Nescafe Ad, what the hell...
I have an elderly Jordanian couple living next door to me - theyre very friendly and they absolutely adore our kids. However, through the two years I have been living next door, weve had a few short, friendly chats, but these have been relatively superficial, probably due in part to their broken English and my complete lack of Arabic
Last Sunday afternoon however, we reached a turning point in our neighbourly relations...
While I was roasting my second (of three) batches in my garage, my neighbours popped over, driven partly by the lure of the smell but mostly, and by their own admission, through their curiosity After intense inspection, they gave a thorough endorsement of my "Corretto" set-up and were amazed at the variety and quantity of my grean beans in my collection (even if only a fledgling collection of ~25 kgs).
I then sat listening in awe as they both started reminiscing back to their youth, particularly of their daily chores of having to roast coffee in an open fire drum-roaster (being the youngest in their families they had both been begrudgingly assigned this task!) Throughout the third and final batch, and using incomplete sentences and a lot of hand gesturing, we were able to compare notes on preferred roast depths, favourite beans and of course, prepration techniques. I was amused at their expectation (stereo-typing?) that, due to my Italian background, I would be taking the final batch well after the SC. I shattered their presumptions and received a proclamation of "Beeewdiful" as I pulled and cooled my Kenyan AA just as the first snaps of SC bacame audible (Ha! ;D)
Then came the best part...
After blending and bagging the beans (and of course, offering a bag to my neighbours), they asked my family over for some of their coffee... prepared their way. Thick, black and gritty. Turkish-style with sugar and a pinch of ground cardamom thrown in for good measure during the brewing process. After bracing myself for the first sip, I was amazed at the flavour - the cardamom added an almost fresh-cedar-like flavour to the coffee - it was like nothing I had ever tried before and out of a combination of politeness, curiosity and a genuine like of the flavour, I couldnt resist their offer of another cup.
All up, we sat outside for several hours and as the sun started to set and the temperature started to fall, I realised that the afternoon had turned into something incredibly special - a virtual celebration of the humble coffee bean and it preparation techniques.
Just awesome
-A-
I have an elderly Jordanian couple living next door to me - theyre very friendly and they absolutely adore our kids. However, through the two years I have been living next door, weve had a few short, friendly chats, but these have been relatively superficial, probably due in part to their broken English and my complete lack of Arabic
Last Sunday afternoon however, we reached a turning point in our neighbourly relations...
While I was roasting my second (of three) batches in my garage, my neighbours popped over, driven partly by the lure of the smell but mostly, and by their own admission, through their curiosity
After intense inspection, they gave a thorough endorsement of my "Corretto" set-up and were amazed at the variety and quantity of my grean beans in my collection (even if only a fledgling collection of ~25 kgs).I then sat listening in awe as they both started reminiscing back to their youth, particularly of their daily chores of having to roast coffee in an open fire drum-roaster (being the youngest in their families they had both been begrudgingly assigned this task!) Throughout the third and final batch, and using incomplete sentences and a lot of hand gesturing, we were able to compare notes on preferred roast depths, favourite beans and of course, prepration techniques. I was amused at their expectation (stereo-typing?) that, due to my Italian background, I would be taking the final batch well after the SC. I shattered their presumptions and received a proclamation of "Beeewdiful" as I pulled and cooled my Kenyan AA just as the first snaps of SC bacame audible (Ha! ;D)
Then came the best part...
After blending and bagging the beans (and of course, offering a bag to my neighbours), they asked my family over for some of their coffee... prepared their way. Thick, black and gritty. Turkish-style with sugar and a pinch of ground cardamom thrown in for good measure during the brewing process. After bracing myself for the first sip, I was amazed at the flavour - the cardamom added an almost fresh-cedar-like flavour to the coffee - it was like nothing I had ever tried before and out of a combination of politeness, curiosity and a genuine like of the flavour, I couldnt resist their offer of another cup.
All up, we sat outside for several hours and as the sun started to set and the temperature started to fall, I realised that the afternoon had turned into something incredibly special - a virtual celebration of the humble coffee bean and it preparation techniques.
Just awesome
-A-
Comment