Archive for July, 2004

Posted on July 7, 2004 - by deCadmus

Calling all cMembers

Fortune needs your input for the SCAA 2005 Conference cMember agenda. She’s posted the proposed track on her little corner of the Web… why don’t you swing by and add your comments?

Posted on July 7, 2004 - by deCadmus

Coffee History Series: Penny Universities

Coffee made its introduction to Europe in the early 17th century as medicine for what ails you… whether your ailment include headaches, consumption, dropsy, gout, scurvy or any number of sundry and unmentionable maladies.

First offered by apothecaries in Venice and street vendors in Milan, coffee found footing in Vienna by way of a failed Ottoman invasion, and found the fancy of Germany’s upper crust: it inspired Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata, and obsessed Ludvig van Beethoven, who was rumored to grind precisely 60 beans for each aromatic cup. [A recipe that makes a very good cup... even if it's preparation is a wee bit time-intensive.]

It was in London, however, where coffee – and coffee houses – became the rage. The first London coffee house opened at Oxford University in 1650, and by 1700 more than 2000 coffeehouses dotted the London landscape. Early coffeehouses served more than coffee; they also served as hotbeds of conversation, politics and commerce. One coffeehouse might serve as a gathering place for physicians, another for actors, or musicians, or lawyers or clergy. These gathering places became known as Penny Universities… for the price of a cup of coffee, one could sit for hours and participate in the discourse of the day.

Or, one could conduct his business of the day… and a great many did. Mr. Edward Lloyd’s coffee house catered largely to merchants and sailors of the day, as well as the underwriters who met over coffee to offer insurance. In time, Lloyd’s Coffee House became Lloyd’s of London, the storied insurance company. Likewise, other coffeehouses – centers for news, currency and futures markets – became newspapers, banks, and stock exchanges, many of which thrive still today.

Behold, the power of coffee!

Posted on July 6, 2004 - by deCadmus

The Saga Continues…

Our furniture was supposed to arrive last Friday, July 2nd. We’d have a lovely, long holiday weekend to figure out what goes where. Get settled. Nest. And then it was supposed to arrive today.

Latest report from the movers…

“Definitely the truck will arrive on Thursday. Maybe Friday.”

I’m not planning on buying any lottery tickets for a while, either.

Posted on July 6, 2004 - by deCadmus

Coffee History Series: Baba Budan’s Beans

While coffee originated in Arabian lands, the legend of its powers of sobriety and mental clarity quickly spread far beyond Arabian borders.

The Christian world grew increasingly alarmed about the legendary qualities of coffee, which was even then being sold by apothecaries –- by prescription only — in Venice. Petitioners brought coffee before Pope Clement VII in order that he might condemn it as the “devil’s brewâ€?. To their surprise, Clement immensely enjoyed the beverage, and baptized it, so that all could enjoy the beverage without guilt… and without a prescription.

Arab traders were keen to ship boiled or parched seeds the entire world over, but were careful to never allow beans or cuttings that could create new coffee plants to leave the Arabian borders. Coffee became so precious to them, that it was made illegal to export fertile beans.

On pilgrimage to Mecca in the middle of the 1600s, Baba Budan, a revered Moslem holy man from India, discovered for himself the wonders of coffee. In his zeal to share what he’d found with his fellows at home, he smuggled seven coffee beans out of Arabia, wrapped around his belly. On his return home, he planted the beans in the hills of Mysore, India, and nurtured the young coffee bushes that resulted. Coffee flourished in the hills of India – hills now named after Baba Budan.

In short order, enterprising Dutch traders bought some of these coffee plants, and shipped them to faraway colonies in Indonesia and Ceylon. The Arabian monopoly of the coffee trade was over, and the Western world was waking up to a new aroma… one that would now play a fateful role in Europe, and beyond.

Posted on July 2, 2004 - by fortune

a cat in the hat moment

while the adult — um, the proprietor, dougie — is away, time for the children to play! i might sweep up when i’m done, but don’t count on it. . .

fortune here, of bccy & scaa consumer membership fame. while dougie breaks half of what he owns moving, and then loses the rest, i’m here to write about the world’s most passionate and romantic beverage: coffee.

i have the pleasure of living in noo yawk sit-ay, where the weather today is unbearably hot and humid. i love hot weather, because to my mind it an opportunity to drink iced coffee!

and today i delighted in a tall glass of chilled guatemala antigua shb (strictly hard bean, which means it’s high-altitude java, the very best kind) from don schoenholt’s gillies. i cupped this coffee before i made it up in the cafetiére (better known to you travellers on this odyssey as the french press).

lemme describe this coffee: the dry grounds offered a beautiful floral scent, very similar to jasmine. when slurped, i delighted in roasted hazelnut and basalmic rice flavors. and the aftertaste presented a pleasant caramel-ly almost maple syrup feeling. . .the taste hovered between bright and tangy.

i felt the tangy, wine-like sensation increase a bit as the brew cooled. it’s just a yummy coffee, which i poured over coffee ice cubes i made with some left-over sumatra.

i also freeze up extra coffee in the ice cube tray. as soon as it’s solid, i pop the cubes into a sturdy zip-loc freezer bag.

this gives me joy of refreshing iced coffee without the dilution regular ice cubes offer. . . highly recommended.

hey, watch out — don’t step in that pile of coffee grounds now! doug will be very upset if we spread coffee all over his nice clean rug. . .