Posts by Stephen Judd
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Apropos "burning" etc: it's more that at different temperatures and pressures and grind fineness, different constituents are extracted at different rates. Therefore the nature of the beans and blend has a role here. For example, my experiments tell me that while you can get some great espresso from unblended Ethiopian beans, most of the qualities that make them distinctive stand out best in filter methods. Turkish/Arab/Greek coffee can be delicious, even though you make it with boiling water, probably because buttloads of sugar and maybe some added spices help, and because we have different expectations about how it should taste compared to espresso.
So I wouldn't be too quick to say that method X always produces a bad result. Raw materials, your technique, and your end-goal all have a part there too.
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Apropos cold brew, that really is very easy to do at home, and just the thing as a base for iced coffee.
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Certainly some of the worst espresso I’ve had has been in provincial cafes in NZ where an untrained person has charge of the machine.
A few months ago I absent-mindedly pulled a shot at home through a used puck of grounds, lord knows how. The resulting coffee I tasted for science, and to my surprise it was exactly like a terrible long black I’d had in New Plymouth on the way back from WOMAD. I began to wonder if someone had figured out you could save money by reusing grounds.
Starbucks, by comparison, has never produced something so awful for me. To qualify that, I’ve never been to an NZ Starbucks, only Starbucks in the US, Canada* and the UK, so perhaps the surrounding coffee wasteland made it taste better.
*if you are stuck in Vancouver, go to Wicked Coffee, see last para. They know what they are doing.
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In fact, given the popularity of flat whites and lattes in New Zealand, it’s not clear whether we’ve developed a genuine taste for espresso, or we’ve simply found a socially acceptable way to drink lots of warm, frothy milk.
On the money, I would say. Of course, I drink my coffee black no sugar, so I could be biased...
My understanding is that Starbucks roast pretty dark because such a roast deteriorates less with time (of course, many would say it wasn't great to start with). This is helpful when you want to service a whole continent with a consistent product from 2 or 3 roasting plants. I don't know whether Starbucks roasts in NZ, but I suspect not.
I noticed in my last couple of North American trips that all the espresso I drank, Starbucks or not, appeared to be made from rather darker beans than we would use -- supposedly that dark roast is favoured in Southern Italy -- and I wonder if they aren't so much bad as failing to calibrate their product to local tastes. You certainly appreciate them when there's no other options. Not least because in the US, you can use their toilets in cities that don't provide public toilets. ("If we had public toilets, homeless people would live in them" -- horrified New Yorker to me).
Back to Wailes: are India and China among the world's great coffee cultures? I kind of thought there was some other hot caffeinated beverage that was more traditional there...
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After reading this paper on the advantages of the Venetian Republic's procedure for electing the Doge, I am ready for us to adopt their oligarchical system. (via languagehat at Metafilter.)
As soon as I learned about their intricate procedure I realised it would be catnip for Graeme.
"Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who actually elected the doge."
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I think it's important to point out that Foxman himself is the subject of much criticism within the Jewish community.
As others have noted, when even Jonah "Liberal Fascism" Goldberg can't get behind you, you're doing something wrong.
Personally I liked Matt Yglesias' comment:
"Indeed, Jews throughout America can join me in remembering when our ancestors fled Eastern Europe in order to live in a land where nobody would ever criticize us on television."
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Actually in fairness, here’s some good stuff about this period: for the 3rd xmas in a row, I cooked lunch at the Beloved’s parents’ house. Her mum hates cooking, and I love it, so atheist Jewbag or not it works out well. We survived the Boxing Day shock in Ch’chur, played with a small kitten every day, cringed enjoyably at the Ron Mueck exhibition, and were able to make very enjoyable calls on the Haywoods and on the Harvest Bird and Pack.
Subsequently, I have been able to rise from my sick bed for long enough to cook a lot of charcoal-grilled dinners, washed down with my xmas whisky. So it’s not all bad.
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I would just like to complain.
This whole week I have been coughing and choking on viscous green chunks of purulent mucus. I am on annual leave damnit, with my visiting daughter, damnit, and all I can do is rub my aching cheekbones and grit my tingling teeth (yes, it’s in my sinuses now) and apologize for not being Action Dad.
Back at work on Monday. The antibiotics are kicking in. I expect I’ll be better by then.
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NZ gets upset by the severe abuse of the global passport system and it’s, were are told, all about selling stuff to the non-Israeli Middle East. I’m guessing there will be no issue for me going into the US next time on a stolen passport then?
I think there is a middle ground where it was both a bad thing for the Israelis to do and a highly opportune event for the NZ government. Cf the current news about the shechita ban, which seems unfortunately linked to cabinet ministers' halal meat export prospects. I'm afraid the impact on buying and selling is very much part of New Zealand governments' decisions.
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If you're interested, here's an Israeli take on their Wikileaks revelations.