The quest. Maybe not as great as the macchiato at Kean Coffee in Newport Beach, Ca. But maybe at least close to it?
I have been trying to get our Cuisinart Cappuccino Machine to yield a decent macchiato. I don’t think its the machine. It seems to be the grind, the time of the pull, and maybe the discovery of the real ancient secrets of coffee.
This afternoon I tried to get a grind out of our current burr grinder. It has an espresso setting and goes down to “fine” Well that’s just not “fine” enough. So I did some research and found that there are a multitude of coffee grinders available. But is that really the secret? Which grinder will yield the illusive “Turkish” powder that will allow the extraction process critical to just a single, one ounce pull, of this special coffee drink?
It was interesting to find out that grinding coffee is really a more recent development. It has also been pounded down to powder by using a mortar and pestle. So this is what I a going to try next.
Since I don’t have a real mortar and pestel, I will have to improvise. I am thinking of using a Starbucks tamper and an old dish.
Of course the fine folks at Kean make the best machiatto.
However this coffee skill goes back to places and people who have not to this day been industrialized. In the streets of Khartoum Sudan, you can get some of the best coffee. Its Turkish, spiced, available for a few Sudanese pounds. You sit in what we would call the gutter here in the US. While you drink the coffee or tea out of glasses. The sterilization of the cups happens, you hope, as each cup is poured and is exposed to the 200+ degree water.
The people hang out there in the late afternoons and just talk. That is the real point of good coffee isn’t it? Sitting there with friends, acquaintances, or better ye, complete strangers. People that we all have something in common with.
Its more about being with the people than it is about perfect coffee. But good coffee and people go together.
I will try to let you know of my progress toward the “good” macchiato.
Pastor Tony
