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The Village Coffee & Music

The Village coffee & music is an Utrecht based dream for coffee lovers. The people of the village call their place a “specialty coffee bar and hang-out” and I think that hits the bullseye. You’re able to order everything from A like aeropress to Z like pastries zie vitrine, which hints at their pastries which you can have a look at in the vitrine, or you can just chill in cosy sofas and read books like “The Independent Coffee Book London”. Beside that you’re certainly invited to augment your coffee gear or have a talk with the other guests.

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This is Coffee (1961)

‘This is coffee’ is a promotional film from 1961 produced by the Coffee Brewing Institute. Although we knew today that for example cappuccino shouldn`t be made with whipped cream and that brewing with boiling-temp water makes the end result very bitter the short movie gives a nice glimpse into some different brewing methods. All in all this coffee-information-film fits well into our mad men society and is definitely worth seeing.

Chemex coffeemaker

Since two weeks I own a new coffee tool called chemex. The chemex is a coffeemaker created by german chemist Peter Schlumbohm. Beside the fact that it perfectly fits into my appreciation of design you are able to create wonderful coffee with it.

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I know that during the third coffee wave and from the ground emerging coffee stores like starbucks a lot of people get involved into drinking coffee and that through lifestyle products like e.g. a nespresso a lot of people like to make coffee but with tools like an aeropress, a v60 or a french press you are able to create a drink full of various tastes. I don’t want to bother people who aren’t into this coffee-geek things I just want to recommend you to have a closer look at your pleasure. It’s the same thing with meat from a butcher or vegetables from the food markt contrary to the freezer.

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I ordered mine together with some beans at coffee circle. The team is very nice and the service is very good. As you were able to see during my coffee app recommendation I try different settings all the time. At the moment I use 48gr for 700ml water. Benjamin Blake from draw coffee uses a setting of 31gr and 500ml at the moment which I like too. The brewing times depend on your setting, for mine you can use the one mentioned in the app, benjablake’s is 3:45min whereby the 45seconds are the blooming time.

If you like to drink more than one cup of coffee or have guests the chemex is the perfect tool. The coffee is very good and offers a well-balanced taste. Additional to that it just looks wonderful inside the chemex and finally, the eye must be pleased too.

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Intelligentsia Coffee App

If you might know I’m into coffee. I like the taste of warm coffee in the morning and my day starts best with the smell of freshly ground coffee. At the moment I’m using an old Zassenhaus coffee grinder and alternate an aeropress, a pourover, aka v60, and a bialetti. Within the next three weeks I fortunately will also call a chemex my own.
Perhaps you would call me a nerd but I think that if you like something you should invest time in your passion. Although I also drink coffee to be awake I like the aura and peace of mind that comes up when I weigh and grind coffee beans or make coffee in general.
If you are also a bit into my passion but made coffee so far only by touch I recommend you to have a look at the Intelligentsia Coffee App.

“In October of 1995 Doug Zell and Emily Mange left San Francisco to open an in-store coffee roaster-retailer on Broadway Avenue on the north side of Chicago.”¹

Today Intelligentsia is based in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York with five coffee bars, a cafe, two roasting works and last but not least two training labs. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to have a look at their wonderful coffee bars yet but what I have seen until now in the internet is awesome.
Beside their normal business the people from Intelligentsia also inter alia sell single origin coffee, blends and decaf coffee, espresso, tea, brewing tools and – here we come to the point – offer brew guides and an iPhone App for free.

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“The Intelligentsia Coffee application allows you to view the current coffee offerings with details from Intelligentsia Coffee. Additionally, you are given step-by-step instructional illustrations and descriptions for preparing coffee on multiple brewing devices. An integrated brewing timer with alerts ensures that your coffee will be perfect every time. Share coffees with your friends via email or Facebook or leave feedback about coffees for others to view. Directions, information and maps about our locations will help you to find the best place to grab a cup of coffee on the go.”²

The app offers six brew guides which are in detail cafe solo, chemex, cupping, french press, pourover and siphon brewer completed by a matching brew timer. You are able to use the brew timer as a part of the guide or to use it separate.

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My beloved brewing method, the aeropress, is missing at the moment but the guys from Intelligentsia told me that there will be an update this summer.

@junk_f Yup! Update coming this summer.

— Intelligentsia (@Intelligentsia) March 17, 2012

As I mentioned before, if you made coffee so far only by touch I recommend you to have a look at the Intelligentsia Coffee App. And until the aeropress guide is missing I recommend you to take 14gr of beans for 180gr of 92-95°C hot water. Brewing should take one minute. Have fun.

Good morning.

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aeropress-love ↩

Monkey 47 – english spirit, blackwood forest soul

When you think of England and Germany, you might think of Wembley, different fondness for beer, it must have a head, St. George‘s Cross and the federal egale and at least Queen mum and Angela Merkel. What you might not think of is Gin.

In 1945 Wing Commander Montgomery „Monty“ Collins was posted to British sector of devided Berlin. Due to the fact that he was profoundly affected by the war damaged capital he tried to support the reconstruction in his spare time. Therefore he devoted to rebuild the Berlin Zoo, whereby he came to sponsor an egret monkey called Max.

In 1951 he left the Royal Air Force and moved to Black Forest to learn watchmaking. Unfortunately he wasn‘t good in this old german tradition but instead of moving back he opened a guesthouse called „The Wild Monkey“. Although Monty left England he didn‘t quit with his traditions including drinking a good glass of Gin. Fortunately Juniper, a main ingredient of Gin, existed also in the Black Forest, and was combined with pure well water – a good basis for his first steps in distilling. Because of Collins‘ childhood in India he had well known some exotic spices which he also used for the drink he sold at his guesthouse.

During a renovation work of the old guesthouse at the turn of the century some people found a weighty old wodden box containing a hand labeled and decorated bottle and a letter. The accompanying letter contained personal notes and photos of Monty and a detailed description of the ingredients Collins had used for his „Max the Monkey – Schwarzwald Dry Gin“. In 2008 Alexander Stein and Christoph Keller tried to revive Monty‘s recipe but they needed almost two years to receive a good result. Since 2010 the two guys produce a Gin, called Monkey 47, according to Max the Monkey and the 47 ingredients they need for this excellent drink, again. In 2011 they were even awarded with reddot design award for communication design.

Regarding to Collins‘ demand they produce quality instead of quantity whereby they are only able to produce about 8000 bottles with one batch. That is also one reason why they were awarded as world‘s best Gin at the IWSC International Wine and Spirits Competition. Today you‘re able to buy Monkey 47 worldwide and believe me, you should get a bottle too.