Podcast Number Se7en. Pick your link below and right-click and select Save As (on PC) or Control-Click and select "Download Linked File" in MacOS to save it to your hard drive... OR click the "podcast" icon above for the RSS podcast feed (MP3 medium quality).Show highlights:
- News bits (Hines Public Market Coffee, Zoka's new Director of Coffee, condolences)
- Phone call to Kyle Larson, Stumptown Coffee, about the USBC
- More USBC chit-chat
- New regular segment: "What's Chris Tacy Thinking About Today?"
- WARNING: EXPLICIT ANALOGY ALERT... how coffee can be like masturbation
TWO DIFFERENT FILES, but the same show... your choice (the AAC version sounds better):
MP3 format, 19.4 MB, 1:17:37. 34 kbps (VBR) bitrate, 32 kHz sample rate
AAC format (for iTunes and iPods), 18.7 MB, 1:17:37. 32 kbps bitrate, 32 kHz sample rate (with "bookmarking" for iTunes and iPods: if you stop midway, you can come back to where you left off... FYI, it might show up on your iPod in "Audiobooks").
The files are a little bigger, but we're getting spoiled with this improved audio quality. Hope you find the extra download-time worthwhile.
Questions? Comments? Hate mail? Email us at podcast@portafilter.net, and we might read your email during the next show.
Dude, just make sure you give mixmaster jay ALL the sound clips I sent ya... there's like 1500 of them.
ReplyDeleteNo comment on your masturbatory tales. ;)
Damn.
ReplyDeleteI sound like one of those crackpot UFO guys on call-in radio.
I am not an animal!!!
Oh... and for what it's worth, I had what may be a breakthrough after the podcast was recorded on the whole "clarity" thing...
ReplyDeleteOK, maybe I am a bit of a freak after all
NOt sure how to respond to the analogy, but as you all know, I am NOT fond of analogies.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because they could go on forever and never manage to really describe something.
It's like playing Bacci ball.
You're always rolling it out there, hoping to hit or nudge the point toward resolution. In discussion, though, other are rolling theirs out in attempt to knock you off topic.
And I like Chris Tacy's voice. And I'm a big fan of the new segment about what's on his mind. And I like the way he approaches everything like it's a big think-tank cocktail party. What if serious thought was always just like this? ...like a long liesurely stroll in the park? ...like a lazy summer day at the community pool?...like a huge novel that you love so much, you never want to finish it?
chris,
ReplyDeletefrom reading your further musings on "espresso clarity", you describe it as "that experience you sometimes get in a great shot where you can taste all the component beans and all the component flavours of all those beans - where there is this sense of "definition" of flavour in the cup".
i sort of see this as the antithesis of blending. when you create a blend, you start with the components that you have, and you should know how they are going to perform under extraction, but then as these flavors combine, you get a synergy of these, where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. these creations are what i find so fascinating.
First thing that comes to mind after all of this and now Gee's comment is: How does this relate to pre-roast-blending and post-roast-blending?
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, this is the whole "Great American Melting Pot" debate all over again. Some of y'all might not have heard about it, but it's the whole idea that a "Melting Pot" only applied to immigration from Europe, when one generation was all it took to erase most of the immigrants' cultural differences and unify under one culture... whereas in later years, with immigration coming from different countries with different races... the "Melting Pot" analogy suddenly looked trite and naive. So the "Salad Bowl" or "Beef Stew" image was born... where all of the unique flavors come together, still distinct, but a sum larger than its parts.
So... is, or should an espresso blend be a melting pot, or a salad bowl?
Maybe you're both right. Maybe in drip-coffee blending, flavors will melt into each other, whereas espresso tends to (under certain conditions) clarify the picture.
Exactly why I wonder if customers really want clarity. As I mention, I've served such a shot and had someone say, "it tastes like coffee" (as a negative).
ReplyDeleteDo people want complexity or simplicity? Comfort or challenge?
All that being said, I have to say I pretty much reject the "whole greater than the sum of its parts" thing with espresso that uses 100% high quality beans. In my experience, that is only true when using some or many inferior beans (arguably the genesis of the espresso blend).
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThat last bit you just wrote about rejecting blending theory seems to be based on ...well, theory, not practice. Those of us who have spent a great deal of time finding good blends truly DO work to find the sum greater than its parts.
You are also assuming a lot about coffee...assuming we all know what quality and infereior is and that we agree on those parameters....assuming that blends are physical manifestations of compromise...assuming that all blends have the same goals....that balance is blanding.
oh no, please don't think so! There are as many blend ideas are there are blends. Taste them as coffees first and foremost.
It's like wine......OOOOH jeez!
I suppose it's just the chef in me, but I generally believe that (when working with good ingredients) the end result is only as good as the weakest component.
ReplyDeletechris said:
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's just the chef in me, but I generally believe that (when working with good ingredients) the end result is only as good as the weakest component.
but when all of your ingredients are of high quality, do you want one of them to stand out? isn't a balance and a nice interplay between the flavors better than getting the 3-course willy wonka gum, where you're hit first with the tomato soup, then the roast beef, then the blueberry pie?
again, i think that while certain people can appreciate this, and may even want to explore how much can be done with it (7 course meals?), the majority of general consumers want something that just tastes good.
Ummm... yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I say in the Podcast.
ReplyDeletei prefer to ignore what the average consumer wants as much as possible. espresso as a straight drink, or even with a touch of milk, can be very new territory for north americans. many are just not yet ready for espresso, certainly not complex espresso. pay no attention.
ReplyDeletethe abililty to taste complexity is often acquired.
we're in junk food country here. people eat candy bars, processed cheese, hell they still even go to hooters. and eat there.
people who want something that "just tastes like chocolate". have a fucking hot chocolate then. there ARE plenty of people that can TASTE and appreciate something truly delicious - they may never have tasted great coffee. thats the connection to make, yes?
we seek people looking for complexity and challenge, they fulfill and inspire us. the ones coming for simple comforts - they order a big latte. of course there's crossover too, we all want simple comfort sometimes.
i strongly believe that the direction of coffee and espresso is going in an excellent direction - for barista's and consumers - far beyond our expectations.
you're doing great things chris.
no end result will happen in espresso. every single shot is unique and born out of magic, mystery, imagination, hope, luck, sweat and tears... thats why we're here.
alistair
As I often say, I like to think of myself as a 'big picture' guy.
ReplyDeleteAlistair, you seem to be taking the approach of, "Right here is the place of Coffee Excellence. I'll stand over here on this spot, and if people are wanting to partake, then c'mon up... but I ain't budging from this spot."
For me, it's like, "See where Alistair is over there? That's the place of Coffee Excellence. I hang out up there too, and it's awesome! C'mon! Let's go check it out!"
The thing that's cool about it from my perspective is... it's ALL good. Each person does their part, in different ways. There's John the Baptist and there's Paul. John was a weirdo from... I think Vancouver... who lived in the woods and people would come and here his Truth. Paul was never at home. He was always traveling to spread the Truth. It's all good.
hmm i had to read over a couple times just to understand what the hell i was talking about... .. ok, well it was actually Chris that was sort of making that point: 'here is coffee excellence' - achieving a shot of espresso with amazing complexity and clarity. He is someone who is fanatical about exploring this excellence, and I relate to that.
ReplyDeleteYet, his point on the show was - what happens when you present that clarity to someone and they say "umm, it just takes like coffee". Maybe that's not what people want?
Now I'm saying give them a chance, but I'm also saying if they don't get it - move on - there's plenty of people out there who will truly get it.
alistair
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