Passionate about the bean
I just wanted to share another one of my favourite pics with you, taken in a LOVE coffee mug bought by my wife pour moi.
As you can see, I’ve been practising my “latte art” and although I haven’t progressed to rosettas and big hearts, this is my second success with a little heart, so wish me luck every mornings when I practise my latte art and end up rushing to work and getting in just in time. Wishing you a latte love morning, ciao.
This is another long overdue post, as I was in Cape Town in February 2008. Again, any visit there has to include a trip to my favourite coffee shop in the Southern Hemisphere, Origins Coffee Roasting, 28 Hudson Street, de Waterkant, Cape Town. 
It’s one of those places that when I visit, it feels like home, as the staff now recognise me as that keen coffee drinker with a camera always talking about coffee machines and coffee beans. I was glad to see that Origins have expanded their horizons and are taking their self-imposed goal of educating South Africa about quality coffee seriously. For one, they now have a barista school at the back of their shop, where I was able to witness upcoming baristi (plural for barista in Italian) practising their latte art. I also met briefly again with Joel Singer, co-owner of Origins. Secondly, Origins now organise roadshows and they planned to have one in Johannesburg in late February. They now sell their blends to other cafes (Manna Epicure – see post on Cape Town Coffee Scene of 2008 below) and are now beginning to get a reputation. When I first discovered the place, I used to go around Cape Town mentioning Origins and everyone used to look at me like, “what and where is that ?”, but on this visit, they were like “yes, I’ve heard of it….” . In addition, one of their baristi won the South African National Barista Championships – the second year in a row that one of Origins home grown has won.
So, I’m glad that Origins reputation is spreading as the “Artisan Roasters of Africa” in SA.
In the shop, they’ve changed their main coffee grinder to the Spanish made Compak, which is fast becoming the expert choice of the baristi world as Compak coffee grinders are now used at the World Barista Championships. In any case, I went for my double espresso and was tempted to try 2 Portugese custard tarts or pasties de nata and shot a video of a two heart latte art, which you can view on my YouTube page ( http://www.youtube.com/Lameen71) They still serve their coffees using a naked filter on their Synesso espresso coffee machine, which I was determined not to miss. This gives their espresso and edge.
I also got to snap this unusual latte art piece – dragonfly of heart ?
I bought some freshly roasted coffee and was glad to see other people in the queue enquiring and splashing out (an English slang for spending lots of money) on coffee.
I continue to wish Origins the best of luck in their ventures and if you go to Cape Town, please do yourself a favour and visit – your taste buds would love the experience. Check out their website on http://www.originroasting.co.za/
I’ve been a bit lazy with this category, where I share my latest coffee bean experience with you – so I’m going to give you a snapshot of what I’ve been drinking over the last 2 months and promise to keep you up to date with my latest taste adventures.
First up is a Rwandan Musasa, which I bought from Origins Coffee Roasting, Cape Town, back in February 2008.
It was quite nice as an espresso, rich, dark and …. handsome (to the taste buds that is). I found it earthy/chocolatey and a smell of it, reminded me of Africa. So it was quite true to its name. I also got on that trip an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe as they didn’t have my favourite Ethiopian Sidamo. The Yirgacheffe was what I call typical African – bold and earthy, nice for Cafetiere and I couldn’t resist the temptation to make a portion in my bodum Cafetiere and shoot it in a newly bought “African” coffee cup, which I bought in Zimbabwe.
On my way back from that trip to Africa, I got to stop over in London and rushed on over to my favourite roaster, HR Higgins, where sadly enough they didn’t have Indian Malabar Monsooned but I was tempted to try their Brazilian Bourbon, which I can tell you has been added to my favourite list for espresso. Delightful ! It’s quite smooth as an espresso and has that Italian feel – I seem to recall reading somewhere that Italians use a lot of Brazilian arabica coffee beans in their espresso blends. As I usually drink espresso at night and wasn’t able to get a good shot of a rich and smooth espresso due to bad lighting, I can only share with you, a snapshot of the coffee bag below.
In any case that basically summarizes the main highlights of my taste adventures for now. Of course I’ve also been drinking lots of other coffee but I just wanted to focus on the main discoveries.
My First Video, shot at Origins Coffee Roasting, Cape Town, where the barista poured two hearts into a latte. Check it out; Two Hearts Latte Art.mov
Or if your browser doesn’t like this, click below for more videos;
No ! I didn’t misspell the title of this blog. I’m not sure about you but since my childhood (not trying to give away my age), I’ve always been a keen James Bond fan – slight inspiration for my website and blog name. I’m now in the process of trying to keep up with technology and buy my favourite James Bond films on DVD. So the other night, I finally sat down to watch the DVD re-mastered version of one of my all time favourites – From Russia With Love, starring Sean Connery as James Bond.
I noticed that of all the James Bond films I can remember, this is the only one where James Bond actually ordered a cup of coffee and not his usual shaken not stirred cocktail. Perhaps, the author, Ian Fleming, thought that for that scene in Turkey – home of the first coffee culture phenomenon – James Bond should order coffee and not an alcoholic drink. I also found out that Ian Fleming had a house in Jamaica, where he wrote some of his novels and that one of his favourite drinks was coffee, the highly renowned and most expensive coffee, Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee naturally, which incidentally is supposed to be James Bond’s favourite coffee bean. What a coincidence – just thought that I’d share.
From Coffee With Love 