As a result of Monday’s devastating fire in the Glebe, two of our beloved Bridgehead family (Mark the Shark Douglas from Beechwood, and Anthony “Manthony” Baldwin Lewis from Wellington) have been left without a home or any of their posessions. In the spirit of the Bridgehead community, we’ve set up a website to accept donations so you can donate securely online. The money goes straight to them! Thanks a million!
Here are some great little coffee videos Thompson Owen just posted from a recent trip to East Africa. They were all filmed with a Flip!
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I just want to quickly refer readers to Mark Prince’s home espresso buying guide recently posted on CoffeeGeek.com.
Here is it: How To Buy An Espresso Machine — The Guide
There’s tons of useful information for anyone interested in home espresso gear. Have a look if you’re interested!
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Visit Bridgehead at Bank and Albert on Thursday Dec. 17th at noon and see Amanda Rheaume perform live. While you are there, pick up her Christmas album for only $5 - 100% of sales goes to the Boys and Girls Club.
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Just a quick note that we’re seeing some of the 2009 Ecuador Procafeq Coop coffee roasted in the espresso this week. It is in some of the batches roasted on Monday that are in service today through Sunday. As of late in the day Sunday all of the espresso should have the new crop in it.
Although it only amounts to 16% of the blend there is a very noticable difference in the viscosity visually when it pours. Essentially we’re getting “gloopier” pours with a higher concentration of oils – something that should consistently result in more flavour intensity, more balanced taste and of course a pretty amped mouthfeel.
The lot we’re using this year is the best we’ve had from Procafeq in 3 seasons with their coffee. More notes to come once I’ve had ample time to play with it. If you notice your espresso is extra gloopy, give it a taste for curiosity’s sake (as you should be doing anyway!!).
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For anyone interested in learning more about the debate between advocates of absolute market liberalization and the broad concept of Fair Trade (as an aside, I believe these are interdependent), Smith presents in the video/powerpoint presentation below the common critiques of Fair Trade made by those advocating the avoidance of intervention in agricultural markets like coffee, as well as his rebuttals to these critiques. All of the points made are theoretical microeconomic arguments, but Smith does quite a good job of outlining the realities facing many coffee producers.
Video Presentation: FLO Fair Trade Diversification And Structural Change
For those that would prefer to read on the subject, here’s a useful document that outlines much of the arguments presented from both sides (although considerably biased towards the opinion of the author). Link to pdf
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