Rural life – the [not] lost art of personalized service
Living in rural America you are not likely to find a Starbucks, Target, Cosco, movie multiplex, Home Depot, Trader Joes, commercial airport, or a wide range of fine dining and entertainment hotspots “just around the corner”. More likely they are 90 miles in one direction or another. What you will find is a collection of family owned and operated small businesses serving an eclectic range of needs. One example is the Machipongo Trading Company with their local coffees from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co.
The owners of Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co. have a solid range of coffees they have blended and roasted themselves and are not just some repackaged bulk purchase from “elsewhere”. What’s even better is they love to hear what people think and want. Kristen and James use treat their coffee just like a microbrewery treats their beer. You might even call them a “micro-roaster”. What is so great is that a micro-roaster can do small batches – all the way down to 7lbs. With this little tidbit, I contacted Kristen and setup an appointment to visit and talk about coffee !
Coffee has more distinct flavors than wines – most quote, “more than 700 flavor constituents”. Knowing what you like is one thing. Describing it is much harder.
Anyway, Kristen first had me try each of the blends they had available (over a period of weeks – not all in one day). Then I cam back with my comments. From that information, she selected and roasted three single-origin beans – Guatemalan, Sumatra Mandheling, and El Salvador Peaberry – as well as their house blend. They ground all to the same consistency and it was back to taste testing at home.
The first few days were tough.
- Day 1 – make a single espresso shot of each and taste side by side “strait up”. Serious buzzing ensured.
- Day 2 – make a single espresso shot of each with a measured amount of whole milk and taste side by side “strait up”. Again, serious buzzing ensured.
- Day 3 – repeat Day 1 with a 1/2oz of chocolate syrup in each (this is what I enjoyed while in Rome a few years back). Sadly, less buzzing ensured which meant I was adjusting to the mega dosage.
- Day 4 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and Sumatra Mandheling and add milk. Fortunately the withdrawal was not as bad as expected but I definitely did not want to escalate back to 4 shots before 8AM.
- Day 5 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
- Day 6 – blend 50/50 of Sumatra Mandheling and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
- Day 7..10 – I was traveling
- Day 11 – blend 1/3 each and add milk.
- Day 12 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend.
- Day 13 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend using a different espresso machine
- Day 14 – make a mocha from the house blend
So, now I have my notes from all of the above (along with a serious caffeine addiction). It’s time to return the Machipongo Trading Company for a tasty breakfast and a conversation with Kristen. Soon, theSalmonFarm may have it’s own signature coffee !
Sounds like fun. Do you taste coffees with different foods as well? Years ago Bread & Circus (before it got absorbed by Whole Foods) used to sell non-homogenized milk (it was pasteurized, but had the cream on top). That milk used to make a great café au lait, even though I could never get the coffee part quite right.
What says “espresso” to me is something that has a syrupy taste and texture (without any added sugar.) The closest I’ve come to producing that on my own has been half Café Bustelo and half Equal Exchange French Roast, prepared in my stovetop espresso maker.
Do you have a source for non-homogenized milk? Nothing else makes quite as nice a froth.
I drink my morning mocha “solo” so I did not test it with foods.
When in Rome, I feel I experienced the true espresso. It was much as you described, “syrupy” and strong. Most drinkers had it with sugar but the dispensers also had the option for chocolate. I had the latter. When I cam back to the states, I slid into diluting with milk and thus the “mocha”. As for the choice of milk, whole milk is convenient and there are no local dairies so I go with the standard safe choice.