Hints on how A.E. Graves spends her imaginary spare time
I finally went into Verve at Church and Market, and enjoyed a superb almond milk latte.
The space is nice; other customers are relaxed; the air is redolent of coffee roasting smells… It is cozy and pleasant. My latte was less sweet than I expected, but also just right.
The company has several locations in Los Angeles, but have been in this sweet SF spot since 2017. This location is often PACKED (because of its pleasantness), so I felt lucky to relax there yesterday morning.
Blue Bottle Coffee is offering a black cardamom latte, and… it is delicious. Cardamom and orange blossom work surprisingly well together with espresso.
Sure, I’m usually some sort of purist about not adding flavors to my almond milk lattes (which are inherently perfect as they are), but this is nice. The fragrance alone is so pleasant…
Update on Facial Graffiti: After using a harsh fading shampoo three times in one day on my hennaed eyebrows, I went to work and… received compliments on my new glasses from a nice young man.
I didn’t have new glasses: my newly visible eyebrows frame my face so well, my glasses look better. All is well that ends with improvements to my vanity, I guess!
I just have to figure out how to avoid that first-day-Sharpie-attack look. And argue with my stylist about her very unrealistic definition of “light brown.”
Update on What I’m Reading: I was going to apologize for going from being the person who only writes about SERIOUS SUBJECTS (oooooh, so impressive) and summarizes US Supreme Court rulings with mildly catty commentary to someone who has 85% graphical fiction content with a trend toward gay male romances, but… why apologize? I’m enjoying myself! That’s what is important. Well, to me, anyway. There are always more heavy books in my pile, and I will get to them when the time is right.
What I’m (Not) Writing: I’m working on notes for the science fiction scenes that I imagine when I’m listening to too much of Massive Attack’s Angel, but I’m not getting far. Someone sits near me, and when he is there, I don’t write. I just… am. I hold the pen; I hold the notebook; words just float away.
The one who sits near me has the best hair. (Ahhhhh.)
Others sit near me and don’t have this effect, so I am not forever sabotaged: it’s just that the scenes that have come to me aren’t all smoothly connected (there is a war, war lacks narrative cohesion and involves abrupt transitions in my view), and it will take some time to connect them with proper bonds.
I’m afraid I’m being influenced by the styles of streaming television, as the wreckage in the first scene makes me want to put up a giant title card that says, “10 days earlier” and launch a flashback… I don’t need to write that way. Unless Netflix has a pile of money for me, in which case, I will happily change my style.
Also: I need to not kill off so many characters so early. Aside from the realism that would bring. (Have you noticed how most named characters survive nearly every improbable thing in American stories? What the hell?!?).
I designed a costume for the character modeled on myself years ago. The left arm of her spacesuit is a different color (red) from the rest of her suit, which is unfortunate, but is based on something she predicts before it happens. Her/My left arm has it EVEN WORSE in this story than it has in real life. Dear left arm in real life, I truly love you, even with the plate and screws (especially with the plate, screws, and the scar!), and I am so sorry for what happens to you in the novella.
COVID Negativity Is The Best Negativity: Stay positive in outlook, negative in fresh diagnostic tests!
Goodness, this stuff is powerful. And I made myself a double!?!
Turkish coffee is a special beverage: finely ground coffee, boiled repeatedly, and served as a thick brew that settles out, so it needs a moment before you sip it. As a known coffee appreciator, my team member S. brought me back a package of the popular brand of Turkish coffee she enjoys in Slovenia. (She also has sold me on visiting her highly regarded country, and also on visiting the city of Trieste in Italy, just on the border.)
Thanks to the magic of Google translate’s photo translation option (so good!), I know that I can boil 7g of powder (my usual French press’ scoop size) for each 100ml of water. S recommends boiling it repeatedly, to let it get thick and frothy. There are disputes online about whether or not stirring is necessary, but I choose to stir a little and swirl a lot in a tiny pot on the stovetop.
It is delicious! It is strong! It is mildly terrifying unsweetened! It should be measured during preparation and consumed in smaller cups than I usually use, to ensure a general sense of moderation. It is not desirable nor pleasant to drink/eat the sediment at the bottom of the cup, so don’t knock back the last bit as you would with espresso (you will not find undiluted sugar, it is quite the opposite sort of surprise).
This Turkish (Slovene-Turkish?) coffee is satisfying to an espresso-fan like myself, though my mouth sounds the alarm when I begin sipping that it might be dangerously strong. If you hang out with me and are a fan of potent caffeine, ask me to prepare some for you when you come over.
(Yes, it does appear that coffee is “kave” in Slovene.)
So, it turns out that having espresso drinks (almond milk lattes, to be precise) at 7:50AM as part of a light breakfast can inspire me to wake up much earlier than usual. I don’t mean minutes after I drink them, but the following morning. By perhaps 2 hours?
I retain a deep personal suspicion that my uphill neighbor’s espresso-drinking habits are more relevant to my sleep, because she is the one in her kitchen slamming cabinets at 2:30AM, so I’ll need to do some more ‘science’ to be sure. But being up at 3:30 or 4 happened a few days in a row after the rare days I was early enough to buy an espresso drink, so that’s data I must cope with.
(I say espresso-drink mornings are rare, but the perky, caffeinated, cool barista remembers my name, so my position may not be credible.)
My sleep is precious to me, and I seem to need a higher quality of it than I had earlier in life. If you see me after a few days of sub-six-hours nights, you’ll understand quickly the jokes about it being called, “beauty sleep.” [This is only useful at Halloween.]
Drift (Berlin – volume 13)
published by Digital Ventures, LLC (NY)
2023
I finally caved and bought this gorgeous magazine, because I’ve resisted long enough.
This magazine is one of the best examples of book / magazine design I have enjoyed. It combines black and white fine art photography (most of architecture and urban landscapes), color photographs centering on one topic (coffee enjoyment) which are laid out with plenty of white space, and concisely written passion articles about coffee.
It’s… perfect, really.
I have purchased books purely for their design in the past (because: of course I did), but this magazine is consistently gorgeous. Lots of blank space. Good contrast. Uncluttered. Consistent in its themes. I struggle to think of it as a coffee culture magazine alone, because its design is so lovely and the photography sells it for me. It’s so well designed that I fear I would have bought it even if it wasn’t about a city I adore and a drink I adore EVEN MORE.
I recommend it if you like: black and white photography of cities with saturated black and fine midtones (WHAT A PRINTER THEY HAVE!), and casual conversation about the coffee culture of wonderful cities.
“You must REALLY like coffee,” said the gentle bookseller. Yes, yes, I do, and we also talked about how much coffee I like because so much of it is good around here, how fabulous fancy espresso drinks are, plus the Bay Area’s Jazz Station (which we both love: I broadcast this by wearing their jacket).
Coffee fans fall into camps, and I’m both an espresso drinker (a special fan of almond milk lattes) and a French press coffee devotee.
I rarely drink pour-over coffee. I’ve had it in various places, and… just haven’t been impressed. It was okay, but it reinforced my fondness for the additional flavor that soaking in a French press brings out in the beans.
My friend C brought me the gift of Peet’s Ethiopian Fancy (peets.com) recently, which is a favorite of mine – but he brought it over ground. FINELY ground. It was automatic: he makes Italian Roast as pour-over, and this is his usual grind, though it is too fine for my French press. I made it in the French press anyway, and it was good, but also different, and I didn’t like having sediment in my cup afterward.
So, I caved and bought a pour-over device from another local coffee place, plus filters to fit, so I wouldn’t have to waste any of this finely ground coffee.
And… my first attempts at pour over were really GOOD. Yes, the coffee is different from my French press version with these same beans (though ground more coarsely, and with the oils still in the brew rather than on a paper filter). But still richly flavorful. And fast to make!
I’m not giving up the French press, but I like this additional option – and I LOVE Ethiopian Fancy this way.
I realize that the books to coffee ratio on this site has been skewed in favor of books, so I will try to catch up a bit!
My employer recently moved into a new building, and the new building came with new coffees to enjoy, in the enormous, stainless steel drip-coffee brewers that fill the pump dispensers in countless food service establishments.
Delightfully, the coffee on my floor is from Addictive Coffee Roasters in Marin, California (addictivecoffee.com/). Their single-origin medium roast is Huehuetenango, a delicious coffee that brews well in our machines, and delivers a deep, dark, flavorful cup. The tasting notes (cocoa, orange peel, vanilla) are on point!
I drink it black, with sugar, and sometimes with a splash of almond milk. It’s good stuff, as I can tell by my increased consumption over the prior supplier’s beans, and I’m thrilled we have it.
Long story, short: someone was assaulted with a hot cup of coffee yesterday, and I wound up discussing the impacts of caffeine on the skin.
Caffeine CAN be absorbed through the skin (which was a running joke in the Sylvia comic strip by Nicole Hollander, in which the protagonist started developing elaborate wardrobes for her cats after using caffeinated soap, and the cats begged her to stop), and is a fashionable item in cosmetics (it constricts blood vessels, and so can reduce some types of swelling).
But somehow, I wound up reading that caffeine is also a highly effective pesticide against invasive species of frogs in Hawaii. This makes some sense to me, based on my limited understanding of amphibians and their sensitive, not-especially-protective skin.
I love coffee. I love reading. I love people making fun of badly made coffee. So this article works for me.
Perspective | Dalgona coffee is sweet, milky and pretty. It’s also not for coffee lovers.
My hands are shaking as I prepare a second batch of dalgona coffee, the quarantine-chic drink and the latest piece of evidence that we have no idea what to do with ourselves during a pandemic.
The quote I like best:
I hate to sound like a snob, but when I tried the Via coffee straight, it tasted like dirt, burned rubber and imminent death. Via Instant, at least this version, is to coffee what “Jaws 3-D” is to cinema.
– Tim Carman, Washington Post
I may even forgive him for the lack of Oxford comma, eventually.