Mister Bigley, Jack Russell · Wednesday August 9, 2006 by colin newell
An interesting lesson I learned a few weekends ago…
Andrea and I have been doing 4 day weeks every week during
the summer…
different things on the weekends… a cabin here, a resort there..
2 weekends ago we did a cabin on Salt Spring Island
on a 14 acre waterfront place – North Island.
It was wonderful.
While there we had a companion, named Mister Bigley…
a short hair Jack Russell Terrier who pretty
much hung out with us the whole time…
apparently his job on the property.
Both my sisters have (and have had) dogs of every stripe.
I have not had a pet to call my own since 1976.
My really got attached to Mister Bigley by Day three.
Mister Bigley is, like, 13 years old… which in doggie
years is like 80.
An eighty year old man. Deaf at that.
He mooched a bit but I was extremely careful not to feed him anything.
By day 3 we were totally hooked.
And it was SO sad to leave…
Thankfully, Mister Bigley was asleep on the sofa as we
packed to leave.
Truth be told, I think Bigley is an old hand at meeting, greeting
and saying goodbye to new friends.
Not me. I am a sap.
You never forget the kindness and loyalty of a dog.
Putting the knife to Gaggia · Wednesday August 2, 2006 by dave
After long and faithful use, I was finally sufficiently fed-up with the shower plate in my Gaggia Espresso to do the unthinkable. I hauled it out and within moments had filed down the exaggerated ridge that surrounds the shower screen.
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But is it espresso? · Wednesday August 2, 2006 by colin newell
Adam Tindale of CoffeeCrew(left) listens to Alan Adler (center) explain the aeropress to Sam Jones of Discovery Coffee (right)
Alan Adler came to town for 5 days with his wife and grand-daughter.
They saw the sights and sounds of Victoria, B.C. Canada. They took my wife and I to dinner.
We gave them a walking and driving tour of the city and its surroundings. They have been here before but they loved it all over again.
Alan was kind enough to come down to Discovery Coffee and pit the Aeropress coffee maker against the Clover Coffee maker… and the Synesso espresso machine.
That’s right readers: He wagered his 39$ coffee maker against an 8000$ single cup coffee brewer and a 12,000$ espresso machine.
The Aeropress won hands down!
No. Sorry. Only in your dreams.
The Aeropress is a wonderful product for those who love a full bodied cup of coffee. Perfect for campers, hikers and traveller’s, the aeropress is the solution for those far and away from a decent cup.
What is it exactly? It is a paper-filter coffee maker press-pot. Without the sediment of course – the Aeropress brews a cuppa at a strength suited to your taste.
We found it brews a modestly comparable cup to the Clover Coffee maker. The Clover won out in extracting more of the subtle flavors of exotic coffees like Yirgecheffe.
Still, for 39$, noone is complaining.
Does it make espresso? Most certainly not. Part of the brewing process involves creating a slurry by pouring hot water into the brew chamber and stirring for a preset time period.
Yes, it makes a beverage as “thick” as espresso. Alan used a digital device known as a Brix refractometer to measure the amount of suspended solids in the brew.
Yes, the brew was as concentrated as the espresso from the Synesso. But it is not espresso. It is drip coffee with a gentle push.
Plain and simple.
All good stuff. Curious? Buy one. What have you got to lose other than 39 dollars?
Cheers.
Take the coffeecrew challenge and stop drinking coffee. · Sunday July 16, 2006 by colin newell
As mentioned over on the homepage
I have been working downward (in my consumption habits) toward zero coffee consumption.
I know. I know. The looks I have been getting since I started this adventure. Dude you are the coffee guy. You. Coffee. You are inseparable. No Coffee. No Colin.
Oh well.
Anyway. I would like to experience a coffee free body.
I tried this once before. Suddenly actually. And the results were less than pretty.
Picture me writhing on the floor in agony.
Hallucinations.
Flu-like symptoms.
Purple Spiders crawling down the melting walls of my cage.
And that was day 2.
I lasted about 5 or 6 days before the blinding headaches became
implacable.
That first cup after 7 days away from the bean was like drinking a combination of liquid treacle laced with Afghani heroin.
The relief flowed through my body like a warm tropical rain…
and faster than a morphine epidural.
Caffeine. This stuff is nasty. I am getting off of it (at least in this form) for a couple of monthes.
Don’t worry reader It is not forever.
