Atlantean Mini-Quiches & Iced Fennel Espresso

Last week for Pi Day, I had made a batch of mini quiches. Regrettably, I erased my chalkboard and the recipe was lost. They got some good comments at the party though. It was pretty much the other quiche recipe but with  crust made by Ladypants, avocado lined bottoms, feta cheese, and a whole sun-dried kalamata olive floating on top of each one. But, the exact recipe is forever lost.

Today is the first day of the year we breach 20 degrees. In honour of the occasion, I tried a fennel iced espresso. Very refreshing. Unfortunately, all the fennel flavour was lost, even though I over-proofed (for lack of a better word) the spice level. In fact, a lot of the subtleties of the brew were lost with the temperature. I think we'll leave iced drink flavours to the syrup companies.

Fresh grated nutmeg & dried arbol chili

Instead of grinding spices to a formless powder by mortar and pestle, I decided to take the micro-plane to task on these two ingredients. Nutmeg is always better freshly grated. You will taste more of the sharp, clean notes than with pre-ground. Chili is the same way. As we aren't going for as much spice as pepper flavour, the longer it stays whole, the better.

So I brought the micro-plane into the coffee shop with a nutmeg seed and a dried arbol chili. Grating directly into the holder requires a bit more of a feeling or artistic touch to achieve the same measured balance as with our usual standardized shaker method. I was surprised to find it quite balanced on the first attempt.

It is easy for chili to overpower whatever its in, not only with heat but its assertive pepper flavour. A minuscule amount (3 light grates) provided enough heat to notice, and pepper flavour to taste without losing everything else. Nutmeg added complexity and toyed with the natural nuttiness of Brian's Steampunk blend. You can still taste the nuttiness! It isn't just chili in a cup, rather a balanced shot and a progressive flavour experience.

*Update* We tried the combination again but significantly spicier. It didn't really hurt it too much. If you like spice, you will love this drink. It lightly pops you in the gullet on every sip. You can still taste the coffee, but a few of its subtleties are overpowered by the pepper flavour asserting itself. A patron tried this shot with me and seemed to love it, a spice fiend himself. I tasted a distinct chocolate note in the beginning of the aftertaste.

Inspired, we tried another spicy shot with a bit of chocolate at the bottom of the cup. The chocolate nearly wipes out the flavour of the coffee, but compliments the chili seriously well. I'd like to call this shot a gateway espresso for those just getting into drinking shots instead of cups. The intense coffee taste that normally is too strong for newbies is mitigated by the sweetened chocolate syrup. The spice adds a zing for a great cascade of taste. Perhaps a bit less chocolate would allow for more coffee taste to come through, nickel instead of quarter sized pool on the bottom of the espresso shot glass.

The Daily Grind Cafe

This weekend I visited a cafe in Ottawa while visiting some friends. The espresso at The Daily Grind was made properly and tasted amazing. I noticed loads of chocolate and nutty notes in the two double short  I had there without a trace of bitterness. You can taste the love in every shot. Absolutely delicious!

As soon as you walk into this place, you know that this is exactly what Mike, one of the owners, wants to do. His personal stamp is all over everything. An artist at heart, the place vibrates with his colour and energy. Art pencils and paper on every table is an invitation to borrow some of his creativity for yourself.

Up-cycled church pews added to the artist aesthetic, and for me commented on an often overlooked spiritual element to coffee. Many coffee drinkers are as devout as your average church goer, often more so. They drink their brew daily, at regular times, at the same place(s). An enthusiastic drinker will revel in how it makes their lives better by bringing people together, and raises their energy and concentration levels to a peak. Some argue coffee has definite health benefits even if science still can't seem to come to consensus. True or not, spiritual or otherwise, the abstract photography on the walls brought me an as uplifting mindset as any church service ever has.

If you didn't buy any of that last bit, they also serve food. I had breakfast tacos. How awesome is that? Very. I even managed to get some great work done on a story I'm working on before this guy showed up to our table to say hi. He had a really cool hat so I had a picture taken of us both in our headgear.

Later, one of Ottawa's homeless called me a space rabbi. All in all, a pretty interesting trip and a neat coffee shop. It seemed like a place you'd find in Toronto, but without the requisite independent coffee shop brick wall. The Daily Grind will definitely be on my list to visit next time I make it out to that way.

Cardamom Espresso

Cardamom is another one of those spices quite famous for its use in Indian cuisine. Also used as a major component of chai tea and as a mulling spice. We put it in espresso but we aren't the first. It is a Turkish tradition, and I can see how it would help the extremely dark, bitter roasts they are famous for.

The spice lends the shot of espresso a rich flavour that compliments the strong brew wonderfully. It took a bit to achieve balance, as it is very potent. A couple shakes is all it takes to completely transform the cup in surprising ways. As enjoyable as it is to taste the mobile complexity in the cup itself, for me, the real fun is in the aftertaste. The cardamom flavour evolves with the coffee on your palate long after the last sip. I'm still tasting it subtly after finishing the shot fifteen minutes ago.

This is our third balanced and completed recipe for infused espresso. Two more to go, and we're ready for a cupping! That's tasting in non coffee house jargon. I'm excited! This coffee is so good, you don't even know.

Coriander Espresso

Most expectations of coriander seeds stem from Indian food or grandma's pickles. Adding it to espresso doesn't match either of those, but as in the above examples, balance is the key to great taste. It doesn't take much to completely change the shot.

Today, Brian of The Mad Bean and I are fine tuning our recipe. We've settled on a delivery method to standardize how much of what spice goes into the holder for a consistent cup: salt/pepper shakers. Cheap and effective.

Just a few shakes brings a lemon freshness to the cup without overwhelming the subtleties of the Steampunk blend. It is more than just citrus notes though, coriander washes over the palate toying with the coffee's natural nuttiness. The balance is there; another recipe completed.

Matcha

We are reaching the bottom of our experimental infusion idea barrel. That means trying some weird ones, like Matcha. It smells like grass, and not the fun kind. But hey, maybe something unexpected will happen and it will taste good.

Nope, it tastes like grass. Fresh cut, moo food. One of Brian's customers likes it as a soy milk cappuccino, so we added a bit of steamed milk to make a macchiato. Still tastes like grass. Sweeter and subtler grass, but still unmistakably there. Maybe some people like that sort of thing, vegans perhaps, but apparently I'm not one of them. Definitely not vegan if you had any doubts after the Bacon experiment earlier this week.

Oh well, we have 5 or 6 recipes we can use for a cupping, or tasting in normal, non-coffee jargon English. So, get excited for that within the next couple of weeks.

Bacon Espresso

In the heart of the Jewish section of town, we have done the unthinkable, infused Brian's Steampunk espresso with smoked Bacon. That's right, Bacon. Always capitalized, always delicious. The idea came to us over pints of seasonal Darkside Black IPA at the local Granite micro brew pub. This morning it still sounded good, so I fried some up nice and crispy to try out.

With a good healthy pinch on the bottom of the holder, the espresso struggled to escape its super hot pressurized puck. It was well worth the effort because the resulting brew was better than expected. Few smells are better than frying bacon and brewing coffee. Imagine them combined and you pretty much know the aroma. A mild smokiness combined very nicely with the strong brew.

Bacon made the shot a bit oilier than normal. Not to an unpleasant or even disagreeable degree, but noticeably. The smoky bacon umami lingered on the palate aside the normal coffee aftertaste for quite some time. I liked it quite a bit. While I wouldn't drink it every day, I could see myself enjoying a cup once a week, but Brian didn't like it nearly so much. Possibly to do with the smokey taste. Don't worry bacon lovers, I'll try to turn him around so you can have a taste.

Saltspresso

Salt is one of those miracle crystals everyone loves to hate. It can be used to enhance other flavours, cure meat, conduct electrical signals in the nervous system (electrolyte), form clouds, and ward off evil, but it can also increase your blood pressure, cause stomach cancer, stroke or heart disease if taken in excess.

There are also many kinds of salt. Having only sea salt in the house, I nicked off to the corner store to pick up something a little more suited to a gourmet espresso experience. I would up buying a 6 variety sampler. Eurasian Black Salt tasted like eggs so we immediately gave it a failing grade and moved on. It definitely has some sulfur in it, and I'm not sure what to do with it. You know, besides witchcraft.

Up next was Himalayan Pink Salt. I expected it to bring out the natural flavours of the coffee and that's exactly what it did. I thought it tasted intensely nutty and the flavour profile really popped. Brian had a somewhat different experience. He is sensitive to salt in a way that I am not. He tasted the saltiness quite intensely to the point of feeling it on his lips. I didn't get the lip thing, and got the distinct impression that I enjoyed it much more than he did. My blood will probably explode from my body in a gruesome display of pressure at some point.

Internet people who have tried smoked salt say that it is really nice on brownies (with chocolate in general), and in vegetarian dishes lends a meaty quality. I don't know about that, but it smells a bit like stale campfire. Of course it should work with espresso. Whoa! This time the salt hit me in the face hole. The smokiness was quite nice. Now to find a way to get it without curing my tongue.

Arbol Peppers & Nutmeg

In our earlier experiments with cayenne infused in espresso, the peppers had come from my friend and ukulele enthusiast Marc's city garden. We liked the flavour quite a bit, but part of this whole thing is to make signature drinks that are commercially viable, not vulture back yard cultivations.

So, I took a trip up to Kensington Market to see what I could find. After speaking with a shop owner about his various pepper wares, I settled on the Arbol chili as a suitable substitute. Wikipedia agrees it was a good choice. I couldn't help myself and also picked up some Ancho and another smoky chile to make BBQ sauce with.

I removed the seeds of one pepper, ground it to a powder and measured it at half a teaspoon. Then grated a full teaspoon of fresh nutmeg, mixed them together, and headed to the Mad Bean for some mad science. It was a packed house, with standing room only, with the last few tunes of The Mad Bean Jazz Band being played. They were quite good, with a scat singer and an upright bassist playing a travel bass that comes apart with his mouth wide open in concentration. The guitarist and saxophonist were also quite good from what I heard. I'd hear them again without convincing.

After the band finished and the crowd subsided, we tried a cup. The pepper flavour came through, as did the nutmeg, but without the spicy intensity of the cayenne peppers. Brian felt it a bit on the tip of his tongue, but I was too much of a spice nut to notice that particular subtlety. We tried again with a higher concentration.

This time the pepper soared through on the trumpet with the nutmeg accompanying playfully on harpsichord. I never felt the spiciness, but the flavour was great! Perhaps the chilis I picked up were old enough for their spice to temper, or the seeds I removed contain most of the heat. Pepper, and necessarily coffee, lovers must visit The Mad Bean to try this unique combination once it is officially on the menu.

Pink Peppercorns

Pink peppercorns were recommended by a friend, Amanda, as a possible pairing with espresso. She explained they have a mild spiciness similar to that of black pepper, but with a sweet twist. They can and are used in desserts. As I found out yesterday at Kensington Market, they are also very expensive and hard to come across.  One shopkeeper explained she only had it in a pepper mix because it was $60/lb for her to buy. The shopkeeper next door bit the bullet and was selling them for $75/lb. I bought the minimum amount, a $3 baggie, so we could try it out.

At first we tried the tiniest pinch, thinking that the pepper flavour would storm through like a bull through a glass-wares counter. Apart from a hint of aroma, it was undetectable. 

So, we doubled down and tried again with twice as much. This time the aroma came through strongly and mingled well with that of the alluring Steampunk coffee blend. There was a slight tickle of spice at the back of the throat, and a very mild peppery taste, but none of the sweetness came through. It didn't take anything away from the brew, but it didn't add anything either. The mild pepper sharpness was perhaps a bit unnerving. As Brian put it, "I wouldn't recommend this as a relaxing cup of coffee." Well said. This one is a pass, sorry Amanda. 

Cardamom Coriander Espresso or Spice Mix Round 4

The final version of the spice mix removed cinnamon entirely and just focused on coriander and cardamom. It is a simple 2:1 ratio (measured before pulverizing) that made this mix perfect. The resulting brew was balanced to the point of being sophisticated. This one is now final, so you will be able to try it at The Mad Bean soon. And you really should! It is a great cup of coffee that will make you think about it without being cerebral.

That makes two commercially viable, tested, great tasting, and finalized specialty espresso shot recipes to date. A third recipe has been made but needs to be made commercially viable: Chili Nutmeg. The cayenne peppers I used for that recipe so far were from my friend's garden, so I have to find a good way to acquire dried peppers without seeds or where seeds can be removed easily that have a great pepper flavour without being too spicy. A challenge, but one I'm up to. I think a trip to Kensington market is in order.

Spice Mix Round 2

This time around I measured the spices to make a recipe. It is really good, but the cinnamon didn't quite come through except in the aroma. I will amend the recipe to include 1/2 teaspoon more cinnamon to balance it out, maybe a 1/4 teaspoon more coriander too. 

This drink is warm, complex, nuanced, light and heavy all at the same time. First, the warm smell of cinnamon and cardamom hits your nose. Then, you taste complicated, hard to work out, but quite good coffee with citrus notes from the coriander. The cardamom cascades over your palate leaving you with an aftertaste  that constantly changes in your mouth for minutes. 

I love this spice mix with Sidamo because all the flavours work so well with the natural blueberry flavour. It is an entirely different beast than Steampunk. 

Chili and Nutmeg

Hoping to capture a balance between spicy and earthy bright complexity that would not need chocolate, I blended nutmeg and cayenne pepper. I used about a teaspoon of grated nutmeg to the flesh of one dried pepper.

A tiny pinch resulted in pretty much exactly what I'd hoped for. The spice was not overpowering, just tickling the back of the throat. My lips are still pleasantly burning ever so slightly. The flavour of the pepper really goes well with espresso. The nutmeg flirted with the nutty notes of the coffee producing a new flavour profile. Some of its bright notes came through, lifting up the mid palate.

In our last experiment with chili required chocolate to balance out the spiciness. Nutmeg is a great replacement that performed admirably on the high wire. I prefer it chocolate because there is no sugar or syrup involved, only infusion. Pure, simple, and at the same time incredibly complex. I consider this a major win.

Chai inspired spice mix

After yesterday's chai disappointment left a quite literal bitter taste in my mouth, I refused to give up on what I thought chai should have been able to do to the coffee. So, I created my own spice mix to mimic the good qualities of chai and remove those elements we already know don't work.

The result was a mix of cardamom, coriander, and cinnamon. I'm hoping for the crisp, almost spicy bits of the cardamom; fresh, lemony notes of coriander; and warm complexity from the cinnamon. Just a little goes a long way with spices this assertive.

It worked like a charm. The first sip was clean and fresh, then "something weird" happened as Brian put it, and finished with citrus. Wonderful! The complexity was there. Citrus built throughout the shot and lingered a good five minutes in the aftertaste. I'd describe the "weird" bit as a swirl of complexity. All the flavours mixed in new and interesting ways on your tongue that takes a little while to sort out.

This is a shot you will enjoy for a while. It changes in your mouth like a good wine. An intense wine aged in a nutty espresso grave. The spices didn't take any of the nutty qualities of the espresso away, just added multiple levels to it. I really loved the way the three spices interacted with the coffee and each other. It reminds me of turbulent fluid motion, a pipe of some sort with a liquid swirling and rushing through it, spinning around in a flurry of activity. Top five, easily.

Chai tea espresso

Judging by the warming aromas coming from the tea jar sitting on the counter of the permanently coffee scented Mad Bean, I expect chai tea to be a big hit. Cinnamon and cardamom have already been proven to work well infused in espresso, so it just remains to be seen how well black tea and the other organic flavours mix.

Not so well, as it turns out. While the smell was mildly pleasant, the brew turned intensely bitter to the point of unpalatable. Don't get me wrong, I finished it, but immediately regretted it. The aftertaste is brutal, very much the same as that of cloves. It lingers on your palate like an unwelcome guest.

Then I thought, what if we added milk and turned it into a macchiato? This would loosen up the flavours, take away the bitter edge and allow the good aromatics to shine through the cacophony of unpleasantness. That is exactly what happened. An unpalatable shot turned into a pleasant drink. Not good enough for me to want to drink it over a regular Steampunk macchiato.

It is a technique that I think will be interesting to play with, making an overpowering shot and diluting it with micro-foamed milk. Tomorrow I'll try to recreate the good bits of the chai tea with a spice mix and put this theory to the test.

Fennel Revisited

Trying to figure out a way to standardize the amount of each flavour infused into the espresso, today I brought in a pepper shaker filled with well pestled fennel seeds. I also wanted to make sure fennel was still great as it was one of our first experiments.

Yes, it is still great. At 4 shakes, the aroma and flavour were mild but definitely present, 8 shakes was more pronounced but far from overpowering. It tastes more like we are tricking the coffee bean into having natural fennel notes than directly flavouring the brew. It blends seamlessly with the nutty and bitter elements of the espresso. A playful aftertaste sweeps the palate, changing constantly for minutes after the last sip. The complexity is nothing short of delightful. 

Today's experiment reaffirmed Fennel's place at the top of the ranks. So, of course, I had to try it with my current favourite coffee bean, Ethiopian Sidamo. Unfortunately, the licorice taste conflicted with it's natural blueberry notes. I guess Sidamo isn't infallible after all.

Rooibos, Take Two

Last time we tried rooibos it was straight out of the tea tin. This time I gave it a good dose of both mortar and pestle to grind it up. Rooibos tea has some woody bits that didn't take well to pulverization, but for the most part it powdered well. A light coating on the bottom of the holder.

As expected, the flavour was more intense when using the powderized version. It still lent the espresso that smooth quality as it did before, not changing the taste of it but adding a few layers of complexity. The earthy taste built up, becoming quite strong in the bottom third of the shot, and lingering in the aftertaste. It hit me at the back of the throat, making my gullet tingle for a few moments. I love it when a drink toys with your senses like that!

The aftertaste kept moving around the palate, shimmering around my taste buds. Lisa, Brian's partner in crime, quite appropriately described the effect as dancing, and reported that it was particularly intense on the left side of her tongue. I didn't taste the vanilla much at all this time, but the complexity was still there so I didn't miss it much. This is a great shot of espresso! 

I still haven't found a place to try Red Espresso. Not even Rick knows where to find it in the city, and he knows everyone in Toronto's coffee world. The search continues.

Coconut

Hoping for its natural sunny sweetness to shine through, today Brian and I attempted a Mad infusion of coconut into his nutty and aromatic house blend Steampunk espresso. I pictured myself being transported to a caribbean island. A coconut falls from a tree, cracking open hilariously on one of my dumber friends heads. Some of its delicate and sweet milk finds its way into my expertly pulled shot of espresso and my palate is obliterated with the pleasure of the drink.

None of that happened. Coconut gave the coffee a funny smell and made it taste almost burnt. None of the coconut flavour or natural sweetness came through. There was no caribbean beach or dumb friends, it just turned a great cup of espresso into an unpleasant experience. It transformed the brew in a similar way as the coriander seed did yesterday. Only worse, much worse. I still have that bad taste in my mouth.

Coconut in coffee is definitely not worth exploring. Perhaps as a Malibu mixed drink, possibly on ice, but absolutely not with our infusion method.

Coriander Seeds

I was hoping this spice would impart a lemony taste without actually being lemon, similar to yesterday's Rooibos with vanilla. Another patron of The Mad Bean enlightened me, saying Turkish coffee often has coriander seed added to it. A dark, harsh roast, I can imagine how a lighter flavour could brighten up the brew to make it easier to drink.

A generous thumb-forefinger pinch softened the shot significantly. It didn't take anything away from the taste of the coffee, rather mixed it up a bit, and added another layer of complexity. It had similar effects as nutmeg, but I liked this one much better. The lemony flavour I was expecting poked its head up for a look around, but didn't fully present itself. 

Normally a great shot of espresso on its own, Steampunk has distinctive nutty, floral and bitter coffee notes to it. Coriander seemed to flip them around so it seemed as if I was drinking a completely different blend of coffee. It tasted great, but the transformation was nothing short of remarkable. This is a flavour definitely worth pursuing. It has cracked my top five, stealing in at the fourth spot!

Fenugreek Seeds & Rooibos

I use the leaves in some of my curry dishes, but hadn't realized there were seeds. When I saw them in the store, I had to pick some up. At first sniff, fenugreek seeds smelled like caramel. But when mortar met pestle, that sweet aroma turned grassy. More of the fresh cut than the fun kind. The smell is definitely something you'd find in a green curry dish, probably mixed with coconut milk.

When our standard amount was infused into espresso, it was completely undetectable in smell or in taste. At double the normal dose, it changed the coffee, but in a very subtle, minor way. Like a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan, but you're in Japan so no one really notices. Not worth pursuing as an infusion.

Fortunately, a representative from Nourishtea, Avi, was in the shop. We got to talking about our little espresso infusion experiment, mentioning that his peppermint tea was brutally bad. I always was good at first impressions. He suggested his rooibos tea variety as a possibility. The tea is actually an herb that grows on a bush in South Africa. Green leaves are harvested and oxidized, giving the tea its reddish colour. Avi thought the tea would lend an earthy, vanilla taste to the shot.

Just out of the tin, the loose leaf tea was not ground as fine as we are used to using for our infusions. A pinch on the bottom of the holder definitely made a nice drink. The resulting brew was very smooth. Almost as if it filled in all the usually sharp flavour peaks of the Steampunk espresso blend to produce a velvety profile. A touch of sugar made this effect more pronounced, but I preferred it without. Avi was right; vanilla was definitely present, but mostly lingering in the aftertaste. This herb is worth pursuing but definitely with it more finely ground.

Rooibos can actually be used to make an espresso drink known as Red Espresso. The rooibos is ground espresso fine and a shot is pulled using it instead of coffee. All the variations then follow: Red latte, red macchiato, red cappuccino, etc. I'd like to try this. Anyone know where I can get some in Toronto?