Fusion Infusion?

Despite our well-earned reputation as espresso lovers, we have been known to poke our heads around the local tea shops to investigate what's brewing. Quite often, as we stare at the loose tea leaves, we imagine packing them into our espresso machines to see what would happen. Obviously, certain teas, such as green and white tea, require a temperature range below that which our espresso machines operate, but perhaps some sort of herbal concoction might work? We've never been brave to work, but part of the allure is the supposed properties of many herbal teas.

Recently, a B.C. based coffee company has apparently been wondering the same thing, though in a slightly different way. Fusion Coffee infuses their beans with some of the same herbs that show up in teas. This week, The Daily Wenzel has been test driving their "Extreme Blend", that contains extracts of ginseng, yerba matte, and guarana, for added boosts of clarity, energy, and concentration (all this plus caffeine). Sadly, we report no insanely creative bursts of anything, though we suspect the recent sub-zero weather, dark skies, and occassional flurries may have more to do with our unusuallyt high degree of lethargy. Tastewise, the coffee is a somewhat lighter roast than our usual espresso flare, definitely sweeter, and took a little work to find the right degree of grind, but even without any supposed benefits, it is a satisfying taste alternative.

Espresso Update

One of our local coffee haunts was clearing out some inventory, and knowing of our love of testing different coffee brands, tossed a bag of Saquella's premium espresso roast, along with one of Moak. While the Moak is a recent fave, the Saquella was something of an unknown quantity - but no longer! Over the last week we have given our test buds a work-out on it's fairly robust favour. Lurking somewhere in the background however, has been an unusual aftertaste, as if we had added shots of grappa to every cup (without the alcoholic buzz). At first we checked the expiry date and then cleaned out our espresso machines. Granted, the aftertaste was less noticable in the Gran Gaggia, but only because that one has been running too hot, making the espresso somewhat acidic. In the end, we can only assume that the quinine-style notes are part of Saquella's charm.

In related thoughts, under the recent heat wave in Calgary, our office thermometer has registered a few forty degree afternoons, causing our thoughts to turn to our southern Italian friend, Kimbo.

The Information Economy

This idea came out of our concluding thoughts on the Lavazza coffee pods in our last post and echoes some ideas mentioned in earlier posts.

The idea that a cup of espresso represents a blend of coffee beans naturally makes us curious about the percentage and interactions of the various beans. With the recent trends in single-estate chocolate causing a rapid escalation in gourmet chocolate prices, the coffee industry is ideally posied to follow suit in the realm of region identitified branding. To certain extent, we all ready have such labelling and marketing, but on really broad scales.

A move towards providing more information about the coffee beans, such as location, processing method, date of processing, commercial venture type (Fair Trade, etc.) would also be in keeping with certain aspects of the "new economy". While there is much talk about our being in an "information age" the "information economy" gets very little attention.

The ability to find information almost at a whim, creates a demand for more information. Marketers have responded to this by highlighting particular pieces of information regarding their products, creating a story about them, if you will. Thus, purchasing the product also allows you to purchase and retell the story. This was one of the ideas that David Brooks relates in Bobos In Paradise, the bourgeois bohemians, or new yuppies, have a story to tell about every object they purchase, whether it was hand-dyed cloth from a remote Andean village's women's collective raising funds for a daycare centre, or that it was a pair jeans made in Japan on 1940s' Levis technology left behind after the troops went home.

In many cases, the story is part of the allure and creates a demand for the uniqueness of the object. A cup of coffee is a cup of coffee. But how much would you be willing to pay if the coffee was organic and fair trade? Now, what if they told you that it was harvested every other year during a specific three week window by a particualr monastic order? And that the monastics claim that soil nutrients impart certain curative powers to the coffee?

For many, the story is the sell. In the information economy people want to know information about the products they buy, even if they don't necessarily understand what the information is telling them. Is it really important that we know exactly where and in what percentage the beans in our coffee are from? Probably, but only in the same sense that knowing the mineral content of the water we use is.

A Good Cup Deserves Another

The stars were magically aligned last night as our Nancy brought forth, not one, nor two, but four perfect cups of espresso. Thick crema and sweet taste, not a hint of bitterness. In an interview with Wallpaper magazine some years ago, the head of Illy commented that there are several hundred flavour ingredients in a coffee, making it difficult to have them all aligned and each cup rather unique. Thus, our surprise (this is not to say the Nancy spits out inferior coffee as a rule).

Our bean of choice this week? Big Mountain Coffee Classic French Roast, and recalling the words of Ewan MacGregor in Black Hawk Down, "The secret's in the grind."

Pavlov would love us.

There are few things as visually appealling to us Wenzel staffers than a shot of espresso surrounded lovingly by the white porcelain of an Illy style cup. Designed and proportioned for espresso these images immediately start us salivating. To see the crema crawl up the sides, whether it be a full cup or an emptied one, it's all we can do not to turn around and place an order, even if we've just received our morning cappuccino .

Lavazza earns top honours

With our love of espresso, and general enjoyment of Lavazza's d'Oro beans, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that Time Magazine had listed Lavazza's solid espresso confection, the espesso, one of it's top culinary innovations of 2006. While espesso has been around since last year, it entered the US market in only recently, and has yet to make an appearance in our own fair city of Calgary. Perhaps a trip abroad is in order?

For more information about espesso you can visist Lavazza's website where you can also view their current calender for 2007. Feedback from their kitschy, Varga pin-up girl flight attendant series was so strong, that they have created a slightly more conceptual, science-fictionalized superheroine themed one.