It Came From Indonesia - Page 3
The whole sway-and-stray of sampling off-season alternatives can be liberating. It's a hall pass to wave in the dour, pinched and querulous face of tradition while you plant a steaming triple-topping pizza on your Thanksgiving dinner table in dexterous defiance of capitulation.
Okay, that's a little extreme but it helps me through the dank funk of paucity when Mount Lokon blows its nose on an otherwise hardy crop.
Supply vagaries aside, the other loose-wheel on the grind-it-your-damn-self cart is the unbridled capacity of ground coffee to find its way into fissures that eluded you until they were blackened by your Bucaramanga.
Finishing off the one-two punch of a grind on the run, that stuff can ride a charge of static electricity with the one-way vengeance of Friday night commuters on the 5:15 to the burbs. Tell yourself it's part of the charm; an artisan's chalky cloak of accomplishment. You are your own barista. That'll help get you through the part about being your own pit crew, clean-up team and basically the guy with the broom at the back-end of the parade.
Back on the happy side of the ledger, the grindhouse is full of product that wears some of the greatest names in the beverage business; either through points of origin or estate names. My wife is on record with the admission of having purchased wines based on the shape of the bottle and I can't fault her for it when I'm on record for having purchased coffees because I liked their names.
I've already put Bucaramanga on the table. How about Uganda's Bugisu Sipi Falls? Sounds like a place the Clampetts would go on vacation. Then there's India Monsooned Malabar. The beans are washed by monsoons. You have to admit, that just screams exotic. You also have to face the reality that it's probably no more exotic than ordering a Philly Steak and Cheese that boasts of having been cleansed in floodwaters but the trick is to avoid thinking it through that far. Just rein it in at exotic. Brew a pot. Be special.
If you're a coffee-in-the-can kind of person thinking about making the switch, there's one more caution flag I should wave. When I first ripped the wrapping paper off my bean grinder, I was thrilled with it and figured this would make for a great something-special on weekends and celebratory occasions. That kind of thinking lasts for about one cup. Then you're hooked. There's no leaping out of the water, upside down and landing feet-first on the diving board. You dive, you swim, the end.
Anyhow, if you're ready to pry your hand from your can, come on in - the water's delicious.
© Geoff Crunick 2013