the right direction

So a couple of years ago I called out Starbucks for how they run their business. In my opinion, they were interested in driving up profits but weren't remembering little man coffee grower in small developing coffee company. They've been making some efforts in recent months to try to improve their image and probably also bring back a little profit in a slumped economy. This morning I read this article about what Starbucks is doing to improve their image/ coffee and was happy to read that 65% of the coffee they buy comes from sustainable farming practices. Now 65% is still along way from perfection but let's applaud the big man for making an effort. Maybe he'll keep up the good work and we'll see coffee growers holding hands with Howard Shultz on a mountain top with clear skies and John Denver sings and we'll drink coffee together and the world will live as one...sigh.

about food

One of the pleasures of living where we do and how we do is that we enjoy a wide variety of foods. The seasons are opposite that of the US to a large extent and we have more growing seasons depending on the crop. At the moment, strawberries, watermelon, and mangos are just coming on and I bought some lovely sweet corn at the other day at the market. These are treats when you consider that soon the states will be into the full swing of a blustery winter. I get to eat fresh strawberries, for awhile anyway... its too hot to keep strawberries growing for long.

I also can buy a different variety of spices and herbs. Folks here amaze me with their ability to know what is edible and everything seems to be edible. Not just the guava, but the guava leaves. Not just the seeds for cumin but also the leaves. Rather a clever use of plants. They also eat durians which I don't know how they discovered they were edible.

There have been some real let downs in the spice department. Moving here, knowing I'm moving to "the spice islands" I expected a lot more. They have to import many spices anymore. When the Dutch East Indies Company was up and going strong (like in the 16 & 1700s), they had plantations of spices throughout the islands that we exported all over the world. They grew so many cloves that they started using them in cigarrettes. But slowly the growing moved towards India and mainland Asia where people used them in their foods. Now the clove cigarrette is all anyone wants to smoke and so they have to import cloves, they don't grow enough of them here. Cumin is still available but I can't find star annis, coriander or cardamom. And this surprises me. But traditionally those are more Indian spices that island spices. Except for heat, the food here can be surprisingly boring.

Coffee is the same story. There were scores of coffee plantations and the beans were highly prized. Now the best beans are bought by Starbucks and are actually imported back here for sale. They have to have good coffee beans around here somewhere but for some reason I've yet to find them. This is a major let down. The other let down was the discovery that traditionally coffee is mixed with cornmeal! I mean really, that doesn't even sound good! I haven't had the pleasure of trying any yet. Its an idea that is dying out I guess but some people swear by it.

About cold coffee

I've had requests (actually that should be singular) to hear about the cold coffee brewer. The coffee is good but I did run into problems. The directions say to use the super size cups that are free with large drinks at fast food restaurants. Well we don't have those here. Those cups would be ideal because they slide down inside of one another. Since I don't have that I had a significant amount of coffee not hold in the brewer all time. I put a piece of Glad press n seal around it and still by morning i had about a 1/2 cup leak through. Not a huge deal as it was still quite strong stuff. Also I had a hard time getting the recommended amount of coffee and water that the directions called for. It was my first go so I tried to stick to the directions. I think I could do with a little less coffee and still get a good concentrate. Those were my only real problems. I used a drill instead of the finger drill. My containers were a pretty sturdy plastic. I was surprised that the cardboard stand worked so well. I didn't wrap it in plastic but I think that wouldn't be a bad move.

But no lies, the coffee is a concentrate! You can say "Oh I like it strong" all you want, but the stuff looks like syrup when it comes out of the brewer. I let the brewer sit up for most of the morning and when I finally slid out the ground they were stiff. Its a good cup of coffee at a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 ratio. Hot or cold. I found that cold it seems to take more water.

I took the concentrate with me on our vacation last week. We were staying with friends who don't drink coffee and so going to there house hasn't been as much fun for me in the morning. I brought along a water bottle of coffee and my needs were met. Also I brought it for the hotel we were staying at. I hate that hotels here don't have real coffee pots, they give you instant. Who can drink that stuff? So I slid my bottle in the hotel fridge and sure enough next morning happy girl.

If you like your coffee brewing method at home as it is, stick with it, you don't need to go to the trouble. But if you work in an office that has nasty 10 hour bitter coffee (schools were awful about this), this is a good choice to bring and keep in the fridge. If you travel alot, and not by plane probably, this is a good choice. Truly though, its easy enough to put together you could bring the silly coffee maker with you and brew at your destination. I'm going to get heckled for that but truly its easy. Also if you really like fluffy coffee drinks, like iced coffee latte kind of things, this would make it easier. I have a great recipe for coffee date bread and this would be good for any recipe calling for strong coffee.