I started shaping this post on July, 30 -lazy sunny morning kicked this off as a photo-session. I had in mind this idea of raising awareness about the coffee lovers community 'Cinnamon Cup Coffee'. But today it is September, 30... Yes, probably I am rather a retarded promoter :P I prefer to polish things and I act better as a catalyst for processes.
5 days ago I received a good kick: @galenkp arranged a special contest about coffee, which ends on October 1 - the World Coffee Day: Coffee Moments.
So, my story goes on. I definitely had one of these coffee moments to talk about.
I love to drink coffee, and even more I love to brew it, but it happens so that I very rarely write about it, and dont take photos too often. And for sure, I don't have a huge archive of coffee photos from cool coffee shops all over the world (alas). I do not travel, and most of the time I drink the coffee I prepared myself at home.
So, it was a lazy Saturday morning -- when I got up it was 12 o'clock, I had no plans and I had a nice sunshine looking into my window.
All of a sudden I thought: why cant I make coffee today without any rush, as I have plenty free time to press the camera trigger? The more pics -- the better! I spread out my jars with different spices, took out the coffee... And now, as I write the post, I suddenly realize that I forgot to photograph the actual coffee package... Arghh! Had to take it from the archive:
My jezzwa -- the biggest among the little collection I have got. Its capacity is 2 cups of coffee, so using it let us get 2 cups for me and 2 cups for my sweetheart, which actually inspires me to do my best.
Coffee: we often use what is available in the middle to low price category. I know that the taste of coffee depends on its price, but I believe this is not the only factor: fresh roast, fresh grind, quality of the water, and how the brewing process was run - all this is of importance too. We prefer deep roast, and we tend to try different kinds of coffe produced by the local Russian company Orimi, which are being sold under the Jardin brand. When we ran out of coffee this spring, we bought this sort for the first time, as the price had a little discont.
Both my wife and me liked Jardin Guatemala Antigua so much that we immediately purchased another 2 kilograms, and so far we live with this stock. (The price is about $15). It has a great aroma, juicy taste and a long sweet aftertaste (as the advertisement says: "berry shades"), and has no sourness.
Ok, count that as a lyrical prologue, now I am back to the story.
I use the Bosch electric coffee grinder since 2000-es. Two years ago it suddenly said 'Pufff!' and died of a ruptured heart - that is, the motor has exhausted its resource. I didnt think too much, went to the store and obtained the same model again. (I am not the type of person who love non-stop experiments and travelling "from good to better"). It is a very simple mechanical model, it doesn't have any electronics implemented.
The grind degree is determined simply by the time of grinding: the longer you grind the coffee, the finer it becomes.
I usually do 20-25 second grinds, resulting a very fine, but not the "lightest powder" grind.
This long-stem brass coffee spoon is one of the very few coffee accessories in my house (it was a gift from the godmother).
I put 7-8 spoons for 4 cups of coffee.
Sugar. We love to use brown sugar sourced from tropical cane, and when we come across an inexpensive option, we definitely buy it. This is an import unfortunately, and it usually costs 3-4 times more than white sugar produced from local beets. So today I added white sugar to my coffee. The difference in taste is not big, rather imaginary.
I am aware that the "real" taste of coffee does not include sugar and milk, but I have a sweet tooth, so... fortunately, my wife and I are in the same boat on this issue, and I always add sugar while brewing - it makes a tastier coffee.
I put 4 spoons of sugar for said 4 cups.
And of course, I always add some Spices!
We keep spices in little aluminium tin cans, that were left from CHinese tea. No shame or feeling guilty that tea is doing this service for coffee (because we keep tea in even cooler ceramic jars, bought specially for money!:)
I tend to keep about half a dozen of spices to have at my hand especially for coffee-making purposes, with
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Star Anise
- Cardamon
...being like everyday and the most important; and the "second echelon" are:
- Nutmeg
- Clover
- Black pepper
- Lavender
- Fennel
- Oranges peel
But Cinnamon is Number One... and Ginger. This time I was out of Ginger (did not fulfilled my stock in the shop). But it was not a big problem!
My copper jezzwa. Currently, I have 4 of them in my posession (of various sizes), with this being the biggest, intended for 4 cups of coffee. (I definitely will take pictures one day to show you all the collection). And I dont mind having some more! I always take a look at the vintage hand-crafted ones, sadly I never was able to obtain anything, as the prices are.... not very human-friendly, eehehe. Now back to the end of my story.
This time I added cinnamon (half a little stick), anise, and nutmeg, and put the jezzwa onto the fire. But I had one more delicious thing to go along with the coffee: pankaces with liver!
The pre-defrosted pancakes were ready in the refrigerator, and while the coffee slowly warmed and languished, the pancakes were fried and browned.
I love when the food has a crust... (especially if the crust is cheese).
So I prepared them this way - to have a splendid golden crust.
Two tasty pancakes is a mean, but when I fry four - that becomes an extra, i.e. sort of a feast and... "gluttony" probably would be a suitable word?..
Now you may ask, why did I eat these 4 pancakes and 4 cups alone, and did not split them in half with my beloved half? The answer is simple: my family was spending the summer holidays at our countryside place, while I work in an office and have to stay in the city. (I was doing visits on weekends, but thats a totally different story).
| location: | St.Petersburg, Russia | July 2021 | natural lighting |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5D | 16-35mm | raw-conv. |
| f/2.8 | t 1/50 | ISO 320 | --- |
