Perhaps a thousand cups of coffee after my last blog in this community, I'm back again! and today I have to present a little something. No, I'm afraid I m not in the know of the right words to convince people about "the benefits of drinking coffee" (the topic of today's coffee week), but today's sublime Sunday just inspired me for a little photo shoot...
It does have some crema, thats a fact! 😜
... and besides that, soon I'm running out of my current pack of coffee, and I thought I should "grab the tail" of the opportunity to talk about it before it completely turned into a dot hidden behind the event horizon.
As you know, there are three varieties of coffee: woody, acorn, and coffee itself; and within the third grade there are many interesting varieties. In fact, they are the only ones that interest us :)
Usually I stick to the golden mean: I don’t buy things that are too expensive and too cheap. The average price range for coffee is 1600-2000 rubles for a 1-kg bag of coffee beans ($20). My wife and I have preferences, usually together we choose one of the proven Jardin varieties (this is the largest Russian coffee brand).
Here it is, the hero of today's story: 'Solo Venetica Cremoso', a real Italian coffee 'Made in Italy'.
This time my wife bought it herself - just being on a visit to the Perekrestok mall, she was hooked by this strangely minimalistic price: 500 rubles (it is about $6.5). She probably just wanted to find out "where the bottom is", lol... in other words, this was an experiment to find out what you can get for 500 rubles.
By the way, 'reference points' for comparison is a great thing! Still one of my favorite quotes and life values, as the protagonist of Jack London's novel 'Burning Daylight' put it (in a harsh time of financial crisis): "Let them drink dirty water now -- then they will understand better what a good water means!" (I am reverse-translating into English from memory, sorry, cant put the exact quote in original language).
I will also note an interesting feature: the plastic on the packaging is not the usual smooth, but rough, the surface is uneven, it seems to the touch that it is like dotted with a rain of smallest cosmic particles ;). In my opinion, thats an interesting attempt to comprehend and reflect in packaging and advertising this fatigue that consumers have been long experiencing from too smooth, even, unnaturally shining, 'licked-clean' advertising images and pictures. (Well, maybe this is also a reminder of the rough jute bags in which unroasted raw coffee is transported? ..)
Yes.... keep in mind, this is the first time I tried it, I have no idea how stable is this result... in other cases. So. A mixture of Arabica and Robusta, exact proportion is not specified. The beans are of sufficient quality, varied in size, there are small and large, I did not see a lot of and crushed pieces 'from the bottom of the vat'. Roasting is quite homogeneous, dark brown, no black over-burned grains, and no burnt smell either.
It is not that difficult to distinguish both species, even if you know a little about coffee: Robusta beans are smaller and more rounded, Arabica ones are larger and more elongated.
In photo above I tried to separate the beans ; it is obvious for me there are fewer Arabica beans in the mix, but I did not calculate the exact proportion. I don't study coffee, I consume it :)
The package info states the beans were roasted in December 2022; the roasting degree is 'Light', and also a thick foam is promised. (Yes, the word 'foam' ('crema') in the title is an effective bait that is guaranteed to hook us, hehe). I also note the pleasant shine of the beans waspresent. The taste of course depends on how you prepare coffee, but it has a direct dependence on the feedstock. So, my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the result obtained for a stupid 500 rubles (this is about 30% of the regular price for this brand of coffee).
Have a great coffee adventures & experiments, Hivers!