[Dragaera] Klava

[Eugene Zaretskiy]

Thanks for the responses, everyone, and I'm glad we didn't miss
anything, Steve. 8-)

More responses to Jerry below...

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 7:04 PM, Jerry Friedman
<jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Wed, 9/17/08, Eugene Zaretskiy <eugene.zar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ...
>
>> We purchased a "sampler" kit of cooking wood
>> from four different trees, including hickory and cherry.
>> They were
>> designed for cooking so we figured they'd be the least
>> likely to poison us (spoiler: we lived).
>
> Heh.
>
>> My brother also bought some vanilla
>> powder from Starbucks. Yeah, nothing fancy there, but we
>> figured that
>> the vanilla bean was designed to do little but add a
>> vanilla flavor, and powder should do that just fine.
>
> I'll bet a connoisseur like you could tell the difference
> if you use the bean, but it may not be worth the expense.

Agreed about it not being worth the expense... I don't think that's
the "key" to klava versus coffee. I'm not a connoisseur though, I'm
merely more interested in coffee than the average consumer.

> ...
>
>> First, my
>> brother made regular coffee using a french press.
>
> Is this an extra step?  You're going to filter the
> coffee anyway, so what if you just simmered the coffee
> grounds in water?  Or is it just as easy to make the
> coffee in a French press?

Good point. I guess since Vlad started out with "first, you make
coffee" (not exact quote, from memory) we just didn't think this
through and just made coffee the regular way.

>
>> It was some light roast from Peru, if I recall.
>
> You forgot to take credit for this part.  As I understand
> it, light roasts have more of the disagreeable bitter stuff--
> dark roasting replaces that and the good flavors with an
> equally disagreeable charcoal flavor.  So you might as well
> use a light roast.
> ...

I didn't take credit because I didn't think about it. See, I'm no
connoisseur! Though what you're saying makes perfect sense. 8-)

I will try a dark roast next time to see if it makes a difference.

>
>> In this case, we put a mix of
>> hickory wood chips and lots of semi-crushed eggshells
>
> How many?  This could be a vital detail.

Well, lots might be an overstatement. Inside an AeroPress tube, it was
filled about 1/4 with woodchips and another 1/4 with eggshells.

>
>> When plain, the coffee lost it's bitterness and,
>> er, body. All that remained was the taste of the bean
>> itself, the
>> unique signature taste, and a hickory overtone. At that
>> point it was
>> very drinkable but not as good as regular black coffee
>> because the
>> bitterness and acidity adds to the body of coffee and makes
>> it interesting.
> ...
>
> Not to everyone (in case I haven't made that clear).
>
> What's more interesting than my taste is Vlad's.  I'm a
> bit surprised that he doesn't agree with you in liking the
> bitterness.  But I can't cite any textev about why I'd guess
> that.
>
>> With klava, you end
>> up with a milky, sweet drink that still has a very strong
>> bond to the bean's taste.
>
> I might like that, especially if it weren't too milky.

You know, I said we used milk but it was actually half-and-half. I
think Vlad says its supposed to be cream. So just like regular coffee,
I suspect the exact variant and amount are a to-taste thing (though
the books always made it sound like something that there weren't many
variations on, unlike coffee... but I could be misunderstanding. No
quote either.)

>
>> We were as surprised as anyone that this actually worked,
>> though its
>> so complicated and time-consuming to make that it
>> wouldn't be worth it
>> for common consumption.
>
> I wonder.  For a large group, you might only have to set it
> up once.  Some research on reusing the filter is in order.
> Standing there at a con or meet-up, with the kettle and press
> in front of you, and the eggshells left over from the cake
> that somebody made to go with the coffee, and a sign showing
> Steven's recent seal-of-approval post, and the brass to say
> "Sorry" when you're done instead of making sure you'll have
> enough no matter what...

Never been to a con/meet-up but if anyone DOES do it, I'd love to know
how ti comes out and what people think. I still have a nagging
suspicion that I'm imagining the difference in taste. Though my
parents (very picky coffee drinkers) confirmed the difference. They
weren't too impressed, but they only tried the black variety, before
cream and sugar, because they never take their coffee with cream and
sugar. So third party tests were inconclusive.

>
>> Also, large drink manufacturers already
>> mass-manufacture coffee-like drinks with the same idea,
>> like Starbuck's bottled frappacinos (that are delicious).
> ...
>
> That's a problem.  But with better coffee, and honey,
> and vanilla and cinnamon to taste, and fresh milk (or
> cream--whoa), you might be able to do well at a con.  Or
> someone might.
>
> I'd be all over the cinnamon.  And I don't think cardamom
> has been mentioned in the texts, but it's worth trying
> anyway.
>
>> Anyway, sorry for the long rant but I figured that if
>> anyone would be
>> interested in this little experiment (everyone around here
>> thought we were crazy), it'd be you fine folks.
>
> Not me, nope.
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
>
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