coffee appreciation: kicking horse – grizzly claw

it’s exciting: getting the kettle filled and plugged in. opening up a fresh bag of coffee, those ever so slightly greasy beans looking up at you in all their reason-for-living-smelling-glory and then pouring them into the grinder and buzzing ’em up. removing the lid and taking a deep breath… it makes the morning (or in our case this afternoon) right and worthy.

while on our jaunt about town running errands and getting groceries, pony and I were confronted with the ever expensive selection of coffee. normally we try to get whatever’s the cheapest per lb. and still organic/free trade, usually ethical bean or kicking horse. both are great, but today we went with the kicking horse grizzly claw blend. now, I’m someone who searches for, and melts into slurs of ‘ohmygods’ over a cup/pot of coffee that resembles chocolate cake. grizzly claw = awesome cake of awesomeness. it’s deep and full, but I find the majority of its flavour is in the middle and end of a mouthful. the taste upon swallowing, is sweet in a dark, roasty, way, but not at all burnt tasting. it’s hardly acidic, and that’s a big ol’ plus in my books.
at the probable chance of losing some tasting credit from the coffee connoisseurs out there, I will happily admit to putting not only demerara sugar in my coffee, but whipping cream too! it’s breakfast that way. however you take it, all done up like me, or hot and black like róny, I highly recommend the grizzly claw.

art matters, and so does tea!

I am someone who enjoys a good cup of tea. being my father’s daughter, which I no doubt am, I’m a devout orange pekoe drinker. I can appreciate herbal teas and their subtle sophistication and freshness, and I wouldn’t dream of eating Chinese or Japanese food without green tea on the table, but good ol’ pekoe is my standby. and so you can imagine how excited I was (remember I get excited about food things easily and often) when Tetley introduced ‘Tetley Bold’ sometime last year. I bid farewell to steeping my tea for forty minutes under a crocheted mug-cozy or in a thermal cup. I also said tally-ho to using two teabags to get the right richness and intensity. Helllllllooooooo bold! I don’t know what they do, but they do it right. All the box says is that they take leaves harvested from high altitudes in Kenya and blend it with North Indian black tea. their website is kind of bollocks and doesn’t say more than that.

Alas, delicous, warm, potent tea fit for warming you up after the cold walk home from the bus depot, or super soothing you during a stressful week of midterms and essay due dates. I currently mix it with bed, the cats, a book on dada, and pony (also reading)… it’s pretty sweet.