mie

baking season already started with extensive comfort cooking going on in my kitchen. we don’t thank or give in norway today. instead, we’re baking: biscotti. actually, i call them clementine biscotti. because i had no orange in house and after all, it’s clementine season. seasonal baking. baking season. important biscotti notes about nuts: i once wanted to make really cool muli coloured biscotti for java – using pecan nuts. i even found lots of biscotti recipes including pecan nuts. don’t do it! they’re too fat and won’t crunch no matter how you treat them. for chic biscotti i give up on green and choose crunchy. late night comfort bakers choose honduras finca portillo coe # 7, pacas to go with tangerine biscotti.

ingredients:
120 g almonds
100 g hazelnuts
150 g butter
250 g sugar
400 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
clementine juice
3 large eggs
1 egg white

200 °C, continue on 180 °C

toast nuts in oven for 15 mins. cool. mix the rest - eggs and nuts in the end. make nice biscotti sausages - sized as desired. let rest for 30 mins somewhere cold. make nice on top using egg white. cook for 40 mins. cut biscotti pieces. place back on tray and cook for 10 more mins. put in your pretty jar. give your friends. have a nice coffee time.

i love these little guys!! it's from little people - a tiny street art project
makes me want to cook. makes me want to laugh. perfect.

hot spot of the norwegian coffee scene this weekend was bergen - west coast. i went to bergen last night to attend the one year anniversary party of kaffemisjonen ("coffee mission"). one year after the original mission opened, they are now 4 coffee shops known under various names - misjonen, edvard, boksen and bryggen. since my stop over was so quick, i have to admit i spent sunday afternoon cupping at the first store and did not see any of the other hot spots in day light. well, just another reason for going back as soon as possible.

besides coffee, i also got the chance to check out supposedly norway's first gastro pub - amongst the bergen crew, this international trend of gastronomy is conquering down town bergen right now. i have to admit the single most impressive thing about the place was the wine list and in addition, a framed chef's jacket with metallica autographs. they went there this summer for pizza. i had coalfish with leek, potatoes and bacon. my fish was delicious and maybe even perfect, but as i was eating my way through the dish i became more and more impatient about the bacon part. in my opinion, everything that's a gastronomical success should contain at least some bacon. cold potatoes did not help in direction of placing "jacobs" - the first gastro pub of norway - on my "to-do" list for your next visit in bergen. after asking about the bacon and potatoes, i had one bowl of panchetta and hot mashed potatoes, but that was after finishing the fish. it's like that when you go to gastro pubs. rough.

as usual, being around the kaffemisjonen staff was lots of fun. they are just about the youngest, most knowledgeable and ass kicking team of coffee people in the country. the party was great - and KAFFAs roaster mr b had apparently a fan club of his own on the west coast. after nagging about coffee all night we finally had a midnight cup of filter brewed panama esmeralda geisha lot # 8. after substantial amounts of nv champagne it was a perfect match!

i just landed in oslo - however, my head is apparently still traveling in coffee, i've dreamt about coffee descriptions the last few days - including on the plane. after the award ceremony friday night the following days were spent visiting coffee farms around carmo and pocos in mina gerais and even a few flights of nice coffees were cupped. also, a nice sunday afternoon brunch with new and old coffee friends took place in sao paulo before we all took off. i feel exhausted after traveling, yet very happy about the trip all in all. or to quote andrew barnett: "has everyone been nice to you today?". the answer is "yes! more than i could ever hope for". people have been generous and kind - spending their time with us, asking about coffee and taking care of us at all times.

about the winning coffees - lots of good coffees from carmo de minas (yellow bourbon) in minas gerais. the winning farm, faenda kaquend and third place winner fazenda tijuco preto were my over all favorites. also the coffee that was tide for third place, submitted by fazenda rainha near the city sao sebastiao da grama in sao paulo region (yellow bourbon as well) came out sweet, full bodied with elegant and clear acitidy. for brasil, all of these farms are relatively high, around 1300 masl. what i also found interesting, was that we saw (and tasted) a few impeccably processed naturals. however, most of them cupped really fresh and needs more resting (none of the coffees that went past the pre-selection done by the national jury were naturals).

the coffees were amazing, however only 100 farms submitted coffees to the pre-selection this year. something that needs discussion, regarding the fact that brasil is the biggest producing coffee nation in the world. we spent hours and hours driving through farms, they were huge!

i'll get back to the coffees later - for now i just have to announce that being in brasil and eating is how i suppose it was like being in the 70s (where i never went, btw). buffets, fried stuff...

traveling to coe means lots of cupping - standing still by cupping tables many hours per day in deep concentration and the rest of the time, it's fried food and other food. coca cola. cerveza. i feel stuffed. filled with buffet food from the 70s.

i didn't take any pictures yet, so i stole this from whorange.net which is a really cool site about designs. it's supposed to be cup of excellence judges riding a bus (and the dangers we meet on the road). because there's always a lot of bus riding going on. here in brasil, the coffee excellence centre where we do all the cupping is a bus ride away from machado where we're staying throughout the week. located in mina gerais, machado is about 4 hours north of sao paulo by car. we just finished cupping - day one is always about calibrating the judges. i think the necessity of spending a day calibrating can be discussed, however, it was obvious that everyone was excited to be in brasil for coffee. after the last calibration round, an optional naturals cupping was on the program. only a few judges preferred to go back to the hotel in machado. the rest seemed to be thrilled about slurping some more into the afternoon.

calibrating the judges can be done in many ways - today we cupped the same table three times, evaluating after the first round, then the same order over again with no evaluation. the last flight was in revised order - in that way we are able to see how consistent we are as cuppers. it's exciting and interesting, and everyone seems pretty curious about how the others are calibrated. i love being able to spend a day of calibration - it's something i can never do at home. besides, i like feeling the group dynamics and i learned a few things already about how people perceive the score sheet. in my opinion, average coffees should not be scored 84 or above. that's for excellent coffees (and it IS entry level for coe)! but then again, being a cupper is realizing there are no right or wrong answers. just a lot of really good coffes that we have yet to taste.

i'm about to take off to brasil for the cup of excellence (coe) jury - although work is piling up faster than i can take it away, it seems like i can actually leave with no breathing problems ahead for the next week or so. just aspirating that coffee. i even sent off my spanish homework to my tutor - juan - so he can use that ridiculous red pen he is tagging down my books with.

as i am about to leave, i started wondering what other jurors are doing before leaving their home - for me it's normally a lot to take care off work wise, and then i leave the house just taking care of necessities. like, turning off the gas. i don't pack until the last minute before i go to bed the night before - most flights leave at 630am to amsterdam or charles de gaulle where i am taking off from most often when traveling. at that insanely early hour i have to get out of bed i am so tired i feel almost feverish. but: this time, i am not leaving until sunday - the travel will be a snap: oslo - amsteram - sao paulo. and it's saturday - i'm off work except a few small things. therefore, whatever i'm doing to make the house and myself look nice, i need to do it asap - starting...now! robert is in indonesia, and what is not better than coming home to a clean and fresh house? first thing will be to do some fall work in the garden for a few hours, then i hope to see my mom for a late lunch. after, i want to clean that nasty bathroom sink and i need to get my hideous legs ready to see daylight again after months of hiding under panty hoses. and scented candle, i need to bring a scented candle for hotel room nights - i want it to smell home-ish (and i'm a candle addict). i LOVE my work and being able to do coffee things with coffee colleagues, but i'm really not that crazy about fabric smelling, dense hotel rooms that are too hot or too cold or just in general too gross. my worst (and at the same time most exciting) memory is from putting my feet on the floor after a too short and too gekko-fear-filled night in el salvador - only for realizing "hey, it's water". and then: "it's water - from the toilet". yikes! would be easier if i was a guy, right?

serving as a coe judge can be intensive - there are most often things going on at night and day, clock round all the week. in addition, i suppose i'm not the only one that have emails coming in, phones ringing - so a lot of work needs to be taken care of for home as well. i hope i will be online, i hope i can receive phone calls, but you never know before you actually get there. ok. piles of leaves in the garden are waiting for me.

recently, my flickr account was deleted, and i now have a new flickr account name: mieh1. i'm the one with no contacts yet.