mie

long time, no blogging. but i've been busy! i can just as well be honest about my thing for christmas. i love it! when i was 21 i stopped going "home" to my parents for christmas, and since then i've celebrated in many different ways. the most important thing of all for me during these years; there are no rules! first of all, my favorite christmas preparation is cooking rice porridge for all of the incredible java and mocca baristas, and having them over for a small get-together before christmas. there's also this awful rule about that night, no other songs than christmas songs can be played. so no holiday music allowed until then, and after that - it's a mess...this year, i've also snuggled up with friends and family drinking apple gløgg. the traditional scandinavian gløgg is a version of glühwein, red wine spiced up and served wine (see klaus thomsens brilliant blog post post about danish gløgg). apple gløgg includes your best apple juice with different spices. heat slowly and spice even further with a dash of bourbon before serving. you can choose pretty much any spice you like, but classical christmas spices are cloves, ginger and cinnamon. far better than the red wine gløgg. and better for your head the next day.

next step for christmas preparations is to make sure you have fresh flowers in house, candles, and that you will make more cookies than anyone can ever eat up. favorites are ginger bread in different shapes - and a house of ginger bread. every year, i make a kind of white cookies which is very common up north in norway, they're just really sweet and not spicy at all, but i make them because children and my dad loves them. except from these two versions of traditional cookies (you're supposed to make 7 different kinds if you're a true christmas aficionado, but i can assure you neither of the 7 most common ones are very tasty, just old fashioned). so i've got two traditional down and five more explorative to go while i drink up my apple gløgg. this year i'm making biscotti, sarah bernards, honey cake, chocolate cake and a cake called kransekake.

for the 24th, which is the night for food and gifts here in norway, i've been eating pork all my life. with various company of family and friends and various side dishes. it's very common to have rice porridge early on the 24th, which makes sure you're stuffed the rest of the day anyways. this year, i will be celebrating with my parents who serve: tart shells with sea food. rib of pork with potatoes, sauerkraut, gravy, fresh pineapple and dried fruits. almond ice cream with cloudberries for dessert. same procedure as every year. for the years i spent without my parents and still demanding pork ribs - robert has been thinking a lot about doing a fresher version of the pig. with all that fat you really want some acidity to balance it. by the time we got to the 24th, the pig had been swimming in orange juice, cloves, ginger, chili and garlic. one year, we had only a salad with anchovies on the side. what i think is more important than the food in itself, is to remember to bring the hostess champagne, and for all the grease in pork ribs you really need some nice acidity. this year i have a few bottles left of agrapart blanc des blancs 1996 and at least one is reserved for christmas eve. but for back up i have a riesling from nahe, just in case.

java, mocca and kaffa customers (and even colleagues within the coffee business) have been thinking and wondering about christmas coffee for quite some time now. so i ask them, "what kind of coffee would you like to be your christmas coffee?" i won't start a discussion about that now, because i can not think about any roastery i know of who is still doing holiday blends where the content is various coffees of unknown origins. however, the perfect varietal for christmas is pacamara. we have a spicy guatemala el injerto pacamara (the varietal they took 1st place in cup of excellence this year). nice acidity with lots of sweet citric notes, cloves, milk chocolate. and el salvador finca el porvenir (which was judged to a 3rd place in el salvador coe). intense florals in the aroma, but as for the flavor profile - it tastes a lot like hot chocolate. for now, happy holidays. and peace on earth!