Is That Cheese Sitting Next to My Chemex?

Today we did a little experiment where we paired some of our favorite cheeses with one of our favorite coffees, Kintamani, Bali.

Here is what we found…

GABIETOU; RAW COW & SHEEP’S MILK; FRANCE

Cheese notes: hints of cashew and earth with a smooth, spreadable texture.

Paired with the Kintamani, Bali:

The strong strawberry aroma and big jam flavors create a well-rounded dessert pairing. It is a sophisticated cashew butter & jam sandwich. This Kintamani is my Beaujolais.

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GOUDA, L’AMUSE; RAW COW’S MILK; 2 YRS; HOLLAND

Cheese notes: nice orange zest punch up front & vanilla on the finish. The texture is dense and dry with protein crystals evenly throughout. The cheese offers a wonderful butterscotch note that is enhanced by the coffee.

Paired with the Kintamani, Bali:

Chocolate is in the forefront when this coffee and cheese meet. The butterscotch notes of this Gouda showcase more as toasted carmel. The combination of the orange & carmel (cheese) matched with strawberry & chocolate (coffee) just make this a lovely pairing. The two match so well that it does not challenge the palate. It is delicious but will not invoke a discussion beyond, “pass me some more, please”.

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ADELLEGER; RAW COW’S MILK; BAVARIA

Cheese notes: this cheese has a split personality. The core is sweet with hints of pineapple. The denser cheese near the rind has notes of truffle and earth.

Paired with the Kintamani, Bali:

This is like 2 cheeses in 1. The center of the Adelleger offers delicate refreshing notes of pineapple that pairs well with the strawberry notes of the Kintamani. The coffee lightens when paired with the core of the cheese and offers an almost refreshing experience.

The heavier notes of truffle and earth offered by the rind areas of the cheese brings out a perception of a heavy body to the coffee. The strawberry & jam blend well to create almost a sweet, creamy mushroom experience. Much heavier than the core of the cheese. This is a pairing for those who want to debate! One pairing with two distinct impressions. Very cool.

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GORGONZOLA “CREMIFACATO”; COW’S MILK: LOMBARDI, ITALY

Cheese notes: savory and “blue” this cheese is super creamy and dripping off the tip of my knife.

Paired with the Kintamani, Bali:

This cheese changes the most when paired with Kintamani. The coffee softens the sharpness of the cheese and creates a wonderful dessert. Amazing! The palate is brought from sharp, tart, and sour to sweet and creamy. This is an overall winner. The body of the coffee holds up to this stinky cheese. Perception: the cheese gets sweeter paired with the Bali.

Hope you find this helpful. Cheese and coffee and really fun to pair!

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“How to Roast” Hosted by Edible Brooklyn & Brooklyn Brewery

It has been one month since our demonstration on how to roast coffee at home has happened.  Here’s a recap:

Since we have a good amount of experience roasting on a production roaster on a daily basis, we wanted to find the best approach to excite people into trying to do some roasting at home with tools that would be readily available.  Coffee is fun & brings people together and on that Wednesday night the people came out in droves.  The room was packed with eager self-proclaimed “coffee geeks” hungry to get started on a new adventure.  In preparation we roasted on an 8 inch heavy frying pan, 4 inch sauce pan, & and I-Roast home roaster.  These items had a price tag ranging from a few dollars to over $200.  We wanted to stress the point that anyone with an interest, time, and patience be creative in their kitchen

We covered:

Price of home equipment, how to source some green coffee (Sweet Maria’s is a great one), and the basic principals of roasting. Since time and temperature, and where these two meet on a profile or x y grid, are critical in getting coffee to a desired quality that is reflected in the cup, we chose to use the I-Roast2 in our demonstration.  The iRoast2, a fluid bed or “air” roaster gives the pilot some controls in terms of setting temperatures at certain times. It also progressed in a respectable amount of time: in the 15-minute range, which also mirrors the length of a typical production roast.

What we did:

We took our Pedra Roxa, Brazil coffee through a 15-minute roast, trying to best mirror our production roast. We mapped out the coffee progression by capturing the coffee from the production roaster at 1.5-minute intervals. What it revealed is the fast progression towards the end, where the beans begin to exotherm and really start to develop quickly. Watching carefully later in the roast is paramount to attaining the kind of notes you want to bring out in the given. That is where real changes happen and where you can go from grassy, vegetal, wheat notes to the more desired sweet notes such as baker’s chocolate and white peach.

Roast Progression

At the end of the presentation, eager attendees could have green coffee to continue their roasting education at home through experimentation.  We supplied 50 excited people with ½ pound of our Pedra Roxa, Brazil green coffee as well as a cold brewed and bottled version for everyone to take home.  We have been hearing back from attendees on their progress with home roasting. It’s very encouraging to see so many people passionate about the process to make great coffee, even if there is a lot of trial and error at the beginning.  During the session we really focused on how much fun someone would have doing this at home.  We guaranteed that they would forever love the first cup of coffee they ever made from beans they roasted themselves.  To date, the feedback we have received confirms our guarantee.  Everyone loves his or her roast best!!!

Thanks to Edible Brooklyn and Brooklyn Brewery for putting together such a great event!

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Gorilla Warfare is Back!

It’s back for another annual attack — the Sixpoint coffee porter, made with our coffee. Gorilla Warfare can be found on draft in bars and restaurants all over right now.

This beer was introduced in 2007, and it’s made a few rounds in the falls and winters since. Like its namesake beast, it has a rather fierce, robust coffee flavor and deep color that’s topped with a creamy foam, not unlike that of a cappuccino. It’s become a seasonal favorite among fans as well as the Sixpoint staff, since it smells like a coffee house for a day when it’s brewed.

So it was time to resurrect the beast. This new batch of Gorilla Warfare brewed in Red Hook is made with Fairview Estate, Kenya

The resulting beer has a mellow, wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee aroma and bold flavor that’s surprisingly less sweet for a porter. ABV of 7%. Get a pint before this batch is all spent for the season!

[caption id="attachment_239" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Sixpoint Brewers preparing to add the coffee"][/caption]

Brewer's notes on the Gorilla Warfare:

Gorilla Warfare

Baltic Porter with Gorilla Coffee

7.2% ABV, 28 IBU

Color- Nearly black with an almond colored head.

Aroma- Intense coffee with malty sweetness underneath.  Roasted malts blend with roasted coffee perfectly

Flavor- Coffee permeates through layers of dark, dark chocolate and black bread, giving way to a rich toffee sweetness with more coffee to finish.

Ingredients:

Canadian pale malt

German Munich and crystal malts

English crystal and roasted malts

Belgian special b malt

American Horizon, Northern Brewer, and Warrior hops

Gorilla Coffee roasted Fairview Estate from Kenya

 

Where can you find it? Try Beer Menus to see who's got it flowing.

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Chef Roblé Ali & Friends Film at Gorilla for Upcoming Bravo Show

Chef Roblé Ali, a big Gorilla Coffee fan, will be at Gorilla this Thursday, August 4th, filming for his upcoming show on Bravo TV. The hip-hop chef Roblé Ali, who attempts to "conquer the catering world with his innovative cuisine and style" from his Brooklyn loft by throwing "world-class events for New York socialites to media moguls" with the help of a "ragtag crew of old friends and unique characters."

He will be using our Blendimentosis in various recipes, wherever he can. Come in and say "hello!"

About his upcoming show:

Chef Roblé Ali has established his reputation cooking for some of the biggest celebrities at New York hot-spots like Avenue. Now, viewers can follow Roblé’s attempt to conquer the catering world with his innovative cuisine and style. Based out of his Brooklyn loft, his new company is guided by Roblé’s bossy big sister, Jasmine, and relies on the skills of a ragtag crew of old friends and unique characters. They produce world-class events for New York socialites to media moguls, but pulling them off is never as smooth as they want it to be. Roblé has mastered the art of cooking, but running a business is a whole different story.

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Gorilla Barista, Sean Chin, Performing in Shakespeare's "Henry V"

Support Sean and his troupe of thespians as they travel across water and land performing Shakespeare's "Henry V".

HENRY V by William Shakespeare

Directed by Stephen Burdman

WHERE: in Battery Park (meet in front of Castle Clinton) and Governors Island!

Join us, as we journey with King Henry and his army from England (Castle Clinton/Battery Park) and travel across the English Channel (New York Harbor) by boat to France (Governors Island), where the bloody Battle of Agincourt will be staged across the huge rolling vistas of the parade ground surrounding historic Fort Jay with a cast of 40!

Open Rehearsals: June 6 - July 3 (in Battery Park and Governors Island, times vary, please see "Rehearsal" page at left for info).

PERFORMANCES: July 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 24

TIME (see note directly below): 7PM

PAY HEED! Special wristbands, distributed 5:00-6:30pm on the day of each performance in front of Castle Clinton, will be required for ferry transportation to Governors Island. Limit 2 wristbands per person.

http://newyorkclassical.org/

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