RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

I met Fergus this evening in Juice, and we were talking about stuff. We were drinking tea, and got on to making coffee (read: proper coffee).
I mentioned a great book, Coffee: A Connoisseur’s Companion, by Claudia Roden (a woman who writes about food and coffee like its a wonderful adventure through exotic countries and cultures. She seems a very interesting woman), with wonderful ink-and-color coffee related illustrations by Murray Zanoni, which travels through the exotic beginnings, important history, cultural influences, coffee ceremonies, religious persecution, social prejudice that coffee has seen and survived.

He mentioned an essay (11 step plan) written George Orwell titled “How to make a Nice Cup of Tea” (using the word “nice” in the English way, which could mean passable to earth-shatteringly wonderful).

Reading a copy of these points I found posted on the net, I see some similarites between Orwell’s tea making process, and Roden’s coffee preparations. (but I suppose this is because both treat the preparation of tea and coffee as a ceremony, which of course it is!)

Some of the most noteworthy steps:

1. One should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays–it is economical, and one can drink it without milk–but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking.
2. [..] Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad. (This being completely true also for coffee, mainly for the reason of metal causes quicker heat loss. They also leave a horrible aftertaste with coffee.)
3. Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water. (This I have never tried but, it may be worth trying, especially when making it with a plunger pot.)
6. Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference. (This being the complete opposite to making coffee. Coffee should be made with, ideally water that has come off the boil. This is to extract the oils and aromatic principles from the cells.)

And most importantly, for Orwell anyway:
11. Lastly, tea–unless one is drinking it in the Russian style–should be drunk WITHOUT SUGAR. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to bebitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you couldmake a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
(Again, for coffee drinkers, this is a matter of taste.)

For Claudia Roden, the ideal cup of coffee, made in a cafetiere is:
1. Heat glass beaker by scalding.
2. Put in required amount of fine gorund coffee, add nearly boiling water and stir.
3. Allow to steep for four minutes, stir again.
4. Then push the plunger filter down gently with the lid as far as it will go, pushing the grounds to the bottom of the beaker.

On the matter of drinking coffee with milk, or sugar, she writes:
“Inspired by the drinking of tea with milk, Nieuhoff, the Dutch Ambassador to China, was officially the first person to try coffee with milk, around 1660.”

The French drink their breakfast coffee, café au lait (coffee with milk), traditionally served in a large bowl. In this vessel you will dip your brioche, or baguette. You have a choice of the mixture of coffee and milk.

Vienna has the melange, a combination of two parts coffee, one part milk, and is topped off with a swirl of whipped cream. Brauner is darker, and schwarzer is milkless.

Italians, are equally inventive. To make a caffe latte, you will need three parts hot milk and an espresso, while a cappuccino is topped with frothed milk. Espresso macchiato is a single espresso topped with a little frothed milk. A latte macchiato is espresso poured over hot frothede milk.

In Spain you have a cortado, one espresso, with a small amount of hot, slightly frothed milk, served with a large sugar, in a glass.