It was wonderful having everyone over. This time round was special; with our current dark and stormy politics, its a joy and hope to have people with very different lives and opinions be able to thoroughly enjoy each other's company. That's what cafes and coffee are for!

Vlad brought some great Ethiopian coffees, and an Elida Aaerobic we could think about -- do we like it as much as the natural or not? Daniel brought a fine old Bourbon and his amazing kids, who brightened up the place. Gary added some class to the food offerings, and John and Kristine brought amazing apple pie and ice cream. Dan brought some serious gear, the Decent and the Monolih Max.

We did some blind tests with the Max and Niche. At first, with singles and conventional doubles, it was pretty much a wash. But at faster flow rates, 1 gram per second for doubles, the Max did consistently better. So for coffees that profit from a long P/I and fast flow technique, 98mm may be a good choice.

Thanks for coming.

I forgot to mention Daniel's wife, Ruchina, and Dominic who brought the wine I'm sipping now, ...

... and, of course, the Manischewitz/sacramental wine flavored anaerobic coffee. I've been trying to blend it; and even at ten percent, it sticks out. Certainly not the best coffee ever, but definitely one of the most memorable. I'm going to try it in lots of different blends; maybe there's someplace where a dash of sacramental wine is just the ticket.

Gone forever, maybe. Burman had it as a limited experimental coffee (along with a sold out Meyer Lemon flavor and the communion wine one, which btw, didn't work with anything except blended with Robusta, 1:2). They didn't even say where in Colombia it came from, no info at all. You can email them, and try to get details.

There's been a bunch of anaerobics with these super clear flavors and super murky provenances. So much so that the processors and roasters are being accused of flavoring the coffee. Letting greens age in whisky and sherry barrels imparts their flavors; so my reverse engineering try would be to anaerobically process the beans with the whole fruits along with them in the vat. That way, they are not flavored or tainted, just processed; but you'd get the intense notes that coffees don't really have on their own.

As someone who loves oaked red wines and whiskies, I'm not going to point a finger. But a lot more transparency might be a good thing.