Monthly Archive: November 2010

Walk to Work 3: In 3D

(Well it was in 3D for me as I was there).

Once again I had my camera in my bag and once again the walk to work was worth photographing as there was a layer of snow on the ground and snow in the air. This being Lancaster of course it was only a dusting, but it is rare enough to see snow in November in Lancaster that it is worthwhile taking and showing the snaps.

Snow on the cars on the street where I live

Just liked the angle

Skerton Bridge with a light snow fall

Wintry colours in the clouds

The quayside

(Sorry for the captions, they are a tad ordinary, maybe even lame.)

Coffee Tasting: Santuario

Introduction

I have decided to start blogging my coffee/tea experiences since I have been writing them down in my tasting notes in some hope of building a short history for myself as I often forget which coffee I have really enjoyed. this becomes a pain when months later you want to revisit a certain flavour experience.

The coffee is bought from Atkinsons coffee shop (http://www.atkinsonsteaandcoffee.co.uk) in Lancaster, purveyors of fine coffee and teas. The coffee is roasted in the shop by talented experts so the taste experience is enhanced by the superior skill of the staff.

Atkinsons Coffee shop in Lancaster. (This image is taken from Atkinsosn own website, all copyright and image ownerships remains with Atkinsons.)

Tasting

[Please note this is not a professional tasting guide, just an enthusiast, I have used language that is in the register of food & drink tasting only to sound coherent, even if there is some debate as to whether this is fully cogent]

The coffee is a regional winner (North West Taste Awards 2010) and so attracted my interest. The coffee was freshly ground by Atkinsons for cafetiere so that we could have an unadulterated tasting in the office (our excellent coffee machine grinds the beans to cup, so would need a thorough cleaning to make it acceptable for tasting).

The coffee has a soft scent which confused me as I wasn’t quite sure what notes I could detect, Matt (mst) thought that there was an element of nutmeg to it, which he could also detect in the taste, to my thinking it was a slightly nutty chocolate. The chocolate continued when on the palate where the coffee was very smooth and I thought I caught a zesty afterpunch which I imagine could be bitter if brewed too richly. Leigh enjoyed her tasting, she thought the coffee was smooth and not too bitter (an important facet for her as bitter coffees require her to use a little brown sugar when drinking them black).

For completeness I tried the coffee with a little milk (I know sacrilege, the horror, the horror) and found the milk a tad overbearing so a Latte would no doubt drench the subtler flavours of this blend, but a good cappuccino if made on the richer side would probably be quite nice.

A little research on the internet pulled up an article on Londinium Expresso (http://londiniumespresso.com/blogs/londinium-espresso-blog/1472762-new-in-columbian-santuario-estate-bourbon-variety) where they have tried this bean as an espresso, they note that the bean needs to be rested after roasting to take away the acidic edge that it apparently suffers from.

Since we never made an espresso it is hard for me to comment upon this, but I did detect citrus/zesty notes (which Londinium Expresso have as flavour of Orange) which could be linked to acidity I imagine. I can only assume that the reason it wasn’t acidic to our tasting is because Atkinsons know their coffee.

Walk to Work 2: The Sequel

(with title dues to Getty for his admiration of IT people’s blogs and their stunning vagaries of content and announcement).

So, today it was another clear morning, and it was also cool and frosty (there have been some small frosts in the past couple of weeks but not as widespread as this mornings), and since I once again had my camera with me I decided to take photos once more. I walked the faster way to work today so no pictures of the canal, just the River Lune.

My apologies for the rather boring and obvious captions ;).

The Ashton Memorial

Frosty Leaves

Close up showing the frost crystals

Looking out over the river from next to the weir

The Quay looking towards the Castle and Priory

Skerton Bridge with the river at a low ebb

Walk to work

Okay it is a pretty boring title, but it does explain the post rather well, so there we have it.

I took a long walk to work this morning, well longish, instead of walking through the city centre, I took a walk along the river to the aquaduct where I joined the canal that runs along the back of Lancaster and right past the offices. The walk is about 5km and is quiet and on a great autumnal day like today it is a refreshing way to clear the cobwebs out of the synapses and contremplate the tasks of the week.

I took a few photos, the best of which are below for your pleasure.

The bridge near to the Golf Course

I liked the reflection

Sunlight causing light trails

There were a lot of birds sunning themselves

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Entering the area with former industrial buildings

Loved the angles in this bridge, I will have to revisit this and take more photos

The Roman Catholic Cathedral and ducks on the canal