Have you noticed that wine, coffee and chocolate all have similar, distinctive, flavor characteristics?
All three are influenced by the age of the crop, the ground they are grown in, elevation, weather, water, insects, etc. All can have a great crop year followed by a bad crop year.
Whether you are coffee, chocolate or wine tasting, you will rely on your eyes, nose, taste buds and hearing the story behind the harvest you are tasting.
Experts pair wine with chocolate, and chocolate with wine. They pair coffee with chocolate, chocolate with cheese, cheese with wine. Food is paired with coffee, chocolate and wine. Why? Because it enhances the taste (which is a selling point).
Below are some flavor wheels I’ve collected over the years that are used to describe coffee, chocolate and wine. See the similarities? (Click on the image to enlarge.)
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
Rustic Country Market wants you to know that we will NEVER use artificial intelligence (AI) to produce our communications. That means we are committed to spend our time writing our own, human, material for you to read.
The End.
Now back to my coffee…
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
The word ‘coffee’ is pronounced almost the same in every language around the world.
After water, coffee is the second most widely-consumed beverage in the world. (Tea is a close third.)
When you drink coffee, your brain shrinks a little, which is why some advise drinking coffee if you have a headache.
When making an espresso, 65% of the caffeine is extracted from the beans, whereas the French-press method of making coffee extracts 98% of the caffeine.
There are two hundred flavors components present in raw (green) coffee beans, but roasted beans have over two thousand present.
The first steam-pressured espresso machine was invented by a Frenchman in 1901.
In Italy, 80% of the coffee consumed is espresso while the other 20% are milk-based coffee drinks like cappucino. Outside of Italy, those numbers are reversed.
The espresso-pod of coffee was invented in 1973 by Illy coffee.
52% of all coffee imported into Italy comes through Trieste, whose harbor is almost entirely dedicated to coffee importation.
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
Our house is filled with things that have stories connected to them, all near and dear to our family. My decor style is eclectic. I love to highlight imperfect things.
If it’s tattered, that’s because there’s a story connected to it…
Board Games…
Our family loves to play games. When my 80+ year old mom moved into our home with us, she came with several family keepsakes. One was an old “Uncle Wiggily” (TM) Game board.
The game board is now displayed on a shelf in our game room. (I love shelves.) My mom told me this game belonged to my father’s mother. Grandma kept this game to play with her grandchildren. She had a lot of grandchildren. The game’s cards and tokens are long gone. It’s not in perfect condition, but I enjoy having it for nostalgia.
When I look at the game, it brings back memories of playing games on grandma’s big table, the smell of her coffee brewing (and over brewing) on her stove and the fact that she always kept cookies on hand for her grandchildren. Especially those strawberry, chocolate and vanilla cream filled wafer cookies (which I stopped liking in my teen years).
According to https://boardgamegeek.com: This game is based on the character “Uncle Wiggily Longears” which was in a children’s book created in 1910. The game was first introduced by the Milton Bradley Company in 1916. It was modified in 1923, 1949, and 1955.
“Uncle Wiggily” Game: Grandma’s version pictured above was made circa 1923 to 1946, based on the two-eyed bright red squid on the bottom right corner. (The original game had a one-eyed beige squid.)
Playing Catch…
Another family keepsake on our game room shelf is my dad’s baseball glove. It’s an All Star 727 Ralph Kiner. My dad and brother use to play catch with a softball in our big front yard and this was the glove my dad used. Seeing it brings back memories of the smell of fresh cut grass, pine trees, damp dirt and the sound of a softball hitting the glove.
According to https://www.baseball-almanac.com : Ralph Kiner was the National League home run champion in every one of his first seven seasons in the Major Leagues, 1946 through 1952. I don’t know when my dad got this glove, but I do know he had it before I was old enough to know what a baseball glove was for. I also know that my dad enjoyed watching baseball, so owning this Ralph Kiner glove would fit with his era. My mom guessed that my dad played catch with his older brothers and nephews prior to having his own children.
The little girl in the photo is my mom. She was 2 years old. The photo was taken in Chicago. She was first generation born in the U.S.A. The photo of the teenage boy is my father’s graduation picture. He was 17 years old. He joined the Navy during WWII.
