07 Feb 2011 No Comments
Coffee Review: Cafe Grumpy Guatemala
We found out about Cafe Grumpy before going to New York City. Our travelers guide just talked about it as a cool steadicam location to take a look at. It is so unassuming – we walked past it twice. The decor is simple, seating is restricted and it did not offer Wi-Fi. However, when it comes to coffee and espresso, they deliver. I can honestly say it was the very first time in my life I was astounded by a cup of coffee. Do not attempt to order a hard money lenders ‘Double-Double’ right here. Cafe Grumpy manually brews each cup to order and will take the time to complete it correctly. It is well worth the wait. If you are into coffee, Cafe Grumpy is a should – they have two places in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. Aside from coffee, Cafe Grumpy bakes all their pastries in-house and you can expect to locate everything from apricot and apple cider crumb cakes to chocolate financiers and nutty tankless water heaters fig-pecan cookies on any given day. Their Hazelnut Brownie is my latest obsession. The nicely cut square boasts more than its fair share (though I’m not complaining) of toasted hazelnuts, some entire, most halved. A thin crackly crust sinks into a tall brownie that’s much more cakey than fudgy. Inside a city that is ruled by fudgy, excessively opulent brownies, what a relief! You will polish off this microdermabrasion machines square in no time, and sharing is totally unnecessary. Additionally, if you are looking for a vintage slice of Banana Bread, they do this classic loaf lots of justice. Plain and pure with a dense, moist crumb, dusted with powdered sugar, rather than a walnut in sight. So, I’ve been thinking a real deal lately about the enormous gap in between words and places. It’s very easy to make grand metal detector assertions like “I favor espresso blends to single-origin” or “African coffees are much too bright for me.” Oftentimes, these declarations are warranted. But just as you can’t generalize that all people from one nation are exactly the same, this also holds accurate for coffee. It just feels so abstract to read a label that names a specific nation, farm, even, exactly where your beans are coming from, and try to imagine it. Of course, you will be infinitely closer to visualizing this than in the event you bought a canister of grocery-store French Roast, but imagination can only take you so far. If I had not, myself, set foot on a coffee roasting plant in Bali, this would be much more challenging. What began as wanting to say “While I generally prefer Indonesian coffees…” turned into a completely different line of thought, but a justified one. I’m trying my greatest to overcome my opinion that brighter, fruitier coffees all come from Africa and that chocolatey, mellow beans are from South America. Cafe Grumpy’s current Guatemala providing helped move me slightly closer to that objective. Brewed on the Clever, I have yet to taste a cup of coffee that lingers like honey on your taste buds in the same way. So sweet, it’s nearly juicy, like biting into a just-ripe nectarine. And, the cup is completely balanced: no charcoal-y taste, no sharp acidity – only a smooth, soothing brew. Perfect for breakfast, or for those lazy afternoons exactly where you sit at your coffee table with a buddy and wait slowly for the caffeine to kick in. It’s a gradual process of awakening instead of a sudden jolt. Nearly too gentle, too sweet, for those of us who want something harsher. But beautiful nonetheless.