craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege, and quality

aeropress is great y'all

anyway maybe more importantly

Summary: It seems like one of the main arguments in favor of handmade/artisanal products is QUALITY, but if a machine-made product (like Nespresso coffee) can provide sensory pleasure at a consistently superior level, are there still valid reasons to prefer the more "human" effort?

the valid reason i think is basically that we have individual tastes! some people like their espressos w/ different notes, smells, tastes, etc.

some people like funny machines with nespresso logos

In distant last place came the ground coffee I had brought, a very good quality, single-estate bean, but not roasted for espresso and ground four days earlier
i mean COME ON

― max, Friday, January 11, 2013 7:20 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

four days is an eternity in ground coffee time. plus they dont say how they kept it -- vacuum sealed? in a freezer? also not roasted for espresso and ground "too coarsely" for the machine

― max, Friday, January 11, 2013 7:22 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this. I mean the "ground too coarsely" alone is a really, really big reason why the espresso probably tasted bad, maybe even moreso than the non-freshness. Like why don't you just stick the whole beans right in the portafilter dude, the whole point is to grind it ulrafine and pack it tight to create resistance so the pressure causes the water to extract more.

thinking a lot about privilege and the perceived "quality" of labor

i think there is something i want to say about it that relates to hourly wages vs. piecework but i'm not sure what it is

perception that the laborer is white and lives in north brooklyn

well yes

It's an interesting question, though, because the object and the it's context can create a perception of quality of labor that has no bearing on how it was actually produced. But the perception is important to the brand.

This idea that I own an object that was created by someone who cares as much or more about the object than I do. Same goes for services.

http://gawker.com/5980261/artisanal-manliness-for-fun-and-profit

good crossover with the blogs instruct you how to be a man thread

late capitalism is all about bourgeois folks paying a premium for "experiences" with an aura of authenticity

Yeah, that's pretty much ridiculous. However, if you strip away the narration and the price tag, looks like a fun camping trip.

funny article. French presses are great for camping, though.

artisanal manliness doesn't seem to involve individuality

I bring a french press AND fancy cheese

i swear the nyt food section editors must have decided to make a push on 'country ham' (vs 'city ham'), these are only two of the stories i've seen it in recently

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/dining/picking-a-flavorful-easter-ham.html?hpw
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/magazine/mark-bittman-and-sam-siftons-east-over-feast.html?hpw

If it all sounds unappetizing, be assured that the country’s best hams — from producers committed to real wood smoke, pure maple syrup and pasture-raised pigs — are worth seeking out.

pasture raised, feh, the best pigs are forest-finished

obv. wood is more artisanal than grass

the best ham comes from pigs who are actual pipe smokers, tbh

We went looking for spring, Mark and I, down in Charleston, S.C., a stunning city, rich with history both sad and ecstatic, in a region that offers a tremendous bounty of fresh ingredients and regional flavors.

Mmm yes hello I am Garrison Keillor.

Acorn-fed pork for real

i didn't know that france had notoriously bad coffee. huh. you learn something new every day. you'd think it would be fancy coffee.

craftsmanship-wise, my sister in law/bro in law have this hand grinder and it takes like an hour to grind coffee beans and it kinda drives me up a wall and then they have this science-lab coffee-maker that goes on their stove-top and it makes like a cup and a half of coffee and it takes an hour to make and by then i really want to jump out a window. other than that i like staying with them okay. though my sis in law is a demon in the morning and i try to avoid her entirely until she is awake. i always seem to be in the exact wrong spot in the morning and she has to get around me and i'm afraid she will slit my throat. but i'm just hanging around waiting for coffee! seriously thinking of bringing coffee and a mr. coffee-maker and just putting it in the room we sleep in and not leaving the room until noon next time we visit.

sorry, i'm late to the coffee talk. i like ham.

Shes like a demon because she has to get up at five if she wants coffee at eight, you should coffeesplain a few things to her

Sit her down, say arent u sick of the daily grind, i find a lil joke at the start of some real talk really opens ppl up to my wisdom /poppins

I support whatever gets people through the morning with the least amount of suffering. Also sometimes I just have tea because the time it takes to grind beans, boil water, and wait for the french press to steep is sometimes too much.

yeah i think the thing is they aren't coffee addicts. they make it for us mostly. and they try to tell me that the grinder is like the greatest hand grinder in the world and i think not if i kill one of you it isn't.

i love them though. they are the greatest. and they introduced me to the wonder that is my fave restaurant in nyc Prune (twice!) and for that i will be forever in their debt.

and i think not if i kill one of you it isn't.

This is like a thought I would have! <3

Craftmanship, quality and MURDER

prune is great.

hand-dried prunes

air-wrinkled dates

individually stoned dates, man those were the daze

i didn't know that france had notoriously bad coffee. huh. you learn something new every day. you'd think it would be fancy coffee.

craftsmanship-wise, my sister in law/bro in law have this hand grinder and it takes like an hour to grind coffee beans and it kinda drives me up a wall and then they have this science-lab coffee-maker that goes on their stove-top and it makes like a cup and a half of coffee and it takes an hour to make and by then i really want to jump out a window. other than that i like staying with them okay. though my sis in law is a demon in the morning and i try to avoid her entirely until she is awake. i always seem to be in the exact wrong spot in the morning and she has to get around me and i'm afraid she will slit my throat. but i'm just hanging around waiting for coffee! seriously thinking of bringing coffee and a mr. coffee-maker and just putting it in the room we sleep in and not leaving the room until noon next time we visit.

― scott seward, Saturday, March 23, 2013 2:20 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People who expend the greatest amounts of effort to avoid using the smallest amounts of electricity (unless they are legit committed to some kind of off-the-grid lifestyle) = disgusting savages imo.

I think those things are usually about coffee snobbery rather than electricity savings.

I've been thinking about getting an Aeropress. $20 plus a washable filter, I only envision drinking a cup in the morning so nbd about the time/amount.

I don't get the "coffee snobbery" of using a hand mill versus an electric burr grinder though - I can think of no plausible reason why a hand mill would make things come out better, unless you're worried about generating heat, in which case, just pulse the burr grinder or don't run it for too long.

yeah there is literally no coffee snob who would prefer a hand mill to an electric burr grinder... even one of those zassenhaus ones

bringing my aeropress and hand grinder to iceland for a campervan road trip in may, equally embarrassed/excited

I don't know, mine is a burr grinder (according to the internet--it was a gift) and it makes the most godawful noise, it's literally the very last thing I want to hear in the morning. Whereas my mom's antique hand grinder just does a charming low grrrrrrrr when you crank it. Makes me nostalgic.

I hand grind my beans every morning with a little Hario grinder. I use it because it is portable and I can't afford a nice electric burr grinder. It only takes about 2 minutes, and isn't very physically taxing, but people at work still think I am some kind of crazy homesteader or something. I guess it's weird to actually using my muscles to do something when I can just stick my delicious fair trade beans in some shitty loud-ass, uneven grinding, impossible-to-clean, blade grinder - or better yet using the ground stuff they keep in the kitchen.

yeah a hand burr grinder is way way way better than an electric blade

I guess, but those harios are also vastly inferior to even cheaper electric burr -- I could never get mine to tighten/lock well enough to get the grind I wanted, and it wasn't as even a grind either.

I mean the Capresso model does the job and it runs like $80-90? Which I can see being expensive for something for work use, although I just chipped in with a couple co-workers.

i wouldn't say they're vastly inferior if you're doing pourover - you get a few big chunks yeah but the grind is fairly even. of course its not gonna be as good as an electic burr but those start at $100 and are big and not portable and can't be used in the howling hinterlands of the frozen tundra.

cant believe hurting wants me to take an electric burr grinder to iceland

ive always had a bit of a craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege and quality boner for a zassenhaus though. but theyre so heavy and for what they cost yeah u should probably get a capresso

http://i.imgur.com/XwVEX5Z.jpg

I have used hario and capresso back to back for pour-over and I find the capresso to be a massive improvement. I found even the finest grind from the hario to be too coarse, aside from being uneven (which is less of an issue in pour-over).

god i can't even.. blade grinders are fine, f u all