Neil Pendock

JP Rossouw

Marsh Middleton

Bernard Gutman

Jon Jon San Juan

Jeremy Nel

Fiona MacDonald

David Donde

The procedure was simple(ish)

Deconstruct the drink completely, while tearing up the rules, but trying to hold on to what an ideal may want to taste like.

Steps: Evaluate an Irish, make 1 change and go from there. Discuss and move on.

The criterium to evaluate:

Whisky by flavour 1-10

Coffee by flavour 1-10

Mouthfeel 1-10

an Overall 1-10

Total Score.

Round one:

Trad-ish Irish. Filter Coffee, 2 Jigs Jamesons and whipping cream floated on top.

Disaster

Round Two

Filter and 1 tot Irish etc.

Score

5′s all round as this was our baseline (25 score)

Round Two:

Sub the filter for a double shot of espresso, 1 tot Irish etc

Over 7 on everything. Consensus on all scores. (29)

Round Three:

Double espresso is subbed to americano

Mixed scores on coffee flavour with the panel scoring both 5 and 8, but Whisky flavour down to 5 all round overall (23 or 26)

We learned that a double espresso was the way to go.

Round Four:

Change to a sweeter whisky. Actually a bourbon, Woodford Reserve

Kachang! the world changed! Whisky flavour off the charts, coffee and the others on 7, Bitter chocolate and intense cherries and lots of superlatives thrown about. Overall mixed at 7 & 8 1/2. A dessert in and of itself. We had a overall (29 or 30.5)

Round Five:

Now came the Islay god class whisky. Ardberg . the expectations were high, glee was on faces. It similarly blew the whisky charts apart. The smoke was bad. The medicinal nottes overpowering and sadly it was the ruin of both a great whiskey and a great espresso. Damn. coffee flavour down to a 3! Overall at a 2. A sadness filled the silence. (18)

Round 6:

Double cream subbed on Woodford. So bad we didn’t score it

Round 7:

Cappuccino froth Subbed on woodford. No score. Guess why? terrible, no integration.

Round 8:

Macallan 12 Year old, Double espresso, whipping cream.

Whisky gets a 9! highest score yet! Coffee breaks 8 for the first time, mouthfeel drops to 6.5, overall 9 we score over 30! (32.5)

We get an Almond toasted finnish on delicious complexity with everything from whiskey through the coffee and hazelnuts being commented on!

We learned that peat didn’t work, Sherry barrels ruled but an intricate aged scotch was the way to go.

Round 10:

Jack Daniels Honey, dble Espresso etc

Caramel Pudding notes, a real crowd please and would make an easy seller, but just not big and complex in the way we now knew one could achieve.

Rounds 11 – 12 and a few more as side tastings

Jameson 12 year old 3 Ships and a few others. Nothing special or worth accurately recording.

Odd attempts added in: With/without sugar (without); flames; ratios etc

Proper rounds 13 -16

We used the Macallan 12, Dbl espresso whipping cream in a champagne flute. It over-delivered whisky killing the drink.

Martini Glass – too creamy

Regular cappuccino cup, same as round 8. Excellent.

Brandy Snifter: Last round and the winner by a country mile, it took a great drink exceptional. It is quite unbelievable how the glass changed evertything. Come in to the HQ to try it. But as Neil Pendock said here, it ain’t going to be cheap!

Cone try one at the HQ

Glass testing

News from our Hq:

As of tomorrow (Tuesday 13th November 2012) the price for a cup of coffee a the window goes up a wee bit. trainee made cups at the take-away only are now R15.

From the Slayer in the centre of the bar, served in our eclectic collection of cups they will be @ R25….

Any comments?

Expresso show’s piece on our Steampunk HQ for TRUTH. coffee, a bit about how we roast coffee, our vintage Probat roaster, and the Slayer of course.

come see it for yourself

36 Buitenkant  Street, Cape Town

1886 Steam Punk from Adrian Lazarus on Vimeo.

Thanks to all!

At our new Artisan roastery, our HQ, we are proud to host another form of artisanry. Besides our radical Little Hattery Artisan Steampunk uniforms. We are proud to associate ourselves with Devils Peak Brewery and have two of their Artisanal beers on tap.

The Real Beer movement has finally taken a hold of Cape Town’s imagination. The question unasked on many a lip is, “how much of that real beer is real?”

Sadly mass produced sameness has crept in. At least Devil’s Peak is the real thing. Their Blockhouse IPA is the real thing. Deep hoppy IPA flavour. A meal almost. It is brilliant, and possibly Cape Town’s most tasty beer, and I hope they or another brewery prove that wrong soon!

Aroma:

A prominent to hop aroma with a citrusy, floral, resinous, piney, and passion fruit character derived from the American hops. It has been dry hopped to add aroma. Some clean malty sweetness may be found in the background, but is a lot lower level than in English examples.

Appearance:

Colour is medium gold. It is almost clear, which is achieved through fining. Good head with white to off-white colour should persist.

Flavour:

Hop flavour is medium-high and will reflect typical American hop characters with citrusy, floral, resinous, piney and passion fruit aspects. Medium-high hop bitterness is present, although the malt backbone will support the strong hop character and provide for good balance. Medium-dry to dry finish.

Mouthfeel:

Smooth medium-bodied mouthfeel without hop-derived astringency, although moderate carbonation can combine to render an overall dry sensation in the presence of malt sweetness.

Overall Impression:

A decidedly hoppy and bitter, moderately strong American India Pale Ale.

Vital Statistics:

Style: American IPA
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.011
IBUs: 56
ABV: 6%

For the more faint of heart we have the Silver Tree Saison

Aroma:

Fruitiness with a moderate spice aroma. Fruity esters dominate the aroma and are reminiscent of citrus fruits. A medium spicy hop aroma is present.

Appearance:

A distinctive pale orange colour. Long-lasting, dense, rocky white head resulting in characteristic “Belgian lace” on the glass as it fades. Haze is expected in this type of unfiltered farmhouse beer. Effervescent.

Flavor:

Combination of fruity and spicy flavors supported by a soft malt character, a low alcohol presence and tart sourness. Extremely high attenuation gives a characteristic dry finish. The fruitiness is citrusy. Hop flavor is low to moderate, and is generally spicy and earthy in character. Hop bitterness is moderate.

Mouthfeel:

Light to medium body. High carbonation with an effervescent quality. A moderate tart character is present which adds a refreshing character.

Overall Impression:

A refreshing, medium fruity/spicy ale with a distinctive yellow-orange color, highly carbonated, well hopped, and dry with a quenching acidity.

History:

A seasonal summer style produced in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. Originally brewed at the end of the cool season to last through the warmer months before refrigeration was common.

Vital Statistics:

Style: Saison
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.003
IBUs: 30
ABV: 5%

Anyhow, if you want to try some, come along tonight to the Hitchcock Vertigo Screening, details on Facebook.

Out of interest, Vertigo was voted the most critically acclaimed movie of all time recently: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/aug/10/my-favourite-hitchcock-vertigo

Although, due to the fact that the Cape Town City Council, still haven’t issued our occupation certificate to us, and we are unable to properly open TRUTH. HQ to the public. We patiently await our launch.

We are almost there as these photo’s by Virginie Harel show:

The tip of the iceberg revealed:

The blend itself is a composition of individually roasted micro-lots of a Brazilian, a Guatemalan, a superb Indian from the Mysore, with deep chocolate notes and a little Ethiopian Harrar, because, well we could and it adds so much to the blend.

The Blend itself is designed around production on the espresso machine, specifically when used with milk. In other words the perfect flat white blend. But it has it’s devotees as a filter coffee too.

here are the almost final images:

now to choose the bike to come to us on: