I recently discovered another dynamite coffee bean, Ethiopean Yirgacheffe. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a bold darker roast with a complex flavor suggesting dark chocolate, woodsy juniper and juicy blueberry. This coffee is a rare find given it is certified organic, and is a dry processed coffee from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. This coffee is usually dark roasted to capture its deep flavors.



This coffee won top (Gold) honors at the Speciality Coffee Association of Americas (SCAA) Roasters Choice tasting competition held on May 5, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN.



I have to order it over the web as it just isn't available locally.

There are some other items I can't find here that I wish for. One of them is available November 23 of each year - but alas, not in provincial NW Ohio. That is Nouveau Beaujolais.



Every year the winemakers of the Beaujolais region in south eastern France make a special red table wine in less than two months. It is carbonically macerated instead of allowing the sugars and yeasts to ferment the wine naturally. The wine is picked in September, and bottled by November 21, whence it is shipped in a near race fever to Paris, London and NYC. The rest follows and a couple days later the rest of us can hope to find it in our wine shops and even some supermarkets.

The nature of the wine is that you cannot age it. You MUST drink it before February or it may just go off. By 'offr' I mean it will usually taste pretty bad by Easter. It is meant to be consumed immediately.

The Nouveau is one of my annual favorites but I cannot get Kroger to jump into a case or two here.

The palates around here are pedestrian, and they prefer white zinfandel, cheap Boone's Farm and light beer to fine wine.

Can you see why I want to die in Europe?

It was a goal once to buy a run-down olive or grape farm near Genoa, Italy and build it into a B&B for American touristas. I would even charge my relatives! I would make wine and pick and process my own olives. I would cook grand meals. I would get a mini bus and take them on tours.

But there would be NO FREEBIES!

And I could get the Nouveau on 21 November!

The town I wanted to inhabit - or be near - is Gavi.



This is a photo of Gavi. It is also quite near to where my futbol team practices. Juventus of Turino is my team. I would go to watch them practice and hand out my olives and wine.

Maybe one of them would give me a signed shirt right off his back, or a pass to one of the big matches in Milano.

Ah. Dreams once dreamed.