So I was asked by Mark to write about coffee. At first I was overjoyed at the thought. This was, after all, what I had wanted to do for ages. So I got sucked in; I put my head down and I wrote. I put together a little over 1500 words and I reread it. It was gibberish, strewn with jargon and technical talk, laden with scientific references. It was too much, but then where does one start with coffee? Well, at the beginning of course, the beginning being the flavour of coffee and in this article I am going to focus on how temperature affects flavour.
Customer: “My coffee is cold”
This is something one hears all too often, and you begin to think as a consumer these baristas really ought to know how to steam milk to the right temperature – heck it’s their profession! What you’ve just done is stumbled into a great coffee shop, riding the 3rd wave of coffee – you’ve just had a cup made by a coffee specialist and know that there is method to this madness.
The first point to consider is how your tongue works. Simply put, it registers flavours better in a certain temperature range. If we use ice cream as an example; One does not taste the sweetness when it is frozen, only once it melts on your tongue (Go get an ice cream, I’ll prove it). Similarly, melted ice cream can be hard to drink because of its intense sweetness.
Beverage producers in the modern era focus less on quality and flavour and more on ensuring the beverage is served at a certain temperature. I call this the “warm beer phenomenon”. In my home country there is a very popular malt beverage and the company advertises its flagship bottle being drunk in frigid conditions. The merchandising team stocks bars with powerful sub-zero fridges and the design team has even put a large snowflake on the label that turns blue when it is cold enough to drink. They are planting the seed that this has to be served extra cold.
Ok, so what does this have to do with coffee? The answer is as follows: the colder the beverage the less you are actually tasting (your tongue works best tasting things between 15-50 degrees). Once the beer in question warms slightly you will more than likely throw it out.
Larger coffee chains use this technique too. Their hot drinks are scalded and their cold drinks are over iced – you will even see crushed ice being used instead of blocks. This crushed ice has an increased surface area in contact with the liquid so you have significant, rapid cooling.
What it boils down to is this: These coffee outlets are hiding their flavour, likely because it is bad. They are serving super cheap beans on subpar machines with undertrained baristas, but you the consumer are left unaware as you cannot taste much and that’s exactly what they want. The consistency is also much greater, they are consistently bad.
The second reason certain shops serve warm coffee is this: Heating milk to and not above a certain temperature enhances the inherent sweetness. Above 65 degrees you start to breakdown the lactose present in the milk (lactose can be thought of as milk-sugar). This as well as other reactions occur at higher temperature and affect not only sweetness, but also texture. Overheat your drink and you are left with milk that has terrible texture and much lower levels of sweetness.
But what if my coffee is served without milk, it’s still not hot enough?! Well, the same applies with regards to tasting only between a certain temperature range. However, if actual ground coffee is subjected to temperatures above 93 degrees, you start burning the coffee and this inevitably results in a bitter, over extracted drink. This is similar to what happens when one steeps their tea for too long.
So before sending your warm coffee back next time (and you may, you are entitled to whatever temperature you wish – you are paying for this drink), take a sip, think about what you’re tasting and know that you will sacrifice this fantastic orchestra of flavours, aromas and textures when overheating your coffee.
Post by Grant Mouton Self–proclaimed coffee guru, coffee education addict, SCAA/SCAE accredited. Brand manager at % Arabica.
Elsewhere is a a new ingenious concept that opened up next to Elevation Burger on the Seif strip. The concept is actually owned by TABCo, the company that owns Elevation (who are one of my advertisers). It’s an experimental space created for local entrepreneurs who have ideas and concepts they want to try out for limited time periods. Currently the space is occupied by Richard’s Coffee for the next 76 days whom I wrote about a couple of weeks back.
The space doesn’t have to be occupied by a coffee shop or a food related concept, they’re open to different ideas like fashion, retail or even some sort of activity. Even the amount of time you could rent the spot for is flexible, it can be as little as you want it to be as long as its an idea that will help bring traffic to the area. The rent is very reasonable as well for the space/location. I’m not sure I can share it on the blog because I’m assuming it’s not a one price for all, but I can say that they’re definitely not profiting from the rent. The rent is low to attract the interesting concepts who in return will bring traffic to the area and indirectly promote and bring traffic to Elevation Burger next door. It’s a smart marketing idea.
Currently nobody is lined up to take the spot after Richard’s, so if you’re interested in renting the spot you could contact them on [email protected].
Previously on my iPhone, whenever I got a spam message, blocking it was fairly simple, you clicked on the sender on the top and then a “Block this Caller” option appeared and I’d click it. But, with the new iOS, things are a bit more complicated and the “Block this Caller” option is now hidden in a different menu without an obvious way of getting there. It actually took me a bit of googling to figure out how to block callers in iOS10 so I figured I’d share it on the blog since spam messages are pretty common in Kuwait.
Step 1
Instead of clicking on the sender like you previously would do, you now need to click the little “i” on the top right of your phone (photo on top)
Step 2
In this second menu, you need to click on the senders name
Step 3
Once you’re at the last menu you’ll now notice the “Block this Caller” option is available again at the bottom of the screen.
We’ve all had the nightmare of finding a good local laundry, shoe cleaning center or a decent service that could have all our stuff cleaned and delivered to our door.
Well, that’s where KLEAN comes in!
KLEAN is a multipurpose cleaning service app for laundry services, shoe cleaning & leather care (handbag cleaning & restoration) that crowd sources trusted cleaning centers to get your stuff cleaned & delivered to your door.
So, how it works is pretty simple:
1. Set your location
2. Choose your service (Clothes, Shoes and/or Leather Goods)
3. Select your pick-up & drop-off time
4. Hit KLEAN!
Once you confirm your order, one of our drivers will be with you at the selected time with your KLEAN bags (one for clothes & one for shoes). All you have to do is, stuff your KLEAN bags with your items and we take care of the rest.
Your receipt will be made and sent to you via email (or you can also check your receipt in the My Orders section) and If you need to know how much your order will cost before you place an order, you can use our price calculator.
Its as simple as that!
Also, we’re offering 248am readers 25% OFF! Use promo code: 248AM25 (valid until 31/12/2016)
Burger & Lobster is a British franchise that opened around a year ago in Kuwait. Their menu is very straight forward and simple with just 3 items, a burger, a lobster roll and a lobster, each for the same price which in Kuwait was just KD8.950.
That simple formula I guess didn’t do so well in Kuwait because last month Burger & Lobster expanded the menu by adding a lot more items while also revamping their pricing system. Now their 3 primary items have 3 different prices, the burger got dropped down to KD7, the lobster roll to KD8 while the lobster had its price increase and is now KD10. As I mentioned, they also added a bunch of other items to their menu ranging from soups to sliders. You can check out the full menu [Here]
Personally I go there for their lobster roll so none of their new items interest me. But, if it means these new items will help drive traffic and keep the place open, then I’m all for it. Their lobster roll is so good.
Yesterday I noticed Fantasy World was selling the Oculus Rift virtual reality system. I’m not sure they’re being sold anywhere else but the price at Fantasy World is a ridiculous KD399. I say ridiculous because you could order it from Amazon UK and have it shipped to you directly to Kuwait for just KD194 including customs which is half the price. Here is the Amazon [Link]
What a ridiculously packed weekend with a ton of things going on. Personally I’ll be popping in out of the Nuqat event this weekend. I also passed by the Weaving Stories exhibition a few days back and I thought that was cool, mostly because I somehow ended up spending an hour there weaving without realizing an hour had gone by. The Madeenah tours are also back again with their first tour of the season taking place this weekend. Check out the full list of events taking place this weekend below:
Kuwaiti athlete Bashar Alhunaidi will be leading a kayaking expedition from Kuwait to Oman to raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the Gulf. Bashar along with three other kayakers and a small support team plan to kayak along the coast of all 6 GCC countries to highlight the positive and the negative. The journey will take approximately 2 months to complete and the entire expedition will be filmed for a future documentary. Bashar and his team will be taking off today on their adventure and you’ll be able to follow them on the following social media accounts:
So far I’m pretty disappointed with the amount of things they’ve shared on their social media accounts. It sounds like a crazy adventure (and it is) but they haven’t shared anything so far, even though they’re taking off today. No information on what kind of kayaks they will be using, no information on what kind of gear they’re taking with them, no route map, no nothing. If it was me I would have been posting a ton of shit already, like videos showing some of my gear, a video explaining how many hours I would be kayaking, where I would be sleeping, how I will be eating etc.. If they want people to take notice of their journey then it would be nice to share a lot more than just a picture of Bashar at the 99.7RKFM studio. I’ve seen people share more pictures of their dinner then the kayak team has shared about this adventure.
DNA testing will only be applied on convicted felons and no one else, HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah told Al-Jarida newspaper yesterday. Sheikh Sabah said that discussions on the issue of DNA testing, also known as DNA fingerprinting, were over, stressing that no tests will be applied on ordinary citizens. Recently, HH the Amir directed HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to revise and reconsider the DNA testing law, calling on him and the government to apply constitutional standards on the proposed decree. [Source]
Besides the fact that it would have been invasive to our privacy, testing everyones DNA including tourists would never have been doable, feasible or manageable, so I’m glad thats behind us now.
Last week the cops announced they were going to start removing the license plates of illegally parked cars and they weren’t joking around. Yesterday I had a meeting at Arabica and while I was driving around looking for parking, I spotted not one, not two but at least a dozen cars with their plates removed. Just a whole line of illegally parked cars with no plates on them. Super freaky shit, obviously that deterred me from parking illegally so their plan is definitely working.
On the bright side, I noticed for the first time there is actually a multistory car park on the street behind Arabica so ended up parking there.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the different ways musicians can earn a living making music? Well, while I was researching for that piece, I did a little digging on radio in Kuwait, trying to get a better understanding of how it works. Aside from the fact that very little information is actually out there, I did come to find some interesting facts, but I feel like if I just tell you the story about my own experience with 99.7, it’ll make for a better picture. But first, let me give you some background.
On April 20, 2016, I released my EP album, Plastic Desert Roots. Unlike my earlier works, the focus of this album was on the “heavier” social aspects of my world, something I had tried to stay away from in the past, but I’d been living and performing in Kuwait long enough to feel like it was time – I needed to voice some of the things I was going through. With that, it was only natural for me to want to tap into the reggae genre, where, under the mentorship of Fabrice Mareau, who produced the album, I had access to amazing knowledge from someone who’d been in the industry far longer than I.
“Peace in the Middle East”, “Stay for The Night” and “Pull Over”, three of the titles off of Plastic Desert Roots, all tackle issues that, for the most part, we all have had to deal with to some degree. In “Pull Over”, I basically talk about what it’s like to be me whenever I’m at a tafteesh, (Police checkpoint), or when randomly getting pulled over by cops – long-haired, fedora-wearing Amin, who’s Arabic is not perfect. So, you could say the song is a little… charged, and given the tightening of security measures around the country and the general crackdown on expats from the police department, I was lighting a flame way to close to this gas tank of an issue. But In the song, I don’t curse, and I made sure to give the song enough space so as not to offend anyone – mostly PG-13. So let’s start painting this picture.
As I drove up to the 99.7FM studio on that 4.20 day, I thought; this does not look at all like what I had expected, I might be a little over my head. I was actually taken aback by all of it, because like many of you, I’m used to a more, let’s say, “Western” approach, where the radio station looks more like a 5 star hotel lobby than a military training facility. But, if you’ve ever actually, physically, visited the station, you’ll realize that you’re entering some sort of a military compound – barricades, machine guns and all. At the gate, I needed to present my Civil ID, some other paperwork that had been requested of me (and not copies of it on my phone, physical hard copies of my documents), my car had to undergo a security check, (kind of like the ones at the bigger hotel chains in Kuwait but way more intimidating), all to ensure that I was a “welcomed” visitor. Once deemed friendly, I was allowed passage.
I was now driving past the gate with but one thought in my head; “Pull Over” is one of the songs I was about to premier on 99.7FM. But, instead of being naïve and trying to compare outwards, I remembered that one of the things I’d dug up on radio was that the history of radio itself actually comes from a military background. During the times of WWI and WWII, the radio served as a medium to share mass information with the general public so it made sense why there was a need to keep it protected. In our not-so-distant history, when Iraqi forces first made their way into Kuwait, TV and radio were the first things they took over. It’s the modern day version of “Capture the flag”. Ok, I assure you this is the only historical reference I’ll be making in this post. So, back to my visit of the 99.7 studio, at that moment I realized that dealing with the radio of a country, a government or public entity, is not something to play with – it actually has the potential to be extremely dangerous, and I was starting to doubt “Pull Over” was going to make it on the air.
When I made it to the studio, I sat with the host, someone who knows my album, had really taken the time to listen to it, and had interesting questions to ask – we did a general talk-through of how the show would play out, went through the album, I told her a little bit about each song and was really looking forward to her presenting my work. We went on air and everything seemed to be going great; we were getting callers engaging with the show, my WhatsApp was firing up with messages from friends, and I had almost entirely forgotten that I was doing all that from inside a military facility in Kuwait.
After the radio break, up next was; “Pull Over”. Now, getting down to the lyrics of the song, I do make a statement with respect to cops, saying in not so many words, “cops take advantage of their position of power”, because, the way I see it, custodians of the law are honest, or should be honest, but that is too often not the case. With a line like, “some cops stop a car to ask a girl out”, I was in essence singing not-so-sweet songs about one government entity of Kuwait, to another government entity of Kuwait. I was feeling the sweat of the predicament. And, when it came time to play the song, the host, with experience on how to navigate these situations, found an angle from which to present the song, maintaining the integrity of its message, without being offensive, to the public or the government. And that is what good hosts do. I got on the air and simply introduced the song as; “‘Pull Over’, and some of the realities of living in Kuwait.” I did not use the words “cops”, I did not say this is “my” experience – I left it wide open. But, without her guidance, I’m sure I would’ve pissed someone off.
or
So, you see, the image that 99.7 projects of themselves, through the music they play, the hosts they employ, and even some of the topics they discuss, can be quite confusing. And, if you’re thinking; they play all kinds of music from the States, a lot of which promotes, even celebrates, controversial, oftentimes taboo behavior in our culture, (and they don’t always catch censorship-worthy lyrics), you’d be right. But that’s the thing. That just let’s you know the obstacles they must continuously face to be able to bring you that from inside that institution. So when you think, why aren’t there more stations? Why is radio so restricted? Why can’t it be more liberal? Or sometimes, simply; why? This is why. And with that, I want to set some things straight, specifically about the hosts.
Many of the most common criticisms of radio hosts lie somewhere between; “these guys aren’t fit to host a radio show”, (and the list of reasons why varies), and “these guys are too restricted”. What I want to say is; with that type of establishment, and that kind of power, it makes complete sense that there is no tolerance for “malpractice”. The fact that the radio also announces prayer times, and not by simply announcing them either, but by broadcasting the athaan, and has regularly scheduled news broadcasts throughout the day that address issues of high-ranking government officials of Kuwait, is testament to the fact that being a host on a radio that shares these ideals, is a matter much more serious than simply entertaining their listeners. Because of that, I’ve actually grown to appreciate what the guys at 99.7RKFM do a lot differently than I did. Here’s another thing, when on the air, contrary to what some might’ve heard, there really isn’t much room for censorship, I’ve been on some of their shows, I know. There really isn’t some miracle technology to magically reset time. The only thing at their disposal is the 5-second delay in broadcasting (because they’re not actually live to the second), which, through this one “chopper” button on their counter, can be used to rewind, well, 5 seconds of time. But after 5 seconds, whatever goes out there, is pretty much out there. That’s a lot of pressure. And, if you think about it, quite a lot of power. And remember, this is a public entity, designed for mass communication, and, as a side “favor”, if you will, does us this luxury of playing cool hip music. But at its core, it’s only meant to ensure that the public receives correct information. So, as listeners, looking to ease our way through morning rush-hour with some good tunes, we take for granted how high the stakes are for these guys. Yes, they come across neutral, or “vanilla”, but when 5 seconds of what can be considered a controversial opinion has the potential to not only get you fired, but have you staring down a loaded legal situation with the government of a country, you’d probably opt for vanilla, too.
On that note, I’d like to show some overdue gratitude to those hosts, past or present, because, even though you might be listening to their show, not enjoying their vibe, those people are doing a job that is the equivalent to walking a tight rope, with a conditional safety net of the “5 Second Rule”, all while trying to entertain their audience. Do you know how many times I’ve said something, just a simple slip of the tongue, over dinner, that I wish I could take back? Something the repercussions of which were huge, and we’re talking a dinner of no more than 10 people. Now imagine that dinner table was the entire country of Kuwait, and that slip of the tongue was heard by every single person tuning in, all at the same time. It carries a different weight. Take a moment to think about that, and I hope that you come to see them differently, too.
Now, because there is actual information I’d like to share, here are some of the things I found while researching this topic. There are currently 9, maybe 10 radio stations in Kuwait; one of which is an independent US military station, another, 88.8FM, a private station, the former director of which, before the recent purchase, had his beginnings with the 99.7 team, and of course, 99.7 – so essentially, we’re talking about the same vibes. So, let’s see what opportunities this new purchase of 88.8 will present. In the meantime, be nice to our hosts, it’s a tough job.
Does anyone know any secrets of what went down with 88.8FM? We’re looking for more info for our upcoming posts.
Love, Music and Peace
Amin FARI
Post by Amin FARI Are you a musician looking to perform? On the flipside, are you a host looking for musicians to book? Or maybe you’ve just got an awesome idea you’d like to share? Get in touch [email protected] / Instagram: @xxmrfarixx
When I first started putting this list together it was because I was planning to visit them all and maybe review them. But I didn’t think there were this many already and so I don’t think that plan is possible anymore. Below is a list of all the speciality coffee shops I’m aware of, let me know if I missed any:
