The New York Times‘ occasional Culinary Arts animated feature recently took on British coffee genius and YouTube star James Hoffmann. It was an interesting and visually arresting look into Hoffmann’s appeal and his path to coffee stardom.
One panel caught my eye, as it included Hoffmann’s French press recipe.
I’m just going to leave this here.
I heard somewhere recently (Wait Wait?) that a study showed drinking 4 cups of coffee a day wasn’t good for your health. Pish posh, I thought, even though I don’t consume that much of the dark elixir.
Jane Brody of the New York Times to the rescue. The long-time personal health writer for the paper of record (whose son lived across the hall from me in college, though that’s neither here nor there) writes that coffee is good for you – it’s science! Coffee and caffeine helps you live longer, helps with preventing many of the ills of modern life, and so on and so forth.
A few caveats related to caffeine consumption: too much caffeine is not good if you’re pregnant; for some people it can interfere with sleep; coffee making methods that don’t involve a filter leave in chemicals that can raise LDL cholesterol; and finally, turning that coffee into a dessert is not a good idea, so lay off the sweetened nonsense pushed by the green evil empire and the like:
Also countering the potential health benefits of coffee are popular additions some people use, like cream and sweet syrups, that can convert this calorie-free beverage into a calorie-rich dessert….. A 16-ounce Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino, for example, has 51 grams of sugar, 15 grams of fat (10 of them saturated) and 370 calories.
Stepping away from the espresso for a moment, here’s a timely bit of learning. I’ve followed this method for years and it never fails. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
NY Times video from 2007 showing how to carve and present a turkey.
Updated version with the same guy from 2013, it’s not as thorough but you get a few additional tips.