Dragaera

Klava Recipies

Jason Derleth derleth at MIT.EDU
Thu Mar 20 05:57:15 PST 2003

David Silberstein wrote:


> Would those persons who believe they have successfully re-created this
> drink be so kind as to post the actual materials, methods, quantities
> & times, as precisely & completely (& nicely & accurately) as possible
> so that others may try it (e.g., what kind of coffee did you start out
> with, what kind of wood, what species of bird for the eggshells (just
> in case anyone tried duck or goose), how were these materials
> combined, how long was A in contact with B, etc, etc)? 


I have tried it, in the following ways, with the following results:

Trial #1:
3 tbs. coffee
~2 tbs. maple wood chips
2 brown chicken eggshells (I can't find any white eggshells in Boston, 
isn't that odd?)

placeed all items above in french press, added 16 oz not quite boiling 
water, let steep for 5 minutes.

added cream and honey to taste

Results of trial #1:
The coffee was very old, as I have recently been to lazy to make it 
myself, so the coffee wasn't as flavorful as I'd have liked. The wood 
taste was very slight, I think the wood chips that I was using weren't 
ideal and there weren't enough of them. I'd call it more of a scent 
than a taste. However, the coffee was exceptionally smooth, and the 
flavor of the honey truly mixed well with the scent of the wood. An 
exceptionally earthy, smooth, non-bitter cup of coffee.

Trial #2:
3 tbs. coffee
~5 tbs spruce wood chips
1 eggshell

same brewing method

added cream and fake sugar to taste

Results of trial #2:
This time the wood was more than just a scent, and I had gone out and 
gotten fresh coffee. It was very nice, with smoothness and very 
non-bitter, but the roast that I had gotten was poor--it tasted 
somewhat like cigarette ash smells. Yuck.

I had planned on making smaller wood chips and actually measuring the 
number of tablespoons, but I haven't gotten around to it. I re-read 
_Issola_ again to check the recipie--heck, any excuse to read _Issola_ 
again is good for me--and realized that I had forgotten to add vanilla 
bean. I'm going to try it again next week and see what happens with 
smaller wood chips and with the vanilla bean in it. I'm also going to 
get very good coffee to try it with, and I will note the beans used in 
and the darkness of the roast.

If anyone else has tried this out, specific recipies and opinions on 
flavor would be great!

-Jason