Thursday, November 4, 2010

Five Great Ways To Use a Coffee Filter - Most Food/Wine Related!

Five Great Ways To Use a Coffee Filter - Most Food/Wine Related!


This is not a revolution of hope for America, nor a condemnation of the current political scheme, this my friends, is good common sense that just happens to touch on the world of food and wine. I blog and write about many things some plain, others a bit more esoteric, but this knowledge can be passed along and make life a little better, a little easier, and comes with a great price tag… FREE.

Use a Coffee

Filter to Remove Pieces of Cork / Cork Crumbles From Wine


I was down in Florida recently with a large group

of friends out for dinner on Atlantic Avenue in Del Ray Beach at 32 East Restaurant and encountered a wine related problem. I selected a nice value red wine from the list that had a bit of age to it (Rioja 2002) and the waiter proceeded to rip into the cork like it was a $8.99 synthetic… the cork started to crumble right away and those chunks went into the bottle as the other half of the cork was removed. No problem I thought, but the server went ahead and poured me a glass with large chunks and said “Sorry, there is nothing I can do with these older bottles…”


Ok, so I was annoyed, but here comes lesson one, I told the server this wasn’t going to work and kindly asked him to go get me a coffee filter from the kitchen. In these circumstances slowly pouring the red wine from the bottle kept the crumbling cork bits in the filter and out of my wine, a vast improvement to having a “cork mustache” after a few sips. I don’t recommend using this technique alone or on bottles with large amounts of sediment, but if the goal is to remove floating pieces of destroyed cork a simple coffee filter between the bottle and the glass will do the trip nicely!



Use a

Coffee Filter to Clean / Dry Wine Glasses / Crystal


Coffee filters are “lint free” so when you use these for cleaning on crystal, mirrors, windows, wine glasses etc… they pickup what they are supposed to without leaving behind extra fibers or lint. Each year in the fall I am involved with a great wine competition in the Kansas City area coordinated by Doug Frost (MS/MW) called The Jefferson Cup that looks to find the best wines from around the US (grapes of all varietals). As this blind tasting completion moves forward a team behind the scenes has to turn hundreds of racks of glasses to be ready for the next flights, the next day, etc… it just won’t do to have your glasses with lots of water spots on them or streaky and this is where I have seen the coffee filter (also called the glass cleaners best friend) do its magic so that the vessel to judge the next wine is inert with no spots, smears or

fibers… Your glassware need not be a Riedel big bowl if it is sparkling clean and dried correctly with no streaks!



Use a Coffee Filter to Protect Your China


With my wife, mother, and mother-in-law all “china addicts” (the plates / teacup type – not the country), you learn to live with lots of breakable things around you. As Megan and I have started to utilize some of our own fine China for dinner parties and various events I take special care in not doing ANYTHING careless that could lead to a chip, scratch or broken plate. If you have the nice felt inserts that go between the dishes that works very well, but let me say if you are looking for another great use for the Coffee Filter then use them to separate fine China when stacking. Doing this simple setup helps to prevent the possibilities of chipping or scratching as the dishes are stacked up and put away. I also use this trick when it comes time to pack boxes for a move across town or across the country. Compared to the price of the felt versions, coffee filters serve the same purpose for pennies instead of dollars. PS – Thinking about China got me dreaming of dinner at one of my favorite places, Staker’s Reserve on the Plaza in Kansas City drop in to find beautiful China all around the dining room (maybe even a coffee filter) and stop over to Halls Plaza China / Crystal to fill up your cabinet!




Use a

Coffee Filter to Line the bottom of a Potted Plant


With potted plants you need for them to be able to breathe and let out excess water, but the problem is that the soil rolls right out the bottom with it. If you take and include a coffee filter at the bottom of your potted plant before adding the potting soil and plant, you place a nice permeable layer in place that lets the water out, but keeps the soil In. Yes, I did just give advice on potted plants… I don’t have a green thumb, but this one was pretty easy.


Use a Coffee Filter to make GREAT COFFEE!!!


I might get called out by a bean baron on this one as I know that in making specialty coffee barista’s are not really using coffee filters a pot at a time, but if you buy good coffee from someone like my friends over at The Roasterie in Kansas City – you can also put that good coffee into a filter and make a great cup for everyone at the table. My preference is to grind the beans immediately before placing them into the filter and keep everything as “airtight” as possible. Grind away, make a great cup and enjoy; perfect for a Sunday morning to read the paper!


That seems like more than enough useful info about coffee filters for one day! In addition we need to share some Marquee Selections news that we are very excited about…

First, Marquee Selections has just gotten in the new vintage Marquee Classic GSM 2008 and Marquee Classic Riesling 2009 from Keith Brien at Marquee Australian Wines, two wonderful wines that are in stock and available right in time for your Thanksgiving feast!

Second, we keep having continued success as we delve deeper into the wines of Spain and Portugal… just this past month we had the Rio Real Reserva win “best in tasting” for a group of sommelier / buyers down South and it also received a 91 Point Score from Tastings.com, Top 10 wines under $15.00 Retail, Top Rated Portuguese wine! Finally let me pass along kudos and congratulations to our friends at Quintas Das Touquineras and Wines & Winemakers by Saven as the Clemen Reserva Vinho Verde was selected by Wine & Spirits Magazine as a part of their Top 100 Value Wines for 2010 – 92 Points! A very high honor (that last year Marquee Selections was a part of the list with the Caligiore Reserve Malbec), two years in a row to have part of our small/focused, green global portfolio in this list was a very nice honor!

Finally, Marquee is doing updates to our www.marquee.com website and brand imagery + has opened up our own Cellar door – “The Marquee Cellar” at www.themarqueecellar.com for direct sale purchases. If you are ready to put together a mixed case for the holidays – drop by The Marquee Cellar and place your order – Promo Code “MQBLOG” will get you 10% off. Also now available we offer cellar door pickups / deliveries in the Kansas City area… so send great wines to friends or for yourself across the globe/ bring it home, we aim to please.

Have a wonderful start to fall and you will be seeing more things soon from your friends at Marquee Selections including, new regions, additional wines and of course great information like out new WineWOD “Word of the Day” on FB & Twitter! Please share us with friends, there will be prizes along the way for those that help recruit others to the Marquee social media army!

Ciao!

~C.Cribb

Christopher J. Cribb, CSW


Marquee Wines
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