Corti Brothers Newsletter for March 2007 Page 3 

Goan Cuisine Tomato Kasaundi 370g jar $5.99 (#1816)

Goan Cuisine Eggplant Kasaundi 365g jar $5.99 (#1817)

Since 2002 Corti Brothers has not been able to offer this very pleasing coffee discovered by Rick Mindermann of our staff. Sigri Estate Peaberry from Papua New Guinea is especially pleasing. Sigri plantation, established in 1950 in the Wahgi Valley of Papua New Guinea’s Western Highland Province, produces some of the finest arabica coffee. The estate, at 5,200 feet has been recognized as producing a world class coffee, hand picked and inspected, wet processed and sun dried.

Peaberry beans are natural sports in coffee. Normally a coffee “cherry” produces two flat sided beans. Peaberry occurs when the coffee flower is singularly pollinated, creating one rounded bean rather than two flat sided ones. The peaberry matures with the nutrient flow intended for two berries. Famous as a more flavorful bean it has a rich, chocolate-y flavor and sweet mellow taste.

Roasted by Jeremiah’s Pick Coffee company in San Francisco, the Sigri Estate is a medium roast, whole bean packaged in 16 oz. nitrogen flushed valve bags for freshness. Needless to say, we have only a limited amount.
If you are interested in this coffee, but don’t have a home grinder, we can grind before shipping. Just specify the type of grind you would like; Coarse, Percolator, Drip, Auto Drip, Fine, Espresso, or Turkish.

Sigri Estate New Guinea Peaberry Whole Bean Coffee $9.99 16oz bag (#1818)

The name Oscar Tintori is the most famous in Italy for citrus plants. The Tintori nursery is located in Pescia, a serene, delightful part of Tuscany in Lucchesia, the area of Lucca/Pistoia, famous for its wonderful gardens. The nursery has now published a very useful, informative and jewel of a book on citrus.

In their book, the Tintori family give their advice on cultivating citrus from a rural gardening tradition. In a well done, very readable English translation, you have a new world of information on citrus at your fingertips.

An important part of Italian gardens is the citrus collection, generally lemons and oranges, but encompassing the whole of the genus Citrus. These plants are generally grown in pots, so that they can be moved under cover during winter, into the “limonaia” or better known in French as, “l’orangerie.”

Ornamental Citrus Plants, some 216 pages, is divided into chapters on care of citrus, reproducing systems, training systems and monthly care. For me the most valuable section is that on the varieties done by Paolo Galeotti, curator of the Villa Medicea di Castello gardens.

There are photographs and descriptions of 95 different species and cultivars, some descriptions including historical, late Renaissance engravings and later botanical art showing the fruit. A lot, if not all of the rare citrus grown in the Medici gardens during the Renaissance are shown here.

This is not a technical book in the citrus production sense, but a hobby book, showing what is still grown in Italy and cultivars that might be commercial. If you want to see the fruit and leaves of the Chinotto from Savona or the Ciaculli mandarin, or read their known history, here is your chance.

The odd shaped, antique cultivars are fascinating to look at and have full descriptions and tasting notes. If you grow citrus, this is definitely a book for you. If you do not, or cannot, this is the next best thing.

Oscar Tintori's Ornamental Citrus Plants, 216 pages, color-b/w photos $45 + tax (#1819)

This is the best “maraschino” cherry made. This is not your flavorless Royal Anne white cherry pitted and dyed red, but sour marasca cherries in thick syrup made of marasca cherry juice and sugar.

Darker and more flavorful than maraschino cherries, the Luxardo Marasche Al Frutto are probably similar to what the early 1900s had as “cherries in marasquin” from a French producer listed on the 1903 catalogue of Goldberg, Bowen of San Francisco, the then reigning fancy grocer on the West Coast.

By 1909, they became known as cherries in maraschino; by 1912 there were also cherries in creme de menthe, obviously the forerunner of “green” maraschino cherries. Fruit preserved in alcohol was quite well liked then.

The Luxardo firm which produces the Marasche al Frutto, industrialized the sweet, clear cherry liqueur known as Maraschino in 1821 at Zara on the Dalmatian coast (now in Italy’s Veneto) and has been the major producer ever since. Maraschino cherries probably had nothing to do with mixed drinks until fairly recently.

Maraschino was used in cocktails very early on and the name remains. There is no “maraschino” cherry mentioned in early cocktail or bar books, but there is Maraschino the liqueur. This is an ingredient every well stocked bar should have. Corti Brothers is delighted to supply you.

Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur $32.99 +Tx 750ml (#1820)

Eric Felten, in his weekly “How’s your drink?” column for The Wall Street Journal, writes informatively about maraschino cherries and especially the Luxardo Marasche Al Frutto.

If you want to use a “maraschino” cherry in a drink, then use the grown up version, Luxardo Marasche Al Frutto. They can be used very nicely in dessert making or eaten by themselves as they were originally.

Luxardo Marasche Al Frutto Cherries 360g jar (#1821) $17.99