Ever since I started buying my steaks at Harvard Meat Market, I haven't been able to enjoy steak from restaurants or the grocery store.  No matter how much I want a piece of beef, if I don't have time to go to HMM, I'm foregoing it until I can get the real thing.  It's that good.

For a long time I've understood that there are numerous factors that influence the taste of everything I eat and drink.  Learning about coffee has taught me that.  So when I think about beer, I think about the variability that must exist in the taste of the wheat, barley, hops, and many other ingredients.  Things that appear to be commodities are actually variable lots that industries strive to standardize.  Beef is the same.  It's much like coffee.  Where the cow is raised, what it eats, how it is treated, the breed of cow, how it is butchered, and what aging it goes through are some of the factors that influence the steak on your plate.

Yesterday I was driving back from a mountain bike race and I listened to a couple podcasts on the way.  The podcasts were from Food Philosophy, a podcast produced by a woman named Jennifer Iannolo.  I really enjoy the audio podcasts she does, and I think you'd like them to.  The one in particular I'm referring to now is number 83, entitled "What's Your Beef?"  She interviews a woman named Carrie Oliver from Oliver Ranch.  Carrie started something called the Artisan Beef Institute, which is an organization to educate people and try to understand the variety of flavors and textures in various types of cows and production methods.  The things she talked about made me really happy.  There are many parallels to coffee and what we do here at the DoubleShot.  If you have time, you should listen to the podcast.  I'm going to order an Artisan Steak Tasting kit from Carrie's website- consisting of four cuts of beef from four different farms and types of cow.  I can't wait.

Here are some links:

Food Philosophy podcast page and iTunes link

Imagine how good these steaks would be paired with the right coffees...