coffee anyone?

[tmadd]

thanks again for all the advice man, really appreciate it! do you work in the industry or are you just super knowledgeable? i already have a basic electric kettle, but it doesn't have a gooseneck. so basically you heat the water up in one kettle then transfer it to another for pouring?

 

you think if i'm just going to stick to fp/moka/pour over, is the precisoworth the extra dough over the virtuoso? or could i even be fine sticking with my capresso for now? 

 

I was a member of the opening crew at Intelligentsia's Venice location and worked there for four years, up until the end of May last year.  I heat in the electric kettle…when it's a little bit before boiling, I pour 6 ounces or so into the pouring kettle to pre-heat the kettle, and then use that water to prewet the Chemex filter.  Pouring water straight off the boil into an empty but preheated pouring kettle usually brings the temp down just enough to be at optimal brewing temperature.  Yeah, the preciso is…the burr set is better and the additional steps in the grind size adjustment allow you to really dial in  for any brew method.  It's another one of those purchases where for an extra hundred bucks or so, you get something that is as good as there is on the market, and that you'll never need to replace.

 

tmadd: any advice on v60 pourover analysis/recommended guides? I spent summer 2013 fucking around with a v60 and never really got a cup that made me go wow.  I've got the standard equipment: v60, hario buona kettle, porlex, scale...and it's probably my technique that really fucked things up, but it's hard to isolate a single variable rigorously.

 

I'm not current with that the most easily accessible literature out there is, but I thought that the Intelligentsia app and the brew guides on the website were pretty fucking killer last I looked at them.  Your rig sounds solid…as long as you are using water with adequate mineral content (crystal geyser is my recommendation based on tests done at Intelli a long time ago) the weakest link is probably the porlex…not because it isn't a reasonably high quality grind, but because it's not a particularly consistent grinder over time, meaning grinder drift will be fucking with your attempts to isolate other variables.  

 

Sometimes this is a cop-out…but a lot of people have a fairly real syndrome about never being impressed by coffee they brew, even when they should be.  That's why if you can ever get a buddy to taste with you as you brew, you can get some perspective at least (and brew twice as much before you get totally fucking spun.).

 

didn't care that much about handsome tbh but damn at blue bottle buying them

 

That didn't surprise me nearly as much as Blue Bottle's acquisition of TONX…it'll be interesting to see how the previously under-the-radar subscription service translates into Blue Bottle's business model.  Also, Blue Bottle is opening in Tokyo, without Japanese partners…which is a crazy, crazy thing.

[lmk1995]

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Edited January 10, 2022 by littlemike

[tmadd]

If you're switching coffees on the regular, I'd just always leave the hopper empty and pre-weigh the doses before tossing them in the hopper.  This has the added benefit of allowing you to keep your coffee as fresh as possible in some type of airtight container until right before time to brew.  

 

Running the grinder dry (I'm guessing you mean starting empty) is fine.  The things you want to avoid is doing way too much grinding way too fine back to back and heating up the burrs, or running the grinder for so long that the motor heats up.  You'd have to try pretty hard to do either of those things.  

[lmk1995]

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Edited January 10, 2022 by littlemike

[pepper davies]

i've been brewing coffee daily on a chemex / baratza virtuoso setup for a while now.  like doing ice coffee with the chemex more than any other method I've found

 

lately have been dreaming of some rube goldberg-esque drip coffee machine.  setup a computer that boils water to an exact temperature, weighs grinds and dispenses coffee, controls bloom time, pour rate and pattern, etc.

 

or is that essentially what's going on in that clover machine starbucks purchased for a billion dollars?

[lmk1995]

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Edited January 10, 2022 by littlemike

[lmk1995]

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Edited January 10, 2022 by littlemike

[Spitn2]

I'm currently using a blue bottle one hole pour over cone and as I've been trying to perfect my pour as much as possible, I was wondering how significant is the difference between pouring it 3/4 to the top and pouring at a faster pace vs. keeping the water just over the grounds. I know because the V60 has a bigger hole that technique has to be done to make a more consistent cup, but I'm just curious to hear feedback. I've done like tons of research and the answers are always varied presumably because preferences, but yeah lmk thanks! In addition, I bloom 40 seconds and aim for extraction around 2:30-3:00 any other opinions on this? So in total it'll be like 3:10-3:40 

Edited May 6, 2014 by Spitn2

[poly800rock]

I got this when they were $50 on kickstarter, love the app with the brew print.

 

http://acaia.myshopify.com/

[Kale Kohai]

Ugh this Four Barrel Columbia Andino espresso we've been pouring at work has been absurd. Some of the better espresso I've had in a while now. Really smooth milk chocolate richness with strong ripe mango sweetness and a solid medium plus body. If you can find some I highly recommend. 

[Djtko]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_consumption_per_capita haha

 

The coffee is too good to give up. I'm a Finnish, so I'm used to drink quite a lot of coffee. Mostly just black coffee. Like 4 to 6 cups per day, especially at work. I drank even more back in days though. 

Edited May 11, 2014 by Djtko

[twistedtrees]

Does anybody know how humidity affects brewing? This past week we got a mini heat wave and the air was so thick. I know with baking it really affects things, but wondered if having more humid air is supposed to affect it? Other than the static after the grind

[jstavrin]

Of course tmadd still posts in this thread. Of course!

 

I just bought my first hand grinder, a Porlex, and I'm a little frustrated with the way this thing is packaged. This is partially my fault, but I began spinning the grinder dry just to test it, and I quickly realized that the burs were in no way put together properly. They were screwed together tight and off axis, which yielded a pretty awful grinding noise when I began to turn it. I'm worried about having done some permanent damage to the ceramic. I guess we'll see. 

[Bleu1950]

for those moka pot or stove-top coffee maker, is there any difference between a super duppa (expensive) one or the ordinary one from Ikea?

[phatbot]

don't get aluminum moka pots

 

shit tastes weird

[FatCook]

Thoughts on the baratza vario? I've been considering an electric grinder for ages, but honestly won't get one probably until I get into full time work post work.

 

I've got a Hario mini doing all the grinding work for my manual brews. Currently got an aeropress, syphon (missing the filter atm so it's just sitting there), french press, Vietnamese drip (was a gift, not sure how to work it tbh), and a chemex 6 cup + cone on its way from massdrop after I broke my 3 cup model.

 

How bad exactly are fines in affecting final brew? I'm trying to figure out if I'm messing up in temps, pouring rate or it's straight up water quality.

[bizubimu]

^ I've heard good things about the vario, but not sure if it's worth double the price of the virtuoso when you can just buy a kitchen scale. Still, like you I have a Hario, which from my experience produces adequately uniform grinds, and my personal opinion is that the Hario + a kitchen scale does everything a casual drinker would want a fancy grinder to do. Also, I enjoy the morning routine of hand grinding coffee while catching up on news on my computer.

 

I'll leave the question regarding fines to someone more experienced, but from what I've read eliminating fines results in a "cleaner" cup of coffee which in itself isn't necessarily always a good thing. What problems are you having with flavor?

[FatCook]

More on balancing under and over extraction, so sometimes I'd get a cup that is a tiny bit more astringent at the back while some other times its just straight up in your face. I've had really good versions of coffees brewed with some of the gear I have and that's my benchmark.

 

Aromas generally have been fairly underwhelming for the most part instead of the floral sweet smells of the really good ones.

 

Flavour wise, a good part might also be from my unrefined tongue, I can pick out chocolate and citrus notes no problem but when it comes to more complex flavour profiles I'm not that good at labelling them. Same reason why I'm no good with wines atm.

 

Current doses I've used looking at videos, tutes, and recipes I'm currently ranging between 15-18 grams per 255 mL depending on how strong of a coffee is needed. I've played with some temps, between 85 up to 93 Celsius and currently I'm setting it at 90, will bump up to 92/93 again sometime soon to compare. 

 

Also, out of curiosity do you play around with variables with different beans? It seems like a concept that makes sense considering how different the production is like for each beans.

[rockon99]

As of Tuesday, 9-23, I started training at a local specialty coffee establishment called The Wandering Goat, here in Eugene. It's a great honor to join The Herd. I look forward to this adventure as a barista. I have wanted this since I was in high school. Coffee has always been an important part of my life. COME ON DOWN IF YOU'RE IN EUGENE SOMETIME! I have long thought the Wandering Goat to have the best coffee's and baristas in Eugene. Currently drinking their Abyssinia blend, a wet and a dry process Ethiopia, tasting markedly of blueberries; my favorite WG coffee for manual drip.

 

Cafe and Roastery website

[FatCook]

As of Tuesday, 9-23, I started training at a local specialty coffee establishment called The Wandering Goat, here in Eugene. It's a great honor to join The Herd. I look forward to this adventure as a barista. I have wanted this since I was in high school. Coffee has always been an important part of my life. COME ON DOWN IF YOU'RE IN EUGENE SOMETIME! I have long thought the Wandering Goat to have the best coffee's and baristas in Eugene. Currently drinking their Abyssinia blend, a wet and a dry process Ethiopia, tasting markedly of blueberries; my favorite WG coffee for manual drip.

 

Cafe and Roastery website

 

Kinda related, several months ago after running out of beans I decided to get a small bag of beans from a local roasting company going by the name Campos. When I mentioned aeropress the vendor just gave me a weird look and mentioned something about single origins being better for what I've got planned. 

 

Fair enough I thought, but then again the single origins they sell tend to be darker roasted than what I personally prefer, and imo kinda feels redundant when at the end of the day all your beans share the same flavour profile after being roasted to oblivion. Thoughts? Is single origins better for drip?

 

Got my "proper" set of beans now, a pack of Santa Teresa Cabana washed Gesha by Toby's Estate and a pack of Kopi Luwak I got from my visiting parents. After discounting the latter as a marketing ploy and multiple mundane/boring/straight up bad cups from some producers, was pleasantly surprised to finally get one that didn't suck. Medium roast, fairly uniform with large, fat beans. Apparently these were going for $30/100 grams but my uncle was given some as a gift and decided to share.

 

Smells mildly funky but has some flavour qualities that remind me of good South American beans; fruity, kinda floral. Some flavour notes I've yet to be able to label but taste familiar. Need to up my game.

[po_boy_fuuma_hatesbargerz]

 

Got my "proper" set of beans now, a pack of Santa Teresa Cabana washed Gesha by Toby's Estate and a pack of Kopi Luwak I got from my visiting parents. After discounting the latter as a marketing ploy and multiple mundane/boring/straight up bad cups from some producers, was pleasantly surprised to finally get one that didn't suck. Medium roast, fairly uniform with large, fat beans. Apparently these were going for $30/100 grams but my uncle was given some as a gift and decided to share.

 

Smells mildly funky but has some flavour qualities that remind me of good South American beans; fruity, kinda floral. Some flavour notes I've yet to be able to label but taste familiar. Need to up my game.

 

Uh, which ones were these? I had a few given to me as a present and was pissed to find out how much they had paid for subpar overroasted beans.

[FatCook]

Uh, which ones were these? I had a few given to me as a present and was pissed to find out how much they had paid for subpar overroasted beans.

 

Its called kopi sidikalang, and that's about all the information I could get from the packet.. These are by no means the "best coffee i've ever tasted" but was surprisingly decent for luwak.

 

Playing around with it so far my personal preference is to use a chemex, the aeropress tends to give me mixed results. Syphon is out of commission until I get a replacement metal rim thing to hold the cloth filter in place, and recently broke the french press so that's out too.

[neptunecitylocal]

didn't care that much about handsome tbh but damn at blue bottle buying them

agreed!

 

on that note, some of the dudes that worked at handsome opened up a spot 3rd st. and they have a cold brew on tap. 

[conqueror]

i posted about my tokyo cafe impressions in the jp thread but figured it might be useful here as wel;. i have only ever had coffee in AUS/UK/JP so have no experience or comparison to how things are in the states. the biggest annoyance with lots of these places is that they don't open until 11 or 12 which is completely mindbogglng to me.

 

on the flipside, the majority of them have amazing setups which are super unique from each other and are bursting with character. honestly, going to all of these different spaces was almost equally as fun as trying the coffee as as most cafes in australia look identical with no thought put into them whatsoever and where sitting on milk crates whilst drinking out of bell jars is still seen as 'edgy'.

 

omotesando koffee (also went to the kyoto 'branch' in united arrows): definitely my favourite, even lining up (for half an hour in my case) is an awesome experience and the latte was probably the best i've ever had...miles better than anything i've had in australia or england. sounds lame but the whole thing was very 'zen' like and i wish i had the time to go back. the owner/barista is also pretty good looking. yes homo.

 

cream of the crop (went to both locations): the main branch in kiyosumi-shirakawa (where the roastery is) is rarely visited by tourists but was one of my favourite spaces and is worth dropping by if you're going to the museum of contemporary art. the barista who's name i've forgotten is very friendly and can speak some english. they only do drip coffee and i was the only person there when i visited.

 

nozy: interesting space that's spread across two levels, but weirdly has almost no seating whatsoever considering how big it is. my latte was maybe a tiny bit too cold but that was my only gripe. the 3 people i saw working were all girls which was nice to see as coffee places in japan seem to be full of mostly dudes.

 

fuglen: i had the 'daily aeropress pick' and it was far too fruity and acidic for my liking, but seemed to be a popular hangout with lots of foreigners sitting around which i was surprised by. tons of art/design/architecture magazines to flick through as well.

 

little nap coffee stand: i got completely lost trying to find this as yoyogi park is closed. tiny spot but i can imagine it would be amazing to visit in summer. had the iced coffee which was good and came with some of the most crystal clear ice cubes i've ever seen. has seating for about 4-5 people and a few outside.

 

link: this is in shinsaibashi, osaka. place stinks of smoke and the barista (owner?) is middle-aged but dressed immaculately and cool to watch. lots of old, kinda sketchy dudes in sunglasses sitting around in dead silence. you basically pick what bean you want, a 'strength' level (strong, medium or light) and he does the rest. my brew was really strong and served in a dainty old lady teacup kinda thing.

 

be a good neighbor: one of my favourites and another one i wanted to go back to. tiny spot that only has standing space for about 4 people but the latte was delicious and the barista actually asked if i liked it which has never happened to me before.

 

streamers: amazing latte art which was to be expected, but maybe slightly too big and milky as others have pointed out. also had some sort of 'army donut' which was dope.

 

taste & sense: directly opposite 1ldk and is really nice to sit outside if the weather permits. had the double espresso which was thick as tar and incredibly bitter. staff seemed to speak some english and were friendly.

 

bear pond: i guess my biggest surprise was turning up at 12pm on a sunday and being the only person there. i wanted to try the espresso but katsu is the only one 'allowed' to make them and he was waiting for a taxi with a suitcase. his wife and some other dude were working behind the machine so i had a fantastic latte which was probably only behind the one i had at omotesando. the wife came across as kind of stand-offish but they've had that rep for years now. also copped a cupcake across the street from ny cupcakes which was out of this world.

 

 

on the corner: went late in the evening and it has some nice lighting but it was super loud with 'too cool staff' and setup like an old diner which i didn't like but the americano was decent. bear pond is miles better as you can probably imagine.

 

filbert steps: iced coffee was okay but a little watery. the menu was confusing and difficult to decipher but i was jet lagged (or i could just be a moron).

 

good morning cafe: located on a fairly quiet and v nice leafy street. friendly staff and decent coffee/breakfast (english menu!) as well but maybe a little too 'soccer mom' for my liking. i appreciated that they were one of the few coffee joints who were actually open in the morning.

 

cafe obscura: part of the 'maach ecute' strip (basically an old train station converted into small shops) which is an awesome idea and seems to have been executed well. the latte was bigger than most others but surprisingly was not too weak or milky. v smooth.

 

sarutahiko: tried to go twice (admittingly on a weekend) but it was too busy and i cbf waiting.

Edited November 14, 2014 by conqueror

[delirium]

thanks for posting. 

 

quick question: do pourovers dominate the offerings? interested in the pourover vs espresso popularity in jp. 

 

i am also curious as to how blue bottle will do in tokyo. there seems to be a good amount of excitement.

[conqueror]

thanks for posting. 

 

quick question: do pourovers dominate the offerings? interested in the pourover vs espresso popularity in jp. 

 

i am also curious as to how blue bottle will do in tokyo. there seems to be a good amount of excitement.

 

lattes were the most popular by a loooong shot in terms of what i saw people ordering/drinking overall, so presumably espresso? being a barista also seems to be a somewhat respected job over there, whereas in australia it's generally seen as something that uni students do for part-time work.

 

edit - i should have said that lattes are also v popular here in aus, but the 'flat white' (basically a slightly stronger and less milky latte) is arguably the most common.

Edited November 14, 2014 by conqueror

[conqueror]

how long will a bag of beans be good for? i wanna buy some as part of a friends' xmas present, is 4 weeks too long?

[po_boy_fuuma_hatesbargerz]

4-10 days from roast depending on varietal.

[conqueror]

i thought the answer would be <2 weeks. fugg.

[herpsky]

lattes were the most popular by a loooong shot in terms of what i saw people ordering/drinking overall, so presumably espresso? being a barista also seems to be a somewhat respected job over there, whereas in australia it's generally seen as something that uni students do for part-time work.

 

edit - i should have said that lattes are also v popular here in aus, but the 'flat white' (basically a slightly stronger and less milky latte) is arguably the most common.

 

that's because japanese pipo v. uneducated about coffee. most people don't even know that latte is an espresso based drink. they just drink latte because everyone else drinks it and the art is v. kawaii. 

i think japanese baristas are fairly well respected because most of them who work at specialty coffee shops are highly skilled and very dedicated.

 

Why do Japanese lattes or espresso based drinks suck ass? One thing that people failed to notice (myself included) is that Japanese lattes (or any permutation of milk:espresso-drinks) only have ONE shot of espresso. what we are used to in the wypipo land is known as "gibraltar" in JPN. It's two shots of espresso and milk. It's pretty comparable to a cortado. 

 

Blue bottle won't probs blow up any time soon because it's in kiyosumi shirakawa and it's kind of out of the way for most scenesters who work in fashion and other cool-guy jobs.