Coffee v 2.0

Brazil Daterra Reserve from Ecco Cafe- Courtesy of Andrew Barnett

2006-11-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

First off, a shout out to Andrew Barnett for [indirectly, I suppose] scoring me this coffee. When I got off work on Sunday, Alistair left me with nearly a pound of Brazil Daterra Reserve along with the pound of Hines espresso - and what a week it has been.

I have always been curious to try this coffee since I heard it made for a very sweet and balanced shot. I can honestly say that it fulfilled those expectations. At first, it took me an abnormally long time to get it dialed it. After about my 5th sink shot, mostly due to the thermostat's deadband - it constantly reaches the low point during the shot and just scorches it towards the end - I was able to pull a decent shot. I must have dosed about 19g or so and it came out to approximately 1 1/4 oz. The crema was not particularly dark, but had great mottling. I noticed a confluence of aromas! There was a strong smell of anise... like ouzo. I attributed this to the high temperature that my machine seems to run at. There were even hints of vanilla and cedar. I prepared myself for what I expected to be a chocolate bomb. I took a sip and immediately noticed the syrupy body and wild dried fruit and nut flavours. The aftertaste was all vanilla and cocoa. It was a very satisfying shot. I pulled a few more and noticed that they were all very different. Some shots tasted like they were half Yemen, with leathery and musty aromas. Others were like a balanced, refined, sweet Brazil. The cappuccino was a different story.

In milk, this espresso seemed to be weak, with the only flavours making it through the milk being the bitter chocolate. I decided to do some temperature surfing and start the shot at the low point so that it initially increases during the shot and then decreases towards the end. I found that this worked best with the Hines. The cappuccino imrpoved... it became sweeter, but still lacked intensity. I coarsened the grind slightly and made a final cappuccino. On this one, I made an acceptable rosetta.

The taste of this one blew me away. It was caramelly and had strong bitter chocolate flavours balanced with vanilla. It was a particularly sweet cappuccino and had an aftertaste similar to the smell of ground coffee and equally as intense.

Overall, this was a really good espesso. Unfortunately, I never did cup it or make a french press. It was very satisying as a straight shot in the morning. I hope I get the chance to score some more in the future.

Espresso Machine is GO

2006-07-15T03:29:00.000-07:00

I just got my machine running. After teflon taping every fucking part of the machine I realized I was missing a small black gasket. After finding it where I saw it the other day and some careful rearrangement, I had me a working pump. Here's an out of focus camera phone picture of the shot I pulled with some Hines that was roasted earlier today... first try... I swear!

starts with "l" and ends with "ung infection"

2006-06-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Last semester, just days before final exams, I got a cold... it developed into bronchitis. Needless to say, I was too delirious to write my exams and had them postponed. I wrote all but my Physics exam and excelled in all courses. This semester, my marks are lower and I need to do even better on my exams. My first one is on Tuesday. Well, as luck would have it, I got it again. This time, it's unlikely I can postpone the exams. My day is completely overtaken by sleeping, hacking up phlegm, and studying (read: beating Splinter Cell in two days). My blog is not my main concern right now, but after exams I will have all summer to commit to coffee, partying, and partying harder... and keeping respiratory infections at bay (hooray!).

serious this time

2006-06-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sure you all got the point that I wasn't exactly "back". I've been having great coffee at work lately and been brewing some good coffee at home. I finally put my espresso machine back together after I found that the over pressure valve i ordered not only had to be adjusted internally but also was a TWO-WAY valve. I couldn't find a place to properly mount the two way valve unless I dismantle the malfunctioning OPV and attach it to the end. I soaked the malfunctioning OPV in vinegar, I'm hoping that'll help. I'll pick up some teflon tape soon to fix the leak that is coming from the plastic plate that screws onto the pump housing. I'm also restarting the espresso machine build as a summer project. I'll have lots of time to DRIVE out there and check on the progress... since I got my license!

Anywho, for those who haven't seen it... I'm amazed about this recent Panama CoE auction's results Panama CoE auction's results, the top coffee going for US$50.25 per pound! This narrowly broke the old record of $49.75 per pound, held by Brazil Fazenda Santa Inês. In that auction, the record more than doubled the previous record, held by a previous lot of Panama Hacienda la Esmerelda, if my memory serves me right. The next highest bid in that Brazil CoE auction was just US7.80 per pound, just over one seventh of the cost of the #1 coffee, despite scoring just 3.2 points less than the winning coffee. In the Panama auction, the #2 coffee finished at US$10.75, about one fifth of the winning coffee's score (#2 cupped at 89.80 points). This demonsrates improvement in quality assessment... the highest scoring coffee didn't rake it in as much as at the Brazil auction (average price per lb at the Brazil 2005 and Panama 2006 auctions: US$4.75 and US$4.72, respectively. That was a milestone auction and seems to have opened the doors to high priced coffees. Bidding wars are perhaps more likely as people are beginning to realize the true value of great coffee. This Panamian coffee scored a 94.60, compared to the Brazil Fazenda's score of 95.85. I'm just happy Sweet Maria's got it... I look forward to ordering a pound or so... oh... that's gonna be costly... oh well, it should be nice coffee... I sure hope Mark Prince is as excited as I am! (hint, hint... nudge, nudge)

Well, i got a bit more on my mind but I gotta go to bed now... hopefully I'll post again soon.

party on, fellas (hope nick is reading)

OOOOOOOIIIM BEEEEEEEEHYYYYYYYK!

2006-03-13T01:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, "all the ships at sea", I'm back from my break from... well... coffee. Until about a week ago I have had bronchitis (was pretty much gone 3 or 4 weeks ago though) and bad coffee experiences. I had not had a good coffee for weeks. I, by no fault of the engineer, did not receive my build estimate for my proposed espresso machine's boiler and have been talking shit about how it's taking him so long, not realizing that it was in my inbox marked as read for some reason, with our other twenty-odd e mails. Furthermore, I've had final exams and a new semester at school. It's SPRING BREAK so I'm getting back into it.

First things first, special shoutout to Tonx for giving Matthew from Elysian some coffees for me to roast. The coffees include an Ethiopian Harrar Gr. 4 FTO, Ethiopia Sidamo Wotona Bultuma, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kello, and Kenya AA Kiaga. Hopefully I will get a chance roast these up tomorrow or some time soon.

Next, I participated in a podcast roundtable earlier with Sean Strugnell, a "new guy" named Michael, Mark Prince, Matthew from work, and Peter V. It was pretty fun, although I had almost no sleep and just learned I was doing it when I arrived. I sure hope I can come back to talk more shit and say some useful things... God knows I have too much to say already. I also got to try some coffee from the AeroPress using the different filters. We talk about the results during the roundtable. Quite frankly, I have little recollection of what we talked about... that's how sleep-deprived I am. It was quite a waste of a podcast opportunity at "Casa del Prince". I'm sure when I hear it I'll disagree with everything I said... but I digress... whatever that means.

I'd like to say goodbye to Chris Tacy as it seems he has "moved on" from the wonderful world of coffee. He is a major asset to the coffee enthusiast community and will surely be missed in many ways. I want you to know, Chris, that I really respect and admire you. You ahve been an inspiration to me. Reading your blog is very entertaining and gives me many of my ideas of espresso.I'm not even gonna ask what's happening with Put Up or Shut Up... I think we answered that one. I can only hope you change your mind, but you gotta do what's important to you. I will miss you and your radically different and extremely intriguing posts and I hope you do well in this post-coffee life of yours. I can also only hope that you read my blog!

Well, that about wraps things up. It feels good to be back into it now.

I Can't Believe It's Not Regular!®

2006-02-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

Well, today sure was an eye-opening experience... actually it didn't open my eyes at all, that's the greatest part... read on...

I came into work and was soon greeted with a cup of coffee (I'll skip all the order-taking and dish drying that led up to it). I tasted it and my immediate reaction was.... meh... as it cooled I found that it didn't develop acidity very much. It was very rich, with some predominantly chocolate/macadamia nut undertones. It was almost as if it had little overtones. It wasn't too complex nor was it perfectly complex, but it was a nice cup of coffee. I happened to say "hey.... low acidity, pretty good body, nice chocolatey "bass tones"... this sounds like a Mark Prince coffee!"

It wasn't until later that day that Alistair dropped the D-bomb... it was DECAF

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

Long story short, the ensuing conversation went like this.... "O RLY?" "YA RLY!" "NO WAI!"

I couldn't believe it. Alistair said something about how Swiss Water Process ruins coffee.... it was the Mexican Water that made this one so good. I laughed as hard as a man can laugh at hepatitis B. Turns out this process is much better... at least with this Decaf Tanzania Peaberry. I'm sipping on a cup right now from French Press... at 12:33AM... and I have work and studying for exams tomorrow... OH WELL. I'm a changed man.

CLOVER IN DA HOUSE!

2006-01-15T01:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a great day of work. I arrived to see a fat chunk of engineering on the counter. I was immediately attracted to its digital display, stainless steel panels, and reminiscence of what I've been waiting monthes to see in real life. I knew we had a Clover, and it hadn't escaped my mind, but I was so excited I think that time stopped and I forgot what I was there for. All of a sudden, bam! I worked constantly with no downtime to try the Clover for a few hours, at which point we went nuts with that motherfucker.

Wow... I loooove it. Nothings perfect, but the bar has been raised substantially. It truly is able to do what espresso was supposed to be able to do: brew a cup of coffee for the order, fast and especially for the single customer. To sum it up quickly, its a French Press minus the guesswork... period.

Before reading further, please watch this video.

Now, allow me to take you through the process.

1. Grind coffee to a slightly finer than french press grind, using your new Ditting grinder
2. Press brew button, assuming volume (8oz, 10oz, 12oz, 14oz, or 16oz), temperature (adjustable to 1F I think), brew time, and other parameters such as the time the plunger pauses before going back up once it has been separated from the coffee, are properly tuned.
3. Dump the coffee into the brewing chamber as the plunger goes down.
4. Watch it, feel it, love it.
5. Use Clover-spec squeejee to swipe away the dry puck into grinds bin.
6. Wipe the top of the machine.
7. Savour the flavour!

It produces a cup very reminiscent of French Press. It seems to add a level of clarity. This could be the same idea behind a flat brew profile in espresso. With less brewing time, your end brewing temperature (just before plunger/serving) is closer to the initial temperature, you get more clarity. Kenya Karagato, Colombia Classico Cauca, Panama Carmen Estate and some Nicaraguan we had worked out very well, very similar to press style. What can I say? This thing is a winner.

Cupping Coffees from... J J BEAN?!?!

2006-01-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so J J Bean having coffee aint no anomaly. However, there's more to it than that. For those of you who don't know about Hines Public Market Coffee, they were a great roastery/cafe in Seattle (in the East Lake area I believe). They were home to former US Barista Champion Bronwen Serna, John Hornall (according to Mark Prince, aka Jonny Nitro), and John "don't call me the Colonel" Sanders. At Elysian Coffee & Tea, we used Hines Espresso. Unfortunately, they shut down their roasting location a few monthes ago. They've been doing what I like to call (I heard this from someone, likely on the Portafilter Podcast) the Probat Tour of America (and Canada). It seems that they have temporarily, at least, settled at J J Bean. I don't remember which location of JJ they're roasting at, but that's not very important. Thansk to the JJ crew, they have begun roasting all of their coffee there. Last week, they roasted 750 lbs (at least) of coffee and brought back a bunch into Elysian Coffee. Luckily, I was given some espresso blend, Nicaragua Agua Fresca, and some Colombian Cauco (sp?).

Two days ago, I cupped each... just two days out of the roaster.

Here's a pic of the whole bean Colombian Cauco...

Here's a pic of the whole bean Nicaragua Agua Fresca...

Ground and ready to go... I hurried up with the water after snapping this pic!

Poooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuriiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

Me about to realize the meaning of life:

Almost ready to break the crust!

Breaking the crust. I found heavy chocolate overtones in the wet aroma for both coffees, especially in the Colombian where it leaned towards nakhla tobacco smell. I could tell it was going to be a thick bodied cup, don't even ask how. It smelled of all the bass tones, but the florals weren't exactly abundant. As for the Nicaraguan, I found the same bass tones present, along with a nice caramelized molasses smell. I also got some dried prune and maybe a pineapple acidity smell There's an orgy of aromatics in these here coffees. Good work John.... oh and Alistair of course!

It's time to taste! Colombian first...

The Colombian's ripe floral fruit punch-like aromatics were completely lost in the cup. It was all chocolate, pretty thick body, and not an offensive or "defective" cup at all. It had little of the caramel flavour that I find characterisitic of a good Colombian coffee, but had a nice sweetness to it. It did not develop acidity well, which I am a big fan of. I love acidity. Overall it would be about an 8-8.5 out of 10 coffee for me.

The Nicaraguan started off the same way. Medium bodied, some nice semi-sweet chocolate overtones... make that LOTS of semi-sweet chocolate overtones, hints of maybe some rhubarb. Here's how it differs. It had wonderfully acidic and lively undertones. It consisted of all the volatile and delicate florals that I love in a coffee. It had some nice bergamot/tea-like aspects, some slightly detectable spice (sage?) flavours, and a nice balanced acidity. However, it still wasn't in the acidity/floral range that I like. Couple this with a Kenyan and then we're talkin.... or I'm talkin at least. These are great coffees that may come off from my cupping as being boring, but they surely are not. I have high standards is all! I'm gonna go make a press of the Nicaragua and do a ridiculous amount of bio homework. I sign off with this cappuccino that I made the yesterday using the Hines roasted at JJ. By the time I got the camera, I was getting bubble action... oh well... Goodbye!

Happy New Years!

2006-01-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it is my feeling that we are about to kick off a great year in coffee. First, we've got a bunch of regionals coming up. Seconds, Clovers (the "original espresso" oriented single cup brewing system) will be showing up at various cafés [hopefully] near you and very near me. I'm building a machine, grinder, and roaster (if time permits) and the GS3 is scheduled to enter production AFAIK. Yes, things are looking up for us coffee geeks and espresso nuts. By the way, my short write-up on the Synesso Cyncra will be back up soon, pending some corrections from Alistair. In case any of you have as much time on your hands as I do, let's look at what's on my mind, and others', so far this year.

First of all, there is a heated (okay, that's an exaggeration) debate about straight-walled vs. tapered portafilter baskets at a super-duper classified uber secret forum which I frequent. Need some drama? The person who most fiercely insists that straight-walled is better is yours truly, JakeTheCoffeeLover. The person who most fiercely insists that tapered is better is my boss, Alistair. Oh well, I'll fight this one out to the bitter end. He can't lose me, this face brings in business and pimps it, too.

On a serious note, my argument is that if you get more tamping pressure and therefore greater compression of coffee at the bottom of the basket, you are getting the same flow through less coffee. Therefore, you might get the equivalent of a ristretto from 7g of coffee at the bottom and the equivalent of a caffe crema from 11g of coffee at the top in terms of flow vs. dose. Now, that doesn't sound so bad, does it? It might be good. Now think of it this way: you tamp unevenly (not you, dumbshit) and get an uneven pour. You get 0.5oz of flow through the left half of the basket and 0.75oz through the right. Same thing... how appealing does that latrine of a demitasse cup sound to you? Although this prevents jet channels, I think that they must still be forming at the top of the puck and dissipating at the bottom since nothing has changed at the top portion of the puck. The only difference I found was that the jet channels are all ending up in the cup. If you don't want channels, you gotta use a smaller diameter grouphead/basket or tamper harder. I insist that somebody try to prove that wrong. Anyways, let's move on to the arguments of others.

Others seem to think that when you tamp, the top of the basket gets compacted less than the bottom. I decided to introduce them to inertia and force and how they would affect this. I'm not even going to begin to estimate how small of an amount of time you'd have to have tamper to coffee for to create a difference that is not just completely negligible. Anyways, they are under the impression that if you have a tapered basket, you put more force on less coffee and therefore have a heavier tamp on the bottom. WHOA WHOA WHOA... wasn't the point to have it even throughout the basket? Some think that this will "even it out" since the bottom gets less of a force than the top. I refer them to the 3rd sentence of this paragraph.

To another discussion, I think it's about time I talk about my espresso machine that I am designing. I'll list some features:

-5.5 litre steam boiler w/ 2700W element
-Fuji PXR3 or Watlow PID controller for steam boiler
-3 thin diameter stainless steel heat exchangers that join into one
-DC helical gear pump for flutterless pressure and pressure adjustments during the shot, for ramping pressure
-pre-infusion created by steam boiler being opened up to heat exchanger at grouphead, controlled by a stainless steel ball valve
-boiler and all parts that touch brew water are stainless steel
-ambidirectional swivel for steam wand
-all stainless steel grouphead, will be fabbed from standard parts and will work with 58mm portafilter
-above grouphead will be a 3oz chamber with brew water, which is where pre-infusion from the steam boiler, cold mixing and PID control for cold mixing, and a digital temperature display will read out. this chamber will be insulated with cermaic fibre insulation and, outside of that, will be a chrome-plated brass casing... for looks and room for thermometer if necessary
-grouphead design will be as you see in the photo from my last post (except for "fucking screw")

-screwless showerscreen, as said above
-final temperature will be controlled by a Fuji PXR3 or Watlow PID controller with thermocouple as close to the brewing area as possible hooked up a solenoid which allows cold mixing bypass from the pump feed directly to the grouphead, with the possibility of programming a ramp (descending or ascending brew temperature profile)
-will operate on a 30A breaker on 110V

That's all I can think of for now. I'll leave you all with a blend that I will try once all my coffee arrives. It's a spinoff of my last espresso blend.

25% Java Private Estate: Type - "Prince" - Full City+
12.5% Ethiopia Oromia Sidamo Natural Process - Full City+
12.5% Yemen Mokha - Bani Matar - Full City+
16% Brazil Fazenda Ipanema "Dulce" - Full City
10% Uganda Bugisu AA - Full City
12% Indian Monsooned Malabar "Elephant" - Full City
12% Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (MAO) - Full City

I'm hoping for some comments on my portafilter basket thingamajig. Wish for a great 2006!

Merry Christmas and Chappy Chanukkah!

2005-12-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hi, everybody! I guess I didn't need to say Happy Chanukkah because I only have one reader AFAIK, and he's Christian. Oh well, the show must go on.

First things first, how do you like my video on the sidebar? Is it annoying? Sweet? Questions? Well it better be good because I spent forever finding an mov to wmv converter that worked without giving me a 2fps framerate. I ended up converting to mpeg2 using Xilisoft, then converting from that to wmv and chopping out the proper sections of the video using Ulead, then compiling it all using Windows Movie Maker. THEN I blew the dust off of my html and put it to work, adjusted to size, and I was done!

In other news, I just tried a blend today which was 3 or 4 days out of roast (hell no I don't remember, I'm on "non-denominational time of celebration but chanukkah does not count break"). Here is the blend for those who want a good backbone for a blend that requires a ridiculous amount of coffees.

Full City + (in one batch)
25% Organic Fair Trade Sumatra Gayo Mountain
12.5% Ethiopia Longberry Harar Horse
12.5% Yemen Mokha Ismaili

Full City (in another batch)
16% Brazil Daterra Villa Borghesi
10% Uganda Bugisu AA
12% Monsooned Malabar
12% Galapagos

Okay, now before you start passing judgement on this blend, keep the following in mind:

An unnamed roaster has an espresso blend, which I'd bet would be approved by 99% of coffeegeeks who make espresso, that has contained 8 beans in the bast, and from what I gather usually contains at least 5. Furthermore, the sumatra gayo maountain, although semi-washed, is not as acidic as even I expected, but it lended some really nice flavours to the blend and the body was amazingly syrupy and stringy.

This blend is just stellar. The crema is very weird. It is elastic and will "repair itself" with ease. However, it seems to have the monsooned malabar effect of having perfectly flat crema in the cup taht looks like somebody took a picture of a great shot, printed it on matte finish paper, and put it in the cup. However, when you tilt the cup to drink the shot, you find that it is very flexible despite that appearance. Also, when making a cappuccino, it poured really funny. It was easy to get art on it for starters. Second, the crema showed one of its lifeless rigid cardboard traits. When I poured the milk, it went through the crema, but the rest of the crema did not react at all. It was like one of those Sealy non-motion-transferring mattresses. The milk marked the surface just fine, but the crema seemed to be overlapped by the milk, but not moved by it. It was strange. I guess I'll post some pictures later when I've gathered 2 or 3 readers. I'm out, and MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY CHANUKKAH!

First Post... what to say...

2005-12-24T02:46:00.000-08:00

Well, what can I say? I've finally got a blog. This is the inevitabely boring first post, so I'll just get right into what's going on here. I'm 15 years old and I live coffee and anything related to coffee. No, I don't fantasize about my next visit to Starbucks, I hope there never is a "next visit". I'm not a sociopath who hangs around a café all day long reading "intelligent literature" and fondling my numerous piercings. I'm not "that guy". No, I dwell in something special... the art of preparation of coffee, and the ultimate goal: pure enjoyment.

I guess I'll start off with what's going on with me right now.

First of all, I am working at a wonderful place called Elysian Coffee & Tea. I mainly do bussing there, but it's not like I haven't made a drink or two for a customer when Alistair (the owner/proprietor/boss/ultimate coffee guru) isn't looking :-P I've been working there since August of this year and have been enjoying it along the way. Throughout my numerous shifts, I have met other coffee lovers such as John Sanders of Hines Public Market Coffee, Robert Goble (Dasein, formerly Jesus on the CoffeeGeek forums), Mark Prince (site owner at CoffeeGeek AND Coffee Kid), Brad Ford (owner of Wicked Café), and many other specialty coffee enthusiasts in my area and from slightly abroad. We get our coffee for espresso from Hines Public Market Coffee and always have a variety of single origins for french press from them and also from Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters.

What does coffee mean to me?

To me, coffee is a wonderful taste experience. The gustation of coffee is a culinary art in itself, completely separate from the preparation. This, to me, is part of what differs coffee from other forms of cuisine, if that's the right word. Not only that, but coffee has over 800 identifiable taste variables which can range in intensity and complentariness. Also, the nasal passages are able to "taste" the coffee. You can smell it. You can taste it with your tongue and nose. You can feel it gracing your tongue. Clearly, there is more than sweet, sour, salty, and bitter to coffee.

What's been on my mind?

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about espresso; namely, the equipment. I have a Gaggia Espresso, which is a single boiler home machine with red plastic casing. It has a 58mm grouphead and traditional 1-hole steam wand. It is acceptable considering the fact that it can be had for US$200. Some positives include the adequate steam power, heavy brass portafilter, large water reservoir, 58mm grouphead, and a flathead showerscreen screw (that's for a later post). Negatives are the fact that it is a single boiler, so I have to wait to steam after brewing, it has a huge hysterisis so temperature stability is out of the question, the grouphead runs way too hot, and the pump pressure is literally unrestricted. The over pressure valve is not adjustable AFAIK, so that kind of screws me over. Lately, I've been fixing these issues but opening the steam wand a small crack during the shot to let off a bit of pressure and turning the steam switch on and off in quick bursts during the shot to maintain temperature. Nothing's worse than hitting the bottom of the boiler cycle during the shot and having the temp ramp up by 12 degrees. That is a recipe for distaster... also known by coffee geeks as a sink shot.

Thankfully, I've alotted myself a large sum of money to build my own machine, which I will write about in excess a bit later.

That's about it for now as it's past 3 AM here on the west coast and I'm 15. You all know how parents are about this kind of stuff.

Who the hell are you?
I'm JakeTheCoffeeLover, nice to meet you.