Lets talk about COFFEE

[A Y]

To the question of blooming, I just ran across this post from Scott Rao (all-around coffee expert) about pourovers, and blooming here is used more as a sign of whether you've prewetted your pourover mound well rather than a thing in and of itself. Basically, you're trying to see how soon the bubbles from the bloom goes away: the sooner the better.

https://www.scottrao.com/blog/2016/10/8/some-observations-on-hand-pours

Lots of other really interesting, often empirically-backed findings in his blog.

 

[Belligero]

Indeed, that dude really knows his ****. His no-BS Everything But Espresso book makes for a very informative and concise read, too.

 

[A Y]

Yes that's an excellent book. Also, tonight I'll be looking for parboiled rice to sharpen the burrs of my grinders because of a post he pointed to. fml.

https://www.scottrao.com/blog/2017/10/22/fines?rq=rice

 

[Mon Dieu]

Interesting, post outcome if you try.......

 

[Girardian]

Are you getting little bloom just after the coffee arrives or throughout the time you have it? Do you use an atypically fine grind for your pour over?

Several factors can tie impact bloom: roast level (less bloom on the extremes, but particularly with dark roasts), roast temp (less bloom on lower roast temps), time between being ground and brewed (once you grind you open up the surface area for faster outgassing), coarseness or fineness of the grind (less bloom on a very fine grind), etc. Also some coffees just bloom less.

Regardless of whether you see bloom, your pour over technique may include a 'pre-infusion'. I prefer to pour over in a single, steady stream -- a lot of other issues (mostly water temp and grind) are going to impact the coffee in your cup vs. whether you see bloom with your fresh roasted coffee.

 

[Girardian]

In the spirit of "it's decorative gourd season, motherf*ers," I'm going to digress to the PSL.

While I'm not a PSL person myself, I do love me some pumpkin pie. So, I had guests over for a brunch and decided to make the Prima Coffee PSL Base. I have to say it's a *very* interesting flavor profile in the cup. Gets pretty close to pumkin pie (and basically a bunch of the ingredients are the same so, go figure).

If you feel ambitious: try this recipe.

If you want to go all "decorative gourd season" on your friends: try this one.

 

[edinatlanta]

Trip(s) update(s).

Went to Asheville as I always do. Once again I cant recommend penny cup coffee enough. Just really solid stuff. Yes there's better roasters but when every cup is supremely enjoyable who cares?

In Denver Pablo's is fantastic. Had their huehuetenango which was the second place finisher in a blind tasting of 1200 cups (dont recall the exact number) and the roaster said his Kenyan is better. I had that too and both were phenomenal. The Kenyan was exactly what youd think of the platonic form of a Kenyan. Brought the huehuetenango and Mexico beans home and Mexican was a good dark roast.

In Colorado Springs Dragonfly was as good as I imagined. The "cheap" geisha was 15 a cup and possibly the best cup I've ever had. Their cheap Yemen was similarly mind blowingly good. I can see why my boy @A Y likes them.

In tokyo I stopped at cafe delambre supposedly the best example of the old school Tokyo shops. It was super neat. Really cramped and dark spot. They put me at the bar and it reeked of old cigarettes thanks to the (quickly removed) ashtryas. I'm not sure what you imagine a quintessential old school Japanese cafe to be like but this is it. Sacks of green coffee everywhere. A little roaster in the front next to their display of porcelain and old ass coffee paraphernalia.

The orange thing is the grinder. Who the hell knows how old it is. You get a choice of beans by price tranche from all over the world including hawaii. Before grinding a manual scale weighs out the beans. A really coarse grind goes into, essentially, a burlap sack which the dude circled while pouring super boiling water. Theres likely no way to know what the ratio is. The dude just poured until he sensed it was right.

The cup was probably my favorite I've ever had. As the forum-late-but-still-irl-great @foodguy told his favorite espresso was when the barista just went at it in rome. There wasnt any fussiness to it but still a concern about the craft.

I hate to post this type of purple pompousness but I dont know how else to say it...this was one of those nearly cerebral food and drink moments. I dont know if it will translate to others but you did feel how it was genuine concern about the product being done the same way for years.... anyway just good stuff.

 

[A Y]

Ed, to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Dragonfly. The only coffee of theirs that I love without reservation was a natural process Nicaraguan they accidentally sent me. The others, even the super expensive, high review ones are sorta boring for my tastes. But things may change if they get to prepare their own coffee for you, so who knows? I really like the beans my local roaster makes, but in their cafe, they make a mess of it, and I prefer my own preparation.

I've been enjoying the first Peet's light roast coffee that isn't terrible recently. Their new Etoile SO Ethiopian is really excellent, and very affordable. I've been enjoying their limited edition Red Mocha Haraaz too, but that's far more expensive.

Trying a new tweak this week, which is old news to Home Barista dudes, but I'm freezing my coffee beans and grinding them straight out of the freezer. Of course, freezing will make them age slower, so that's good, but grinding them frozen makes fewer fines (tiny dust-sized grains smaller than the intended grind size), which I've visually confirmed. I think it tastes better too: sweeter, less bitter, but experiment and see what you get. This is true with both the OE Lido 2 as well as the Kinu M43, both very competent grinders.

Speaking of OE, their new Apex grinder is shipping. Not sure I want to pull the trigger on it yet, but it looks like a totally unique concept.

 

[jet lagged]

Trip(s) update(s).

Went to Asheville as I always do. Once again I cant recommend penny cup coffee enough. Just really solid stuff. Yes there's better roasters but when every cup is supremely enjoyable who cares?

In Denver Pablo's is fantastic. Had their huehuetenango which was the second place finisher in a blind tasting of 1200 cups (dont recall the exact number) and the roaster said his Kenyan is better. I had that too and both were phenomenal. The Kenyan was exactly what youd think of the platonic form of a Kenyan. Brought the huehuetenango and Mexico beans home and Mexican was a good dark roast.

In Colorado Springs Dragonfly was as good as I imagined. The "cheap" geisha was 15 a cup and possibly the best cup I've ever had. Their cheap Yemen was similarly mind blowingly good. I can see why my boy @A Y likes them.

In tokyo I stopped at cafe delambre supposedly the best example of the old school Tokyo shops. It was super neat. Really cramped and dark spot. They put me at the bar and it reeked of old cigarettes thanks to the (quickly removed) ashtryas. I'm not sure what you imagine a quintessential old school Japanese cafe to be like but this is it. Sacks of green coffee everywhere. A little roaster in the front next to their display of porcelain and old ass coffee paraphernalia.

The orange thing is the grinder. Who the hell knows how old it is. You get a choice of beans by price tranche from all over the world including hawaii. Before grinding a manual scale weighs out the beans. A really coarse grind goes into, essentially, a burlap sack which the dude circled while pouring super boiling water. Theres likely no way to know what the ratio is. The dude just poured until he sensed it was right.

The cup was probably my favorite I've ever had. As the forum-late-but-still-irl-great @foodguy told his favorite espresso was when the barista just went at it in rome. There wasnt any fussiness to it but still a concern about the craft.

I hate to post this type of purple pompousness but I dont know how else to say it...this was one of those nearly cerebral food and drink moments. I dont know if it will translate to others but you did feel how it was genuine concern about the product being done the same way for years.... anyway just good stuff.

View attachment 1079059 View attachment 1079059 View attachment 1079060

Trip(s) update(s).

Went to Asheville as I always do. Once again I cant recommend penny cup coffee enough. Just really solid stuff. Yes there's better roasters but when every cup is supremely enjoyable who cares?

In Denver Pablo's is fantastic. Had their huehuetenango which was the second place finisher in a blind tasting of 1200 cups (dont recall the exact number) and the roaster said his Kenyan is better. I had that too and both were phenomenal. The Kenyan was exactly what youd think of the platonic form of a Kenyan. Brought the huehuetenango and Mexico beans home and Mexican was a good dark roast.

In Colorado Springs Dragonfly was as good as I imagined. The "cheap" geisha was 15 a cup and possibly the best cup I've ever had. Their cheap Yemen was similarly mind blowingly good. I can see why my boy @A Y likes them.

In tokyo I stopped at cafe delambre supposedly the best example of the old school Tokyo shops. It was super neat. Really cramped and dark spot. They put me at the bar and it reeked of old cigarettes thanks to the (quickly removed) ashtryas. I'm not sure what you imagine a quintessential old school Japanese cafe to be like but this is it. Sacks of green coffee everywhere. A little roaster in the front next to their display of porcelain and old ass coffee paraphernalia.

The orange thing is the grinder. Who the hell knows how old it is. You get a choice of beans by price tranche from all over the world including hawaii. Before grinding a manual scale weighs out the beans. A really coarse grind goes into, essentially, a burlap sack which the dude circled while pouring super boiling water. Theres likely no way to know what the ratio is. The dude just poured until he sensed it was right.

The cup was probably my favorite I've ever had. As the forum-late-but-still-irl-great @foodguy told his favorite espresso was when the barista just went at it in rome. There wasnt any fussiness to it but still a concern about the craft.

I hate to post this type of purple pompousness but I dont know how else to say it...this was one of those nearly cerebral food and drink moments. I dont know if it will translate to others but you did feel how it was genuine concern about the product being done the same way for years.... anyway just good stuff.

View attachment 1079059 View attachment 1079059 View attachment 1079060

Can you let me know what neighborhood the Tokyo place is in?

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I haven't had a truly great coffee in a while. Still in NYC truly great coffee is darn near non-existent. I hate ordering online too. In my old age I have been resorting to drinking mostly Nespresso at my desk at work, but alas my grinder still sits next to it and has been calling me as of late. I still think you can't go wrong with Kaladi coffee.

 

[edinatlanta]

Can you let me know what neighborhood the Tokyo place is in?

Ginza. Here's a map from M's Pop Life Shop to the cafe.

 

[edinatlanta]

I haven't had a truly great coffee in a while. Still in NYC truly great coffee is darn near non-existent. I hate ordering online too. In my old age I have been resorting to drinking mostly Nespresso at my desk at work, but alas my grinder still sits next to it and has been calling me as of late. I still think you can't go wrong with Kaladi coffee.

Hvae you tried Nobeltree from Brooklyn?

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I haven't actually. I will definitely look into it.

 

[edinatlanta]

Can you let me know what neighborhood the Tokyo place is in?

I see you are in Tokyo. Have you been to Yamamoto in Shinjuku? So much gear including a bunch of brewing mechanisms I haven't even seen mentioned online. They also have a roaster and a bunch of green beans. The machine was down last time I visited but I assume you can buy theirs and have it roasted while you wait.

Right around the corner is 4/4 Seasons which I've heard is good but I didn't have cash when I went so no coffee.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Hvae you tried Nobeltree from Brooklyn?

Ugh, it is in Red Hook, I don't have a month of vacation left to make it out there.