Lifehacker linked to a howto for roasting coffee with a heat gun and claims the hand held devices give more control than a popcorn popper. Anybody tried this?
Might be a good excuse to buy a heat gun. Packrat has one that looks just like the one in the pic, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play with / burn yourself with.
The NY Times has a cool article and slideshow about the resurgent popularity of brewed coffee. That’s as opposed to (or perhaps, as a complement to) the supposed “third wave” of espresso coffee that is still being enjoyed (naked portafilters, macchiatos, ristretto shots, etc.). The article focuses on both the Clover (which I blogged about here) and syphon or vacuum pot brewers (which I blogged about here). I haven’t gotten out my vacuum pot in over a year. Perhaps this morning!
Due to complications stemming from Yahoo being fucking terrible, I got locked out of my old Flickr page. Though you can still go there, it won’t be updated. So I set up a new Flickr page! Get in there like swimwear!
Her name is Venus and she’s coming on Friday.
Joel, gimme dat “Coffee” category — I should have a number of posts after this bad boy arrives.
[I wrote the bulk of this about a year ago after reading Anthony Wild's Coffee: A Dark History but never posted it. I recently became reinterested and decided to finish it.]
It’s fascinating to me why we call some things what we do. Take, for example, your everyday coffeeshop café mocha. This was my entrée into the world of coffee way back in high school. I later moved on to iced mochas, grasshopper mochas, and, yes, mochachinos before deciding I liked my coffee strong and black. As everyone now knows, mocha just refers to some combination of chocolate and coffee flavors, whether it be in the form of steamed milk, chocolate syrup, and espresso, or in a mocha-flavored ice cream. But what is this “mocha”? Unlike most of the terms we use to refer to coffee/espresso, this one has not descended to us from Italian.
The irony here is great. What Starbucks is naming their Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino after is a squalid, disease-ridden town of decaying ruins and qat addicts. Al-Makha (also al-Mokha, al-Mukah, al-Makkha) lies across the Bab el-Mandab strait from the southernmost point of Eritrea’s fingerlike coastal holdings on the Red Sea. It also may be the worst place on earth — being in one of the more isolated areas in perhaps the most isolated (and poor) of Arab nations, Yemen. But, man, if you were there a few hundred years ago it’d be a different story. It was in Yemen (probably) that coffee was first drunk in a form similar to that which we now enjoy (that is, an infusion of the roasted and ground seed of the coffea arabica bush; it was previously enjoyed in Ethiopia as an infusion of the bush’s leaves or in a form known as qish’r in which the sweet flesh of the coffee cherry is infused — neither of these methods, though, result in a very caffeinated beverage).
Read the rest of this entry »
Last Friday, a new Intelligentsia Coffeeshop opened just two blocks from where I work. This is only the third shop for the Chicago roaster that has been largely responsible for the boutique roasting movement, and for changing the image of baristas nationwide. Though small by Starbucks standards, Intelligentsia is among a handful of the best specialty roasters/coffeeshops in the country, in good company with Stumptown in Portland and Victrola of Seattle. Food & Wine calls them one of the “Best Boutique Roasters”, as does USA Today, Bon Appetit…you get the idea. They’re known for doing everything right, from buying to brewing. But it is just a coffeeshop. Or is it? Read the rest of this entry »
At no other time do my obsession with coffee and my unrepentant capitalism come together more than when I see Bodum products for sale. And as this blog’s resident authority on all things coffee, I can’t help but update you on Bodum’s 2006-07 catalog. If you didn’t know, Bodum is like the Apple computers of the coffee world. They are single-handedly responsible for the popularity of french press brewing and for reviving vacuum brewing with their Santos line. Plus, their products all display a clean minimalism of design (”give up bad design for good” is their motto).
Mostly, their new line contains new french press designs, new double-wall glasses, thermoses, etc. But, two products have caught my eye, and I will be purchasing them as soon as possible. The first is the Venice grinder. I stumbled upon this grinder at an imports store in Madison a couple weeks ago and it is still not for sale on the internet, at Bodum’s online store or otherwise. What I saw was intriguing, and may be the perfect way for folks like Mohsen and D-thang to get their first burr grinder at a reasonable price ($40). Of course, like the Zassenhaus burr grinders I’ve spoken about before, you have to crank this thing. And another thing: though I couldn’t get too good a look at the thing, the burr set in this grinder appears to be made of plastic, which is something I’ve never heard of. But, knowing Bodum, it’s probably some kind of polycarbon-tastic plastic that is somehow better than metal.
The second is a foray into manual pourover drip coffeemakers (the Dripper and the Kona). Essentially, these are Chemex brewers with the notable addition of a permanent gold-plated filter, much like a SwissGold. I could make one of these myself, by jimmy-rigging my Chemex with my Swissgold, but then I wouldn’t be able to buy anything new.
Joel foresaw this months ago. Now it’s for real. I walked into my local Dominick’s this morning to see a huge display of Coke Blāk. It was in 8oz glass bottles, and sold in four packs.
This stuff tastes weird. Though not objectionable, it isn’t really good either. The bottle describes it as a “Carbonated Fusion Beverage” but it doesn’t say what is being fused; the word coffee is only in the fine print: in the ingredients “coffee extract” is listed. It tastes about like you’d expect: mostly like coke but with an odd coffee flavor added; coffee flavor taste, not coffee taste. Like the same coffee flavor that is added to ice cream and candy that doesn’t really taste like coffee but sort of suggests coffee. The press release states,
“Coca-Cola Blāk is not just a flavor extension. It is a blend of unique Coke refreshment with the true essence of coffee and has a rich smooth texture and has a coffee-like froth when poured. We believe we have created a new category of soft drink – an adult product in a carbonated beverage – and a whole new drinking experience. This brand is ideal for any part of the day when people are looking for renewed energy or simply to take a break.”
The “froth” I see in my glass of Blāk (pronounced, I think, “bleaauuughhhkrrr”) is not coffee-like but rather coke-like. If your coffee is producing a froth like this beverage then you have some problems with your brewer. If they sell Blāk in your city or country, for god’s sake buy some as quickly as possible before this product drives CocaCola out of business.
First, Murder’s coffee posts are the only useful thing for the general public that’s posted on this here blog, so I forward it widely.
Second, I’ve been battling back and forth deciding what I was going to do with my coffee life out of concerns for time and volume. I have a blade grinder and French press, but I tend to reserve grinding my own beans and pressing for Saturday mornings when I have time to do it and I’m not planning on consuming as much java.
This has led me to search for the “best” off-the-shelf coffee to run through my Black&Decker 12-cup auto-drip coffee maker. I must admit that the coffees I’ve been trying are not the diner (and my dad’s) standards i.e. Folger’s, Maxwell House, Cain’s. But my goal is to find a palatable blend that won’t break the bank for a guy who starts his day with 8 coffee-pot cups a day.
My usual approach is to purchase whole-bean coffee and grind it in the store (a low-cost alternative to buying a bur grinder, although time=flavor loss), then bring it home and stash it in the freezer until consumption.
I have only tried one pre-ground coffe in my search.
So far, I haven’t really paid attention more than just general taste. I will be more specific and careful with my analysis in the future.
Coffees Tried:
Seattle’s Best - Colombian (pre-ground): it was good for a pre-ground, but was slightly bitter and flat, tasted dried out
Trader Joe’s - South African Blend: very light and clear. This is a good blend for people who have a more sensitive palate or don’t like the way coffee tastes
Starbuck’s Vienna(?) blend - if you don’t like Starbuck’s, I apologize, but this has been the best thus far. It’s a rich blend that is barely bitter and full-bodied. I generally stay away from Starbuck’s stores if there’s an independent option, but I do like their beans for my own personal consumption, and I don’t know of a bean-roaster here in A2.
Meijer Store-Brand “Premium” blend - I’m still trying this one. I bought a huge bag of this coffee to serve as a utility coffee for guests since I will be hosting a weekly meeting in February. I have had only a few cups, but I’m not impressed with the brew as of yet.
I will devise a better scheme for evaluation that is more quantitative and includes prices for each product.
Please chime in.
Review: The Solis Maestro Plus burr grinder
Solis of Switzerland just wants you to be happy. That’s why they make this burr grinder, recently on sale at Sweet Marias for $129, but now back at its regular price ($149). Once you’ve started roasting coffee and bought a french press, a Chemex, a moka pot, and a vacuum pot, there’s really no turning back: you’re going to need yourself a burr grinder.
Coffee pros like Mark Prince will tell you that your coffee is only as good as your grinder, and that your espresso machine or coffee brewer is just an accessory to your grinder. They’re wrong, though: I was using a Hamilton Beach blade grinder for four years up until recently, and still saw remarkable improvements in my coffee quality, as I worked my way up the coffee appreciation ladder. Despite this, I’ve always had lingering worries that I wasn’t achieving the coffee perfection I might be, and that the elusive perfect cup was just around the corner — a burr grinder away. Was I being held back by my grinder? Well, sort of. Read on. Read the rest of this entry »
OK this is the last one of these for a while, so just humor me again…
For the past 3 years I’ve been on an almost mythic quest for the perfect cup of coffee. I started out slow, first buying a Bodum french press, a Black and Decker blade grinder, and switching to whole bean coffee. This sufficed for a while. My quest accelerated rapidly January ‘04 when I bought the first of my two West Bend Poppery I’s (popcorn poppers) and began to roast green coffee out on my fire escape. I was still using an auto-drip primarily, though. After a while, I felt like my roasting efforts weren’t paying off, and that the culprit was the suboptimal water temperatures produced by my auto-drip. So I unplugged it, and began to make my coffee by pouring just-off-the-boil water over the grounds in the filter basket (the design of my auto-drip permitted this - most don’t). The initial difference was remarkable - more body, more flavors, and just stronger overall. I also bought a Swiss-Gold One Cup Brewer, which (as Mohsen can tell you) lets more sediment/oil through but produces a cleaner cup than french press. Then, in the last six months, the pace quickened even further - I purchased a Chemex, a Moka Pot, a muslin cloth Coffee Sock for the Chemex, a Silex Narrow-neck Vacuum Pot, and a Cory Large Gasket Vacuum Pot. This is ridiculous, I know, and I can’t really explain it. However, with the final addition (the Cory) I felt like I had found the perfect cup of coffee. However, having fulfilled my quest, I was left with a dark chasmic void deep in my very being. Rather than fill it with pie, I filled it with convenience.
Consumer Review: Antique Silex Vacuum Pot
Yes, that’s right, I’ve been on eBay again. And while not drunk in the traditional sense, I had been drinking in that sweet elixir known as curiosity. Curiosity over what, you ask. Well, to answer that I’m going to have to start right at the beginning.
You see, for my money there are 4 basic categories of coffee brewing. The first known to mankind is simply boiling. This includes both Turkish and Greek coffee boiled in a traditional Ibrik (or Briki). This method also includes your basic percolator which many holdouts (my grandma included) still use to this day. By the mid-19th century, though, this method came under criticism because the 212-degree temperatures over-extracted the coffee grounds and created a nasty, bitter beverage.
The next method, gravity brewing, is what almost everybody in the United States uses for coffee - your standard automatic drip maker. In principle a rather ingenius device, most of these suck because (despite over 50 years of development) they only heat the water to about 175-185F, while the ideal temperature lies between 192 and 197F. The only automatic coffeemaker certified by the Specialty Coffee Association of America to reach these temperatures is the Dutch-made Technivorm but it’ll set you back about $170. Also included in this category are extremely simple manual pour-over devices, such as the Chemex (my everyday coffeemaker), the manual Melitta, and the SwissGold One-cup Brewer. The principle here being, of course, that only gravity is used to move the hot water through the coffee grounds and the filter.
Third, you have the pressure method in which hot water is forced through compacted coffee grounds by either steam or pump pressure. This method includes your high-end espresso machine and your humble Moka Pot. While some think that this is the end all, be all for coffee, I like to enjoy my beverage over a longer period of time (say, all day), rather than drinking my coffee as though it were a Jaeger bomb.
Consumer Review: Bialetti Moka Express 3-demitasse
Having just completed Nocoffeeathon168 ‘04, I’ve decided: never again. Since then I’ve been looking at entry-level pump-driven espresso machines, but decided to try out the traditional Italian moka pot first. I dropped $20 on this rig at a local import store. Over 90% of Italian households own at least one of these devices, which were invented in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti. You place water in the bottom section, ground coffee in the middle section between two metal filters, and place it on the stove. It works by boiling the water in the lower section, which forces it up throuch a funnel, through the coffee, and into the upper section, from which it is poured. Since the coffee is compacted in the middle and the boiling water is forced through it (unlike a drip device), this amounts to a primitive espresso machine. The brew created is like a cross between french press coffee and espresso, with very little sediment. My pot is the 3-cup version (cup = 1.5 ounces here) so it makes around 4.5 ounces at a time, which is probably all that you should really be drinking of this stuff at a time.
PROs:
1. cheap
2. damn tasty strong coffee with the bittersweet notes not found in drip coffee
3. quick
4. idiot-proof
5. strong enough to make lattes and caps if you’re a girl and are into that sort of thing
CONs:
1. uses a lot of ground coffee (though no more than a real espresso machine)
2. not quite as strong as real espresso
Here are some pictures of me making espresso:
