From: [email protected]
Date: 2018-02-20
Subject: Coffee

After  seeing  coffee-related posts from kvothe[1] and sparcipx[2],
I'm inspired  to  share  my  coffee  production  process  here.   I
wouldn't  call  myself a "coffee snob", but I've taken somewhat ex-
traordinary measures to ensure that I have access  to  good  coffee
when I need it.

I've owned many different coffee-making devices, but today I use my
Aeropress exclusively.  An Aeropress is great if you need  to  make
one  or  two cups of coffee.  If you need to make more than that, I
recommend a pour-over method or French press.

As kvothe mentioned, water quality is important.  Not only  because
you  will be tasting the water that ends up in your coffee, but be-
cause the physical properties of the water can  affect  extraction.
On most days, I use water out of the Brita pitcher.  If I'm experi-
menting with some new or spendy beans, I'll grab a bottle of Volvic
alkaline  water  or  some  other  exotic bottled water.  The Volvic
gives the finished product a "cleaner" taste compared to using fil-
tered  tap  water.  It might be interesting to experiment with dif-
ferent bottled waters to see  how  their  Ph  and  mineral  content
translate through the coffee.

When  it  comes to coffee beans, fresh is best.  If you are not al-
ready grinding your beans right before you brew, doing  so  is  the
best  way  to improve your coffee.  Fancy grinders, digital scales,
and thermometers will also help, but not nearly as much as  freshly
ground  beans.  Right now, I'm working my way through a bag of Kona
that I got while I was on vacation in Hawaii.   My  go-to  bean  is
from  a  local  roaster, Peace Coffee.  I also like certain coffees
from La Columbe.

I start by heating the water in the microwave.  I actually  aim  to
not boil it, believing that to do so takes the air out of the water
and results in flatter-tasting coffee.  This takes about two-and-a-
half  minutes  in my microwave.  While the water heats up, I set up
my Aeropress for the inverted brew method.  I also pre-wet  one  of
the paper filters.

I  grind  15 or 16 grams of beans in a Baratza Virtuoso.  This par-
ticular quantity of beans matches up, through some ratio I've  for-
gotten,  with  the amount of water that fits into the Aeropress.  I
think I have the grind size set to 16 right now.  I use  a  digital
thermometer  to  temp the water.  I add the water to the grounds at
190 degrees Fahrenheit.  In my experience, striking (adding the wa-
ter to the grounds) at higher than 190 gave me coffee that was more
bitter than I liked.  I let the grounds steep for a  total  of  one
minute  and  45 seconds, stirring once at the halfway point.  After
the delicate (and risky) operation of inverting the  cup  over  the
Aeropress, and then inverting the whole Aeropress-and-cup assembly,
I just press the coffee into the cup.

Cleanup with the Aeropress is easy: just plunge out the grounds and
rinse.  I give my coffee time to cool down before I add anything to
it.  I take the slightest bit of cream in my coffee.  I  find  that
the  fat  smooths  out  some of the rough edges in the flavor while
giving it some depth.

I've come to a lot of this through experimentation, but  I've  also
found  the  Coffee  Compass[3]  to  be  a  valuable tool when trou-
bleshooting.

[1]: gopher://sdf.org/0/users/kvothe/phlog/2018/02/16-coffee
[2]: gopher://sdf.org/0/users/sparcipx/phlog/February_2018/02-07-18
[3]: https://baristahustle.com/blogs/barista-hustle/the-coffee-compass

You are viewing proxied material from sdf.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.