Maybe it’s because I have a very unsophisticated palete, or maybe it’s because I set out with the very modest goal of just finding a good consistent cup of morning coffee, but I’m fine with some of the store bought brands. I do enjoy an esoteric beans that can only be had from roasters, but mostly for an after dinner or later in the day coffee. In the morning, just give me a rich, smooth consistent cup. I recently bought a big Kirkland light roast bag of whole beans from Costco. Super cheap and does the job for me. Also like Dunkin Donuts brand and in a pinch I’ll use Peet’s. I can get what I feel are decent cups from all those brands using a pour over method
That’s fine, nothing wrong with that. I’m talking about coffees that are marketed as high-quality single origin specialty and priced accordingly. If I’m paying $30/lb, I expect it to be notable, not an 85 cupper with some slick packaging and imaginative description. Feels like I’m just paying the lease for someone who decided to start an atmospheric coffee shop in the hipster district. Big incentive for them to buy mediocre green for $5/lb and try to spin it up as a $30/lb premium coffee since specialty seems to be in the Dotcom / poker boom phase.
2 Likes
this is the expert play. getting “into” high end light roasts is a gigantic tarpit of misery
There is at least one cafe in Melbs that does pourovers well.
A few things I noticed.
They are doing a lot. There are two baristas doing just pour overs.
The baristas were tasting every cup AND writing notes in a little notebook for every one.
So yeah. A regular coffee shop with one or two pourovers now and then is not going to be able to get dialled in.
yeah this is definitely a good sign, probably a necessary condition though not sufficient.
1 Like
There are just so many variables. I still don’t know what an ideal bloom time is. I originally heard 30 seconds and did that for months. Then one day I got distracted and did a much longer bloom. Surprisingly, I thought that brought about a richer and smoother taste! I looked around and found someone who does a 1 minute bloom. I’ve been vacillating between 1 minute and 50 seconds or so. Also not sure how long the initial pour should be for. I do aprox a 20g coffee to 305g water ratio and try to make first pour of 50g water in about 10 seconds, then let it bloom for 40 seconds (50 seconds total from start of first pour to 2nd)
Then you have how long the total pour should take (I’ve been trying to finish the pour in about 1:45 and have it fully drained by 2:15-2:30
Not to mention different beans, adjusting ratio, etc. You could probably take notes for months on how to get just the right pour over for each type of bean
I saw a coffee place in Kyoto yesterday that piqued my interest. It’s a coffee chain called % Arabica. Incredibly sleek design and a huge line to get in. And Japanese coffee shops generally serve ridiculously higher quality stuff than the US, so this seemed notable.
Saw a second one in another district, closing shop for the night. Equally impressive design and what looks to a layperson like me to be a much more sophisticated setup than a normal coffee shop.
The geographic spread is interesting. Started Japanese, but only 6 total outlets in the country. 15 or so in Kuwait and UAE each, 42 in mainland China. In the US, currently only NYC and LA (3 outlets total).
All I’m saying is, be on the lookout.
1 Like
Nobody does
The thing is that there isn’t a perfect recipe that is going to work for every bean.
You should be able to get a pretty decent baseline starting point but you should always be prepared to make adjustments
Fwiw I have basically settled on a 60 second bloom and make my adjustments on water ratio, and to a lesser extent grind size and occasionally water temp.
The important part is just noting what effect you want and changing one variable at a time in pursuing that.
Eg if your brew is too bitter you’re probably over extracting and you can lower the water ratio or grind coarser or lower the water temp to reduce extraction. But you don’t want to change all of those at once.
Like you said, there are a lot of variables. Control as many as you can and just tinker with one.
3 Likes
My current belief is that most of those variables have a relatively small effect overall unless you drift way outside of optimal ranges. I’d guess that it breaks down about like this: 80% to 90% of the result is dependent on the coffee itself. That’s assuming you’re in the right neighborhood for water and grind, and tweaking those two factors alone usually explains some of the remaining variance. Getting the buffer right in the water is the second most important thing after coffee quality, whereas the minerals / hardness are less critical.
Of all the other things you can screw around with, the one I’m most confident in being consistently detectable in triangle testing across coffees is the type of brewer / filter. I recommend having at least one conical (V60 type) and one flat bottom (Kalita type) and then a range of filters by speed. The V60 type conical brewer is the most versatile because there are way more filters available: Hario, Cafec, Chemex, and Sibarist just to name a few.
I’ve divorced myself from the idea that the rare Yahtzee cups are the culmination of rolling perfect brew parameter dice at the same time. It seems far more likely to me that the quality of the coffee within those bags varies for whatever reason, and just by chance you’ll sometimes scoop out a dose that’s pure or mostly pure. I never seem to have this problem with truly excellent coffees like Elida or legit microlot COE winners.
2 Likes
Also the cupware is a huge factor that’s grossly underappreciated by nearly everyone. I’d put it right up there with the coffee quality and water chemistry. You need something designed for nosing and tasting to get the note separation which excludes nearly all coffee mugs. A small coffee cup is probably the best all-around option. An ultra-thin flared tea cup is more revealing but that can be annoying if the coffee is mid.
2 Likes
This makes sense and I’m sure you’re right, but then am I just screwed if I’m almost perfectly content with this batch/brand of beans, but I’d like to reduce the bitterness just a tad? I was hoping I could play around with the bloom time or maybe decrease the ratio of grounds to water. Also, maybe a slightly overall longer pour time
what do you guys do when you have like the flu or rona? Yall just keep some emergency mid-range beans for these situations?
instant?
Can you give me more details? I need to know the coffee, grind setting, dose, and ratio. If you don’t know microns for grind then tell me # of clicks or whatever and I’ll figure it out.
Yeah it’s an annoying problem but my emergency reserve is the remainder of every bag that can’t make a full dose combined into a blend that I store in my freezer. If it’s more than a dose and the coffee is actually good, I use 4 oz foil mini bags and tag it. If my backups were exhausted and I had to have coffee in a pinch but couldn’t taste the bag notes, Kroger’s Private Selection Ethiopia Light at $7-$9 / 12oz is probably what I’d reach for.
Sumatra Aceh Gold (La Minita Estate) is back at Happy Mug. I favorably reviewed this coffee in 2020. Probably a different crop and maybe a different roast profile but last time I would have scored it 90+. Really unusual in a good way: low acidity and prominent cedar note. If you like coffee that tastes more like “coffee” as opposed to fruit punch but also has some interesting notes and clarity this would be one of my top recommendations. Nice curveball for people on acid bomb rotation. No idea if any of their other coffees are worth getting right now but if I buy this again I’ll be getting 2 lbs.
1 Like
apollon’s gold has a bunch of geishas in stock but jesus christ man I am not paying $140 for 1/4 kg
it’s just “decent” ???
1 Like
Bought some for personal use and for presents. Thanks for the rec!
1 Like
2024 prediction: I will finally make the jump
1 Like