Wow.
Today Iām having the Ethiopia Harrar from Happy Mug. I eat blueberries for breakfast daily and this coffee somehow tastes more blueberry than most blueberries. HM has been around for a while but several years ago people started reporting that their coffees were hit or miss. Maybe they had a bad patch or were recalibrating because in the last 2-3 years Iāve had exactly zero misses. Guessing thatās around 30-40 coffees with no bricks at $11/12oz with $3 shipping (free at $35).
Just seems too good to be true, and maybe thatās because it is? Coffee is one of the crops expected to get squeezed by global warming to the extent that theyāre looking at non-Arabica species that can be grown at lower altitudes (Hoffman did a video on this). That in addition to specialty coffee not really finding mass adoption yet means thereās a pretty high squeeze potential coming from both supply and demand sides. Another aspect is that there are tons of small craft roasters right now, but probably only because some Giant Megacorp hasnāt swooped in to fat finger the market. Blue Bottle (Nestle) is trying though.
So my point is that weāre likely in a golden era of coffee right now, and knowing how similar markets have played out I donāt expect it to last forever. The cream eventually rises to the top even if it takes people a while to catch on. I remember when Starbucks first became a āthingā in the mid-to-late 90s and Flyover Countryās hostile reaction to the stupidity of paying $4 for City Slicker coffee. Hereās how thatās going:
As bad as Starbucks is, it was way better than what most areas had access to at the time. If people realize theyāre drinking boxed wine coffee and start demanding better then itās problem. Thereās a unique aspect here though which is that this isnāt vintage Nintendos or Rolex watches: coffee is perishable, so hoarding it now isnāt as easy as throwing into a closet in your basement. If the science Iāve read on cold preservation is right, roasted coffee could potentially be good for 10 years or longer if done correctly which implies that green coffee should be preservable beyond our lifetimes. Iām not sure what the cost structure looks like for this equipment but Iād be lying if I said I havenāt thought about it.
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heading to seattle for work, havenāt been in several yearsā¦ Iāve got more than a few places marked on my google map but any personal recommendations from anyone would be appreciated.
Iāll mostly be downtown, willing to uber anywhere though.
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My wife surprised me with a fancy Breville espresso machine for my birthday - after an hour or so of dialing in, adjusting grind size, brew time, etc, it makes some really nice spro IMO. Having a steam wand is also a huge step up from a frother for lattes, flat whites, etc.
Does anyone have suggestions for good espresso beans? Can I just make espresso out of any normal coffee beans? Anything I should look out for? Iāve run through a bag of dark roast beans from a local place, and now Iām on a bag thatās sold specifically as espresso beans, but I canāt see any reason why a light or medium roast wouldnāt work just as well.
I tested most of the package i got and can say that the gourmesso pods are terrible almost across the board. Sadly it gives me greater appreciation of nespressoās pods.
Nice! I donāt drink espresso so somebody probably has a better opinion on this but from what Iāve picked up itās really just a personal preference thing. Thereās no special roast for espresso. Traditionally espresso is darker which has a tendency to crush into powder during grinding. This is why people prefer conical or ceramic flat burrs for espresso (they produce a bimodal distribution with more fines). Those extra fines slow down the shot and add body.
Light espresso is a ānewerā trend and Iāve seen it called modern / Euro / Nordic. Lighter roasts donāt crush as much, so if you grind at the same setting itās almost guaranteed youāll pull an underextracted shot. Usually I see people saying to grind finer and/or pull long ratios. Seems much tougher to dial in based on comments I read. The trade youāre making is getting flavor notes / origin characteristics and losing body.
Thanks for the info, that all makes sense. I already had to set the grinder to a pretty fine setting to get the dark roasts pulling correctly, so I think if I want to run lighter roasts I may need to adjust the burrs or use a different grinder. Probably something Iāll fool around with over the winter.
I did notice a difference in extraction going from a bag of IMO over-roasted dark roast to the slightly lighter roast espresso - had to add about two seconds of extraction to get the correct water ratio and to stop it from tasting overly sour.
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opened a bag of this today:
first three cups out of the bag have been fucking amazing. No adjustments, just using the same grind setting I had dialed in for my last bag, 15g beans 17x water (so 255g), 45g bloom, then doing a bunch of 40g slow pours. Total brew time including the bloom has been about 4.5 minutes.
The first couple of sips I thought maybe had a bit of sourness, but my tasting seems to be really off when itās hot. After it cools a little itās fantastic.
The roasterās notes are āapple, a raspberry vanillaāalmost floralāquality, and a long caramel chocolate sweetness.ā I didnāt get the apple, vanilla or any floral notes but definitely getting strong berry and the long sweet finish. I may have had a few cups better than this but never gotten three cups in a row this consistent.
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Yeah itās always brighter right off brew. I usually let it sit for a few minutes.
jesus christ fucking supply chains
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I have a ton of Chemex filters and Iām off to a rough start trying to dial it in. I was grinding almost to a powder most recently on V60 and still getting fast drawdowns. Now Iām pushing the coarse limits of this grinder and still getting slow drawdowns that arenāt very interesting with the Chemex paper. Considered going for that V60 01 size and papers.
Hereās one thing Iāve noticed lately doing huge swongz in grind size: the amount of bloom water required increases with grind size imo. Those powdery grinds dissolve in much less water, but coarser grinders seem to absorb it. I can pour a 3x bloom with fine grind V60 and itās liquidy, but with a size closer to French press it mushrooms up and looks ādryā relatively speaking.
my scale is superfucked, it seems accurate measuring a small amount, but when I pour itās justā¦ way off? e.g. it says Iāve poured 250g of water, then when I look in the cup I can tell itās more than that in there, I weigh whatās actually in the cup and it says like 305g (which means I actually poured more like 330 or so accounting for water retained in the grinds). Whichā¦ makes no sense? why would it be undercounting if I pour in small increments but not when I pour all at once?
Anyway, I changed the batteries and it did it again. So I guess Iām just going to buy something better (this is like a $15 scale from amazon, knowing me it was probably the cheapest thing that had 0.1g resolution).
Recommendations?
looking at the OG hario scale of course but this looks interesting
https://www.amazon.com/Timemore-Coffee-scale-coffee-Weigh/dp/B084FBMV1D
Hereās my scale review post:
I still use the MyWeigh Barista daily. Somehow it seems like the battery has gotten better? Iām not sure if thatās possible but I havenāt charged this thing once since making that post back on June 9th and it still has 2/3 bars. Itās been rock solid and everything else I wrote about it still applies. Readout speed is super fast which is what MyWeigh is known for (they are the industry leader in consumer-grade scales). It has a timer function that will be useless if you lift your brewing apparatus to swirl or whatever. Should be available for under $40.
I would avoid the Jennings unless you plan to cut the PCB trace to the speaker. It has a few nice features like the circular plate being perfect for coffee servers, reputation for long-term reliability, and bright orange display, but the BEEP is annoying, itās kind of large, and requires AAA batteries (or included AC adapter). Hereās a size / LCD comparison:
Those are the only two I own and have experience with. When I was researching scales, I had the impression that the OG Hario was way overpriced. Seems kind of finicky and prone to failure, and they also say it has tons of lag on the readout. Thatās why I ended up going with actual scale manufacturers and not coffee companies putting their names on scales. Both Jennings/J-Scale and MyWeigh have good reputations in the scale industry.
That said, the Timemore looks interesting. The thing Iād be worried about is the hardware being garbage with no quality control. Thatās the impression I get from all of these rapid-prototyped trendy devices that are targeted towards bros who think MVMT watches are ābeautiful minimalist design.ā This sums it up perfectly right here:
Timemore claims the surface is waterproof but not to get water into the exposed USB charge port. LOL? The MyWeigh has a tethered rubber plug to cover the charge port, but I suppose that subtracts from the basic bitch aesthetic.
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yeah that myweigh is exactly what Iām looking for, I am decidedly unaesthetic
Just know that itās really supposed to be an espresso scale and is on the smaller side. My Hario server (pictured above) and Chemex hang over the edges slightly, but itās not like that makes the display completely unreadable.
yeah I usually pour into a fellow move mug, itās pretty compact, should be fine. just ordered one from walmart.
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So thereās this new 7-eleven gas station close to my house and they have a like a flagship convenient store that included a giant coffee area with a nitro cold brew tap. It tastes on par with the starbucks/dutch bros/peetās of the area and costs 1/3 of the price