Picked up a JX after my cheap manual grinder bit the dust. I unboxed it and set it a click or two above the finest setting and tried to make a cup, but that setting is apparently only good for making cement. My manual espresso maker couldn’t push the water through it, so I tried the Gaggia and no dice there either. I backed it off 10-15 clicks and still need to dial it in, but the coffee from both machines was very good and I’m tasting notes like cherry that weren’t there with the old grinder. Time to make another trip to Espresso Vivace for the good stuff.
Sounds…really good?
Currently drinking this Sidamo which had a nice strawberry note on the first few brews then suddenly became bitter. Simply grinder coarser hasn’t solved anything. Really annoying. My bids for a refractometer have all failed so far. That’s the downside of trying to get a deal on a used one because the model / options you have to get are extremely specific.
YAY
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Fuckin’ cereal notes. lol
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That’s 34 minutes and 19 seconds of misery to provide company for depressed time wasters.
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local roaster is offering a single-origin light roast from… china?
what’s the worst that can happen if I roll the dice on this
I dunno, seems interesting. China is only very recently a player in single origin coffee exports so there aren’t too many people who can say they’ve had it. That fact alone probably means it has a somewhat unique profile when combining all of the factors (climate, soil, processing), so there’s possibly nothing else quite like it. I found this:
In general, Yunnan washed coffees (Catimors) are characterized by a high body . This feature cannot sustain a coffee in isolation; however, when rounded out with other desirable qualities, it creates a unique profile that is gaining a reputation for Yunnan as an Emerging Specialty Origin . In particular, the latitudinal position of Yunnan results in cooler evening temperatures at higher altitudes, which produces a high level of sweetness . So, the overall experience in the cup for a Yunnan coffee is one of high sweetness and classic citric acidity balanced out with a full creamy body.”
My only development lately is that I’ve been grinding V60 almost to a powder and still getting 2:45 drawdowns, so could arguably go even finer. It’s very weird to me that I’ve been grinding on opposite ends of the spectrum and producing really good coffee, and yet most of the settings in between those two sweet spots were awful. No idea how that’s possible.
Well I bought the Yunnan, it’s been sitting on my counter degassing for a few days, I opened it up this morning and first cup is sorta meh. Obviously I need to run through a few more cups and get the grind dialed in but overall I’m not super optimistic. It’s VERY gassy, it basically bloomed the whole way through the pour, so I may give it a couple of more days before I brew another cup.
Have you had any geshas yet? I noticed that Black & White is pretty stocked up right now which means a lot of these coffees must have just come in since last time I checked there. The Gesha Village at $20 is probably the most affordable one out there. It’s not the best one I’ve had, but it’s a cheap way to see if you’re able to extract its magic trick of opening like floral tea and then shifting to a fruit flavor. They also have a Pacamara right now with a first tasting note of red Jolly Rancher, so looks like imma have to pay to see.
Received the red Jolly Rancher Pacamara. Broke the seal to reveal huge beans and a ridiculous candied aroma. First brew is good but I’m not sure if red Jolly Rancher is a note I’m getting–seems too extracted for that. Definitely getting an orange juice vibe (not quite as acidic) with some winey qualities. Traveling though and won’t have a chance to try it again for a few days.
I have returned home from holiday travels and terrible road coffee to take another shot at this. Went a half unit coarser and it’s really good, but I’m still detecting bitterness so could be improved slightly by going even coarser. I was skeptical after the first brew, but there is definitely a Jolly Rancher tasting note here. Not sure I would have described it that way unprompted because Jolly Ranchers aren’t really at the top of my mind, but the combination of sourness, candied sugar, and silky mouthfeel seem to be in the correct ratios to trigger that sensation.
Also, there don’t seem to be many (if any) extraneous masking flavors here other than the bitterness from overextraction, so I’m fairly confident that just about anyone could do this one. That’s not always the case, especially with the delicate tea-like coffees I tend to buy where you have to do everything perfectly to make it pop. Black & White is my go-to roaster for the higher end coffees and I will stan for them as long as they keep delivering great value for unique coffees like this one ($20 / 12 oz, free ship at $25, roast/ship on M/T/R/F).
Anyone looking to upgrade their kit?
I got a cappuccino or a cortado or similar from one of these on Market Street in SF a couple of years ago. It was… fine. basically indistinguishable from a typical starbucks.
I cannot for the life of me get a good brew out of my v60 lately.
I’m still trying to dial in the grind with this Ethiopian at the moment but these problems date back to my last bag of beans too. The bag before that did a little better but flavor wasn’t very good.
I’m using a modified Hoffman recipe.
Right now im using 20g coffee ground to 6Z on my Forte with ceramic burrs. Baratza recommends 5M (about 1.5 full adjustments finer than I’m using with this bag)
White tabbed hario filters. I know these aren’t great but I haven’t found better the handful of times I’ve looked recently.
3rd wave water heated to 205F
Bloom 50-60g water with a couple seconds of swirling to wet all the grounds
Pour to 200g. Swirl once.
When the water is getting low, pour another 120g water to hit 320g total.
I’m getting draw down times of 4+ minutes and my coffee bed reliably looks muddy. The attached image is from last bag this latest bag looks muddier
Anything obvious I can change to get better results?
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That’s a pretty serious setup. What does it taste like? The bed looks ok to me, but 4+ is pretty long. I am almost always under 3 minutes with 20g dose.
This latest bag of beans has some sweetness up front with heavy bitterness in the finish. Basically missing any of the fruitiness or subtlety I expect from Ethiopian beans and more bitter than it should be too.
Sounds overextracted. Here’s what I would try:
(1) Don’t swirl the coffee. IME all this really does is allow fines to migrate and plug the brew, especially the way he does it so violently. That introduces a ton of variance into the drawdown. At most, I give one very gentle swirl after all of the water is in.
(2) Note your time and if it’s still above 3:30, then do the same thing but also grind coarser. Ethiopian coffees are very dense and can drain slowly. For example, the two coffees I have on rotation now are an El Salvador and an Ethiopia. The ES was perfect somewhere around 5M* for me, whereas the Ethiopia was extremely bitter aftertaste at that setting. I’ve gone as high as 9A on some of these before.
*My calibration point (1F) is lower than factory, so my 5M is probably about a 6Z if you’re using standard calibration.
If I don’t swirl should I churn a bit with a spoon or something to make sure everything gets saturated?
I’m not very familiar with calibrating. My understanding is there isn’t any reason to calibrate unless you need to go finer or coarser than the current configuration allows.