i’m pretty new, like idk what WDT is.
Haha well it should be fun learning all of the techniques and nuance in pulling great shots and going down the rabbit hole Zen and the Art of Espresso style. The good news is that you aren’t going to be limited by your equipment.
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The first real winner from this Apollon’s Gold batch for me is the orange bourbon from El Salvador. It’s the one they call Divina Providencia that was a 2020 COE winner. I finally cracked it after 60 days rest and every cup has been great so far on the Kalita. This is an incredible coffee for a good price, and if I ordered from there again I’d get several 250g bags of it. Tastes like tangerine and peach juice.
Had a v60 of this bad boy from the main Proud Mary coffee shop.
Pretty good.
Everytime I have fancy filter coffee out, I’m also surprised how mild it is. At home I like mine a lot stronger.
Am I getting something wrong, or do coffee shops err on the side of caution here?
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Dude, that’s Esmeralda gesha. I’d hope it’s pretty good. What kind of ratio are you pouring at home?
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270g to 19g.
I think that’s 14.2 to 1.
I pour 16:1 as a default and usually more like 17:1 for delicate coffees like geshas. The lowest I’ll go is 15:1 but generally only using that with some African naturals now. Everyone has different tastes though so make it how you enjoy it obv.
Hmm. Okay. What else should I adjust if I’m going to try 16 or 17 to 1?
I think one issue is that if you’ve dialled in a recipe that you like. If you just change one thing it’s going to taste worse at first. Which brings you back to your original state.
Kind of like a local maximum that isnt the overall maximum.
I wouldn’t change anything at first. Just pour a higher ratio and compare. If it extracts too much and you’re getting noticeable bitterness, first thing to try would be grinding slightly coarser, but that doesn’t happen often due to ratio in my experience.
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just got back from a quick work trip to London, Brussels and Amsterdam. Some extremely brief shop reviews
London:
Prufrock Coffee: Espresso was … fine. No water offered, service was slow considering the number of customers at the time. Table service, which was annoying, I prefer to just pay at the counter so I can go when I’m ready to go rather than having to find my waitress just so I can pay for the doubleshot I ordered 30 minutes ago. I don’t think Hoffman has any association with this outfit directly anymore? C+.
Store Street Espresso: I think this is a local chain, I dropped in at a location near the British Museum (I was going to swing through the musuem between meetings but there was a strike and I wasn’t going to cross a picket line). Perfectly nice espresso, but again, no water? Space was nice, lots of natural light, nice baristas. “No laptops on weekends” (it’s a pretty small space, this seems fine IMO). B-
(No pics)
Kaffeine: another local chain? Very nice cup, very busy (near Oxford Circus). Espresso was served with a spoon and … some tea? It was a very, very weak tea, the waiter said it’s a “power cleanse.” Seems weird but OK. Not sure how much it affected the taste of the espresso, but I enjoyed it overall. B+.
“Power cleanse” “tea”
Omotesando Koffee: very small, high-end space (probably only room for maybe six people to sit here, it feels like what an espresso bar inside an apple store would look like. The shot was excellent, easily the most enjoyable cup I had in London. Sparkling water + spoon, tyty. A+++ would go again.
Rosslyn Coffee (london wall location): very busy, I was by far the oldest person in there, packed with 20 something yuppies, very limited seating. coffee was excellent, (spoon+sparkling), can’t really sit down here and get any work done, though. A-.
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(I’ll try to get to the rest later tonight)
It’s no secret that I like to hit antique shops and flea markets but this weekend was the first time I spent a full day on it since the pandemic started. One of the most consistent cheap finds is coffee-related gear, and I snagged some of these vintage Pyrex Woodland design coffee cups.
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Brussels:
Corica:
They’re literally roasting right at the very front of the store, literally when you walk in you could reach over and grab beans right out of the roaster. Small space but they have some great outdoor seating. No water offered, very good shot. B+
Cafe Capitale
Great space, plenty of seating, inside and out wifi, the whole deal. Baristas seem very competent. Great shot, I even came back here and got a pour over (it was… good, but not great). A.
Belga & Co
nice space, very cozy but decent amount of seating, very friendly. Competent shot, no water offered. B-.
Fika
Very tight, kinda dumpy seating options, decent shot, no water. C+.
Yuka Coffee Bar
Cozy, great location, excellent shot (maybe the best I had in Brussels. Great barista. A.
Amsterdam
Hummingbird
Very nice space, sparse but with enough seating, extremely nice baristas, excellent shot, A+
Priesthood
Great location right by the central train station, weird space (it’s in a christian bookstore) barely any seating, baristas were nice, shot was competent but not great. (Served with still water). C+.
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Did we talk about chill extract theory for filter yet? His claim is that immediately chilling with a frozen stainless steel ball locks in up to 40% more VOCs that would otherwise be lost. He worked with some PhD coffee guys and they tested it for a few years, so I don’t think he’s just making it up.
https://rhinocoffeegear.com/nucleus-paragon-pour-over-stand.html
If there’s a more frustrating hobby than this I’d love to hear about it.
Never thought I’d type these words but S&W has a new website. They also switched from full pound to 300g, so the prices are lower and apparently shipping costs less now.
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This is the place I found via the espresso club discord you shared. On my second order from them already. First order contained an extra 100g sample I wasn’t expecting and some honey.
Today the pink bourbon gave me a wide range of emotions in one cup that varied based on temperature. Started off 
but as it cooled down a bit it was 
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Yeah he usually throws in a free sample or two which is smart b/c I end up ordering more of it. I had that pink bourbon also but couldn’t get much out of it. It was nothing at all like the pink bourbon I received from Happy Mug which smelled and tasted nothing like coffee at all.
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I was looking around for good Brazilian coffees and found this place in Arizona that’s running a farm-to-cup operation.
I rarely order Brazilians because they’re rarely available from the specialty roasters I buy from, and I think that’s because in Brazil it’s mostly treated like a mass production cash crop with low quality control. There’s also the fact that Brazilian coffees tend to be more boring than origins, although that really depends on the cultivation. The few higher quality Brazilians I’ve had were excellent.
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I keep trying to find pink bourbon in Melbourne.
My first attempt was a dud. What seemed to be pretty boring, standard beans.
Just found the below online.
A few red flags? That’s not the tasting notes I should expect right?
Never ordered from zest. They supply beans for a few brunch places I know where the coffee is fine but nothing special.