this thing is very cute but man it seems like a lot of extra work. I need a special part just to get the filter into the cone??? yikes. (obviously I’m being a little facetious here, I’m already doing like 200x more work than normies plopping a pod into the keurig)
seriously though, what’s the idea here? I’m not really familiar with this device, is the idea that it’s more consistent than the v60? What actually is the cause of the v60’s inconsistency?
in other news, current bag I’m brewing:
from Subtext Coffee Roasters | Specialty Coffee Microroaster - Toronto, ON . First time I’ve gotten beans from these guys and it’s been pretty amazing. Probably more clarity here than I’ve had in a long time. It’s got some strong apple/malic flavors that I’m not personally a huge fan of but it’s really stood out on the technical merits.
I’m watching this video thinking “yep, yep” but then sort of removed myself for a moment to gain some perspective. This must look like the most ridiculous shit ever to people who aren’t “into” coffee.
Description: A man from Prima Coffee mixes two custom brew water recipes using the Lotus water kit. He grinds the coffee using a $2,800 Ditting 807 modified for single dose brewing, then transfers the ground coffee to an Orea V3 brewer cone and combs the bed with a Barista Hustle WDT needle distributor.
Is WDT worth doing on filter? I thought that was am espresso thing
Dunno. It doesn’t make sense to me for filter but I’ve never tried it.
From the perspective of someone who just likes coffee, you passed that exit quite a while back :-)
Another thing. Are droppers that accurate?
I think the toughest part is figuring out which parts are signal and which are noise. The water definitely matters a ton for light roast coffees, and the grinder matters but has diminishing returns. The style of brewing matters (pour over vs. immersion), but minutia of comparing V60 to Kalita to Orea V3 seems more like sidegrade minor stuff that only heavy enthusiasts might be able to tell the difference between.
I dunno but good question and one of the first things I thought of too. Seems like someone (Gagne on Coffee Ad Astra maybe) wrote about having trouble finding precise droppers before but I dunno if there was a solution.
Where should I look in USA#195 to get real chasens made in Nara prefecture? I don’t want the cheap Alibaba knockoff junk but also fear getting upsold bigly by price arbitragers.
This is probably real but I’m not looking to drop $200 on a piece of bamboo. Their non-ancient offerings seem to run around $50, and I have no idea if that’s reasonable or not. What would you expect to pay for a “normal grade” artisan chasen in yen inside Japana?
There’s a vast price difference between genuine chasen hand-crafted in Japan and the Chinese cheapos. Even in Japan we pay upwards of $100 for a Japanese-made one. You can find the cheap Chinese ones in abundance on Amazon.
Having used both, the Japanese ones are obviously better crafted and whisk better. But is you’re just getting started with matcha or are only an occasional drinker, the Chinese ones are perfectly functional at a fraction of the cost.
I have a made-in-Japan chasen that I bought 15 or 20 years ago but it’s currently in a box in storage somewhere that I can’t locate easily. I’d prefer to buy a new decent handmade one from dried bamboo but it doesn’t have to be thousand-year-old black spalted bamboo or whatever. I keep seeing kanji on labels that looks like this:
百
本
立
Sticking that into whatever translator seems to give something like HUNDRED MAIN RISE which I assume means 100 prongs? In other words, that mark is just stating the number of prongs and nothing about the maker, origin, type of production, etc.? That particular label appears to be mass produced so I’m skeptical of anything bearing only that mark even though many of them claim to be handmade in Japan.
There are a number of English-facing sites that seem to have real ones sourced to a named master craftsman. They seem to start at around $35 or $40 for a basic one, so if that’s how much they cost I’m fine paying it.
Yes, those characters just indicate the number of prongs. 80 or 100 is usually a good standard chasen that will whisk easily.
If you can find a Japanese-made chasen for $40, that sounds like a great deal to me. In fact, if you can, please share the link!
Seems like there are plenty of sites that have them in that price range. Here’s one example:
They have a 70 prong for $36. Of course the shipping might be brutal I dunno. Some of these things are absolutely beautiful though, specifically the dark figured bamboo.
Thanks! My wife usually does the chasen buying so maybe I overstated the cost, although there are certainly master craftsman out there whose chasen are at the very high end.
If shipping isn’t too much I’d definitely spend $20-30 or so extra for the good stuff. It’s well worth it.
That is a stunning work of art. Having one made out of some thousand year old bamboo by a 25th generation master would be amazing, not gonna lie.
I don’t suppose a fork would get the job done?
Forks or metallic baking whisks will NOT whisk matcha properly. Use either a proper bamboo whisk or a motorized milk frother.
Even handheld electric frothers don’t seem to do quite as good at making foam.
Thanks. That was fascinating even though I’ve never had matcha before in my life.
You should try it at least once. There’s no other experience like it.
