Archive of posts from 2020/10 📝

It's almost essential that you start brewing coffee from a humble beginning. I don't have an origin story where I sat drinking bitter diner coffee into the early hours of the morning. I drank instant coffee for a while but I gave up on it. Instant coffee was good because it felt like it packed a punch. I felt a bit more adult drinking instant coffee than tea, which I had been allowed to drink for a long while before coffee.

I've been enjoying the Missing Bean Peruvian Direct Trade beans for about a week. I got a small box of the beans from my local coffee shop when I ran out of beans at home. At first, I did not know what beans I was drinking. I recently popped back into my local coffee shop to find out. The beans are from Missing Bean.

I bought an Aeropress months ago. It seems like it's been part of my daily routine forever. I brew one cup of coffee in the morning and one in mid-afternoon. I've written about my Aeropress extensively on my website. I've published the recipe I try to follow for anyone who is interested in learning about how I brew coffee.

I've brewed two cups of coffee with a set of scales. On my first cup, I tried to measure the coffee after I had ground it. This turned out to be a mistake.

My coffee scale recently arrived and I decided that I'd brew my first coffee with a scale today. This is the biggest change to my brewing process since I bought a grinder almost a month ago. I've never measured the weight of my coffee. I've always eyeballed my measurements.

It's a lazy Sunday and I'm sitting at my window thinking about the world. I've spent some time over the last week gradually reading more about speciality coffee. I took a break from following speciality coffee while I was on vacation. I find that sometimes my hobbies can become overwhelming. A break was a good reminder of how fun coffee can be. I don't need to think about coffee much. I just need to put the time in when I am brewing to make a good cup.

I'm presently drinking Liberacion, a single origin coffee from Union Blend. I've been impressed by every coffee I have had from Union so far. This coffee is different. I've struggled to detect the flavors written in the tasting notes. I've found a few of the cups I have brewed to be flat. This has made me somewhat doubt my brewing skills. I have felt like I've taken a step back in my journey to brewing better coffee.

Steampunk is one of two coffee roasters that I've come to learn about in more depth than the rest. I've spent some time reading about the Scottish speciality coffee market. There are so many roasters and many of them do not have active online presences. I rely on the online presences of roasters because I buy most of my speciality coffee online. I brew most of my coffee at home.

I'll have a pumpkin spice latte to go, please. No cream. "Coming right up!" the barista replies. I hear the words "PSL to go, no cream, extra love" pour into the air. A chain of work begins between the baristas on duty. The barista who served me asks for my name. Jamie, I reply. My name is now written on a paper cup. It's spelled correctly. I was always lucky to have a name that's not difficult to spell. I've not once had my name spelled incorrectly on a cup.

It's another one of those days where I cannot think of something to write about. I've been drinking speciality coffee for a few months. I've never thought about coffee as something that I could drink of a higher quality. I grew up with the idea that coffee came from a Nescafe jar. My parents would always complain about the rising price of coffee. They tried to, and still do, buy jars of coffee on offer. Coffee was not meant to taste great. Coffee kept you going.