Archive of posts from 2020/12 📝

I ordered a Kalita Wave on Christmas Day, as well as a gooseneck kettle and the accompanying filters for the Wave. I have been brewing with the Aeropress, a hybrid immersion brewer, for months, and I wanted a change. I know there is a wide range of pour-over options and I wanted to start to dip my toe into one. I chose the Kalita Wave for its design. Because the Wave has a flat bed, the device is less susceptible to clogging to due fines migration. This is when fines flow to the bottom of the filter and plug up the holes—only 10-20 microns large in filter paper—thus reducing the flow of water.

For over the holiday season, I purchased two bags of coffee from The Good Coffee Cartel. Well, I should say canisters rather than bags. Their coffee comes in reusable canisters and you can request a refill if you live near their store. One of the canisters I purchased was their Ethopia Adado coffee, the first coffee they have ordered for a second time.

I recently tried to brew an Aeropress using a recipe based on French press brewing. I decided to let coarse coffee grounds brew for four minutes like I would with a French press. Then, I affixed the filter cap to the Aeropress, flipped the device, and pressed down the plunger. I was curious whether the Aeropress is a good substitute for the French press when brewing for one person.

At the start of October, I participated in a virtual cupping with Steampunk Coffee. One of the coffees I got to try was from Uganda, which was perhaps the most distinct between all of the five coffees on the table. The coffee reminded me of tropical fruit, a characteristic I had not tasted in coffee up until that session.

A few days ago, I asked myself the question whether it was possible to brew a French press-style coffee in an Aeropress. I thought this would be possible because both the French press and the Aeropress are immersion brewers. Water is soaked in grounds and left to steep for a period of time. Then, the grounds are separated from the coffee. A French press does not do as good a job at removing the grounds as an Aeropress—this is on account of the size of the holes in a French press metal filter—and so the cup profiles are a bit different.

I've always enjoyed the little factoids about the history of coffee that come up every so often. Turkish women were allowed to divorce their husbands if the husbands did not supply them with enough coffee. The first coffeehouse founded in Vienna was the Blue Bottle. I learned the cappuccino derives its name from an order of monks whose robes resemble the colour of coffee with milk, the foundation of a cappuccino. I knew that there was a battle wherein "camel droppings" were left by soldiers and were burned until one person realised that the "droppings" were actually coffee beans.

"Buy a good grinder" is one of the most common pieces of advice I have heard when it comes to making coffee. Grinding my own beans at home levelled up my home-brewing significantly. My coffee tastes better, more nuanced. I opted for a manual grinder because entry-level options are a lot cheaper than their electric counterparts: basic manual grinders start at about 20 pounds and go up from there.

When I went to purchase my coffee of "What I Know About Running Coffee Shops" by Colin Harmon on the Square Mile Coffee Roasters website, I was asked if I wanted a sample of coffee to accompany the book. The sample of coffee was El Desvelado, a washed Columbian coffee grown at 1900 masl in the Narino region. The tasting notes said "mandarin, grape, and jammy."

'Tis the season to read as many books about coffee as possible. I've found books are a great way to learn about coffee. I can easily get lost in a book about coffee, spending hours reading. I like how books can be read uninterrupted without the temptation of opening another tab to start reading another blog post. This year, I've read eight books about coffee, and I've liked each of them.

Earlier this year I participated in an online coffee cupping session hosted by Steampunk Coffee. It was marketed as a crash course in coffee cupping because it is quite difficult to replicate the strict standards of cupping at home without the right equipment. Grinding various samples of coffee to a particular degree within a certain period of time is not easy; every cup needs to be the same, and so on. But it is to be expected that online cupping will not be perfect. I signed up to learn a lot about cupping. I learned how things should be done and various ways to do those things at home.