Archive of posts from 2021/08 📝

I recently saw a post by Wendelien Van Bunnik, a World Aeropress Champion, on Instagram. In the post, Wendelien shares her history of drinking poor-quality coffee before discovering speciality. She ends the post with an interesting question that I wanted to write about: "do you remember the moment you discovered the pleasure of drinking coffee that actually tastes nice instead of functional?"

I was recently thinking about what attributes are common among the coffees I enjoy the most. I have written about this subject before although the last time I covered it was last November. Since then, I have tried many more coffees. Not only have I tried more coffees, I have tried more unique coffees. I have sought out more distinct coffees—from those with unusual flavour notes to those from origins I have not yet tried—because I enjoy trying something new. In doing so, I have found some flavour attributes that I really like in coffee.

The Manchester Coffee Festival brings together the dozens of businesses in the local coffee community for a two-day event focused on coffee. The event places a particular emphasis on creating an environment in which anyone, regardless of their background in speciality coffee, can learn about the industry.

A member of the IndieWeb community, jeremycherfas.net, informed me that the text on my blog posts was hard to read. This was interesting because I pay a lot of attention to making sure content on my site is readable. Jeremy made me aware of something that I had not considered in the design of my blog post pages: the line width.

I was recently chatting with a friend about ordering espresso in cafes. I said that I used to never order espresso from cafes. Even as I learned about speciality coffee, I preferred to order milky drinks when I was out. I reasoned that if I was in a cafe I would prefer to have a drink that I could sip on. Also, I love milky coffee drinks so I would seize the opportunity to order one. Now, however, I am ordering more espresso at cafes.

What do you hear when you go into a coffee shop? This question came to mind earlier today as I sat in my local coffee shop. I have entertained this question before after discussing how the sensory experience of coffee is much greater than just taste. Making coffee involves all of your senses, from touch to sight. Consuming coffee involves sight, hearing, smelling, and of course tasting. There's even more to the experience of coffee than just the basic senses but I digress.

Back when I was working on my thermal printer project, I decided to build a random Aeropress recipe generator. The idea was that I would get a new Aeropress recipe in print every morning so that I could push myself when I was brewing. Truthfully, I didn't use the feature much because I was quite stubborn about using recipes I had refined through practice. However, I like the idea. Embracing randomness pushes one out of their comfort zone.

Black Pine Coffee is one of the many independent speciality coffee shops that make up the thriving and growing Glasgow coffee scene. Black Pine Coffee serves blend of coffee they designed with The Good Coffee Cartel, retail coffee from a rotating selection of roasters, sweet treats, and toasties. In this interview, I chat with Pete, the owner of Black Pine Coffee, about what it's like to run the store.

Manifesto Coffee, based in Perthshire, Scotland, have been working hard for months on a problem that many speciality coffee companies face: how to package their coffee in a sustainable way. After extensive research, the Manifesto Coffee team came up with the idea of packaging their coffee in cans, a form of material that is widely and easily recycled.

A few weeks ago, I composed a zine called Quiet Edinburgh, a photo essay based on my experience visiting Edinburgh coming out of lockdown. The zine contains photos taken between April, days after travel restrictions were eased allowing for people to travel outside of their council areas, and June. I composed this zine shortly after taking a break from travelling due to rising COVID cases.