“The enemy.” In a recent conversation with one of my co-workers, he asked me if he should consider another local coffee shop to be “the enemy” now that he worked here. I told him my take is that there is absolutely no reason he should feel that way, and for two reasons: Value and trust.… [Read more…]
October 28, 2011
Nothing lengthy to share here, but I do have a couple of short thoughts regarding brewing: Over-extraction and under-extraction are terms to describe extraction efficiency, not brew strength. In fact, those two things — extraction efficiency and strength — are often used interchangably when they are, in fact, totally separate and only incidentally related. Stir… [Read more…]
October 5, 2011
I’m sort of jumping the gun on writing this, but, considering the long hours and seemingly endless days of test-roasting and taste-testing, I think can be forgiven if I let spill a small portion of the proverbial beans. Besides, Michael John Butterworth requested more than one blog post a month, and I’m not about to… [Read more…]
September 30, 2011
Some of you were aware that, last week, I took a little trip to Seattle to take in the city, hang out with Ryan and Molly Soeder, and enjoy Coffee Fest and its related festivities. Those handful of you who don’t add excitement and enrichment to your life by anxiously awaiting my every tweet and… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
The past several weeks — months, really — have been mildly crazy. Lots and lots of work, with not a whole lot of reprieve. I’m fine with that, though, as I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to learn and explore, all the while being paid. Right now, this very moment, I have several batches of… [Read more…]
July 23, 2011
“Tipping, more common in softer coffees, can be related (to) the same inputs as scorching as well as being an airflow issue… it’s moisture escaping from the weakest point of the bean, where the taproot would be if it were used as a seed.” -Christopher Schooley Tipping is one of those relatively easy defects to… [Read more…]
July 4, 2011
“Molecules in solids cannot move readily and collide with one another. Reactions are much faster in solutions and melt. Therefore, as coffee and bean temperature rises, reactions speed up when chlorogenic acids melt (around 300°F) and sucrose melts or dissolves in molten chlorogenic acids, which occurs well below sucrose’s normal melting point, 340°F. Similarly, prior… [Read more…]
June 28, 2011
One coffee professional recently told me, with regard to building an espresso blend, “Espresso is so varied and personal.” I liked hearing that a lot. In a sense, it was comforting to me, since all of my espresso roasting and subsequent blending had been, for the most part, very much against The Rules. In the… [Read more…]
June 24, 2011
The other day, I received the Walküre Kaffemaschine in the mail. It’s the smaller Karlsbad model, 038, for those keeping score at home. Made entirely of porcelain, it comprises four pieces in all: server, filter, dispersion piece, and lid. You really have to see it in action to make sense of how it works, and… [Read more…]
June 23, 2011
So, it all started with this. Collin Moody and Neil Oney, caring coffee guys that they are, decided to chime in with a little advice. If Collin had his way, I would use a dirty sock, while Neil wanted to see me drink some instant coffee. Either way… gross! Of course, me being me, I… [Read more…]
November 29, 2011
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