Random Coffee Googlings

I play with numbers quite a bit and this morning as a warm-up exercise for some serious number play I did a comparison of various search terms including the word coffee.

The world loves coffee far more than it hates coffee.

But we already knew that.

Click to embiggen!

Stovetop clarity

A while ago I posted a video of making stovetop espresso. With all my earlier stovetops the end product had been muddy and burnt but with the little Bialetti that Kam from Fiori gave me I have had much more success.

I have been in the habit of lifting the Bialetti from the flame almost as soon as the coffee starts to flow up the spout - I know that the result of this is a little less coffee, but I find that first fraction of the brew to be sweeter and substantially more mellow than if I maintain the heat and allow all of the water to boil through.

There is also substantially less sediment - to the point where the coffee is almost completely clear. I don't know just why this is - if I leave it a litle longer it certainly has a lot more sediment and I wonder if that last rush of water and steam is at a higher pressure and thus carries a little more sediment through with it.

I know that from a flavour persective some people prefer the full measure and body of the more muddy brew, but I have come to prefer the early lift and the clean taste - here below is my video again so that you can see the result of the method I am using. I'd love to hear any views on why it is that the first fraction has almost no sediment.

Sundays are for Lab Work

I do love to play. Today, following an inspiring evening on Wednesday with the guys at European Foods at Bar 399, I decided to play with signature drinks and coffee cocktails.

Like most good science the afternoon was a series of failed combinations each of which led me towards two successes.

The cocktail success was achieved using Ethiopian Limu that I roasted myself using bean from Fiori. It was roasted only just to second crack so it is very bright and lemony. An espresso shot of this was paired with Stones Green Ginger Wine (reserve) and a dash of tabasco sauce for extra kick. Lots of fun. About 30ml of espresso to the same of green ginger wine. Stir in the tabasco and then take the whole lot into your mouth. DO NOT SWALLOW! Hold it till the heat builds then let it trickle down your throat.

The second success was born of what seemed like total failure. I was using truffle butter as the 'trick' but had trouble pairing it with other flavours. In the end what worked was warming a minute amount of truffle butter in about a tablespoon of Bannister Downs milk, pouring a shot of espresso into this and then a teaspoon of maple syrup.

The Hario Siphon

The team at Coffee Shrine supply a range of coffee making equipment for the home and office, and recently started stocking Hario siphons. I have never had the opportunity to play with a siphon and so I jumped at the chance to borrow one when they offered. I read up on technique in a number of places, including the recent instructable at Five Senses Coffee. Feeling well armed with knowledge and blissful lack of experience I put together the siphon and the Hario hand grinder and started to make coffee.

Actually, it took a few more tries before I got something that approximated what was described to me as a good quality cup of siphon coffee.

The final attempt though was something awesome. I was using an Ethiopian Limu that I had lightly roasted two days before and it was full of stone fruit and had an almost tea-like tannic quality. It was very refreshing and quite different even to the pour-over I had made with the same beans.

The Hario kit is a beautiful set of equipment. I love glasswear, and particularly laboratory glasswear. At teacher's college we had to learn to make our own pipets and other basic glass tools, but always I luster after the rows of beakers, conical flasks, retort stands and bulb flasks that stood in rows in the lab prep room.

The Hario gear took me right back into that world and I spent a blissful weekend trying slight alterations to the various recipes I had.

I was also very surprised by the hand grinder. My experience with manual grinders has not been good but I found that the ceramic burr Hario had grinder was effective and consistent and that the process of grinding enough coffee did not take too long. It actually added to the experience overall.

A big thanks to the guys at Coffee Shrine for letting me borrow their kit, it was great fun to play with.

The pictures below will hopefully tell the story better than my words can!

All About Coffee

The incomparable Ross Quail, president of the Australasian Specialty Coffee Association has posted on the AASCA site the exciting news that the William H. Ukers coffee text "All About Coffee" is now out of copyright and as such project Gutenberg have undertaken to make it available electronically - free of charge. This occurs whenever sufficient time passes after the death of an author to be sure that the author's estate has benefited as much as is reasonable from the product of that author - I think about 50 years or so.

There are a variety of formats available including ePub - which can be read on laptops, desktops iPhones and other smartphone - and naturally, iPads.

You can find the book here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/28500

Thanks to Ross and AASCA for spreading the news as I know there are many people who cannot afford the several hundred dollars for a paper version of the text.