ADIDAC

All Day I Dream About Coffee

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Able Disk and Kone First Impression - Finally the day has come, my own Kone and Disk from Able Brewing.  It has been a while since I've been wanting these two "toys" to play with as they have received so much praise and hype over the years.  The Kickstarter program definitely launched Able Brewing into a complete company with their own brand and products now instead of being an accessory of a well known cafe.  The first thing that I noticed while opening the box was the very nicely design packaging and graphics. It shows that they put a lot of effort even in the smallest details, unlike other coffee equipment manufacturers.  The Kone looked so amazing that my friend called it "badass" even though he's not even the slightest bit into coffee.  The build quality is simply amazing.  It really shows the world that the US can manufacture goods at a high quality once again despite that Japan and Taiwan seem to be a the only manual coffee equipment producers for a while.  The photo etched holes are so fine you don't really see through it with your naked eyes up until you hold it up to the light and it looks like you are looking through a pair of stocking because the holes are so tiny.  The welding is so precise and miniature that it doesn't really look like a normal "weld" at all.  Despite all the precision and perfectionist attention to detail, there is a flaw.  The plastic lip was a bit too stiff for my taste and the finishing on it was pretty poor compared to the work done on the filter.  I would of preferred something more soft and a bit thicker so it can cling onto the Chemex better.  The Disk was amazing as well.  I got the "fine" version.  It was very hard to handle the Disk because it was just so think and floppy.  You have to be extra attentive to this Disk or you could easily wrap it or dent it.  I have tried it this morning for some coffee and it created a very interesting cup.  It was as clean as I would expect from such small photo etched holes as there was a fair amount of sediment in the cup that clouded the clear and crisp taste of my Ethiopian coffee.  Other than clarity other aspects like body/sweetness/mouthfeel wer all better by a big margin compared to a paper filtered pour over.  Over all I am very happy with these two new products and welcome them to my coffee equipment arsenal, however I feel that the Kone could be a little cheaper or maybe be delivered with the Disk as a package.  Good job Able and once again you have made leaps and bounds with such a simple but overlooked segment of the manual coffee brewing world.  

*the Kone does fit into the shape of the Hario V60 but it is a bit wobbly and unbalanced

Able Brewing

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Matt Perger's V60 Recipe Review

I was very excited to wake up this morning to actually test out this recipe.  I am actually drinking the coffee that I made while I am writing this review right now.  The coffee prepared is the Ethiopia Mordecofe from Stumptown.  To be honest I had only previously made this coffee once as a pour over using the more conventional recipe and had quite a pleasant experience with this coffee.  However, with this recipe I feel that it opened up the flavors a lot.  There was no bitterness as I expected from such a high water temperature.  The aftertaste became infinitely long and strong, however it lacked the body that the more traditional recipe had.  I am generally very surprised by the outcome of this recipe in many ways.

Conclusion Yes there is not denying the fact that when a world class brewers' champion creates a new recipe it is very exciting and makes us coffee geeks ever so curious.  Through actually making the coffee with this recipe I have to say that it does bring out more flavors and aromatics compared to the more traditional recipe.  This is exactly the point of this particular recipe because don't forget after all Matt Perger was making coffee in competitions and this is what the judges are looking for.  However, if you want to look at things in another perspective then this might not be the ideal recipe.  At the cafe or commercial setting customers are typically looking for more body and probably less acidity as well, that would not be the strength of this recipe, but rather the strength of the more traditional recipe.  To compare the two recipes I would have to say that the Perger recipe separates the different aspects of the coffee and highlights them individually as opposed to the traditional recipe that tends to merge the different aspects of the coffee in a very pleasing and smooth manner with gradual changes.  This is totally a personal bias now, but I feel that the Perger recipe is great for African coffees as it brins out the clean notes in a very distinct and clear manner.  With the south american coffees I think you are better off using other recipes as this technique is less about highlighting the body.

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Hario V60 Pour Over by Matt Perger - This must be one of the most bazaar instruction to come out in a while because it is simply counterintuitive.  So let's look at his recipe one element at a time below.

12g of coffee for 200ml of coffee (standard SCAA ratio at 16.1 coffee brew ratio) even though the typical recipe is about a 12.8 CBR

97c for water temperature (this is unheard of because the usual recommended high temperature would be at 95c, but however due to heat loss the water could contact the ground at 90c as you typically lose about 7c after you pour the water into a vessel)

50g of water for bloom and stirring (typically you would only use about double the weight of the coffee for the bloom so no liquid will go through the coffee grounds, stirring is not a typical method but still used with some recipes)

30 second bloom time (pretty "standard" time for the bloom considering you are using fresh coffee)

50g of water at 30 seconds (usually for this amount of coffee a single pour method is typically used)

100g of water at 1 minute

2:20 total extraction time (it's a tad bit long considering you are only using 12g of coffee and 200ml of water, but not totally out of "norm")

Point of question/doubt

97c for water.  Really?!?  (the Japanese would go as low as 83c for a pour over)

Quick and turbulent pouring (totally against the create-as-little-turbulence-as-possible school for pour overs that everyone seems to be following)

Potential good points

Multiple pours (this will definitely minimize raising the grounds higher on the cone)

Pouring around the edges more (once again to place the ground back into the flatter part of the ground bed)

Being a smartass

If you are so concerned about having a flat brew bed why not just use Kalita wave filter and pour over?  Isn't that easier to achieve than trying to do that with a cone shaped pour over?

If you are going to stir so much and cause so much turbulence why not use a siphon with a paper filter?  It'll have a more stable water temperature and grounds will have almost exactly the same contact time with water

Have you heard of a clever dripper?  

As skeptical as I am about this recipe one must try it out before more can be said.  Since Matt Perger is the WBC Champion of 2012 I doubt that he is crazy or trying to pull off a stunt on video.  Just because it is very unconventional doesn't make it wrong, as we all know that in the coffee world people have been keeping "tradition" and "crafts" so tightly that sometimes innovations like this seem ridiculous.  I will conduct my "experiment" tomorrow and share my findings.  Stay tuned!

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HG one - When Bauhaus meet coffee grinders

Finally there is a functional and easy to use hand grinder that has a commercial build quality for us.  This is a very minimal coffee grinder with basic form follows function Bauhaus mindset.  However, this is not the first attempt of making a hand powered grinder.  Before the HG one we had the OE Pharos which basically a few or literally none of us knew about.  That grinder has so many problems with operation and really didn't function in the real world application.  Stylistically I find the HG one very similar to the Versalab M3 belt driven grinder.  I guess that is already a proven formula so they didn't want to reinvent the wheel and took that design concept and turn it into a manual one rather than a belt driven one.  The current HG one has two offerings with a  71mm burr or with a beefier 83mm burr.  That being said I do not know why they have both since the 83mm burr did prove itself to retain less ground, less static and easier to grind.  The company didn't really do a good job at explaining that on their website.  If you can't wait to get one, wait.  It's on pre-order right now and they haven't announced when the delivery date would be.  However thank God that we finally have something that is functional, simple and eco friendly that we can use on and on without it ever failing. 

SPECS

71mm / 83mm Conical Burrs

0.1g ground retention

$850 

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Comparison of different manual techniques through cupping by Taguchi Mamoru

Flavor-Aftertaste-Acidity-Mouthfeel-Clarity-Sweetness-Balance-Combined Score (7 is the full score based on paper pour over)

Pour Over (12g/180ml) : 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7

French Press (14g/300ml) : 6.5 - 6 - 7.5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 7 - 7 (Strengths: Acidity/Sweetness | Weaknesses: Flavor/Aftertaste/Mouthfeel)

Siphon (18g/350ml) : 7.5 - 6 - 6 - 7.5 - 7 - 6.5 - 7 - 7 (Strengths: Flavor/Mouthfeel | Weaknesses: Aftertaste/Acidity/Sweetness)

Espress (20g/60ml) : 7.5 - 7.5 - 7.5 - 7.5 - 7 - 6 - 7 - 7  (Strengths: Flavor/Aftertaste/Acidity/Mouthfeel | Weaknesses: Sweetness)

Turkish (10g/150ml) : 7 - 7.5 - 7.5 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 (Strengths: Aftertaste/Acidity)

Paper pour over technique is Marmoru's preferred choice of brewing since he claims that it allows the coffee to have its "original" flavors represented.  His technique is almost unheard of in the western hemisphere because of his preference for low temperature extraction, at only 82/83c.  Marmoru also claims that the manual technique that the "third wave" cafes employ are merely "old school" methods pioneered and used by Japanese cafes about 30 to 40 years ago, only James Freeman (CEO of Blue Bottle) is open to admit that he is inspired by the Japanese and how they have been approaching coffee over these years.  Come on let's not forget that most of the high end manual equipment is made in Japan with the exception of the Clever Dripper (Taiwan) and the Aeropress/Chemex (US).  It's only "third wave" in the western hemisphere but in the east we have been using those methods for a long time now, but to credit the "third wave" people they did take it up a notch and made it more scientific and less "crafts" oriented by not using scientific devices (scales/thermometers).  

I have to say that in general I agree with his cupping scores for the different technique.  However, I think through different extraction times and different recipes you can shift the flavor profile a bit.  I'm actually surprised that he scored the French press so high on clarity and lower on mouthfeel/flavor/aftertaste.  That's the only score that I do not agree with in the chart.  My favorite technique is probably the siphon for many reason.  It has the most velvety mouthfeel that is not matched by anything else other than the espresso machine (but that is not a manual technique there for we should ignore it).  However, it does have its pitfalls as the acidity/aftertaste is not as good as other methods.  I do believe that most people who are new to specialty coffee would prefer the siphon method more as well because it tends to give off a better perception because of the dulled acidity and aftertaste.  The siphon coffee has a fancy mouthfeel and lighter body make most coffees taste better.  If you have been drinking lots of specialty coffee and want a most distinct and varied mouthfeel then you would go for the pour over as it is better at accentuating certain characteristics of the coffee.  You can see this point being demonstrated clearly as most of the competitors at the 2012 World Brewers Cup Championships used a paper pour over to highlight the special characteristics of the coffee.  To me there is no perfect method, it's all about what kind of coffee you drink, how much time you are willing to spend and how the coffee is roasted.  Don't forget that different type of roasters creates different flavor profiles in each coffee even though they could be roasted to the same degree.  Start experimenting today!

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Siphon Recipe *The main point of sharing this recipe is to get a discussion going and to inform others of certain techniques and methods that I've compiled through reading other siphon recipes 

24g of Coffee @ grinder setting 20 @ 1:10 coffee to water ratio

260ml of water

30sec extraction

I would preheat the water until boiling point.  (to not waste time boiling water with the small burner)

Place the bottom siphon on a scale and measure out 260g of water to equal 260ml (this is not exact apparently, but close enough for making coffee).  Now you are asking why 260 instead of 240 right?  It is to make up for the water evaporation process during the heating process, I actually measured it out to be about 20ml (once again not exact every time, but close enough.  It is easier to weigh the water than measure it volumetrically)

Rest the cylinder of the top sipon into the bottom bowl while boiling the water.  (this is to preheat the top half so it won't heat shock the glass and break it in case the weather is really cold and also so you have an idea of the temperature of the water by reading the bubbles that will occurs on the ball-bearing chain)

Once the small bubbles starts to rise out of the ball-bearings the temperature is correct and you can now seal the top carefully on the bottom bowl

Make sure you control the burner properly and let the heated water rise slow and steadily.  (otherwise if the flame is too big the water might be superheated and will cause it to be too hot on top and create turbulent water bubbles.  This usually means over extracted and bitter coffee)

Once the water is on the top half I usually take a temperature reading.  If it is too hot then I would flick the water front to back to cool it down until desired temperature.  (usually for fresh coffee I like to brew around 89/88c and for coffee that is more than two weeks old at 90c)

Once the temperature is right I immediate grind my coffee beans and empty them into the water

Once the ground are in the water I flick the water front to back with a smooth and long stroke using a bamboo paddle for about 5 seconds

At this point I reduce the flame down to a minimal to reduce turbulent water due to excessive bubbles.  (If this cannot solve the excess bubbling problem you may move the burner away for a quick flash so the bottom bowl has time to cool down therefore less bubbling)

After the timer hits 30 seconds I turn the flame off and in a circular and parallel manner I flick the paddle half way immersed in the top siphon for four time.  (this apparently helps to even out the extraction and leave the fines of the grounds)

The draw down take 30 seconds ending the extraction at exactly 1 minute total

Things to look for in a proper siphon extraction

Do you see a dome shape on top of the siphon?  You actually get judged for this in competition, it basically means that you have stirred properly for an even extraction therefor creating that beautiful dome shape

Do you see little bubbles on the top of the dome?  This means that you have actually saturated the coffee grounds properly during the initial back and forth action

Does the coffee on the bottom bowl immersed full of fine and foamy golden colored bubbles?  This basically means that the extraction time is good and the grounds were well immersed, otherwise they turn out to be white and large bubbles

Japanese VS Modern

I would like to think of my recipe and technique sort of a hybrid between what I so called the "Japanese" method (the picture above) and the "modern" method.  Basically the difference is that in the more traditional "Japanese" method the coffee ground is placed on the top siphon before the water rises, whereas the "modern" method will place the coffee ground in after the water has risen to the top of the siphon.  Why do I prefer the "modern method over the "Japanese" method is simply because you have more control over the water temperature and less contact time with oxygen for the coffee grounds.

End result Why would you use a siphon over other method of manual coffee brewing?  The answer is simple, there isn't anything that tastes quite like it.  Yes that sounds like a stupid and dumb answer, but here is why.  I think it makes the coffee really round and creamy and almost syrup like.  Why is that you ask?  I think the higher dosage has something to do with it as well as the cloth filter being used allowing more oils to go through than paper.  The consistent temperature of brewing and the consistent draw down time makes this more consistent than that of a pour over or even the clever dripper.  The only other tools that I can think of that is similar would be the Bunn Trifecta or the legendary Clover, but those are machines and not manual methods.  Yes it is a pain in the ass to learn how to use a siphon to this degree and the utmost attention has to be given in order not to mess up compared to other methods, but when every element comes in harmony the result is simply amazing.  If you are concerned about the mouthfeel and the creaminess that a coffee can offer look no further, this is the ideal technique.  However if you are looking for a more crisp and clean tasting cup to highlight acidity then you might look to the pour over.  It's no wonder why the siphon and the siphon bar gets the spotlight of the third wave coffee bars as to the espresso machines in the second wave, it is a representation of the craft and art of the coffee making process.  

Equipment Used (and why):

1) Bonmac TCA-2 - simply the best glass and solid design out there, also the official equipment of the World Siphonist Championships (even though it is manufactured by Hario Bonmac is basically the Lexus brand as Hario would be Toyota in this case)

2) Rekrow RK 4208A - i have no seen a better portable burner than a Rekrow yet, it is really reliable and always lights up with one ignition.  The best build quality I have seen and almost double the weight of its counterparts.   3) Baratza Maestro Plus - best grinder money can buy in this entry level market of grinders no doubt.  

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Able Brewing is probably the most interesting company in the world of coffee right now.  They have all the add-on gadgets to the manual coffee tools that are already ever so popular.  First it was the disk for the Aeropress and now they have a second version of their famous Kone filter for the Chemex.  Before this second version the previous versions weren't as friendly in many ways.  They would damage easily due to flex or even cut you because of the sharp edges and unrefined edges.  This new version has better structural rigidity and they have solved the problems with the sharp edges and points.  It's a pour-over, but it has no paper so more oils can come through.  In a way it's truly a hybrid of a french press and a pour-over.  Now all I can say is go out and get one even though it has not been officially released yet.  I can't wait to try it out myself.

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Coffee VS Tea

Recently I have been thinking about tea a lot more since I am mostly drinking coffee these days.  I used to be anti coffee because I thought coffee was inferior compared to tea.  Yes I was right, except I didn't know about specialty coffee.  Since I am from Taiwan in a tea growing region I am blessed with the knowledge of tea and how wonderful it can taste.  The coffee that I knew was basically commercial coffee that mots of the world knows.  I didn't have a clue that coffee can be appreciated for its taste, but rather for its caffeine boost.  Having said that people can say the same thing about tea as well if you are less fortunate in having the tea experience because all you can purchase is tea bags in department stores or loose leaf that is like couple months old.

Aging The aging process of tea is far superior compared to coffee.  Some particular types of tea actually tastes better through the aging process, for example darker oolongs and pu-erh. However once coffee is out of the roaster the timer starts counting down and no one can stop the aging process.  So if you need a long shelf life or don't have the access to get fresh coffee/tea then tea in this instance is the better choice.  In this round tea wins hands down.

Flavor This is an unfair comparison because you are simply comparing two very different things.  One is actually the leaf of a plant where as the other is the seed of a fruit.  Tea is very smooth and has subtle flavors that is very hard to pinpoint or describe.  However coffee is not that subtle and has a system built around classifying the taste, smell and flavors.  I don't know how many flavor compounds tea has because no one has actually figured that out yet or cared to.  Coffee on the other hand wins hands down with 800+ flavor compounds that even wine can't match.  In that department coffee wins for lack of better proof that tea has more flavors.  If you want to compare by experience I would have to say that coffee still has an advantage, it is never predictable and the way that it changes characteristics are nothing short of amazing.  If I had to compare the two drinks using instruments then tea would be a flute with it's crisp and subtle sounds.  Coffee on the other hand would be a guitar with a drum set, very dramatic and can produce very different sounds with the same instrument.  Coffee wins by surprise in this comparison.

Purchase I think around the world it would be a lot easer to buy quality coffee compared to quality tea.  Most tea that are sourced to western cultures are typically sub-standard tea compared to the tea that you can locally buy/drink the tea growing regions.  However with the case of coffee only the best gets exported and the inferior beans are consumed by the producers typically.  Coffee has a system of quality control that is very objective and scientific compared to tea.  Of course there is cupping with tea as well, but these professionals don't have a comprehensive system that coffee has.  The thing that I appreciate about specialty coffee is that it is very transparent and you know exactly what you are buying (region, variety, growing conditions) where as in tea you barely know the region other than what they are calling it.  Also the pricing is more transparent with coffee as well.  With auction coffee you are buying the raw bean at a price that you can even look up online sometimes and then you can figure out how much profit the roaster is making.  However with tea, it is auctioned as a product already and the price will sky rocket upwards to 10-100x it's counterparts from the same region just because it won some competition, there is no system around it other than hype.  

Price The most expensive coffee is about $160 per pound due to the low yield and hype around it and the taste.  However the most expensive tea is not even recorded probably, or to my knowledge.  Tea collectors have compared to tea and their Mercedes at home actually because the said that they are of equal value.  Personally I've had tea that costs $200 per pound and that's not even the most expensive at the shop.  In this case tea wins hands down and it is probably because tea is not traded as a commodity for the most part and has such a lower yield even compared to coffee.  Another factor to the higher costs of tea is due to the fact that not that many countries produce high end tea compared to high end coffee.  In this case coffee wins for being the cheaper alternative.  

Conclusion Coffee 3 : tea 1.  There for I announce that coffee wins for being full of character and reasonably priced for the amount of work that goes into it.  You drink a cup of auction coffee a day and you will be happy, but if you have the money to drink auction tea for example you would want to drink it non-stop without ever feeling content, so drink coffee and save tea for those special occasions if you want the ultimate taste in a drink.

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Darker Roast = Longer Shelf Life?

As we all know that coffee is a perishable food item like with everything else that we consume even though most people like to treat it like it will last for months on end and still retain the taste.  I do believe that the general public has a big misconception about what coffee tastes like because of our habits of consumption.  Steve Leighton of Has Bean even commented on how confused he felt when he was in Paris with all the amazing food, but the coffee just tasted so sub-standard.   Recently the SCAA, Specialty Coffee Association of America, has initiated an interested in discovering the shelf life of coffee and the changes to their taste due to time and other factors.  As much as we consume coffee globally we do not know too much about it compared to other food products and commodities.  Usually the rule of thumb is to consume freshly roasted coffee within two weeks from roast date.  For most of us in the world this is a bit impractical and a bit too ideal. In order to enjoy quality coffee I have asked my friend to bring back some coffee roasted in Japan by a well known roaster.  Being greedy I automatically purchase WAY more coffee than I can consume  even within two months.  So after the golden period the different coffees that I have purchased started changing flavors profiles on me.  Most of them lacked acidity at first then it was the body and finally it started tasting like every other commercial coffee that we have tasted in the past.  These are high end single origin beans we are talking about.  No matter what method I've used the results were upsetting because they were simply too exhausted to produce a good cup after three weeks of time.   However, I had a smart idea today.  I had a theory that darker roasts would stand up through the test of time better so I had decided consciously to make a cup of coffee with the Genova Blend from Honey Coffee.  This is a very dark roast and not my typical preference.  It it probably in the French roast category as the beans are a bit oily and have turn almost black already.  I used a Hario V60 and actually tweaked the grinder (Baratza Maestro Plus) one notch coarser than usual (at setting 17) and had a bloom temperature of 90c.  The coffee came out tasting better than I can remember compared to when I first brewed it at around 1.5 weeks after roast date.  How is this possible?  This almost defy everything logical and reasonable.  Is it because that the original flavors were too strong and over powering for my taste and after all the oxidation and aging process the flavors became more subtle and likable?  All the other single estate coffee with a way lighter roast tasted horrible already, but this blend still performed reasonably well considering the time elapsed and that it is a lower quality bean.  Why is this?  I can't explain it by science, but if my observation holds true this might explain why all the big commercial coffee companies prefer darker roasts, it is simply more acceptable taste wise after the preferred consumption date of two weeks.  Roasting darker allows the big corporate coffee roasters fool the customers in otherwise an unacceptable "stale" coffee.  What are your thoughts?

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The most education and easy to understand video about coffee varieties that I have watched so far.  It's interesting to trace coffee back to its roots in this video and see how it has changed and mutated through out the years.

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Kenya Rugati by Honey Coffee x Aeropress

Yes this is almost a repost of my last failed attempt at making this coffee previously.  However, this time I have not allowed myself to be a clumsy home barista and followed the recipe exactly.  The primary concern for this coffee to me is bringing out its beautiful and orange like acidity.  Being a coffee geek I know where to look up recipes online that are already proven and tested to make my life easier.  I was at Brew Methods and used the Bold Bean Coffee Roasters' recipe for the Aeropress.  The coffee turned out to be brighter than all the other techniques, siphon and pour over, that I have used for this coffee.  I think partially it is due to the shorter extraction time because the brew came out to be thinner than I am accustomed to, there for allowed the acidity to shine through more I feel.  This is one of those cases that this coffee shines with this specific recipe with the aeropress.  I have had previous encounters like this before with the aeropress, it seem to have the ability to bring out more subtle finer tastes that are somehow lost in translation through the other techniques.  Anyhow this is by no means scientific or technical, just a observation that I've made through many trials.

Bold Bean Aeropress Recipe 15g of coffee @ setting 18 on the Baratza Maestro Plus 200ml of water @ 92c 45s brew time 25s press time 

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Things to remember when buying coffee

1) Origin (country, area) - this will give you an idea of what the coffee will taste like.  As you progress in the coffee world you can build up your taste as well as memorize what characteristics that define a coffee from a certain country/region.  However, just because they are from the same country doesn't mean that they will taste the same or even similar, it is just a good starting point.

General guide - three main regions for coffee Africa - acidic, fruity, juicy, sort of a wake me up morning coffee, can be a little hard to accept at first because it has a unique character South America - sweet, full body, well balanced, less acidic, your everyday crowd pleaser or afternoon kind of coffee Central America -  acidic, sweet, what my friend calls the best of two continent (Africa/South America), currently the most sought after coffee with the some of the highest prices in the world

2) Roast date - i cannot emphasize enough the importance of the roast date.  It's almost like an expiration date on food.  For the most part coffee with taste the best after 48 hours of initial roast.  Within the first week it will be at the peak state, as far as taste.  Within two weeks it will still taste good.  However it is after two weeks and after one month that the coffee will drastically taste different in a negative way.  Different roast and different coffees will behave differently, but the rule is that you want to drink it as fast as you can after you purchase the coffee. What happens after it gets old? Well basically the you will notice a significant drop in acidity.  Then the body will start to become thin.  Finally the aftertaste will be short or even non-existant.  Try drinking old coffee and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.  One good way to judge is that when you are preparing your coffee see if you see any bloom, if the bloom is short or non-existant that means the coffee is not fresh because it's not giving off too little CO2 already.

Point system for freshness 100: after 48 hours 99-90: within one week 89-80: within two weeks 79-70: within a month let's no live under 70 points since we are going for a fine coffee experience here

Different brewing temperatures As a rule of thumb the fresher the bean the lower the temperature should be to compensate for the amount of CO2.  For example the Japanese baristas would recommend a brewing temperature for a pour over at only 83c for a freshly roasted coffee.  However if your coffee is in the 2 week or more then a temperature of 90c is recommended or you would not be able to extract the full amount of flavors.  

3) The type of roast - this would be the essential bit of buying coffee.  Always go to a roaster with experience and a cafe that has a good reputation.  This would not mean going to Starbucks because they are famous and known in the world.  This would mean doing some homework and reading up on some coffee magazines to see what the coffee people are talking about.  It's like going to your favorite restaurant where your favorite chef prepares the food.  Different countries have a different preference for roast.  The Scandinavians for example has a very light roast versus the French preferring the old school darker roasts.  This is just a stereo typical example though because different roasters have different preferences.  However,  I must emphasize that there's always an ideal roast level somewhere along the line.  It's not up to the roaster to decide that just because he likes a darker roast every bean should be roasted dark.  The roaster has to "bring out" the essential flavors of the bean.  If you like a roaster/cafe's coffee then stick to it, others might not be as favorable even though I would recommend that you always try them out.

4) Preference - start to build a vocabulary and memorize the different type of coffees that you have had.  This will continually help you buy and talk about coffee later on.  During different seasons you may have a different preference for coffee.  During the summer seasons I love the acidity and the juicy taste of the African coffees because it tastes lighter and more refreshing.  However, in the cold you may prefer the American coffee because of their stronger and full body flavors.  Just because you don't like the taste of a certain coffee does not mean that it's not a "good" coffee, it just means that you don't agree with the taste.  

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Most Remarkable Coffee List

Best Coffee: Terra Bella Colombia Primavera This could be the coffee that brings Colombia back into the spotlight in the world of specialty coffee.  Not only is this coffee the number one coffee in the Colombian CoE competition it is only sold in three countries in the world: US, Taiwan, Australia.  There are five boxes that made it to Taiwan and Terra Bella happened to have two of the five available in the country.  I am one of the lucky few that had actually tasted this coffee because my friend is the owner and roaster of Terra Bella.  He warned me about it because of its amazing taste that I may never go back to "regular coffee" again.  I awaited patiently for this coffee not knowing anything about it nor knowing that it's actually CoE grade.  The first sip said it all.  This is one incredible coffee.  It almost defies the laws of taste I feel.  This is a very classy coffee indeed.  It's very subtle, smooth, mouth coating flavor that instantly covers your whole palette and the subtle yet remarkable aftertaste just goes on and on without stopping.  It was truly an amazing coffee moment for me.  I have had good coffee before, but nothing really comes anything close to this.  My friend claims that this is probably "the best" coffee that he has roasted in ten years of his career so far.  That is one big claim, but this coffee surely deserves nothing less. 

Most unpredictable coffee: Blue Bottle Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Peaberry This was actually a present sent to me by a friend of mine in the US.  Even though it has been a while since I had it last it had a memorable experience.  As soon as I was grinding the beans I could instantly smell Jasmine and various acidic fruits.  I must say that up to this date I don't think I've had a coffee with such a spectacular acidity that leaves you questioning if this was actually a coffee or something else.  It has a very clean and acute taste about it that almost resembles tea somehow.  It's the clarity that you taste that made it so memorable.  I was happy to wake up to this every morning as the acute acidity would slap me in the face and wake me up.  Rarely do you see peaberry being sold, but is one that you surely don't want to miss. Most easy to drink coffee: Ritual Coffee Brazil Chapadao De Ferro  This Brazilian coffee was interesting the moment I had opened the bag.  It had the lightest roast that I've seen up to date, cinnamon roast.  It was roasted so lightly that I was almost skeptical of how it would taste.  After drinking this coffee immediately it became a crowd favorite.  My friend and I both loved it for it's easy going qualities.  It has a really sugary taste to it that reminds you of sweets with a very buttery and long aftertaste.  This may not the some award winning coffee or anything spectacular to talk about at coffee gatherings, but it sure will put a smile on your face when you just need a nice coffee in the afternoon.

Most bi-polar coffee: Honey Coffee Colombia Santuario This is probably not the best title for this coffee, but at this time that's all I can come up with.  It is one of the most talked about coffees in the world right now.  Intelligentsia/Has Bean are two that are very fond of it.  My friend that is a roaster was bragging about this coffee and I didn't know why until I tried it.  This coffee is such a character in the way that it portrays acidity and sweetness.  It starts off with a sharp note of lemon acidity that drops off shortly and then this overwhelmingly great sweetness of a creme brulee comes in powerfully.  It's such a fascinating experience because rarely does a coffee transition in such a manner, but in such a delightful way as well, full of surprises.  I guess the care and the way the owners set up the farm paid off.  It is said that the owners have built this "ideal" coffee plantation that everyone should model after.  As for the rest of us we thank you for offering us such a delightful coffee.

*these are the four categories that I have in mind in the 2 years of my coffee journey.  I'm sure there will be more to come

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What NOT to Say to a Coffee Enthusiast (and why)

1) Can I add milk/sugar?

-why would you want to ruin good coffee by adding in extra milk/sugar that could alter or even destroy the taste of fine coffee

2) Why is it taking so long

-no duh, good things always take longer in life, hello...  brewing coffee takes a lot of attention to detail and the little extra steps in preparation makes the biggest differences

3) It tastes the same as every coffee to me

-come on!  unless you have no taste buds or have no tongue at all how can you think that every coffee taste the same.  It's like saying that all meat taste like chicken.  

4) It's so expensive, I can't afford it

-maybe you don't know this fact, but if you have purchased coffee at a cafe or anywhere commercially you basically can afford speciality coffee.  Also if you go to starbucks and buy a "coffee drink" grande size, you can basically drink some of the best coffee in the world at home without the milk.  If you go to Starbucks for a week and purchase their "coffee drink" you can easily buy a pound of specialty coffee to enjoy at home.  

5) Wine is better 

-well of course it's a preference as with everything in life.  However if you are basing this by flavors and taste then coffee would win hands down.  It already has 800 known compounds and I'm sure flavors that even wine experts would kill for.

6) Starbucks

-just the word is sacrilegious to most coffee enthusiast for obvious reasons.  Basically commercialized coffee is never fair for the coffee farmers, the corporations make all the money and forcing farmers to work harder for less than they deserve (fact: for every 3 dollar coffee sold the farmer gets about 3 cents).  Starbucks is like the microsoft of the computer world trying to monopolize coffee in the market with inferior product and misleading the consumer to think otherwise.  Starbucks stole the Clover from the rest of us.  I'd have to say that without Starbucks maybe this 3rd wave coffee trend would not of taken off as rapidly and there's always more motivation for small cafes to fight the corporate brands as well.  So thank you Starbucks for playing the villain role even though there are worse out there capitalizing on the trade.  

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Beef With Pour Over

This is not my favorite way of making coffee, but it is my favorite lazy way of making coffee.  Pour over is my go-to method when it comes down to being lazy to make coffee in the morning.  It literally takes no time to clean or set up.  Set up is basically folding the filter, placing it into the cone and rinsing it.  However...  As you may already have read about my mishap this morning with it, it can sometimes be your worst enemy despite its favorable cleaning and setting up time.   Ok get back to the main topic here.  I have a problem with it primarily because I feel like that this method will never yield consistant results.  Even if you try to get everything to stay the same, something always comes up.  There is not way your hands will pour the same every single day without a variance in the water flow to say the least.  Also I've noticed that the rate of waterflow going through the bean varies from bean to bean and also the freshness of the roast.  The only upside of this phenomenon is that is you actually get to "play" with the coffee more.  A coffee can taste drastically different with the rate of the pour, grind size and water temperature.  This is not available to other brewing methods. TIPS FOR THE HOME BARISTA WITH THIS TECHNIQUE  -choose a Chemex or one hole brewer

if you are new to pour over maybe start with a one hole brewer or chemex instead of a Hario V60 so that your pouring technique will not influence the outcome as much

-get a pouring kettle for coffee

anything else you won't be able to pour at such slow and steady water flow (the Hario Buono is shown below)

-don't grind too fine. 

basically you want the water going down the coffee grounds to flow out about the same rate but a tad it slower, this will ensure a more even saturation and extraction.  If you grind too fine it will tend to over extract the coffee and bitterness will come out to haunt you.

-always rinse the paper filter

this may not be a problem if you are batch brewing many cups of coffee as the coffee flavors will hide the taste, but if you are brewing by cup this will have a influence on the taste of the cup significantly depending on the paper filter

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Kenya Rugati by Honey Coffee

This morning I woke up having this urge to drink a coffee that was acidic and fruity so this was my choice of choice.  I had intended to bring out acidity by using a Hario V60 and a lower brewing temperature at 84c.  Having said all this you'd expect me to talk about how great this coffee was and all, but the sad thing is that I have failed.  I was using a scale, V60 and a mug combo, but had forgotten to pour out the water that I had rinsed the filter with.  This resulted in coffee overflowing all over the kitchen counter and a not so happy version of me.  With the coffee I had saved it tasted a bit fruity and is totally too thin. Lesson of the day: focus on the coffee and not on other things in your mind.  This is not the first time that I forgot to pour our the rinse water from the mug or carafe.  Maybe use a glass instead of a black mug so I can see if there's water next time.  

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ADIDAC Launch - 1/5/2012

All Day I Dream About Coffee pretty much sums this blog up.  I used not refuse to drink coffee unless it was purely for caffeine intake purposes only and was pretty much a tea snob refusing to accept coffee.  One day that all changed...  I had met a friend that had is a coffee roaster in Tai Chung and that pretty much started my new obsession: coffee.  Since then I have been on a quest to learn all there is to know about coffee and this blog has been started to share some of my thoughts and knowledge that I have come across in this journey.  I have been reluctant to start this blog for quite some time now, but a friend brought it up today and it led me to believe that there might actually be people out there that want to know a thing or two about coffee.  Cheers!