8th September 2010

We have a guest..! A guest espresso from Origin Coffee Roasters – I had their current ‘In Season’ blend in the grinder today, and will have it there again tomorrow.

Gloria (our espresso machine!) needed sprucing up a little after her first year (despite being a contender for the most well cared for espresso machine in Wales!) with a few replacement parts from Origin who supply the Plus4You, to keep her functioning in perfect condition, and so I took the opportunity to try some great coffee from a different roaster at the same time. We are normally spoilt for choice for amazing coffee from our usual roaster James’ Gourmet, but it’s fun, educational, and downright tasty, to try different coffees from other respected sources who are also passionate about sourcing and roasting great, seasonal coffees. It helps our baristas to a gain a slightly wider sense and appreciation of the speciality coffee world as well …even if it’s simply the ‘sexy bags!‘ which initiates that for some, it’s all good!

The blend’s delicious – with just enough depth, but also crisp, clean fruit notes. The coffee came with a couple of pages of info about the farms along with tantalising flavour descriptors, which was a nice touch; and despite not being able to taste much right now after a recent bout of plan-flu, the sparkly ’aromatic pear drops’ flavour was evident in the cup. It’s nice to see some familiar farms and cooperatives in the blend as well: Fazenda Santa Alina natural also features in the Bold Red blend we have enjoyed so much in recent weeks (and its flavour is recognisable in the blend, albeit in a different light), and I used some coffee from the Sidamo Shoye Coop (a different lot) in my blend in the finals of the UKBC earlier this year.

A curious thing is the roast date and relative behaviour of the espresso… I was a little disappointed with ’23rd August’ initially (although it’s great to have the date on the bag). But, at least for a while after first opening each bag, the shots seem to me to behave as if they’re actually super fresh (even too fresh!). Don’t know how or why this is – it’s a puzzle, and a pleasant surprise!

2nd Sept 2010

The last day of Kenyan Miroroma as an espresso was …today, so if you didn’t get to try this fantastic coffee, sorry, but it’s gone – there is no more! But have no fear – Naturelle will be in the house!

It’s wonderful when… a regular couple who love the flat whites bring their visiting Australian friends in (who also love their coffee and who introduced the regulars to flat whites initially over in Oz), and their friends say afterwards ”we’ve just been travelling in Canada, USA and Italy – and you beat them hands down – it was great”. Frequent comments like this are so humbling, appreciated, and reassuring – they help to counteract my own almost constant dissatisfaction (partly coffee-paranoia!) with all but the sweetest, most successful shots. I’ve said it before, but hopefully this level of expectation (whilst emotionally crippling ) is part of what helps to achieve high standards, keep them there as often as possible, and sustain the desire to strive to raise them ever higher…

Another more curious phenomenon I’ve also noticed happening more frequently lately, is just how distressed people can occasionally be when I don’t have their personal favorite coffee on for the espresso that day, or worse, when it’s gone forever. And I don’t just mean disappointed; these folks get upset – even angry!! Naturally I try to explain about seasonality, freshness, offering variety, and that all the coffees are equally delicious in different ways, etc, but sometimes this just doesn’t get through – they MUST HAVE Miroroma (for instance)!! It can make for some awkward moments, but I think it’s actually a good sign: This IS part of the beauty of great, seasonal, artisan-roasted coffee, and part of why the coffees can taste so fantastic, whether people understand and accept that or not. And, if people can get so particular about their cup, I/we must be doing something right!

Other News:

New replacement BestMax water filter/purifier on the way for the ‘spro machine – to keep water supply for the shots at its very best!

Guest espresso from Origin coffee roasters due to land for a few days next week!

I have bitten the (admittedly rather small!) bullet, and arranged for our spouted single handle to be machined to a naked – so now, singles can be naked as well as doubles (alongside spouted split doubles in the mix where needed too)!

Lenny, resident Kiwi and my best, most accomplished trainee ever, has left to go travelling. But best wishes!

Some shots …and some shots - all from today:

     

25th August 2010

(V60)

Blackcurrants ago-go at the moment, at home and at the cafe, with two amazing Kenyan coffees!

Last week I had some ‘issues’ with Miroroma at the cafe (who knows why, but I wasn’t exactly 100% happy with it, even though I knew how good it could be). Today though, I had it on for our espresso for the day again, and it was SO GOOD, all day – wow! Such an exciting espresso, with such a distinct blackcurrant taste. Shots are like hot, sweet, blackcurrant juice, and it works really well as a macchiato too (although it might just be I like less milk – there have been great reports about in lattes too!).

It’ll hopefully be back for another day next week, and in between time, I am eagerly awaiting the return of probably my favourite blend – Caffe Naturelle, which I have gone without for several weeks, because Bold Red has been so captivating.

At home with the V60, Karimikui has been delicious as well – another coffee with blackcurrant notes (…although there’s so much more to it than that, I think!).

(Espresso)

11th August 2010

Wow. In home pourover news, just managed to brew my best cup yet of Kenyan Karimikui coffee upon arriving home this evening – and with excitement and relief I have now experienced what I’ve been looking for in this wonderful coffee!! I’ve been a little perplexed at times with my new Hario V60, which has become my main brewer at home recently, but have continued to persevere and experiment with it, as the results can be stunning. There are just so many ways to brew with this device, and so many theories as to what technique works best, before you even bring each different coffee (and its freshness) into play. I have so far struggled to really get the Karimikui shining as bright as I knew it could, but the cup this evening was great – sweet, complex, clean, developed, balanced, aromatic, citrus, soft stone fruits, apple, and gentle blackcurrant.

I brewed at setting ’27′ on my rocky (a meaningless number, but well towards the coarser side of medium, I guess, but still not near French press). I brewed for 3 minutes 20 seconds at a starting point of about 92-3C, keeping the brew very low in the cone, with lots of little pours. 16g grounds and 222g in the cup = brew ratio of  72g/l. A bit high, perhaps, but not unreasonably so. A combination of elements arrived at over the last week or so finally resulted in a very exciting and delicious cup! Thankfully this coffee is on my current seasonal coffee menu at the cafe right now for cafetiere. In all honesty our filter grinder at work (and perhaps the brew method?) may not do the coffee this same degree of justice… But it is a beautiful coffee!

In more silly news, we were having some fun with mouth-pour latte art at the cafe today! One of our best baristas has been watching some videos online recently and looking to diversify his pours. I mentioned the infamous ‘latte art in strange places’ phenomenon, and this mouth-pour. Naturally this led to a couple of hilarious attempts at the same with the whole plan crew enthusiastically involved! Heads tipped back, shots into mouths, just-warm microfoam poured in …milk overflowing down into ears and noses – ridiculous, unpleasant, and not a good rosetta in sight – but all good fun! Well done all!

In espresso at the cafe news, Kenyan Miroroma has been making guerrilla appearances, here and there, and will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks (it has been very much enjoyed by visiting celebrities, and also famously described as ‘orgasmic’!). When will it be back? Can’t say definitely – that’s the nature of really fresh coffee (it depends a little on how the usage flows as to exactly which day I end up putting it on) – you just have to be in it to win it..!

In more surprising news, my favorite Bold Red espresso shot of the day (amongst the daily back-and-forth dance of ‘is it tasting good?’ ‘is it tasting bad?’ ‘what’s going on?!’)? Not a naked double, but a spouted single?! Yes!

Anfim 90-180

90 holes become 180..?

Fineness of adjustment increased by100%..?

But will it actually work..?! Road testing tomorrow!

Espresso offerings at the plan July 2010

Just a brief mention about the coffees I’m using for espresso now. They’re altering less from day to day than they were a year or so ago… Not because we (or rather, I) are getting lazy, or uninterested – FAR from it – the opposite is true!

Since we installed our great new espresso machine last year, and twinned it with the awesome Anfim Super Caimano grinder earlier this year, it’s become more possible to really focus on more fine attention to detail, consistency, skills, and the attempt to best represent the great coffees we use (as I had anticipated). This has led to the realisation that just one great seasonal blend, or SE espresso, for longer periods at a time, holds within it a complex balance of depth, variance and elusive greatness. Appreciating and attempting to pinpoint these qualities is now possible in a way that it was not before (which was partly why I previously just threw caution to the wind and tried as many different coffees as possible through our old machine!) and is often enough - without constantly switching from one coffee to another. All our coffee (except house filter) is still from our roaster, JGC, as I feel it is so important to have a firm relationship with just one primary roaster who is of this exceptional level of quality. The coffee from just this one roaster is varied and amazing enough to never need to look elsewhere. All this said though, my belief in serving frequently changing coffees for espresso at the cafe is still VERY much alive. Last week, I put El Salvadorian La Fany on for a day, and within the next two weeks, I hope to put Kenyan Miroroma on for a day as a single origin espresso too. Maybe we might even have guest espresso from other artisan roasters sometimes too. This sort of thing helps me and us to learn more about coffee and our craft, and offers interest and excitement to the customer and all concerned! But, in-between times (and with only one grinder for espresso), I am currently tending towards attempting to offer fantastic (and still transient) seasonal blends that we  have a more intimate knowledge of like Bold Red espresso, or Caffe Naturelle (a blend which is more ‘permanent’ but still seasonal), as mainstays, amongst the wider exploration of different coffees as well.

Attention to detail with all things espresso has also recently included for me the implementation of a little personal project to manage the freshness and supply of our stock much more carefully – walking a tightrope to really keep freshness in the zone where I most like it (although there is much debate about this subject), and where I feel we can develop the best degree of consistency (you wouldn’t order fresh cakes only once every two or three weeks, so why treat fresh coffee differently?). The aim is that it should never be too fresh, but equally never usually past a certain target period from roast. The difficulty is you have to try to predict the future (busyness), which is …interesting! Otherwise you either have coffee that is outside the ‘window’ …or NO coffee at all!!

One other thing I’m toying with over the next week or so is the possibility of a VERY low-fi mod to our Anfim. Great as it is already, a little tweak could create more subtle grind adjustment that would mean less dramatic jumps here and there …if I can get it to work..!

Miroroma

Just one sample bag (…for now!), which lasted for just the first hour and a half of the day today.

Spent the brief time with this Kenyan espresso dancing back and forth with the grind a little to try to get it at its best, and tasting some really exciting shots!

One customer who I made a double shot latte for whilst it was in the grinder came back later in the day for more, describing it as ‘the best latte ever’ and ’orgasmic’, and was most disappointed at its disappearance!! I guess there can be no greater endorsement of a coffee than that!

Maybe it will return for a day or so …SOON!

Radio Wales (meets The Bean Vagrant!)

I had the pleasure of chatting about coffee on the Radio Wales morning show today with Jamie Owen and Lisa. I guess I’m pretty used to talking about coffee: in competition to judges and baristas, in the cafe, online, and so on (…OK, whenever I feel I can get away with it without boring people too much!) - but it’s still a bit nerve-racking doing it live on-air on national radio! Partly because you’re so keen to get the message across successfully, I suppose. But the presenters and the whole production team were really friendly and professional, which helped to put me at ease, and enabled me to tell them a little about the various aspects of what I do with coffee, and the sort of coffees I work with - including the UK Barista Championships, latte art, origins and traceability, seasonality, and roasting, etc. Thanks guys!

On the BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days (just over an hour into the show, in two sections)

18th July 2010

New seasonal coffees for cafetiere menu at the cafe for summer-autumn 2010 to include:

Keyan Karimikui 2010 - Rungeto Farmers’ Cooperative Society

New crop El Salvadorian Finca La Fany

New crop Guatemalan Finca las Nubes

…I plan to have this up and running within the next two weeks!!

Wow. Fresh coffee in the grinder (too fresh, infact, but hey, that’s another story), and two shots pulled and tasted. Very similar extractions, almost identical at face value, but the subtle details make the taste so very different. First shot 28 seconds …appears ok, but the taste is not great – quite sour, at the same time a little flat and thin, and severely stunted sweetness. Second shot 0.1 of a second more on the timer for the dose, another 1, maybe 2 seconds more at most brew time, very slightly shorter volume, with maybe a little less blonding allowed. Still a fairly respectable size for a double (albeit ristretto). Tastes fantastic (for the most part) – sourness has become zingy brightness, sweetness is so sweet, and the fluid has that slightly sticky, syrupy quality, all the way to the end. This is the reality. This is the margin for error (none). This is the elusive, daunting, impossible, and enchanting quest!

*sighs, and gets scales ready to take in for next week* (!)