30th March 2011

Oh my! I have been loving the many very different Brazilian S/Os of recent weeks, and when I heard a new seasonal blend was in the making, I just knew (hoped!) that these coffees would be big players in it, and that it would be exciting! And Lo – a sample arrives of a single origin BLEND – 4 different, all Brazilian farms in one fantastic blend! It was only with me for a short time this morning – but there WILL be much more to come, starting at the end of next week. Bags of sumptuous sweet red fruits, creamy texture, and the nuts and chocolate you might ‘expect’ from Brazilian coffee too – hints of all the best bits of these individual farms (which include just about every type of processing apart from fully washed), all rolled together into something even more complete and malleable! Dialled in nice and quick (fine tuning and playing to come later, no doubt). Great reaction from those others trying it too. One person though, after commenting that they liked it, and having been told what it was, asked if it had ”just been bunged together?” or whether there had been ”any consideration involved?”. All I can say is that person should know better, by now!!! (Although perhaps I’m crazy. Ok, I know I am, but still) 😉

3 Coffees dialled and served in the last two days, each offering up their treasures with relative ease – makes it feel like the sun’s still shining! 🙂 … Dark are the days when the coffee doesn’t shine – no matter what it’s like outside! If ever you have the silly inclination to want any info on dialling in and fine tuning coffees, you could do a lot worse than checking out these pages and posts I’ve come across whilst trawling the net for knowledge (just remember to taste as well!): Jim S on HB, Chris Tacy on God Shot (he has a few updated versions of this methodology), Black Cat users on HB, James H on Jimseven, James H (…yet again!), Jim Schulman again on HB, and Intelli’s Kyle Glanville. Have these helped me make coffee better? Well, hopefully they haven’t NOT at least. After a couple of ‘sunny’ days it feels like they might have contributed.

Some thoughts on our Anfim…

Trying to summon the will, and the knowledge, to post something useful about over and under extraction in espresso at some point, a subject I find perpetually intriguing. Might be a slow one…

Hopefully some nice new (just another one of the little details that can help to tip the balance) pf baskets are on the way that continue to fit my tamper… That’ll be a minor headache if not …But Reg B will do well out of it, Bless ‘im!