Lets talk about COFFEE

[pscolari]



You're welcome! Please post your impressions too if you visit any of them.
So I just ordered two bags of beans from Blue Bottle: beans from two lots on the same farm in El Salvador, processed in different ways. I got the washed and the honey-processed. Here's their blurb (broken up into paragraphs for better readibility):
Here's the link: http://store.bluebottlecoffee.net/Categories.bok?category=Coffee:Single+Origins

Andre - The New Yorker had a full article on Aida in their food issue back in November. Worth checking out as an interesting read as I have never had her beans.

 

[Stazy]

For those of you that pull your own shots, how many grams of ground coffee do you use for a double? I just bought a scale to add a little more consistency to my shots but haven't played around with it too much yet.

On a side note, my favorite cafe just took home the top two spots in the Canadian Barista Championships. Pretty cool achievement for them.

 

[delirium]



For those of you that pull your own shots, how many grams of ground coffee do you use for a double? I just bought a scale to add a little more consistency to my shots but haven't played around with it too much yet.
On a side note, my favorite cafe just took home the top two spots in the Canadian Barista Championships. Pretty cool achievement for them.

Don't have anything to add but what machine are you using?

You're welcome! Please post your impressions too if you visit any of them.
So I just ordered two bags of beans from Blue Bottle: beans from two lots on the same farm in El Salvador, processed in different ways. I got the washed and the honey-processed. Here's their blurb (broken up into paragraphs for better readibility):
Here's the link: http://store.bluebottlecoffee.net/Categories.bok?category=Coffee:Single+Origins

I went to Portola Coffee Lab and Kean in Orange County. Don't think I'll be making it up to any of the LA establishments this trip .

Portola Coffee Lab seems to be overall a great coffee shop. Would definitely spend time there if I was in Southern California more. Welcoming, non-pretentious environment but still very geeky about coffee. Several interesting brewing methods, lots of seemingly high quality single-origin beans roasted in-house, free wi-fi, and a lot of open space.

Is honey-processed the same thing as "pulped natural" process? As in the beans do not go through fermentation?

 

[Stazy]

My machine is a Bezzera BZ09:



My grinder is a Bezzera BB004:

 

[A Y]



Andre - The New Yorker had a full article on Aida in their food issue back in November. Worth checking out as an interesting read as I have never had her beans.

Thanks. I saw the summary but couldn't read the whole article. I'll have to go find a copy now. I also have her Grand Reserve on the way from Counter Culture. It will be interesting to compare all 3 beans.

Is honey-processed the same thing as "pulped natural" process? As in the beans do not go through fermentation?

Yes, I believe so. Here's what the Sweet Maria's glossary says:

Pulp natural is a hybrid method of processing coffee to transform it from the tree fruit to a green bean, ready for export. Specifically, it involves the removal of the skin from the coffee, like the first step of the wet process, but instead of fermenting and removing the fruity mucilage, the coffee is dried with the fruit clinging to the parchment layer. Pulp natural can be performed with a traditional pulper, or with newer forced demucilage equipment, which allows for greater control of exactly how much mucilage is left to dry on the coffee. Pulp natural coffees tend to have more body and less acidity than their wet process equivalents, and can have a cleaner, more uniform quality than full natural dry-process coffees. This is called "Miel" process in Costa Rica, meaning "honey."

Glad you found a good coffee shop, too!

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I have never cared much for counter culture coffee. Then again, everywhere I have been that served it didn't really look like they were taking much time getting it right.

 

[Knowledge is King]



I have never cared much for counter culture coffee. Then again, everywhere I have been that served it didn't really look like they were taking much time getting it right.

Bowery Coffee (south side of Houston St. b/w Elizabeth and Bowery) uses counter culture beans and as far as drip coffee goes, they seem to be getting it right. I haven't tried their espresso yet though

 

[patrickBOOTH]



Bowery Coffee (south side of Houston St. b/w Elizabeth and Bowery) uses counter culture beans and as far as drip coffee goes, they seem to be getting it right. I haven't tried their espresso yet though

That's new right? I went in there maybe 2 weeks ago and they didn't have it together it seemed. I don't drink drip, but I ordered an espresso and the guy pulled the shot into a latte cup and poured it into an espresso cup. I was like WTF? I thought it was just ok. I will give them another "shot" though.

 

[lbtemple]

Trader Joe's Ethiopian coffee, made in La Pavoni Professional.

 

[eg1]



Andre, whatever you do, don't buy anything Breville. Shittiest company ever.

I dunno -- make a decent toaster.

 

[lagsun]

Just received my order of Verve Streetlevel Espresso beans and liking it a lot more than their Sermon espresso. Nice pull and fuller bodied with the first shot seeming to have a bolder taste (good balance of chocolate and tanginess) than the Sermon which I thought was dull in comparison. We'll see how it goes as I progress through the 12 ozs.

 

[A Y]

Hmm, I may be coming around to patrickBOOTH's view of Blue Bottle. I just got the two beans I mentioned earlier today, and tried the Rincon del Tigre, the pulped natural one, first, and was not impressed. It had thin mouthfeel, pretty good sweetness, and slightly cardboardy and roasty notes. It was prepared in a CCD at 24 g, ground slightly finer than drip in a Hario hand grinder, and brewed with around 365 g of 207F water. It was 4 minutes of steeping, stirring gently around 1.5 minutes in.

It tasted a bit overextracted as it had a slight metallic tang, so I may have to play with the grinder and/or water temps a bit. Maybe it's a bit too young as it was roasted 3 days ago. I also need to try it out in the Aeropress.

I used the same kinds of brew/grind parameters on a number of other beans with much better results. The best so far are the Coffea Roasterie Kenya Karatu AA, with amazing sweetness and lots of fruit --- sort of a washed benchmark for me --- and their Ethiopian Gedeo Micro Zone Natural, which was almost like a mocha given how thick its mouthfeel and chocolatey its long aftertaste was. The Peet's Mocha Sanani was also excellent in this config, but with a pound of beans, I have plenty to experiment with the Blue Bottle.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Yeah, i don't know what it is, but every time I have gotten blue bottle beans they have had a flavor like if you overextract old beans. I know they were not old, but they have this overwhelming flavor that I just hate. It masks everything. I have a feeling it has to do with thier roasting process because all types of their beans seem to have it.

 

[hammerhead]

Sorrento hotel in Seattle has the best cup of coffee I've had. Neat old style classic hotel. Philz in sanfrancisco does it well too

 

[A Y]

So I had the washed version of the bean (Blue Bottle El Salvador – Plan De La Batea Alicia), and it's quite a bit better than the pulped natural version (El Salvador – Plan De La Batea Rincon Del Tigre) in that there is a bit more complexity, and the flavors are more balanced. In the washed, I get more herbs, and the citrus component is in much better proportion. I've had the pulped natural again in a French press preparation, and then there is a lemon dishwasher soap component instead of the cardboardy note, and it doesn't have the metallic tang (which is perhaps masked by the French press preparation). The washed has a lingering sweetness but it's tied to the metallic tang.

I'm starting to think perhaps that central American beans are not for me. Give me a washed Kenyan any day for a clean, acidic citrus coffee, and a natural Ethiopian for a funkier coffee.