From: dbucklin@sdf.org Date: 2018-02-20 Subject: Coffee After seeing coffee-related posts from kvothe[1] and sparcipx[2], I'm inspired to share my coffee production process here. I wouldn't call myself a "coffee snob", but I've taken somewhat ex- traordinary measures to ensure that I have access to good coffee when I need it. I've owned many different coffee-making devices, but today I use my Aeropress exclusively. An Aeropress is great if you need to make one or two cups of coffee. If you need to make more than that, I recommend a pour-over method or French press. As kvothe mentioned, water quality is important. Not only because you will be tasting the water that ends up in your coffee, but be- cause the physical properties of the water can affect extraction. On most days, I use water out of the Brita pitcher. If I'm experi- menting with some new or spendy beans, I'll grab a bottle of Volvic alkaline water or some other exotic bottled water. The Volvic gives the finished product a "cleaner" taste compared to using fil- tered tap water. It might be interesting to experiment with dif- ferent bottled waters to see how their Ph and mineral content translate through the coffee. When it comes to coffee beans, fresh is best. If you are not al- ready grinding your beans right before you brew, doing so is the best way to improve your coffee. Fancy grinders, digital scales, and thermometers will also help, but not nearly as much as freshly ground beans. Right now, I'm working my way through a bag of Kona that I got while I was on vacation in Hawaii. My go-to bean is from a local roaster, Peace Coffee. I also like certain coffees from La Columbe. I start by heating the water in the microwave. I actually aim to not boil it, believing that to do so takes the air out of the water and results in flatter-tasting coffee. This takes about two-and-a- half minutes in my microwave. While the water heats up, I set up my Aeropress for the inverted brew method. I also pre-wet one of the paper filters. I grind 15 or 16 grams of beans in a Baratza Virtuoso. This par- ticular quantity of beans matches up, through some ratio I've for- gotten, with the amount of water that fits into the Aeropress. I think I have the grind size set to 16 right now. I use a digital thermometer to temp the water. I add the water to the grounds at 190 degrees Fahrenheit. In my experience, striking (adding the wa- ter to the grounds) at higher than 190 gave me coffee that was more bitter than I liked. I let the grounds steep for a total of one minute and 45 seconds, stirring once at the halfway point. After the delicate (and risky) operation of inverting the cup over the Aeropress, and then inverting the whole Aeropress-and-cup assembly, I just press the coffee into the cup. Cleanup with the Aeropress is easy: just plunge out the grounds and rinse. I give my coffee time to cool down before I add anything to it. I take the slightest bit of cream in my coffee. I find that the fat smooths out some of the rough edges in the flavor while giving it some depth. I've come to a lot of this through experimentation, but I've also found the Coffee Compass[3] to be a valuable tool when trou- bleshooting. [1]: gopher://sdf.org/0/users/kvothe/phlog/2018/02/16-coffee [2]: gopher://sdf.org/0/users/sparcipx/phlog/February_2018/02-07-18 [3]: https://baristahustle.com/blogs/barista-hustle/the-coffee-compass