tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217249822024-02-08T13:09:26.579+00:00The Coffee BlokeA Guide to the World of Coffee and Coffee Making by Michael Komorowski.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1157058992687442462006-08-31T22:16:00.000+01:002006-08-31T22:44:25.053+01:00Coffee Liqueur<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/kahlua.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/kahlua.2.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:Verdana;">As 31 August 2006 is International Blog Day, I thought it might be an idea for a celebratory drink; not because we have anything to celebrate. I just like to hit the bottle from time to time and this just gives me a good excuse. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">For those of you that read my previous posting about coffee enemas and have now decided that any instant coffee they might have lying around is now surplus to requirement; you might want to try wasting it on this recipe to make your own coffee liqueur. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">If you read the recipe and follow the instructions, you will realise two things. Firstly, it will take about 3 weeks to make your drink. Secondly, most alcohol bases will give you a ‘Kahlua’-type liqueur, whilst it seems only rum can make something approaching ‘Tia Maria’. Personally, I think this could be just a way of saying that no one really knows what ‘Kahlua’ tastes like but I’m not sure. Perhaps that’s why it’s such a popular mixer after you’ve had 10 pints of lager, 5 ‘Red Bulls’ & vodka, and 2 bottles of ‘Asti Spumante’. </span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Coffee Liqueur </span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">2 cups water</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">2 cups white sugar</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">1/2 cup dry instant coffee (fresh jar)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">1/2 vanilla bean, chopped (or 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">1-1/2 cups alcohol<strong>*</strong></span><strong> </strong><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Caramel colouring if desired. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Boil the water and sugar until dissolved. Turn off the heat. Slowly add dry instant coffee and continue stirring. Add the vanilla to thealcohol; then combine the cooled sugar syrup and coffee mixture to thealcohol mixture. Cover tightly and shake vigorously each day for 3weeks. Strain and filter (only if you have used vanilla bean)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><strong>*</strong>NOTE: Vodka will give you a liqueur remarkably similar to ‘Kahlua’, rum will make a drink very similar to ‘Tia Maria’, whilst brandy and grain alcohol will give you a ‘Kahlua’-like liqueur as well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><strong><em>“Moderation is a fatal thing Lady Hunstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess”</em></strong> – Oscar Wilde, ‘A Woman of No Importance’, Act III</span>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1156456344583920712006-08-24T22:52:00.000+01:002006-08-24T23:03:19.550+01:00Take this coffee and shove it up your...what?<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/enema.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/enema.jpg" border="0" /></a> As far as I’m concerned, food should come with a set of user instructions. You know like a set of idiot guides that seem to appear on just about everything that is manufactured these days. I once read on a pack of batteries a warning label that said: (and I kid you not) ‘This product should not be taken internally’. Food, like coffee for example, should come with a similar warning ‘should not be used by complete idiots’.<br /><br />I’m sorry if I offend some of my more liberal readers, but where on earth did someone come up with the idea of coffee enemas? I get this image in my head of someone drinking a cup of coffee and saying ’this tastes so good, why not see if it is even better shoved up my backside!’<br /><br />From my investigations into them, coffee enemas were started about 50 years ago by people who clearly had far too much time on their hands. I picture them as having long hair, taking recreational drugs, and perhaps exploring their sexuality in new and interesting ways. Maybe trying to do all of these things meant that they felt the only way to really experience the Java was at both ends!<br /><br />Whilst I’m as open minded as the next guy, I’m not going to start testing the ‘joys’ of coffee enemas just for the sake of this blog. Maybe that’s what Meatloaf meant by the words ‘I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do that’. Another question does spring to mind, however – how on earth could you test it? Do I experiment on a variety of blends to see which will give me the best flush? Perhaps a medium roast Colombian will smooth out my stool better than a mild Costa Rica. According to <a href="http://www.enapure.com/faq.html">http://www.enapure.com/faq.html</a>, they have a coffee which is especially designed for using with enemas…dear God no!<br /><br />For some strange reason, they suggest that you should not use instant. I can’t work out why since most of the instant coffee I’ve ever tried seems to taste like it came from someone’s backside.<br /><br /><br /><em><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">“Cough and the world coughs with you…fart and you stand alone”</span><br /></strong></em>Trevor Griffiths, The Comedians, Act 1The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1154669257573740652006-08-04T06:27:00.000+01:002006-08-07T13:19:18.620+01:00Make Your Own Coffee Bag<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/A%20pic-1.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/A%20pic-1.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I’ve been having a little fun this week with 'Make your own tea bags'. Two Japanese girls came into my store and started asking questions about the flavoured ground coffee we sell. One question they asked me was ‘Could they make the coffee in the Make Your Own Tea Bags?’<br /><br />Sometime ago I received a shipment of MYOTB from Japan. They have not been a great seller in my store as I mainly have a coffee trade. I’ve tried the MYOTB with loose tea and they work well, but I never thought to try it with fresh ground coffee. My answer to the two girls was no; but to be honest I just didn’t know if it would work or not. So off I went up stairs and fired up the kettle and proceeded to make a coffee using the MYOTB.<br /><br />The bags are made from cotton and have a very fine mesh. In to the bag I put in a scoop of course ground coffee and folded the bag to seal it. I then placed it into a large mug and poured in hot (off the boil) water and waited 4 minutes. The end result of that experiment was that it made a very weak coffee when the coffee is course ground. So the correct answer was no, you cannot use the MYOTB using our flavoured ground coffee. The good news is that you can use it to make a coffee when the coffee is fine ground. I have repeated this experiment again using fine ground unflavoured coffee and it does make an excellent Americano. So if any one is looking for a quick and clean way to make fresh ground coffee for one person, I can now recommend the MYO Coffee Bag; Ideal for the home or office. I have put together a small slide show giving a demonstration of how the Tea bags work. If you like the music that comes with the slide show, you can find more about the artist at <a href="http://www.emijarvi.com/">http://www.emijarvi.com/</a>.<br /><br /><embed src="http://youtube.com/v/Sw9ZLBqy1Vs" width="425" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1150745594807020062006-06-19T20:33:00.000+01:002006-06-19T22:37:35.356+01:00Tampers<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/640/Tampers.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Tampers.jpg" border="0" /></a> When I started working as a Telecoms engineer, I was told at the very start of my training the most important tool in your tool box is the pocket knife, always keep it sharpened. How true it was, as not a day went by when I didn’t find myself reaching for it to help me on the job. To a barista the most important tool to make that perfect espresso is the tamper. Tamping is the act of pressing and compacti<br />ng a bed of loose, finely ground coffee in preparation for brewing espresso.<br /><br />The tamper is a small device that either made from plastic, metal, or metal and wood. The tamper’s sole purpose is to help firmly pack the ground coffee into the portafilter. The base of the tamper is measured in millimetre sizes, corresponding with the filter basket internal diameter of your espresso machine. Most commercial espresso machines use a 58mm tamper but other sizes are available, the most common being 49mm, 53mm, and 57mm.<br /><br />A question I get asked a lot is how much pressure should be used to pack the coffee. Different machines require different tamping methods. Steam powered espresso machines require a relatively light tamp whose sole purpose is to level the coffee off. Piston lever, spring lever, and pump espressos, on the other hand, require much more compression and generally need a firmer action. The only real way to find out which is best is to experiment.<br /><br />Tamping is more of an art than a science and the machine itself is not the only factor to consider. Quoting Lloyd Rainsford (Barista at Voyage Kitchen, Perth, West Australia Newspaper, 15 June 2006), ‘You have to take into account the grind of the beans and how much they need to be tamped down.’ He also goes on to mention that how much effort it takes to make a good espresso ‘I spend about 15 minutes before starting just working everything out and will make a few trial shots to get it right.’<br /><br />Every time I make an espresso, I find that tamping the coffee is the most inconsistent thing I do. Sometimes levelling works better than compacting and vice versa. As many Baristas will tell you, it is really difficult to consistently pour a good coffee every time as there are so many variables to take into account but practice is the only way to get anywhere close to consistency.<br /><br /><em>‘</em><strong><em>Imperfection is an end. Perfection is only an aim.</em></strong><em>’ </em>Ivor Cutler label, in the Guardian, 12 August 1999.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1149886831895635042006-06-09T22:00:00.000+01:002006-06-09T22:07:49.276+01:00The Skill of a BaristaSome time ago my wife and I went to our local Borders book shop. The store is only about a year old and has a Starbucks upstairs. While we were there we also decided to have ourselves a coffee. On principle my wife will only order a filter coffee from Starbucks as she thinks that at least the quality is more consistent than from their espresso machine, her silent protest against the lack of barista skill from Starbucks staff. In her own words ‘where is the skill in making a coffee on a bean to cup machine?’ I’ve watched them many times myself, and for all the flurry of activity that goes on behind the counter, all they need to do is read the order and press the appropriate button, hey presto, the machine spits out your coffee.<br /><br />In coffee shops where the espresso machine comes with a portafilter, or group handle, the barista really is the skilled machine operator. There a barista can form a relationship with the coffee drinker because they need to know how to make the coffee the way you like it, not just go and push some buttons. Making a coffee goes beyond science and engineering. There is also art involved in making the perfect cup of coffee. Wouldn’t you be chuffed to bits if the coffee served to you was as good as the ones in this clip?<br /><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://youtube.com/v/dhgF43CIsDc" width="425" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /><br /><br /><br />Next time you buy your cup of coffee; have a look at how your order is being made up. Did you just pay a machine operator or a barista?<br /><br />‘<em><strong>Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.</strong></em>’ David Hockney, at a press conference for his retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London, 25 October 1988.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1149236425654915072006-06-02T09:20:00.000+01:002006-06-02T21:53:56.386+01:00The Cost of Living<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Java%20earthquake.9.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Java%20earthquake.8.jpg" border="0" /></a> It doesn’t matter if you’re a coffee merchant or any other retailer, eventually we all have to deal with price increases. This week I’ve been warning my regular coffee customers about our, soon to happen, price increase on our coffee beans. Most of my customers have taken it very well so far. One customer had asked what the reason for the increase is and then said quickly ‘Oh! I know why.’ He had a bit of a sad look on his face after that. For those of us who follow the global news it shouldn’t be too hard to work out why coffee prices are going up again.<br /><br />It hasn’t been a good year in the equatorial countries where our coffee is grown. For that matter, it hasn’t been a good three years! There’s been the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 and storms, floods and droughts in countless countries. It’s difficult for me to imagine the impact of these disasters where the count of affected people sound more like telephone numbers. Whole communities have just disappeared within a matter of minutes.<br /><br />Now another earthquake has hit the region of Indonesia destroying more communities and killing thousands of people. There are lots of organisations already out there helping those affected and they are doing it from charitable giving in other countries. There are many of us who do care even though we may have no understanding of what it’s like to have your whole world turned upside down.<br /><br />Overall, I think the price increase is fair and I’ll pay up because I know that if I give up paying for the coffee, then I’ll end up destroying whole communities that rely on me and coffee lovers like me as their only source of income. I realise some of the increase will take account of transportation costs, but some of it will hopefully end up in farmers’ pockets – scarce commodities are more valuable, after all. Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil, and any drop in sales can have a big impact on villages whose lives depend on it.<br /><br />Next time you buy your coffee, remember that we’re all part of one global community. In buying coffee from some remote village plantation, you help give that village a future. A village where I think they know more about the true cost of living then I ever want to know.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">‘<em>That person who is not concerned that his brother should not perish, is in great danger of perishing himself</em>.’</span> Bishop Thomas Wilson, Maxims of Piety and Christianity. ‘Charity’<br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">This week all profit from the sale of my Java coffee will go to the </span><a href="http://www.ifrc.org/"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Red Cross</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">.</span>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1148590929122651092006-05-25T22:02:00.000+01:002006-05-25T22:28:27.456+01:00The Crema and You<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/espresso%20glass.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/espresso%20glass.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When I make an espresso with my espresso machine, I can tell it’s a good pour when it settles into my shot glass like a Guinness. Funny, how a stout beer and an espresso should be about how good the head looks on it.<br /><br />When I was a barman in Australia many moons ago, learning to pour a perfect beer was the opposite. Anything more then 5mm of head on an Aussie beer was seriously frowned upon. The trick to reducing the head was to tilt the glass while pouring the beer so that it never hit the glass with any force. Keeping the head small on Aussie beers is a challenge because of the amount of CO2 gas in them. Allow too much gas to escape and you ruin the taste of the Aussie Lager or Bitter.<br /><br />The thing with any beer though, is that its head is made up of gas which is a result of its brewing. The same is not true of an espresso. The head or crema, as it is called on an espresso, is an emulsion of vegetable oils, sugar, and proteins. This crema is where the true flavour of your coffee can be found. How thick the crema is on your espresso is determined by several factors:<br /><br /><ol><li>How fine or course the coffee was ground.</li><br /><li>How much oil the coffee has or how fresh it is.</li><br /><li>How much pressure is used in the extraction.</li><br /><li>How hard or light the coffee is packed into the brew head or portafilter.</li></ol><br />Even if you get all of these things right there is still one important factor in getting the perfect espresso…you. You’ll need to practice over and over on your espresso machine. Barmen require training and so do Baristas. I don’t claim to be a barista myself, but by God if I can pour a beer an Aussie can drink, then I can sure as hell pour an espresso an Italian can admire!<br /><br />‘<em>First let a man teach himself, and then he will be taught by others</em>.’ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections:’ Science’, 519.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1147816622114307222006-05-16T21:50:00.000+01:002006-05-16T23:41:36.943+01:00TCB's Product Test<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/P5090030.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/P5090030.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Last weekend I decided to get off my backside and go out and get me some coffee for a taste test. My quest (cool - I’m on a quest) was to buy four different ready pack coffees of a similar type and to compare them. For this test I chose sticking my thumb in my mouth, removing it and then finding out which way the wind blows, and then decided that Colombian beans would be the best option. I know it’s not very scientific but that’s TCB’s way of doing it - my quest, my rules. The four chosen ones (the quest for chosen ones, how cool!) were:<br /><br />1. Marks & Spencer Fairtrade Colombian, medium roast, 227g, ground for all machines, £2.69. (£11.85 per kg)<br />2. Sainsbury’s Colombian, Medium Roast, 200g, ground for all machines, £2.49. (£12.45 per kg)<br />3. Whittard of Chelsea Pure Colombian, Medium Roast, 227g, ground for cafetiere, £3.85 or 2 for £6.50. (£14.31 per kg with the multibuy)<br />4. Starbucks Coffee Colombian Narino Supremo, Mild Roast, 250g, ground for cafetiere, £3.90 (£15.60 per kg)<br /><br />Now to make the test fair I got my lovely assistant (my wife) to put each coffee into a clean jar with a number on each from one to four. Then I was to try each coffee and to taste it blind and then decide which one I like the best. That way my bias against certain establishments couldn’t influence my choice! Each coffee was made in the same quantities using a cafetiere and tasted without milk or sugar.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="4" border="2"><tbody><tr><th><p align="left">No</p></th><div align="left"></div><th>Colour</th><div align="left"></div><th>Smell</th><div align="left"></div><th>Body</th><div align="left"></div><th>Acidity</th><br /><th><p align="left">Score</p></th></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Light brown</td><td>Sweet/Nutty</td><td>Light with a hint of lemon</td><td>Light</td><td>4/5</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Dark copper</td><td>Toast & Chocolate</td><td>Full and well balanced</td><td>Light</td><td>4/5</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Light golden brown</td><td>Weak</td><td>Light/sweet</td><td>none</td><td>4/5</td></tr><tr></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Dark brown</td><td>Smokey</td><td>Light/woody</td><td>none</td><td>4/5</td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table><p>Although I scored each coffee in my table above the same, I did find that my order of choice was 2, 1, 3 & 4. I liked 2 best because it was simply my kind of coffee. I couldn’t find anything in the others that I thought was displeasing. Number one would be a nice coffee had the day been a little warmer perhaps. Maybe if I knew what I should expect from a Colombian coffee bean I might change my opinion of them as they were all so wildly different, perhaps my opinion would then be biased.<br /><br />To make the taste test even fairer, I got two of my store team to try the blind taste test. Their tasting notes demonstrated once again how different each coffee was from the others. When I asked them to rate each one in order of preference, they both chose 4, 1, 2, & 3. One thing is clear, in this collection there is a coffee for every taste!<br /><br />Having tasted the coffees I noticed a couple of important things about a couple of the coffees. First I will be sending an email to M&S about their storage instructions. They recommend that their coffee is best stored in the fridge once opened. Regular readers of this blog will know <a href="http://thecoffeebloke.blogspot.com/2006/03/storing-coffee.html">my views on that</a>. I’m 98% certain that the Starbucks coffee is a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans. The smell and also the fact that they do not state it is 100% Arabica beans are clear signs for me. I don’t have a problem with this but I know there are a lot of people out there who do. For those of you who prefer your coffee 100% Arabica, all three of the other brands contain only Arabica beans.<br /><br />‘<em>The quest for righteousness is Oriental, the quest for knowledge, Occidental</em>.’ Sir William Osler, Aphorisms, 179. </p><p></p>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1146822042617150492006-05-05T10:36:00.000+01:002006-05-05T10:40:42.666+01:00Grow Old With Me.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Wine%20and%20coffee.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Wine%20and%20coffee.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be” <em>Robert Browning</em><br /><br /><br /><br />I received an email last week from someone who I sent a bottle of wine to as a ‘thank you’ gift. With the bottle of wine I sent a note about how long the bottle could best be kept for. The recipient of that bottle was pleasantly surprised by my gift and was glad that I was one of those rare people who still believed in storing for the future. He said in the email that ‘l was recently told that people 'buy for today' - in a rush probably, and don't think ahead. Well l do!!!!’ <br /><br />To me there is something special about buying wine that I know may have good aging potential; but I don’t just buy one bottle, instead I will get half a dozen of the same type to see how well it ages over the years. Some people will tell you that wine will just get better as it gets older but this is not the truth. Instead you need to find its peak age as most wines will, over a period of years, go up and down in quality until they fall into the ‘kept too long’ category. Although the wine may still be drinkable when kept too long, better than fresh supermarket plonk, at least I’ve had the chance to try it at its prime. <br /><br />Aging coffee is a little different to that of the keeping and cellaring of fine wine. With coffee it starts and finishes with the green beans, so as a consumer I don’t have any control over the ageing process as I do with wine. As green beans age, their characteristics change. If stored in a cool dark place, they will change very little over the course of years, at most losing some acidity. <br /><br />Coffee beans stored in warehouses located in hot tropical port cities, however, can change in flavour quickly and dramatically. One of India’s most famous coffees is Monsoon Malabar. This coffee bean is left exposed for three to four months in open-sided warehouses to the humid winds of the monsoon. The process causes the bean to swell and yellow, which fattens the body, and reduces the acidity. “Monsooning” was originally devised by Indian exporters to produce a cup similar to Old Brown Java coffees, which were similarly transformed in taste by the exposure to salt air and humidity in the hulls of wooden sailing ships on the trip from Java to Europe. <br /><br />So with all the modern transport options available to us today, some coffee producers still understand the need to age their beans. The benefit of time and having a lot of patience often pays off when you live for a cup of the best. Be it coffee or wine I can wait.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1146001786656980242006-04-25T22:48:00.000+01:002006-04-25T23:02:22.350+01:00The Cost of One Bad Cup of Coffee<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Bad%20coffee.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Bad%20coffee.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Apologies to my readers for the delayed posting but I have been away in France for the last ten days indulging in my other passion, wine. My wife and I went with some friends so we could show them around the Burgundy/Beaujolais wine area. Our friends like their wines but are generally unadventurous and, as I am a qualified wine taster, we thought we could help them to understand more. <br /><br />After a few days of tasting wine I was given the nickname Mystic Mick – I like to think it was in honour of how well I was able to pick and accurately described most of the wines we had. My wife suggests it has more to do with looking into a crystal ball and predicting how many years the bottle could be kept! Whatever the reason, as I said to our friends, it is important to describe accurately as possible any wine on offer. If you come across a wine you don’t like then you need to pick out what it is you don’t like as much as what you do. Good wine is often a complicated mix of fruit and wood characters and this information helps you decide what to try next. <br /><br />Drinking coffee is not much different to wine tasting. You need a vocabulary to help you to describe the brew. Words like Earthiness, Mouldy, Sweet, Nutty, Fruity, and Balance are words that can be used in the description of coffee and wines. Another crucial part of wine tasting – the smell – is also vital in tasting coffee. This can help you to avoid making the mistake I made on the trip back home.<br /><br />My wife and I like to take the Eurotunnel back to England as it means we can bring back plenty of wine. We decided to stay at a hotel not far from the departure point. It was modern and clean and our evening meal was spoilt only be the fact that my wife’s steak was over cooked. After a night’s sleep, we readied ourselves for breakfast. I made the choice of starting with a light breakfast, while my wife decided to do the opposite. She got herself a cup of coffee from the filter pot, and I asked her if it was any good. ‘I little strong’ she said but confirmed it was okay to drink. Having finished my small portion I too made my way to the coffee pot. Seeing it was full to the brim I thought how lucky I was to be getting a fresh brew. <br /><br />I sat down to enjoy my cup, but no sooner had I had a mouth full and swallowed then I realised that it was instant coffee. To me instant coffee has the taste not too dissimilar to that of gravy. When I told my wife that my coffee was instant she was puzzled. She smelt it and confirmed immediately it was instant and hers was not. It would seem that someone in the kitchen was too lazy to make a fresh pot of coffee and thought that the guests wouldn’t notice the difference as most of them were Brits anyway! <br /><br />In future we will not be using that hotel chain. One lazy person in the hotel thought that their guests were not important enough for one decent cup of coffee that morning. As a result the whole chain has lost its previously good reputation. <br /><br /><strong>‘Life is too short to drink bad wine’.</strong> <em>Anonymous</em>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1144519806286858312006-04-08T19:08:00.000+01:002006-04-08T19:24:04.356+01:00Needs Must<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/P4070001-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/P4070001-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The expression ‘Needs must when the devil rides’ came to mind when I was looking for an alternative to the espresso machine. To be honest, when I want to make coffee from a single estate, the best method I’ve found is the glass cafetiere. Alias the press pot, French Press (I like that one as it sounds more like a guillotine) or the glass plunger, some of my customers describe it by just moving their hand up and down as they say ‘I make it in one of those pushy downy things!’ <br /><br />When you use a cafetiere there are some things you need to do or you’ll just end up making a mess of your coffee. First make sure that the coffee is course ground and fresh. Remember to prime your glass with warm water before you put in the coffee grinds and don’t be lazy about reusing previously boiled water. You need to refill the kettle with fresh water as your coffee needs good oxygenated water. Fill the cafetiere with some warm tap water and then pour it out straight out. Otherwise the glass could crack when you pour in the hot water. This is a really useful tip as I currently do a roaring trade in replacement glasses for cafetieres on the high street. <br /><br />When filling up your cafetiere with coffee there really is one simple rule to remember. When you drop the plunger in an empty cafetiere, you will notice a small gap left at the bottom. Never fill the cafetiere above that point – simple. The best way to work it out is to hold the cafetiere at a 45° angle and when the coffee about half way up the base, stop. <br /><br />Now you are ready to add the hot water from your kettle. Remember to wait for the water to stop boiling before you pour it onto you coffee grinds. Water should only be between 80° C to 90°C when added to coffee. If the water is too hot then you’ll burn the coffee and it will taste bitter. Let the water and coffee to settle for about 4 minutes, do not stir the mix as the crust forming on the top will help to keep the water temperature stable. Before you place the plunger onto your cafetiere, you might want to just grab a spoon and gently break the crust by allowing the water to flow through to the top of the crust. This is great if, like me, you really want to smell your coffee at it freshest, otherwise just plunge away. Then sit back, relax and enjoy.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1143975401368218542006-04-02T11:54:00.000+01:002006-04-02T12:00:57.156+01:00Death of an Espresso Machine (Part II)<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/P3300004.0.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/P3300004.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Two weeks ago I told a story about my home espresso machine <a href="http://http://thecoffeebloke.blogspot.com/2006/03/death-of-espresso-machine.html">The Coffee Bloke: Death of an Espresso Machine</a>. Just over a week later I finally got hold of a new spring and valve from the machine supplier. Once again out came the screw drivers and socket set and several hours were again spent trying to return it to working order. Late into the night I could finally plug it in and test it.<br /><br />I made sure that the water tank was completely full, as the boiler would be empty and would need to be flushed out. I turned on the power and, just in case there was a loose connection somewhere, stood well back. <br /><br />The light came on and water started to move into the unit. Although the boiler wasn’t up to temperature, I turned on the pump to help move out any trapped air.<br /><br />A couple of minutes passed. Then I began to see a fine trail of white smoke coming out of the brew head. I couldn’t work out what was going on. The pump was still running so why was there any smoke? <br /><br />There was a container underneath the brew head and I touched it. It was much too hot. Quickly I shut off the power and began to remove the tray and the cup I had from underneath the brew head. Then I lifted the machine up and began to lay it on its side. Bad idea! Water flowed down the front of my trousers! Note to self, before you lift the machine up to lay it on its side remove the water tank at the rear of the machine!<br /><br />After removing the filter head I tried to unscrew the valve unit but it was too hot to touch. I waited a few minutes for it to cool down. In the meantime I cleaned up all the water off the floor <br /><br />Once it had cooled down I could begin to understand the real problem with the machine. The old valve had failed because the thermostat on the machine was not longer working, not because of wear ‘n’ tear as I had thought. <br /><br />So a week and a half after the original operation the machine has flatlined. No longer will it be able to be a deliver a rich dark espresso, instead its future is to become landfill in the espresso machine graveyard.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1143468681880999032006-03-27T15:00:00.000+01:002006-03-27T15:11:21.893+01:00A Coffee Called Karen<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Calvin%20and%20Hobbs.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Calvin%20and%20Hobbs.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><em>July 31st 1992. Images copyright Bill Watterson and Universal Press Syndicate.</em><br /><br /><br />There are times when cup of coffee is more than just a drink. A good cup a coffee can become a moment to remember and a bad cup as well. A life time moment captured in a small cup of brown/black liquid that to some of us is our cup of morning salvation. This week I was talking to one of my customers and we got onto the topic of what was the strongest coffee we ever had. His was in was on a holiday in Greece while mine was in Perth, Australia. <br /><br />It was one of those typical hot summer mornings. I had been out late the night before and came to work on a public holiday with a heavy hangover. Back then I used to run a liquor store just off the beach in Scarborough. Next to my store there was a coffee shop normally run by three ladies, but today only Karen was working. She saw me come in and asked if I would like her to bring me over a coffee. I said that I would rather go to her café and have a big breakfast and a coffee to wake me up. I told her that I had another member of staff starting in another hour and I would be coming for that breakfast then. <br /><br />When I went to order breakfast an hour later, Karen asked me what kind of coffee I would like? Foolishly I asked for one that would wake me up. She smiled at me and said ‘I can do that’. Well all I can say is that the cup of coffee she brought back to my table was, and still is, the strongest cup of coffee I’ve ever had. It was served in one of those tiny espresso cups and looked more like syrup than coffee. To this day I can’t remember what the hell I ate for my breakfast; all I remember was that cup of coffee. <br /><br />I remember how blue the sky was that morning, how bright the daylight was outside that dark and cool coffee shop. I can remember Karen coming over and asking if the coffee was doing the trick (she had a cheeky smile on her face). Was it doing the trick? I remember how that coffee filled my head with the sound of buzzing bees. Now I was not only awake and alert, I was even more aware of how hung over I was. When I got back to the store David (my trainee manger) asked me how the coffee went. All I have ever said about that cup of coffee is that I never want to be that awake ever again. As the years have passed I now remember that moment in time, not because the coffee was great, in truth it wasn’t, but because the person who made it for me knew what I needed more than I did…a kick in the pants.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1142554332179740332006-03-17T00:09:00.000+00:002006-03-17T00:13:10.990+00:00Death of an Espresso MachineOnce again life gets in the way of a follow up posting. Last week I promised to follow up with some tasting notes on pre packed coffee. As it would turn out our espresso machine decided to pack it in. Today I was roasting some more coffee beans, trying out new blends such as Nicaraguan (90%) & Robusta (10%), and comparing it to straight Nicaraguan. My wife and I have been giving the home espresso machine a good hammering this week but alas, today all I got was steam pouring out of the brew head when I went to turn it on. <br /><br />Being the technician that I like to think I am, I set out to pull this thing apart to see if I could find the problem. It took me about an hour to get the cover of as the screws were cleverly hidden behind matching rubber seals. Once I removed the cover, I found nothing wrong with the internal workings. All the silicon tubes and wiring was in good nick so that was an hour wasted. <br /><br />The problem must be in the boiler. Once again it took me at least another hour to remove the boiler. Most of the time I was trying to find the right screw driver! After removing the screw that covers the boiler chamber I finally found the problem. The silicon seal covering the boiler chamber had perished. <br /><br />It dawned on me then that I had just wasted several hours in pulling the machine apart. Access to the boiler chamber was just a matter of removing the brew head cover and then the screw cover from underneath the boiler…Doh! After putting the machine back together, another hour wasted, I discovered to my horror that I’ve put the brew head cover back on at the wrong angle… double doh! Now I’ll have to wait until I can get a replacement part and then I have to pull it apart all over again. In the meantime it looks like its back to the old stove-top for my espressos.<br /><br />‘The only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes, are those who do no thinking.’ T H Huxley, Aphorisms and Reflections, 136.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1142197787849761132006-03-12T21:08:00.000+00:002006-03-12T21:09:47.866+00:00Branded CoffeeA few days ago a customer asked whether I could help her to find a coffee she liked. From her bag she produced a foreign valve pack with no English information. She knew we wouldn’t stock the brand itself but she wanted to know if we had anything like it.<br /><br />I have a trained nose so I asked if I could have a smell to see if I could perhaps find a close match with our Arabica beans. One sniff and I knew the problem I was faced with: the coffee was a blend of Arabica & Robusta beans. The blend smelt closer to some freshly brewed instant coffee than to any of the fresh ground Arabica beans we had.<br /><br />When I told her we had nothing to match, she wasn’t convinced and was a bit disappointed. I opened up a few of the coffee tins so she could have a smell of the beans inside. After trying a few she agreed that we had nothing close to what she wanted. <br /><br />The next day one of our regular customers came in and told us she was glad to be back. When we asked why, she told us her story. Her son had come home to visit and he had just been to Italy. He had mentioned to her that he liked a certain brand of coffee while he was over there (I won’t name the brand) so she went out and purchased a pack.<br /><br />When she made the coffee using her espresso maker, her son and she agreed that it was the worst coffee this side of instant that they had ever had. She said she couldn’t wait to get home to her usual blend of Arabica coffee beans so she could make herself a real cup of coffee. Before she left I asked her if the coffee from the pack tasted more like a gravy mix than coffee. ‘Yes! That’s exactly what it tasted like,’ she replied. I informed her that was because the coffee she purchased contained some Robusta beans (I have since found out it in fact contains 20% Robusta). <br /><br />Robusta beans have a very different taste to Arabica. They tend to be strong both in caffeine and taste. The taste is not considered by most experts to be totally desirable as they lack the complexity of the flavour of Arabica beans. Robusta beans have a commercial use in blends where its full body can give lighter coffees a greater kick. Robusta is commonly used in instant coffee where the processes used help to reduce its more prominent flavour. <br /><br />Aside from instant coffees, I have yet to try Robusta coffee beans on their own. Although it has been some time since I have tasted instant coffee, I recall not being particularly fond of the flavours. I’m a little scared to go back and try it as fresh coffee but for the sake of this blog I think I will need to go back to the stuff, for science.The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1141489781093148192006-03-04T16:28:00.000+00:002006-03-04T16:29:41.103+00:00Storing CoffeeAt work I am often confronted with the question of how best to store coffee. Yesterday two gentlemen came into my store to buy coffee and asked just that. While talking to them another gentleman behind them was listening and his eyes grew wide when I gave my explanation. All this time he had been doing the wrong thing, but assuming that he knew what he was doing he had never asked the question. Relief filled his face as he said ‘Well you learn something new everyday!’ So for those of you who want to join in on the knowledge of storing coffee, then here it is. <br /><br />Let’s start with whole beans. Putting beans into the refrigerator should be avoided as it is pointless. It doesn’t slow the changes in flavour so all they are doing is taking up space in your refrigerator! On the other hand, freezing whole coffee beans for up to three or four months will make them last longer and keep their flavour better than keeping them in the cupboard for the same length of time. However, some experts believe that freezing coffee beans can change the taste of the coffee as coffee oils can congeal and lose their original consistency. For this reason dark roast coffee beans (which have the highest oil content) is perhaps not the best idea in the world! <br /><br />Moving on to ground coffee, this should never be stored in the refrigerator. Most of the components that go to make a good cup of coffee are water soluble so any contact with moisture and high humidity should be avoided. The refrigerator is the most humid place in the home and it contains odours which can affect the flavour of your coffee. Ground coffee should also never be put into the freezer this will cause it to lose flavour as well. The water vapour in the air will get into the coffee causing it to deteriorate.<br /><br />Once coffee has been ground it should be stored in an airtight container away from direct sunlight. To get the best flavour from your coffee you should use it within two weeks of grinding it. <br /><br />The best solution to the problem of storing coffee is not to store it, but to purchase small amounts more frequently. This would then keep both of the coffee drinker and seller happy, a win-win situation if ever there was one. This is a common practice among the Italians who are known to purchase coffee several times a week in quantities of perhaps 100g. <br /><br />‘Just enough of a good thing is too little.’ <br /><em>Marquis of Halifax, Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections: ‘Youth’.</em>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1140820163969104542006-02-24T22:21:00.000+00:002006-02-24T22:29:23.983+00:00Coffee-speakAs I mentioned in last week’s blog a lot of people get confused by the different names given to coffees. The coffee vocabulary has developed as a result of things such as blending, growing, or trading in coffee beans. There are a number of originating sources of coffee names:<br /><br />European Names<br /><br />This name-source is the one which most commonly confuses customers buying coffee. Common sense would say that names such as French, Italian, Viennese, and Continental would indicate that the coffee comes from those places. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where reality and common sense diverge - it actually refers to the way the beans have been roasted.<br /><br />For example, Italian roast usually means that the coffee has been roasted to a nice dark and oily colour, which is also commonly called a “Continental” coffee. A French roast, however, is a slightly lighter full roast. In most cases the beans in these types of roast tend to be blends as they make for a better darker roast.<br /><br />Non-European Names<br /><br />There are two reasons for giving a coffee a non-European name; either where the coffee was grown or where it was traded<br /><br />Origin Names: This type of coffee gets its name, not from the roast, but from where the coffee plants were grown. These may go by such manes as Java, Sumatra, Mexican, Costa Rica, Brazil and Kenya. Sometimes these have an indication of the grade or size of coffee bean attached to their name such as Kenya AA, Kenya Peaberry or Guatemala Elephant.<br /> <br />If the coffee beans are from a single origin and are roasted in a specific way, the name given can be hybrid, for example, Italian roast Java. This can cause some serious confusion with customers!!!<br /><br />Estate Names: For those of you who also like wines, this is like the difference between buying a wine because of the region and buying a particular bottle with a particular label. This level of naming is becoming more common in coffee labelling as coffee drinkers become more sophisticated and want more information about what they are drinking. The names of the coffee beans come from the Estate that it was grown in. This coffee has been kept separate from other coffee at trading and sold to the coffee merchant. This is a particular marketing tool of the Blue Mountain Jamaica estates such as Wallensford, <br /><br />Market Names: The final source of non-European place names for coffee is the area where they were traded. These include names such as Santos (Brazil) and Oaxaca (Mexico).<br /><br />Blend Names: Sometimes it is better to blend two or more coffee types to get the specific flavour the roaster is seeking as the single origin beans on their own would not be as pleasant for the drinker. Another reason is to maintain a supply by the coffee roaster. For example the roaster my use a Brazilian coffee bean as part of the blend, but if they should be unable to get Brazilian coffee from one supplier then any other type of Brazilian bean from another will do. Blend names can vary widely and be very confusing as some coffee sellers will use a house name for a blend. Most blends however can be worked out from their name combinations such as Santos & Java, or Mocha Java.<br /><br />Band Name: This is another area that can cause the coffee retailer some minor headaches. It’s a bit like cola drinks. A retailer who sells Pepsi © will not sell Coke ©. The same thing goes for a specialist coffee retailer. A name such as Illy ©comes with is own logo and silver package, giving the customer a feeling of sophistication. Independent roasters; however will not be selling it. Not a week goes by, though without someone walking into my store and asking for a brand-name coffee.<br /><br />Ambiguous Names: This final group of coffees are named for rather more obscure reasons. They are also, however, often requested by customers. Viennese coffee in Europe is coffee blended with figs but in the US it can mean a darker-than-normal roast. On the other hand, Turkish coffee is neither a type of roast nor is it from Turkey. The name comes from the way the coffee is ground and made. Turkish coffee is ground to a very fine powder (almost dust) then sweetened with lots of sugar then boiled and boiled and boiled some more before being served with the sediment a small cup. <br /><br />Another example of ambiguous naming is Mocha. Firstly there is the European understanding of mocha which is a blend of coffee and chocolate. Mocha beans, however are purely coffee.<br /><br />To truly be a Mocha coffee the coffee beans should be grown in Yemen near the Saudi Arabian border (the port of Mocha). However, a large proportion of the Mocha coffee available to buy is really Ethiopian-grown coffee which is being called “Mocha” although it is clearly not from that area. It is usually cheaper than the true Mocha.<br /><br />So how good have you become at coffee-speak? Lets imagine you walk into a fine coffee establishment; on the shelves you spot Kenya AA. You now know that the first name tells you it’s from Kenya but the ‘AA’ must be the grading, as you doubt that there’s a place called ‘AA’. Next you see Guatemala Atitlan, and you are correct to think that it’s a coffee from Guatemala but you’re certain that there’s no such grade as Atitlan, so this must be a market name. Two points to you so far! <br /><br />Now you look around and “After Dinner” and you realise that this must be a house blend; you’ll need to ask the seller what combination of beans it is. Lastly, you spot French coffee but knowing coffee isn’t grown in France; this must be a roast. Four full points to you as you have passed The Coffee Blokes ‘Spot the coffee course 101’. Not so hard when you know the language. <br /> <br /><em>“American is the language in which people say what they mean as Italian is the language in which they say what they feel. English is the language in which what a character means or feels has to be deduced from what he or she says, which may be quite the opposite.”</em><br />John Mortimer in the ‘Mail on Sunday’, 26 March 1989.<br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://www.amazingcounters.com"><img border="0" src="http://c4.amazingcounters.com/counter.php?i=930247&c=2791054" alt="Free Web Counter"></a><br><small><a href="http://www.alldvdrentals.com/colombia-house.html"><font color="#999999">Colombia House DVD Club</font></a></small></div>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1140281870561524162006-02-18T16:51:00.000+00:002006-02-24T20:46:41.733+00:00If you are reading this - you’re not an Ike.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/I%20kie%20Ike.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 149px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px" height="245" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/I%20kie%20Ike.jpg" width="169" border="0" /></a> One of the frustrations in any retail job I have had is when the “Ike” customer comes in the door. I first heard this name used by my mother when she was referring to one of my fathers work colleagues. When I asked her why she called him Ike, she replied ‘…he’s an I Know Everything!’<br /><br /><br />Ike’s come in all shapes and sizes, male and female, young and old, but they all have the same habit of asking you a question and then ignoring your answer (if you should dare say anything that conflicts with what they “know”). For example, a very common question I get asked is ‘Do you have any Italian coffee?’ If you try to explain to them that you have several types of Italian roast coffee beans, they ask ‘which one is from Italy?’<br /><br />The obvious thing to do at this point is to try to explain to the customer that coffee isn’t grown in Italy as the climate and conditions aren’t right for coffee beans to grow. NO!!! He’ll only respond with something like, ‘…yes it does! I had some lovely coffee when I was in Italy.’<br /><br />For some reason some people think that if you can get a good cup of coffee in Italy, then it must be grown there as well. To the Ike this makes perfect sense, so they look at you and start to correct you, as clearly, working in a coffee shop you have no idea about the outside world. I get hundreds of Ike’s in every month; far more rare, however is the customer who is genuinely interested in the answer!<br /><br />Today I had a customer who asked me for some Turkish coffee. When I explained to him that Turkish coffee was a type of grind rather than a bean, I was able to help him in making a selection of coffee beans which I ground as Turkish.<br /><br />As I said at the beginning, if you are reading this then you don’t need to worry. You are clearly not an Ike - you went looking for information online. An Ike would never think to check what they “know” before they go to spend their money. Instead they squander time and effort in seeking the impossible in the defence of what they think they know. The smart shopper is more determine to get it right. Ike’s are born from failing to understand that, it’s not what you know that makes you knowledgeable, it’s your insatiable need to know more.<br /><br />“The worst people; those who know everything and believe they do.” <a href="http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=725">Elias Canetti, The Human Province: ‘1961’</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://www.amazingcounters.com"><img border="0" src="http://c4.amazingcounters.com/counter.php?i=930247&c=2791054" alt="Free Web Counter"></a><br><small><a href="http://www.alldvdrentals.com/colombia-house.html"><font color="#999999">Colombia House DVD Club</font></a></small></div>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1139610187324522492006-02-10T22:18:00.000+00:002006-02-10T22:23:07.336+00:00How do I Decaf let me count the ways<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/_925315_fill100.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/_925315_fill100.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />First of all, I apologise to <a href="http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/menu.html">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</a> (1806-1861) for the title of this posting. I just wanted to cover a little bit more about decaf (or as I would like to call it, unleaded coffee) following on from my previous posting. For some time now I have been given to believe that there are basically two ways to extract caffeine from coffee beans: a direct and an indirect method. The direct method involves the use of water while the indirect involves the use of a chemical solvent. The direct method is evil (work place propaganda here) as some of the original flavour is lost in this process. The indirect method is the oldest and still the best, as only the caffeine is removed and the flavour is left unaffected.<br /><br />Although I’m a big fan of simple explanations, I find this a bit too simple. I guess we sales people were taught this as a means of dumbing down our explanation of decaf as a sales pitch to customers. Can you guess which method of decaf coffee we sell? Having done my homework, I can now tell that there are hundreds patents which exist but only four are used commercially.<br /><br />The Swiss Water Process, a direct method, was patented by Coffex S.A. in 1979. In direct processes, caffeine and other water soluble compounds are removed by soaking the green beans in very hot water. This method involves a further stage, however; stripping the water of its caffeine, not by a solvent, but by passing it through activated charcoal. Some say it should be called the Swiss Charcoal Process, but I don’t think any one would buy into Charcoal Coffee…yum! Once the caffeine has been removed from the water, the beans are then returned to the hot water where they reabsorb the caffeine free flavours they lots earlier. This process is more costly than other methods as caffeine can’t be taken from the charcoal and sold separately, as it can be done with the two indirect methods. Many coffee professionals also consider this method removes some flavour unlike other processes.<br /><br />The direct solvent method is the oldest and most commonly used for green coffee beans. The beans are first steamed to open up their pores. They are then soaked in an organic solvent that unites with the caffeine. The beans are then steamed again to remove the solvent. Methylene chloride is a chemical that can be used to "unlead" coffee. This solvent is volatile and will vaporize at 40ºC. Since coffee is roasted at over 200ºC, there is no chance that any of it will end up in anyone’s cup. Unfortunately, the use of methylene chloride was banned in Europe in 1995, as it is one of the main chemical that is responsible for destroying the ozone layer. Instead Ethyl Acetate is now used in most European decaf plants. Ethyl Acetate has not yet been linked to any diseases and tree hugging coffee lovers consider it ozone friendly. Ethyl Acetate is also derived from fruit and coffee beans that are decaffeinated with this are sometimes called “naturally decaffeinated”.<br /><br />There is one final method that is used commercially to remove the caffeine from green beans. This is a process using CO2 (Carbon dioxide). CO2 behaves like a liquid when compressed and has the property of combining itself with caffeine. The beans are first steamed and then bathed in compressed CO2. The caffeine is then removed from the CO2 by charcoal filters similar to the Swiss water process. However the flavour components remain in the beans throughout the process. Unfortunately many companies do not use this method as the equipment and facilities required are very expensive.<br /><br />So which decaf process should you end up choosing for your next cup? This is up to your personal taste as the same beans processed using each method will taste different. Also decaffeinated coffee is difficult to roast properly. A good rule of thumb, if you start with excellent quality beans before decaffeination, then you will have an excellent quality decaf coffee. I’ve said to my friends on many occasions when I’m cooking a steak on my BBQ at home, “If you start with a good quality piece of steak, it would take some talent to go and ruin it.”<br /><br />What really counts is where the beans come from and how they were grown. So, if you are on the hunt for good decaf the most important question you should ask the seller is not “how do you decaffeinate your coffee?” but, “What type of beans did you decaf?”<br /><br />If they don’t know, they don’t care!The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1139078244059848982006-02-04T18:35:00.000+00:002006-05-07T23:56:16.720+01:00Decaf Dilemma<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Marilyn%20Mick.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 104px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 152px" height="320" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/Marilyn%20Mick.jpg" width="176" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:78%;"><em>TCB was starting to feel</em></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:78%;">sexy after his 5th espresso.<br /></span></em><br />I was coming back from work today with a new espresso pot to try out at home. My wife remarked that she hadn’t had her coffee today and would I mind making her a brew of decaf? She won’t have her caffeine late in the evening as it will keep her from getting her sleep.<br /><br />Now before I go any further, I can appreciate that some people love their coffee and have to go for the decaf for good reason. One of my wife’s friends was pregnant a little while ago and she couldn’t miss the flavour of a coffee and opted for <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4444908.stm">decaf during her pregnancy</a>. The same issues also arise for people suffering from heart and other problems which require them to be careful about the amount of caffeine in their diet. What I am saying is not directed at them, I really take issue with the people, like my wife, who choose decaf!<br /><br />Those who know me well know that I need my caffeine and to me it’s all or nothing. Yes, I am addicted to the stuff! I have to make sure I get at least one cup of coffee a day. Without it I’m bad-tempered, suffer migraines and am generally a pig to be around! Some of you out there might be thinking, ‘What a big girl - I have at least 10 cups a day!’<br /><br />Personally, I find the benefits of caffeine such as improved sensory perception and motor skills help prevent me walking into things on a regular basis, (although my wife would say it would take more than caffeine to achieve that…and sadly, she’d be right).<br /><br />I can’t really see the point in decaf coffee. I’ve always likened it to drinking non-alcoholic beer (something no self-respecting Australian should do)! What’s the point in filling up on something that gets you no-where fast and tastes more like urine than coffee or beer? When people find themselves drinking anything to excess, why is it that they punish themselves by drinking a poor substitute? If you want to stay sober, then don’t drink alcohol and the same goes for caffeine. There are so many other non-alcoholic alternatives that have been around even before there was non-alcoholic beer; ditto for caffeine free drinks – what’s wrong with fruit juice?<br /><br />That said, there are some ways of reducing your caffeine intake without resorting to decaf. As strange as this may seem, Arabica coffee beans (which are used for the bulk of the ground coffee products on the market) have half the caffeine of instant coffee which is made from Robusta beans rather than Arabica. I’ve always thought that having two or three cups of fresh roasted coffee beats the hell out of ten cups of instant! By drinking a specialty coffee, you’re having less caffeine per cup and gallons more flavour than drinking cheap canned coffee.<br /><br />Another way of reducing the caffeine content is to brew your coffee using paper filters as the paper soaks up the fatty oils which hold the caffeine. If you still insist on having decaf but would like a bit more flavour then why not try mixing it with some non-decaf Arabica coffees.<br /><br />As for me, I’m still going to keep on having my two or three cups fresh roast ‘full-fat’ coffee a day. To quote a Greek proverb, ‘Either dance well or quit the ballroom!’<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Marilyn%20Mick.jpg"></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/Marilyn%20Mick.jpg"></a>The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21724982.post-1138662825121519032006-01-30T22:21:00.000+00:002006-05-07T23:54:51.786+01:00Stove-top expresso pot testing<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/1600/P2050058.1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5878/2200/320/P2050058.1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I had a customer in the other day wanting to return a stove-top espresso pot. I'm not the type who will question a customer as to whether they were using it correctly. He was a little disappointed that I didn't give him the third degree. The truth was, however, in all my time working in the coffee business, I have yet to use one of these devices.<br /><br />So today I finally put his pot to the test to see why it wasn't working. Next time he calls up and asks, I'll have to let him know the reason.<br /><br /><br />There are a number of reasons why I'm not a big fan of the stove-top. The pot is made from aluminium. This is an excellent conductor of heat but it can interact with coffee acids to produce funny taste. The water is forced up through the coffee which means that you'll lose out on getting the crema layer which I love from my espresso. They also get very hot and can be tricky to handle.<br /><br />Althought I've never been a fan, I manage to sell at least twelve of these each week. Most of them go to students who want to make strong coffee in their hall of residence. One thing the stove-top will give you is a strong expresso!<br /><br />Anyway, here is a quick rundown on how they work:<br /><br />1. Fill the lower chamber with fresh cold water. I like mine filtered cos I don't like chlorine in my coffee!<br />2. Fill the funnel basket with the ground coffee. Beleive me when I tell you I've had customers tell me they fill this with instant coffee...ohhh yum! Make sure you fill it up to the top of the basket.<br />3. Place the funnel basket into the lower chamber. If you have over filled the lower chamber then your grounds will get wet! Not a good start to your expresso!<br />4. Screw the top half and the bottom half together.<br />5. Place the pot on a medium heat stove. The water will start to boil and the pressure of the steam will force the water up through gounds and into the top chamber.<br />6. Make sure you take the pot off the stove straight away - no-one is impressed with the smell of burnt coffee - it'll also save your rubber seal for next time!<br />6. Yum. You should now have an espresso coffee.<br /><br />Even after being tested by an expert (me?) the returned pot failed. Some simple testing proved that the pot was unable to produce enough pressure to go%2The Coffee Blokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973338803242420428noreply@blogger.com2