Posts Tagged ‘Brewing’

Posted on December 7, 2005 - by deCadmus

Best of 2005: Coffee Grinders & Gear

Riddle me this:

When it comes right down to it, your _________ can ultimately spell the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great one.

Go ahead… think about it. I’ll wait.

Ready?

If you answered any one (or more) of these — grinder, water, or method of storing roasted beans — then you’re on the right track.

Truth is, while making a great cup of coffee isn’t exactly rocket surgery, it does require that a number of critical factors come together in concert. And if one of those factors is, well — less than harmonic — your symphony of flavors can easily become an avant-garde tone poem. And while the list above is something less than complete, it offers a ready frame of reference for this, the second part in the Best of Coffee series (which I’d better get on with or the holidays will be come and gone!)

Without further ado, let’s resume…

The List

Best Grinder

I’ve burned through a number of grinders the last few years. Idunno, maybe I’m hard on them… or maybe they’re just not built for the kind of volume that I dish out. I drink a fair amount of coffee… and I grind still more when I’m cupping, or tasting.

The grinder that’s outlasted everything that’s come before it is the Infinity, by Capresso. It has the features that are critical to a coffee grinder: conical burrs that are sharp and made of quality steel, a step-down gearing system to slow the grind (a fast grind heats the coffee, vaporizing delicate aromatic oils — not good) and short, straight path from the burrs to the ground-coffee bin. Also on the plus side, a bean hopper design that effectively defeats “bridging” of darker roasted beans — ’cause there’s few things more frustrating than trying to grind coffee beans that refuse to fall from the hopper — and very little static build-up.

But the real reason that this grinder gets my pick is all about the grind itself. The Infinity offers the most consistent, uniform particle size of any grinder I’ve tried this side of $500 (and some on the far side of that number) with virtually no dust or fining no matter where on the dial you’re grinding — infusion to Turkish — which means a clean cup of coffee no matter your method of brewing. It’s great with coffee presses and vacuum pots, and fabulous paired with a SwissGold cone filter.

(Note: A very high Honorable Mention is due the Baratza-designed Maestro line of coffee grinders. They’re quality gear… but I’m really not comfortable with their design intent of double-duty brewed coffee and espresso grinder.)

Best Water Filter

Coffee is 98% water… so it stands to reason that if your water doesn’t taste good, neither will what’s in your coffee cup. Let’s face it, most municipal water supplies are plenty concerned with making sure what comes out of your tap won’t harm you — it’s really not their problem if it’s not tasty, too.

If you have a whole-house water filter, or an under-sink filter, or a fridge with a built-in water filter, good on you. (Er… when was the last time you replaced the filter? They’re usually good for about three months, tops.) If you don’t, get a Brita water pitcher.

Sure, there’s lots of dongles and doodads you can screw on to your faucet. I don’t like ‘em. They get in the way of everyday use of your kitchen sink, and — honestly — they look funny. A Brita filtering water pitcher just large enough to fill your coffee pot is all you need… I particularly like this 40 ounce model ’cause it fits in the refrigerator door, and –unlike some models — it doesn’t dribble water where you don’t intend it to go.

Best Coffee Storage

Home-roasters know: green coffee can sit around in the cupboard for a year, easy… but once it’s roasted, the clock starts ticking. More, roasted coffee is pretty finicky. It’s hygroscopic, which means it’s something of a sponge. It’ll happily soak up water out of the atmosphere, and it also soaks up aromas and flavors (what is that… onions? fish?) that might be lurking in that vapor. So get your coffee out of the fridge, already!

I’ve tried any number of systems of coffee storage, from glass canning jars to coffee canisters of all sorts — glass, stainless steel, ceramic — not to mention lots of Rubbermaid and Tupperware products. In the end, unless you have a handy supply of nitrogen to flush them out, or one of those vacu-gizmos to suck out a significant quantity of air, your roasted coffee beans are going to be bathing in lots of oxygen… staling all the way.

The very best solution is to buy (or roast) only as much coffee as you’ll use in a few days to a week — two weeks, tops. But that just isn’t always practical. When it’s not, forget the canisters and gizmos… get a ready supply of valve-bags. Purpose-made for storing coffee, these bags feature multiple layers of metalized plastic film, which makes them a really good vapor barrier (unlike your typical zippie sandwich bag.) More, they feature a high quality zip-top, and a one-way valve that lets air out, but not in.

Where to get them? Try a home-roast supply company like Sweet Maria’s or The Coffee Project. (A word of caution: if you haven’t been sucked in to roasting your own coffee yet, you may be after visiting these web sites.)

In the final episode of the Best of Coffee 2005 series: Ephemera and Everything Else!

Posted on December 1, 2005 - by deCadmus

Best of 2005: Coffee Brewers

So maybe that whole Cyber Monday thing was just a gimmick to get you online, but the bald facts remain: the holidays are upon us, the shopping season is short this year, and you’ve got coffee hounds on your list that have high hopes (and high expectations) for what they’ll find under the Christmas tree this year. (I’ll save the Holiday tree / Saturnalia / Feast of Lights / Winter Solstice debates for other folk… at Bloggle it’s Christmas. So there.)

Every year I get lots of emails (for a given value of lots) packed with questions from harried shoppers — Which brewer should I buy? Which coffee? Got any ideas for stocking stuffers? — and every year I answer as honestly and completely as I can, ’cause you never know, they might be buying something for me. (Hasn’t happened yet.)

And thus, the Best of Coffee 2005 is born. This is a compendium of coffee products I’ve tried this year, and liked. Everything on this list has seen a fair amount of hands-on scrutiny, some have seen lengthy reviews, and all have my personal thumbs-up.

The List

Best Auto-drip Coffee Brewer

Long-time readers of these pages know that I’ve been a fan of the Bunn line of home auto-drip coffee brewers since way back. So it will likely turn their heads that my choice isn’t a Bunn, but the Zojirushi Fresh Brew.

Sure… the Bunn’s always-on system and reservoir is still about as easy and convenient to use as ever (and one remains on the kitchen counter even now… herself uses it for the first pot of the day, every day) but all else being equal, the Zojirushi makes a better cup of coffee. Especially when the Zoji is paired with a SwissGold permanent cone filter.

Best Coffee Press

I’ve got not one pick, but two, for this classical (and classy) method of brewing coffee. For its spiffy refinement to the process of brewing with a cafetiere, I pick the Bonjour Maximus coffee press. A turn of the Bonjour’s knob closes the business end of its plunger, separating coffee grounds from brewed coffee, thereby eliminating most of the danger of bitter, over-extracted coffee. Nice.

While Bonjour may have refined the process, Frieling has refined the brewer itself… the Frieling 6-Cup French Press is something of a work of art. Its mirror-polished stainless finish has the heft and feel of old-world hotel silver; its brewing mechanism is exceptionally sturdy and smooth in operation, and its dual-wall construction brews and keeps your coffee hot, but not so long as to confuse you into thinking this is a thermos. (Remember, too much heat for too long in a press leads you down the path to overextracted coffee.) The Frieling press is a pleasure to use.

Best Vacuum Pot

No contention here… the Bodum Electric Santos is the hands-down winner in the category. The only question is, what size? Oh, and what color?!

The eSantos’ electronics really do make it easier to use than a more traditional glass vacuum pot, and its durable polycarbonate construction is much safer to use that a glass pot. The nylon filter captures nearly all the coffee fines, leaving you with a clean, flavorful cup. Like all vacuum pots, there’s the mess factor to consider — it’s not as easy to clean as, say, a drip-brewer with a paper filter — but for cup quality, it’s really, really difficult to top a vacuum brewer.

Next time: Grinders and Gear…

More: coffee | coffee+brewer | review | brewing

Posted on November 17, 2005 - by deCadmus

Single Cup Coffee Showdown: Tassimo vs. Keurig

– Update Alert! —  

It’s two years since I wrote this comparison. I’ve since updated it. The updated version of this article can be found here.

– Update Alert! – 

Just when you thought it was safe to cast your lot and pick a single cup coffee brewer (be it a pod coffee machine, K-Cup, capsule or pouch) there arrives on the scene a spiffy new machine — the Tassimo. Designed by Braun, manufactured by Saeco, and with its coffee supply manufactured exclusively by Kraft, the Tassimo paints itself as the smartest single serve coffee brewer yet.

It’s not the first single-cup brewer to go to market with a “smarter is better” approach. The Keurig line of home brewers — the B50, and more recently the stripped-down B-40 and the souped-up B60 — have leveraged micro-processor control since their initial introduction a year ago (about the same time the Tassimo was announced.) So how does the new kid on the block stack up against the Keurig brewer? Let’s find out — (more…)

Posted on November 4, 2005 - by deCadmus

More on the Clover

Chris Tacy rambles passionately (okay, he gushes a little bit) on the Clover, and what it might could mean — maybe — for brewed coffee in a specialty roaster / retailer shop.

…I love the idea of offering the consumer a choice. They can have any of the coffees - brewed to order - right then. That, to me, really changes the dynamics here. It starts (finally) really moving us away from the whole “coffee is coffee; coffee is a commodity” thing. It really creates in the mind of the consumer the idea that coffees taste different from eachother.

And perhaps most of all - it treats the coffees with respect.

Posted on August 2, 2004 - by deCadmus

Bodum eSantos: A Lovely Mess

A recent conversation in the kitchen of chez Cadmus…

“It’s cool!”
“It’s a mess.”
“It’s caffeinated performance art!”
“You’re cleaning it.”
“It’s good coffee, though…”
“Well… yes. But it’s a mess.”

We are of two minds — my wife and I — over the relative merits of the Bodum Santos electric vacuum coffee pot. I see an evocative design that’s equal parts mad-scientist chemistry set and Frank Gehry angular assemblage. Herself sees… a mess.

Granted, the eSantos doesn’t have the drop-dead convenience of one of those push-button pod machines. And it’s not the grinding, measuring and filling thing… we’re more than used to that. It’s the post-brew mess that herself frowns at.

Like a great many vacuum pots, the eSantos has a permanent filter. [Okay... semi permanent. Bodum recommends replacing it every so often.] This filter is a very fine mesh screen; it allows dissolved coffee solids and oils through, making for an exceptionally flavorful cup with lots of body, and it does so without choking on coffee finings, a problem that I nearly always experienced with my Vintage Cory glass vacuum pot and its permanent glass filter rod.

The net effect is — of course — a mess. No denying it. There’s no paper filter to toss in the trash bin [or compost heap, if you're of the composty ilk]. Instead, after the brewer has cooled it’s necessary to rinse the coffee grounds out of the brew globe, and then to wash it. Yes, wash it. By hand, no less. Matter of fact, if you’ve brewed especially fresh coffee that wasn’t roasted to death [and you are, aren't you?] you’ll find a lovely, oily frothy mess left behind.

Want convenience? Get one of those push-button things. But if you want really great coffee it’s hard to beat a vacuum pot. Bodum’s update on the classic vac is about as good as it gets.