— Oliver Strand, “Paris is Brewing”. Nice. Now I realllly need to go to Paris.
This week, a speakeasy theme at the slow-bar, at the Venice, LA outpost of Intelligentsia: “Bootleggers and Baptists”.
A sidenote: as happy as I am to spread the word on these things when I can, don’t you think, Intelligentsia, that the Venice slow-bar deserves, at the very least, its own Twitter account. It’s very easy to miss the word on these things and there is no one place to go to find out information.
The Sprudge folks on “the El Bulli of coffee”, Theorem:
Theorem’s two-man barista crew prepared for us what they call an “enhanced espresso”, wherein a mixture of filtered water, blueberries, clove, and vanilla were heated and allowed to macerate together in a Hario TCA-5 siphon pot. The mixture was then poured into the handle of Mypressi Twist, then used to pull a shot of the Worka and served in a tall shot glass.
I want to go to there.
Update: Going. Saturday, September 22nd, 1:45 PM. If anyone wishes to join us, please, feel free. Theoretically, there may still be four seats left…
Speaking of Theorem, I have yet to make the trek out to Costa Mesa to visit it’s mother.
It’s a PDF. I’ll be starting to use this on my next roast. Feel free to suggest any additions and, of course, to download it for your own use.
| Start Temp | First Crack Temp | End Temp | First Crack Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75º | 395º | 425º | 4:20 | 6:40 |
Cavaet roaster1.
| Start Weight | End Weight |
|---|---|
| 100g | 83g |
Roasted, there is a stark difference between the level of color variance, from bean to bean, of the Matari and the Harasi. The Harasi? Dramatic. The Matari? Only slightly more variance in color from bean to bean compared with anything else I’ve put through the popper.
Not sure why. Initially, I thought maybe there was a larger disparity in size and shape with the Harasi but glancing at the beans in each bag, it’s difficult to say. Both bags display an incredibly wide variety, with beans of all shapes, sizes and structures.
Where the Harasi’s trademark is dramatic color variance, the Matari’s is length of roasting time. 6:41 for batch #2. About a full minute longer than any other coffee I’ve put through the popper. I roasted a bit lighter for this batch. Batch #1 was darker and took the longest of any bean so far — 7:39.
Why? Bean density? Mmmm…again, not too sure. Imperfect as it is, I took a volume measurement of both — both 1/2 cup and 1 cup — and weighed them. One or two grams difference. Gonna go ahead and say that would be in the accepted margin of error.
I’m at a loss from a quantitative standpoint. Qualitatively, they’re both delicious.
Dark chocolate, little to no acidity, subdued, light fruit — dried raspberry — peeking through. Very dry finish.
Intense dry dark chocolate, subdued acidity, big fruit — dried currants, dried raspberry — with a dry finish.
These temperature measurements are are taken from a used West Bend Poppery II air popcorn popper, with a hole drilled into the top for an off-the-shelf stem-thermometer to go through. So, you know, keep that in mind. ↩
Coffee from Yemen, pastry styles from Mexico. Eaten in Pasadena. #instacoffee
Bond. Mr. Bond (Taken with Instagram at Baja Ranch Supermarket)
Fix. Awesome neighborhood spot in Echo Park. All about the outdoor space.
Stellar cup of Intellientsia’s Debello Ethiopia off the V60: creamy body, lemon candy.
This was the most uneven roast I’ve ever gotten out of the popper. I am unsure why. Maybe it’s the qualities of the coffee itself. Maybe it was ambient temperature — it was 97° outside at the time — and the roast was too fast. But that wouldn’t be a cause for unevenness.
Maybe it’s because it’s an air popcorn popper. Every batch of every coffee I’ve put through it has had some level of color variance, but I’ve roasted five different coffees already and this coffee shows the most extreme variance in roast levels from bean to bean, on the same roast batch, of any of the others. I mean I’ve got beans the color of a SoCal surfers sun-bleached locks mixed in with roasty-toast little nuggets the color of a s’mores marshmallow tragedy (some people like ‘em that way but not me). So…hmmm.
The thing is, from what I know about natural process African coffees — and if I ‘m remembering correctly, especially coffees from Yemen — the processing is especially primitive. The processes in place are the product of historical necessity. The water supply to process coffee with the wet-processing methods of Latin America just is not there. It never has been. So while I’ve always heard that dry-process coffees from Yemen can be “interesting”, I’ve not heard them talked about for their uniformity or excellent grading.
So maybe what I’m getting is a double-whammy of uneven density and size due to less-than-sophisticated processing methods endemic to the producers of Yemen.
And I’m roasting in a popcorn popper
We’ll see how it tastes.
The coffee:
a macchiato with Verve’s Guatemala Bola De Oro — chocolaty and sweet.
A cup of Finca La Rosa’s Honduras from Verve — Like a dark chocolate bar” she said.
Our first visit to SO in The Grove was punctuated by serendipitous (re)discovery…
LA’s scrumptious little bakery, Short Cake, is right here, at SO, baked goods literally being produced directly behind the SO staff in what amounts to an outdoor operation. How do they get the crusts on those perfect little apple pies so flaky in that heat?
SO is a Verve account. And a good one. I have that on authority. Trust me.
Damn if every time I meet an employee of Verve, they’re not some the nicest people in the coffee biz.
The Wirecutter knows coffee…
On the “best” method of making coffee:
There is no one “best” method of making coffee. So, there is no best gear for making coffee. […] (That said, pod machines are truly awful.)
On the preeminence of getting ahold of a good grinder…
First off, whether you brew with an Aeropress, French Press, Chemex or Clever, you’re going to spend more money on a grinder than the actual brewing gear. And that’s okay, because it’s the most important piece of coffee gear you’ll own
On the bulk of home auto-drip machines…
Nearly all common home machines often only hit around 180 or less. So the coffee they make sucks
Rrrright? The Wirecutter gets it.
Which is surprising considering it’s a gadget site. Wait, maybe that’s not so surprising. We coffee types do love our gadgets after all (don’t try to deny it, just look at your cupboard).
And that’s why a gadget site is getting on the list. On a coffee site.
27g of this morning’s 250g v60 batch stayed in the filter/grinds. 11%.
Begs the question: what’s more important in the grinds:water ratio?
Amount of water with the grinds during brewing?…
…or the total amount of water that passes through into the cup?
Should I be adding x% to the amount of water I weigh during brewing? Am I leaving some flavor behind?
Everyone has something that they specialize in, something they are passionate about. Outside of that field, you might think that they are crazy… but within the field of Olympic Curling, for example, I’m sure there are deep debates about what animal hair to use for a Curling broom. Such is the specificity we can achieve when groups of people band together in common interest. It’s not for everyone, and it’s not supposed to be.
Wurd. Two posts in and I’m liking it. And, so, on the list.
