Archive for January, 2009
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Got a phone call this evening about a little machinery project that we embarked upon with Marco, telling me that they will be debuting the machine at CatEx – Ireland’s HORECA tradeshow – between the 9th and 11th of February. It was an idea we had that they agree to R&D, and the data coming back from testing was impressive.
At the moment I still can’t give much away, it is nothing to do with espresso, it isn’t a coffee brewer either but I hope it will be great. I have yet to see a finished unit, and I gather the aesthetic side is still quite open. I’ll likely be heading over on the 1oth for a quick play with it, and to make coffee for people at the show and to talk about the project a little more.
Like a kid in a candy store…….
Tags: coffee brewing, equipment, experiments, innovation, ireland, square mile coffee roasters, technology
Posted in News | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
I wanted to tackle a tricky brewing method for this videocast, and it will probably cause some debate – people saying that I am using it wrong etc etc…
I wasn’t trying to recreate espresso with the little brewer – I just wanted to find a way to use it so it made clean, sweet and tasty coffee with no bitterness or astringency. It took a while and I ended up grinding coarser than even I expected. There aren’t a lot of good brewing guides around for stove top brewers – but credit to the Stumptown one for ideas and inspiriation.
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Tags: brewed coffee, brewing, coffee brewing, how to, howto, moka pot, stovetop, videocast
Posted in coffee brewing, Opinion | 31 Comments »
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
IMPORTANT: We don’t yet know if this is a one off glitch or common to all machines.
This is probably of interest to anyone who has competed or watched competitions since 2005.
In some competitions the La Marzoccos used were GB5 and FB80 AV machines – meaning they have a line of buttons linked to volumetric controls. More recently a lot of machines just had one big on/off button.
Anyway – I remember back in 2005 in Seattle and in other barista competitions that during a competitors set the machines just seemed to switch off. Everyone was very confused how a barista could have done this as you have to push and hold an on/off button for at least 3 (or maybe 5) seconds.
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Tags: Barista Competition, Coffee, Espresso, flat white, la marzocco, milk bar, News
Posted in Barista Competition, Espresso, News | 14 Comments »
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
I have a confession to make: I used to, in a very snobbish way, hate the idea of a coffee being an “after dinner coffee” or a “morning cup”. I thought it was one of those really stupid ways of selling coffee – like how supermarkets use the word “strength” to communicate how dark a roast is.
In recent conversations someone has said to me that they love a certain coffee, but not first thing in the morning. Maybe mid-afternoon instead. Initially I didn’t get it. My very narrow mind assumed that good coffee was good coffee and that the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun shouldn’t have too much impact on how that coffee, my tongue and my brain all got along.
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Footnotes:
Tags: brewing, Coffee, consumer, cupping, drinks, Espresso, promises, roaster, Roasting, trust, varietal, wine
Posted in Opinion | 17 Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2009
In the last decade high streets in the UK have become increasingly homogenised.
In my old job I would end up travelling visiting most major towns and cities in the UK and it was depressing that they all looked the same – same brands, same items, same old same old.
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Footnotes:
Tags: brands, Coffee, credit crunch, economy, Espresso, high street, independent businesses, retail
Posted in Opinion | 5 Comments »
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
I just want to write a very short thank you to everyone who has contributed recently.
I genuinely did think about packing the blog in, but decided to keep writing, and I am very glad I did.
I’ve enjoyed writing more recently, and that probably shows, but what has been truly great is that often 500 words will generate 5,000 words of discussion in the comments.
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Tags: blog, jimseven, learning, thank you
Posted in Opinion | 11 Comments »
