By seasoning a coffee machine – I am talking about pulling a few shots per group having done a chemical clean. Conventional wisdom says that if this is not done then the coffee will have an unpleasant metallic tang to it, because the machine is “too clean”.
Something about this just doesn’t sit right for me. (more…)
Brew recipes have been on my mind again recently, so I thought I’d post up this quick poll. I’d love if it people could give me some data on this. If enough people respond then I will post up the results, and any trends that occur.
A few quick things. Please dial your espresso in to the point that you are happy. It doesn’t need to be godshot territory, but something you’d serve to a customer or friend who you liked.
Secondly – please weigh things properly. A lot of people speculate the weight of ground coffee they use, and very few people are accurate with it. The more accurate the measurement the better.
Just to emphasize this because it is important – I need the weight of your shot not the volume.
Once you’ve weighed the shot feel free to drink it, to make sure it tasted good.
Here’s the poll:
For those of you unfamiliar with The Sprudge Report – shame on you! The site is a splendid piece of awesome put together by Zachary. The latest headline makes a very valid point, relevant to more than just the four bloggers mentioned. (Screenshot, because I worry the link won’t work by tomorrow!
If the experience of doing a bunch of video blogs has taught me anything it is that I much prefer writing about coffee.
I was thinking the other day that I really enjoy a lot of blogs that I read, but having read a bit about wine or food recently I felt that what I wanted to read were decent length, well thought out articles about coffee. Any aspect of coffee really, just researched and interesting.
I still want to read articles like that, but I figure that if you want something you may as well start yourself. I’ve had the jameshoffmann.co.uk domain kicking around for a while so I figured it was time to do something with it.
The first article is up now, and is about as short as they’ll be on there. I won’t post stuff up there very often, and it is as much for me to indulge in the pleasure of writing as anything else. I am not saying these will be perfectly researched, detailed, faultless things – you can doubtless pick a million holes in this first one and on – but that is what I am working towards (knowing I’ll never get there).
I deeply enjoy writing about coffee, and want to do it better so I feel it ought to have its own distinct channel. I am not abandoning this site – it will merely have a stronger focus on blogging, and hopefully get updated a bit more often, and to keep the community and conversation that goes on here for which I am very grateful.
Anyways – here’s the link: Journalism and Coffee
On a side note – there are two videos left and I hope to finish them soon, plus I will hopefully have an update to the Chemex technique video done some time in September. Plus I need to wrap up the latte art competition and get a winner announced! All this very soon.