I am not particularly ashamed of the phrase “I don’t know” but there comes a point in the day when you’ve said it five or six times and you feel you really ought to do something about it.
The cause of my embarrassed ignorance: the change in flavour when coffee cools.
Just a very quick post to let you know that if you are coming to London for the WBC and want suggestions of somewhere to go then I’d recommend checking out the WBC/Coffee Kids London Coffee Map.
Not only will you get delicious coffee, but the participating shops are also raising money for Coffee Kids, which is two good things for the price of one!
For a while all has been quiet on the Uber front. We shuffled some stuff around at the roastery, and as part of it we chose not to cut the old Uber into the new worktops as we planned to upgrade – the new Uber having a different (smaller) cutout.
The new Uber arrived today and I am very excited. This probably could have been a post for the Square Mile Blog, but there are many more exciting/important things to post on there!
What’s different about this Uber? The capacity is bigger. We sometimes used the old one for cupping, but it had more of a cafe use/quick recovery capacity so couldn’t do many bowls. This one has a 6 litre boiler – very exciting! This one has a flow control dial, instead of an button control. It also has some beta software for us to test out.
I missed the Uber when it was gone. My brewed coffee consumption dropped (a bad thing). My experimentation also dropped off a little (also a bad thing). I hope to get that going again. I also grew irrationally annoyed with kettles (a weird thing?).
Before anyone accuses me of spam (perhaps fairly) I should make clear that we don’t make any money from the sale of Uber boilers, though yes – they are now available for sale. It is just a project that we’re really excited about and it has been, and will be, a great tool for exploring coffee. We’re extremely grateful to Marco – they are splendid!
I’ve been thinking more and more about the tiers of tastiness when it comes to not only coffee, but any food or drink. I think this was probably triggered by the whole aerating thing.
Having tasted coffee that had been aerated, as well as coffee brewed with aerated water, against a standard brew there had been a noticeable difference: an improvement. Surely, then, this would be something to do in a cafe setting? If it is going to improve the experience for the consumer, then one would be foolish not to, right? (more…)
I am very much aware that promoting my own products or business on a personal blog very quickly spends any currency of goodwill that I might have built up.
There are, however, rare instances where I think it is entirely worth it and this is one of them. There is more information about the coffee on the product page, but we want to keep up the spirit of generosity of people like Aida Batlle and Gwilym and we want to raise as much money as we can.
You can read more about this coffee and what we are doing here. I hope you’ll consider buying a bag.
At the London Gastronomy Seminars I was given a Mypressi Twist to play with by the UK distributor. I had been toying with buying one having seen the hype online, so this was a rather pleasant surprise.
I didn’t really get a chance to play with it til yesterday afternoon. I’ve played with it some more today and this is just a quick summary of my thoughts and what I think is particularly interesting about it.
First off – it makes pretty good espresso. I know I am hardly the first person to make this observation, but I think everyone who tries it is pleasantly surprised. I think with a few adjustments to technique then you can get something better than any espresso machine in its price bracket, or up to two or three times its price. If you like milk drinks though – then this may not appeal to you. (more…)
This post is really for coffee consumers who want to develop their palates, which leads to coffee becoming more enjoyable.
I had been in coffee well over a year before I really began to develop my vocabulary and descriptive skills, and that is probably more embarrassing as I had done some work in wine beforehand.
What does the coffee professional have access to, that the consumer doesn’t, that allows them to progress so fast? It isn’t cupping bowls, or spoons. It isn’t scoresheets, or large amounts of data about where the coffee is from. It is regular opportunities for comparative tasting. (more…)