Filter & Press Brew Comparison

Couldn't find a good title for this post.

This morning I lined up the Aeropress, Abid Clever Dripper, Sowden Soft Brewer and a Bodum double walled French Press.

Coffee : Caffenation Afroman Filterblend. 50% Tanzania Utengule, 25% Zambia Munali, 25% Rwanda Rwabisindu on a light roast.

Ratio : 20 grams of (fine) filter grind (all the same grind). 330 grams of 92° water. (Aeropress 300 gr).

Techniques :
Aeropress : regular position (no reversed). Adding water on top all the time till I reached the 300 grams. Total brewing and pressing took 2'30"

Abid Clever Dripper : white rinsed filter from Melitta. Very simple style. Pour on 330 grams on the coffee and let it seep for 2'. Run through another minute.

Sowden Soft Brewer : Pour on 330 grams on the coffee and serve after 4'

French Press : Same technique

Results (when hot I spooned once, then started sipping and drinking)
Aeropress : 66°. First spoon was very good. The sipping and drinking later on started not very good but then it balanced. I guess the acidity needed to be tamed. Very soon the sweets took over and showed fantastic Granny Smith and passion fruit. Clean cup all the way.

Abid Clever Dripper : 66°. Coffee looks very well filtered and clean.
First spoon didn't convince, but once drinking this coffee balanced and showed nice nuttyness, bits of fruit and a very bright cup.

Sowden Soft Brewer : 64°. Spooning went well, nothing special though. This cup gives a very mild easy coffee with hints of figs and nuts.

French Press : 71° (double walled works well as you can see). Early spooning same as Sowden. Drinking disapointed. Sourish. Metallic. Unripe fruits.

The cooling down :
Aeropress : What a cup!! Tonloads of tropical fruits (mango, cactus, kumquat, banana) and very clean. Barista's cup!

Clever : Very well balanced. A bit of everything and easy to drink. Yum.

Sowden : Flavors sames to vanish while cooling down. Very mild, but also boring.

French Press : Disapointing all the way. Not clean and not nice.

Conclusions on the taste and brewing method. And coffee of course.

Aeropress : This device is easy and handling all kind of techniques, roasting profiles and temperatures.
Watch out : this cup is too complex and acidic to everyones liking. More like an advanced kind of cup. More tealike.

Clever : Easy as always. Very commercial brew. (Isabel liked this one most)

Sowden Soft Brewer : This brewer needs surely more steeping time and a pre heating of the brewer. Gives surely more body like most full immersion brewers.

French Press : I noticed before the press is not such a big fan of lighter roasts. Surprised by the result, cause I generally like this Press. Maybe need to redo the test with a coarser grind.

The coffee/blend : Depending on the technique I think we have a winner. The lighter roasts make the fruiteness come out really well but demands a finer grinding and higher ratio.

How to Pull the Spilled Coffee Prank

Honduras Marcala

This new crop Honduras is not a single estate, but a very careful selection of beans from the Marcala Region.

Honduras is a country that's improving on their coffee quality year after year. Our X-Mas coffee from the Pradera estate was a perfect example.
And their 2010-2011 crop is even better!

Our Marcala is a very well balanced coffee, medium body and strenght and notes of caramel, figs, nuts and honey. It's a SHG Honduras coffee and typically less acidic then most Central American coffee's. This makes it the perfect bean to blend with our African beauties.

This week this coffee is at offer for both filter and espresso. The red bags are the filter roast, the black one the espresso version. Good luck.

More info on Honduras and their coffee at this link.

New Little Green Bag 1.2 out Now

Equal parts Rwanda Rwanbisindu, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Peaberry and Honduras Marcala give you a punchy complex espresso with gloopy mouthfeel and hints of Nuts, Lemon and Chocolate.
It's an espresso best pulled long - say 30 seconds extraction. This gives you a very pleasant sweet and sour based shot, ideally for all 'milk drinks'.

Price € 20 a kilo and available at the specialty shops Caffenation, Barchoq, Broer Bretel, Inspire, Crusio and (soon also at) The Village Coffee Utrecht and Kaffee-ine Mechelen.

We've been testing it a lot for filter brewing as well and notice a splendid cup of joe. Nice body, very pleasant citrus notes and complexity all through the cooling proces.

Very proud about the blending and roasting; it's most probably the best Caffenation blend ever!!

Belgian Aeropress Championship

BELGIAN AEROPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP : Sunday APRIL 24, 2011.

Starting at 10 o’clock at Caffenation, Hopland 46, 2000 Antwerpen.

Rules & Regulations :

The rules are fairly straight forward, 3 International judges will evaluate (blind), purely based on taste, the best filter style brew from the Aeropress. We want the competition to be as transparent as possible, with the intention of fine tuning the hugely varied technique used to brew on the Aeropress.

General Rules : everyone will use the same coffee, graciously donated by Caffenation Specialty Coffee Roasters.

The coffee will be preroasted one month before the championship. One 350 grams bag of this coffee will be send to all competitors.

At the championships we will have the same coffee, 6 day old.

The required volume of the drink is 2dl, which has to be served in the supplied cupping cup. It is up to the competitor what kind of water is used, no added ingredients are allowed. All competitors will have a 8 minutes comp time. Failure to serve the drink in that time will mean disqualification. The technique used by the competitor must be in writing and given to the judges this will not be considered in judging.

Equipment : The supplied equipment will be all grinders and boilers at Caffenation. Competitors are welcome to bring their own grinder.

We will have 1 Big Ditting grinder, with a scale 1 up to 10. 5 is regular filter grind. Most Aeropress recipes use a ‘6-grind’, we used a ‘4-grind’ at the WAC-London.

You can bring your own, but there are Aeropresses available for those interested.

Any modifications to the actual Aeropress will need to be authorised by the Head Judge and if need by the organisation.

Water - Bestmax filtered Antwerp tap water will be used via the Bravilor boiler, set at 93°c. You are allowed to use your own water, and your own water boiler of choice.

Rounds : There will be qualifying rounds. Probably we go with a one against one knock out system. More info later on.

After each round, competitors must use the judging time to clear their station ready for the next round of competitors.

Competitors must have the Belgian nationality or must live in Belgium since 1 year.

The winner maybe represents Belgium at the World Aeropress Championships in Bogota Colombia (2^nd – 5^th of June). We're still negociating....

Please sign up free via email or at the Hopland bar :

caffenation@gmail.com. Giving their full name, adress and phone number.

1st Belgian Aeropress Championship

Caffenation is proud to present the first Aeropress Championship in Belgium.

This event is going to be held at Caffenation, Hopland 46, 2000 Antwerp, April 24th, starting at 10 o'clock.

More info one of the days on this blog.

Rwanda Rwabisindu

Very proud to have this Rwanda coffee as a SOE or filter for a while, meanwhile blending it with Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and Honduras Marcala in our Little Green Bag 1.2

Rwabisindu is the name of the central washing station where this African coffee is processed. The washing station serves 35 farmers with 80,000 Bourbon coffee trees Emerth & Gaston Gatsinga are the owners of the washing station. They also own a hospital, where Gaston works as a doctor. The landlocked country of Rwanda is called "Land of a Thousand Hills" (Pays des milles collines). Rwanda is one the smallest countries of Africa and supports the densest population of the continent. Mukashyaka Epiphanie is the owner of the coffee mill and is a genocide widow working to rebuild the specialty coffee industry in Rwanda and the community where she lives. All coffee is hand milled and hand sorted, which helps to create a coffee that is very sweet and complex with bright bold acidity, nutty flavors and awesome in all milk based drinks.