Making coffee can be this simple. But don't forget to use fresh beans and grind, hot water (just beneath the boil) and follow the simple rules.
The most beautiful and important part is the blooming, which is shown very well in the video.
And later on the nice spread and slow pace of the pour.
The person on the video is not my grandmother, although she did it the same way.
Verellen is a cigar company with 140 years of tradition. Not so many people know they once roasted coffee as well. And, till today, even less people know they're starting it up again.
Our # 1 Caffenation aficionado Jazzy Jeff V. launched himself into coffee roasting. It's a micro roaster in the strictest sense possible, but it's working. We already had his wild Limu on the menu and now we're roasting samples of the Brazilian Coromandel Fazenda Sao Joao.
We took it to a Full City + and that's what we needed for espresso.
Cupping profile is medium body, but nice balance with acidity and fruity-floral flavors, a touch of mandarin and caramel and very clean aftertaste.
I'm already looking forward to the next try.
Well done Jeff.
This man is inspiring me. Never met him, but hopefully, one day, i will.
Read this great article from The News Tribune, Soundlife.
After reading this great article in The Guardian, i again was surprised how difficult it can be for a regular coffee amateur to brew a top cup at home. And because helping people to improve their Barista skills was one of the goals of this blog, i decided to write this post.
Of course your equipment does matter, but believe me if i say that a good Barista's going to pull better shots on your small household equipment that an average Barista with 'professional' gear. And forget about regular bartenders in this city/country ; they don't know anything about it.
What you need to do is reading blogs like this one, participate at Barista Jams, talk to professional or trained Barista's, watch the moves at the bar, read magazines or follow coffee forums. And for the Dutch speaking amateurs, which is a 60+ percent of Antwerp Barista readers(!), there's some good news these days on the forum front : KOFFIEPRAAT.
So everybody who's on the lookout for better coffee at home, at work or behind the bar : just click the link.
For those who want a quick resumé of what can help them to obtain a (espresso) God Shot :
Start with a clean and hot machine.
Use fresh beans.
Grind the beans yourself and shot by shot.
Take good and easy blends before experimenting with single origins.
Watch out for (too) lightly roasted beans.
Adjust the grind, volume and tamping pressure to obtain a correct extraction.
MAKE SURE YOUR EXTRACTION TIME IS PLUS MINUS 25 SECONDS!!!
Use warm cups.
Never be afraid to ask for help : we're there for you.
Today was the day.
The whole afternoon Caffenation was packed with very enthusiastic and generous coffee lovers.
924,97 euros is the incredible amount we collected for the Coffee Kids Organisation.
Thanks Dieter, Bird, Daisy, Katrien, Noömi, Jessie and Elisa for the support. I'll count on you again for next year Easter Monday.
I'm very happy and satisfied with this beautiful day and hope the organisation can use this money in a good way.
When Roaster Jean showed me this bag, resting in his roastery, i was fully surprised.
We all know the all famous Jamaica Blue Mountain, but the Costa Rica B.M.????
Nothing reported on the web and also the trader Phoenix didn't give any more information.
Well, let us roast some...
And the results on Medium Roast :
This big bean (small Pacamara size) is a winner.
The cupping shows good balance between body, acidity, flavor and a super clean aftertaste. We're missing some fruit, but as we're going to use this one for espresso and because we have enough tea's, Colombian and African beans, i don't really care. A resemblance with the Jamaican B.M. is not noticeable.
In the small espresso's i like the strong, fresh overall taste, although not everybody enjoys the domination of acidity and bitters. I guess that a darker roast could do some good for this drink.
The larger coffee's made with 14 grams of espresso ground in a double filter, 20 pound tamp and 30 seconds extraction gives one of the best lungo's of the year. Nice body, superb acidity-flavor balance and an aftertaste that is very full, pleasantly mild and super clean!
Equipment : Faema E91 3-group, Portaflon portafilters, Fiorenzato T80 grinder, Espresso Lab convex Tamper.
This bean could be a winner in our future Specialty Coffee project.
After numberous articles about Starbucks and Clover, this one is probably the most spectacular one and sited on the Clover Equipment website, which could be resulting in entering a Starbucks for a fine cup of Joe :
We are proud to announce that the Starbucks Coffee Company has entered into an agreement to acquire The Coffee Equipment Company. This merger will take our passion for coffee, hardware and innovation to the biggest possible stage. The Clover revolution couldn't have happened without all of our friends—the roasters, the baristas, the cafés, and the growers. The revolution lives on.
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| We are incredibly grateful to our early adopters for taking a chance on our machine. Through these partnerships, we've been able to elevate the profile of brewed coffee around the world. | We will continue to proudly support all of the deployed Clovers with parts and service. | Starbucks is uniquely positioned to change the way the world thinks about brewed coffee with its coffee heritage and tremendous passion for the industry. Working together profound change is possible. |
