Wow

[liralen]

I got my little 20 oz brewer in the mail last night, used Oxacan organic coffee that I roasted two days ago (plenty of time for the body to come back, and I'd done 1/2 Dark (Viennese, 40 seconds into second crack) 1/2 medium City roast for complexity ), ground it in the nice conical burr grinder, and the results were very, very happy making. Clean, clear and it's the first time I really tasted the chocolate notes of the deeper roast and the lighter fruit notes of the lighter roast At The Same Time. Yow.

No crud, no residue, just clean, clear coffee with real body. Yum... Okay, Anita, I now know why your sweetie loves his vacuum brewer. And 18 resultant ounces is about as much as I can drink in a day (unlike John's 32 ounce pot just to get started...). Surprised the heck out of me when I found that I could actually drink this stuff without milk. Prefer it with, but so it is. I even broke out my little steel lined vacuum flask to keep it in for taking to work and it's been hot in my cup all day. Yes, it's got great construction.

Plus, it was great entertainment for Jet this morning. I can't ask for much more than that.

Comments

[greenlion.livejournal.com]

So here's a lame question for you:

I like a, er, deep tasting coffee. But many places' 'bold' coffee selections are too much for me -- they get to my stomach, I think. Are they more highly acidic, or something?

I like Tanzanian Peaberry a lot. Can you recommend anything else in that vein I might like?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I could be high acid or it could be that they just burnt the coffee and the carbon is getting to you, too? I'm not sure how to say, other than if the stuff tastes more sour to you or if it tastes more carbony...

Oo.. Tanzanian Peaberry... lovely stuff. You'd probably like most peaberry coffees as well (especially a Kona peaberry I once had the priviledge to buy and consume every morning on the Big Island), as they all have some of that character. I'd also recommend Ethiopian Yiracheffe (for the same kinds of fruit tones, characteristic of many African coffees, some call it too winey for their taste, though, so you might try a little before buying a lot) or any real Moka/Mocha from the Red Sea area (the beans are often smaller than other Arabicas and offer some of the same characteristic benefits of the peaberries along with more chocolate overtones than fruit). Or nearly any Papau New Guinea coffee, they're not that well known, but the sweet character is a lot like the Tanzanian, but it has a thicker texture and heavier body.

I'd likely avoid Brazilian coffees and anything from Kenya.

:-) I hope that helps!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thinking a bit, most "BOLD" coffees use a lot of Brazilian and Kenyan coffees for BIG taste, i.e. more acid and more "snap" and a thicker body to them. Some bolds also add Robust beans for a bigger caffiene hit as well, but they also bring along acid. Some call "bold" coffee that is just roasted to carbon.

I don't actually know the exact bold varietals you're talking about, but any or all of these practices would make my stomach hurt. :-)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I will retract the "don't try Kenyan coffees" They're African as well, and I actually haven't studied them or tasted them in as much depth as I'd like to, they're *reputed* to be very tart and very bright (i.e. acidy) as well as big, bold character underneath that. But they do have fruit and complexity in the cup as well, and if you're looking for a coffee with depth as well as brightness at the top, a really *good* Kenyan might be what you want to try.

I think of the Tanzanian peaberry as being quite mild on the top range, but a good fruity, dark, dense lower range and good, but not syrupy body.

[greenlion.livejournal.com]

Yay, lots of stuff to try!

I do believe we've tried the Yiracheffe (that's a hard word to forget), and liked it. So maybe you're on the right track -- I'll have to try a bit of a Brazilian and see if it sets me off, maybe.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yeah, you might do that. Also, maybe, as anti-coffee, you might try an Indonesian or Indian grown coffee as well as the South American (Brazillian, Columbian, etc.)

Mexican high-altitude coffees are a little different than most of their South American brethren... kind of like how the Tanzanian peaberries are a milder, sweeter version of their robust Kenyan cousins. You might like an Oxacan Mexican.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yeah, another anti-coffee might be any of the super-mild island coffees, like 100% Kona, Jamacian Blue, Australian (the likely cheapest of this group) or the like. Mid-altitude and mild temps make them very mild, no acid, but some experts say they have no taste, either. :-)

So, how do you roast your coffee?

[(Anonymous)]

So, how do you roast your coffee? I am using a hot-air popcorn popper; which works fine, but is quite fiddly. Also, right now I haven't been using the vacuum brewer much because I got a nice little 15 bar pump home espresso machine. Mmmm...

Jack William Bell
(Anita's sweetie)

Re: So, how do you roast your coffee?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I've got one of the Fresh Roast machines (http://www.freshbeansinc.com/) which is fiddly enough for me to get whatever roast I want, and I usually roast about 30 seconds into the second crack, whenever that happens, as I like having some of the oils on the surface and just a smidge more roast flavor than varietal flavor, but not so much that it overwhelms.

Ooo!! 15 bar pump espresso. Yum. Cheerful envy on my part. :-) I just have little <$100 steam toy that, luckily, doesn't burn the coffee, but I have to be very fiddly with the tamping on it to get it to come out right. No God-shots from that puppy, but good enough for the milk drinks I mostly have with espresso.

I still have to find a barista that will pull a straight shot I can drink... but I do it infrequently enough that justifying a Real Machine isn't quite in the cards, yet. :-)

Re: So, how do you roast your coffee?

[(Anonymous)]

My espresso machine only cost $59 at Target. It is a Mr. Coffee ECMP40; a pretty basic pump maker. But it really does produce 15 bar, I called the company and verified before I bought it because, while the literature said 15, the box said it was 13 bar. (Note: I consider 14 bar to be the absolute minimum.) But they said it was a misprint.

I have been using the Mr. Coffee twice or more daily and the only problem I have with it so far is getting decent micro-foam from the steam wand. I don't know if it is my technique or the fact we only have 1% milk in the house or what. In any case the results are still pretty damn tasty, including straight shots. (I just finished an afternoon double shot, yum!)

Too bad you can't find a good barista there. Did you ever go to Vivace's when you were here in Ghod's country? I seriously think they may be the best espresso in Seattle; putting them in the running for best in the world. I think they will ship roasted and green beans, but if not we can see about sending you a bag. Or take you by there if you stop into the Emerald City.

Jack William Bell

Re: So, how do you roast your coffee?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'll have to stop by there the next time we're up there! Given that Jet has half of his relatives still in the NW, we go there fairly frequently. I'll also peer about to see if the have a website and maybe order some of my green beans from them!

Ooo! I'll have to peer at Target's selection again!! A *pump* machine for $60? How cool!

[bwb-archive.livejournal.com]

Well... put on MY list of things to do before I die, drink coffee that you've made. When do we get you back in the NW so that you can rule the world through the power of the bean?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin*

Hey! Seattle already rules the world through the power of the Bean. Don't need me to do that!! :-)

[bwb-archive.livejournal.com]

Silly. We do rule through the power of the bean, but we need a Queen.

Please be our Queen Bean.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*gale of giggles*