Coffee Thoughts

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How I Taste Coffee in Public

Ever wondered how I taste coffee in public when I go to a cafe? Well, here’s your chance, a first video of it’s kind, filmed by my patient daughter.

This visit was actually monumental as it was the first time I was going to Coffee Pirates (Cafe and Roastery), located at Spitalgasse 17, 1090 since it opened in July 2012. My daughter actually went there and told me about it, and I was like “I’ve been there before, but 8 years ago…”.

On my second visit, I went for a Kenyan Coffee from the Nyeri region, prepared using a Hario V60, which tends to bring out the fruitier undertones of the coffee.

 

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Coffee and Philosophy: Podcast Interview

A few weeks back, Nick Baskett of bar talks contacted me to say that he really enjoyed my blog (yay!) and that he would love to do an interview with me. I found it very easy to talk with Nick and we really hit it off. After a couple of conversations, we decided that we needed to capture our chats about life and coffee for his bar talks podcast/ website.

We decided to name it Coffee and Philosophy as Nick is really into philosophy and I’m into coffee and life too. We had a really great chat and in fact the interview didn’t feel like an interview but like a great chat with a friend about life, coffee and more. So much so that we had to limit our time artificially because we know people get bored after about 30 minutes listening or watching an interview.

The full podcast is about 50 minutes and you can listen here  whilst driving or commuting. Alternatively, here’s a summary of the highlights of my first ever podcast with Nick Baskett where we talk about my life story and how to find your purpose chasing your dreams and using ancient philosophies like stoicism and more.

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Coffee of the Week: Square Mile Kenya Muchagara

Looking through Square Mile Coffee‘s instagram feed, it suddenly dawned on me that because of all the pandemic fiasco, I haven’t ordered coffee from them for several months. In part, this was due to my desire to support local coffee roasters in Vienna but I was also worried that if I ordered coffee from London, it might take several days to 2 weeks before I get my coffee, as post offices were using the excuse of covid to delay delivery. How wrong I was, because I actually got my coffee faster than pre-lockdown days. So, naturally I was delighted when they arrived a few days after I placed my order.

Included with my usual 2 bags of espresso and one of filter, was a gift, a 30g of a Kenyan coffee from Muchagara in Kenya’s Kirinyaga county. The first thing I noticed was the smell – WOW!, wow! wow! – probably the best smelling coffee I’ve smelt all year. Aware that I only had 2 opportunities to make this coffee, I made sure that I really measured them well. First up, I tried it on the aeropress, using 14g, which was more like blackcurrant BUT I knew that for me, brewing it on the Hario V60 would be the real test.

Using the remaining 16.5g (I got an additional 0.5g – yay!) with 250ml 95C hot water with my dear wife filming, Here’s my experience – to conclude…. ah that smell….

I picked up a bit of the cherry and some type of caramel sweetness and hints of citrus acidity.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDg_DbRBU3e/

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Coffee of the Week: Balthasar’s Honduras Los Ceibos

This week’s coffee hails from Honduras – Los Ceibos – Microlot, a coffee of the red bourbon variety, grown at 1,380 m, naturally processed with a taste profile of strawberry, rhubarb and caramel, roasted for Balthasar, in Vienna. So, I’m using the aeropress, with 15.5g of freshly ground coffee and about 210ml of 95C hot water. I’m using the inverted method and filming from a sky view so that you can see the process from the top.

On the taste, I picked up the caramel and as it cooled down, a bit of berry taste.   check out the video below for more details. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDCTEGXBiHf/

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How to Use an Aeropress: The Video

WELCOME TO MY NEW HOW TO USE SERIES, WHERE I SHOW YOU QUICKLY HOW TO USE MY FAVOURITE COFFEE TOOLS.

The Aeropress  – Very popular with many coffee connoisseurs BUT how do you actually use it and what is it?

In short, it’s a filter brew process, popular amongst Specialty coffee enthusiasts and was invented by Alan Adler, A Stanford University Professor in 2005. Initially it was ignored as a coffee tool when it came out, as it claimed to make espresso BUT after working with some coffee experts, it rebranded and dropped the word “espresso” and is now very popular, so much so, that they now have…. wait for it…. World Aeropress Championships annually.

I use it every other day and depending on the coffee, sometimes more because it works best with certain coffees, usually low-medium acidity for me. It’s easy to travel with and I always take with me when I travel. There are many ways of making coffee with an aeropress, which costs about US$30, but here I’m using the inverted method. I usually use;

  • 14-15g of freshly ground coffee
  • 210-220ml of about 95C hot water
  • Brewing time of 3-4 minutes
  • two filters made wet

Watch the video using my instagram link for my rantings on this easy to use coffee tool. https://www.instagram.com/p/CB3eiibhdON/

 

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Drinking Very Fresh Coffee

 

I had the pleasure of visiting coffee expert extraordinaire Johanna Wechlesberger of Vienna School of Coffee last Wednesday (1 July 2020) and she gave me a Honduran 90 hour anaerobic fermented coffee, which she was roasting right in front of me on the Ikawa (wish list) to try out. As I was rushing back home, Jo gave me 15 grammes. So, just after 3 hours I cupped (tasted) the coffee using a French Press as recommended by Jo – who am I to argue.

Tastes – easy on the stomach, hints of lemon acidity, molasses and caramel came through. Watch the video for the oral experience.

Here’s the video below, with a link from my Instagram page (as WordPress sadly is not allowing me to load videos)

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Three lessons In setting up my first coffee business – video tutorials

About 10 years ago, I packed up from Europe and headed to Cape Town, South Africa to set up a cafe, one of my dreams. There are many lessons I learnt on that journey but here I wanted to share with you in a short video the 3 lessons I learnt, which can be applicable for all you aspiring entrepreneurs.

Lessons in coffee business
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Coffee of the Week: Rwanda

 
This week’s coffee hails from Rwanda-Umusazi, a coffee of the red bourbon variety, grown at 1,900mroasted for Balthasar, my fave coffee shop in Vienna. It was actually recommended to me by one of the baristi, who used this coffee last ear for a competition. It features the 72 hour fermented coffee processing method again, which almost guarantees a delicious fruity experience. So, I’m using the Hario V60 for this video, but I’ve adjusted the recipe somewhat. Typically, I would use about 15g of freshly ground coffee with about 240ml of 95C boilng hot water, but I found that when I increased the amount of coffee to 16.5C for the Hario V60 filter brewing method , I had the wow factor – what a fruit bomb, with berries, grapefruit acidity and hints of caramel in the middle of my tongue – In fact I’m drinking it now as I write this, yummy.

To summarise; 16.5g freshly ground coffee 95C 245ml hot water Hario V60 Hario V60 filter wet with hot water Makes about 235ml delicious coffee Yummy!

 

check out the video below for more details.

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Why coffee tastes better with latte art

It’s one of those questions purist ponder on. Why? Because taste is king. If anything gets in the way of diluting that taste experience then get rid of it. However I think we should employ a middle ground. If something gets in the way of taste let’s try and understand it and make it better. So here are the steps to great #latteart milk based drinks;

  1. Make great #espresso,
  2. Froth great microfoam (the frothed milk with tiny bubbles you cannot really see)
  3. A good latte artist ( I didn’t say a good barista for obvious reasons).

Easy? Well, a Purist may have another opinion. Does the bitter crema on top of great espresso affect the first taste?

Sometimes you can have a great cappuccino, latte or flat white with bad looking latte art (I confess). A middle ground would be to mix the espresso beforehand or what my previous barista used to do, pour a little bit of milk, stir it with the crema and continue pouring your latte art.

Before signing off, you should know that in marketing people fall in love with what they see first, so sight, smell and taste could influence your taste experience.

Do you love latte art in your coffee?

 

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Coffee of the Week Video: Caravan Roastery Special Bru

If you blink, you might miss it, but the taste will last longer than a few minutes. So, this weeks coffee features, Caravan Coffee’s Special Bru filter coffee released to celebrate their 10 year anniversary – in my previous post I gave an extensive background on caravan and how I first heard of them and still admire them till today. Now, the coffee.

Coffee at home

So, I’m using the Hario V60 for this video, but I’ve adjusted the recipe somewhat. Typically, I would use about 15g of freshly ground coffee with about 240ml of 95C boilng hot water, but I found that when I used this recipe I wasn’t getting the punchy fruity notes I desired, so I increased the amount of coffee by 2g, to 17C for both the aeropress and Hario V60 filter brewing methods and wow! I got them. However, it was on the Hario V60 that I had the slightly more pleasant experience, with berry and citrus undertones and a taste of delicate milk chocolate. The perfect way to end the day (as I’m fasting there’s not daytime video).

To summarise;

17g freshly ground coffee
95C 245ml hot water
Hario V60
Hario V60 filter wet with hot water
Makes about 235ml delicious coffee

Enjoy!