Coffee Thoughts

Posted on

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!

Posted on

Thanks Feedspot: Top 30 Austrian Blogs and Top 100 World Coffee blogs

I just wanted to share with you my heartfelt gratitude to the team of Feedspot for giving me not one but two accolades;

  • Top 30 Austrian Blogs (because I live in Austria)
  • Top 100 coffee blogs in the World

I really appreciate this. As you know I just want to share my love of coffee with you and I too hope that you will fall in love with coffee – the most celebrated beverage in the World.

I take this accolades as an encouragement to do more and so I promise to post more on this blog to match my more regular outage on instagram too.

From Coffee With Love

xxx

 

Posted on

Coffee of the Week Video: Caravan Roastery Espresso

Caravan Coffee

So, this weeks coffee of the week comes from Caravan Roastery in  London. Before I delve into my experience and the video, a short history about them. In short Caravan have been around for many years, and I remember when I heard about their venture into London and how excited I was, but sadly I was already running my cafe in Cape Town. Nevertheless, I dreamt about visiting their cafe cum roastery in Exmouth Street, so much so that I often used to peruse their menu for ideas. In fact, I even have a confession or two. I amended my menu card to resemble theirs and furthermore, I added a new item to my menu, something back then I had never seen before, avocado toast with chilli flakes – very popular now of course.

In any case, I finally visited them a few years back, but it wasn’t until last year that I re-discovered their coffees once more based on their strategy to focus a lot more on coffee – they still have 5 restaurants with delicious looking menus. I must say that they have a great online coffee shop and they constantly have great deals. Usually, if I order, I get my coffees within the week and even better than that, they don’t ship just freshly roasted coffee. Does that sound strange ? Well, it doesn’t because when you order coffee, you want to start brewing it straight away and almost all but 2 roasteries (Caravan are one of them) always send you coffees that are too fresh to brew. Plus I love the little postcard containing info on the coffee.

So, last week, I finally received a huge , yes huge at 1kg of Daily – their espresso blend, which has a nice aroma. Watch the full video below for more.

Until then visit https://www.caravancoffeeroasters.co.uk to order coffee online – a great choice during tis lockdown pandemic.

Posted on

Coffee of the Week: Honduras Coffee

 

The coffee of the week celebrates once again, Vienna based Roaster extraordinaire, Johanna Wechlesberger roastery, Die Roesterin – this time it’s a Honduran Coffee, macerated (another word for fermentation) for 72 Hours.

I know that sounds strange. In fact I had to search what kind of process this was. In summary, the coffee undergoes a 72 hour fermentation process, before it is aired naturally for about 40 days, before it’s green for roasting. You can imagine that such a method will defiantly lead to some kind of different taste profile and it did.

Here, I’m using an AEROPRESS, with the following;

  • 14.5g freshly grinded coffee
  • 93C brewing temperature
  • 212.5 ml of hot water

See methodology in my video and let me know how you brew your coffee using an aeropress.

With this method, the coffee was amazing – like a party in my tongue, tropical fruits and medium acidity came to play, with a long aftertaste around the middle of my tongue.

You can order this delicious coffee, if it is still available from https://dieroesterin.at

 

Enjoy!

Posted on

Coffee of the Week: Die Roesterin Espresso Blend

I just wanted to let yo know that I’ve been having problems uploading the video above for 3 days, so I’ve decided to share the link with Instagram.

The coffee of the week celebrates Vienna based Roaster extraordinaire, Johanna Wechlesberger roastery, Die Roesterin espresso blend, LIKMI Espresso blend, consisting of Brazilian and Rwandan arabica coffee beans. Here, I’m using a Profitec 700 Espresso machine, with the following;

  • 19g freshly grinded coffee
  • 94C brewing temperature
  • Brewed at 22 seconds to make a double espresso

See methodology in my video and let me know your espresso hacks.

With this method, the espresso coffee was medium citrus acidity and caramel and with milk, it has hints of milk chocolate, with a long aftertaste around the back of my tongue.

You can order this delicious espresso which comes in a 333g bag from https://dieroesterin.at

 

Enjoy!

Posted on

Coffee of the Week Video

Coffee of the week 5 April video

Here’s my first video of my new series, coffee of the week, in which I share with you which of the coffees I had during my week that impressed me the most, whether as a filter brew or as an espresso.

My first video celebrating the impressive Kenyan coffee I got at Nightjar, Dubai. Here, I’m using Hario V60, based loosely on the James Hoffmann’s method;

  • 15g freshly grinded coffee
  • 245ml 95C water
  • Hario V60 with filter paper made wet with some hot water

See methodology in my video and let me know your Hario V60 method.

With this method, the coffee was really fruity with dark berries, citrus acidity and full bodied, with a long aftertaste round the middle of my tongue. 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

I was at NightJar Coffee, Dubai

Lucky me…. really. I was in Dubai in mid-March, just before the lock down, flight bans, quarantine and more and just got back to Vienna on the last couple of flights until July 2020.

Back to lucky me…. I was actually in Dubai to investigate the possibility of moving there to set up a business/life coaching consultancy, which would also involve… you guessed it… working as a coffeepreneur. In any case, I was talking to Yashood, head barista of %Arabica on the Dubai cafe culture, specifically on the explosive coffee roasting trend and he recommended that I check out a newish joint, Night Jar – located in the trendy arty district, called Alserkal Avenue. I must admit that during our family vacation in July 2019, we visited Alserkal Avenue to check out a chocolate cafe/factory and I walked by Night Jar, but it looked closed, so I never ventured in.

LUCKY ME… because even with just one week in Dubai during these tough times, I was still able to discover and experience great coffee in Dubai.

Night Jar is located at Unit G62 Alserkal Avenue Al Quoz Industrial 1, close to the main entrance and you could easily miss it,  as the exterior is darkish with glass doors and their logo on top. As you walk in, there are rows of coffees on the right hand side for you to buy,

If you look slightly to your left, you’ll see a tiny hallway feature that looks closed to all but staff (I found out later that this passage leads to the roasting area, equipped with a Geisen coffee roaster). As you look further to your left, you’ll see the brew bar and delicious looking cakes on display. They have a BlackEagle espresso machine –

Being inquisitive, I asked about their roaster and was introduced to Chad from Cape Town, who previously worked for Truth Coffee for 5 years (an insight – when I moved to Cape Town in 2009 my initial plan was to launch Truth Coffee with David Donde but I felt that my heart was somewhere else – a lesson for anyone chasing their goals, which I also write about daily on Instagram as honestmanagement) – Nevertheless, what a coincidence, that I walk into a cafe in Dubai and the roaster used to work for a place I almost started out at. In any case during our brief chat, I could tell that Chad is a no nonsense kind of coffee guy – focused on sourcing and roasting the best with an innovative edge. He recommended that I try an espresso of their Colombian coffee, which was about to finish

I must confess it was one of the best espresso I’ve had in a cafe for a while – well balanced between acidity and fruity undertones and smooth to drink.

I couldn’t agree more.😋

However, I definitely needed to buy their coffees – Chad suggested their Rwandan coffee for espresso and the Kenyan for filter, which he very kindly refused for me to pay.

I was also tempted to buy a slice of cake, but we had just had one at Tom&Serg around the corner – my daughter was slightly upset as she said “daddy, we could have had these nice cakes here…” next time God willing.

More about NightJar – they source micro and nano lots, so their specialty coffee offering is really special as you might taste something incredible one day that may not be available the next – so buy the bag whilst you can. Their interior is L shaped, cosy and intimate – they also offer food and their menu looks great, I mean stuff like pulled ox benedict, Nigeria love rice, NZ meatballs, veggie specials and more – yum! so next time, I plan to make a meal of it (coffee, lunch and dessert) God willing. They offer nitro coffee, which is a sort of cold brew coffee charged with nitrogen to give it a rich, creamy head, similar to nitro draft beer like Guinness – in fact at Nightjar, the brew heads for nitro coffee look like how beer is dispensed but being Dubai, there’s no beer here.

Before I sign off, I have mention that I really love their fun theme on their packaging.

Very innovative.

I plan to meet their owner, who hails from New Zealand and who coincidentally again, is known by one of my contacts in Dubai.

When the quarantine is out, I strongly advise any serious coffee nerd to visit Nightjar in Dubai – until then they are selling their coffees online – lucky Dubanites (is that a word?) visit them here right now to order https://nightjar.coffee

 

Posted on

Launching my coffee career

I just wanted to let you know that in the spirit of following my passion I’ve decided to take the step to launch my coffee career.

I’ll be offering services as a coffeepreneur ( I love this word) and will offer;

  • Advice on how to set up a quality focused coffee business
  • Advice on coffee shop operation including a competency based Human Resources management plan.
  • Advice on how to find your niche based on your personality and goals
  • Participating in events to speak about the coffee chain and economics ( I studied economics, have an MBA and want to help coffee farmers get access to more fair markets)

It’s March 2020 and my burning desire for many years has been to work one way or another with coffee.

Please Share this news with anyone that wants to get into the #coffeebusiness and talk coffee (for a fee as advised by my wife 😊). We only have one life and I encourage you to #liveafulfillinglife

Follow me on Instagram for daily tips.

Posted on

Am I a Coffee Expert?

I can’t believe it’s already the last day on January already and that I haven’t blogged in 2020. In any case, I haven’t been wasting my time as, I’ve been learning a lot about how to monetise my passion, COFFEE following my current undertaking of a course by the famous Jay Shetty’s “Passion to Paycheck”. One of the first questions asked was “what would you love to learn for 500 hours?” – that didn’t take much time for me to answer – more about coffee – roasting, growing, and helping coffee farmers to make a better living from it. The second exercise was on taking a personality test, which concluded that I was a Guide – in summary someone that loves learning and wants to enlighten others. Well, I have always wanted to talk and teach people about coffee, making sure that they make it properly and learn a lot about the beautiful bean – hence my blog since 2007.

However, the lesson that got me thinking was embedded in the concept of the 10,000 hour rule, which I think Bill Gates talks about a lot. In summary, the rule says that to be considered a professional or expert in anything, you need to invest at least 10,000 hours in it.

This inspired me to calculate roughly how many hours I have invested in coffee and hence, the picture above, which I shared on Instagram yesterday.

So, am I a coffee expert?

If we use passion and dedication thus far, then many would say YES. In fact, I was thinking about the variable of PASSION. Can we measure it in hours or with some kind of formula ? A task for any mathematician or formulae loving person reading this.

I ask, because whilst I might be able to say I invested 2-3 hours per post on this blog, sometimes it takes hours before I start typing – like today. I’ve been thinking about this post since morning and that’s why if you were watching me as I type, you would notice that I’m not even taking a break, my writing is just flowing, because I’ve already spent time thinking and conceptualising this post – does that sound heavy ? Grab a coffee and relax.

 

So, you may ask what else do I know about coffee ? Perhaps I should have added this above, so here goes.

I spend at least 30 minutes a day making cappuccino in the morning, coffee on a V60 after lunch and coffee on an aeropress after dinner. I have been doing this for several years, but let’s say at least 7. What does that add up to?

30 minutes a day for 345 days a year (I’ve omitted about 20 days for when I travel even though my aero press always comes with me) + 7 years = 72,450 minutes, which in hours is 1,208 approx

Add that to when I only used to spend about 15 minutes making cappuccino between 2006 and 2010 (5 years) and we get

another 432 hours.

So, I guess my grand total so far would be……. 7,670 HOURS.

3,000 to go ????

So am I coffee expert?

I think I can handle myself and I plan on launching my coffee consulting business very soon. My wife has been encouraging me and as they say behind every coffee man (or is it great man, but I don’t want to go there…) is a woman. So watch the space and follow me on instagram for tips.

BEFORE, I go, I encourage you to try this exercise for anything that you are passionate about, as it is essential that you invest in your passion before you quit your job or want to start something on the side before giving it 100% of your time.