portafilter.net

What if...

2009-04-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

What if espresso was made by extracting UP instead of DOWN?

2009 USBC Exposed

2009-04-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

From spitcup.net (bookmark or subscribe to their RSS, y'alls)

Golden Cup Espresso?

2009-03-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

For more, CLICK HERE.

Three things I've learned : Reflections from the 2009 USBC

2009-03-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

1) The signature drinks are getting out of control!

A little math, shall we?

Espresso section: (Sensory: 62 points x 4) + (Technical: 17 x 2) = 282
cappuccino: (38 x 4) + (22 x 2) = 196
signature drink: (42 x 4) + (17 x 2) = 202

Creating a great signature drink taste experience is definitely important, but competition baristas need to spend just as much effort and energy on cappuccinos... and even MORE on the single espresso, as on the sig' drink.

Also, at this year's USBC, we saw signature drinks as elaborate as I've ever seen, but I can't think of one of those that really nailed it on the taste points. Taste of the signature drink is worth four-times the creativity points, but the former seems to be sacrificed in pursuit of the latter.

Competition baristas need to learn the scoresheets and prioritize based on what gets your the points. Of course, that's assuming they want to get as many points as they can.

2) Single-origin espresso is great for competition

A blend is, by definition, a more complex thing than (most) single-origin espressos. Baristas are identifying 4 or 5 taste-notes out of the dozen, sometimes dozens, that are present in a blend.

In a good single-origin espresso however, flavors tend to be a bit more simple--with a few key flavor descriptors being not only prominent, but present in a more consistent way. Being able to accurately communicate the taste and flavor experience is such a significant part of the taste scores that using a good (emphasis on "good") single-origin can present a fairly significant advantage. It can also help in the presentation and explanation of the coffee, having one origin, farm, etc. to focus on.

However, this leads to my last reflection:

3) We don't give the Robur enough credit.*

To my recollection, the Mazzer Robur has been used by every USBC Champion. That said, I believe that the Mazzer Robur is one of the most important elements in the development of the U.S. "competition-level" espresso flavor profile.

More relevant research needs to be done, but for now, it is my understanding that the Robur's burr design creates more fines (the finest particles) than any other grinder on the market, which conversely allows for the bulk of the particulate to be ground more coarsely to achieve the typical extraction time. Now there are more complex factors at hand, but focusing just on this one component, the grind profile of the Robur effectively tilts the extraction more towards under-extraction. The solubles that would be extracted if the particulate were ground finer are less expressed.

I believe that this has resulted in the improved performance of single-origin coffees as espresso in the U.S. This is especially true when it comes to fully washed coffees.

So hats-off to you, Mr. Robur (or is it Miss Robur? I dunno... the damn thing is too heavy to lift up to get a look at its private parts). You don't get enough credit out there. Every shop that aspires to pull competition-style viscous, sweet, flavorful shots should have a Robur. There are other grinders that allow for a similar profile (the Anfim Super Caimano and Compak K10 come to mind), but the Robur is still the King.

Or Queen.

* note- I'm intentionally limiting the scope of my comments on #3 to the U.S. Extraction profiles and what flavors and viscosity baristas are going for definitely varies from culture to culture.

Oh... and #4 in my three-part list:

4) Mike Phillips is my hero.

Good luck in Atlanta to Mike, and all of the National Barista Champions who are coming for the 10th annual World Barista Championship. May your drinks all be "Sixes!" (or at least Fives).

Open letter to espresso machine manufacturers:

2009-02-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

I'm coming off reading the first hands-on critique of a newly developed espresso machine, and my mind is racing with thoughts... mostly frustrations.

Having had the opportunities to talk to many designers and engineers who have developed espresso machines in the past, I've observed a recurring issue where people seemed to be trying to build machines around a few key ideas that they had that they wanted to see realized, rather than really setting out to analyze how the resulting taste experience happens "in the puck," and then working backwards to design a machine to achieve 'perfection.' Frankly, this seems to ring true with every machine I can think of.

Since the temperature-stable P.I.D. controlled machines debuted in 2004, all we've seen are solutions that are looking for problems. Except, perhaps, for the teflon-type application to steam wands and portafilter innards, we're on our 5th year without anything I can think of that's truly helping to improve the taste experience.

What we really need is real work and development in portafilter baskets: geometry, hole patterns, hole sizes, etc. We need more attention paid to the ways that the showerhead delivers water to the puck, as well as overall group-head/shower-head design improvements. We need grinders that work with the baristas, not against them. We need better grind-profile development through burr designs. We need dosing mechanisms that provide (or help provide) a truly lateral-density-level dose. We need ways to help us measure things by mass, not by time or volume. We need group-head designs that keep the brewing-water-contact surfaces clean. Grind delivery mechanisms that leave little to no grinds behind. Grinder burr carriers that are designed to help keep the burrs cool (heat sinks or some other passive or active cooling), rather than keep the heat in (heat soak). The list goes on and on.

A fairly well-known espresso guru once told me many years ago that he believed that the obsession with brew water temperature stability stemmed from the fact that brew water temperature is something that is relatively easily measured and corrected. Much more difficult are things like managing the migration of fines (the finest grind particles) during extraction, which is a more significant variable than a couple of degrees of water temp, he told me. I think he's right.

It's time to start thinking outside the box. It's time to start attacking the difficult problems that have significant outcomes.

All said, the good news is that since 2004, rather than complaining about our brew water temperatures, baristas have been focusing on the coffees, getting to know the coffee itself and how everything relates to taste. Obviously, there's still a ton more to learn, but it's time for the espresso equipment industry (both big and small) to attack the real problems.

Oh yeah... dosers for lefties too. That's one for my favorite left-handed barista, Mr. Barack Obama.

the next big thing...

2009-02-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

Thursday Night Throwdown from SpitCup.net

This is the Fourth-Wave of Coffee

2009-02-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

The magic starts at about 25 seconds in.

Tonx, can I borrow your shoes? I have some practicin' to do!!!

untitled

2009-01-30T13:10:00.000-08:00

2008-12-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was at the Gimme Coffee roastery today, and was shocked to find two of the employees have a disgusting brown tongue disease. Beware of this; apparently it is highly contagious at roasteries and coffee shops.

Many people say the disease is incurable, although the Gimme folks showed me a machine that they claim somehow makes the suffering easier to bear:

Palate cleansing beverage?

2008-11-24T07:25:00.001-08:00

stove top espresso with a portafilter

2008-11-24T06:24:00.001-08:00

I've never seen anything like this before... I mean, a stove-top espresso-maker with a portafilter and a steam wand. Interesting!

Michelle Campbell

2008-10-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is Michelle Campbell.

Today was her last day at the SCAA.

She was the Director of Community & Events.

She was the administrator of the US Barista Championship.

She was the administrator of the World Barista Championship.

She was the staff liaison of the Barista Guild of America.

For six years, she was a supporter, cheerleader, advocate, defender, enthusiast, admirer, and crusader for baristas all around the US and around the world.

She was a friend to all baristas.

The specialty coffee community owes her a debt of gratitude.

Thank you for your work, your dedication but most importantly your love.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

We'll miss you!

We love you Michelle!

Portafilter Podcast July 2005 - March 2008

2008-10-26T23:03:00.001-07:00

It's with greatly mixed feelings that I announce that the Portafilter Podcast is no more.

Over three years, the podcast has been downloaded over 200,000 times (over 2,600 per episode on average), and it's been an unbelievable run.

In the interest of not digging into unnecessary messiness, my co-host and I find ourselves with certain irreconcilable differences, and I am unable to continue the partnership.

I do thank my co-host, Mr. Jay Caragay, for a great series of podcasts, and I wish him well in his continuing endeavors.

A coffee podcast may be reborn in one sense or another sometime in the future, and for now, the podcast RSS feed (via iTunes) will live on, and with 4,000 downloads of old episodes per month right now, I have no intention of pulling them off-line. The blog will continue as well.

Thanks to the throng of devoted listeners. From industry movers-and-shakers to home coffee enthusiasts, my hope from episode one to episode 75 was for the podcast to, in any way, add to your entertainment and coffee experience.

Our email addresses will always remain one way to contact us: nick@murkycoffee.com and jay@jaysshaveice.com.

With that...

...party on.

Roast Magazine Roaster of the Year 2008...

2008-10-22T07:58:00.001-07:00

Congrats to PT's Coffee and the Coffee Klatch for winning Roast Magazine 2008 Roaster of the Year!!!

Got Mojo?

2008-10-15T19:44:00.001-07:00

I've recently beta tested a nifty system that gives direct and immediate feedback on your brewed coffee technique. It's called "ExtractMoJo" from the George Howell Coffee Company, and it has helped me to brew the best non-espresso coffee I’ve ever made.

(OK, since I usually don’t drink a lot of non-espresso coffee, maybe that ain’t sayin’ much. But still, the brewed coffee’s been GOOD lately!)

The ExtractMoJo system consists of two parts. The first part is a computer program that quickly and accurately calculates the doses of coffee and water to prepare any size batch at your preferred proportions. The second part is a compact digital refractometer that, along with the software, allows you to determine the strength of your cup (aka, total dissolved solids) and the solubles yield (ie, what percent of the dry coffee went into the brew).

So why is this helpful?

Taste panels over the years have usually found that the best brewed coffee results when your technique is adjusted so that two criteria are met:
(1) 19-21% of the dry coffee mass is extracted into your cup and
(2) the resulting beverage ends up containing somewhere around 1.3-1.5% coffee solids.

It’s interesting to note that it’s NOT ENOUGH simply to start out with the proper proportions of dry coffee and water. It’s also necessary to tweak your temperature, grind, steeping time, and stirring to achieve that 19-21% extraction rate. This can be done by trial and error, for sure, but that can be a fairly lengthy process without experience. ExtractMoJo allows you to zero in on the right technique after only a few test brews.

OF COURSE you still have to adjust the coffee TO YOUR TASTE; no one and no system can decide for you what your coffee should taste like. In particular, the 1.3-1.5% coffee solids is very flexible depending on the coffee and your preference. But this system gets you in a reasonable range much more quickly, and allows you to reproduce your favorite recipes (for different coffees) at another time. And for a shop where many people prepare the coffee, it makes it relatively easy to create objective quality control standards that are verifiable and repeatable.

A side note: the refractometer may help to explain the mystery of why different clover and vac pot stirring techniques have fiercely loyal adherents: up to a point, more stirring results in a bit more thorough extraction, and more extraction changes the flavor. We shall see as people experiment with these tools.

And, with a bunch more development, ExtractMoJo may become be useful for espresso brewing, too (I hope!) Espresso "standards" are hugely variable right now, and it would be great to be able to accurately make strength and solids yield measurements. Not to try and force people to make an arbitrarily "correct espresso," but simply to begin to understand how people are arriving at the particular flavor profile that they prefer. I believe that someday soon this technology will become de rigueur for quality oriented coffee shops.

Is it iced coffee weather?

2008-10-07T06:55:00.001-07:00

Not here!

Cute!

2008-10-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

untitled

2008-08-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

Coffee Labs Roasters, Tarrytown NY

2008-07-26T19:55:00.001-07:00

My initial assumption was that the "Lab" in Coffee Labs Roasters referred to some sort of roasting laboratory. And apparently it does. But there's a double meaning: the owners love dogs, particularly chocolate labs. So they run the first dog friendly cafe I've ever seen. Since I frequently travel with my dog, Paris, I was psyched to visit this place.

So I walked in, dog in tow. There were a couple of ceramic Labs guarding the place (that's one in the picture above). After greeting them and a few friendly customers, Paris did what he does best, falling asleep right on the floor:

Going up to the counter, I ordered an espresso from a barista whom I eventually find out is named Maddy. The baristas on duty were Jess, Will, and Maddy:

I suppose that at any committed coffee shop, a customer ordering straight espresso gets the attention of a serious barista. It says, "I appreciate COFFEE," not just flavored milk shakes!" Maddy appeared to prepare my double espresso with extra care, and served it in a ceramic cup. She even offered me a small spoon to stir with. These people WERE committed!

The espresso was GOOD, and not only that, it had the distinctive soulful funk of high-quality Sumatran beans. Maddy confirmed that, and I could tell she appreciated the comment. I'm only speculating, but it must be satisfying to have customers really taste what you're serving.

I struck up a conversation with Jess, and she sensed my enthusiasm about the coffee. She asked me if I wanted to try their decaf espresso. Now decaf is normally something I never order, but I said sure, I'd love to taste it. It was good, too, although characteristically lacking the flavor punch of a regular coffee. So Jess said, "let me pull you our regular espresso blend the way I like it," and she proceeded to tweek her technique on the big (semiauto!) GB5 to get a slooooooow, drip...drip...drip ristretto from the bottomless pf.

This one was terrific. It had all the Sumatra flavor I love, but with bigger body and juicier mouthfeel. It was a joy to drink such quality coffee on the road.

Well done, Coffee Labs!

The 2008 WBC Champion... EXPOSED!!!

2008-07-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

"I must be honest, things have changed around the apartment since getting back from Copenhagen. I wish I could say that Stephen hasn’t let success go to his head and is the same old lovable guy - but this simply isn’t the case."

More exposé here.

So sad.

More big coffee news

2008-07-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is what people SHOULD be talking about this week!!!

Another example of how the blogosphere is generally a pretty dumb place (present company included).

Fill in the blank

2008-06-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

From today's Washington Post...

In Tokyo and Paris, you can now spend $5 a glass on _____ selected by a professional _____.

Nothing surprising there, except the beverages being served are ____ -- with various "flavors" supposedly matched to different foods.

_____ from Hawaii, meanwhile, is being sold as "_____" -- at $33.50 for a two-ounce _____.

The push to turn _____ into the new wine is a marketing phenomenon: The _____ industry is engaged in an intense effort to convince Americans that _____ is substantially different from the stuff out of _____.

What are they talking about? Check it out!

Doug, don't let me EVER hear you complain that people think Intelly is bigger than it is!!!

2008-06-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Somewhat Pretentious Coffee Prediction for 2011

2008-06-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

I thought James's coffee predictions for 2008 were very well done. Of course I'm not in James's league, but I do have a coffee prediction to make for oh, about the year 2011.

I find it surprising that many specialty roasters are ultra particular in the way they select coffees, and they're extremely meticulous in the way they roast. But after that...they throw the finest coffees in the world into a valve bag, send them out the door, and simply hope for the best. Sometimes the coffee tastes best on the fourth day, sometimes on the fourteenth. Sometimes, never.

My somewhat pretentious prediction is that cutting-edge roasters, (especially those who run their own local cafes) will soon begin to do better. Starting around 2011, freshly-roasted beans will be transferred into reusable canisters within seconds of leaving the cooling tray. The canisters will be hooked up to a gas-flush system that will promptly remove oxygen and replace it with nitrogen or CO2. The canisters will have one-way valves that may or may not be set up to maintain the contents at slightly elevated pressures (like Illy's 0.5 bar).

Canisters will be stored in inventory areas that are temperature controlled. Considering the high capital costs of setting up a roastery or cafe, having a properly controlled storage area (perhaps the size of a walk-in closet) is a relatively small additional expense.

Cuppers and baristas will be exacting in the way they specify how long and at what pressure their coffees are aged. Each origin and each blend may have its own specification. Some may age for 4-5 days, some for 12-15. Cuppers will argue about this passionately. :-)

At the store level, staff obsessed with serving the best possible coffee will be able to rely on consistent, delicious and optimized flavor profiles. Discerning customers will rave about the beverages. It will all be good. :-)

BTW, if this happens sooner, like in 2009 or 2010, I won't be miffed!

(Perhaps someone can clue me in, I believe 49th Parallel is pursuing at least some of these strategies already. Is there anyone else?)

Exquisitely Fine Coffees

2008-06-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

A lot of folks have already seen it, but for those who haven't, there's a new coffee website in the spotlight:

RodLazar.com

It's a satirical take on Third Wave coffee and the people involved, and I've gotta say that it's pretty damn hilarious, as well as being a bit of commentary on how "out there" we coffee-people can get sometimes.

To be clear, though a lot of folks see it completely as a parody of our buddy R. Miguel Meza's project, it's not, though it's certainly one of its "targets." (Oh, and FYI, I had nothing to do with it.) Consider it an opportunity to laugh at ourselves, our obsession with exclusivity, cutting-edge tools and techniques, and how strangely esoteric we can get when it comes to coffee.

I'm just hoping that my Rod Lazar t-shirt arrives here in time for me to be able to wear it in Copenhagen during the World Barista Championship week! I'm looking forward to seeing folks in Denmark, and be sure to check out the official WBC Live Video feed that will appear on www.worldbaristachampionship.com. Congrats to all the national barista champions, and can't wait to meet the new WBC Champ!