06.09.08
Posted in @ the Cauldron at 8:13 am by The Coffee Alchemist
It ain’t broke.
But it can be better…infinitely.
There are many things involved in making coffee. Many work very well. Thankfully some of these things can work a little better if they can be pulled apart and put back together in better shape.
Better encompasses not just faster or bigger. It can also mean easier, and in the world of coffee, tastier. All this just makes the inner tinkerer in us sleepless with ideas and questions.
After a few twilight meanderings, I set out to tinker with my BNZ conical grinder.
I have done away with the doser, and here it is in [non]dosing action. Much faster too as the redundant thwack-thwack pulling of the doser lever is obviated.
Without the doser, the grinder’s velocity is laid bare and the funnel shapes the torrent of grinds into a clean vortex. The descending tornado is dangerously mesmerising.
The result of the coffee alchemist’s tinkering: a static-free, clump-free, well-distributed mound of ground coffee.
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06.08.08
Posted in @ the Cauldron at 5:03 pm by The Coffee Alchemist
There are things to relish about plunging into the chasm that is barista competition. One is that competition becomes some form of purification of practice, of discarding assumptions and other attachments that are extraneous to coffee. Through competition I realise new disciplines:
Every bean ground is expressed in the cup.
Every lifting of the hand is for the purpose of making coffee.
Everything the barista does uniquely is because the coffee dictates it.
Coffee is imaginary until tried and tasted.
Given the recent CoffeeSnobs discussion around the Mountaintop Bin 549, the last discipline gains relevance. This is the coffee I chose to compete with in the Australian Barista Championship 2008, and thus come to try and taste and know very well. So it is with slight surprise that I come across discontent with the “greenness” of this coffee and suggestions that it should be rested a few months before trying. Like rough cut gem, “green”, that quality indicating the freshness of the crop and hinting at undeveloped, unripe and sour attributes of fruit, can be transformed by a curious hand. There is less promise in squeezing life out of an old crop.
For those with some greens and eager to leap out of the imaginary, here are my encounters and some things I’ve learned about the Bin 549:
Moisture-laden - this bean is heavy with moisture, though also rather soft. I usually apply a bit more heat in the early stages of roasting, but not too much as I want a bit more material to work with once first crack starts.
Super exotherm – when it reaches the crest and starts to spew forth heat, the rapidly flickering temperature readout reflects the monstrous energy release of this bean. If I do not apply heat restraints before first crack, the roast can easily bolt and difficult to rein in during first and second cracks. I still want a fully-realised first crack, but I don’t want it to take the rest of the roast with it.
Green gives good play - I achieve a more balanced cup and tone down the greenness if I stretch out the time from first crack to end of roast (between 4-5minutes; 4 minutes for more fruit, while 5 result in more body and balance). Providing there is still a lot left in the bean, it will yield to more shaping beyond 5 minutes, though I am not personally inclined to this style.
Green inspires art - I achieve the cup I want (abundant fruit, good body) if I extinguish all heat just before the beans enter second crack, let them come into second, apply a bit more air to cushion the impact and ease the momentum of crackling, stretch it, stretch it…then quickly into the cooling tray. Further shredding of the green is possible by letting the beans languor in their afterglow in the cooling tray for a few seconds before turning on the cooling fan.
May the flame be with you.
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