Lovely, beautiful, clean, even grounds… But where’s the dust? (There’s always dust, after all) Ah! There it is (a little): Predictably, the Tanzania for my home coarse grinding (whilst being really quite something, naturally), is raising as many questions as answers. One direction that I find it leading me towards (perhaps surprisingly) is to consider investigating various aspects of sieving in more depth. But it’s a pretty deep rabbit hole to go down, especially as there are now already so many other newly designed avenues to explore with simple brewing alone. But it is tempting. After all, how else can one know certain things for sure?! Hence, I am trying very hard to not justify ‘investing’ in the next coffee gadget (an inevitability?). It seems that Compulsive Coffee Upgraditis will always find a way; even when you have already upgraded as far as one can go, there are always interesting tangents and diversions where it can find the path of least resistance. …Oh! And there is that other important measuring device I should really think about saving for as well! Update: It turns out that it might be possible to quell at least part of this latest urge for more coffee gadgetry, and have at least some of the questions that I have answered without going too deeply down the sieving route. This is one of the wonderful and surprising benefits that can materialise when one of your very BEST customers is also a scientist, who has access to a pharmacy lab with laser particle sizing equipment. This really makes my month!! So in terms of analysing the size(s) and distribution of particles within grind samples at certain (coarse) settings from certain grinders, this could satisfy some of my curiosity. And, far more accurately than sieving would. Actual brewing with separated or otherwise manipulated grounds would however, obviously still require those sieves… And I might still require them to do some more repeated, multiple analyses at home, as potentially it would be interesting to see the effects of different bean types and densities, roasts, and freshnesses, and at multiple, and recalibrated settings, meaning numerous samples – many more than would be viable or polite through my contact! I think the analysis would be Laser Diffraction based on Equivalent Spherical Diameter of particles, as it’s the range of roughly 0-1500 microns/um/micrometers that I’m interested in for my coffee grind samples. The sample/s from the grinder/s I am interested in testing might be a mixture of Mono or Unimodal (for the Tanzania), and potentially some Bi or Multimodal grind profiles for the other grinder or two, all being ‘polydisperse’, naturally, and all measured on this same volume diameter/ESD basis. Apparently smaller particle sizes than a micron (down to nanometers or sub-nanometers) would require something like a Dynamic Light Scattering measurement system or ultra microscopes, but fortunately this is not necessary for my purposes where coffee grounds are concerned. The fines occupy (as far as I know) the 0-150 um region, roughly, with the rest of the grind population, depending on the setting, going up to around 1.5mm at the coarsest press settings (1500 um), with some particles at their widest points even going as high as 3mm (3000 um), but with most particles usually occupying the 500-1200 um range for most filter and press purposes – and Laser Diffraction sizing is suitable for this range. What it might be able to tell me about the shape of the particles, if anything (and what it would mean), I’m not sure. But what I’m most interested in is simply confirming the size in microns at certain varied grind settings, and the % distribution/spread of sizes within the sample. Fascinating and exciting! Please excuse any cack handed, poorly informed, misinterpretation of any of the science/equipment terms, some of which I have gleaned rather rapidly this evening whilst looking into some aspects of this topic a bit further than before! Naturally, I’m aware of those fascinating Marco/Ditting/Mahlkonig filter profile graphs that are out there (and the HB Titan Grinder Project espresso profile graphs). But the data is limited, and not necessarily precisely specific to my own grinder/s.

Lovely mention from Ibby Tarafdar (with latte art pours courtesy of Kasparas): http://ibbytarafdar.co.uk/stores.html Keep up to date with this year’s UKBC: http://scaeuk.com/news/ https://twitter.com/ukcoffeeevents Currently available, and coming up, at the cafe: Brazilian SOE’s: Sertao pulp, and Passeio Topiazo varietal natural, and the latest seasonal versions of Caffe Naturelle and Formula 6 blends from JGC. We have New Rwanda Koakaka Coop and Bolivian Manco Kapac Colonia from Caranavi for cafetière …or for your filter methods at home! New Guest espresso roasters also approaching in the near future..!

Just back from a two-week cycling ‘holiday’ (expedition!) in Sri Lanka with my father in law. From the baking hot coast, through rice fields and jungle, then up over 2000 MASL along steep hairpin bends, to and around the central highlands, and back – by bike the whole way! Sri Lanka’s a really amazing place, especially if you take the time to get around and explore. But I won’t go into general details, as this is a coffee blog! In terms of coffee and tea, Sri Lanka is really all about the tea, and has been ever since the original coffee crops were abandoned due to serious cases of rust in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when tea was planted instead. They have never looked back. It’s the tea that Sri Lanka is known for, and which dominates the scenery of highlands, and I can’t really not give it a mention and a few pictures here. This scenery is stunningly beautiful. The tea estates shimmer and glisten like emerald-green blankets of gems, swathed across high mountains, softly undulating hills, steeply sloping valleys, and terraced gardens, interspersed with taller trees throughout (all reached by bicycle!). The imagery, and the particular colour, was like nothing I have seen before, and it will stay with me. And finding out a little about the tea (and its processing at a couple of factories) was interesting. Coffee is not the reason I went to Sri Lanka, and it is not what Sri Lanka specialises in, so it was never fair to expect too much. But, obviously, coffee is my passion, and when I found out I was going to a country that is geographically and climatically suitable for coffee growing, I was excited to try to find some growing in origin, and to taste some fresh cherries for the first time. Finding out any significant detail about coffee growing in Sri Lanka is very difficult! It is currently not really drunk, grown professionally, known about, or given any thought whatsoever by most of the country, I think. Research lead me to Hansa Coffee as seeming to be the only company obviously producing and roasting its own coffee on the island. From what I read, it seems their coffee comes from small farmers (probably growing coffee fairly casually in their gardens, rather than as part of more specialised or professional coffee farms), situated around the Kotmale area in the highlands, and with their Roastery (run by Lawrence) being situated in Nuwara Eliya. After finding this out, I contacted Hansa twice by email, and also via Twitter, asking if it might be possible to simply see some coffee growing in any of the farms, as I was touring these areas by bicycle. Unfortunately they never responded, and so I was not able to organise any visits to the farms growing their coffee, or find out any detail about their cultivation, harvesting, processing or roasting. Whilst I was actually in Nuwara Eliya (which, at 1900 MASL is the highest town in Sri Lanka!), I still searched around the streets for the roastery, but never found it. Whilst I was there, my wife (back at home) actually managed to get a response from Hansa about the roastery itself – but they said Lawrence was away for the week, so no visit was possible, and there was still no address, so I couldn’t even take a look at the roastery from outside..! But it was simply seeing (and tasting) some coffee growing (anywhere!) that was my main aim, rather than the roasting or drinking side of things in this case, and I didn’t let the lack of information discourage me! We set our route to take in Kotmale between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, so that I could at least look out for coffee as we went along. Sure enough, on the day we traveled from Kandy (500 MASL), through Kotmale, and up to just above Ramboda (1000 MASL), coffee suddenly started to appear everywhere! I didn’t see any signs of specific or organised cultivation or production of coffee as a crop, but I soon recognised the odd plant or two growing here and there, wild along the roadside, and also in people’s gardens. Most of the plants I saw (some with cherries on as well as flowers) where tantalisingly just out of reach, and we had to keep pushing on, so it was photos only. Then, above Ramboda, we needed to stop for the night, and fortunately found a space at last, tiniest, guesthouse (luckily, as we discovered the next day there were no more for miles of steep climbing up to Nuwara Eliya!). I noticed they had one sole little coffee tree growing in their driveway, and enquired about it with the owner. He kindly and eagerly arched the top of the bush down, where there were a few ripe cherries, so that I could pick them to eat. Delicious! The flesh was juicy, sweet, and unique in flavour. Probably not as perfectly sweet and ripe and those grown skilfully on the best farms around the world, and almost certainly nothing special in terms of bean potential, I’m sure, but very tasty and exciting to try for the first time all the same. Mission accomplished! The small coffee tree, on the left. This was a doubly lucky find, as the next day, as we started travel up the next 1000 meters to Nuwara Eliya, the coffee plants disappeared rapidly, despite the suitability of the elevation, and the landscape became dominated almost exclusively by tea, and later also cool-climate vegetables higher up, along with even more tea! Coffee is really hard to come by in Sri Lanka, currently, not just the plants, but to drink, as well. Most places simply don’t serve it, and usually the only times we had it where in the various lovely guesthouses where we stayed, for breakfast. Even some of them didn’t have any, and almost without exception, the coffee was very, very odd indeed. A kind of hot composty/mouldy pond/ditch water or drains aroma and aftertaste, with a charcoal edge, that was drinkable only with milk. I’m not sure what substances or processes were deployed to prepare this. But I was missing coffee so much that it was still always welcome! I did then have a pretty nice Americano in IceBear cafe (a more modern, quirky, Swiss owned place serving coffee and tea in Negombo) when back on the coast. This was made with coffee advertised as being grown around Nuwara Eliya, via someone called Century for You. It was pleasant and tasty (simple chocolaty and dried fruit flavours), in comparison to most of the other coffees tried. I’m not sure what Hansa’s coffee is like in their own cafe, as this is situated in the main city Colombo, where we didn’t visit… But like I said, Sri Lanka’s all about the tea rather than coffee, so these findings where to be expected, I guess. I wasn’t really hoping or expecting to find really high quality beans, or great brewed coffee in any form anyway - my main coffee-goal of the trip was just to find some plants growing, and some fresh cherries to taste, which I achieved, and which was fantastic!!

Good luck Kasparas!! Plan cafe barista, and my current right-hand man, Kas, is set to compete in the UKBC regional heats for his first time soon, so very best of luck to him! He has been with us for a couple of years now, and has come a long way, becoming one of the ‘few’ who continue to develop their techniques, expertise, interest and knowledge above and beyond that which is simply ‘required’. In terms of the competition itself, I have not been coaching him, as such, just giving some tips and support along the way; my involvement has been minimal, which seemed healthy, and he has essentially done all the preparation off his own back. He was making progress before I went away, and I’m sure he has been practising in earnest whilst I’ve been on ‘expedition’ (!), so I am eager to see how the set is shaping up, and I know he will do a great job.

Now, that’s a burr. My new Mahlkonig Tanzania for home (crazy, I know). For medium to coarse brew methods. See previous post, and Brew Methods at Home page for details. An afternoon spent grinding and bagging reference samples from the Rocky and the Tanzania for calibration and comparison. Eventually got around to making a first coffee! A Woodneck of Idido natural.

Now, that’s a burr. My new Mahlkonig Tanzania for home (crazy, I know). For medium to coarse brew methods. See previous post, and Brew Methods at Home page for details. An afternoon spent grinding and bagging reference samples from the Rocky and the Tanzania for calibration and comparison. Eventually got around to making a first coffee! A Woodneck of Idido natural.

At work, for the plan, I have currently been selecting the newest Caffe Naturelle (bright, sweet, fresh, juicy, citrus and tropical fruity, melon, honeyed fruit salad, floral), and (with it being that time of year!) Fazenda Samambaia, and Fazenda Sertao Lot #16 (ripe red fruits, chocolate, green tea, marzipan. So much more than you might expect). We’ll definitely be seeing a LOT more of the Sertao after I trialled it over a 26hr period last week. It will be back soon. So, over the last year (or two?!), I have become a little obsessed with grind and grinding (amongst other aspects of coffee, as usual), and with the search for the ultimate filter grinder for home. This has been quite a journey already, and the catalyst has been my increasing love of manual by the cup brew methods at home over the last several years (see my ‘Brew Methods at Home’ page). Throughout all this, for about five years, I have been using a Rancilio Rocky doserless grinder at home for these methods, and, perhaps surprisingly, it has really done me proud. But I have been itching for a long time to upgrade to something that can provide an even greater level of uniformity of grind quality at the medium to coarse range for filter, full immersion, and hybrid methods (a grind profile that displays an even, homogenous, unimodal, ‘single peak’ particle size distribution is generally considered a good thing for these methods). Lots and lots of reading and deliberating. Then, a little while back, I bought a used Ditting KR1203 in good condition, expecting wonderous things. But throughout the entire time that I had the Ditting, given its reputation, I was surprised, and disappointed, by the grind quality. Even my (fairly) humble Rocky continued to produce a better coarse grind quality, and better brews. Then there was the huge and immensely frustrating effort to try to find out why this was, during which I was willing to pay for improvements to be made to the grinder. Huge, long story. As part of this I paid for the (original style pressed) burrs to be resharpened by the official Ditting service in Switzerland. However, same results as before. In the end it was determined by analysis of the grounds in Germany that the functionality was healthy, and that this was simply as good as it got, for those burrs. I remained dissatisfied though. I could have tried investing further in the newer style machined burrs, but that was a move I wasn’t prepared to make if I couldn’t be sure that there would be a huge improvement in the grind quality, and I decided to part company from the grinder. I put together a lengthy lament of a post about all this, with lots of measurements and comparisons between the Rocky and the Ditting (percentages of sieved fines, etc, etc). But that is a past chapter now though, and publishing that post seems unnecessary. I still don’t know why my Rocky beat the Ditting hands down at the medium to coarse grind ranges. It shouldn’t have, but it did. Anyhow, since then, I’ve been planning (and trying to justify!) my next move, and have considered every top-end coarse grinder that there is (both commercial and domestic). The upshot is I have decided to bite the bullet and go all out, and be done with it. I have ordered THE ultimate filter grinder, which is widely recognised as the absolute benchmark (with really only one exception, currently, which probably does exceed it, at a huge jump in price). I feel duly obsessed, and insane. But no change there, I’m used to that when it comes to coffee! Who knows, perhaps I will still feel the grind quality could be better (and I am under no illusion that it will be ‘perfect’; no grinder or grinding process is ever perfect), and I don’t expect it to magically make all brewing issues go away. But at least I will know for sure that I am using about the best grind that is possible (short of a roller). That peace of mind in itself will be worth the spend, because now when brewing, tasting, and trying to learn more, I will just be able to focus on all the other variables without always having that nagging thought *hmmm, but what would it be like with better grind quality?* It’s going to be SO fascinating! Some of my recent reading, along with God in a Cup (and of course, grinder stuff!), had been this little thread: http://www.home-barista.com/tips/basket-overdosing-time-for-serious-re-evaluation-t4501.html I have mentioned my note-taking once or twice… These also border on the obsessive! But perhaps that ridicules and belittles its value unfairly. I find it really useful, and, although everyone does things differently, I would recommend the process to anyone continually trying to learn more. It’s nothing highly refined or conclusive, more just a logging of data, and some digestion of this, day by day. Almost every day, I note down all the parameters I’m using for each coffee I’m working with (primarily for espresso at work, and also for manual brew methods at home). The bean and origin information (as much as I can get hold of), freshness, grind settings, tamping, temperature settings, brew pressure settings, temperature measurements from various equipment and devices, machine performance and effects of any engineering works, dose weights, dose volumes and headspace, dwell times, shot/brew weights, brew times, times of day and relative busyness, ambient conditions, visual indicators in the stream (naked and spouted) and the cup, and, of course, tastes and impressions (you know, all the parameters!). I don’t have access to Mojo type measurement (which is perhaps a Godsend?!). I note these things down, and then write them up, in separate files for each brew method. Quite religiously. I usually end up with something in the region of 5000-10,000 words every month. I’ve been doing this for about 15 months, and I find it useful. It’s been a couple of years since I last took part in the UKBC, and, once people have seen you do that, there is sometimes the (odd) assumption that if you don’t keep doing it all the time, you are somehow not still learning, progressing, and improving further. Far from it, I have quietly and diligently, away from (the theatre of) the stage, continued to learn so much more since then, just through simply practising my craft, continually working with lots of different coffees, reading and researching, and doing the things I mention regarding these notes. Looking back, it surprises me to think how little I knew back then, but there is always more to learn as well. Competitions are a great way to learn more, in an accelerated way, and in a different environment. And they make it clear that you are doing so. But it is just one way. The truth is of course, if you genuinely care about what you do, and you apply yourself, you continue to learn and advance continually (try to, at least!), whether you decide to go out and attempt to try to ‘prove’ it or not. I’ve had that experience, achieved as much as I wanted to, and feel no desire to repeat it at present, and prefer instead to learn simply by immersing myself in what I do as a barista. Even though I only reread the notes here and there for certain pieces of information, the sheer process of just documenting it helps to crystallise what is actually going on, and from there I can draw some conclusions from it, which makes it helpful and valuable, for me, however basic and rudimentary the information might be. At home, for several weeks, I have been bringing back bag after bag of the Idido natural Yirgacheffe, which I’m loving, a cycle only broken for a short spell by a bag of Miravalle El Salvador COE Lot #8. I have had a great time brewing these coffees through my new Sowden and Woodneck brewers, amongst others, and both brewers have revealed and required all sorts different techniques and perspectives. Nice little review in Visit Wales recently , courtesy of Ed Gilbert. Soon to be seen on Liquid Gold too, I believe..! Soon I will be heading to Sri Lanka for my mountainous biking ‘holiday’ (!). Still attempting to source some more definite information about the location of coffee farms! Nuwara Eliya and the Kotmale area are looking pretty promising though, and we will be swinging past there on our way!

Happy New Year! Well, the Coffee-Santa has been exceptionally generous this year, delivering me a cloth Hario Woodneck 480ml (long desired), a small Sowden SoftBrew (desired a lot recently), God in a Cup (fascinating, and great to revel in a decent coffee-book, rather than just pouring over the Net or my own notes, for a change), and Peter’s Aricha Tchembe natural process Yirgacheffe (!!), thankyou! The Tchembe was a joy over the festive period through Chemexes and the Woodneck, along with some delicious Kangocho peaberry too. I have yet to try the SoftBrew, as I ran out of coffee slightly towards the end, and wanted to save this for better dialling, but I am bringing some of the fantastic Idido natural process Yirgacheffe (from similar channels to the Tchembe) home to meet it on Sunday. I think it could be a match made in heaven..! There is a specific combination of features unique to the Sowden that make me incredibly excited about its potential. There is not the theatre or tactile romance that can come with the pour over techniques for brewers like the Woodneck, but the SoftBrew just so simple, elegant, and hugely exciting in a rather different way. The Woodneck threw me to begin with, kind of as expected. It too is different to anything else, and also uniquely exciting for its own reasons. But I switched a few things around, and had a very enjoyable brew with the last of the Tchembe that ignited the spark I was waiting for, and made me think *Ah! Now that’s what I was hoping I might see from this brewer!*. And still early days. This could be really interesting; I’m meeting with a food technologist tomorrow, called in by our dairy, to discuss Those now predictable annual issues encountered with our local, organic, non-homogenised milk around this season every year (and I know it’s not just us!). Hoping to demonstrate the issues, maybe get a few answers, hear about and delve a little deeper into the chemistry, and who knows, maybe work towards some solutions… New ‘Brew Methods at Home’ page on the blog, btw. Seemed about time. Gloria, our espresso machine, still awaits our engineers to return for deeper investigation into the psychological issues deep within her brain, who I think are trying to establish the best way to diagnose… General functionality tickety-boo though, after many recent tweaks, and, different, now. Back visiting Mum’s in the New Year, she treated me to a couple of wonderful pourovers of the Finca Providencia Huehue Guat I had sent her. Brill, Mum. Also, I’m looking ahead to an off the beaten track cycling holiday into the highlands of Sri Lanka in March, and am hoping to zero-in on some coffee farms to visit! This is tricky one though, as, despite the geography, Sri Lanka is all about tea, for one reason and another. Which is also fascinating, and which holds countless parallels with coffee, and which will be very interesting as well, but which, for me, naturally, has slightly less of the allure…

Ooo! Another, whole new source of equally dubious and totally implausible data to log – exciting! Temperature really is very odd, and remarkably difficult to measure, it seems. But the more sources you can draw on to try to build an overview, and make correlations, no matter how bewildering, bizarre, inaccurate and wrongly calibrated some might be, the better. …All part of the current ongoing myriad surgeries and investigations into Gloria’s brian, and fluids intake, amongst my usual experiments, notes, tuning and monitoring. There are NOW bags and bags of bags of JGC coffee available at the plan for Christmas! Fazenda Samambaia 2012 Brazil Yellow Bourbon espresso (1kg and 250g ’s), Formula 6 espresso (1kg’s), Caffe Naturelle espresso (1kg’s), Rwanda BuF cafe Coop filter (250g’s), Guatemala Finca Providencia Huehuetenango filter (250g’s), Rwanda Musasa Coop filter (250g’s), Guatemala Finca Conception Pixcaya filter (250g’s)! The plan will be closed Christmas Eve, Day, and Boxing day, and also New Year’s Day. For home for Christmas I have come into the possession of JGC Kenyan Kangocho Peaberry, and… Ethiopian Aricha Tchembe Yirgacheffe filters. There are also some Idido espresso profiles floating around at work. It is always potentially SO exciting when coffees like these start to surface, and words like ‘Beloya’ and ‘Misty’ are mentioned… I recall being stunned by these several years ago at a point when I had no real idea what they were, what to do with them, or how rare (legendary) they would become. Thankfully there have been certain things along the lines of O.C.R. here and there to fill the void since then… Interesting to read some of the surrounding back-story, one source here: http://counterculturecoffee.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=278&pop=1&page=99&Itemid=47 In rare non-coffee related thoughts: If you come in soon, you might catch my alternative christmassy electronica and various oddments (?!) CD playing, where it’s kind-of-definitely-Christmas-but-not-cheesy-overly-in-your-face, and, I think this is THE best I’ve seen the arcade look at Christmas! Cheerio!