The Australian Coffee Scene

I was reading the blog for Barista Magazine and was struck by the coffee scene in Australia, specifically The Aroma Festival. This event, going on its 11th year, links coffee retailers with the general public. The turnout is usually between 60,000-100,000!




In related news, Starbucks announced it will close 75% of its Australian stores. Independent shops often fear Starbucks and feel that the only way to compete with Starbucks is to act like a Starbucks. However, this isn't the answer. As it has been said before, the real way to beat Starbucks is to offer a better product and the consumers will decide. Unfortunately too many independent shops in the States offer a sub-par product and Starbucks wins out. Offering events such as the Aroma Festival showcases the shops that are passionate about their craft. I hope that working through BFCAT and PACA I can partner with others who are excited about developing the coffee scene in the Pittsburgh Region. It's been great so far and I look forward to all the possibilities.

(Photo by Halan)

Clinton Campaigns For Baristi

As a quality third-wave coffeeshop, BFCAT (and many others) have good reason to be proud about our coffee over gas station coffee. Some reasons are the quality training, the care and concern for the farmers, better atmosphere, community commitment, and the coffee doesn't come out of an automatic machine that spews out powdered milk and instant coffee. 
In this video, potential 44th President of The United States of America, Hillary Clinton, demonstrates the need for more quality third-wave shops with well trained baristi ready to serve potential commander-in-chiefs anywhere in this expansive nation. Will someone please get her a real cappuccino? 

Roasting notes 4/28

Roasted a little bit tonight, some observations:

Guatemalan Coban, at least the bag I have, always roasts unevenly. Probably the borer holes that litter the beans. Maybe the fact that some of my burners are not burning clean.

10 degree difference in final bean temp between Guat and Tanzanian Peaberry yielded no difference in final bean weight. Curious...

We've begun talks with two coffee farms to do direct importing (as "direct trade" as we can get so far): Finca Vista Hermosa and Daterra. Wondering if Klaus Thompsen will sue if we use those two coffees in an espresso blend...

It is interesting how quickly one comes to conclusions regarding certain origins. Based on just one bag, from who knows where, is a dangerous thing to do, but it is difficult to not think of Coban as always-and-everywhere inconsistent and borer-ridden. It is difficult to not think of Colombian as always having a bitter aftertaste, regardless of roast level. Here is the problem of prejudice and having to roast in larger batches (requiring a larger initial investment in origin). I tried roasting in our machine at its lowest capactity (1.1 lbs), but was met with an uneven, lying roast (it said 424f, but looked--at least some of it--465f). Two pounds didn't improve much. If I always have to roast 3+ lbs, then the options I have are limited, especially when it comes to my proposed triple blend ideas. I don't want to roast 9lbs for a product that I have no idea if it will even be good. Such is life, I guess. I'll just keep roasting away.

I need to remember to clean out the chaff bin before I turn on the gas.

Finally!

The roaster is up and working here at the C&T. A couple of notes...

1) YEEEEE-HAAAA!

2) We now have bags for sale and our new packaging should be ready soon. Both retail and wholesale accounts available.

3) I've been post-roast sorting and have determined it one of the most difficult things to do. I'm not sure how to make pre-roast and post-roast sorting commercially viable, at least from where I'm standing right now. However, I was noticing a lot of "charcoal" beans--yes, beans literally reduced to charcoal--and berries in the Tanzanian Peaberry. Even in specialty grade coffee, sorting is necessary. Not to mention, even with an immaculately cleaned roaster, uneven roasts are still possible and probable. Sorting is, really, the next step of quality and consistency.

Silence and Roasting Smoke

We've been quiet here lately...and haven't been producing much coffee.

I moved our roaster to the shop last week (maybe the week before, but I'm starting to get confused myself on how long this has taken) and thoroughly cleaned it. Top to bottom, left to right, six ways of Sunday. The roaster is probably about five years old and I think I may be the first to give it a thorough cleaning. Such was the start of my troubles...

After cleaning, the drum worked fine. But I broke the heat probe and so cannot tell the temperature inside the roaster, no pre-heat, guessing on what temp I'm roasting to, etc. One is in the mail from the nice folks at Ambex, but I still have a day or two before it arrives.

The cooling tray fan bound up--nothing happening. Once I finally got it unbound (involving taking it completely apart and enough WD-40 inhalation to kill a small horse) it is so loud that I need to wear earplugs. Sigh. It was quieter when it was dirty.

The sweeper has been the thorn in my flesh. The motor runs from the get-go, without the sweeper actually turning. When I get around to turning it on, it moves slowly. Then when I turn it off, it keeps on going. Sigh. It turns out to be an easy fix, I messed something up in the wiring. It will work fine tomorrow.

Ducting is leaking worse than a government employee to the media. New, permanent ducting is being installed next week (hopefully), but now I just am laying the sealant on pretty thick.

So the roasting, for all intents and purposes, has been shut down for about two weeks. I've been out of decaf for who-knows-how-long and I'm beginning to get worn down by the whole process. Thanks to Phil at La Prima, though, who supplied us with an emergency 13lbs that we blew threw in almost one day. I'm hoping that by the end of my 16 hour day tomorrow I'll be going strong, but I've been hoping that for awhile.

Anyway, roasting smoke. I wrote on this blog, some time ago, about distilling coffee smoke. Aside from some interesting culinary possibilities, I'm now wondering if it would be a good way to control the smoke I'll inevitably produce in this residential neighborhood. I certainly want to be a good neighbor. The difficulty, as I see it, is to make sure that no chaff goes out of the stack and into the condensing unit--something not possible with the setup I have. Otherwise, all that will happen is a solid mass of chaff that will back up the roaster and...fire. Once that problem is taken care of, though, this could be a major innovation in the "greening" of the coffee industry. Maybe...I'll keep you posted.

Improving On The Reverse French Press

Trolling the Coffeed forums, we came across this post, about how to make a 'ghetto Clover' using a French Press in reverse. Instead of putting the grounds on the bottom and pressing down, put the grounds on top of the screen and pull up, supposedly creating a cleaner cup, akin to a Clover. Hearing that we could replicate a cup of coffee from an $11,000 machine using tools we already have, we were interested and had to try it out.

First there were some problems to overcome. Many of the replies to the post mention that the French Press has a limited range and that some of the water at the bottom doesn't get a chance to brew. Using our McGyver-like tactics we contemplated how to construct a longer dowel rod to get the screen to the bottom of the French Press. While fabricating our own dowel rod would be awesome, the solution actually turned out to be much simpler. We have several Bodum French Presses and just unscrewed the dowel rod from a larger French Press and attached it to the lid and screen from a smaller one. Voila! Just like that we extended the rod and didn't even have to take any pills mentioned on late night TV infomercials!

Once we fixed this problem, the other issue was how we should get the water in there. After some trial and error, we found the best way is to put the screen (and grounds) at the bottom of the French Press and pour water over it through the spout and swirl the French Press to get all the grounds wet.

While this produced a great cup, I'd like to continue working to improve the reverse French Press. I'd like to use a finer grind for this reverse method, as the Clover tends to use a finer grind to achieve a fast brewing time. Sweet Maria's sells a nylon filter that could allow for a finer grind to be used. Another area of interest is how much the vacuum effect of the Clover contributes to the cup and how it could be implemented. Hopefully this is only the start of the 'Ghetto Clover' and that BFCAT and others will contribute to new designs and new ideas. Any ideas on how it could be improved?

G-G-G-Ghetto C-C-C-Clover

We are in the beta testing stages of "pimping" our French Press to make-shift a Clover. Tastes pretty good so far, but we've got a lot of problems to overcome. Thankfully, now that Jake is posting on this blog, we'll have pictures!

Just to whet your appetite, though, the initial problem of the insipid under filter water has been solved by using the dowel from a larger press pot (which we happened to have handy).

More to come...