Jeremey's Weblog

Update on Hario Grinders

A quick update... several people have asked about the Hario grinder modifications, and I'm sorry to say that Max's attempts to modify the Hario with bushings did not succeed. The tolerances on the Hario are just not tight enough to allow a bushing to consistently work. I'm not sure if the issue was that each grinder is different from every other, or if most of them simply wouldn't work even with the perfect bushing.

I hear that the search for a more suitable hand grinder is on, and there is a candidate, but I don't know more about it right now.

That isn't to say that the Hario is a bad grinder, but it isn't going to be very consistent, especially at coarser grind settings.

Road Trip Coffee

We went on a road trip to Chicago for my sister-in-law's wedding (which I was photographing). My wife was extremely kind and researched all of the best coffee places along the route on CoffeeGeek and Barista Exchange, so I actually had good coffee in almost every city we spent any time. The notable exception was Kentucky, there was just not much there (apologies to any Kentuckians).

I did have one Starbucks latte (in Kentucky). It was wretched. I actually didn't drink it. Anyway... here are the places I went:

The Coffee Roastery, on Pearl St., Jackson, MS: I had to send my wife in because it was on a downtown corner and there was little parking to be found (and we had 3 kids in the car, of course). Got a latte, it was bad, I hardly drank it. Bleh.

Wired Espresso Cafe, on N. State St., Jackson, MS: Pretty good! Not a great latte, but far better than sbux or the one I got at Coffee Roastery. No art, though. I drank this one.

Kaldi's, on De Mun Ave, St. Louis, MO: Pretty good. Got a couple lattes for the road, they were good, not great. Better than anything I got in Jackson. No art, though.

Intelligentsia, on Jackson St., Chicago, IL: This is a weekday-only source of caffeination for Chicago folks, but it was closer to our hotel than the Randolph location (my favorite). Intelligentsia, of course, rocks. They're brewing on a 3-group Synesso, they have great coffee, etc. At this location, the temperature of my latte was a little hot, IMO, maybe 10 degrees hot. But excellent, as always, and good art. Blew away everything I'd had up to this point, of course.

Intelligentsia, on Randolph St., Chicago, IL: Ahhh... Saturday came and forced me to hop on the El to get over to the Randolph location, but I was rewarded with a perfect latte, beautiful latte art, and a ginger scone. It doesn't get better than this, really. I had maybe five lattes here over the course of our stay in Chicago, and they were all perfect. How anyone in Chicago can set foot in sbux, I don't know. Had a single-origin capp which was also excellent, though the latte is where my heart is. Also had a Clover of something that I don't recall now. Sad to leave!

Starbucks, Florence, KY: Worst latte ever. Except possibly one I had at Inversion back in Houston. Ugh. DID. NOT. DRINK.

Ray's Monkey House, on Bardstown, Louisville, KY: Decent latte. So much potential not being fulfilled! They roast their own, have decent equipment, with a little proper training they could make great coffee. It frustrates me when I find indie places like this that could be great but just aren't. Better than sbux, though. Side note: the whole time I couldn't help but laugh to myself about those "monkey-fighting snakes" in the edited-for-TV version of Snakes on a Plane (which I didn't see, but heard about, and with the name of the coffee shop, and, well, anyway...).

Crema, on 1st St. South, Nashville, TN: Great! We were debating which place to hit in Nashville when Heather found latte art pics from Crema, so it was decided. Had a brief but good conversation with the people there, and got a couple lattes for the road, which were excellent. Good art, the whole deal. Later on I figured out I was actually following them on Twitter already! (they're @CREMACREMA)

Primavera, on White Oak Dr., Birmingham, AL: Excellent. Had multiple lattes here (some for the road), all excellent. Good art. Again, great coffee people here... they roast their own, and clearly do a pretty good job of it. They sell Chemex gear, etc. I bought some beans to bring home. People of Birmingham, send them your business!

Cocoa Bean Pastry Shop, on Morris Ave., Hammond, LA: Decent coffee, not great, but great baked goods. This was a long shot and it turned out better than expected. Definitely better than hitting sbux. It got me home. :)

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coffee, travel, jackson, st louis, chicago, nashville, birmingham, hammond

Iced Coffee

I learned this from Max at Catalina. It's very simple, but delicious and refreshing, especially in the insane Houston heat this summer. All I do is fill the Chemex up to its "naval" with ice, then brew a pretty light 1/2-pot of drip coffee on top of it. I have a 32oz Chemex, so I brew for 16oz. That's it. Serve over lots of ice, of course. Awesome!

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coffee, summer

Hario Hand Coffee Grinder

UPDATED: more pics, see below

Max (owner of Catalina) got some Hario hand grinders in and I bought one on the hopes that it would replace my Kitchen Aid ProLine for French press and Chemex brewing.

The Hario has ceramic conical burrs, a "drive shaft", a simple adjustment mechanism, and a crank... along with a glass bowl to catch the grounds and a plastic bowl for beans. One burr (large, outer) is fixed to the plastic bowl and the other (small, inner) is fixed to the shaft. The adjustment "dial" is just a nut on the shaft, really, which "screws" the shaft up and down, thereby moving the small burr closer or further away from the large burr.

I have mixed opinions on this thing, but I'll give you the punch line first: it's roughly as good as my Kitchen Aid for French press or drip grinds, and much better for espresso grinds. I'm not sure it competes with my MACAP espresso grinder, but it is impressive for fine grinds.

My mixed opinions come from the design of the shaft and the way the small burr moves. The shaft is only fixed to the "body" of the grinder in one place: the top. This means that the small burr (fixed to the end of the shaft) is free to float around away from a perfect center line. At the very fine end of the grind spectrum (espresso), this is almost non-existent because the burrs are so close together. The small burr just doesn't have any room to move laterally.

However, for coarse grinds, the burr has plenty of room to move, and it does. This means an inconsistent grind. You get some (not too many) very fine particles along with some big chunks. This is too bad, because the burrs are clearly very good, and a better shaft/body design would turn this from pretty good to fantastic (DIY project?).

However, the results are no worse (or not significantly) than my Kitchen Aid, which cost $200. The Hario costs a quarter of that.

Here is a coarse grind w/ the Hario:

And a slightly finer grind from the Kitchen Aid, for comparison:

And compared to the Kitchen Aid in size:

Bottom line, I like the Hario, but I think it could be significantly improved. It's competitive with my Kitchen Aid costing four times as much, and significantly better for finer grinds. I probably give a slight edge to the Kitchen Aid for French press grinds, but a definite edge to the Hario for espresso grinds.

And there's the "hand" part... expect to get a workout grinding enough coffee for 2 large cups of French press. :)

UPDATED WITH MORE PICS:

Handle and adjustment assembly:

Grind adjuster:

Outer burr (bottom view):

Inner burr:

Inner burr and shaft:

Bottom view up through shaft "housing":

Handle and adjuster disassembled:

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coffee, espresso, grinder, hario

Five Characteristics of Good Coffee

Jim Hughes "tagged" me in this post to blog about 5 characteristics of good coffee. I (like he) generally don't do these blog tag game things, but this one I can write about. But I may not pass the tag along.

I think I will focus on the process of making good coffee, instead of the characteristics of the finished product, as I think that will be more useful, but also the final product is so complex (hundreds of unique flavor compounds) that it would be difficult to describe. So, what follows are five characteristics of the process of making great coffee.

1 - Beans. Great coffee starts with great beans. There are many variables that factor into great beans, but I will focus on two: source and roast. A roaster must decide how to choose the beans to roast, and how to obtain them. Roasters that build direct relationships with farms that are aiming to produce a high quality product (generally called "specialty coffee") tend to also be the ones with the most care and knowledge of coffee and the coffee industry, and thus they tend to be the best roasters. If the roaster doesn't know why he is carrying/roasting a specific bean, move along. Second, the roast itself... this is critical, as coffee is useless without being roasted. The roast is an alchemic transformation of a green bean into a little package of potential flavor (think potential energy). The flavors in coffee come from the oils in the beans, developed in the roast. If you see those oils all over the surface of your beans, well they're not in the beans anymore, are they?

How do you pick a good roaster? Find one that is passionate about coffee and its potential flavors and complexity, that sources his beans directly from farms or at least goes and experiences these farms and builds relationships with the farmers, that knows why he has chosen a particular bean and how he roasted it, and that won't sell you a particular bean in more than one roast (good roasters generally feel that there is a "right roast" for each bean).

2 - Freshness. Coffee should be consumed within two weeks of the day it is roasted, in most cases. So buy from good local roasters, buy a little (e.g. 1 pound), and buy it often. Even more important - it should be ground immediately before use. Grinding should be the last step prior to combining the ground coffee with water. Coffee contains many volatile compounds which distribute flavor into brewing coffee, and one of the more important is CO2 (carbon dioxide). Roasted coffee loses much of its CO2 within the first two weeks post-roast, and once it is ground, it loses the vast majority of whatever CO2 it had within 60 seconds. So prepare your brewing system, prepare your water, then grind and brew.

3 - Grind. Coffee (the drink) is not made from whole beans, it's made with ground coffee. Coffee beans must be ground to the appropriate fineness for the type of brewing you are doing, and this will require some experimentation (generally, coarse for French press, finer for drip). Also, as mentioned above, you really want to grind as the last step before brewing. To grind with any consistency, you really need a burr grinder. Blade grinders just pulverize the same coffee particles over and over, so you get a very uneven grind.

Why does this matter? Because brewing coffee is really about extracting the flavors and oils from the ground beans. If you have an uneven grind, you will have "dust" bits along with some larger chunks... the larger chunks won't get completely extracted, and the dust bits will get massively overextracted. Overextraction means bitterness. This is why a lot of coffee is bitter (among many factors).

4 - Quantity and Time. You need to use the right amount of coffee for your brewing method, and unless you've spent some time working on your coffee, you're probably not using enough. Again, the problem is overextraction... if you stick a teaspoon of ground coffee in a 12-cup French press, you will overextract that coffee and end up with bitter (and probably "weak") coffee. Real coffee geeks speak in grams, but if you develop a fair approximation by volume, that's fine. Start somewhere in the vicinity of two tablespoons of grounds per 6-8oz of water, and go from there. Experiment. Your grind will be a factor here too, because a finer grind will extract more quickly.

Brewing time (in methods where you control this, e.g. French press) is also a major factor. This will require some experimentation, but generally 3-4 minutes is the right ballpark, if the other variables are in line.

5 - Water and Temperature. Use good water. Filtered water, spring water, whatever... just use good water. Then, use that water at the right temperature (in brewing methods where you control this). Boiling is too hot! You want to be around 200 degrees. Find a reliable, consistent way to control your water temperature.

Finally, I leave you with a characteristic that is NOT a characteristic of good coffee: bitter. Good coffee is many things, but bitter should not be a prominent one. Bitterness generally results from poor extraction (too hot, too long, too little coffee, poor grind).

Make some good coffee! FWIW, a French press and a Solis Maestro Plus grinder will get you on your way. Spend your money on the grinder, buy a cheap French press. Expensive drip brewers won't make good coffee unless every variable is right. Control the variables yourself.

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coffee, tagged

Americano

Just gotta say... I love a good americano. I basically don't brew drip coffee anymore, if I want a cup of black coffee (which I do, frequently), I make an americano. A proper americano is made w/ hot water in your cup and then you pull your shot onto the water. That's it. It is NOT a shot pulled for a really long time; that will massively overextract the coffee. Just a normal shot as if for a latte, pulled into a cup of hot water (not too much water).

P.S. you do want to pull the shot after you put the water in the cup... that way you get all that delicious crema on top. YUM.

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coffee, espresso, americano

Human, Thou Art Fickle

My favorite coffee shop, Catalina Coffee, has been under something of an unintended PR attack (mostly from ignorant pile-on comments to Sean's [by definition] one-sided account). The lesson here: nothing is as one-sided or as simple as it might seem. The other lesson: people are asymptotic to fickle.

I was glad to see Max respond, and I think his response was right on the money. I can't say I know Max well, but I've spent enough time in Catalina and in talking to him that I think I know him well enough to at least give him the benefit of the doubt on something like this. It's unfortunate that people are so willing to damage someone's reputation and business without any balanced information and with no context whatsoever.

I can't fault Sean for blogging about the issue, I've definitely done that myself from time to time. But since the issue here was really about sensitivity to people's needs after Ike, why are commenters so willing to dispense with that sensitivity at the first opportunity? Even if Sean's account was impartial, is it better to damage a local business doing great things, or to let it go and be sensitive to the context and the post-hurricane situation?

Seems like we could apply our great demands for "customer" sensitivity a little more broadly, rather than being content with hypocrisy. Nokia (my employer) likes to point out that even as individuals we have "customers", like our peers, our boss, etc. If you want great customer service, try treating those serving you as your customers.

Anyway... enough of that... I'm drinking Max's El Salvador Peaberry (brewed in the Chemex) this morning and it's fantastic. I'm excited about his roasting, this one seems right on the money. Thanks to Max for his efforts post-Ike, and for his continued commitment to quality coffee and customer service.

<whine>Can't we all just get along?</whine> :)

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catalina, coffee, customer service

Siphon Brewing!

I brewed my first pot of siphon coffee this morning, this is an awesome way to brew coffee! I video-ed the brewing process and edited the video down under 90 seconds to make Flickr happy. Here 'tis... check it out, it's so cool. Science!

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coffee, siphon, brew, video

Cupping CoE Guatemala

Max put together an awesome cupping at Catalina last night. He had the top 5 Cup of Excellence (go check out their site: http://www.cupofexcellence.org/) Guatemala coffees on hand, we cupped #'s 2-5 and tasted/drank the #1.

A "cupping" is basically a coffee tasting where you're looking to rate specialty (i.e. quality) coffees and identify the complex flavors they contain. I learned a ton, not only about cuppings in general, but also about the vocabulary for describing flavors and aromas... Max had a couple kits for smelling 36 different aromas that might occur in coffee, and we spent some time sampling and guessing those before we cupped. Here are a few of the cupping stations:

One of the reasons I love Catalina is that I'm always learning how much I don't know about coffee.

The #1 CoE Guatemala coffee sold for over $80 per pound, green (unroasted). You can just guess what a roasted, retail pound might go for. Max brewed it in a French press and I could see why it was #1. It was very, very good, and very complex... clearly superior to the others, all of which were outstanding: complex, interesting, delicious.

Very cool experience! I want to do my own cuppings now. :)

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catalina, coffee, cupping

Cupping Class @ Catalina

FYI. It may be full, I dunno... I meant to post this a few days ago. :) I'm signed up.

http://catalinacoffeeshop.com/2008/07/29/cupping-cup-of-excellence-guatemala/