Bean: Papua New Guinea Kimel Plantation Peaberry
Roast: Full City + Roast
Time: 1330 hrs @ 5 min 59 sec
1st crack started at 2:22, and ended at 4:25. Moderate chaff. This roast was ended at 5:59, with the first audible snaps of 2nd crack.
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Bean: Bolivian Peaberry
Degree: Northern Italian Roast
Age: 2 days old
This is the bean I roasted on the verge of 2nd crack. I expect lemony brightness?? Here’s the pour. Good slow one, good tiger striping, 23 seconds pull. A lot of crema as expected. The pull was guinness-like. The full glass of crema slowly subsided to just 1.5 cm worth of crema. Some hazelnut cloured spots peppered on the surface. Smells great after past few days of drinking unleaded decaf.
A slight hint of brightness, light bodied, methinks I have to wait a few more days to get the most out of this coffee.
2nd pour was an americano, still very light bodied, no hints of brightness nor bitterness. I await tomorrow’s pour, and hope that this coffee lasts til this Friday’s roast. A CGSG’er, Leon is coming over for the roasting session, and hopefully, Keith can join us too. We would probably be roasting a common bean, Vivace Dolce. Since I’m expecting company, I better roast another batch tomorrow.
Blogged with Flock
Bean: Bolivian Peaberry
Degree: Northern Italian Roast
Roast Time: 12.30 pm @ 8 min 45 sec
I ended this roast on the verge of 2nd crack, at around 8 min 45 sec. Only time will tell whether I made a good roast. I normally do not stop the roast until I see oil seeping thru the bean surface. I intend to let this batch rest at least 2 days before I drink it. I find a lot of coffee I roast peak at around 3rd or 4th day. They are stored in one way valve bags after cooling. I prefer the one way valve bags as I can squeeze out the air, and let the carbon dioxide emitted from the beans do its job. Can’t do this with those containers with the vacuum pump. It sucks out the air, but it doesn’t allow the carbon dioxide to exit the container.
I’ve only had a cup of Aeropressed Dolce decaf today, which is comparable to an Americano. Seems like I’ve only enough to make one more decaf drink before I’m out completely.
I go to this Hong Kong cafe - Xin Wang at Orchard Cineleisure sometimes. They have this Iced Macau Coffee on their menu that I like to order. Essentially iced milk coffee served in a stainless steel mug. It’s quite good, and it’s actually iced cowboy coffee. Cowboys dump an egg in the brew.
Last Friday, I went to TCC at Peranakan Place. TCC is one of those 1 in every 100 meters coffee joints, much like Starbucks. TCC stands for The Coffee Connoisseur. They have Kenya AA, Brazil Santos, Jamaican Blue Mountain, but I took the safe route and ordered San Pellegrino water. I saw the espresso in the next table, the usual cafe americano passed off as espresso. The machines TCC uses are super-automatics. I’ve also been to McDonald’s cafes using super-automatics with Bon-cafe beans in the hopper. Seems like super-automatics are the trend these days. It makes little difference, either a untrained barista behind a good semi-automatic pumping swill or a monkey behind the counter pushing buttons serving swill.
Blogged with Flock
Bean: Vivace Dolce Decaf
Degree: Southern Italian Roast
Roast Age: 6 days old
Gaggia Espresso given a 5 cycle flush/warmup, Bodum Pavina thoroughly warmed, and sitting in a hot bath. There were patches of oil on the surface of the bean. Espresso Vivace recommends that cofee beans should be roasted to a Northern Italian roast, to maintain the oils within the beans, and not the Southern way, where beans are already seeping to the surface. Being the noob, I still can’t seem to get the Northern Italian roast right.
The pour was great, another 22 second pour, with very dark brown striping. Full of crema, as usual, I like the design of the Bodum Pavina, as it lets me see just how much crema I get with every glass. This pour started out with 80% crema, and then it slowly subsided to about a centimeter’s worth.
Ever since I learned from a fellow Coffee Greens SG (CGSG) member the correct way to tamp, it has made all the difference. Well, he learned it from David Schomer’s book. David Schomer is the owner of Espresso Vivace, Seattle. His book, Espresso Coffee: Updated Professional Techiniques, gives a wealth of knowledge on espresso making. Interesting to note is how he nit-picks on every single variable in his environment to make the perfect espresso. Eg. he talks about every time some customer uses his establishment’s toilets, there would be a change in water pressure. A time when the sea breeze blew around his coffee cart, he had to make drastic changes to his grinder setting. If you think Monk is OCD, you’ve just met Mr OCD in Espresso. A friend of mine in Seattle - Cavin insists there’s no good coffee shop there. A bowling ball should drop on his head. Before that thought, my heartfelt congratulations to him for getting wifey Jessica preggers.
2nd pour was made up of “leftovers,” a bit of Dolce and Oaxaca, one half of Dolce Decaf make the pour interesting. A slower pour than the first, excellent tiger-striping, I ended it around 25 seconds, I removed the Pavina, but kept the water running, it gave another good 4 seconds before blonding. The taste was fruity, bittersweet, a floral aftertaste like Yirgacheffe. Interesting because I’ve never tasted floral notes in Oaxaca before. It can’t be the Dolce. Ah well, it’s all in the blend. For record purposes, it was 50% Decaf Dolce, 15% Dolce, and 35% Oaxaca. I recorded the taste after the espresso has cooled off. That’s maybe it.
Another CGSGer KS basically told me he prefers Americanos. Cafe Americano is essentially espresso diluted with water. Before meeting KS, I would not think of diluting espresso with anything, not even milk. But after I tasted my first Yirgacheffe Americano, I was hooked. The added water helped to bring out the floral notes of the coffee to the not-so discerning drinker, like me for example (at the time.) KS says that it is how he introduces coffee to other beginners. (Woe is me.) I pulled another Yirgacheffe, and drank it neat, it had floral notes, but I was not able (at the time) to isolate the floral notes from the overall full spectrum of tastes from the Yirgacheffe. And I feel also the temperature affects the tastebuds. When the drink is hot, I am not able to discern the taste as much as when it cools. I’ve read during cupping sessions, they test the coffee when it’s cooled down. Now I know why.
You learn something everyday.
I am on a roll! My 2nd triple espresso is nearer to a godshot. Perfect tamping by NSEW method, very even, small slow funnel, good tiger striping, It smells and tastes as it did in bean form, crema that outlasts the drink. What a great way to start a new day. Darn! I should be signing up for espresso rehab. I’m addicted to beautiful pours!
Bean: Mexico Oaxaca
Degree: Central Italian Roast
Roast Age: 5 days old
What a great pour today! Gaggia MDF grinder set at 3, Gaggia Espresso machine given a thorough 5 cycle warmup. With my naked portafilter, I can see the beautiful tiger-striping, a slow funnel forming, the tamp was almost perfect, a good slow pour of about 22 seconds, I stopped short because I didn’t want to be too greedy and ruin this pour. Full of deep caramel coloured crema, it just lasted forever, not dissipating even after the double walled Bodum Pavina glass was emptied. Creamy feel, no bitter aftertaste, a muted hint of acidity, as close to a god shot as anything I’ve had this week.
For the warmups, I wait for the green light to come on, which denotes the temperature ready, and then I switch on the water until the ready light turns off, with my naked portafilter locked on. After 5 or more warm ups, I hope that the temperature has stabilised somewhat. I don’t have a PID yet. And I’m working on a machine that turns up 6.5 bars, a serious handicap, because most of my pours are basically fast blond funnels.
Best espresso I’ve had in days. And that is comparing to Vivace Dolce, and Vivace Dolce decaf. I think I don’t fare too well in roasting monsooned beans, which is what I speculate the Vivace blend has a multitude of. It has a similar roast profile compared with Monsooned Malabar, a 15 minute 2nd crack. I think I can practise roasting Vivace by roasting the cheaper malabar beans
Hello World with a good cup of Vivace Dolce espresso, from espresso Vivace,
undoubtedly one of Seattle’s finest coffee shops. This coffee is
freshly roasted, Central Italian roast, about 4 days old, what I
consider to be a good time to brew this coffee.
Briefly on why I started making my own coffee. Have you tasted
espresso in Singapore? Starbuck’s, Spinelli’s, Gloria Jean’s? I’ve been
to a lot of joints, order a single or a double, and cringe. Go order an
espresso anywhere in Singapore, more often times than not, you’ll get a
thin brew, no crema (Spinelli’s has decent crema), tastes worse than a
cafe americano, actually, the only way I can simulate the way it tastes
is by drinking my drip tray. Well, my drip tray coffee has crema, and
it has more body than most doppios in Singapore. If you’ve had an
espresso the way it. (italy) intended, then you have to start making
your own coffee in Singapore.
