Crema de la Crema: an espresso blog

I’ve had enough of the i-Roast 2 presets. I programmed into PROG 3 the following:

Temp/Time      Period
380F/3:00       12:00 - 9:00
450F/4:00       9:00 - 5:00
480F/4:00       5:00 - 1:00
400F/1:00       1:00 - 0:00

I roasted 90 grams of Colombian Cup of Excellence El Descanso and 60 grams of Brazil Moreninha Formosa. 1st crack was at -6:00 and 2nd crack was at -1:30. I was extremely pleased with the evenness of the roast.

After a rest of just 1 day, I pulled 2 shots, the 2nd with a slightly coarser grind setting.

Both drinks had slight fruited tones with a floral finish. I feel the fruits will be more pronounced on the 3rd day. This is one program I’ll be keeping.

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Here are some photos of my routine a friend took while having coffee at my place.

Photos by Jay Sim with a Nikon D-80.

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What is an acceptable rate of flow from a bottomless portafilter?

Brazil Moreninha Formosa Day 5

For me, I try to keep it to a mouse tail. While I know this is applicable
to those stock portafilters with their bottoms intact, I’m not sure
about the bottomless. Something to look in the forums for. My ideal for
a well-rested coffee would be to do a 45 second ristretto, where the
flow is sticky, gooey, and drips down like chocolate fudge, and I’ll
cut the flow at the slightest hint of pale. Intense.

Technorati Tags: bottomless, naked, portafilter, ristretto

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Another long hiatus for me since the last post. I haven’t been roasting nor pulling either. I did a good roast half an hour before midnight on Feb 23rd. Ethiopian Sidamo roasted to Viennese in 5:28 minutes as recorded on my iPhone. Did a pull this morning as I couldn’t wait any longer. BRING BACK THE 45 SECOND RISTRETTO! I tried to take pictures, but my iPhone resetted itself after installing some apps. But I got these pictures below as a consolation.

A bit blurry, no channeling.

The grind was right, funnel formed right in the centre, pour ran about 45 seconds before there was even a hint of blonding. I shall be better prepared tomorrow. Check out the machined edge of the Verna naked/bottomless portafilter.

There was a hint of lemony brightness, a bit of dark chocolate notes, a guinness pour as the beans are too fresh, should peak in another 2 days. But I can’t wait, so I’ll do another tomorrow.

I can’t remember my last pull before this. My Anita has been neglected! The pump almost wouldn’t come on to fill the boiler.

Technorati Tags: quickmill anita, ecafe sidamo, ethiopia, naked portafilter, bottomless, funnel, ristretto

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I’ve had a long hiatus since my last post, what with handling a chaotic comic book shop, and trying to move the whole shenanigan to a new place (more on this later), I haven’t even the time to do a roast. But I managed to find some time, what with my poor time management skills, to allocate for Roast Day Sunday last.

Today is Day 3 of SM Italian Espresso Blend. I did a pull yesterday, sorely out of temptation as I haven’t had a “proper” drink in quite a while. Yesterday’s was kinda grassy, too bright for my liking, and well, not well-rested.

Today. Today, on the other hand. What a difference a full day makes!

Assisted by the 2 megapixel camera on my iPhone (has anyone seen the curvaceous MacBook Air?), and my military grade Surefire L2 light, among an entire entourage of devices such as the venerable Eric Svendon Digital Thermometer Device, and not forgetting, the Anita, I sought out to find enlightenment in these dark days. (My, my, this is just after my 2nd drink.) Without further ado, here is the following sequence of my (haphazard, can’t help it - one hand holding the iPhone feels like one hand tied) ritual:

First drops of nectar. I was so sure there wasn’t enough light, so I used a Surefire L2, which provided a 15 lumens flood beam. Overkill. Looks like 10 seconds at this point. The Anita provides a pre-infusion of about 8 to 9.5 seconds at around 3 bars. During these first drops, the pressure climbs to a 9 bar at a steady rate.

Here, you see the Guinness effect (akin to a Guinness Stout pour, non-believers), which happens when you have well rested beans. The colour is really slightly darker, but thanks to the Surefire Overkill, it appears so much lighter.

More of the Guinness pour. This is really looking good. From experience, this looks like 15 seconds into the pour. (Non-believers, this is espresso, no milk added.) On the right, that’s the hot water wand, which I always swing out of the way, to allow easy access to the brew lever. And that’s a Bodum Pavina 2.7 oz, by the way. And why is it kissing the naked portafilter? You will see….

Mmmmmm… The iPhone moves slightly lower to reveal the dark coffee starting to invade the voluminous crema. The tamping was not done well, because, at this point, I noticed that the funnel was not coming from the center, but rather to the right. Another smaller drop was forming to the left, but seemed to be drawing nearer to the main funnel. I could seem the righteous left(no pun intended) dark chocolatey drop forming, and was determined not to stop the flow until they reunite. This is hitting the 20 second mark. Come on, you slow drop!

OK. So, chocolate drop at left field went independent. It didn’t seem that left field was yielding anything more than a drop, and flow is starting to thin. Time to reach for the brew lever. It is now 25 seconds.

And it’s a fumble! Lights out. So, Surefire was needed afterall. Whoops. 28 seconds. Thank God I tamped really hard just now. Seems to be paying off.

So, now you know why Pavina was almost kissing the naked Verna Design portafilter. Have you seen a Verna up close? You have not seen a naked portafilter til you have a Verna. If I were Pavina, I would be kissing the Verna pf too. Remember what I said about the Macbook Air? The Verna portafilter is to all other naked portafilters what the MacBook Air is to all other generic laptops. More on this later in a separate post. OK, back to the main event. Note: colours are really darker than what it looks like here. Everyone? “SUREFIRE OVERKILL ! ! !”

This was taken approximately 10 seconds after the pour. Raised platform sponsored by Espressoparts.com’s excellent measured shot glass. However, I’ve not had the pleasure of measuring anything with it yet. The 2nd drink was not as good as the first. A slight thinning out as I was fumbling for the brew lever, and careful not to place the iPhone on anything hot.

Here’s another look at the crema laden pour, with espressoparts shot glass trying to edge itself nearer to bask in the limelight. “Hey, Mom! Hey, quit shoving!”

Slight channeling to the left, where the left ear is. It could be from the disengaging of the portafilter from the grouphead, right? But, I think not. Can’t blame anyone, darn! Eric’s Digital Thermometer (EDT), on the left, says hi. The reason you are able to see the colours through the Pavina is because I flushed the Anita with EDT, and heated the Pavina with the ensuing flush. Without the Pavina all heated up, the glass would be more hazed up than it is in the pictures above. The Bodum’s double walled insulation helped a lot here. And that’s why I’m not using the EP shot glass. Besides, the Verna Design pairs up wonderfully with the Pavina.

In summary, I would like to thank the following uhh.. tools that gave these 2 wonderful pours light of day. Quickmill for designing a beauty of a machine, the Anita; Eric Svendson for the digital thermometer to aid in my flushing attempts; Verna Design for making a beautifully crafted and cut portafilter; Bodum for artfully crafting a double walled insulated shot glass; Espressoparts.com for equally making a flat bottomed shot glass; Surefire for providing adequate flood light. Last but not least, thanks to the tutelage from the people at CoffeeGeek, Home-Barista, and CGSG, without whom I would not have the necessary skills to pull this off.

A small announcement to make. This blog post has taken too much of my time, and a lot feel that time should be better spent at the shop, so put 2 and 2 together, Anita and all the tools mentioned here will be making the exodus to the new place. Stay tuned either here or at my shop blog to figure out where we will all end up next. And if you are a CG, HB, or a CGSG, just mention your affiliations, and I’ll see to it you’ll have a nice welcome drink. More on this in another post. I’m late for work. See you soon. BIG SMILE.

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This Ethiopian beauty was roasted to a rolling 2nd crack. This particular bean has a long 1st crack, starting from 2:00 to 4:30 minutes. And 2nd crack comes only 30 seconds later. I wasn’t listening out for a 2nd crack, I was still waiting for 1st crack to stop, which was my mistake. The roast came out with oily patches, which I feel is a bit overroasted.

After resting for 1 day, I pulled a shot, which was far too acidy. That, and because I kept my grinder setting at 2 from my previous batch of Vivace Dolce Malabar blend.

After the 3rd day of rest, and setting my grinder at 4, the coffee has almost peaked. The bean is extremely oily. ARRRGGGHHH! U can whiff out the floral scents of the Sidamo. This Ecafe winner scored a cupping of 90.2. I can see why. With the more floral coffees like the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, I like to drink the first half of the double shot as an espresso, and the 2nd half as an americano. The taste of an espresso is complex. Nothing like adding water to a wellpulled espresso to broaden the taste spectrum. Of course, this tasting will be nothing compared to when we arrive at the next topic. (Drum roll)

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Rituals. You have your japanese tea ceremonies. I have my daily morning coffee ritual.

First thing when I wake up,

1)  Turn on the Gaggia Espresso machine.

2)  Set my Bodum Pavina glass under the portafilter.

3)  Wash up.

4)  20 minutes pass and my machine’s all heated up. I run through 3 shots of water. This takes approximately 5 minutes. Both portafilter and glass are heated up this way.

5)  After the green ready light goes off, meaning the boiler starts up, I select my choice of coffee, set my grinder and measure out 20 grams into the grinder. Start grinder.

6)  By the time the grinder stops, the green ready light will turn on, signifying the correct brewing temperature has been reached.

7)  Unlock the portafilter, and wipe it clean and dry. Careful, it’s hot!

8)  Dose the portafilter. Tap the portafilter and dose again until the grinder’s empty.

9)  Level the grounds in the portafilter. Almost none of the grounds get wasted most of the time.

10) With a pressure of 35 lbs, the tamping begins. I tamp with a clockwise downwards screwing motion, and adjust the portafilter with the handle pointing at 8 o’ clock once, and at 5 o’ clock once. I ensure that the tamper/portafilter is level before locking it into the grouphead.

11) I turn on the water for a little bit to get rid of steam. No PID here.

12) Portafilter locked and loaded! Discard the water in the glass and set it under the portafilter. Turn on the flow. Start the clock.

13) I time it so I won’t exceed the 25 second mark, all the while watching the colour and noting the speed of the flow from the naked portafilter. Time overrides colour. Speed of the flow (size of the funnel) will determine my 2nd shot’s grinder setting.

14) Nothing like a nice tiger-striped chocolate coloured coffeespout (as opposed to waterspout) to greet you in the morning. The beauty of a naked portafilter. You lemmings drinking $tarbuck$ don’t know what you are missing. And the Pavina is a work of art too. End the flow when it looks right, remove the glass.

15) Espresso without crema won’t look nor taste right. Down your glass of guinness, and prep for next shot. Problem with the Gaggia Espresso is it doesn’t have a 3 way valve, so I have to wait a few minutes, and ease the portafilter slowly to not have coffee splattered across the wall. The Gaggia Sneeze!

I’m roasting the world’s best coffee beans and I was so excited I forgot to time the roast. I stopped the roast at the verge of 2nd crack. I should’ve stopped it before hitting 2nd crack. You know, after roasting espresso roasts most of the time, you just have a knack of stopping it at or after 2nd crack. I’m not used to roasting medium roasts.

As I opened the bag after 2 days’ rest, this familiar chocolate hazelnut fragrance hits me.  Hmmm…  Vivace Dolce a blend of Gesha and  Monsooned Malabar??  This would really explain why Espresso Vivace puts like 95% monsooned beans in their blend.

I know I know. I should be french pressing this, but I couldn’t resist the ease of the aeropress. So, here’s my first Gesha aeropresso.

I did not use the aeropress scoop, I dosed my usual 20 grams (my daily dose in the triple basket.) I would think the aeropress scoop, which is about 1 1/4 times more than a normal scoop would be overkill. This coffee is just super fragrant, and I don’t wish to overload my senses.

Here goes… Hints of chocolate, smells of hazelnut, tastes very tea-like, smooth. Methinks it would be better if I try an americano next. Why oh why am I not making a french press? Because my french press looks really crudded up, and I don’t want to mix in freaking expensive to high hell coffee with jurassic crud in the french press.

I even cleared out the grinder in between grinds. Nothing must mess this ritual up. OK now, on to my next. It’s ok. One thing there is to note about drinking your own roasted coffee is never ever overextract your coffee just because it costs as high as US$130 a pound. It’s ok. 25 seconds or 2.5 ounces of water later and you dump the 20 gram puck. IT’S OK. 25 seconds or less. I’ll try for a americano ristretto this time, did I get that right, a restricted americano. IT’S OKAY.

MDF set at 3. This is not malabar. Malabar’s cool at 2. DO NOT OVEREXTRACT. Whoa. Good tiger-striping.  Ok, I see white and off the flow now. Oh wait, there’s still crema leaking into the drip tray. NOOOOOOO…… The drip tray gods must be happy today. Please bless me with good sales at work today so that I may continue to feed good coffee into thine drip tray.

I just couldn’t resist. Gesha espresso, especially with quite a bit of crema, though not as much as malabar vivace. Oooo. It’s like drinking unadulterated perfume. Spill some on me. Cheaper per ounce than Chanel. OK, americano here we go.

OH DRIP TRAY GODS! If I thought the aeropresso was EDT, this americano is like drinking perfume, despite diluting it with water 2:1. Imagine if I were to bring this over to Steve’s or Kai Seng’s, OMG! This is Yirgacheffe multiplied 20 times! I can’t even begin to describe the fragrance to you. You just have to dump your Apple shares and buy this Gesha. (One AAPL share = one pound of Gesha)

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.

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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!