Crema de la Crema: an espresso blog

I first came across this word when I watched an episode of Boston Legal where James Spader’s character, Alan Shore explains it as “taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune.” I am guilty of schadenfreude when I read about Starbucks closing their stores. I’m thinking in the perspective of someone who enjoys coffee, as someone who enjoys good coffee. I’m not thinking in terms of the twelve thousand jobs lost, or the greater numbers of lives that will be affected as a cause of this major retrenchment. As a result of Starbucks closing their 600 stores in US, will this really pave the way for better coffee?

If there’s one thing good about Starbucks, it has to be this:

If Starbucks coffee wasn’t so bad, we won’t be out there looking for the good.

You people with your La Marzoccos, your La Pavinas, your Expobars, your Quickmills, your Faemas, would you have wanted it any other way? Your spouses will beg to differ, I think.

Anyone who’s ever tinkered with their pc would know what the above widget is. This stainless steel widget is the PCI slot cover found at the back of your personal computer. What is it doing in my coffee blog?

Well, I was doing some minor cleaning work on my Quickmill Anita today. The grouphead, specifically. It got to the point where the brush wasn’t enough.

Have you seen the caked up coffee deposits on the inside of your grouphead? You should. It’ll make you lose your morning coffee. Pallo tools are just not angled to make the desired cleaning.

Enter the PCI Cleaner. Ahem.

Use with care. The PCI Cleaner is angled perfectly to reach and dislodge the caked deposits. You may then use the Pallo Coffetool or a brush to brush off any excess. I was contemplating on adding some chamois at the tip of the PCI Cleaner.

Another tool of my improv brought about by too much free time. Hope it helps in your endeavour to a cleaner cup of coffee.

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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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Roast notes:

Chaffs only starting from 1st crack. 1st crack starts late, around 3 minute mark. 2nd crack starts around 4:40. Stopped at 5:30, a rolling 2nd crack.

As I write this entry, I’m on my 2nd cup. My 1st cup was under-dosed, and thus under-powered. Here’s my pour:

Just to sidetrack a bit, I got a new camera. A Fuji Finepix F50fd. What a great camera. What sets this ultra compact aside from the rest of the Sonys and Nikons and Canons is its sensitivity settings. The ISO for this beauty goes all the way to 6400. And unlike the rest of the gang and including some DSLRs, the Finepix handles noise very well. The above photo is taken at auto program, an ISO of 400. On other cams, you’ll be seeing pixellated noise, not on this baby. And if you ever ever find its predecessor F31fd, lay your hands on it. The F31fd handles noise better than any camera in its class, and outside its class, including DSLRs. Anyway, on to more pressing matters…

Where was I? Moreninha. There’s a certain tang to it. Not lemony brightness, no. I can’t pinpoint it. Also, there’s this more dominant taste waiting to spring out. I can’t pinpoint it either. Methinks I have to be patient and wait another 2 days rest before I can get the full flavour of this coffee.

Technorati Tags: brazil, moreninha, formosa, f50fd

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I’ve got just a bit of Vivace Dolce left, over 3 weeks since their roast date. To make the best of it, I’ve been

1. Keeping the beans in its original one way valve bag, taking care to press out as much air out of the bag before ziplocking it.
2. Keeping the coffee beans in the dark, away from light.
3. Drinking only Aeropress - I can taste the staleness when I did espresso for the beans a week past the roast date. Aeropress is one of the ways to go. Having Aeropressed coffee from 3 week old beans still beats coffee from any of the major chains in Singapore.

Mmmm… I just snuck a few sniffs from the bag of freshly roasted Brazil Moreninha Formosa. Needs maybe 2 more days of rest.

Technorati Tags: aeropress, stale coffee, valve bag

Found this link on Engadget. Silvia married Wii. Looks like she’s PID’d too. While the GS3 sports a joystick, this Silvia’s armed with a nunchuck.

Technorati Tags: wii, rancilio, silvia

Have you ever wondered how to get rid of the unsightly coffee or water stains on the stainless steel parts of your espresso machine? I have, and I’ve just found the perfect solution. I Googled and came to this informative site. This site recommends using olive oil, vinegar or club soda.

I decided to use a metal polish instead, as I had a tube of Autosol lying around. And lo and behold, after a night of applying some elbow grease, this was the result.

Brand spanking new! The Anita looked better than when I first got it from Chriscoffee. Out of the entire small tube of Autosol, I ‘ve used not more than 1 cm of cream for the entire machine. Not being food-safe, I was careful not to apply it on the portafilter. I soaked the portafilters and baskets in a bowl of hot water and Urnex Cafiza solution.

In fact, the Anita machine looked so new I was almost afraid to use it today. After my first brew, the stains wipe off easily, and the machine still looks great.

** I highly recommend using Autosol for your espresso machines. **

Technorati Tags: espresso, machine, clean, stainless steel, autosol, urnex, cafiza

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This website, Crema de la Crema has been properly formatted for optimal viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. It looks great on my iPhone running firmware 1.1.2.

Technorati Tags: format, iphone, ipod, touch, 1.1.3, 1.1.2, 1.0.2, firmware, blog.colinloh.com, espresso

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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