Coffee Appreciation

The method in James Hoffman's book for a cafetiere was a revelation when I used it last week. It uses the quantaties that NurseHoliday mentioned but the steep times & pouring method was very different what I usually use. Made a seriously good cup. I'll try and paraphrase it when I get home.

I'd be interested in hearing that, please do :-)

Looks like I was wrong about measures. JH suggests 75g per litres of water and using scales thoughout to measure volumes.

1. Put the coffee in cafetiere, pour water on quickly and try to get all coffee wet.
   
2. Leave for 4 mins. A crust will form on top.
   
3. After 4 mins stir the crust and the ground coffee will fall to the bottom. Spoon out any foam and/or floating grounds from the top.
   
4. Wait 5 mins. Any grounds or fine particles will drop to the bottom.
   
5. Put the mesh plunger at the top but do not press down. Plunging causes turbulence which agitates the grounds that have already settled.
   
6. Pour the coffee slowly though the mesh plunger.
   
   

I'd generally used a cafetiere with the same kind of timings I'd used for an aeropress (high volume of coffee with 30 sec wetting, 30 secs steeping, 30 secs plunging) and was skeptical about this but it made a good clean cup that was more like a v60 than I expected. Will be using it again.

@harpoonist

I not a cafetiere fan, but I preferred long steeps with very coarse grinds.

@jdp thanks, really interesting method that. can I just check, is that 4 minutes and then a further 5 minutes (surely not?!) or just 5 minutes total? I tried @NurseHolliday 's method this morning again and definitely had a cleaner cup. I am a fan of v60 but can't be bothered making 3 cups in the morning so anything that brings the cafetiere close is a bonus. i'll let you know my results.

It is 4 mins, then 5 mins (so 9 in total). That was what I was very sceptical about but it did work like that.

Try not pressing but pouring through slowly, use the plunger as a filter rather than a press.

Should be a lot cleaner and created less agitation at the end of the Brew. Just pour smoothly and slowly.

This is basically recreating cupping, a long slow brew that is used for grading coffees.

Method matters little, stick to one and change your recipe/methodology. If you like a super clean brew, then cafetiere is probably not the right choice, a 6 cup chemex would new the same amount and provide you with that clarity.

Generally I use a v60 but just tried that as Hoffman's method was so different from what I would do normally on the rare occasions I use a cafetiere.

Thanks for sharing this - just tried it, and was really pleased with the result.

Customer services are happy to replace it - if I give them £20.99 plus £2.95 delivery!

Errr, it's a plastic knob!

Fuuuuuuu.

There are loads of interesting recommendations posted in this thread, most of which I miss.

So, I'd be interested to see some basic stats for the forum's coffee drinking habits and preferences - ie, a chart showing our favourite roasters, blends, brew techniques, budget or blow-out buys, surprising supermarket finds etc.

I guess that would require a poll though and does anyone do polls unless there's some reward to be gained? Hmm, perhaps a list would be better...

I think it's all quite changeable and any poll will simply be a snapshot of that moment, here's mine:

I'm 60/40 aeropress to v60 use at the mo but just done 2 days of espresso machine brews. There's occasionally a single cup stovetop.

For both filters I'm working around 16.5g to 180ml at relatively fine Porlex Mini grind and brew time < 3 mins.

Espresso about 14g for appx 25s for appx 'double shot' allowing for all the variance introduced via my technique, entry level grinder and machine (mc2 & classic).

Stovetop takes 10g in basket but clogs up so I dose about 9g per brew, cold water at start.

Ancoats beans (Warehouse City blend, various SO's) all round on account of 1 local and easy to get hold of, 2 lightish roast, & 3 consistent enough brews to keep me happy.

Here's my non sequiturial list:

Local roast - Deluca's espresso blend
Local roast - Black Pearl espresso blend
At home it's stove top, switching between Kaliffa and Kona Bialetti makers.
Away it's X-Cues, Nucci's Gelati and Cafferia 360.

All in Winnipeg, soz...

be quick... sub £30 Gaggia machine

Surveymonkey Free has some decent analytics

Anyone know where I can buy some decent beans in Dalston?

Great deal on a good grinder here:
http://www.bellabarista.co.uk/special-offers/eureka-mignon-instantaneo-grinder-auto-manual-white-used.html#prettyPhoto/0/

Interesting, I will try that today. Thanks for writing that out.

The only negatives I can think of are that it takes much longer to brew, and then pouring through the mesh plunger will be achingly slow? It's like doing a pourover but you're pouring at the speed it comes out of the filter.

@NurseHolliday i found doing 'the clean' made a huge difference and meant that when using the mesh as a filter it didn't get too clogged.

Not slow at all when pouring although I only usually do a small cafeitere.
Does take longer to brew though but hey, about 5 mins; set the alarm earlier :)

Well that's no bloody use to me, is it?! ;)

Indeed - I like Gizmo but it aint free.

Well if you're ever going to Japan the long way around swing by for a cuppa, we're happy to put up any forumengers for the night.

Bellabarista helpful as ever when I needed to take out another subscription

props to @StevePeel and Marko