Coffee Appreciation

Nice haul. Be good to hear your thoughts on the Ancoats. I'm on their Peru Union y Fe espresso s.o. now and it is working really well.

First up is the Quarter Horse (Birmingham) Colombian Women Producers.

Made a regular 60g/litre/4min brew at 9:30. Very nice but I've been drinking that Small Batch Bolivian Uchumachi solidly for a couple of months now so need to get my head used to something else. As well as the absurd haul of coffee above I also received a Hario cold brew maker which I set up as per instructions with the Quarter Horse at 9am and started drinking at 5:30. Absolutely delicious. Never done cold brew at home and it's a revelation (especially on a hot day like this down in Brighton).

So basically that's 2 litres of coffee so far today and I'm READY for tonight- come at me, fussy baby!

PS - back story to the geographical diversity, we're thinking of moving out of Brighton so these are all roasters vaguely near where we could end up. High on the list of priorities (after rural/great scenery/close to sea) is excellent coffee within 2 hours drive.

Thanks again for the decanter, I used it to make iced coffee for the first time this morning which was surprisingly good!

I used this guide: https://www.moustachecoffeeclub.com/iced-coffee-with-your-chemex

Dat Small Batch Bolivian Uchumachi tho! So good.

fantastic as a pourover, even with my average skills!

Have only used with aeropress so far but is muy bien even with that.

It's a fucking phenomenon. I've never experienced coffee as completely pleasing to drink as that.

Hi James, sorry I missed this. Hope you're enjoying the Brasil.

In other news, I was lucky enough to take part in a cupping of Cup of Excellence 2017 top lots from Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and El Salvador (I've had the pleasure of being back at Monmouth to provide some temporary part-time roasting cover - such a brilliant company). I took the Costa Rica lot 1 sample back to the shop and it was stunning brewed in a chemex - completely kaleidoscopic complexity. It sold for $45.00 USD/lb which would be £250-£300/kg retail, although these lots tend to get given away for PR.

Am off to a 24 hour ultra race in 3 weeks and will only have v. Limited time to prepare coffee during my breaks.

Is it madness to consider making up a big bottle of coffee concentrate the night before and then prepare each cup from 1/3 concentrate and 1/2 hot water from thermos which I can re fill once or twice during my meal breaks.

The other option is to use thermos hot water in an aero press. I tested the thermos and water was still steaming hot after 24hrs so should be piping hot for the 8 hours or so between refills. Ideally should be refuelling and changing kit on my breaks so this is a bit too much of a faff I think.

If concentrate is fine. What's the easiest way to knock up a large batch? Big Chemex brewer?

I should add I will have my own tent in camp where I take my breaks so all the kit will be staying there not carried

I'd probably just put prepared hot coffee in a flask. Brewing fresh in an aeropress with under-temp water will probably have similar mediocrity as 12 hour thermos coffee but with more dicking about, unless you're really keen on the process. It's not like you're having eggs benny on the terrace on a sunday morning - you'll just be after a reasonably tasty caffeine hit rather than pursuing the Nth degree of quality won't you?

Ha

I thought you had seen the batsignal. beans arrived at 9am just as I had run out- so perfect timing and delicious coffee

I love it when a plan comes together.

this one? http://smallbatchcoffee.co.uk/coffee/bolivia-uchumachi-white-honey.html

👌

Considered a batch of cold brew?

I took a litre to a 12hr (movie) marathon last year and it was still tasting lovely by the end. Also packs a punch regarding caffeine content relative to standard filter (depending on how little you dilute it).

Depending on the intensity of the race I'd say a cold drink would be better than a boiling one also!

I'd probably just put prepared hot coffee in a flask. Brewing fresh in an aeropress with under-temp water will probably have similar mediocrity as 12 hour thermos coffee but with more dicking about, unless you're really keen on the process.

the trouble with that is when i run out i have to brew more which eats into my rest stop time, with concentrate i can make up a ton and the only prep beyond that is to fill and boil a kettle during my dinner and breakfast stops. add in aeropress to that and I burn another 3-4 minutes time and time is probably going to be super tight to achieve my target distance.

It's not like you're having eggs benny on the terrace on a sunday
morning - you'll just be after a reasonably tasty caffeine hit rather
than pursuing the Nth degree of quality won't you?

yeah this is my thought exactly on pre-preparing it. saw some blog posts about making a concentrate and thought i'd see if anyone had any successes with it here.

Chocolate covered coffee beans 😀
Strong cold brew in a small soft flask.

Thats going to be my caffeine options for Glenmore 24. Both options let you keep moving instead of dicking about standing still. Save the thermos for some hot soup just incase the going gets a bit grim.

Do what Mick said and make a litre of cold brew. If you brew it for 12 hours then you can drink it 50/50 with water, hot or cold, and it will give you a proper caffeine hit.

I think that's possibly similar to what I meant by concentrate, so what's the best cold brew method then?

I use 1:4.5 ratio of coffee to water, ground as coarse as French Press. Pop it in a container of some sort (I normally just use a well washed out milk container or glass jar) for 12 hours at room temperature. Filter through a V60/Chemex. Pop it in the fridge to chill.

I normally don't bother with diluting it. It tastes pretty damn smooth as is.

If you have a cafetiere, just use that. Brew it over night and in the morning don't push the plunger down but just pour the coffee through it trying not to disturb the grounds from the bottom. I tend to use 25g to 400ml of water and not bother to dilute it either.

Or buy a Hario cold brewer.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Teapots-Coffee-Servers/Hario-1000-Mizudashi-Cold-Coffee/B00I7JKAQ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498224880&sr=8-1&keywords=hario+mizudashi

I use about 80 grams of filter ground coffee to about 800ml of water.

Be interested to try cold brew via caffetiere as above but confused by different ratios:

1:4.5

25:400 = 1:16

80:800 = 1:10

All quite different, presume grind & brew time will be different too?

I got the 4.5 one from Stumptown for their fancy Filtron brewer. Personally not tried other ratios though so can't offer a comparison unfortunately.