Coffee Appreciation

Ahhh. Summer is close in Los Angeles and today it's approaching 30 degrees. It's been really cold recently so I've been drinking a lot of filter instead of espresso.

Today I cracked out the Hoffman iced filter recipe and forgot how great it is. Yuuummmm.

Haven't tried that yet, but I quite enjoy an espresso with tonic over ice for warm days

Gotta offset my coffee snobbery somehow!

Yeah V60. It tastes really underextracted, so I'd up the brew time (which also the compass recommends). I'm just confused that different beans have such different brew times with the same setup.

Yeah this is an absolute certi banger

Bosh! I’m very excited to try these, particularly the Passalacquas. Still got a third of a bag of Lavazza Grand Barista to go through. Gah...

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I vary between 16 - 18g of beans, three grind settings and 275 - 300ml of water depending on the beans I'm using (and 90% of my beans come from the same two roasters). What annoys me most is when you only get everything dialled in just as you come to the end of the bag....

Can definitely see an Avogadro & toast kicking off as an overpriced breakfast item.

I'm prepared to make all of those

Questionable and outdated logo design. I'd expect nothing less from my fellow Italians...

A question for you though: what is the appeal of drinking espresso like this? Whenever I see vacuum packed Italian coffee I think of burnt tasting, carcinogenic coffee that needs a heap of sugar to make it palatable. Is this stuff different?

This is my over riding experience of Italian espresso

Which is fine when there’s some grappa handy
But wouldn’t be my go to for home drinking

I like Napoletan espresso - darker roasted, lower acid, rich, lots of Crema and small. Also like a bit of Robusta in there. I don’t altogether appreciate a lot of the 3rd wave stuff we get in LA. Reminds me a bit of natural wine, though I’ve had a few cracking shots too.

I’ll report back!

Fair enough. Where you at @Jung ? I live in South Pas. Drinking some Ratio from LAMill this morning which is very nice. It's pretty dark for what they call a 'light' roast.

Also strongly, strongly recommend Quiet Prophet from Unincorporated Coffee in Altadena. Medium roasted but has exhibits no 3rd wave qualities whatsoever. Medium-dark with the following notes (according to them): FULL BODIED, SWEET AROMAS, TOASTED ALMONDS, CHOCOLATE.

Sounds good! - we’ve friends in Altadena so I’ll pick some up when I’m next up there. We’re in Echo Park - Woodcat is my local and they’re roasting their own now too. Good stuff, if a bit on the medium side for me. Sadaat (owner) makes a killer shot if you catch him in there.

Cool cool cool. My dog sitter lives in Elysian Heights and I'm taking our dogs there for Memorial Day - I'll be sure to head into Woodcat before we hit the road to go to Borrego! Thanks for the rec!

Enjoy! If you’re off to Anza B? Pack some shade. Me and the Mrs just came back from camping in Joshua Tree and it is getting toasty...I came back a little torrefied....

Couldn’t delay gratification and opened the Mehari - love it! Definitely dark, has an almost sweet quality to it. Has the spousal seal of approval which is the main thing...

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Love the finish on that Pav and glad you like the coffee!

Yeah, we're going to Borrego Springs itself. No camping or anything. We just need a break and I finally feel safe to travel given I am vaccinated and so are so many others. So, we are going to Borrego Valley Inn for the night. Leaving LA at around 10AM on Memorial Day and heading back on Tuesday afternoon. Need to figure out our plans but will probably just go for a short walk at Slot Canyon and then retreat to our hotel for some pool time and stargazing on the patio.

But yeah, no kidding, the temperature has really jumped this week. Gonna be a high of 38˚ on Monday! At least it's not gonna be humid like it was here yesterday. Yuck.

For some reason my latest beans take up way more volume for the same weight. I usually drink YB espresso blend and get 18g comfortably in the portafilter but with the beans I got from my local place, I struggle to fit the portafilter in the machine with 16g in.

Lower density = lower altitude = lower mmmmm. Not necessarily true, you’ll be the judge of that, but it’s a decent rule of thumb.

Are your latest a darker roast? I think the weight per bean goes down as they get further heated.

Is that why the Dutch are famously poor coffee producers?

That’s right, if you consume coffee grown below sea level your energy levels fall and you become less flavoursome.