Coffee... my love affair with coffee seems to continue on. Legend says that this drink was first discovered around 800BCE by an Ethiopian goat herder who notice that his goats became "excited" after eating berries from a mysterious shrub. Whether this compelled him to brew himself a cup of "coffee" from these berries may never be proven, but coffee is something that many people love and say can't live without. Ludwig van Beethoven supposedly brewed each cup of coffee with exactly 60 beans and Lloyd's of London started as a coffee house in 1668.
The only job that didn't conflict with my courses this semester was a job at a coffee shop. Hours are flexible and I am actually learning a lot about coffee, some basics I already knew, but the more detailed procedures of creating the perfect brew of coffee or perfect 30ml shot of espresso... these things I did not know. I decided I'd share my newly found information about coffee acquired while working as a barista.
The only job that didn't conflict with my courses this semester was a job at a coffee shop. Hours are flexible and I am actually learning a lot about coffee, some basics I already knew, but the more detailed procedures of creating the perfect brew of coffee or perfect 30ml shot of espresso... these things I did not know. I decided I'd share my newly found information about coffee acquired while working as a barista.
As most of you may already know, there are 2 types of coffee "beans" (which are not really beans at all but pits of a cherry-like fruit): robusta beans and arabica beans.
Of these two varieties, robusta is basically the "low quality" version, (meaning lots of caffeine but no flavor). It's like cheap vodka or malt liquor of the coffee world: basically, avoid it.
The beans themselves can't produce flavor, they need to be roasted and flavors are released through pyrolysis. Since the beans themselves are different, different roasts are suitable for different beans and finding the "sweet spot", where the acidity, body, and flavor all balance into a perfect cup of Joe, that's pretty tricky.
Basically: the longer you roast, the darker the roast, the lower the caffeine:
Light City/Light or "Cinnamon" Roast - high in caffeine, but beans have not really gone through full pyrolysis
Medium or "City" Roast - Good roast to taste subtle differences in beans
Dark or Full City Roast - "Ideal" balance of flavor and body
Vienna/French/Very dark or "Espresso" Roast - trading in flavor for body
Italian Roast - low in caffeine, virtually no flavor of the actual bean is left since it's practically charcoal (ironically, most espresso in Italy are actually made with medium "city" or dark, "full city" roasts)
When brewing your cup of coffee, you should know that 30% of the bean is extractable, but only the first 20% tastes good and the last 10%... not so much since you'd extract all the bitterness of the coffee. The trick is to extract just the first 20% to have a delicious cup of coffee and not to go beyond to extract the bitterness. Controlling the brew time, grind size, proportion of coffee to water, and the water temperature are essentials to creating the perfect cup.
Grind size depends on what machine you're using, whether you're using a manual, drip machine, French press, etc., grind size should be appropriate for each device (finer grinds for drip machines, coarser/larger grinds for a French press). When people say they don't like coffee because it tastes bitter or too strong, they often don't realize that they simply don't like over-extracted coffee. You need to have an ample amount of coffee grounds to prevent over-extraction, something people who say they don't like coffee don't do and instead use fewer grounds, which means more of the beans will be extracted = bitter taste. For each 6oz (177ml) cup of coffee, 2 tablespoons (5.6g) of ground coffee should be used. Thus 6oz. (177ml) of water : 2 tablespoons (5.6g) of ground coffee. The water should also be at a temperature just off the boil 190-205F (87.8 - 96.1C) for a total brew time of 4 to 5 minutes.
Follow these simple rules, and you can have coffee shop-quality coffee in the comfort of your own home!
Today's Random Picture:
The Earth at night (click on image to see full picture)
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