Mmm, coffee

Lavazza Crema e' Gusto......

Lavazza Crema e' Gusto......

My Favorite 

Buccee's Cinnamon Roll with coffee this morning...

Today's brew was Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) Mexico La Laja Honey Process (medium roast) using my opaque plastic Hario V60-01 with regular Cafec filters and James Hoffmann's "A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique" recipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oB1oDrDkHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5WQ1sZzW4o

I have never had consistent brews with V60s (01 or 02 size) so I was preparing to PIF my opaque plastic Hario V60-01 and V60-02 brewers. I figure that I had V60 covered with my Hario Switch (leaving the switch in the open position). I decided to brew the the V60-01 again and see how it would work with my Oxo electric goose neck kettle now that I feel I have the pouring under control for the most part with that kettle. It was an excellent cup! The chocolate flavor was very pronounced and it was a very good cup. I could probably dial it in a little better, but out of the gate, it was one of the best V60 brews I have ever had.

That then made me consider repeating the brew with the same settings with the Hario Switch as a V60 (taking time to heat the glass by closing the switch to start, then opening the switch before I started brewing). From a Tale's Coffee video, Vincent stated that the 02 size Hario Switch is more like a 1.5 instead of size 02, so I was curious if I would get the same results (knowing that that V60 brews in general can be inconsistent if you are not using them on a regular basis).

The Hario Switch brew was pretty good, but I preferred the V60-01 brew. Eye balling the brewers, the Hario Switch is probably 1/3 taller than my opaque plastic V60-01 which combined with the height of my kitchen counter meant a different pouring angle which resulted in a faster pouring speed from my kettle.

Combined with not needing to preheat the opaque plastic V60s and that the V60s I have handle different capacities (01, 02 vs. 1.5 of the Switch), I plan on keeping my V60s for now. Being able to keep the kettle spout closer to the brew bed for smaller doses is another plus of keeping the V60-01 in particular. I thought of picking up a glass V60-01 and swapping out the cone in the Switch but I don't see the need to do that at the moment as my hybrid recipes call for the standard size Switch cone.

On a totally different note, I upgraded my 1zpresso JX manual grinder with a 1zpresso K-Ultra grinder. The K-Ultra came this afternoon, so I have not tried anything with it yet other than to check the zero on the grinder. I am debating whether I will season the grinder first or just start using it. I have read that people season their grinders with rice or cheap/old coffee. I am not sure which way I will go with that. I am temped just to use it as is knowing that the grind will change subtly after a few bags of beans have been ground with the grinder. I probably will just make a note in my coffee logs of how many bags have be been ground with the grinder and note my brews as 'pre-season' settings until I see differences in the brew.

Today's brew was Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) Mexico La Laja Honey Process (medium roast) .

Today was the second day with my new grinder, so I continued with a recipe where I had specific grind settings for the recipe for my specific grinder.

I used the Hario Switch with the Coffee Chronicler recipe (hybrid recipe):



Today's beans were Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) Mexico La Laja Honey Process (medium roast).
Today was the second day with my new grinder, so I continued with a recipe where I had specific grind settings for the recipe for my specific grinder.

I used the Hario Switch with the Coffee Chronicler recipe (hybrid recipe):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ZOXrXbVHc

I tried a second setting that someone recommended for pour over and it worked better than yesterday's settings which were a little bitter for the beans I was using. I did notice after I added all the water that an air pocket developed between the cone and the filter towards the top of the cone. That probably introduced some side channeling but it still was a pretty tasty cup as the chocolate notes came through. I did have the metallic taste at one point in the cooling process but it went away.

I picked up a bag of Eight O' Clock original blend whole bean coffee from the grocery store last night to season the grinder (at least the point of losing the metallic taste) but I ran out of time to start the project. I was looking for less expensive, non-flavored, whole beans and these were even medium roast which checked all the boxes (since I didn't want really oily dark roast beans oiling up my new grinder). I don't like wasting coffee, so I am going to plan out several brews to use with those beans and set aside enough coffee to try out these beans and hopefully get a few more grind settings established for some of my other brewers. I will brew with those beans once I have ground up the rest of the bag so that the metallic taste will be gone.

Here is a link to an article on seasoning burr grinders:
https://craftcoffeespot.com/grinder/coff...seasoning/

I hope everyone has a great day!

I picked up a bag of Eight O'Clock Coffee -The Original (whole Bean) coffee yesterday for the purpose of seasoning my new grinder to the point of losing the metallic aftertaste (hopefully). Tonight, I ground 2/3 of the bag for seasoning but held back about 100g of coffee just to get a few grind settings for some other brewers.

I did three brews tonight. One with the Hario Mugen using the April Coffee recipe and two with Kalita Wave 155 using the Project Barista 155 Recipe. I was using ballpark settings I found in comments on YouTube, knowing that those settings were not for these brewers. None of the settings yielded good cups but I now know three settings not to use.

The coffee still had the metallic aftertaste, so I will wind up grinding the rest of the bag (64g left) before I go back to my nicer coffee but I will probably try a few more brew settings with these two brewers to get some solid starting grind settings to use for other beans.

This morning, I finished off the bag of Eight O'Clock Coffee -The Original (whole Bean) coffee for seasoning my new grinder.

I did probably four brews between the Hario Mugen using the April Coffee recipe and the Kalita Wave 155 using the Project Barista 155 Recipe.

I picked up good starting points for those recipes going forward with K-Ultra.



I then changed gears and brewed Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Mexico La Laja Honey Process with the Hario Switch using the Coffee Chronicler recipe (hybrid recipe). I think the metallic aftertaste of an unseasoned grinder is now gone (or at least greatly diminished) having run a bag of beans through the grinder.



Have a great day!

I have found no difference in coffee flavor between freshly ground coffee beans and the same beans pre-ground and sold in vacuum packed bricks.

I have found no difference in coffee flavor between freshly ground coffee beans and the same beans pre-ground and sold in vacuum packed bricks.

Very interesting! What is your brew method?

I have found no difference in coffee flavor between freshly ground coffee beans and the same beans pre-ground and sold in vacuum packed bricks.

Very interesting! What is your brew method?

Moka Pot.