Tag: TDS

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9 reasons to drink specialty coffee

…apart from the fact that it tastes great!

 

MeditateEven the busiest of specialty coffee lovers in their busy schedules have one or two moments a day when they just stop and let themselves go. That's basically meditation. And no, it doesn't necessarily mean doing yoga. The simple act of making a cup of coffee in the morning is a kind of silent ritual, when only you and your morning brew exist in the world. The water is heating up, the filter is washing, the first drops of this precious liquid fall into your cup, you breathe deeply, thinking of nothing, only in the moment, letting the moment happen... Congratulations, I don't know if you noticed, but you've finished your meditation, and you're ready to start the new day :)

Explore – Drink specialty coffee It means constantly exploring. Exploring coffee itself, different origins, new varieties, new processes, new regions. Coffee goes from being simply coffee to something that's always new, always exciting. Have you tried the Mundo Novo variety? Have you ever had coffee from Guatemala? What kind of Brazilian coffee do you prefer? Do you remember the time when it was "just coffee," just a regular dose of caffeine directly into your veins? 

Love – I'm not going to lie when I say that when we go to a restaurant, we expect a chef to love their job, and when we buy clothes, we expect the designer to love what they're doing? Specialty coffee, in many ways, is a product of love. At every level, people in the coffee business love what they're doing. Isn't that a perfect reason to drink it?

Get closer to the product – It's not unusual to find the producer's name on a bag of specialty coffee now. How powerful is that?! Once again, coffee, which used to be completely devoid of personality, is now a product named after the person responsible for growing it. I think this is a huge step toward appreciating the efforts of the people around us in general, and understanding that things don't just appear out of thin air; certain people produce them for us. We're all interconnected. It would be a huge impact to know the names of the people who produced the food in our refrigerator, wouldn't it? We can start with coffee.

Consume locally – Specialty coffee is best when enjoyed freshly roasted, no more than four weeks after the roast date. This is why many people prefer to find local coffee roasters and buy directly from them, ensuring that the coffee they drink will be fresh, even knowing the roast date. This isn't really the case with commercial coffee purchased at the supermarket. By purchasing locally roasted specialty coffee, we support small (or not so small) businesses and contribute to the fact that people in their communities are living better lives.

Appreciate the details – Anyone who has tried to make a “simple” espresso from scratch knows how difficult it is. I mean it. Evaluating the coffee’s potential, “building” the espresso desired in your mind, choosing the ratio, adjusting the grinder, tasting the result, measuring the TDS, adjusting the espresso to the desired extraction rate. All these steps are just to make a small, "simple" espresso. Anyone who starts drinking specialty coffee immediately understands that beauty is in the details, and every detail is important. And absolutely not just in coffee, but in life in general. Starting with your cup of coffee, you end up appreciating more and more every aspect of life that requires effort.

Community Specialty coffee has one of the most dedicated communities around it. As you begin your journey, you'll find more and more people involved in the world of coffee (or discover that some of your friends have been doing it for a while), share your preferences, your discoveries, and expand your perception. New friends, new acquaintances, new people, all centered around one simple thing called "coffee." And you thought it was just a drink, right?

Improve your tasting – in the tasting of everything. This one is simple. When we start paying attention to the coffee we're drinking, we'll want to pay attention to more of the things we're eating. You'll want to try different beers, different cheeses, you'll think about experimenting with new wines. You'll discover that whiskey can be different, bread can be made from different types of flour, and with different levels of fermentation required. You'll try sourdough. Craft beer. Natural wine. You'll expand your palate. And in this way, you'll end up eating more consciously, paying attention to the flavor of products even more than before. You'll be able to savor nuances you never knew existed.

Finding Harmony – Drinking specialty coffee brings peace and harmony to your life. Making coffee in the morning is like a meditation. It brings you closer to the local producer and roaster. It gives you an insight into what it takes to grow a product like coffee and how much love goes into a coffee bean after all the work put into bringing it to your table. Coffee ultimately becomes much more than we ever imagined. And yes, it tastes incredible!

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On the importance of not generalizing

On the importance of not generalizing
dav

I sat down with the idea of writing about one thing, and ended up thinking about something else :)

I've been thinking a lot about crema these past few days: does color really matter? Do lines matter? I mean, we all know something about it, from old-school standards. Or how over- or under-extracted espressos probably look. I'm curious about finding out information about those that are well extracted. I'd just like to clarify my doubts regarding flavor and... TDS Mainly, if there's any connection between them and the appearance of the cream. How does this influence the flavor? I'll probably run an experiment soon, just out of curiosity. 

But in the meantime, a brief comment on the coffee-related phrases I've heard that have raised more questions than answers, and why I don't see them as making sense, at least to me. All of these have to do with precision in sensory evaluation.

Specialty coffee has a lot to do with sensory evaluation.

And funny enough, it also has a lot to do with marketing now – all those Instagram posts, all that boasting about “my specialty coffee is more specialty than your specialty,” “our coffee is the best,” espresso machines sexy and expensive, etc…

I find it important to emphasize first that these machines are still operated by people. Skills still matter.

And so – once again – specialty coffee is really about sensory evaluation.  If there is one skill that is mandatory, it is tasting.And what is cupping? It's the ability to blindly evaluate the flavor, the sensory experience, of a beverage called coffee.  Basically, it's the ability to tune out everything else (everything you're being told), trust your judgment, and be as impartial as possible. 

So, some phrases that do indeed have to do with sensory evaluation, and made me think:

“This coffee has the acidity of an Ethiopian coffee.”   

A year ago, I had a guest, who was definitely well-versed in coffee, come over for an espresso. And after drinking it, he confidently shared his assessment with my bosses. When I heard it, I was absolutely amazed. "This coffee has the acidity of an Ethiopian coffee," (incidentally, it was Mundo Novo natural pulp from Brazil).

My internal questions, which arose almost immediately, were: and what is the acidity of Ethiopian coffee like? Are all the Ethiopian coffees do they have the same acidity?

I understand that what he probably meant was “this coffee has a high and pronounced acidity and for my taste it is too prominent, and it lacks balance” – I assume that, taking into consideration the common Portuguese taste, which is still present.

But you understand me, right? Anyone who has tasted Ethiopians You can understand what I mean. One can say that Ethiopians sometimes don't have that much body, as they're more on the floral side, like lime and bergamot, sometimes spices, depending on the region and the process – but regarding acidity, even if you try really hard, you can't make it seem the same. Or am I missing something?

I don't know. The acidity of Ethiopian coffee doesn't mean anything to me, except for the fact that it's a more complicated way of saying "high acidity." Let's be more precise in our sensory evaluation. If you intend to evaluate, evaluate intensity, evaluate quality.

And the other one I've heard, which I've heard like twice in the last few weeks, and I couldn't agree then, and I've understood that I still can't:

“It tastes like coffee from Brazil”

Brazil is huge. It has different types of coffee. Specialty and commercial. Usually naturally processed, or naturally pulped, but not always. There's been a lot of experimentation in recent years and many surprises. What do you mean by Brazilian coffee?

Good body? Low yield? Low acidity? Generic coffee flavor?

I understand that this is again a generalization in sensory experience, but my whole being calls for more precision.

“Coffee from Brazil” probably means catuaí, or mundo novo varieties, or acaia, widely grown there. It probably means natural pulped process. It probably means medium acidity.

Let's just be more precise, in our judgment, in our descriptions.

This is all we have left to do: agree on our vocabulary, try to be as precise as possible in our descriptions, train our palate, try to avoid generalizations, and constantly expose ourselves to different sensory experiences to expand our sensory memory.  

Because if it weren't for the flavor, we'd only be left with the image of specialty coffee as something hipster and trendy, but lacking something important at its core.

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Single-basket portafilters. Is it goodbye?

Single-basket portafilters. Is it goodbye?
…

I mean, I gave up. I really tried, I swear. Honestly, I feel like I'm the last barista on Earth who finally started using only double portafilters, while all the other guys already did a long time ago.

This is why I admit that I knew the single-basket portafilter had been excluded from specialty coffee because the shape of its basket leads to inconsistent extraction and makes it really difficult to pull good espressos consistently.

I was aware of the issues, but we were still using them, not to make a drastic change, but rather a step-by-step change. So when we finally said goodbye to the simple basket, I wanted to make sure everyone understood why.

We all work with single-serve portafilters, and we never thought it would be a problem. It's something that theoretically makes sense. One espresso = less coffee = single basket, two espressos = double. It seems perfectly logical, and it shouldn't cause any problems at all; on the contrary, it should help us manage our workflow. That was the original idea, I suppose. And it just didn't survive the specialty coffee wave.

Nowadays, the idea of using 7 grams for a single shot and 14 for a double, like the idea that an espresso is necessarily a 30 ml beverage extracted in 30 seconds, is a thing of the past. Some of us still remember these times (in fact, I entered the coffee world at the time when David Schomer's book was a barista bible, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here); the lucky ones have only heard of them. Never mind. Things have changed dramatically in the last five years, and they're going to change even faster in the future (in the direction of greater automation, as we all understand).

Back to the simple baskets. I'll tell you what I experienced and how I decided to stop using them. I know that many baristas who came along after the "30ml days" simply didn't use them, because they were considered defective in the first place. I wasn't one of those. And there are still many people who continue to use them.

To put it simply, with all the tools in use, it became extremely difficult for me to come to work every day and strive to ensure that our single and double shots had the same ratio, the same TDS, the same flavor, and all of that consistently. One espresso after another, all day long.

As I was saying before, consistency is key. Regarding the food, regarding the service, regarding the coffee.

And now imagine that battle. Not only do you want your double portafilter espresso to be the same, every shot—you want your portafilter with the single basket to produce the same espresso. Same weight, same flavor, same TDS. With the different geometry of the baskets. With the coffee trapped in the grinder. Because even with direct grinding, without using the dosing chamber, you'll have roughly 1g of coffee there—1g that's coarser or finer than you need—when you're switching between single and double.

So, goodbye to consistency. Or not. But you grind a little coffee each time you switch between a single or double shot. Extra work, extra waste, extra time.

Many people are concerned with the question, "What should I do with the other espresso if I only have to make one?" But I started asking myself at that point: How much coffee do I waste by adjusting that portafilter with the single basket, and then constantly switching between single and double portafilters throughout the day? Could it be more than two or three wasted espressos? What is the cost of one espresso to you?

Is it probably not as big a problem as we'd like to see it? Perhaps we end up losing more by insisting on using them than by actually switching?

When I said earlier that the simple baskets didn't survive the specialty coffee era, I was partly joking, partly not. Because it's only now, when we're starting to think, first, about numbers in coffee, and second, about specialty coffee as it is (look here the definition of specialty coffee that I adhere to) we discovered that they are actually lacking. Before, everyone was very happy with them.

And now, when we have more consistent grinds, when we roast more lightly and know how to cup better, and not only that, when we finally throw away the 50 ml measuring jug and buy the scale and refractometer, we discover that the portafilter with the simple basket has been letting us down all along. We only discover it now.

Is this a time for change? And… Is this goodbye?

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"One, Two, Three, Fight!" or thoughts on the barista competition

Thoughts on the barista competition

I'm in danger of making this post seem a bit biased—and that's why I'm going to be very careful writing it. But I want to write it because this is the topic that truly excites me. It feels "alive," controversial, and that alone makes it worthwhile to try.

Before I begin writing, I have to confess that I have no experience as a competitor. Partly due to my personality; partly, and mostly, because I've been moving from one country to another in recent years. However, I do have experience on the other side of the scene—as a trainer for competitors and as a sensory judge, which makes me familiar with the protocol.

So, as you've probably already guessed, I'd like to delve into the world of barista competitions today, and think out loud, here with you, about what drives people to compete, what motivates them, what it gives back to the industry, and also mention a few facts that I find interesting.

People who compete have one big thing in common. And it's not about them being objectively the best in the industry. They all have the desire to win, to try, to find out who's the best—to compete, in other words. What I mean is, not all qualified professionals compete. The sample isn't representative, if you understand what I'm talking about. 

Basically, we find out who's the best among those who consider themselves the best in some way, and are willing to say it out loud. Those guys who aren't quite sure, those guys who don't have enough of a "competitor vibe," who don't want to put themselves on the map and shout about themselves out loud—they might be better baristas, more creative, more professional than some competitors, but they're not competing, so...

And here comes the most curious thing for me about the "barista department." I don't know about you, but most of the baristas I know, those I've worked with, those I've trained, those I've spoken to—are women. Most of the baristas you'll see in coffee shops are women. 

And now let's see one thing, the list of competitors for the 2019 World Barista Championship7. There are currently 50 registered competitors, and only 7 of them are women. 7 of 50. 14%. 2016: 61 competitors, 12 of them women. 19,67%. Women simply don't compete. Why? Is there something at the core of competition that makes it more attractive to men, and not women?

There's a study that says women are more focused on other values, like connection and communication, and competition just doesn't fit with that because it's disconnecting. I know many more male baristas who dream of competing, putting themselves on the scene, when sometimes objectively they're not as skilled as some of the female baristas. But they just don't hesitate, or the idea of competing excites them much more. I don't know. But I wish we could have more women entering the competition.

Competing, and especially winning the competition, is the best way to become known in the coffee scene – and eventually attract sponsors and offers. Goals of fame and money are the primary motivators for entering the competition. Which is fair enough; after all, we all have to pay the bills. What's disturbing to me is that when it becomes the sole motivator – aspirations are high, humility is zero, and it leads to cases like opening a barista school, talking about espresso, train people, charge money, and never, ever measure TDS in your life. That's a very real case, which is terrifying, but that's a different story.

I was thinking about that, and I guess that fame motivator is more active now in countries where the barista scene is developing. It's like the first step, the desire to be the best among the others, which is still close to the desire to be the big fish in the small pond. The bar isn't that high yet, and it's easier to get in and take some high places with a fairly simple presentation.

As the barista scene begins to develop, we see more and more people entering competitions with the goal of personal improvement. These include roasters, baristas, coffee shop owners, and managers. They use this opportunity to showcase themselves, yes, but at the same time, their place at the end isn't as important as the judges' feedback, and more importantly, everything they learned during the brewing process, which is a journey in itself to begin with. Competition opens the door to growth.

At the next level, competing is becoming a way to get the message across, the idea behind it, bringing something new to the industry, showing the results of experiments at each stage of coffee production, which could be coffee processing, variety (Sudan Rume and Sasa Sestic), new equipment (e.g. Canadian Ben Put using vacuum sealer), cafe operations (like using pre-ground coffee, like Charles Babinski from the US) or some crazy techniques (using frozen beans, like Kyle Ramage representing the US did this year).

This is the most exciting level, as it brings so much innovation to the industry and allows these ideas to reach more people, provoke more thought, give birth to new ideas, etc. For me, this is the most fruitful, the most interesting level and reason to compete—to add something new, to bring new ideas to the discussion. There are not many countries with this level of baristas; they are industry pioneers, such as the United States, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan, where there are a large number of competitors and regional championships.

The competition It's a challenge for the barista, a challenge to their skills, their creativity, their speed, their personality, despite everything. It's a challenge to put something bigger into their presentation than just a naked desire to win. Be inspired, driven, and walk away, no matter what position you took, with more ideas and knowledge than you had before you entered.