GoodShave's Coffee Journal

Today's brew was Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito beans using the Fellow Products Stagg XF with a Stagg XF filter (unsmooshed). I did a bloom followed by a single pour (non-immersion recipe).

I found the Origami wood dripper holder was helpful in stabilizing the Stagg XF dripper on the Hario V60 Range Server which I was using.

Thanks to the generosity of MaineYooper , I conducted my second comparison cupping.

KU 9.3 @ 93C (199F) 8.25g 150ml (1:18x):

Coffees used were:
1) Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer - light roast
2) Jim's Organic: Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu region) - light roast

Bean Observations:
1) Lighter color, smaller beans
2) Much darker color, larger beans

Grind appearance and fragrance (smell just after the grind):
1) Tomato, berry, lighter grinds. These beans were definitely light roast by the relative difficulty to grind them.
2) Earthy, darker grinds. These beans were so easy to grind by hand. I definitely put these in the 'medium roast' category, not the 'light light' category.

Aroma (after breaking the crust):
1) As with previous cupping, the floaters dropped before breaking the crust, so there was very little skimming to be done. Vegetable aroma. Lighter liquid. Tomato aroma at the 20+ minute mark.
2) Earthy aroma. Darker liquid. Caramel aroma at the 20+ mark.

Tasting notes:
1) Berry (blueberry?). Lighter body.
2) Earthy. Baker's chocolate? More body. Darker.

General Notes:
I decided to try finer grind than last time (KU 9.5) which made one light roast more vegetable than normal. I was originally going to do KU 9.2, but when I saw how dark coffee (2) was, I dialed it one click coarser at KU 9.3 to hedge my bets and not over extract the coffee. Coffee (2) was not bitter at KU 9.3 for this dark of roast, so this was a good grind setting for this cupping. I may have been fine at KU 9.2. I may try that next time. Coffee (1) was good at KU 9.5 and KU 9.3 cuppings. I stopped the tasting by 22:13.

Today's brew was Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA) - Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu) beans with my glass Kalita Wave 155 using a Kalita 155 filter and the Project Barista 155 recipe. I received these beans as a PIF from MaineYooper . This was the first non-cupping brew I have done with these beans. The bag listed them as a light roast but having full body. I treated these beans as a medium roast based on color, ease of grind, and cupping results. I pulled out some nice caramel notes (not listed for the beans but it showed up in my cupping). Overall a pretty good cup.

That is awesome, David! I am glad to know that the beans are not a waste and that your cupping experiments are having results.

I've been focused on these coffees from the Trade Coffee subscription and never got to tell you something. That OXO kettle has helped my pours tremendously, and I hadn't realized it until last week when I used Hoffman's pulse pours. Ultimate V60 method In it, if you remember, he pours for roughly 10 seconds and pauses for 10 seconds. This was impossible with my first kettle, which did not have a goose neck. My second kettle, the Bonavita, had the goose neck but I couldn't control it as well as would have liked. When we were talking awhile back about kettles, you mentioned the OXO being easy to control, and dang if it isn't! I can reproduce the pours, amount and time, fairly easily now. Sure, they may not all be exactly identical, but they are so close it doesn't matter. When I noticed that, I was astounded and possibly exclaimed out loud, earning me a funny look!!

That is awesome, David! I am glad to know that the beans are not a waste and that your cupping experiments are having results.

I've been focused on these coffees from the Trade Coffee subscription and never got to tell you something. That OXO kettle has helped my pours tremendously, and I hadn't realized it until last week when I used Hoffman's pulse pours. Ultimate V60 method In it, if you remember, he pours for roughly 10 seconds and pauses for 10 seconds. This was impossible with my first kettle, which did not have a goose neck. My second kettle, the Bonavita, had the goose neck but I couldn't control it as well as would have liked. When we were talking awhile back about kettles, you mentioned the OXO being easy to control, and dang if it isn't! I can reproduce the pours, amount and time, fairly easily now. Sure, they may not all be exactly identical, but they are so close it doesn't matter. When I noticed that, I was astounded and possibly exclaimed out loud, earning me a funny look!!

Thanks Eric!

I am so glad the OXO kettle is working out for you! I was very surprised myself when I received my OXO kettle. That neck design made it much easier for me to pour in a more controlled fashion than my Brewista Artisan kettle (which I learned later has a wider goose neck, but even with the optional flow restrictor installed, it still pours faster than the OXO). I just have to remember to not to fill the OXO up with too much water so that I can pour the slowest or with the most control. Thanks for sharing your story!

Thanks for reminding me about that Hoffmann recipe. I need to revisit that one with my OXO kettle!

Starting a new bag of beans from a new-to-me roaster.
Beans: Rare Bird Coffee Roasters (Falls Church, VA) - Colombia - Ticuna
https://www.rarebirdcoffee.com/colombia-ticuna-natural

Bean details:
Producer: Café Ticuna, Jose Jadir, Kyle Bellinger
Location: Pica, Suaza, Huila
Farm: El Mirador
Altitude: 1450 - 1650 masl
Variety: Castillo
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Tasting notes: Raspberry, Chocolate, Nutty (listed on the bag)

Brewer: April plastic brewer 2.0
Filter: April filter
Recipe: Regular April Coffee Recipe

Today, I did another round of cupping.
I cupped (1) Rare Bird Coffee Roasters (Falls Church, VA) - Colombia - Ticuna with (2) Jim's Organic: Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu region) .

From the cupping, I was able to pull the nutty aroma and raspberry flavor of (1). I did not get the chocolate flavor in the cupping but my brews with other drippers did get the chocolate (though maybe not the nutty flavors). Cupping is supposed to give you a good representation of the coffee but I am seeing that I only get part of the flavor picture when cupping so far.

I also found that I ground too fine for (2) as the initial taste was bitter. That bitterness went away after a minute or two more of cooling. So I guess you really have to compare coffees of a similar roast so that you can grind fine enough to pull out their flavors. Coffee (2) is definitely not a "light" roast coffee as the bag would suggest. It has darker beans, darker grinds, and grinds too easily for a light roast in my experience. I would say it is a medium at best and have found the occasional really dark bean in the mix (as well as bean fragments straight from the bag). Maybe it was a Medium-light (a medium roast that leans to the lighter end of the medium spectrum).

Here is another video that I felt had very good information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e747SIBmWPE

Today's brew was Rare Bird Coffee Roasters (Falls Church, VA) - Colombia - Ticuna with Fellow Products Stagg XF using a Kalita 185 filter (unsmooshed). I overshot my pour totals but it still came out as a decent cup of coffee.

As most of you know I am a dedicated Moka Pot user



 and have little use for most other brew methods, except espresso cut with water (Americano).  I will admit that from time to time I get a decent cup of coffee from a restaurant.  The last time that happened I was at a small hotel and the sole waitress was responsible for making the coffee (it was drip from a Bunn machine?).  I asked her what it was.  She wouldn't tell me but she said that she used a double measure of the ground coffee that the chain (Double Tree?) supplied!

Anyway, I got a donut and a cup of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts yesterday.  The aroma was excellent, but the coffee was weak.    I know that DD has done well in blind taste tests and I was wondering what any/all of you think of it?