Shaving notes of the MaineYooper

Shave and coffee, July 4, 2024

I again used the SS Overlander head with the Karve brass Gladius handle. I really like the feel of this handle and love the look, so much so that when I sold the brass Christopher Bradley razor I kept this handle, as it was a "remnant" left in the shop. I do see that now it is back, but mine has personal value! I did disassemble and dry the parts after shaving, to help prevent any reaction between wet parts if left together (I opted not to use a nylon washer this time). And I did a bowl lather, something I am not accustomed to doing, since I used Ethos Tibu Sabuni shave cream. (Thank you, Paul, for the awesome wooden handle for scooping!) I started building the lather after squishing the cream into the bottom of my CaYuen bowl with a Wald Nimbus brush. I repeatedly dripped water into the bowl and was rewarded with a wonderful lather. Even now, hours after finishing, my face feels great! Frank Dragonsbeard made a wonderful cream with this Afrika collection.

Coffee experiments continue, with this morning's first cup being brewed to be bright and balanced. It was such an enjoyable cup that I am going to do another now!

Eric,

Which pour over dripper are you using? What material?

I am using the plastic Hario V60, with Hario filters.

The clear plastic or the opaque plastic? Size 02?

It is a red (so opaque) size 01 dripper, and is now my standard, used exclusively. My first dripper was bought in 2016 (per Amazon!), and was the Bee House small ceramic dripper. Two years later, I bought a Java Presse handheld burr grinder and dripper. The grinder is fine, but not as well constructed as my Timemore Chestnut grinder.


Bee House


Java Presse


You can see in the background of these two my work horse Capresso grinder, and my now deceased Bonavita coffee maker. I have a new Bonavita that I really like. I should tell you the grinder story, but I need to go make another cup of joe!

I am using the plastic Hario V60, with Hario filters.

The clear plastic or the opaque plastic? Size 02?

It is a red (so opaque) size 01 dripper, and is now my standard, used exclusively. My first dripper was bought in 2016 (per Amazon!), and was the Bee House small ceramic dripper. Two years later, I bought a Java Presse handheld burr grinder and dripper. The grinder is fine, but not as well constructed as my Timemore Chestnut grinder.


Bee House


Java Presse


You can see in the background of these two my work horse Capresso grinder, and my now deceased Bonavita coffee maker. I have a new Bonavita that I really like. I should tell you the grinder story, but I need to go make another cup of joe!

Thank you sharing the gear info!
I love the coffee mug.
I also look forward to the coffee grinder story. I have gone through a couple myself.

Mistakes made but having fun learning! I didn't make 2 mugs of what I called Bright and Balanced, instead made 2 mugs of Sweet and Medium. As can be typical for me, I misremembered the order and names I wanted to use. So now I have a small notebook in my coffee corner and can refer to the methods as well as keep track of what I have done (and I should go back and make a note if a particular cup was great or horrible).

I also went back to the manual/videos for my hand grinder and found I had the "click counting" for coarseness backwards as well. Somedays I think it is a wonder I have survived as well as I have!! That too has now been recorded on paper.

I am a big fan of keeping notes on everything.
I have note files on each grinder, kettle, brewer, etc.

I have a brew log by coffee with sub sections by brewer and recipe. In that log, I keep the details of brew attempts that worked well and reference settings that did not work well (so I don't repeat them). It has notes about the coffees and the roasters so I know if I would order from them again. When I get a brew setting that works for a particular coffee + brewer + recipe + grind size + water temperature, I put an entry into my grinder settings log (below).

I also have a log with grind settings by brewer with sub sections of recipe. This also includes, dose, water temp, coffee and roast level. I use it as a reference when I try new coffees.

Here is a snippet from my ceramic Kalita 185 section :

*****************
Kalita Wave 185
*****************

Kalita Wave 185: Project Barista 155 recipe (scaled)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JX 16 @ 92C (197.6F): 18g 270ml (1:15): Mayorga Organics (Rockville, MD) - Myan Blend - medium roast

KU 7.7 @ 92C (197.6F) 18g 270ml (1:15): Stirling Roastery (Booneville, AR) - Peru - medium roast

Kalita Wave 185: Project Barista 185 recipe
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Note this recipe does not work work with medium roasts as it has too much extraction.

JX 17 @ 94C (201.2F): Wonderstate Coffee (Viroqua, WI) - Peru San Fernando - light roast
                                          Ubora Coffee (Augusta, GA) - Ethiopia Sidamo Chuchu - light roast

SS Overlander with G-Tech handle
Personna "German Red" (4)
Vintage Chalco handle (restored by our very own Freddiep318ti) with a Maggard 20mm SHD badger fan knot
As typical, the Overlander gives me close, smooth, and so very comfortable shaves. Today was no different!

Coffee today was more experimenting with the 4:6 method for the V60 single cup pour over. I tried increasing the acidity/brightness by doing a larger volume for the bloom.
18.4 grams Jim's Organic Coffee Ethiopean beans
300g water at 96C
40%: 80g bloom, 40g second pour
60%: 180g added slowly in a single third pour
Total time roughly 3:30 minutes. 

A very tasty cup made and I am about to do it again! Can I taste the "A bold mocha character balanced with spice and lemon?" Not enough to distinguish each. But what I am tasting as a delicious cup of coffee that isn't sour, bitter, too heavy, or too light! And I am experiencing a better cup than using the pulse method (James Hoffmann's 50g pulses separated by 10s drawdowns). The pulse method typically gives me a good cup, but some single origin roasts tasted better than others. This Ethiopean roast is one that I liked better by autodrip than by pour over. Now I love it by pour over. That is a win in my book, even if I can't suss out the spice or lemon notes!

SS Overlander with G-Tech handle
Personna "German Red" (4)
Vintage Chalco handle (restored by our very own Freddiep318ti) with a Maggard 20mm SHD badger fan knot
As typical, the Overlander gives me close, smooth, and so very comfortable shaves. Today was no different!

Coffee today was more experimenting with the 4:6 method for the V60 single cup pour over. I tried increasing the acidity/brightness by doing a larger volume for the bloom.
18.4 grams Jim's Organic Coffee Ethiopean beans
300g water at 96C
40%: 80g bloom, 40g second pour
60%: 180g added slowly in a single third pour
Total time roughly 3:30 minutes. 

A very tasty cup made and I am about to do it again! Can I taste the "A bold mocha character balanced with spice and lemon?" Not enough to distinguish each. But what I am tasting as a delicious cup of coffee that isn't sour, bitter, too heavy, or too light! And I am experiencing a better cup than using the pulse method (James Hoffmann's 50g pulses separated by 10s drawdowns). The pulse method typically gives me a good cup, but some single origin roasts tasted better than others. This Ethiopean roast is one that I liked better by autodrip than by pour over. Now I love it by pour over. That is a win in my book, even if I can't suss out the spice or lemon notes!

Great job Eric!
It sounds like you are making great brews!

Shaving and coffee, what a great combo of hobbies. Or is it a Lifestyle? 

Shaving first. I had a great week mostly with a Schick Type I Hydro-magic injector. As Jed would say,



Schick knew what they were doing and I love me the great overall experience of shaving with a Schick! I used some different brushes and soaps, but the Hydro-magic was the razor used all week. 

For brushes, I have finished up my time trying out the Tatara Muramasa adjustable pass around. My thoughts on it are recorded over there, and I won't repeat them here. Bottom line: I liked it a lot but until I reduce my collection, I won't be buying one. 

Another newsy item is that this week I added two more soaps.



Yeah, about what my reaction was, too! But in my defense, they are 2 favorites that I used up some time ago and NEEDED to have them in the soap drawer again! For the curious, they were Mystic Water Soaps Sensitive Skin and Zingari Man unscented. Next on the list of restocks will be Mike's Natural Soaps unscented, and then Shannon's Soaps Nil. But this first two were purchased now as there were other things at both shops that I needed to restock, so I thought "just get the soaps and enjoy life more!" Two of the soaps purchased in 2021 and 2022 are big containers and I don't see myself finishing them anytime soon, so why not add back the soaps I love?!

Now to coffee. I have been following Good Shave's coffee Journal and I have been learning and enabled!! In his posts, I have learned pour techniques for making pour over coffee and, the discovery that affected me most, was his post on the 4:6 method for pour over coffee. (That is a small rabbit hole but one I thoroughly enjoyed learning about!) The enabling came after a post on pour over techniques and various kettles. Given the infamous Prime Day upon us, one of the kettles mentioned had a decent sale going to beat out Amazon, so I ordered one. This will be my third kettle, and my second goose neck. My wife questions my sanity.

Speaking of my wife, and my questionable sanity, let us talk about her own! My wife does not like the smell of coffee. Fresh brewed, fresh roasted, freshly ground, none of it appeals to her. There, I've said it.   I think I know why, but that is more her story than mine, so I will stick with my story of her coffee snubbing and of how much she like me. 

I knew she disliked coffee. What I could not understand was how she could not like even the smell of fresh coffee, like when you open a new can or grind some beans. 
We probably all have met folks how don't like coffee but love the smell of fresh ground coffee. But not my wife. 

However, early on in our marriage, she told me that if I am going to drink the stuff, at least drink good coffee, and she had actually researched coffees (she is quite the researcher, and I blame her PhD for that!) and bought me some. And that fall, she shocked me with a (to me) very expensive burr coffee grinder, one that is in almost daily use to this day. This from someone who HATES the smell of coffee. What she discovered is that if the coffee is not a canned, commercial product, but a small bag from local roasters and freshly ground and consumed, she tolerates it better. And I benefitted the most by discovering the rabbit hole of craft coffee!! So many thanks to my wife for enabling and encouraging me to enjoy a good cup of joe!

So given my successes with the 4:6 method, I bought a couple of bags from my preferred roaster, one light roast and one medium-light roast. My palate cannot appreciate lighter roasts, and I find them sour. However, this 4:6 method gives me some guidance on pouring to enhance various characteristics, mainly sweetness, brightness, and body. And, also due to my wife having discovered the joys of YouTube, we have both become enthralled by a YouTuber Max Miller and his Tasting History channel. My wife is an unabashed foodie, and I am an armchair history buff, so this channel is perfect. One episode was sponsored by Trade Coffee, a unique subscription service that sends you coffee to try from various roasters based on a tasting quiz you take. The first bag of that coffee arrived today. I will share my experiences tomorrow, as I think this post is now long enough to warrant a warning at the top about using the bathroom first before reading!!

What an enjoyable read Eric. I enjoy reading about what you're enjoying

Coffee trials continue, as I see if I can learn to distinguish the tasting notes listed by the roasters of the beans. 

Since moving to a new store location, I cannot buy the beans I used to get, as our store carries a VERY limited selection, and only ground coffee. So I have been using a subscription plan with that roaster. And as I stated yesterday, I am trying out Trade Coffee as well. 

From Jim's Organic Coffee, I received a light roasted coffee with beans from Papua New Guinea. I found it a bit too acidic/sour for my taste. I also received my first bag of coffee from Trade Coffee. It is a light roast called Simple Summer. I made 4 cups and none were in my wheelhouse. So I went online and had absolutely no problem getting this taken care of with Trade. They are sending a medium roast tomorrow and credited my account. I am very pleased with the ease of this and hope that I can enjoy sampling new to me coffeess, knowing that no more will be a light roast.

So while I didn't get positive results with 2 light roasts, I am happy that one of them can be made right!

And if anyone would like to have one of the light roasts, let me know. I'd just like shipping, so it would be a free bag for you!