Shaving notes of the MaineYooper

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.
MaineYooper

Eric, thank you for your kind comments! Which kettle did you get?

I would be happy to try one of your light roasts! I will send you a PM.

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.
MaineYooper

Eric, thank you for your kind comments! Which kettle did you get?

I would be happy to try one of your light roasts! I will send you a PM.

I went with the OXO with the dial. It stays on so I can keep the heat up for those higher temp pours. You mentioned having one a while back, and it went on sale for $84 direct from OXO, so I bought it.

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.
MaineYooper

Eric, thank you for your kind comments! Which kettle did you get?

I would be happy to try one of your light roasts! I will send you a PM.

I went with the OXO with the dial. It stays on so I can keep the heat up for those higher temp pours. You mentioned having one a while back, and it went on sale for $84 direct from OXO, so I bought it.

I really enjoy that kettle. That is the one I use every day. I think you will like it. It is a little heavier than my other kettles but the grip is nice and I feel I can pour very slowly or very fast if I wish. Once you get used to it, you don't even notice the weight. I don't fill it all the way up unless I really need that much water as it is easier to pour more slowly if you don't fill it all the way up. You also don't want to fill it with the exact amount you are brewing for since the stream gets unstable as you get the last bit of water in the kettle. Also, you need water to rinse your filter and maybe warm your brewer (if you are using a material that requires preheating). I use citric acid powder and water to descale my kettle (which I do once a month).

This is what I do with my Oxo kettle to descale it:
Fill the kettle with water almost to the fill line of the kettle.
Add 2 tbs (or 6 tsp) of citric acid powder to the water.
Stir the mixture in the kettle.
Then set the kettle to boil.
Then let the solution sit for 15-30 minutes.
Then rinse 2-3 times.

Since I descale it every month, I probably could use less powder.

I am still learning some of the nuances of the kettle such as how long the kettle can be off the base and still return to warming mode when you place it back on the base. I think it is a bargain for the price.

Finished up several days in a row with my GEMs, namely the Clog Pruf Peerless, the Junior, and the Damaskeene. No red, no irritation, just smooth and comfy shaving. A tip o' the hat to our good buddy from KY, that dapper dude now sporting some facial hair, for letting me try out various models from his collection. This allowed me to get an idea of what I liked. And also, a tip o' the hat to Mike (HighSpeed) for some technique tips back when I thought the head of a GEM was too big! And today, I plan to plunk down some coin for the revamped Sabre.

In coffee news, the replacement bag from a Tennessee roaster in the Trade Coffee program should arrive tomorrow or Monday. But in the meantime, I have found that a medium-light roast from a local-ish roaster (down near Boston, which is 180 miles from me so not local-local) that I tried back in 2020 and found too sour/acidic is now making a good mug of coffee using the 4:6 pour over method! I am almost pleased enough to do a Snoopy happy dance! (No, I will not record and post something like that. I think.)

Finished up several days in a row with my GEMs, namely the Clog Pruf Peerless, the Junior, and the Damaskeene. No red, no irritation, just smooth and comfy shaving. A tip o' the hat to our good buddy from KY, that dapper dude now sporting some facial hair, for letting me try out various models from his collection. This allowed me to get an idea of what I liked. And also, a tip o' the hat to Mike (HighSpeed) for some technique tips back when I thought the head of a GEM was too big!  And today, I plan to plunk down some coin for the revamped Sabre.

In coffee news, the replacement bag from a Tennessee roaster in the Trade Coffee program should arrive tomorrow or Monday. But in the meantime, I have found that a medium-light roast from a local-ish roaster (down near Boston, which is 180 miles from me so not local-local) that I tried back in 2020 and found too sour/acidic is now making a good mug of coffee using the 4:6 pour over method! I am almost pleased enough to do a Snoopy happy dance! (No, I will not record and post something like that. I think.)

Thanks for the kind words Eric.  I'm very glad I helped you out.  

And good luck with the Sabre!  Shane has done a great job of keeping customers in the loop during development, and the final product looks cleverly engineered and intriguing.  I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of yours.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the Sabre, I'm on the fence and waiting to see more reviews as they come in.

Quick coffee and tea update: the new OXO kettle arrived and after a few minutes of panic due to my numbness, I got it working and think it will be a winner. As Good Shave noted, it is very easy to control the pour.

The panic was that I couldn't get it to function properly at first. And the display was dim and not all there, making me think I had a faulty unit. Until I realized that there was a protective sticker over the display, and that was why I could see the display correctly    Good thing they don't put those on my cell phone or I'd be wondering why other folks have a great display and I don't!!

Quick coffee and tea update: the new OXO kettle arrived and after a few minutes of panic due to my numbness, I got it working and think it will be a winner. As Good Shave noted, it is very easy to control the pour.

The panic was that I couldn't get it to function properly at first. And the display was dim and not all there, making me think I had a faulty unit. Until I realized that there was a protective sticker over the display, and that was why I could see the display correctly    Good thing they don't put those on my cell phone or I'd be wondering why other folks have a great display and I don't!!

Eric,

I am so glad you like the Oxo kettle. It holds its heat well and heats up very quickly. I have really enjoyed mine. It is easier to slow pour if you don't fill it all the way up, but I am sure you will get the hang if it quickly. Once you have had time to use it, I would love to know how the it differs with your Bonavita since I have never tried a Bonavita kettle.

Mail came early enough (ok, late morning but earlier than my shave!) that I could use The Hive brush by Techichi Shave what was delivered. 



The Hive has a 26mm Tuxedo knot and the handle looks big! Paul (mrdoug) had one, shown below, that made me think of a song off of Van Halen I
Paul's photo, which I stole from his Journal:


And the Van Halen song:

The shave was very nice, the brush worked well and surprised me by how good it felt in hand. Reminded me of how the Wald Calyx looked uncomfortable but is actually quite pleasant in hand.

On the coffee front, the OXO kettle is doing a wonderful job, making my pours more easily controlled than I thought it would. The Bonavita goose neck kettle has a longer neck, and while it is easy to hold, I adjusting the pour to be challenging. I honestly didn't expect the OXO to be better, and was after some of the features, like a count up timer and being able to return it to the base to stay warm. The Bonavita stops heating after you remove the kettle, whereas the OXO gives you 30 seconds I think. 

The reality is that I can pour slower with the OXO. I could not with the Bonavita, it would dribble down that long neck. So the OXO is a win for me as I geek out even more as I brew my coffee!

And if anyone would like to try a goose neck kettle, the Bonavita is a great kettle and I have just descaled mine (I descale every 2 months). Let me know and we can work something out! I may post it on the BST as I will get in hot water (pun intended) if I clutter my coffee corner with too much stuff, especially duplicate stuff!!

Mail came early enough (ok, late morning but earlier than my shave!) that I could use The Hive brush by Techichi Shave what was delivered. 



The Hive has a 26mm Tuxedo knot and the handle looks big! Paul (mrdoug) had one, shown below, that made me think of a song off of Van Halen I
Paul's photo, which I stole from his Journal:


And the Van Halen song:

The shave was very nice, the brush worked well and surprised me by how good it felt in hand. Reminded me of how the Wald Calyx looked uncomfortable but is actually quite pleasant in hand.

On the coffee front, the OXO kettle is doing a wonderful job, making my pours more easily controlled than I thought it would. The Bonavita goose neck kettle has a longer neck, and while it is easy to hold, I adjusting the pour to be challenging. I honestly didn't expect the OXO to be better, and was after some of the features, like a count up timer and being able to return it to the base to stay warm. The Bonavita stops heating after you remove the kettle, whereas the OXO gives you 30 seconds I think. 

The reality is that I can pour slower with the OXO. I could not with the Bonavita, it would dribble down that long neck. So the OXO is a win for me as I geek out even more as I brew my coffee!

And if anyone would like to try a goose neck kettle, the Bonavita is a great kettle and I have just descaled mine (I descale every 2 months). Let me know and we can work something out! I may post it on the BST as I will get in hot water (pun intended) if I clutter my coffee corner with too much stuff, especially duplicate stuff!!

Eric,

I love the look of you new brush! Very cool.

The mail just brought me a new knot, so I will be swapping out a knot in one of my handles soon.

The dribble from the goose neck kettle I believe is due to the spout design. Some kettles have a limit on their pouring angle so you would probably have to change the pouring angle on the Bonavita so it will not dribble, but at the same time you may have to use less water in it so it doesn't pour too fast. I have seen a video somewhere where a person had to pour next to their dripper since the neck/spout angle would not let them pour close to the brew bed otherwise. If I did not already have three goose neck kettles (two electrics and one pouring kettle), I would take you up on the Bonavita!

When I received my Oxo kettle, I boxed up my old electric kettle and put it in storage as a back up since I didn't have room for extra electric kettles on the counter.

I am glad the Oxo is giving you more functionality and capabilities for coffee brewing. The new challenge will be how slow to pour. Pouring extra slow will increase contact time which will increase extraction. I will bet though you will have fewer sour brews since you do not have to pour fast (though with the Oxo, you can pour fast if you want to, which makes it a versatile kettle for tea or coffee).

Since I am using citric acid powder and water to clean my kettle, I think I will follow your example and descale every two months instead of every month and see how that goes.