I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a kilo of this Geisha coffee from La Candelilla in Costa Rica as soon as it arrived at Ministry Grounds. I've roasted this one for espresso, but didn't want to lose any of the florality, sweetness or fruit flavours the geisha is known for. Quite a challenge, when 1kg is only two roasts for me.

I decided on a three minute drying phase ramp up to 100 degrees, then increase in heat output up to 195 degrees first crack at 10:00.  First crack was actually at 196 degrees, and then the slow ramp up to just shortly after the end of first crack at 205 degrees at 13:00 was when i dumped the beans.

I'd definitely rather go too light than too dark on this one, but i'm actually really happy with how this first roast has turned out. You can see there is the slight mottling still present which only disappears well beyond first crack. The ground coffee reveals a nice light espresso colour, and smells like geisha! Clean, sweet and floral.

Some people may think this is too light for espresso but in my opinion if you want to impart more roast flavour than this there are better (and less expensive) coffees you could choose. Plenty of kenyans would take a darker roast and retain the sweetness, for example. There's just not much point buying a geisha at this stage of the game and then roasting the florals into submission. Geisha is still quite rare and the most expensive coffee varietal, so it deserves even more care and attention to detail.

I'll post an update with tasting notes both here and on Ministry Grounds as soon as it's had 5 days to de-gas. I'm also going to attempt my first ever coffee scoring here on BrewMethod, and i have a little something special planned for that.

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This week i roasted more of the Kenya Tinganga. I was not happy with my initial roast - i let it go too dark, and it just didn't have as much sweetness as i think it could deliver with a lighter roast. I'll blame my neighbour for interrupting me right as i was about to dump the roast for that one!

Today i also roasted the Bolivian San Juan 8 Estrellas.

This is a red and yellow caturra fully washed coffee. I love the white grape acidity and caramel/toffee flavour of good Bolivian coffee, and if the look and smell of this roast is anything to go by, we're in for a cracker here!  This is a well known coffee farm, but i've not yet tried the Estrellas.

I roasted this one to the same profile as i did the amazing Costa Rican Las Lajas Black Pearl coffee. First crack was at 10:45 at 198, then roast pulled at 14 mins at 207 degrees, about one minute past the end of first crack.

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Quick update on the Columbian Santa Rita sent by Latorre Dutch.  Now a week since roast, and it's tasting rather spectacular! 

At this roast depth i'm tasting a lot of fruitiness, balanced and juicy body, long sweet finish with notes of ripe lemon and white grape. Reminds me a little of some recent Bolivian coffee but with less caramel and more citrus. Lovely coffee.

Thanks again to Latorre for the sample, we enjoyed it very much!

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Latorre & Dutch coffee traders kindly sent me a sample of a Columbian coffee from the Santa Rita farm. This is a washed and sun dried lot mostly made up of Caturra variety at 1600 - 2100 meters above sea level.  The farm is located in a volcanic soil region near the Andes Mountains.

Latorre are involved in a range of social community projects at origin, aimed at giving something back to the farmers who work so hard to bring us these special coffees, and improve their quality of life while educating and encouraging the farms to produce higher quality coffee, rewarding them for doing so.

Columbia Santa Rita green coffee sample:

This is a high quality Columbian coffee, with an even screen size and very few defects. Latorre have just received a fresh batch of the Santa Rita.

Fresh green coffee is always best, as many coffees tend to aquire a woody taste as they dry out over time as green beans. Stale green coffee can taste flat compared to fresher greens.

I wanted to roast this one in a very light espresso roast, to really bring out the varietal characteristics in the coffee and minimise any loss of the unique flavours from this origin. Some of the roast styles i've been enjoying lately from the likes HasBean and Square Mile in London have really helped me realise that even though i typically roast light, i'm probably still imparting too much roast flavour to the coffee. And more importantly, that it is possible to roast light and not end up with a grassy under developed roast.

For the Santa Rita, first crack was reached at 10:50 at 195 degrees, and the roast was ended at 14:00 at 206 degrees, just after the last few pops of first crack. In other words - first crack plus 11 degrees, and slowing the temperature increase to 3 degrees per minute once first crack is reached.

The ground coffee dry aroma is sweet, clean, citrusy and floral.

I'll report back with full tasting notes next week. Latorre & Dutch have this coffee in stock now, and it's fresh! They source it direct from the farm.  Contact them if you're a cafe and would like to source some for roasting.  For home coffee drinkers, Ministry Grounds are selling the Santa Rita roasted.

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I've returned from four days of coffee and food crawling Australia's gastonomic city, and noticed a couple things that I really felt good about.

Firstly, the number of cafes sourcing beans from the quality specialty roasters is increasing. Less of the big "brand x" blends, and more interesting single origins and specialty blends.

Secondly, and this is a big one - doserless Robur grinders are taking over the city!  There seems to be a big shift from dosered super jolly's up to the doserless robur's, even at smaller cafes.  I don't know if this is by encouragement from the roasters, or if cafes are starting to realise that not only is freshly ground best but that doserless is easier too.

These two trends meant i actually had some of the best coffees not at the usual coffee haunts but at smaller cafes or new up-starts. Naked Espresso in the Melbourne CBD looks to be starting off on the right foot, featuring coffee from different roasters including market lane, and taking great care with each and every drink.

Occasionally, ordering continues to be challenging when you're not sure how the coffee will be made. To my taste, a split shot with milk is simply too weak (even in a piccolo) unless the dose is high enough. For the most part though, ordering went smoothly.

And of course, the food & wine ranged from good to amazing!

Favourites were a cosy wine bar called Von Haus, breakfasts at Hardware Societe (and good coffee too), and lunch 'at the pass' in Cumulus.

Until next time, Melbourne.

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I often get excited about a new pallet of fresh coffee arriving, but this latest announcement has me perhaps even a little more excited than usual. You see, I still have these lingering memories of the super sweet Kenya Tinganga poured expertly from the Slayer machine by @cupmccann at Cup Coffee into a piccolo glass, and then downed one after the other. To this day, the only coffees that came close to this same level of sweetness are, funnily enough not from Kenya but are from two other regions. One was the 99 point coffee Bolivia Machacamarca which i reviewed. I've recently ordered another lot of this coffee from Hasbean, and included a bag of the peaberry version. The other was a darker roast, but it was still just as sweet, and probably even more floral - the Esmeralda Geisha roasted by Campos.

I had almost given up hope of seeing the Tinganga again, but then Ministry Grounds revealed that they had ordered some and it is due to arrive with a shipment of other amazing central american coffees on or around the 18th of this month!  In typical MG style, it will be available for home roasters as green coffee, or freshly roasted.

Other coffees arriving at the same time include other favourites of mine from previous seasons:

• Costa Rica Las Lajas Black Pearl (this was great last season)
• Costa Rica Las Lajas honey (this one has been consistently awesome)
• Costa Rica Zamorana washed
• El Salvador Finca El Talapo
• El Salvador Finca La Fany
• Guatamala Finca Bourbon Organic
• Guatamala Finca L Perla (definitely keen to try this one)

More info and reviews of some of these to come!

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Check out this page at terroircoffee.com

"We roast coffee trying to achieve a balance of very complex factors: we want a harmonized articulation of unique, rare volatile aromatics (the first thing to go up in smoke when roasting!), caramelized roast flavors (which easily transform into bitter carbons), enlivening acidity (very similar to wines!) and appropriate rounded body. Because we buy the rarest, most aromatic coffees and wish to give full expression to their distinguishing aromatics, we roast lightly, unless otherwise specified. The Terroir™ roast style requires the ripest -, therefore the most naturally sweet - coffees."

I recently had a chance to try some of George Howell's coffee - a Kenyan, SL28 & SL34 varieties, and it was probably the best of the dark berry tasting kenyans i've ever had. Like a Gethumbwini AA but even more pronounced in terms of the dark berry type flavours - blackberry, aniseed, blueberry etc.

George Howell has also published some interesting info on roasting in general, the roasting process including stages and styles of roast.

I enjoyed this coffee so much it got me in the mood for doing some more overseas ordering, so in a few weeks i should have some more of the 99 point Bolivian Macha from Hasbean, plus a peaberry bag of the same coffee, and the summer espresso blend from James Hoffman's roastery in London - Square Mile Coffee. Full reviews of those coffees to come.

 

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The humble coffee bean - ah, what joy it brings! In terms of time versus reward, coffee really is pretty hard to beat as a hobby for any guy (or girl). Model planes never interested me, but i've been known to delve into other hobbies such as aquarium keeping (in particular, African cichlids - coffee isn't the only great thing to come out of Africa), theme parks, video games (okay i still enjoy that one), gym (still enjoy that one too), photography (not so much nowadays) and a host of other hobbies.  All of them are a lot of fun at first, but once the initial enjoyment of the fish keeping wore off it tended to become more of a chore. Every time you go on holidays you have to set up automatic feeders or have someone look after them - it's not a low maintenance hobby like coffee! In fact, i recently sold both my fish tanks, but may get back into it one day.

I still enjoy coffee as much as when i first discovered that coffee origins do taste vastly different. In fact i enjoy it more so now than ever! I've learnt so much, but there's always more to learn, and new coffees to taste. That's the great thing about coffee as a hobby. Especially if you're a home roaster - there's always a new roast profile to try, a new coffee to dial-in or something just completely new and awesome like VST filter baskets to test!

The entry cost to coffee is low - even if you buy a beautiful e61 home espresso machine you're only up for a couple grand initially, and then the machine inevitably pays itself off in the long run anyway. The amount of times we've had guests over for coffee, i couldn't count. When you have great coffee at home, word tends to spread fast. I've had guests over requesting not one but several coffees in a row - double shots, and they're not just asking to be polite. Of course, having some of the best milk for coffee helps too.

Coffee is also a very social hobby, and while my wife and I enjoy a brew every morning we also enjoy sharing good coffee out and about in some of Brisbane's best cafes.

With a move to Melbourne also a possibility in future, who knows where my coffee journey will take me next.

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The Esmeralda coffee farm in Panama has consistently been one of the most sought-after coffees of recent years. Esmeralda coffee is sold at auction and can reach some pretty lofty prices, but only in coffe terms! Panama Esmeralda is without doubt one of the best coffees in the world, and I still think it's amazing that we can buy a 250g bag for less than half the price of a cheap French champagne.

To my taste, Esmeralda offers a more complex, even more intense sweetness than a good Kenyan but without the acidic Kenyan bite. Even finding Esmerelda coffee in Australian cafes, especially the floral Geisha variety, is quite a challenge! I've had aeropresses of the Geisha variety at One Drop, but never had the chance to try an espresso roast! That's something I had always wanted to try.

Campos Coffee recently won some at auction, so you can now buy esmeralda geisha in their web store and in their cafes as roasted beans for espresso. I love the fact that Campos unashamedly roasts such high quality beans for espresso - while i agree that such quality coffees can also be enjoyed using pour-over or syphon brew methods, i see no reason the best coffee in the world shouldn't be enjoyed as an espresso beverage! But only if roasted well, and if the espresso recipe is right.

So here we have a photo of the Panama Esmerelda roast from Campos.

Reportedly, Campos went through 7 different roast profiles before settling on the final roast profile. Seven test roasts would really allow for a good amount of fine-tuning, and i'm pleased to report that the sweetness and florality of the Geisha roasted for espresso is all that it should be!

There's an incredible array of tasting descriptors one could use for the sweetness in this coffee - honey, orange peel, ripe citrus fruits, brown sugar... so many unique flavours fill the mouth it's almost impossible to pinpoint even a subset of the usual sweet flavours tasting notes. 

It's not the high-acidic bitey sweetness of a Kenyan coffee, and it's not the jasmine-like florality of an ethiopian yirgacheffe either. It's got a balanced body similar to a great costa rican, but with boat loads of sweetness that the Geisha is renowned for.  The sweetness has great length, too - half an hour after your drink, it still lingers. I love that in a coffee.

Instead of listening to me waffling on, i'd recommend snapping some up. Chances are the opportunity to try this special coffee roasted for espresso won't come up too often! The lot size is relatively small, too. Head to campos or order via their web store linked below:

Esmerelda Geisha roasted for espresso

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I had a bit of an epiphany recently when i realised that i was roasting too dark! Shocking, i know. 

Over the past few months, i had slowly been increasing the end temp... some of my recent roasts were up around 216 degrees! That is about 6 degrees darker than i was roasting a year ago, and the sweetness had definitely started to disappear.  Okay so i wasn't roasting that dark, but i was by my standards. Six degrees might not sound like a whole lot, but in terms of taste, a roast finished at 210 degrees is very noticably sweeter, at least on my setup (temps will vary). My first crack is at 195 degrees, so 210 represents first crack plus 15 degrees.

Even when i was roasting recently all the way up to 216 degrees, i only reached second crack once. One can only imagine the loss of sweetness beyond second. In fact, no need to imagine - i tasted some coffee at a wedding on the weekend which was a large scale commercial roast that looked beyond second crack, and it really didn't taste like coffee at all. Not the coffee i'm used to, ie. coffee with flavour other than ash.

End rant. Some people love dark roast and i'm actually okay with that! But for now, i'm heading back down to 14min roasts at around 210 degrees.

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I roasted an interesting new coffee tonight from Indonesia's Wahana Estate coffee farm. It's been a while since I roasted a really good indonesian coffee, but this one smells particularly delicious!

The photo below shows just how even and clean this coffee roasted up - only a small number of beans were slightly under ripe. If the smell matches the flavour profile, I'm expecting this one to have considerable body, be strong and have a thick sweetness. Who knows if it will actually taste like this... but check back on the weekend and i'll update with tasting notes!

This is an espresso coffee roast with first crack at 10:10 at 195 degrees, and dumped at 213 degrees at 14:00, before second crack. Online coffee store Ministry Grounds recently got hold of some of this one and roasted it up to offer to their lucky newsletter subscribers!  I hope some of you out there took advantage.  If that's you, feel free to leave your own tasting notes in the comments.  I'd be interested to know what some other people think of this one.

Here's a photo of the roasted beans:

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Buy Green Coffee Beans Online in Australia

The best places to buy green coffee beans in Australia are not immediately obvious just by doing a search.  You can buy green coffee beans from a number of online stores, but not all of them are the same.  I would recommend buying specialty green coffee beans. When you know the name of the farm, who the farmers are, how the coffee is grown and how it is processed, it brings a whole new aspect to the entire home roasting experience. Buying green coffee of high quality will ultimately taste better in the cup.

Where to buy green coffee beans

One of the best web stores to buy green coffee i have found is called Ministry Grounds. I should point out I have no affiliation with them but i do buy most of my green coffee from them for home roasting, because I find that most of their green coffee beans are very high quality. Many of their green coffee beans come from Melbourne Coffee Merchants, who have connections with Mercanta. These companies focus on selecting and securing an amazing variety of green coffee beans from around the world.

Why buy green coffee beans?

When you buy green coffee beans from Ministry Grounds, you can read tasting notes, read other home roaster's reviews of the green coffee, and even write your own reviews. This is very helpful as it allows you to select green coffee that may have a taste profile that appeals to your individual pallete. Not everyone enjoys the same coffee flavour. Some enjoy acidic, fruity kenyan coffee, while others enjoy earthy, funky indonesian coffee, or floral ethiopian yirgacheffe. Personally, I tend to enjoy all of these but i usually try to buy clean tasting coffee with a well balanced profile.Buying green coffee and roasting it to your own preference can be a huge challenge but it can also be very rewarding for successful home roasters.

What to do after you buy green beans

Whatever your own individual taste, be sure to buy a range of different green coffee beans. Blending green beans with different flavour profiles can be half the fun. You might want to also read my basic guide for home coffee roasters starting out.  Green coffee is a seasonal product, so the same farm will always produce slightly different coffee each year. Sometimes the green coffee from a farm might taste clean and fruity, while the following year it might have a little more body and complexity. The more you drink coffee, the more you will be able to taste the differences in the cup. Have fun and good luck!

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I admit i am a bit obsessed with Balmaadi coffee. But it is just so damn good! This morning the Balmaadi was the best yet, at 7 days post roast, and roasted to the very start of second crack.

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Introduction to espresso coffee roasting

Espresso roasting - how long should you roast and to what finish temperature? The correct answer is whatever tastes best to you. I won't try to tell you what roast depth you should like, or that you should like the same thing i like. But if you're looking for a basic guide, here's what and how i roast for espresso.

Roast time and temperature

Roast time duration, and the end temperature are still two variables you will rarely find on a bag of coffee. The reasons are obvious - different roasters use different thermoprobes all designed in unique ways and while they all may serve the same function (to give a consistent temperature readout roast to roast on the same machine), you can't compare temperatures easily between different roasters. 

However i still feel it is useful for home roasters to discuss these variables, if not for sharing exact numbers then at least for sharing roast styles and techniques for particular coffee origins.  As a home roaster starting out, i had no clue what temperatures i should be aiming for at what time during each roast phase. Only through roasting, tasting, roasting and then tasting again week after week have i been able to really get an understanding of how to roast well.

I'm not a pro roaster

I won't try to claim that my roasts are better than anybody elses, but i will say that for my own personal taste (which is generally an espresso roast on the lighter side to retain a higher amount of acidity) i am very happy with the results most of the time.

Here is a basic guide that should, in theory, yield some pretty tasty roasted coffee if you have built a home coffee roaster, have it insulated, have a way of easily controlling/changing the input temperature throughout the roast and a method of cooling the beans quickly. Every coffee has different requirements, but in general this is the roast profile that i use as a first test roast with a new coffee, and then adjust accordingly from there based on taste after at least 4 days of degassing.

Pre heat

First step is i pre heat the roaster to around 210 degrees celcius.

Dump

Then once temperatures have stabilised, i enable the magic agitation device and dump in the extraordinarily high quality green coffee beans sourced from the likes of Ministry Grounds. Always try to use the same roast mass for consistency - for me that is 480g.

Drying phase

At this stage, i've got heat on a medium setting. My temp control is a dial with numbers, so i have completely variable control at all times during the roast. Temperature in the bean mass generally reaches 70 degrees after 1 minute, 100 degrees after 3.5 minutes. This is the initial drying phase. Once i reach 100 degrees i generally back off the heat input just a little bit.

It's important to keep a very close eye on the rate of temperature increase. I generally do not need to make any further adjustments until 1 minute before first crack. That is at the 9 minute mark around 185 degrees, i reduce heat further to slow the temperature increase to 4 - 5 degrees per minute.

First crack

First crack is around 195 degrees at 10:15, and temps increase 4 - 5 degrees per minute from here until i pull the roast at 212 to 214 degrees at around 14:00 - 14:30.

Finishing the roast

Deciding when to pull the roast is critical. You should be sampling from 208 degrees on until you are seeing the roast colour and have reached the roast temperature which you like the taste of in the cup. For me, anything beyond 214 and i start to notice a marked decrease in acidity and sweetness (in some coffees, not all). Anything less than 208 is too acidic and although it still tastes great and super sweet i find it's too much acid for my stomach.

You must cool quickly or the beans will continue to roast on the inside and you risk having over-roasted coffee on the inside of the beans and lighter roasted coffee on the outside.

Bag in a one-way valve bag and seal with a heat sealer (hint: cheap ones on ebay, it's probably okay to skimp on a heat sealer). Degas for at least 3 - 5 days before tasting.

For some more specific temps, refer to my previous roast logs. Note that a lot of my old roast logs were 15 minute roasts. I now generally use 14:15 roasts as i *think* these taste a little better... maybe.  I never roast into or beyond second crack, but many do and they can still taste great.

Temp at first crack - a good point of reference

Please be aware that depending on your roasting setup, your temp readings could be completely different to mine, maybe even 5 or 10 degrees higher or lower at first crack. But you can generally use first crack as a guideline for comparing your temp readings with other roasters. For example if i reach first crack at 195 degrees, and my buddy reaches first crack at 200 degrees, then in theory his end temp 5 degrees higher than mine at the same time should, maybe, be a similar roast depth.

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In the increasingly popular world of filter brew coffee, there are two main types of filters - paper and steel. Paper filters have been around for as long as you or I have probably been alive. Heck, my parents-in-law used them back in the 60s! Granted, they have improved since then, but i'd often wondered just how good the new breed of stainless steel filters was. Could they eliminate paper filter taste, were they really re-usable and designed to last, and would they taste as good, or better than coffee brewed using a throw-away paper filter?  After acquiring the fancy new Coffeecatcher mesh filter from Wine of the Bean (which sells in their web store for a paltry $30, compared to about twice that much for competing stainless steel filter brands) I set about testing the device to see if it really did all that it promised.

First up, let's take a real close look at the Coffeecatcher mesh filter from Wine of the Bean, using our magical macro vision digitally enhanced technology!

Examining the Coffeecatcher mesh filter

Inside:

Testing the Coffeecatcher mesh filter

I decided to test the coffeecatcher using my chemex, the reason being the chemex is clear glass whereas my clever dripper or v60 brewer are not see through. The chemex will give us a nice view of the mesh filter as we brew, and fitted quite nicely into the small 3-cup chemex despite being sized for the wider mouth of the v60.

The coffee - Kenya Mtaro peaberry + Guatemala San Francisco

In terms of grind, i found a medium filter grind setting similar to what you would use with paper filters works well. Since the coffeecatcher is designed to mimic the flow rate of paper filters, you don't need to use a different grind setting. As usual, just adjust grind according to taste and flow rate.

Filter coffee dose

Filter coffee pour

See the full gallery on Posterous

Now we have our 230g of filter brew. Let's take a look at the final bed of coffee.

Let me start by saying this. Obviously, there is no paper filter taste to contend with here so you're guaranteed that there won't be paper filter taint in the cup.But even above and beyond that, the resulting brew from the coffeecatcher filter actually surprised me by how sweet and flavourful it was.

I think i'll be reaching for the coffeecatcher mesh more often than my paper filters from now on.

Not that paper filters are necessarily bad, but I just think that this filter has outperformed others on so many levels. It doesn't need rinsing (except for pre-heat), it's easy to clean, it's affordable at $30, the pour rate mimics paper filters and the resulting brew, to my taste, was super delicious!

You can buy the coffeecatcher mesh filter over at the Wine of the Bean web store.

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This has puzzled me for a while. Filter brew devices are now so common that an IT dude at work came to me the other day and told me he'd picked up an aeropress. Just about every specialty coffee cafe is selling some sort of filter brew device, whether it be hario v60, chemex, syphon, clever coffee dripper or some other paraphenalia. And now it seems just about every other cafe is selling them too.

And people are buying them! Which, I think, is great.

Are people using the new filter brewers as replacements for their old plunger devices, and using the same coffee as always? If not, then where are they buying their coffee?  I would like to think that in Brisbane, a lot of filter brew drinkers would order online from places like Ministry Grounds, or Market Lane. Cup Coffee sell great filter roast, but are they the only ones here in Brisbane?

Where is all the filter roast coffee in all of this? Sure some people might not mind espresso roast used in a filter brewer (with a shorter brew time i'd assume?). But if a filter roast tastes so much better then why settle for anything else?

Perhaps the problem is not just lack of availability, but also lack of awareness of the treasures that filter roast brings. While most consumers would have a vague concept of what roast depth is, they may not know that it correlates to a particular brew method. And I would doubt they would have an understanding of how roast depth affects flavour. Can we teach them? Should we? Do they want to be taught?

I think we can't insist on everyone caring as much as we do about such trivial matters as coffee flavour. But we can try to offer a better choice, if it's viable to do so. If filter brewers continue to sell, at some point it should become financially viable for cafes to stock filter roast for their customers.

I also think that filter coffee is easier for the average joe to get right than espresso. Expensive machinery not required, and if you know the recipe, have technique and practice a little, chances are you can hit the sweet spot. Of course having a good grinder helps too.

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There has been a lot going on in the Brisbane specialty coffee scene over the past few weeks. Here's a brief wrap-up from the cafes i've visited. It seems there is no shortage of amazing single origins on offer at the moment.

Campos have opened their new cupping room, located at the cafe in fortitude valley. The roastery has been moved to a new site, and the cafe in general looks better than ever. Everything is always so spotless, and organised. It's great to see the guys there going from strength to strength.

Campos cupping

I attended a cupping session in the new Campos cupping room. The session ran smoothly, and is well thought-out, being an educational sensory experience anyone would enjoy!  Booking details at the link.  A great way to introduce people to different flavours in coffee, or just to enjoy some cupping!

In the Campos Roburs

Campos have received their Columbian Cup of Excellence lot #14 El Tiestero, and are running it as an espresso option along side the usual Superior blend. Sweet, juicy with notes of caramel and choc. Get in and try some while it's available.

Campos are also selling beans from the 2010 Rwanda cup of excellence, and it's lot #8 Nyabumera, a wet processed bourbon variety.

I am really enjoying this one - it's everything a good Rwandan should be.  So creamy, sweet and with a lovely green grape acidity - my favourite kind!  It reminded me a little of the Bolivian Montano but with less caramel and more fruit.

Slayer is back at Cup Coffee, VST filters are in, new coffees on offer, new pour over filters

West Enders are walking with a little extra spring in their step now that the Slayer is back on deck at Cup Coffee.  Rwanda Musasa, which debuted at Cup in their opening year is back for a second round. It's being roasted for filter and you might also find some for espresso. Expect a clean, and again, creamy, sweet cup of yum! Versatile and balanced coffee. 

Josh Russell has got his hands on the VST filter baskets before many of us, and is testing them out at Cup, as well as a really interesting pour over paper filter design. Think bigger ridges than a Hario v60.

Also just in at Cup, Tanzania Blackburn estate's "Clouds of August" lot. I initially tried this one at Pourboy Espresso and found loads of red fruit in the cup, almost raspberry like.

Great choice of origins at Dandelion & Driftwood

Dandelion & Driftwood continue to offer two espresso blends as well as rotating two single origins. Recent appearances from the Honduras cup of excellence Pino di Oro lot left a great impression on me. If they happen to have this one on when you visit next, try it! The most distinct notes of lime / green fruit, and so delicious. This weekend they had the Rwanda BUF cafe, which tastes similar to the Musasa.

Testing a mesh pour over filter this week

In other news i'm testing a re-usable mesh pour over filter from Wine of the Bean and will be blogging about that later this week.

Apologies to all the other specialty coffee cafes in Brisbane who i haven't mentioned, i wish i had time to visit everywhere! No doubt there are many other great coffees on offer elsewhere. Feel free to leave details in the comments.

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A few thoughts about why you should jump on board and at least try the VST Precision filters, developed with La Marzocco.

First of all, as with all innovations i expect there will be a few detractors who will claim the filter basket manufacturing makes no difference to the flavour in the cup. They will probably task anyone to be able to tell the difference. Well, i will hold judgement on that one until the VST baskets arrive, but the fact that many well respected espresso professionals have already tested them and claim they are seeing an improvement in consistency, is enough of a reason for me. If La Marzocco deem them to be an improvement then i think that is enough for us to all sit up and take notice. Will they make espresso coffee taste better? If so, i believe they will do it through increased consistency more than anything else. Consistency across the filter during an extraction and consistency across multiple VST filters.

Have you ever noticed that some holes in your existing filter baskets get blocked by fines, while other remain clear? And that different baskets of same type extract at different speeds? That could be due to the variance in hole size. VST and La Marzocco have set about to change that, creating a basket which extracts more evenly across the bottom surface area of the filter, with much less tolerance built into the manufacturing process for holes size and shape variance.

These filters have a flatter bottom than some, and flat sides. This should be a good thing, but you may have to adjust your tamping technique slightly if you have been used to using a basket with curved sides. More on that once they arrive.

At 25 bucks a basket, not including shipping, it doesn't make sense not to use (or at least test) something that could eliminate one of the many variables involved in the espresso brew recipe!

Since each VST filter basket is trackable via a 2D code printed on the side, and each VST basket is measured and has its own unique profile recorded (presumably somewhere at VST?) there is also potential for baristas to compare baskets to some degree. Although, given the now much smaller variance in basket manufacture, these baskets should prove to be a lot more consistent, both shot to shot and when comparing two VST baskets.

Secondly, these VST Precision filter baskets should fit any standard portafilter, so that includes e-61 machines owned by coffee hobbyists such as myself. You might need a naked portafilter to fit the triple 22g mother VST basket, but i can't be sure on that until it arrives in the post. Expected delivery is currently forecast for beginning of May.  I will be testing the 18g and the 22g VST basket.

The list of features according to the VST filter basket brochure include:

• New Micro-Machining Fabrication Process Consistent Uniform Extraction
• Reduced Sediment Warranted Zero Defects
• Filters Matched To Ensure Identical Performance
• Every Hole Measured On Every Filter
• Each Filter Marked With Unique 2D Reference Code
• Improved Structural Integrity Available in 3 Sizes

Update 17/7/2011: You can now buy VST filter baskets in Australia direct from Ministry Grounds web store.

Buy VST filter baskets in Australia ...

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