Competition

Getting my mind in the mode to make monsters out of men.... I have a feeling that a lot of people will be bringing their game to the comps... I can't wait!

How hot is your cup?

Here's the deal, after reading a bunch of blogs on the subject of coffees cooling I decided to do some tests by myself, and have thought up some of my own questions in regards to the subject.  The first question was about the difference that could be caused over the cooling period?  I already had a preference of letting my coffee cool to the point of being straight up cold.  So, with some research I also began to look at what chemical compounds in the coffees are changing over time in the coffee as it cools?.?.?.  This also led me to look at the fact that any solids in a brewed coffee will continue to extract until the temperature is diminished or until drink is finished, or all the coffee over-extracts.  Another thing that popped in my head was Newtons Law of Cooling, and how that could effect the temperature and overall extraction of a cup (which was touched on kinda @ jimseven.com) And finally 'shocking coffee', does it happen or exist?

So first thing is first, according to Newton's law of cooling, the rate of change of the temperature of an object is proportional to the difference between its initial temperature and the ambient temperature. An example from physics247.com about the law is as follows:

"Newton’s Law of cooling means that if a hot object is subjected to a very cold object, it will transfer its heat a lot faster than if the hot object that is subjected to a mildly cool object.

You are having dinner with your friend at a restaurant one evening. You place your order, and the waitress brings you your coffee much earlier than the rest of your meal. You want the coffee to stay hot until your food arrives so you can have them at the same time. You always add cream to your coffee, but know that from Newton’s Law of Cooling that a hot object transfers heat to its surroundings at a rate proportional to the difference in temperature between the two. So your choice is to either add the cream to your coffee now, or add the cream to your coffee once your meal arrives. You think about the problem for a moment and come to a conclusion.

If you add the cream right away the temperature difference between the coffee and its surrounding air is brought closer together than between just the hot coffee without cream and restaurant air. A hot object cools at a rate that is faster when the difference between the temperatures of liquid and the surrounding air and cup is the greatest. Adding cool cream at the beginning slows down the cooling speed because it decreases the difference in temperature between the hot coffee and its surroundings. If you did not add cream right away the difference in temperatures of the hot coffee and restaurant air and cup is the greatest, so it would cool more rapidly and then when the cream would be added, it would cool even further. You add your cream to your coffee as soon you got it,and enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee when your meal arrives all thanks to Newton’s Law of Cooling to help you out."

Okay, with that example aside noting that no one should put cream in their coffee for any reason, how does this apply to the discussion of cooling coffee and flavor?  Well, this whole idea got me thinking about how cup temperature plays into how we perceive the flavors in the coffee we are tasting.  The quick experiment that I have done a few times now was to get a preheated cup and put a designated amount of coffee (2.5oz in this case) into the cup, as well as getting a room temperature cup (69 degrees all times I have done this experiment) with the same amount of coffee in it and log experience over the period of time until they both reach room temperature.  The first thing I really noticed was that the cold cup (this is my opinion) tasted better than the preheated cup every time we tried this and most people who tried it too agreed.  The hot cup on the other hand seemed to lack a lot of flavor up front.  Is it possible that the cooler cup lowers the temperature enough in the coffee (via Newtons law of cooling) to "stabilize" the chemical changes that would normally occur over the period in a preheated cups cooling? 

My other question is that with so many volatile chemicals in coffee that rapidly change, and continuous extraction occurring throughout a coffees lifespan after brew time to finish, is it possible that a cold cup slows or stops some extraction from taking place and almost suspending the coffee in time in accordance with Newtons law of cooling? And additionally that the preheated cup contributing to more extraction occurring as well as more chemical development in the coffees life? 

All of this led me to try some shots of espresso with room temperature cups and preheated cups.  Between a group of six people, we split shots from the Synesso of a S.O. Guatemala Ayarza and noticed a huge difference between the shots.  First off we noticed that again the 'hot' cup's shot was really hard to taste in comparison with the colder shot, where we found lots of immediate descriptors.  This could just have been our group but we all seemed to tend towards the cooler shot throughout the whole cooling process as well as when the shots both made it completely to room temperature.  

I am really not sure where this leads me ultimately in the grand spectrum of coffee, but I find myself questioning the intuition of pre-warming cups, and what I find to be desirable.  It also makes me question customers perceptions of what good is? If I a "professional" coffee person is constantly questioning and redefining my methods of delivering what I feel to be the best representation of what coffee should be, than how should I approach it?  Another thing is the aspect of maybe it is just a case by case coffee conundrum that should be addressed in the moment.  Too romantic? I don't know.  I have spent the past few days thinking about the thermodynamics of coffee and the heat loss vs. chemical changes vs. time, and how my perception fares against the other 6.5 billion people in the world.  

One of the things towards the end of my list on the thoughts of cooling coffee was influenced by Ted R. Lingle's book: "The Basics of Brewing Coffee" where on page 20 in table 7 (in my book) he has a list of chemical changes resulting from variations in temperature.  What I take away from it is that all of the taste-contributing compounds are effected by water temperature (no big surprise) at time of extraction.  But if the extraction is ongoing then wouldn't it make sense that the compounds are also constantly changing in the coffee with varying amounts and attributing to bad flavors?  Is this what makes coffee so dynamic over time or is it potentially negative?

As a final thought about the pre-heated cup vs. the cold cup, I think that maybe the added heat from the hot cup is essentially causing some continued extraction.  Higher heat = more extraction.  So although the heat loss should be more rapid in the hot cup over time (via NLoC) the cooler cup lowers the immediate temperature and slows extraction and chemical changes. I don't know really, I wonder what the truth is? 

And more and more

Quick post about water, sparkling water to be exact.

A few weeks ago as a shop we tested a group of six different sparkling waters.  We did this to test the value of each water in reference to preference and cleansing the palate.  (sorry about the rhyme) Anyway, Miro and I went to the store and bought a bunch of sparkling waters, cheap to expensive, from nearly no mineral content to super high mineral content.  We were testing for how it felt in our mouths as just a water, how well it cleansed out palate, how well it tasted with the coffee, and how well it worked with other brewing methods.  We first brewed a french press, then a chemex, then we pulled shots of espresso.  Long story short, San Pelligrino was by far the best sparkling water.  It had the smallest, and smoothest bubbles/mouth feel and overall worked the best with all the brewing methods throughout our experiment.  As a note though it also had the middle ground of mineral content out of all the water with around 930ppm.  Not sure if that had anything to do with it but it was funny to see the middle ground prevail.

Its strange looking at if for a few reasons, one is carbonation and its effects/ what is really going on with your palate in reference to carbonation.  Straight from the wikipedia page about carbonation "The fizzy taste can be caused by dilute carbonic acid inducing a slight burning sensation, but is never caused by the presence of bubbles."  So when everyone in the lab was saying "the bubbles in this one are out of control!" They were really saying that they were experiencing intense chemical reactions!!!!  

The second is finding some other people testing the same thing on different blogs (from 2 years ago it looks like) and their results@  cleanhotdry blog  It seems like they found nearly the same results as we did.

All in all, it was super fun, and I would recommended that anyone and everyone try out testing and challenging their palates.

Its been a while :p

So, heres the deal...

When I moved back from Milwaukee to Michigan, I had a lot of plans.  These plans were going to define the rest of my life, and at this point I could not be happier that most of them did not follow through.  I have no regrets, and no hard feelings towards anyone, and I mean ANYONE out there. I get asked sometimes about Madcap, and all I have to say is that Madcap is AMAZING and recommend that everyone I know go there and get some of the best coffee in the world.  I learned so much from working at Madcap and could not owe more to a group of individuals.  

Now though, almost three months later by my unchecked approximation, I have my pour over bar business moving units and a super busy life once again.  I am happy, super happy and am really looking forward to my future here in Ypsilanti.  The picture below is of my business card... I am super proud :)

THE UGLY

So it is my charged duty at the Ugly Mug to train the staff and be quality control in cahoots with Ramiro and crew.  I have developed a weekly training session/ cupping/ testing lab to help our staff here grow as humans as well as coffee professionals.   This picture below is of Ethan and Sean Wray yelling madly at me after we cupped different roast profiles of the same coffees... It was a crazy week, people were flipping out, going crazy and getting tunnel vision.

The picture below is of our cupping session last week where we blind cupped nine coffees from Anodyne Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee, Stumptown Coffee in Portland, and our very own coffees from the Ugly Mug here in Ypsilanti MI!!!  We were doing varietal, origins, and profile analysis with this cupping... This had to be one of my favorite cupping sessions because it really changes peoples perceptions on the coffees.   Being that it was a blind cupping, I think the staff here really ended up loving the Anodyne (thanks again Steve, you are the ultimate best for sending out those samples!!!) coffee, it really just blew us all out of the water.  The Stumptown was good coffee and great for comparrison, and our coffee was delicious as per usual!!!

The next two pictures are of tonights lab that we had.  We were testing different toothpastes and the effects of SLS on how we tasted things... So we did a few things... First we tasted orange juice, coffee, and water as a basis for what we were going up against.  The toothpastes were Tom's SLS free, Colgate, Crest, and Jason SLS free toothpastes.  Between each brushing we tried the water, the orange juice, and the coffee to see how everything tasted. To our surprise we found that the Tom's actually made the orange juice sweeter, and the coffee taste better... where ass the Crest and the Colgate both ruined anything good about the coffee and orange juice.  Seriously though they both made the orange juice taste like rotten bitter nasty butt nasty bad bad bad! (that was my choice descriptors) And the Jason ended up distorting the flavors more than the Tom's but not nearly as bad as the other two.  My outlook is that SLS equals bad for a cupper's palate, someone trying to dial in coffees, or espresso... If you dont believe me, give it a shot and see for yourself.

Oh and a serious thanks to everyone on the Ugly staff for being so freaking dedicated to trying all my crazy ideas as well as Sanford and Foster from Comet, who dared to brave the drive from AA to the outskirts of civilization (Ypsilanti) to do some lab time with us...


I swear I will post more soon, I gots lots to talks abouts...

Moving forward?

So, in the sense of "moving forward," I have always tended towards trying new things and experiencing something different in order to learn more.  My recent move to Ypsilanti, has left me with the feeling of a wonder.  I ask myself what is the best way to brew a cup? V60? Bee-house? Fetco? French-press? I am sure everyone has their preference of brew method, but is there one right way to brew?  If you were to hear of a shop who brews all french-press, would you instantly not want to go there for a cup of coffee? (although you may just have the best french-press in the world?)  Would you turn your nose up to a shop that just does pour over bee-house brews?  Who is defining what is right in the coffee industry? What if it was not possible for a shop to do slow brew due to space or customer flow? Triple ristretto or double traditional? What is your biggest cup size? What is your base price for a "regular" cup of coffee? Is there really an excuse for a coffee shop to not brew quality? Roast quality? Source quality?

My past tense has caught up with me... who is defining me & what do I stand for?

All I needed was a personal 'Thunder-bolt!'

Looking back, I do not remember who told me this but if you were the person let me know and I will give you full credit for inspiration, all I know is that it was recent... The Thunder-bolts, it was the title of some high school team's mascot, kinda like the Milford Redskins or the Hartland Eagles.  What strikes me about this team name is that there is no such thing as a thunder-bolt, and another striking thing about this is that an institution of knowledge could allow themselves to be called the thunder-bolts (or redskins for that matter).  I bring this all up as a sort of analogy for my ever changing and always chaotic situation.  An institution of knowledge, a place where you go to learn, reflect, critically think, behave, and ultimately try to define yourself as independent, humble, and willing to take on the world.  I always thought that I would ideally live a life that mimicked the hard fought battles found in learning and growth.  I guess even the most romantic, optimistic and prepared person can wear blinders in the worst possible times and situations. I was involved in a situation that was not right from the get go, something was always amiss.  It was not just the team name, the players were not right, and the goal was always wrong.  Free of 'the hazards of love,' I find myself looking forward solo, independent, and unique.  I am moving to Ypsilanti to work at the infamous Ugly Mug Cafe and Roastery.  I am anxious, focused, and itching to start this new leg of my journey. 

Extract Mojo-ing

This will be short to echo the time I have spent playing on the extract mojo.

What I realize is that most of the brewing methods I have learned, been taught or have read about are for the most part on the over-dosed under-extracted side of coffee brewing.  Having spent a few hours trying to dial in a coffee using extract mojo and comparing it against my pallet, I seem to be finding that what I am experiencing is mimicked in the program.  It is also helping me put a more precise idea of what is going on in the cup descriptively.

I gotta say that it is really freaking cool... expensive, but shifting my mind...
My new favorite borrowed toy... I may just have to buy a refractometer to do this all the time...

Meaning, Michigan, & My Home.

It has been an exhausting few weeks.  We arrived in Grand Rapids with the help of my parents and the hands of a few friends.  Courtney and I made the decision to move back to our home state of Michigan, settle down and start planning our futures in coffee and life.  We have set up our professional residence at Madcap Coffee, the place where a kid can be a kid.  Wait! No! That's another place.  Madcap, from my perspective, is a place where we can work with other coffee professionals in developing ourselves and help in shaping Michigan into a coffee hub of sorts.  I am not going to name drop, but many a coffee professional hail from Michigan. But, just as we once did, these coffee professionals tend to leave the state for more lucrative coffee opportunities seeing as there are not many in Michigan.  Madcap, with the aim of the good souls that started the place, have put their gun-sights on quality, and what can be done to improve quality in all aspects of the coffee expierence.  I remember leaving Madcap the first time I visited, peering into the windows of this newly opened cafe and wondering to myself if Michigan was ready for the experience I had just had.

I now find myself serving up single brewed by the cup coffees to the fine people of Grand Rapids.Their open ears hanging on my every word.  They are looking for every nuance in the coffee I am serving and describing to them.  I find myself elaborating in great detail the benefits of providing Grand Rapids with the best quality cup brewed to the best of its ability.  I find myself empathizing with the needs of an ill informed public and raising their standard of living by giving them something only found in some of the biggest and most advanced cities around the world.  I find myself fine tuning the details of my routine in order to better understand what and why I am doing what I am doing.  I tell people that the emphasis that has been for so long been put on quality espresso and espresso based drinks has consequently left brewed coffee devalued  and under-appreciated.  We are filling that void by putting a single cup of brewed coffee in its proper place.  A cup of coffee is a gesture of romance and class, culture and soul, it gives real emotional value.  I do not mean value in a sense of monetary means but value in that a single cup of coffee can be worth far more than any action during a day.  A cup of coffee creates meaning and tells a story, the story, your story.

NOW!!!

I have moved to Michigan.  I have just had the internets hooked up.  I am working at Madcap Coffee Company in Grand Rapids. I have not had time to stop and write.  My laptop died.  I have things to write soon. Sorry I have not called, I have been super busy.

Saying goodbye

I worked my last shift at Anodyne today.  It was sad, but I never tend to get sentimental.  I am sure I will return.  Not as a worker, but as a customer.  I am excited to see what will come of my new adventure.  I need to get packing.  

Sitting and Reading

I had the opportunity to do something very valuable for myself today.  It was merely the chance to sit in  Anodyne and drink a cup of coffee while reading a book and doing some sample roasting. 

Why is this of value for me?  As my days usually go, I work eight hours, come home to settle in my nest of an apartment for dinner and  hopefully some reflective thinking before a good nights sleep.  I know it sounds boring and repetitive but this is how my days usually are.  Everyday I see people come into the cafe, and while drinking a coffee they are usually enjoying a good book, paper or casual conversation. One of the huge reasons why I fell in love with the 'coffee shop world' was the endless amount of time I would and could spend hanging out and drinking coffee.  As of the last half year though, this has not been so.  The reading of a book in a cafe has turned into sneaking a few minutes of book time in before bed.  The newspaper has turned into an I-phone application that I read while waiting for my vegan pork-slaw to come at Honeypie's.  Most importantly the casual conversations have turned into silence.  I do not mean to sound angry or bitter (if I do), after all these are the situations I have unconsciously constructed for myself.

Today though, I sat down with seven half pounds of El Salvador samples sent to us by Aida Battle from a bunch of farms in her local region, for us to cup and hopefully for Anodyne to get in the future.  I also sat there in the cafe with some head phones on listening to tunes, reading a book, enjoying some Burundi Kayanza Andaro made with the aeropress.  It felt good to sit and take in the environment not from a working perspective.  I do not consider sample roasting a particular kind of work seeing as I love coffee, and really love great coffee (which I hope this stuff turns out to be.)  I only have a week and a half left here in Milwaukee before Courtney and I pack it all up and move to Grand Rapids.  I am trying my hardest to soak it all up.  Maybe I am feeling prematurely nastalgic about moving after a year from a place I have enjoyed so much, but I know confidently that we are ready to move on and grow in other ways and other places.

I am really glad I got a chance to sit and read today, it helps to put things into perspective every once in a while...

We keep at it!

It has been about a year now since Courtney, Luke and I have moved from our home in the suburbs of the economically fragile metro-Detroit to the vibrant local communtiy active Bay View in Milwaukee WI. Its strange how fast everything changes and everything is re-perspective-ized yet again. 

Courtney and I have decided that we are moving to Grand Rapids MI, back to our home state, the place we endlessly tell all our WI friends about.  We have jobs lined up at Madcap Coffee Roasters in Grand Rapids where we will immerse ourselves in coffee both figuratively and literally with the super-dedicated and intensely passionate individuals there. 

There are things I look forward to in life.  The biggest thing I can foresee is that I want to settle down and raise some kids close to 'home' as well as getting married.  Home being where my family is and by default Michigan.  Courtney and I have not stopped talking about opportunity these past few days.  As much as my life is mine, it is inextricably intertwined with Courtney's' and I could not ever see being apart from the woman I love again after her stint in Chicago.  The hour and a half distance nearly killed us both.  I know that no matter were we go or where we end up, as long as we are together I know that I will be happy.  

It is strange having to leave a place that has given so much of itself to me as Anodyne has over the past year.  I really could not have ever been so fortunate as to get a job with them, when I did.  Steve Kessler is a straight-up gangster! What I mean is that I have never met a guy with so much will-power to grow a small business such as Anodyne and push the quality, local, and caring roaster into peoples coffee shops and restaurants.  Milwaukee is fortunate to have him, Anodyne is fortunate to have his dedication working for them and I know that ultimately he will be rewarded for all the endless hard work that he puts into it.  I will really miss working at Anodyne with Steve and crew.

I live by the idea that no matter where your physical form has been in the past, no matter what actions you have done in your life, no matter anything you have ever said, none of it defines what you will do or be in the future.  I am looking into my future right now happily and looking fondly at the past.  I put my heart into everything that I do without limitations and borders.  If you know me you know that it can drive you crazy when I am driven to do something.  We are moving to Grand Rapids the third weekend in May, rain or shine, hell or high-water.  I am ready to dedicate myself to the task at hand and drive home ready to accomplish the unimaginable.  I could not be more excited for my future adventures with Madcap!  I smell big things on the horizon.

So, here we are a year later in search of coffee, seasons come and go, we make friends and deepen our love of the world.  Things get challenging and almost impossible, but we will keep at it!

Coffee and music...

So, what is it about coffee and music? One of my favorite things to do is to sit down and drink a cup of coffee while listening to music.  (im doing this now)  But my concern is with bands and coffee and getting into the mainstream consciousness.  I am sure most people have seen this:




The band Deathklok loves coffee, and it doesnt end just there.  One of my all time top favorite bands Akron/Family loves coffee, and although they have not written any songs about coffee (that I know about) they are known to scoure the city they are playing a show in to find the best cup of joe.  One of the dudes in the band also worked at Gimme coffee at some point as well as them playing a bunch of shows at one of their stores.  Check out this article about the bands top 10 favorite shops for espresso here. Historically speaking too, just about everyone who has worked in coffee knows that there is this thing about bands playing shows in coffee houses.  In two of my last two coffee houses we had bands and musicians play multiple times a week, forming communities of people who loved good coffee and people who loved local music.  Here is a song played at my old shop 'The MugShot' by the band Shripmpanzee :




And from another shop I worked at 'Kozy Koffee' here is the whole open mic crew playing to a packed room their version of Outkast's song 'Hey Ya' :




Beyond all my history of having bands loving and playing in coffee houses I think I have had more impact on peoples lives via the music I have played in the shop while they were there drinking their coffee.  I have played music that most people would never have otherwise listened to and hopefully opened their minds to not just new music but a new way of looking at coffee...

I'm not sure if coffee inspires music or vise versa or if they co-exist and build on each-other on some plane of the human subconscious, but there is some connection to be had in that they work so well together.

How about Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in the movie "Coffee & Cigarettes":



or the traditional coffee and blues :




Or Ella :



Ya gotta admit that there is something with coffee...

Futuro?

As you know by my previous post on Who, What, Where, When, And Why? you know, and hopefully think, that the more information a consumer has is better for about a million or so reasons having to do with coffee than having none.  But, something no roaster in the world would consider doing is putting their roast profile on the bag.  A roast profile in my very humble (is it humble if I have to say it?) opinion, is one of the most important steps having to do with your final cup.  The unfortunate thing is that for the most part, you as the consumer have absolutely no clue about anything having to do with the world of roasting coffee.  Most people see dark roasted this, medium roasted that, and a light roasted whatchamacallit, never knowing if what they are drinking is actually a light roast, a dark roast, or even what the hell roast levels have to do with coffee.  I have not taken any polls, but it seems to me that the majority of the folks who come up and talk to Steve or I while we are roasting at Anodyne have absolutely no idea that the big machine in front of them is actually a coffee roaster.  We do however get told that it is the biggest grinder that folks have ever seen! We promptly and through learned empathy and education teach these consumers in small steps about coffee trying to ultimately not overwhelm them with our plethora of information.

 How does roasting affect the coffee? Beyond the obvious that you cannot drink green coffee, there are a few very important chemical reactions going on in the roasting process.  I am not for fear of being boring, going to get into those processes but be assured that every coffee takes different methods of finesse to bring about that signature flavor that shines in a cup.

So basically as the coffee roasts, the sugars caramelize, aromas are created, amino acids are exchange, lipids and oils move about and cell structures break down. What does this mean for the consumer? There are no two plants that are the same in the world.  Why would there be two identical coffee beans let alone the thousands of beans in a pound of coffee which equates to several dozen potential trees over how much area?  What I am saying is that there is virtually no uniformity on a very micro level, but it and they become more uniform per micro-lot to farm, to region, to country.  Some of these defining characteristics follow through into processing style, whether it be natural, wet, pulped natural, dry or monsooned.

So back to my question of whether or not roasters should give more information to the consumer in order for the consumer to make the right brewing choices?  The reasons rosters have for not giving out their profiles range from it being top secret like recipes to not wanting a competitor to mimic a profile and potentially steal business down to the plain and simple "we don't know what we are doing and are putting out something we are not proud of."  I am not speaking of Anodyne in this sense, but I can imagine there are a ton of "roasters" out there that don't have the knowhow to develop and knowledgeably know what they are doing and why they are doing it.  Maybe it will be a mark in the future on a bag where right under the varietal of 100% bourbon and pulped natural there will be a 422 drop temperature and a 370 first crack to signify to the consumer that the sugars began to caramelize at 370 and that at 422 degrees 3.5 minutes later we feel that the profile would best produce the best results in your cup? Yeah, I could see this becoming a problem in that some customers (who care hopefully) might start demanding a change to the profile of a coffee, but this would be resolved in public cuppings or possibly the offering of different profiles for coffees for different applications?  I can see on some level that you would not want to give up the blends to public scrutiny in fear that 'Joe's coffee shop' down the street would just roast and mix what you are doing in his shop.  But, that would also mean you are doing something right if someones copying you and your styles.  Maybe it would set a quality standard for people to follow, or set you apart? I'm thinking of this as a potential learning tool.

Maybe in the future we will see with elevations,  the density of the beans for the proper brewing technique so you don't over extract... less waste and more quality?


Afterthought: Am I for or against profiles for consumers? I am for raising quailty standards and learning for all people.  It is something to consider and think about for the future.

Save Now

Fears!

I have fears about catch words...

This very nice older lady comes up to me at work with a sincere concern of not wanting high 'acidity' in her coffee as she swore that she could tell the difference between low and high acidity coffees.  Now, at first I just told her that we don't label our coffees or identify our coffees on a basis of low-high acidity as it was just a catch-phrase by the corporate industry to sell more coffee.  She was very serious that she could indeed tell the difference between a low-high acidity coffee but that she couldn't tell which of ours was indeed low or high.  I tried to relay the information that I have acid reflux and am very sensitive to spicy foods (ketchup is spicy to me) and know her plight, but again she was just not believing me that there was virtually no relevance to her wanting a low-high acidity coffee.  Anyway, to cut to the chase I told her to stay away from our bold coffees like the Dark Roasted Sumatra (our only dark roasted coffee) since it would brew much stronger and give off the noticeable 'bite' that she so disliked.  Right now I would recommend that you click on Coffeeresearch.org or Coffeereview.com where they tell you that acidity is a sensation your tongue experiences while drinking coffee, the sensation that a cupper talks about.  But, as she was confusing the experienced term acidity with the acidity of pH balance in her cup, which is more commonly found in lighter roasted coffees and most recognized in coffees from Kenya. This older lady didn't seem like the type of person who spends a whole lot of time on the internet researching coffee acidity vs. pH so I avoided my go-to answer of  'internet=information." What to do in this situation when there is the loss of understanding?

I guess the moral of the story is that I am becoming more and more offended by the very high proportion of people in and around the coffee industry that ignorantly miss-sell information and knowledge to people.  I do not just mean that these dealers of ignorance do not know the coffee, but that they will knowingly use buzz-terms to hook the publics mind and forever shape the idea that people have in their minds' of what coffee is.  Terms like 'low-acidity,' 'french-roast,' and my least favorite "cappuccino-flavored" are all methods of devaluing and dumbing down the consumers and coffee person's nomenclature.  It does not end with just the people who drink their coffees at home, but it extends out into the innocence of a mislead older lady in my coffee shop looking for something that she is unable to properly define because the buzz-term she knew really just helped to confuse when the idea behind it was supposed to aid in her digestion problems (I suspect?)

It really just hit me. I do not want to hear about hazelnut coffee creamers and 32 ounce quad-shot caramel  mochas filled with high fructose corn syrups.  It is unfair to consumers that they are mislead to devalue the hard work of so many people around the world.  I have faith that humanity really does care about what they consume, and how it is consumed.  I have faith that humanity cares about what it wastes and what is done with their waste.  I also have faith that no-one wants to be ignorant and lied to.

Brewing Methods I Love the Most!

I have been thinking a lot on brew methods... what is my favorite, why is it my favorite?

#1 - I love the Chem-ex, it is by far my favorite brewing method.  I bought my first Chem-ex a little over a year ago at Madcap in Grand Rapids, Michigan not more than a week after they opened their doors for business.   I had Chem-exed coffee before my visit to, Madcap but they way Laura had made it with a heavy dose and careful brewing procedures.  At the time, it was one of the best coffees I had ever had... I just remember being so floored that I had to buy a Chem-ex on the spot and try and reproduce the results.  So, what is it about the Chem-ex that I like and why does it make such a good cup of coffee? (I don't know who wrote this but I'll put it in quotes to avoid problems--->) "History: The Chem-ex was designed by chemist and inventor Peter J. Schlumbohm, with the idea of using his knowledge of lab techniques and filtration to produce the best cup of coffee.  In his quest to manufacture the Chem-ex, he managed to create one of the best ways to produce a clean cup of coffee, as well as one of the most visually appealing." To start, the key for me is that it is a very beautifully designed clear glass carafe that functions as a brewing instrument.  The beauty of it brewing aesthetically is amazing: seeing the bloom, the water being added and seeing the extraction fully occur.  All together just a very beautiful object and tool.  The filter I believe adds to its function and look.  Right from the Chem-ex website "Chem-ex® filters are 20-30% heavier than competitive brands.  They remove even the finest sediment particles as well as the undesirable oils and fats.  The formulation of the filter permits the proper infusion time by regulating the filtration rate -  not too slow, not too fast." I don't know about all that on a scientific level, but what I have found is that Chem-ex brews give me one of the cleanest cups out of any filtration process.  I never have had a muddy cup like in a French-press via the Chem-ex method.  I am not dissing the French-press (just yet) but just get far to distracted by the full-immersion, non-filtered methods which continually give me over-extracted, or just mediocre cups.  

#2 (+3) - In a tie for a very close second as of this writing is the Hario cone and the Aero-press.  The Hario cone is similar to the Chem-ex in that it is in an actual cone shape and that aids in even extraction (=good cup of coffee) but am just so thrown off by the fastness of the brew time, sometimes using the same coffee, grind size, water and volumes I can get strikingly different results, but on average I get amazing cups of delicious enjoyment.  The Aero-press at first just made me mad with its instructions of low brewing temperature, and dilution of the solution (oh me!), but upon messing around with my boy BBW at Roast and their method of brewing, my mind changed.  Now, having one at Anodyne to play with and seeing a bunch of methods on the nets I have found that it, via the inverted method at 14 grams, produces one of the best cups around.

I highly recommend any of these methods for home brewing... and I think in the future I will write my three least liked brewing methods, but that is for another post.  

Check out brewmethods.com for many different and awesome methods of brewing your cup of joe at home and enjoying the crap out of it!

Who, What, Where, When, Why?

I guess I have had slightly more to say lately (the past few days) than in the past few months.  Maybe it is my lack of other things to do, or maybe the clouds have cleared from my mind and I am dealing with the clear open skies of my minds 'spring.'

So, I have been roasting more and more lately, usually doing anywhere from 10 to 20 roasts a day for at least 2-3 days out of the week.  I have been spending more and more time getting specifically where our coffees are coming from finding what varietals, elevations, processing types, so as to not only pass the information on to our loving customers but so that we can potentially modify our roasting techniques to better suit the coffees.  We have many different roasting profiles, but not necessarily for varietal or elevation specifics, and as we are still a micro-roaster not ever roasting more than 20lbs per batch, I am thinking that we could really start to hone in on a more specific line of roast profiles taking into account more aspects of the coffee.  This would be done with the intention of education for the general public that coffee is a seasonal crop and that there is no one coffee out there that can just grow anywhere in any condition.  There are different varietals that are used for a variety of reasons ranging from disease resistance to production and crop increases.  The varietal I am sure, ultimately has an effect in the cup and it should be addressed sooner than in the brewing method, but at the roasting step.  This also follows for the elevation, which equates roughly to increased bean density with higher elevations, and passed on potential flavor density and roast differences from a lower elevation grown coffee.

I must be clear that we do take these things into account with our roasting profiles. Unfortunately it is usually not known how much a roaster, like myself or papa Steve, does to really effect the final product. The coffee that may make its way successfully into your cup, and hopefully fully representing to the best of its ability, all the hard work and craftsmanship that was put into it at the farm and cooperative, in whatever country it was grown in.   How would knowing about what varietal and how it is roasted because of the varietal help you enjoy your cup more? How would knowing what farm your coffee comes from help you enjoy your coffee more? How does all the information we can potentially provide you, the drinking public, help you enjoy the experience more? 

When you know the who, what, where, when, and why of your coffee, you can essentially vote with your wallet and become an investor in that farm, family, processing method, varietal, and way of life of the people who grow that coffee.  It may seem strange that it is that way, but it is true.  If you were to find a great coffee that we at Anodyne are roasting and you continue to buy it, then we will get more.  This is basic economics, but what you do is directly effecting how we operate the business.  If you know most of the factors that go into your coffee and find that you enjoy a specific taste that comes from the pacamara varietal you can go back to or shelf or our wholesale accounts in the future and say, 'I know specifically that I enjoyed this type of coffee, perhaps I should get it again or not necessarily the same country but the same varietal from a different country or region.'  And the same goes for bourbon varietals, or perhaps higher or lower elevation coffees. 

It is not often in any circumstance that the general public can see the effects of their purchases, unless it is with a small business like a local farmers market.  You see and meet the people who are doing the work that ultimately gets eaten, made or passed on at your home.  Our world food supply has become a production line and coffee is no exception with the majority of coffee in the world grown by multinational corporations without a focus on the people or quality, just profit. Coffee is a strange industry in that coffee can only be quality grown between the tropics of cancer and capricorn on the globe.  Beyond that, specialty coffee is for the most part grown in far off, hard to reach locations in jungles, picked by small farmers and families that never get the chance to ever leave their country or let alone get to try their coffees the way we do here in America.  We as consumers, and as the general public, never get to meet the people who grow, pick, process, and for the most part roast our coffee.  It is easy to grab a bag of Colombia coffee off the shelf, have it ground, and drunk within the week, never thinking twice about any of this.  But to all the hands along the line that it took to bring you this coffee, it does mean a lot.  This is what I meant at the beginning of this rant when I was trying to underscore the idea of information provided on the coffees, the who, what, where, and why.  The specialty coffee industry represents just a small fraction of the coffee produced in the world. 

I say it is fortunate that there is a 'buy local' movement going on all around the country and world both for environmental and economic reasons.  And although coffee is literally grown on the opposite side of the world from us in some cases, your impact on that area of coffee growing may be more direct than how you effect your next door neighbor.  Even if you cant buy from Anodyne specifically, find your local roaster and get all of the information you can from them to improve the quality of life, not just for you and your coffee loving senses, but for the farmers around the world that put so much into growing you the best coffee that they can.

Double, Triple, Naked, Spouted?

I have had quite a few strange espresso experiences as of late... things that would get me kicked out of the third wave.  I am just slightly kidding when I say that, but here in Milwaukee with our limited quality barista base and those in the know being too stubborn to change their baskets, blends and portafilters to try something different it is hard for me to get a quality shot just about anywhere.  I've gotta say that I have walked into many shops and have purchased espresso and not even touched it for watching and listening to how the shots are prepared and pulled scared me away from the attempt of trying said shots.  My thoughts range from, "Did they just not tamp?" to "Wow, thats a 54 second, 4 1/2 ounce double shot of espresso."

So, although I have these experiences, they are not the ones I am actually talking about.  The ones I am specifically referring to occurred when I began to work with Brett for competition.  I have always been partial to the triple ristretto shot pulled to 1 1/2 to 2 ounces from a bottomless portafilter.  With the competition though, the shots were required to be pulled as a double shot with each shot being one ounce from a double basket and spouted portafilter.  What does this mean? And why should it matter.  Well, in a sense, they are different brew methods all together... it would be like dosing your Chem-ex way more and changing the grind setting drastically to compensate for the excess of coffee like when pulling the triple ristretto, up-dosing and modifying the grind setting.  That being said, I have for the most part always been a fan of triple ristretto (bottomless portafilter) shots for the reasoning that they are usually never over-extracted, super-bodied, great crema, and over all very flavor-ful.  Why have I not preferred the double basket (spouted) shots? Mostly I have never been privy to favorable shots pulled in this fashion, with the results mostly over-extracted, thin, and without much crema (instant peaking.)

As it happens, like I said this began to change around the time of working with Brett for competition... Brett and I were looking for single origin coffees that he could use for competition and we were not finding anything that hit all the senses.  We then began to look at blends and different blend combinations where we came across the Ethiopia- Yirga-Cheffe, Costa Rica- Herbazu Estate, and Guatemala- Finca El Injerto blend that he ultimately used and got in the top 10 in the Great Lakes.  The funny thing is that the shots when dialed in and pulled were amazing citrus and tropical fruits, chocolates, and creamy like a mother!  And this was with a double basket pulled from a spouted portafilter.  We tried the same blend pulled from the triple baskets (bottomless) and as you can guess, it just really did not taste all that good, actually it tasted pretty bad.

I know there have been a ton of debates all over the Internet about bottomless vs spouted portafilters and basket sizes and shapes and so on and so on.  I guess what I am taking away from the whole experience is that I have had quite a few shots since from double baskets both spouted and bottomless as well as triple baskets (bottomless) and have thus far strongly preferred the double shots and what I have gotten from them.  Maybe my pallet has moved past wanting that super-strong over-powering triple ristretto shot and is liking the intricacies of the delicate nature that is found in the double shot when pulled right.

As a final question, and I am not sure how much of this has been answered in other places on-line, but I am wondering if the triple basket is merely a tool to ensure that the shot is not over-extracted and the bottomless portafilter a tool for bad crema on improperly pulled espresso? Almost a compensation tool for how the barista might mess up on a double (spouted?)

Where have I been?

Well, to start my name is Eric Mullins.  I am 24 years old.  Don't let my age fool you, I have done more things in life than most people have done in their whole lives.  I am not just saying this.  During high school I worked for a canoe livery, and an engine shop.  The shop I worked for made super-cat boat racing engines, v12 engines, big ones.  Engines with dual super and turbo chargers attached, pumping out several thousand horsepower.  After that I worked in warehousing, shipping & receiving, and other environmental testing equipment related things. This was followed by a stint doing housing and construction in Detroit and the metro area. 

It was chance that my friends back in good old highland got jobs working for "Its a Grind Coffee House."  Really I never drank coffee.  I tried it at one point and hated what I tasted.  But when a position opened at IAG I applied and was called in thanks to Ramiro, him being a manager and I got the job.  I was a BARISTA! Well, I thought I was anyway.  We had three group Faema with PID temp and pressure control with two automatic dosing grinders and a tamper press.  I had no idea what I was doing.  My training was sparse and all I had to do to qualify for the job was to learn drink recipes and make them.  Not hard, I pushed buttons and got paid.  This job was as I remember "just a stepping stone until something better came along in the little town of Highland. A person who stopped in often was Josh (the one who I have written about before, so I wont go into anymore back story) he took Ramiro and I one weekend to Ypsilanti to try out coffee from a few places... those being The Ugly Mug, Zingerman's, and another place that I dont really remember all too well.  It was actually at Zingerman's that I sipped my first shot of espresso that didnt taste down right horrible and I could actually pick up on specific flavors and notes through the cup.  Immediately afterwards Josh took us to the Ugly Mug and I had my first 'Ah-Ha' moment with coffee when he pulled me a shot of some blend that I have no idea what it was and it blew up in my mouth.  The shot was a triple ristretto, that is what I remember... we went home to IAG and bugged the shit out of our wonderful boss, Ed Altuna,to buy some triple baskets and a hand tamper.  I dont remember how long it took, but I remember getting the basket and I remember Josh letting us use his tamper.  Around this time Ed got out of his contract with the IAG corporation and went 'independent.'  The name 'The Mug-Shot' was deemed to be the new title of the business. I have to be honest, we tried towards the end to make the best coffee we could with what we were getting.  We were getting our espresso from the Ugly Mug and the rest from a local cheaper roaster named Beanstro. Beanstro was owned by a guy named Paul.  Paul is a seriously good dude who loves coffee and and loved the fact that Ramiro and I were getting more into specialty coffee.  Unfortunately for him, (in my opinion) Michigan for the most part is a flavored coffee market.  Maybe you picked up on my "towards the end" thing that I just wrote a few lines back.  Another unfortunate thing was that the corporation killed Ed financially and therefore we consequently had to close.  Ed let a few people know a few months before that the shop was in dire straights so me being paid more than most of the employees began looking for another job to save him money.  To abbreviate the story, the shop ended up closing.  Ramiro went to work for the Ugly Mug after some time and I moved to Hamtramck in Detroit to work for my brother and simultaneously work at the Kawian Cafe in the then new 'Asian Village Detroit' on the riverfront.  I also picked up some work at the locally famous Cafe 1923.  At Kawian Cafe I worked on a new Rancilliio and used Zingerman's coffee. 

 When my hours there began to get cut and I saw Asian Village begin to crumble, I made the call to my mom and asked if I could move back home. It seemed like forever, the winter I spent picking up odd jobs where I could in order to support myself.  It was while I was in Detroit that I was fortunate to meet Courtney, and I can tell you that she had a big part me moving back to the Highland area, and not just finding other work Detroit.  Back at home, in Highland, there was a coffee shop opening... I figured that I knew how to make coffee and that I know that I loved doing it... yeah, a good job while going to college, something to do until I found something better.  I pretty much had control of the training and coffee operations at Kozy Koffee.  It was me and Courtney working in the same shop doing something we loved.  We were making coffee for all our friends and it became a second home.  I fell even in more love with coffee, keeping in close contact with Ramiro, who was now the roaster at the Ugly Mug.  And then we began to toll roast there for Kozy Koffee.  I was thrown into the mix.  The world famous Zak Rye taught Courtney and I the ropes and the what to dos and not to dos in roasting and we were off.  It seems like most things in my life two things happened, the first I immersed myself in the coffee world learning everything that I possibly could to do better and fall deeper into rabbit hole of coffee.  The second thing that happened is that Kozy Koffee began to be censored by the landlord telling us we couldn't have music shows on the weekends (and therefore cutting our revenue substantially) also in effect, it became apparent that I wasnt really happy working in a place where I couldnt grow as a coffee person. 

This is where Milwaukee comes in.  I was on BaristaExchange.com and happened across a post where the idea of a job being open at Anodyne as a roasters assistant was floated.  I made the call and within two weeks I was living in Milwaukee working at Anodyne. Courtney and Luke moved with me and within six months Courtney got a job working for Intelligentsia in Chicago. I should note at this point that my story is very condensed over the span of the past nine years of my life.  Now, and by now I mean specifically the past two months have been insanely hectic hence the lack of updating this blog.  Meanwhile, Steve and our sales guy David have been aggressivly going out and winning accounts left and right taking the metro-Milwaukee coffee world by storm. This although translates to me roasting one or two days out of the week as well as packaging and delivering all around Wisconsin the rest of the week. 

What have I been up to? I guess I will be chronological... About three months ago while Courtney was working one of her shifts at Intelly and Duane Suarenson (the owner of Stumptown) walks in the door and befriends Courtney.  One thing leads to another and somewhere along the line the idea of a jobs comes up and we end up flying out to Stumptown in NYC.  To make a long story short, there was a possibility of jobs, but the possibility evaporated due to scheduling conflicts.  Back in Milwaukee, Brett Boy Wonder is prepping non-stop for the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition and wants to kill it.  Me, I am his coach.  This means that on top of my day job as a roaster/packaging/delivery guy I double it and make sure our BBW does well in competition, pushing him and helping him in what ever way I can.  What were the results? How about making it in the top 10 in the GRLBC, thats fucking phenomenal! Now, I am not going to take all the credit because this guy has been killing himself to do well and I congratulate him for slaying it out there.  Besides that, I have spent my weekends driving back and fourth between Milwaukee and Chicago to see Courtney.  In two weeks as of today Courtney will be moved back to Milwaukee for good and I am happy that I will be able to finally get some sleep after months of running around like mad.  Furthermore, I was just informed today that in the middle of next month Anodyne will be adding another person to the wholesale operation as a bagger and deliverer.  This will make me officially the full time roaster for Anodyne as well as freeing Steve up to manage and grow the operation, and also allowing me to further grow and immerse myself into the world of coffee and roasting. 

I love coffee, I love working in coffee. What I am doing in Milwaukee is not just something to do until I find something better. Looking at the Stump situation where I almost moved away to NYC, I am glad I didn't.  I'm glad because I would probably never had the opportunity to grow and succeed like I am here in Milwaukee at Anodyne.  I'm not just saying it to make anyone happy, it is simply the truth.  I am a coffee person... I have found my calling.  Watch out coffee world, Anodyne Coffee is growing and as humble as we are in principle, we love what we are doing and are passionate about what we are doing and there is not much anyone can do to stop the kind of drive we are bringing to the coffee world and Milwaukee community. 

As an end note, I have been inspired by tons and tons of coffee professionals from the Ugly Muggers in Ypsilanti, to the Madcappers in Grand Rapids, of course the Intelly folk always pushing the envalope as well as Stumptown, Counter Culture, Ritual, and many many more.  These companies and friends just make me want to strive to do better and more for the world...

Polishing

To polish or not to polish? This is one of the questions that your everyday barista may never ask themselves.  Why? Like so many things in the coffee industry, it seems to be an un-spoken rule that you polish an espresso puck as a final step in preparation before extraction.  By polishing, I am defining it as "To make the surface of an espresso puck smooth and (possibly)flawless by using a 360 degree spin and the pressure of gravity on the tamper (after tamping) to lock the top-most layer of grounds in a more ridged refined surface."  Most commonly when I ask the question to unsuspecting baristas, I get a rather blank stare, with responses varying from "Um... I don't know?" to "It prepares the espresso puck for extraction."  Yet, when I probe a little further, the reason baristas polish is because they were trained to do so.  Polishing then shows itself to be a dogmatic practice passed down from one generation of baristas to the next without providing any solid reasoning as to how espresso is improved by this process. The big questions then become: Why do baristas polish their espresso pucks? and is this a practice that should be perpetuated?

I have a very similar story; I am a wholesale account trainer for Anodyne Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee, WI. One day a few months back, I was conducting a training session on all things espresso for a new account, and in the middle of a tamp I was about to lead into the old "...and after you tamp, spin the tamper 360 degrees on the top of the puck without adding any additional pressure." The next words out of my mouth were "Because... um, it prepares the puck for extraction."  If I were the people being trained, I would not have been sure whether or not to believe me. Being the inquisitive person that I am, I started asking questions of other baristas, calling friends for information, and running tests.  I  took my question and ventured to the north side of Milwaukee to Roast Coffee Company, and began running tests with my good friend Brett Felchner, as well as being in constant contact over the phone with Josh Longsdorf at Ritual Coffee Roasters in Napa CA.

Here are the different things that we looked at:

* Pre-weighing the coffee, 18 grams (double basket) and 20 grams in the Ritual tests
* Tamp the puck, checking the weight after tamping
* Tamp the puck, polishing by not adding any additional force, but spinning the tamper 360 degrees
* Extraction of the shot at desired temperature, time, and weight (201°F, 26 seconds, and roughly 28 grams polished and 34 grams unpolished, respectively.)
* Weight of the extracted puck
* Weight of the liquid of the pulled shot
* Rate the taste of the pulled shot
* Watching the shots extract on the bottom of the naked filter (we found spiraling in the polished, and no spiraling in the un-polished, could be because of the twisted compression from the polish?)

From the testing at Roast, Brett and I found, on average a lighter post extraction puck and a heavier liquid shot weight with the un-polished pucks.  We also noticed a huge difference in flavor, with an average of 5 grams heavier of liquid shot weight in the unpolished tests.   We found the un-polished shots to have a fuller taste, better body, and a more desirable flavor.  Whereas the polished shots all seemed more harsh and slightly thinner when pulled using the same parameters.  Conversely, in the Ritual tests although they were pulling 20 grams of espresso while we were pulling 18 grams, they were finding similar results with heavier liquid shot weights of almost 5 grams and lighter post extraction pucks on the unpolished pucks.  The big thing though is that everyone at the ritual tests found the unpolished shots to taste "a bit over-extracted."  I should note that none of our tests were as scientific as humanly possible, taking into account the gram size differences, different  used coffees used in our two tests and as we both were testing on machines and equipment that gets used and abused regularly.  I personally do not have access to science labs and uber-precise testing equipment but tried instead to monitor and be as precise as possible with the controls we have. Our tests were more or less aimed at seeing what the average everyday barista would experience with slight modifications to their everyday routines of just polishing or not. But even with all that, the consistency of differences found between polishing and not polishing in between the Ritual tests and the Roast tests brought me to consider the differences in the espresso machines being used: the machine we were testing on here in Milwaukee was a PID modified La Marzocco Linea, whereas at Ritual they were using a La Marzocco GB/5 with pre-infusion. 

The reality, it seems, was not as obvious; or maybe it was so obvious that we had not considered it before.  It had to do with that magical bar pressure that is often talked about.  The bar pressure on an average espresso machine is around 9 bars, which roughly relates to about 130 pounds of pressure per square inch.  That is a lot of pressure coming out of an espresso machine, almost unimaginable to a human, but a look at the physics can begin to show us a different picture.  A search around the Internet and a few physics books showed me that the real pressure on the coffee is a total of around 540 pounds in every direction, not just downward pressure.  The most specific information on this topic was found in the comments on the coffee blog 'Coffeeaspirations' by Owain: "If you have a container under a pressure of 9 bars - every part of the container is under 900,000 Newtons per square meter - in every direction. 9 bars is equivalent to 130 pounds per square inch. A standard filter basket is about 2.3 inches in diameter. Pi x radius squared gives an area of 4.15 inches squared. 130 x 4.15 ~ 540 pounds of pressure covering the 'top of the puck' - minus the minimal pressure relief due to the release of the extracted coffee from the system." What does this mean in terms of the espresso puck? Well, as it happens, the pressure pancakes the puck, and what our testing results are really showing is the difference in headroom between the top of the espresso puck and the screen filter.  This polish essentially evens out the top of the puck, locking the grounds into a tighter formation, even though no visible downward force is applied.  It compacts the puck down just a hair, and that minuscule amount produces a far greater difference with 540 pounds of pressure being applied to the puck.  This slightly larger amount of headroom, and therefore larger amount of brewing water on top of the polished shot, which will be relatively quite a bit larger than the unpolished shot.  This difference in the amount of brewing water above the puck could account for our weight difference in the pucks and shots, based on the amount of water being held back and sent through the pressure relief valve on the espresso machine when the pancaked puck bounces back from its pressurized form.

A discussion on this subject with my math and physics-whiz of a sister, Megan, who does all sorts of scientific testing for a living, brought even more insight on what is possibly happening in the polishing and extraction processes.  The general principle can be explained using the following example: when using a garden hose (as I am sure all of you have), there is a certain amount of water that is flowing through the hose, under very little pressure.  When the flow of water is inhibited by placing a finger over the end of the hose, the back pressure on the water in the hose increases.  To equalize that pressure, water must flow through the smaller opening at a much higher rate.  Relating this to extraction of espresso: although perceptually very minor, a polish on a surface of an espresso puck may create smaller openings in the surface of the puck for the water to flow through.  This would increase the flow rate to try to equalize the back pressure in the system, as in the example of the garden hose, but also magnifying any channeling that could occur to allow the water to flow through more easily.  This is counter intuitive in that one would think that a higher flow rate should create a larger amount of water in the pulled shot. However, the water would be able to flow more freely through an un-polished shot, reducing back pressure and allowing more water through the grounds, even at the slightly lower flow rate.  This lower flow rate would also allow the brewing water to be in contact with the espresso grounds for a slightly longer period,  extracting more evenly and producing a richer flavor, while also contributing to the differences in the final weights of the puck and pulled shot.  This idea would also follow through to differences in how much pressure a barista uses when performing the initial tamp of the espresso puck.

Let's not forget that though the tests performed at Ritual showed similar results in the outcome of the final weights, there was a definite difference in the rating of the taste of the shots that were pulled.  Through even more research, many emails with industry professionals, and even more experimentation, the big game changer in these tests happened to be the pre-infusion. Although the same idea applies to espresso extraction with pre-infused as a non-pre-infused shot , the difference comes in the pressure control during the saturation and extraction of the espresso.  The basic idea behind pre-infusion is to saturate the espresso puck to potentially eliminate the chance for channeling and prepare the puck for extraction, as is similarly done when letting coffee grounds 'bloom'.  In turn, pre-infusion is put on espresso machines to get rid of any imperfections in the puck, saturate the puck and gradually introduce the puck to water, not just blasting it with nine bars of boiling water.  What does pre-infusion mean to polishing?  Specifically, polishing with a pre-infusion capable machine would be unnecessary and even potentially detrimental, as the pre-infusion on a polished puck could be inhibited or at least causing a delayed saturation and extraction by the polish as indicated above.  So why the marked difference in taste?  The most likely answer is that on a pre-infusion capable machine, the espresso is extracting differently and possibly over extracting with an unpolished surface, as the unpolished grounds are in contact with the water used to pre-infuse the puck, as well as being in longer contact with the brewing water while pulling the shot. Whereas the polished puck holds back more water during the process and slows down the overall extraction.  This is not to say though that on all pre-infusion machines that you will have over-extracted unpolished pucks, but that there is a certain amount of compensation taking place on the part of the barista in the method of preparation of the shot with the pre-infusion.  More information can be found about pressure control and pre-infusion at 'Home-Barista.com' or 'SlayerEspresso.com,'

To be honest, my first thoughts in all this leaned towards the idea that the un-polished puck has a more porous surface allowing the full puck extraction to start sooner, as opposed to the polished puck causing more resistance and holding back water during the extraction, while also over extracting the top portion of the puck. What are my actual conclusions? I would say confidently now that my preference is for un-polished shots.  But the reasons for the difference are a little more complex than simply being my taste preference.  There is so much going on in espresso preparation, and the average everyday barista does not really have the time to sit and analyze the physics and science behind what is happening.  The concentration for the everyday barista is to make drinks that taste good, in a timely manner.  Using all of this gathered information, and through personal observations, I have come to conclude that the average barista may be compensating with the polish, slowing down the process with the inhibited water flow, usually by pulling smaller volume and longer timed shots (as in case of some ristretto shots I have had), with pre-infusion having a much larger influence than previously thought.

So, does polishing have an effect?  I would venture to say YES, and a rather large one at that.  As a barista, should we be adding extra steps to an already imprecise routine and possibly over-tamp a beautifully prepared shot?  I would say no.  Some industry experts believe that polishing is an unnecessary and detrimental step in an already convoluted process.  Considering all the other controllable factors the everyday barista has to deal with, it would seem very logical that the focus should be on perfecting those steps in espresso preparation that can actually help to produce a beneficial outcome in the cup.  It should be noted that like all things in the world of coffee, there are a million different methods and a million different things to always learn and tweak.  Adressing polishing without an understanding of what goes into making espresso I strongly recommend that baristas take the time to duplicate our experiments, and I hope that you will taste a difference.  And as any inquisitive person would, I ask my self: if I were to go into a reputable, well-trained coffee shop without watching the barista who is pulling the shots of espresso, could I identify whether or not the puck was polished? Could you?





Note: I wrote this with some help from quite a few people, but the idea is no where done or finished, I just have not had time to play anymore with the idea.  Maybe someday I will revisit this and try adjusting, tweaking and trying new things with polishing and tamping and such... one day.