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...