A Second Cup: Mexico Pluma Istmo

This evening a had an 8:00pm conference call about a group project (I am taking the last class for my Master's) and wanted a pick-me-up, so I ground the last tablespoon or so in my burr mill and used my Melita Plastic Single-Cup Gravity Powered Drip Thingy to make myself a mug of piping hot Mexican coffee.

This is a pleasant cup of coffee, not in your face or overpowering in any way but comforting and good. I particularly like the way this cup smells as you hold it under your nose to sip.

I put the grinder on the fourth-from-finest setting and it still looked like powder. Next time I am going all the way back to the half-way mark! I have yet to try this on the finest setting but even at four settings up from finest the grounds still looked like Greek coffee to me! Especially this Mexican, where the roast was light enough that the color came out just the same as Greek coffee.

Greek Coffee

As an aside, if you have never had Greek coffee, you should definitely try it. Order it with sugar the first time (cream is generally not used) and be sure not to drink the muddy grounds on the bottom of the cup.

Greek coffee is both ground and prepared differently than most types of coffee you are used to, unless you are used to Turkish or Arabic coffee, in which case it's prepared pretty much the same way!

You start with your finely ground coffee. The roast is surprising light, or maybe not so surprising if you know that the darker the roast, the less caffeine. The ground coffee looks just like cocoa powder.

The coffee is prepared in a special pot called a μπρίκι (pronounced "BREE-key"). The serving cups (which are tiny thimble-like things that make Italian espresso cups look lavish) are used to measure the desired amount of water into the μπρίκι, one cup per coffee drinker. Finely ground, powderish coffee is added, usually one or two heaping spoonfuls per cup (depending on how authentically microscopic your cups are). Also generously add sugar at this time, then stir constantly while bringing to the boil. The coffee will foam up when it reaches boiling point, and you must remove it from the fire (or turn the stove off) right away or coffee will boil over the rim of the pot, making you look like a total loser.

There are a number of variations. Most obviously, hard core caffeine freaks will forego the sugar, drinking it black. Also, in Arabic countries they will often add Unusual Spices (like cardamom), giving the coffee an exotic taste. Another thing I have often seen Arabs and sometimes Greeks do is boil the coffee more than once, with three times being the most common. But I personally find that if you just boil it once you will still get off on the caffeine, don't worry about it.

Hacking Away at my iRoast

The last thing I wanted to talk about is that I eventually did implement the previously mentioned hardware modification to my iRoast coffee roaster to stop the lid from popping off during the roast. I took a drill and, after some experimenting found a suitable bit. (The first bit I tried was not tough enough to cut through the industrial-strength plastic. These iRoasts are not cheaply made!) Then in an instant or two I had duplicated the modification shown in the picture.

Okay, that was the second-to-last thing I wanted to mention. I also wanted to brag about my new vow: I am now going to wait before drinking my freshly roasted coffee. Since I tend to roast at night, using the beans the next morning usually does not give them enough time to rest after roasting. So tomorrow morning I will drink the last of the Colombian. Then on Tuesday I will drink the first of the Indian peaberry that I roasted today, and Tuesday night I will roast a batch of something which I will drink not on Wednesday morning but on Thursday.

Whew!

This all works out mathematically because -- and only because -- today is Sunday. If it were any other day of the week then that whole schedule I just recited would just be crazytalk!