Today's Cup: Indonesia Flores Bajawa Highlands

This is part two of my latest experiment. Today's cup was brewed in my new Chemex, whose I arrival I had been eagerly anticipating for about a week. (You kids don't know how lucky you have it these days; when I was your age, we had to allow six to eight weeks for delivery!)

Using the Chemex

Using the Chemex is not hard, although I found this morning's process more time consuming than I had originally anticipated. Here is my new coffee making procedure:

1. At least 12 hours and preferably 36-60 hours ahead of time, I roast some green beans. (I roasted the Indonesian Flores on Wednesday.)
2. The night before, I make sure there is enough filtered water in my Brita pitcher.
3. When it's time to make coffee, I stumble downstairs and fill the water kettle with more than enough filtered water to fill the Chemex. I set the kettle on the stove to boil.
4. While the water is heating, I measure out three quarters of a cup of beans and grind them. Today I used the half-way setting on my Krupp's electric burr mill but that produced too fine a grind. (I know, I should go by weight not by volume, but I cannot do that so I do what I can.) Later update: Using two notches finer than the coarsest setting on the Krupps seems to give the best results.
   
5. After the grounds are ready, I fill my thermos with hot tap water.
6. Just before the water comes to the boil, I splash some into the Chemex to dampen the filter. I then pour that out into the sink and put the freshly ground coffee into the now wet filter.
7. Once the water boils, I then add enough water to the filter to soak the grinds and wait 30 seconds for the water to cool and for the coffee to "bloom".
8. After waiting the previously mentioned 30 seconds, I begin pouring the water into the top of the Chemex. As the water goes through, I keep adding more until the pot is full. I stir with a chop stick each time I pour.
   
9. After the pot is full, I fill my thermos. I then use the left over coffee to make my first cup. There is usually still a couple of mouthfuls, which I pour into a small cup and use to "taste" the brew.

Today's pot took approximately forever, with most of the time being spent in step 8. As I noted above, the grinds were too fine, and as they sat in the filter they become mud-like and impeded the flow of water downwards. I am planning on grinding tomorrow's bean less finely. Hopefully that will make tomorrow's pot will go more quickly.

Back to the Cup

After all that, the good news is that the coffee tasted terrific! The difference was pretty overwhelming, and I found myself foregoing my usual 1st cup with milk and sugar so I could enjoy the unadulterated coffee.

Yesterday's cup accentuated the high notes at the expense of the low notes. There was also an aftertaste that I have been blaming on the crud forming in the depths of my coffee maker's water reservoir. Today's cup was extrordinarily well balanced and that hint of nastiness was gone. (What a relief!)

One of my fears had been that the filters would cause the coffee to be too thin and lifeless for my taste, but this was not so at all. The coffee was rich and flavorful but clean with no bitterness and no unpleasant aftertaste. I am very excited and cannot wait to try tomorrow's cup, which is the Mexican that I roasted yesterday.