This Week's Cups: Mandheling, Peruvian, and Columbian

I have decided to post one combined article talking about all the coffees I've drunk this week, instead of a separate post for each one. This is motivated largely by laziness, but also by the fact that my palate is just not as sophisticated as some people's, so I cannot come up with a paragraph on each cup I drink!

Which in a way is a shame, because this week's coffee has been great! Even the Peruvian, my least favorite bean of the week, was in my opinion quite tasty at this week's roast.

My favorite by far was the Sumatran Mandheling, which was such a pleasure to drink that I found myself thinking about it again and again. I'd pour a cup, enjoy it, and then keep wanting more. I would deny myself the next cup for a while--my coffee has to last all day after all--but once I eventually poured the cup it was well worth the wait. At this week's roast, this Sumatran was thick and delicious, with absolutely no bitterness but tons of flavor.

The Columbian was also good. Roasted quite a bit lighter than the Sumatran (for 7:30 rather than 9:00 in fact), it was noticeably brighter tasting. Often that bright flavor is overpowering and unpleasant but in this coffee it was more subtle, and combined with the otherwise clean and open flavor of this coffee it really worked for me. I do plan to take this bean to a darker roast next time, though, but more out of curiosity than dissatisfaction. I liked this coffee alot! (And yay! I have more for tomorrow!) By the way, I just went back and reread my entry from the last time I drank this bean, and had a similar drinking experience. Gracias, Colombia!

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I will drink the last of the Colombian that I roasted this week then. On Monday, I try the Costa Rican, roasted for 8 minutes and which is smelling oh! so good right now. This bean is from my favorite supplier, and I am squirming with anticipation. I drank this bean once before and it was outstanding. Perfect, actually. Unfortunately I cannot find any notes from the cup, but I do have notes from the roast and it matches today's roast. And I don't need notes to remember that I really liked this bean!

Of Pipe Dreams and Windmills

Mike usually does not like my coffee. I think I have figured out why: he is chasing after a dream, and it is not my dream. Mike wants to make a cup of coffee that has that same caramel aftertaste that some of Rich's coffee had. It's hard to do: Rich himself hardly ever does. It seems to most require finding a bean that has the potential to give you that flavor, and then roasting that bean to just exactly the point where that flavor is exposed but not overpowered by other flavors in the bean.

There are a couple of problems with this. First of all, in pursuing this perfect cup of coffee, you are sacrificing the many beans that will never give you the caramel flavor at all. Some of these coffees are heart stoppingly, breath takingly awesome but you will never taste them because they will not give up that caramel hit.

Another problem is that the caramel flavor seems to show up best in mild roasts, and you will miss all of the character of the relatively darker roasts as you pursue the caramel dream. And not all beans taste good at a mild roast; many in fact taste awful that way!

Finally, the caramel hit is quite good, but it is not the only good cup of coffee. I am not sure that it is even necessarily the best cup of coffee. It is an example of a really good cup, sure, but I have to admit that if my coffee always tasted like that I would start to yearn for my full city roasts and a cup with depth.

Chemex Update

I have been brewing with the Chemex since about June 17, and in that time I have perfected the process somewhat. Here is my current coffee brewing procedure:

1. At least 12 hours and preferably 36-60 hours ahead of time, I roast some green beans. I roast a cup of green beans, which expand during roasting to be a cup and a half, enough for two pots.
   
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. (I use the carafe from my electric drip coffee maker to measure out the water for the kettle. It is the only use I have for that coffee maker now.)
   
4. While the water is heating, I measure out three quarters of a cup of beans and grind them. (I know, I should go by weight not by volume, but I cannot do that so I do what I can.) I use the setting two notches finer than the coarsest possible setting on my grinder and this seems to work best. Too fine a grind slows the process down considerably.
   
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. (I place the filter in the Chemex according to the recommendations posted by Tom on the Sweet Maria's web site. This means I put the 3-ply side against the spout. If you don't understand what this means then you probably don't have a Chemex, so you don't need to understand it.)
   
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 or spoon approximately 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.
   

The coffee that is produced by this method is absolutely some of the best coffee I have ever tasted. Ever.