The Art and Craft of Coffee (29 page)
Read The Art and Craft of Coffee Online
Authors: Kevin Sinnott
Odd but Interesting Brewing Methods
Now that I’ve instructed you on the most popular methods, here are a few preparation methods difficult to find anywhere else. Francis Thurber, in his 1880 book
Coffee: From Plantation to Cup
, records a few notable brewing recipes. Today, they are more than a hundred years old. Here, they are reprinted for your pleasure. If you were a wealthy world traveler in Thurber’s time, this is what you would likely drink. (Note, the coffee recipes below appear as Thurber printed them, meaning they may not be as complete as the recipes we provided earlier in this chapter.)
French Coffee: Café Noir
French coffee pot (author’s note: presumably a manual drip pot)
2 tablespoons (10 g) coffee
Boiling water
Milk, optional
1.
Grind coffee.
2.
Pack grounds solidly in the coffee pot (the regular French filtering pattern).
3.
Pour boiling water, passing it two or three times through the coffee pot.
4.
For café au lait, add hot milk in a 3-to-1 ratio of milk to coffee.
Serving suggestion: For flavor, add ½ tablespoon of powdered chicory to grinds before brewing. Thurber claims that many French families saved their morning coffee’s spent grounds, ran more hot water through them, and saved the water for coffee later that day.
Brazil/Rio Coffeehouse Prep
In the 1870s, Brazilians roasted most of their coffee in open pans and made it using a larger, but non-specific, grounds-to-water ratio. Thurber claims that the local Brazilian epicureans sought coffee kept “five or six years in the hull.” He writes, “It is claimed by good judges that there is no coffee in the world superior to old Rio preserved in the hull until mellowed by age. It develops a richness, and at the same time a delicacy of flavor not found in any other variety of the bean.”
Old Government Java Recipe (aka Café Au Lait à la Hollandaise)
Thurber did not write this recipe but obtained it from an old resident in Batavia, a Javan city. It records the then-outdated coffee preparation method favored by Dutch settlers in Java.
1.
Take coffee pot composed of two detached parts, a metal drip maker with an upper filter using fine holes (like a salt shaker).
2.
Place a flannel cloth filter over the upper section’s bottom, covering it completely.
3.
Add a sufficient quantity of well-ground coffee and firmly tamp.
4.
Slowly pour cold water onto the grounds and allow it to drip completely through the filter, into the reservoir below. This will likely take 4 or 5 hours. Keep the filter high, narrow, and fully packed to retard the flow.
5.
Mix the finished extract with hot milk in a 1-to-3 ratio of coffee extract to hot milk.
< Mexican Coffee
Resources
Years ago, most books on coffee would feature a list coffee roasters, manufacturers, and appliance retailers for buying supplies. That has all changed with the growth of the online marketplace and the sheer number of craft roasters. To be fair to the various suppliers, I have kept this list short and, with a few exceptions, limited it to noncommercial websites and organizations.
Online Resources
There are now so many consumer review sites that it is a challenge to find credible, objective information on products. Many reviews are written by nontechnical consumers who are awed by the new-car smell of a new product or soured by buyers’ remorse. Beware of putting too much credence in a review until you discern a reviewer’s credentials and testing methodology. Here are a few top coffee sites that pass inspection.
An early forum that has grown into a significant worldwide community of end-users. Anyone can post reviews, so they vary in reliability and usefulness. A lot of the forum is devoted to a close-knit band of hobbyists in the community.
Founded by author Kenneth Davids, the Coffee Review focuses chiefly on reviewing coffee bean varietals by a wine-testing scale. Davids is honest, but, if anything, he’s prone to grading everyone a “C” or above. As in wine taste tests, they are subjective, and you must learn to calibrate reviewers’ tastes with your own.
http://home.planet.nl/~rjeroenv/index.htm
This great website features Mr. Robert Vriesendorp’s reviews and commentary, as well a small-but-fun treasure chest of photos of coffee gear. Joerens has useful testing methodology.
This is my website, and it features in-depth technical reviews of brewers, grinders, and other gear, plus occasional feature articles about coffee or commentaries on coffee issues.
Equipment and Supplies
Here are just a few commercial recommendations, since they offer gear that is difficult to obtain and gear you’re not likely to find in local brick-and-mortar stores.
This online retailer focuses primarily on unroasted (green) coffee beans and home roasters, some brewers, and a whole lot of information. Naturally enough, they tend to recommend what they sell, but they seem to sell almost everything. Their tutorials are very detailed, and may overwhelm the newbie home coffee roasters.
This informal group doubles as a buyers’ club where small end-users pool their resources to group buy some top quality green beans. Prices are competitive, and they have a good reputation.
Magazines
Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
Monthly magazine for the trade, but with many articles of aficionado interest and international perspective.
Books
I have not read every book there is about coffee, only most of them. The following are some personal favorites.
Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying
, Fifth Edition (Paperback) by Kenneth Davids
ISBN-13: 978-0-31224-665-5
Kenneth Davids has written several books, but this is the first. Each edition has been substantially updated so if you have the time or resources, consider checking
out each one. Ken is an affable hippie who ran his own coffee store in the 1960s and 1970s. He like brewers but he loves varietals. He runs a website currently, where he reviews coffee beans (see above). Any book by Davids is highly recommended.
Coffee Floats and Tea Sinks
by Ian Bersten
ISBN-13: 978-0-64609-180-8
If you ever see this at a library sale, grab it. At last check, it sells for a small fortune on Amazon or eBay. It’s a glorious coffee (and tea) book, filled with opinions, but mostly wise ones. Bersten, who is Australian, has a great writing style and a global focus.
Coffee and Tea
by Peter Quimme
This 1970s book is perhaps out of date, but it has a lot of good information, and until I found Ken Davids books, I found it the most useful of the many books. It is a tiny pocket-sized book, and I used to carry it with me to coffee stores, as a guide to the beans and roasts.
Coffee
by Joel Schipira
The Schipiras are a coffee-roasting family in upstate New York. They write a very nice testimonial to a business they obviously love, and some of the information is very useful. (They write from the perspective of pre-espresso and pre-specialty coffee culture.) As with Coffee and Tea, the varietal descriptions are limited—this was written before the current transportation methods and direct trade practices.
The Perfect Cup
by Timothy Castle
Tim Castle is a member of the coffee trade, more specifically, he is an importer. His book is well written and useful, especially in capturing the essence of various coffee varietals, Castle’s specialty.
The Complete Book of Coffee
by Harry Rolnick
Rolnick was a trade writer who created a nice four-color book about coffee with great photos and graphics. It is written with a special nod to Melitta, who was obviously very involved with its creation, and it portrays the world of coffee, pre-specialty, very well.
Joy of Coffee
by Corby Kumner
ISBN-13: 978-0-61830-240-6
Kumner is a senior editor at the
Atlantic
magazine, and his articles for the
Atlantic
about coffee are world-class and enjoyable reads.
Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques
by David Schomer
Schomer founded Café Vivace, in Seattle. He is reputed to be an obsessive taskmaster and all-around perfectionist. In other words, my kind of guy. This book is recommended to anyone who wants to open an espresso shop for its practical information, though it is a great guide for espresso craftspeople and latte artists.
So, You Want to Go Into the Coffee Business…
Specialty Coffee Association of America
If you are in the U.S., the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) is the leading small business organization dedicated to the trade. They hold a yearly conference that provides a clearing house of information, through its trade show and various seminars.
Specialty Coffee Association of Europe
European-based specialty coffee association.
Norwegian Coffee Association
www.kaffe.no/?l=31&ls=32&h=301
They call themselves “Europe’s coffee police.” They set standards, certify gear, and even claim they make grocery store checks to monitor coffee quality.
Index
A
Achille Gaggia, Giovanni,
128
acidic water,
92
Africa,
31
–32
aged coffee,
40
alkaline water,
92
americano,
160
Americas, arrival of coffee in,
14
Arbuckle, John,
14
Asia,
26
–28
aspartame,
147
automatic drip
brewing method,
101
–103
grinding for,
86
,
87
automatic piston espresso makers,
135
,
136
B
beans.
See under
selecting coffee
Beethoven, Ludwig von,
91
bird-friendly growing methods,
22
bitterness
brewing and,
91
,
93
,
94
,
102
,
117
,
118
espresso,
55
,
128
–129,
131
,
138
,
140
grinding and,
79
,
81
Black and Tan blend,
45
blade grinders,
81
–82
blending,
44
–45
bobbing the steaming pitcher,
152
bottled water,
92
Bourbon varietal,
17
,
25
,
26
,
28
,
30
Brazil coffeehouse prep,
167
brewing
about,
89
–95
automatic drip,
101
–103
ibrik/Turkish/Greek method,
121
–123