Hobbies / The coffee bar

Coffee

I love the brewing most of all. Manual espresso machines especially: I hope to own one one day. Until then I keep learning how to make the shot more and more delicious.

Dialling in

Every shot is a small experiment. Taste it, change one thing, pull again. It is a balancing loop, the same shape as everything else on this site.

Dialling in is a balancing loop: taste, adjust the grind, pull again, until the cup settles where you want it.

What's in the cup

A shot is hot water pushed through a puck of ground coffee. As it passes, some of the coffee dissolves into it and ends up in the cup, and that is all extraction is.

One shot as stocks and flows. Water runs through the puck into the cup, and the coffee drains into it as it dissolves. The grind sets both rates.

Sour and bitter have a number behind them: extraction yield, the share of the coffee you put in that ends up in the cup. Too little and the shot tastes sour; too much and it turns bitter.

Extraction yield, taken apart. Teal is coffee that moves, in and out; amber is a reading.

Why a lever

On a manual lever machine the pressure is in your hands, or in a spring. The shot starts low and slow, rises to its peak, and eases off as the spring extends: a profile that pumps have to be programmed to imitate.

A spring lever shot's pressure profile. Illustrative, not measured.

People I learn from

On YouTubeJames HoffmannCoffee explained with care, curiosity and a straight face.Watch →On YouTubeLance HedrickEspresso taken apart, one variable at a time.Watch →

On the grinder now

Exhale Healthy Coffee · LondonOrganic House Roast

Origin: Mt Elgon, Uganda (producer: Mountain Harvest)
Process: Washed
Roast: Medium to light
Roaster's notes: Rich caramel and toasted nuts, juicy raisin with bright citrus for a balanced acidity

Origin Coffee · Porthleven, CornwallAtlas Decaf

Origin: Caldas, Colombia (women producers group), 1,400 to 1,800 masl
Process: Washed, sugarcane (ethyl acetate) decaf
Roaster's notes: Apple, chocolate, caramel