Summer coffee sensations from Drumroaster Coffee Cobble Hill B.C. · Saturday July 30, 2011 by colin newell
Stopped in at Drumroaster Coffee in Cobble Hill, British Columbia (on the way to Chemainus theater for “Fiddle on the roof…”) and had a solid hour or so to talk story with coffee wunderkind Carsen Oglend – son of Geir and Pat Oglend.
Click on the photo at left for the zoomed in view
Had this rare Kenyan over ice (will fill in the details later on preparation).
This was, without hesitation, the best cup of iced coffee I have ever had. I have been drinking coffee, loyally, since the late 70’s and, as iced coffees go, this was extraordinary… other-Worldly… emotionally moving.
The cup was so full of spice and citrus that I would have thought that something was added – but no. It was traditionally prepared filter coffee, served black and on ice – brewed somewhat strong so that as the ice melts, the coffee assumes the proper concentration. Carsen offered to send me the exact details for making a similar iced coffee – just remember folks, you have to brew your coffee traditionally before assembling the “ice brew”. I have had some spectacular iced teas in my life – and this was the first in what will, no doubt, be an evolution of amazing iced coffee beverages.
I brewed a hot Hario pour over of this coffee today — a tad on the fast side – and got a result that was very fragrant, floral with notes of jasmine, strawberries and black tea. Was very un-coffee like with some pretty big citrus notes poking through.
Click on the little photo at left for the much bigger photo!
Geir and Pat were running an errand downtown so Carsen held the fort and chatted with us as time permitted. At some point during the visit, Tamper man Reg Barber appeared out of thin air as he often does. And then vanished again…
Carsen explains the technique for making the best iced coffee with this bean…
I like to use a coffee with a higher acidity and a more fruit forward flavor profile like an Ethiopia, Kenya or northern Guat. I find that brightness cuts through better in the cup.
Start by getting out your pour-over setup. Use the normal 60g/L brew ratio. I tend to do my brews with 30g/500ml.
The trick to the iced brew is to use half of your brew volume with ice, then the other half with hot water. Put the ice into your brewing vessel, and do your normal pour over routine with the bloom, etc., just use 50% of the normal amount of water.
Make sure you’re brewing directly onto the ice, adding ice to a double-strength brew doesn’t work.
Here’s my recipe: 30g ground coffee – 250g small cubed ice (big cubes aren’t as good). You can experiment with up to 300 grams of ice…doesn’t seem to make a huge difference in strength. – 250g hot water
Note the key tip above: Brew the coffee directly onto the ice! It’s key.
Carsen regaled us with a fascinating dialog on the coffee scene in London, England – and San Francisco (where we will be heading for a week in August…) Carsen needs to have his own audio podcast on the subject of coffee and travel – I could have listened to him for hours.
As I said to Carsen prior to leaving for Chemainus… “There is so much in this iced coffee serving that I did not expect… fruit, citrus and the sense that the brew has been extended with the addition of Botanicals or herbs and spices – much in the same way you would infuse a mash in the gin distillation process.
More on this subject soon!
Victoria Summer 2011 About Victoria - Kicking it old school with Yoka · Sunday July 10, 2011 by colin newell
I am a big advocate for buying your coffee whole bean – recently roasted and ideally direct from the roaster.
That way you know what you are getting, you are supporting local business and getting a product that is fresh and ideal for immediate consumption.
Photo left – Yoka keeps it old school at #5- 1046 Mason Street in the historic North Park neighborhood – High Cook near Wellburns Grocery
Here is the thing about coffee. It is a food product and like many others, has a freshness sweet spot. And to put this into perspective, whole bean or ground coffee is not like a bowl of rice or lentils or flour that can sit in a fairly air tight container indefinitely.
It is more like a bowl of fruit or a head of lettuce. And we all know that these food items are fairly fragile and only consumable for X number of days.
So how long is freshly roasted coffee good for? Opinions vary but it generally accepted that whole bean coffee is most ideal between 3 and 11 days off the roast day. Some folks extend this a bit but here is the thing. The moment coffee is roasted, it starts to give off carbon dioxide and this degassing process protects the coffee from the inevitable incursion of oxygen (the oxidizer) which stales coffee. Coffees degas at different rates but it is a given that whole bean coffee has the best and freshest flavor to offer between 3 and 7 days off roast. Between 7 to 12 days, the beans are running out of CO2 to release – and after that, the oxygen makes swift work of robbing the coffee of its great taste.
Yoka and her partner Tristan have been running a coffee roaster and shop since 1983 in Vancouver and recently moved their operation to Victoria for a change of pace. In addition to a wide selection of darker roast old origin coffees, they offer whole Belgian chocolate and local honey. There is a seating area for sipping on of their brews and they have a single group Rancilio for an espresso, latte or cappuccino.
Yoka runs a neat operation in that it is somewhat old school – fresh roast coffee in glass bins, old style weighing scales and a roaster in the main room. They event won a Hallmark heritage nod on the update and redesigns to the building on Mason.
Their roast profiles tend to roll towards the darker of the spectrum and get this, they have 3 different roast profiles on the Swiss Water organic decaf – the best decaf in the World… that is produced in Burnaby of all places.
Yoka’s shop is open Tuesday to Saturday 9AM til late in the afternoon – come on by and make sure you tell them that Colin sent you!
The World of Mysterious Chinese Coffee Culture: Part 1 · Saturday June 4, 2011 by colin newell
There’s coffee, and there’s MARXISM Coffee Mix from China. To cover all bases or in case only atheists would be attracted to it, the product claims also to be God’s favored coffee! So once you get to the Pearly Gates, don’t be astonished to see some angels rushing to meetings clutching cups of MARXISM brew. The Allmighty’s hand appears encouraging from an UFO like reflective disc hurling from the heavens and gives us a thumbs up. Please also note the bag handle which encourages you to proudly carry this masterpiece of caffeinated-contemporary-communist-capitalism in the open.
What has this coffee turned into, we can only wonder? The bag clearly states that its content has BEEN coffee at one point. Past tense is also used for the company’s name: They have BEEN coffee masters at one point. But not anymore. Whatever they are now, they are the ones who should tell us what this bag contains currently. 454 g of some stuff which once has been UGANDA AA coffee…
Forget roasted coffee. GREEN COFFEE has slimming properties Brazilian ladies seem to have discovered. Yet proudly Made in the USA, who outsource everything else to China but the secret Yankee Green Coffee production! Unavailable however in North or South America because of unsubstantiated health claims, yet who cares in China about those pesky details. I am glad that the manufacturer also advices the ladies to share: After all, one pack contains no less than 18 tubs of green coffee. Nothing could be easier.
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Victoria Spring 2011 - Single Serve espresso from Nespresso Pixie · Saturday May 14, 2011 by colin newell
Had the pleasure of getting a 1 week loan of the Nespresso Pixie from Weber Shandwick of Vancouver – thanks to the lovely Nicole G. for turning me loose on this new coffee maker.
The Nespresso Pixie is a fast heat-up single serve espresso pod brewer. And when I say “Fast Heating” – I am not kidding. I did not measure the time exactly, but after power up, the unit appeared ready to brew in under 2 minutes. Great if you are in a hurry in the morning.
I have done some other reviews of ESE “Easy Service Espresso” – which is different than the pod over here and here
The ESE machines I have used have been awesome – and a tad more eco friendly.
I might as well get this out there right now – The Nespresso system is downright ecologically unfriendly – using plastics and tinfoil in the pod product. Over the life of the unit this would amount to a boat load of waste products. Personally, I cannot support systems like this and would try and steer folks away from POD systems on this basis alone.
If not for that, what of the flavor?
I am not entirely sure how Pods are manufactured or whether or not they are flushed and sealed with nitrogen to keep the coffee even remotely fresh – I suspect not. Pretty sure that ESE’s are, at least, partially staled prior to packing and shipping. POD’s could not possibly be too fresh because the pods would burst open without a method of de-gassing. And the pods do not appear to have 1-way valves.
Flavor – at first spin, the flavor of the pods are not too jarring – depending entirely on “stopping” the shot prior to the full brew cycle. Bottom line here is: the dose of the pod is not nearly high enough for a decent single – that is, a 1+ fluid ounce shot of espresso… it’s close, but it is not quite enough.
As a result, every long pull pod serving is hopelessly over-extracted and watery… and, well… bitter.
Weber Shandwick was kind enough to send me around 10 Pods to sample – some of them were Decaf – which I blended in double shots during my evening photo shoot of the product. Overall impression over the course of brewing the different “espresso flavors” was one of, ahem *Meh. Hate to say that but I have to be cruelly honest about this. Even if the Nespresso system was not a complete Eco pig, it will still come down to trying to get too much flavor from too small a dose of coffee. Fix that and the pod manufacture materials and maybe Nescafe might be on to something.
If you are the kind of person that does not mind playing 50 cents per shot of coffee and are willing to double-pod your morning experience and short pull all your Pods, this might be the baby for you.
For me, not so much. Thumbs down on the Nespresso Pixie Pod system.
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Coffee photos that speak for themselves... · Monday February 28, 2011 by colin newell
Not entirely sure why I find this photo amusing… taken some years ago – the Barista action figure I picked up in Halifax if memory serves me correctly.
Click on the photo below for the full meal deal.
Press coffee is my center of the Universe.
Whether it is from DISCO on Oak Bay Avenue…
Or HABIT COFFEE and CULTURE on Yates at Blanshard.
Or wherever it is being made.
I am there.
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