Test

At the moment, I unfortunately have to space how often I have caffeinated coffee. I had been exploring decaf options (mainly from the grocery store), aaand, expectedly, the experience is very far from the gesha and other premium roasts I previously enjoyed for my pour over. It's still nice to perform the ritual and have something warm to drink with breakfast, but I had been missing the dynamic, delicate, and distinct notes in a cup.

I decided to research and order some decaf beans from a specialty roaster! I settled on Luminous Coffee and, on the 30th, ordered a bag of their Colombia EA Decaf LYCHEE PEACH CO-FERMENT. It shipped and was delivered super fast! I absolutely love the bag and the kangaroo pouch holding the info card. I usually wait a few weeks after the roast date to start using beans in a pour over, but I also like trying them at different times to see how the flavors evolve.

On the 4th (5 days after roast), I opened the bag and ground up some beans. Very unique sensory experience from start to finish. The whole beans had a strong peppery/spice-y aroma along with a bit of... funkiness? Ground, highlighted those smells even more. It wasn't off-putting, just not something I've ever really experienced from coffee before. I could describe the smells as sharp.

Now- the taste, soooo different than anything I've had before. Buttery, peppery, and a sort-of acidic sweetness (really hard for me to articulate). I can fully see how it all can translate to lychee, but it was just so strange. The peppery aspects were expected. I usually prefer anaerobic processing for that little tingle, but it was more present here than any others I've had. The butteriness was completely new to me, and I'm curious if that's part of the decaffeination process or an innate aspect of the beans.

Starting next week, I'll be going through the bag as my main morning coffee; I'm super curious how the experience might differ now that the beans have rested more!

Somewhat recently I started using less hot water with all my brews and I am quite happy with the results. I am now targeting the 90 to 93C range for both the Clever Dripper at the office and the V60 or Konos MDK-41 at home on the weekends. The results are cups with more flavor and less astringency.

I'm messing with soup shots past few weeks. I've seemed to dial things into either super tangy with a monotone fruit note (bean dependent, but cherry, lime, raspberry as examples) or a bit more bland but not unlike a pretty decent espresso shot. I haven't found any cafes that serve these so I'm really poking around in the dark on the flavor profile here and not sure whether I've nailed it or not.

I’m still mostly playing with my espresso machine, but I did do a couple pour overs too. I’ve got new beans from a roaster in Quebec, they’re a lot darker and more oily than I was expecting but they’re pretty good for espresso. My pour overs are with a bean from a New Brunswick roaster and are more of a medium roast.

For equipment, I’ve been thinking a lot about grinders lately. My current grinder really is barely fine enough for espresso and I want to get a proper espresso grinder but we’ll see. I’m leaning towards a DF54 at the moment. dfgrinders.ca sells them with an upgraded red titanium burr set that seem well reviewed but I don’t know who makes the burrs.

I was thinking DF64 so I had the option for SSP in the future, but I don’t know if I really want to spend an extra $250 for the thought that I might spend another $250 after that for something I’m not even sure I’ll appreciate the difference with. The DF54 is really attractive due to the price, and while the DF64 is a really good price for 64mm flat burrs, I’m not sure it’s worth the extra cost for the extra 10mm. We’ll see though, I’ve still got lots of research to do yet.

I tried James Hoffman's method for making Americanos more like drip coffee and it is actually pretty solid.

Steam tap water (I still often use the water from the machine first)

Pull a shot

Skim the crema off

Mix it a bit

It makes coffee at my work and at cafes more enjoyable as the beans often are quite mediocre.

I have bought a Sage barista touch today and made some Espresso with it. I still need to do some work to improve my process but it has been very interesting so far.