My coffee journey
I started going down the rabbit hole of coffee brewing. As mentioned in my previous story I found there are some requirements to get consistent nice coffee from the Aeropress. First let’s start with good coffee. This is where things start getting complicated. I guess it’s a bit like choosing a good bottle of wine. When I first started, and some might recognise this, you have no clue where or what to look at. Maybe let’s roll back a little and start with the definition of good coffee. In my opinion this would be something you like, in my case a coffee aroma I like, something I enjoy drinking and which tastes good, and gives a pleasant aftertaste. Something that makes me happy and might have me craving for more when I’m finished.
Funny enough I’ve experienced my taste can change throughout the day. It also depends on what I’ve have eaten before. So I’ve noticed coffee and fruit don’t match well for me, the same for eggs. But on the other hand, some chocolates, especially darker ones, can be a good match. What this has to do with buying good coffee you might wonder. Well, the point I’m trying to make is there is no perfect answer, a super coffee might not taste as delicious if you drink it after your batch of boiled eggs and an apple. I think the same would be for a mismatched wine during your meal.
If we take the subtile taste changes out of the equation what do we get left with? Say you have drunk a nice coffee that you like, what to do? Well, you could read or photograph what’s on the package or the description. You can pick out some of the indicators that are typical for that type of coffee and try to match these for your next purchases. Then try these again decide if it’s a good step and so on.
A big hairy man enters the room and says: “Wow Tom, you are a coffee wizard!” Well, not really. I think the largest improvement from getting into the coffee hobby, is that buying coffee that is not too old improves the taste significantly. Some roasters I’ve come across indicate that coffee tastes best after resting the coffee for 7 days after roasting. And it is best within 3 months after, you can keep it up to a year. Compare that to some of the coffees you can buy at the supermarket, they could be there well past the ideal 3 months, and they mostly do not tell the roasting date. So whatever the coffee is, I try to buy the fresh ones. And in the supermarket I look for the ones with the sell by date furthest away in the future. This strategy at least allows me to taste richer coffee aromas before they fly away, some would say “angel’s share”.
What’s next? Well, the next indicator I started using was what would be described as the flavours. So here are a bunch: soft, sweet, chocolate, nuts, walnut, stone fruit, red apple, nougat, caramel, etc. So what does this all mean? As mentioned these are indicators and are also prone to the personal taste. What I understood is that these words are things that come to mind when the roasters taste their beans, in the form of coffee. These words help me choose coffee beans that suit my style more. In general, I prefer coffee that is more nutty, earthy, full and chocolaty. I would say these coffees are less acidic than the beans where different fruit types play a larger role.
Then often mentioned is the location where the beans are from, the way they have been washed/cleaned from the fruit, the type of coffee variety and the roast. I’m not that far yet, and might never be. At the moment I just try different beans and I will see where that takes me.
Are you done yet? Well, not really, this was just a part of my story. And for me the other parts are equally interesting, the mechanical parts. So I found that grinding your beans just before you make coffee gives you the best results. This would make sense, if you grind beans you enlarge the surface area, this allows those sweet flavours to dissolve in your boiling water. But if you keep these grounds in a container for a longer period, these same sweet flavours evaporate and don’t end up in your cup. Such a waste. So better to keep them as a bean and grind them just before the brew is the style I’ve adopted. For grinding we need tools, mechanical tools. And so I got my first grinder, april 2023, the Knock Aergrind. It’s a hand grinder, this means you have to put in the effort for the grinding yourself. This on the other hand saved me money as the grinder would otherwise require a motor. Also nice for traveling. What a delightful little grinder! Ball bearings in the spindle, a smooth handle, endles adjustments, a solid aluminium build and magnets in the top cap.
Pair this grinder with an Aeropress, a decent scale, nice fresh coffee and the results are succes! Our standard kitchen scale was not anywhere near accurate enough. Four months after getting the grinder I got the Timemore Basic Mirror Plus. It’s accurate to 0.1 grams and has an automatic timer. This allowed for more consistency in my coffees, score! During this time we also moved and had a Quooker in our home. No more kettle meant getting a 300ml Hario Kasuya Mini Drip Kettle and whilst at it also a Miir Coffee Canister to store the beans. On that path, maybe also a book about how to make great coffee and some cupping spoons, a different cap for the press, DIY a grinder bag for holidays, print some parts for the grinder.
Ah shit, I guess I got sucked in and have a new hobby. By this time I was becoming the barista at home making all the coffees for Annick, for friends, family and of course myself. Luckily this hobby is appreciated by others, so let’s goooo!
