My coffee journey
Let’s start by introducing Annick. Most people reading this are probably friends or family and know who this lady is, hi guys. But say on the rare occasion you have stumbled onto my website and just clicked a random link, ehm welcome.
Annick is my fantastic wife. She is just the best, especially as she has to put up with my endless hobbies or be the guinea pig in my coffee experiments. And worse to come as we are married, it’s not just my money I’m, let us call it investing, in coffee gear and stuff, it’s now our money. Of course it is now also our coffee stuff.
A short interjection in the story, just to keep it the timeline of bought stuff in order. Before we got married I thought it would be nice buy an extra Aeropress Clear as it is nice to have two full sized coffee press in action in the morning, the Go stays in the camping/car kit. I also got another hand grinder. Why you might ask? Well thinking back, stress relief. It was a busy period; I quit my job, we were going to sell the house and find one in France, arrangements for the wedding etc, finding job. Yes stressful, and what better way then to get your mind of things with a new gadget for coffee. So what did you get? Ah yes thank you for asking! It’s the Comandante C40 MK4 in Racing Green, fancy that eh. Of course with some extra bean jars in pink and green. I really appreciate the build quality and it works great, as you might expect from a €225,- grinder. Yes that is expensive. Let’s stick a pin in that and continue with my wife.
What does Annick think about all this coffee stuff? Let’s ask her. She jotted down some words:
My favourite moment of every day is when Tom’s eyes start to twinkle and he asks me a most important question, ‘Wil je een kofsie?’. The joke I reply with every time never gets old. ‘Ik dacht dat je het nooit zou vragen!’
When Tom finds a hobby, he puts 100% effort into it. I love it to see Tom having so much fun diving into a topic, and cannot resist his blue puppy eyes if he asks whether it is okay if we spend (a lot of) money on coffee gadgets.
I really like drinking coffee as well, and got dragged along a tiny bit into the coffee rabbit hole by Tom. I start to taste differences in different types of beans or brewing methods. I am always happy to help Tom with tasting coffee! However, the process of brewing coffee and everything that entails I leave into the hands of my personal barista (who told me on my birthday that my subscription has been prolonged for another year, woohoo!).
Thanks Annick for co-writing a part of our coffee story. Thinking about her, I thought it would also be fun to share some techniques I’ve developed especially for Annick’s coffee needs. So most mornings Annick just wants the same black coffee I drink, easy peasy. But sometimes in the afternoon she would prefer a milky drink, cappuccino style. You might have noticed we do not have a fancy coffee machine (yet), that allows you to make espressos and steam milk. The next best thing is to make a strong coffee and foam the milk in another way. I mentioned a recipe I use for this in another story, short recap: Aeropress with 18 grams coffee, 90 grams boiling water, stirr well, 1 min and 30 sec steep and press.
For the foaming of the milk I use a stainless 35 cl Motta Europa Frothing Pitcher in a plastic measuring cup. The pitcher has about 140-150 grams of cold milk, any type that we have in the fridge. I add boiling water to the measuring cup, and due to the heat transfer of the metal, the milk gets hot, but not too hot. A similar process as au bain-marie. At the same time I use a battery powered frother to make bubbles in the milk, and after a few seconds a larger whirlpool in the pitcher which makes the bubbles smaller. In such a way I can get nice frothed milk. Add the coffee and the milk and voila, a delicious coffee for Annick.
During my milk experimentations I used a thermometer to see what temperatures I would get this way and I would reach 60°C with one pouring of boiling water. Refilling halfway the frothing I could get higher temperatures going up to 70 or 80°C depending on how long I keep the pitcher in the water. The one pouring works fine for me most times. A great tip I got from my sister, who used to work as a professional barista for few years, was to swirl the milk after frothing. This helps eliminate some larger bubbles and makes a nice homogene mixture. All the techniques combined and I manage to get some super fine bubbles and well nearly some late art. Work in progress.
