Full confession…this entire blog is really fueled by the desire to capitalize on just a small fraction of the projected $13.6 billion the specialty coffee industry is projected to make in the coming year. But, how to do it? How to actually get a slice of that pie? My initial idea was just get a web page up that ranks high enough, throw a Google ad on the page, and sit back and watch the Ad Sense revenue roll in. That’s fine in principle, but not as easy in practice. SEO is not a simple game (despite what the copious companies who claim to specialize in it would have you think).
But, I actually stumbled into a reasonable set of keywords on one post (not the one I thought would work), and, shockingly, it is sort of working. But, then something happened. I actually started to want to make better coffee for real…not just talk about it. I wanted to get a taste of the experiences I’ve had in Europe here at home.
I started visiting the local micro roasters near my house (and anywhere I traveled) and talking to the head roaster. I stopped buying coffee from anywhere that I couldn’t see it being roasted. I bought a decent grinder. I bought a budget espresso machine. I was happy…for about a month. I quickly outgrew the budget machine and went on the search for a “big boy toy.” That landed me with my current machine.
Then I got a bug up my ass. Buying these specialty beans was not cheap. Yep, greed again was the motivating factor. If I could roast the coffee myself, it would save a tremendous amount of money AND give me a high quality product. So, I started roasting. And, then a funny thing happened. Everyone that came over to my house said the coffee I was serving was the best they’d ever had. I’d been telling people for a while already that Starbucks was shit. But, now I had a product (cold, hard, tangible item) I could actually give people to back up my ranting.
But, during this time, I was only ever trying one thing. Espresso. So, what happened next? Yep, I tried appropriating various items around the house to duplicate brewing methods I’d read about. I started to roast some single origin beans to see what that was all about. I actually tried cupping. You can read my rant about that later. I still think there’s a better way to do it, and really, if you are evaluating a coffee, it should be evaluated in a way that will resonate with the end consumer.
The result of all that? I bought an Aeropress. I bought a Hario v60 with “Range Server”. Really…I got that fancy looking glass carafe thing?! I bought a fancy, snooty, fucking hipster gooseneck kettle! What the hell have I become?!
I’d started a coffee company in my head. So, let’s just roll with it. I needed a name and logo…because you know…I need to start a company right now. So, Jumped Up Little Germ Coffee Roasters was born.
But, it didn’t stop there. No. Now, I had to try to invent my own brewing method. I had to have something unique. Yes, my blends are good, and my roast profiles are great (and unique). But, if Todd Carmichael can create a $400 kit for coffee science than so can I.
But, where to start, and what to focus on? How about my total annoyance with the process of cupping and it’s primary problem…no one drinks coffee like that. And, the Dragon? Normal people aren’t going to spend $400 for a think that looks like aliens made it…they are happy with a $30 Mr. Coffee from Amazon (notice no link for you here…if you are that person…you can do the Amazon search for yourself.) Again, I started raiding various household items…which now included some industry standard coffee gear. What could a normal person do to produce a top notch, hand crafted cup of coffee and go full tilt cheapskate?
OK, I’m going to get one thing out of the way here. The grinder is something you CANNOT cheap out on. It is the one piece of equipment you should spend money on. Do it right, and it will last you forever AND stay with you as you upgrade other parts of your brewing. If you want to cheap out, that’s on you. I’m telling, you here and now, don’t. At least spend the $80 to get a Capresso Infinity.
Now…grinder problem solved…to brewing. Cupping does have one thing to offer…it’s immersion brewing. So, you get craploads of body (like a French Press or Aeropress). But, it’s dirty…there’s grounds left everywhere…you can’t really drink the cup. A French Press doesn’t stop brewing after you plunge…the water is still in contact with the coffee. An Aeropress fixes the sludge problem, but it’s $29. I’ll take for granted you have a coffee mug hanging around…cost to you – 0$ Oh…and a spoon…you probably have one of those too.
Filter brewing gives you a really clean cup. You might even have a bunch of filters lying around. If you don’t, they are dirt cheap…take your pick. More than a hundred is like $5 (that’s 3 cents or less per cup in case you were counting). But, get LARGE ones…
So, in theory combining these two methods, gives us a very clear, crisp full bodied cup. Sounds good to me…let’s try it!
- Boil some water…I don’t care how…use your fancy hipster gooseneck kettle if you have one, but just boil the damn water.
- As the water is boiling, weigh out 15gr of coffee. Don’t have a scale? Use two level scoops of beans with the scoop that came with the last can of instant coffee you bought (those scoops are about 7 grams). Don’t have one of those? Use a baking tablespoon measure and use two of them. Don’t have measuring spoons? Buy a scale…you’ll thank me later. I fact, buy the scale anyway and start using it. It’s $16 and will make everything you do repeatable.
- Take your mug and fill it half way with hot tap water. It actually does make a difference is the mug is warm…so don’t skip this step.
- Take one paper coffee filter and fold it into a cone shape…flatten it, fold it in half, then in half again. If you can’t picture that…you can find anything you YouTube.
- If you want to be extra hipster here, rinse the filter under running water.
- Your water should be boiling now. Shut it off.
- Grind your coffee at a medium coarse setting.
- Dump out the water in the mug, put the filter in the mug, and put your ground coffee in the filter. The filter should be sticking pretty high out of the mug even though it touches the bottom.
- Pour enough water into the grounds to get them wet, and stir a bit with a spoon. If you are using a scale…50gr of water should do it. Start a timer.
- After 30 sec, slowly add water being careful not to let the filter slip all the way down into the mug. Fill it most of the way up…just make sure you have enough filter sticking out that you can grab it. If you are using a scale, aim for about 280gr total weight. Stick your nose down there and smell the brew…it’s neat.
- At the 3 min mark, stir it up, and then lift the filter out of the mug, and let the coffee drip completely out.
- Toss the filter wherever you like to toss such thing (ground coffee is really great for your garden) and enjoy your hand crafted cup of coffee made with nothing but a cup, a filter and a spoon.
Now, if you are a coffee geek, and have an Aeropress and a Hario v60 lying around…well. Do the brew step in an inverted Aeropress. At the 3 min mark, dump the brew into the v60 to filter. If you want to make more than one cup, use two #3 range servers…brew in one, and filter into the other.
