Manual Brew Guide

It is often observed that when a particular product or commodity starts getting traction and gains hype, the imitators have a field day making a quick buck by jumping on the train. Although the third wave coffee scene hasn't been tainted by these copy cats, it is amazing to see how one can easily get away with false marketing. Taking a case study approach towards the situation, one realises how nascent the third wave scene is in developing countries. It is still more of a fancy expense rather than a necessity. When a cheap cup of Nescafe does the job why would one even spend almost 2-3 times on something that they have never tried before? Walking a mile in their shoes, they are not entirely wrong, to be honest. Not everyone wishes to appreciate the nuances and be a connoisseur of fine coffees. Well, let's say that on some bright sunny day, they decide to take the leap of faith and see what the fuss is all about. Chances are that the first thing they would come across is an advertisement for 'fresh coffee powder' mixed with flavours that make connoisseurs weep in their graves. Probably seeing the ad for the hundredth time, they decide to buy it once and for all. Cut to the testing part (tasting too? Maybe. Too tired for bad puns). The package arrives, neatly wrapped in an Instagram post-worthy fancy box. But surprise surprise! It turns out to be shitty or mediocre at best. Disappointment levels have peaked and they are probably dissenting every single moment that led them to this waste of bucks.

Now you can't actually shame these imitators because at the end of the day they have a legit business with no shady operations. Ethically wrong? Maybe. And about the false advertising part. Well, we have been selling stuff that takes you from a Morgan Freeman to Arnold Schwarzenegger complex in a week for a better part of the decade. So practically speaking, these guys are not to be blamed or shamed for just trying to run a business. Especially not when you are doing a pretty decent job. So what exactly is the factor that plagues the experience? The answer lies in the variables that affect the taste of good coffee. And here, the monster that we are dealing with is freshness.

Try ordering from a well renowned third wave roastery and you'll see how quick they are when it comes to delivering the beans to you. This is because once roasted the oxidation process starts and the countdown starts. From that very moment, there is a 15-20 days sweet spot where the nuances of the coffee are at a peak. More info about the process here. Now consuming your coffee after the 20-day mark won't poison you but it just won't be up to the mark. Each day after the mark is a nail in the coffin of a perfectly fine coffee. Now, this is where pseudo third wave coffee makers make a colossal goof up. In contradiction to the speedy logistics of a proper third wave chain, here we get a lot of delay between the roasting and consumption. So that is step one of producing mediocre coffee. This is often followed by mixing additional flavours and essences that literally no one had asked for. To be on the same level of devastation, let me paint you a picture. Imagine a really appetizing, lip-smacking dish that you absolutely love. What if someone served it with loads and loads of a sauce that does not go with it at all. That is how it feels when the typical taste of blueberry essence ruins a perfectly good cup. PS - If you were picturing ketchup on biryani and were still not disturbed by it, my sympathies are with you and I hope that satan leaves you someday.

Jokes aside, take this as a precautionary measure. Anything that does not fall under the natural palette is to be kept aside for safety purposes. The last thing you want while winding down is the typical taste of essence. And the last thing that unfortunately ruins good coffee is the quality of beans. To stay in business or by sheer fluke, it might be possible that sometimes a bad quality batch might be delivered to you and in that case, there's nothing much you can do. Just report the matter to the seller and hope for a better batch the next time. Wrapping up, there's one thing that I want to convey through this post. Please don't fall for the trap of these pseudo-third-wave coffee sellers if you really want to appreciate the fine nuances. If you need some guidance, you can always find some excellent recommendations in previous blog posts. And if that doesn't work out you can always drop a comment down below or hit us on our social media handles.

Signing off!

No comments

Kicking off the brewing 'master class' with a bang, this time we are going to learn how to use a French press. This coffee maker is basically part one of manual brewing for amateurs. It's simple to use, doesn't require much knowledge and is possibly one of the cheapest coffee makers you can get online. The best part about the French press is that it does not need any filters or dripper to get your cup ready. All you need is coarsely ground coffee, a French press and patience. Lots and lots of patience.

Out there on YouTube, there are literally hundreds of different methods to brew coffee in French Press. None of them is a 'wrong' method per se, it's just that all people have their version of a good cup of coffee. So now before we start with how to brew, let's look at the variables. Firstly, you need a medium-coarse grind, something that resembles a sand-like consistency. Take a deeper dive into the science part of coffee and you'll realise that it does make sense to have a coarse grind for a coffee maker with a simple mesh filter. Do remember that due to the coarse grind, you can expect to have a bitter residue at the bottom of your cup. Now don't go around making a bad face, just discard the last sip.

French press produces a slightly acidic cup with a not-so-clean finish and a heavy body. So now that we have a brief idea about the kind of brew we'll be brewing, let's just dive right into the procedure. For starters get approximately 15g medium-coarse coffee in the French press. If you do not have a weighing scale, take around 2-3 tablespoons of coffee for brewing. To make sure that you do not ruin the characteristic notes of your bean, make sure that you do not use boiling water. The key is to bring the water near boil and then let it cool for a few seconds. For the brew ratio, you can use anything between 1:10 to 1:15. I personally use a 1:13 ratio as it produces just the right kind of cup for me, one with minimal acidity. But as I said earlier, you should keep on experimenting till you find your sweet spot.

Now you can pour all the water at once and to be honest, there's nothing wrong with it. But that would make a lot of connoisseurs turn uncomfortably in their graves. To brew a better cup, first, pour around 45 grams of water in a swirling motion. Leave it aside for around 40 seconds and then pour the rest of the water in a similar motion. This procedure is called blooming, and it can help you in getting a really good cup. Now, get your plunger and insert it up to the crust of the brew. Now leave it aside for anything between 4 - 4:30 minutes. Some would plunge it till the bottom of the beaker, producing an unclean cup in the process. A better way is to and pour it into the cup directly without plunging it till bottom. By this, you avoid agitating the settled sediments which could end up in the cup if plunged. The sediments will be simply stopped by the filter in the plunger.
The French press is ideal for black coffee consumers and is probably the easiest way to brew a cup of coffee. But if you prefer milk with your coffee, this is certainly not the one for you as it produces a watery brew.

No comments

So a few days ago, I was going through an old journal which by the way had witnessed loads of coffee experiments. Most of them were complete failures but the few that made the cut were too good and are my favourites till date. So in this new section, I'll share some of the variations that came to me out of the brew (Get it?!!). So for the first part, I'll share some variations that can be implemented on one of the most basic coffee makers (and my go-to machine), the French press.

Now since French press works on the most basic principle of coffee brewing i.e. filtration, there is nothing much left to tweak but there are some delicious recipes that you can try using the French press concoction. Out of all the types of brew that are possible to make using a French press, cold brew is the most simple ways to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee. Why is it so simple? Well, unlike a regular French press brew method, cold brew requires a fixed brew ratio (1:5 to 1:10) and nothing else. There's no need to keep an eye on water temperature and you certainly don't need to agitate or swirl the grinds. Just add ground coffee, room temperature water and refrigerate it for anything between 18-24 hours. Yeah, it's quite long but as the heavily overused saying goes, ' Patience is bitter, but the fruits are sweet'. Slightly bitter/acidic in this case, but never mind. So before my blog analytics take a hit due to my bad jokes, let's start with amazing recipes that you can brew using a French press.

1. Cold Brew Tonic

Now, this is not something that I would recommend to all readers, but it’s definitely worth a shot. Especially if you have spent days procrastinating and now have to stay up to get that assignment submitted on time. One serving of this over-caffeinated drink and you can happily kiss your sleep goodbye. Making this is tonic is really really simple, just mix half a can of Redbull with approx. 150 ml of cold brew concoction. For the cold brew concentrate, get a medium coarse grind with a brew ratio of 1:8 and refrigerate it for approximately 18 hours. If you feel the brew to be too strong for you, add extra ice cubes to tone down the acidity. For normal readers, try mixing fruit juices like lychee or cranberry. It’s not exactly the same but is quite refreshing for summer noon.

2. Banana Infused Coffee

I found this particular recipe on a video by Seattle Coffee Gear and felt like it was worth sharing. To get some fruity notes, add a half banana (mashed) to your regular medium coarse coffee and make the cold brew as usual. To get the most out of it, use coffee beans that have fruity or chocolate notes. I would recommend Blue Tokai’s Karadykan Estate for this brew as it has caramel, toffee and grapefruit notes that go well with the subtle sweet notes infused by bananas. I know that mashed bananas and coffee may sound really gross to some and they might even say that you have gone bananas (just call r/punpatrol now), but if you enjoy sweet notes, you should definitely try this out.

3. Cranberry Coffee

Another interesting method to infuse fruity flavours in your coffee is by adding some berries in water and boil it. Filter out the berries and use the water to brew your regular French press coffee. Due to the boiling, some really subtle notes are infused in the water which then lowers the bitterness slightly and gives a sweeter aftertaste. Although it should be noted that these notes are really subtle and might not be easily observable. So it’s more of a hit and trial to get it right.

So that was the first edition of our new series ‘Out of the Brew’! What are your opinions and mainly what machine should we use for the next part? Do let us know in the comment section below! And if you have any recipes that you would like to share, send them on our social media handles and we will feature the best ones on the next edition.

No comments

The way people consume coffee has drastically changed over the decades. From treating coffee as a prized possession to including it as a part of our day to day lifestyle, we have surely come a long way. These differences in the way people produce and consume coffee can be segregated by the three waves of coffee.

1st Wave of Coffee

The first wave of coffee began in the mid-19th century around the industrial revolution. In fact, coffee could be one of the few commodities behind the industrial revolution. And what is now the New York Stock Exchange actually began at a coffee house where brokers would trade over a cup of coffee. Coffee was mass produced during this phase which led to the birth of now famous coffee brands like Nescafe. The biggest trade-off was made in the terms of quality of beans as well as the final brew. Since diner culture was prominent around this time, people were merely focused on getting their caffeine fix rather than getting a better cup. Due to the mass production of beans to make instant coffee, the output was a really weak and bland tasting cup of poor quality coffee. Due to the poor quality of coffee that was being produced, brands like Nescafe and Folgers had to face a lot of backlashes. But the ease that came with brewing instant coffee accompanied by marketing jargons such as ‘The best part of waking up’ by Folgers made it a common name across households. You may criticize these producers for sacrificing quality, but the methods they introduced to meet the exponential rise in demand for their coffee affected the coffee industry for years. To sum it up, the first wave of coffee was focused on meeting the heavy demands by producing poor quality coffee.

2nd Wave of Coffee

Although the second wave of coffee didn’t start before the 1960s, the most important event can be traced back to 1884 when the first espresso machine was made. Unlike the first wave, quality played an important role in shaping the way people consumed their beverage. People started to have a preference for fresher and better coffee which they didn’t get during the mid-19th century when industrialization was booming. Rather than being a place to get one’s caffeine fix, cafes were slowly becoming a place to sit down with peers and wind down. It was designed to be a place to give you the comfort of home with good coffee. A perfect example of the café culture developed around the second wave is the TV series ‘Friends’. It is the perfect portrayal of the way cafes were designed to be after the second wave of coffee. You get to see a group of friends having a cup of coffee while relaxing on a couch. It was the second wave which gave birth to major coffee chains such as Starbucks and Café Coffee Day.

3rd Wave of Coffee

The third wave of coffee is a recent change in coffee and its origins can be traced down to Australia. It’s still undergoing a lot of development, most of which is focused on giving preference to speciality coffee. The consumers are made aware of the different varieties of brews and the story behind a bean and its journey from farms to a cup. In terms of quality, it is the exact opposite of the first wave of coffee. The speciality preference given to coffee tends to hit the chains which boomed around the late 20th century. People are getting more and more aware of what they consume and want to know more about the process. A big downfall is that the speciality coffee comes with a price tag that not everyone can afford. There’s no drastic change in prices of second and third wave coffee, but still, it’s a bit costly for a lot of consumers. This factor becomes a top priority in a lot of regions like India where the developments in developed countries tend to reach a few years later. So even though there is no exponential rise in prices, some second wave cafes tend to get an edge over speciality cafes in developing regions. A more plausible explanation could be the fact that they have simply stayed in the market longer. Apart from a large number of coffee chain cafes in India, there are Some really amazing speciality coffee producers like Blue Tokai, Third Wave Coffee Roasters and Curious Life Coffee. These roasters believe in getting high-quality Indian origin coffee to consumers and make them aware of the plantations at the same time. To get a clearer picture, you can consider the third wave to be an advanced iteration of the second wave, with fresher and better coffee.

So, what is your preference? Do you prefer budget friendly second wave coffee or do you have a liking for premium things and prefer the better tasting third wave coffee. Let me know in the comment section below!

No comments

Hello World!

I am Parva, a part-time blogger and a full-time procrastinator. The main reason why I started this blog was that I could finally scream out my love for two things that became an integral part of me over years - writing and coffee. Before a few years, I was the kind of guy who was confined to the viewpoint that coffee equals Nescafe instant coffee. It was around the final days of high school years ago when I was introduced to the concept of fresh coffee and home brewing. Out of curiosity, I bought a French Press and man it was the best cup of coffee I ever had in years. With the newfound love for coffee, I dived deeper and started going through the whole process behind getting the coffee from farm to cup. Over time, I bought a lot of coffee makers and what I loved the most about them was tweaking these machines to perfection. Bags of coffee were emptied, a lot of peers were martyred in the process and some of them were also caught in the crossfire. But it was only after a few cups of bad coffee, I realised the mistakes that we are prone to make as well as the misconceptions we tend to have. Wasting these amazing beans for brewing shit coffee was quite embarrassing but then if it weren't for that embarrassment, I would have been stuck at that place for ages and would have kept on brewing mediocre, barely consumable coffee.

After getting a hold, I moved on to experimenting with the brew to make different varieties of coffee. And like every other millennial, I loved sharing them online (for attention and validation, obviously). It was around this time when I discovered the potential in blogging, especially for coffee blogs. And not to mention the fact that even though it is part-time, the job includes writing! That too for coffee! So after a lot of procrastination and planning, I published my first blog post in December last year. Now I do know that I don't deserve an award for being punctual, and I tend to delay publishing blog posts. It's only a matter of a few more weeks now, to be honest. There are a lot of loose ends in the site that needs to be taken care of. And being a college student helps a lot when you are trying to maintain a blog. Notice the sarcasm?

So yeah, that was a blurb about me. I know it can get a bit boring, So thanks for hanging till the end!

Adios!

No comments

1. Black coffee is always bitter.

False! The characteristic profiles of a lot of beans tend to be on the sweet or floral side. Although the final brew can be slightly bitter, high bitterness levels might indicate improper brewing methods. Some common reasons include the high temperature of water and incorrect grind size or simply over/under extraction.

2. I would rather have my cup of Nescafe instead of ruining my budget by buying fresh coffee.

The exaggerated prices that you pay at a fancy cafe are to cover up their costs and to maintain a profit margin. Brewing coffee at home is almost the same price as a jar of instant coffee.

3. Coffee is great for shedding some weight.

Although there is no scientific proof to back this myth, it is partially true. Caffeine is a component in a lot of weight loss pills. But this effect tends to be negated by the way you take your coffee. This is due to the heavy fat milk and cream that you add to your cuppa Joe.

4. You need boiling water for coffee.

Ignoring those one or two coffee recipes that require very high water temperature, most brews require water temperature to be around 80-95 degrees. And if that isn’t enough to bust the myth, some specialities like cold brew require water at room temperature.

5. Pregnant women should not drink coffee

There’s enough scientific proof to back up the fact that coffee doesn’t harm the foetus but it’s ideal to limit caffeine levels throughout the day. So it would be better to be safe and control your coffee intake.

6. Coffee makers are costly AF!

This has to be one of the terribly wrong myths related to coffee. Blame it on the prices of high-end cafes or the stereotype that makes you think of a hefty espresso machine when you think of a coffee maker. The makers you will need for brewing at home won’t cost more than a few hundred bucks and really easy to use. Look out for detailed reviews and comparisons of the commonly used makers!

7. Coffee gives me acidity

This can be again blamed on improper brewing methods. Depending on the grind size and the grinding ratio you use to brew your cup, the flavour profiles can be ruined due to acidic or bitter notes. The unwanted acidic notes could be the reason behind this.

8. Coffee gives me anxiety

Really? Take a stroll down the memory lane and try to recollect the beverage you had after a stressful day. But then if caffeine addict isn’t just something you add to your tinder bio to look cool, you might experience jitters or anxiety due to overconsumption. I guess being a “sapiosexual” is safer.

9. Coffee gives me a sleepless night

Time to bust one more thing you add to your desperate (read as tinder) bio to get matches. No, having a coffee at the evening won’t turn you into an “insomniac”. The effect of caffeine won’t last for more than 3-4 hours and hence it won’t mess up your sleep cycle, which by the way could be already effed up.

No comments

About me

Follow Us

Categories

Recent Posts