Tag Archive for 'coffee'

Qishr

Published
by
Dave
on 25 April, 2008
in general coffee and misc
. 1 Comment

Qishr - tea from coffee husks.

A traditional tea in Yemen made from coffee husks. I mean, yeah! okay, I’m gonna try it - purely out of curiosity. So I got a 1/2 pound of qishr from sweetmarias when I saw it available - no expectations of what it was other than Tom’s description (good, not great. Rosehips. Ginger Tea). But what the hell. I’ve paid more for a cup of coffee that was awful, so at worst, I am better informed and out 5 bucks.

Well, i don’t know if I will actually make it through the entire 1/2 pound I bought. Not that it is all bad, actually, and there are some very interesting things going on in the tea, but it left a pretty acrid and biter finish that was not at all to my liking. And it lasted for a long long time.

Qishr. Tea made from dried coffee husks.

Unsealing the bag released powerful aroma of apple, clover, the Portland Rose Gardens in full bloom - an intensity like standing under a magnolia tree in full bloom, but not quite the same syrupy depth. It’s actually very beautiful to see - looking to me a lot like a certain cinnamon and honey encrusted pistachio shells.

Them being husks, I fully expected it to be earthy, spicy, and, well, husky - but that was just not there in the aroma. Just intense fruit like I was sticking my nose in a vat of juiced apples. Maybe all the earth was in the brew?

After that… mildly tea-like, but more like mild, thin good coffee - traces from that same aroma, hints of the sweet rose flavor. Overall, nice.. And then I sat and worked for a while, and then it started showing itself. Bitter. Astringency. Acridity. And it went on for a while.

It was pleasant until that. That harsh acrid overtone - pasting itself across my tongue. Rough, harsh and started killing my buzz. I don’t want to go back to that. It was worse than poorly toasted black tea. Worse than

I think I might try putting some in the oil over a tea light and let it fill the room with its smell. Dim the lights & spin some Tosca. I Want Some Honey. Loud.

Vinyl Honey

tick… tck… tk…

Published
by
Dave
on 8 April, 2008
in roaster
. 2 Comments

Looks like my roaster is shipping tomorrow morning out of Brazil.. I am bouncing off the walls in anticipation.

Oh, one last thing, really…

Published
by
Dave
on 26 March, 2008
in coffee and coffee industry
. 0 Comments

One thing I meant to write but forgot to add at the end of that last post was, was that the griping that is abounding all over the place only shows that what what the inventors, developers, marketers have all created is not just their own thing. It has taken on a life of it’s own, and the people who have participated in it’s life so far feel (deservedly) attached to that. And that does mean that the idea has a life of its own. Beyond Starbucks… beyond clover…

So even though it sucks right now, and is going to impact the course of specialty coffee - how exactly I am not certain - they had the right to do what they did. And good for them. So, but probably, in a way no one is seeing at the moment (well, 1 person is, but he or she is diligently working in secret, at an accelerated pace…) it will eventually be good for everyone. Remember that Starbucks is at least indirectly responsible for George Howell’s founding of the Cup of Excellence program. And that is a greater deal for specialty coffee than 1000+ Coffee Connections were ever going to be.

OMG. WTF? Starbucks buys Clover (Coffee Equipment Company).

Published
by
Dave
on 21 March, 2008
in coffee, coffee industry, general coffee and other roasters
. 0 Comments

First I read this. And I thought, well, if Starbucks wants to put Clovers in their stores, then, I support that. it puts money into a company that deserves to expand. It puts a machine that can be used to help educate people to the variations of different origins, estates, lots, etc in a huge number of stores. Places where asking what an origin is (to the barista) is just a return of blank stares. I am fully aware that it isn’t going to change the mediocrity of their coffee, just as (re)training their baristas for 3 hours isn’t going to turn their shops into a place to go for an exquisite ristretto mean to be savored. But Starbucks isn’t the bottom of the barrel, either.

But then I read the link he pointed to. And my heart sank. Oh shit. Starbucks didn’t purchase a bunch of clovers - which would likely have pushed the price down, making it more reachable to the micro-level, third-wave (insert term of choice) specialty roasters and cafes that really really lust after these things for the sole purpose of being able to present amazing coffees better. They went out and fucking bought the company. I agree with Tom. This is a sad day for specialty coffee. 
I guess we all have to start saving for something like blue bottle’s siphon bar.

Drawings of the old drum design (sketchup perspectives)

Published
by
Dave
on 19 March, 2008
in roaster
. 0 Comments

I was trying to edit a batch of images to Flickr with their batch tool, but the commenting was duplicating anything that I wrote (several times), so I gave up for now and simplified the set I was putting together. I am intending to post all my older designs for the drum—sections, elevations as well as these perspectives—but that will have to wait…

I decided not to go with this design pretty much because I changed my mind about the importance of air control with this batch size. I had convinced myself that at this batch size—80g to 500g—that air flow was less important. but while walking over to a friends home for dinner on night a while back, I re-thought my decision. So I am shifting over to a closed system so that I can adjust air flow much like larger roasters. I am not sure if (or how) I will keep the rest of this design. The dimensions of the chamber itself still feels correct to me, and the vane size and placements as well… I had considered possibly moving to something that agitates the beans in a way to keep them moving off the hot surface of the drum. I am leaning though, toward keeping this setup since I like how it maintains a relatively consistent mass - which my theory (somewhat supported by a scientific article (which I will post a link soon, promise) that the coffee will roast more evenly when it does this. Too much agitation will cause it to roast less evenly. so without much adoo, here are the drawings.

(BTW, notice the new fancy image viewer I found! It’s Pictobrowser a flash plugin written by a couple NYC interaction designers that pulls flickr sets into your site—all contained in this neat little package. The wordpress plugin was written by Kumara Sastry. I altered it a bit to get the original size images to load and so you could zoom them and read the notes… I like it a whole lot. It’s nice)

UPDATE_ I finally got all my drawings from sketchup posted and annotated - well, okay some of the annotations are cut and pasted from other annotations, but whatever… - so they are all in the set now. And if you care, now have a flickr account just for Deft.. you can see what’s there, uhh, here.

I Take It From Here.

Published
by
Dave
on 14 November, 2007
in coffee
. 0 Comments

This is a statement of understanding, of accountability. Of a recognition that there have been many many before me in the line who have poured their souls into what I now have, for a little while. Just before I pass it on to you (or somebody else), but for now, I have it. This jewel. This seed of a jewel. And I will take it from here. Work it with all the skill I can muster to evolve it one more precious step. And then hand it to those who will continue to care for it like all of us before.And then I will start over selecting the next coffee. And again. And again.