Coffee Dharma for Brewing Dreams
It's no small feat, this brew. From farm to ship to roastery to your kitchen counter, there are many variables at work which can make or break it. Does the prospect of controlling all variables overwhelm you? Does this photo overwhelm you? We're here to help.
Let's assume that, as a given, you're starting with freshly roasted, high quality coffee beans.
Of course, as Jeremy noted in his post, "Burr Grinding Translates to More Balance and Complexity", the grind size and type of grinder you use is crucial to achieving perfect extraction.
Byard, a barista at our State Street store in Ithaca, recently shared a story with me. He was taking a wilderness survival course, and his professor assigned the following task: make fire with two sticks. All students were able to do this by the end of the three hour class in the woods - the professor remarked that it was an exceptionally good day for fire. However, the end result was not the lesson.
The professor went on to explain that there are many variables involved in getting a fire to start: the moisture content in the wood and the air, the age of the wood, the wind velocity, etc. So many variables, in fact, that often one thinks she has everything under control, but can't get a fire started. If this happens, he suggested taking a moment to collect yourself and show respect for the forest, and accept that some of this "fire" stuff is magic. Then, try again later.
Byard likened this to pulling shots of espresso, that sometimes there's a weird extraction that we can't explain, or a certain taste we can't track back. We can extrapolate this further into any type of coffee brewing. You think you thought of everything! Why does the coffee taste this way? There is some variable affecting the brew that we are not familiar with - that we do not know of.
Is what is unknowable, magical? Or just science we don't understand yet? I, for one, can't wait for the invention of a "portafilter borescope".
The most important advice we can give is to follow your nose. You can start with parameters that we recommend, but always adjust to what tastes better for you. Ask yourself questions, "When I decrease the dose, does it increase clarity or make a vapid brew?" Everyone's palate is physiologically different, and everyone is coming to the brew with different taste memories. Checking in with your palate, asking yourself, "What do I prefer?", will free you to explore all of the twists and turns that "coffee + water" has to offer.
Of course, as Jeremy noted in his post, "Burr Grinding Translates to More Balance and Complexity", the grind size and type of grinder you use is crucial to achieving perfect extraction.
Byard, a barista at our State Street store in Ithaca, recently shared a story with me. He was taking a wilderness survival course, and his professor assigned the following task: make fire with two sticks. All students were able to do this by the end of the three hour class in the woods - the professor remarked that it was an exceptionally good day for fire. However, the end result was not the lesson.
The professor went on to explain that there are many variables involved in getting a fire to start: the moisture content in the wood and the air, the age of the wood, the wind velocity, etc. So many variables, in fact, that often one thinks she has everything under control, but can't get a fire started. If this happens, he suggested taking a moment to collect yourself and show respect for the forest, and accept that some of this "fire" stuff is magic. Then, try again later.
Byard likened this to pulling shots of espresso, that sometimes there's a weird extraction that we can't explain, or a certain taste we can't track back. We can extrapolate this further into any type of coffee brewing. You think you thought of everything! Why does the coffee taste this way? There is some variable affecting the brew that we are not familiar with - that we do not know of.
Is what is unknowable, magical? Or just science we don't understand yet? I, for one, can't wait for the invention of a "portafilter borescope".
The most important advice we can give is to follow your nose. You can start with parameters that we recommend, but always adjust to what tastes better for you. Ask yourself questions, "When I decrease the dose, does it increase clarity or make a vapid brew?" Everyone's palate is physiologically different, and everyone is coming to the brew with different taste memories. Checking in with your palate, asking yourself, "What do I prefer?", will free you to explore all of the twists and turns that "coffee + water" has to offer.
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