All you rich yuppies with your fancy machines. You just need three teaspoon fulls of this and you're good to go, hangover and all.
If you can ever locate it, try a blend called Three Peckered Billy Goat. Best bloody stuff I've ever tried, bar none.
Feral Trade coffee. Bought by a local food cooperative straight from a Mexican farmer, shipped to the UK by travellers in their spare luggage allowance, roasted by a local little roasters in Bristol and then sold in kilo bags right here in Birmingham. Every penny in the price is accounted for. And it is awesome dark roast.
There would zero chance of me accepting a package from a Mexican farmer and going to an airport with it. Zero.
Well this morning I got into work and decided I wanted a French press coffee. Got out my Hario grinder and then had a thought. We have builders in the office. They have drills. Freshly ground coffee super quick. Simply locked the chuck on the top of the grinder where the handle normally goes and span on a medium speed. Give a cup of coffee to the builder, everyone's happy.
In theory it should be a more consistent grind as well, given a reduced lateral movement in the handle and consistent speed. You could in theory build up too much heat in the burrs though, if you went too fast. That said I think the only thing that you would notice is that you're drinking coffee that much sooner, so bonus. A Big Mac is a good hangover cure as well, but I'm not deluded into thinking that it's a "good" burger
Food cooperative in Smethwick. Didn't know there was a new coffee roaster on Bristol Street, but I'll check it out!
Saw this the other day and it got me thinking, though I would never back a kickstarter, it's an interesting proposition. I see a few issues though... - Roasting is probably the most complex and error prone part of making coffee, and I expect there's one "right" roast for any one bean, so perhaps best left to the professionals. Shareable profiles would go some distance to alleviate this though, provided there was a large enough community to foster this sort of thing. - In principle, it would be more difficult to get a consistent roast with a small batch and short roasting time. - The capacity for me would be an issue, I'd have to do two runs per day to feed my espresso habit, and an extra couple if anyone else wanted to join in. This would consign it to an expensive toy to use once in a while when I'm feeling adventurous. I like the theory of roasting at home from a practical point of view, to get in several kg of my staple coffee and roast in small batches as needed, which this wouldn't really allow. - At £750 or thereabouts in retail, it's over twice as expensive as the small Gene roaster which roasts up to 250g at a time. Yes, this one is "smarter", but for less than £100 the Gene can be made smarter too. - Isn't it kind of just a mega-expensive smart popcorn popper? The main thing that puts me off though, is that coffee geekery seems very in fashion these days, and I wonder whether this is a serious proposition for true boffins or a fashionable gadget for well heeled individuals that would otherwise be drinking nespresso. I'd love it to be amazing, though. I feel that the capacity would always be an issue for me, but if it turns out it delivers and excellent and consistent roast with minimal faff then I'll be following the company very closely for a larger capacity model.
on the matter of what coffee to buy? try AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. there's no such thing as the "right coffee", just the "right coffee for you. decide what kind of flavours you're looking for in your coffee, and buy based around that. don't let anyone tell you "this coffee is bad, this coffee is good". if you're one of the strange breed of people who LIKE turbo roasted swill, go for it. on the other hand, South American coffee's tend towards the chocolate/caramel flavours. Indo coffee's tend towards the spice and honey/fruit flavours. African coffee's tend towards the more citrus'/floral flavours. (and unless you're specifically looking for something, or have happened to find one of the rare speciality growers, Vietnamese coffee's tend towards burned rubber or tastelessness. they're only just starting to realise that if they CARE about their coffee's people will pay actual money for it) I have an aeropress *1. And a harrio small. because it FITS inside the aeropress, and allows me to take it with me. i also added a stainless steel filter. because if allows more oil through, but mostly because it means i don't have to carry a bunch of paper filters around with me. I also have a variety of home roasting products.. ranging from a Taiwanese "bed pan" roaster, to an iHome, to a Gene cafe. i even used a poppery for a while. (and I'm currently eyeing up the current crop of Taiwanese small scale (.5 / 1 /2 kg) roasters.. and seriously considering one) all of which makes me realise how much of an expert I'm not. there have been at least THREE coffee roasters on kick starter. all of which have actually turned out to be a closed system with proprietary software, and a closed market supply chain... ie, the machine wasn't that expensive, but you paid through the nose for the coffee.. and in each case, they waited till basically the end of the kick-starter to say " due to technical issues, we're limiting the coffee you can use to our own coffee.". we're watching this one to see if they go the same route (there's much much more revenue in a monthly subscription stream than there is in selling hardware) also... £750? a second hand gene cafe is £200... does 300g of coffee, and an afternoon's roasting will last you a week. a 60g signle roast wouldnt even last me the 10 minutes it took to roast. my £0.02. your milage may vary
Having run out, I've just roasted a couple of small batches for myself - only about 250g in total but it should last me a week or so. Roasting coffee is definitely a craft but it's not as difficult as is often made out. I've probably done a few dozen batches now and can produce a good, consistent and even roast every time even with my beautifully lo-fi method: a large, thick-based frying pan and a wooden spoon to move the beans around. You soon get a feel for it and learn how to tell where the roast's at from the sights, sounds and smells - I quite enjoy doing it.
I have to jump in here and recommend The Coffee Collective. Especially if you're a fan of lighter roasts, I picked up a bag of the El Diamante not all that long ago and poured myself this cup; Absolutely in love, I unfortunately didn't have the time to really dial it in myself or bounce it off anybody else but just wonderful stuff, words escape me.
That's me on an off day.. (yes, enlarged head) The only standalone steamwands I have ever come across that do the job are from ancient Italian stove top things. I'd recommend a Gaggia Classic with the Rancilio wand mod for home use, or if you have the money go crazy and get a Slayer
I'd love to try an old stove-top steam wand, I didn't even know they existed. They look beautifully lo-fi and an octagonal art deco style one would match my moka pot perfectly. I'll see if I can pick one up, cheers.
