thoughts on a controlled study of brew times

Last month a new controlled study of brew times in French press coffee was released.  Conducted by Daniel Drazenovich, Chief Technical Engineer for the micro roastery Old Wwworld Cafe, the process and findings were quite interesting and worth a read. (See, "Perfectly Timed French Press Coffee".)


The Coffee Catcher's Nate Jones had the following thoughts on the study:

"It certainly makes intuitive sense that the surface area of grounds exposed to water coupled with the total volume of grounds should affect the timing of coffee brewed.  Personally, I think the 200 degree pour is a bit on the low side, but I have no reason to supposed that that would comprehensively skew the results.

"This reminds me of an all day experiment I've been wanting to do involving brewing French press coffee by visual cues. I do it, and John [Custer] does it, but I haven't had a chance to figure out exactly what I'm reacting to in terms of sight, smell or perception of time that tells me when to press.  I think the color of the crust on the top of the coffee does change as the brew continues, perhaps as oil extractionslows, but I can't quite verbalize those cues yet. Anyway, this chemistry-heavy approach reminded me that sometime soon I'd like to do a controlled direct-perception series of brews and evaluate the results."

The Adventures of The Coffee Catcher!

In a recent fieldtrip, Nate Jones visited Mark Barany of Kuma Coffee, where he had the opportunity to observe the coffee bagging and delivery process (...a lot of fun from what we hear!)  Afterward, they had some time to brew a few French presses, which gave the Coffee Catcher a chance to shine.  In Nate's words

"...wow.  Fantastic Guatemala Il Injerto, huge body, streaks of blueberries, maybe a hint of cinnamon? Sweet and syrupy. [Mark] tastes this coffee all the time, and he thought it was one of the best presses he'd ever had of it."

The great flavor caught Mark's attention, and it looks like we'll have at least one Kuma Coffee present at the French press competition on June 18th.  We're looking forward to seeing how Seattle's various coffee experts use the French press.
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...On a side note, Nate's homecoming after meeting with Mark was less-than-ideal.  Apparently, that morning while rushing to deliver coffee to his wife, Charity, Nate accidentally left the Coffee Catcher sitting in the compost container with the grounds.  Later that day Charity dumped the whole compost - including Coffee Catcher - down the 5 story garbage shoot.

Upon arriving home, new Kuma coffee in-hand, Nate hurried to brew some of the outstanding roast for Charity...only to discover they were short one Coffee Catcher!  It was bad.

Needless to say, within 5 minutes both of them here were downstairs making a valiant trash-diving effort, searching for the missing item (...we'll save you the more gruesome details).  Finally, the Coffee Catcher was found.  Back upstairs and thankful to be reunited, the disassembled Coffee Catcher was soaked in Visions' phosphate-free coffee cleaner and boiling water for 15 minutes before running it through a cold rinse.

The heroic rescue efforts were rewarded with a fantastic brew of Rwanda Abakundakawa.  Apparently, the Coffee Catcher's thorough cleaning removed all silt buildup and emphasized the the spice and fruit notes in the Rwanda admirably!

While recounting the tale Nate added, "We're thinking of calling the coffee catcher "The Precious", after Gollum."

Brew Colloids and Fine French Press Flavor : Part 1 of 2

Brew Colloids and Fine French Press Flavor : Part 1 of 2

by Nate Jones

(What a title!)

First off, hat tip to Sam Lewontin of Why Not? Coffee for the conversation that started this and to Scott Rao, who helped me understand the relationship between colloids and coffee body/flavor in Everything but Espresso and The Professional Barista's Handbook (TPBH).  (Head to home-barista.com for a handy quick reference quote from TPBH on brew elements. )

Jumping in, the non-water part of coffee is a mixture of dissolvable coffee solids and gases (the stuff that gives flavor and aroma, respectively) and non-dissolvable solids. These (relatively) large non-dissolvables form colloids as they spread evenly through water during brewing, bonding with tiny oil droplets and trapping dissolvable solids before they can dissolve. Another way to put it: suspended masses of particles, oil and dissolvable solids are known as brew colloids.

Brew colloids affect coffee in two key ways. First, these relatively large masses of coffee stuff contribute to the coffee's perceived weight in our mouths (body) and to mouth feel (a looser definition that encompasses body, but also texture, consistency and anything else your mouth feels apart from taste). More colloids in coffee = greater body, and of course traditionally brewed French press coffee is loaded with colloids and renowned for its heavy body. The down-side of all this body is a muddy, blurred flavor profile. In traditionally-brewed French press coffee, there are so many brew colloids that a significant percentage of available dissolved solids are mopped up before they can dissolve and lend their specially tasty chemicals to the brew. So instead of tasting the full orchestra of flavors, the tongue tastes available flavors plus colloids, which are perceived as both/either heavy body and syrupy mouth feel and/or a muddy, or silty mouth feel that screens flavor.

No surprise, one key to good French press coffee is balancing the number of colloids formed in the brew for an optimal body - taste experience. Previously, the only way to influence the number of colloids in the brew was to prevent them getting into the carafe in the first place - in other words, to employ a high quality grinder that produces grinds of a consistent size with a low percentage of relatively tiny colloid-forming coffee solids. I think there is now a second way to manage the body - taste balance: the Coffee Catcher.* I've conducted daily (tasty) brewing experiments for six months, and I think the Coffee Catcher can consistently remove colloid-forming solids from the grind mixture at the start of the pour, before many oily, flavor-trapping colloid masses can form. The result is a lighter-bodied French press brew, with significantly improved flavor clarity and extended coffee life-time. It may be that the latter occurs because there are fewer colloids in the cup, and therefore undesirable flavor extraction at cooler temps is minimized (solids that dissolve at cooler temps tend to release undesirable, bitter flavors into the cup).

But what's really tantalizing is the potential to actively manage colloid presence within the carafe for the first time. More testing is needed, but it's possible that certain brew conditions can be deliberately tweaked to influence the colloid transparency of the Coffee Catcher mesh - thus potentially allowing French press users to actively tweak the number of colloids in the brew, tailoring the body-taste balance to a particular coffee or brew parameter. I'll lay out my thoughts on this more fully in Part 2, due out next week...

*Legal Stuff: The Coffee Catcher is a patent pending product of Kaffeologie (TM), all rights reserved.

Ouch!

Recently heard through the Tweetvine:

"Third French Press in 4 days purchased. If this one breaks, I'm not going to be held responsible for my actions.I wasn't even rough on them!"


Yikes - we recommend trying a Coffee Catcher to help the French press cleaning easier...and safer.   (The improved flavor is just an added bonus!)

Anyone else have a good "I broke my French press" story?

Soft Pour: 2nd Time's the Charm

The Coffee Chroniclers have been messing around with the "soft pour" technique recommended to us by Scott Richardson from Herkimer Coffee (see, "Finessing the brew method" and "Pour speed and silt behavior with the French press") and we're happy report that we have been able to consistently repeat the technique.

We were concerned at first that the episode might be an anomaly, but our success in replicating the results with the Coffee Catcher screen are quite encouraging.  The real yield of this success is the consistent flavor and even longer cup-life it's helping us to pull from The Coffee Catcher - due to the containment of the silt below the Coffee Catcher screen.  (Also, see "does the Coffee Catcher improve flavor?")

In addition to enjoying our ability to recreate the technique, we've also really been enjoying using it in our own coffee each morning.  French press is already such a fantastic brewing method - who knew it could be better!

Coffee Catcher Unveiling: save the date!

We are extremely pleased to announce the date of the Coffee Catcher Product Launch Event!

On June 18th The Coffee Catcher's official launch event will take place at Visions Espresso from 6-10pm.


In addition to launching the Coffee Catcher, the evening will host a barista competition for the French press technique that yields the best taste results.

See more event details and RSVP on Facebook!