Raise your hand if you've ever heard a barista or coffee professional say, "Robusta is a lower quality bean." or, "Robusta? EW!" I know I have. Hell, I've even said it a few times! In fact, I have a very distinct memory of when I first found out what Robusta coffee even was. I was working at a coffee shop in college when a friend who was working at a different coffee shop messaged me and said, "Hey, does xxx use Robusta or Arabica beans in their coffees?" Me being about three months in to my coffee career had literally no idea what that meant. So, I did some research and found out two things. One: we used Arabica beans. Two: Robusta = bad. Low quality, high in caffeine, seemingly for those who "don't care" about the coffee they drink. So, there I was, in 2013, already judging a coffee species I had never even tried.

But what do you know about Robusta really?

Robusta is a hardy coffee species that contains more caffeine, less sugars, and has a higher crop yield than Arabica. This coffee grows and thrives in lower elevations with high humidity. Robusta is known for its lower acidity and high bitterness. Traditionally seen as a blender coffee we are starting to see some excellent, dare I say fine, robustas coming out and the world needs to know!

Unlike Arabica coffee, Robusta coffee requires cross pollination. (As does tea and cacao!) Cross pollination leads to greater genetic diversification. This detail is important because it may hold the key to why Robusta coffee is more resistant to coffee leaf rust and other pests/diseases that hurt Arabica coffees. Arabica coffee is easier to breed for quality as it is asexual and will just breed a new tree from itself. Because Robusta coffee relies on cross pollination it requires more attention to be paid to how and what it is planted next to.

Denise Bustamante, Masters student in Coffee Economics and Sciences, and Q Grader of both Robusta and Arabica from Ecuador, has been working on a Robusta hybrid called Ecurobusta01. Stick with me here, I'm going to try to lay this out as simply as possible. They started with 100 trees in their study and narrowed this down to a set of 32 trees that passed a checklist of thirty different criteria. These 32 trees were monitored and finally 9 were chosen as the 'elite trees' that would be planted in the cloner garden. These 9 trees only had each other to cross pollinate with, so the resulting seed was high quality. This high-quality seed is Ecurobusta01.

Ecurobusta01 was given to farmers around Ecuador in 2015 and has since seen successes in cupping scores of up to 85 points. In fact, Johann Buenaño, Ecuador's current Brewers Cup Champion, won using a natural Ecurobusta01 coffee. Johann's story is fascinating and you should check him out on Instagram. His handle is @johann_whitechocolate. Follow his journey to worlds where he plans on using another Robusta to compete.

Denise has purchased a farm where she plans to run more experiments on Robusta. One of her main concerns is that there just isn't much research on Robusta. The Coffee Quality Institute, CQI, created the Q Robusta Grader program in 2010 to help evaluate Fine Robustas. They have since released standards for green grading, and cupping sheets. World Coffee Research, WCR, has started looking in to a multi-location Robusta trial. Where they would take high quality robustas and plant them in different climates all around the world to see how these trees do. They are also hoping to set up a Robusta coffee hub in Uganda to learn about and promote Robusta breeding. You can hear more about what CQI and WCR are doing with Robusta on The Coffee Podcast episodes 124 and 125. The Coffee Podcast is hosted by Jesse Hartman. Also, give a listen to episode 109 of Boss Barista Podcast hosted by Ashley Rodriguez. Ashley speaks with Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply in Brooklyn, New York. Sahra specializes in coffees from Vietnam which is the #1 producer of Robusta coffee in the world.

This conversation is far from over. Breeding high quality Robusta is just the first step to producing Fine Robustas. As Denise said regarding Ecurobusta01, "The material is great. Now it's up to the producers to keep it perfect." Read more, listen more, discuss more. Send me your thoughts on Robusta, and research you find. Let's change the future of coffee together.

Here are some links that I found helpful in writing this piece.

Visit http://www.coffeeinstitute.org/ for more information on CQI and https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/ for more information on WCR

Listen to the episodes that were mentioned in this post The Coffee Podcast: https://www.thecoffeepodcast.com/2018/11/30/2018-30-11-e124-coffee-myths-arabica-vs-robusta-part-i/ https://www.thecoffeepodcast.com/2018/12/07/2018-7-12e125-coffee-myths-arabica-vs-robusta-partii/
Boss Barista Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6UwLRZpDaRSSBxZEMQ0X94

Special thanks to Denise Bustamante (@denisebustamantea) for speaking with me about her project and providing the pictures you see here. Umeko Motoyoshi (@umeshiso_) for opening up this discussion on Robusta. And of course, Hiver van Geenhoven (@hiverkairos) of Chromatic Coffee (@chromaticcoffee) for bringing Robusta in and sparking my interest in what Robusta is and has to offer. (@s are Instagram handles)

At the end of February 2020, I entered in to my first competition on the national level. I arrived in Costa Mesa, California with my freshly roasted compulsory coffee from Kenya. I stood in the Orange County convention center building, nervously fidgeting around trying to find the area to turn in said coffee and anxiously awaiting the chance to shower and relax back at the hotel.

Some 40 minutes after the scheduled time to turn in our coffee a line formed. Another 20 or so minutes from there I finally turned it in. That was it, there was no turning back. The next few days were filled with drinking lots of coffee, reuniting with friends from around the country, cupping, and, of course, giving my presentation.

To tell the rest of this story I need to back up to the end of October 2019. I was flown out to Minneapolis, Minnesota where I joined 9 other roasters from different parts of the country to become the inaugural class of Glitter Cat Roasters. The 10 of us were about to go through this boot camp to learn what it would take to compete in the US Coffee Champs Qualifiers. T. Ben Grimm (multi-time national barista finalist!) and her amazing partner Eric Grimm set us up with amazing coffee roasters from around the country. Over the course of two days we learned from 2019 US Coffee Roasting champion Shelby Williamson, 2019 US Cup Tasters champion and founder of Mother Tongue Jen Apodaca, Coffee People Zine's Kat Melheim, and coffee pro Joe Marrocco. We got hands on training on the dope machines at Mill City Roasters' headquarters, and access to quality green coffee from Atlas Coffee Importers. This was brought by 2017 US Brewers Cup 2nd place finalist Chelsey Walker-Watson.

A lot of very amazing things happened this weekend, but for this post I am going to focus on certain parts of it. Specifically, the parts that directly influenced my performance at the OC Qualifiers. I can think of three main game changers. The first being the workshop on Green Coffee Sorting and Defect Identification. This workshop was led by the wonderful Chelsey Walker-Watson.

At the time of the boot camp I had been roasting for under a year. I had the opportunity to go to the Roasters Guild Retreat in August, I was selected as the Matchbook Coffee Project's September Roaster, and now I was here. At this boot camp, just one month later. I tell you this because there was an intense amount of personal and professional growth in this block of three months. I found myself sitting in this particular workshop realizing just how little I knew about green coffee. I had never screen sorted before, nor had I sorted by defect. I was overwhelmed. I felt like I shouldn't be there, I didn't deserve to be there! I didn't even know 'the basics'. In fact, how had ANY of this happened to me?

The next big blow for my self-esteem came at the production roasting workshop. When I had to step up to this brand-new machine that I had no idea how to use, and roast a coffee in front of a bunch of people including the legend, Jen Apodaca! A little quick something about me, I DO NOT like to do things in front of others until I have perfected it. It is not a good practice, and I try to push myself outside of those bounds, but that is the cold hard truth of the matter. Here's the thing. I fucked up that roast. I had no idea what 'soaking' a coffee meant, which is what everyone seemed to be doing. So, I decided to do it similar to the way that I roast coffee at home, because that's what I knew, and those were the tools I had at that moment. Cut to the roast ending much too quick and far too dark. I was so embarrassed.

The last thing that was a little bit of a blow to my self-esteem actually happened at the community event that Glitter Cat hosted at Cafe Imports. Each Glitter Cat was paired with a member of the community (Hi, Kristin!) and we would go through four stations and do different versions of tasting coffee and matching it to something. There was a station where you matched the coffee to its origin, another triangulation station, one where we tasted coffee and matched it to its roast curve (the only one I did well on) and a fourth thing that I can't remember because I didn't do well at it and blocked it out.

I know, I said “amazing things" happened and these all sound like a bummer. But here's the thing, I learned so much. I learned so much about myself, about coffee, about the professionals around me. I learned my strengths and weaknesses. I learned some basics that I had just not gotten around to yet. I was allowed to try, to fail, and to try again. I was allowed to be imperfect, and uncomfortable at being imperfect. It is so easy to just skate by with the knowledge you have. It is so much harder to push yourself to grow.

By the end of that weekend, I was exhausted. But at the same time, I was energized and ready to push forward. Similar to how I've been feeling for the first half hour after my Kick Boxing classes where I'm still proud of myself but not sore and in pain yet. I knew I was ready to take on the world, or at least this compulsory coffee that would be sent to me.

I'll talk more about the actual approach that I took with my coffee in a later post, but this brings us back to the OC Qualifiers. Where I cup my coffee on Sunday morning, and meet lots of awesome people during my audience service immediately after. In the afternoon, I give my 3 minute and 41 second presentation that is formatted pretty differently than everyone else's. The presentation that I’m proud of, and others have complimented, but ultimately didn't do enough for the judges. And in the evening, I'm watching as 1 by 1 the roasters finalists are being called to the stage. Slowly realizing that I will not be one of them, painfully realizing that none of the Glitter Cat Roasters will be one of them. Here's that feeling of failure again. I had gone and done something in front of people that I was not perfect at yet. How could I have done that to myself?

After all the announcements, I ran into Eric who broke the news that I was a quarter of a point away from qualifying. I broke down, I was flooded with intense emotion that I am pretty sure came from me feeling like I had failed. I had failed myself, my company, the Glitter Cats! Everyone! In that moment Eric pulled me in for a hug, and Kat, who was right next to us, joined in showering me with support. They let me cry, they let me feel, they let me 'fail'. And I was safe. Stepping away from that moment, I see that again. Here I was, being imperfect, but still doing the thing. Still learning, still growing, still kicking ass.

If you had asked me what I thought was going to happen after Glitter Cat Roasters boot camp, or competition, or really the time period between October and February, I would never have imagined how impactful this would be. Not in a million years. What is failure if not an opportunity to learn? The opportunity to be vulnerable and lean on your community for support. The chance to prove yourself, not for the sake of others, but for yourself.

All of the pictures taken at the Glitter Cat Roasters boot camp were taken by two very talented humans. Haley Aurora Sage Photos (@hhaurora) and Vitor Pagán (@victorjpagan)

Other Glitter Cat Roaster boot camp sponsers are Pacfic Barista Series, Barista Magazine, Urnex, Curtis, Acaia, Kickapoo coffee, and Elixr coffee

I was gifted a bag of Mexico Bella Vista from Andytown Coffee Roasters located in San Francisco, California a few weeks ago. I have heard nothing but amazing things about this coffee company but for some reason I have not made my way to their cafe. I will be there for their latte art throwdown in a couple of days, so I thought I would give this coffee a try.

I made this coffee on my Hario v60 using a 1:16 ratio. I found that by using this ratio I was able to bring out the dried mango sweetness with a finish of milk chocolate. As the coffee cooled there were notes of toasted almond and apricot. The coffee was delicious and I enjoyed while watching the US qualifying barista championships.

Perhaps my favorite part about this coffee was the story behind it. This coffee is from the Bella Vista region of Chiapas, Mexico. Made from coffee harvested from 38 small, family owned coffee farms. Brought together because of the dedication of Rosalba Cifuentes.

Rosalba grew up working on her family's coffee farm. Picking coffee, pruning the trees, and making food for the other laborers. She moved to the Bay Area and was surprised to find almost no Mexican coffee in specialty coffee shops.

She quickly moved back to Bella Vista and began Mayan Harvest Coffee, a company that supports farmers in the area. They also work to protect the farmers from what they call 'coyote men' who are predatory middle men who often take advantage of the farmers. Mayan Harvest’s goal is to elevate Mexican coffee. Higher prices are paid for higher quality coffee, and each lot is registered with the FDA.

Rosalba says,

"I remember sitting by the fire with my grandma and aunt to thresh corn and hear them talking about the day, the coming harvest, and their dreams. At 10 I never imagined I would end up exporting and selling my town's coffee all over the world."

She has made such an impact on her community and in the specialty coffee world. I believe we are just learning about how amazing Mexican coffee is. I am glad we have people such as Rosalba, and Andytown Coffee Roasters who want to bring this delicious coffee to the public.

If you would like to purchase this coffee you can visit http://www.andytownsf.com/ and to learn more about Mayan Harvest Coffee you can visit https://www.mayanharvestcoffee.com/

The weekend before my 26th birthday my partner and I headed up to the mountains to escape the smoke caused by the devastating Camp Fire near Paradise, CA. We chose to rent a cabin off of a charming bed and breakfast near Shasta Lake.

Nothing is better than a warm, delicious cup of coffee in the woods. Usually I use a coffee press or an aeropress which means you either have to pre-grind your coffee or bring along your hand grinder. Not to mention all the materials that come with your brewing mechanism. All of which is fine, but if you are short on space and don't want to deal with the hassle, the Dripkit is the way to go.

The company Dripkit is based out of Brooklyn, NY. They practice direct trade and focus on small farms and cooperatives. It is roasted, ground, and packaged in Brooklyn. The team of two awesome women co-founders pledge to find a way to make their product 100% biodegradable by 2021. You can visit their site at https://dripkit.coffee/ for more information about their company and practices. As well as another step-by-step guide to using their product.

The Santa Cruz based company called Verve Coffee Roasters partnered with Dripkit to sell in stores. The kit contains 15g of freshly roasted pre-ground coffee. https://www.vervecoffee.com/collections/dripkit The Verve Dripkit that I used was their Ethiopia Duromina, which with its notes of juniper and pomegranate was a perfect coffee to try in the woods.

The first thing you will need to do when preparing to use your dripkit is heat your water. Between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit is best for brewing. I brought along my Fellow Stagg EKG kettle, but any kind of kettle would be fine. That being said, as with any coffee brewing method it would be easier to have a goose neck kettle.

The next thing you will do is open you Dripkit and tear off the top blue strip. Push the drip kit open to create a triangle shape and use the notches provided on the bottom of the kit to secure on to your mug.

Next you will slowly fill your Dripkit to the top and let drain, repeat twice more. You can by-bass and add more water to your brewed coffee after if you find it too strong. Though I think the strength was perfect with a wonderful balance of acidity and sweetness.

That's it! It is that easy. I am not usually one to use "instant" coffees. I like to freshly grind my beans before brewing so I was a bit skeptical at first. However, I could tell from the moment the coffee started to bloom that it was still fresh. There were large gas bubbles and the aromatics that were already coming from the coffee were enticing. The end result was a perfectly balanced cup of coffee. I would have had a hard time picking it out of a line up of other pour overs. I was done brewing in just a few minutes and quickly got to enjoy my coffee on the deck of our cabin looking out at the mountains.

On Sunday April 1st, I had the pleasure of attending a cupping classes lead by Akash, an employee of Equator Coffees & Teas based here in the Bay Area. Though I have watched cuppings on YouTube, via Starbucks videos, and even in person I personally never had the chance to do it. When I saw that there would be a cupping class at the Fellow Products playground I knew I had to go.

To give a quick background about Equator Coffees & Teas; Brooke McDonnell, Helen Russell, and Maureen McHugh were the original founders of the company. Brooke McDonnell was the original Master Roaster and Green Coffee buyer, and is currently the Chief Product Officer. Helen Russell is the CEO and strives to innovate the business and produce award winning coffee. And Maureen McHugh is the Vice-President of Operations, she focuses on working with people and projects that empower women, and coffee communities. These three women have been power houses in the coffee field since 1995. Check out their site for more information! https://www.equatorcoffees.com/

Now back to the main story. Inspired by what I learned at the cupping class I decided to try my hand at cupping at home. With no official materials and only a YouTube tutorial at my disposal I set off on my very first cupping. Here is what I did, and what I would change for my next cupping experiment.

I began with two types of coffee. I chose to use two of the Equator Coffees that I had just cupped so that I would have a nice baseline for my personal cupping. The first coffee I used was their Colombia Cerro Azul Enano. This special coffee has been loving labeled as a dwarf Gesha, or Enano in Spanish. They found that this coffee tree was much smaller and denser than the Gesha that they were anticipating yet the cup it yielded was very similar to that of a Gesha varietal. Equator Coffee decided to buy the lot and explore what the Enano had to offer. The second coffee I chose was their Ethiopia Sidama Ardi, this coffee is a Sun-dried or natural process coffee yielding a delicious berry and floral flavor.

I started with 11g of medium-coarse ground coffee and 180g of 200-degree water. I chose to do two samples of each coffee and use the smallest glasses that I owned. I used my Hario V60 scale to precisely measure out 180g of water and time the extraction period.

When pouring the water, I started on the outside of the grounds bed and slowly made a spiral pattern inwards and back out until 180g of water was poured. It is important to ensure that all of the grounds are wet before you reach your water weight. The coffee should steep for approximately 4 minutes prior to breaking the crust. Once you've hit the four-minute mark take your spoon, crouch down so that your nose is close to the coffee and break the crust stirring in a slow circle, three times around the rim really allowing the aromatics to escape from under the crust. This will give you a good idea of the coffee's flavor notes so you may want to have a pen and paper to write down what you smell!

Allow the coffee to steep for another 5 minutes. This allows the coffee to cool down enough for you to taste it as well as fully extract each of the coffee's flavor notes. After the 5 minutes are up use two spoons to scrape away the top layer of foam. This will take out any bitterness the coffee might have produced and leave you with the coffee in its purest form.

Finally, you are ready to taste the coffee! Using a spoon, I found the widest soup spoon that I had handy, you will scoop the coffee from the top layer to then slurp loudly into your mouth. In a professional cupping situation, you will likely see a cup of 200+ degree water behind each group of cupped coffee to dip your spoon in to and kill any germs from your spoon and reduce the likelihood of spreading illness. Another way to combat the spreading of germs is to use the side of your spoon that is furthest away from you while dipping into the coffee and slurping only from the side of your spoon closest to you. And always making sure to dip your spoon in the hot water between cups.

While slurping, spray the coffee across your entire palette to get the best sense of the coffees flavor notes, body, acidity, and roast level. This also acts as a way to aerate the coffee bringing forward the best the coffee has to offer. Finally write down any thoughts you have, what you taste, smell, like, dislike. Practice, practice, practice! The more cuppings, tastings, and experiences you have with coffee the easier it becomes to talk about coffee.

What I would change for next time: The size of my cups were about twice as much as the liquid/coffee grounds I put in. Ideally you want to crust to be at the rim of the cup/bowl you are using to make it easy. The SCA website suggest finding the volume of your vessel first and then using their ratio of 8.25g of coffee to 150g of water. In a perfect world, I would have round cups/bowls at my disposal as I believe that would make the skimming of foam and breaking of the crust easier. That being said the resulting cupping tasted very similar to what I experienced at the cupping class so with just a bit more practice, and maybe investing in a few SCA approved materials I'm sure I will be a pro in no time.

If you live in the Bay Area I highly recommend checking out the Fellow Products Playground. They host tons of coffee events in their store, feature five new roasters every month, and will help you with any coffee brewing questions you might have! Their website is http://fellowproducts.com/

In celebration of Women's History Month, I hosted a seminar on Melitta Bentz, the German entrepreneur who invented the paper filter. You may know her company today by the name of 'Melitta Group'. Melitta Bentz wished to find the perfect way to brew coffee. She found the electric percolators left a very burnt and bitter tasting cup. And the espresso machines of the time almost always had grounds in the espresso. Through trial and error, she finally used her son's blotting paper from school and thus a business was born. My seminar focused on the pour over method. We used various different filter methods to simulate the process that Melitta went through in 1908.

The first filter method used were a pair of panty hose. I want to stress that these panty hose were brand new, out of the box Friday morning. I also boiled them in hot water for approximately 30 minutes and hung them to dry. This was to get rid of any left-over dye and fabric that may have still been on the panty hose. Once the panty hose were cleaned and dried, I cut off the foot portion and used that as the coffee filter. Because the material used is not naturally shaped like a cone, the usable area was much smaller than I expected. So, using a dose of 22g of coffee and 395g of water set to a medium fine grind, I started the brewing process.

The second filter method used was a cloth filter. This is a pretty common at home filter. The cloth filters are reusable and decently affordable. You want to pre-wet this filter (and the pour over vessel if it is ceramic like mine) to keep the cloth from soaking up too much heat from the water as well as the flavor from the coffee. I made sure to bloom the coffee by adding roughly 40g of water over the grounds and waiting about 30 seconds before adding the rest of the water in a slow circular motion. I used the same dose to water ratio as above.

The third and final filter method I used was paper. I pre-wet our paper filter and ceramic pour over vessel to get rid of the paper taste that can sometimes find its way in to the cup of coffee. And using the same dose to water ratio and pour over method as before I brewed the coffee.

What I found interesting was the resulting taste from each of the filter methods. With the panty hose, I found that the aromatics of the coffee were still present but it lacked body and in some ways tasted over extracted. If I were to do this again I would probably have a coarser grind for this method to encourage an even extraction. The overall taste was actually decent though. With the cloth filter the coffee seemed muddled and the individual flavor notes were very hard to pick out. The aromatics had a similar problem. Though the coffee tasted good and would be perfectly fine to drink. The paper filter was everyone's favorite. The aromatics and flavor notes of the coffee were present without being over powering and it was a much more balanced cup of coffee.

I recently purchased the Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper and attended a local coffee dripper class in Palo Alto, CA. Right away it was clear that this is different than just your standard pour over vessel.

The vertical ridges along the inside of the vessel is the most noticeable difference. These ridges work with the water to ensure an even extraction. They liken it to the way a tree transports water from the roots to the leaves. There is also only a single hole that works with the ridges to produce a steady stream of coffee. Another notable difference involves the filters. According to Blue Bottle Coffee the filters are made of 90% unbleached pulp and 10% bamboo. The filters also have ridges that allow for the filter to naturally adhere to the walls of the vessel. Unlike most other filters it is not necessary to pre-wet before use.

This pour over method is a unique experience. We begin with 22-30g of ground coffee. Blue Bottle recommends a medium grind, with the particles roughly the size of sea salt. The amount of coffee recommended depends on whether the coffee is single origin (about 22g) or a blend (about 30g). I chose to use 30g of their Bella Donovan blend. Next you will need water, they recommend at least 600 grams. Place your carafe (or cup), dripper, and filter with coffee on to your scale, and tare it. I use a Hario V60 drip scale which measures to the tenth of a gram and includes a timer.

First, we will bloom the coffee by doubling the amount of water to grounds. In this case I used 60g of water to the 30g of coffee. In Blue Bottle's book The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee, the authors explain that coffee can hold about double its weight in water. This means that when you bloom your coffee properly there should not be any water that escapes from the bottom. This pouring method encourages you to start from the outer rim in a spiral towards the center. Note that this is not that standard pour over method that you may be used to. Do not panic if you see bubbles coming from the bloom, that just means the CO2 is releasing properly and your coffee is fresh/freshly ground.

After 30-40 seconds of allowing the coffee to bloom add water in a spiral from the middle to the outer edge and then back until you have reached 150g. At around 1 minute and 20 seconds you will follow the same pattern to 250g, and again at 2 minutes. The ideal brewing time for this vessel is about 3 minutes.

A few key things to remember: You want to hit the ridges of the filter in your spirals. The desired ground bed should be flat after extraction. You do not need to stir with this pour over method if you add your water in a spiral motion each time as this acts as stirring. And do not pre-wet your filter!

Let's talk about espresso. As a Starbucks barista who moved from a core store (most Starbucks stores you are used to) to a reserve bar (elevated Starbucks store) I moved from an automatic mastrena to a classic black eagle espresso machine. I no longer press a button and have the machine do all the work for me. I now control the grind, dosing, tamping, and brewing of the espresso. Because of this I wanted to delve deeper in to the art of pulling espresso.

The basic idea of espresso is water forced through finely ground coffee at about 9 bars or 130 pounds of pressure. There are three layers in the final espresso that Starbucks recognizes and looks for; the heart, body, and crema. The heart is the darkest layer at the bottom of the espresso. The body is a lighter brown middle section. And the crema is the lightest brown foam that naturally forms as the espresso pulls. The crema is what the specialty coffee world focuses on because this layer of espresso is what gives you the contrast necessary for pouring latte art.

We begin our espresso journey by dosing the correct amount of ground coffee into our portafilter (the metal basket and handle of an espresso machine). According to the Specialty Coffee Association, the ideal weight of espresso is between 14-18g of coffee. All though there is a growing movement within the community to dose between 18-20g of coffee. It is also important to have the correct grind at this stage. Depending on the grinder you use, you may have to trouble shoot until you find the perfect combination. Generally speaking you want a fine enough grind that the entire espresso pulling process takes 20-30 seconds and the resulting weight is 2 oz. of liquid.

Next you tamp the espresso. The term 'tamping' means to compress the coffee grounds. This stage is important because if not done properly the resulting espresso may taste sour or bitter. The water must be able to evenly pass through the coffee for the optimal extraction. When tamping you are pushing down with about 20 pounds of force which is not as much as you might think. If you tamp too hard the puck will become too compact which will interrupt the water's path through it. If you do not tamp hard enough the air will not be pushed out of the puck and the water will not flow evenly through the puck. In episode 25 on the podcast "Stone Creek Coffee", the two hosts talk about using a bathroom scale to measure just how much (or how little) 20 pounds of pressure is. Of course, you should first wrap up the scale or your tamp to avoid any gross cross-contamination. Another important aspect of the tamp is hand position. You are looking for your thumb to be pointed down towards your portafilter and your wrist to be straight. This is going to help you protect your wrists from repetitive injuries.

Once you are finished tamping, your puck should be smooth and flat. You can then insert your portafilter into your espresso machine making sure to lock it into place. A pro-tip is to turn on your machine for a few seconds before inserting the portafilter to warm up the group head and clear any remaining grounds from previous espresso. With the portafilter inserted you are ready to brew your espresso!

Depending on your machine you may have one that automatically stops after a certain amount of water has been dispersed, or you may have to stop it yourself. My home espresso machine, the breville duo-temp pro, requires you to stop the water yourself. Another important thing to note is the temperature of the water. You are looking for a water temperature of between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit or 90-95 degrees Celsius. When pulling espresso, I start a stop watch and pull directly into a cup on top of a scale. I am looking for my espresso to reach the desired 2 oz. in 20-30 seconds.

If your espresso is not reaching 2 oz. in 20-30 seconds you may want to double check your grind. It is possible the grind is too fine which is not allowing the water to pass through quickly enough. If the espresso is reaching 2 oz. sooner than 20 seconds your grind may be too coarse allowing the water to pass much too quickly through the puck.

This process may seem daunting, but I promise the perfect shot of espresso makes it all worthwhile.

Natural, dry, or sun-dried are all ways to describe the same processing method. The green coffee bean is left in the coffee cherry on drying mats, patios, or beds. Once the coffee is dried, the cherry is removed from the coffee beans mechanically with water, or by hand. This is the oldest coffee processing method and is highly debated about in the specialty coffee community.

If the coffee beans are left in the wet fruit for too long the fruit will start to mold, or ferment. This causes the coffee beans to have a sour, spoiled, and yeast like taste. If the coffee cherries are not turned regularly in the drying process the same problems will occur. The almost constant need for turning and caring for the coffee leads to this being a fairly expensive method when executed properly. The debate centers around two main ideas: The first being that if you are going to invest the time and money in to the natural drying process of coffee one should produce high quality coffee. The other is based on a few coffee professionals believing that the resulting flavor profile is not true to the coffee. The natural drying process is easy to bungle, and generally reserved for lower quality coffees as a result.

That being said I personally have had great experiences with natural processed coffees. Sun-dried coffees have been featured heavily by Starbucks in the recent seasons which has given me the opportunity to learn more about it.

The characteristics of natural process tend to take on a more berry like note and powerful aromas because the green coffee beans are absorbing the juices from the coffee cherry itself. In two of my recent coffee seminars I focused on sun-dried coffees. I brought a make shift aroma lab in to the store to highlight the aroma of each coffee. This helps the participants identify what it is they are smelling when they smell their coffees.

The first coffee we tasted was sun-dried Ethiopia Kayon Mountain Farm. This coffee had hints of black tea, lavender, and meyer lemon. For those of you who do not know what a meyer lemon is, it is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. The resulting flavor is much sweeter and less acidic than a standard lemon. I set up three containers, each filled with a different aspect of the flavor profile. I chose to brew the coffee using a coffee press. The coffee press leaves the oils of the coffee in the finished product, which enhances the body and acidity of the coffee. I found that this made the smelling, tasting, and describing easier for the participants. The meyer lemon container yielded the most success among the participants, with the black tea as a close second. This coffee is particularly interesting because it is coffee from a single farm, which is rare in Ethiopia. Most coffees from Ethiopia come from co-ops, or cooperatives, which is a place that many different small-lot farms work together to sell their coffee. This farm also designates about half of its land to shade grown coffee which is incredibly rare in Ethiopia. These two unique aspects are just part of what makes this coffee great.

The second coffee we tasted was sun-dried Ethiopia Haile Estate. This coffee had notes of orange peel, candied citrus, and floral aromas. For this tasting, I set up containers of fresh orange peel, and hyacinth flowers. I brewed the coffee using a coffee press for the same reasons as stated previously. Each container brought a different experience when smelling the coffee. The hyacinth flowers brought out a deliciously sweet smell to the coffee, whereas the orange peels brought forward a distinctly citrus smell. The owner of this coffee farm, Haile Gebrselassie, a retired long distance running international champion, takes pride in using socially and environmentally sound practices on his farm.

In my opinion, a natural dried coffee has the potential to yield a really great cup of coffee. With great care taken by the growers, sources, roasters, and you, the finished product is worth the hassle.

The Aeropress was invented in 2005 by Alan Adler. Adler is a bay area resident and inventor. Most of his career was focused on aerodynamic toys until he invented the Aeropress, though last year he sold the toy portions of his company to instead focus on coffee. In an interview with Howard Bryman of the Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine, Adler comments on the irony that his coffee press invention sparked worldwide competitions and the toy he worked to create competitions for did not take off in the same way.

The Areopress competitions yield an infinite number of brewing possibilities, but there are two methods that are most common. The traditional and the inverted. Within each method there are a myriad of choices to make which ultimately impact the end result. By choosing a coarser or finer grind, longer or shorter steeping time, and the speed at which you press down, you could have a completely different cup each time. It is suggested that while working with the Aeropress you only change one variable at a time to get a better sense of what you enjoy the most.

The traditional method allows you to brew slightly more coffee than the inverted method. It is also much easier and less risky to brew this way. As with most coffee brewing methods it is better to use a scale for accuracy. In this case you will place the aeropress on top of the mug which will be on the scale. As you add the water you will see some coffee drip through into the mug, first stir the coffee and the place the piston in place to create a vacuum and stop the coffee from dripping through. After about one minute (time varies depending on grind size) you will then plunge your coffee and can enjoy your cup!

The inverted method is a bit more involved. It is very important to make sure the piston is inverted far enough into the brewer that it is stable, but not too far because that will cause your ratio to be off. I started with 15g of fine ground coffee and added 200 ml of water just off the boil. Start your timer (about one minute) and give it a quick stir as you wait for the coffee to brew remove from the scale and carefully screw on the filter holder with the paper filter. When the timer is done slowly pull the brewer done on to the piston until the liquid is nearly touching the filter. This will make the piston more stable for when you flip the Aeropress. Place mug upside down on to filter holder, hold the mug and Areopress, and carefully flip over. You will then plunge the coffee into the mug.

Both processes create delicious coffee, but I think it is fun to experiment and find your favorite way to use the Aeropress! Do you have any fun ways you use the Aeropress? Let me know in the comments below!

Adler interview: Bryman, H. (2017, November 07). Alan Adler Presses On: Inventor Retains Aeropress Company, Adding Products. from https://dailycoffeenews.com/2017/11/06/alan-adler-presses-on-inventor-retains-aeropress-company-adding-products/

As I was re-reading The World Atlas of Coffee I stumbled upon the instructions for the vacuum pot, otherwise known as the siphon. I realized that the instructions in the book were different than how I was taught to make them at work. Curious as to why we have different steps I explored online and found that this is actually a heavily debated subject. So naturally I had to try it out!

Both methods of brewing begin with bringing water to a boil in the bottom chamber, inserting the filter in the upper chamber, and sealing the upper chamber to allow for the water to rise. Where the two methods differ is the actual brewing of the coffee.

For the first method, the method from the Atlas, you initially stir your coffee in at the beginning to ensure that all of the grounds are saturated. After thirty seconds of brewing you gently stir the contents to keep all the grounds saturated. After sixty seconds, you remove the coffee from its heating source, and stir once clockwise and once more counter clockwise. The goal is to keep the grounds from sticking to the walls as the coffee draws.

The second method requires four stirs at the start, halfway through, and at the end. Each time you stir you try to fold the grounds in to ensure that they are completely saturated. The entire brewing process takes 90 seconds. With each stir you are creating a vortex. After 90 seconds is up, you remove the coffee from its heating source, preform the final 4 stirs and watch for the dome to form as the coffee draws.

In a taste test comparing the two methods, myself and a few other baristas found that both the aroma and flavor of the coffee were more present with the coffee produced with a dome. I suspect this has to do with the extraction time. More is extracted over the 90 seconds than over 60 seconds. It is important to note that a longer brewing time does not automatically mean better flavor. In fact, if we brewed the first method for the same amount of brewing time as the second it would result in an over extracted and burnt flavor. Both of the resulting coffees tasted wonderful and overall it was an exciting experiment. I might have to try it again!

Costa Rica is a country nestled in between Nicaragua and Panama, with volcanos, jungles, beaches, and of course coffee. Up until recently coffee was the number one export replaced only by tourism. In 1821 when Costa Rica declared independence from Spain, the government gave their citizens free coffee seeds to encourage growth. Coffee is a way of life for the people of Costa Rica.

Among the many coffee farms in Costa Rica is the very first Starbucks owned farm, Hacienda Alsacia. The farm was first purchased in 2013 and is used as a place to research better ways to grow coffee. The agronomists are working to produce rust proof coffee trees and increase sustainability in farming. The information is then shared with farmers around the world.

For my tasting of Decaf Costa Rica Hacienda Alsacia I wanted to highlight the citrus and chocolate notes. This special cup of coffee has a distinct acidic experience. To me it is a wonderful acidity that seems to come in waves across the palate from one sip to the next. I paired this with mandarins and oranges dipped in dark chocolate with a touch of sea salt.

The result was delicious. More of the chocolate notes in the coffee were present while still experiencing the acidity. The sweetness of the mandarins worked particularly well in balancing all of these wonderful flavors.

This tasting was very important to me as I hope to visit this farm next year. I eagerly await the day that I get to witness, firsthand, the hard work and passion that goes into every cup of coffee.

My coffee seminar on Wednesday focused on the ratio between coffee and water. Before I go further I want to remind you all about the importance of the type of water you use. Coffee is 95% water, so if you do not use good, clean water, you will not have a good cup! It is recommended that you either use filtered or bottled water to brew.

For the seminar, I brewed the same coffee with three different measurements of coffee. All coffees were brewed as a pour over. The coffee in decanter A was 15g of coffee to 400g of water. The coffee in decanter B was 22g of coffee to 400g of water. And the coffee in decanter C was 30g of coffee to 400g of water.

When we smelled the first batch there was not much to it. It smelled vaguely of coffee but we were not able to pick out any distinct notes from the coffee. When we tasted the coffee, we found it was sour and had very little taste. This is due to extraction during the initial brewing process. There was too much water for the amount of coffee used resulting in an under extraction of flavor and leaving a sour, watery taste.

The second batch contained the correct measurements. The first thing we did was compare the color of this coffee to the first cup. The first cup was a light color. We could see the sides of the cup through the liquid as we moved it around. The second cup was a beautiful umber brown color that had slight carmel coloring to it as well. Next we found the berry notes of the coffee were very prominent during both the smelling and tasting process. We enjoyed this coffee for a while and talked about how you identify acidity, body, and flavor.

We arrived at the final batch and smelled our coffee. The smell was still present but muddled. We could not pick out the distinct berry notes from before, nor any other notes for that matter. When we tried the coffee, we found that the taste was similar to the second batch but had a bitter aftertaste with nothing distinctive to enjoy. This was the result of the coffee being over extracted. Meaning the water took too much flavor from the coffee during the brewing process.

I was recently given the opportunity to experiment with the BeanPlus cold drip brewing system. Over the weekend I experimented with grind and the speed of the drip to find the perfect combination. Each batch was delicious but I found that having a medium grind worked best for what I was looking for. I also found that adjusting the drip to about one drip per second allowed for a four and a half hour brewing/extraction time which yielded a great cup.

In my opinion, the advantages of a cold drip versus a more traditional iced coffee brewing method is that the coffee develops richer flavors with less acidity, and has more caffeine! This is because the water is in contact with the coffee for much longer than most other brewing methods.

The most compelling part about this brewing method is how easy it is to set up, brew, and clean. The set-up process takes about 5 minutes, between grinding the coffee, insert the filters, and filling the water. The extraction process itself tends to be between 4-5 hours depending on the frequency of the drops. Because the coffee is not submerged in the water you do not need to worry about being present at the end of the allotted brewing time. Finally, the cleaning part may seem daunting at first but each part is easily taken apart and put back together after washing.

There are many different cold drip brewing methods and I would love to experiment with them all! Until then, I think the BeanPlus was a great introduction to this new method.

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I thought I would kick this whole thing off with a recap of my first seminar at the Reserve Bar in Cupertino, California.

I will begin with the Aged Sumatra. Sumatra is a large Indonesian island famous for its juxtaposition of volcanoes and tropical terrain. The coffee from the Indonesian region is famously earthy and herbal. Sumatran coffee is no exception. However, by aging the green coffee beans over years you begin to develop deeper flavors. The green coffee beans are put into burlap sacks and stored in a special warehouse. Every six months the bags are rotated to prevent mold and expert tasters check on the crop. When the expert tasters decide the crop is done aging it is sent off to be roasted and we get the pleasure of drinking the product. The Aged Sumatra Crop Year 2013 has notes of sweet tobacco and cocoa while still harkening back to the earthy notes we love so much. This coffee has low acidity and a full body, and is definitely an un forgettable coffee.

The Reserve Christmas 2017 blend is on its third year and is quickly stealing the hearts of many.

This coffee is a blend of Aged Sumatra and Hacienda Alsacia. Hacienda Alsacia is a Starbucks owned farm in Costa Rica. Starbucks purchased the farm in 2013 and has used it to develop disease resistant coffee trees, and other sustainable farming practices. They then share their research with coffee farmers worldwide. The coffee from Hacienda Alsacia is then blended with the Aged Sumatra to create our Reserve Christmas 2017 blend. This coffee tastes of citrus and spice with a distinct cedary/woodsy smell.

The coffees were both brewed using our Clover Brewing System. And the tasting was conducted by first trying the Aged Sumatra then tasting the Reserve Christmas 2017. The customers found that it was easier to pick out the distinct Latin American notes after getting familiar with the Aged Sumatra.