Random Brew Recipe:   98g coffee / 1 kg water, 5 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Aeropress
Actual Recipe: 20g coffee, 200g water at 198F
Coffee: Rwanda Coko Coop from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes:  This is a one-two punch; a high dose with a long brew time. Since things were already way off my usual specs, I figured I’d use an Aeropress; why not? I coarsened the grind quite a lot (ELEC PERC on a Bunn), and avoided any kind of agitation during the brew time. All five minutes of it.

Once pressed, the coffee was actually at its peak while quite hot, which I find to be unusual. It also presented an interesting sweetness that I’ve never tasted in this coffee before, a toasted marshmallow kind of browned sugar sweet. This faded as the temperature cooled, with the finish growing longer and dryer as it cooled, with almost no sweetness remaining at room temperature. We had a barista training on bar, and I used that finish as the perfect illustration of the finish one expects from an overextracted cup.

I’d give this recipe in an Aeropress a 3/10. It would probably be not as punishing with a non-immersion brew – a FetCo Extractor springs to mind.

Also: If you are a Providence / Boston local, the First Ever Providence Aeropress Championship is being held this month! Sponsored by the Providence Coffee Society, New Harvest Coffee Roasters, Aerobie and others – read more about it here. 

Random Brew Recipe:   30g coffee / 1 kg water, 1 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Clever
Actual Recipe: 6g coffee, 200g water at 198F
Coffee: Honduras Las Flores from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes: This coffee is thin and insidious. It opens with a somewhat round body that almost immediately fades into a long, dry finish. I suspect that these poor brews are a result of my slowed posting, some kind of cybernetic revenge emerging from the seemingly random machinations of the Random Brew Generator. It is a fickle mistress, to be certain.

There is something in the cup to indicate that it isn’t low-quality swill; it’s thin but not without some sweetness, and while unsatisfying it is certainly not actively offensive, as have many similar cups I’ve had at diners and hotels across this great nation. It is better than anything I’ve had at a free breakfast, but in a sense it is worse exactly because it hints at how good it could be if only someone had cared just a little bit more. That being said, if 30g/L for one minute (one minute!) produced this cup, it boggles the mind as to exactly how someone buying high-quality coffee could make a really aggressively bad cup. But they do!

I’d give it an 3/10.

Random Brew Recipe:  67g coffee / 1 kg water, 3 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Aeropress
Actual Recipe: 14g coffee, 200g water at 201F
Coffee: Ecuador Loja from Tonx Coffee

Notes notes notes: Thanks to Mark (@marcushundley) for sharing his Tonx!

Huge nose on this coffee, both through the grinder and in the cup. Through the grinder it was just a sweet berry, in the cup it was distinctly that thick, sweet smell of a cherry cordial. The long brew time in the Aeropress pushed it over the edge, but it still had heavy, dripping chocolate-covered cherry body and flavor. A little tart berry in the finish – I’m excited to try this coffee again with brew parameters a little closer to previous outstanding Aeropress brews.

I am very curious how this would pull as an espresso – it has the kind of flavor that is not just enjoyable, but armed with the kind of clarity and distinct nameable notes that make me immediately think of what a competition routine would look like using this bean. Probably a presentation on Ecuador and the Tonx model, direct-to-consumer coffee evolution…

I’d give it an 8/10.

Random Brew Recipe:  32g coffee / 1 kg water, 2 minute brew time.

Brew Method: French Press
Actual Recipe: 16g coffee, 500g water at 198F
Coffee: Honduras Las Flores from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes: 16g is a woefully tiny amount of ground coffee in a 500mL french press. Even grinding quite fine results in a brew that just looks strange: muddy and silty as you’d expect a finely-ground french press cup, but quite light, more tan than brown. I was not looking forward to this cup.

Using a french press helped to add a little body, but the flavor itself is practically missing. It’s a hot cup of something – not water, certainly, but in a blind tasting I don’t know that I’d identify it as coffee, either. It’s present in the mouth but without any kind of acidity or actual flavor to associate with the heft. It isn’t offensive or hard to drink, but it isn’t interesting  – it isn’t much of ANYthing, really.

I’d give it an 3/10. I don’t think this recipe would work with any coffee.