The Only 3 Rules

This is a story that I tell during my Introduction to Coffee class that all of our certified baristi have to take. It’s the first of four required classes, and it is mostly me (or one of our Educators) pointing at a map, some writing on a white board, and a little explaining how solenoids work. We go over a few required tidbits of knowledge, and one of these is something we’ve come to call The Only 3 Rules. This story is true!

*  *  *

Not long ago, inexplicably, the man who has been called (by me) the Socrates of Specialty Coffee, Gwilym Davies, came to Foxboro Massachusetts. Gwilym runs a few coffee bars in London, and was at the time the departing World Barista Champion. He was doing a machine demonstration, and a few of us trekked up from Providence to see it, and meet the man himself. Thanks to the ever-astounding charisma of Gerra Harrigan, he agreed to come have a beer with us.

As you might imagine, I was pretty excited. GD is, and remains, a serious inspiration.

So, as folks will, we all had a few beers and chatted and eventually talk turned to our natural common ground: coffee. Making coffee. Thinking about coffee. We discussed the role that dogma, and a dogmatic approach to preparation, can take in day-to-day operations behind an espresso bar, and GD said something that struck me as very significant. He said that he really only follows three rules anymore. Here is what he said you have to do, to make good coffee:

1.) You have to taste your coffee
2.) You have to clean your machine

and

3.) You have to care.

 

3/26/2012 Brew

Random Brew Recipe:  45g coffee / 1 kg water, 5 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Clever
Actual Recipe: 20g coffee, 445g water at 198F
Coffee: Costa Rica Tarrazu, in-house fluid air bed roasted (aka popcorn popper)

Notes notes notes: This is about 1/3 less coffee than I would usually use, and about 1-2 minutes longer than I would brew with for a Clever. One thing this random brew generator has gotten me to is an appreciation for the hugely variable ways in which coffee can taste good. Not great, or life-changing, but just good.

I would have anticipated this cup being thin and unpleasant – and the body is lacking, surely, but it is only unpleasantly so during its warmest stages – as it cools the body remains unremarkable but a bit of sweetness comes out, and it rounds out the finish in a really nice way. A bit nutty, a little caramel near the end – this cup is not great art. It’s not direct traded and I don’t have any idea what I’m doing with the IHFABR (that’s in-house fluid air bed roaster), at least not yet – but this cup is still good. I’ll finish it.

I’d give it a 7/10. Not awful, and not life-changing, but totally OK.

3/23/2012 Brew

Random Brew Recipe:  77g coffee / 1 kg water, 3 minute brew time.

Brew Method: V60 using an American Coffee Trader cloth filter
Actual Recipe: 23g coffee, 300g water at 198F
Coffee: Mad Cap Coffee Burundi Gacokwe

Notes notes notes: First, grinding this coffee smelled awesome. Sweet and light and promising.

The hot aroma is almost buttery, and the body of this coffee at this brew recipe is really standout. It has a soft peak of acidity, round with notes of some stonefruit, maybe melon? It finishes soft but drawn out. This is a really nice cup. The dosage is a bit higher than I would have usually used, but I think it really worked out well in conjunction with the cloth filter. I am interested in another cup for sure.

I’d give it a 9/10.

3/21/2012 Brew

Random Brew Recipe:  37g coffee / 1 kg water, 4 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Bonavita into Chemex
Actual Recipe: 37g coffee, 1 kg water at 200F
Coffee: New Harvest Coffee Roasters’ Rwanda Coko

Notes notes notes: This coffee I am fairly familiar with. It’s offered by a few roasters, each of whom have their own take. One of our employees recently competed in the NERBC using this coffee. It is actually going to be our first single-origin retail offering as well – so I’ve had this coffee a time or two. As such, it seemed like a good chance to use the RBG with a familiar coffee and an unfamiliar method. So, I used the Bonavita in the lab to brew into a large Chemex – and the 37g of coffee looked like a woefully small amount.

I was expecting the combination of a low throw weight with an odd brewing system to produce a washed-out cup, with much of the brew water passing the coffee entirely and what was left overextracting like crazy. As you can see in the photo, the Bonavita did not overfill the Chemex, though it kept the water level higher than I would have if I were brewing it by hand.

Honestly? It was tasty, and not unlike what I would have expected from a low dose using a special kettle. I shared with the incoming espresso training, and they liked it even more than I did – calling it ‘subtle’ and ‘tea-like,’ which are accurate descriptors. It had the same melon sweetness at the finish that New Harvest’s Coko always shows, as well as an awesome clarity – body, was lacking, but the combination of low dose and hearty Chemex filter probably had something to do with that. I’m going to play with this brewing combination a bit more – though with less random inputs, perhaps.

I’d give it a 7/10. It’s delicate and sweet and subtle, though a bit simple and thin.

3/20/2012 Brew

Random Brew Recipe:  63g coffee / 1 kg water, 2 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Aeropress (inverted)
Actual Recipe: 13g coffee, 200g water at 198F
Coffee: Tonx Burundi

Notes notes notes: This recipe is not far off of my usual specs for a general brew, though I admittedly usually updose a bit for my Aeropress consumption (closer to 72g / L). The 2 minute brew time was about right, and in keeping the brew as scientific as possible, I messed around with it as little as possible – which is tough! For whatever reason, I recognize now that I have really added a lot of little steps to my Aeropress routine (pour 100g, stir, wait 10 seconds, pour 120g, etc etc) – so this pared-down version was nice.

The coffee itself is great. I’m lucky to have friends who share their coffee subscriptions, and the Burundi from Tonx is no joke. Floral, hugely aromatic, a great cup in general.

This particular iteration was light in body, and quite tea-like. The flavors grew as it cooled, with a sweet bergamot toward the finish and an acidity reminiscent of hoppy IPAs up front. This is a far cry from my usual hefty-and-hearty Aeropress, and I really enjoyed it.

I’d give this brew an 8/10