Random Brew Recipe: 95g coffee / 1 kg water, 1 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Chemex
Actual Recipe: 71g coffee, 750g water at 199F
Coffee: Guatemala Finca Valparaiso from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes: This is another one of the random brews that was challenging to execute. Putting 750g of water through a bigger-than-usual bed of coffee in 60 seconds eliminates many of the subtleties of hand brewing. Letting the bloom bloom? Out the window. Multiple pours? Nope. Pretty much just a dumping, trying to keep things as evenly turbulent as possible.

Like many of the updosed brews, this coffee smelled awesome; sticky and sweet, like low-grade maple syrup (which is the best maple syrup). In the cup it presents itself quickly, with drying, tart fruit around the outside of the tongue. The finish is long but quiet, present but not aggressive or unpleasant. The body is thin and fails to really provide any balance to the cup.

I’d give it a 6/10. The aroma was misleadingly excellent; I don’t think mega-high-dose + short brew time is my cup of tea.

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

Brew Method: Clever
Actual Recipe: 20g coffee, 300g water at 198F
Coffee: Costa Rica Los Mangos from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes: This is the first time the RBG has come up with my actual, standard brew parameters. Putting Los Mangos through the Clever yielded a nice cup; round, with some stonefruit sweetness as it cooled. I’ve had great success with this coffee as a double-brew over ice through the Chemex – it is probably the nicest iced coffee I’ve had so far this summer. As a Clever brew it probably could have been ground a bit coarser (or perhaps the grinder burrs need replacement), as the draw down was almost two minutes.

I’d give it an 7/10. I would be pleased to have been served it in a shop.

Random Brew Recipe:   72g coffee / 1 kg water, 1 minute brew time.

Brew Method: Clever w/ Kone
Actual Recipe: 22g coffee, 300g water at 198F
Coffee: Honduras Las Flores from New Harvest Coffee Roasters

Notes notes notes: Oi. These short brew times in non-Aeropress brew methods are punishing. The resulting cup is definitely coffee, but is not great, or pleasant. Thin, a little chocolate up front, but not much else going on. A long, quiet, dry finish. Not my favorite.

4/10

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.