Software History

Sweetness is my favourite attribute in a cup of coffee. The best coffees I've had have been floral or fruity with a nice dose of sweetness. In coffee, we do not talk about sweetness the same way we talk about white sugar. Speciality coffee does not have any added sugars. This is why you will see some people refer to sweetness in speciality coffee as

I ended my last blog post on coffee cupping, where I cupped the same coffee roasted to three different degrees, with two questions:

Note: This review does contain many spoilers. But, if you already know who won, then you will probably not mind.

Cheapshot Coffee is a takeaway coffee business that operates from a former police box on Marshall Street, a one minute walk away from the University of Edinburgh's Informatics Student Services building.

Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities. The architecture is beautiful, a mix of old and new. When I visit the city, I cannot help but be in awe of the buildings you can see. Some have been around for centuries. In addition, Edinburgh is full of hidden treasures. I often feel like I have only scratched the surface of what I can explore, despite visiting the city many times. One of those hidden treasures is the city's world-class speciality coffee scene.

In addition to reading about coffee, I have spent some time watching coffee documentaries. The latest I watched, Barista, was released a few years before Baristas, which I watched a few days earlier. Barista chronicles the journeys of five people racing to become the barista champion of the U.S.. Intrigued by barista championships and competitive coffee, I knew this documentary would be in my wheelhouse.

Based in Seighford, Hasbean roasts blends and dozens of single origin coffees from around the world. Ever since reading Coffeeographer, written by the founder of Hasbean, Stephen Leighton, I have been fascinated by this business. Out of curiosity, I emailed Roland, the Sourcing and Production Manager at Hasbean, who kindly answered a few questions about coffee roasting. Formerly a hands-on roaster, Roland shared many insights that answered my questions. Our chat is below.

Note: I wrote this blog post before Christmas 2020 and never got around to publishing it at the time.

If you walk around the City of Edinburgh, there's a chance that you run into at least one police box, a large metal box formerly owned by the police that were used for communication by police officers. Portable radio communication and modern technology rendered these police boxes much less useful than they were before, leading them to be sold off. Now, a few passionate entrepreneurs are running cafes in these former police boxes.

Photo credit: Carolyn West.

Do you know that feeling when you know you are exactly where you should be? When the mind can’t possibly imagine one detail to change. When you are elated; joyful.

A barista in one of the Nomad Coffee shops in Barcelona was wearing a shirt that said “Be nice. Drink water. Smile.” earlier this week. I love shirts that have little kind messages like this. The last one I saw was in an airport. I cannot recall the exact words that were on the shirt, but I know that seeing the message made me smile.

For a while, I have promised myself that I would not get stuck down the espresso rabbit hole. I have been making filter coffee at home since August last year and I have been happy with the coffees I have made. But now I feel like I am ready for a new challenge. My previous reservation about espresso was that getting into espresso was expensive so I would have to spend a lot before deciding if home espresso was right for me. Fortunately, I discovered the Flair Espresso company and noticed that their entry-level NEO was 125 pounds, much less than an electric machine.

Yesterday I purchased a new espresso grinder: the REMI hand grinder by Option-O. I chose the REMI after much research but what sold me on the grinder were three factors: the aesthetics, the espresso-oriented burrs, and James Hoffman's review of the Helor 101 in his grinder video (the Helor is the predecessor to the REMI). My research indicated that the REMI was a solid choice for espresso.

While on vacation this week in Barcelona, I went to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. I did get on an underground tram that went in the opposite direction, but I managed to get there on time (in my defence, who doesn't find underground tram maps confusing?). The plaques in the museum were striking. The variety of words made me reflect on what it means to see a word for the first time, or to become more aware of a word for the first time.

I am presently sitting in Nomad Coffee, a speciality coffee shop in the heart of Barcelona. When I arrived, the coffee shop was devoid of customers (although I arrived almost exactly at opening time, eager to get my coffee fix before the start of the day.)

In my last blog post, I said

Yesterday two upgrades to my Flair NEO arrived: the pressure gauge and the bottomless portafilter. I purchased these accessories a day or so after buying my NEO because I had found in my research that the bottomless portafilter was the way to go to make better drinks. Perhaps I should have waited but now the components are here I cannot help but use them.

NB: This post is about two months old but I did not schedule it for publishing.

In a few days, I shall share a three-part series on my battle trying to find a recipe that worked well on my V60. I call this a

NB: This post is about two months old but I did not schedule it for publishing.

I sometimes brew coffees for myself and another member of my household. Up until I got my Chemex, I would brew the two coffees separately. I know you can brew two cups of coffee with the Kalita Wave and the V60 but for some reason I have never given it a go. Perhaps I have a subconscious preference for brewing two separate cups because that way I can spend more time brewing coffee.

This article is a few months old and has been in my drafts for a while. I think there's some interesting insights in this post so I thought it would be worth publishing this article.

I like to end the day with watching comedy. Yesterday evening I was watching Seinfeld, one of my favourite television shows, and started noticing little details that call back to previous jokes in the show. I didn't know the term for this, if there was one, so I turned to Google. My query was

Sheldon Cooper, a character in The Big Bang Theory, had a recurring mini-show within the show called Fun with Flags wherein he shared facts about flags, often with props. If you have seen the television show, you can perhaps hear the words of Mr. Cooper echoing in your head at present.

I am in Berlin for the Beyond Tellerrand conference. The hotel at which I am staying offers continental breakfasts.

Manually grinding coffee at home is a lot of work, both in terms of time and energy. I can grind 14g of beans—the amount I use to brew an Aeropress—in less time than it takes to boil the requisite water, but there are other things I could do with that time, such as prepare my equipment (which I used to do before grinding).

I talk a lot about Steampunk Coffee, a coffee roaster based in North Berwick, Scotland, both on this blog and in general. Their cupping session gave me an opportunity to refine my cupping skills and taste five excellent coffees. Not only that, but they've been authoring coffee-related content that has caught my attention, from insightful blog posts to their podcast.

As I sat to enjoy my coffee this morning, I looked out the window and saw snowy rooftops and a clearing sky. It has been snowing on and off all morning. While this moment was wonderful in itself, the coffee did add to the experience. I was drinking Jamila Abakeno, an Ethiopian coffee purchased from The Good Coffee Cartel.