Software History

I saw a post on Instagram yesterday by Starbucks advertising their Pumpkin Spiced Latte and a pumpkin spiced cold foam drink. Autumn must be imminent, despite my wish for the summer to go on longer. The foam drink caught my eye. At Starbucks, you can order some

Over the last few weeks, I have been brewing using almost exactly the same recipe when I choose to use my Aeropress (which has been my go-to brewer recently). There are times when I really want to explore brewing variables but at the moment I just want to make some good cups of coffee. I have arrived at a recipe which I can use to make good cups of coffee consistently and that's what matters to me the most right now.

At the weekend, I finally got around to taking the Blue Bottle Coffee course about coffee on SkillShare. The course covers the science behind coffee, the equipment needed to brew a cup of coffee, and tasting, among other topics. I was most looking forward to the lecture on tasting and I was not let down.

I recently saw a post by Wendelien Van Bunnik, a World Aeropress Champion, on Instagram. In the post, Wendelien shares her history of drinking poor-quality coffee before discovering speciality. She ends the post with an interesting question that I wanted to write about:

I have purchased a Kalita Wave on which I shall practice my pour-over skills. Going from immersion brewing with the Aeropress to pour-over brewing is a big step but I am excited to learn more about how to brew a cup of coffee. I have been reading about the Wave and other pour-over methods to understand the main characteristics between each brewer.

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

I've never tried Tapas Excelsior before. I'll give them a shot. Do you have any recommendations?

Before I even ordered my Kalita Wave, I did some research on potential recipes to use. I did the same thing when I got my Aeropress. I wanted to know how I should go about using the device so that I was prepared to make my first brew. After reading through a few recipes, I found one on Drop Coffee which was simple and easy for me to understand. I did not want to over-complicate my brewing so I choose this simple recipe.

There are so many questions left unanswered in the speciality coffee industry. Many of these questions relate to the science behind coffee—why does coffee react in a certain way in certain circumstances—and not everyone has the know-how or the equipment to answer said questions.

My coffee scale recently arrived and I decided that I'd brew my first coffee with a scale today. This is the biggest change to my brewing process since I bought a grinder almost a month ago. I've never measured the weight of my coffee. I've always eyeballed my measurements.

The Aeropress is the device that first got me into the world of specialty coffee. Before I knew that there were different grind sizes and origins (and to think that was only a few months ago) I wanted a device that was as simple as possible. I was interested in coffee after having an experience drinking, of all coffees, a Greggs Cappuccino. It was my first coffee this year and it felt special. I was drinking coffee again and it tasted delicious.

This is the third and final post in a three-part series on my adventures learning how to use the Hario V60.

This afternoon, my first electric coffee grinder arrived. Up until now I've been using the Hario Mini Mill for all my grinding needs. My decision to buy a hand grinder was somewhat of an accident. I purchased an at-home coffee cupping kit and all of the samples came in whole bean form. I was offered a session in the next class and a kit with preground beans but I was excited for the session and so I decided to buy a hand grinder.

A gooseneck kettle is almost essential when it comes to brewing pour-over coffee. I was doing a cupping yesterday and I used my regular electric kettle to pour water into my cupping bowls (read: three mugs I had in the cupboard). While I was able to pour to a surprising degree of accuracy, my water flow was not consistent. The water sometimes dripped, the flow rate was bouncing back and forth, and I had little control over where the water was going in the cup.

The Milkman cafe in Edinburgh, provided by Robert from Edinburgh Coffee Shops.

It's another one of those days where I cannot think of something to write about. I've been drinking speciality coffee for a few months. I've never thought about coffee as something that I could drink of a higher quality. I grew up with the idea that coffee came from a Nescafe jar. My parents would always complain about the rising price of coffee. They tried to, and still do, buy jars of coffee on offer. Coffee was not meant to taste great. Coffee kept you going.

I have been thinking a lot about pour over drippers over the last few weeks. I used to wonder what innovation was left in pour over drippers but recently my eyes have been opened to the opportunity left in this realm. There isn't a

For the last few months, the Aeropress has been my go-to device for brewing coffee. I like the process of preparing for a cup. Making a cup of coffee has become a ritual. There's so much involved in making one cup and at the end I feel a great sense of accomplishment. The Aeropress is an involved brewing process. I cannot take my eye off the ball.

Starting a career in coffee is often seen as becoming either a cafe owner, a roaster, or a barista. But there are other paths: coffee organisations offer many roles. In this chat with John, the Head of Coffee at Artisan Roast, I talk about careers in coffee, training, building flavour references, and Robusta. John is a certified R grader (Robusta grader) so he was able to give some great insights on Robusta coffee and what needs to happen for Robusta to be more appreciated in the speciality market.

I am a firm believer in the inverted Aeropress method. But, I did not always feel this way. An IndieWeb community member encouraged me to try out the Aeropress method a few days after I got the device. Up until then, I was a devoted regular method brewer.

The Good Coffee Cartel has been on my radar for months. Based in Glasgow, the Cartel has a reputation for the consideration they give to the environment, and for great coffees. According to their website, the Cartel was the first coffee shop to offer a reusable cup exchange program where customers could receive their coffee in a clean reusable cup in exchange for a deposit.

I started brewing on the Aeropress and I was able to make many delicious cups of coffee. But, at the end of last year I got an urge to start trying out a new method of brewing coffee. I chose the Kalita Wave to brew with, which I learned was supposed to be a forgiving brewer, meaning small mistakes would not derail the quality of the final brew.

If you talk to a coffee professional about how they can get the most out of their coffee, a common recommendation you will hear is to have the right grinder. Grinders impact one's ability to extract the flavours out of the coffee they have. When I first started drinking speciality coffee, I had a Hario Mini Mill. I made good coffee but I knew there was better. I could get much better filter coffee in a speciality coffee shop than I could at home. When I made a leap to the Baratza Encore, I realised a better grinder does indeed improve the taste of your coffee (as long as your technique is right).

World Aeropress Championships are renowned in the coffee community for being a fun, light-hearted competition, but with a serious side too. Competitors aim to brew the best cup of Aeropress coffee they can. Aeropress championships are open to anyone, from beginners who have never used an Aeropress before (as you will see in the interview!) to seasoned coffee brewers.

The Aeropress is a versatile brewing device. As a result, people use the Aeropress in a lot of different ways. With these new ways of brewing, there are many pieces of jargon and technical terms that you may encounter in a recipe.

Steampunk is one of two coffee roasters that I've come to learn about in more depth than the rest. I've spent some time reading about the Scottish speciality coffee market. There are so many roasters and many of them do not have active online presences. I rely on the online presences of roasters because I buy most of my speciality coffee online. I brew most of my coffee at home.

Back when I was working on my thermal printer project, I decided to build a random Aeropress recipe generator. The idea was that I would get a new Aeropress recipe in print every morning so that I could push myself when I was brewing. Truthfully, I didn't use the feature much because I was quite stubborn about using recipes I had refined through practice. However, I like the idea. Embracing randomness pushes one out of their comfort zone.

This post is not a recipe, rather a record of my first (and somewhat failed) go at making an affogato, with my lessons along the way.

Note: I wrote this article a few days ago, before more extensive experiments with the device.