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/ctg/ Coffee Time General

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  1. Welcome to /ctg/ Coffee Time General (work in progress)
  2.  
  3.  
  4. Coffee can be confusing and stupid.
  5. Coffee people can also be confusing and stupid.
  6. This document is just trying to help.
  7.  
  8.  
  9. INDEX
  10. - What is coffee?
  11. - How is coffee processed?
  12. - Where do I buy coffee?
  13. - How do I make coffee?
  14. - How do I make espresso?
  15. - What should I buy to make coffee?
  16.  
  17.  
  18. You should know before you dive in that coffee is easily the sneakiest hedonic treadmill you might one day find yourself on.
  19.  
  20. It presents itself so humbly. Think of the average joe's average cup of joe. You'll have some when you're out and at work and you decide I'll just make my own, save some money. This train of thought can easily lead you to wanting better and better coffee and before you know it it's not uncommon to have spent significant sums of money pursuing better coffee. Coffee, for many people, is a hobby and viewing it as such from the beginning helps manage your expectations in terms of sunk cost and time.
  21.  
  22.  
  23. WHAT IS COFFEE
  24.  
  25. What we know as 'coffee beans' are actually not beans at all but rather the seeds of berries from flowering trees originating in Africa. There are over 120 different species of Coffea trees but virtually all of the coffee available to you is either arabica (Coffea arabica) or robusta (Coffea canephora). Arabica and robusta are both grown in various climates all around the world. If you'd like to know about coffee, read the World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann (link to pdf at the bottom).
  26.  
  27.  
  28. HOW IS COFFEE PROCESSED?
  29.  
  30. Coffee berries, once picked, can be processed in an infinite number of ways but generally coffee processing falls into the following three categories: Washed/Wet, Honey and Natural/Dry.
  31.  
  32.  
  33. Washed/Wet: The entire coffee cherry is stripped from the bean after harvest, then the bean is washed clean
  34. and left to dry. Washed coffee is fermented the least of the three processes listed here so washed coffee is
  35. typically described as tasting clean and bright, with less body than honeys or naturals. Here's a video of
  36. the process: https://youtu.be/Az0W61hotLM
  37.  
  38.  
  39. Honey: The cherry is removed after harvest but an amount of the cherry's pulp called the mucilage is left on
  40. the seed. The coffee is then let out to dry. The more mucilage there is on the seeds, the longer the seeds
  41. take to dry and therefore the more fermented the final product is. The name of the honey process
  42. (yellow,red, black) corresponds to the amount of mucilage remaining on the seeds, with the darker color
  43. representing more mucilage.
  44.  
  45. Honey process coffee is generally more fruity than washed coffees but cleaner than naturals; honey process
  46. represents a wild gradient between wet and dry process coffee. Here's a video of the process:
  47. https://youtu.be/k5iw31z1FAY
  48.  
  49.  
  50. Natural/Dry: The coffee cherry is dried whole. This results in a much longer drying time, where the seed is
  51. surrounded by the fermenting cherry for weeks. This results in a much fruitier, brighter flavor that is often
  52. described to be blueberry or strawberry like.
  53.  
  54. Natural coffees also provide a thicker mouthfeel, or a heavier body, that some really enjoy. Here's a video
  55. of the process: https://youtu.be/yagagM7SlWs
  56.  
  57.  
  58. WHERE DO I BUY COFFEE?
  59.  
  60. Most people you know buy their coffee at the grocery store. The issue with this is that much of the coffee at your grocery store is not only low quality but roasted far too dark, far too long ago. The fact is that coffee, similar to bread, goes stale and is best enjoyed a period of time after being roasted.
  61.  
  62. For this reason and more, buying coffee fresh from your local roasters ends up being the best option for most coffee enjoyers. As to what coffee you should select, World Barista Champion James Hoffmann has a great video on this and it'll save me a lot of typing: https://youtu.be/O9YnLFrM7Fs
  63.  
  64.  
  65. HOW DO I MAKE COFFEE?
  66.  
  67. Much like coffee processing, there are an infinite number of ways to make a cup of coffee. The most common methods of coffee brewing can usually fall into the following three categories:
  68.  
  69. Immersion: Immersion at it's simplest is ground coffee steeped in water.
  70.  
  71.  
  72. French press - The most common example of immersion brewing would be the humble french press.
  73. FP coffee is easy to make and, when done correctly, produces a delicious and full-bodied cup due to
  74. the nature of its metal filtration.
  75.  
  76. FP coffee is full bodied as a result of the oils and other compounds that metal filtration allows to
  77. pass through. You may experience some issues with particles of finely ground coffee in your final cup
  78. but this can largely be solved by waiting five minutes for the grounds to settle as per the Hoffmann
  79. video: https://youtu.be/st571DYYTR8
  80.  
  81.  
  82. Cold brew - Cold brew has seen a massive surge in popularity in recent years but many know the term
  83. without fully knowing the pros and cons of cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee is coffee brewed via
  84. immersion in room temperature or cold water for anywhere from 12-96 hours. Cold brew can be prepared
  85. in a number of different ratios and with different equipment.
  86.  
  87. Brewing coffee with cold water does a "worse" job of extracting flavor from coffee than hot water
  88. so cold brewing coffee leads to a much more muted, less acidic cup. An increasingly popular
  89. alternative to cold brew is Japanese iced coffee, which is much brighter and more flavorful
  90. compared to cold brew.
  91.  
  92.  
  93. Turkish/Cezve - Turkish coffee usually describes a small coffee made of very finely ground coffee
  94. which is boiled in a small pot called a cezve. Turkish coffee is very thick and extremely rich, more
  95. so than espresso. The difference between Turkish coffee and espresso is that Turkish coffee is
  96. ground much finer and isn't filtered through a metal basket like espresso, which means many fine
  97. coffee grinds end up in your cup.
  98.  
  99.  
  100. Percolation: Percolation, as it pertains to coffee, describes methods of brewing that involve water flowing
  101. through a bed of coffee. There are a number of different methods that use percolation but here are some of
  102. the most common:
  103.  
  104.  
  105. Pour-over: Pour-over coffee at it's simplest is hot water being poured over coffee grounds in some
  106. kind of filter. In recent years, pour-over generally specifically refer to a modern style of brewing
  107. using a variety of cone or flat-bottom brewers. There are innumerable ways to make pour over, here
  108. are a few of the most common:
  109.  
  110.  
  111. V60: The most popular pour-over brewer would have to be the Hario V60. Despite being
  112. conceived in the 1980s, the V60 and pour over as a whole only took off in the early 2000s.
  113. The designers behind the V60 theorized the parabolic shape would help to achieve a cleaner
  114. tasting cup by allowing water to pass through the grounds rather than steeping them. As it
  115. turns out, they were correct, and all these years later it's designed has barely changed.
  116.  
  117. Good V60 coffee is characterized as being vibrant, with great clarity. The V60 and other
  118. similar conical brewers are highly dependent on your technique, meaning V60 has a very high
  119. ceiling but a steep difficulty curve. Someone new to coffee without proper technique and a
  120. gooseneck kettle may struggle with produce a "good" cup at first. Using simpler, more
  121. consistent recipes can help with cup quality, for example Lance Hedrick's 2 pours
  122. https://youtu.be/rAdgJNK0csc. The ceiling of v60s and pour over in general is especially
  123. notable on the competition stage, as pour-over methods have won the World Brewer's Cup since
  124. it's inception in 2011 (with 6 of 10 being Hario V60).
  125.  
  126.  
  127.  
  128. Drip
  129.  
  130. Cold Drip
  131.  
  132. Percolator
  133.  
  134. Moka Pot
  135.  
  136. Espresso - Espresso, while technically percolation, is a bit more complex than these other methods
  137. so it's been giving it's own section below.
  138.  
  139. Combination: This category of brewing described brew methods where elements of both immersion and percolation
  140. are used. This category of brewing is seen as a relatively new wave of brewing when seen from the scope of
  141. coffee history. Some of these methods would be:
  142.  
  143. Immersion dripper:
  144.  
  145. Aeropress:
  146.  
  147. WHAT SHOULD I BUY TO MAKE COFFEE?
  148. ESPRESSO?
  149.  
  150.  
  151.  
  152. Read the World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann : https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecyty4ml6ywzcxdp72t3xwotpe7mtlp2p3pzqxknwk6cwvf6itp4i?filename=James%20Hoffman%20-%20World%20Atlas%20of%20Coffee%20%282018%29.pdf
  153.  
  154.  
  155. ( ) ( ) )
  156. ) ( ) ( (
  157. ( ) ( ) )
  158. _____________
  159. <_____________> ___
  160. | |/ _ \
  161. | | | |
  162. | |_| |
  163. ___| |\___/
  164. / \___________/ \
  165. \_____________________/
  166.  
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