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Category: General Coffee (Page 5 of 29)

Bean Box Coffee Subscription Review

If I were to ask what comes to mind when you think of Seattle, coffee would no doubt be one of the top responses (along with rain and grunge music?). Seattle is renown for it’s coffee. Bean Box, a subscription company that focuses on Seattle area coffee roasters, sent me a sample of their subscription service (and more goodies- keep reading). I enjoy experiencing different coffee subscriptions and was excited to try out the service. Here are my thoughts on the Bean Box subscription service as well as their one time purchase “World Coffee Tour” which they also sent me. 

What is Bean Box?

As I mentioned above, Bean Box is a coffee subscription service that ships out Seattle (and Portland) area coffee on a monthly basis. You select a roast preference, a size preference (Four 1.8 oz tastes or one 12 oz bag) and receive coffee that is a scant few days out of the roaster. 

The site also features quite a few one-time coffee purchase options. These coffee bundles range from one-time small sampler tastings to the impressive World Coffee Tour Box, which features 16 coffees from around the world. 

Bean box boast a line up of 27 coffee roasters. Some of my favorites that they represent are Roseline, Kuma and Slate. There are also many other notable names like Coava, Dapper and Wise, Blue Beard… (you can find the entire list about halfway down their homepage).

Having a large pool of roasters to draw from creates a chance for the consumer to experience variety and different takes on coffee roasting. They even offer a Seattle Coffee Tour which, similar to the World Coffee Tour, features coffee from 16 different Seattle roasters. 

While there are quite a few companies that curate coffees and have them shipped to you super fresh, Bean Box’s subscription model gives them a leg up on delivery speed and personal touch. Because all of the coffees they ship are sourced locally, they can personally ship the coffee to you. With whole bags of coffee, this isn’t a huge difference but with the sample packs this means you may be getting your coffee several days to a week sooner than a company that has roasted coffee shipped to them, then repackages it and sends it out. 

If you are looking for a subscription company that delivers coffee quickly after it is roasted and like getting a variety of small samples, Bean Box should peak your interest. 

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How to Use an Indian Coffee Filter to Make Kaapi

Last November, the fine folks at Mad Rush Coffee contacted me and ask if I would like an Indian coffee filter to experiment with. Always being up for trying new manual coffee brewing methods (I had never heard of one), I eagerly accepted their offer. A few weeks later, a curious six inch tall, cylindrical, stainless steel brewing contraption arrived in my blog mailbox and I began experimenting with Kaapi and my new Indian coffee filter.

It took almost seven months (after a few major holidays, a family vacation and an extensive kitchen remodel) but I am now ready to discuss Kaapi and the Indian coffee filter.

What is an Indian Coffee Filter?

An Indian coffee filter is a small tubular brewing device with roots in southern India. It brews about 60-70mL of a super concentrated coffee.

The device consists of four parts: a bottom container for collecting the brewed coffee, a top compartment which fits onto the bottom and contains small holes for filtering, a small tamper and a lid for the top of the unit.

It is a unique brewing apparatus that will probably not take the place of some of the more popular manual coffee brewers. It is a fun device to experiment with and a fun one to try and master none-the-less (I have not).

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The American Press Manual Coffee Brewer

Last year, the fine folks over at the American Press headquarters sent me an American Press brewer to check out and review (I was upfront with them and let them know it would take me some time to evaluate the brewer).

When my package arrived, I was quite impressed with the contents of my rectangular brown box—the American Press is fancy looking. I have spent many months field testing this unique brewer and here are my thoughts:

Introduction- What is an American Press

The American Press is a relatively new brewer to the market. Funded by an Indiegogo campaign in early 2016, it takes an innovative approach to manual brewing. It is sleek and somewhat resembles a French press in look and outward brewing mechanics.

The American Press is different from the the French press because of what happens on the inside of the carafe. With a French press, when the coffee is finished brewing the coffee grounds are (mostly) filtered away from the brewed coffee by a mesh filter that is plunged downward through the coffee sludge.

In contrast, the American Press has a filter basket that holds the ground coffee separate from the brewing water. As the filter basket is pressed downward through hot water, the water is forced up through the filter basket creating a slightly pressurized extraction environment. The 100 micron filter basket keeps most of the muck out of the brewed coffee and doesn’t absorb the oils like a paper filtered coffee.

The result is a delicious cup of coffee and, due to the design, a fairly repeatable brewing process.

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