Brewing Coffee Manually

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Category: Product Review (Page 2 of 8)

Third Wave Instant Coffee-Sudden Coffee Review

September 19, 2018 / / 4 Comments

A few months ago, Sudden Coffee reached out to sponsor a post and sent me a care package for review. This was really great timing as a few days after I received my samples, I was off to the hospital with my wife for the birth of our fourth child. 

I was able to put this fancy instant coffee through the paces (and to good use) as I spent some time in places where having a good cup of coffee usually means bringing an Aeropress or American Press, a grinder, coffee and maybe even a hot water source. 

Overview of Sudden Coffee

Since 2015, Sudden Coffee has been leading the charge to change the way the craft coffee industry and it’s consumers view instant coffee.

Instant coffee has a pretty poor reputation in the industry. The stigma goes back to days of mass produced, burnt and processed instant coffee made from the cheapest components manufacturers could procure (this instant coffee still exists today). Sudden Coffee is not like these traditional instant coffees, they take a very different approach. 

Sudden Coffee is made from single-origin, quality coffee. The process that they use is proprietary and not readily available information but it is distinctly different from traditional methods. It is engineered to capture the qualities of a deliciously crafted manually brewed cup of coffee in a convenient drink-anywhere form. The shelf life is reported at greater than six months— you really can’t beat that.

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Bean Box Coffee Subscription Review

August 7, 2018 / / 3 Comments

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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American Press manual coffee brewer

The American Press Manual Coffee Brewer

February 9, 2018 / / 3 Comments

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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