Brewing Coffee Manually

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Tag: coffee (Page 7 of 9)

Kalitta wave and pennies

The Brewing Coffee Manually Blog’s Guide to Blowing Your Tax Refund

March 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

March is in full swing which means our strip malls are once again inhabited by college kids dressed up as the Statue of Liberty twirling eye-catching signs, H and R Blocks are springing up in abandon office spaces everywhere, and Turbo Tax is prominently on display at the entrance of every store. In case you have neglected to notice or have somehow forgotten, tax day is fast approaching. For millions of Americans, this means an influx of cash in the form of The Tax Refund.

There will, of course, be all sorts of articles being published in the next month or so talking about why you shouldn’t want a tax refund and what you should do with your money if you are “tragically” going to be receiving one. I’m all for it. Read those articles (with a manually brewed cup of coffee of course) and ponder the deep intricacies of your personal finances.

If after several brooding sessions and several cups of coffee, you decide to throw all that good advice out the window and blow it. Why not spend at least a little bit on coffee?

Here is it is: The Brewing Coffee Manually Blog’s official guide to blowing your tax refund on coffee

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What is Chicory?

What is Chicory Coffee?- Some History and Brewing Experiments

February 22, 2015 / / 6 Comments

What is Chicory and why is it mixed in coffee?

Coffee culture has a long history with coffee alternatives and additives. It seems that nearly since it’s discovery, people have been trying to replace, alter and enhance it. In Mark Pendergrast’s book Uncommon Grounds, he names more than 65 things that have been used for coffee additives. Some of my favorites are brewery waste, burnt rags, and dog biscuits.

“The list of coffee adulterants indeed is amazing: almonds, arrowhead, asparagus seeds and stalks, baked horse liver, barberries, barley, beechmast, beetroot, box seeds, bracken, bran, bread crusts, brewery waste, brick dust, burnt rags, burrs, carob beans, carrot, chickpeas, chicory, chrysanthemum seeds, coal ashes, cocoa shells, comfrey roots, cranberries, currants, dahlia tubers…” (Uncommon Grounds, 60) You get the picture.

Of all the things that have been added to coffee over the years, chicory, a blue flowered plant native to Europe, is probably the most familiar and successful. The leaves of the plant are sometimes use as salad greens. The chicory root is roasted, ground and used to produce a bitter “coffee substitute.” It is probably most well known in New Orleans style coffee which can be up to 40 percent chicory.

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roasted coffee spectrum from green to french roast

Understanding and Selecting a Great Roasted Coffee

February 11, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Once you understand some of the basics of how a coffee’s origin and processing impact a roasted coffee’s flavor, you are ready to explore the final frontiers of purposefully selecting a roasted coffee: understanding the basic roasting process and finding good coffee that you enjoy.

(If you are looking to maximize your understanding of what coffee is and factors affecting it’s flavor, I recommend starting with coffee processing, then reading about origins before proceeding with this article. If you are simply looking to decode roasting terminology a bit and learn strategies for finding great roasted coffee, read on and backfill your knowledge as needed.)

Single Origin and Blends

Before I go any further, I’d like to explain a little bit about single origin and blended coffees.

A single origin coffee is one that comes from a single source. These coffees are often labelled by their country of origin and a subregion, farm or trade name within that country. It is not unusual to find single origin coffees that do not have any indication on the packaging of the degree of roast. You can usually find out an approximate degree of roast in these situations by asking the roaster or inspecting the roasted bean itself (more on visual roast degree cues later).

A blended coffee is exactly what it sounds like, two of more coffees that are mixed together. These coffees can be from different origins, roast levels, crop years. varietals or any combination. Blends will typically say the roast level on the packaging or give an indication in the title. A Breakfast blend, for example, would usually be a medium roast with milder flavors. A French roast blend would be a very dark roast.

When choosing a roasted coffee to sample, don’t overlook blended coffee. Single origin coffees sound more exotic, glamorous and tend to get a lot more attention, but a roaster who is skilled at blending can elevate and enhance coffee in ways single origins can’t always do.

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