mie

i'm sick and in bed, not even bored, because i'm so troubled with espresso thoughts. existensialism. i wish i had my flower panties to make me feel better...why are we blending for espresso ? this was the focal point in a presentation i did for one of the whole sale accounts this week. before i got sick. i tried to do some internet research, but nothing. i mean, there's a lot about espresso that's sort of "entry level" knowledge, but i really wanted to see some cupping notes where comparative tastings were done meticulously. some kind of methodology for explaining espresso flavor according to aromas, mouthfeel and balance (acidity / sweetness).

espresso is not a coffee, a blend or a roast. espresso is one interpretation of coffee brewing - and one common interpretation of what coffee should be used is to blend different components to make a fuller palate.

it was interesting to plan cuppings in order to make baristas able to decide what kind of style they preferred for espresso by experiencing how flavors changes with different brewing methods. typically, one of kaffa's blends is a pulped natural from brazil, a semi-washed indonesian coffee, a washed kenya and a natural from ethiopia. which clearly is one of the most successful versions of caffe tenore ever presented, like a berry basket. but then again, somewhat weird with milk. for caffe tenore i recommend a decent espresso con panna, nothing less.

i think it is interesting how roasteries view their blends. typically in oslo these days, "state-of-the-art" coffee shops would have at least two grinders with one so option. it was strange browsing through all those web pages, but no one really explained why they were blending in the first place. how amazing it is that blends would change according to what coffees that are available - since more and more roasteries are open about the components of their blends. and last, but not least, the roasting of blends. how are they roasted and why ? what in particular does a darker roast take out compared to a lighter roast ? i swear, i've had customers that i've known for ten years asking me about coffee from france, when they really wanted to ask about french roast (which is not how we talk about roasting, but it's a big thing in oslo). the biggest chain in oslo's special blend is a 3/4 italian and 1/4 french roast. that's all.

all in all, there's a lot of fuzz about how amazing the components are, but not so much focus on how they change when espresso brewed vs filter brewed or cupped. give it to me.

i spent some time this week trying to figure out accurate measures for french press brewing. i would be straight out lying if i said that sailing season is coming up soon here in norway. nevertheless, KAFFAs roast master mr b just volunteered to crew this summer on the biggest over night regatta in the world with robert and myself. so far in life, that's about the only time a year i actually delve into french press brewing and the best thing i can say, is that it's freshly brewed coffee. we race. our boat is made for racing. there's no pantry so the only hot meals we can make is what we mix with boiling water while tacking down the oslo fjord. and with the entire quality control - and roasting department of KAFFA supervising, i want to make good coffee times on board. the other reason i'm interested in the fine arts of french press brewing is that i'm obsessing with the paper tainted flavour all filter brewing methods are adding. but the sailing story seemed more fun.

trying to figure out french press, i've watched youtube videos and read about different techniques. after my visits on the west coast in the us of a i am tired of the conundrum : filter brewed awful coffee or top quality coffee french press brewed. my norwegian palate being used to the cleanliness of a filter brew, the french press technique most often used is as far as i've seen "old style" - resulting in a particular unclean mouthfeel and sediments sitting forever and ever adding bitterness and all the coffee oils on the walls of your stolen ritual mug while you eat your bread pudding at tartine. james hoffman, tim wendelboe and other nerds had long discussions about different techniques on their blogs - skimming and / or breaking and then pressing on their blogs and coffeed.

i was pleased to discover how the skimming took away bitterness and the not-so-pleasant mouthfeel. i've also had good luck in pouring water, letting it sit for a minute, stirring and then leave with a lid for three more minutes before skimming (not breaking) and pressing. so today, i spent some time in KAFFAbutikk serving french press brewed guatemala el injerto, pacamara and i even sold a few more bags of coffee. the french press is my newest coffee friend.

during my 10th year in oslo, i have felt that oslove several times: watching the city from the fjord on a quiet summer night after a late swim, and yesterday afternoon: skiing in a winter wonderland. bliss!

back to reality, i've sample roasted the cup of excellence samples from brasil, lots of samples from bahía and minas gerais that's on the cupping table all week. it was a pleasant surprise coming into the lab this afternoon when robert had made a blend out of the naturals from bahía and pulled shots of them. super sweet, but of course you can not cup or drink naturals from brasil without thinking about whether you like the concept or not. a clean cup is for me the most important criteria for natural processed coffees and a nice acidity to balance the sweetness. more about the results after some more cupping later this week.

the roastery is constantly working on the espresso blends, and right now it's the caffe forte blend that's under serious supervision. mr b, the roast master, and the rest of us, are constantly cupping and changing the blends, thinking that the forte blend should be even darker and fuller - it's a blend that has historically consisted of the same coffees as crescendo, but roasted through 2nd crack. however, we have serious plans to change the components and make crescendo (dropped at the crescendo of 2nd crack) even lighter putting more florals and citric notes into it by adding new components. right now forte is a blend of two caturras: panama don pepe (from boquete) and colombia buenos aires (from pitalito), a pacamara from guatemala el injerto (huehuetenango) and a washed ethiopia sidamo processed by adem bedane at kombo (referred to as ethipia sidamo adem kombo). so many things to think about when labeling coffees and most of us have a long way to go to get it right.