So, here’s another attempt at reviving this blog. And what better way to jolt something to life than to give it some caffeine?

I figured, since I never know what to write about, why don’t I just write about something I’m obsessed with, like…coffee!

I’m not a coffee snob (honest!). I love coffee, and I try to appreciate it as much as I can, my palette isn’t up to scratch, but I can (I think!) distinguish between certain distinct notes in coffees, but more on that later i suppose.

Recently, I’ve won third place in a competition organised by the fine folks at Collective Coffee. It was really simple, all I had to do was like their photo, and shamelessly tag two of my friends (bless those two, I will upload many pictures of myself enjoying my prize on their behalf).

Behold my prize:

Two 120g tins of medium roasted beans from the Sonora Estate.

Each tin contains two different varietals, which are Venecia and Bourbon and were both processed naturally, so I’m expecting a lot of flavour in my coffee once I brew them.

(I suppose I’d have to write about the differences in processing methods later on, or you know, you could…Google…)

Naturally, to add to my reputation of being a faux coffee connoisseur (thanks, spellcheck!), I opened up the tins, took a whiff, and pretended to know what was going on.

Initial whiff, I got a hint of a bouquet of oranges (oooh, mr fancypants), and some flowers, but mostly, oranges, or something citrusy. I even jotted down grapefruit somewhere in my notes.

Then I went on and compared my notes, with what the roasters had, close enough!

I didn’t smell the chocolates though, which was a bummer, but that was okay, I didn’t care, whatever.

The next order of business would be to actually grind, brew and taste the damn thing.

Out comes my super basic equipments. The beans are roasted to a filter profile, so Brenda will have to sit this one out (yes, Brenda is my espresso machine, she’s damn fine):

For my filter brew method, I’ll be using my Bodum flask with its steel filter, that kettle that’s pretending to be a gooseneck kettle, and the basic kitchen scale.

I’ve set my grinder to grind the beans down to somewhere between “drip and plunger”. I started there so that I can then dial in the grinder for my next batch, if necessary. In this batch, I used the golden ration of 18 grams of coffee to about 315 grams of water.

I then set out to brew, using the methods described by my Youtube gurus; 30 seconds bloom, 20 seconds drip etc etc.

After about 5 mins of brewing (yikes!), lo and behold!

My glorious cup of coffee in my fancypants double-walled mug!

I gargled as much water as I could in order to clean up my palette. On first sip, the citrus notes were very clear, with a distinct taste of orange, a little later as the cup progressed, I could catch a little bit of chocolate in there somewhere (I think, but, you’re going to have to take my word for it).

All in all a good cup of coffee!

My grouse with the whole thing here is that the cup was a little dirty, with a bit too much particulate. I think in the next batch I’ll need to make the grounds a little coarser, the 5 mins brew time was also a big hint that the coffee may have been too fine. But hey, progress!

Til next time!

Here’s me, winning, and grinning: